A senior official from the United Nations food agency, the World Food Programme (WFP), told reporters on Friday that Israeli officials have signalled they want the UN to return to being the main supplier of aid in Gaza.
“They wanted the UN to continue to be the main track for delivery, especially should there be a ceasefire, and they asked us to be ready to scale up,” said Carl Skau, WFP deputy executive director, according to a Reuters news agency report.
Skau was on a visit to Israel and Gaza last week.
At least four Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air strikes that targeted a civilian vehicle and a shelter for the forcibly displaced in the al-Barakah area of central Gaza, local media reported on Friday. Dozens are said to have been wounded.
Another four deaths have been confirmed in the aftermath of an Israeli air strike on a tent for the forcibly displaced in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.
This comes as Israeli forces have also been bulldozing what remains of Palestinian residential buildings east of Gaza City.
The Quds News Network reported on Friday that a 23-year-old Palestinian male, identified as Saif al-Din Musalat, was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.
Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil has filed a claim against the Trump administration for $20m in damages after spending months in an immigration detention centre and missing the birth of his first child, the Associated Press reported on Thursday.
The Department of Homeland Security, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the State Department are all named on the claim, which is a precursor to a lawsuit.
The Columbia University graduate, 30, who was one of the lead negotiators during the Columbia University protest encampments against the war in Gaza, is suing for false imprisonment, malicious prosecution and being besmirched as an antisemite for his peaceful pro-Palestinian speech.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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