Live: Israeli soldiers kill unarmed Palestinians as they surrender in Jenin

Palestinian Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian Shahin has condemned flights transporting Palestinians from Gaza to South Africa, describing them as part of an illegal ethnic cleansing process.

The transfers, organised by Al-Majd Europe, have prompted Shahin to caution Palestinians against engaging with the group or any other organisation attempting to remove them from the Strip.

“Not enough is known about this organisation … but we are investigating, and we are getting several sources of information on the illegality of what they are doing,” she said following a bilateral meeting in Manila with the Philippines’ Secretary of Foreign Affairs Theresa Lazaro.

“What they are doing is actually displacement and part of the ethnic cleansing process. We need to send very strong messages to the people of Gaza not to have any dealings with Al-Majd or any other company doing the same kind of work,” Shahin added.

She emphasised that these flights constitute an attack on Palestinian rights and sovereignty, warning that participation could further endanger those being moved.

Israeli authorities have been accused of coordinating with such organisations in efforts that critics say aim to forcibly displace Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank, in violation of international law.

Al Jazeera journalists on the ground say blasts have echoed through Gaza since the early hours, even though the ceasefire is supposedly in effect.

Most of the strikes hit zones on the far side of the yellow demarcation line, territory Israel’s military occupies and has largely sealed off from the rest of the enclave.

Residents living near the line told Al Jazeera that the noise has barely stopped. Families say they are hearing repeated blasts and drones overhead, long after the ceasefire came into force.

People in the area also report seeing Israeli tanks and bulldozers levelling homes inside these zones, wiping out what remains of residential streets and making any Palestinian return even harder.

Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul welcomed the controversial UN Security Council’s move to back a United States–drafted plan to halt Israel’s genocide on Gaza, calling the vote “good news” during a visit to Belgrade on Tuesday.

The resolution, adopted on Monday, endorses President Donald Trump’s proposal for a ceasefire and gives a green light for an international stabilisation force to enter the devastated Palestinian territory.

Washington pushed the text through after years of shielding Israel from censure as Gaza endured relentless bombardment, mass displacement and famine. 

Speaking alongside his Serbian counterpart, Wadephul said Germany stood ready to “play a constructive role in reconstruction of Gaza,” a task humanitarian groups say has become monumental after Israel’s destruction of civilian infrastructure across the enclave.

Israel’s war on Gaza during the past two years, along with its assaults on the West Bank, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, and Syria, has left its military overstretched.

While most Jewish men and women are expected to serve at least two years in the army, one group has always been exempt - ultra-Orthodox Jews, also known as the Haredim.

In June 2024, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled they could be conscripted, leading to mass opposition from the Haredim.

Last month, hundreds of thousands of Haredi men filled Jerusalem with one of the largest ultra-Orthodox demonstrations in years.

The opposition is bad for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who relies on ultra-Orthodox parties in his governing coalition.

Read more: Israel's genocide in Gaza: Why are ultra-Orthodox Jews against conscription?

Israel has formally asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to remove prosecutor Karim Khan from all matters involving the country, demanding that the court scrap the arrest warrants issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza.

In a statement, Israel’s Foreign Ministry claimed Khan pursued the cases with “improper personal motives” and pushed “false and unfounded claims against Israel” while attempting to “divert public attention from serious accusations against him,” the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

The move follows months of turmoil surrounding the prosecutor. Earlier this year a major Middle East Eye investigation uncovered extraordinary details of an intensifying intimidation campaign targeting the British chief prosecutor of the ICC over his investigation into Israeli war crimes.

The campaign has involved threats and warnings directed at Karim Khan by prominent figures, close colleagues and family friends briefing against him, fears for the prosecutor’s safety prompted by a Mossad team in The Hague, and media leaks about sexual assault allegations.

Middle East Eye revealed that Khan was warned in May that if the arrest warrants issued last year for Netanyahu and his former defence minister were not withdrawn, he and the ICC would be destroyed.

Islamic Jihad has issued a sharp rejection of the US-drafted resolution passed by the UN Security Council, warning that it paves the way for foreign control over Gaza while entrenching Israel’s occupation.

In its statement, the group said, “We reject the American decision adopted by the Security Council because it constitutes an international trusteeship over the Gaza Strip.”

It added that the resolution “separates the Gaza Strip from the rest of the Palestinian territories and imposes new realities that contradict the principles of our people”.

Islamic Jihad stressed that Palestinians retain the right to resist Israeli rule, saying, “Our people’s right to resist the occupation is guaranteed by international law, and the weapon of resistance is a guarantee of this right.”

The movement’s response adds to the growing chorus of Palestinian factions accusing Washington of using the UN to legitimise Israel’s ongoing colonisation and to strip Palestinians of control over their own future.

The Palestinian Authority has welcomed the US-sponsored resolution on Gaza, casting it as a step towards easing the suffering caused by Israel’s genocide.

In remarks published by Wafa, the PA said the document “affirms the establishment of a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance and the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and the establishment of their independent state”.

The Ramallah-based authority added that it stands in “full readiness to cooperate” with both the Trump administration and the UN to “ensure the implementation of this resolution in a way that ends the suffering of our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem”.

The response contrasts sharply with Hamas and Craig Mokhiber, a former senior UN human rights official who have has rejected the resolution outright. The Hamas movement said the text fails to meet core Palestinian demands and warned that the plan to deploy an international force tasked with disarming resistance groups “strips it of its neutrality, and turns it into a party to the conflict in favour of the occupation”.

Public support for Israel in the United States has reached historic lows.

A Gallup poll in July found that 32 percent of Americans approve of the Israeli campaign in Gaza, while 60 percent disapprove, a 10 percent drop in support from the previous September.

Pew Research Center findings showed that a third of American adults (33 percent) say the country sends Israel too much military aid, a larger portion of the population than those who say the US provides the right amount (23 percent) or not enough (8 percent).

A majority of Americans hold a negative view of Israel and report being "extremely" or "very" concerned about its military strikes killing Palestinian civilians and about starvation among Palestinians in Gaza.

A New York Times/Siena poll revealed that there are slightly more Americans who sympathise with the Palestinians than those who sympathise with Israel.

Read more: As Israel's image collapses, US billionaires move to silence dissent

South Africa’s Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola has raised the alarm over the recent arrival of Palestinians flown out of Gaza, saying the pattern points to a “clearly orchestrated operation”.

Speaking to reporters in Johannesburg on Monday, Lamola said the transfers “represent a broader agenda to remove Palestinians from Palestine into many different parts of the world”.

He warned that Pretoria “does not want any further flights to come our way, because this is a clear agenda to cleanse out the Palestinians out of Gaza and the West Bank”.

At least two aircraft carrying hundreds of Palestinians have already landed in South Africa. The flights were arranged by a little-known organisation that critics say is working in tandem with Israeli authorities, fuelling concerns that forced displacement is being dressed up as humanitarian relocation.

Security sources told Wafa that Israeli occupation forces detained several Palestinians across Bethlehem after sweeping into multiple neighbourhoods before dawn in the occupied West Bank.

Troops arrested the brothers Muhammad and Mahmoud Ahmed al-Balboul in the al-Fawa’ra area, picked up Manna’ al-Radi from al-Saf Street, seized Abdullah and Hussein Awad Ubayyat in Hindaza, and took Ahmed Asaad Faraj from Aida refugee camp after breaking into their homes and searching them.

The same sources said Israeli forces also pushed into Aida and Dheisheh camps, though no additional arrests were reported.

In Nablus, Israeli forces launched fresh raids across the city and surrounding villages in the early hours of Tuesday, entering homes and forcing residents to hand over CCTV footage. Local and security sources told Wafa that the army stormed the village of Awarta, raided a house and a shop, and confiscated camera recordings.

Troops also moved into Qaryut and al-Badhan, searching several homes. At dawn, soldiers swept through multiple areas in Nablus, including al-Ain refugee camp, Rafidia, Beit Wazan and al-Basatin, carrying out extensive searches. No arrests were confirmed from the Nablus raids.

Craig Mokhiber, a former senior UN human rights official, has condemned today’s Security Council vote, calling it “a day of shame for the United Nations”.

In a post on X, he said “not a single member of the Council had the courage, principle, or respect for international law to vote against this US-Israel colonial outrage”.

Mokhiber noted that “this proposal has been rejected by Palestinian civil society and factions, and defenders of human rights and international law everywhere”, adding that the “struggle for Palestinian freedom will continue”.

He previously headed the New York office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights before resigning in 2023, accusing the organisation of failing to stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates from Israel's war on Gaza: 

• The UN Security Council has passed Washington’s ceasefire proposal for Gaza, giving its approval to a US-designed international stabilisation force that would operate in the besieged enclave.

• US officials hailed the adoption of the resolution as “historic”, while the Palestinian Authority announced it was prepared to work with the Trump administration to push the plan forward.

• Hamas dismissed the measure outright, saying it “imposes an international guardianship mechanism on the Gaza Strip” and sidelines Palestinian will.

• Russia and China abstained, warning that the process leaves Palestinians without meaningful participation and fails to define any substantive UN role in shaping Gaza’s future.

• Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq said the resolution erodes the Palestinian right to self-determination and effectively grants Washington the authority to entrench itself, and by extension Israel, as an occupying power.

The Algerian ambassador to the UN iterated a need for justice for Palestinians after the UN Security Council resolution approved a US-backed resolution, Al Jazeera reported on Monday.

Amar Bendjama expressed gratitude to the the US for their efforts in proposing the draft resolution on Gaza, which he said ended two years of “unbearable suffering” for the Palestinians.

“But we underline that genuine peace in the Middle East cannot be achieved without justice, justice for the Palestinians who have waited for decades for the establishment of their independent state,” he said.

He also added that there was a need for humanitarian aid to be distributed in Gaza “without interference” from Israel.

President Donald Trump said that "many more exciting announcements will be made in the coming weeks" in a Truth Social post on Monday after the UN Security Counci adopted a US-backed draft resolution, including a line that envisions a future Palestinian state. 

He said the vote would go down as "one of the biggest approvals in the History of the United Nations, will lead to further Peace all over the World," before thanking all the countries who voted in favor of the resolution.  

Trump said he would be leading the Board of Peace along with leaders around the world. 

Hamas said on Monday in a statement on Telegram that an international stabilisation force inside Gaza would favour Israel and that it must be deployed "only at the borders".

The United Nations Security Council on Monday adopted a US-backed draft resolution outlining US President Donald Trump's plans for Gaza's future, including a line that envisions a future Palestinian state. 

“Assigning the international force with tasks and roles inside the Gaza Strip, including disarming the resistance, strips it of its neutrality, and turns it into a party to the conflict in favor of the [Israeli] occupation,” the statement said.

“Any international force, if established, must be deployed only at the borders to separate forces, monitor the ceasefire, and must be fully under UN supervision.”