Consecutive Israeli evacuation orders in the Gaza Stripincluding 12 in August alone, 90% of the 2.1 million inhabitants have War between Israel and Hamas The UN’s chief humanitarian officer for the Palestinian territory said work began in October.
US Vice President Kamala Harris says she and President Joe Biden are working to end the war in Gazawhere the International Rescue Committee says the Polio virus is circulating This is the first time in a quarter of a century because hospitals and water infrastructure have been destroyed and housing conditions are overcrowded.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said an Israeli delegation had arrived in Cairo to resume efforts to reach a ceasefire. The talks are being brokered by the US, Egypt and Qatar. A key sticking point is Israel’s demand for permanent control over two strategic corridors in the Gaza Strip.
The war began on October 7, when Hamas and other militants stormed Israel, killing around 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and kidnapping around 250. Around 110 hostages remain in the Gaza Strip, a third of whom are believed to be dead. The Israeli offensive was launched in response has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the local health ministry, which did not say how many of them were militants or civilians.
Here is the latest information:
Hostages’ families meet with Netanyahu
JERUSALEM – The families of Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday and expressed anger over his failure to broker a ceasefire that would have led to the release of their loved ones from Hamas captivity.
The Hostages Family Forum, a group representing relatives of hostages kidnapped in the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, said Netanyahu reiterated his determination to do everything in his power to release the family members alive.
“The word ‘alive’ limits this to a certain time frame,” said Yizhar Lifshitz, son of hostage Oded Lifshitz, whose mother was kidnapped and released by Hamas last October.
More than 100 Israeli hostages remain in the Gaza Strip, including dozens who are presumed dead.
Israeli troops recently Bodies of six prisoners from an underground tunnel in southern Gaza. Thursday’s revelation that the bodies were riddled with bullet wounds has increased domestic political pressure on Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire.
Netanyahu has resisted growing pressure from the international community to agree to a deal as negotiations have stalled over Israeli demands to retain control of strategic corridors in the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu blames Hamas for the deadlock.
Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon kill at least seven people, including a child, state media report
BEIRUT – Five Israeli air strikes in Lebanon killed at least eight people on Friday, including a child and several Hezbollah fighters, state media reported.
A seven-year-old child and another person were killed in a drone attack in the town of Aita al-Jabal, the Lebanese Health Ministry said. The Israeli military said Mohammad Mahmoud Najem, a member of Hezbollah’s drone and missile unit, was killed in the attack.
Hezbollah later confirmed Najem’s death and announced the deaths of four other members on Friday.
Photos from the scene of the accident showed a burnt-out small pickup truck.
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has been fighting almost daily with Israeli forces in the border region for more than ten months. The fighting has killed more than 500 people in Lebanon – most of them militants, but also more than 100 civilians and non-combatants – and 23 soldiers and 26 civilians in Israel.
Lufthansa suspends flights to some destinations in the Middle East, but resumes service to Amman and Erbil
BERLIN – German airline Lufthansa said on Friday it had extended the suspension of its flights to some destinations in the Middle East, but would resume operations to Amman and Erbil on August 27.
The company announced that the Lufthansa Group – which also includes Austrian Airlines and Swiss – is suspending flights to and from Tel Aviv and Tehran until September 2nd. Flights to and from Beirut will remain suspended until September 30th. For flights to Erbil, “a northern corridor in Iraqi airspace will be used,” it said.
Previously, flights to all these destinations had been suspended until August 26.
According to WHO director, Palestinian toddler is partially paralyzed after polio infection
GENEVA — The director-general of the World Health Organization says a Palestinian infant who has contracted polio – the first case in Gaza in a quarter century – is partially paralyzed.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X on Friday that the 10-month-old child had developed paralysis in his left lower leg and that his condition was stable.
“I am deeply concerned,” he said.
Samples from the infected child were examined by the WHO and confirmed to be linked to the variant found in Gaza’s wastewater.
Given the high risk of spread, the Geneva-based WHO is working with the Palestinian Ministry of Health and UNICEF to introduce two rounds of vaccination End of August and September.
It calls on all parties to take humanitarian pauses in fighting so that vaccination rounds can be carried out.
Polio was eradicated in the Gaza Strip 25 years ago, but vaccination rates declined rapidly after the war began on October 7. The area has become a breeding ground for the virus: hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are crowded into tent camps where there is neither clean water nor proper sewage and garbage disposal.
Gaza wakes up to gunfire as mediators continue to push for ceasefire
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza — Fighting continued in the central Gaza Strip on Friday despite efforts by the United States, Qatar and Egypt to reach a ceasefire agreement.
An Associated Press video showed heavy weapons and machine guns near eastern Deir al-Balah at dawn, and the streets were almost deserted. In the southern town of Khan Younis, four people were killed in an early Israeli strike on their vehicle, said Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for the Palestinian Civil Defense.
Bassal reported late Thursday that 24 people had been killed in several Israeli military attacks across the Gaza Strip the previous day, including in Gaza City in the north and Khan Younis in the south.
He said there were also numerous injuries in the attacks, but did not provide any information on their number.
Israel’s military said on Friday that it had killed “dozens” of militants in close-quarter fighting in the central and southern Gaza Strip on Thursday. In Khan Younis, the military said, attacks had also been carried out last week on areas from which missiles had been fired into southern Israel.
The air force also attacked around 30 targets throughout the Gaza Strip, including military posts, weapons depots and launch bases in the Khan Younis area, the military said.
Kamala Harris says she and Biden are working to end the war in Gaza
CHICAGO – US Vice President Kamala Harris says she and President Joe Biden are working to end the war in Gaza as they ended the Democratic Party Convention.
Harris said on Thursday that she would “always stand up for Israel’s right to self-defense.”
“At the same time, what has happened in Gaza over the last 10 months is devastating,” she said. “Desperate, hungry people continue to flee safety. … President Biden and I are working to end this war.”
She pointed out that the suffering could be ended through a ceasefire and the release of the hostages kidnapped in the October attack.
On Wednesday, Parents of one of the young men The conference dealt with the hostage-taking in Gaza.
According to the UN, Israel’s evacuation orders have displaced 90% of Gaza’s residents
UNITED NATIONS — Successive Israeli evacuation orders in Gaza, including 12 in August alone, have displaced 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.1 million residents since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, the top UN humanitarian official for the Palestinian territory says.
Muhannad Hadi said the evacuation orders were putting civilians at risk rather than protecting them. “They are forcing families to flee again, often under fire and with the few belongings they can carry, into an ever-shrinking area” that is overcrowded and unsafe.
Civilians are being denied medical care, shelter, water wells and humanitarian aid. “They are running from one destroyed place to another, with no end in sight,” he said.
Hadi said in Thursday’s statement that international humanitarian law requires the protection of civilians. “The way forward is as clear as it is urgent: protect civilians, release the hostages, allow humanitarian access, agree to a ceasefire.”
The evacuations are also the latest threat to UN staff in the Gaza Strip and are affecting humanitarian facilities, said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric. He cited as an example the United Nations World Food Programme losing access to its camp in the centre of Deir al-Balah.
“This was the third and final warehouse in central Gaza,” Dujarric said. “Five community kitchens run by WFP were also evacuated as the agency looks for new locations for them.”
