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

The Gaza Strip must be transferred to the control of legitimate Palestinian authorities, and Israeli plans for temporary control of the enclave are unacceptable, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told Russia's RIA news agency in remarks published on Tuesday.

"Gaza must be governed under the auspices of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) and the legitimate Palestinian government," Abbas told the state RIA agency in an interview that was published in Russian.

"We strongly oppose Israeli plans that provide for some temporary solutions."

Abbas also said the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was intended to prolong the Gaza conflict, adding that he will discuss the regional crisis with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

RIA, citing a diplomatic source, said Abbas will come on a long-expected visit to Moscow on 12-14 August.

Abbas added that Haniyeh's assassination "was a cowardly act and a dangerous development in Israeli politics".

"There is no doubt the purpose of Mr. Haniyeh's assassination is to prolong the war and expand its scope," he said. "It will have a negative impact on the ongoing negotiations to end the aggression and withdraw Israeli troops from Gaza."

Reporting by Reuters 

Meta Platforms META.O apologised on Tuesday for erroneously removing Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's social media posts in which he expressed condolences to a Hamas official about the assassination of the group's leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Meta was sorry for "an operational error", adding that the content had been restored with "the correct newsworthy label," a Meta spokesperson told Reuters.

The US social media giant designates Hamas as a "dangerous organisation" and bans content praising the group. It uses a mix of automated detection and human review to remove or label graphic visuals.

Anwar posted on Facebook and Instagram on 31 July a video recording of his phone call with a Hamas official to offer condolences over Haniyeh's death. He also posted a picture from his last meeting with Haniyeh in Qatar in May, along with a condolence message.

It was the second run-in Meta has had with the Malaysian government, which called the takedown of the posts unjust, discriminatory and a suppression of free speech. Malaysia's communications minister and members of the Prime Minister's Office met Meta representatives on Monday to seek an explanation.

In a similar incident in May, Meta restored Facebook posts by Anwar over his meeting with Haniyeh, saying they were taken down in error.

Muslim-majority Malaysia, a supporter of the Palestinian cause, has warned that firm action could be taken against Meta and other social media companies if they blocked pro-Palestinian content on their platforms.

Reporting by Reuters

Good morning Middle East Eye readers, 

Here are the latest updates from the Israeli war on Gaza, now in its 305th day: 

• Israeli forces killed four Palestinians, including three teens, in a military raid on the occupied West Bank town of Aqaba north of Tubas. 

• Elsewhere in the West Bank, an Israeli raid is ongoing in Jenin since Monday night, where military bulldozers are razing main roads, destroying infrastructure and shops, according to Wafa news agency. 

• In the Gaza Strip, bombing and artillery shelling continued into Tuesday morning, with reports of injuries and deaths in the central area. 

• Over in Iraq, two Katyusha rockets were fired at the al-Asad airbase, which houses American forces, wounding at least five US personnel, including one seriously, Reuters reported. 

• US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin called the attack a "dangerous escalation" in a call with Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, according to a Pentagon readout.

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

Here are some of the day's key developments:

• Gaza's health ministry said that 39,623 Palestinians in the enclave have been killed by Israel since 7 October, 40 of them in the last 24 hours. Additionally, 91,469 have been wounded since the start of the war

• Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich complained about Israel's obligation to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, saying the international communtiy would not let them leave millions of Palestinians to die of hunger

• The Israeli newspaper Haaretz has reported, citing a report by the human rights organization B'Tselem, that 60 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli prisons since Israel's war on Gaza started on 7 October

• At least five members of the Palestinian police force were killed in an Israeli air raid targeting the vehicle they were travelling in, said Gaza’s interior ministry

• Israeli forces have taken 2,000 bodies from cemeteries throughout Gaza over the course of the war, and some corpses have been handed back in ways that “desecrated the bodies” of those killed, said Gaza’s government media office

• The Israeli army has returned the bodies of 84 Palestinians to Gaza through the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing

• Negotiations between Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire are currently on hold and are not expected to resume until after Iran carries out its promised retaliation against Israel for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran

• Egypt told the Israeli delegation which visited Cairo on Saturday that it will not participate in a regional military coalition to counter a potential Iranian retaliatory attack against Israel, according to the news outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed

• Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on X that Israel has expanded the construction of settlements "to remove the threat" of Palestinian statehood

• Nearly half of Hamas' military battalions in northern and central Gaza have rebuilt some of their fighting capabilities at least once, a CNN investigation has found

• Japan, China becomes the latest country to urge citizens to leave Lebanon, as fears of an all-out war have peaked in recent days

• Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson, Nasser Kanaani, said that while his country is not looking to escalate regional tensions, "punishing Israel is necessary"

• A 26-year-old Palestinian detainee died in Israeli custody on 17 July as a result of torture, the Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) confirmed today

An Israeli military raid on the town of Aqqaba near Jenin in the occupied West Bank resulted in the deaths of two Palestinians and left seven others wounded, with two in serious condition.

As ambulances arrived to transport the injured, Israeli gunfire could still be heard in the area.

Earlier, the Palestine Red Crescent Society reported that five Palestinians were injured during Israeli raids in Jenin. Four of them sustained gunshot wounds. Video footage also showed Israeli military vehicles ramming into Palestinian vehicles as they moved through Jenin

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro's links to and support for Israel have been in the spotlight this past week, as the prominent Democrat is the top contender to become the vice presidential nominee and Kamala Harris' running mate in the upcoming US presidential election this November. 

Shapiro is a frontrunner for the position of vice presidential nominee alongside Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear; Minnesota Governor Tim Walz; Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg; Arizona Senator Mark Kelly; and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker.

Over the past several days, Shapiro's political stock has soared. And amid the rise in attention towards him, a website was launched called "No Genocide Josh". It urges the Harris campaign against choosing him over his links to Israel and his past comments and actions demonising the pro-Palestine movement as well as pro-Palestinian sentiments in the state of Pennsylvania.

Shapiro has been a staunch supporter of Israel for decades, dating back to his high school and college days when he wrote for a student newspaper at the University of Rochester. One opinion piece, titled "Peace Not Possible", resurfaced in a newspaper last month.

Read more: US: Josh Shapiro's 'volunteer' work for Israeli army scrutinised as Harris eyes VP nod

Delta Airlines announced on Monday that it has "paused" flights from New York's JFK airport to Tel Aviv until 31 August due to the ongoing conflict in the region.

The airline said that it is "continuously monitoring the evolving security environment and assessing our operations based on security guidance and intelligence reports". Delta added that it will "communicate any updates as needed".

In January, The Wall Street Journal quoted “intelligence reports” to say that 12 members of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or Unrwa, had taken part in the 7 October Hamas-led attack on southern Israel and that 10 percent of the agency’s 12,000 workers in Gaza had ties to Palestinian armed groups.

The report came only a couple of days after Israeli officials accused a dozen Unrwa workers of taking part in the attack.

The New York Times was the first to publish a detailed report on the alleged 12 Unrwa workers, but the WSJ added weight to the allegation, with its claimed findings of links between Hamas and the aid agency. 

In response, the US immediately froze its funds to Unrwa, which prompted a dozen countries, including Germany and Britain, to follow suit – stalling a total of $450m. Unrwa, which was founded after the Nakba (catastrophe) for the Palestinian refugee population when the state of Israel was created, has been the main source of support for Palestinians not only in Gaza but in the West Bank, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon as well.

Read more: ‘Blood on their hands’: Report outs WSJ for unverified claims of Hamas links to Unrwa

An internal UN investigation concluded in a highly-anticipated investigation that nine staff members of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) "may have been involved" in the 7 October attacks on southern Israel last year.

Unrwa has fired those employees and said they can no longer work for the agency but did not say that the evidence of those employees' alleged involvement was concrete.

"The evidence – if authenticated and corroborated – could indicate that the UNRWA staff members may have been involved in the attacks of 7 October," Philippe Lazzarini, Unrwa commissioner general, said in a statement on Monday.

“I have decided that in the case of these remaining nine staff members, they cannot work for UNRWA. All contracts of these staff members will be terminated in the interest of the Agency."

Read more: Inconclusive UN probe says nine Unrwa workers 'may have' been involved in 7 October attacks on Israel

During a visit to Egypt, Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan strongly criticised Israel and the United States at a joint press conference with the Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty:

"Israel initiates violence, and then they come to Egypt, they come to us, asking us to tell them not to go to war. Fine," said Fidan.

"Then Israel targets the Iranian embassy in Damascus, and again, they turn to us, to Egypt, asking for intervention to reduce escalation. Now, Israel has martyred the leader of Hamas, and once more, they come to us with the same request," he added.

"Friends, this is no longer a sustainable pattern. We are no longer playing this game. America's attempts to clean up behind the scenes and mitigate every wrongdoing by Israel have become unacceptable. Israel's owners must now take its leash and protect it. The region can no longer tolerate continued Israeli provocations," said Fidan. 

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz has reported, citing a report by the human rights organization B'Tselem, that 60 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli prisons since Israel's war on Gaza started on 7 October.

The report says that there has been a systematic policy of abuse directed towards Palestinian detainees, led by far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

According to B'Tselem, the reported abuses include psychological and sexual torture, as well as forcing prisoners to prostrate themselves before the Israeli flag and sing the Israeli national anthem.

As of 1 August at least 9,881 Palestinians were being held in Israeli prisons which the report says should be called "torture camps".

Among them, 3,432 were administrative detainees, held without an indictment or trial.

Additionally, 1,584 were detained under the Unlawful Combatants Law, which permits the state to detain individuals without formal charges and restrict their access to legal representation for extended periods.

Israeli forces have taken 2,000 bodies from cemeteries throughout Gaza over the course of the war, and some corpses have been handed back in ways that “desecrated the bodies” of those killed, said Gaza’s government media office.

“Over the course of 304 days of the genocide, the occupation has kidnapped more than 2,000 bodies of martyrs and dead people from dozens of cemeteries in the governorates of the Gaza Strip, which the occupation bulldozed with bulldozers and military vehicles and turned their graves over, in a scene that violates humanity and human feelings,” the statement reads.

“The Israeli occupation army desecrates the dignity of the bodies of 89 martyrs, handing them over as skeletons and decomposed corpses.”

Former President Donald Trump told online personality Adin Ross during a livestream on the Kick platform, “There’s going to be an attack tonight by Iran on Israel.”

“I’m telling you right now, I hear it through the same waves. No top secret information or anything,” Trump said.

“If I were president, no one would even be talking about it because that wouldn’t happen, 100 percent,” he continued.

US President Joe Biden and Jordan’s King Abdullah discussed efforts to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East on Monday, according to the White House. The discussion came after Iran vowed to retaliate against Israel for the killing of a Hamas leader in Tehran.

“The leaders discussed their efforts to de-escalate regional tensions, including through an immediate ceasefire and hostage release deal,” the White House said in a statement. This call followed a rare visit to Iran by Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi.

King Abdullah also warned of “hostile acts” by Israeli settlers that he said threaten the status quo of Jerusalem's holy sites, particularly in occupied East Jerusalem, according to a statement from the Jordanian royal court.

Israeli authorities are systematically abusing Palestinians in torture camps, subjecting them to severe violence and sexual assault, B'Tselem said on Monday. 

In a new 118-page report, the Israeli rights group accused the government of conducting a policy of institutionalised abuse and torture against all Palestinian detainees since 7 October. 

Torture was recorded in civilian and military detention facilities across Israel, leading to the death of at least 60 Palestinians while in Israeli custody in less than 10 months.

The systematic nature of the abuse across all facilities left “no room to doubt an organised, declared policy of the Israeli prison authorities”. 

Read more: Israel systematically abusing Palestinian detainees in 'torture camps'