Gaza Live: Israeli air strike takes out 25 members of same family

An internationally recognised Israeli historian has concluded that his country is committing genocide in Gaza after compiling a vast, methodical report documenting a litany of war crimes committed since Israel’s invasion began last year following the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October.  

Lee Mordechai, an associate professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who has also held a fellowship at Princeton University in the US, has published a report titled “Bearing Witness to the Israel-Gaza War” which, in its English translation, is 124 pages long and contains over 1,400 footnotes.  

Using eyewitness reports, video footage, articles, photographs, eyewitness evidence and over investigatory material, much of it recorded by Israeli soldiers, the historian has produced what Haaretz calls “the most methodical and detailed documentation in Hebrew (there is also an English translation) of the war crimes that Israel is perpetrating in Gaza”.

READ MORE: Israeli historian produces vast database of war crimes in Gaza

An Israeli attack on Gaza City's Zeitoun neighbourhood killed two people, Al Jazeera's correspondent reports.

Several people were also wounded in the attack.

The secretary-general of Amnesty International, Agnes Callamard, has urged British politicians to revise their denial that genocide is being committed in Gaza, following a major report by the group concluding that Israel is guilty of genocide.

The world’s leading human rights group on Thursday declared that Israel has committed and continues to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, based on extensive legal and field research covering the period between 7 October 2023 and early July 2024. 

“I hope that Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his foreign minister will read through the 300 pages of evidence that we have provided,” she told Middle East Eye following the release of Amnesty’s report

“Genocide is not a matter of belief. Genocide is not a matter of desire. Genocide is a matter of law. Genocide is a matter of fact.”

Read more: After genocide report, Amnesty chief calls on Starmer and Lammy to revise Gaza stance

The German government on Friday rejected Amnesty International's accusation that Israel is committing "genocide" against Palestinians in its military campaign in Gaza.

Asked for a response to Amnesty's report, German foreign ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer told reporters: "The question of genocide presupposes a clear intention to eradicate an ethnic group. I still do not recognise any such clear intention and therefore I cannot share the conclusions of the report."

"We take the accusations in the report very seriously and are currently analysing them," he added.

Amnesty International is arguably the highest-profile rights group to conclude Israel's actions in Gaza meet the definition of genocidal acts as laid out under the Genocide Convention.

An American donor has withdrawn funding from Cambridge University's richest college, accusing it of failing to properly investigate the defacing of a painting of Lord Balfour - and of considering divesting from arms companies linked to Israel.

This is the latest in a series of controversies that have hit Trinity College Cambridge over the past year because of its ties to companies complicit in Israel's war on Gaza.

Middle East Eye revealed in February that the prestigious college, which is one of the UK's wealthiest landowners, had $78,089 invested in Israel's largest arms company, Elbit Systems, which produces 85 percent of the drones and land-based equipment used by the Israeli army.

MEE further reported that the college also had millions of dollars invested in other companies arming, supporting and profiting from Israel's war on Gaza.

In response to these revelations, students organised several protests over the following months.

Read more: Pro-Israel donor pulls Trinity College Cambridge funding over investments row

Israel's military said Friday it had conducted air strikes on the Syria-Lebanon border, just over a week into a fragile ceasefire in Lebanon.

The Israeli air force "conducted strikes on weapon-smuggling routes and terror infrastructure sites located near the Syrian regime's crossings at the Syrian-Lebanese border", the military said in a statement that included a map identifying the crossing as al-Arida.

Syrian state news agency Sana reported that "the al-Arida border crossing between Syria and Lebanon is out of service again due to an Israeli attack that targeted it" early Friday.

Israel's war on Gaza has killed at least 44,612 Palestinians and wounded 104,834 since 7 October 2023, the Palestinian enclave's health ministry said on Friday.

The director of north Gaza's Kamal Adwan hospital said Israel conducted several strikes on Friday that hit the facility, one of the last functioning health centres in the area.

"There was a series of air strikes on the northern and western sides of the hospital, accompanied by intense and direct fire," Hossam Abu Safieh said, adding that four staff were killed and no surgeons were left at the site.

A military exercise is set to begin in the coming hours at two locations in the northern Jordan Valley and southern occupied Golan Heights, according to an Israeli military statement.

“As part of the exercise, there will be a high level of vehicle and security force movement,” the statement said, adding that the exercise is aimed at improving readiness and preparedness.

Majdi Aqilan, one of the commanders who took part in the attack on Nahal Oz settlement in Israel on 7 October, was killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza, the military and Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency said.

According to an Israeli military statement on Telegram, Aqilan was amongst several top commanders in Hamas’s Shati Battalion killed by Israel in the past week.

A Hamas official said on Thursday that international mediators have resumed negotiating with the Palestinian group and Israel over a ceasefire in Gaza, and that he was hopeful a deal to end Israel's 14-month war on Gaza was within reach, the Associated Press reported.

Ceasefire negotiations were halted last month when Qatar suspended talks with mediators from Egypt and the United States because of their frustration over a lack of progress between Israel and Hamas.

But there has been a “reactivation” of efforts in recent days to end the fighting, release captives from Gaza and free Palestinian prisoners in Israel, according to Bassem Naim, an official in Hamas’ political bureau who spoke with The Associated Press in Turkey.

Another official familiar with the talks confirmed the return of Qatari mediators.

Over 30 civilians were killed and many were wounded on Friday morning in an Israeli shelling that targeted different areas in the northern and southern war-torn Gaza Strip, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Wafa correspondent confirmed that Israeli forces bombarded a residential block in the vicinity of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya.

Two civilians were also killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Ra'afi school in the town of Jabalia, where displaced people are seeking refuge. Three citizens were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting the Khirbet al-Adas area north of the city of Rafah.

A significant number of people are still missing under the rubble of homes in Beit Lahia, the agency said. The Israeli military is reportedly blocking ambulances and medical teams from entering the area, targeting anyone who tries to approach.

Israel's military said Friday it had conducted air strikes on Hezbollah "weapon-smuggling routes" on the Syria-Lebanon border, just over a week into a fragile ceasefire in Lebanon.

The Israeli air force "conducted strikes on weapon-smuggling routes and terror infrastructure sites located near the Syrian regime's crossings at the Syrian-Lebanese border", the military said in a statement that included a map identifying the crossing as Al-Arida.

Israeli forces raided several houses in the occupied West Bank town of Anabta, east of Tulkarem, in the early hours of this morning, according to the Wafa news agency.

The military took four men into custody during their assault on the town, Wafa reported.

A Palestinian man was killed by Israeli forces during a raid on Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank early this morning, the Wafa news agency reported citing Palestinian security sources.

The sources confirmed that 23-year-old Mustafa Ahmad Masha was shot in the head as Israeli military vehicles stormed the camp. Masha died in a local hospital due to critical injuries.