(NEW YORK) — As the Israel-Hamas war continues, efforts to secure the release of hostages taken by the terrorist organization are ongoing, and Israeli forces have launched an assault in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Here’s how the news is developing:
July 19, 2024, 5:06 PM EDT
Israeli soldier who refuses to serve in Gaza speaks out
Yuval Green, a 26-year-old reservist who was called up to fight in southern Gaza, told ABC News he decided to leave the Israel Defense Forces when his unit was asked to set fire to a Palestinian house there.
Green served as a combat medic in Khan Younis, Gaza, last November and December.
Yuval Green, seen here in an undated picture from his time in Gaza served as a combat medic as a combat medic.
“They gave us an order to burn down a house, and I went to my commander and asked him, ‘Why are we doing that?'” Green said. “And the answers he gave me were just not satisfying enough, were not even close to being satisfying enough. And I said, ‘I’m not willing to participate in that. If we’re doing that, I’m leaving.'”
In June, Green cosigned a letter with 40 other reservists, who remained anonymous, refusing to serve in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
The IDF told ABC News that its “actions are based on military necessity and in accordance to international law” and there was “no IDF doctrine that aims at causing maximal damage to civilian infrastructure regardless of military necessity.”
Exceptional incidents were investigated by an independent body, the IDF said.
-ABC News’ Guy Davies and Britt Clennett
July 19, 2024, 5:01 PM EDT
Biden and Netanyahu to discuss cease-fire and hostage deal next week
President Joe Biden’s focus next week in his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be on nailing down the specifics of a ceasefire that could bring the hostages home, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Friday.
“The overriding focus of the meeting between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu is going to be about the cease-fire and hostage deal,” he said at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.
Netanyahu will meet with Biden in Washington, D.C., on July 22.
“We are mindful that there remain obstacles in the way, and let’s use next week to try to clear through those obstacles and get to a deal,” Sullivan added.
The details that will be discussed between Biden and Netanyahu include Israel’s military presence in Gaza after a cease-fire, access to humanitarian aid, the “long-term disposition” of Gaza and how to execute the remaining hostage and prisoner swap as part of phase two.
-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty
July 19. 2024, 12:38 PM EDT
Top UN court says Israel’s presence in occupied Palestinian territories is ‘unlawful’
The top U.N. court said Friday that Israel’s presence in the Palestinian occupied territories is “unlawful” and should end.
The International Court of Justice said several policies, including the building and expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, the use of the area’s natural resources, the annexation and imposition of permanent control over lands and discriminatory policies against Palestinians, violated international law.
The 15-judge panel said Israel’s “abuse of its status as the occupying power” renders its “presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful.” It says its continued presence was “illegal” and should be ended as “rapidly as possible.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the court’s ruling in a statement.
“The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land, including in our eternal capital Jerusalem nor in Judea and Samaria, our historical homeland. No absurd opinion in The Hague can deny this historical truth or the legal right of Israelis to live in their own communities in our ancestral home,” he said.
-ABC News’ Morgan Windsor, Bruno Nota and Dana Savir
Jul 18, 2024, 11:21 PM EDT
1 killed, 4 injured by shrapnel in Tel Aviv explosion: Officials
A man in Tel Aviv has died after being injured in an explosion resulting from what authorities believe was an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
“During searches of the scene, an unconscious man was found in one of the buildings, with penetrating injuries,” Zachi Heller, a spokesperson for Israel’s emergency medical service Magen David Adom (MDA), confirmed to ABC News.
The man, who Heller said was 50, did not exhibit signs of life and it was determined he had died.
Information is still developing, but the Israel Defense Forces said early Friday morning that the person who died was hit by a fragment of the UAV.
IDF Chief spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the military assessed that the drone was an upgraded Iranian-made Samad-3 model.
“Our estimation is that it arrived from Yemen to Tel Aviv,” he told a briefing with journalists.
Four people were treated for shrapnel injuries at the scene and four were treated by EMS for shock/anxiety. All eight were taken to the Wolfson and Ichilov hospitals, Heller said.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Jul 18, 2024, 9:33 PM EDT
2 injured, taken to hospital following blast in Tel Aviv: Officials
Two people were injured in a blast in Tel Aviv early Friday morning local time, Israel’s emergency medical service, Magen David Adom (MDA) confirmed.
Emergency services received a report at 3:12 a.m. that an object had exploded in Tel Aviv. After arriving on the scene, medics transported a 37-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman in mild condition to Ichilov Hospital. The victims had “shrapnel injuries to the limbs and shoulder,” MDA spokesman Zachi Heller said. Four additional victims were treated for shock/anxiety.
Following the incident report, five fire crews arrived and extinguished the fire. They are currently conducting searches in the area.
A United States official confirmed to ABC News that the explosion had occurred near the U.S. embassy branch office in Tel Aviv, but the building was not damaged. The official said that the cause of the blast is still being assessed and that the office is advising American citizens in Tel Aviv to shelter in place.
The Israel Defense Forces said it was unaware that an unmanned aerial vehicle infiltrated Israel’s defenses. The IDF is currently reviewing the incident.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky and Shannon Kingston
Jul 18, 2024, 5:13 PM EDT
Poliovirus detected in sewage samples in Gaza, health ministry says
Poliovirus has been detected in sewage samples in the Gaza Strip according to testing conducted in coordination with the United Nations, the Gaza Ministry of Health announced Thursday.
Samples were taken from sewage water that “collects and flows between the tents of the displaced and in the places where residents are located as a result of the destruction of the infrastructure” in war-torn Gaza, according to the ministry.
“The presence of the virus that causes polio … represents a new health disaster,” the ministry said in a statement. “There is severe overcrowding, a scarcity of available water and its contamination with sewage water, the accumulation of tons of garbage and the occupation’s prevention of the entry of hygiene materials, which creates a suitable environment for the spread of various epidemics.”
The ministry called for “an immediate halt to the Israeli aggression, the provision of usable water, the repair of sewage lines and an end to the overcrowding at displacement camps.”
Polio, or poliomyelitis, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus, which attacks the nervous system and can lead to irreversible paralysis, according to the World Health Organization.
Polio mainly affects children under 5, though the virus can strike at any age. It’s incurable but completely vaccine-preventable. The virus is highly contagious and can live for weeks in an infected person’s feces, which can contaminate food and water in unsanitary conditions and spread to other people. Polio remains endemic in two countries: Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to the WHO.
-ABC News’ Morgan Winsor
Jul 18, 2024, 1:47 PM EDT
At least 2 people killed in Israeli strike on 9th school in 10 days
At least two people were killed and five others were injured after Israel carried out a strike on Al-Falah School in Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, the ninth school the IDF has targeted in the last 10 days, according to the Gaza Civil Defense.
Jul 18, 2024, 1:07 PM EDT
Netanyahu shuts down plan to build field hospital for Gazan children
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has scrapped Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s plans to establish a field hospital for Gazans along the border with Gaza.
Netanyahu “announced in writing that he does not approve the establishment of a hospital for Gazans on Israeli territory — therefore it will not be built,” his office said in a statement Thursday.
Gallant had announced Wednesday that he had ordered the establishment of a temporary field hospital in southern Israel along the border with Gaza to treat sick Palestinian children who are unable to leave the war-torn enclave for medical care abroad, amid the extended closure of Gaza’s Rafah crossing into Egypt. Gallant said he had told his American counterpart, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, about the plan for the field hospital during a call earlier this week, according to a readout.
The World Health Organization’s representative for Gaza and the West Bank, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, told reporters Wednesday that some 10,000 patients in Gaza still require urgent evacuation for medical treatment.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Jul 18, 2024, 11:17 AM EDT
Palestinians held in Israeli secret detention describe torture, beatings, starvation
Human rights group Amnesty International has accused Israel of mass incommunicado detention and torture of Palestinian detainees from Gaza, citing the documented cases of 27 Palestinians who were detained for periods of up to four-and-a-half months without access to their lawyers or contact with their families.
Those detained included doctors taken into custody at hospitals for refusing to abandon their patients, mothers separated from their infants while trying to cross the so-called “safe corridor” from northern Gaza to the south, human rights defenders, U.N. workers, journalists and other civilians.
The Israeli Prison Service told the Israeli NGO HaMoked that — as of July 1 — 1,402 Palestinians were detained under a law that grants its military sweeping powers to detain anyone from Gaza they suspect of engaging in hostilities against Israel or of posing a threat to state security for indefinitely-renewable periods without having to produce evidence. This count excludes those held for an initial 45-day period without a formal order.
“The Israeli authorities must immediately repeal this law and release those arbitrarily detained under it. Torture and other ill-treatment including sexual violence are war crimes – these allegations must be independently investigated by the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor’s office,” Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard.
“The Israeli authorities must also grant immediate and unrestricted access to all places of detention to independent monitors – access that has been denied since 7 October,” Callamard said.
Israel said it holds detainees lawfully and denies allegations of torture and says prisoners are granted their basic rights, according to the Associated Press.
Jul 17, 2024, 4:29 PM EDT
Gaza aid pier shut down, aid to flow in through Ashdod
The JLOTS temporary pier system has been shut down, with humanitarian aid from Cyprus to Gaza will now taking place through the civilian port of Ashdod, CENTCOM told reporters.
The pier had successfully delivered close to 20 million pounds of humanitarian aid to Gaza, which USAID estimates provided food for 500,000 people for a month. The pier’s overall cost will come in “well underneath” the $230 million costs currently estimated though he couldn’t say by how much, Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, the deputy commanding general of CENTCOM, told reporters.
Cooper said that 1 million pounds of aid has already entered Gaza as a “proof of concept” and that there are about 5 million pounds of aid to still deliver from Cyprus.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Jul 17, 2024, 3:29 PM EDT
Netanyahu ally urges him to accept cease-fire deal
The leader of Israel’s Shas party, Areyeh Deri, is urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a cease-fire deal, publicly adding its voice to the choir of those calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, according to a letter from the Shas party.
“We believe that the conditions created now following the welcomed military pressure and the targeted assassinations create an appropriate time to reach a deal that preserves Israel’s vital security interests and returns the abductees home,” the letter said.
This comes amid reports in Israeli media that Mossad chief David Barnea and Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant have pushed Netanyahu to accept the deal. Without Shas, the Netanyahu-coalition would crumble.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Jul 17, 2024, 3:08 PM EDT
Group calls on Netanyahu to release journalists, allow access to Gaza ahead of US visit
The Committee to Protect Journalists released a statement calling on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to release journalists held without charge and allow free, unimpeded access to Gaza ahead of his planned trip to the U.S.
“From the start of the war, Israel has continuously denied independent access to the media as Palestinian journalists struggle to survive. The loss of local journalists, an almost total ban on media from outside Gaza leaves a vacuum for propaganda, mis and disinformation. Claims and counterclaims remain extraordinarily difficult to verify independently. Facts are easily evaded and truth withers. No credible democracy engages in what is, in effect, a growing censorship regime,” Jodie Ginsburg, the CEO of CPJ, said in a statement Wednesday.
More than 100 journalists have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7 and others have been arrested, often without charge, according to the CPJ.
“Journalists, like the thousands of civilians in Gaza killed, arrested or displaced continue to pay an astonishing toll,” Ginsburg said.
“An unprecedented number of journalists and media workers have been arrested, often without charge. They have been mistreated and tortured. The number of journalists reporting in Gaza is dwindling, and those who remain are doing so in treacherous conditions, but they cannot do so alone,” Ginsburg said.
-ABC News’ Guy Davies
Jul 17, 2024, 12:20 PM EDT
Over 1,000 attacks on health care facilities in Gaza, West Bank since Oct. 7: WHO
The World Health Organization has registered more than 1,000 attacks on health care facilities in the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, the agency’s top official in the region said in a press briefing on Wednesday.
There are currently no functional hospitals in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, following Israel’s recent offensive there, according to Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for the West Bank and Gaza.
Peeperkorn highlighted the urgency of allowing critically ill patients to leave the war-torn enclave, stating that around 10,000 patients in Gaza still require urgent evacuation –- half of whom are suffering from severe trauma, including spinal injuries and amputations.
-ABC News’ Camilla Alcini
Jul 16, 2024, 2:54 PM EDT
IDF says it carried out 37,000 airstrikes on Gaza since October
The Israel Defense Forces has carried out 37,000 airstrikes on Gaza and targetted more than 25,000 terrorist infrastructures and launch sites since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, the IDF said Tuesday.
The IDF also acknowledged carrying out strikes on hospitals, schools and humanitarian shelters throughout the Gaza Strip, claiming to target “terrorists who are located and based in sensitive sites,” the IDF said in a statement.
Jul 16, 2024, 2:03 PM EDT
Dozens killed in Israeli strikes on UNRWA facility, safe zone
At least 23 people were killed and 73 others were injured after Israel struck a UNRWA school in a designated safe zone where displaced people are sheltering. Five UNRWA schools have been hit in the last 10 days, according to the UNRWA.
“UN facilities must be protected at all times. They must never be used for military or fighting purposes. No one is safe in Gaza, wherever they are. The people of #Gaza are children, women & men who have the right to live,” the UNRWA said Tuesday.
In another strike on a safe zone in Mawasi Khan Yunis, at least 17 people were killed and 26 others were injured.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that it struck the school, alleging it struck terrorists who were operating in a UNRWA school.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Jul 16, 2024, 11:52 AM EDT
Israel strikes Nuseirat refugee camp for second day in a row
Israel has carried out a strike on Nuseirat refugee camp, where internally displaced Palestinians have been told to shelter, for the second day in a row, according to Gaza Civil Defense.
This is the sixth school — a designated safe zone — to be targeted by Israeli Defense Forces’ airstrikes in one week.
Jul 13, 2024, 4:36 PM EDT
‘No absolute certainty’ Hamas commander was killed deadly attack, Netanyahu says
Israel has not confirmed whether Saturday’s strike that killed 90 Palestinians killed two Hamas officials, including military chief Mohammed Deif, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a press conference.
“There is still no absolute certainty that the two have been eliminated, but I want to assure you that one way or another we will reach the entire top of Hamas,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu said he was briefed about the type of weapons that would be used and the expected “collateral damage,” as well as confirming Israel did not believe any hostages were held in the area, before giving the go ahead for the strike.
“Why should we risk something leaking out? Suppose something leaked, Deif and his deputy would go underground in a second. We update our American friends when necessary,” Netanyahu said.
Asked about not telling the U.S. about the strike beforehand, Netanyahu said it was to avoid an information leak.
-ABC News’ Anna Burd
Jul 13, 2024, 4:14 PM EDT
UN Human Rights Office condemns IDF’s strikes in Gaza humanitarian zones
The United Nations Human Rights Office has condemned the Israel Defense Forces’ use of weapons in populated areas of Gaza, including humanitarian zones, hours after an attack killed 90 Palestinians.
“The latest attack and casualty followed right after another massive attack on the north, which lasted for a week, resulting in further destruction and casualties,” the UN Human Rights Office said in a statement.
The U.N. said the IDF’s use of weapons in densely populated areas “despite the overwhelming evidence that these means and methods have led to disproportionate harm to civilians and damage to civilian infrastructure, suggests a pattern of willful violation of the disregard of [International Humanitarian Law] principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution.”
“The use of such weapons in an area to which IDF is ordering people to evacuate demonstrates a rampant disregard for the safety of civilians. Even if Palestinian armed group members were using the presence of civilians in these areas in an attempt to shield themselves from attack, which would violate IHL, this would not remove IDF’s obligations to comply with these fundamental IHL principles of proportionality, distinction and precaution,” the U.N. said.
Jul 13, 2024, 3:14 PM EDT
Death toll from Israeli attack on Khan Younis rises to 90
The death toll from Israel’s deadly attack on Al Mawasi, west of the southern city of Khan Younis, has now risen to 90 people killed and 300 injured, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
Israel had admitted earlier that the strike was in the expanded humanitarian zone.
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