Israel’s war on Gaza updates: 2,000 bodies ‘kidnapped’ from Gaza’s graves

Thank you for joining us.

Read more about Israel’s returning 89 decomposed bodies of Palestinians to Gaza, here.

For more on the UN’s announcement that nine UNRWA employees “may have been involved” in October 7 Hamas attack, go here.

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

We will be moving to a new live page shortly, but before we do, here’s a quick look at the day’s most important developments:

• Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military attacks across Gaza, including five police members in a targeted air strike.
• Two rockets were launched at the Ain al-Assad base housing US troops in Iraq, with multiple US personnel wounded.
• Four people have been killed and seven wounded in an Israeli military raid in Aqqaba, in the occupied West Bank.
• The Israeli army handed over the bodies of 84 Palestinians in Gaza, which could not be identified due to being decomposed.
• The UN Office of Internal Oversight Services said that nine UNRWA staff members “may have been involved” in the October 7 attacks, adding that they have been fired.
• Iran’s President Pezeshkian told Russia’s Security Council Secretary that Israel would “certainly receive a response for its crimes and insolence” as Iran’s Revolutionary Guard released a threatening video of missiles and drones.

The latest Israeli military evacuation order for southern Gaza is displacing a large number of Palestinians, many of whom have been displaced multiple times already.

“Our partners tracking population movements in Gaza estimate that more than 11,000 people had been living in these areas affected by this evacuation order,” Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesperson for the UN chief, told reporters in New York.

The order, issued on Sunday, affected areas south of Khan Younis, where the Israeli military has renewed a ground invasion that had lasted for months in its initial phase.

He also confirmed that the Israeli military has hit three schools sheltering displaced people in the past 48 hours, killing dozens of Palestinians and wounding more.

In just the past 48 hours, 3 schools sheltering displaced people in Gaza City were reportedly hit, resulting in dozens of casualties.

Partners on the ground are assessing the needs of people who fled & have been providing assistance.https://t.co/MBLgY1XyhF pic.twitter.com/F1Bwq8dDO7

— UN News (@UN_News_Centre) August 5, 2024

The EU says it is “gravely concerned” over the continued destruction of key civilian infrastructure in Gaza, including a water treatment plant in Rafah.

“We are deeply concerned about the collapse of the sanitation, solid waste management, and health systems, causing the spread of diseases, including polio, skin and respiratory infections, in particular among children,” an EU statement said, renewing a call for an immediate ceasefire.

“We recall that targeting critical life-saving infrastructure constitutes a war crime and urge all parties to take all feasible precautions to avoid harm to civilians, humanitarian workers, and critical civilian infrastructure.”

We join international calls for clarity on the destruction of key civilian infrastructure, including a water treatment plant in Rafah.
The collapse of the sanitation & health systems are causing spread of polio and infections, in particular among children.https://t.co/d3Qw0a1pCj

— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) August 5, 2024

Earlier today, Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the government is working “to remove the threat” of Palestinian statehood as Western countries, including its ally the US, call for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

He said that any path to “this agenda” would be blocked through “strengthening settlements in construction, development, establishment and regulation of settlements and infrastructure”.

“Stopping the Arab takeover of the open areas, fighting the terrorist financing of the Palestinian Authority and its leaders and complete Israeli control of the territory [the occupied West Bank]. This is the only way,” Smotrich added.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has called for an urgent de-escalation in the Middle East over fears that the Gaza war could spread.

“I am deeply worried about the rising risk of a wider conflict in the Middle East and plead with all parties, along with those states with influence, to act urgently to de-escalate what has become a very precarious situation,” said Turk in a statement.

It comes as Israel braces for a response from Iran and the Lebanese group Hezbollah to its assassinations of senior Hamas and Hezbollah figures in Tehran and Beirut.

Here are a few highlights of the pieces we’ve published about the conflict over the past day:

• War on Gaza: Children among those killed after Israel bombs two Gaza schools
• Haniyeh killing: Hamas begins consultations to choose Ismail Haniyeh’s successor
• Opinion: The US is no longer the senior partner in the US-Israel relationship
• Video: Israel’s gamble – a wider war in the Middle East?

And there’s plenty more here.

Two Palestinians have been killed and seven wounded, including two in serious condition, during an Israeli military raid on the town of Aqqaba near Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli gunfire could still be heard as ambulances arrived to transport casualties.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society reported that five Palestinians were also injured during Israeli raids that had targeted Jenin hours earlier. Four of the injured were shot.

Israeli military vehicles were filmed ramming into Palestinian vehicles as they made their way through Jenin.

إصابة شاب برصاص قوات الاحتلال في محيط دوار السينما بمدينة جنين#الجزيرة #فيديو pic.twitter.com/MrmYYVqEfJ

— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) August 5, 2024

Translation: A young man was shot by the occupation forces in the vicinity of the cinema roundabout in the city of Jenin.

Media affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Iran are widely sharing a clip made by the group’s media that hints at a large-scale direct attack on Israel using missiles and drones.

Flags of Lebanon’s Hezbollah can also be seen in the video, which promises “panic is on the way” to Israel. Dozens of missiles and drones can then be seen launched in unison.

One of the drones can be seen bearing the name Jaffa, which is what Yemen’s Houthis called their drone that hit Tel Aviv on July 19 in a first-of-its-kind attack that killed one person and left 10 injured.

The X account of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reposted a quote with a bloody depiction of Israeli leaders.

رژیم صهیونیستی یک دولت نیست؛ یک باند جنایت‌کار، یک #باند_قاتل و یک باند تروریست است. pic.twitter.com/2WODxuL3Aw

— KHAMENEI.IR | فارسی 🇮🇷 (@Khamenei_fa) August 5, 2024

Translation: The Zionist regime is not a government; It is a criminal gang, a murderous gang, and a terrorist gang.

Reuters news agency is reporting that US personnel were injured in a suspected rocket attack on the Ain al-Asad airbase in Iraq.

Citing three unnamed US officials, the report states that “several” personnel were injured.

Multiple loud explosions were heard in Isfahan in central Iran in the past few hours in a tense night across the Middle East.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says in a statement that the sounds were a result of training exercises for commandos enrolled at Amir Al-Momenin University of Military Sciences and Technology.

Mohammad Reza Jannesari, the political and security deputy for the province, also confirmed to state media that the sounds were related to a drill.

Mansour Shouman, a Palestinian man who was detained by Israeli forces in 2009, says that while torture of Palestinians detainees in Israeli prisons has been well-known for years, the practices appear to have increased in severity.

“At that time, things were a little bit less, I think, when it comes to the severity of the circumstances of the prisoners,” Shouman told Al Jazeera from Toronto, Canada.

“You have to understand that these people have no rights. We have no rights,” Shouman said. “I wasn’t able to see a lawyer until many months later. I wasn’t able to see my family. I was told that I had a secret case and a file that was full of information about all of the misdeeds that I have done, and that they cannot disclose any of it, and that they will continually interrogate us until we tell them everything they need to know.”

An emergency meeting of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) foreign ministers is to be held in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.

The meeting in Jeddah will include discussions on the “crimes of the Israeli occupation” and the “assassination of
Haniyeh” the Saudi-based OIC said.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry said in Tehran that Iran requested the meeting alongside Pakistan.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has released footage showing its paramedics treating and transporting six injured Palestinians, including children, after an Israeli attack in southern Gaza.

🚑The Palestine Red Crescent teams provided first aid to six injured individuals, including children, and transported them from the Bani Suheila roundabout area in #KhanYunis to PRCS Al-Amal Hospital.
📷Footage by volunteer: Atta Allah Ghaith pic.twitter.com/zzbZ1jj0UQ

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) August 5, 2024

We can now bring you more on the report by the Israeli human rights watchdog B’Tselem that found widespread torture of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons.

The report adds that nearly half of these Palestinians are being held without trial, a practice known as administrative detention and long criticised by rights groups for its denial of basic civil liberties.

The report states that of the 9,623 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons as of early July, 4,781 had been detained without trial. The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society more recently put the number of Palestinians held by Israel at about 9,900.

“Some were jailed simply for expressing sympathy for the suffering of Palestinians,” the report states.

“Others were taken into custody during [Israeli] military activity in the Gaza Strip, on the sole grounds that they came under the vague definition of ‘men of fighting age’.”

Palestinian activists have posted a video of Israeli forces shooting at journalists who were covering the storming of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

The footage, verified by Al Jazeera, shows a bullet hitting the ground near the press crews.

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The Israeli military has claimed responsibility for the assassination of the Hezbollah operative that the Lebanese group confirmed was killed today.

It released aerial footage of a drone strike on a motorcycle purportedly in the southern Lebanon village of Aabba, adding that Ali Jamal al-Din Jawad was a commander in the Radwan unit of Hezbollah.

It said the assassination will deal a “significant blow” to Hezbollah’s ability to carry out attacks on Israel.

The Israeli military also claimed an air strike on a building used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon’s Kfar Kila.

It reported that multiple explosive-laden drones have been launched from Lebanon today, with several making impact in the Mount Meron area but inflicting no casualties.