Gaza live: Dozens killed and wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza and Yemen

The European Union has “yet to collectively acknowledge, denounce, and adopt appropriate measures to address the Israeli authorities’ war crimes and other international humanitarian law (IHL) violations, some of which have led to the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza,” Human Rights Watch said in a letter to the EU. 

The group said the EU faces “growing and well-grounded” accusations of double standards on Israel and Palestine, “which are harming the EU’s reputation as a global champion of human rights and international law”.

On Monday, an unmanned watercraft caused minor damage to the port side of the Chios Lion as part of a series of Houthi attacks on this vessel and another ship approximately 100 nautical miles northwest of Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah.

The Houthis claimed responsibility for targeting the Chios Lion and Bentley I with ballistic missiles, drones, and booby-trapped boats for what they say was in retaliation for an Israeli air strike on Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Saturday.

Since November, Houthi attacks have impacted global trade, prompting ship owners to reroute vessels away from the Suez Canal and toward the longer, costlier route around Africa, following Israel's war on Gaza.

The Houthis have stated that as long as Israel's war on Gaza continues, shipping through the Red Sea will be restricted.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa) said at least 539 displaced Palestinians have been killed in its facilities in Gaza since 7 October.

That number only runs through 14 July. The tally does not include the killing of 23 people at Unrwa ’s al-Razi School in Nuseirat earlier on Tuesday.

Unrwa said at least 1,708 people had been wounded in its facilities during that period.

An Israeli strike on a UN-run school housing displaced families in central Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp on Tuesday killed 23 people and wounded 73 others.

The strike left the school partially destroyed, with debris covering the yard and classrooms used as shelters by displaced Palestinians. 

“These were civilians who were killed. These were children who were torn up in the strike, there’s nothing left of them,” one man yelled as he showed Middle East Eye a white tarp on which body parts were being collected.

Among those killed was local journalist Mohammad Meshmesh, taking the number of journalists killed in the conflict to 160, the government media office in Gaza said.

The strike on the school left people in a state of shock, as they watched rescue workers removing bodies from under the rubble, Nuseirat resident Riyad Abu Shanab told MEE.

Read more: Israeli strike on Nuseirat school kills 23 Palestinians

Lebanon's state news agency is reporting that three Syrian children were killed in an Israeli strike on agricultural land in southern Lebanon’s, Umm al-Tut.

The reported Israeli assassination of prominent Syrian businessman Mohammad Baraa Katerji is one of the most high-profile killings in Syrian territory since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza on 7 October.

An official in an Iran-backed group told the Financial Times that Katerji, 48, was killed when a drone struck his car in Saboura, an area in Syria only a few kilometres away from the border with Lebanon.

No further information has been shared about the assassination at this point.

Katerji, who, along with his brother Hussam, enjoys very close ties to the Syrian government, became known as one of the country’s many war profiteers, often trading across enemy lines throughout Syria’s civil war.

Read more: Why Israel may have killed Syrian businessman as ‘warning’ to Assad

Israel's war on Gaza is increasing the risk of a wider regional escalation, said Ayman Odeh, a Palestinian citizen of Israel and head of the Hadash-Ta’al list in Israel’s parliament.

“The region stands, in these moments, on the brink of a precipice. At any moment, a bloody, destructive regional war can erupt. More and more pain and death. Parentless children. Parents burying children. This catastrophe must end,” he said on X.

The Israeli army claimed that since the beginning of its war on Gaza, half of Hamas's military leadership has been killed, and approximately 14,000 members of the organisation have been wounded in the Gaza Strip, including six senior brigade commanders and over 20 battalion commanders.

Israel did not provide evidence on how it distinguishes between Hamas fighters and civilians.

The United Nations and other human rights organisations have reported that more than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel, the vast majority being women and children.

Israel claims it doesn't know how many Palestinian civilians have been killed. However, it insists that its figures on Hamas fighters are accurate. Israel has not provided any evidence on how it ascertains the accuracy of its figures on Hamas fighters.

The Israeli army also claimed it had attacked 37,000 targets in the besieged Gaza Strip from the air, and more than 25,000 "militant infrastructures and rocket launch sites" had been targeted. These claims could not be verified

Muhammad Abdullah Mishmish, the programme director at Sawt al-Awsa Radio, has been reported dead by Gaza’s Government Media Office, as Israel's onslaught on the besiged Strip continues. 

Al-Jazeera reported that a statement on Telegram revealed his death but provided no details about the circumstances, time, or location.

Mishmish is now the 160th journalist to have lost their life in Israel's war on Gaza. 

An Israeli drone strike killed two people on a motorcycle in southern Lebanon.

The attack, which took place in the town of Arnoun in the Nabatiyeh district, comes a day after an air strike killed a Hezbollah fighter and his sister in the southern city of Bint Jbeil.

Middle East Eye correspondent Mohammed Hajjar spoke to witnesses after a strike on an Unrwa school in al-Nuseirat camp in central Gaza killed 23 people.

“These were civilians who were killed. These were children who were torn up in the strike, there’s nothing left of them,” one man yelled, as he showed MEE a white tarp on which body parts were being collected.

Elsewhere, Riyad Abu Shanab told MEE that people were in a state of shock as they watched rescue crews removing bodies from the site.

“Look around you. You can see body parts strewn around,” Abu Shanab said.

“I could have been one of the victims. I had just gone to the toilet to wash my hands when the strike hit, engulfing the area with fire. It was only a moment that separated me from death.

“This is an Unrwa school sheltering displaced people. They hit a school yesterday too. People are getting killed in front of us and we have nowhere to go.”

MEE spoke to Um Alaa Abu Daher, who was was sitting with her daughter and niece in a classroom on the ground floor when the missile hit nearby.

“Suddenly there was nothing but fire and smoke outside. However, this is not the first time we find ourselves in this situation,” Abu Daher said.

Her niece Maysara said the school the family had previously been sheltering in was also hit, wounding a number of her relatives. 

“Before this strike hit, I could hear the sound of children outside. After the strike, the sound disappeared,” Maysara said.

At least 23 Palestinians were killed and 73 were wounded in an Israeli air strike on a school in central Gaza on Tuesday, the Palestinian health ministry said.

The strike hit al-Awda school in al-Nuseirat camp.

Israel’s far-right National Missions Minister Orit Strock said the Israeli government would be dismantled if the army pulled out of Gaza and the Philadelphi Corridor, Israeli N12 News reported.

“If they take us out of [Gaza's] Netzarim road, from the Philadelphi route...we will not stay in the government,” Strock said during a visit to the Gaza border community of Kerem Shalom.

“The government will be dismantled. This is on the prime minister's table, and he knows it very well.”

Israel created the Netzarim corridor, bisecting Gaza from east to west, following its ground invasion.

The Philadelphi Corridor is a 14-km long, 100-metre-wide buffer zone that runs along the entire border between Gaza and Egypt.

At least 17 Palestinians were killed and 26 wounded in an Israeli strike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, Palestinian heath officials said.

The air strike hit near a tented area housing displaced families in Attar Street, the health ministry said.

Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said his country should open a new front in the north and exact a “heavy price” not only from Hezbollah but also from the Lebanese state for the attacks on Israel.

“The political hourglass in the north has run out. A heavy price should be exacted from the state of Lebanon as well and not only from Hezbollah,” Cohen said in an interview with Israel’s Radio Kol Barama.

“We are at the end of the tree phase in Gaza, so we need to move to the north and charge them a significant price.”