Gaza live: Several dead including Hezbollah commander after Israeli strike on southern Beirut

Israeli air strikes on central Syria killed at least 14 people, Syrian state media reported.

The attack also wounded 43 people, six of them critically.

"Around 11:20 pm (2020 GMT) on Sunday, the Israeli enemy carried out an air attack from the north-west of Lebanon targeting a number of military sites in the central region," Syrian state media outlet Sana reported, citing a military source.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates:

• Overnight Israeli strikes on the Bureij and Nuseirat refugee camps in central Gaza killed a total of seven Palestinians
• Israeli forces raided the Tulkarm and Balata refugee camps in the occupied West Bank, clashing with Palestinians there
• Israeli Likud MP Nissim Vaturi said that a full-blown war with Lebanon will take place in "a matter of days" and that Beirut's Dahiyeh suburb, a Hezbollah stronghold, "will look like Gaza"
• Similarly, former Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz said that his country should shift its focus from Gaza to Lebanon
• The King Hussein (Allenby) Bridge border crossing between Jordan and the occupied West Bank is set to reopen at 10am local time (07:00 GMT) for passengers after a short closure over a shooting that killed three Israeli border guards

Our live coverage from Gaza will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are some of the day's key developments:

• The death toll of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza has risen to 40,972 since 7 October, with another 94,761 people wounded, Gaza's Health Ministry has reported
• Gaza's Health Ministry has reported that Israeli forces have killed 33 Palestinians and wounded another 145 in the last 24 hours
• A gunman killed three Israelis in an attack near the Allenby Bridge border crossing between the occupied West Bank and Jordan before security forces shot him dead on Sunday, Israeli authorities have said
• Israeli forces have detained at least 35 Palestinians from across the West Bank over the last two days, prisoner advocacy groups are reporting
• Sixty-nine percent of children in Gaza under the age of 10 have received their first dose of the polio vaccine, the enclave's Ministry of Health said today
• Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has said that Israel is faltering in the Gaza Strip, lacking both a strategy and a clear plan of action, according to the Israel Hayom newspaper
• Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has said that Israel is faltering in the Gaza Strip, lacking both a strategy and a clear plan of action, according to the Israel Hayom newspaper
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared that ministers are not permitted to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque without his approval, stressing that the current status quo will remain unchanged, according to a report by Haaretz

Jordan's foreign ministry condemned the attack at the Allenby Crossing in a statement. The ministry noted that preliminary investigations indicate it was an isolated incident and reiterated Jordan's "firm stance rejecting and condemning violence and harm to civilians for any reason."

The statement also emphasised Jordan's ongoing efforts to secure a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, de-escalate tensions in the West Bank, and lead a "genuine political effort".

The ministry's spokesperson stressed that a just peace based on a two-state solution "is the only way to achieve security and stability for all and to stop the spread of violence and the escalation of the conflict in the region".

Syrian state media reported that an Israeli strike near Hama left three people critically wounded. The attack also caused a fire in the area and damaged a main road.

A Palestinian news agency Wafa correspondent reports that an Israeli army strike on a house in the Tuffah neighborhood of eastern Gaza City, located in the northern Gaza Strip, killed a child and wounded several others. 

According to paramedics cited by Wafa, the wounded were transported to the Baptist Hospital following the attack, which was conducted by Israeli army artillery units.

Syrian reports indicate that Israeli airstrikes targeted the Masyaf area, west of Hama, believed to be a military base.

According to Syria’s Sham FM radio, the extent of the damage is not yet known. The Masyaf area has been a recurrent target of airstrikes in recent years, often attributed to Israel. 

An Israeli lawmaker has written a letter to the head of the police calling for the detention and interrogation of the director of Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, following a speech she made at the United Nations Security Council earlier this week.

Tally Gotliv, a member of Israel's parliament, penned the letter to Israeli Chief Police Commissioner Daniel Levy on Thursday, calling for Yuli Novak, B'Tselem's executive director, to be questioned. 

On Wednesday, Novak told the UN Security Council via video link that Israel had pursued a goal of "Jewish supremacy" over the past 11 months, since its war on Gaza began following the 7 October Hamas-led attacks. 

The surprise attack by Palestinian fighters on southern Israeli communities in October killed more than 1,000 Israelis, and dozens of foreigners. Around 250 others were taken captive back to Gaza.

Since then, Israeli forces have killed more than 40,000 Palestinians in the enclave, the majority of whom are women and children. 

Read more: Israeli lawmaker calls for B'Tselem chief to be arrested for 'assisting the enemy'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared that ministers are not permitted to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque without his approval, stressing that the current status quo will remain unchanged, according to a report by Haaretz.

This announcement comes after far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir stated recently that he would build a synagogue within the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem if given the opportunity.

Ben Gvir has also repeatedly led religious extremists in storming Al-Aqsa Mosque, actions that have been widely condemned as highly provocative and incendiary.

The Palestinian Authority’s General Director of Borders and Crossings, Nazmi Muhanna, announced that the King Hussein (Allenby) crossing will reopen tomorrow at 10 am local time.

Muhanna informed the official news agency Wafa that the crossing will be open only for travellers and will remain closed to commercial trucks. 

This follws after a Jordanian citizen on Sunday shot and killed three Israelis in an attack near the Allenby Bridge border crossing between the occupied West Bank and Jordan.

Israeli media identified the shooter as Maher Dhiab Hussein al-Jazi, 39, from the southern Jordanian town of Udrah in Maan governorate, a town that supplied troops to fight in the 1948 Battle of Jerusalem.

Reuters reported that US Central Command has announced the destruction of three drones and two missile systems belonging to the Houthis in the past 24 hours.

On Saturday the Houthis said that they shot down a US military drone over Yemen, in the latest attack by the group which has downed several other US drones.

Palestinian telecommunications company Paltel reported on social media that home internet services in the central and southern Gaza Strip have been disrupted “due to the ongoing aggression” by the Israeli army.

“Our crews are working hard to restore services as quickly as possible,” the statement said.

Interruptions to internet and phone services have been a recurring issue during Israel’s conflict with Gaza, with higher frequency in the early months of the war.

In January, the digital civil rights group Access Now accused Israel of using communications blackouts as a weapon of war.

US Senator Chris Murphy, the leading Democrat on the Senate's Middle East subcommittee, told the Washington Post that "most days, it's pretty clear the Americans are working much harder [toward a ceasefire] than the Israeli government is working at this."

He added, “I think [a ceasefire] has been not a terribly likely outcome because of the political calculations that both Netanyahu and Hamas make. I give a lot of credit to the Biden team for persevering and trying to restart and re-energize these talks, even as both sides seem to throw up significant obstacles.”

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, emphasised the need to protect Palestinian children and their right to education as many Palestinian children face the prospect of spending another year out of school. 

This statement comes a day before the school year begins in Palestine, as Unrwa chief Philippe Lazzarini notes that the new school year is being overshadowed by nearly ten days of extensive Israeli attacks in the occupied West Bank.

Lazzarini shared on X, “6,000 girls and boys of school age have been directly affected between Jenin, Tulkarem, Nur Shams, and Fara’a refugee camps.”

He added, “The physical and psychological damage caused by the latest Israeli military operation and activities of Palestinian armed groups will take a long time to overcome.”

A Jordanian citizen on Sunday shot and killed three Israelis in an attack near the Allenby Bridge border crossing between the occupied West Bank and Jordan.

Israeli media identified the shooter as Maher Dhiab Hussein al-Jazi, 39, from the southern Jordanian town of Udrah in Maan governorate, a town that supplied troops to fight in the 1948 Battle of Jerusalem.

Jazi is a descendant of Maher al-Jazi, the commander of the Jordanian army in the 1968 “Karameh” battle between Israeli forces and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Jordanian armed forces.

The Israeli military said Jazi "approached the area in a truck from Jordan, exited the truck, and opened fire at the Israeli security forces operating at the bridge” before he was shot dead.

Three Israeli civilians were pronounced dead at the scene after a military medical team had performed resuscitation efforts, the Israeli military said.

Read more: Allenby bridge shooter identified as Jordanian national