Gaza live: Dozens killed and wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza and Yemen
Live Updates
Over 7,000 people are expected to form a human chain around the UK parliament later today in response to a call issued by a coalition of Palestine solidarity groups.
In a post on X, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) said the protest is being staged to demand an end to UK arms sales to Israel and will be attended by members of parliament, trade unionists and cultural figures.
“Organisers say the action will symbolise the support that the majority of people in the country have for an immediate ceasefire and an end to arms sales to Israel,” PSC said.
🚨TODAY - Hands around Parliament
— PSC (@PSCupdates) July 18, 2024
📍Parliament Sq, London
⏰18 July, 6PM
Israel is committing war crime after war crime. Meanwhile our new government continues to arm Israel. Join us today as we form a ring of linked hands around Parliament and demand the UK #StopArmingIsrael. pic.twitter.com/2TrN7gg1Dy
Amnesty International has released a report documenting cases of torture of 27 Palestinian former detainees, including a 14-year-old boy.
All the former prisoners were held for a period of four and a half months by Israel and denied access to lawyers and contact with their families.
The organisation added that Israel's Unlawful Combatants Law enables the army to arbitrarily detain Palestinians from Gaza indefinitely, without charge or trial.
Israel is using its abusive Unlawful Combatants Law to arbitrarily detain Palestinians from Gaza indefinitely without charge or trial @amnesty gathered harrowing torture testimony from 27 former detainees who were held for up to 4.5 months under the law https://t.co/ABtZE3eXUn
— Amnesty MENA (@AmnestyMENA) July 18, 2024
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said today that its hospital and all health facilities in southern Gaza are at "breaking point" and unable to treat those suffering life-threatening injuries.
The organisation said in a statement that its 60-bed field hospital in Rafah is nearly at capacity following "mass casualty events", including the deadly Israeli strikes on Mawasi refugee camp over the weekend, which killed at least 90 Palestinians. The Red Cross said it took in 26 people requiring hospitalisation for shrapnel and other injuries following the attack.
It added that the overwhelming pressure was forcing doctors to make "difficult choices" on who gets treated.
"The repeated mass casualty events resulting from the unrelenting hostilities have stretched to breaking point the response capacity of our hospital - and all health facilities in southern Gaza - to care for those with life-threatening injuries," said William Schomburg, head of the ICRC's subdelegation in Gaza.
The UN's agency for Palestinian refugees has said that only 10 out of 26 of its health facilities remain operational.
"Our teams continue to risk their lives every day to provide medical care to families but need a ceasefire," the agency said in a post on X.
It added that the World Health Organization has documented more than 1,000 attacks on healthcare facilities since 7 October.
Over 1,000 attacks on healthcare facilities in occupied Palestinian territory have been documented by @WHO
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) July 18, 2024
In #Gaza only 10 out of 26 @UNRWA Health Centres are operational. Our teams continue to risk their lives every day to provide medical care to families but need a #Ceasefire pic.twitter.com/j55RznBjwq
Gaza's health ministry said that 54 people were killed in Israeli attacks on the enclave in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 38,848 Palestinians killed since 7 October.
Additionally, 89,456 people have been wounded since the start of the war.
Hamas says that one of its commanders, Mohammad Hamed Jabara, was killed in Israel's strike on Ghazze in Lebanon's Beqaa.
Early reports indicate that Jabara was also a commander in Lebanon's al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, a Sunni armed group allied with Hamas.
Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong reiterated her country's support for a two-state solution following the Israeli Knesset vote rejecting Palestinian statehood.
"A secure and prosperous future for both Israelis and Palestinians will only come with a two-state solution. A Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel," she said on X.
"Today’s Knesset vote denies this reality."
Wong also repeated Australia's call for "an immediate ceasefire, release of hostages, protection of civilians and unimpeded flow of desperately needed humanitarian aid".
Lebanon's National News Agency says that Mohammad Hamed Jabara, one of al-Jamaa al-Islamiya's commanders, was killed in the Israeli strike on the town of Ghazze in the Beqaa region.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has entered the grounds of Al Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem.
The Wafa news agency reports that he entered under heavy police protection.
Ben Gvir said that he has come to "the most important place for the State of Israel, for the people of Israel, to pray for the hostages to return home, but without a reckless deal, without surrender".
"I am praying and am also working hard so that the prime minister will have the strength not to fold and go on to victory: to add military pressure, to stop their fuel, to win," he said.
Al Aqsa is the third holiest site in Islam, and a heavy point of contention in Jerusalem.
Lebanese media reports another Israeli strike on a vehicle in south Lebanon on Thursday.
The reported strike on the town of Jabal al-Botm comes after the assassination of an al-Jamaa al-Islamiya member in Lebanon's Beqaa region.
#بالفيديو | مسيّرة إسرائيلية استهدفت سيارة في بلدة #جبال_البطم قضاء #صور #جنوب_لبنان.#الميادين_لبنان #لبنان pic.twitter.com/KWyyljda14
— الميادين لبنان (@mayadeenlebanon) July 18, 2024
The Israeli government has shelved plans to pass legislation that would prevent terror convicts from running for the Knesset over concerns that it would impact far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel's Kan public broadcaster reports.
Kan says that Likud MK Nissim Vaturi proposed the legislation on Sunday, which aims at preventing anyone who has ever been involved in terrorist activity from running from a Knesset seat, regardless of the severity of the crime.
Legal advisers reportedly noted that the law would include Jewish Israelis accused of such crimes, and an aide to Ben Gvir realised this might impact the far-right leader, who in 2008 was convicted by the Jerusalem District Court of incitement to racism and supporting a terror organisation.
The aide reportedly proposed postponing the legislation for a few months, which Justice Minister Yariv Levin agreed to, despite supporting the law.
Israel’s Knesset passed a resolution rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state on Thursday.
The bill, co-sponsored by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition along with right-wing parties in the opposition, was passed by an overwhelming majority of 68 votes, with only nine MKs voting against it.
In Gaza, six people were killed in an Israeli strike on a home in al-Zawayda, central Gaza, while one other was killed in an Israeli attack on a mosque in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
An Israeli drone strike on the east of Lebanon’s Beqaa also reportedly killed a member of al-Jamaa al-Islamiya group, according to Al Jazeera.
READ MORE: Israel's Knesset passes bill rejecting Palestinian statehood
Ex-US aid director for the West Bank and Gaza, Dave Harden, said that the now-closed US-built Gaza pier was “interesting in theory, but in practice, an absolute failure – and my concern is who will be held accountable?”, Aljazeera reported.
“What we have not seen is a robust opening of the crossings … I think this goes first to the Israelis, and second to the Americans,” Harden added.
“And in the meantime, the Gazans themselves continue to suffer. This was a tragedy compounding a tragedy."
An Israeli court has rejected an appeal by 11 Palestinian families against eviction from their homes in occupied East Jerusalem, placing 66 people at risk of forced displacement, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).
More than 600 structures have been demolished in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since the beginning of 2024 due to the lack of building permits, displacing more than 750 people,” UNOCHA said in its latest update.
Israel has intensified evictions, land confiscation and home demolitions in the occupied West Bank despite settlement expansion into Palestinian territory being prohibited under international law.
The UAE has backed deploying an international force to provide "law and order" in the besieged Gaza Strip under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority, the clearest sign yet that Gulf powers are inching closer to an agreement for a post-war force in Gaza that the US has been lobbying for.
Lana Nusseibeh, the UAE’s former ambassador to the United Nations, now an assistant Minister for Political Affairs in the UAE, called for a “temporary international presence in Gaza” in an opinion article published in The Financial Times.
Nusseibeh called for "a temporary international mission that responds to the humanitarian crisis, establishes law and order, lays the groundwork for governance and paves the way to reuniting Gaza and the occupied West Bank”.
The US is working to craft a plan for post-war Gaza security that would see a US-backed mission led out of Cairo, Egypt. Last month, Middle East Eye reported that the US was weighing plans to shift the Palestinian Authority’s security forces into Centcom’s area of responsibility. Israel was placed under Centcom's area of responsibility in 2021.
READ MORE: UAE official calls for international force to provide 'law and order' in Gaza
