Live: Strike announced in Israel amid mounting anger at Netanyahu

An Israeli reserve officer was killed in the central Gaza Strip earlier on Saturday, according to the Israeli military.

The officer has been named as Major Yotam Itzhak Peled, aged 34.

He was killed by Hamas-planted roadside bombs in the Netzarim Corridor area, the military has said.

A British civil servant has resigned over concerns that the government is complicit in Israeli war crimes in Gaza, two sources familiar with the situation have told Middle East Eye.

One of the sources, a British government official familiar with developments in the Foreign Office, told MEE that a senior official in the department sent an email to staff after Smith’s apparent resignation, saying their concerns were heard and a listening session would be held soon.

The Foreign Office declined to comment on the resignation and did not respond to a request for comment on the subsequent email sent by the senior official.

The apparent resignation letter by diplomat Mark Smith first emerged when prominent journalist Hind Hassan posted its contents on X on Friday evening.

Read more: British Foreign Office official resigns over UK 'complicity in war crimes' in Gaza

A video circulating on socia media shows two young Palestinian citizens of Israel being attacked while on the road.

The video, captured by a CCTV camera, is believed to be from the village of Abu Sinan.

A video circulating on social media shows two young Palestinian citizens of Israel being attacked on the road. Users said the video, captured by a CCTV camera on 14 August, is from the village of Abu Sinan and that the victims are exemplary students at their high school. pic.twitter.com/ltAnbhvBfo

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) August 17, 2024

The Israeli negotiating team has expressed "cautious optimism" on the likelihood of securing a deal out of negotiations in Doha. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office has said the negotiating team "expressed cautious optimism to the prime minister regarding the possibility of advancing a deal based on the latest American proposal."

The proposal "contains components that are acceptable to Israel", according to the prime minister's office.

Al Jazeera Arabic has reported that several people have been killed and injured due to Israeli shelling in central Gaza.

The shelling targeted a home in the al-Hakr area, south of Deir al-Balah.

An Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon has killed at least 10 people.

The Lebanese health minister, Firass Abiad, told the BBC that the strike hit a building in the city of Nabatieh. Israel said it was targeting a Hezbollah weapons depot, but the owner of the building denied this.

Hezbollah has fired rockets into northern Israel in return.

Palestinian Health Minister Majed Abu Ramadan has announced an extensive polio vaccination campaign for children under 10 in the Gaza Strip, set to begin in the coming days, according to the Wafa news agency.

The initiative will reportedly be conducted in collaboration with Unrwa, Unicef and the WHO.

The first phase of the campaign will involve the administration of include 1.2 million doses of the type 2 polio vaccine, Abu Ramadan said, with 400,000 additional doses currently being purchased.

Lebanon’s National News Agency confirmed that one person has been killed in the Israeli drone strike on a motorcycle near Tyre, south Lebanon.

Israel says it killed Hussein Ibrahim Kaseb, a commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force.

Hezbollah did not immediately comment on the attack.

An Israeli "technical" delegation will travel to Cairo on Saturday to discuss an American proposal regarding the reopening of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, al-Araby al-Jadeed reports.

The delegation, which does not include any high-ranking officials, will meet with officials from Egypt, Qatar and the US.

The report also said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected an Egyptian and American plan to monitor the crossing, insisting that Israel must have a role in overseeing security.

The Palestinian health ministry said that 69 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza in the past 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 40,074 since 7 October.

Additionally, 92,537 people have been wounded since the start of the war.

Lebanese media outlets report that an Israeli drone strike targeted a motorcycle near the southern Lebanese city of Tyre.

الغارة الاسرائيلية التي استهدفت دراجة نارية على طريق قدموس قضاء #صور pic.twitter.com/3peaAlFqO1

— Voice of Lebanon 100.3 100.5 (@sawtlebnan) August 17, 2024

The following text talks about embracing Palestine through poetic language, which can bring to the fore what is often considered “unspeakable”, forcing us to invest in the labour of deciphering and understanding. 

Poets describe how people interact, fail each other, and embrace each other. 

There are deadly embraces: ones that smother, obfuscate, and annihilate - yet they cannot erase Palestine. There are also unintended embraces: ones that haunt, but mutually entangle both parties.

Lastly, there are friendly embraces: warm and comforting, yet faraway, and unable to offer protection from Israel’s ongoing process of dehumanisation.

READ MORE: How to embrace Palestine through poetry, opinion by Brigitte Herremans

A barrage of rockets was reportedly fired from Lebanon towards northern Israel.

This follows an Israeli strike on Wadi al-Kafour, near Nabatieh in southern Lebanon, which killed at least 10 Syrian nationals.

מטח כבד לגליל העליון: חיזבאללה שיגר עשרות רקטות, יירוטים באזור צפת

צילום: שימוש לפי סעיף 27א' pic.twitter.com/SUvLRorVyz

— החדשות - N12 (@N12News) August 17, 2024

The drums of regional war are once again reverberating across the Middle East.

In a move signalling the gravity of the situation, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin this week informed Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant of the accelerated deployment of the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group to the region alongside the submarine USS Georgia.

On Tuesday, the Biden administration approved $20bn in weapons sales to Israel.

This escalation comes in anticipation of possible Iranian retaliation for Israel's recent assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

But Iran may not act alone.

READ MORE: How US policy in the Middle East is unravelling, opinion by Jehad Abusalim

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates:

• An Israeli strike on a family home in al-Zawaida, central Gaza killed 15 members of the same family, including nine children and three women, the AFP reports
• An Israeli air strike on Nabatieh, southern Lebanon killed at least 10 Syrian citizens, including two children, Lebanon's state news agency said
• Israel has issued new evacuation orders for neighbourhood in central Gaza's al-Maghazi refugee camp
• US President Joe Biden told reporters he is "optimistic" about a truce deal in Gaza but that negotiations are "far from over"