Gaza live: Israel strike kills 30 Palestinians, mostly children

The Friday prayer has been performed in Doha’s Imam Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab Mosque and the funeral prayer for Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh has also been completed, with thousands attending to pay their final respects to the slain leader. 

The Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv has lowered its flag to half-mast to honour Ismail Haniyeh ahead of his burial in Qatar.

Turkey is observing a day of mourning on Friday over the assassination of Hamas political chief Haniyeh, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Thursday. 

"In order to show our support for the Palestinian cause and our solidarity with our Palestinian brothers, a one-day national mourning has been declared tomorrow (August 2, Friday) over the martyrdom of Hamas Political Bureau Chief Ismail Haniyeh," Erdogan said on X.

Turkey has sent a high-level delegation to the funeral of Ismail Haniyeh in Qatar following his assassination in Tehran earlier this week.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with senior Hamas member Khaled Meshaal to express his condolences over Haniyeh’s death.

The delegation also includes Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz, parliament speaker Numan Kurtulmus and Turkey's intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin. 

The body of the assassinated Hamas leader has arrived at the Imam Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab Mosque in the Qatari capital, Doha.

The funeral will continue following Friday prayers. 

A former Israel soldier has described serious misconduct by Israeli forces in Gaza, and a lack of discipline in the command structure, in an interview with CNN.

Israeli soldiers destroyed homes and engaged in looting in a uncontrollable desire for revenge, said the solider. 

“We’ve seen a lot of destruction that was not necessarily related to military reasons. Everything tends to (get) really mix up, you know – people are destroying houses because they believe that they should (get) revenge (for) what happened on (October 7) and it mixes up with the reasons to destroy houses for military reasons,” said the Israeli soldier adding that he witnessed “chaos … I could tell you 100% that we’ve destroyed houses at least for reasons that … we don’t care enough about the lives of Palestinians."

Thousands of Palestinian administrative detainees – those being held without charge or trial – are subject to ill-treatment including dire physical conditions, torture and sexual violence, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

The report detailing the “prolonged secret and incommunicado detention” of Palestinians by Israeli authorities states that dozens have also died in Israeli custody.

The report also notes detentions carried out by armed groups and the Palestinian Authority.

Since Israel’s war on Gaza began on 7 October, the Israeli parliament has increased the period allowed for administrative detention under the Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law.

The Israeli military has taken into custody thousands of Palestinians in Gaza and over 10,000 Palestinians who were legally present in Israel, the report says.

Read more: UN probe finds Palestinians subjected to beatings, electric shocks and sexual violence in Israeli detention

Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Gaza reports that two people were killed when the Israeli army shelled a house near the Abu Hamid roundabout in central Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

Air India has become the latest carrier to stop flying to Israel. 

"In view of the ongoing situation in parts of the Middle East, we have suspended scheduled operation of our flights to and from Tel Aviv with immediate effect up to and including 08 August 2024," said the airline. 

Earlier today Alitalia announced on its website that it has suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv until 6 August.

Early on Friday morning, crowds of worshippers began gathering at the Imam Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab Mosque in Doha, Qatar, to attend the funeral prayer for Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of Hamas who was killed by Israel earlier this week. 

In killing Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’ political bureau in Tehran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sent the clearest message yet to Iran and the resistance movements that he wants a regional war.

In denying any involvement or foreknowledge of the drone strike that killed Haniyeh, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken further damaged Washington’s battered credibility.

US security officials were briefing journalists within an hour of the attack taking place that a senior member of the Axis of Resistance had been killed. They did not specify where or whom, and at first it was thought to be a second strike in Lebanon after the targeting of Fuad Shukr, Hezbollah’s most senior military commander and right-hand man to leader Hassan Nasrallah. 

But it is certain that US security officials knew about the drone strike on Haniyeh within minutes of it happening. To cast Netanyahu as a leader in the grip of Jewish messianic fascists in ordering this strike is only half of the story. 

When I met him two decades ago as a political outcast dubbed an extremist by my liberal Zionist hosts, Netanyahu had only one idea to impart: Iran was the mothership. Hamas and Hezbollah were only its aircraft carriers. 

Read more: Netanyahu's only goal is to set the region on fire

At least two Palestinian were killed and several others were wounded due to drone strikes by Israeli forces targeting the eastern areas of al-Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip, reported Al Jazeera Arabic.

Alitalia announced on its website that it has suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv until 6 August. 

The airline said in a statement on its website that the decision was “due to the geopolitical developments in the Middle East and to ensure the safety of its passengers and crews”.

A number of airlines have suspend flights to Tel Aviv following the recent assassinations by Israeli forces, including the targeting of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah leader Fouad Shukr in Beirut, as well as the subsequent threats of retaliation.

Turkey has blocked access to Instagram, according to its national communications authority, after a senior government official criticised the platform for “censoring” content related to assassinated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. 

On Wednesday, Fahrettin Altun, the communications director for the Turkish presidency, accused Instagram of "censorship" after reports that it was blocking condolence posts regarding Haniyeh.

“This is censorship, pure and simple,” Altun wrote on X.

“We will continue to defend freedom of expression against these platforms, which have repeatedly shown that they serve the global system of exploitation and injustice,” Altun stated.

“We will stand by our Palestinian brothers at every opportunity and on every platform,” he added.

An Australian government review into the Israeli military's killing of several aid workers from the US-based NGO World Central Kitchen (WCK) in Gaza concluded that "serious failures," including "mistaken identification," led to their deaths.

The review also found that Israeli forces mistakenly launched missiles at the convoy, believing it had been hijacked by Hamas fighters. The armed personnel they observed were actually locally-contracted security guards.

Australian Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin, who travelled to Israel to investigate the incident, stated, “Controls failed, leading to errors in decision-making and misidentification.”

“Based on the information available to me, it is my assessment that the [Israeli military] strike on the WCK aid workers was not knowingly or deliberately directed against the WCK,” he added

US President Joe Biden stated on Thursday that the assassination of Hamas' political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, has not aided efforts to secure a Gaza ceasefire and a hostage-release deal.

Biden characterised the conversation he and Vice President Kamala Harris had with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “very direct.”