Live: Strike announced in Israel amid mounting anger at Netanyahu

The United States on Tuesday disputed a report that cited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as saying he might have convinced US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Israel should keep troops on a border strip between Gaza and Egypt, Reuters reported.

According to a post on X by an Axios journalist, Netanyahu told a gathering that Israel would not withdraw forces from the Philadelphi corridor between Gaza and Egypt as it was a strategic military asset, and he told Blinken this during a meeting in Israel on Monday.

Netanyahu said he might have managed to convince the top US diplomat on the issue, Axios added.

"The only thing Secretary Blinken and the United States are convinced of is the need for getting a cease-fire proposal across the finish line," a senior administration official told reporters en route to Doha.

"Maximalist statements like this are not constructive to getting a ceasefire deal across the finish line, and they certainly risk the ability of implementing ... working level, technical talks to be able to move forward," the official said.

Reporting by Reuters

Medical sources confirmed to Al Jazeera that at least 52 Palestinians were killed today due to Israeli bombardment across Gaza.

This includes 12 people killed in a strike on the Mustafa Hafez School in Gaza City, where hundreds of displaced individuals are seeking shelter.

The Democratic Party has adopted its party platform ahead of the US presidential election in November, and despite pro-Palestinian demonstrators demanding Kamala Harris impose an arms embargo on Israel, the 92-page document makes no mention of halting weapons to the country.

Rather, the party platform touts the "2016 Memorandum of Understanding is ironclad". The 2016 memorandum refers to the Israeli-US agreement signed under former President Barack Obama, which gives Israel $3.8bn in US military aid each year. The memorandum runs until 2028.

The platform was approved on Monday, the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and its section on the Middle East appeared similar to a leaked draft of the platform seen by Middle East Eye last month.

The platform also lists examples of Biden's unwavering support for Israel's war on Gaza, including the sending of arms shipments and providing a diplomatic shield for Israel at the United Nations during votes for a ceasefire and regarding concerns about human rights violations.

Read more: New Democratic Party platform shuns US arms embargo on Israel

The X social media account of prominent Egyptian-American comedian Bassem Youssef, which had nearly 12 million followers, was taken down on Tuesday for reasons that remain unclear.

Prior to the removal of his account, Youssef posted a message on X, formerly known as Twitter, criticising the frequent misuse of antisemitism accusations as a way to stifle discussions.

"Antisemitism was an accusation that used to freeze the blood in people’s veins. I see many people now realizing how this fear tactic is used to shut down conversations and scare people," he wrote. 

In a post on Instagram, Youssef addressed the removal of his account, saying: "I am not sure if or when my Twitter account will be back. I am here on Instagram and Facebook and any other account posing as me on Twitter is fake. I don’t wish to make any media statements or interviews about that now."

The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, also known as 7amleh, has released a report on the digital security situation for Palestinians aged 15 to 30 in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The report reveals that since Israel’s war on Gaza began, youth political participation on social media has decreased, with 39 percent of respondents deleting political and social posts due to fears of potential consequences.

Additionally, 50 percent of users reported that platform restrictions, including shadow banning by Meta (the company behind Facebook and Instagram) have caused them to limit their online activity.

The report also indicates that nearly half of the users have either been questioned and investigated by Israeli security agencies or know of others who have faced similar scrutiny over their social media posts. 

Social media users have ridiculed Israel's official account on X after it published a parody video where Israelis were asked whether they are "white colonisers".

In the video, which aims to challenge the argument that Israel is a "settler colonialist state", social media influencer Zach Sage Fox asked Israelis sunbathing on a Tel Aviv beach whether they felt they fit the description.

If the "contestant" responded with "no", they were given a prize of 100 shekels ($26.9).

On Monday, less than two days after being published, the video had amassed more than six million views but had also garnered a stream of criticism from thousands of social media accounts.

Many highlighted that while they agreed that not all citizens of Israel were white colonisers, all of the "contestants" who featured in the video hailed from countries outside of historic Palestine.

Read more: Social media users ridicule Israel's white coloniser 'game show' video

The Israeli army has admitted that its air strikes may have killed some of the captives whose bodies were recovered on Tuesday.

According to Haaretz, the army said in March its forces had been operating near the tunnel from which the bodies of six Israeli hostages were recovered overnight.

They said the area was previously hit by their jets and it was not yet clear if this resulted in the death of captives.

A spokesperson for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) has said that Israel will "taste the bitterness of waiting" for its retaliation for the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran earlier this month.

"The Zionist regime and its settlers must taste the bitterness of waiting for the response of Iran and the axis of resistance, time is at our disposal and no one can predict what the vengeance of martyr Haniyeh will be and this time our response may be different from the past," said the spokesperson, speaking on state media.

He added that "for now they must wait".

At least 12 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza, the enclave's civil defence said in an update on Tuesday.

"Our crews retrieved 12 martyrs from the Mustafa Hafiz school, which was bombed by the Israeli occupation west of Gaza City," agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the "time has come" to end Israel's assault on Gaza, warning of the potential for a spreading regional war otherwise.

“The ceasefire in Gaza must be the beginning of broader international recognition of the Palestinian state and the implementation of the two-state solution, as this is the basic guarantor of stability in the region,” he said, as a meeting took place between the two in Cairo.

He said there was a “danger of the conflict expanding regionally”.

“The time has come to end the ongoing war, and to resort to wisdom, and to uphold the language of peace and diplomacy,” he said in a statement.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Cairo on Tuesday to discuss ways to move forward with Gaza ceasefire negotiations, Reuters reports.

Sisi warned of the risk of having the Gaza war expand regionally in ways "difficult to imagine".

"The ceasefire in Gaza must be the beginning of broader international recognition of the Palestinian state and the implementation of the two-state solution, as this is the basic guarantor of stability in the region," he added.

In a new statement, Hamas called US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's statement that the group was backing away from a ceasefire "misleading".

"We reaffirm our commitment to what we agreed upon with the mediators on July 2, based on the Biden Declaration and the Security Council resolution, and we call on the mediators to assume their responsibilities and oblige the occupation to accept it," the statement reads, saying that the latest version of the deal they received is vastly different to what they had previously agreed on.

Hamas called on the US to reverse its "blind bias" towards Israel and to "the political and military cover for the genocidal war" waged against the Palestinian people.

The death toll from the Israeli strike on Gaza City's Mustafa Hafez school has risen to 10, Gaza's civil defence told Al Jazeera.

The school was reportedly housing 700 displaced Palestinians.

A lobby group spent tens of thousands of pounds on former British Home Secretary Suella Braverman's four-night visit to Israel in the spring.

According to the parliamentary register of interests, the National Jewish Assembly spent £27,801 ($36,129) on the trip, which Braverman stated was a "solidarity visit to Israel following 7 October attacks".

The sum included close to £1,000 for flights for Braverman and her husband, and close to £27,000 for "accommodation, meals and visits within Israel".

READ MORE: Lobby group paid for former UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman's £28,000 trip to Israel

The Scottish government said on Monday that it is suspending meetings with the Israeli government until "real progress" is made in Gaza ceasefire talks.

The move comes amid calls for the suspension of Scotland's external affairs secretary, Angus Robertson, following his decision to hold a secret meeting with Daniela Grudsky Ekstein, Israel's deputy ambassador to the UK.

Robertson subsequently apologised for the meeting, which he said was held in secret at Israel's request.

The minister also pledged that the government would reject future invitations from Israel until it "co-operates fully with its international obligations on the investigation of genocide and war crimes."

READ MORE: Scottish government suspends meetings with Israeli ministers over war on Gaza