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

At least 25 Israelis from Jerusalem and the West Bank have been detained by the Israeli military after being caught trying to enter the besieged Gaza Strip through the Erez border crossing.

Seven were arrested and the rest stopped for questioning, according to Haaretz.

They were aiming to conduct the morning Jewish prayer service in Gaza, Hebrew media reported. 

"We were honoured to take part in an attempt to hold Shacharit prayers inside the Gaza Strip, with the belief that Gaza is part of the Greater Land of Israel and from the clear understanding that only settlement can be considered a victory,” the unnamed group said.

"And only a Jewish Gaza will remove the threat of rockets, return the hostages from Gaza, and bring security to the south and country as a whole."

The armed wing of Hamas said its internal investigation found that a guard killed an Israeli captive after his two children were killed in Israeli air strikes, acting against instructions. 

Abu Obeida, Hamas's military spokesman, said the "incident does not represent our ethics and the teachings of our religion in dealing with prisoners" and that instructions will be "tightened" around the guarding of captives. 

"After investigating the killing of an enemy prisoner by his guard, it was found that the guard acted in a vengeful manner contrary to instructions after receiving news of the martyrdom of his two children in one of the enemy's massacres," Abu Obeida said. 

"We hold the enemy fully responsible for all the suffering and danger that its prisoners are exposed to as a result of violating all norms of humanitarian treatment and its brutal genocide against our people." 

A military adviser from Iran's Revolutionary Guard's Aerospace Force has died following injuries sustained in Syria over recent weeks, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Thursday.

"Colonel Ahmadreza Afshari was martyred due to injuries sustained from aerial bombardment from the coalition violating Syria," top Revolutionary Guard Commander Hossein Salami said.

Iranian media did not give a precise date for the strike but said Afshari sustained his injuries between late July and early August.

The US and Israel have both carried out strikes in Syria against Iran-aligned factions, where Tehran's influence has grown since it began supporting President Bashar al-Assad in a civil war that started in 2011.

Reporting by Reuters

Israeli forces have killed at least 40 Palestinians and wounded 107 others in the past 24 hours, according to the Palestinian health ministry. 

This brings the death toll since 7 October to 40,005, with more than 92,401 wounded and an estimated 10,000 missing, likely dead and buried under rubble.

Health officials report that around 70 percent of the victims are children and women.

Israeli forces have also killed 632 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since 7 October, including 147 children and nine women, according to the Palestinian health ministry. 

British banking giant Barclays is planning to withdraw from new Israel government bond auctions amid pressure from pro-Palestine activists, the Financial Times reported.

The British newspaper said the bank is trying to address criticism of its investments in Israel, which have been put under the spotlight following the start of Israel's war on Gaza.

Bonds are a form of debt that are sold by states to international and domestic investors in order to raise funds for public spending, with interest being paid by the state to the bond holder. 

Barclays will be withdrawing from the purchase of future Israeli bond offerings, but will continue acting as a "primary dealer", which helps the state to sell the bonds.

Thursday's report of a withdrawal does not mean a complete end to involvement by Barclays in the Israel bond market.

The Financial Times quoted Israel's accountant general, Yali Rothenberg, who said: “We appreciate the bank’s statement affirming its continued commitment to the State of Israel.

“It is crucial that leading global financial institutions, such as Barclays, choose to resist boycotting Israel and support its legitimate right to self-defence as a leading western democracy,” he added.

Read more: Barclays 'to withdraw from Israel bond auction' amid pro-Palestine backlash

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied on Thursday a report that he had spoken the previous day with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump about Gaza ceasefire talks.

"Contrary to media reports, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not speak yesterday with former President Donald Trump," a statement from Netanyahu's office said.

The report, in Axios, cited two US sources. One source said Trump's call was intended to encourage Netanyahu to take the deal, but stressed he did not know if this is indeed what the former president told Netanyahu. The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Reporting by Reuters

Mohammed Deif, the commander of Hamas' Izz al-Din al Qassam Brigades, is alive, according to group official Osama Hamdan. 

In an interview with the Associated Press (AP) published on Thursday, Hamdan said Deif is "fine" after Israel claimed to have assassinated him. 

This is the first time a senior Hamas official has addressed the Israeli claim, made on 1 August, that Deif was killed in an airstrike last month.

Hamdan told AP that Hamas believes Israel mentioned Deif as the target of the July strike to "justify the massacre" that day, in which 88 Palestinians were killed in a bombing of the so-called humanitarian zone.

US President Joe Biden will publicly blame Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if Israel rejects a Gaza ceasefire proposal set to be discussed in the upcoming talks later on Thursday, according to senior Haaretz analyst Amos Harel. 

The Israeli defence establishment believes a yes-or-no proposal will be offered to both Hamas and Israel, Harel said. 

If Netanyahu says no, Biden will, for the first time, publicly hold him responsible. 

The Biden administration may also "take steps" against far-right government ministers who oppose the deal to increase the pressure, Harel added.  

Israel has failed to eliminate Hamas or destroy its tunnels in Gaza and has nothing more to achieve military in the strip, senior US officials reportedly told the New York Times. 

The latest American assessment is that Israel's military campaign has reached the end of the line and that the possibility of weakening Hamas further has diminished.

Continued bombings would only increase risks to civilians, the unnamed officials said. 

According to the report, a growing number of national security officials believe Israel would never be able to completely eliminate Hamas despite severely damaging its capabilities in the fighting. 

Current and former American and Israeli officials told NYT that returning the roughly 115 captives cannot be achieved militarily.

And while Israel has tried to damage Hamas' tunnels, it has failed to destroy them, American officials added.

The tunnel network has proved "much larger than Israel anticipated" and remains "an effective way for Hamas to hide its leaders and move around fighters," the report said. 

Good morning Middle East Eye reader,
 
Here are the latest updates from the Israeli war on Gaza, now in its 313th day:

• An overnight Israeli drone strike on the Balata refugee camp in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus killed two Palestinians and wounded others, according to medical sources. 

• At least three people were killed in a bombing on Gaza City's al-Sabra neighbourhood on Tuesday morning, local media reported. 

• US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump reportedly called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, urging him to accept a Gaza ceasefire deal ahead of mediator talks set for Thursday.

• Also in the US, Columbia University President Minouche Shafik said she resigned months after facing scrutiny over her handling of pro-Palestine campus protests.

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

Here are some of the day's key developments:

• The death toll from Israel's war on Gaza since 7 October has climbed to 39,965, with more than 92,294 wounded and an estimated 10,000 missing, likely dead and buried under rubble

• More than 10,000 Israeli soldiers were wounded in fighting and attacks or suffered from mental disorders caused by trauma since 7 October, the defence ministry has said

• Israeli attacks on Lebanon amid exchanges of fire with Hezbollah since 7 October have killed at least 547 people, including at least 35 females and 20 children and teenagers, according to the Lebanese health ministry

• Germany on Wednesday condemned a visit by two Israeli ministers to the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in Jerusalem, known to Jews as Temple Mount, and said it expects the Israeli government to halt deliberate provocations

• Britain strongly condemned the Israeli far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, British foreign minister David Lammy said on Wednesday

• Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to visit the Turkish capital Ankara and address the Turkish parliament in a special session on Thursday, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa

• During a UN Security Council discussion yesterday, Norway highlighted that in 2021, the council unanimously passed Resolution 2601, condemning attacks and threats against schools, educational facilities, and civilians associated with them

• Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly fears for his life due to his pursuit of a normalisation agreement with Israel without resolving the question of Palestinian statehood, according to Politico

• The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights has demanded accountability for Israeli abuses against Palestinian detainees, stating that recent testimony and evidence from Israeli detention centres "reveal a level of violence that resounds with the atrocities documented in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib"

The war on Gaza set in motion a mass Palestine solidarity movement among university students in the US which eventually spread across the globe. 

While it's difficult to track precise numbers, Harvard University identified protest activity at over 525 different academic institutions, universities, and school district offices in the US. They estimate that encampments were present at more than 130 of them.

Figures from The Guardian show that a total of 36 encampments were set up across England, Wales and Scotland. An interactive map tracking student protests suggested that 174 encampments were erected and 247 protest actions were held across 35 different countries. 

Some solidarity encampments lasted for several days under the motto "no business as usual" and hindered university activities to varying degrees. The longest-running encampment was Stanford University’s "Sit-In to Stop Genocide", with the first encampment running from 20 October 2023 until mid-February 2024, and a second one starting in late April. 

Read more: Pro-Palestinian campus protests: What have they achieved so far?

In response to Israeli forces last week bombing Gaza's al-Tabin school, which killed more than 100 displaced Palestinians sheltering there, Germany said "Israel has the right to defend itself". 

Speaking to reporters at a press conference in Berlin on Monday, government deputy spokesman Wolfgang Buechner reiterated that “Israel has the right to defend itself" when asked about Germany's response to Israel's strike on Saturday, the Anadolu news agency reported.

"The reality is that Hamas uses schools, hospitals, kindergartens as command centres and that the people in the Gaza Strip are also abused against their will as protective [human] shields," Buechner added, and warned of "one-sided reports that are distributed by Hamas" and not "believing everything that is spread by this side".

The strike targeted the Tabin school in Gaza City at dawn, killing at least 100 Palestinians during early morning prayers. Most of the victims were children and the elderly.

Read more: Germany says Israeli strike on Gaza school killing 100 Palestinians was 'self-defence'

The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights has demanded accountability for Israeli abuses against Palestinian detainees, stating that recent testimony and evidence from Israeli detention centres "reveal a level of violence that resounds with the atrocities documented in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib".

According to Al Mezan, citing lawyers, Palestinian prisoners and detainees are enduring severe physical and psychological torture in Israeli facilities.

This torture includes "being hung in stress positions, beaten with hammers, having their nails pulled out with wire-cutting pliers, attacked by dogs, and beaten with soldiers' fists, feet, and rifle butts," Al Mezan reported.

Detainees "have been exposed naked to the scorching sun while standing on sharp gravel stones, subjected to verbal abuse, and threatened with rape, death, and bombing, along with threats against their families".

They have also been "deprived of food, water, sleep, and access to sanitation for extended periods, all while facing extremely harsh living conditions," according to Al Mezan.

The torture has led to several deaths, but there is no definitive record of the total number of Palestinians who have died in Israeli custody, Al Mezan added.

The presidential campaign of Kamala Harris has hired Nasrina Bargzie, an Afghan-American lawyer, to spearhead the campaign's outreach to Muslim and Arab voters, a campaign official has told NBC News.

The selection comes as Vice President Harris travels to Chicago next week for the Democratic National Convention, where mass pro-Palestinian protests are planned to take place against Israel's war on Gaza and US military funding towards Israel.

According to NBC, Bargzie previously worked "in Harris’ White House office until July as a policy adviser on Muslim, Arab and Gaza-related issues", and will continue to work on that during the campaign.

“I am honored to continue my work for the Vice President, advising on a range of critical issues in this election, from democracy and reproductive rights to Muslim and Arab outreach,” Bargzie said in a statement shared with NBC.

“I know the Vice President is fundamentally committed to freedom, justice and peace - and we will work with Americans across the country to help realize those goals and fulfill the promise of America.”

Read more: Harris campaign hires Afghan American to lead Muslim, Arab voter outreach