Closing summary
Thank you for following along today. Below is a roundup of today’s stories:
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country would give a “harsh” response to those it believes responsible for the deadly strike on Golan Heights in an escalation of rhetoric despite calls for calm. “The state of Israel will not and cannot let this pass. Our response will come, and it will be harsh,” he said.
Two senior Israeli defence officials have told Reuters that Israel wants to hurt Hezbollah but does not want to drag the region into an all out war, while two other officials said the country was preparing for the possibility of a few days of fighting. “The estimation is that the response will not lead to an all-out war,” said the diplomatic source. “That would not be in our interest at this point.”
An Israeli drone strike outside the southern Lebanese town of Shaqra on Monday killed two people and wounded three, including a child, according to the Lebanese civil defense. The rescue service did not say whether those killed were fighters or civilians.
Western governments have called for calm and some have advised their citizens to leave Lebanon. The foreign ministry in Berlin called on the about 1,300 German nationals who were believed to be in the country to get out “as long as there is still time”. Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani discussed preventing a new war in the Middle East with his Israeli and Lebanese counterparts, Israel Katz and Bou Habib on Monday.
The Cypriot foreign minister said the country is on standby to assist in the evacuation of civilians from the Middle East if a standoff between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon escalates. “We are all hoping it won’t be necessary, but should that not happen, Cyprus will continue to operate as a safety bridge in facilitating the departure of civilians from any embattled zone in our area,” said Constantinos Kombos.
Gaza’s health ministry has declared a polio epidemic across the besieged city, blaming Israel’s military offensive.
Hamas has accused Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of stifling efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza by adding new conditions and demands to a US-backed truce proposal.
The group said it had received the latest response from Israel, after talks in Rome involving Israel, the US, Egypt and Qatar.
“It is clear from what the mediators conveyed that Netanyahu has returned to his strategy of procrastination, evasion, and avoiding reaching an agreement by setting new conditions and demands,” Hamas said in a statement on Monday.
Cyprus on standby to evacuate civilians if wider war erupts in region
The Cypriot foreign minister said the country is on standby to assist in the evacuation of civilians from the Middle East if a standoff between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon escalates.
Lebanon has been bracing for a response from Israel since a rocket strike killed 12 people in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday. Israel and the US have blamed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah for the strike. Hezbollah has denied any involvement.
Cypriot authorities have had an emergency response mechanism in place for a possible evacuation of civilians since last October, foreign minister Constantinos Kombos told reporters.
“We have established the manner in which the scheme will operate, if needed,” Kombos said.
“We are all hoping it won’t be necessary, but should that not happen, Cyprus will continue to operate as a safety bridge in facilitating the departure of civilians from any embattled zone in our area,” he added.
The east Mediterranean island was used to evacuate thousands of foreign nationals from Lebanon in 2006 during a flare-up in hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah. It was also used as a stopover by Britain in evacuating Britons and dual citizens from Sudan last year.
Reuters is reporting that Jordan’s flag carrier, Royal Jordanian, has suspended flights to Beirut on Monday and Tuesday, according to Jordanian Television who cited a statement from the airline on Monday.
The airline said evaluation was continuing regarding flights scheduled for Tuesday.
Flights to and from Beirut airport were cancelled or delayed on Monday.
Netanyahu says Israel will issue 'harsh' response to Golan Heights strike
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country would give a “harsh” response to those it believes responsible for the deadly strike on Golan Heights in an escalation of rhetoric as Western nations call for calm.
"The state of Israel will not and cannot let this pass. Our response will come, and it will be harsh," he said according to a statement from his office released following a visit to Majdal Shams, the site of the strike, which Israel blames on the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Earlier on Monday, an Israeli drone strike strike outside the southern Lebanese town of Shaqra killed two people and wounded three, including a child.
The Lebanese civil defense did not say whether any of those killed were fighters or civilians.
Updated
European governments have called for calm as Israel's military operation in Gaza risks becoming a regional war yet again after a deadly missile strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The Israeli government claims the attack was carried out by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
A German government spokesperson called on all parties in the region to prevent an escalation.
Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani discussed preventing a new war in the Middle East with his Israeli and Lebanese counterparts, Israel Katz and Bou Habib on Monday.
"Breaking the spiral of violence is possible", he wrote on social media platform X.
He said the Italian government was committed to peace and stability, including through Italy's presence in the United Nations' UNIFIL contingent.
Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group has started moving precision-guided missiles as Israel threatens to launch an attack on Lebanon following the weekend strike that killed 12 children in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
An official with a Lebanese group told the Associated Press that Hezbollah’s stance has not changed and that the Iran-backed group does not want a full-blown war with Israel, but if war breaks out it will fight without limits.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military activities, said Hezbollah since Sunday has started moving some of its “smart precision-guided missiles” to use if needed.
Since the war in Gaza began in October, Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets and scores of explosive drones into Israel. Israel estimates that Hezbollah has an arsenal of 150,000 rockets and missiles, including precision-guided missiles.
Hundreds of thousands of people have converged on Deir al-Balah, a small city in the centre of the Gaza Strip that is the only major area yet to be stormed, Reuters reports.
Many have been forced there by fighting in the ruins of Khan Younis further south since last week.
In its latest assault, Israel ordered residents on Sunday to flee Al-Bureij, just northeast of Deir. “What is left? Deir? Deir is full of people. Everyone is in Deir. All of Gaza. Where should people go?” Aya Mansour told Reuters in Deir after fleeing from Bureij.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of Unrwa, the United Nations relief agency for Palestinians, said only 14% of the Gaza Strip had not been placed under evacuation orders by the Israeli military. People have been forced to evacuate repeatedly, often with only a few hours notice.
Aid worker Tamer Al-Burai said water in Deir was becoming more difficult to get as more and more displaced people arrived. “The situation is catastrophic, people are sleeping in the streets,” he said.
Germany calls on citizens to leave Lebanon due to risk of escalation
The foreign ministry in Berlin called on all Germans to leave Lebanon due to the risk of escalation.
A ministry spokesperson told a regular government briefing that about 1,300 German nationals were believed to be in the country and that all should use the opportunity to get out "as long as there is still time".
He said there were still flights to Turkey and the European Union and that Germans should take advantage of the window still available.
At least 39,363 Palestinians have been killed and 90,923 have been injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October according to the latest figures released by the Gaza health ministry on Monday.
Conflict monitor Airwars has begun a project identifying every civilian killed during the Israeli military campaign, having named nearly 3,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza in almost 350 separate incidents during the first 17 days of the war.
Airwars was able to name 65 people killed in what is believed to have been an Israeli airstrike on a market in Jabalia refugee camp on 9 October, the most deadly single incident covered by in the initial period, the first two and a half weeks of a war that has now lasted more than nine months.
Here is a report from my colleague Haroon Siddique relating to another major item on the in-tray of David Lammy, the newly elected UK foreign minister:
The UK should stop arming Israel in order to comply with the historic advisory opinion by the UN’s top court that member states should not “render aid or assistance” to the occupation of the Palestinian territories, a lawyer who represented Palestine has said.
In a broad and damning ruling published this month, the international court of justice (ICJ), found that Israel’s settlement policies and occupation of the territories were in breach of international law. It also said UN member states were under an obligation to neither recognise the occupation as lawful nor abet it.
With the UK already under pressure over the sales of arms to Israel during its military offensive in Gaza, which was launched in response to the 7 October attacks and has killed almost 40,000 Palestinians, Prof Philippe Sands KC, a member of Palestine’s legal team for the case at the ICJ, said the court’s opinion had important ramifications for the UK.
“The most immediate issue is the obligation in the advisory opinion on the states, which includes the United Kingdom, not to aid or assist in the maintenance of the current situation in the occupied territories of the West Bank, including [East] Jerusalem,” said Sands.
“That legal obligation precludes sales of military material which could be used directly or indirectly to assist Israel in maintaining its unlawful occupation of the occupied Palestinian territories.”
The foreign secretary, David Lammy, has said officials are, on his instructions, carrying out a “comprehensive review of Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law” and has signalled that he is considering banning some arms sales to the country.
Britain’s foreign minister, David Lammy, said he welcomed calls by Lebanon’s government for a cessation of all violence after a call with the country’s prime minister, Najib Mikati.
“I spoke to prime minister Najib Mikati today to express my concern at escalating tension and welcomed the government of Lebanon’s statement urging for cessation of all violence,” Lammy wrote on X on Monday.
“We both agreed that widening of conflict in the region is in nobody’s interest.”
I spoke to Prime Minister @Najib_Mikati today to express my concern at escalating tension and welcomed the Government of Lebanon’s statement urging for cessation of all violence. We both agreed that widening of conflict in the region is in nobody’s interest.
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) July 29, 2024
US secretary of state Antony Blinken held a call with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday to discuss a rocket attack on the Golan Heights blamed on Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and emphasised the importance of preventing an escalation of the conflict, Reuters reports.
The pair discussed efforts to reach a diplomatic solution to allow citizens on both sides of the border between Israel and Lebanon to return home, and ongoing efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages held there.
Reuters reports that Israel wants to hurt Hezbollah but does not want to drag the region into an all out war, a senior Israeli defence official said, while two other officials said the country was preparing for the possibility of a few days of fighting.
Two killed by Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon
Reuters is reporting that an Israeli drone strike outside the southern Lebanese town of Shaqra on Monday killed two people and wounded three, including a child, according to the Lebanese civil defense.
The rescue service did not say whether the dead were fighters or civilians.
This was the first deadly Israeli strike on Lebanon since what Israel claims was a Hezbollah rocket attack on Saturday that killed 12 in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Hezbollah has denied involvement in that strike.
Updated
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, says the Biden administration is “working every single day” to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza.
Blinken made the comment in Tokyo on Monday when he addressed the media alongside the foreign ministers of Japan, India and Australia.
Blinken said the meeting of the Quad countries had discussed a range of regional and global security priorities, including Russia’s “ongoing war of aggression” in Ukraine “and of course the conflict in the Middle East, the war in Gaza”. Blinken added:
We’re grateful, I must say, on the part of the United States – grateful to our partners for the strong support for the ceasefire proposal that President Biden put forward, and we’re working every single day to bring that across the finish line.
Welcome and opening summary
Good morning, I’m Sammy Gecsoyler and I’ll be with you for the next while.
Israel’s security cabinet on Sunday authorised prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to decide on the “manner and timing” of a response to a rocket strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that killed 12 children, and which Israel and the United States blamed on Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, reports Reuters.
Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the attack on Majdal Shams on Saturday. It’s the deadliest in Israel or Israeli-annexed territory since Hamas’ 7 October assault.
Israel has vowed retaliation against Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Israeli jets hit targets in southern Lebanon during the day on Sunday. But there were expectations a stronger response could follow the security cabinet meeting convened by Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, reports Reuters.
After the meeting ended, Netanyahu’s office said the cabinet:
… authorised the prime minister and the Defense Minister to decide on the manner and timing of the response.
Meanwhile, Airline group Lufthansa has suspended flights to the Lebanese capital Beirut up to and including 30 July because of the current situation, the carrier said in a statement on Monday.
Flights by the group’s carriers Swiss International Air Lines, Eurowings and Lufthansa have been suspended “in an abundance of caution”, it said, according to Reuters news agency.
Here’s a summary of the latest developments:
The Biden administration formally placed blame on Hezbollah for the rocket strike that killed 12 children on a soccer field in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Sunday.
Thousands of mourners attended funeral ceremonies on Sunday for those who were killed by the rocket strike that hit a football pitch in Majdal Shams.
Israel has vowed swift retaliation against Hezbollah, which it blames for the attack. The militant group deny any involvement. Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said Hezbollah will pay a “price for this loss”. The country’s education minister, Yoav Kisch, said he expects the cabinet to respond “with full force” to the attack “even if it means entering into an all-out war” with Hezbollah. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, who has flown back early from his diplomatic trip to the US, vowed that Hezbollah would “pay a heavy price”. He is convening a security cabinet meeting this afternoon, the outcome of which is expected to be decisive.
Global leaders were engaged in intensive diplomacy on Sunday to dissuade Israel from increasing attacks on Lebanon, amid fears that a wider regional war could erupt in response the attack.
The IDF chief of staff, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, said Israel was “greatly increasing our readiness for the next stage of fighting in the north, as we are simultaneously fighting in Gaza”.
Two security sources told Reuters that Hezbollah is on high alert, with the Lebanese militant group having preemptively cleared out some key sites in both Lebanon’s south and the eastern Bekaa Valley in the event of a possible attack by Israel.
In an apparent initial retaliation for the attack, Israel conducted a series of airstrikes on towns in southern Lebanon overnight on Saturday, as well as one close to the Bekaa valley.
The Lebanese government asked the US to urge restraint from Israel, Lebanon’s foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, said. He told Reuters earlier that a significant attack by Israel would lead to a “regional war”.
At least 39,324 Palestinian people have been killed and 90,830 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said.
On Saturday, in the hours prior to the strike on Majdal Shams, an estimated 40 rockets were directed at Israel from Lebanese territory. Israel has responded with airstrikes targeting towns deep in Lebanese territory.
British prime minister Keir Starmer told Israel’s President Isaac Herzog that there needed to be “immediate steps” towards a ceasefire in Israel’s conflict with Hamas militants in Gaza, Reuters reports. “The prime minister said there must be immediate steps towards a ceasefire, so that hostages can be released and more humanitarian aid can get in for those in desperate need,” Starmer’s office said in a statement. “The prime minister reiterated his ongoing support for Israel’s right to self-defence in accordance with international law,” the statement added. Starmer met Herzog in Paris where both were attending the Olympics.
