Israeli forces killed four Palestinians in Khan Younis and three in the Jabalia refugee camp as a siege that forced the United Nations to shut down schools and hospitals in northern Gaza enters a sixth day.
- Israel’s air force also continued bombarding Lebanon, killing five paramedics, and launched attacks on Syria’s Homs and Hama provinces, damaging a car plant and a military site.
UK relief group urges world to ‘act before Gaza is erased entirely’
Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) said it is deeply alarmed by Israel’s forced displacement orders for northern Gaza, including the evacuation and closure of its hospitals.
“The Israeli military’s actions in northern Gaza are systematically collapsing the little of what remains of the health system and eliminating the conditions needed to maintain Palestinian survival,” said Rohan Talbot, MAP’s director of advocacy and campaigns.
The international community’s “catastrophic failure” to take action and enforce a ceasefire has enabled Israel to ramp up its deadly assault, Talbot said, despite the International Court of Justice’s calls to prevent potential genocide in Gaza.
“The world must act before Gaza is erased entirely,” he added.
Iran’s foreign minister holds war-focused meetings in Qatar
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is meeting Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani in Doha.
The Iranian diplomat has been on a regional tour he says is aimed at finding ways of ending Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.
He arrived in Qatar late last night after completing a trip to Saudi Arabia. Araghchi visited Lebanon and Syria before despite the intense Israeli bombing of the two countries.
Israeli forces demolish homes in the occupied West Bank
Israeli forces demolished two homes under construction in a town west of Salfit, in the central occupied West Bank.
Local sources told the Wafa news agency that military bulldozers demolished the two houses in az-Zawiya, which belonged to local Palestinians.
The agency also reported Israeli soldiers fired tear gas at Palestinian civilians at the Hamra military checkpoint, in the northern Jordan Valley, while a mosque in Khirbet Tana was attacked by settlers.
Settlers entered and vandalised the mosque and smashed solar panels that generated electricity for it.
‘Israel must just go crazy and attack Iran’
Reporting from Amman, Jordan
Al Jazeera is reporting from Jordan because it has been banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank.
Early this morning the Israeli army said it assassinated two Hezbollah commanders in southern Lebanon. It also claimed to have killed Hezbollah commanders in Syria, in Homs and the occupied Golan Heights. These claims remain unconfirmed by Hezbollah.
The military also confirmed the death of an Israeli soldier and a critical injury to a reservist during clashes with Hezbollah fighters during these incursions into southern Lebanon that are increasing by the day.
The mood in Israel is about what the coming escalation with Iran would look like. In the media, there are very few opinion pieces about the need not to attack Iran and prevent an all-out regional war. One piece was titled “Israel must just go crazy and attack Iran”, with another talking about the “golden opportunity”.
In contrast, regional Arabic media are discussing the wider consequences of such an attack – how it would affect the stability of the region, what it would do to oil prices and the economy.
By Maziar Motamedi – Aljazeera
