Gaza Crisis
Live Reporting
Israeli bombing confirms its intentional targeting of civilians, Hamas says
Hamas says the attacks carried out by Israeli forces, including the bombing of the Haniyeh family home in the Shati refugee camp, confirm its intentional targeting of civilians.
In a statement, Hamas held Biden’s administration “responsible for the continuation of the genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza by giving [Israeli forces] political and military cover for destruction”.
It also called on the UN and international community to take on “their responsibilities towards these ongoing horrific crimes, to take urgent action to protect innocent civilians, and to hold the terrorist leaders of the [Israeli forces] accountable for their crimes”.
Palestinian rescuers rush gunshot victim to hospital
An ambulance crew with the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has responded to a shooting victim in Zahraa city, near Nuseirat camp.
A video posted by the aid group shows ambulance carrying the injured man on a stretcher into Deir el-Balah’s crowded Al-Aqsa Hospital.
Gaza civil defence confirms Hamas chief’s relatives killed in Israeli attack
Gaza civil defence has confirmed that an Israeli air strike killed 10 relatives of Hamas chief Haniyeh, including his sister.
The Israeli military has yet to comment on the attack.
“There are 10 martyrs … as a result of the strike, including Zahr Haniyeh, sister of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh,” Mahmud Basal, spokesman for Gaza’s civil defence, told AFP news agency, also reporting “several” wounded.
Gaza families resort to sea water amid shortages: UNRWA
As summer heat sets in, children in Gaza are waiting in long queues to bring back small amounts of clean water.
Due to the shortages, thousands of families are also using seawater, says the UNRWA.
Israeli attacks have wrecked all of the enclave’s water wells, according to the Northern Gaza Emergency Committee.
What is Netanyahu’s stance on a ceasefire deal?
Israel’s PM Netanyahu, speaking to the Knesset yesterday, made three promises:
Israel is committed to the US-backed ceasefire proposal and will bring home all remaining captives in Gaza.
Israel will not end the war until Hamas is eliminated, a position he says does not contradict the first point.
Israel will “thwart Iran’s intentions to destroy us at any cost and in any way”.
According to senior Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq, Netanyahu’s promise to root out Hamas, while simultaneously saying he is committed to a ceasefire plan, shows he is merely stalling and wants to continue the “war of genocide”.
Israel confirms overnight attacks as strikes on UN-run shelters kill at least 11
Israel’s military said its warplanes carried out attacks on two buildings overnight – one in the Shati refugee camp and another on the Daraj neighbourhood of Gaza City – claiming the strikes targeted Hamas fighters.
We reported earlier that at least six people were killed overnight when a UN-run school sheltering displaced people was attacked in Daraj and that at least five people, including children, were killed in another strike on UN-run shelter in the Shati refugee camp. Five people were also reported killed in other attacks overnight.
Israel’s military said it aircraft attacked sites where “terrorists operated from school premises” and some of those targeted were involved in the Hamas attack of October 7 and “holding hostages”.
Reports have emerged more recently that Israeli forces also bombed the family home of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in northern Gaza’s Shati camp, killing at least 10 people, including his sister.
In its post on social media, Israel’s military made no mention of the Hamas leader’s relatives being targeted in the Shati attack.
Gaza journalists have long known that their ‘press’ vests do not protect them
A collaborative investigation by 50 journalists from 13 news outlets has found that at least 14 Palestinian journalists were wearing protective press gear when they were killed, wounded or allegedly targeted in Gaza.
“Today’s Gaza journalists have long known that their ‘press’ vests do not protect them,” said Laurent Richard from the news organisation Forbidden Stories, which led the investigation.
The report found that more than 100 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza – including 40 who were killed while they were at home – since October last year.
“Whereas the press vest was supposed to identify and protect us according to international laws … it is now a threat to us,” said Basel Khair al-Din, a Palestinian journalist in Gaza who believes he was targeted by an Israeli drone strike while wearing a press vest.
Sister and family of senior Hamas official reported killed in Shati camp strike
Local media is reporting that the Israeli military has killed a senior Hamas official’s sister and other family members in a strike on the Shati camp area near Gaza City.
Earlier we reported that the Israeli military had attacked the Asmaa School, an UNRWA shelter housing displaced Palestinians in Shati camp area, killing five people.
Tank fire: ‘A weapon not owned by any other party in the conflict apart from Israel’
Here’s more on the investigation from the AFP and international media into the attack on the international news agency’s Gaza bureau in November last year.
Staff had already evacuated the office before the attack, but a camera broadcasting a live feed of the war captured the moments the agency’s server room on the 11th floor of the Hajji building in Gaza City was hit.
Five experts consulted said the damage to the server room was likely caused by a tank, a weapon not owned by any other party in the conflict apart from Israel.
“The weapon type and accuracy inherent in the Israeli tank weapon system means that the weapon hit the target it was aimed at,” said British ammunition expert Adrian Wilkinson.
“No other actor has a weapon system that fires line of sight with a warhead of 2.3 kilos, which is consistent with the damage caused inside the building,” he added.
12-year-old dies from wounded inflicted by Israeli soldiers
A Palestinian child rights group has released details of the 12-year-old who was shot by Israeli forces on June 14 and died in hospital in Ramallah on Saturday.
The victim Mohammad Morad Ahmad Hoshiyeh was on his way home from football practice when he was shot in the abdomen by Israeli soldiers at 6:30 pm on June 14 near the Al-Amari refugee camp in Ramallah.
The 12-year-old was shot at a distance of between 70 to 90 meters (230 to 295 feet) by an Israeli soldier who was inside an armoured military vehicle, Defense for Children International – Palestine said in a statement.
The organisation said that 135 Palestinian children have now been killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank since October 7.
“During these incursions, Israeli forces routinely resort to intentional lethal force in situations not justified under international law and make no effort to impartially investigate” afterwards, the group said.
“All Palestinians, including children, are considered targets,” it added.
Israeli tank likely hit AFP Gaza office, International media probe finds
Israeli tank fire was likely the cause of blasts that damaged the AFP news agency’s office in Gaza on November 2, a collaborative investigation by AFP and international media outlets has found.
The Israeli military has indicated “the building was not targeted in any way”, and in June said the incident that occurred less than a month into the Gaza war was under review.
Save the Children has said thousands of missing Palestinian children are believed to be trapped beneath rubble, buried in unmarked graves, harmed beyond recognition by explosives, detained by Israeli forces, or lost in the chaos of the war on Gaza.
An Israeli air strike in southern Gaza has killed at least eight people, in an area near the Bani Suheila traffic circle in Khan Younis city where Palestinians were waiting for aid trucks.
Israel’s top court has ordered the government to provide information about conditions inside the shadowy military facility Sde Teiman, where Palestinians from Gaza are detained.
Few civilians left in Rafah 'trapped' by the fighting
RAFAH (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Rafah city centre in Gaza lies deserted after most residents fled weeks of fighting between the Israeli military and Palestinian armed groups led by Hamas that punctuated daily life there.
Those who are left in the city feel trapped.
