Closing summary
Israeli jets struck Houthi military targets near Yemen’s Hodeidah port on Saturday, a day after a drone launched by the Iranian-backed group hit Tel Aviv. Six people were killed and 80 others were injured in Saturday’s attack, medical sources in Yemen told Reuters. Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam said earlier today that the group will continue to attack Israel and will not abide by any rules of engagement. Another Houthi spokesperson said the rebel group’s “response to the Israeli aggression against our country is inevitably coming and will be huge”. Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry subsequently called for all parties to exercise “maximum restraint”, adding that it is following the latest military developments in Yemen with “great concern” amid growing fears of an escalation of violence in the region.
The Israeli military said its Arrow 3 missile defence system had shot down a surface-to-surface missile projectile launched from Yemen on Sunday before it crossed into Israeli territory. Before the interception, air raid sirens sounded in the Red Sea port city of Eilat, sending residents running for shelter.
The Israeli military confirmed today it struck Hezbollah weapons storage facilities overnight. The Israeli air force “struck two Hezbollah weapons storage facilities in southern Lebanon, containing rockets and additional weaponry”, the military said in a statement.
Israel’s military said it will start offering the polio vaccine to soldiers serving in the Gaza Strip after remnants of the contagious polio virus were found in test samples in areas of the coastal enclave. Soldiers will be vaccinated during routine troop turnover, though it is not mandatory, the military said.
At least 38,983 Palestinian people have been killed and 89,727 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said. The health ministry said that 64 people were killed and 105 others were injured in the past 24 hours.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will fly to the US on Monday morning and meet with the US president, Joe Biden, on Tuesday, according to a statement issued by Netanyahu’s office.
We are closing this blog now, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Middle East coverage here.
Israel’s education minister and the country’s national union of students are backing a draft law to limit academic speech in the country, which the heads of leading universities have attacked as “McCarthyite” and fundamentally undemocratic.
The legislation, currently being debated in the Knesset, would give a government-appointed committee the power to order the firing of academic staff that it decides have expressed “support for terror”. If the universities refuse, their funding would be cut.
Critics say the legislation is fundamentally undemocratic and would undermine Israeli academia, because it restricts free speech and allows politicians to weaponise accusations that should be handled by the legal system.
You can read the full story by Emma Graham-Harrison, the Guardian’s senior international affairs correspondent, and Matan Cohen here:
Saturday’s strike on the port city of Hodeida, which reportedly killed six people and triggered a massive fire, will provide the Houthis with “political capital”, Maged Al-Madhaji, co-founder of the Sanaa Centre for Strategic Studies think tank, said.
“They legitimise Houthi claims that they are waging a war with Israel,” which could widen the rebel’s appeal amid growing anger in Yemen over the Gaza war, he told AFP.
Since October, the Iran-backed Houthis have positioned themselves as a key member of Tehran’s regional network of allies, which includes armed groups in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.
They have launched nearly 90 attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden since November and on Friday a Houthi drone attack breached Israel’s intricate air defences, killing one person in Tel Aviv, triggering Israel’s strike on Hodeida.
Residents in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, said fierce battles raged between Hamas-led fighters and Israeli forces, especially in the centre and in western areas where tanks advanced in the previous two days.
The armed wings of the Islamic Jihad and Hamas militant groups said fighters confronted Israeli forces with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs, Reuters reports.
The assault on Rafah has driven out more than a million Palestinians who had been sheltering there, forcing them into areas with little or no access to food, water or shelter.
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Houthis will continue to attack Israel and will not abide by any rules of engagement, spokesperson says
Yemen’s Houthis will continue to attack Israel and will not abide by any rules of engagement, the group’s spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam told Qatar’s Al Jazeera TV on Sunday, a day after Israel struck Houthi military targets near Yemen’s Hodeidah port killing at least six people.
Abdulsalam said there would be “no red lines” in the Houthis’ response to Israel. “All sensitive institutions with all its levels will be a target for us”, he was quoted as saying.
The Israeli military said Saturday’s strike, 1,700 kilometres (over 1,000 miles) from Israel, was among the most complicated and longest-distance operations by its air force. It said it hit the port because the area is used to deliver Iranian arms to Yemen.
It was the first direct hit on Yemen since Houthi rebels there began targeting Israel with missiles and drones last year. All of those attacks had been intercepted, until Friday’s strike on Tel Aviv killed one person and injured several others.
António Guterres, the UN secretary general, is “deeply concerned” about the strikes and the risk of further escalation in the region, according to this statement on the UN’s website.
Updated
Israeli military to offer polio vaccination to soldiers in Gaza
Israel’s military said it will start offering the polio vaccine to soldiers serving in the Gaza Strip. Soldiers will be vaccinated during routine troop turnover, though it is not mandatory, the military said.
The military said it had decided with the health ministry “that troops operating in the area should undergo vaccination against the virus to maintain the health of both the soldiers and Israeli citizens.”
It said vaccinations would be carried out as troops are “refreshed” in and out of Gaza. There are about 170,000 full-time soldiers and another 300,000 reservists in the Israeli army.
The announcement comes after the Gaza ministry said tests carried out with the UN children’s agency, Unicef, “showed the presence of poliovirus” in the territory that has endured a devastating Israeli military offensive since the 7 October Hamas attacks.
The Israeli health ministry said poliovirus type 2 was detected in Gaza sewage samples tested in an Israeli laboratory. It said the World Health Organization had made similar findings.
“The presence of poliovirus in wastewater that collects and flows between displacement camp tents and in inhabited areas because of the destruction of infrastructure marks a new health disaster,” the Gaza ministry said.
It highlighted “severe overcrowding” and “scarce water” that is becoming contaminated with sewage and the accumulation of rubbish. The ministry said Israel’s refusal to let hygiene supplies into Gaza “creates a suitable environment for the spread of different diseases”.
“The detection of poliovirus in wastewater threatens a real health disaster and places thousands of people at risk of contracting polio.” You can read more on this story here.
Updated
The Israeli military issued call-up notices to 1,000 members of the ultra-Orthodox community on Sunday, in a move meant to bolster the army’s ranks but which could further inflame tensions between religious and secular Israelis.
Reuters reports:
The Supreme Court ruled last month that the defence ministry could no longer grant blanket exemptions to Jewish seminary students from the conscript military.
That arrangement had been in place since around the time of Israel’s establishment in 1948 when the number of ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, was tiny.
The new policy shift has been opposed by the two religious parties in prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, placing severe strains on the right-wing coalition as the war in Gaza continues.
Leaders of the rapidly growing ultra-Orthodox community say that forcing seminary students to serve alongside secular Israelis including women risks destroying their identity as religious Jews. Some rabbis have urged anyone in their community who receives call-up orders to burn them.
Still, not all Haredim refuse to serve. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have created a number of units for the ultra-Orthodox…
Following the first set of call-ups, further notices for an initial total of 3,000 ultra-Orthodox conscripts are expected to be sent out in coming weeks.
The government is still trying to pass a conscription law that would potentially create some limited compromise and resolve the issue before it threatens the stability of the coalition.
However, with Israeli troops still fighting in Gaza, more than nine months after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October, and a growing threat of war in Lebanon, pressure from the army and secular Israelis to spread the burden of serving in the military has grown sharply.
Israelis are bound by law to serve in the military from the age of 18 for 24-32 months. Members of Israel’s 21% Arab minority are mostly exempt, though some do serve.
Saudi Arabia calls for 'maximum restraint' after Israel strikes port of Hodeidah in Yemen
Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry has called for all parties to exercise “maximum restraint” in the region after Israel carried out air strikes on the Houthi-controlled Red Sea port of Hodeidah in Yemen that reportedly killed six people and injured over 80 others.
The Israeli military said in a statement on Saturday: “A short while ago, IDF fighter jets struck military targets of the Houthi terrorist regime in the area of the Al Hudaydah [Hodeidah] Port in Yemen in response to the hundreds of attacks carried out against the State of Israel in recent months.”
In a post on X on Sunday, Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry said it is following the latest military developments in Yemen with “great concern” and said the tension in the region has been increased by recent attacks.
Its statement also called on the “international community and influential parties to fulfill their responsibilities to end conflicts in the region”.
#Statement | The Foreign Ministry is following with great concern the developments of the military escalation in Yemen after the Israeli attacks in Al Hudaydah, which aggravates the current tension in the region and halts the ongoing efforts to end the war on Gaza. pic.twitter.com/WMMJVMewnS
— Foreign Ministry 🇸🇦 (@KSAmofaEN) July 21, 2024
Pope Francis said on Sunday he hoped the Paris Olympics – which start on 26 July - would be an occasion for truces in the world’s conflicts, urging athletes to be messengers of peace and models for young people.
During his weekly address to the crowds in St Peter’s Square, the pope said he hoped that “according to the ancient tradition, the Olympics will be an opportunity to establish a truce in wars, by demonstrating a sincere desire for peace” .
He mentioned the conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, Myanmar and other countries, saying “let us not forget war is a defeat”. The pope has made appeals for a ceasefire in the conflict and has called for the release of all hostages held by Palestinian militant groups.
Last month the final statement of a Group of Seven (G7) leaders’ meeting held in Italy included a unanimous call for a truce in global conflicts during the Olympic Games.
Updated
Israeli forces have detained more than 9,750 people from the West Bank, including Jerusalem, since 7 October, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society and the Prisoners Affairs Authority.
They were quoted as saying that some individuals were taken by soldiers from their homes, at military checkpoints, or taken hostage.
Human rights groups and international organisations have alleged widespread abuse of inmates detained by Israel in raids in the occupied West Bank.
They have described alleged abusive and humiliating treatment, including holding blindfolded and handcuffed detainees in cramped cages as well as beatings, intimidation and harassment.
Yemen’s Houthis pledge 'huge' response to Israel's deadly strike on port city of Hodeidah
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the Iran-backed rebel group’s “response to the Israeli aggression against our country is inevitably coming and will be huge”.
Powerful airstrikes rocked the Yemen city of Hodeidah on Saturday, a day after Israeli officials vowed revenge for a drone that struck Tel Aviv.
Airstrikes hit a refinery and electricity infrastructure, sparking a huge blaze that firefighters are reportedly still battling. Six people were killed and about 80 others injured in the attack in Yemen, according to Reuters.
Summary of the day so far...
Israel said its air defences intercepted a surface-to-surface missile launched from Yemen on Sunday and Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement said it had fired several missiles at the Israeli Red Sea city of Eilat. The attack prolonged an escalation of violence between Israel and the Houthis that began on Friday when the Yemeni group launched a drone that hit the centre of Tel Aviv, killing one man and injuring several others. Israeli warplanes carried out an air raid near Yemen’s Hodeidah port in response on Saturday, hitting what Israel said were Houthi military targets. Six people were killed and 80 others injured in the attack, medical sources in Yemen told Reuters on Sunday.
The Israeli military confirmed today it struck Hezbollah weapons storage facilities overnight. The Israeli air force “struck two Hezbollah weapons storage facilities in southern Lebanon, containing rockets and additional weaponry”, the military said in a statement.
At least 38,983 Palestinian people have been killed and 89,727 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said. The health ministry said that 64 people were killed and 105 others were injured in the past 24 hours.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will fly to the US on Monday morning and meet with the US president, Joe Biden, on Tuesday, according to a statement issued by Netanyahu’s office.
Updated
In the months before the Israeli invasion, Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah was a lifeline, a place where thousands sought shelter or scrabbled to raise funds to cross into neighbouring Egypt.
Now satellite images and social media video uploaded by Israeli soldiers stationed around the city show roads widened for armoured vehicles surrounded by total destruction, including buildings razed to the ground in the once bustling city.
Social media video and satellite images show the destruction of the Rafah crossing point, previously the last remaining passenger route out of Gaza, after Israeli forces seized control of the area in early May.
Soon afterwards, Israel said it had “operational control” of the entire Philadelphi corridor, a slim strip of land that runs next to the border with Egypt, where an Israeli presence is prohibited by the 1979 peace treaty between the two nations.
You can read the full story here:
Death toll in Gaza reaches 38,983, says health ministry
At least 38,983 Palestinian people have been killed and 89,727 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
The health ministry said that 64 people were killed and 105 others were injured in the past 24 hours alone.
The ministry has said thousands of other dead people are most likely lost in the rubble of the enclave.
Six people killed in Israel's strikes on Yemen's Hodeidah on Saturday - medical sources
Six people were killed and 80 others injured in Israel’s strikes on Yemen’s Hodeidah on Saturday, medical sources in Yemen told Reuters on Sunday. It was previously reported that the strikes killed three people. These figures have not yet been independently verified by the Guardian.
Firefighting teams are still battling the fire at the Houthi-run port in Yemen’s Hodeidah, hours after an Israeli strike on the harbour (see post at 08.43).
An AFP correspondent in the area has described seeing thick plumes of black smoke shrouding the sky above the city. A Hodeidah port employee said it could take days to contain the fire at the port, which is a key entry point for fuel and humanitarian aid.
Netanyahu to meet Biden in the US on Tuesday - statement
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will fly to the US on Monday morning and meet with the US president, Joe Biden, on Tuesday, according to a statement issued by Netanyahu’s office.
The meeting between the two leaders comes as Biden, who has been recovering from Covid-19 in self-isolation at his home in Delaware, is being urged by many Democrats to drop out of the presidential race.
After weeks of defiantly stating that he will remain the Democratic nominee, despite concerns about his age and mental acuity in the wake of last month’s disastrous debate against Donald Trump, some media outlets have reported that the 81-year-old is now reconsidering his position.
Netanyahu’s visit would be his first to the White House since he returned to office in late 2022. The Israeli prime minister said he will “present the truth” about the war in Gaza when he addresses the US Congress on Wednesday during his visit to Washington.
Netanyahu told his Cabinet last month that there had been a “dramatic drop” in US weapons deliveries for Israel’s war in Gaza, underling a strain in the relationship with Washington.
Earlier this month, the Biden administration said it would resume shipping 500-pound bombs to Israel, despite mounting calls by Democratic lawmakers and progressive groups to limit weapons supplies. It said it would continue to hold back on supplying 2,000-pound bombs over concerns about their use in densely populated Gaza.
However, Amnesty International USA has said that US-supplied weapons provided to Israel have already been used in serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, and in a manner that is inconsistent with US law and policy.
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Israeli military confirms striking Hezbollah weapons depots in south Lebanon overnight
The Israeli military has confirmed it struck Hezbollah weapons storage facilities overnight. The Israeli air force “struck two Hezbollah weapons storage facilities in southern Lebanon, containing rockets and additional weaponry”, the military said in a statement.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said on Saturday evening that “the Israeli enemy launched a raid” on the town of Adloun, about 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the border with Israel, later saying the target was “an ammunition depot”.
Rockets were still exploding about an hour after the strike was first reported, the NNA said, adding that the blasts “lightly injured three citizens”. The NNA said traffic on the highway linking the southern coastal cities of Sidon and Tyre had been interrupted in both directions.
Earlier on Saturday, Hezbollah said it had launched “dozens of Katyusha rockets” on northern Israel “in response” to a strike blamed on Israel that injured civilians.
Updated
A strike on Saturday by Israeli fighter jets on Houthi military targets near Yemen’s Hodeidah port killed at least three people and injured 87 others, according to reports.
That airstrike was in response to a long-range drone launched by the Houthis that hit the centre of Tel Aviv on Friday, killing one man and injuring four others.
The Houthi-run government in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, said Israel hit oil storage facilities close to the shore and a nearby power plant yesterday.
Here are some of the latest images coming out from the newswires:
Updated
Seven civilians, including women and children, were killed and others injured on Saturday night as Israeli forces targeted a home with missiles in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, reported.
ICJ ruling against Israel’s settlement policies 'largely consistent with EU positions', bloc's foreign policy chief says
The international court of justice’s landmark ruling that Israel’s 57-year occupation of Palestinian land was “illegal” is “largely consistent with EU positions”, Josep Borrell, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, said yesterday (you can read his full statement here).
The EU’s high representative for foreign affairs said that the 27-member bloc had taken “good note” of the court’s ruling and urged further backing for the court’s opinion, which was not binding.
He said:
In a world of constant and increasing violations of international law, it is our moral duty to reaffirm our unwavering commitment to all ICJ decisions in a consistent manner, irrespective of the subject in question.
He added in a statement that the opinion “will need to be analysed more thoroughly, including in view of its implications for EU policy”.
The @CIJ_ICJ Advisory Opinion on the Occupied Palestinian Territory is largely consistent with EU positions.
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) July 20, 2024
In a world of increasing violations of international law, it is our moral duty to reaffirm our unwavering commitment to all ICJ decisions.
1/2https://t.co/rCJuLfcsmI
The advisory opinion by judges at the ICJ on Friday carries weight under international law and may weaken support for Israel.
“Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the regime associated with them, have been established and are being maintained in violation of international law,” President Nawaf Salam said, reading the findings of a 15-judge panel.
The court said Israel’s obligations include paying restitution for harm and “the evacuation of all settlers from existing settlements”.
In a swift reaction, Israel’s foreign ministry rejected the opinion as “fundamentally wrong” and one-sided, and repeated its stance that a political settlement in the region can only be reached by negotiations.
Updated
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza and the wider crisis in the Middle East.
Israeli air defences intercepted a surface-to-surface missile fired from Yemen on Sunday, the military said.
Its Arrow 3 missile defence system shot down the projectile before it crossed into Israeli territory, it said.
Air raid sirens sounded earlier on Sunday in the Red Sea port city of Eilat in southern Israel, sending residents running for shelter.
The Houthis said they targeted Eilat with multiple ballistic missiles.
The atttack came a day after Israeli airstrikes rocked the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah following Israeli officials’ vow of revenge for a drone strike that struck Tel Aviv on Friday, killing one person and injuring several others.
Powerful strikes hit a refinery and electricity infrastructure on Saturday, sparking a huge fire, in the first direct hit on Yemen since Houthis they began targeting Israel with missiles and drones last year.
The Houthi-run Almasirah TV channel said on Saturday evening that three people had been killed and 87 wounded in the strikes on the Yemeni oil facilities.
In other news:
Several countries, including Pakistan and Qatar, voiced their support for the international court of justice’s landmark ruling on Friday that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories is against international law.
In Cairo, international mediators including the US are continuing to push Israel and Hamas towards a phased deal that would halt the fighting and free about 120 hostages in Gaza. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said the long-sought ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was within sight.
At least 38,919 Palestinian people have been killed and 89,622 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said. Israeli military strikes across Gaza killed 37 Palestinians over the past 24 hours alone and destroyed several houses, Reuters reported on Saturday. Residents in Rafah said tanks advanced deeper into northern areas of the southern city and took control of a hilltop in the west.
Among those reportedly killed on Saturday were local journalist Mohammad Abu Jasser, his wife and two children in an Israeli strike on their house in northern Gaza. The territory’s government media office said Abu Jasser’s death raised to 161 the number of Palestinian media personnel killed by Israeli fire since 7 October.
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