Gaza live: Fresh Israeli order forces over 170,000 Palestinians to leave their homes

Hussein al-Sheikh, the secretary general of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), has condemned Israel's decision to revoke the diplomatic status of eight Norwegian diplomats who dealt with the Palestinian Authority.

In a statement on X, Sheikh warned the move "carries dangerous dimensions and has major repercussions”.

“The countries of the world, especially the European countries, must respond to this measure in kind, as it constitutes a violation and breach of international norms and laws,” he said.

Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi has said the group will coordinate a response to Israeli attacks on Tehran and Beirut with other members of the Axis of Resistance - an anti-Israel alliance including the Houthis, Hezbollah and Shia paramilitaries in Iraq and Syria.

He added that any decision to respond to the attacks would be made by the axis as a whole.

Reporting by Reuters

56 people have been killed and dozens injured in Israeli strikes across Gaza since morning, Al Jazeera is reporting, citing medical sources.

The death toll from Israeli strikes targeting two schools housing displaced people in eastern Gaza City has risen to 15, with another 30 injured, it said.

It also reported that three people have been killed in an Israeli strike on Nuseirat refugee camp.

Meanwhile, Gaza Civil Defence report that its teams had recovered three bodies following an Israeli strike on the Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City. It added that another strike on a home in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza had killed another eight people.

At least 32 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza City and Khan Younis, Wafa news agency is reporting, citing local and medical sources.

We reported earlier that Israeli air strikes targeted two schools sheltering displaced people in eastern Gaza City, killing 12 Palestinians.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society reported that the casualties were transferred to the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City.

Yahya Sinwar, Israel's most wanted man and believed to be in tunnels deep below the Gaza Strip, is the new political leader of Hamas. 

The assassination of his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran last week left the Palestinian movement with a leadership decision to make that would define its direction and outlook.

It is a decision that the internal hierarchy made within a matter of days. 

Internally promoting Sinwar, who headed Hamas in Gaza, was intended as a "bold message", according to academic Khaled Hroub.

It is a message "that the movement is not caving under pressure, and not in the mood of compromising its positions and declared adherence to resistance," Hroub, author of Hamas: A Beginner's Guide, told Middle East Eye. 

Read more: Why Hamas picked Yahya Sinwar as its new leader

Israeli air strikes targeting two schools in eastern Gaza City have killed at least 12 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Civil Defence.

The rescue organisation reported that seven were killed in a strike on al-Zahraa School and five in Abdel Fattah Hamoud School.

Hezbollah has claimed to have carried out a drone strike on Israeli soldiers in al-Marj, near the border with Israel.

In a statement on Telegram, the group said the attack had injured an unidentified number of people.

The attack is the latest in a series of cross-border assaults amid ratcheting regional tensions following the Israeli assassination of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah warned that Israel should expect a "real response" to the attack.

At least 15 Palestinians have been killed and others injured in an Israeli air strike on Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza on Thursday, Wafa news agency is reporting.

The agency cited local sources who reported that Israeli aircraft targeted a home in the camp.

Elsewhere, deadly strikes have also been reported in Khan Younis, Gaza City and Nuseirat refugee camp, where attacks on several homes killed four people, according to medics cited by AFP.

The Israeli army sent new evacuation orders to Palestinians in Khan Younis, as a new operation is expected to take place in the area.

They were instructed to head to the so-called humanitarian zone in al-Mawasi, which has previously been subject to deadly Israeli attacks.

French airliner Air France and its low-cost subsidiary Transavia extended the suspension of flights between Paris and Beirut until Sunday 11 August.

The carriers had halted flights on 29 July due to the high tensions in the region.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said that Israel's decision to revoke the diplomatic status of Oslo's envoys to the Palestinian Authority was an "extreme action" that would "have consequences".

"Today's decision will have consequences for our relationship with the Netanyahu government. We are considering what measures Norway will take to respond to the situation that the Netanyahu government has now created," Eide said in a statement, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday the diplomatic status of Norwegian envoys to the Palestinian Authority would be revoked over Oslo's "anti-Israel behaviour" since the Gaza war began in October.

"I ordered the termination of any representation on behalf of the Norwegian Embassy in Israel vis-a-vis the Palestinian Authority," Katz said in a statement.

"There is a price for anti-Israel behaviour," he added, citing Norway's recent recognition of a Palestinian state and backing of a pending International Criminal Court case implicating Israeli leaders in alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Norwegian ambassador was summoned to Israel's foreign ministry in Jerusalem and informed that the diplomats would have their accreditation revoked seven days "after the date of this note", and their visas in three months.

The UK's largest pension fund has sold off £80m ($101m) in assets linked to Israel amid internal pressure from members, the Financial Times has reported.

The Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) manages investments totalling £79bn in total and has more than 500,000 members who work for universities and higher education institutions in the UK.

Pressure has grown on the fund to withdraw its Israeli investments in light of the ongoing war on Gaza and Israel's longstanding occupation of Palestinian land.

At least, 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's military campaign in Gaza, the vast majority of them women and children.

READ MORE: Largest UK pension fund sells off Israeli assets amid member anger over Gaza

Gaza's health ministry said that the Palestinian death toll of Israel's war on Gaza has risen to 39,699, with 22 people killed in the past 24 hours.

91,722 people have also been wounded since the start of the war.

Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for an investigation to find out who took the video that shows Israeli soldiers raping a Palestinian in the Sde Teiman detention centre.

In a post on X, he demanded "an immediate criminal investigation to locate the leakers of the trending video that was intended to harm the reservists and that caused tremendous damage to Israel in the world and to exhaust the full severity of the law against them".