Israel’s war on Gaza live: Israel orders central Gaza residents to flee

This live page is now closed.

For more on the Palestinian commander killed in Lebanon as Israel and Hezbollah exchange fire, go here.

You can read more about the ‘uncommitted’, bringing Gaza to the Democratic National Convention, here.

And you can read our explainer on what we know about the remaining Israeli captives being held in Gaza here.

Finally, you can find all our latest coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza here.

We will be closing the live blog shortly. Here’s a quick recap of the day’s main events.

• The Israeli military has ordered further evacuations from Deir el-Balah, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are sheltering.
• Israeli strikes across Gaza have killed at least 50 people in the last 24 hours, including at least four in another Israeli attack on a school in Gaza City.
• Defense for Children International Palestine has released a report documenting what it calls “systematic” torture and abuse of Palestinian children by Israel, including their use as human shields by Israeli forces in Gaza.
• President Biden stressed the “urgency” of a ceasefire deal in a phone call with PM Netanyahu.
• Israel has assassinated Khalil al-Muqdah, a commander from a coalition of Palestinian armed groups, in a drone strike in Lebanon.

The death toll from Israel’s ongoing onslaught on the Gaza Strip has surpassed 40,000, leaving no space in cemeteries for families to bury their loved ones.

Palestinians in Gaza are struggling to find vacant plots at cemeteries for family members killed in the conflict, especially in the central region of the besieged enclave.

Saad Hassan Barakat, a worker at a cemetery in Gaza City, said he has spent much of his life working in cemeteries but has never encountered such a dire situation.

Barakat said that before the war, he would carry out a few burials each day, but since October, he has sometimes buried 70, 80, 100 or even 300 bodies in a single day.

“The difficulty is that there’s no space left to dig graves, so I’ve stacked graves on top of each other,” he was quoted as saying by Anadolu Agency. “This place isn’t just one or two but three layers of graves.”

The White House has said that Biden emphasised the “urgency” of reaching a temporary ceasefire in a phone call with Netanyahu.

“The President and the Prime Minister discussed active and ongoing US efforts to support Israel’s defense against all threats from Iran, including its proxy terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, to include ongoing defensive US military deployments,” the statement reads.

“The President stressed the urgency of bringing the ceasefire and hostage release deal to closure and discussed upcoming talks in Cairo to remove any remaining obstacles.”

The National Academy for Television and Arts and Sciences has defended its decision to nominate AJ+ contributor Bisan Owda for an Emmy after Creative Community for Peace, a pro-Israel nonprofit organisation, issued a letter criticising the nomination.

Owda, 25, from war-hit Gaza, was nominated along with AJ+ in the Outstanding Hard News Feature Story category for the documentary, It’s Bisan from Gaza and I’m Still Alive. AJ+ is part of the Al Jazeera Media Network.

The documentary follows her journey as she is forced to leave her home in Gaza City and displaced numerous times amid Israel’s 10-month war on Gaza.

Read full story here.

The Palestinian Wafa news agency is reporting that at least eight people have been killed and many wounded in an Israeli attack targeting a house in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza.

The report added that “intensive raids” are currently taking place in Deir el-Balah.

At their national convention in Chicago, the Democratic Party has sought to project an image of unity and optimism as Kamala Harris reinvigorates hopes of a victory over Donald Trump in the presidential election.

But the war in Gaza, an issue that has underscored schisms within the party, has refused to go away, despite receiving only passing mention from high-level officials at the convention.

Read our story here on how Gaza hangs over the Democratic National Convention.

It is not clear what steps the Biden administration might consider to pressure Netanyahu to accept a proposal for a temporary suspension of fighting in Gaza.

“Now, is the president getting ready to use his considerable leverage on the Israeli prime minister? That’s what we’re going to be looking for – any hint of when we do, in fact, get a readout of that phone call [between Biden, Harris and Netanyahu],” said Al Jazeera correspondent Patty Culhane, reporting from Washington, DC.

“The US has several different ways they could put pressure on Netanyahu. They just announced an additional $20bn in military sales over the coming years to Israel. They could say, ‘We’re going to put that on hold’.”

Ilhan Omar, an outspoken supporter of Palestinian rights, has called on Kamala Harris to chart a new path on the question of Gaza, which continues to divide the Democratic Party ahead of the November elections.

Harris has struck a more conciliatory tone with pro-Palestine groups but stopped short of policy shifts such as cutting off aid to Israel, despite reports of widespread violations of international law by Israeli forces.

“Vice President Kamala Harris has an opportunity to demonstrate our party’s courage and commitment to ending the genocide not just in condemning it with words, but in action by conditioning aid,” Omar said on X. “A better world is possible, but we must have the courage to fight for it.”

Vice President Kamala Harris has an opportunity to demonstrate our party’s courage and commitment to ending the genocide not just in condemning it with words, but in action by conditioning aid.

A better world is possible, but we must have the courage to fight for it. pic.twitter.com/2fQvpmCX7X

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 21, 2024

Israeli forces deployed near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank have detained an ambulance crew who work at Al-Hayat Medical Centre in Jenin after they transported a patient, the Wafa news agency reports.

The head of Al-Hayat Medical Centre, Fadi Jarrar, said Israeli soldiers stopped one of the ambulances and detained paramedic Amjad Qassem and Sameh Hanoun, the driver.

Jarrar said the soldiers also detained the companion of a patient as the three men were on their way back to Jenin. Israeli forces also impounded the ambulance after stopping it at a checkpoint east of Ramallah.

The civil society group Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP) has released a report documenting what they say is an Israeli policy of “systematically detaining and torturing Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip, including using some as human shields”.

The report is the latest to document widespread torture and abuse of Palestinians, thousands of whom have been rounded up and detained by Israel without charge since October 7.

“They insulted us, slapped me on my face, and kicked me in my stomach and waist. I almost died from the beating,” Karim, a 12-year-old who was stripped and bound by Israeli forces in Gaza, is quoted as saying. “Then they made us walk in front of bulldozers and tanks in the streets so that the resistance wouldn’t target them.”

DCIP says it has recorded at least 31 cases of Palestinian children being used as human shields by Israeli forces since 2000.

The report also quotes a 14-year-old boy named Shadi who says Israeli forces detained him after shooting into a crowd of Palestinians awaiting food assistance in Gaza in March.

“They stripped us of our clothes, blindfolded us, tied us up, and beat us over our heads. They cursed us with filthy insults, saying things like, ‘You hungry ones, let Hamas feed you, you filthy, lice-ridden ones,’” he said. “It was humiliation in every sense of the word.”

As Palestinians start fleeing Deir el-Balah, Abu Ahmed Khalil, standing outside the home he had fled to, gathered his few belongings and said, “Every day, there’s a new evacuation map … where are we supposed to go?”

“We pack our beds and whatever we can carry, and leave without knowing the destination. This has been our life for 10 months.”

Mohammad Yasser, in the middle of loading more mattresses onto a car outside their temporary shelter, shouted in desperation, “Have mercy on us, world, have mercy. We don’t want aid or food coupons. Just stop this war.”

“The evacuation feels like a mass exodus. There’s nowhere to go. Deir el-Balah is the final station. We’ll end up sitting in the streets,” Yasser continued. “If it weren’t for my children, I’d stay, even if it meant dying here. My daughter was born and raised in this war. We’ve suffered enough.”

Let’s bring you up to speed with the latest developments:

• Israeli air strikes across Gaza have killed at least 50 Palestinians in the latest 24-hour reporting period.
• A Palestinian man shot by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank a week ago has died, bringing the death toll there since October to 637.
• Banks in the Gaza Strip have been forced to suspend operations, the Association of Banks in Palestine says.
• Israeli intelligence chief Aharon Haliva has left his position after announcing his resignation in April, Reuters reports.
• UNRWA says so many Palestinians are seeking shelter in al-Mawasi in southern Gaza that about 30,000 people are packed into every square kilometre (0.4sq miles).
• The largest wave of forcible transfers of Palestinian communities since October 7 has taken place in the northeast of the occupied West Bank, triggered by Israeli settler attacks, the Norwegian Refugee Council says.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees US military operations in the Middle East, has said it attacked a series of Houthi targets inside Yemen.

The announcement comes amid heightened tensions across the region, as Israel and the US watch for an anticipated Iranian response to a series of suspected Israeli assassinations.

August 21 U.S. Central Command Update

In the past 24 hours, U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) forces successfully destroyed an Iranian-backed Houthi surface-to-air missile and radar system in a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen.

It was determined these systems presented a clear… pic.twitter.com/91h5UF3wya

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) August 21, 2024

Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth has published a report quoting unnamed Israeli sources who say Blinken “seriously undermined the negotiations and demonstrated a lack of understanding” when he claimed that Netanyahu had accepted a US-backed proposal that could bring about a suspension of fighting in Gaza.

Blinken’s statement was met with surprise by Israeli negotiators, who have accused Netanyahu of “putting forth new demands with the aim of hindering the negotiations”, according to a report by the Israeli public broadcaster Kan.

A source told Yedioth Ahronoth that Blinken’s claim offered Netanyahu a “gift” by making Hamas appear as the major obstacle to an agreement, dealing a potential “death blow” to efforts to reach a deal.

Israeli forces have ransacked a mosque and stores in ar-Ras village, south of the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarem, the Wafa news agency reports.

Local sources told Wafa that soldiers raided the mosque along with a number of houses and stores, conducted searches and seized footage from surveillance cameras.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces erected a checkpoint on the road linking ar-Ras to Jabara, stopping Palestinian vehicles and inspecting passengers’ identity cards.

The White House says Vice President Kamala Harris was also on the call between Biden and Netanyahu.

In a short statement, the White House said the call involved discussion of “the ceasefire and hostage release deal and diplomatic efforts to de-escalate regional tensions”.

While the Biden administration has insisted that Netanyahu agreed to a US-backed proposal, apparently changed to accommodate Israeli positions on a number of issues, Israeli negotiators have expressed puzzlement over those claims.

Israeli opposition figures and media reports have alleged that Netanyahu is trying to undermine a potential deal with “maximalist” demands.

Tension in the central Gaza intensified after Israeli military vehicles made a sudden advance this afternoon towards al-Qarara Port area, west of Khan Younis.

Footage from the area showed thousands of displaced people fleeing from their tents to escape the approaching tanks. There was gunfire and some tents were set ablaze.

Al-Rashid Street saw a mass exodus, with many people moving towards the western outskirts of Deir el-Balah due to the worsening conditions.

The situation remains extremely tense, with expectations that evacuation orders will soon expand to other regions. Artillery shelling and aerial attacks continue over Deir el-Balah, heightening fears of further displacement.

Israel’s opposition leader Yair Lapid has called on Prime Minister Netanyahu to reach a deal to bring home the remaining Israeli captives held in Gaza, amid persistent reports in the Israeli media that Netanyahu is working to scuttle those efforts.

In a post on Tuesday, Lapid had said Netanyahu’s “attempts to sabotage the negotiations should stop”, warning that failure to reach a deal could place the lives of the remaining captives in jeopardy.

“If Netanyahu is so sure of his negotiating skill, let him go to Egypt and sit there until he makes a deal,” Lapid said on Wednesday.

“That is what a responsible PM who cares about his citizens lives should do. The only reason he doesn’t do it is because he no longer has a soul.”

💥Opposition Leader Lapid: “If Netanyahu is so sure of his negotiating skill, let him go to Egypt & sit there until he makes a deal. That is what a responsible PM who cares about his citizens lives should do. The only reason he doesn’t do it is because he no longer has a soul.” https://t.co/EDfd7umUGY

— Noga Tarnopolsky נגה טרנופולסקי نوغا ترنوبولسكي (@NTarnopolsky) August 21, 2024

It seems that for Kamala Harris the best scenario is ambiguity. It seems like this has been the strategy throughout this convention.

It’s no coincidence that none of the speakers addressed the question of Gaza. Even when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke, she only mentioned how Harris is trying to bring about a ceasefire, and that was the end of that.

When a political circus like that is managed, or choreographed, it’s done in a way whereby a message has to come through.

And the message this year is not “Israel is our closest ally and we support Israel unconditionally.” Nor is it “Israel has done some terrible things in Gaza, and we stand with the people of Gaza.”

What we call “constructive ambiguity” for the campaign is to just avoid the subject, even if it’s the elephant in the room.

Jamal al-Saoudi, 21, from Balata refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, has died a week after being shot by the Israeli military, medics told the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

On August 15, an Israeli drone fired into a gathering of people at the refugee camp, killing two men and injuring seven others, including al-Saoudi, who was taken to Rafidia Governmental Hospital in Nablus.

His killing raises the death toll in occupied West Bank since October to 637. The figure includes 147 children.

UN spokesperson Dujarric says while the war in Gaza rages on, violence is ongoing in the occupied West Bank, as well.

“More than 600 Palestinians were killed since October, the vast majority by Israeli forces, and at least 11 by Israeli settlers,” he told reporters at a news briefing.

“At least 1,270 attacks have been perpetrated by Israeli settlers against Palestinians over the last ten months, causing deaths, injuries and damage to property.”