Summary of the day
Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
A new round of Gaza ceasefire talks was under way in Doha on Thursday in an effort to end the war in Gaza and secure the release of scores of hostages. The US, Qatar and Egypt were due to meet with an Israeli delegation in Qatar. Hamas is not expected to participate directly but has agreed in principle to a proposal put forward by the US which has international support.
The White House said the Gaza ceasefire talks in Qatar involving top US officials had a “promising start” but that it did not expect to close a deal immediately. US national security council spokesman John Kirby confirmed that the talks opened in Doha involved CIA director William Burns.
Gaza’s health ministry said 40,005 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza following the 7 October attack by Hamas last year. In an update on Thursday, the ministry said 92,401 Palestinians had been injured. The majority of casualties are civilians, though Gaza’s health ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its figures.
The UN’s high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, said the death toll in Gaza passing 40,000 is a “grim milestone”. Türk accused the Israeli army to repeatedly failing to “comply with the rules of war”. The numbers do not necessarily reflect all victims as many are still missing under the rubble, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
The international charity ActionAid said it was “outraged and heartbroken” following the news that more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s offensive. It accused “most governments across the world” of having “refused to do the bare minimum to protect civilian life”, adding that it is “to our collective shame”.
The Palestinian health ministry in the West Bank said Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in the occupied territory. The ministry identified the men killed as Wael Misha, 18, and Ahmed Khalil, 20. The Israeli military said aircraft killed two gunmen who were identified as a threat to troops operating in the city of Nablus.
Britain’s foreign secretary, David Lammy, is reportedly planning an imminent trip to Israel amid high tensions with Iran in an attempt to help avert an escalation of war in the Middle East. Lammy will reportedly meet Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Israel Katz, the foreign minister, along with Stéphane Séjourné, the French foreign minister.
The UK Foreign Office did not confirm Lammy’s visit but a statement from the foreign secretary said it was a “crucial moment for global stability” and that the “coming hours and days could define the future of the Middle East”. A statement from Séjourné said a ceasefire in Gaza was “necessary” for peace in the region including Lebanon.
The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, said he planned to visit Gaza and Jerusalem. Abbas’s speech at the Turkish parliament came after he met with Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on Wednesday to discuss the war and ceasefire efforts.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied a report that he spoke with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump about the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release talks. “Contrary to media reports, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not speak yesterday with former President Donald Trump,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office said.
Dozens of far-right Israeli activists tried to break into the Gaza Strip on Thursday to conduct a Jewish prayer service, but were stopped by security services. Earlier this year the US and EU sanctioned some Israeli settler groups and key individuals associated with them for their role in extremist violence against Palestinians.
Nearly 400 Hezbollah fighters and senior commanders have been killed in the 10 months of cross-border violence between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, according to AFP, as well as at least 118 civilians. On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, 22 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed, according to military figures.
The US issued more sanctions targeting Houthi and Hezbollah trade networks, the US treasury department said. The department said it targeted companies, individuals and vessels accused of being involved in the shipment of Iranian commodities, including oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to Yemen and the United Arab Emirates on behalf of a Houthi financial official’s network.
The UK deputy representative to the UN, James Kariuki, condemned alleged links between Yemen’s Houthis and the al-Qaida-affiliated armed group in Somalia, al-Shabaab. Kariuki, at a UN security council meeting, described the connections as part of a “wider pattern of Houthi destabilising activity” in the region and called on UN sanctions committees to counter “this worrying trend”.
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Israel's former war cabinet minister tells Netanyahu to 'stop worrying about fate of government'
Israel’s former war cabinet minister Benny Gantz has urged the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, that it is time to “be brave” and stop worrying only about himself.
Gantz, in a video statement reported by the Jerusalem Post said:
It is possible and necessary to achieve achievements now. Netanyahu, at first, you were afraid to manoeuvre, then you were afraid to move the effort to the north, and for months, you were afraid to pursue a hostage plan for fear of the fate of the coalition.
“The time has come for you to stop worrying about the fate of the government and only concern yourself with the fate of the country. For once, be brave,” he concluded.
Updated
The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, is reportedly planning an imminent trip to Israel amid high tensions with Iran in an attempt to help avert an escalation of war in the Middle East.
The foreign secretary will meet Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Israel Katz, the foreign minister, along with Stéphane Séjourné, the French foreign minister, Sky News reported.
Lammy issued a statement on Thursday welcoming the restart of negotiations for a ceasefire and return of hostages in Gaza:
As the UK made clear at the UN security council this week, the situation in Gaza is devastating. The strike on the al-Tabeen school demonstrated that Palestinians in Gaza have nowhere safe to turn.
He added:
The UK will continue to use every diplomatic lever to bring about a ceasefire. In the last week, I have spoken with partners from across the region on the urgent need to bring this conflict to an end and the prime minister has spoken to his US, French and German counterparts, as well as the Iranian and Egyptian presidents. It’s clear from these conversations that a ceasefire would not only protect civilians in Gaza, but also pave the way for wider de-escalation and bring much-needed stability for the Middle East.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it has eliminated more than 17,000 Palestinian militants in Gaza since the start of the war.
IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari, at a press conference on Thursday, said the Israeli military’s “significant fighting” and achievements harm Hamas’s ability to regroup and recover.
“We are determined to continue this,” he added.
Israel’s foreign ministry said the foreign ministers of France and the UK will visit Israel tomorrow and meet with the country’s foreign ministry.
Stéphane Séjourné and David Lammy will meet with Israel Katz to discuss efforts to prevent a regional escalation, Israel’s foreign ministry said.
There has been no official confirmation yet of the trip from either the UK or France.
The Israeli foreign ministry has released a statement commenting on the visit by Britain’s foreign secretary, David Lammy.
Ministers are “expected to discuss the effort to prevent regional escalation and promote a deal for the release of the Israeli hostages,” Israel’s foreign ministry said, according to Sky News.
Foreign minister Israel Katz is expected to raise at the meeting the need to promote severe economic sanctions against Iran on the issue of nuclear weapons, missiles and drones, and to declare the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation.
Britain’s foreign secretary, David Lammy, said the UK will “use every diplomatic lever to bring about a ceasefire” in Gaza, following reports that he will travel to Israel in the coming hours to hold talks with Benjamin Netanyahu.
The British foreign ministry did not confirm any travel plans for Lammy, Reuters reported. But a statement by Lammy was reported by Sky News:
The coming hours and days could define the future of the Middle East. That is why today, and every day, we are urging for our partners across the region to choose peace.
Referring to the ceasefire talks, Lammy said they were an “opportunity to secure an immediate ceasefire that protects civilians in Gaza, secures the release of hostages still cruelly held by Hamas and restores stability at a dangerous moment for the region”.
The international charity ActionAid said it is “outraged and heartbroken” following the news that more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s offensive.
The death count is “a number that is incomprehensible”, ActionAid said in a statement, adding:
Every life lost is an individual tragedy. But this is not an inevitable one, it is an ongoing atrocity, and it could have been prevented.
It accused “most governments across the world” of having “refused to do the bare minimum to protect civilian life”, adding that it is “to our collective shame”.
We demand immediate action to stop the violence and hold the Israeli government accountable. The people of Gaza cannot wait any longer for justice, safety, and peace.
UK foreign secretary to meet with Netanyahu – report
The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, will travel to Israel in the coming hours to hold talks with the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Sky News is reporting.
Lammy will also meet Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, during his trip, according to the broadcaster.
A diplomatic source described the imminent trip as “an attempt to prevent all-out war in the Middle East”.
Diplomatic source says Foreign Secretary David Lammy is set to travel to Israel "in an attempt to prevent an all-out war in the Middle East"
— Sky News Breaking (@SkyNewsBreak) August 15, 2024
We reported earlier that the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, said he planned to visit Gaza and Jerusalem. Here’s some more on what he said:
Abbas was addressing the Turkish parliament on Thursday after meeting with Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to discuss the war and ceasefire efforts.
In a speech that lasted more than 45 minutes and was attended by Erdoğan and Turkish lawmakers, Abbas said he had decided to visit Gaza and Jerusalem to protest against Israel’s war on the Palestinian territory.
He accused the US of prolonging the “catastrophe” by supporting Israel and vetoing resolutions at the UN security council, Reuters reported. He also called on the world to legally punish Israel for its war crimes and violations of international law.
Abbas received a standing ovation before and after his speech, which was also interrupted repeatedly by applause, Reuters reported.
Updated
An official with the UN children’s agency who travelled across Gaza last week has described the horrific conditions he saw as “beyond describing”.
Salim Oweis, a Unicef communications officer, told Al Jazeera that “even TV screens don’t do it justice”, adding:
Not only are buildings destroyed, but whole neighbourhoods and streets in places like Khan Younis or Gaza City.
He said living conditions in displacement camps and shelters were unbearable, and even spending a short time there was a struggle due to the heat, sand and the crowded nature.
In Deir el-Balah, the amount of displaced people is horrific; it feels like everyone has been displaced. We’re talking about 90% of the population which has been displaced at least once.
Updated
James Kariuki, the UK deputy representative to the UN, condemned alleged links between Yemen’s Houthis and the al-Qaida-affiliated armed group in Somalia, al-Shabaab.
Kariuki was addressing a session of the UN security council where he described the connections as part of a “wider pattern of Houthi destabilising activity” in the region and called on UN sanctions committees to counter “this worrying trend”.
CNN first reported links between al-Shabaab, a Sunni militant group, and the Houthis, who belong to Islam’s Shia branch, in mid-June citing three anonymous American officials.
The officials said that they were investigating whether the Houthis had delivered weapons to al-Shabaab which has been fighting the Somali government since early 2007.
The Houthis are also backed by Iran raising questions about whether Tehran would support such a move. Another American official cited in the CNN report was sceptical: “Houthis be a’ Houthi-ing on their own.”
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White House says ceasefire talks had 'promising start'
The White House said that today’s Gaza ceasefire talks in Qatar involving top US officials had a “promising start” but that it did not expect to close a deal immediately, AFP reports.
“Today is a promising start,” national security council spokesman John Kirby told reporters, who confirmed that the talks opened in Doha involving CIA director William Burns. “There remains a lot of work to do. Given the complexity of the agreement, we do not anticipate coming out of these talks today with a deal,” he said.
Kirby said he expected the talks to continue tomorrow.
“This is vital work. Remaining obstacles can be overcome, and we must bring this process to a close,” he said.
“We need to see the hostages released, relief for Palestinian civilians in Gaza, security for Israel and lower tensions in the region, and we need to see those things as soon as possible.”
Updated
The US has issued more sanctions targeting Houthi and Hezbollah trade networks, the US Treasury Department said, Reuters reports.
The department said it targeted companies, individuals and vessels accused of being involved in the shipment of Iranian commodities, including oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to Yemen and the United Arab Emirates on behalf of a Houthi financial official’s network. It said the revenue from Sa’id al-Jamal’s network helps finance the Houthis’ targeting of shipping in the Red Sea and civilian infrastructure.
Hezbollah shipments of LPG were also the target of sanctions.
“Today’s action underscores our continued commitment to disrupting Iran’s primary source of funding to its regional terrorist proxies like Lebanese Hezbollah and the Houthis,” said Treasury’s Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Bradley Smith. “Our message is clear: those who seek to finance these groups’ destabilizing activities will be held to account.”
The sanctions freeze any US assets of those targeted and generally bars Americans from dealing with them. Financial institutions and others that engage in certain transactions with them also risk being hit with sanctions.
Speaking from Beirut, the French foreign minister Stephane Sejourne said that a ceasefire in Gaza was “necessary” for peace in the region including Lebanon, AFP reports.
“We are all worried about the regional situation,” Sejourne said after meeting parliament speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group.
France “supports Lebanon, and in this context and in the context of regional peace, we hope for the ceasefire... in the Gaza Strip, which... will be necessary to guarantee peace in the region,” he said.
Before his arrival, Sejourne said in a statement on X that his visit aimed to “support ongoing diplomatic efforts towards de-escalation in the region”.
His trip comes a day after US envoy Amos Hochstein visited Beirut and said there was “no more time to waste” for a Gaza ceasefire, noting it would “also help enable a diplomatic resolution” in Lebanon and prevent a wider war.
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UN human rights chief laments 'grim milestone' as Gaza death toll exceeds 40,000
The UN’s human rights chief, Volker Türk has said that today marks “a grim milestone” with the news that the death toll from Gaza has surpassed 40,000.
His statement said: “This unimaginable situation is overwhelmingly due to recurring failures by the Israeli Defense Forces to comply with the rules of war.
“On average, about 130 people have been killed every day in Gaza over the past 10 months. The scale of the Israeli military’s destruction of homes, hospitals, schools and places of worship is deeply shocking.
“International humanitarian law (IHL) is very clear on the paramount importance on the protection of civilians, and civilian property and infrastructure. Our Office has documented serious violations of IHL by both the Israeli military and Palestinian armed groups, including the armed wing of Hamas.
“As the world reflects on and considers its inability to prevent this carnage, I urge all parties to agree to an immediate ceasefire, lay down their arms and stop the killing once and for all. The hostages must be released. Palestinians arbitrarily detained must be freed. Israel’s illegal occupation must end and the internationally agreed two-State solution must become a reality.”
Updated
Reuters provides an explainer on how Palestinian health authorities calculate the death toll from Israel’s offensive in Gaza, which today passed 40,000.
In the first months of the war, death tolls were calculated entirely from counting bodies that arrived in hospitals and data included names and identity numbers for most of those killed. As the conflict ground on, and fewer hospitals and morgues continued to operate, the authorities adopted other methods too.
From early May, the health ministry updated its breakdown of total fatalities to include unidentified bodies which account for nearly a third of the overall toll. Officials said these were bodies that had arrived at hospitals or medical centres without personal data such as identity numbers or full names. It also began including deaths reported online by family members who had to input information including identity numbers.
The numbers do not necessarily reflect all victims as many are still missing under the rubble, the Palestinian Health Ministry says. In May it estimated that some 10,000 bodies were uncounted in this way. The Lancet medical journal published a letter from three academics on 5 July estimating that indirect deaths, caused by factors like disease, might mean the death toll is several times higher than official estimates and possibly above 186,000.
Israeli officials have said Palestinian figures are suspect because of Hamas’ control over government in Gaza. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Mamorstein said the numbers were manipulated and “do not reflect the reality on the ground”.
However, Israel’s military has also accepted in briefings that the overall Gaza casualty numbers are broadly reliable.
A Hamas guard who killed an Israeli hostage acted “in revenge” and against instructions after he heard news that his two children had been killed in an Israeli strike, Reuters reports.
“The (Hamas) soldier assigned as a guard acted in a retaliatory manner, against instructions, after he received information that his two children were martyred in one of the massacres conducted by the enemy,” Hames spokesperson Abu Ubaida said on Telegram.
“The incident doesn’t represent our ethics and the instructions of our religion in dealing with captives. We will reinforce the instructions,” he added.
In a later message on its official Telegram channel, the Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing, posted: “Your brutality is an imminent danger to your prisoners.”
Israel’s military said that the man whose body is shown in a photo released by Hamas was a hostage who had been murdered and whose body had been recovered by the Israeli military in November.
Abu Ubaida didn’t say when the incident happened. Reuters speculated that the timing of Hamas’ revelation could be an attempt to increase pressure on Israel as ceasefire talks take place in Doha.
Palestinian Authority president tells Turkish parliament he will visit Gaza
Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas told a special session of the Turkish parliament that he would travel to Gaza, AFP reports.
“I have decided to go to Gaza with other brothers from the Palestinian leadership,” Abbas said in an address applauded by Turkish lawmakers. “I will do that. Even if this would cost my life. Our life is not more worthy than the life of a child,” he added.
Abbas, who added a visit to Turkey after meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow, said the Palestinian people would stand tall despite the Israeli strikes. Abbas, who heads the Fatah Palestinian movement, a rival to Hamas, had already visited Turkey at Erdogan’s invitation in early March.
About 400 Hezbollah members dead after 10 months of Israel clashes
Ten months of cross-border violence between Hezbollah and Israeli forces has killed senior commanders and nearly 400 fighters from the Iran-backed group, causing destruction and displacing tens of thousands on both sides, AFP reports.
Hezbollah has now seen more fighters killed since October than when it last went to war with Israel in the summer of 2006.
The violence has killed some 570 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters from Hezbollah, but also including dozens from allied armed groups including Hamas, according to an AFP tally, with at least 118 civilians among the dead.
On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, 22 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed, according to military figures.
Israel has said nearly all Israelis evacuated from their homes near the Gaza Strip in the wake of Hamas’s 7 October attack have returned, AFP reports.
More than 80% of the southern Israeli region’s 50,000-plus population had moved back by July, with 3,700 more people returning since, according to the government agency tasked with reconstruction and rehabilitation of the border communities affected by the deadly attack.
Israeli authorities had offered evacuees from the Gaza border area accommodation in hotels paid for by the state, but that arrangement expired today.
Residents of 10 kibbutz communities that were badly damaged in the Hamas attack will be given temporary housing for at least another year in various locations, Israel’s Tekuma Authority said in a statement.
A handful of other communities that are very close to the Gaza border have been declared unsafe due to the threat of rocket fire from the Palestinian territory, it added.
Updated
Earlier today, 40 far-right Israeli activists tried to break into the Gaza Strip to conduct a Jewish prayer service, but were stopped by security services.
“We were honored to take part in an attempt to hold Shacharit prayers inside the Gaza Strip, with the belief that Gaza is part of the Greater Land of Israel and from the clear understanding that only settlement can be considered a victory,” said a statement by the unnamed group, published by the Israeli public broadcaster Kan news.
“And only a Jewish Gaza will remove the threat of rockets, return the hostages from Gaza, and bring security to the south and country as a whole,” the statement continued.
Earlier this year the US and EU sanctioned some Israeli settler groups and key individuals associated with them for their role in extremist violence against Palestinians.
The White House has urged all sides to attend the Gaza ceasefire talks in Doha in order to get a deal implemented, urging Israel and Hamas to compromise and saying progress is still possible in coming days.
Hamas officials, who have accused Israel of stalling, have not joined today’s talks. However mediators planned to consult with Hamas’ Doha-based negotiating team after the meeting, officials told Reuters.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby, in an interview on CNN, also said information shows Iran has not moved off its threat to attack Israel, including potentially through proxies. The US is watching the situation closely and is prepared, though “hopefully it doesn’t come to that,” he said.
Ceasefire and hostage-release talks begin in Doha
International mediators have started a new round of talks aimed at halting the war in Gaza and securing the release of scores of hostages, Reuters reports citing an official with knowledge of the negotiations.
A deal is seen as the best hope of heading off an even larger regional conflict. The United States, Qatar and Egypt were due to meet with an Israeli delegation in Qatar. Hamas is not expected to participate directly but has agreed in principle to a proposal put forward by the US which has international support.
With the death toll as per the Gaza health ministry passing 40,000 after 10 months of war, the small, densely packed territory is crammed with bodies, Associated Press reports. Witness accounts and video footage show, the news agency says, that bodies are buried in backyards and parking lots, beneath staircases and along roadsides. Others lie under rubble, their families unsure they will ever be counted.
However, many of these people are not included in the official count. As Emma Graham Harrison reports, the official figures only registers those killed by bombs and bullets as war dead.
“People who died due to indirect impacts of war, including diseases, starvation and the collapse of the healthcare system, are not included [in the war dead],” Dr Marwan al-Hams, the director of field hospitals at the Palestinian ministry of health, told Emma. “A committee will be formed to count these [victims], which will start work immediately after the end of the war.”
Israeli officials question the death toll given by the authorities in Gaza and argue that because Hamas controls the government there, its health officials cannot provide credible figures. However, after multiple conflicts between 2009 and 2021, United Nations investigators drew up their own lists of the dead and found they closely matched ones from Gaza.
“Unfortunately, we have the sad experience of coordinating with the Ministry of Health on casualty figures every few years,” Farhan Haq, a spokesperson for the UN secretary general, has said. “Their figures have proven to be generally accurate.”
A Hamas guard who killed an Israeli hostage on Monday acted ‘in revenge’ against instructions after he got news that his two children were killed in an Israeli strike, the spokesperson for the group’s armed al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Ubaida, said on Thursday in a post on Telegram reported by Reuters. The incident doesn’t represent the group’s ethics, he added.
Updated
Israel’s spy chief is to join his US and Egyptian counterparts and Qatar’s prime minister for a new round of Gaza ceasefire talks in the Qatari capital Doha, Reuters reports.
Israel’s delegation includes David Barnea, head of the domestic security service Ronen Bar and the military’s hostages chief Nitzan Alon, defence officials said.
CIA director Bill Burns and US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk will represent Washington at the talks, convened by Qatari prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, with Egypt’s intelligence chief Abbas Kamel also expected in Doha.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters on Thursday that the group is committed to the negotiation process and urged mediators to secure Israel’s commitment to a proposal Hamas agreed to in early July, which he said would end the war and required a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
One of the two men killed in the West Bank by an Israeli air strike earlier today was a former prisoner of Israel released in November, AFP reports.
It was the second such fatality within three days involving a former Palestinian inmate freed during a ceasefire in the Gaza war.
Wael Misha, 18, was one of 240 Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails in November in exchange for 105 hostages held in Gaza, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club watchdog said.
The exchange took place during the week-long November ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
The Palestinian news agency, Wafa said a woman and a child were among seven wounded in the strike on Balata. The Israeli military said two armed militants were killed in a strike.
A military adviser from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace force has died following injuries sustained in Syria over recent weeks, Iran’s Fars news agency, which is managed by the Revolutionary Guard, reported.
“Colonel Ahmadreza Afshari was martyred due to injuries sustained from aerial bombardment from the coalition violating Syria,” Revolutionary Guard commander Hossein Salami said.
Iranian media did not give a precise date for the strike, but said Afshari sustained his injuries between late July and early August.
The US and Israel have both carried out strikes in Syria against Iran-aligned factions, where Tehran’s influence has grown since it began supporting President Bashar al-Assad in a civil war that started in 2011.
Ten months into Israel’s war on Gaza, the death toll has passed 40,000, according to health authorities there. A majority of the dead are civilians and the total represents nearly 2% of Gaza’s prewar population, or one in every 50 residents.
But even that figure does not tell the full story of Palestinian losses. “This number, 40,000, includes only bodies that were received and buried,” said Dr Marwan al-Hams, the director of field hospitals at the Palestinian ministry of health. “New procedures are being tested to include those who are missing or known to be under the rubble on the list of the dead, but they have not yet been approved.”
About 10,000 airstrike victims are thought to remain entombed in collapsed buildings, Hams said, because there is little heavy equipment or fuel to dig through steel and concrete ruins looking for them.
The Guardian has published a report about this grim milestone being reached:
Updated
More than 40,000 have been killed since 7 October last year
Gaza’s health ministry has announced that 40,005 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza following the 7 October attack by Hamas last year.
The ministry said 92,401 Palestinians had been injured. The majority of casualties are civilians, though Gaza’s health ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its figures.
Updated
The IDF has ordered more evacuations across Khan Younis in Gaza.
The IDF’s Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee said in a post on X: “All residents of Blocks 38, 39, 41, 42 in Al-Qarara 3 and Al-Sathar neighborhoods” in the southeastern Gaza Strip to leave their homes and shelters.
“Against the backdrop of the continuous firing of rockets by Hamas and terrorist organizations from your areas, the [Israeli army] will act forcefully against these terrorist elements immediately.”
Israel has issued numerous evacuation orders for areas in and surrounding Khan Younis in recent weeks as it continues its offensive in Gaza.
#عاجل ‼️ الى جميع السكان المتواجدين في بلوكات 38, 39, 41, 42 في حارات القرارة 3 والسطر:
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) August 15, 2024
⭕️على خلفية اطلاق قذائف صاروخية بشكل متواصل من قبل حماس والمنظمات الارهابية من مناطقكم، سيعمل جيش الدفاع بقوة ضد تلك العناصر الإرهابي فوراً.
⭕️من أجل أمنكم، انتقلوا فوراً الى المنطقة… pic.twitter.com/1Enb9Lt9q0
The president of New York’s Columbia University resigned yesterday, citing the toll taken by a “period of turmoil” after she faced scrutiny for her handling of demonstrations at the institution over the Israel-Hamas war, AFP reports.
British-American economist Minouche Shafik is the fourth president of an Ivy League university to step down in the wake of the bitter divisions and anti-war protests that swept campuses across the US.
The protests that roiled Columbia and other schools culminated in Congress grilling higher education leaders about accusations of anti-Semitism and whether enough was being done to keep Jewish students safe.
Shafik, who last year became the first woman to lead Columbia, said in a letter to the university’s community that she felt her tenure had “made progress in a number of important areas” but noted it was also “a period of turmoil where it has been difficult to overcome divergent views across our community.”
Columbia was an epicentre of the campus anti-war protest movement. Pro-Palestinian protesters set up encampments on Columbia’s campus in April while Shafik testified at a House committee investigating anti-Semitism.
Updated
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied a report that he spoke with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump about the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release talks.
“Contrary to media reports, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not speak yesterday with former President Donald Trump,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office said.
The report, in Axios, cited two US sources. One source said Trump’s call was intended to encourage Netanyahu to take the deal, but stressed he did not know if this is indeed what the former president told Netanyahu. The Trump campaign has not commented.
Australia’s opposition leader was told to “stop being racist” by an independent politician in a heated scene in parliament on Thursday after the leader repeated a call for the country to stop the arrival of refugees from Gaza.
Peter Dutton, the centre-right Liberal Party leader, said those fleeing the conflict between Israel and Hamas were a “national security risk” and that Australia had inadequate screening measures for those arriving in the country as refugees.
Australia has issued almost 3,000 visitor visas to people fleeing Gaza or the West Bank since 7 October last year, while denying applications for just over 7,000 others, according to figures the government released in response to Dutton’s remarks initially made on Wednesday — and then repeated on Thursday.
“These are families that you are seeking to paint — that somehow they are all terrorists, that they should all be mistrusted and not worthy of humanitarian aid,” independent lawmaker Zali Steggall told Dutton in Parliament on Thursday.
As Dutton interjected, Steggall told him to “stop being racist.”
Prime minister Anthony Albanese also criticised Dutton in Parliament on Thursday, saying: “He sows fear and he sows division. That is what he does, that’s what he has done his entire political career and that’s what he continues to do.”
AP provides some background as the US, Qatar and Egypt prepare to meet with an Israeli delegation in Qatar for negotiations later today.
Mediators have spent months trying to hammer out a three-phase plan in which Hamas would release scores of Israeli hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Both sides have agreed in principle to the plan, which US president Joe Biden announced on 31 May. But Hamas has proposed “amendments” and Israel has suggested “clarifications,” leading each side to accuse the other of making new demands it cannot accept.
Hamas has rejected Israel’s latest demands, which include a lasting military presence along Gaza’s border with Egypt and a line bisecting Gaza where it would search Palestinians returning to their homes to root out militants. Hamas spokesperson Osama Hamdan told AP the group is only interested in discussing the implementation of Biden’s proposal and not in further negotiations over its content.
Benjamin Netanyahu denies Israel has made new demands, but he has also repeatedly raised questions over whether the ceasefire would last, saying Israel remains committed to “total victory” against Hamas and the release of all the hostages.
The two sides are also divided over the details of the hostage-prisoner exchange, including who among the Palestinian prisoners would be eligible for release.
Supporters of Israeli hostages who were abducted by Hamas during the 7 October attack have protested in Tel Aviv ahead of today’s ceasefire talks. The protesters are calling for a deal that would see the hostages returned.
The Palestinian health ministry in the West Bank has reported that Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in the occupied territory, according to AP.
The ministry identified the men killed as Wael Misha, 18, and Ahmed Khalil, 20. There was no immediate claim from militant groups over whether the men had any affiliation.
The Israeli military said aircraft killed two gunmen who were identified as a threat to troops operating in the city of Nablus. It said it also returned fire when troops were shot at.
The Israeli military said the strike came as the army and police were securing access for Jewish worshippers to Joseph’s tomb in Nablus during the night, AFP reports.
The tomb is revered by Jews, who believe the biblical figure is buried there. Muslims believe it to be the resting place of either Joseph or an 18th Century Islamic cleric named Sheikh Yousef Dawiqat. It has previously been the site of flashpoints.
Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan told visiting Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas yesterday that Turkey will continue to support the Palestinian cause and push the international community to increase pressure on Israel, his office said.
Erdogan condemned Israel’s war in Gaza, accusing some Western countries of remaining silent and continuing to support Israel, Reuters reports.
Erdogan also told Abbas that all countries, especially in the Muslim world, should step up efforts to ensure an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the uninterrupted delivery of humanitarian aid to Palestinians.
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The World Health Organization says 11 children with cancer have been evacuated from the Gaza Strip for medical treatment, AP reports.
Israel has mostly sealed off the territory since launching an operation in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, in May. Israel controls all transfer points into and out of Gaza and has only allowed a small number of patients to leave for treatment.
Nermine Abu Shaaban, the patient evacuation coordinator for the WHO, says the children were transferred through the Kerem Shalom crossing into Israel and were headed to neighboring Jordan for treatment. Seven of the children were transferred by ambulance and the remainder on a bus. The evacuation was organized by the WHO and two US charities.
Israel allows each patient to be accompanied by a female escort vetted by security services, who can bring a small bag of clothes, one mobile phone and a charger.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says some 28,000 patients require medical treatment outside Gaza.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump spoke on the phone with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday and discussed the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, US news site Axios reported, citing two sources.
The call comes as a round of talks aimed at securing a ceasefire and the release of the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza are set to take place in Doha, with senior US, Qatari, Egyptian and Israeli officials taking part.
Axios reported that one source said Trump’s call was intended to encourage Netanyahu to take the deal, but stressed he did not know if this was what the former president told Netanyahu on the call.
Blinken and Qatar warn all sides not to undermine ceasefire talks as expectations dim
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war and wider crisis in the Middle East.
A new round of Israel-Gaza ceasefire talks are expected to begin today, although expectations of their success is low. Israel has hardened its position in recent weeks and Hamas has indicated it is unlikely to attend the talks in Qatar.
Yesterday, US secretary of state Antony Blinken and Qatar’s prime minister warned all sides not to undermine the talks, in a veiled warning to Iran, Hamas and Israel.
Blinken and Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in a telephone call stated that “no party in the region should take actions that would undermine efforts to reach a deal,” the US state department said in a statement.
Negotiations have also been complicated by the assassination of one of Hamas’ top negotiators, Ismail Haniyeh, in Iran at the end of last month, which Tehran blames on Israel. Tehran has since been threatening retaliation for the killing although US and Iranian officials have both suggested significant progress towards a ceasefire in Gaza might bring immediate regional de-escalation.
Top Hamas official Osama Hamdan on Wednesday told the Associated Press the Palestinian militant group was losing faith in the US’ ability to mediate a ceasefire in Gaza and that it would only participate if the talks focused on implementing a proposal detailed by US President Joe Biden in May and endorsed internationally.
“We have informed the mediators that … any meeting should be based on talking about implementation mechanisms and setting deadlines rather than negotiating something new,” said Hamdan, who is a member of Hamas’ political bureau. “Otherwise, Hamas finds no reason to participate.”
Israel has confirmed its participation in the talks. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has consistently blamed Hamas for the failure of the talks so far, saying earlier this month, “The fact is that it is Hamas which is preventing the release of our hostages, and which continues to oppose the [ceasefire] outline.”
In other developments:
Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 39,965 Palestinians and wounded 92,294 since 7 October the Palestinian health ministry said on Wednesday. A total of 36 Palestinians have been killed and 54 wounded in the past 24 hours, the ministry said in a statement.
One strike hit a family home late Tuesday in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing five children aged between 2 and 11, and their parents, according to the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. In another strike on Tuesday four-day-old twins were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah while their father went to register their birth.
Israeli soldiers are using Palestinian civilians as human shields in Gaza to enter and clear tunnels and buildings they suspect may have been booby-trapped, a leading Israeli NGO and newspaper reported. The practice was so widespread across different units fighting in Gaza that it could in effect be considered a “protocol”, said Nadav Weiman, the executive director of Breaking the Silence, a group founded by Israeli combat veterans to document military abuses.
Israel has approved a new settlement on a UNESCO World Heritage Site near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, its far-right finance minister said on Wednesday. Bezalel Smotrich, who also heads civil affairs at the defence ministry, said his office had “completed its work and published a plan for the new Nahal Heletz settlement in Gush Etzion”, a bloc of settlements south of Jerusalem. “We will continue to fight against the dangerous project of creating a Palestinian state by creating facts on the ground,” he said in a post on X.
Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes killed two people in the country’s south on Wednesday, with Hezbollah announcing the deaths of two of its fighters. Lebanon’s health ministry earlier reported that an “Israeli enemy” strike in Abbassiyeh, near the southern city of Tyre, wounded 17 people, including two teenagers and an eight-year-old girl, with four people in “critical” condition. Hezbollah said it launched “volleys of Katyusha rockets” at the city of Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel in response to the Abbassiyeh strike.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday that Turkey would continue to support the Palestinian cause and push the international community to increase pressure on Israel, his office said. The two leaders discussed recent developments and the steps to be taken for a lasting ceasefire and peace in Gaza, Erdogan’s office said in a post on X.
Israel said its forces had hit Palestinian militants in Tamoun in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday while Hamas said its fighters were engaged in fierce clashes with Israeli forces in nearby Tubas city after one was killed in an Israeli raid. The official Palestinian news agency Wafe reported that one man was killed in the Israeli raid in Tubas, while four others were killed in an Israeli drone strike in Tamoun, a few kilometres further south. It did not give their identities, but the al-Qassam Brigades – Hamas’s armed wing – later said one of its fighters, Fayyaz Fawaz Daraghmeh, was killed in the Tubas raid.
A former hostage whose husband is still captive in Gaza said she does not expect to see him again unless Israel agrees a ceasefire deal. Aviva Siegel was freed after 51 days in captivity, under a week-long agreement last November. Her fears for her husband, Keith Siegel, were sharpened by her own ordeal of hunger, deprivation, violence, isolation and psychological torture, she said.
Britain and Germany were among the countries joining condemnation of Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s ultranationalist national security minister, who on Tuesday defied longstanding rules to lead hundreds of Israelis in singing Jewish hymns and performing religious rituals on the raised compound in Jerusalem’s Old City known as al-Haram al-Sharif to Muslims. Under a longstanding but fragile arrangement, Jews can visit the site but not pray there.
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