Live: Strike announced in Israel amid mounting anger at Netanyahu

Five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on the Nur Shams refugee camp in the West Bank on Monday, the Palestinian health ministry said in a statement.

Aljazeera is reporting a raid by Israeli forces in the town of Turmus Ayya, north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

The videos show military vehicles and soldiers patrolling the town’s streets. 

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby announced on Monday that negotiations underway in Cairo to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza will continue for the next few days as parties try to overcome differences.

One of the issues that will be tackled by the working groups will be around the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, Kirby said.

The exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah over the weekend has reportedly not had an impact on the talks in Cairo.

The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates on Monday condemned far-right Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir’s remarks calling for building a synagogue at Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem, state-run Petra news website reported.

Earlier on Monday, Israel’s ultra-right-wing Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir repeated calls for Jews to be allowed to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

Ben Gvir’s statement is “a violation of international law and an unacceptable provocation that requires a clear-cut international position condemning it”, official spokesman of the ministry Sufian al-Qudah said.

Jordan will take legal action at international courts against attacks on the holy sites, which are a dangerous escalation that Jordan will confront by all possible means, he added.

The first batch of polio vaccines has arrived in the Gaza Strip, weeks after alarms were raised over the first confirmed case of the disease in the enclave in the past 25 years.

Last Friday, the WHO said that a 10-month-old baby had been paralysed with polio, raising fears of a wider outbreak given the lack of proper sanitation.

Over 640,000 Palestinian children need the vaccine, according to the UN.

A number of press freedom groups have called on the EU to sanction Israeli officials over repeated violations of media rights in the occupied Palestinian territories.

In a letter addressed to EU diplomat Josep Borrell and the European Commission's executive vice president, Valdis Dombrovskis, the rights groups - including the International Press Institute (IPI), Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Free Press Unlimited (FPU) - said action needed to be taken over the repeated violations.

“These are part of widespread and systematic abuses committed by Israeli authorities in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and elsewhere, as documented or acknowledged by Israeli, Palestinian and international NGOs, UN experts, the International Court of Justice, and in a request for arrest warrants by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court,” the letter said.

“These violations should trigger the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and further EU targeted sanctions against those responsible."

Since October 2023, there have been more than 120 Palestinian journalists and media workers killed by Israel in Gaza.

The British government's attorney general has made a significant intervention in the ongoing review of whether to ban arms sales to Israel.

Richard Hermer told Foreign Office officials they need to be certain that weapons have not been used to breach international humanitarian law if they will continue to be sold to Israel, the Guardian reported on Sunday.

Hermer, an experienced lawyer who has often spoken out against Israeli breaches of international law, was appointed attorney general by the new Labour government just days after its election win in early July.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy has said he commissioned new legal advice into Israel's compliance with international humanitarian law in its war on Gaza on his first day in office.

In late July, sources told MEE that the government planned to introduce restrictions to arms sales on the final day of parliament before summer recess.

Read more: Attorney general says UK must be sure arms sold to Israel not used illegally

A spokesperson for the Palestinian presidency has described far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir's desire to establish a synagogue inside Al-Aqsa Mosque as "very dangerous".

Earlier on Monday, Ben Gvir told Israel's army radio: "If I could do what I wanted, a synagogue would also be established on the Temple Mount [the Jewish name for the Al-Aqsa site]."

Palestinian presidency spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh said that attempts to "tamper with Al-Aqsa" sought to drag the region into a "religious war". He said that the area, also referred to as Haram al-Sharif, belonged to Muslims only.

Abu Rudeineh called on Washington to urge Israel's far-right government to abide by the decades-long legal and historical status quo at the site in occupied East Jerusalem.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is an Islamic site where unsolicited visits, prayers and rituals by non-Muslims are forbidden, according to long-standing international agreements. 

Israeli groups, in coordination with authorities, have long violated the delicate arrangement and facilitated raids on the site and performed prayers and religious rituals.

Ben Gvir, and several other far-right politicians and members of Israel's government, have frequently joined the raids on Al-Aqsa.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement on Monday that there had been no change in the status quo. 

The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) said that only three out of 18 of central Gaza's Deir al-Balah water wells are functioning, leading to an 85 percent water shortfall.

"Not only are people in Gaza in constant fear for their lives, but they struggle to meet even their most basic needs," the agency said on X.

An increasing number of Palestinians are being displaced from Deir al-Balah, as the Israeli army expands its ground operations in the area.

Due to ongoing military operations in Deir Al-Balah, only 3 out of 18 water wells there are still functioning, resulting in an 85% water shortfall.

Not only are people in #Gaza in constant fear for their lives, but they struggle to meet even their most basic needs. #CeasefireNow pic.twitter.com/d8N3ZB2tvu

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) August 26, 2024

Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has said that if he could, he would build a synagogue on the Al-Asqa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem. 

Under a longstanding international agreement, Jews are not allowed to pray on the site. 

"If I could do what I wanted, a synagogue would also be established on the Temple Mount," Ben Gvir told Israel's Army Radio on Monday morning. Jewish tradition refers to the Al-Aqsa site as Temple Mount.

"If I were to say that Muslims are not allowed to pray, you would kill me."

Ben Gvir said that he would not prevent a Muslim from bringing a prayer mat to the Western Wall, an important Jewish site in Jerusalem's Old City.

READ MORE: Israel's Ben Gvir says he wants to build a synagogue in Al-Aqsa Mosque complex

Gaza's health ministry said that 40,435 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on the enclave since 7 October, 30 of them in the last 24 hours.

Additionally, 93,534 have been wounded since the start of the war.

The reported Israeli drone strike on a vehicle near Sidon, south Lebanon injured three people, Lebanon's l'Orient Today reports.

The target of the strike has reportedly survived, and is hiding in a building.

🔴 [#Pictures] The strike injured three people who were in nearby buildings, which were partially damaged.

The target of the strike was injured before he could get out of the vehicle and is now hiding in a building near the scene.

📷 Muntasser Abdallah pic.twitter.com/3yiXGijePc

— L'Orient Today (@lorienttoday) August 26, 2024

One day after they buried their brother, the al-Abadla siblings found his leg about 200 meters away from where he was killed by what they believe was an Israeli drone strike in Gaza.

Ahmed Saeed Masoud al-Abadla, 29, who had Down syndrome, had been displaced for around nine months, living in a tent in Mawasi al-Qarara in Gaza’s Khan Younis along with his mother and married brother, Feras.

Before going missing for three days, Ahmed wanted to return to his home in Qarara to inspect the damage during an Israeli incursion into the southern Gaza Strip.

“Ahmed had exceptional cognitive abilities for someone with his condition. When he joined the Right to Life School as a child, he received a certificate proving that he was one of the smartest children with Down syndrome,” his brother, Feras, told Middle East Eye.

READ MORE: Gaza family accuses Israel of killing Palestinian with Down syndrome during incursion

Lebanese media reports are saying an Israeli drone strike hit a vehicle in Aabra, near the southern Lebanese city of Sidon on Monday.

#عاجل استهداف سيارة في منطقة #عبرا في #صيدا pic.twitter.com/nU7z1qHYbG

— Annahar (@Annahar) August 26, 2024

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that "there is no change to the status quo on the Temple Mount", after far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir claimed that Jews could legally pray at the site.

Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, is referred to as Temple Mount in Judaism and is considered holy to Jews.

Ben Gvir had told Israeli army radio earlier on Monday that "the policies on the Temple Mount allow prayer, period" and said that he would allow the construction of a synagogue there.