• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Gaza will not return to its pre-October 7 status and has promised to intensify operations in areas where attacks on Israeli forces continue.

Two brothers killed in Israeli strike on tent near Gaza hospital

Further to our previous post, we can now report that, according to medical officials, two Palestinian brothers were killed, and several other people were wounded when an Israeli aircraft struck a tent sheltering displaced people near Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza.

Earlier, artillery shelling was also reported south of the Maghazi refugee camp, also in central Gaza.

Israeli alarm over paper kites allegedly flown from Gaza is a manufactured pretext for military escalation

Israel’s alarm over paper kites allegedly flown from Gaza is a manufactured pretext for renewed military escalation, according to Adel Shadid, an expert on Israeli affairs, speaking from Hebron.

“There is no Palestinian party, no group apart from the Israeli army itself, talking about these so-called kites,” said Shadid.

“This fabrication was discussed at a meeting attended by Israel’s prime minister, the defence minister and the heads of the security agencies, the Shin Bet, intelligence services, army, Mossad and National Security Council, as though what had been found were ballistic missiles.”

He linked the episode to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s domestic political survival, arguing Netanyahu is seeking to postpone elections, due in October, through military escalation. “Benjamin Netanyahu cannot go into elections knowing with absolute certainty that they would remove him from the political scene and end the remainder of his life in prison.”

Shadid said that Gaza offers Netanyahu “the most convenient and least costly” arena through which to project an image of security leadership while deflecting from corruption allegations.

“Netanyahu wants to cancel elections, and that cannot happen without escalation. But it appears that the Americans, as well as Israel’s military establishment, oppose moving towards an uncontrolled war.”

Yesterday:

Hamas has accused Israel of fabricating a pretext to escalate attacks on Gaza after Israel threatened strikes over kites flown by Palestinian children with spokesperson Hazem Qassem saying in a statement on the group’s website that the move is “threatening children”.

We commented:

Kites can hinder Israeli surveillance drones, and even bringing them off course or down when in collision with small drones, which the Israelis are also using in Gaza.

Casualties reported in Israeli attacks on Khan Younis

A man died on Monday morning due to his injuries from an Israeli attack on Sunday in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, according to medical sources at Al Nasser Hospital.

Earlier, the Israeli army said it struck a Hamas commander in Khan Younis on Sunday. It is unclear whether the incidents were related.

Separately, a girl was injured by Israeli army fire on Sunday night in Qatar Camp in the north of Khan Younis, sources said.

Israeli artillery also shelled eastern Gaza City and Nuseirat, with no casualties reported.

Israeli army says it targeted Hamas commander in southern Gaza

An Israeli military update says the army attacked a commander in Hamas’s elite Nukhba Forces around Khan Younis on Sunday.

In a statement, the army said the commander had raided Israeli territory during the October 2023 attack and had promoted plots against Israeli troops operating in Gaza.

The commander’s “activities posed an immediate threat to our forces”, the military said, employing a claim used to justify strikes despite a ceasefire in the Strip.

Separately, Hamas announced the killing of a commander in Khan Younis on its Telegram page on Sunday evening.

Omar Muhammad Abu Jalala, a commander in the Khan Younis Brigade, was killed, the group said, without giving further details.

Palestinian man dies of injuries following Israeli strike on Gaza

A Palestinian man has died from wounds sustained in an Israeli air strike on Gaza City last week, Wafa news agency is reporting, citing medical sources in the coastal enclave.

Mahmoud Hosni Alou Shar succumbed to his injuries after Israeli aircraft struck the area around Gaza’s port last Tuesday.

Israel violated ‘ceasefire’ 4,379 times in 315 days

Gaza’s Government Media Office says Israel has committed 4,379 violations of the “ceasefire” agreement since it took effect 315 days ago, killing 1,286 Palestinians and wounding 4,257.

• The office said Israeli forces have also detained 180 Palestinians during the period, while 813 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble. It estimates that more than 8,000 bodies remain buried beneath destroyed buildings.
• It said only 66,607 aid trucks have entered Gaza out of an expected 189,000, amounting to 35 percent of the agreed total.
• The office added that 11,759 people have been allowed to travel through the Rafah crossing out of an expected 29,800, or 39 percent.

Gaza death toll rises

At least two Palestinians have been killed and 32 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza in the past 24 hours, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.

Since October 2023, Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has killed at least 73,422 people and wounded 174,401.

Palestinians in Gaza face devastation as Israeli air strikes hit makeshift tents

Tareq Abu Azzoum, a journalist in Gaza reported:

"There is a growing uneasiness around Israeli air strikes. Over the past few weeks, we saw a clear intensification of air strikes on residential houses, civilian properties and makeshift tents, where people have been taking refuge after the destruction of their neighborhoods.

A tent was hit by the Israeli army at dawn. There were two people sleeping in this tent. We can see the remains of personal belongings, some cooking items, and also the ramifications of the attack. We can take a look at how the strike has produced shrapnel that hit the walls, and also the flimsy tents that Palestinians have been using as a shelter.

And what is significant to report is that this tent was built after the destruction of the family’s house.

People have been trying to adapt and create some coping mechanisms regarding living inside Gaza, and amid untenable security conditions, we can also see the remnants of where drops and how these flimsy tents and fabrics have been heavily impacted by the Israeli air strikes."

Gaza death toll since dawn rises to four: Sources

A Palestinian young girl has been killed and two others injured after Israeli forces opened fire in the Al-Satar al-Gharbi area of southern Gaza’s eastern Khan Younis, according to sources.

Sources in Gaza hospitals say four people, including a child, have been killed by Israeli forces in several areas of the Gaza Strip since dawn today.

Israeli army claims Hamas fighter killed in overnight strike on Gaza

Israeli army claims to have killed a member of Hamas’s elite Nukhba Forces who, it said, had taken part in the October 2023 attack.

The army claimed that the strike also targeted a second member, who had also entered Israel in October 2023.

Forced evacuation threat issued for Gaza City district

Israeli forces have issued a forced evacuation threat for the Sheikh Radwan district in Gaza City.

Israeli forces strike mosque, water desalination plant in Gaza City

Israel’s air force has attacked a mosque and a water desalination plant in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan district.

Video shared by the Palestine Dialogue Network showed plumes of smoke rising from the area.

Hamas condemns Israeli targeting of desalination plant in Gaza City

Hazem Qassem, spokesman for Hamas, says Israel targeted a desalination plant in Gaza City as part of its ongoing campaign to “exterminate” the Palestinian people.

The Israeli air strikes “are part of the ongoing war of extermination against the people of the Gaza Strip, targeting the foundations of life and depleting all its resources”, Qassem said in a statement published on the group’s Telegram page.

Qassem said that Israel’s “escalating bombing operations” targeting heavily populated areas “confirm that the occupation still has its displacement plan on its agenda of crimes, despite the ceasefire agreement”.

Qassem added that these latest strikes indicate Israel’s “disregard” for the US-backed ceasefire agreement, in place since October, “and confirm the occupation government’s continued evasion of its commitments and its undermining of efforts to solidify and implement the agreement”.

Gaza death toll since dawn rises to six

The death toll from Israeli attacks in Gaza since Monday morning has risen to six, hospital sources told Al Jazeera.

A child is among those killed in Israeli strikes that have targeted several areas in Gaza today.

Gaza’s death toll rises to seven after new Israeli air strike kills child

Gaza’s ambulance service reports that a child has been killed in an Israeli air strike on a house in the Bureij camp in central Gaza.

Ambulance and Palestinian Civil Defence crews rushed to the scene to evacuate the injured. A search is currently under way for a number of people missing among the rubble of homes destroyed in the attack.

The latest killing pushes Monday’s death toll in Gaza to seven, including two children killed in Israeli attacks across the enclave since dawn.

Israel’s escalation of violence in Gaza comes despite recent commitments by Israeli PM Netanyahu to US special envoy Jared Kushner to implement the second phase of the Gaza the ceasefire agreement.

Gaza death toll rises to eight

Israeli air strikes have killed at least eight Palestinians, including two children, since dawn.

Israeli forces have been relentlessly targeted areas in central and southern Gaza since dawn destroying houses, mosques and at least one water desalination facility in the enclave.

Casualties reported in Israeli shelling of residential areas in Gaza City

There are reports of casualties as a result of Israeli shelling of a residential areas in the al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City.

Israeli has intensified attacks across various parts of Gaza City since Monday morning, destroying a desalination plant and a hitting a mosque in the Sheikh Radwan district.

Israeli army claims attacks on Hamas ‘weapons depots’ in Gaza

Israeli forces “continue to target Hamas weapons depots in the Gaza Strip”, according to a joint statement by the Israeli army and internal security service, Shin Bet.

The statement said Israeli forces carried out attacks in the Shati refugee camp and Deir el-Balah areas in central Gaza and “destroyed two weapons depots belonging to Hamas”.

At least two children are among eight Palestinians killed so far on Monday in Israeli air strikes across Gaza, according to Gaza health officials.

UNICEF sees ‘fragile’ improvement in children’s nutrition in Gaza

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has recorded concerning rates of chronic malnutrition in a new population-based nutrition survey conducted in accessible areas of the Gaza Strip, despite observing “relatively low acute malnutrition”.

The study was conducted between May 31 and June 15 following “a substantial expansion of humanitarian assistance after the October 2025 ceasefire,” the aid agency reported.

“Around 17 per cent of Gaza’s population, some 358,000 people, was excluded from the sampling frame before cluster selection because of access and security constraints,” UNICEF said.

It revealed “a complex nutritional picture” with “concerning rates of chronic malnutrition (stunting), maternal malnutrition, very poor dietary quality, suboptimal infant and young child feeding practices, and a substantial burden of childhood illness”.

“Children’s nutrition improves when aid and commercial supplies reach them,” said UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Edouard Beigbeder.

“Acute malnutrition can improve within weeks. The wider damage does not,” said Beigbeder. “Children need safe water, health care, and diverse and nutritious food – not only enough calories to survive.”

UN’s Albanese calls for international protection force in West Bank, Gaza

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, says it is “absolutely urgent” to establish an international protection presence in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.

“Third states have an obligation, per the ICJ, to act to end Israel’s unlawful occupation,” Albanese wrote on X, using the acronym for the International Court of Justice. She also questioned whether the UN secretary-general’s diplomatic efforts, along with the General Assembly’s “Uniting for Peace” mechanism, could help bypass a deadlocked Security Council.

Albanese’s post referenced a July 2024 ICJ advisory opinion, which found Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory unlawful and said other states have a duty not to aid in maintaining it. The UN Security Council has repeatedly failed to act on Gaza and the West Bank amid vetoes from the US, one of the five permanent members with veto power.

The “Uniting for Peace” resolution allows the General Assembly to take up matters of international peace and security when the Security Council is unable to act due to a lack of unanimity among its permanent members.

EU’s foreign policy chief calls on Israel to halt E1 colony plan

The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, has called on Israel to halt its E1 colony plan in the occupied West Bank.

Last week, the Israeli government published a tender for the construction of more than 1,200 housing units, that would cut the north of the occupied West Bank off from the south.

Kallas said the project would severely undermine the prospects for a two state- solution.

In a statement she urged the Israeli government to withdraw the tender and halt all other colony expansion projects.

Netanyahu, Israel’s far-right do not care the global outrage

Last week, the Israeli government invited bids for the building of more than 1,200 units, a key step towards the construction of the E1 colony in the occupied West Bank just two months before Israel’s general election.

E1 (East 1) would link Ma’ale Adumim and other illegal Israeli colonys to occupied East Jerusalem, effectively severing the West Bank in two. Both supporters and critics agree that its construction would end the possibility of a Palestinian state.

The move has drawn international outrage, including from the UN. But sections of Israel’s political class are using this global backlash to their own ends and could frame their support for E1 as a key pitch in their election campaigns.

China’s president says Palestinian issue central to Middle East

The ⁠⁠Palestinian issue “lies at the ⁠⁠core of the Middle East issue”, China’s President Xi Jinping said in a meeting with ‌‌Jordan’s King Abdullah in Beijing.

Xi called for a political solution, the resumption of peace talks ⁠⁠between the Palestinians ⁠⁠and Israel, and for the “realisation of ⁠⁠Palestine’s early establishment ⁠⁠as an independent ⁠⁠state”, according to an official summary of ‌‌the meeting broadcast on state radio.

Israeli police arrest two teenagers after video shows assault on elderly Palestinian amputee

Israeli police have arrested two teenagers after a video emerged showing a young colonist beating an elderly Palestinian amputee with a stick in the occupied West Bank’s Masafer Yatta region.

The assault took place in the village of Al-Rakeez, south of Hebron. Footage of the incident allegedly shows the main suspect, a 16-year-old resident of the nearby Israeli outpost of Avigail, approaching Sheikh Saeed al-Amour from behind and striking him with a wooden stick while the 60-year-old victim struggled to gather his crutches.

Police also arrested a 17-year-old Jerusalem resident on suspicion of filming the assault and seized an unlicensed vehicle used in the incident. The primary suspect remains in custody pending a court hearing, while the second suspect was released to house arrest.

Al-Amour, a prominent local farmer and land rights advocate, had his right leg amputated in April 2025 after being shot during a confrontation with a colony security officer on his farmland.

The Masafer Yatta region has experienced persistent friction between Palestinian villagers and Israeli colonists amid expanding outposts and military restrictions in the South Hebron Hills.

Happened in the occupied West Bank

Israeli forces raided multiple towns, villages and refugee camps across the occupied territory in the past 24 hours, with reports of arrests, home searches and colonist attacks continuing to mount.

• Israeli military vehicles rammed two vehicles in Tulkarem, one in the Izbet Shufa area southeast of the city, and the other on Nablus Street near al-Firdaws Mosque, causing material damage according to our colleagues on the ground
• colonists continued a siege of three homes in the Ras al-Ein area of Qusra, south of Nablus, for a 15th consecutive day, blocking water deliveries and access roads; Israeli forces have occupied one of the homes as a military post and damaged furniture and belongings thrown from its windows, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa
• Israeli military forces abducted a Palestinian resident, Abdullah Kanaan, after storming his home in the suburb of Iktaba, east of Tulkarem city, according to Quds news
• Israeli soldiers raided the village of Barta’a, southwest of Jenin, according to our colleagues on the ground
• Israeli military forces stormed Jalazone refugee camp, north of Ramallah, Wafa reported.

Aluminum factory near Ramallah set on fire by Israeli colonists

Israeli colonists have set fire to a Palestinian aluminum factory near the Ein Siniya checkpoint, the head of the local council told Al Jazeera.

The official said that Israeli forces also prevented firefighters from reaching the site, causing the fire to spread to nearby agricultural land.

The firefighters were later allowed to pass through and extinguish the fire, the official added.

Israeli forces block intersections, install surveillance cameras in Jenin

Israeli forces have placed concrete blocks and installed surveillance cameras at several intersections in the occupied West Bank’s Jenin governorate, according to the Palestinian Wafa news agency.

Sources told Wafa that Israeli installations were placed at Jenin’s Haddad Roundabout and the Umm Al-Tut and Al-Swaitat intersections.

The measures coincided with Israeli troop deployments across several parts of Jenin, as well as the establishment of temporary military checkpoints around the city.

Why human rights groups say colonist violence meets definition of pogrom

UN officials and human rights groups warn that escalating violence by Israeli colonists in the occupied West Bank increasingly amounts to pogroms.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 1,330 colonist attacks occurred from January to late July, marking the fastest pace in two decades.

The violence has forced the complete or partial displacement of 107 communities comprising 5,900 Palestinians since January 2023.

These armed campaigns are frequently backed or enabled by the Israeli military, serving to drive residents off land that now houses roughly 780,000 colonists across 192 colonies and 400 outposts in the territory.

Israeli colonists storm occupied West Bank village

colonists, backed by Israeli forces, have stormed the village of Ein Qiniya in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian sources.

Video posted on social media by activists showed more than a dozen colonists and Israeli army vehicles on a road next to houses owned by Palestinians in Ein Qiniya.

Colonist attacks on Palestinian homes have skyrocketed in recent months, drawing widespread condemnation from around the world.

Israeli colonist attacks up 63 percent from last year in occupied West Bank

Israeli colonist attacks in the occupied West Bank rose by 63 percent in the first seven months of 2026 compared with the same period last year, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Citing the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)-affiliated government watchdog organization, the report said 4,113 attacks were recorded between January and July, up from 2,524 during the same period last year.

June and July saw the highest monthly totals, with 748 and 798 attacks, respectively.

The commission said colonist violence has transformed “from sporadic attacks into an organized tool for imposing geographic realities and pushing Palestinian communities towards decline and displacement”.

The attacks were increasingly being used to impose control over land and pressure Palestinian communities towards displacement, it said.