Gaza Crisis
Live Reporting
Hezbollah chief warns of response to Israeli attacks
Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has said that the group’s response to Israeli attacks will be strong and effective, Al Jazeera reports.
He was speaking in an address marking the one-week memorial of the group’s top military commander Fuad Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli strike last week in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Iran says no arrests yet made for Hamas chief’s killing
Iran has yet to make any arrests linked to the suspected Israeli killing of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, AFP quotes the Iranian judiciary as saying.
The “necessary investigations” have begun and the results will be announced “as soon as the probe is completed,” said judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir.
“Until today, no arrests have been made in connection with this case,” he said, adding that the investigations involved Iranian military officials.
On Saturday, the New York Times reported that Iran had arrested more than two dozen people, including senior intelligence officers among others, in connection with Haniyeh’s killing.
Jahangir dismissed the claims about any arrests as “rumours” and “false”.
“Haniyeh’s assassination will definitely be met with a courageous response by the Islamic Republic,” he said.
UN expert condemns Israeli killing of Al Jazeera journalist in Gaza
A United Nations expert on Tuesday condemned Israel's killing last week of Al Jazeera journalist Ismail Al-Ghoul and cameraman Ramy El Rify in Gaza and urged that the deaths be prosecuted as a war crime.
The two men died in a July 31 airstrike by the Israeli military, which said Al-Ghoul was a Hamas operative who took part in the Oct 7 attack against Israel.
Lebanon's Hezbollah launches drone attacks on Israel, says more to come
Lebanon's armed group Hezbollah launched a series of drone and rocket attacks into northern Israel on Tuesday but warned that its much-anticipated retaliation for Israel's killing of a top commander last week was yet to come.
Hezbollah said it launched a swarm of attack drones at two military sites near Acre in northern Israel, and also attacked an Israeli military vehicle in another location.
Lebanese FM warns of wider war
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib claimed that efforts are on to stop Hezbollah response that could start a wider war.
Addressing a news conference with his Egyptian counterpart, the minister said following the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, last week, world leaders are anticipating a response from Iran and its regional allies, including the Lebanese group Hezbollah.
Israeli killed four people in air attack in southern Lebanon
An Israeli air raid on southern Lebanon’s Maifadoun village has killed four people, according to a statement from Lebanon’s health ministry cited by the country’s An-Nahar media outlet.
Israel’s military did not immediately comment on the reported strike.
It comes several hours after Israel’s military shot down what it called a “suspicious aerial target” from Lebanon.
Child malnutrition soars in Gaza
United Nations reported that Child malnutrition in the Gaza Strip is surging rapidly as at least more than 650 Palestinian children are now suffering from “acute malnutrition” in the enclave.
It said the child malnutrition has increased by almost 50% in July compared to the previous month of June.
Middle East on ‘brink of war’: EU’s Borrell
Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, has warned that Gaza war has pushed the region to “the brink of a war of unknown proportions”.
He stressed the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza.
“All those standing the way of de-escalation shall be held accountable,” said Borrell in a post on X.
Borrell’s comments echo growing fears among policymakers of conflagration in the Middle East, as Iran and its allies threaten to strike Israel in response to its alleged assassination of several high-level Hamas and Hezbollah leaders last week.
Hezbollah attacked a building housing Israel’s soldiers
Hezbollah has claimed that it succeeded to target a building in the village of Avivim near Lebanon’s Blue Line border with Israel, which was being used by the Israeli soldiers.
The Lebanese group announced it following a statement by the Israeli military, which claimed to have intercepted a projectile over Kerem Ben Zimra and Gush Halav, towns that are near Avivim in the Upper Galilee.
UN commissioner sounds Alarm on Middle East
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has stressed the need for urgent de-escalation in the Middle East.
He apprehended that the Gaza war could spread.
As clock ticks for Gaza hostages, Netanyahu faces growing clamour
JERUSALEM (AFP) – As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeats his promises to bring the Gaza hostages home, he is facing a growing chorus of sceptics who worry he's not interested in a deal with Hamas.
Rocketing regional tensions are increasing the desperation of families and friends of the remaining 111 captives, including 39 known to be dead, taken during the bloody October 7 attack that sparked the Israel-Hamas war.
Israeli forces kill 40 people in 24 hours
During the past 24 hours, Israeli forces have killed at least 40 people and wounded 71 others, Gaza’s Health Ministry reported.
Biden meets national security chiefs as Mideast war fears grow
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Joe Biden held crisis talks with his national security team on Monday as fears grew that an Iranian counterattack on Israel could spark an all-out war in the Middle East.
Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken engaged in frantic diplomacy to try to ease tensions sparked by a suspected Israeli attack that killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Gaza officials say 80 Palestinian corpses handed over by Israel
KHAN YUNIS (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Gaza's Civil Defence agency said it received the bodies of 80 unidentified Palestinians from Israel on Monday, which it buried in a mass grave.
"We received 80 bodies inside 15 bags, with more than four martyrs in each bag, each wrapped in a single shroud", Civil Defence director Yamen Abu Suleiman told AFP.
