Gaza live: Yemen's Houthis hit Tel Aviv in drone strike
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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.
Depending on his recovery from Covid-19, US President Joe Biden hopes to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next week, the White House said on Thursday.
Netanyahu is to address the US Congress next week. White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that "we have every expectation that the two leaders will have the chance to see each other while Prime Minister Netanyahu is in town".
US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk began his trip to the United Arab Emirates and Jordan on Thursday to join Gaza ceasefire talks, an American official told Reuters.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, had no further details on his planned discussions at this time.
Washington has issued counterterrorism sanctions targeting individuals and entities linked to Sa'id al-Jamal, a financial facilitator for Yemen's Houthis.
The Treasury department said it would affect a dozen individuals and vessels, including Malaysian and Singaporean national Mohammad Roslan Bin Ahmad and Chinese national Zhuang Liang, "who have facilitated illicit shipments and engaged in money laundering for the network."
Since November, the Houthis have launched drone and missile attacks on international shipping as an act of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza under Israeli bombardment.
In his latest column, Middle East Eye editor-in-chief David Hearst argues that in its first two weeks in office, the new Labour government under Keir Starmer has shattered any hope of the UK changing course on Palestine.
He writes: "Last week, Starmer and Lammy flew to the US for the Nato summit. Others might say for instructions. Washington doubled down, saying it would pursue its own objection that the ICC had no jurisdiction over Israel.
Lammy’s next trip was to Israel, where he astonished many by shaking hands with Netanyahu, one of the men accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes by ICC prosecutor Karim Khan.
The timing of Lammy’s handshake could not have been worse.
The meeting took place just hours after Netanyahu had authorised an air strike on al-Mawasi in Khan Younis which had previously been designated a safe zone. Over 90 Palestinians were killed and hundreds wounded."
You can read the full column below.
Opinion: Keir Starmer ignores election anger over Palestine at his peril
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.
This is the first stage of a military conscription drive targeting around 3,000 Haredi community members, as the army seeks to address manpower shortages amid its ongoing 0nslaught on Gaza.
This comes after Israel's Supreme Court ruling in June, which reversed exemption from military service for ultra-Orthodox students at religious seminaries.
Hamas has said National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir's "storming" of Al-Aqsa Mosque earlier today is a "dangerous escalation", and called on the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and Arab League to "take serious action to stop these systemic violations".
Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) said the far-right minister had "violated the sanctity" of the mosque, and called out "Islamic and Arab silence" over Israeli crimes.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine warned Ben Gvir he's "playing with fire" and called for a "broader mobilisation to confront" Israeli incursions on holy sites.
Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, has circulated footage of its fighters launching rockets at several Israeli communities, including Ashdod, Ashkelon and Sderot.
مشاهد بثتها سـ.رايا القدس لما قالت إنها لرشقة صاروخية استهدفت بها أسدود وعسقلان وسديروت#حرب_غزة #الأخبار pic.twitter.com/NL8rrpqSlA
— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) July 18, 2024
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has issued a statement condemning far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir's 'invasion' of Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The security minister broke into the mosque this morning, flanked by Israeli troops who barred Palestinians from accessing the site. This is the fifth time Ben Gvir has stormed the complex since becoming a minister in December 2022.
The foreign ministry said that the invasion is part of Israeli efforts towards the "Judaisation" of the area and attempts to "empty it of its original owners".
الخارجية والمغتربين// تدين اقتحام المتطرف بن غفير للمسجد الأقصى وتطالب بتدخل دولي لحماية المقدسات
— State of Palestine - MFA 🇵🇸🇵🇸 (@pmofa) July 18, 2024
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemns the extremist Ben Gvir’s invasion of Al-Aqsa Mosque and calls for international intervention to protect holy sites.… pic.twitter.com/pzrgV7Ef7x
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.
Pax said that a combination of Israel's continuous bombardment and its fuel blockade on the strip have "decimated" the system, leaving hundreds of thousands of tonnes of uncollected human waste.
Furthermore, it said that Israeli forces are blocking access to Gaza's three official landfills, according to local authorities.
It added that the uncollected waste could form a "chemical soup" which could contaminate water supplies and farmland, and eventually "penetrate the food chain and find their way back to humans.
“While the danger for Gaza is imminent, the overall region could soon confront grave ecosystem and public health problems," the group warned.
Over 7,000 people are expected to form a human chain around the UK parliament later today in response to a call issued by a coalition of Palestine solidarity groups.
In a post on X, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) said the protest is being staged to demand an end to UK arms sales to Israel and will be attended by members of parliament, trade unionists and cultural figures.
“Organisers say the action will symbolise the support that the majority of people in the country have for an immediate ceasefire and an end to arms sales to Israel,” PSC said.
🚨TODAY - Hands around Parliament
— PSC (@PSCupdates) July 18, 2024
📍Parliament Sq, London
⏰18 July, 6PM
Israel is committing war crime after war crime. Meanwhile our new government continues to arm Israel. Join us today as we form a ring of linked hands around Parliament and demand the UK #StopArmingIsrael. pic.twitter.com/2TrN7gg1Dy
Amnesty International has released a report documenting cases of torture of 27 Palestinian former detainees, including a 14-year-old boy.
All the former prisoners were held for a period of four and a half months by Israel and denied access to lawyers and contact with their families.
The organisation added that Israel's Unlawful Combatants Law enables the army to arbitrarily detain Palestinians from Gaza indefinitely, without charge or trial.
Israel is using its abusive Unlawful Combatants Law to arbitrarily detain Palestinians from Gaza indefinitely without charge or trial @amnesty gathered harrowing torture testimony from 27 former detainees who were held for up to 4.5 months under the law https://t.co/ABtZE3eXUn
— Amnesty MENA (@AmnestyMENA) July 18, 2024
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said today that its hospital and all health facilities in southern Gaza are at "breaking point" and unable to treat those suffering life-threatening injuries.
The organisation said in a statement that its 60-bed field hospital in Rafah is nearly at capacity following "mass casualty events", including the deadly Israeli strikes on Mawasi refugee camp over the weekend, which killed at least 90 Palestinians. The Red Cross said it took in 26 people requiring hospitalisation for shrapnel and other injuries following the attack.
It added that the overwhelming pressure was forcing doctors to make "difficult choices" on who gets treated.
"The repeated mass casualty events resulting from the unrelenting hostilities have stretched to breaking point the response capacity of our hospital - and all health facilities in southern Gaza - to care for those with life-threatening injuries," said William Schomburg, head of the ICRC's subdelegation in Gaza.
The UN's agency for Palestinian refugees has said that only 10 out of 26 of its health facilities remain operational.
"Our teams continue to risk their lives every day to provide medical care to families but need a ceasefire," the agency said in a post on X.
It added that the World Health Organization has documented more than 1,000 attacks on healthcare facilities since 7 October.
Over 1,000 attacks on healthcare facilities in occupied Palestinian territory have been documented by @WHO
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) July 18, 2024
In #Gaza only 10 out of 26 @UNRWA Health Centres are operational. Our teams continue to risk their lives every day to provide medical care to families but need a #Ceasefire pic.twitter.com/j55RznBjwq
Gaza's health ministry said that 54 people were killed in Israeli attacks on the enclave in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 38,848 Palestinians killed since 7 October.
Additionally, 89,456 people have been wounded since the start of the war.
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