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Live blog: Deadly Israeli strikes hit across Gaza’s north and south
Israel’s war on Gaza, now in its 258th day, has killed at least 37,396 Palestinians — mostly women, children and infants –– and wounded 85,523, with 10,000+ feared buried under the debris of bombed homes and more than 9,500 abducted by Tel Aviv.
In scorching heat amidst the rubble of Gaza, a Palestinian child tries to cool a friend by pouring water. / Photo: AA
AA
In scorching heat amidst the rubble of Gaza, a Palestinian child tries to cool a friend by pouring water. / Photo: AA
Thursday, June 20, 2024
0702 GMT — Israeli air strikes across Gaza have resulted in several Palestinian casualties, mostly women and children, as the deadly aggression in the besieged enclave continues.
According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, two women were killed and 12 others injured in an Israeli air strike on a home in western Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
Israeli artillery shelled the southern areas of the Zeitoun neighbourhood in southeastern Gaza City, as well as the eastern areas of the central Maghazi and Bureij refugee camps.
Shelling was also reported in most areas of Rafah, the enclave’s southernmost city, as well as heavy Israeli machine gun fire.
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since last October.
More updates 
0710 GMT — US floating pier in Gaza ‘reattached to beach’ after being dismantled
The US-built floating humanitarian pier in Gaza was reattached to the coast several days after it was dismantled due to unfavourable weather conditions, CNN has reported.
It quoted two US officials who confirmed the pier was re-anchored to the Gaza coast, marking the second time it was reattached to the beach since its construction in mid-May.
On Tuesday, Pentagon spokesperson Pat Ryder said the pier would “go operational this week.”
The pier was removed from its anchored position in Gaza last week and towed to Israel’s port city of Ashdod due to expectations of high seas, according to a US Central Command (CENTCOM) statement.
0223 GMT — Yemen’s Houthis say used ‘new weapons’ to sink Red Sea ship
Yemen’s Houthi group has said that it employed “new weapons” to target and sink the cargo ship MV Tutor in the Red Sea.
The announcement was made by the group’s naval forces and published by the Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV channel.
The statement said that “several naval weapons were used to target and sink the Tutor, including some that were used for the first time,” without elaborating.
The Houthi statement said, “The targeting of the ship occurred after the vessel, belonging to a Greek-owned company, violated the group’s ban on entering the occupied Haifa port.”
The statement also accused the ship of “turning off its Automatic Identification System while passing through the Red Sea.”
READ MORE
Hamas is an idea, and you cannot destroy it — Israeli military spokesperson
0144 GMT — Israel says preparing for various scenarios on border with Lebanon
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has said that the situation on the northern border with Lebanon will change either through a political settlement or a wide-scale war.
Gallant’s remarks followed an assessment at the Northern Command headquarters in Safed in Upper Galilee near the Lebanese border with Israeli Army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, the commander of the Northern Command, Ori Gordin, and the commander of the Air Force, Tomer Bar.
“IDF (army) forces are preparing and continue to prepare against every threat that comes our way, both in defence and attack,” Gallant wrote on X.
“The situation in the north will change with a settlement or with a wide-scale military operation; we have an obligation to return the citizens safely to their homes,” he added.
“We are completing the ground and air readiness, strengthening the intelligence systems and preparing for any possibility,” The Times of Israel daily cited Gallant as saying in a statement.
2330 GMT — Israel is fundamental cause of catastrophe in Gaza: Türkiye
Israel is the fundamental cause of the catastrophe seen in besieged Gaza, Türkiye’s permanent representative to the UN Office in Geneva has said.
“The fundamental cause of the catastrophe we face in Gaza today is the Israeli occupation. As long as this occupation persists, resistance against the occupation by Palestinians will also continue,” said Burak Akcapar.
Akcapar’s remarks came after former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, Chair commissioner of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including occupied East Jerusalem and Israel — which is investigating crimes committed in occupied Palestinian territories — presented the commission’s report during an interactive dialogue session held within the framework of the 56th Session of the UN Human Rights Council.
Akcapar said the report exposes some of the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israeli occupation forces against civilians in Gaza.
He further said they support the report’s call for an immediate and sustainable ceasefire, the lifting of the Gaza blockade and the uninterrupted, adequate and continuous delivery of humanitarian aid, as well as the mutual release of detainees and prisoners and an end to the targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure.
2243 GMT — US says it struck targets in Yemen
The US military has claimed to have destroyed one ground control station and one command and control node in a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen.
In a statement, the US military’s Central Command added its forces also destroyed two Houthi drone boats in the Red Sea.
Houthis first launched drone and missile strikes in the key waterway in November in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. In over 70 attacks, they have sunk two vessels, seized another and killed at least three seafarers.
2008 GMT — Hamas slams Israeli destruction of Rafah crossing as ‘terrorism’
Hamas denounced the Israeli military’s destruction of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing as “criminal behaviour” that “will not change the crossing’s reality.”
The statement was in response to footage released by the Israeli army that showed the devastation caused at the Rafah border crossing between besieged Gaza and Egypt.
“It is an act of terrorism by the occupying Israeli army to destroy the Rafah crossing with all its buildings and facilities, an escalation of crimes and violations against our people,” said the Palestinian resistance group.
It accused the army of attempting “to isolate Gaza from the world and perpetuating the destruction of life-sustaining infrastructure,” as it described it as “fascist.”
Despite the sabotage by Israel, Hamas said the crossing would remain a Palestinian-Egyptian crossing. “This is a criminal behaviour, but it will not change the crossing’s reality.”
Hamas noted that the crossing will “be rehabilitated under a Palestinian initiative once the occupation is ousted and aggression against Gaza ceases.”
2000 GMT — Israel abducts five Palestinians in Ramallah-area village
Israeli forces have stormed the village of Al-Mughayir, northeast of Ramallah, abducting five Palestinians and abused them before releasing them, WAFA news agency said, citing security and local sources.
The report said that Israeli occupation forces fired stun grenades and toxic tear gas in the confrontation, but wounds were reported.
READ MORE
Israeli protesters inside Knesset demand early elections, Gaza war end
1900 GMT — Israeli tanks push deeper into Rafah, forcing people to flee again
Israeli tanks backed by warplanes and drones have advanced deeper into the western part of the Gaza city of Rafah, killing eight people, according to residents and Palestinian medics.
Residents said the tanks moved into five neighbourhoods after midnight. Heavy shelling and gunfire hit the tents of displaced families in the Al-Mawasi area, further to the west of the coastal enclave, they said.
Twelve Palestinians were also killed in an Israeli strike that hit a group of citizens and merchants in the south of Gaza; medical sources told the Reuters news agency.
The people were hit as they waited for convoys of aid trucks carrying goods through the Karem Abu Salem crossing in Salahuddin Road northeast of Rafah, the sources added.
“Another night of horror in Rafah. They opened fire from planes, drones and tanks on the western areas to cover for their invasion,” said one Rafah resident, who asked not to be named.
“Bullets and shells landed in the Mawasi area near where people slept, killing and wounding many,” he told Reuters via a chat app.
For our live updates from Wednesday, June 19, 2024, click here.
SOURCE: TRTWORLD AND AGENCIES
