Gaza live: Israeli protesters demand ceasefire as war enters 10th month

The Israeli army said it is carrying out a wave of air strikes over Lebanon after the major rocket and drone attack from Hezbollah.

The military says it hit several rocket launchers.

Hezbollah's attack came in retaliation for Israel's assassination of one of the group's top commanders on Wednesday.

Hezbollah said it fired more than 200 rockets on northern Israel, targeting several Israeli military positions and command headquarters including:

• The "newly established" 91st Brigade at Ellit Barracks
• The 7th Armoured Brigade at Katsavia Barracks
• The Armored Battalion of the 7th Brigade at Gamla Barracks  
• Brigade 210 (Golan Brigade) at Nafah Base
• The artillery battalion headquarters of Brigade 210 at Yarden Barracks.

A source from the Lebanese group told Al Jazeera they also launched 20 drones towards Israel.

The large attack is in retaliation for Wednesday's assassination of top Hezbollah commander Mohammad Nehmeh Nasser.

Rocket and drone sirens remain activated in northern Israel, even reaching the coastal cities of Acre and Nahariya in the Western Galilee.

Fires are also being reported in the occupied Golan Heights.

The attacks come a day after Israel assassinated a top Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon.

Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth news outlet reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office is teaming up with extremist elements of the Israeli government to try to thwart any possibility of reaching a deal with Hamas.

While the Israeli government's official statement regarding Hamas's response to the ceasefire deal was that it would examine it and send its response to mediators, Yedioth Ahronoth said Netanyahu's office, along with some far-right allies, had been working on stopping any deal even before Wednesday's announcement.

Security and intelligence bodies were reportedly surprised by a report in Israeli media quoting a security official saying Israel refuses Hamas's insistence on a halt in fighting between the first two phases of the deal. An investigation reportedly revealed that the statement came from Netanyahu's office.

 Yedioth Ahronoth says security and intelligence officials see this as an attempt by Netanyahu and far-right elements to "thwart even the possibility of resuming contacts for a deal".

"It is impossible to exaggerate the severity of the situation," the Israeli news outlet quoted a security official knowledgeable of the ceasefire deal as saying. "There is a situation [in which] the abductees will be sacrificed because he wants to delay until after the end of the session and the speech in [US] Congress."

Sirens in northern Israel have been activated as far as 35km from the border with Lebanon in what Israeli media is calling an apparent drone infiltration.

Lebanese media says that tens of rockets and drones have been fired from Lebanon towards northern Israel.

مراسلة #الجديد: اطلاق عشرات الصواريخ والمسيّرات باتجاه الجليل الاعلى شمالي الاراضي الفلسطينية المحتلة@dayanaiwaza

— Al Jadeed News (@ALJADEEDNEWS) July 4, 2024

Lebanon's Al Akhbar reports that the latest ceasefire proposal, which Hamas recently sent its response to, includes point similar to key demands from the Palestinian group.

The proposals prepared by CIA Director William Burns in coordination with Qatar, Egypt and Turkey include "clear wording" on ensuring the continuation of a ceasefire between the first and second stages of the deal.

The plan reportedly includes an Israeli withdrawal from the Rafah Crossing area in agreement with Egypt, though it will not have to fully withdraw from the Philadelphi corridor between Egypt and Gaza.

Millions of people are heading to the polls across the UK on Thursday, with Israel's war on Gaza likely to be a key factor in deciding how they will case their ballot in the high-stakes election.

Two major polls have suggested that the opposition Labour Party is on course to win by a landslide, securing around 431 of 650 seats in the House of Commons.

The polls have suggested that voters will overwhelmingly punish the Tories after 14 years of often chaotic rule, with reports emerging in the past 24 hours that even incumbent prime minister Rishi Sunak's seat in the constituency of Richmond and Northallerton might not be safe.

But in cities and towns across the UK, voters in Muslim communities and on the left have been left furious over Labour's delay in demanding a ceasefire from Israel over its response to the 7 October attacks and are determined to make their voices heard.

READ MORE: Millions to head to the polls guided by anger over Gaza war

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates:

• At least nine Palestinians were killed in two separate Israeli attacks on Gaza City
• Israeli settlers started blazes engulfing vast areas of Palestinian agricultural lands and fruit trees near Hebron in the occupied West Bank and destroyed a fire engine
• Israel is studying Hamas's response to the ceasefire proposal after the Palestinian group said it engaged positively with the ongoing deliberations
• Pro-Palestine protesters have breached the roof of Australia's parliament, unfurling a banner that reads "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free"

The European Union has condemned Israel’s plan for five new settlements in the occupied West Bank and the construction of thousands of new housing units.

“The EU firmly condemns policies of dispossession in the occupied West Bank and other settlement activity,” the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said on X.

“Efforts aiming at de facto annexation must stop, unilateral changes will not be recognised.”

A statement released by his office, slammed Israel’s legislative plan as “a serious violation of international law” that “exacerbates tensions, and undermines efforts to achieve a two-state solution”.

Israel announced that a new officer was killed fighting in Gaza on Wednesday, bringing its military death toll fighting against Hamas and Hezbollah to 323.

The Israeli military said Captain Elay Elisha Lugasi, 21, was killed in combat and three other soldiers from his 7th Armored Brigade’s 75th Battalion, were wounded.

The rising death toll comes as Israel studies a Hamas response to a ceasefire proposal.

Israel’s government is under pressure from the hostages’ family members to accept a ceasefire deal.

On Wednesday, The Association of Families of Israeli Prisoners released a statement urging the government to conclude a deal.

Hamas’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh talked with Turkey, Qatar and Egypt before the group issued a response to a ceasefire proposal, Hamas said in a statement.

Israel said it received a Hamas proposal on Wednesday evening. The group claimed that it had “exchanged some ideas” with mediating parties in order to stop “aggression against our people”, but didn’t say it submitted an official response.

Hamas said its efforts were conducted with a “positive spirit” to advance the talks.

US Central Command said it destroyed two Houthi radar sites in Yemen and two of the Iran-backed group’s uncrewed surface vessels (USV) in the Red Sea.

Yemen’s Houthis last month carried out the largest number of attacks on commercial ships so far in 2024, according to data collected by UK Maritime Trade Operations.

Middle East Eye revealed on Friday that US intelligence claims the Houthis could increase attacks against international shipping if Israel launches a major offensive against Hezbollah.

The European Hospital in Khan Younis is now shut down as a result of Israeli strikes in the southern Gaza city and a new forced displacement order.

The Israeli order forced medical workers to abandon patients and equipment, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The medical equipment has now been transferred to about eight kilometers west of Khan Younis to Nasser Hospital.

Earlier in the day, Israel conducted strikes near the hospital.

At least nine out of 10 Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip have been displaced once by Israel’s offensive, the UN said.

Andrea De Domenico, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told journalists at a press conference on Wednesday that Israel’s offensive had sparked an unprecedented forced displacement.

 “At the moment, we estimated that nine out of every 10 people in the Gaza Strip had been internally displaced at least once, if not up to 10 times, unfortunately, since October,” he said.

An Israeli strike on a residential apartment in Gaza City killed at least four Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

The group said it was transporting four corpses and one injured person from the site of the strike.

Besides targeting Gaza City, Israel also bombed a school housing displaced people next to Nasser Medical Complex to the west of Khan Younis.