Israel reauthorizes partial entry of private goods into Gaza
Israel must 'totally defeat' Hamas in Gaza to secure the release of all remaining Israeli hostages held in the Palestinian territory, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
'It is necessary to completely defeat the enemy in Gaza, to free all our hostages, and to ensure that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel. We are not abandoning any of these missions,' he said in a statement from his office, quoted by AFP.
15:14 Beirut Time
An Israeli drone dropped a stun grenade on one of the neighborhoods in the town of Kfar Kila (Marjayoun), according to eyewitnesses.
Bulldozers and vehicles belonging to the Israeli forces are carrying out excavation, expansion, and fortification works around the newly established center in the roundabouts between Markaba and Houla in the Marjayoun district, according to our correspondent in the south.
Ten days ago, similar expansion and fortification works were carried out on the occupied Hammams Hill, south of Khiam.
15:06 Beirut Time
Gaza death toll rises to 61,020, says health ministry
At least 61,020 Palestinians have been killed and 150,671 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, according to a statement from the Gaza Health Ministry on Tuesday.
In the past 24 hours alone, 87 people were killed — including 52 aid seekers — and 644 others wounded, the ministry said.
In a post on Telegram, the ministry added that many 'victims remain under the rubble or on the streets, with ambulances and civil defense teams unable to reach them.'
Hospitals in Gaza also recorded eight new deaths from famine and malnutrition, including one child, bringing the total famine-related death toll to 188, among them 94 children.
14:35 Beirut Time
Israeli forces kill 6 aid seekers near GHF aid site
At least six Palestinians were killed and nine others injured on Tuesday morning near an aid distribution point run by the GHF close to the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza, according to Al Jazeera.
The wounded were taken to nearby hospitals, including al-Awda and Al-Aqsa Hospitals in northern Gaza, with injuries to both upper and lower parts of their bodies.
Eyewitnesses described chaotic scenes as Israeli forces reportedly opened fire on the crowd, forcing people to flee shortly after aid seekers began collecting food boxes.
Gaza's Government Media Office has warned of an intensifying humanitarian catastrophe, accusing Israel of deliberately restricting aid and fuelling instability in the besieged territory.
Only 95 aid trucks entered Gaza on Monday, the office said in a statement, far below the minimum 600 trucks per day needed to meet basic humanitarian needs, according to UNRWA.
The statement said most of the limited aid was looted due to 'security chaos being sowed by the Israeli occupation as part of a systematic policy of engineering chaos and starvation'.
'We condemn the continued systematic starvation, closure of crossings, and denial of aid entry, and hold the occupation and its allies fully responsible for the worsening humanitarian disaster affecting more than 2.4 million people,' the office said.
It also called on the international community to act urgently to reopen crossings and ensure the safe, sustained delivery of food, medicine, and baby formula to civilians in Gaza.
12:34 Beirut Time
Israeli MP removed from Knesset after calling Gaza war 'genocide.'
Israeli parliamentarian Ofer Cassif from the left-wing Hadash-Ta'al party was forcibly removed from the Knesset podium on Monday night after quoting writer David Grossman, who described Israel's actions in Gaza as 'genocide,' Haaretz reports.
Cassif said Grossman, in a recent interview, admitted with 'immense pain' that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
The session's chair interrupted Cassif, calling the quote 'made up' and ordered his removal. Another lawmaker shouted, 'He will not say 'genocide' in here!' before ushers physically removed Cassif.
12:05 Beirut Time
Red Crescent says volunteer killed by Israeli fire while searching for food
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported that a volunteer was fatally shot by Israeli forces while looking for food amid worsening hunger in Gaza, according to Al Jazeera.
In a statement on X, the PRCS said 28-year-old Abdel Majeed Adnan Salamah, who has volunteered in Khan Younis for seven years, 'worked tirelessly with PRCS ambulance teams, risking his life to rescue the wounded and injured' since the war began.
'Two days ago, he went in search of food in the so-called 'US-Israeli aid zone' west of Rafah. There, Israeli forces targeted him along with other starving civilians. He never returned. Abdel Majeed was killed simply trying to survive,' the group said.
The PRCS added that their teams face extreme hunger across Gaza but 'despite exhaustion, they continue their life-saving work, committed to easing the suffering of others.'
The organisation renewed its call for all border crossings to be opened immediately, calling unrestricted aid flow 'a matter of life and death.'
This statement comes days after an Israeli strike hit the PRCS headquarters in Gaza, killing one worker and injuring three others.
11:35 Beirut Time
Israeli media reported Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now pushing for the full occupation of the Gaza Strip, according to unnamed sources close to him.
Channel 12 quoted senior officials in the Prime Minister's Office as saying: 'The decision has been made, Israel is heading towards the occupation of the Gaza Strip.'
The report said Netanyahu used the phrase 'occupation of the Strip' in talks with cabinet members and is planning to expand the military offensive, which has largely stalled in recent months.
Ynet also cited sources indicating Israel is preparing for the full occupation of Gaza. Netanyahu is currently wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes.
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has strongly condemned the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Sunday by Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and settler groups, who were escorted by Israeli forces, according to Wafa news agency and Middle East Eye.
In a statement, the OIC said the move was part of ongoing Israeli attempts to alter the historical and legal status quo at the holy site.
The organisation also called on the international community to act urgently to stop these serious violations and to safeguard the Islamic and Christian holy sites in occupied Jerusalem.
Under the long-standing status quo, Jewish prayer is prohibited at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, located on the raised plateau in occupied East Jerusalem's Old City.
10:36 Beirut Time
Overview of the situation in South Lebanon this morning:
An Israeli drone dropped a bomb on another Israeli drone that had crashed earlier this morning in the village of Kfar Shuba, to destroy it, according to our correspondent.
An Israeli drone dropped leaflets this morning over the northern neighborhood of Kfar Shuba, in Hasbaya District. The leaflets read: 'The bulldozer targeted had been used by Hezbollah to rehabilitate its military infrastructure.'
An Israeli drone dropped a stun grenade over the Kasayer neighborhood, east of Mais al-Jabal, near a bulldozer. It then dropped a second stun grenade over Kroum al-Sharqi, also east of the village. No casualties were reported.
10:35 Beirut Time
Netanyahu says he's preparing 'instructions' for continuing the war
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced yesterday that he would issue "instructions" this week on the continuation of the war in Gaza.
During a Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said he would convene his war cabinet 'this week' to give the military guidance on 'how to achieve the three war goals we have set.'
"We are in the midst of an intense war in which we have achieved very significant, historic successes because we remained united (…) We must continue to remain united," he said.
He reiterated the three goals:
Later in the evening, Channel 11 reported that Netanyahu would convene the cabinet on Tuesday. According to The Jerusalem Post, citing a source from the Prime Minister's Office, Netanyahu has 'decided to fully occupy the Gaza Strip, including operations in areas where hostages are held.' Channel 12 quoted a similar anonymous official echoing the same.
Israel announces it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen
The Israeli army announced on Tuesday that it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen, which triggered air raid sirens across several areas in Israel.
'A missile launched from Yemen was intercepted by the air force,' the army stated on social media.
'Sirens sounded in accordance with protocol.'
Earlier, the army had mentioned a projectile launched by the Houthis from Yemen.
Israel reauthorizes partial entry of private goods into Gaza
Israel has re-authorized the partial entry of private goods into the besieged and famine-threatened Gaza Strip, announced COGAT, a branch of the Israeli Defense Ministry responsible for civil administration in Palestinian territories.
'A mechanism has been approved to gradually and in a controlled manner resume the entry of goods via the private sector into Gaza,' the statement read.
The goal is 'to increase the volume of aid entering Gaza while reducing dependency on aid collection by the U.N. and international organizations.'
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Nahar Net
9 hours ago
- Nahar Net
Young surgeon tries to save lives at crippled Gaza hospital
by Naharnet Newsdesk 06 August 2025, 17:45 At Shifa hospital in the Gaza Strip, nothing is sterilized, so Dr. Jamal Salha and other surgeons wash their instruments in soap. Infections are rampant. The stench of medical waste is overwhelming. And flies are everywhere. Without painkillers, patients moan while lying on metal beds lining the corridors. There's no electricity and no ventilation amid searing heat, leaving anxious visitors to fan bedridden relatives with pieces of cardboard. Shifa, once the largest hospital in Gaza and the cornerstone of its health care system, is a shell of its former self after 22 months of war. The hospital complex the size of seven soccer fields has been devastated by frequent bombings, two Israeli raids and blockades on food, medicine and equipment. Its exhausted staff works around the clock to save lives. "It is so bad, no one can imagine," said Salha, a 27-year-old neurosurgeon who, like countless doctors in Gaza, trained at Shifa after medical school and hopes to end his career there. But the future is hard to think about when the present is all-consuming. Salha and other doctors are overwhelmed by a wartime caseload that shows no sign of easing. It has gotten more challenging in recent weeks as patients' bodies wither from rampant malnutrition. Shifa was initially part of a British military post when it opened in 1946. It developed over the years to boast Gaza's largest specialized surgery department, with over 21 operating rooms. Now, there are only three, and they barely function. Because Shifa's operating rooms are always full, surgeries are also performed in the emergency room, and some of the wounded must be turned away. Bombed-out buildings loom over a courtyard filled with patients and surrounded by mounds of rubble. Salha fled northern Gaza at the start of the war — and only returned to Shifa at the beginning of this year. While working at another extremely busy hospital in central Gaza, he kept tabs on Shifa's worsening condition. "I had seen pictures," he said. "But when I first got back, I didn't want to enter." A young doctor and a war After graduating from medical school in 2022, Salha spent a year training at Shifa. That is when he and a friend, Bilal, decided to specialize in neurosurgery. But everything changed on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel and Israel's retaliatory campaign began. For the first few weeks of the war, Salha was an intern at Shifa. Because Israel had cut off Gaza's internet service, one of Salha's jobs was to bring scans to doctors around the complex. He had to navigate through thousands of displaced people sheltering there and run up and down stairwells when elevators stopped working. Once Israeli troops moved into northern Gaza, he and has family left. Bilal, who stayed in Gaza City, was killed a few months later, Salha said. Not long after Salha left, Israeli forces raided Shifa for the first time in November 2023. Israel said the hospital served as a major Hamas command and control center. But it provided little evidence beyond a single tunnel with two small rooms under the facility. It made similar arguments when raiding and striking medical facilities across Gaza even as casualties from the war mounted. Israel says it makes every effort to deliver medical supplies and avoid harming civilians. Under international law, hospitals lose their protected status if they are used for military purposes. Hamas has denied using hospitals for military purposes, though its security personnel can often be seen inside them and they have placed parts of hospitals off limits to the public. Israeli forces returned to Shifa in March 2024, igniting two weeks of fighting in which the military said it killed some 200 militants who had regrouped there. The hospital was left in ruins. The World Health Organization said three hospital buildings were extensively damaged and that its oxygen plant and most equipment were destroyed, including 14 baby incubators. While all this was going on, Salha worked at a hospital in central Gaza, where he performed over 200 surgeries and procedures, including dozens of operations on fractured skulls. Some surgeons spend a lifetime without ever seeing one. When he returned to Shifa as a neurosurgeon resident, the buildings he used to run between — some had been rehabilitated — felt haunted. "They destroyed all our memories," he said. A shrunken hospital is stretched to its limits Shifa once had 700 beds. Today there are roughly 200, and nearly as many patients end up on mattresses on the floor, the hospital manager said. Some beds are set up in storage rooms, or in tents. An extra 100 beds, and an additional three surgery rooms, are rented out from a nearby facility. The hospital once employed 1,600 doctors and nurses. Now there about half as many, according to Shifa's administrative manager, Rami Mohana. With Gaza beset by extreme food insecurity, the hospital can no longer feed its staff, and many workers fled to help their families survive. Those who remain are rarely paid. On a recent morning, in a storage room-turned-patient ward, Salha checked up on Mosab al-Dibs, a 14-year-old boy suffering from a severe head injury and malnutrition. "Look how bad things have gotten?" Salha said, pulling at al-Dibs' frail arm. Al-Dibs' mother, Shahinez, was despondent. "We've known Shifa since we were kids, whoever goes to it will be cured," she said. "Now anyone who goes to it is lost. There's no medicine, no serums. It's a hospital in name only." There are shortages of basic supplies, like gauze, so patients' bandages are changed infrequently. Gel foams that stop bleeding are rationed. Shifa's three CT scan machines were destroyed during Israeli raids, Mohana said, so patients are sent to another nearby hospital if they need one. Israel has not approved replacing the CT scanners, he said. Patients wait for hours — and sometimes days — as surgeons prioritize their caseload or as they arrange scans. Some patients have died while waiting, Salha said. After months without a pneumatic surgical drill to cut through bones, Shifa finally got one. But the blades were missing, and spare parts were not available, Salha said. "So instead of 10 minutes, it could take over an hour just to cut the skull bones," he said. "It leaves us exhausted and endangers the life of the patient." When asked by The Associated Press about equipment shortages at Shifa, the Israeli military agency in charge of aid coordination, COGAT, did not address the question. It said the military ''consistently and continuously enables the continued functioning of medical services through aid organizations and the international community." Unforgettable moments From his time at the hospital in central Gaza, Salha can't shake the memory of the woman in her 20s who arrived with a curable brain hemorrhage. The hospital wouldn't admit her because there were no beds available in the intensive care unit. He had wanted to take her in an ambulance to another hospital, but because of the danger of coming under Israeli attack, no technician would go with him to operate her ventilator. "I had to tell her family that we will have to leave her to die," he said. Other stories have happier endings. When a girl bleeding from her head arrived at Shifa, Salha's colleague stopped it with his hand until a gel foam was secured. The girl, who had temporarily lost her vision, greeted Salha after her successful recovery. "Her vision was better than mine," the bespectacled Salha said, breaking a smile. "Sometimes it seems we are living in a stupor. We deal with patients in our sleep and after a while, we wake up and ask: what just happened?"
Nahar Net
9 hours ago
- Nahar Net
Dozens killed seeking aid in Gaza as Israel considers further military action
by Naharnet Newsdesk 06 August 2025, 17:31 At least 38 Palestinians were killed overnight and into Wednesday in the Gaza Strip while seeking aid from United Nations convoys and sites run by an Israeli-backed American contractor, according to local health officials. The Israeli military said it had fired warning shots when crowds approached its forces. The latest deaths came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to announced further military action — and possibly plans for Israel to fully reoccupy Gaza. Experts say Israel's ongoing military offensive and blockade are already pushing the territory of some 2 million Palestinians into famine. Another escalation of the nearly 22-month war could put the lives of countless Palestinians and around 20 living Israeli hostages at risk, and would draw fierce opposition both internationally and within Israel. Netanyahu's far-right coalition allies have long called for the war to be expanded, and for Israel to eventually take over Gaza, relocate much of its population and rebuild Jewish settlements there. U.S. President Donald Trump, asked by a reporter Tuesday whether he supported the reoccupation of Gaza, said he wasn't aware of the "suggestion" but that "it's going to be pretty much up to Israel." More Palestinians killed in scramble for food At least 28 Palestinians were killed overnight and into Wednesday in the Morag Corridor, an Israeli military zone in southern Gaza where U.N. convoys have been repeatedly overwhelmed by looters and desperate crowds in recent days, and where witnesses say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire. The Israeli military said troops fired warning shots as Palestinians advanced toward them, and that it was not aware of any casualties. Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies, said another four people were killed in the Teina area, on a route leading to a site in southern Gaza run by the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an American contractor. The Al-Awda Hospital said it received the bodies of six people killed near a GHF site in central Gaza. Another 12 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes, according to the two hospitals. GHF said there were no violent incidents at or near its sites. The military says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas because its militants are entrenched in heavily populated areas. UN experts say Israeli-backed aid group should be dismantled Israel facilitated the establishment of four GHF sites in May after blocking the entry of all food, medicine and other goods for 2 1/2 months. Israeli and U.S. officials said a new system was needed to prevent Hamas from siphoning off humanitarian aid. The United Nations, which has delivered aid to hundreds of distribution points across Gaza throughout the war when conditions allow, has rejected the new system, saying it forces Palestinians to travel long distances and risk their lives for food, and that it allows Israel to control who gets aid, potentially using it to advance plans for further mass displacement. The U.N. human rights office said last week that some 1,400 Palestinians have been killed seeking aid since May, mostly near GHF sites but also along U.N. convoy routes where trucks have been overwhelmed by crowds. It says nearly all were killed by Israeli fire. This week, a group of U.N. special rapporteurs and independent human rights experts called for the GHF to be disbanded, saying it is "an utterly disturbing example of how humanitarian relief can be exploited for covert military and geopolitical agendas in serious breach of international law." The experts work with the U.N. but do not represent the world body. The GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots when crowds threatened its forces, and GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray and fired into the air on some occasions to prevent deadly crowding at its sites. Israel's blockade and military offensive have made it nearly impossible for anyone to safely deliver aid, and aid groups say recent Israeli measures to facilitate more assistance are far from sufficient. Hospitals recorded four more malnutrition-related deaths over the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 193 people, including 96 children, since the war began in October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Jordan says aid convoy attacked by Israeli settlers Jordan said Israeli settlers blocked roads and hurled stones at a convoy of four trucks carrying aid bound for Gaza after they drove across the border into the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli far-right activists have repeatedly sought to halt aid from entering Gaza. Jordanian government spokesperson Mohammed al-Momani condemned the attack, which he said had shattered the windshields of the trucks, according to the Jordanian state-run Petra News Agency. The Israeli military said security forces went to the scene to disperse the gathering and accompanied the trucks to their destination. Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack and abducted another 251. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals. Of the 50 still held in Gaza, around 20 are believed to be alive. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed over 61,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children. It is part of the now largely defunct Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source for the number of war casualties.
Nahar Net
11 hours ago
- Nahar Net
Shiite Duo ministers to attend Thursday's cabinet session on US paper
by Naharnet Newsdesk 06 August 2025, 15:59 Environment Minister Tamara al-Zein of the Amal Movement and Health Minister Rakan Nassereddine of Hezbollah will attend Thursday's cabinet session that will tackle the latest U.S. paper on Hezbollah's disarmament, the PSP's al-Anbaa news portal reported, quoting an unnamed source. Al-Zein and Nassereddine 'are supposed to attend the session, unless certain developments take place in the next two days,' the source said. 'They walked out of the (cabinet) session (on Tuesday) in the last minutes, after they took part in all discussions, which were good, positive and extensive,' the source added. A Hezbollah statement said Wednesday that the two ministers walked out of the session 'in rejection of this decision and to reflect the rejection of the resistance, with all the significant segments of the Lebanese society that it represents, who belong to all regions, sects and parties, and also to reflect the broad popular rejection of the decision to subject Lebanon to U.S. hegemony and Israeli occupation.'
