Closing summary
The Israeli military said on Tuesday an initial inquiry into its strike on a Gaza hospital that killed five journalists determined that troops had identified a camera “positioned by Hamas” in the area to observe its forces. Israeli forces struck Nasser hospital in the south of the Gaza Strip on Monday, killing at least 20 people including journalists who worked for Reuters, the Associated Press, Al Jazeera and others outlets.
The UN has demanded that Israel’s investigations into unlawful killings in Gaza, including its “double tap” bombing of Nasser hospital which killed 20 people, among them five journalists, yield results and ensure accountability. “There needs to be justice,” Thameen Al-Kheetan, the spokesperson for the UN’s human rights office, told reporters on Tuesday in Geneva. He added that the number of journalists killed in Gaza raised many questions about the targeting of media workers.
Mariam Abu Dagga, one of the Gaza-based journalists killed in the Israeli airstrike on Nasser hospital, has been described as “deeply passionate” by her peers. The 33-year-old photojournalist was killed when Israel bombed the main hospital in southern Gaza on Monday (25 August) and then struck the same spot again as rescuers and journalists rushed to help the wounded.
The Israeli security cabinet has begun its meeting, a spokesperson told The Times of Israel. The meeting has started at prime minster Benjamin Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem. It was moved up to 4pm and is expected to finish by 7pm.
The death toll in Gaza has risen, with least 75 Palestinians, including 17 aid seekers, being killed in the last 24 hours according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. It said that the total death toll since 7 October 2023 has now risen to 62,819, with 158,629 people wounded.
Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar has accused “left-wing” governments of trying to “force” Palestinian state on to Israel. During his first official visit to the US since taking office last year, he said at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in New York that the move would amount to “suicide”.
A human rights group says US military personnel could face legal liability for assisting Israeli forces who commit war crimes in Gaza. According to Human Rights Watch, direct participation by US forces since October 2023, including providing intelligence and involvement in coordination and planning makes the United States party to the conflict between Israel and Palestinian armed groups.
Protesters in Israel on Tuesday torched tyres, blocked highways and clamoured for a ceasefire that would free hostages still in Gaza, even as Israeli leaders moved forward with plans for an offensive which they argue is needed to defeat Hamas. The disruption came as Palestinians in Gaza braced for the expanded offensive against a backdrop of displacement, destruction and parts of the territory plunging into famine, AP reported.
Dutch airline KLM will resume flight services to and from Israel on 28 September, after suspending flights in June over security concerns. It will bring back the Tel Aviv to Amsterdam route once daily with a Boeing 737-900, which seats 188 passengers. The carrier took a one-year absence from flying to Israel, and only just reopened the route before shutting it down again on 13 June due to the closure of Israel’s airspace following Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear and military infrastructure.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar are prepared to invest in an economic zone in south Lebanon, near the Israeli border, in hopes that it would create opportunities and jobs for members of the militant Hezbollah group and its supporters once they surrender – Donald Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, Tom Barrack, said. As reported by The Independent, Barrack took trips to Israel and Syria to discuss the situation in Lebanon after the Lebanese government said it would disarm Hezbollah by the end of the year. However, Hezbollah rejected this plan.
A public letter signed by 209 former EU ambassadors, senior diplomatic staff and ambassadors from EU nation states has been published today, calling for urgent action over Israel’s war in Gaza and unlawful actions in the West Bank. If the EU will not act collectively, member states must take steps individually or in smaller groups to support human rights and uphold international law, the letter says, laying out nine possible approaches.
Germany’s chancellor Friedrich Merz has said that the country would not be joining other western nations in recognising Palestinian statehood at the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September. Reuters reports that he was speaking at a joint news conference with Canadian prime minister Mark Carney, who said last month that Canada planned to recognise the state of Palestine at the General Assembly, after similar announcements by France and Britain.
Ministers have approved plans to help a further 30 students to leave Gaza to take up places at UK universities next month, but their evacuation remains uncertain and dependent on Israel’s approval. It takes the total to 39, after a government commitment last week to work to secure the evacuation from Gaza of nine Chevening scholars with places at some of the UK’s leading universities.
Israel-based group Physicians for Human Rights has written to Israel’s government warning that orders to evacuate hospitals in Gaza City ahead of a planned Israeli offensive will be a “death sentence” for many patients. “The analysis shows that southern Gaza cannot accommodate additional patients,” PHR said in a letter sent on Monday to COGAT, the Israeli authority responsible for civilian affairs in Gaza.
Iran has vowed to take “reciprocal action” after Australia expelled its ambassador over accusations that Tehran was behind antisemitic arson attacks in Sydney and Melbourne.
Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday that the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (Asio) had “credible intelligence” to believe that the Iranian government was behind the attacks against the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne and Lewis’s Continental Kitchen in Bondi in Sydney last year.
He also announced that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps would now be listed as a terrorist group.
But Iran hit back on Tuesday and pledged to take “reciprocal action”. It also said that Albanese was weak and was only taking the action to compensate for a tougher recent line on Israel.
