Gaza live: Concerns about all-out regional war rise following Golan Heights deadly attack

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates:

• The Gaza Government Media Office has reported that 129 individuals have been killed by Israeli strikes in Khan Younis over the past 48 hours. This follows Israel's directive for residents to evacuate in preparation for a new offensive against the southern city

• Hamas senior official Sami Abu Zuhri stated that Netanyahu's speech indicates he is not interested in finalising a Gaza ceasefire deal, according to Reuters

• Analysts describe footage of a Hezbollah drone flying near one of Israel’s key airbases as "psychological warfare" and a demonstration of the Lebanon-based group's advanced military capabilities.

• US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller defended UNRWA, criticising Israel's attacks on the UN's Palestinian refugee agency as "incredibly unhelpful"

Israel has established a military camp at an archeological site northeast of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

The Mayor of Sebastia, Muhammad Azem, told Palestinian news agency Wafa that Israel’s military had seized 1,300 square meters of land at the site with the intent to build a military barracks.

According to Azem, the seizure of land violates Unesco rules.

The families of several American hostages held in the Gaza Strip slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress as “political theatre”.

“He failed to commit to the hostage deal that is now on the table even though Israel’s senior defense and intelligence officials have called on him to do so,” a statement released by the relatives of eight American hostages, said.

“We were profoundly disappointed he failed to deliver the message we have been waiting to hear for 292 days: the hostages are coming home,” they added.

Netanyahu tried to address critics of his war plan by inviting a former hostage rescued by Israeli troops from Gaza to the address.

US lawmakers in attendance appeared receptive to the move, but the statement from hostages' family members underscores the intense scrutiny he faces in Israel and among hostages relatives. 

The Palestinian health ministry has released an updated list of Palestinians killed in Israel’s offensive on Gaza.

The list is different from the daily death toll, as it provides more details, including the name, age and gender of the dead.

The document, which is dated 30 June, said a total of 37,900 have been killed, including 28,185 named and 9,715 others who remained unidentified.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was met with rapturous applause at Congress, but later was criticised by some lawmakers for failing to address post-war plans for Gaza.

Although roughly 70 House and Senate democrats boycotted his speech, his biggest critics emerged on the streets of Washington DC.

Middle East Eye was on the ground outside Capitol Hill and across downtown Washington DC, where at least 1,500 pro-Palestinian and anti-war activists raised their ire against the Israeli war on Gaza as a whole, with their centre of attention being Netanyahu, who they accused of leading a genocide on Palestinians in Gaza.

Loan Tran, an activist with the group, Rising Majority, says they want to make it clear that the government "has to stop enabling this genocide". Tran added that he's confounded that Netanyahu is allowed to address Congress despite such severe opposition to him in the US.

"It’s been really mind-boggling that over the last nine months as students and everyday concerned citizens of the US have taken actions such as these, that folks have been arrested…when the International Court of Justice ruled and said the real criminal, the war criminal, is Benjamin Netanyahu.”

Read More: Citizen's arrest: Thousands of US protesters demand Israel's Netanyahu be locked up

The top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said he was "disappointed" by Netanyahu’s speech.

Congressman Gregory Meeks, who attended the speech, said Netanyahu failed to lay out a realistic plan for post-war Gaza.

“I am deeply frustrated that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address to Congress offered little to explain what he will do to end the war and the suffering,” Meeks said.

He also said Netanyahu refused to implement a US and UN-backed ceasefire agreement, putting him at odds with the Biden administration, which has regularly said Hamas is the one preventing a deal.

“The Prime Minister refuses to implement President Biden’s widely accepted proposal that would lead to a ceasefire, bring the hostages home, and allow for a new surge of humanitarian assistance into Gaza”.

Hamas says Netanyahu speech shows he is not serious on ceasefireHamas has weighed into Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to Congress.

Hamas senior official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters that Netanyahu’s speech demonstrated he is not serious about signing a ceasefire deal in Gaza.

“Netanyahu’s speech was full of lies and it will not succeed in covering up for the failure and defeat in the face of the resistance, [nor will it] cover up for the crimes of the war of genocide his army is committing against the people of Gaza,” Abu Zuhri said.

Netanyahu said efforts were underway to secure the release of hostages, but didn’t mention a ceasefire or broader negotiations.

He also avoided discussing a wider settlement to the Israel-Palestine conflict, instead, seeking to tie Hamas to Iran.

A handful of US lawmakers boycotted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress, but one prominent critic attended.

The only Palestinian-American member of Congress, Rashida Tlaib, sat through Netanyahu’s speech with a keffiyeh and Palestinian flag pin.

She held one sign that said “War Criminal”.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has slammed Netanyahu’s address to Congress as a “disgrace”.

The rebuke from Lapid underscores how Netanyahu faces little of the unity and applause that he found in Congress in his home country.

Lapid slammed Netanyahu’s speech for not backing an agreement to bring Israeli hostages home.

“Disgrace!” Lapid said in a post on X.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for a new "Abraham alliance" to challenge Iran in the Middle East.

Netanyahu thanked former US President Donald Trump for brokering the Abraham Accords and said he wants to build on the normalisation deals for a wider military pact.

Israel will maintain overriding security control of Gaza “for the foreseeable future”, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

He said Israel would work with “regional partners” to demilitarise Gaza, stopping well short of any talk about a wider settlement for the Israel-Palestine conflict.

He also doubled down on calls for a wider US-backed alliance between Israel and Arab states against Iran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu linked Israel’s war on Gaza to the US’s broader rivalry with Iran in the Middle East.

“Israel's defat of Hamas will be a powerful blow to Iran’s axis of terror,” Netanyahu said.

He made the case to US lawmakers that Israel’s war on Gaza was part of a broader struggle with Iran, discussing the recent Israeli strike on the Houthi-controlled port of Houdeidah.

He also highlighted the US-Israeli partnership saying, “We help keep American boots off the ground, while protecting our shared interest in the Middle East”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has now taken aim at the International Criminal Court, in a thunderous speech.

He said the ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan’s claim that Israel was preventing aid from moving into the Gaza Strip is a “complete fabrication”.

He also accused Hamas of using women and children as human shields, saying the group “wants Palestinian civilians to die”.

Anti—Israel protestors stand with “Hamas..rapists and murderers,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a sharp rebuke to pro-palestinian demonstrators.

Netanyahu fired back at critics of Israel and its war on Gaza, saying “they should be ashamed of themselves”.

He cited a US intelligence official who said Iran was funding the protests and sought to sow discord in the US. 

He called the demonstrators "Iran's useful idiots," and said they failed history. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spotlighted Noa Argamani in his address to Congress.

Netanyahu invited Argamani to his address and noted that she was sitting next to his wife. He told a story to widespread applause about how Argamani was rescued in a bloody operation in the Gaza Strip.

“I will not rest until all their loved ones are home,” Netanyahu said, addressing the other hostage members' families in attendance.

Netanyahu’s move was expected, but underscores how he is trying to combat accusations he is not doing enough to free hostages.