Summary of the day …
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Wednesday Hamas had proposed “numerous changes” in its response to a ceasefire proposal, some of which are workable, some of which are not. Speaking in Doha, he said “Hamas could have answered with a single word: yes. Instead, Hamas waited nearly two weeks and requested numerous changes. The time for decision is now. The longer this goes on, the more people will suffer”. Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said both Hamas and Israel have been counterproductive on different occasions
Hezbollah has launched its biggest salvo of rockets at Israel since the war in Gaza began, in apparent retaliation for the killing of a senior field commander. The Iran-allied militia fired a barrage of about 50 rockets into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, followed by another 90 fired at northern Israel. Some were intercepted by Israel’s air defence systems, but summer heatwave temperatures meant the projectiles caused fires in a number of areas. Israel says it has carried out strikes on the sources of the launches in southern Lebanon
An Israeli airstrike on the village of Jouaiya in southern Lebanon late on Tuesday night killed three Hezbollah operatives as well as Taleb Abdallah, the most senior commander to be killed since hostilities began eight months ago. His funeral was held in Beirut on Wednesday. The chief of Hezbollah’s executive council, Hashem Safieddine, has vowed to increase the intensity of attacks on Israel
A UN investigation has accused Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity on and since 7 October, the date of Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel. A commission of inquiry formed in 2021 by the UN Human Rights Council accuses Hamas’s military wing and six other Palestinian armed groups – aided in some instances by Palestinian civilians – of killings, torture, sexual violence and systematic kidnapping. The commission found Israeli authorities “responsible for the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare, murder or wilful killing, intentionally directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects, forcible transfer, sexual violence, torture and inhuman or cruel treatment, arbitrary detention and outrages upon personal dignity”
Israel’s military has issued a statement saying that it continues to operate in the central Gaza Strip and in the Rafah area. Airstrikes have also been reported in Gaza City to the north of the territory
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the newswires from Israel, Gaza and Lebanon.
