Gaza live: Dozens killed and wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza and Yemen

An Israeli negotiation team is set to head to Cairo on Thursday for ceasefire talks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said.

"A delegation headed by the head of the Shin Bet [domestic security service], together with representatives of the [Israeli military], is scheduled to leave for Cairo this evening to continue the talks," the statement said. 

It added that Netanyahu on Thursday met with negotiators who had returned from talks in Qatar. 

On 25 June, at 8.30 in the morning, around 20 masked settlers appeared at Tamir Abu Eisheh’s door, informing him that his home in the hills north of the occupied West Bank city of Hebron was about to be demolished.

The Israelis stripped the family of their phones and threw their furniture into the street. They did not even have the time to gather their belongings before bulldozers set to work, razing their home to the ground.

“His daughters came to me crying in the morning, barefoot in their pyjamas, and asked me to come because they are destroying their home,” Tamir’s brother, Nadir Abu Eisheh, told Middle East Eye. Nadir arrived to find his baby nephew’s mattress cast into the street.

“Usually they give families at least 20 days to evacuate,” Nadir told MEE. This time, Tamir Abu Eisheh’s family had no warning.

Israel has long wielded housing demolitions as a means to displace the occupied West Bank's Palestinian population. Since the 7 October Hamas-led attack and Israel's war on Gaza, however, the practice has been turbocharged, with Israeli bulldozers tearing down people's homes on a near-daily basis.

According to UN figures, Israeli forces have destroyed over 1,000 structures across the West Bank, displacing around 2,250 people.

Overseeing the drive is Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's far-right finance minister, who also wields power over authorities in the West Bank - and is a settler himself. 

Read more: Israel has turbocharged West Bank housing demolitions under the cover of war

Hamas has said that mediators are yet to provide it with any updates regarding negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza.

It accused Israel of "stalling" to gain time and thwart the current round of discussions.

"The occupation continues its policy of stalling to buy time to foil this round of negotiations, as it has done in previous rounds," the group said in a statement on Thursday.

The comments come as Qatari and Egyptian mediators, backed by the United States, have stepped up efforts to conclude a ceasefire deal this week.

Delta Air Lines has come under fierce criticism and boycott calls after appearing to link two of its flight attendants wearing badges of the Palestine flag with Hamas. 

During a flight that reportedly took place on Friday between Boston and West Palm Beach in Florida, a member of the cabin crew was pictured with the pin.

On Tuesday, an X post referencing the two flight attendants, read: “Since 2001, we take our shoes off in every airport because [of] a terrorist attack in US soil. Now imagine getting into a @Delta flight and seeing workers with Hamas badges in the air. What do you do?”

Delta replied on its official X account, in a post that it appeared to endorse the false claim that the Palestine flag was a “Hamas badge”.

“I hear you and I’d be terrified as well, personally. Our employees reflect our culture and we do not take it lightly when our policy is not being followed,” the company wrote. 

“Nothing to worry, this is being investigated already, particularly the involved parties,” it added in another reply.

Both posts have since been deleted. 

Read more: Delta airline under fire after linking staff wearing Palestine badges with Hamas

Unrwa has documented "utterly appalling conditions" as a consequence of the siege in one school-turned-shelter for displaced people in the Gaza Strip.

The school, in Deir al-Balah, a city in central Gaza, had seen two people die from lack of sanitation so far. 

The facility is sheltering 14,000 people, who share 25 toilets, meaning 560 people share one toilet lacking hygine products and short on water.

"People are being killed by bombs and strikes, and now they're also dying from disease and malnourishment - consequences of the imposed siege," said Louise Wateridge, Unrwa's spokesperson who visited the school. 

“This school is sheltering 14,000 people in classrooms and in makeshift shelters in the courtyard. […] The facility only has 25 toilets.”@UNWateridge visited an @UNRWA school in Deir Al Balah, documenting the appalling conditions of displaced people in #Gaza. #CeasefireNow pic.twitter.com/k176F0PVuE

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) July 11, 2024

The Palestinian Civil Defence held a press conference on Thursday detailing what it saw in the Shujaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City after Israeli troops withdrew on Wednesday following a devastating two-week raid. Here is some of what spokesman Mahmoud Basal said: 

• Due to the Israeli aggression, Shujaiya has become a disaster area that is uninhabitable.

• Civil defence teams recovered more than 60 bodies in a preliminary count. Dozens more are buried under rubble.

• More than 85 percent of the buildings in Shujaiya are now uninhabitable. 

• Survivors reported that the army targeted fleeing people after granting them safe passage.

• The occupation targeted the Sabiha Medical Clinic, which provided services to more than 60,000 people in the neighbourhood.

• We declare the Shujaiya area uninhabitable due to the Israeli aggression, and lacking basic life necessities.

• We demand the urgent provision of fuel and equipment to the civil defence team so that they can perform their duty.

Israeli forces have killed at least 50 Palestinians and wounded 54 more in the past 24 hours, according to the Palestinian health ministry. 

This brings the Palestinian death toll since 7 October to 38,345, with more than 88,295 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.

The UAE has deported a student who wore the Palestinian keffiyeh and shouted "Free Palestine" at a graduation ceremony at Abu Dhabi's New York University campus in May.

According to Associated Press, the student - who has not been identified - was taken into police custody and then deported just days after the incident.

Students at the university told the news agency that prior to the ceremony they had been warned that "displaying the Palestinian flag anywhere on campus is not permitted", while an email was sent banning "cultural attire" at the graduation.

Read more: UAE deported student who wore Palestinian keffiyeh at graduation ceremony

The Israeli war in Gaza has contributed to a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents in Europe, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) said in a report released on Thursday.

An FRA survey conducted between January and June 2023 showed antisemitism was already high in Europe before the war began in October, and information collected from 12 Jewish community organisations since then showed a further rise, the report said.

"Jewish people have experienced more antisemitic incidents since October 2023, with some organisations reporting an increase of more than 400 percent," it said.

Three out of four Jewish respondents said they felt people hold them responsible for the Israeli government's actions and 80 percent felt antisemitism had grown in the European country where they live in the five years before the survey, it showed.

In the year before the survey was conducted, 90 percent of respondents had encountered antisemitism on the internet, with more than half experiencing it offline from people they know or in the media.

More than one-third were harassed during the same period because of their origin, most of them multiple times.

"Antisemitic harassment and violence mostly take place in streets, parks, or shops," the FRA said.

The survey said more than three-quarters of respondents hide their Jewish identity at least occasionally, and more than one-third avoid Jewish events or sites because of safety concerns.

Reporting by Reuters

As the sun sets over the Srebrenica Memorial Center, a seemingly tranquil resting place conceals a horrific history. Here lie the remains of Bosnian Muslims brutally murdered in July 1995 by Serbian soldiers under the command of the now-convicted war criminal General Ratko Mladic.

For almost four years, genocide unfolded in Bosnia while the international community watched, not lifting a finger to end the violence. The commitment to “never again”, a vow to prevent future genocides, often seems aspirational. I question whether it is truly universal, or selectively applied.

As we pause to remember the Srebrenica genocide, another tragedy unfolds more than 2,000 kilometres away in Gaza, rooted in the historic occupation of Palestine. This fact is often overlooked as western leaders focus on the events of 7 October, when Hamas launched attacks inside Israel. 

Read more:  War on Gaza: Did we learn nothing from the Srebrenica genocide? by Nadina Ronc

Israeli air strikes in Rafah on Thursday have killed at least seven people, including three children, according to Al Jazeera. 

More than 30 bodies of Palestinians are strewn on streets in western Gaza City's Rimal, Sinaa and Katiba areas, according to the Palestinian civil defence. 

Israeli troops launched a new ground incursion on western Gaza City earlier this week and have been heavily bombing the area since. 

The Israeli negotiation team has returned from Doha, Israeli public broadcaster said on Thursday. 

The team return to Israel after a day of talks with senior US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators. 

Israel and Hamas are open that neither of them governs Gaza after the war ends, according to Washington Post columnist David Ignatius. 

In an article published Wednesday, Ignatius said the framework for a three-phased ceasefire deal has been agreed, according to a senior US official. 

Talks are now focused on finalising the complex details, which will take time finalise. 

According to Ignatius, both sides "signalled their acceptance" to give up governance of Gaza in the deal's second phase - which involves transitioning from a temporary to a permanent ceasefire. 

A force, which would be trained by the US and backed by some Arab states, would handle security. Its core would be made up of 2,500 Israeli-vetted supporters of the Palestinian Authority in Gaza. 

A US official said Hamas informed mediators it was "prepared to relinquish authority to the interim governance arrangement," according to Ignatius.

Hamas has held a similar position since the start of the war. 

The Palestinian group signalled early on it was willing to transfer the governance of Gaza to an interim body made up of all Palestinian factions, which is tasked with running the besieged strip's affairs and later facilitating general elections.

US President Joe Biden and Britain's new Prime Minister Keir Starmer discussed their joint desire for a ceasefire in Gaza to get Israeli captives out, aid in and make progress towards a two-state solution, according to a UK government statement on Thursday.

Starmer met Biden in the White House's Oval Office on Wednesday where the two men discussed UK and US ties, the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, and England's soccer win in the semi-finals of Euro 2024.

Reporting by Reuters