Israel war on Gaza updates: ‘We’re running from death towards death’

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Find out more here after Prime Minister Netanyahu says Israel’s war on Gaza will continue even if a ceasefire deal is agreed to with Hamas.

To learn more about the Israeli air strike on the UNRWA aid centre in Gaza, see here.

And to follow all of our coverage on Gaza, check out this comprehensive page.

We’ll soon be closing this live page. Here’s a quick look at the latest news:

• Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu indicates he is open to a “partial” agreement to facilitate the return of some captives held in Gaza but reiterates that Israel’s war on Gaza will continue.
• An Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon increases the risk of a wider conflict that draws in Iran, especially if Hezbollah’s existence is threatened, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff says.
• In Beit Lahiya, two more babies die of malnutrition, bringing the death toll from hunger and thirst to at least 31, health officials at Kamal Adwan Hospital say.
• Residents say Israeli tanks advanced to the edge of the al-Mawasi displaced persons’ camp – deemed a “safe zone” by Israel’s army – northwest of Rafah city.
• Lebanon says it will sue a UK newspaper over its “ridiculous” report quoting unnamed sources as saying that Beirut’s international airport is used by Hezbollah to store Iranian weapons.

Israel’s prime minister is set to address a joint session of the US Congress next month.

It’s Benjamin Netanyahu’s first trip to Washington, DC, since he launched his devastating war on Gaza. His speech could have significant political implications for President Joe Biden and Israel.

So, what might happen?

Two medical personnel were killed and several injured in Israeli shelling of the Daraj clinic in Gaza City, the Wafa news agency reports.

Israeli fighter jets also launched an air strike on the Zeitoun area east of Gaza City, it said.

Israeli warplanes randomly targeted citizens in scattered areas of Khan Younis, in the south of the Strip, according to Wafa.

The Israeli military defended its deadly attack on a UNRWA aid distribution centre in Gaza City, saying it “struck terrorist infrastructure in which Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were operating”.

Witnesses on the ground say eight Palestinian civilians were killed and 10 wounded, some critically, including children.

The jets directed by army and intelligence officers were involved in the air strikes, the Israeli military said in a statement.

“This is another example of Hamas’ systematic exploitation of civilian infrastructure and the civilian population as a human shield for its terrorist activities,” it said. Hamas denies Israeli accusations it uses civilians as human shields or uses civilian facilities for military purposes.

The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff says it will be difficult to protect Israel if a war breaks out with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Air Force General CQ Brown’s remarks came as Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant arrived in Washington, DC, to discuss the next phase of the Gaza war and escalating hostilities on Israel’s northern border.

He noted that the US could be more limited in its ability to defend Israel from attacks by Hezbollah than it was in helping intercept Iran’s April missile-and-drone attack on Israel, which was largely thwarted.

“From our perspective, based on where our forces are, the short-range between Lebanon and Israel, it’s harder for us to be able to support them in the same way we did back in April,” Brown said.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has indicated he is open to a “partial” agreement that would facilitate the return of some captives held in Gaza.

He reiterated, however, that he would not agree to any deal that stipulated an end to Israel’s war on Gaza, despite previous claims by the United States that an Israeli proposal would be a pathway to finishing the conflict “permanently”.

“The goal is to return the kidnapped and uproot the Hamas regime in Gaza,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Israeli media outlet Channel 14.

Read the full story here.

The tit-for-tat strikes between Hezbollah and Israel have taken on a sharper edge.

Israeli officials say the army has an approved plan for war with Hezbollah, while the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah fired back saying Israel should be “very scared” of a conflict with it.

The Middle East is waiting with bated breath to see what will happen next.

Read the full story here.

Israel pulling back from its offensive in Rafah will allow it to send ground troops to the Lebanese border, which will prolong the war and ensure Netanyahu’s survival, an analyst says.

“What we’re not seeing is the likelihood of this war ending with an Israeli initiative anytime soon, because Netanyahu’s political survival – his get out of jail card, if you will – depends on a war continuing forever,” Phyliss Bennis, an analyst at the Institute for Policy Studies, told Al Jazeera.

And war continuing is a very likely scenario, she added.

“There’s also not much public opposition to continuing the war and escalating the war on the Lebanese border in the north. So the possibility of war continuing seems to be very much still under way until there is serious, significant pressure from the United States in the form of cutting off the money and the weapons that are enabling this genocide to continue.”

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to take shelter in tents, becoming easy targets for Israeli forces.

About 25 people were killed and dozens wounded in an encampment on Friday in al-Mawasi, an Israeli-declared “safe area” in southern Gaza.

“We are living in fear. We go to sleep praying to live to the next morning, not to get bombed. The Israeli occupation forces are targeting our tents, killing innocent women and children. Our life is more than dire, it is a misery,” displaced Palestinian Nabeela Shanar told Al Jazeera.

At a tent city in central Deir el-Balah, Younis al-Tatar said there is no safe place in the entire Gaza Strip. “The Israelis allege they are targeting fighters, but they are lying. All victims are defenceless, innocent, civilians,” he said.

The family of a Palestinian doctor who died while being questioned by Israel’s domestic security service Shin Bet has called for an international investigation into his death.

Dr Iyad al-Rantisi, 53, the head of a women’s hospital in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, was detained by the Israeli army last November. He died six days later at the Shikma prison, a Shin Bet interrogation facility in southern Israel, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Shin Bet said it arrested al-Rantisi over suspicion of his involvement in hiding Israeli captives in Gaza.

As the family moved through the checkpoint, the doctor was stopped by Israeli soldiers and ordered to kneel. “Ever since, we heard nothing about my husband until Israeli media announced his death,” his wife Randa said.

The doctor’s sister Hana called on the Israeli authorities to hand over his body. “We have been trying to get any piece of information about him, but to no avail.

Asked when the phase of intense fighting would come to an end, Netanyahu answered: “Very soon.”

But the Israeli military would still operate in Gaza, he said. “I am not willing to end the war and leave Hamas as it is.”

Netanyahu also reiterated his rejection of the idea the occupied West Bank-based Palestinian Authority could run Gaza in place of Hamas.

An Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon increases the risk of a wider regional conflict that draws in Iran, especially if Hezbollah’s existence is threatened.

That’s the view of the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, CQ Brown.

“Hezbollah is more capable than Hamas as far as overall capability, number [of] rockets and the like. And I would just say, I would see Iran be more inclined to provide greater support to Hezbollah,” Air Force General  Brown told reporters.

“Again, all this could help to broaden the conflict in the region and really have Israel not only be worried about what’s happening on their southern part of the country, but also now what’s happening in the north.”

In Beit Lahiya, health officials at Kamal Adwan Hospital say two babies died of malnutrition.

Infant deaths from malnutrition or dehydration now number at least 31 since October 7, 2023, a figure health officials say reflects under-reporting.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said last week that more than 50,000 children in the Gaza Strip require immediate medical treatment for acute malnutrition.

“With continued restrictions to humanitarian access, people in Gaza continue to face desperate levels of hunger,” UNRWA said.

The Yemeni group says its forces attacked two ships in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.

The first ship, Transworld Navigator, was targeted in the Red Sea using “an uncrewed surface boat”, which led to a direct hit against the ship, said Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree.

The second vessel, Stolt Sequoia, was attacked in the Indian Ocean with several cruise missiles, he said. The ships belonged to companies that “violated the ban on entering the ports of occupied Palestine”.

It was not clear when the attacks took place.

Just like the United States did in Iraq and Afghanistan, Israel has entered a war in Gaza with vague and overambitious aims.

But what US officials may not care to admit is that Israel is not thinking about an end to the military phase, and a beginning of a civilian reconstruction plan, argues Nathan Brown, professor of international relations and political science at George Washington University.

Brown says Israel has purposely designed the carnage in Gaza to be a “forever war” – not something that will ever be resolved, especially with a “blank cheque” from the US.

Qatar and Spain have reiterated their commitment to “a just, fair and equitable peace” that guarantees Palestinians a state and “mutual security with Israel”.

According to a readout by the Qatari Foreign Ministry, the two countries said peace can only be achieved through mediated negotiations “underpinned by global support and the implementation of the two-state solution”.

The statement was issued following the Qatar-Spain Strategic Dialogue in Doha, which discussed mutual bilateral cooperation.

“Both countries reinforced their call for an immediate, lasting and sustainable ceasefire in the Gaza Strip that allows for the unimpeded delivery of urgent humanitarian aid and the release of hostages,” it said.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) issued a statement denouncing the latest Israeli strikes on Gaza City, including repeated strikes on Shati refugee camp and the raid on Jenin.

Such “attacks appear to be disproportionate in that they would be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated”, the United Nations agency said.  

In the occupied West Bank, OHCHR condemned what it called “continued and flagrant violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law binding on Israel as the occupying power”.

“In yet another example of lawless behaviour, [Israeli forces] tied one of the men – who had been shot by them in the arm and thigh – to the hood of a military jeep in an abusive manner.

“Such actions constitute serious violations of Israel’s obligations under occupation law concerning protected persons and under international human rights law concerning individual rights to life and health, the absolute prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

Two people were slightly wounded after an antitank missile was launched towards the Israeli city of Metula from southern Lebanon, Israeli Army Radio reports.

Earlier, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that Israeli soldiers armed with assault weapons carried out a “search operation” along the border of southern Lebanon from their base in Metula.

Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in tit-for-tat attacks since the war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023.

Residents say Israeli tanks advanced to the edge of the al-Mawasi displaced persons’ camp – deemed a “safe zone” by Israel’s army – in the northwest of Rafah city.

On Friday, Israeli forces launched an assault on a tent camp in al-Mawasi near the International Committee of the Red Cross base, killing at least 25 people and wounding 50 others.

Witnesses said Israeli troops fired a second volley that killed people who came out of their tents after the first attack.

Israeli forces ordered Palestinians in southern Gaza to flee to al-Mawasi in May, telling residents it was the only “safe area” after it launched its much-condemned invasion of Rafah.

The Israeli prime minister says the phase of intense fighting against Hamas is coming to a close, but the war will not stop until the group no longer controls the Gaza Strip.

Once heavy battles are over in Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu said, it will allow Israel to deploy more forces to the front with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“After the intense phase is finished, we will have the possibility to move part of the forces north. And we will do this. First and foremost for defensive purposes. And secondly, to bring our [evacuated] residents home,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 14.

“If we can we will do this diplomatically. If not, we will do it another way. But we will bring [the residents] home.”

Reporting from Amman, Jordan

Al Jazeera is reporting from outside Israel because it’s been banned by the Israeli government.

The Israeli army released a statement justifying its attack on the UNWRA  shelter and aid distribution centre in northern Gaza, saying that previously its buildings were “a shield for terrorist activities”.

The Israeli army maintains this was a precise strike that hit Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad infrastructure, from which the two groups had been operating. It claims that prior to the bombing, “precautionary measures were taken to reduce the risk of harming civilians”.

Throughout the entirety of this conflict, the Israeli military has targeted not only the facilities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), but its employees as well. A total 193 have been killed in Israeli attacks.

The Israeli army and political apparatus alike have maintained that UNRWA is a “terrorist organisation” and must be replaced in the Gaza Strip.

According to the official news agency Wafa, clashes erupted in Osarin, a village south of Nablus, after Israeli soldiers fired live ammunition and tear gas at residents.

Separately, Israeli troops raided Umm Safa and al-Mughayyir, villages north and northeast of Ramallah, respectively.

Earlier, a 15-year-old Palestinian boy was injured when Israeli soldiers shot live rounds, sound bombs and tear gas at residents in Nablus.

Israel’s prime minister is set to address a joint session of the US Congress next month.

It’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s first trip to Washington, DC since he launched the devastating war on Gaza. His speech could have big political implications for US President Joe Biden and for Israel.

So what might happen?

Teenagers across the Gaza Strip are lamenting how Israel’s war has massively disrupted their education.

“I was eagerly awaiting the exams, but the war prevented that and destroyed that joy,” said Baraa al-Farra, an 18-year-old student displaced from Khan Younis in southern Gaza. “At first, we were waiting in the hope the war would end and we would catch up. [But] we don’t know how long it will last or how many years it will deprive us of our educational lives.”

Liliane Nihad, 18, also displaced to Khan Younis from Gaza City, said she and her fellow students had “been waiting 12 years to take these exams and pass and feel happy and enter university … but we have been deprived of all that by this damned war.”

The Education Cluster, a UN-backed organisation, estimated in a report earlier this month that more than 75 percent of Gaza’s schools would need full reconstruction to reopen. According to Gaza’s Ministry of Education, 85 percent of educational facilities are out of service.

Dozens of students and teachers held a protest in Gaza City’s Remal neighbourhood on Saturday, chanting, “We demand our right to take high school exams” and “We want books, not bombs”.