Israel-Palestine live: Israel bombs Unrwa building in Gaza
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At least 11 people including six children were killed in a barrage of Israeli strikes on villages across southern Lebanon on Wednesday, a hospital director and three Lebanese security sources told Reuters.
Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been exchanging fire along the Israel-Lebanon border for more than four months, after the Lebanese armed group launched rockets across the disputed frontier in support of its Palestinians suffering in Gaza.
A rocket barrage from Lebanon on Wednesday morning left one Israeli woman soldier dead and another eight hospitalised.
The United States condemned the demolition of Palestinian activist Fakhri Abu Diab’s home in occupied East Jerusalem, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Wednesday.
“We believe that demolition not only obviously damages his home, and his family, and the lives that they have built there, but the entire community who live in fear that their homes may be next,” said Miller.
“He has been an outspoken community leader, including against demolitions, and now his family has been displaced,” Miller added.
The home – which is close to the Al-Aqsa Mosque – was demolished to make way for a planned biblical theme park in the neighbourhood of Silwan, in occupied East Jerusalem.
“These acts … damage Israel’s standing in the world, and they make it ultimately more difficult for us to accomplish all of the things we are trying to accomplish that would ultimately be in the interest of the Israeli people,” Miller added.
Neehel Ziad Mohammad Bregheith was shot and killed by Israeli forces as he was leaving school on Wednesday afternoon.
The 16-year-old was pronounced dead in hospital after being shot in the head by Israeli forces, the advocacy group Defense for Children Palestine has said.
Bregheith was the 100th child to be killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank since 7 October, Defense for Children Palestine added.
Good morning Middle East Eye readers,
Here are the latest developments from Israel's war on Gaza, which enters day 132 today:
- The Israeli military has shelled Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, killing one person and seriously wounding several others
- Canada, Australia and New Zealand have issued a joint statement saying a “humanitarian ceasefire is urgently needed” in Gaza and they are “gravely concerned” about looming military operations in Rafah
- The US has condemned the demolition of a Palestinian activist’s home in occupied East Jerusalem, saying it damages “Israel’s standing in the world”
- Israeli settlers, accompanied by the Israeli military, have performed religious rituals and desecrated mosques in Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank
Hello MEE readers. The situation at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis remains dire, as Israel is forcibly removing Palestinians from the hospital at gunpoint. Thousands have sought refuge there.
Dr Khaled Asreer, one of the last remaining surgeons in Nasser Hospital, told MEE that he had seen three Palestinians killed at the northern gate of the hospital and that others were made to walk through an Israeli cordon of tanks and soldiers.
Meanwhile, tensions continue to rise in the conflict between Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israel, with the two sides exchanging missile fire.
One Hezbollah strike killed an Israeli soldier, while strikes from Israel killed a Hezbollah fighter, along with several women and children. The killing of Lebanese civilians deep inside southern Lebanon marks a major escalation.
Hezbollah's executive council vowed that the Israeli strike would not go without a response.
Here's what else you need to know from today:
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US President Joe Biden issued a directive that would delay the deportation of Palestinians from the US for the next 18 months, citing the conflict in Gaza.
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Prominent political prisoner Marwan Barghouti was transferred from Ofer prison in Israel to isolation, according to Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
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The State Department said it was "devastated" by the news of the killing of 17-year-old Mohammad Ahmad Khdour, who Israeli forces shot dead earlier this week. He's the second Palestinian American teen killed in the West Bank by Israel this year.
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A report by the rights group Sinai Foundation for Human Rights has said that construction is currently under way to create a security zone with Gaza, that would act as a buffer area that could receive Palestinian refugees in the event that they are forced out of Rafah.
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Israeli forces killed Ayman Rafati, a political analyst in Gaza and a frequent guest on Al Jazeera, along with his wife and children.
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The White House said that the US expects Israel to meet its commitment to allow a shipment of flour to be moved into Gaza, after reports that an Israeli minister was blocking the shipment.
Hamas released a video showing fighters with the Qassam Brigades killing two Israeli soldiers.
The footage also includes an operation that Hamas said resulted in the deaths of a leader of the 630th Battalion, a deputy company commander, and a soldier.
On Wednesday, Hamas claimed it killed several Israeli soldiers during fighting in and around Khan Younis.
The group of dozens of protesters had gathered outside the home of Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood, waving flags and holding placards with the words "complicit in genocide" written across a picture of Ellwood's face.
They were demanding that Ellwood call for a ceasefire in Gaza. Sunak called the group of protesters an "aggressive mob".
"Democracy is built on free debate – but increasingly MPs have been targeted by aggressive mobs for exercising those freedoms," he said.
"We will never let those who intimidate prevail."
US President Joe Biden moved to issue a memo that would delay the deportation of Palestinians from the US for the next 18 months, according to the New York Times.
The report said that 6,000 Palestinians are eligible for the reprieve under an immigration programme called, Deferred Enforced Departure.
Biden has been heavily criticised by Arabs and Muslims for Washington's fervent support of Israel's military campaign in Gaza, which has killed close to 30,000 Palestinians.
The president's move on Wednesday was welcomed by some Arab-American advocates, but many have vowed to not vote for the president in the upcoming presidential election.
According to an aid worker with the humanitarian group, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), Israel's military shared an image showing dozens of medical workers and staff at al-Amal Hospital being detained.
Saleem Aburas, relief coordinator with the PRCS's risk and disaster management department, shared the image on his Instagram account, and stated that Israel was claiming the individuals had "connections to terrorist activities".
Aburas said the people were detained for 10 hours on the day that Israeli forces launched a raid on the medical facility.
The picture shows Aburas among those detained.
Reuters is reporting that at least two women were killed late on Wednesday in an Israeli strike on the town of Nabatieh in southern Lebanon, citing the director of the town’s hospital and two security sources.
Seven others were wounded in the attack.
The hospital director, Dr Hassan Wazni, told the news agency that the women's bodies arrived "so badly damaged in the strike that they were hard to identify".
The State Department raised concerns over the killing of 17-year-old Mohammad Ahmad Khdour, who Israeli forces shot dead earlier this week.
"We are devastated by the killing of 17-year-old US citizen Mohammad Ahmad Khdour," the State Department's Office of Palestinian Affairs said on X.
"The United States has no greater priority than the safety and security of US citizens. We urgently call for a quick, thorough, and transparent investigation, including full accountability."
Last month, another US citizen, 17-year-old Tawfiq Ajaq, was killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank. In 2022, Israel also killed two US citizens - Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh and Omar Assad.
Israel's military has conducted another raid on Nabatieh in southern Lebanon, according to Al Jazeera.
Details are unclear, but a hit on the city of Nabatieh would be a major escalation in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. Earlier, Israel targeted villages in the Nabatieh governorate.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said on X, formerly Twitter, that Israeli security services transferred prominent Palestinian political prisoner Marwan Barghouti from the Ofer prison in Israel into isolated detention.
Ben Gvir said the decision for the transfer was made over information regarding a "planned uprising", without providing further details.
Barghouti, nicknamed “Palestine’s Nelson Mandela”, is one of the most famous Palestinian prisoners. He was arrested by Israeli forces in 2002 and sentenced to five life terms in prison for charges of multiple accounts of murder of Israelis.
He was the former leader of Tanzim, an armed faction of the Palestinian Authority's ruling party Fatah, and is considered one of the most popular Palestinian political figures and a potential successor to Mahmoud Abbas.
A report by the rights group Sinai Foundation for Human Rights said that construction is currently underway to create a security zone with Gaza, which would act as a buffer area that could receive Palestinian refugees if they are forced out of Rafah.
The group said, citing local contractors, that the aim is to create an area in the Sinai peninsula that is surrounded by walls that are seven metres high. The reported plans would also pave over the destroyed homes of indigenous groups in the area.
Middle East Eye could not independently verify the report.
Earlier this month, Egyptian journalist Ahmed El-Madhoun posted a video online that showed workers strengthening the security wall separating Egypt and Gaza.
Since the war in Gaza began in October, there have been several Israeli proposals reported in the media detailing plans to push Gaza's Palestinian residents into Egypt, which Cairo has rejected.
Germany's foreign minister warned that an Israeli offensive on Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians have sought refuge, would be a humanitarian catastrophe,
"1.3 million people are waiting there in a very small space. They don't really have anywhere else to go right now ... If the Israeli army were to launch an offensive on Rafah under these conditions, it would be a humanitarian catastrophe," Annalena Baerbock said in a news conference during her visit to Israel.
