A person tries to remove debris as a woman looks on following a several day-long Israeli-raid, in Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, September 6, 2024. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Israeli air raids in the Gaza Strip killed more than a dozen people overnight into Saturday (September 7, 2024) morning, hospital and local authorities said, as health workers were wrapping up the second phase of an urgent polio vaccination campaign designed to prevent a large-scale outbreak in the territory.

The vaccination drive was launched after health officials confirmed the first polio case in the Palestinian enclave in 25 years, in a 10-month-old boy whose leg is now paralysed. The nine-day campaign run by the U.N. health agency and its partners began last Sunday (September 1, 2024) in central Gaza and aims to vaccinate 640,000 children under the age of 10, an ambitious effort during a devastating war that has destroyed Gaza’s health care system and much of its infrastructure.

The second phase of vaccinations in the southern part of the strip was on its final day on Saturday (September 7, 2024), the Gaza Health Ministry said, before moving to the north and concluding on Monday (September 9, 2024). The ministry designated dozens of points across the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah for people to visit with their children to receive the vaccines.

Israel meanwhile kept up its military offensive. In central Gaza’s urban refugee camp of Nuseirat, Al-Awda Hospital said it had received the bodies of nine people killed in two separate air raids. One had hit a residential building in the early hours of Saturday (September 7, 2024), killing four people and wounding at least 10, the hospital said, while another five people were killed in a strike on a house in the western part of Nuseirat.

Separately, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, central Gaza’s main hospital in the town of Deir al-Balah, said a woman and her two children were killed in another strike on a house in the nearby urban refugee camp of Bureij early Saturday (September 7, 2024). In the northern part of the Gaza Strip, an airstrike on a school-turned-shelter for displaced people in the town of Jabaliya killed at least four people and wounded about two dozen others, according to Gaza’s Civil Defence authority, which operates under the territory’s Hamas-run government.

The war began when Hamas and other militants staged a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people, primarily civilians. Hamas is believed to still be holding more than 100 hostages. Israeli authorities estimate about a third are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. The ministry reports more than 94,000 people have been wounded since the start of the war.

Violence has also spiked in the occupied West Bank, with a more than weeklong military operation in the town of Jenin leaving dozens of dead and a trail of destruction.

On Friday (September 6, 2024), a 13-year-old girl and an American protester were reported shot and killed in separate incidents in the West Bank.

Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, of Seattle, who also holds Turkish nationality, died after being shot in the head on Friday (September 6, 2024), two Palestinian doctors said. Witnesses to the shooting said she had posed no threat to Israeli forces and was shot during a moment of calm following clashes earlier in the afternoon.

The White House has said it was “deeply disturbed” by the killing and has called on Israel to investigate. The Israeli military said it was looking into reports that troops had killed a foreign national while firing at an “instigator of violent activity” in the area of the protest.

Separately, Palestinian health officials said Israeli fire had killed a 13-year-old girl, Bana Laboom, in the West Bank village of Qaryout, south of Nablus, on Friday (September 6, 2024).

The Israeli military said on Saturday (September 7, 2024) that an “initial inquiry indicates” security forces had been deployed to disperse a riot involving Palestinian and Israeli civilians that “included mutual rock hurling.” The security forces had fired shots in the air, the military said.

“A report was received regarding a Palestinian girl who was killed by shots in the area. The incident is under review,” the military added.

There are more than 500,000 Israeli settlers living in the West Bank, a territory captured by Israel in 1967. Increasing Israeli raids, attacks by Palestinian militants on Israelis and attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians have left more than 690 Palestinians dead since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, according to Palestinian health officials.

Israel has been under increasing pressure from the United States and other allies to reach a cease-fire deal in Gaza, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists on a demand that has emerged as a major sticking point in talks – continued Israeli control of the Philadelphi corridor, a narrow band along Gaza’s border with Egypt where Israel contends Hamas smuggles weapons into Gaza. Egypt and Hamas deny it.

Hamas has accused Israel of dragging out months of negotiations by issuing new demands, including for lasting Israeli control over both the Philadelphi corridor and a second corridor running across Gaza.

Hamas has offered to release all hostages in return for an end to the war, the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including high-profile militants – broadly the terms called for under an outline for a deal put forward by U.S. President Joe Biden in July.

Palestinians inspect the damage at a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital, hit by an Israeli bombardment on Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Hamas’s lead negotiator on Thursday (September 5, 2024) urged the United States to press Israel for a truce in Gaza, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of blocking a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.

“If the U.S. administration and its President [Joe] Biden really want to reach a ceasefire and complete a prisoner exchange deal, they must abandon their blind bias towards the Zionist occupation and exert real pressure on Netanyahu and his government,” Qatar-based Khalil al-Hayya said in a video statement.

Months of back-and-forth talks mediated by Washington, Doha and Cairo have thus far failed to bring an end to the conflict in Gaza and secure a hostage and prisoner exchange.

Hamas and Israel have traded blame for the stalled talks, as pressure for a deal intensified after Israeli authorities announced on Sunday the deaths of six hostages whose bodies were recovered from a Gaza tunnel.

Mr. Netanyahu said the militant group had “rejected everything” in the indirect talks, saying on Wednesday Israel was “trying to find some area to begin the negotiations”.

“They [Hamas] refuse to do that… [They said] there’s nothing to talk about,” he added.

Mr. Netanyahu’s insistence on keeping control of the so-called Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt has emerged as a recent sticking point.

Mr. Hayya on Thursday accused the Israeli premier of seeking to “evade the obligation to reach a ceasefire agreement”.

Concerns grew on Tuesday (September 3, 2024) over the chances of securing a Gaza truce, a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected making any “concessions” in stalled talks towards a hostage release deal.

Mr. Netanyahu told a televised press conference at the end of a day of nationwide protests that he would “not give in to pressure” to renege on demands in indirect negotiations with Hamas to end the war, now nearing its 12th month.

Analyst Mairav Zonszein of the International Crisis Group said Mr. Netanyahu’s remarks showed “he won’t stop the war… until Hamas surrenders, and he basically announced there won’t be a hostage deal”.

Gripped by grief and fury after six dead hostages were recovered from Gaza, Israelis took to the streets on Sunday (September 3, 2024) and Monday (September 2, 2024) to ramp up pressure on their government to secure the release of the remaining captives.

The military said the six were all captured alive during Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel that triggered the war, and shot dead by the captors shortly before troops had found them.

“These murderers executed six of our hostages,” said Mr. Netanyahu, who has increasingly faced accusations from critics in Israel as well as Hamas officials and analysts of prolonging the war for political gain.

U.S. President Joe Biden, who on Monday (September 2, 2024) met negotiators working alongside Qatar and Egypt to try to secure a truce deal, replied “no” when asked by reporters in Washington if he thought Mr. Netanyahu was doing enough to secure a hostage deal.

The veteran Israeli leader, whose ruling coalition relies on the support of far-right ministers opposed to a truce, insisted that “we say yes” while it is Hamas that has refused to make concessions.

“I will not give in to pressure,” Mr. Netanyahu told the press conference, saying Israel must control Gaza’s border with Egypt to stop Hamas from re-arming.

Israeli left-leaning daily Haaretz said Mr. Netanyahu was “masking his motives with security concerns” but said he was primarily concerned with his own political survival.

“His coalition… might unravel if a Gaza deal goes through,” it said.

‘Occupy indefinitely’

Mr. Netanyahu again called for “maximum pressure on Hamas” and stated that “the achievement of the war’s objectives” requires control of the Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border.

Hamas has long demanded a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and Egyptian officials have voiced their objection to Israeli military presence on the border.

Mr. Netanyahu “wants to occupy Gaza on some level indefinitely” and was now “just saying it more openly”, Ms. Zonszein told AFP.

Despite “huge opposition” among Israelis who support a Gaza deal, “there’s also nobody in the political realm that’s able to challenge him,” said the analyst.

Israel occupied the Gaza Strip in 1967 and maintained troops and settlers there until 2005, when it withdrew but imposed a crippling blockade and, since the start of the current war, a siege.

Adding to the pressure on Israel, Britain on Monday (September 2, 2024) said it would suspend some arms exports, citing a “clear risk” they could be used in a serious breach of international humanitarian law.

Fighting meanwhile raged on in Gaza, where civil defence rescuers reported two killed, including a child, in an Israeli strike that hit a displacement camp near Khan Yunis on Tuesday (September 3, 2024).

The civil defence agency as well as witnesses and AFP correspondents reported more air strikes and artillery shelling across southern and central Gaza.

Vaccination drive

Israel’s military campaign against Hamas has so far killed at least 40,786 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The U.N. rights office says most of the dead are women and children.

The October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians and including hostages killed in captivity, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the attack, 97 remain in Gaza including 33 the Israeli military says are dead. Scores were released during a one-week truce in November – the only one so far.

Abu Obeida, spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said remaining hostages would return “inside coffins” if Israel maintains its military pressure on Gaza.

With Gaza lying in ruins and the majority of the 2.4 million residents forced to flee, often taking refuge in cramped and unsanitary conditions, disease has spread.

After the first confirmed polio case in 25 years, a vaccination drive got underway Sunday (September 1, 2024) with localised “humanitarian pauses” to the fighting.

Around 160,000 children received a first polio vaccine dose on Sunday (September 1, 2024) and Monday (September 2, 2024) in central Gaza, the territory’s health ministry said.

It was another day of war in Gaza, another day of what 19-year-old Palestinian TikTok star Medo Halimy called his “Tent Life”.

As he often did in videos documenting life’s mundane absurdities in the enclave, Halimy on Monday walked to his local internet cafe — rather, a tent with Wi-Fi where displaced Palestinians can connect to the outside world — to meet his friend and collaborator Talal Murad.

They snapped a selfie — “Finally Reunited” Halimy captioned it on Instagram — and started catching up.

Then came a flash of light, 18-year-old Mr. Murad said, an explosion of white heat and sprayed earth. Mr. Murad felt pain in his neck. Halimy was bleeding from his head. A car on the coastal road in front of them was engulfed in flames, the apparent target of an Israeli airstrike. It took 10 minutes for an ambulance to arrive. Hours later doctors pronounced Halimy dead.

“He represented a message,” Mr. Murad said on Friday (August 30, 2024), still recovering from his shrapnel wounds and reeling from the Israeli airstrike that killed his friend. “He represented hope and strength.”

The Israeli military said it was not aware of the strike that killed Halimy.

Tributes to Halimy kept pouring in on Friday from friends as far afield as Harker Heights, Texas, where he spent a year in 2021 as part of an exchange programme sponsored by the State Department.

“Medo was the life of the hangout… humour and kindness and wit, all things that can never be forgotten,” said Heba al-Saidi, alumni coordinator for the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study programme. “He was bound for greatness, but he was taken too soon.”

His death also catalysed an outpouring of grief on social media, where his followers expressed shock and sadness as if they, too, had lost a close friend.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians — according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and militants — and spawned a humanitarian disaster. It has also transformed legions of ordinary teenagers, who have nothing to do every day but survive, into war correspondents for the social media age.

“We worked together, it was a kind of resistance that I hope to continue,” said Mr. Murad, who collaborated with Halimy on “The Gazan Experience”, an Instagram account that answered questions from followers around the world trying to understand their lives in the besieged enclave, which is inaccessible to foreign journalists.

Halimy launched his own TikTok account after taking refuge with his parents, four brothers and sister in Muwasi, the southern coastal area that Israel has designated a humanitarian safe zone. They had fled Israel’s invasion of Gaza City to the southern city of Khan Younis before escaping the bombardment again for the dusty encampment.

Sparked by Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people and resulted in about 250 people taken hostage, the Israel-Hamas war has produced a torrent of images now numbingly familiar to viewers around the world: Bombed-out buildings, contorted bodies, chaotic hospital halls.

But Halimy’s content “came as a surprise,” said his friend, 19-year-old Helmi Hirez.

Turning his camera on the intimate details of his own life in Gaza, he reached viewers far and wide, revealing a maddening tedium that’s largely left out of news coverage about the war.

“If you wonder what living in a tent is actually like, come with me to show you how I spend my day,” Halimy says in his first of many “tent life” diaries filmed from the sprawling encampment.

He filmed himself going about his day: waiting restlessly in long lines for drinking water, showering with a jar and a bucket (“there’s no shampoo or soap, of course”), scavenging ingredients to make a surprisingly tasty baba ganoush, the Middle East’s smoky eggplant dip (“Mama mia!” he marvels at his creation), and becoming very, very bored (“then I went back to the tent, and did nothing”).

Hundreds of thousands of people around the world were captivated. His videos went viral — some amassing more than 2 million views on TikTok.

Even when recounting tragedies (his grandmother died, he mentioned at one point, largely because of Gaza’s acute medication and equipment shortages ) or fretting over Israel’s bombardment, Halimy’s friends said that he found salve in channelling his grief and anxiety into deadpan humour.

“Very annoying,” he says with an eye roll when the buzz of an Israeli drone interrupts one of his TikTok recipe videos.

“As you can see, the transportation here is not five stars,” he says when crammed between men in a pickup truck heading to the nearby town of Deir al-Balah.

“We proceeded to play, anyway,” he says of his Monopoly game, when the whooshing of Israeli projectiles sounds in the skies above him and his friends. “Anyway, I lost.”

In his last video, posted hours before he was killed, Halimy films himself scribbling in a notebook, its pages covered with mysterious black redaction bars.

“I started designs for my new secret project,” he said from the tent cafe that would later be struck, in the same tone he always used, one part playful, one part serious.

Journalists gather on a destroyed road as they cover the second day of a large-scale military operation on the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank on August 29, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

The death toll climbed on Thursday (Ausgut 29, 2024) as Israel pressed a large-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank for a second day, despite U.N. concerns it is “fuelling an already explosive situation”.

The operation was launched as violence raged on in the other main Palestinian territory, the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by war since Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attacks on Israel.

Israel began coordinated raids in the northern West Bank cities of Jenin, Tubas and Tulkarem early on Wednesday (August 28, 2024), in what the military called a “counter-terrorism” operation.

Columns of Israeli armoured vehicles backed by troops and warplanes were sent in before soldiers encircled refugee camps in Tubas and Tulkarem, as well as Jenin, and exchanged fire with Palestinian militants.

The Army said it killed five militants in Tulkarem on Thursday (August 29, 2024), bringing to 14 the overall death toll since the launch of the West Bank operation.

“Following exchanges of fire, the forces eliminated five terrorists who had hidden inside a mosque” in Tulkarem, the military said.

Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad confirmed the death of Muhammad Jabber, also known as Abu Shujaa, its commander in the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem.

The violence has caused significant destruction, especially in Tulkarem, whose governor described the raids as “unprecedented” and a “dangerous signal”.

AFPTV footage showed bulldozers ripping up the asphalt from streets in the city. Widespread damage was reported to infrastructure, including to water and sewage networks.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said 12 Palestinians were killed on the first day of the operation.

Witnesses said the Israeli forces had withdrawn from Al-Farra refugee camp in Tubas where several Palestinians were killed on Wednesday (August 28, 2024).

An Israeli soldier operates during a raid in the Nur Shams camp for Palestinian refugees near the city of Tulkarem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on August 28, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

The Israeli military said it has killed five more militants in a large-scale operation in the occupied West Bank early on Thursday (August 29, 2024) including a well-known local commander.

There was no immediate Palestinian confirmation of the death of Mohammed Jaber, known as Abu Shujaa, a commander in the Islamic Jihad militant group in the Nur Shams refugee camp on the outskirts of the city of Tulkarem.

He became a hero for many Palestinians earlier this year when he was reported killed in an Israeli operation, only to make a surprise appearance at the funeral of other militants, where he was hoisted onto the shoulders of a cheering crowd.

The military said he was killed along with four other militants in a shootout with Israeli forces early on Thursday after the five had hidden inside a mosque. It said Abu Shujaa was linked to numerous attacks on Israelis, including a deadly shooting in June, and was planning more.

The military said another militant was arrested in the operation in Tulkarem and that a member of Israel’s paramilitary Border Police was lightly wounded.

Israel launched a large-scale operation in the West Bank overnight into Wednesday (August 28, 2024). Hamas said 10 of its fighters were killed in various locations, and the Palestinian Health Ministry reported an 11th casualty, without saying whether he was a fighter or a civilian.

Violence has surged in the West Bank since Hamas’ October 7 attack out of Gaza ignited the war there.

Nur Shams is among several built-up refugee camps across the Middle East that date back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation, in which around 7,00,000 Palestinians fled or were driven out of what is now Israel. Many of the camps are militant strongholds.

Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want all three territories for their future state.

The three million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority administering towns and cities. More than 5,00,000 Jewish settlers, who have Israeli citizenship, live in well more than 100 settlements across the territory that most of the international community considers illegal.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that Israel has accepted a proposal to bridge differences holding up a cease-fire and hostage release in Gaza. He called on Hamas to do the same.

Mr. Blinken on Tuesday (August 20, 2024) was on his ninth urgent mission to the Middle East since the war in Gaza began more than 10 months ago. He did not say whether the “bridging proposal” addressed concerns cited by Hamas.

Even if the militant group accepts the proposal, negotiators will spend the coming days working on “clear understandings on implementing the agreement,” Mr. Blinken said. He said there are still “complex issues” requiring “hard decisions by the leaders,” without offering specifics.

Mr. Blinken is traveling to Egypt and Qatar on Tuesday (August 20, 2024) for further negotiations after meetings in Israel on Monday (August 19, 2024).

His visit came days after mediators, including the United States, expressed renewed optimism that a deal was close. His trip also came amid fears the conflict could widen into a deeper regional war following the killings of top militant commanders in Lebanon that Iran blamed on Israel.

Here’s the latest:

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says it has recovered the bodies of six hostages taken in Hamas’ October 7 attack that started the Gaza war.

The military said in a statement Tuesday (August 20, 2024) that its forces recovered the bodies in an overnight operation in southern Gaza. It identified the hostages as Yagev Buchshtab, Alexander Dancyg, Avraham Munder, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popplewell, and Haim Perry, without saying when or how they died.

The recovery came as the the United States, Egypt and Qatar are trying to mediate a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas that would see the release of scores of hostages held by the militant group.

Hamas is still believed to be holding around 110 hostages captured in the October 7 attack. Israeli authorities estimate around a third of them are dead.

JERUSALEM — Israel’s military said that a barrage of 55 rockets from Lebanon has ignited fires in northern Israel.

The military said Tuesday (August 20, 2024) that only some of the projectiles were intercepted by Israel’s air defense systems, while others fell in open areas. Firefighters were working to contain the blazes.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group said it fired “intense barrages of missiles” at military positions in Israel’s north. Israel said it struck the areas where the missiles were launched in Lebanon.

Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire since October 8, causing widespread damage on both sides of the border and killing civilians and combatants on both sides.

Fears have increased in recent weeks of a larger escalation, with Hezbollah vowing retaliation for an Israeli strike last month in Beirut that killed one of its top commanders.

JERUSALEM — The bodies of two hostages were returned from the Gaza Strip, the communal farm they lived on announced Tuesday (August 20, 2024).

Kibbutz Nirim said that the bodies of Yagev Buchshtav and Nadav Popplewell had been returned to Israel from the Gaza Strip overnight. The kibbutz did not provide additional information and the Israeli military did not immediately confirm the information.

Israeli media reported that the two men — along with Avraham Munder, whose death his kibbutz announced Tuesday (August 20, 2024) — were part of a larger military hostage extraction operation overnight.

Popplewell was declared dead by the Israeli military in June. Hamas said in May that Popplewell had died after being wounded in an Israeli airstrike. Israel’s military announced Buchshtav’s death in July.

The men were taken hostage by militants who stormed the border on October 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking roughly 250 hostages. About 110 hostages kidnapped that day remain in the strip. About a third of them are believed to be dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive on Gaza has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.

JERUSALEM — Another male hostage has died in Hamas captivity, his communal farming village announced Tuesday (August 20, 2024).

Kibbutz Nir Oz said that Avraham Munder had been killed while held hostage in Gaza “after enduring months of physical and mental torture.” It was not clear from the statement whether his body had been recovered. Israel’s military did not immediately confirm the information.

Of some 110 hostages remaining in Gaza who were captured in Hamas’ October 7 attack, around 40 are believed to be dead, their bodies held in Gaza.

The kibbutz remembered Mr. Munder for his “clear voice, warm smile, and boundless love for his family and the kibbutz.”

Militants kidnapped Mr. Munder on October 7 when they stormed Nir Oz, dragging some 80 of its residents back to Gaza.

Mr. Munder’s wife, daughter, and grandson were also taken hostage, but released during a brief cease-fire in November in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. His son was killed on October 7.

In total, militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, across southern Israel and took about 250 hostages back to Gaza. Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials.

UNITED NATIONS – From the early days of the Israel-Hamas war, Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan attacked U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, accusing him of being “an accomplice to terrorism” and calling for his resignation.

Now, Israel has a new ambassador, and the U.N. chief is calling for “a constructive dialogue.”

However, Danny Danon, who served as Israel’s U.N. ambassador from 2015 to 2020 and presented his credentials to the secretary-general on Monday (August 19, 2024), made clear he would be following in Erdan’s footsteps when it comes to Israel’s views about the United Nations.

Mr. Danon said he’s returning to the U.N. at a time of “immense challenges” for Israel and its people, saying 115 Israelis are still being held hostage in Gaza and face “ongoing atrocities and suffering.”

“I am committed to represent my country to show the real face of Israel, and to push back the lies and the hypocrisy that we unfortunately have to deal with here at this building,” he said.

Neither the U.N. Security Council nor the General Assembly have condemned Hamas’ October 7 attack that killed about 1,200 people and triggered the war, though Guterres has repeatedly called for a cease-fire and the release of all hostages. He has also criticised the killing of over 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including many women and children, mainly in Israeli airstrikes, as well as Israel’s obstruction to humanitarian aid deliveries.

For his part, Mr. Guterres said that “for the U.N., it is extremely important to have an objective relationship with Israel.”

“We have different points of view in many aspects in relation to the two-state solution, in relation to what has been happening recently,” Mr. Guterres said, “but that doesn’t mean that we should not have a constructive dialogue based on truth.”

BEIRUT — The Israeli army said it hit “a number of Hezbollah weapons storage facilities” in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley Monday (August 19, 2024) night.

At least three Israeli airstrikes hit towns in the Baalbek district, Lebanese state media reported.

Videos from the scene showed a large fire and multiple explosions following the initial strike.

“Following the strikes, secondary explosions were identified, indicating the presence of large amounts of weapons in the facilities struck,” the Israeli army statement said.

A spokesperson for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the strike.

A similar scene took place last month after an Israeli airstrike on the southern coastal village of Adloun hit an arms depot, setting off a series of explosions that hit nearby villages with shrapnel.

Pople react during a farewell for Palestinian Ahmed Khalil killed in an Israeli airstrike, at his home, in the Balata refugee camp, in Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, August 15, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Gaza’s civil defence agency said an Israeli air strike in the early hours of Saturday(August 17, 2024) killed 15 people from a Palestinian family, including nine children and three women.

The strike hit the home of the Ajlah family in Al-Zawaida neighbourhood of central Gaza, said civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal. The Israeli military did not offer an immediate comment.

“The toll from the Israeli strike on the Ajlah family home and their warehouse in Al-Zawaida is 15 dead,” Mr. Bassal said.

Mr. Bassal gave a list of those killed, including nine children and three women.

A witness said the strike took place shortly after midnight.

“Three rockets hit the house directly,” Ahmed Abu al-Ghoul said as rescuers pulled bodies from the rubble of the flattened house.

“There were a lot of children and women inside… What have they done to deserve this?”

AFPTV footage of the aftermath, captured after dawn, showed rescuers searching for bodies under piles of collapsed concrete blocks.

More than 10 months of war between Israel and Hamas has left vast swathes of Gaza in ruins.

The war broke out after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official Israeli figures.

Militants also seized 251 people during the attack, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,005 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry of the Hamas-run territory, which does not provide details of civilian and militant deaths.

Mediators to the Gaza Warcease-fire talks said on Friday (August 16, 2024) the two-day talks wrapped up and they aim to reconvene in Cairo next week to seal a deal to stop the fighting.

In a statement on Friday, the United States, Egypt, and Qatar said talks were constructive and conducted in a positive atmosphere. They presented both parties with a proposal and hope to continue working on the details of the implementation in the coming days.

Also Read: More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, the territory’s Health Ministry says

The new round of talks began on Thursday (August 15, 2024) and was aimed at halting the 10-month war and securing the release of scores of hostages, with a potential deal seen as the best hope of heading off an even larger regional conflict. Hamas, which did not participate directly in the talks, accuses Israel of adding new demands to a previous proposal that had U.S. and international support and to which Hamas had agreed in principle.

Both sides have agreed in principle to the plan President Joe Biden announced on May 31. But Hamas has proposed amendments and Israel has suggested clarifications, leading each side to accuse the other of trying to tank a deal.

Hamas has rejected Israel’s demands, which include a lasting military presence along the border with Egypt and a line bisecting Gaza where it would search Palestinians returning to their homes to root out militants.

On Friday mediators said it presented a bridging proposal to both parties consistent with the plan laid out by Biden. This proposal builds on areas of agreement and bridges remaining gaps, that allow for a swift implementation of the deal.

The new push for an end to the Israel-Hamas war came as the Palestinian death toll in Gaza climbed past 40,000, according to Gaza health authorities, and fears remained high that Iran and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon would attack Israel in retaliation for the killings of top militant leaders.

International mediators believe the best hope for calming tensions would be a deal between Israel and Hamas to halt the fighting and secure the release of Israeli hostages.

International diplomacy to prevent the war in Gaza from spreading into a wider regional conflict intensified Friday, with the British and French Foreign Ministers making a joint trip to Israel.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy and French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné appeared hopeful after meeting Friday with Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz.

Mr. Lammy said Israeli officials told them they were hoping they were on the verge of sealing a deal.

“As we head now to 315 days of war, the time for a deal for those hostages to be returned, for aid to get in in the quantities that are necessary in Gaza and for the fighting to stop is now,” Lammy said.

Speaking alongside him, French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne called any action to destabilize negotiations unacceptable. He and Lammy had sent very clear messages to all parties that this was a key moment “because it could lead to peace or war,” he said.

Mr. Katz said in a statement that he told his British and French counterparts that if Iran attacks Israel, Israel expects its allies not just to help it defend itself, but to join in attacking Iran back.

He also warned Iran — which backs Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthi rebels in Yemen, all of whom have attacked Israel since the Gaza war started — to stop the attacks.

“Iran is the head of the axis of evil, and the free world must stop it now before it’s too late,” Katz said on X.

White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby called the talks an important step. He said a lot of work remains given the complexity of the agreement and that negotiators were focusing on its implementation.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed across the heavily guarded border on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 250 to Gaza. More than 100 were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November, and around 110 are believed to still be inside Gaza, though Israeli authorities believe around a third of them are dead.

Israel’s devastating retaliatory offensive has killed 40,005 Palestinians, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Thursday, without saying how many were militants. Israel’s military spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said Thursday that Israel had killed more than 17,000 Hamas militants in Gaza in the war, without providing evidence.

Diplomats hoped a cease-fire deal would persuade Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah to hold off on retaliating for the killing of a top Hezbollah commander in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut and of Hamas’ top political leader in an explosion in Tehran that was widely blamed on Israel.

Kirby said that Iran has made preparations and could attack soon with little to no warning — and that its rhetoric should be taken seriously.

The mediators have spent months trying to hammer out a three-phase plan in which Hamas would release the hostages in exchange for a lasting cease-fire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, and the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

Egypt’s Foreign Minister said that a cease-fire deal was key to tamping down temperatures across the region.

“We will exert all efforts in order to reach an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip as this is the basis to stop the escalation,” Badr Abdelaty said during a trip to Lebanon.

In a clear message to Israel, Hezbollah released a video, with Hebrew and English subtitles, showing underground tunnels where trucks were transporting long-range missiles.

A Hezbollah official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was speaking about military affairs, said the missiles in the video have a range of about 140 kilometers (86 miles), capable of reaching deep inside Israel.

Hezbollah has tens of thousands of rockets, missiles and drones that the group says give it the ability to hit anywhere in Israel. Hezbollah started attacking Israel on Oct. 8 and says it will only stop when the Gaza war ends.

Some families of hostages held in Gaza believe the latest round of cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas could be the last best chance to set their loved ones free after more than 300 days of captivity.

The families have advocated tirelessly to secure the release of their relatives, who were snatched on October 7, 2023, during Hamas’ cross-border attack that started the war.

Their hope that the latest talks could result in a breakthrough is tinged by 10 months of disappointment – and the growing fear of a wider Mideast war as Israel faces rising tensions with Iran and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group based in Lebanon.

Roughly 110 hostages remain in Gaza after about 100 were freed during a brief cease-fire in late November. More than 40,000 Palestinians have died in the war, according to Gaza health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and militants.

Throughout the war, the families of hostages have pushed on with anguish and despair, rallying Israelis to their cause, lobbying local and foreign lawmakers, pleading that someone put an end to their nightmare.

They’ve watched as multiple rounds of negotiations have crumbled. And they’ve increasingly directed their ire at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who they accuse of prioritising his political survival over the fate of their loved ones.

“We need a cease-fire to get them all back,” said Zahiro Shahar Mor, a nephew of Avraham Munder, 78, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with his wife, his daughter and grandson – the latter three having returned during the first and only truce deal. “Had Netanyahu wanted them here, they would have been here.”

Mr. Netanyahu insists he keeps the plight of the hostage’s top of mind.

“The pain these families have endured is beyond words,” Mr. Netanyahu told a joint session of the U.S. Congress last month. “I will not rest until all their loved ones are home.”

He says the best way to free them is to keep up military pressure on Hamas, a position backed by two far-right governing partners who are critical to maintaining his grip on power. They have pledged to topple the government should Mr. Netanyahu proceed with a deal that would release hostages in exchange for freeing Palestinian prisoners convicted of serious crimes or an end to the war.

Mr. Netanyahu has also enraged some of the hostage families throughout the war with comments or actions that appeared to suggest he does not sympathize with their ordeal.

He has only recently suggested remorse for his role in the policy and security failures that led to Hamas’ unprecedented attack, which led to the killing of some 1,200 Israelis. He has been accused of avoiding the families of hostages, especially those whose relatives are known to have died in captivity. In comments leaked to Israeli media, he reportedly said, “Hamas was under more pressure than Israel to move toward a deal because the hostages were ‘suffering but not dying’.”

In fact, more than a third of the 110 hostages still held are said to have died in captivity or on October 7, 2023, their bodies taken to Gaza. Three hostages were mistakenly killed by the Israeli military. Seven hostages were freed in rescue missions, as were several bodies.

The hostage families have watched as their weekly protest in central Tel Aviv has gradually dwindled in size, with Israelis growing weary of the seemingly endless struggle. They have watched the conflict broaden, nearly tipping over into a wider regional war that could eclipse their own plight.

Still, the families have kept up their fight. In July, nearly two dozen met with Mr. Netanyahu in Washington during his visit there.

Gil Dickmann, whose cousin Carmel Gat is being held in Gaza, said Mr. Netanyahu did not make any tangible promise but he left the meeting feeling optimistic that progress could come soon. Instead, weeks have passed with no movement.

“That is an eternity for the hostages,” said Mr. Dickmann, who was among a group of hostage relatives who wore a yellow shirt that read “seal the deal now” in Congress during Mr. Netanyahu’s speech. “Anything could happen to them during that eternity.”

Mr. Dickmann said that attempts by both sides to squeeze as much out of the deal were only making it more elusive.

The families of the eight American-Israeli hostages held an hourlong meeting with both Mr. Netanyahu and President Joe Biden, but the Israeli leader did not make any firm promises on a deal to them either, said Ruby Chen, the father of Itay Chen, who was killed October 7, 2023, his body taken into Gaza.

Mr. Chen said he has drawn optimism surrounding this latest round of talks from his weekly briefings with U.S. officials, who he said view the cease-fire deal as a chance to bring stability to the wider region, after the killings of two militant commanders in Beirut and Tehran sparked fears of a wider war. He urged the U.S. to publicly call out whoever it saw as obstructing the talks, although he declined to point any finger himself.

“The prime minister needs to look hard in the mirror and understand that these are the days that the history book of the state of Israel is being written,” he said. “He needs to decide where he wants to be in that history book.”

Other hostage relatives have had harsher words for the Israeli leader.

“Netanyahu, we know you don’t want a deal. We know that if it was up to you, the hostages would rot and die in captivity,” Yotam Cohen, whose brother Nimrod, 19, is being held captive, said at a protest Thursday (August 16, 2024) ahead of the new round of talks. One protester chanted “their blood is on your hands”.