Israel’s war on Gaza updates: Israeli forces intensify attacks

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You can read our story about how the Israeli military found a 52-year-old Bedouin captive in a tunnel in southern Gaza, here.

To read our story on the overnight strikes in the occupied West Bank that killed five Palestinians, go here.

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

We will be closing this live page shortly but before we do, here’s a recap of the day’s most important developments:

• The Israeli military killed dozens of Palestinians in attacks across Gaza, predominantly in Deir el-Balah, Khan Younis and Gaza City.
• The UN was forced to relocate its centre of operations in Gaza for a second time as a result of the Israeli military’s expanding ground invasion, while the EU’s foreign policy chief called for a three-day humanitarian ceasefire to administer polio vaccines to children.
• The Israeli military returned a captive, found abandoned in a tunnel in Gaza, alive but the opposition leader warned that Israel cannot rely on special operations to bring back the remaining 108.
• The UN said tensions in southern Lebanon “have reached a critical level” in the past three weeks, with attacks increasing and more civilians displaced.
• The Palestinian Foreign Ministry and Hamas condemned the Israeli Ministry of Heritage’s move to allocate 2 million shekels ($543,000) to support far-right Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

An Israeli air strike hit a pick-up truck truck travelling in northeast Lebanon late on Tuesday, the Reuters news agency reported citing two security sources.

One of the sources said the truck was carrying military equipment.

The strike hit near Chaat, a remote area of Lebanon near the Syrian border. The report said the driver survived the attack.

بالفيديو صاروخ من مسيرة اسرائيلية استهدف عربة بيك اب في #البقاع

و بحسب المعلومات من اهالي المنطقة ، عدة انفجارات سمعت في المنطقة ترافقت مع اندلاع نيران في شاحنة عند طريق رسم الحدث – شعث شرق بعلبك pic.twitter.com/TSM161SHDD

— AHMAD RAHHAL (@ahmmad_rahhal) August 27, 2024

Translation: A missile from an Israeli march targeted a pickup truck in the #Bekaa. According to information from the people of the area, several explosions were heard in the area, accompanied by the outbreak of fire in a truck on the Rasm al-Hadath-Shaath road, east of Baalbek.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in the occupied West Bank says two people have been killed and two wounded “as a result of the occupation’s aggression on Jenin”.

It said the killed Palestinians were 25 and 39 years old, without providing further information.

Israeli military forces are carrying out another night of violent raids into the occupied areas, with fighting also reported in the Balata refugee camp in the city of Nablus. The Israeli military said its forces “have now begun an operation to counter terrorism in Jenin and Tulkarm”.

The Israeli army shared a video that shows the moment Qaid Farhan al-Kadi was rescued, calling it a complex operation.

However, reports suggest that he was alone and there were no captors or any other captives present, which seems to contradict the military statement and suggests he had been released or escaped.

Netanyahu was quick to call it a success.

According to the Israeli army, 33 of the remaining captives are dead. With ceasefire talks bogged down and Israel insisting on changing the structure of a deal, an immediate ceasefire seems unlikely.

So, while this release is being celebrated, for captives’ families, the only serious option ahead is a ceasefire similar to the one last November which led to 105 captives being exchanged for Palestinian prisoners.

The Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza is reporting another deadly Israeli air strike targeting the northern part of the enclave.

It said its crew recovered the remains of a killed Palestinian and transported multiple wounded to hospital after an attack targeted an apartment close to the Palestine Stadium.

The video below, which has been verified by Al Jazeera, shows the aftermath of the deadly strike in southern Gaza that we reported on earlier. It has forced some Palestinians to flee the area after an unannounced ramp up in military attacks.

نزوح جديد في منتصف الليل وتحت نيران القصف الإسرائيلي من منطقة قيزان النجار بعد تقدم آليات الاحتلال جنوبي خان يونس #حرب_غزة #فيديو pic.twitter.com/trtKu0TBkZ

— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) August 27, 2024

Translation: New displacement in the middle of the night and under Israeli shelling from the Qizan an-Najjar area after the occupation forces advanced south of Khan Younis.

A Palestinian child, among a large number held under administrative detention in the occupied West Bank, says Israeli forces tortured him after arresting him on the day he was scheduled to undergo surgery for a wound caused by live ammunition.

“The soldiers exploited my injury, forcing me to sit and kneel on my wounded knee for five hours. I was severely beaten if I moved due to the pain,” the 16-year-old told the Geneva-based Defense for Children International.

“The soldiers transferred me to the Gush Etzion interrogation centre and forced me once again to sit on my injured knee for six to seven hours, which caused the wound to reopen and bleed. The torture and beating did not stop during this time and I was deprived of food, water and sanitation.”

Defense for Children spoke with several children who had been tortured by Israeli soldiers and interrogators in detention. It said one in three children detained by Israel in the occupied West Bank are held without charge or trial.

1 in 3 Palestinian child detainees in the occupied West Bank are held by Israeli forces without charge or trial. We spoke to several children who survived torture at the hands of Israeli soldiers and interrogators. https://t.co/eMeNF1BDty

— Defense for Children (@DCIPalestine) August 27, 2024

The Israeli military has confirmed that one of its soldiers was injured and transferred to a hospital for treatment in a drone attack in the Upper Galilee.

Hezbollah claimed the attack, saying it targeted an army battalion stationed at the Beit Hillel barracks.

The armed Lebanese group has claimed four attacks on Israeli positions today, including a strike on intelligence-gathering equipment along the border.

In its announcement on the soldier, the Israeli military also released aerial footage and said it launched an air strike targeting a Hezbollah operative in southern Lebanon’s Odaisseh.

🚨 ✈️ Hostile Aircraft Intrusion [19:26:38] (10):

• Confrontation Line — Ma’ayan Baruch, Tel Hai, Kfar Yuval, Misgav Am, Metulla, Margaliot, Kiryat Shmona, Beit Hillel, Kfar Giladi, Manara
Population: 73,000 pic.twitter.com/dFLvsSpzoP

— ILRedAlert (@ILRedAlert) August 27, 2024

Here are a few highlights of the pieces we’ve published about the war over the past day:

• Five questions answered: Why did Israel and Hezbollah attack each other?
• Watch: Palestinians flee gunfire during deadly Israeli settler attack
• Infographics: Israel killed 40,000 people in Gaza. What does that look like?
• In-depth: In Chicago’s Little Palestine, locals protest and mourn amid Gaza war
• Photos: Israel orders evacuation in Deir el-Balah, patients flee Al-Aqsa Hospital

And there’s plenty more here.

The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, has confirmed that two young Palestinians who were its members in the occupied West Bank have been killed by Israeli forces.

The armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad also confirmed the deaths, reporting that three of its own fighters, including a field commander, were killed, as well.

As we just reported, Israeli forces’ continued attacks on Deir el-Balah killed more Palestinians on Tuesday.

“A missile by an F-16 came down on the area and destroyed the whole place – we can’t get the victims out of here. There are still lots of people in there, this house was full,” Deir el-Balah resident Mohammed Hamdan said.

Another resident, Abu Yousef Khatab, said, “As you can see, this place was full of people, but due to threats and talks about entering this area, it was completely evacuated, or almost 90 percent of the people and citizens left. We are looking for a safe place, and truly there is no safe place in the entire Gaza Strip.”

At least 40 Palestinians have been killed since early Tuesday by Israeli air raids across Gaza.

Israeli attacks targeted entire residential blocks and refugee camps.

“Israeli bombs in the al-Maghazi refugee camp killed six members of the Thabet family,” said  Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah. “Israeli evacuation orders are making families desperate, as they look for somewhere to sleep. Soon, they’ll have another challenge: getting water.

“With 70 percent of desalination plants and water wells in Gaza located inside evacuation areas, they’ve been cut off from their main sources. Some Palestinians are even considering going back, at the risk of getting killed.”

The Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza is reporting that emergency responders are headed to the site of the latest Israeli bombing in Khan Younis, near al-Salam Mosque.

“Our crews withdrew from the place where the house of the al-Shaer family was targeted, due to their exposure to the danger of Israeli tank shells,” it said, adding that there are an unknown number of killed Palestinians buried under the rubble.

Gaza authorities believe that some 10,000 Palestinians are missing, many left under destroyed structures that rescuers have been unable to reach due to lingering dangers or lack of necessary heavy machinery.

Civil defence also said two people were killed and several others were injured in an air raid targeting a home in the middle of the Nuseirat market in central Gaza.

إصابة طفلة جراء استهداف على مخيم النصيرات وسط قطاع غزة #حرب_غزة #فيديو pic.twitter.com/IBZfygcAi7

— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) August 27, 2024

Translation: A child was injured in an attack on the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby has said it is difficult to predict the chances of an Iranian attack on Israel, but Washington takes Tehran’s statements seriously.

“We believe that they are still postured and poised to launch an attack should they want to do that, which is why we have that enhanced force posture in the region,” he said.

“Our messaging to Iran is consistent, has been and will stay consistent. One, don’t do it. There’s no reason to escalate this. There’s no reason to potentially start some sort of all-out regional war. And number two, we are going to be prepared to defend Israel if it comes to that.”

Kirby also said no side has “broken off entirely from the process” of trying to achieve a Gaza ceasefire deal, adding that the talks are now at the level of working groups in Doha.

Israeli attacks have killed more than 40,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in the 320 days since October 7.

This includes almost 17,000 children. That’s 2.6 percent of all children in Gaza who are now dead.

At least 53 children have been killed every day since October 7, and 72 men and women are killed in Israeli strikes, every single day.

At least 10,000 are missing under the rubble, most of them presumed dead.

Hamas says Israeli government funding of incursions into the Muslim holy site “is a dangerous escalation and playing with fire, leading the region towards a religious war for which the occupation and its supporters will bear responsibility”.

The group said in a statement that the Israeli Ministry of Heritage is funding “Zionist-guided tours” to the compound, which it called another step “in their malicious plans to desecrate and Judaise” Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site.

Hamas called on the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to “take responsibility” and act in unison to protect the site and for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank to mobilise and maintain a presence there.

The Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza reports that its emergency responders have found four bodies after an Israeli bombing of an apartment in northern Gaza.

It said the home of a family was hit in the Tal al-Hawa area west of Gaza City.

Israeli settlers assaulted Palestinian farmers in the al-Maniya village, southeast of the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, according to a report by the Palestinian Wafa news agency.

The report quoted Zayed Kawazba, head of al-Maniya Village Council, as saying that approximately 150 armed settlers attacked the farmers while opening fire.

The situation has become increasingly dangerous in southern Lebanon in the past three weeks amid a rising number of Israeli air raids, according to the latest update by the UN’s Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Here are the highlights:

• 2,412 casualties reported, including 564 deaths. Among these, at least 133 civilian deaths have been confirmed.
• 111,940 people have been displaced as of August 15, 94 percent of whom are from Bint Jbeil, Marjayoun and Tyre districts.
• Displacement has increased by nearly 10 percent since August 8.
• 35 percent of internally displaced people are children, while 34 percent are female adults and 31 percent are male adults.
• On August 19, Lebanon’s representative to the UN filed a formal complaint against Israel, accusing it of violating Resolution 1701 through continued breaches of Lebanese airspace, which have become increasingly concerning due to Israeli fighter jets frequently breaking the sound barrier in recent weeks.

Tensions in southern #Lebanon have reached a critical level over the past three weeks, with escalating hostilities posing severe risks to civilians.

Displacement has increased by nearly 10% since 8 August, with nearly 112,000 people now internally displaced.

Latest update ⤵️

— UN Humanitarian (@UNOCHA) August 27, 2024

Gilles Michaud, undersecretary-general for safety and security, says UN staff in Gaza “are operating at the upper-most peripheries of tolerable risk”.

“Mass evacuation orders are the latest in a long list of unbearable threats to UN and humanitarian personnel,” he said about the dire situation in the enclave.

Over the weekend, the Israeli military “gave just a few hours’ notice to move more than 200 UN personnel out of their offices and living places in Deir el-Balah, a crucial humanitarian hub”, according to Michaud.

The timing could hardly be worse, with the start of a massive polio vaccination campaign scheduled for next week, for which large numbers of staff will need to enter the Strip.

He added that the evacuation orders only compound existing security threats of operating in an active warzone.

The UN has had to evacuate its humanitarian aid hub in the Gaza Strip for a second time since the start of the war on the orders of the Israeli military, according to an official.

The hub, with warehouses and accommodation for staff, had already been relocated before due to the Israeli ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza at the start of May.

The new hub with accommodation, offices and storage rooms for humanitarian goods was set up in Deir el-Balah further in the central part of the enclave, but an evacuation order on Sunday also included the new headquarters.

A spokesperson for the UN emergency aid organisation OCHA said in Geneva that since Friday, evacuation orders have been issued for 19 neighbourhoods in the northern Gaza Strip and in Deir el-Balah, with 15 premises in which UN and NGO staff and their families lived affected.

Four UN warehouses for relief supplies, a water reservoir, a desalination plant, three wells, two smaller health facilities and a hospital were also affected. There were 29 emergency shelters for displaced people in those areas.

Footage shared online, and verified by Al Jazeera, shows one of the many air attacks by the Israeli military on homes in Gaza today.

لحظة قصف الاحتلال منزلًا بمخيم النصيرات #فيديو #حرب_غزة pic.twitter.com/YwrKHeFDbz

— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) August 27, 2024

Translation: The moment the occupation bombed a house in Nuseirat camp.

UNRWA is trying to help Gaza’s children through offering activities amid the continuing devastation of the war.

A Palestinian child, who has been displaced from Beit Hanoon in the north, describes how her life has been upended.

“We are living in a school. I used to love school a lot, but now I don’t like the classroom or the school because of the displacement. Tents, sewage, and it’s disgusting.”

Children’s daily lives in #GazaStrip have been completely shattered since the war began, and are full of horror and fear.

Through sports and psychosocial activities, @UNRWA teams bring some respite to children in #Gaza and help them back to learning, offering a sense of normalcy pic.twitter.com/zQiV8hJeCz

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) August 27, 2024