Gaza live: Yemen's Houthis hit Tel Aviv in drone strike

Hezbollah says it struck an Israeli military base in the occupied Kfarshuba Hills using locally manufactured "Wabel" heavy rockets.

They just keep coming. On the weekend, Israel launched another devastating air strike on Gaza, killing at least 90 Palestinians and wounding hundreds more, including women, children and rescue workers. 

Once again, Israel targeted refugees displaced by its earlier bombs, turning an area it had formally declared a “safe zone” into a killing field. 

And once more, western powers shrugged their shoulders. They were too busy accusing Russia of war crimes to have time to worry about the far worse war crimes being inflicted on Gaza by their Israeli ally - with weapons they supplied. 

The atrocity committed at al-Mawasi camp, packed with 80,000 civilians, had the usual Israeli cover story - one rolled out to reassure western publics that their leaders are not the utter hypocrites they appear to be for supporting what the World Court has described as a “plausible genocide”. 

Israel said it was trying to hit two Hamas leaders - one of them Mohammed Deif, head of the group’s military wing - although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seemed uncertain as to whether the strike was successful. 

READ MORE: Israeli soldiers tell story of savage cruelty in Gaza - one given blessing by the West, opinion by Jonathan Cook

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is set to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on 13 August, Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing a diplomatic source.

An Israeli strike on the Abu Shakyan family home in the Nuseirat refugee camp killed eight people, the Wafa news agency reports.

Children are reportedly among those killed.

Israel's military said they shot down a suspected drone coming from Lebanon on Friday morning.

The Israeli army said that the explosive-laden drone that hit Tel Aviv this morning was detected but not intercepted by air defences due to human error.

No warning sirens were therefore activated.

A reported drone attack on central Tel Aviv, Israel killed one person and injured several others, according to the Israeli army.

Yemen’s Houthis seemed to claim responsibility for the attack, saying they “carried out a specific military operation, which consisted of targeting one of the important targets in the occupied Jaffa region, what is now called Israeli Tel Aviv”.

Calling their new drone “Yafa”, named after the old city, that is now part of modern-day Tel Aviv, the Houthis, known as Ansar Allah, claimed it is capable of bypassing Israel’s interception systems.

The Times of Israel report that eight people have been hospitalised following the drone explosion, which seems to have avoided detection from Israel’s defences.

READ MORE: Yemen's Houthis claim deadly drone attack on Tel Aviv

Our live coverage from Gaza will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are some of the day's key developments:

• Israeli forces bombarded the Gaza Strip's historic refugee camps in central Gaza and struck Gaza City in the north on Thursday, killing at least 21 people

• At least two people have been killed and eight wounded in an Israeli strike on an Unrwa school in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood, according to several reports

• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a surprise visit to Israeli troops in the area around Rafah, in southern Gaza

• A report by a Dutch activist group has found that Palestinians in Gaza are "drowning" in human waste, after the months-long Israeli assault on the strip has brought the waste collection system to collapse

• The UN's agency for Palestinian refugees has said that only 10 out of 26 of its health facilities remain operational

• Amnesty International has released a report documenting cases of torture of 27 Palestinian former detainees, including a 14-year-old boy

• Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has approved the first raft of draft orders which will be issued on Sunday to around 1,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews, aged 18-26

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a surprise visit to Israeli troops in the area around Rafah, in southern Gaza.

He reportedly told troops that the military pressure combined with a demand to bring back 120 hostages still being held in Gaza was producing results.

"This double pressure is not delaying the deal, it is advancing it," he said, according to a statement from his office.

Itamar Ben Gvir, a member of Netanyahu's governing coalition, has suggested that Israel delay the ceasefire agreement in order to help former US President Donald Trump defeat Joe Biden in the upcoming election, according to an Israeli news report.

There will be very little change to President Joe Biden's widely unpopular approach to Israel's war on Gaza if he is reelected, a leaked draft of the Democratic Party's platform for 2024 has revealed, indicating the party's refusal to envisage any new headway in ending a war that has killed close to 40,000 Palestinians in 10 months.

The 80-page platform, released by Politico and which will be endorsed next month during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, includes a two-page section on the Middle East, in which it categorically condemns the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel that took place on 7 October and reiterates that "the United States wants to see Hamas defeated".

The platform lists examples of Biden's unwavering support for Israel's war on Gaza, including the sending of arms shipments and providing a diplomatic shield for Israel at the United Nations during votes for a ceasefire and regarding concerns about human rights violations.

It also mentions that Biden is working "at the highest levels" to secure a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

READ MORE: US elections 2024: Democratic Party platform backs Biden's approach to Gaza, Middle East policy

Special envoy to the UAE foreign ministry Lana Nusseibeh has made comments signalling a willingness by the UAE to send forces to a multinational “stabilisation” mission for post-war Gaza, The Financial Times has reported.

The UAE is the first country to issue such remarks.

Nusseibeh reportedly told The Financial Times the UAE had discussed the plans with the US as a step to fill the vacuum in Gaza and address its massive humanitarian and reconstruction needs.

At least two people have been killed and eight wounded in an Israeli strike on an Unrwa school in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood, according to several reports.

The school was housing hundreds of displaced people.

Another school sheltering hundreds of displaced people was bombed in Zeitoun neighborhood in the southeast of #Gaza City earlier today. At least two Palestinians were killed and five others were injured as a result.

— Maha Hussaini (@MahaGaza) July 18, 2024

At least two people were killed and more than a dozen were injured in an Israeli strike on a three-story house in Jmaijmeh in south Lebanon, three security sources said on Thursday.

The search for survivors in rubble is reportedly ongoing.

Israeli forces bombarded the Gaza Strip's historic refugee camps in central Gaza and struck Gaza City in the north on Thursday, killing at least 21 people.

According to health officials and residents, Israeli tanks also pushed deeper into Rafah in southern Gaza.

The Israeli military said in a statement its forces killed two senior Islamic Jihad commanders in two air strikes in Gaza City, including one that the Israeli army said had taken part in the attack on 7 October.