Live: Strike announced in Israel amid mounting anger at Netanyahu

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation reported that the delegation negotiating a ceasefire in Gaza has returned from Cairo to Tel Aviv.

Several people have been killed in an Israeli attack in northern Gaza, according to the Gaza Civil Defence. Three people lost their lives due to Israeli shelling in the Dawlat area of the Zeitoun neighborhood in Gaza City.

Earlier reports mentioned that Hamas's armed wing claimed Palestinian fighters had successfully carried out an ambush in the Zeitoun area. It remains unclear if there are any Israeli military casualties.

Israel provided the US with "considerable" advance notice of its pre-dawn preemptive strike on Hezbollah’s rocket and missile launchers, according to a report by The Time of Israel. 

The report states that the US administration supported the strike but cautioned Israel, both before and after the attack, to avoid actions that could escalate the conflict into a full-scale war.

The message from the US, conveyed through several interactions with Jerusalem, was reportedly: “We support the operation to avert the specific threat, but be careful in your actions; don’t do anything that is likely to lead to a regional war.”

Channel 12 further reports that Israel is now working to advance an arrangement to secure calm along the northern frontier, pressuring Hezbollah through diplomatic channels, including the U.S. and other intermediaries. The goal, according to the report, is to "explain in words, after Israel explained in actions, that it is not in Hezbollah’s interest to escalate or drag the region into war."

The Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a unit of the Israeli Defense Ministry responsible for overseeing aid to Gaza, claimed that polio vaccines for 1.26 million people were delivered to the besieged enclave through the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing.

Neither Palestinian authorities nor UN officials have commented on the delivery.

The news comes after Gaza recorded its first case of polio last week, and as the WHO confirmed that a 10-month-old baby was now paralysed due to the disease.

"It is not enough to bring the vaccines into Gaza [and] protect the cold chain," Phillippe Lazzarrini, commissioner general of Unrwa, said on X. "To have an impact, the vaccines must end up in the mouths of every child under the age of 10."

Israel's war on Gaza is largely responsible for the polio outbreak. 

 With each failed round of negotiations, it is becoming clearer to a global audience where the obstacle to a ceasefire in Gaza lies: in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s brain.

It’s even clearer to Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defence minister, and David Barnea, the director of Mossad, who heads the Israeli negotiating team.

A ceasefire deal on the lines of US President Joe Biden’s statement and the ensuing UN resolution, close to the one Hamas has already approved, would do two things: bring down Netanyahu’s government and deprive him of the power to wage a permanent intermittent war. 

Even if, on paper, a ceasefire could allow him to resume the war at the end of the first phase of hostage and prisoner release, if Israel were to sabotage negotiations, in reality, such an opportunity would diminish after six weeks of peace. 

It is now emerging that the only way for Netanyahu to continue in power, and in freedom, is to keep Israel on the warpath, in a permanent low-level state of conflict on all of its borders. 

Read more: Jordan could pay a steep price for Netanyahu's endless war on Gaza

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address that all Hezbollah drones were successfully launched and entered Israeli airspace, according to a Reuters translation.

Nasrallah stated in a televised address, translated by the Reuters news agency, that the group did not intend to use precision missiles in today's attack but may deploy them in the near future.

He also mentioned that none of Hezbollah's precision or strategic missiles were damaged by Israeli strikes in Lebanon.

Earlier, Hezbollah announced that it had fired 320 Katyusha rockets and drones at Israel. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed that around 100 fighter jets "destroyed thousands of Hezbollah rocket launcher barrels" across more than 40 sites. 

Nasrallah said that Hezbollah will evaluate the impact of its operation today.

The group's leader, stated that Hezbollah will respond again at a later time if the results are considered insufficient, per the translation.

Nasrallah also rejected Israeli military claims that they had prevented a larger attack, insisting that Hezbollah proceeded with its planned operation. 

Israeli soldiers shot two Palestinians near an army outpost in the occupied West Bank, with the military confirming that one was killed and the other wounded.

The Israeli military claimed that the Palestinians attempted to ram a vehicle into army outposts near the illegal Ariel settlement but did not provide further details.

According to the Israeli ambulance service Magen David Adom, a 39-year-old Israeli man is "in very mild condition with a superficial abdominal injury" following the incident.

Israel’s cabinet has approved a $923m expansion in the 2024 state budget to support evacuees until the end of the year, according to the finance ministry.

Thousands of Israelis in the north have been relocated to hotels due to daily rocket fire exchanged between Israel and Hezbollah since 8 October.

Those living near the Gaza-Israel border are also included in what the cabinet refers to as “conflict zones”.

The ministry stated that it was working to bring the budget adjustments to a vote in parliament as soon as possible.

Due to a rise in military spending, the budget deficit reached 8.1 percent of Israel’s gross domestic product in July over the past 12 months, it added

Israel and the Lebanon-based group Hezbollah exchanged messages via intermediaries earlier today in order to prevent further escalation following one of the biggest exchanges of fire between the two foes in 10 months, two diplomats told Reuters.

The main message was that both sides considered Sunday’s intense exchange of bombardment to be “done” and that neither side wanted a full-scale war, one diplomat said.

The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity. 

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has said that the group's retaliatory attack against Israel was delayed due to several factors, including significant Israeli and US military mobilisation.

Nasrallah explained that Hezbollah chose not to retaliate for Israel's killing of its top commander, Fuad Shukr, by targeting civilian areas or infrastructure. Instead, the group opted to strike military sites near Tel Aviv, including a military intelligence base from where Israel's surveillance unit operates.

He also said that Katyusha rockets were launched to divert Israel's Iron Dome and other defence systems, allowing drones to enter Israeli airspace from the Bekaa region, deep within Lebanon, for the first time.

Hamas' armed wing has said it detonated a minefield targeting Israeli armoured vehicles in the Zeytoun neighbourhood of Gaza City.

The Qassam Brigades also claimed a sniper attack on an Israeli soldier near the University College of Applied Sciences, south of the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood of Gaza City.

British Airways has said it is cancelling its flights between London’s Heathrow and Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airports from Sunday to Wednesday.

Wizz Air also said it is “temporarily suspending” flights to and from Israel, citing the "escalating situation in the region".

Gaza's Ministry of Health has confirmed that polio vaccines have arrived in Ramallah, and that preparations were being made for their transfer to Gaza.

In a press statement, the ministry added that the necessary equipment to preserve the vaccines would be distributed at centres in the strip, and called on international organisations to demand a ceasefire so that medical teams could work safely.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) has hailed Hezbollah's retaliatory strikes on Israel as "courageous and bold".

“These attacks have confirmed that the enemy only understands the language of power [violence] and cannot be deterred except by the resistance and its fighters,” PIJ said in a statement on Telegram.

Footage circulated online and verified by Al Jazeera has revealed a Hezbollah projectile striking an Israeli military boat off the coast of Nahariyya, Israel’s northernmost coastal city.

Other images and videos posted online purport to show the damaged interior of the Israeli navy’s Dvora-class fast patrol boat.

So far, no casualties have been reported, but the Israeli military has yet to comment.

مشاهد توثق لحظة سقوط صاروخ أطلقه حـ.ـزب الله على نهاريا وآخر أصاب زورق حربي إسرائيلي قتل على إثره أحد الجنود ضمن ما قيل إنه المرحلة الأولى للرد على اغتيال القيادي فؤاد شكر #حرب_غزة #فيديو pic.twitter.com/ca1pH8Hvh0

— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) August 25, 2024