Israel’s war on Gaza updates: All civilians in Gaza City ordered to leave

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says its teams have helped in recovering bodies from under a destroyed industrial building in southern Gaza’s city of Khan Younis.

The PRCS said the building belonged to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Those found were displaced and sought refuge in the building, which came under siege and attack by Israeli forces.

“This mission is the first of its kind for the PRCS,” the group said in a post on X.

“An ambulance designated for mortuary management was utilised, and participants wore special attire for the operation, adhered to the protocol for such interventions, and documented the recovery and transfer of seven bodies.”

This live page is now closed.

To learn more about Israel’s evacuation orders for Gaza City and the destruction it has wrought in the area following its most recent ground operation in the north of the Strip, read this story.

And for all of our coverage of the Gaza conflict, click here.

We’ll be closing this live page soon. Here’s a recap of the day’s main events:

• The Israeli army has ordered all Palestinian civilians to leave Gaza City after striking UNRWA’s headquarters there, a day after at least 27 people were killed and 53 injured in an Israeli attack on a school housing displaced civilians in Khan Younis.
• Mahmoud Bassal, a civil defence spokesperson, says “massive” destruction to infrastructure and residential buildings has been left behind in Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood after Israeli forces withdrew from the area.
• Israeli forces have shot and killed a 14-year-old Palestinian boy in Deir Abu Mishal village in the occupied West Bank, with the teen left to die as he lay “on the ground bleeding for 15 to 20 minutes”.
• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said more than 550 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7.
• Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has said his group would accept Hamas’s decision on Gaza truce negotiations and would stop cross-border attacks on Israel if a ceasefire were reached.

Video shows how an Israeli attack hit a packed school sheltering forcibly displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza while children played football in the yard.

Watch the footage below:

Warning, distressing scenes

Mediators in Doha, Qatar, are discussing a three-phase ceasefire plan announced by US President Joe Biden, which includes a six-week ceasefire, a permanent end of hostilities and the reconstruction of Gaza.

However, the current truce deal’s structure lacks a clear commitment from Israel’s leadership, according to Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator and head of the Middle East and North Africa programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Levy explained that the plan could work with a commitment from mediators to ensure the ceasefire continues, despite its fragility.

Watch the interview in full below:

Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from the NATO summit in Washington, DC, says the lack of discussion about Gaza has been “conspicuous”.

This comes as the US announced it will resume shipment of 500-pound bombs to Israel.

“Back in May, the US suspended one shipment which contained some 2,000-pound bombs, along with 500-pound bombs, because of its concern over civilian casualties in Gaza with the ongoing Israeli bombardment,” Hanna said.

He said it appears that the 500-pound bombs have been “peeled out of that shipment, and are now being sent to Israel”.

“This is still likely to ramp up criticism of the Biden administration for its ongoing support for Israel in its war on Gaza,” he added.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says more than 550 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7.

There are also more than 1,000 attacks by Israeli settlers from illegal settlements that have been documented since, and nearly 1,400 people, including 660 children, have been displaced due to settler violence as well as access restrictions.

#WestBank, including East Jerusalem, since 7 Oct:

🔴 More than 550 Palestinians killed
🔴 Over 1K Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians documented
🔴 Nearly 1,400 people, including 660 children, displaced due to settler violence and access restrictions.

More ⬇️

— UN Humanitarian (@UNOCHA) July 10, 2024

We reported that Israeli forces shot and killed a 14-year-old Palestinian boy in Deir Abu Mishal village yesterday.

Ghassan Zahran was shot and killed in the Palestinian village located west of Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP).

The group said that Israeli settlers and soldiers attacked Palestinian residents who tried to reach Ghassan while he bled out.

“A group of Israeli settlers gathered after Israeli soldiers shot Ghassan and began throwing stones at Palestinian village residents attempting to reach him. Israeli forces opened fire on the Palestinian residents to prevent them from reaching the child, who remained lying on the ground bleeding for 15 to 20 minutes,” DCIP said.

Israeli forces and settlers have killed 56 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank in 2024, including two United States citizens, according to documentation collected by DCIP.

“Unlawful killings of Palestinian children have become the norm as Israeli forces become increasingly empowered to use intentional lethal force in situations that are not justified. In short, these are war crimes with no consequence,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP.

Israeli forces fatally shot 14-year-old Ghassan Gharib Hussein Zahran in the back while he played with friends yesterday in the occupied West Bank. Israeli settlers and soldiers attacked Palestinian residents who tried to reach Ghassan while he bled out. https://t.co/NV2cAVti5J pic.twitter.com/KqDSvzv6Qt

— Defense for Children (@DCIPalestine) July 10, 2024

The United States will resume shipping 500-pound bombs to Israel but will continue to hold back on supplying 2,000-pound bombs over concerns about their use in Gaza, a US official has said.

The move comes as US officials are engaging in another round of talks with other key mediators to try to end Israel’s assault in Gaza. Talks are set to begin in Qatar after discussions in Egypt.

We have more from Mahmoud Bassal, the Civil Defence spokesperson.

According to him, Israeli forces are now in the Tal al-Hawa area of Gaza City. More than 30 people have been killed so far, he said, adding that teams were shot at by Israeli soldiers when they attempted to reach them.

“We’ve received dozens of calls from residents there, saying the bodies of martyrs are filling the streets,” Bassal said.

Many of those who sustained wounds remain trapped inside their homes and are unable to leave, he said.

Bassal called on international organisations and rights groups to “act” immediately in order to enable medical teams and service providers to reach targeted areas and save Palestinian lives.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has said his group would accept Hamas’s decision on Gaza truce negotiations and would stop cross-border attacks on Israel if a ceasefire were reached.

Hezbollah has traded almost daily fire with Israeli forces since October 7, stoking fears of a full-blown conflict.

“Hamas is negotiating … on behalf of the whole axis of resistance,” Nasrallah said, referring to regional pro-Iran groups opposed to Israel and the United States.

“Whatever Hamas accepts, everyone accepts and is satisfied with,” he said, adding, “We do not ask [Hamas] to coordinate with us because the battle in the first instance is theirs.”

Nasrallah’s remarks came days after he met with a Hamas delegation headed by foreign relations chief Khalil al-Hayya, and as talks were to resume in Qatar towards a truce and hostage release deal in the Gaza war, now grinding into its 10th month.

Nasrallah repeated his position that “if a ceasefire is reached, and we all hope for that… our front will cease fire without any discussion”.

“That is a commitment, because it is a support front and we have been clear [about this] from the start,” he said, during a televised address commemorating a senior Hezbollah commander killed in an Israeli attack last week.

However, Nasrallah warned that “we will never allow any attack that the Israeli enemy might carry out against Lebanon [even] if there is a ceasefire in Gaza”.

Mahmoud Bassal, a Civil Defence spokesperson, says “massive” destruction to infrastructure and residential buildings has been left behind in Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood after Israeli forces withdrew from the area.

Bassal described the area as “a ghost town that is no longer fit for living”. He said teams found “many martyrs” who could have been saved had medics been allowed to enter the area when it was under severe bombardment.

“This reality is repeated in every incursion, where Israeli forces enter areas inside the Gaza Strip, and then many end up losing their lives” due to the teams’ inability to reach them, he said.

David Lammy says that “the devastating violence in Gaza has gone on far too long and we want to see urgent measures to protect civilians, an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages.”

In a post on X, Lammy also called the Israeli attack near a school in Abassan in Gaza, which caused civilian casualties, “appalling”.

The reports of civilian casualties following an Israeli strike near a school in Abassan in Gaza are appalling.

The devastating violence in Gaza has gone on far too long and we want to see urgent measures to protect civilians, an immediate ceasefire and the release of all…

— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) July 10, 2024

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has asked diplomats in the occupied West Bank to speak out on “unacceptable” conditions suffered by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Varsen Aghabekian Shahin, the Palestinian minister of state for foreign affairs, invited mostly European diplomats as well as representatives from international organisations to show them a three-minute video containing testimonies from Palestinians detained by Israel in recent months.

The compilation of footage and media interviews point to mistreatment in Israeli jails and allegations of torture, which Israeli authorities deny.

“This is unacceptable, this is against all human rights laws, and it needs to stop,” Shahin told the meeting in Ramallah, seat of the PA.

The conditions of prisoners “is of much concern to us, Palestinians, and we hope it is to the world, as well”, she added.

Egypt’s foreign minister says that talks are under way with Lebanese and Israeli parties to avoid “engaging in all-encompassing confrontations”.

In a joint news conference with his Jordanian counterpart, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said that recent meetings aimed to stop this “grave scenario” on the Lebanese front.

Hezbollah and Israel have been trading fire mostly at the border since October 7.

Tens of thousands of Israelis and Lebanese have been forced to evacuate from the area around the border between the two countries, and international observers have warned in recent weeks of the growing risk of a wider conflict.

Oren Ziv, a journalist at +972 Magazine, interviewed six Israeli soldiers who described being authorised to open fire on Palestinians indiscriminately.

Soldiers from six different units who were in Gaza at different times, said they executed Palestinians who strayed into “no-go zones”, and that there were “no limits” to what and whom they can shoot.

“What we learned is the open-fire regulation was not very strict, they didn’t even get proper orders from their commanders,” Ziv told Al Jazeera.

“They could fire almost at everything”, including schools, hospitals, as well as public institutions. Some required pre-approvals which were always granted, Ziv said.

Some testified they were shooting “out of being bored, or just for fun”, he said.

“The general feeling the soldier described is, that there was a big sense after the October 7 attack of revenge … they told us everything is permitted.”

Al Jazeera is reporting from Amman, Jordan, because the Israeli government has banned the network from the country.

The Israeli military around 9am [local time; 06:00 GMT] released a statement saying that they’re continuing operations in northern Gaza, specifically in Gaza City. They said that they created “safe corridors” for Palestinians to evacuate from there as they had “targeted operations” in northern Gaza.

But the leaflets that were dropped in the north clearly say, ‘To the residents of Gaza City in its entirety’ on the map and it maps them out, telling them where to go, where these so-called “safe passages and corridors” are, heading south to Deir el-Balah.

This is a second time a notice like this has been dropped on Gaza City. Previously, it was in October.  But now we’re hearing from Israeli military sources that this was not, in fact, an evacuation order for all of Gaza City, but rather specific areas where the Israeli army is operating.

Now, let’s talk about what the Interior Ministry in Gaza is saying. They’re saying that if anyone is in any immediate danger to go to an area that is perhaps less dangerous, but they’re stressing that there is still no safe place for Palestinians in Gaza. Time and time again, these Palestinians have been displaced with simply nowhere to go. The Israeli army [is] continuously dropping these leaflets with several evacuation orders to go to designated safe areas that we have seen repeatedly bombarded in the last nine months.

In addition to that, at the end of [the leaflet], it says that Gaza City is a dangerous combat zone and no one should be there anyway. So mixed messaging from the Israeli army.