MIDDLE EAST
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Live blog: Hezbollah vows to hit new Israeli sites over civilian deaths
Israel’s war on Gaza, now in its 285th day, has killed at least 38,713 Palestinians — the majority of them women and children –– and wounded 89,166 others, with 10,000+ estimated to be buried under the debris and 9,500+ abducted by Tel Aviv.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah gives a televised address in Beirut’s southern suburbs. / Photo: Reuters
REUTERS
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah gives a televised address in Beirut’s southern suburbs. / Photo: Reuters
Wednesday, July 17, 2024
0908 GMT — Hezbollah will hit new targets in Israel if it keeps killing civilians in Lebanon, the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah said, noting a spike in the number of non-combatants killed in Lebanon in recent days.
Five civilians, all Syrians and including three children, were killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon on Tuesday and at least three Lebanese civilians were killed the day before, according to state media and security sources.
“Continuing to target civilians will push the Resistance to launch missiles at settlements that were not previously targeted,” Nasrallah said, in comments made during a televised address to mark the day of Ashoura.
More updates 
0933 GMT — Israel detains more Palestinians in West Bank
The Israeli army detained 15 more Palestinians, including three women and a boy, during incursions across the occupied West Bank, according to prisoners’ rights groups.
Israeli troops entered the cities of Jenin, Salfit, Jericho, Bethlehem and Hebron, and took 15 Palestinians into custody, including a boy, three women and former detainees in Israeli jails, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement.
During their incursions, Israeli forces assaulted and threatened detainees and their families, as well as vandalised their homes, the statement added.
The new arrests bring the total number of Palestinians detained by the Israeli army in the occupied West Bank since October of last year to 9,700, including those who were released after being arrested, according to Palestinian figures.
0713 GMT — 10 Palestinians killed in Israeli overnight air strikes in central Gaza
The Israeli army killed at least 10 more Palestinians in raids on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza amid ongoing shelling across the tiny enclave.
Speaking to Anadolu news agency, Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal said the rescue teams recovered seven bodies and a number of injured people from the rubble of a destroyed home of the Diab family in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
It added that another Palestinian was killed as a result of an Israeli air strike on a home of the Eisawi family in the Nuseirat camp.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian official news agency Wafa reported that an Israeli airstrike on the Abdullah Azzam Mosque in the Nuseirat refugee camp left two people killed and 15 others injured.
0627 GMT — Israeli army seizes more Palestinian land in central occupied West Bank
The Israeli army expropriated more Palestinian lands in western Ramallah, in the central occupied West Bank, near existing illegal Jewish settlements, a Palestinian group said.
The Israeli army seized 441 dunums (441,000 square metres) of lands from Palestinian citizens in the villages of Shabtin, Deir Ammar and Deir Qaddis in western Ramallah, the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission said in a statement.
It added that the Israeli army aims to seize all lands surrounding the Israeli settlements of Nili and Naale which are built on Palestinian land.
0140 GMT — Lebanon media says 3 children among 5 dead in Israeli strikes
Lebanese official media said separate Israeli strikes in south Lebanon killed five people including three Syrian children, with Hezbollah announcing rocket fire at Israel in retaliation.
“Three Syrian children” were killed “in an enemy raid that targeted farmland in the village of Umm Toot”, the National News Agency (NNA) said.
It also said an “enemy” drone strike had targeted a motorcycle on the Kfar Tebnit road elsewhere in south Lebanon, killing two Syrians.
A Lebanese security source, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media, told AFP news agency the two Syrians were “civilians” who worked nearby and had been swimming in the area.
0030 GMT — Israel kills 48 Palestinians in Gaza in less than an hour
Three Israeli air strikes in less than one hour killed 48 Palestinians in Gaza, according to civil defence agency.
Israel said it carried out two of the strikes that the civil defence agency said also left dozens more wounded.
According to an updated toll, 25 people died at the UN-run Al Razi School in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, an agency director, Mohammed al Mughair told AFP news agency.
At least 18 people were killed and 25 wounded at Al Mawasi near the southern city of Khan Younis. Five people were killed in a strike on people stood near a roundabout at Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, according to the official.
2324 GMT — Israeli army chief of staff demands apology from Netanyahu
Israeli Army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi has demanded that hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologise for recent comments he made in which he criticised the military for not putting enough pressure on resistance group Hamas to achieve progress in hostage talks, local reports said.
Israel’s Channel 12 said that during a press conference on Saturday, Netanyahu said that “for months, there was no progress because the military pressure was not strong enough, and I thought that both for the sake of the hostage deal and for the sake of the victory over Hamas, we must enter Rafah.”
During a meeting on Sunday that was also attended by the heads of Israel’s two main spy agencies, the Shin Bet and Mossad, Halevi asked Netanyahu to apologise, Channel 12 reported.
In the meeting, Halevi told Netanyahu: “These comments are serious. I demand the Prime Minister issue an apology.”
However, according to the channel, Netanyahu has not apologised.
2238 GMT — Egypt, France discuss efforts to prevent escalation in Middle East
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sisi and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron have agreed that international efforts must intensify to prevent the Middle East region from entering a new cycle of conflict.
In a phone call, the two leaders expressed their commitment to enhancing bilateral cooperation across various domains and exchanged views on regional and international issues, with a particular focus on “developments in the Gaza Strip,” the Egyptian Presidency said in a statement.
President Sisi highlighted “Egypt’s ongoing mediation efforts to secure an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and facilitate the exchange of hostages between Israel and Hamas.”
He also “emphasised the urgent need for sufficient humanitarian aid to alleviate the harsh conditions faced by Gaza’s residents due to Israeli military” aggression.
2224 GMT — Israel kills several Palestinians in air strikes in Gaza
Israel has killed several Palestinians and wounded others in air strikes on different parts of besieged Gaza, which destroyed three homes.
Artillery fire also targeted areas in central and northern governorates.
Israeli warplanes targeted a house in the Al-Manara neighbourhood of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, with no immediate reports of injuries, according to Anadolu news agency.
Earlier, an Israeli strike hit a residential apartment in the Tel al Hawa neighbourhood southwest of Gaza City.
Israeli fighter jets also struck a house in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, killing five Palestinians, according to medical sources cited by Anadolu news agency.
In the Tel al Sultan neighbourhood west of Rafah city in southern Gaza, field sources reported several fatalities due to an Israeli strike.
Meanwhile, Israeli artillery continued to shell targets across Gaza, hitting the area west of the Nuseirat camp and the Kleibo area east of Sheikh Zayed Towers.
2100 GMT — Turkish foreign minister, Hamas chief discuss Gaza humanitarian crisis, ceasefire talks
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has held a phone call with Hamas’ political bureau chief, Ismail Haniyeh, about the ongoing humanitarian crisis in besieged Gaza and the latest in ceasefire negotiations, according to diplomatic sources.
During the conversation, Fidan addressed the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza and concerning developments resulting from increasing hunger and diseases in northern Gaza.
Additionally, Fidan and Haniyeh discussed the latest developments in ceasefire negotiations with Israel.
For our live updates from Tuesday, July 16, 2024, click here.
SOURCE: TRTWORLD AND AGENCIES
