Live: Strike announced in Israel amid mounting anger at Netanyahu

The Jenin Government Hospital has suspended its daily dialysis services due to ongoing disruptions in essential supplies caused by the Israeli military siege of the city, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

The hospital has been under siege for four days, leading to severe operational challenges, Wafa reported.

In a press statement, the hospital stated that Israeli forces had damaged the electricity supply line, forcing backup generators to run continuously for the past four days.

Additionally, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported that Israeli forces had obstructed their ambulance teams from retrieving the bodies of two deceased individuals from inside the Jenin refugee camp.

Israeli raids across the besieged Gaza Strip on Saturday have killed at least 61 Palestinians, medical sources have told Al Jazeera Arabic. Countless more Palestinians have also been wounded. 

Israel has admitted to killing at least 14 Palestinians in Jenin during their assault in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli army spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, also confirmed that forces from the army, Shin Bet, and the Border Guard are continuing operations in the city of Jenin

Israeli fighter jets bombed al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City on Saturday, according to local reporters. 

The attack has left a number of people killed and wounded. 

The hospital had previously been targeted by the Israeli army earlier in the war, according to Palestinian sources, in an attack that left nearly 500 people killed or wounded, making it one of the deadliest attacks of the war.

#شاهد| اللحظات الأولى بعد استهداف الاحتلال محيط مستشفى المعمداني بمدينة غزة pic.twitter.com/LaS34AKHXm

— وكالة سند للأنباء - Snd News Agency (@Snd_pal) August 31, 2024

The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli forces targeted its ambulances as it continues to provide emergency healthcare to Palestinians trapped in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin for the fourth consecutive day. 

The Red Crescent posted on X that Israeli forces had fired upon its ambulances, searched them and had their work obstructed. 

For the fourth consecutive day, Palestine Red Crescent teams continue to provide humanitarian and emergency services to citizens trapped in the city of #Jenin and its refugee camp. Despite being targeted by gunfire, having their work obstructed, and facing ambulance searches and… pic.twitter.com/Ppyc8YZ19y

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) August 31, 2024

Israeli forces stormed Hebron in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, raiding homes, closing roads and blowing up a small residential unit.  

The raid followed an incident late Friday in which three Israelis were wounded in two attempted and apparently coordinated car bombings near the Gush Etzion settlements, located south of Bethlehem and north of Hebron. 

The Israeli army claimed that the two Palestinians behind the attack, who were killed by troops on Friday, were from Hebron. 

Israeli soldiers have forcibly removed Palestinians from their homes in Jenin as a major offensive in the occupied West Bank enters its fourth day.

Residents told Middle East Eye that many are trapped in their homes without access to food, water or electricity, as Israeli forces maintain a tight siege on the city. 

Dozens of families have been forced out of their homes in raids conducted by Israeli troops.

"We were cut off from the world, with no communication or internet, and we didn’t know anything about what was happening,” Abdul Rahman Abu Raya, a Jenin resident, told Middle East Eye. 

Abu Raya said troops stormed his home and forced all family members, including 12 children, into two rooms after the raid began on Wednesday,

The family was denied access to basic needs during this time, he added, including milk, bread and medicine. 

“If they could have cut off the air, they would have,” Abu Raya said. 

“Since 2002, we haven’t witnessed such a brutal incursion.”

Read more: Israeli troops forcibly displace Jenin residents as raid escalates 

Israeli forces have killed at least 89 Palestinians and wounded 205 in the past 48 hours, according to the Palestinian health ministry. 

This brings the death toll since 7 October 2023 to 40,691, with more than 94,060 wounded and an estimated 10,000 still missing, likely dead and buried under rubble.

Health officials report that over 50 percent of the victims are children and women.

Health officials have launched a polio vaccination campaign in Gaza to combat an outbreak after the besieged enclave recorded its first case in 25 years.

Moussa Abed, the Palestinian health ministry's director of primary healthcare in Gaza, said the UN and NGOs "are starting today the polio vaccination campaign in the central region". 

Israeli forces have killed at least 40,691 Palestinians and wounded 94,060 since their incursion into Gaza began in October 2023, according to the Palestinian health ministry. 

The ministry also reported that in the last 24 hours alone, 89 Palestinians were killed and 205 wounded.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called for a ceasefire in Gaza ahead of plans to vaccinate 640,000 children against polio.

“The #polio vaccination teams must be protected and allowed to conduct the upcoming campaigns in #Gaza safely. We urge all parties to ensure their protection, and that of health facilities and children,” Ghebreyesus wrote on X.

“Humanitarian pauses are welcome, but ultimately, the only solution to safeguard the health of the children of Gaza is a ceasefire.”

Fifa announced it would delay its decision to suspend Israel from the international football governing body until October. 

In May, the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) submitted a proposal to Fifa, calling for the suspension of the Israel Football Association (IFA). 

In July, Fifa committed to conduct an urgent legal evaluation of the PFA’s proposal.

“Fifa has received the independent legal assessment of the Palestine Football Association’s proposals against Israel,” the organisation said.

“This assessment will be sent to the Fifa Council to review in order that the subject can be discussed at its next meeting which will take place in October.”

The PFA has accused the IFA of complicity in violating international law by discriminating against Arab players and including clubs located in Palestinian territories in its league. The IFA has denied these claims.

The PFA also said in its proposal that at least 92 Palestinian players have been killed in Israel's war since it began in October 2023, adding that football infrastructure has been destroyed, leagues have been suspended and the national team has been forced to play World Cup qualifiers abroad.

The Palestinian health ministry confirmed that Israeli forces killed two Palestinians, Muhammad Ihsan Yaqin Marqa and Zahdi Nidal Abu Afifa, in Hebron. 

The ministry said Israeli soldiers shot the two Palestinians in separate incidents in the occupied territory.

Earlier, the army claimed that one of the Palestinians had entered an illegal Israeli settlement, while the other was shot after his car exploded.

The Israeli army has shut down the Ibrahimi Mosque, one of the holiest sites for Muslims, in Hebron, according to a report by Israel’s Ynet news outlet.

This comes after Al Jazeera reported earlier on Saturday that Israeli forces had blocked roads and highways across the city.

Good morning, Middle East Eye readers, 

Here are the latest developments in Israel's war on Gaza, now in its 239th day, and the major offensive in the occupied West Bank, which enters its fourth day today: 

• The Israeli assault on three northern West Bank cities has now focused on Jenin and its refugee camp after troops withdrew from Tulkarm and Tubas. Palestinian media report extensive destruction in Jenin by Israeli military bulldozers, intense armed clashes and ongoing telecommunication outages. 

• Elsewhere in the West Bank, three Israelis were wounded late on Friday in two attempted and apparently coordinated car bombings near the Gush Etzion settlements, south of Bethlehem. The Israeli army said it killed the two "assailants". 

• Over in the Gaza Strip, Israeli air strikes continued unabated, killing at least 25 Palestinians across the besieged enclave on Saturday morning. 

• US-based aid group Anera denied the Israeli claim that "armed assailants" were killed in the air strike on an aid convoy carrying food and fuel to a Gaza hospital on Thursday, saying that the four Palestinians targeted in the attack were members of the community.