Israel has carried out a wave of deadly raids throughout the occupied West Bank, killing at least eight people, including one 14-year-old boy, in Jenin and Aqqaba with drones and live bullets.
An Israeli air raid in the southern Lebanese village of Mayfadoun has killed five people, all Hezbollah fighters, reports Al Jazeera’s Assed Beig.
Hezbollah says it fired a “swarm of drones” in northern Israel, targeting a military barracks some 20 km border. At least five Israelis have been injured, one critically, from the attack, reports the Times of Israel.
Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, has warned the Middle East is on “the brink of a war of unknown proportions”.
Two Israeli reservists have failed a polygraph test probing their involvement in alleged sexual abuse of a Palestinian detainee in Israel’s Sde Teiman facility, according to Israel’s Channel 12.
The UN special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression has condemned Israel’s killing last week of Al Jazeera journalist Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Rifi in Gaza, urging their deaths be prosecuted as a war crime.
Japan urges its citizens not to travel to Israel
Japan’s Foreign Ministry has issued a travel alert urging its citizens not to visit Israel, citing rising tensions in the Middle East.On Monday, the ministry urged Japanese nationals in Lebanon to leave the country, joining other nations such as France, the UK and the US in asking citizens to leave.
Hezbollah attack shows group can strike ‘deeper’, bypass Israeli defences
What Hezbollah’s latest attack on Israel, near the city of Acre, shows is that it is able to get deeper inside the country, some 20km (12.4 miles) from the southern border.It also shows that Hezbollah has knowledge and locations of Israeli military installations and is able to strike them, getting through layers of Israeli defences.Israel has also carried out strikes in southern Lebanon today. The Israeli military hit a building in the town of Mayfadoun.
Air France has confirmed its flights, and those of its low-cost subsidiary Transavia, to Beirut will be suspended through at least Thursday, as the expected response from Iran and Hezbollah to the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh threatens to escalate the conflict.
The resumption of flights to Lebanon’s capital, which have been halted since July 29, “will be subject to a new assessment of the local situation”, the airline told AFP.The two French airlines first stopped servicing the route after Israel pledged to retaliate following rocket fire from Lebanon that killed 12 people in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.Air France said it “is constantly monitoring developments in the geopolitical situation of the territories served and overflown by its aircraft, to ensure the highest level of flight safety and security”.German carrier Lufthansa has suspended flights to Beirut, Tehran and Tel Aviv until August 12.Air France said its flights to and from Tel Aviv are operating normally.
Iraqi military condemns ‘reckless’ attack on military base
Iraq’s military has slammed what it called “reckless” actions against its bases, after at least five US personnel were injured in an attack yesterday on Ain al-Assad military base.“We reject all reckless actions and practices targeting Iraqi bases, diplomatic missions, and the whereabouts of the international coalition’s advisers, and everything that would raise tension in the region,” the Iraqi military statement said, adding that it had since seized a rocket launcher.Iran and Hezbollah have pledged to strike Israel over the killing last week of senior Hamas and Hezbollah figures. Their attacks are expected to be coordinated with other allies in the region, including Yemen’s Houthis and the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.
UN expert condemns Israeli killing of Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza
The UN special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression has condemned Israel’s killing last week of Al Jazeera journalist Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Rifi in Gaza, urging that their deaths be prosecuted as a war crime.“I strongly denounce the deliberate targeting by Israel of two journalists in Gaza, which adds to an already appalling toll of reporters and media workers killed in this war,” Irene Khan said in a statement.The two men were killed in a July 31 air strike by the Israeli military, which said al-Ghoul was a Hamas operative who took part in the October 7 attack against Israel.Al Jazeera has rejected what it said are “baseless allegations”, saying that journalism was his only profession.“Given Israel’s failure to heed earlier calls for accountability, I urge the International Criminal Court to move swiftly to prosecute the killings of journalists in Gaza as a war crime and call on the international community to urgently consider the use of international mechanisms to investigate crimes against journalists in Gaza,” Khan added. Palestinians inspect a vehicle where Al Jazeera TV said its reporter Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Rifi were killed in an Israeli strike, in Gaza City, July 31, 2024
Avichai Stern, the mayor of Israel’s Kiryat Shmona, which has been a frequent target of Hezbollah attacks during the Gaza war, says Israelis are living in fear due to the looming threat of all-out war, and urged the military to preemptively strike Iran rather than wait for its retaliation.“Nine million citizens are sitting in fear in a sovereign state, waiting to see what will happen,” Stern told Israel’s Channel 14. “Today we are waiting for a ballistic missile attack from Iran; next time we might wait for a nuclear or atomic attack – it’s absurd!“We need a preemptive strike,” he added.
