Four hostages rescued from central Gaza Strip
Israeli forces have rescued four hostages alive from the central Gaza Strip on Saturday, the military said.
The four hostages, three male and one woman, had been kidnapped from the Nova music festival on 7 October and were taken to hospital for medical checks, Reuters reports.
The army said it rescued Noa Argamani,25, Almog Meir Jan 21, Andrey Kozlov 27, and Shlomi Ziv (40), in a complex special daytime operation in Nuseirat, AP reported.
Key events
Noa Argamani, 25, was one of the four hostages rescued. Argamani, a Chinese-born Israeli citizen, was also kidnapped from the festival. Video footage – verified by her father, Yaakov Argamani, to Israel’s Channel 12 – shows the 25-year-old being taken away on the back of a motorbike screaming, “Don’t kill me!”
Israel says more than 130 hostages remain, with about a quarter of those believed dead, and divisions are deepening in the country over the best way to bring them home.
Four hostages rescued from central Gaza Strip
Israeli forces have rescued four hostages alive from the central Gaza Strip on Saturday, the military said.
The four hostages, three male and one woman, had been kidnapped from the Nova music festival on 7 October and were taken to hospital for medical checks, Reuters reports.
The army said it rescued Noa Argamani,25, Almog Meir Jan 21, Andrey Kozlov 27, and Shlomi Ziv (40), in a complex special daytime operation in Nuseirat, AP reported.
The Israeli military said on Saturday in a rare statement that it was targeting militant infrastructure in Gaza’s Nuseirat area and Gaza’s health ministry reported dozens of people hurt.
It is unusual for Israel’s military to inform about its actions while its operations are still under way, Reuters reports.
Israeli war cabinet minister poised to resign over military campaign
A war cabinet minister looks set to carry through on his threat to quit a government under mounting pressure over its conduct of the military campaign.
The office of war cabinet member Benny Gantz has announced a news conference for Saturday, the deadline he gave Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month to approve a postwar plan for Gaza.
Israeli media have speculated that Gantz, a centrist former military chief who had been one of Netanyahu’s main rivals before joining the war cabinet, was likely to carry through on a threat to resign.
However, any such move is not expected to affect the stability of Netanyahu’s government, a coalition of his right-wing Likud with far-right and ultra-orthodox Jewish parties.
Humanitarian aid entering Gaza by sea via a US-built pier will resume in the coming days, the Israeli military said on Saturday, after repairs to the structure were completed.
“The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] has begun securing the coastal area of the US military’s Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (JLOTS) capability – in Gaza. The pier’s re-establishment will allow for the continued delivery of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza in the coming days,” the Israeli military said.
The US Central Command said on Friday it had re-established the temporary pier anchored off Gaza’s coast, which had been temporarily removed after part of the structure broke off, two weeks after it started operating, Reuters reports.
Here are some of the latest images from the news wires:
Fresh from commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-day, French President Emmanuel Macron will host US president Joe Biden on Saturday for a state visit marked by pomp and a parade as well as talks on trade, Israel and Ukraine.
The two men, who share a warm relationship despite past tensions over a submarine deal with Australia, will participate in a welcoming ceremony with their wives at the iconic Arc de Triomphe and a parade down the Avenue des Champs-Elysees before holding a meeting about policy issues and then attending dinner.
According to Reuters, the US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told reporters earlier this week:
France is … our oldest and one of our deepest allies. And this will be an important moment to affirm that alliance and also look to the future and what we have to accomplish together.
Sullivan said talks between the two men would touch on Russia’s war with Ukraine, Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, and policy issues ranging from climate change to artificial intelligence to supply chains.
White House spokesperson John Kirby said the countries would announce a plan to work together on maritime law enforcement and the US Coast Guard and French navy would discuss increased cooperation.
During a speech at the American Cemetery in Normandy on Thursday, the anniversary of the allied assault against Nazi German occupiers on French beaches in the second world war, Biden called on western powers to stay the course with Ukraine.
Opening summary
We are restarting our live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war and wider Middle East conflict. Here’s a snapshot of the latest key developments.
Israel bombarded central and southern areas of the Gaza Strip again on Friday, killing at least 28 Palestinians, Reuters reports, as tank forces advanced to the western edges of Rafah.
Tanks were stationed in the al-Izba district near the Mediterranean coast in Gaza’s southernmost city while snipers had commandeered some buildings and high ground, trapping people in their homes, residents said.
Health officials in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said two Palestinians had been killed and several wounded in western Rafah from tank shelling there. In central Gaza, Palestinian medics said Israeli bombardments killed at least 15 people overnight to Friday.
The strikes came as a renewed push for a ceasefire in the war stalled amid reports that US-backed Qatari and Egyptian mediators had stepped up efforts for a deal.
In north Gaza, three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Gaza City school building that was sheltering displaced families, rescue workers said.
The Israeli military said it had targeted Hamas gunmen operating from a container inside the school premises, similar to its explanation for an airstrike on a UN school building in al-Nuseirat in central Gaza on Thursday which medics said killed 40 people.
In other news:
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The United Nations has added Israel to the global list of states and armed groups who have committed violations against children, according to the country’s UN envoy, Gilad Erdan. News of Israel’s inclusion on the list followed eight months of war on Gaza, in which more than 13,000 children are estimated to be among the 36,500 killed, and came a day after the Israeli bombing of the UN school at al-Nuseirat. According to human rights officials, Hamas is also named in the report for its killing and kidnapping of children in its 7 October attack on Israel, in which nearly 1,200 Israelis were killed.
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Osama al-Kahlut of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said “occupation forces and snipers” east of Deir al-Balah were firing on people along Gaza’s main thoroughfare.“Gunfire on Salaheddin Street has severely restricted people’s movement, and several wounded people have been evacuated from the area,” he told Agence France-Presse.
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A key section of the US military-built pier designed to carry aid into Gaza by boat has been reconnected to the Gaza beach after storm damage repairs, and aid will begin to flow soon, US Central Command (Centcom) said on Friday. The section that connects to the beach – the causeway – was rebuilt nearly two weeks after heavy storms damaged it and abruptly halted the delivery route. Humanitarian aid is expected to begin moving into Gaza through the maritime route in the coming days.
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“We have normalised horror,” said Sam Rose, the director of planning for the Palestinian relief agency Unrwa, after Thursday’s Israeli strike on the school. Mass casualty incidents caused by the Israeli military offensive in southern Gaza are becoming normalised in the west and leading to a sense of fatalism inside Gaza itself, Rose said as he returned to London after five weeks in Gaza.
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More than 36,731 Palestinians have been killed and 83,530 have been injured since 7 October in Israel’s military offensive, the Gaza health ministry said. The Hamas-run ministry said on Friday that 77 Palestinians were killed and 221 injured over the past 24 hours.
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Yemen’s Houthis have detained 11 Yemeni employees of UN agencies under unclear circumstances, authorities say, as the militia group faces increasing financial pressure and airstrikes from a US-led coalition. UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said 11 UN staffers had been taken. People working for other aid groups also have been detained.
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Benjamin Netanyahu will address the US Congress on 24 July “to build on our enduring relationship and to highlight America’s solidarity with Israel”, US political leaders have said in a statement. The Israeli prime minister’s appearance before a growingly divided Congress is sure to be contentious and likely to be met with protests both inside the Capitol from lawmakers and outside by pro-Palestinian protesters.
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Unemployment in the Gaza Strip has reached nearly 80% since the war with Israel began last October, the UN labour agency has said, bringing the average unemployment rate across Palestinian territories to more than 50%. “Imagine with this very high level of unemployment, people will not be able to secure food for themselves and for their families,” said Ruba Jaradat, the ILO regional director for Arab states.