Summary of the day …
Hamas has said there is no need for new ceasefire proposals for Gaza and pressure should be put on Israel to agree to a US plan that the Islamist group had already accepted. In a statement posted on Telegram early on Thursday, Hamas said that Netanyahu was attempting to thwart an agreement with demands about the Philadelphi corridor in southern Gaza
Several people were killed and others wounded when a reported Israeli airstrike hit tents housing displaced Palestinian people in Deir el-Balah in the Gaza Strip. An Al Jazeera journalist who visited the scene reported “The attack was sudden in an area that is supposed to be protected. The hospital has turned into a graveyard rather than a place of treatment”
Israel’s military has said that more than ten projectiles have been fired towards Israel from the direction of Lebanon during the day. The majority were intercepted and no Israeli injuries were reported. The IDF said it had struck at Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, and local media reported one operative was killed. The Israeli foreign ministry said “we hold the Lebanese government responsible for every Hezbollah rocket fired from its territory”
Israel’s Shin Bet security agency has released data claiming that more rocket launches from Lebanon aimed at Israel and Israeli-controlled territory were fired during August than in any other month since the 7 October Hamas attack inside southern Israel
Polio vaccinations continue in the Gaza Strip, with displaced families queueing for their children to receive doses after the first case of polion in 25 years was declared in the territory
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports medical teams from the emergency polio vaccination campaign have been denied access to areas east of Salah al-Din Street in the south of the Gaza Strip by Israel’s military. It says it is investigating the claim
Israel’s security forces continued widespread raids in the occupied West Bank. Five men and a 16-year-old child were killed in separate incidents in Tubas. One of the men killed was named by the Palestinian health ministry as Mohammed Zubeidi. His father, Zakaria Zubeidi, was a militant commander during the early 2000s and escaped Israeli jail in 2021, before being arrested and returned to prison days later
Egypt’s army chief of staff Lt Gen Ahmed Fathy Khalifa has visited the border with Gaza to inspect the security situation there. Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently made control of the Philadelphi corridor strip between Gaza and Egypt a condition in ceasefire negotiations
Police in Germany have shot dead an 18-year-old Austrian man carrying a “long-barrelled gun” after an exchange of fire near the Israeli consulate and a Nazi history museum in Munich. Local media outlets were quick to point out that the incident took place on the 52nd anniversary of the assassination attacks at the Munich Olympics of 1972. The Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, expressed “horror” at what he described as a terror attack
Julian Borger, the Guardian’s world affairs editor, reports from Jerusalem
With the Gaza war and West Bank raids as a backdrop, there is a third arena of conflict stirring in Jerusalem, with just as much potential – arguably even greater potential – to spread conflict across the region.
Right-wing members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government are testing the boundaries of a religious arrangement that has been in place since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
According to that 57 year-old understanding between Israel and the Jordanian monarchy, only Muslims can pray in the compound containing the al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock shrines (known to Jews as the Temple Mount). Non-Muslims can visit respectfully but not pray.
That arrangement is now on the point of collapse. With the encouragement of the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, messianic and other extremist Jews are praying increasingly openly on the sacred stone esplanade in the southeastern corner of Jerusalem’s old city.
On Wednesday the prayers went further than ever. A couple of dozen religious nationalists prayed out loud and prostrated themselves along the eastern wall of the esplanade. The scene was captured by Haaretz journalist, Nir Hasson, who posted the video on X.
עליתי להר הבית לראות את המהפכה. מה שקורה בהר מאז ט' באב זה ניצחון ענק של פעילי המקדש שלמעשה קיבלו בית כנסת על מלא בהר הבית רק בלי תקרה: תפילות בציבור, שירה, ריקודים, השתחוויות ושמחה אמיתית על התקופה הנפלאה שבה הם נמצאים. pic.twitter.com/epeBKALHz1
— نير حسون Nir Hasson ניר חסון (@nirhasson) September 4, 2024
For some while under the Netanyahu government, groups of religious Jews have been escorted to the secluded eastern wall of the al-Aqsa esplanade, but until now, they have mostly opted to pray silently and generally stay upright.
Wednesday was different, said Daniel Seidemann, a lawyer who is an expert on the issue and the founder of Terrestrial Jerusalem, an advocacy group which monitors the constant struggle over land and history in the city.
“A lot of this comes down to body language,” Seidemann told me. “It is a sizable group singing and praying loudly. It is a quorum, a minyan [10 men in traditional Judaism] getting down and prostrating themselves, to make the world know that the status quo is dead.”
I went to look today walking up the wooden ramp to the esplanade. There was a smaller turnout of Jews praying when I was there, separated into two groups of men and women, six in each in the same sunken eastern walkway facing the Mount of Olives.
I approached to within 30 metres of the worshippers before being shooed off by the police. Once I started moving away, the group quietly resumed their prayers, some laying themselves out flat on the flag stones.
Under Ben-Gvir’s control, the police are now protecting a violation of a status quo which Netanyahu’s office formally insists remains government policy.
“The police have transformed into something of a militia throughout Israel, even more so at the Mount right now,” Seidemann said.
“What happened yesterday I believe is a tipping point, because it’s just so blatant, it’s so unapologetic with such volume,” he added. “We in Israel and Palestine are still living under the pall of a possible regional war. It hasn’t gone away. A single event which could trigger such a war, would be an event like this, at al-Aqsa.”
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports medical teams from the emergency polio vaccination campaign have been denied access to areas east of Salah al-Din Street in the south of the Gaza Strip.
The vaccination campaign has been launched after Gaza reported the first case of the disease for 25 years.
The UN’s Palestinian refugee agency Unrwa has described the vaccination programme as successful but complex.
Reuters spoke to one displaced Palestinian woman who was queueing for with her son at a vaccination point. Ikram Nasser told the agency “We live based on fear, from the bombing, from the terror, from the destruction, from the injuries. We add to that the fear of diseases that have spread, such as skin diseases, from the lack of cleanliness and the crowding.”
Approached for comment, Reuters reports Israel’s military is checking reports that access has been limited by troops in eastern areas.
Another Gazan resident, Osama Brika, who was taking his nephew for vaccination, told reporters “My message to the world is that just as you provided us with vaccination so that our children would be safe, you must provide us with a ceasefire and a stop to this war, as this war is a real catastrophe for us.”
Reuters, citing Egypt’s state television, reports that Egypt’s army chief of staff Lt Gen Ahmed Fathy Khalifa has visited the border with Gaza to inspect the security situation there.
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently made control of the Philadelphi corridor strip between Gaza and Egypt a condition in ceasefire negotiations. In May Israel’s military seized the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, effectively giving Israel’s military control over all of Gaza’s land border.
Israel’s military has said that eight projectiles have been fired towards Israel from the direction of Lebanon in the last hour. It said that the majority were intercepted, but “a fallen projectile was identified in the area of Ramat Naftali” and another “was identified adjacent to Ya’ara”.
On its official Telegram channel the IDF has said that no casualities were reported. Earlier Israel claimed to have “struck Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure in the area of Qana in southern Lebanon.”
Haaretz, citing Lebanese channel Al Mayadeen, has reported that a Hezbollah fighter was killed in southern Lebanon in an Israeli attack.
Israel’s Shin Bet security agency has released data claiming that more rocket launches from Lebanon aimed at Israel and Israeli-controlled territory were fired during August than in any other month since the 7 October Hamas attack inside southern Israel.
The Israeli foreign ministry said “we hold the Lebanese government responsible for every Hezbollah rocket fired from its territory.”
🚨rocket alarms sounding in northern Israel and the Galilee🚨
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) September 5, 2024
We hold the Lebanese government responsible for every Hezbollah rocket fired from its territory. pic.twitter.com/4Ih8hFTUrm
Palestinian news agency Wafa has reported that a young Palestinian man was injured by Israeli security forces in the village of Kafr Qud, which is to the east of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
Citing the Palestine Red Crescent Society, the agency reports the man was injured in the thigh by live bullets, and has been transferred to hospital.
In a statement on its official Telegram channel, Israel’s military claims to have “struck Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure in the area of Qana in southern Lebanon.”
The IDF said it had previously intercepted “two suspicious aerial targets” attempting to approach Israel from Lebanon. It said they were intercepted before reaching Israel and that no casualties were reported.
Associated Press reports that one of the men killed by an Israeli strike on a vehicle in Tubas in the occupied West Bank has been named by the Palestinian health ministry as Mohammed Zubeidi.
His father, Zakaria Zubeidi, was a militant commander during the early 2000s and escaped Israeli jail in 2021, before being arrested and returned to prison days later.
People in Gaza have been queueing this morning in order to get their children vaccinated against Polio.
Earlier the Palestine Red Crescent Society reported that it had received additonal vaccine supplies, and the World Health Organization published a map of where vaccinations would be carried out.
The Palestine Red Crescent teams at Al-Amal Hospital in #KhanYunis have received an additional shipment of #polio vaccines. pic.twitter.com/Yop5P0nJST
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) September 5, 2024
التطعيم مستمر, اليوم ستبدأ حملة التطعيم في جنوب #غزة
— WHO in occupied Palestinian territory (@WHOoPt) September 5, 2024
أين يمكنك أخذ أطفالك للتطعيم؟
اطلع على التفاصيل أدناه⬇️ pic.twitter.com/GBo2rXHcqN
Yesterday Unicef said that so far 189,000 children had been reached by the vaccination campaign. The campaign was launched after Gaza had its first reported polio case in 25 years – a 10-month-old boy, now paralysed in the leg.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that three people have been killed in an apparent Israeli strike on Gaza City in the north of the territory. The attack happened in the al-Zaytoun neighbourhood.
There has been an apparent shooting attack near the Israeli consulate in Munich in Germany on the anniversary of the 1972 Munich Olympics attack on Israeli athletes and staff at the Games. There are no reports of casualties, but the suspected attacker has been shot and killed. My colleague Lili Bayer has the latest developments here …
Al Jazeera is reporting that its journalist Tareq Abu Azzoum has visited the site of an Israeli airstrike earlier today near al-Aqsa hospital which hit a tent camp.
In an earlier statement about its operations striking at Deir el-Balah, Israel’s military claimed it had taken steps “to mitigate the risk of harming civilians”.
Al Jazeera’s reporter told the network people sheltering near the hospital received no warning, and dozens of tents were “completely wiped out” and that already displaced Palestinians were left searching for thier belongings.
The news network quotes Azzoum saying “The attack was sudden in an area that is supposed to be protected. The hospital has turned into a graveyard rather than a place of treatment.”
Benjamin Netanyahu’s government banned Al Jazeera from operating inside Israel earlier this year.
A UN vehicle passing north of Khan Younis showed the widescale destruction in the city caused by Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip. The roads were lined with piles of rubble and buildings had parts blown away or were charred by fires. Polio vaccinations are due to begin in Rafah and Khan Younis on Thursday where healthcare workers aim to vaccinate more than 200,000 children under the age of 10.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that Israeli security force raids in the occupied West Bank are taking place this morning near Bethlehem, and in Jenin and Tulkarm.
Wafa reports that it is the ninth consecutive day of raids into Jenin, and citing a local official, reports that a 38-year-old man was beaten by Israeli forces and teargas was deployed at Za-tara, the south-east of Bethlehem.
Earlier five people were reported killed by an Israeli strike on a vehicle in Tubas, with a 16-year-old child also killed by Israeli forces.
In an update via the Telegram messaging app, Israel’s military has said that earlier sirens warning of rocket launches towards kibbutz Nahal Oz near Gaza were a false alarm.
Israel’s security agency Shin Bet has published figures suggesting that August saw more rockets fired into Israeli-controlled territory from Lebanon than any other month since the Hamas attack launched on southern Israel on 7 October last year.
The Times of Israel reports that the Shin Bet figures show that 1,307 rockets were fired during August from what it termed “the northern front”, which includes parts of Syria. That was up from 1,091 in July and 855 in June.
The data said that during August about 116 rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza, where Israel has been mounting a lengthy military operation which it claims is targeting Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives in the territory.
In an early morning operational update Israel’s military forces have claimed to have struck in Gaza what it called a “command and control centre” which it said was used by both Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The IDF said it had been located in what it described as “the humanitarian area in Deir al-Balah”.
Haaretz reports helicopters were used in the attack. The IDF claims to have taken steps “to mitigate the risk of harming civilians”.
Palestinian news sources have reported that an attack by Israeli forces outside al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah resulted in the deaths of five civilians. Images distributed from the hospital show children being treated for injuries on the hospital floor.
Updated
Palestinian news sources have claimed that one of six people killed overnight by Israeli forces included a 16-year-old boy, named by the Wafa news agency as Majed Fida Abu Zeina.
It reports that the Palestine Red Crescent Society said it was able to transer Zeina to hospital after Israeli security forces initially prevented medical assistance reaching the child. Reports says he was shot by Israeli forces in in the Far’a camp, south of Tubas.
Five young men were also killed by Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank when their vehicle was bombed in Tubas city, according to Wafa’s reports.
Hamas accuses Netanyahu of trying to ‘thwart’ ceasefire and hostage deal
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war and the wider crisis in the Middle East.
Hamas has said there is no need for new ceasefire proposals for Gaza and pressure should be put on Israel to agree to a US plan that the Islamist group had already accepted.
The US is expected to present a new truce proposal aimed at breaking an impasse between Hamas and Israel soon. Benjamin Netanyahu faces pressure from within Israel to seal a deal that would free remaining hostages, after Israeli authorities announced on Sunday the deaths of six whose bodies were recovered from a Gaza tunnel.
In a statement posted on Telegram early on Thursday, Hamas said that Netanyahu was attempting to thwart an agreement by insisting that Israel will not withdraw from the Philadelphi corridor in southern Gaza. The issue has become a central obstacle in the talks. The Israeli PM has been widely accused of trying to prolong the war for his own personal and political gain.
“We warn against falling into Netanyahu’s trap and tricks, as he uses negotiations to prolong the aggression against our people,” the Hamas statement said, adding that it had accepted a 2 July proposal put forward by the US.
But late Wednesday Netanyahu claimed it was Hamas that was stalling the talks.
“We’re trying to find some area to begin the negotiations,” he said Wednesday. “They [Hamas] refuse to do that … [They said] there’s nothing to talk about.”
Netanyahu maintains that Israel must retain control over the Philadelphi Corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border to prevent weapons smuggling to Hamas, which has demanded a complete withdrawal from the area.
In other developments:
Palestinian medics reported Thursday that five people had been killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting a car in the occupied West Bank area of Tubas. “Five killed and (one) seriously wounded in a strike (on) a car in Tubas,” the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a statement. The Israeli military said its aircraft “conducted three targeted strikes on armed terrorists” in the Tubas area.
A large number of Israeli troops stormed the Faraa refugee camp in Tubas governorate, where explosions were heard, eyewitnesses told AFP news agency. Israel launched a massive offensive across the northern West Bank on 28 August, leaving widespread destruction and killing dozens of people including children.
UK prime minister Keir Starmer has defended his government’s partial suspension of arms exports to Israel, saying the move is “a legal decision”. He said Monday’s announcement to suspend 30 of 350 arms exports licences did not signify a change in UK support for Israel’s right to self-defence, and that the UK’s allies “understand” the move.
The United States has announced criminal charges against Hamas’ top leaders over their roles in planning, supporting and perpetrating the 7 October attack in southern Israel. The charges against Yahya Sinwar, the militant group’s chief, and at least five others accuse them of orchestrating the attack, which killed 1,200 people, including more than 40 Americans.
The US has said it is time to “finalise” a deal between Israel and Hamas to end the Gaza war, after Netanyahu’s refusal to bow to pressure. Washington will work “over the coming days” with fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar “to push for a final agreement,” said US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
However, an Israeli far-right minister has stepped up pressure on Netanyahu to end negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire aimed at securing the release of hostages. National security minister Itamar Ben Gvir called for an end to indirect talks with Hamas, which Israel has accused of executing six hostages whose bodies were found in a Gaza tunnel last week.
The main United Nations agency for Palestinians says it is making good progress in rolling out a polio vaccine to children in Gaza, but called for a permanent ceasefire in the 11-month war to ease humanitarian suffering. UNRWA said that three days into the campaign in areas of central Gaza around 187,000 children have received the vaccine. The campaign will move to other areas of the enclave in the second stage.
The Gaza health ministry says that at least 40,861 people have been killed in the war between Israel and Palestinian militants, now nearing its 12th month.
Updated
