Live Updates: US, Israel, UAE officials discuss post-war plans for Gaza

Tuesday, July 23, 2024

14:41 GMT –– Officials from the United States, Israel and the United Arab Emirates held a meeting to discuss plans for Gaza after the war ends, local media reported.

The meeting was held in Abu Dhabi, said the Axios news, citing two Israeli officials.

The meeting hosted by UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan was attended by White House National Security Council Middle East and North Africa adviser Brett McGurk and Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer.

Two senior Israeli defence officials who have been working on Israel's proposals for day-after plans for Gaza also travelled with Dermer to Abu Dhabi, the officials said.

14:51 GMT –– Yemen’s Houthis release footage of drone attack on Tel Aviv

Yemen’s Houthi group released a video showing this weekend’s drone attack on Tel Aviv, which killed an Israeli and injured 10 others.

The footage aired by the Houthi-affiliated media showed the moment the drone was launched by the Yemeni group and hit targets in Tel Aviv.

According to the Houthis (Ansar Allah), the Yafa drone used in the attack is capable of “performing multiple tasks and has systems that make it invisible to radar and air defences.”

The video showed that the drone was carrying a highly explosive warhead during the June 19 attack.

Israel retaliated the attack by launching airstrikes on the Port of Al Hudaydah in western Yemen, killing at least nine people and injuring 83 others, according to the Houthi-run Health Ministry.

12:55 GMT –– Israeli strike kills six, injures 10 in central Gaza

At least six Palestinians were killed and 10 others injured in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, according to health authorities.

"The victims were brought to Al-Awda Hospital after the Israeli attack," the hospital said in a statement.

The attack was the latest in a deadly offensive launched by Israel since Oct. 7, 2023, following the Palestinian resistance Hamas' attack.

12:32 GMT –– Palestinian factions to implement unity deal immediately

Palestinian factions will take "immediate practical steps" to implement an agreement to end their divisions and form an interim unity government, a Palestinian politician said.

Palestinian groups, including Hamas and Fatah, held three days of intensive talks in the Chinese capital of Beijing to heal their years-long rift.

The agreement aims to form a unity government to run Gaza after the end of Israel’s ongoing brutal offensive on the enclave.

Signatories of the agreement said they would form an interim national unity government to supervise Gaza reconstruction and prepare the conditions for holding elections.

"The factions will immediately begin implementing the reconciliation agreement with practical steps," Mustafa Barghouti, head of the Palestinian National Initiative party, told Anadolu.

He said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will start consultations with all groups to form an interim national unity government.

12:14 GMT –– Palestinian control of Gaza 'won’t happen': Israel

Israel slammed an agreement between Palestinian factions aimed at maintaining control over Gaza following its ongoing war.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Tel Aviv will not allow a joint control of Gaza by Hamas and Fatah.

"In reality, this won’t happen because Hamas's rule will be crushed," Katz said in a statement on X. "(Palestinian President Mahmoud) Abbas will be watching Gaza from afar. Israel's security will remain solely in Israel's hands," he added.

12:09 GMT –– Türkiye decries Israel's designation of UNRWA as 'terrorist organisation'

Türkiye has decried a decision by Israel's parliament, the Knesset, to classify the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) as a terrorist organisation, considering it “unacceptable.”

"It is unacceptable that Israel, which has targeted civilians sheltering in UNRWA schools in Gaza and killed nearly 200 UN staff in the last nine months, is trying to label UNRWA as a terrorist organisation," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a written statement.

"The Israeli Parliament's efforts to designate UNRWA as a terrorist organization is a new phase in Israel's attacks to destroy the Palestinian people and the Palestinian identity," the statement said.

"Established by the UN General Assembly in 1949, UNRWA provides vital services to millions of Palestine refugees and symbolizes the right of Palestinians to return to their own land," the statement noted, adding: "By discrediting UNRWA, Israel seeks to deprive Palestine refugees of their most basic rights."

11:01 GMT –– Dozens of filings flood ICC's Israel-Hamas case, causing delays

More than 60 governments and other parties will be allowed to file arguments to the International Criminal Court as judges consider whether to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other leaders on both sides of the Gaza war, court documents show.

ICC prosecutors say there are reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant as well as senior Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, military chief Mohammed al Masri, and another political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh, bear criminal responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In documents made public on Tuesday, judges granted permission to 18 states, including the United States, Germany and South Africa, 40 organizations and individuals to file written submissions by August 6.

They are related to prosecutor Karim Khan's request in May for arrest warrants in relation to the Hamas attack on southern Israel last October 7 and the ensuing Israeli assault on the Palestinian enclave.

10:17 GMT –– Palestinian death toll in Israel's war on Gaza climbs to 39,090

The Israeli army has killed 84 more Palestinians in attacks across Gaza, taking the overall death toll to 39,090 since last October 7, the Health Ministry in the enclave said.

A ministry statement added that some 90,147 others have been injured in the assault.

"Israeli forces killed 84 people and injured 329 others in eight 'massacres' against families in the last 24 hours," the ministry said, noting that 73 of them were killed in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

"Many people are still trapped under rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them," it added.

10:06 GMT –– 15 Palestinians killed in Israeli raids on areas in northern Gaza

At least 15 Palestinians were killed in a series of Israeli air strikes on residential areas in northern Gaza.

Speaking to Anadolu news agency, Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal said the rescue teams removed bodies of seven people, including three children and two women, from under the rubble of a destroyed home for the Daya family in Gaza City.

In another air strike on a home for the Al-Jemasi family in Gaza City, four Palestinians were killed, the civil defence spokesman added.

He also noted that four others were killed in an Israeli air strike on the Jabalia refugee camp, northern Gaza.

09:44 GMT –– WHO sees 'high risk' of poliovirus spreading across Gaza, assessment underway

The World Health Organization said there was a high risk of the polio virus spreading across Gaza and beyond its borders due to the dire health and sanitation situation in the war-stricken Palestinian enclave.

Ayadil Saparbekov, team lead for health emergencies at WHO in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, said circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 had been isolated from environmental samples from sewage in Gaza.

"There is a high risk of spreading of the circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus in Gaza, not only because of the detection but because of the very dire situation with the water sanitation," he told reporters in Geneva via video link from Jerusalem.

"It may also spill over internationally, at a very high point."

09:30 GMT –– Palestinian factions agree to set up unity government in Gaza

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi has hailed an agreement by 14 Palestinian factions to set up an "interim national reconciliation government" to govern Gaza after the war.

Palestinian factions including Hamas and Fatah met in Beijing this week in a renewed bid for reconciliation.

As the meeting wrapped up, China's top diplomat said the groups had committed to "reconciliation".

09:16 GMT –– Israeli army kills 3 Palestinians in occupied West Bank

The Israeli army killed three Palestinians, including a woman, during raids across the occupied West Bank.

In a statement, the Palestinian Health Ministry said two Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in Sa'ir town, southern occupied West Bank, and a woman was killed in the northern city of Tulkarem.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa quoted local sources as saying that the Israeli army raided the town of Sa'ir and opened fire on Palestinians, killing two Palestinians.

08:33 GMT –– Israel's Netanyahu says deal could be nearing for hostages in Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told families of hostages held in Gaza that a deal that would secure their loved ones' release could be nearing, his office said.

"The conditions are undoubtedly ripening. This is a good sign," Netanyahu told the families in Washington.

08:19 GMT –– Intra-Palestinian meeting 'step towards national unity': Hamas

A senior Hamas leader said the intra-Palestinian talks in the Chinese capital, Beijing, were an important step towards Palestinian national unity.

"The Beijing declaration is an additional positive step on the way to achieve a Palestinian national unity," said Husam Badran, a member of Hamas's political bureau and head of its national relations office, in a statement on the group's website.

Badran noted that during the Beijing meetings, it was agreed to form a national unity government that would supervise Gaza reconstruction and prepare the conditions for holding elections.

07:25 GMT –– US Senator Merkley declines to attend Israeli premier's speech to Congress

US Senator Jeff Merkley said that he will not attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to Congress on July 24.

"I will not attend Netanyahu's speech," Merkley said on X.

Netanyahu arrived Monday in Washington, DC to address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday and to seek to anchor bipartisan support for Israel.

"Following Hamas' horrific attack, Netanyahu's war strategy killed 12,000 women and children, inflicted widespread starvation, and prioritized his political survival over the release of hostages. He should not have a platform before Congress," Merkley said.

06:30 GMT –– Israeli government quietly sends millions to unauthorised West Bank settler outposts

The Israeli government has budgeted millions of dollars to protect small, unauthorised Jewish farms in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, underwriting tiny outposts meant to grow into full-fledged settlements, according to an anti-settlement monitoring group.

Documents uncovered by Peace Now illustrate how Israel's pro-settler government has quietly poured money into the unauthorised outposts, which are separate from its more than 100 officially recognised settlements. Some of those outposts have been linked to settler violence against Palestinians and are sanctioned by the US.

Palestinians and the international community say all settlements are illegal or illegitimate and undermine hopes for a two-state solution.

06:20 GMT –– Jordan condemns Israel's designation of UNRWA as a 'terrorist organisation'

Jordan condemned a decision Monday by Israel's parliament, the Knesset, to classify the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) as a terrorist organisation, considering it a violation of international law and Israel's obligations as the occupying power.

In a statement, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry said the Israeli move is an "attempt to kill the agency, assassinate it politically and target its symbolism, which affirms the right of Palestinian refugees to return and compensation under the international law."

The Knesset early Monday passed three bills to shut down UNRWA and deem it as a "terrorist" organisation. The bills will require two more readings to become effective.

05:45 GMT –– US VP Harris to meet Netanyahu this week at White House

US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week at the White House during his US visit, an aide to Harris said.

Harris' meeting with Netanyahu is separate from the Israeli PM's expected meeting with Democratic US President Joe Biden who stepped aside as candidate for the 2024 elections and endorsed Harris, her aide said. Biden is recovering from Covid-19.

Politico reported that Netanyahu also requested an in-person meeting with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump but the former president has yet to agree.

05:23 GMT –– Gaza health ministry says dozens killed, after Israel evacuation order

The health ministry in Gaza said that an Israeli operation in Khan Younis killed 70 people and wounded more than 200, after the military warned it would "forcefully operate" in the area.

The military warning affected the eastern Khan Younis sector of the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone in southern Gaza and sent thousands of Palestinians fleeing.

Israel's military said it would act to curb rocket fire in the area. Khan Younis had already seen heavy fighting earlier this year.

05:00 GMT — Pro-Palestine protesters demonstrate against Netanyahu in US

Pro-Palestine protesters have gathered outside the Watergate Hotel in Washington DC, where Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is staying before he addresses the US Congress on Wednesday.

Protesters carried placards that read: "Arrest Netanyahu" and "A war criminal stays here," referring to hawkish PM Netanyahu responsible for the death of thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians.

Another massive protest is also planned on Wednesday when Netanyahu addresses the Congress amid the ongoing carnage in besieged Gaza.

04:22 GMT — Biden vows to 'keep working for end to war in Gaza'

US President Joe Biden vowed to continue working to end the war in besieged Gaza during his final months in office after he bowed out of his reelection bid.

"I'll be working very closely with the Israelis and with the Palestinians to try to work out how we can get the Gaza war to end, and Middle East peace, and get all those hostages home," Biden said in a public call into his campaign headquarters, which has transitioned to supporting Vice President Kamala Harris.

03:21 GMT — Palestinian groups agree to achieve 'comprehensive national unity' under PLO

In a rare show of unity, 14 Palestinian groups, including Hamas and Fatah, agreed in the Chinese capital of Beijing to achieve "a comprehensive national unity" under the umbrella of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).

The announcement was made in a joint statement at the conclusion of a two-day meeting in Beijing following China's invitation to intra-Palestinian talks.

The statement said the Palestinian groups "agreed on achieving a comprehensive national unity that includes all Palestinian factions within the frame of PLO, and on the commitment to the establishment of the independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, in accordance with the UN resolutions and ensuring the right of return as based in resolution 194."

For our live updates from Sunday, July 22, 2024, click here.