Live: Strike announced in Israel amid mounting anger at Netanyahu

The pro-Israel lobbying group J Street endorsed Kamala Harris as striking a middle ground between empathy for Palestinian suffering and a firmer approach to Israel on the sidelines of the Democratic Convention.

“This party’s ticket brings a balance that recognizes that we have to have rights and freedom and safety and security for both Israelis and Palestinians — that is what separates us from the Republican Party,” Jeremy Ben Ami, who heads J Street, said.

He said Harris could capture the vote of Jewish Americans.

“It is the mainstream American Jewish position to feel that this government of Israel is out of step with our values and the ways in which we view the war.”

The last 10 days have witnessed the largest forced displacement of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since 7 October, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said.

The wave of forcible transfer has occurred amid a spike in deadly  Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians.

Three communities numbering 119 Palestinians have been forced from their homes as a result of settler attacks, the construction of new outposts and moves to block water access.

“These attacks, occurring in broad daylight under the watching eyes and the protective force of the Israeli military, highlight the unlawfulness of Israel’s presence in the West Bank, as recently ruled by the International Court of Justice,” Allegra Pacheco, chief of party of the NRC-led West Bank Protection Consortium (WBPC), said.

The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) has called on the UK’s Attorney General’s Office to revoke the charity status for the Jewish National Fund (JNF).

ICJP said that the Jewish National Fund is financially supporting Israel’s military and Israel’s construction of settlements in the occupied  West Bank that are considered illegal under international law.

“For too long, the JNF has been allowed to fund illegal Israeli settlements and the Israeli military, throughout a genocide. Not only have they been allowed to continue operating for over a century, but they actually receive tax exemptions from the British government,” ICJP legal advisor Dania Abul Haj said.

Israeli politician Avigdor Lieberman has called on Israel to carry out a full blockade of Gaza that includes cutting off food, water and medical supplies.

“Should we stay [in Gaza]? No, we should do the opposite - complete disengagement... Close all the crossings, there are no more supplies, no water, no electricity and no goods [allowed in],” he said.

“If we have already taken on this crazy process called disengagement, we need to close all the crossings, no more water, no goods.”

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum has announced it will boycott the Israeli government's state memorial on the anniversary of the 7 October Hamas attack, the Times of Israel reported. 

“The Hostage Families Forum will join with border communities and towns on the Gaza border and south to mark the anniversary of the massacre, to demand the restoration of security, the return of the abductees, the restoration of the communities and the investigation of the failures that led to the terrible disaster on October 7, 2023,” the forum said in a statement.

The group plans to hold an alternative ceremony in the Gaza border towns.

Meanwhile, National Unity chair Benny Gantz has urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to shift responsibility for the memorial ceremony from Transportation minister Miri Regev to the impacted communities.

An Israeli air strike has stuck an Unrwa school, Salah al-Din, in the west of Gaza City, where hundreds of people have sought refuge, according to the Palestinian Civil Defence.

“In an initial tally, two people have been killed and 15 wounded in the attack on the school,” Al Jazeera quoted a spokesman for the civil defence saying.

The Israeli military said it was “a precise strike on Hamas terrorists” on its official Telegram channel.

The Israeli military issued new ejection orders for displaced Palestinians packed in the ever-shrinking so-called “humanitarian zone” in the central Gaza Strip, as bombing in the region intensified. 

The new orders affect parts of the small Deir al-Balah city in central Gaza, where most displaced Palestinians have been taking shelter for months, particularly after the invasion of Rafah in May. 

Deir al-Balah was at the heart of Israel’s “humanitarian zone” where civilians could take safe shelter. However, the military has repeatedly bombed such areas since the war began over 10 months ago.

READ MORE: Israel shrinks 'humanitarian zone’ with new Deir al-Balah ejection orders

Israeli banks are refusing shekel cash transfers from Palestinian banks in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian officials.

"In the next few days, banks in Palestine will be unable to finance trade operations between Palestinian and Israeli merchants, as their ability to make financial transfers is directly connected to shipping the accumulated shekel banknotes to their Israeli counterparts," the Palestinian Monetary Authority (PMA) told Reuters.

The PMA warned that this will disrupt Palestinians’ access to essential goods and services, as they will be unable to make payments through official banking systems.

A senior official from the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, more commonly known as Fatah, has accused Israel of assassinating Khalil al-Maqdah to "ignite a regional war".

Tawfiq Tirawi, a member of Fatah’s central committee in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, told AFP: “The assassination of a Fatah official is further proof that Israel aims to provoke a full-scale war in the region.”

Maqdah played "a central role" in "supporting the Palestinian people and its resistance" during the Gaza war and had an "important role in supporting resistance cells" in the West Bank for years, Fatah said in a statement. 

The Israeli army confirmed it has killed Fatah official Khalil Makdah in its strike on Sidon, south Lebanon.

The army and the Shin Bet, Israel's internal intelligence security agency, accused Makdah and his brother, senior Fatah member Mounir, of working with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) from Lebanon to transfer money and weapons to the West Bank.

There has been a widespread global outcry against the ongoing genocide in Gaza, but it has yet to be translated into concrete steps at the international level to stop Israel. 

Amid the ongoing violence and oppression in Gaza, this discrepancy between global popular will and state/institutional action has fuelled the public’s growing distrust in the international system, and perhaps most importantly, in international law itself.

Amid this backdrop, the need to reevaluate the functions of international law has become extremely pressing. 

READ MORE: Does international law even matter anymore? Opinion by Selçuk Aydın and M Behesti Aydogan

Gaza's health ministry said 50 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on the enclave in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 40,223 since 7 October.

Additionally, 92,981 have been wounded since the start of the war.

Quoting sources involved in ceasefire negotiations, Haaretz reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is "once again sabotaging the talks".

"His statements indicating that Israel would not withdraw from the Gaza-Egypt border, at a time when sensitive negotiations are underway for finding a solution there, only make it more difficult to find a solution, increasing suspicions, signalling to Hamas and the mediators that Netanyahu is uninterested in a deal," one source said.

While an American source denied that Netanyahu made such comments, the latter's office did not deny the quotes attributed to him.

Another source said that "Netanyahu is consistently undermining the negotiations and delaying a deal. His move toward [US Secretary of State Antony] Blinken on Monday was the exception. His statements on Tuesday at that forum were, for him, a return to routine."

Israel's outgoing ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, said that the organisation's building in Jerusalem should be "erased from the face of the earth". 

Erdan made the remarks in an interview with i24News, a preview of which was published on Tuesday evening. 

"The UN building in Jerusalem needs to be closed and erased from the face of the earth. This building may look beautiful on the outside, but it is crooked and distorted from within." 

READ MORE: Outgoing Israeli envoy calls for UN building in Jerusalem to be 'erased from earth'

The Israel Diamond Exchange has reported a drop in its exports and membership in 2024, according to Israel media outlet Ynet news.

The exchange president, Nissim Zuaretz, said that for the first time in its history, the annual number of retirees has exceeded the exchange's new members.

"In the best years of the industry, we received 200 new members a year, in the past year only 30," Zuaretz said.

READ MORE: Israel Diamond Exchange in crisis as exports plummet in 2024