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

The Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for possible war crimes committed in Gaza, made the remarks after his conversation with his Italian counterpart, Guido Crosetto, about “threats posed by Iran and its proxies”.

“Thank you Minister, for your solidarity, leadership, and firm stance regarding the Iranian issue. Also discussed the immediate importance of achieving an agreement for the return of hostages. We urge our partners to stand with Israel at this time,” he said on X.

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.

“The Israeli occupation continues its crimes against our people, as well as its direct targeting of members of the police force as part of its efforts to strike the home front and spread chaos in the Gaza Strip,” the ministry said.

“We call on the international community to put pressure on the occupation to stop its direct and repeated targeting of police officers, as they are civil protection personnel, as targeting them is a flagrant violation of international law and international humanitarian law," they added. 

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.

Cairo informed both the Israeli and Iranian sides that it will not participate in the recent escalation, following the assassination of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

Instead, Egypt said that it will continue its efforts to reduce tensions in the region, anticipating any further escalation that may result from the potential Iranian retaliation for Haniyeh's assassination. 

In April, a large-scale drone and missile attack from Iran was thwarted by a coalition that included Israel, the United States, Britain, France, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain.

Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich has said letting two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip die of hunger might be “justified and moral”. 

Speaking at a conference hosted by the Israel Hayom outlet on Monday, he expressed support for blocking aid to the Gaza Strip but said Israel lacked international legitimacy to do so. 

“We are bringing in aid because there is no choice,” the far-right minister said, according to the Times of Israel. 

“We can't, in the current global reality, manage a war. Nobody will let us cause two million civilians to die of hunger even though it might be justified and moral until our hostages are returned,” he added. 

He said that Israel needed “international legitimacy for this war”.

Read more: Smotrich says it's 'justified, moral' to let Gaza's Palestinians die of hunger

Iran issued an alert notifying pilots of GPS jamming in its airspace, similar to the warning it sent before its 13 April retaliation against Israel for an attack on its embassy in Syria, reported Haaretz.

The Israeli army reported that four soldiers were seriously wounded by an explosion while fighting in Gaza's southern region of Rafah.

Additionally, three other soldiers sustained light-to-moderate injuries, according to the army, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported. 

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.

The negotiations are also on pause until Hamas selects a replacement for its politburo chief, according to two officials familiar with the situation, reported The Times of Israel.

Turkey will formally submit its bid to join South Africa's against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on Wednesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Monday.

Turkey announced that it had decided to join the case in May, and that it would submit a bid after the necessary legal preparations.

Reporting by Reuters

Egyptian state-affiliated Al-Qahera news has dismissed Israeli claims about the existence of Hamas tunnels running under the 'Philadelphi Corridor,' a key strip along Egypt's border with Gaza.

A well-placed Egyptian source told the outlet that the claims were "an Israeli attempt to divert attention away from its failures in Gaza and to justify its aggression."

“Israel has not provided evidence of operational tunnels along the Gaza border and is leveraging the existence of closed tunnels in Gaza to disseminate false claims for political purposes,” the source said.

Israeli forces stormed the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Monday, raiding a money exchange shop, Wafa news agency is reporting citing local sources.

According to the sources, Israeli military vehicles rammed into residents' cars during the incursion, injuring two people who were subsequently hospitalised.

They added that Israeli forces installed snipers on the rooftops of several buildings.

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.

Omar Junaid's family were informed of his death by HaMoked, an Israeli rights group.

Junaid was detained on 23 December 2023 along with his brother Yasser, who was released after four months.

According to his family, Junaid had been preparing for his wedding that the time of his detention.

According to PPS and the Commission, his death brings the total number of detainees who have died in Israeli detention since 1967 to 258, including 21 prisoners who died in Israeli custody since October.

"After 300 days of continuous coverage with my friend and companion Ismail al-Ghoul, I saw him without a head.”

These were the horrific words of Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif, his eyes streaming and pain etched deeply on to his face after 10 months of covering the unspeakable crimes wrought on his people by Israel’s brutal genocide in Gaza.

His colleagues, correspondent Ghoul and camera operator Rami al-Rifi, were targeted by an Israeli drone while wearing their press gear and travelling in a car clearly marked as a news media vehicle. 

Their slaughter, which Gaza’s government media office reported brought the number of Palestinian journalists killed by Israel since 7 October to 165, barely made a ripple in mainstream media. 

Western journalists, many of whom profit and make their careers from covering our stories with thinly disguised opportunism and internalised racism, not only deny us the right to narrate, but they have also been nauseatingly silent over the industrial mass killing of their Palestinian counterparts. 

Contrast this with the frenzy of coverage upon the Thursday release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich from a Russian prison. Yet, the two beheaded Palestinian journalists scarcely registered as a blip on the western media’s radar, a damning indictment of the profession itself.

The lack of empathy for Palestinian journalists from international organisations has also been concerning, with weak statements that express “concern” or endless repetitions of the “journalism is not a crime” adage. This comes instead of genuine action to protect those risking their lives to report from Gaza or to actively reject the Israeli talking points that set the agenda for many newsrooms. 

The statement from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in response to the killing of Ghoul and Rifi is a classic example, expressing “dismay” and feebly calling on Israel to “explain why two more Al Jazeera journalists have been killed in what appears to be a direct strike”.

Read more:  War on Gaza: Two Al Jazeera journalists were killed - and the West is silent by Linah Alsaafin

The Chinese embassy in Lebanon on Monday told Chinese citizens to travel to the country with caution, citing "grim and complex" security situation.

The embassy also called on Chinese nationals and institutions in Lebanon to stay on high alert and strengthen safety precautions, it said in a statement.

Reporting by Reuters 

The UK government has denied a report that it has implemented a "secret arms embargo" on Israel, saying there has been "no change" in its approach to export licences to its ally.

The Daily Mail reported late on Friday that civil servants had frozen all applications for new arms export licences to Israel, pending a review ordered by Foreign Secretary David Lammy.

But a spokeperson for the Department for Business and Trade told Middle East Eye on Monday that it continues "to review export licence applications on a case-by-case basis against the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria".

“It is vital that we uphold both our domestic and international legal obligations when it comes to arms exports," the spokesperson said.

"We are reviewing the advice regarding exports to Israel and no decision has been made."

MEE understands that there have been no changes in licensing protocol since the new Labour government took power last month.

Read more: UK government denies report of 'secret arms embargo' on Israel

Hamas paramilitary forces in Gaza, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for several attacks against Israeli soldiers in Rafah and Khan Younis amid reports of heavy clashes. 

In a series of updates shared on the messaging app Telegram, the Qassam Brigades said it detonated anti-personnel mines on Israeli forces east of Khan Younis and Rafah, resulting in several soldiers being killed or wounded.

In another update, the brigades said Palestinian fighters engaged in close-quarter combat with at least nine Israeli ground troops in Khan Younis, killing and wounding them.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

However, Israeli news outlets reported that soldiers were wounded in clashes in southern Gaza and were being transferred to Israeli hospitals by helicopter.