Gaza live: Israeli protesters demand ceasefire as war enters 10th month
Live Updates
The Israeli army has released footage and photos of its troops conducting drills simulating combat scenarios near the border with Lebanon.
The exercises were intended to train Israeli soldiers in “responding to various threats with the cooperation of the infantry, armor and fire forces," the army said in a statement on its website.
The State of Palestine's overall gross domestic product (GDP) has declined by 35 percent in the first quarter of 2024, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) reports.
There was a stark difference between the West Bank, which witnessed a 25 percent decline, and the Gaza Strip, where the number was 86 percent amid the ongoing Israeli war.
The manufacturing sector decreased by 29 percent in the West Bank and 95 percent in Gaza, while the construction sector decreased by 42 percent in the West Bank and essentially collapsed in Gaza, with a 99 percent decrease.
Gaza's health ministry said that 37,765 people have been killed by Israeli attacks on the enclave since 7 October, 47 of them in the past 24 hours.
Additionally, 86,429 people have been wounded since the start of the war.
Another child has died of malnutrition in Gaza, Reuters reports.
The girl died in northern Gaza's Kamal Adwan Hospital, bringing the death toll from malnutrition and dehydration among children to 31, though health officials say recording cases during the war is difficult.
Palestine’s national football team will learn on Thursday who they will play in the next Asian World Cup qualifying round.
Like other teams, they are faced with a complex system of group stages and playoffs as they bid to be among the finalists at the next edition of the expanded tournament in the US, Canada and Mexico in 2026.
Unlike other teams, Palestine are competing against the backdrop of war in Gaza, in which football players have been among tens of thousands killed by Israeli forces.
The 2026 World Cup is set to be the biggest ever, contested by 48 teams, compared with 32 at the last tournament in Qatar in 2022.
The number of qualifying places for Asian teams has doubled from four to eight, offering outsiders such as Palestine their best ever chance of reaching the finals.
READ MORE: How Palestine could qualify for the 2026 World Cup
Residents are fleeing Gaza City's Shujaiya following intense Israeli air strikes on the neighbourhood, with several deaths and injuries reported by journalists on the ground.
Israeli tanks are reportedly advancing on the eastern Gaza City neighbourhood, which has suffered heavy attacks from Israeli forces since the beginning of the war.
غارات عنيفة وأحزمة نارية تستهدف حي الشجاعية والتفاح الشرقي ونزوح جماعي لآلاف الأسر تحت النار pic.twitter.com/KimLUHUCAh
— Sabri 🇵🇸 (@sabrifarra24) June 27, 2024
The Israeli army said that its fighter jets attacked the al-Hasna school in southern Gaza's Khan Younis.
The military said the school served as "the headquarters of the terrorist organisation Hamas" from which it "planned, directed and carried out many attacks" against soldiers in Gaza, without providing any evidence.
The army did not say if there were any casualties, but claims it used "precise weaponry".
One Israeli soldier was killed and 17 others were wounded in a blast in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, Al Jazeera Arabic reports.
Palestinian fighters in the area ambushed Israeli soldiers during clashes earlier on Thursday, leaving some in critical condition.
Israel’s warmongering against Lebanon is a longtime practice in times of war and peace alike. This week, Britain’s Telegraph published unsubstantiated allegations from anonymous airport staff, swiftly denied by Lebanese officials, that Hezbollah was importing and storing Iranian weapons at Beirut’s international airport.
Such reckless accusations bolster Israel’s psychological warfare, which has reached a fever pitch amid speculation that Tel Aviv is planning a full-scale attack on Lebanon once it winds down operations in Rafah.
Israel’s reported redeployment of offensive troops to the Lebanese border, along with the regional redeployment of US aircraft carriers Eisenhower and Roosevelt in the Eastern Mediterranean, have added more fuel to the fire.
But a cool-headed analysis reveals the serious challenges Israel would face should it escalate the ongoing war of attrition into a major offensive. Since 8 October, Israel’s attacks on Lebanon have caused death, trauma and displacement among civilians, in addition to successful assassinations of Hezbollah fighters and commanders.
READ MORE: Israel-Lebanon conflict: Hezbollah will be a formidable foe if war escalates, opinion by Hicham Safieddine
Good morning Middle East Eye readers,
Here are the latest updates:
- Israeli forces hit northern Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp overnight, killing several people, according to the Wafa news agency
- An Israeli strike near Sayyida Zainab, southern Syria killed two people, Syrian state media reports
- The Israeli military conducted over 113 military raids in East Jerusalem and the West Bank over the 20-23 June period, arresting more than 80 Palestinians, the UN says
- Reuters reports that the US will maintain the pause on a shipment of heavy bombs to Israel that have been held up since May
- Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has warned during his visit to Washington that Israel can take Lebanon "back to the Stone Age" in a war with Hezbollah, but still prefers a diplomatic solution
Our live coverage from Gaza will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.
Here are some of the day's key developments:
- Gaza's death toll has risen to 37,718
- Israel demolished 17 houses in the occupied West Bank in one day
- Israeli strike on Beit Lahiya Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza has risen to 15 people
- More than 60% of people in Europe believe the EU should suspend free trade with Israel, a poll shows
- Turkish President Erdogan said that his country stands in solidarity with Lebanon
- Houthi's and Islamic Resistance in Iraq target ship in port of Haifa
- The US is maintaining a pause on a shipment of heavy munitions for Israel
- Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir says he has ordered a further reduction in the amount of food offered to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails
- At least five Lebanese civilians injured by Israeli attack in southern Lebanon
An Israeli strike on a two-storey building in the town of Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon on Wednesday night wounded five people, Lebanese state media reported.
According to medical sources, the five injured civilians as well as nine others suffering from smoke inhalation have been transported to the hospital.
Civil defense forces are reportedly working to remove the rubble and locate missing persons.
Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir says he has ordered a further reduction in the amount of food offered to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
After 7 October, Ben Gvir closed prison canteens and kitchens, leaving Palestinian detainees entirely reliant on the prisons themselves for food.
Following dozens of testimonies from security prisoners and detainees describing that the Prison Service has significantly reduced their food rations, to the point of starvation, causing them to shed dozens of kilograms, a petition was filed by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI).
The petition is being heard on Wednesday by the High Court of Justice.
In a letter to the petitioners, Ben Gvir wrote that the reduction of food given to prisoners was meant for deterrent purposes.
"There is no starvation, but my policy does call for reducing conditions, including food and calories," the letter reads.
He also wrote that “the changes in incarceration conditions, including the changes in food, are directly affecting deterrence, with potential assailants abstaining from committing terrorist actions so as not to be put in 'the occupation's prisons'."
ACRI has challenged the food restrictions in court, arguing they amount to a policy of starvation.
The University of Waterloo in Canada has filed a lawsuit against its students for continuing its pro-Palestine encampment urging the university to disclose and divest from Israel.
According to reports in the Canadian press, administrators were suing the encampment for $1.5m in damages including "trespass[ing], damage to property, intimidation and ejectment".
The university alleges the student encampment has damaged the school's reputation, driven up administrative and operational costs for the university and depreciated the university's property values.
Protesters are being urged to disband the camp and vacate immediately, as well as return school property to its original state before the encampment.
The legal injunction was filed on Tuesday and comes several days after administrators issued a trespassing notice to the encampment.
It also comes two weeks after the university agreed to be more transparent about companies it invests in as part of the disclose and divest demands made by the student movement.
READ MORE: Canadian university sues its own students over encampment for Palestine
Only 1,000 tonnes of the 7,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid shipped to war-ravaged Gaza from Cyprus has been distributed because of what USAID officials have called "insecurity".
The remaining 6,000 tonnes was on shore in secure conditions but has yet to be distributed, the officials said on Wednesday.
The sea corridor linking Cyprus with the Gaza Strip opened in March, delivering a fraction of the basic supplies needed by the 2.3 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
