Gaza Crisis
Live Reporting
Some Israeli hostages have attempted suicide
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement's armed wing, Al Quds Brigades, said on Wednesday some Israeli hostages have attempted suicide after it started treating them the same way Israel treated Palestinian prisoners.
"Some enemy prisoners have attempted suicide as a result of the extreme frustration they are feeling due to their government's neglect of their cause," Al Quds Brigades spokesperson Abu Hamza said in a post on Telegram.
Hezbollah says Israeli strike in Lebanon kills senior commander
Hezbollah has said an Israeli strike killed a senior commander from the group in south Lebanon, the Iran-backed movement’s second such casualty in recent weeks, according to AFP.
“A Hezbollah commander responsible for one of three sectors in south Lebanon was killed” in an “Israeli strike on a car in Tyre”, a source told AFP, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media.
Hezbollah said later in a statement that “commander Mohammed Naameh Nasser”, also known as “Hajj Abu Naameh” had been killed, while another source close to the group confirmed he was killed in the strike in Tyre.
That source, also requesting anonymity, said he was the third senior Hezbollah commander to be killed in almost nine months of hostilities.
Two women killed in Israeli attack on Nuseirat
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that two women were killed after the Israeli army bombed the central Gaza Strip refugee camp.
Local sources told Wafa that the killings occurred after army warplanes attacked a residential apartment in the camp.
Video shows arrival of three bodies at Al-Aqsa Hospital
A Palestinian activist has published videos on Instagram documenting the arrival of three bodies, wrapped in white shrouds at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, following Israeli forces’ shelling of a vehicle in Maghazi refugee camp.
The activist posted other scenes showing people bidding farewell to the bodies in the hospital yard.
Israeli army says 50 Hamas sites in Shujayea destroyed
The Israeli army says it has destroyed 50 sites belonging to Hamas in the Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood. The eastern neighbourhood has seen intense attacks after the Israeli army last week issued an evacuation order requiring the residents to move southwards.
The offensive has forced at last 85,000 residents to flee, but many have remained behind, Sam Rose, UNRWA’s director of planning, told Al Jazeera.
“The expectation when it [the military operation] started is that it would have been over quite quickly but it’s carrying on – we are now I believe in day six,” Rose said.
“As it’s always the case in these operations – there are people who stay behind, or are unable to move because they are elderly or sick or unwilling to move because they had enough and prefer to die where they are rather than facing another round of uncertainty,” he added.
Authorities announce strike in Tulkarem, occupied West Bank
Local authorities have announced a strike in the Tulkarem governorate in the occupied West Bank to mourn the Palestinians killed in an Israeli raid.
As we have previously reported, the Israeli army conducted an air strike in the Nur Shams camp, bringing to six the number of Palestinians killed in the area in the past 24 hours, including a woman and a child.
Israeli raids and mass arrests have become a near daily occurrence across the Palestinian territories since the start of the war in Gaza.
Prisoners’ watchdog groups say the Israeli army has arrested more than 9,500 Palestinians since October 7, 20 in the last two days. According to the UN, at least 513 people have been killed since the war started.
Saudi Arabia urges end to Gaza aggression: Local media
Saudi Arabia has reiterated it is making “vigorous efforts” on the political and humanitarian fronts to end the Israeli aggression against the Palestinians in Gaza, local media reports say.
According to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the statement was made following a council of ministers meeting, headed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the western city of Jeddah.
The meeting also reviewed “the Kingdom’s international efforts to support initiatives aimed at gaining further global recognition of the State of Palestine”.
It also stressed Saudi Arabia’s “ongoing provision of relief aid to civilians in the Gaza Strip” amid international warnings of growing famine risks as the entry of humanitarian aid trucks fell significantly after the Israeli army attacked Rafah and seized control of the Rafah crossing on May 6.
Video shows European Gaza Hospital out of service
Palestinian activists have posted videos on Instagram from inside the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip following evacuation orders by the Israeli forces.
One video shows the hospital is now out of service after it was emptied of patients and displaced people.
Israeli military carries out arrests in Ramallah, Hizma
The Israeli military has arrested two Palestinians from the town of Hizma, northeast of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, Wafa reports.
Israeli forces have also arrested one man after raiding his home in the al-Masayef neighbourhood of the city of Ramallah, according to Wafa.
Earlier, we reported that Israeli forces demolished the family home of a Palestinian prisoner accused of killing a settler. Footage verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking unit shows the incident unfolding in the village of Duma, south of Nablus.
An Israeli air attack has killed 12 Palestinians, including nine members of one family, in a designated “safe zone” after they followed Israel’s evacuation orders to leave eastern Khan Younis, the Associated Press reports.
Thermobaric rockets used in complex ambush of Israeli soldiers in Shujayea, monitors report
Palestinian fighters in Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood conducted a “complex and multi-stage attack” on Israeli forces on Tuesday, which involved an ambush and the use of “thermobaric rockets”, war monitors report.
Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) forces first targeted a unit of Israeli soldiers in a building in Shujayea with a powerful thermobaric rocket but then redirected their attack at an Israeli rapid reaction force that was deployed to the firefight.
Palestinian fighters used “an explosively formed penetrator, rocket-propelled grenades, and additional thermobaric rockets” against the reaction force, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP) said in their latest Gaza field report.
The combined ambush and attack by Hamas and PIJ was one of at least 10 attacks on Tuesday against Israeli forces currently operating in Shujayea, and indicates that Hamas has “at least partially reconstituted” its forces since Israeli ground troops were last in the area in April, the US-based defence think tanks report.
More than 2 million people are “living in an open-air prison” in Gaza with “water, electricity, food, medication, and fuel” supplies cut off, China’s Ambassador Fu Cong has told the UN Security Council.
President Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu will meet when the Israeli leader visits Washington, DC later this month to address Congress, a White House official has said.
Israeli prosecutor seeking criminal investigation of Ben-Gvir seen as show for ICJ: Report
Israel’s state prosecutor Amit Aisman is reportedly seeking to open a criminal investigation into National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir over his alleged incitement of violence against Palestinians in Gaza, The Times of Israel is reporting.
The investigation is reportedly symbolic, in part to demonstrate to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Israeli courts are taking action over alleged crimes since the World Court is required to step in only where national justice systems have not.
However, the newspaper points out that “none of the officials involved believe an investigation would result in an indictment, much less a conviction” of Ben-Gvir, who has parliamentary immunity
Before becoming one of the most powerful people in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, Ben-Gvir had already been convicted of incitement to racism, supporting a “terror” organisation (the Kach group), possessing a “terror” organisation’s propaganda material and destroying property.
More recently he has overseen the deterioration of conditions for thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, with widespread allegations of torture and degrading treatment as well as a complete ban on outside visits, including from family and the Red Cross.
At least 31 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip since the early hours of Tuesday, the Wafa news agency reports.
Israel pounds Gaza after evacuation order
GAZA STRIP (AFP) - Israeli forces carried out deadly strikes on Tuesday (Jul 2) on southern Gaza and battled militants after the army again ordered Palestinians to leave areas near the besieged territory's border with Israel and Egypt.
Witnesses reported intense bombing and shelling around Khan Younis, southern Gaza's main city from which Israeli forces withdrew in early April after a devastating months-long battle.
