Israel-Gaza war live: Israeli forces step up bombing of Rafah as tanks try to push west

At least nine Yemeni employees of UN agencies have been detained by Yemen’s Houthi rebels under unclear circumstances, authorities said on Friday, reports the Associated Press (AP). The news agency adds that others working for aid groups are also likely to have been taken.

The detentions come as the Houthis, who seized Yemen’s capital nearly a decade ago and have been fighting a Saudi-led coalition since shortly after, have been targeting shipping throughout the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

The AP reports that the Houthis have cracked down at dissent in Yemen, including recently sentencing 44 people to death.

Regional officials, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to brief journalists, confirmed the UN detentions.

Those held include staff from the UN’s human rights agency, its development programme, the World Food Programme and one working for the office of its special envoy, the officials said. The wife of one of those held is also detained.

The AP said that the UN declined to immediately comment.

According to the AP’s report, the Mayyun Organization for Human Rights, which similarly identified the UN staffers held, named other aid groups whose employees were detained by the Houthis across four provinces the Houthis hold – Amran, Hodeida, Saada and Saan’a. Those groups did not immediately acknowledge the detentions.

“We condemn in the strongest terms this dangerous escalation, which constitutes a violation of the privileges and immunities of United Nations employees granted to them under international law, and we consider it to be oppressive, totalitarian, blackmailing practices to obtain political and economic gains,” the organisation said in a statement.

The AP reports that Yemen’s Houthi rebels and their affiliated media organisations did not immediately acknowledge the detentions. However, the Iranian-backed rebels planned for weekly mass demonstrations after noon prayers Friday, when Houthi officials typically speak on their actions.

It is unclear what exactly sparked the detentions, reports the AP. However, the news agency says, it comes as the Houthis have faced issues with having enough currency to support the economy in areas they hold – something signaled by their move to introduce a new coin into the Yemeni currency, the riyal.

Yemen’s exiled government in Aden and other nations criticised the move as the Houthis turning to counterfeiting. Aden authorities also have demanded all banks move their headquarters there.

With no sign of progress in mediators’ efforts to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza war, Israeli forces pounded Rafah from the air and ground overnight as tanks tried to advance farther west, residents told Reuters.

Fierce gun battles between Israeli troops and Hamas-led Palestinian fighters were also taking place, the news agency reports.

Residents said tanks that have taken control along the borderline with Egypt made several raids towards the west and the centre of the southern city, injuring several residents who had been trapped inside their homes and were taken by surprise.

“I think the occupation forces are trying to reach the beach area of Rafah, the raids and the bombing overnight were tactical, they entered under heavy fire before they retreated,” a Palestinian man told Reuters.

“It was one of the worst nights, some people were wounded inside their homes, before being evacuated this morning,” he told Reuters via a chat app.

Israeli forces have also operated inside the al-Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip on the ground, while it kept two other camps and a city nearby under heavy bombardment from planes and tanks, killing and injuring several Palestinians, medics said.

According to Reuters, the armed wings of Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and smaller other groups reported their fighters carried out attacks against invading Israeli forces in several areas in central and southern Gaza.

UN secretary-general António Guterres called on Thursday for an end to hostilities along the demarcation line between Lebanon and Israel, warning of the risk of a broader conflict, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visiting the northern border area after eight months of war with Hamas that has devastated Gaza, warned on Wednesday that Israel was “prepared for a very intense operation” along the border.

“As the exchanges of fire across the Blue Line continue, the secretary-general renews his calls to the parties to urgently cease fire,” UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement, referring to the demarcation line between Israel and Lebanon.

“These exchanges of fire could trigger a broader conflict with devastating consequences for the region,” he added.

Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he will “present the truth” about the war against Hamas in Gaza when he addresses the US Congress on 24 July during a visit to Washington, Republican leaders said on Thursday, according to Reuters.

Netanyahu will speak to a joint session of the House of Representatives and the Senate, House speaker Mike Johnson and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement.

“I am very moved to have the privilege of representing Israel before both Houses of Congress and to present the truth about our just war against those who seek to destroy us to the representatives of the American people and the entire world,” Netanyahu said in the statement, reports Reuters.

Netanyahu’s visit comes amid tensions between him and US president Joe Biden, who has supported Israel’s campaign in Gaza but has recently been more critical of its tactics and withheld shipment of some bombs.

Reuters reported that it was not immediately clear if Netanyahu would meet with Biden during his US visit.

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said in a separate statement that he had joined in making the invitation to Netanyahu.

“I have clear and profound disagreements with the prime minister, which I have voiced both privately and publicly and will continue to do so,” Schumer said. “But because America’s relationship with Israel is ironclad and transcends one person or prime minister I joined the request for him to speak.”

Netanyahu’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.

Democratic lawmakers most critical of Netanyahu’s strategy are expected to be no-shows. Senator Bernie Sanders, the independent who once ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, said: “Netanyahu is a war criminal. I certainly will not attend.”

Patrick Wintour is diplomatic editor for the Guardian.

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, according to Sam Rose, the director of planning for the Palestinian relief agency Unrwa.

He was speaking after an Unrwa school at Nuseirat was bombed by Israeli forces leaving at least 33 dead, including 12 women and children.

“When everyone is living in cramped, overcrowded conditions, we always said it would be inevitable that there would be incidents such as the one that happened overnight in the school in Nuseirat.”

Rose, who had just returned to London after five weeks in Gaza, said: “There were about 6,000 people sheltering in that school. There are rules of war that we call on all sides of the conflict to adhere to: to protect the inviolability of our installations. There are also principles of distinction, and of proportionality.

“People will have been sheltering in the courtyard of the school in the most desperate of conditions and there will have been no warning that this strike has taken place. It happened in the middle of the night about 2am.

“We’ve seen this time and time again, to the extent that it’s almost become normalised. In previous conflicts, single incidents like this would cause shock and outrage and would be remembered forever. Whereas it seems in this conflict it will be this one will be replaced by another in a few days’ time unless it all comes to an end. So, it almost becomes commonplace and mundane that these things are happening. We have normalised horror.”

Washington has said it expects Israel to be fully transparent in making information about the strike public.

You can read Patrick’s full piece here:

It has gone 9.30am in Gaza and Tel Aviv, welcome to our latest live blog on the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis.

Israeli prime minister 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, adding that the Israeli leader was being invited to give the “Israeli government’s vision for defending democracy, combatting terror, and establishing a just and lasting peace in the [Middle East] region”.

The letter, signed by House speaker Mike Johnson, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, comes a day after Israel said it had bombed a UN school in central Gaza. Palestinian medics and officials said three women and nine children were among the more than 30 killed. Dozens more were injured.

Netanyahu’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.

Democratic lawmakers most critical of Netanyahu’s strategy are expected to be no-shows. Senator Bernie Sanders, the independent who once ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, said: “Netanyahu is a war criminal. I certainly will not attend.”

More on that soon. In other developments:

• The US has called on Israel to be transparent over a strike on a UN school in Gaza, after Palestinian medics and officials said women and children were among the dead while Israel claimed it was unaware of civilian casualties. “The government of Israel has said that they are going to release more information about this strike, including the names of those who died in it. We expect them to be fully transparent in making that information public,” state department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters.

• Israel claimed it had carried out a precision strike on the facility targeting “20 or 30” Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters who took part in the 7 October attack on Israel and who were planning further attacks on Israelis. Military spokesperson Lt Col Peter Lerner said he was not aware of any civilian casualties.

• At least 33 people were killed in the attack including three women and nine children, Palestinian medics and witnesses said, after Israeli missiles hit the Unrwa-run school where thousands of displaced people were sheltering. Hamas denied that its militants had been operating from the school. Unrwa head Philippe Lazzarini called the attack a “blatant disregard of international humanitarian law” and demanded those responsible be held accountable.

• The US called on Israel to stop blocking revenues to the Palestinian Authority, warning Israel it would see a “massive” negative impact if the Palestinian Authority collapses. “We have made clear to the government of Israel in some very direct conversations that there is nothing that could be more counter to the strategic interests of Israel than the collapse of the Palestinian Authority,” US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters.

• The White House also issued a statement on behalf of a number of nations calling for Hamas and Israel to agree to a ceasefire and hostage deal. Signatories included the US, the UK, Germany, France and Spain. “At this decisive moment, we call on the leaders of Israel as well as Hamas to make whatever final compromises are necessary to close this deal,” the statement read.

• Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said on Thursday that Hamas has not yet handed mediators its response to the latest ceasefire proposal and is still studying it, adding that Qatari, Egyptian and the US mediators are still making efforts.

• At least 36,654 Palestinians have been killed and 83,309 have been wounded in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Thursday. Sixty-eight Palestinians were killed and 235 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added. Thousands more are believed to be buried under the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli attacks.

• Israeli forces killed three Palestinians and injured at least 13 others in a raid on the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on Thursday, the Palestinian health ministry and medics said. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said its teams were fired at while recovering some of the dead. Israeli forces and settlers killed 508 Palestinians including 124 children in the West Bank between 7 October and 3 June, the UN agency for humanitarian affairs said in its latest situation report.

• UN secretary-general António Guterres called on Thursday for an end to hostilities along the demarcation line between Lebanon and Israel, warning that a broader conflict could have “devastating” consequences. Daily exchanges of artillery fire between Hezbollah and Israel have intensified in recent days and Netanyahu warned on Wednesday that Israel was “prepared for a very intense operation” along the border.

• Spain will ask a UN court for permission to join South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza. Foreign minister José Manuel Albares said “We take the decision because of the ongoing military operation in Gaza. We want peace to return to Gaza and the Middle East, and for that to happen we must all support the court”.

• Russia and China, which hold veto powers in the UN security council, raised concerns on Thursday with a US draft resolution that would back a proposal – outlined by US president Joe Biden – for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas. The council’s only Arab member, Algeria, also signalled it was not ready to back the text, diplomats said.

• Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that an Israeli military court had extended the detention of its journalist Rasha Harzallah, from the West Bank city of Nablus, for five days. She was detained on Sunday for unclear reasons, the news agency reported, and is being held in the illegal settlement of Ariel.

• UK opposition leader Keir Starmer is expected to use the Labour manifesto to pledge recognition of Palestine before the end of any peace process, sources have told the Guardian, in a move to shore up the party’s core support on the left ahead of parliamentary elections next month.