Gaza live: Israel strike kills 30 Palestinians, mostly children

The German ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, wrote in a post on X that his country as well as “other friends of Israel” are “alarmed at reports about maltreatment of detainees” held in Israeli facilities, adding that “such cases must be investigated."

Nine Israeli soldiers in the notorious Sde Teiman detention centre were arrested on Monday on suspicion of raping a Palestinian detainee, sparking a riot where far-right activists and MPs stormed the facility.

Israeli military police raided Sde Teiman but were met with resistance by soldiers, who reportedly barricaded themselved into the facility and used pepper spray to defend themselves before eventually being taken into custody.

The soldiers were suspected of abusing a Palestinian detainee, who according to Arab48 is suffering from "a serious wound in his rectum area".

The Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq has applauded the Canada Revenue Agency’s decision to strip the Jewish National Fund (JNF) of Canada of its charitable status.

"JNF has a long history of funding the illegal military occupation of Palestine and seizing Palestinian land while benefiting financially from tax breaks in Canada," Al-Haq stated on X.

JNF Canada has announced its intention to challenge the tax office’s decision, calling it "incorrect and unjustified".

However, human rights groups argue that the fund contravenes Canadian charity regulations, which explicitly state that "supporting the armed forces of another country" does not qualify as charitable. 

Al-Haq also called on European and American authorities to follow suit. 

Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) stated that the arrest of Israeli soldiers for abusing Palestinian prisoners at the Sde Teiman detention facility comes after months of PHRI raising concerns.

The advocacy group said this action demonstrates that Israel’s military cannot ignore crimes committed by soldiers against Palestinians in their custody, which include severe violence and sexual abuse.

On Monday, in a rare move of holding Israeli soldiers accountable for possible crimes, the Israeli military announced the detention of nine soldiers for questioning at the Sde Teiman facility, established to hold Palestinians taken from Gaza since the beginning of Israel’s war on the territory.

"Mounting testimonies indicate these incidents are not isolated. They suggest systematic abuse and violence, with a blind eye turned to violations," PHRI stated on social media.

"The Sde Teiman torture facility must be shut down immediately, abuse across all prisons must end, and those responsible must be prosecuted," the group added. 

An Israeli lawmaker from the ruling Likud party, Hanoch Milwidsky, said that "everything is legitimate" when asked whether it was justified to rape Palestinian prisoners. 

"To insert a stick in a person's rectum, is that legitimate?" asked Ahmad Tibi, a Palestinian lawmaker during a meeting. 

"Yes! If he is a Nukhba everything is legitimate to do to him," screamed Milwidsky back. 

There has been widespread reporting that Palestinian prisoners are being tortured in Israeli prisons. 

The United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (Unrwa) said it received reports of mass ill-treatment of Palestinians taken captive from Gaza by Israeli forces, including detainees being urinated on and made to act like animals, and children being attacked by dogs.  

A report, released on Palestinian Prisoners' Day in April, warned that for the thousands of prisoners kept in detention by the Israeli army, physical, sexual and psychological abuse was routine.

"This included being subjected to beatings while made to lie on a thin mattress on top of rubble for hours without food, water or access to a toilet, with their legs and hands bound with plastic ties.

"Several detainees reported being forced into cages and attacked by dogs. Some released detainees, including a child, had dog bite wounds on their body," read the report. 

The Gaza-based Al Mezan Center for Human Rights has urged international intervention to stop Israel’s "weaponization" of water and sanitation in the Gaza Strip, where over 1 million children are at risk.

"To prevent thousands of deaths, the international community must ensure Israel immediately ends its genocide, including the weaponization of water and sanitation facilities," the organisation stated on social media.

Al Mezan's plea came after the Gaza health ministry declared the territory a "polio epidemic zone" due to the discovery of the virus in wastewater and sewage samples, despite the disease being eradicated in Palestine years ago.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) emphasised on Monday that a ceasefire is essential to deliver the polio vaccine to Gaza and protect its vulnerable children. 

In the five days leading up to Monday, Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip killed 188 Palestinians and injured 520.

These attacks included the bombing of Khadija Girls’ School in Deir el-Balah, which resulted in the deaths of at least 30 people, mostly children and women.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that approximately 56,000 Palestinians have been affected by Israel's recent evacuation orders in the southern and central areas of Gaza, including Rafah, Khan Younis, and Deir el-Balah.

OCHA's latest situation report highlights that limited access to water and sanitation has led to widespread communicable diseases and skin infections across Gaza.

Furthermore, nearly 85 percent of school buildings (477 out of 564) now require complete reconstruction or significant rehabilitation due to direct Israeli military attacks. 

Good morning Middle East Eye reader, 

Here are the latest updates from the Israeli war on Gaza, now in its 298th day:

• The Palestinian death toll since 7 October stands at 39,363, with more than 90,923 wounded and an estimated 10,000 missing, likely dead and buried under rubble

• Gaza's Health Ministry has declared a polio epidemic across the Strip, highlighting a severe public health crisis caused by the ongoing Israeli conflict in the Palestinian territory

• Hamas has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of adding new conditions to a US-backed ceasefire proposal after the latest round of talks in Rome

• An Israeli drone attack killed two Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon, amid heightened tensions following a rocket attack that killed 12 people, mostly children, in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights

• Senior Israeli officials have condemned demonstrators who stormed a military base to protest the arrest of nine soldiers accused of abusing a Palestinian prisoner

Our live coverage from Gaza will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are some of the day's key developments:

• Israeli forces have killed at least 39 Palestinians and wounded 93 more in the past 24 hours, according to the Palestinian health ministry. 

• The Palestinian death toll since 7 October stands at 39,363, with more than 90,923 wounded and an estimated 10,000 missing, likely dead and buried under rubble

• The Israeli lawmaker from the ruling Likud party, Hanoch Milwidsky, said that "everything is legitimate" when asked whether it was justified to rape Palestinian prisoners

• At least three people were killed and many more wounded when the Israeli army bombarded al-Mawasi near Khan Younis in southern Gaza, according to Al Jazeera’s correspondent on the ground

• Air France and low-cost carrier Transavia France have suspended their flights between Paris and Beirut due to the "security situation" in Lebanon, a spokesman for the companies said on Monday

• The UK government advised British nationals to leave Lebanon and not to travel to the country, as diplomats race to contain any escalation between Israel and Hezbollah

• Israeli media is reporting that the Israeli army has arrested nine Israeli soldiers on suspicion of abusing a Palestinian detainee from Gaza inside the Sde Teiman prison

• Cyprus said it was on standby to help with the evacuations of civilians from the Middle East if a standoff between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon escalates further

• Hamas accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of preventing a ceasefire in Gaza by adding further conditions and demands to a US-backed truce

In the official West and its mainstream regime media, there exists a specialised dictionary and thesaurus to translate to the western public all matters Israeli and Palestinian.

Officials and journalists must also adhere to a special grammatical syntax, particularly when using verbs in the active or passive voice.

This definitional and translational practice is central to the politics of western representation. It guarantees ideological uniformity on the issue of Israel and Palestine within the whole range of the respectable political spectrum, which, at least in the US, is so narrow between the Democratic and Republican parties that it could be measured in millimetres.

After 7 October, the enforcement of this dictionary and lexicon was intensified to give cover to Israel's savagery in Gaza.

This included the demand that government and media officials could not cite the Palestinian health ministry's statistics on the casualties of Israel's genocide without prefacing it with "Hamas-run" to cast doubt on the numbers.

Read more: Why the West created a new dictionary for Israel and Palestine

For over nine months, oil-rich monarchies in the Gulf have deftly manoeuvred to avoid becoming entangled in Israel’s war on Gaza, and the spillover conflicts it has spawned across the region.

Now, some Gulf states appear to be inching closer to entering the conflict’s forefront by participating in a US-backed peacekeeping force in the Gaza Strip when the war ends.

Last week, for the second time in a month, the United Arab Emirates called for a multinational force to deploy to Gaza to provide security after a permanent ceasefire is brokered. The decision represents a remarkable about-face for the UAE, which in May pushed back forcefully against Israel’s claim that it could assist in governing the enclave.

Bahrain, an arch-opponent of Iran, has also signalled privately it will participate in the force, which is likely to see officers and senior non-commissioned officers who are Gulf nationals working on the ground with Palestinian security forces, a US official told Middle East Eye.

Reas more: Why Gulf states want to send peacekeepers to Gaza Strip

The UK government advised British nationals to leave Lebanon and not to travel to the country, as diplomats race to contain any escalation between Israel and Hezbollah.

“We are advising British nationals to leave Lebanon and not to travel to the country. This is a fast-moving situation,” UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy posted on X.

US Central Command (Centcom) said on Monday that its forces successfully destroyed one Iranian-backed Houthi uncrewed aerial vehicle in a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen in the past 24 hours.

"It was determined this weapon presented an imminent threat to US coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region," Centcom's statement added.

In response to demonstrators breaking into the Beit Lid base, far-right Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich said that civil protests were "justified".

"The civil protest against the terrible injustice towards the reservists in Sdei Teiman is justified and I support it with all my heart. In contrast to the hypocritical left who made breaking the law, refusing and burning the state a method for a year and a half under the auspices of the attorney general, we have a responsibility to the state," said Smotrich.

"Therefore: I call on everyone to maintain the law and the integrity of the army and the people," Smotrich said, "Not to break into the bases and not to confront our brothers the soldiers and the police, and to maintain the borders of the protest," he added.

Dozens of Israeli right-wing rioters have broken into the Israeli army's Beit Lid base in central Israel earlier on Monday.

Nine Israeli soldiers in the notorious Sde Teiman detention centre were arrested on Monday on suspicion of raping a Palestinian detainee, sparking a riot where far-right activists and MPs stormed the facility.

They are being held at the Beit Lid base and rioters have sought to seemingly break them free or show their support.

The United States is allegedly leading a diplomatic effort to dissuade Israel from striking Beirut or major civil infrastructure in Lebanon, according to five sources familiar with the situation, Reuters reported. 

The focus of this rapid diplomatic push has been to limit Israel's attack by urging it not to target densely populated areas of Beirut, Hezbollah's stronghold in the southern suburbs, or key infrastructure such as airports and bridges. The sources requested anonymity to discuss confidential details that have not been previously reported.

Lebanon's deputy parliament speaker Elias Bou Saab, who has been in contact with US mediator Amos Hochstein since the Golan attack, told Reuters that Israel could avoid major escalation by sparing the capital and its surroundings.

"If they avoid civilians and Beirut and its suburbs, then their attack could be well-calculated," he said.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Monday called on Nato to expel Turkey as a member of the organisation, Reuters has reported.

"In light of Turkish President Erdogan's threats to invade Israel and his dangerous rhetoric, Foreign Minister Israel Katz instructed diplomats ... to urgently engage with all NATO members, calling for the condemnation of Turkey and demanding its expulsion from the regional alliance," the foreign ministry said.