Israel's Gaza invasion - Day 338

Syrian state media has said that overnight Israeli strikes killed at least 14 people in central Hama province, raising an earlier toll of five dead and 19 wounded, AFP reports.

“The number of martyrs resulting from the Israeli aggression on a number of sites in the vicinity of Masyaf has risen to 14 martyrs and 43 wounded including six critically,” official news agency Sana reported citing a medical source.

A Syrian war monitor earlier reported at least seven dead.

At least seven people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, Anadolu reports citing local media.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa said the Israeli military’s operations against Gaza have now entered their 339th day.

The report highlighted that several areas in Gaza were subjected to heavy airstrikes and artillery fire overnight.

An airstrike on a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed three people and injured seven others.

Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has condemned the “Jordanian citizen” who “opened fire on the Palestinian side” of the Israeli-controlled King Hussein (Allenby) Bridge, killing three Israelis.

According to Al Jazeera, Jordan’s foreign office said in a statement that “initial investigations confirmed that the incident, in which the shooter was also killed, was an individual act”.

Jordan rejects and condemns “violence and targeting civilians for any reason”, it said.

A “just and comprehensive peace that meets all the rights” of the Palestinian people “is the only way to achieve security and stability for all, and to stop the spread of violence and the escalation of conflict in the region”, the statement said.

Jordan is continuing efforts to reach a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, it added.

The statement said that restoring hope through lasting peace will protect the “entire region from the consequences of the continued deterioration that perpetuates despair and extremism, and detonates cycles of violence and killing, the price of which everyone pays”.

Jordan has repeatedly warned of the consequences of Israeli aggression on Gaza, the dangerous escalation against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, and attacks on Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.

Hamas has responded to claims in US media that the group presented new conditions to mediators for the release of Israeli captives.

Spokesperson Basem Naim says the US officials who acted as sources for the story have “poisoned the negotiations”.

“Hamas has not presented any new conditions to the mediators, neither on the issue of prisoners nor any other matters. The movement reaffirms its commitment to what was agreed upon on July 2 of this year, which was based on President Biden’s proposal and the UN Security Council Resolution No 2735,” Naim told Al Jazeera.

“We are ready to immediately negotiate the implementation measures for this deal,” he added.

Israeli strikes in central Syria have killed at least seven people, including three civilians, AFP quoted a war monitor as reporting.

Since the start of the civil war in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes there, targeting pro-Iranian groups in particular.

“The number of dead in the Israeli strikes on the Masyaf region stands at seven, namely three civilians, including a man and his son who were in a car, and four unidentified soldiers,” said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a vast network of sources inside the country.

The attack also wounded at least 15 others and destroyed military facilities in the area, the Observatory said.

“Thirteen violent explosions rang out in the zone housing scientific research centres in Masyaf where pro-Iranian groups and weapons development experts are present,” the group said in an earlier statement.

The Syrian state news agency Sana had previously reported five killed and 19 wounded near Masyaf, citing a medical source.

Iraq and the United States have agreed on a phased pullout of the US-led anti-militant coalition but have yet to sign a final agreement, the Iraqi defence minister has said.

According to AFP, the United States has some 2,500 troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria as part of the international coalition against the militant Islamic State group.

On Sunday, Iraqi Defence Minister Thabet al-Abbassi told pan-Arab television channel Al-Hadath that the coalition would pull out from bases in Baghdad and other parts of federal Iraq by September 2025 and from the autonomous northern Kurdistan region by September 2026.

The pullout is “two-phased” and “maybe we will sign the agreement within the next few days”, Abbassi said. He added that US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had said in a meeting that “two years were not enough” to carry out the withdrawal.

“We refused his proposal regarding an (extra) third year,” Abbassi said.

Coalition forces have been targeted dozens of times with drones and rocket fire in both Iraq and Syria, as violence related to the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza since early October has drawn in Iran-backed armed groups across the Middle East. US forces have carried out multiple retaliatory strikes against these groups in both countries.

Former war cabinet member Benny Gantz has said Israel should shift its focus toward Hezbollah and the Lebanese border, warning that “we are late on this”, AFP reports.

“We have enough forces to deal with Gaza and we should concentrate on what is going on in the north,” Gantz said, speaking in Washington at a Middle East forum where he also said Iran and its proxies were “the real issue”.

“The time of the north has come and actually I think we are late on this,” the former army chief and centrist politician added. “In Gaza, we have crossed a decisive point of the campaign,” he said. “We can conduct anything we want in Gaza.”

“We should seek to have a deal to get out our hostages but if we cannot in the coming time, a few days or few weeks, or whatever it is, we should go up north.”

“We are capable of… hitting the state of Lebanon if needed,” he said. “The story of Hamas is old news,” he added, saying instead that “the story of Iran and its proxies all around the area and what they are trying to do is the real issue.”

Gantz left Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in June over its lack of a post-war plan for Gaza.

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reports that “a very bloody attack” has been carried out by Israeli fighter jets, that had launched a strike using three missiles that completely destroyed a number of residences, including houses and a tower, in the southern part of the Gaza city of Khan Younis.

At least two Palestinians have been confirmed killed, including a woman and her daughter, Azzoum reports. The attack also left a great deal of destruction. Rubble is scattered around the site of the strike, where families around the neighbouring area are going through shock and fear due to the strike, he adds.

According to Azzoum, Khan Younis has been a focus of Israeli attacks in the past 24 hours. Witnesses have confirmed that Israeli quadcopters were used extensively to attack al-Mawasi. Families there have been trapped in a tiny patch of land after the Israeli military incursion of Rafah district.

Jordan has confirmed that one of its own nationals was the shooter in an attack at its crossing with the occupied West Bank that killed three Israelis, AFP reports.

“Preliminary investigations in the shooting on the other (Palestinian) side of the King Hussein (Allenby) Bridge confirmed that the shooter is a Jordanian named Maher Diab Hussein al-Jazi,” the interior ministry said in a statement.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says Israeli attacks on the enclave have killed 33 Palestinians and wounded 145 more during the latest 24-hour reporting period, Al Jazeera reports.

The UN agency providing relief to Palestinians says its social workers are visiting families and communities “to provide information on the benefits of the vaccine”, as the campaign to inoculate as many children as possible remains active, Al Jazeera reports.

“This was yesterday in Gaza’s southern areas. The campaign will soon move to the north to reach as many children as possible,” UNRWA said in a post on Instagram.

The Qatari Red Crescent and the UN agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) signed an agreement for $4.5 million from a Qatari state development fund, to aid more than 4,400 stranded Palestinian workers and patients from Gaza in the West Bank, Reuters reports.

“Cash assistance will represent vital support for those displaced who have not been able to return to the Gaza Strip since the start of the Israeli aggression on the Strip last October,” a statement from Qatar’s state news agency said.

“Thousands of Palestine refugees from Gaza remain trapped in the West Bank, trapped in this crisis situation, stranded from their loved ones and livelihoods,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor says its field team has documented Israeli air strikes at midnight targeting the Halimah al-Saadiyah School in Jabalia Al-Nazla, north of the Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera reports.

The building was sheltering hundreds of forcibly displaced people. The attack killed four Palestinians and injured others.

Israeli aircraft also bombed Amr Ibn al-Aas School, another shelter for displaced people north of Gaza City, killing four Palestinians, including a child.

According to the human rights group, since the beginning of August, Israel has bombed 16 schools used as shelters in the Gaza Strip, killing 217 Palestinians and injuring hundreds — many of them women and children.

Israeli newspapers Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post have identified two of the three victims of the shooting attack at the King Hussein (Allenby) Bridge on the border between the occupied West Bank and Jordan, Al Jazeera reports.

They are Yohanan Shchori, 61, from the illegal West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Efraim, and Yuri Birnbaum, 65, from the settlement of Na’ama. According to earlier reports, the victims worked as private security guards at the crossing.

The attack occurred at the commercial cargo area of the crossing, the only exit point for Palestinians in the West Bank to travel outside the occupied territory. The attacker reportedly approached from the Jordanian side.

Hamas has responded to the attack on King Hussein (Allenby) Bridge, calling it a “response to the crimes of the occupation”, Al Jazeera reports.

The group said that the attack was “an affirmation of our nation’s stance with our people and their resistance”.

The operation is a confirmation of the Arab peoples’ rejection of the Israeli occupation and its crimes and ambitions in Palestine and Jordan, the group said.

At least 40,972 Palestinians have been killed and 94,761 others injured in Israeli bombardment on Gaza since October 7, Gaza’s health ministry said according to Reuters.

The Palestinian Health Ministry has extended the polio vaccination drive in southern Gaza by a day to help more people access vaccination centres amid the ongoing Israeli attacks, Al Jazeera reports.

Last month, Gaza reported its first polio case in 25 years, with the virus spreading due to the widespread destruction of hygiene and sanitation facilities caused by the relentless bombings.

The campaign aims to vaccinate a total of 640,000 children.

The Israeli military said a truck driver opened fire at an Israeli border crossing between the occupied West Bank and Jordan, killing three Israeli guards before being “eliminated” by security forces, AFP reports.

The deadly shooting at the Allenby Bridge Crossing, also known as King Hussein Crossing, comes amid surging violence in the West Bank, with major Israeli military raids and attacks by Palestinians.

The military said “a terrorist” reached the area of the crossing, in the Jordan Valley, in a truck “from Jordan”.

The driver “exited the truck and opened fire at Israeli security forces operating at the bridge”, a military statement said.

“Three Israeli civilians were pronounced dead as a result of the attack,” the military said, later clarifying to AFP that they were “working as security guards” and not part of the army or police forces.

The attacker was shot dead by forces, the military added.

Jordan’s interior minister said authorities in Amman were “investigating the incident”, and a Jordanian security source told AFP that the crossing’s Jordanian side had been closed.

Lebanese Hezbollah group said that it targeted Israeli military positions and soldiers near the border, Anadolu reports.

The group said its fighters had targeted the main intelligence headquarters at the Mishar camp in northern Israel “with a barrage of Katyusha rockets.”

It also mentioned targeting the Israeli Hadab Yaroun and al-Rahib sites “with artillery shells.”

Hezbollah fighters “targeted the surveillance equipment at the Misgav Am site in northern Israel with appropriate weapons, and destroyed it.”

The Lebanon-based group also claimed that it targeted “enemy soldiers deployed around the Manot settlement with rocket-propelled weapons” in response to the Israeli attacks on the southern villages and homes, especially in the town of Kounin.

Israeli and US officials said that Washington is “not optimistic” about reaching a hostage swap deal with Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip, but will soon present a new proposal, Anadolu reports.

Washington is drafting a new proposal, which will be presented to Tel Aviv and mediators, although the US is not optimistic about finalizing a deal soon, state-run broadcasting authority KAN reported, citing unnamed Israeli and US officials.

The officials said the US has labeled the plan that is being drafted as a “last chance proposal.”

According to what the officials told KAN, the “US settlement proposal includes all the contentious points, foremost among them the Philadelphia Corridor between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.”

Palestinians are trying to make do with clogs made of wood as shoes in the Gaza Strip are scarce because of Israeli attacks and an 11-month blockade.

Israel, which has caused enormous destruction in Gaza with its continuous bombardment from the air, land and sea, has displaced 2 million Palestinians and not allowed aid to enter the enclave, including medicine and food, for 11 months.

Palestinians in Gaza, who have difficulty in finding clean water and food, face death at any moment because of the Israeli bombardment.

Because Israel also prevents the importation of shoes into Gaza, Palestinians said they try to meet their needs with wooden clogs.

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Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati demanded an urgent meeting next week with Western ambassadors and representatives of international organizations in Lebanon, after an Israeli attack on civil defense personnel, Anadolu reports.

Three paramedics were killed and two others were injured in the strike earlier that targeted a civil defense fire truck in southern Lebanon.

Mikati condemned “the new Israeli aggression that targeted Civil Defense personnel while they were performing their duty to extinguish fires caused by the enemy’s airstrikes on the southern town of Feroun.”

“This new aggression against Lebanon constitutes a blatant violation of international laws and represents a flagrant attack on humanitarian values,” he said in a statement. “Based on the principle that the Israeli enemy disregards international laws and norms, I have called for an urgent meeting with Western ambassadors and representatives of international organizations at the government palace on Monday.”

Israeli forces have arrested seven Palestinians while carrying out several areas across the occupied West Bank.

Sources told Al Jazeera that the forces raided the village of Harmala, east of Bethlehem, arresting one Palestinian and summoning three others for questioning.

They also conducted raids in Yamoun, Araba and Silah al-Harithiya near Jenin, as well as in Nablus, the village of Burqa, Silwad east of Ramallah, and Attil and Zeita near Tulkarem.

Three Palestinians were arrested on Sunday from Yamoun and Araba in the Jenin governorate, while two others were detained from al-Shuyukh and Dura, near Hebron.

As the new academic year starts, UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, says it working to get thousands of children back to learning despite the closure of its 200 schools across Gaza.

“Now, thousands are able to come for an hour each day to join some fun activities, see their friends and receive psychosocial support to help them cope with their ongoing trauma,” said UNRWA spokeswoman Louise Wateridge.