Live: Gaza ceasefire talks deadlocked as death toll surpasses 100

A United Nations conference hosted by France and Saudi Arabia to work towards a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine has been rescheduled for 28-29 July, diplomats said on Friday, after it was postponed last month when Israel launched a military attack on Iran.

- with reporting from Reuters

Israeli civilians operating heavy machinery in Gaza can earn as much as of $9,000 per month, TheMarker reported on Thursday.

Since the start of the war on Gaza, the Israeli military has been systematically demolishing homes and civilian infrastructure across the Palestinian enclave. 

Heavy machinery has played a central role in this destruction, operated both by soldiers and civilians.

According to TheMarker, a trained heavy equipment operator can earn approximately 1,200 shekels ($360) per day, drawn from the 5,000 shekels ($1,500) the Israeli Ministry of Defence pays daily to the equipment’s owner. 

Private contractors can also choose to work at different rates.

For demolishing a three-storey building, contractors receive 2,500 shekels ($750); for taller buildings, the rate rises to 5,000 shekels ($1,500).

Read more: Israeli civilians paid thousands to demolish Gaza homes

Israel issued forced expulsion orders in multiple areas in Gaza City on Friday.

Wafa news agency reported that the Israeli army ordered residents of Tel al-Hawa and parts of the southern Rimal neighbourhood - both sheltering hundreds of thousands of displaced people - to leave immediately.

Some residents told Wafa that they would not relocate, citing the fact that Israeli bombardments were taking place all across the enclave and no area was safe. 

According to an analysis by Al Jazeera, through similar expulsion threats, Israel has forced the population of Gaza into a 74.4 square-kilometre area of the Gaza Strip, representing about 20 percent of the territory.

Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades released a video on Thursday showing Palestinian fighters killing an Israeli soldier in the Gaza Strip and seizing his weapons, reportedly after deciding not to abduct him.

The footage appears to contradict the Israeli military’s official account of the incident and has drawn criticism in local media.

Commentators accused the army of failing to adequately protect its soldiers on the ground and repeating the same mistakes agaisnt Hamas fighters.

In the video, Hamas fighters are seen targeting an Israeli bulldozer with a locally made anti-armour missile in the Abasan al-Kabira area, east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Israeli reserve soldier Avraham Azulay is shown jumping out of the bulldozer following the strike. Later in the footage, he is seen lying on the ground near Hamas fighters, who appear to seize his weapon before withdrawing from the scene.

Following Wednesday’s raid, Hamas said its fighters “attempted to capture one of the soldiers, but due to battlefield conditions, this was not possible, so they neutralised him and seized his weapon".

The Israeli military, in contrast, stated that its initial investigation found that Hamas fighters had emerged from a tunnel, attacked Israeli forces, and attempted to abduct Azulay.

Read more: Israeli media criticises army after Hamas clip shows soldier kidnapping attempt

An Israeli air strike on southern Lebanon on Friday has killed one person, the Lebanese health ministry said.

In a statement, the health ministry said that an "Israeli enemy" drone strike on a car near al-Numairiya, Nabatiyeh district, killed one person and wounded five others.

There were no immediate comments from the Israeli military on the incident.

Despite a ceasefire agreement signed in November, Israel has launched attacks on Lebanon on a near-daily basis.

The ceasefire required Israel to fully withdraw its troops, but it has kept them in five locations in south Lebanon that it deems strategic.

On Friday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said that while he was open to peaceful relations with Israel, normalisation of ties was "not currently part of Lebanese foreign policy".

An International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) staff member and Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) volunteer were wounded after being shot at in Gaza late on Thursday, the ICRC said in a statement.

It said: "The injured individuals were immediately evacuated and received treatment; both are in stable condition. The mission was launched to evacuate a wounded ICRC staff member and his family who had been unreachable since 4 July due to ongoing hostilities. The previously wounded ICRC colleague and his family members remain unreachable."

The ICRC said that Israeli authorities were notified of the mission, and it took place with its coordination.

"All staff were travelling in illuminated and clearly marked vehicles bearing the Red Cross and Red Crescent emblems," it said.

"The ICRC condemns this attack. This is the second incident in which an ICRC staff member has been injured by bullets in less than a week. Both the PRCS and the ICRC have already faced numerous security incidents over the past few months. The ICRC is outraged by these incidents which are a stark reminder of the grave danger civilians in Gaza face every day."

It added that under international humanitarian law, medical and humanitarian relief personnel must never be attacked. 

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has played down the prospects of normalisation with Israel, while stating he hoped for peaceful relations with the country which still occupies parts of southern Lebanon.

Aoun's statement is the first official reaction to Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar's statement last week, in which he expressed his country's interest in normalising ties with Lebanon and Syria.

Aoun "distinguished between peace and normalisation", according to a statement shared by the presidency on Friday. 

"Peace is the lack of a state of war, and this is what matters to us in Lebanon at the moment. As for the issue of normalisation, it is not currently part of Lebanese foreign policy," the president said in front of a delegation from an Arab think tank.

Lebanon and Syria have technically been at war with Israel since 1948.

A Lebanese official told AFP that Aoun was referring to a return to the 1949 armistice between the two countries, signed after the war which took place a year earlier.

The official said Lebanon "remains committed to the 2002 Arab peace initiative", which states that normalisation would occur with Arab states once Israel withdraws from territories it has occupied since 1967.

Aoun called on Israel to withdraw from five points in southern Lebanon near the Israeli border, which it still occupies.

Israel was required to fully withdraw from southern Lebanon under a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah agreed in November.

Activists are set to stage a second wave of protests this weekend across the UK demanding the government reverse its proscription of the direct action group Palestine Action.

On Saturday, groups of activists will gather for a series of protests coordinated by the campaign group Defend Our Juries (DOJ) in London, Manchester and Cardiff. An independently organised protest will also be staged in Derry in Northern Ireland. 

The protestors plan to hold signs reading: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action." 

This follows the arrest of 29 people under Terrorism Act Section 13, including an 83-year-old retired priest and an emergency worker, for holding the same signs in Parliament Square last weekend.

The participants were detained for 12 hours before being released on bail without charge.

Read more: UK protestors prepare to defy Palestine Action ban in shows of support

The European Union has said it "deeply regrets" US sanctions imposed on the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories,  Francesca Albanese, an EU spokesperson said on Friday.

"We deeply regret the decision to impose sanctions on Francesca Albanese", spokesperson Anouar El Anouni told reporters during a daily EU briefing, adding that the European Union "strongly supports the United Nations human rights system."

Announcing the sanctions on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Italian lawyer had launched “political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel”. 

The sanctions follow Albanese's scathing report published on 30 June, in which she named over 60 companies - including major US technology firms like Google, Amazon and Microsoft - she said were involved in "the transformation of Israel's economy of occupation to an economy of genocide".

The report called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) and national judicial systems to investigate and prosecute corporate executives and companies. It also called on UN member states to pursue sanctions and asset freezes. 

Current and former UN rapporteurs on Thursday denounced US sanctions on Francesca Albanese as an unprecedented measure targeting a critical part of the United Nations’ human rights system. 

“It's a dangerous precedent because it creates a chilling effect for all special rapporteurs,” said Agnes Callamard, head of human rights giant Amnesty International and a former UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. 

“It undermines their independence and their commitment to do their job without fear or pressure of any kind,” she told Middle East Eye. 

“There is also the risk that other governments may engage in copycat if they are unhappy or dissatisfied with a special rapporteur's report.”

UN special rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to monitor, report on and advise on specific human rights issues or country situations. 

Read more: Francesca Albanese sanctions ‘create chilling effect’ on UN experts, warn rapporteurs

Wafa news agency has reported that Israeli attacks in Gaza City and Khan Younis have killed three people, including two women.

According to the report, an Israeli drone strike targeting the area around Salah al-Din Mosque in the Zeitoun neighbourhood in southern Gaza City killed one person.

Meanwhile, in Khan Younis, Israeli forces shot and killed a woman in the Qizan Abu Rashwan area in the southern part of the city.

A second woman succumbed to injuries sustained in a previous Israeli attack on a tent in al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis, which killed her husband and daughter.

The scandal-plagued Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US and Israeli-backed initiative to distribute aid in Gaza, has said that UN figures on the number of aid seekers killed at distribution points are "false and misleading".

The UN rights office (OHCHR) said on Friday it had recorded at least 798 killings of Palestinian aid seekers near US-run aid points and convoys run by other relief groups in Gaza over the last six weeks. 

Of that figure, 615 were killed near GHF sites and 183 were thought to be on aid convoy routes, OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told reporters at a press briefing.

However, GHF told Reuters that "the most deadly attacks on aid sites have been linked to UN convoys". 

The OHCHR said its figures are based on a range of sources such as information from hospitals in the Gaza Strip, cemeteries, families, Palestinian health authorities, NGOs and its partners on the ground.

Shamdasani said that most of the injuries to Palestinians in the vicinity of aid distribution hubs recorded by OHCHR since May 27 were gunshot wounds.

"We've raised concerns about atrocity crimes having been committed and the risk of further atrocity crimes being committed where people are lining up for essential supplies such as food," she said. 

CNN reported on Tuesday that the US government ignored "critical concerns" raised by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) around the initiative's ability to deliver aid safely and effectively in Gaza.

A source familiar with GHF's application told CNN on the condition of anonymity that the paperwork was "abysmal" and "sorely lacking real content”.

UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to work with GHF, saying it serves Israeli military goals and violates basic humanitarian principles. 

Israeli troops have admitted to deliberately shooting and killing unarmed Palestinians waiting for aid in the Gaza Strip, following direct orders from their superiors.

On July 1, more than 170 NGOs called for immediate action to end the “deadly” US and Israeli-backed aid scheme and urged a return to UN-led aid coordination mechanisms. 

Reporting by Reuters

Two senior partners at the Boston Consultancy Group (BCG) have resigned following the controversy over their involvement in the US-based aid project in Gaza.

Last week, the Financial Times reported that BCG staff had modelled costs to "relocate" Palestinians from Gaza and entered into a multimillion-dollar contract to help launch the  US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

The GHF has been beset by controversy since it emerged publicly in May, with the UN and aid organisations warning that its plans to take over aid distribution in Gaza failed to meet humanitarian principles and would encourage the forced displacement of Palestinians.

Gaza health authorities also reported that more than 700 Palestinians seeking aid have been killed since GHF's aid distribution centres were launched.

According to the Wall Street Journal, BCG's involvement with the project has outraged long-term clients, while employees and BCG alumni have criticised the collaboration.

In light of the scandal, BCG’s chief risk officer, Adam Farber, and the head of its social-impact practice, Rich Hutchinson, are reportedly resigning from their roles, but will remain as senior partners.

Read more: Senior partners at BCG 'step down over Gaza humanitarian controversy'

The EU "deeply regrets" the US decision to impose sanctions on United Nations special rapporteur Francesca Albanese, a spokesperson said on Friday.

"The European Union strongly supports the United Nations human rights system and we deeply regret the decision to impose sanctions on Francesca Albanese," said EU spokesman Anouar El Anouni.

Announcing the sanctions earlier this week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Italian lawyer had launched “political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel”. 

The move means that any assets Albanese has in the US will be frozen, and that her ability to travel to America will likely be restricted. 

At least 10 Palestinians have been killed and several others wounded after Israeli forces opened fire on crowds of people waiting for humanitarian aid in the al-Shakoush area, northwest of Rafah, in southern Gaza.

The crowds had gathered at the only functioning distribution point of the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. 

Al Jazeera reported that casualties had been transported to the nearby Nasser Hospital, after both Israeli troops and security contractors shot at hungry Palestinians to disperse crowds. 

Earlier on Friday, the UN Human Rights Office said that it has recorded the killings of at least 798 Palestinians seeking aid, either at GHF sites or near humanitarian convoys run by the UN and other groups.

At least 57,680 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since October 2023 in Gaza, with over 137,409 others wounded.