Israel’s war on Gaza updates: Western leaders ask Iran to ‘stand down’

The Israeli military has ordered Palestinians living in more areas of battered Khan Younis in southern Gaza to immediately evacuate as it prepares to “act forcefully”.

Avichay Adraee, the military’s Arabic-language spokesperson, has released an updated version of the colour-coded map of Gaza that orders the evacuation of more “blocks” designated by the Israeli military.

Multiple new evacuation orders have been issued this week amid an expanding ground invasion of the area, which has displaced at least 75,000 Palestinians in the past few days, according to the United Nations.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) reports that the Israeli evacuation orders cover about 85 percent or 305 square kilometres (117 square miles) of the tiny Gaza Strip.

This live page is now closed.

For more on how Israel justified the killing of more than 100 Palestinians in its attack on the al-Tabin school in Gaza City, read our piece, here.

For more on how the US says it is preparing for a possible attack by Iran and its allies over the killing of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut and the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, see our explainer, here.

And you can always find all our latest coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza, here.

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

• Abu Obeida, spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, has said an Israeli captive has been killed by his guards in Gaza, while another two female captives have been seriously wounded in a separate incident.
• The US said it is prepared for what could be a possible retaliatory attack by Iran and its allies as soon as this week, and has increased its regional force posture in recent days.
• US State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel has said the US believes that an agreement is within reach to finalise a ceasefire in Gaza that includes a Palestinian prisoner-Israeli captive exchange.
• Several Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip, with at least 10 killed in a strike on a home in eastern Khan Younis.
• Jordan has rejected claims by Israel that weapons were smuggled into the occupied West Bank through its territory.

The UN’s World Food Programme said it has paused operations and evacuated all staff at a warehouse containing 1,401 metric tonnes of supplies in Deir el-Balah due to recent Israeli evacuation orders.

“Only one WFP warehouse is accessible covering 3,158 mt of different commodities, insufficient to meet the August cycle of requirements,” the UN’s food agency said.

The video below shows the moment an Israeli strike smashed into a building in the Sheikh Radwan district of Gaza City.

The attack killed one person and wounded several others.

The devastation was everywhere after an Israeli attack killed dozens of Palestinians sheltering in a school in Gaza City.

Some of the survivors told Al Jazeera about the horrors of looking for their family in the carnage.

Israel has killed 16 Palestinian volunteer medics in the besieged Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank since October 7, the Palestinian Red Crescent says.

Medical workers and ambulances are routinely targeted in Israeli attacks.

According to the Government Media Office, at least 885 medical workers have been killed since Israel launched its assault on Gaza.

At least 131 ambulances have been targeted there, it said.

UNRWA’s senior communications officer Louise Wateridge says that “basic needs” in northern Gaza have not improved in the last six months.

In a video post on X, Wateridge says that a convoy carrying medical supplies, hygiene kits and food managed to reach Gaza City, which has been under relentless Israeli bombardment.

“Emotional response from these exhausted families, relieved to see aid supplies reach them,” Wateridge writes. “But it’s not enough,” she added.

Israeli forces have continued to shut vital crossings into Gaza, banning much-needed fuel, medicine, and food from entering the ravaged enclave.

Our joint @UN convoy arriving in Gaza City this morning with medical supplies, hygiene kits, food & more.

Emotional response from these exhausted families, relieved to see aid supplies reach them. But it’s not enough – basic needs in north #Gaza have not improved in 6 months. pic.twitter.com/K0aE8wrGKg

— Louise Wateridge (@UNWateridge) July 12, 2024

The UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People says the Israeli strike on the al-Tabin School was Israel’s 21st attack on a school serving as a shelter in Gaza since July 4.

These strikes, it said, have resulted in at least 274 fatalities, including women and children.

“Half of the school buildings that have been directly hit since October 2023 were sheltering displaced people,” the Committee said, citing the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The recent attack on a school sheltering hundreds of displaced families in #Gaza has caused mass casualties and utter devastation.

Half of the school buildings that have been directly hit since October 2023 were sheltering displaced people.

Watch the aftermath 📹⬇️

— UN Humanitarian (@UNOCHA) August 12, 2024

A new lawsuit alleges that two Palestinian American men were profiled by the US government for their pro-Palestine advocacy.

The lawsuit, filed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), alleges that Mustafa Zeidan was added to the notorious “no-fly list” after organising community protests in southern California, where he lives.

He had been travelling to Jordan regularly to visit his ailing mother before being denied boarding at Los Angeles International Airport on March 28.

He was later informed that he had been added to the list because he had been identified “as an individual who may be a threat to civil aviation or national security”, the lawsuit says.

The claim also says Osama Abu Irshaid, the executive director of Americans for Justice in Palestine Action (AJP Action), was repeatedly interrogated by federal agents during a recent trip to Jordan.

Beyond the “harassing and intrusive questions”, the agents confiscated his phone, which has never been returned, the suit says.

The lawsuit names US Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas among the defendants.

Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari says the army is investigating a statement by Hamas’s armed wing announcing the death of an Israeli captive in Gaza and the wounding of two others in a separate incident.

“At this point, we do not have any intelligence … that allows us to refute or confirm the claims of Hamas,” Hagari said in a post on X.

The Israeli military says the 18-year-old Palestinian it killed had opened fire on an Israeli man who entered the occupied West Bank city of Qalqilya, wounding him and two Palestinians.

It added that its troops “conducted a pursuit after the terrorist and neutralised him adjacent to Qalqilya”.

Earlier, we reported that the Palestinian Health Ministry identified the 18-year-old as Tareq Ziad Abdulraheem Daoud.

Gaza’s civil defence says one of its team members was among those killed in Israel’s August 10 attack on the al-Tabin School in Gaza City.

In a statement, it identified him as Hamed Mohammed Zaino, adding that his death brings the total number of civil defence workers killed in Gaza since October 7 to 80.

“They all sacrificed their lives while carrying out their humanitarian duties,” the statement read.

The United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer has spoken to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian as part of de-escalation efforts following Israel’s assassination of top Hamas and Hezbollah figures in Tehran and Beirut.

According to the premier’s office, Starmer held a 30-minute phone call with Pezeshkian earlier on Monday evening, where he asked him to refrain from attacking Israel and saying that war was not in anyone’s interest.

We reported that Pezeshkian also spoke with Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who was seeking de-escalation as well. Pezeshkian had said after that call that his country has “the right to respond”.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said his country has “the right to respond” to any aggression after a phone call with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who was urging de-escalation amid soaring tensions with Israel.

According to a statement published by the official news agency IRNA following the call, Pezeshkian said: “While emphasising diplomatic solutions to issues, Iran will never give in to pressure, to sanctions and bullying and considers it has the right to respond to aggressors in accordance with international norms.”

Iran and Lebanese group Hezbollah are expected to retaliate for the Israeli assassinations of Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Tehran last month, and Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, who was killed in Beirut.

Israel launched an attack on eastern Khan Younis, killing at least 10 people, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, adding that others have been wounded.

It cited local sources as saying Israeli forces targeted a home in Abasan al-Kabira in the southern Gaza city.

Mass evacuations are ongoing in eastern Khan Younis after Israeli forces ordered thousands of Palestinians sheltering there to flee.

“No amount of disinformation by radical Israeli officials spreading lies, including about Jordan, will change the fact that Israel’s continued aggression on Gaza … [is] the biggest threat to regional security,” Ayman Safadi, Jordan’s prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, has said.

In a post on X, Safadi added: “The facts about the horrors this most radical of Israeli governments is bringing upon innocent Palestinian[s] … and the threat of its illegal actions and radical policies to the security and stability of [the] region are so clear and documented. No propaganda campaigns, no lies, no fabrications can cover that.”

Safadi’s comments follow allegations by Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hamas fighters in Lebanon are smuggling “weapons andhttps://x.com/AymanHsafadi/status/1823018594776850812 funds into Jordan with the aim of destabilising the regime”.

Katz claimed on X that these weapons and money are then smuggled across the eastern border, flooding the occupied West Bank, particularly refugee camps, and aiming to create a “pro-Iranian Islamic terror front”.

A serious and dangerous situation is unfolding as Iran works to establish a new eastern terror front against Israel’s major population centers.

Iranian Revolutionary Guard units are collaborating with Hamas operatives in Lebanon to smuggle weapons and funds into Jordan with the…

— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) August 12, 2024

US President Joe Biden and the leaders of France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom have issued a joint statement urging Iran to “stand down” regarding its threats of a retaliatory attack on Israel.

“We called on Iran to stand down its ongoing threats of a military attack against Israel and discussed the serious consequences for regional security should such an attack take place,” the leaders said after speaking together by phone.

The call comes at a time when Iran and Hezbollah are expected to hit targets in Israel in response to the assassination of a Hezbollah commander in Beirut and Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran.

The United States has confirmed it would resume sales of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia, as Washington hopes for it to play a role in resolving the war on Gaza.

More than three years after imposing limits on human rights grounds on sales to Saudi Arabia, the US said it would resume “in regular order, with appropriate congressional notification and consultation”.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has repeatedly travelled to Saudi Arabia to discuss a package of US incentives if the kingdom recognises Israel.

Saudi Arabia has reportedly sought US security guarantees, a continued flow of weapons and potentially civilian nuclear capabilities in return for recognition.

Saudi Arabia cooperated with the US, along with Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, in repelling an Iranian missile and drone barrage on Israel in April in response to a deadly Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic building in Syria.

An Israeli military spokesperson says Israel is taking “seriously” comments by Iran regarding a possible strike, but the military has not changed its precautionary guidelines to the public.

Daniel Hagari said the Israeli army is on “peak alert” over a possible strike.

Iran and Lebanese group Hezbollah are expected to retaliate for the Israeli assassinations of Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Tehran last month, and Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, who was assassinated in Beirut.