According to reports the situation on the Northern border with Hezbollah has NOT escalated…..
Israel seems to be quietly trying to trying to find a way to get a cease-fire and manuever a separation of the militant and moderate factions in Hamas,…..
Israel and Egypt have privately discussed a possible withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from Gaza’s border with Egypt as part of a cease-fire deal with Hamas, according to two Israeli officials and a senior Western diplomat.
Israel’s willingness to do so could remove one of the main obstacles to a truce with Hamas, which has said that Israel’s withdrawal from areas including the border is a prerequisite for a cease-fire. Negotiations for a truce appear to have gained momentum in recent days, but several points of contention remain. One involves the length of a truce: Hamas wants a permanent cease-fire, while Israel wants it to be temporary.
The Israeli military took control of Gaza’s southern border over the course of May and June. The operation forced Hamas away from a strategically important axis through which the group has long smuggled arms and supplies into Gaza. It also strained ties with Egypt, which had warned that the operation would cause considerable harm and could threaten Egypt’s national security.
Israel is reluctant to withdraw because it says that would make it easier for Hamas to restock its arsenal and reestablish authority over Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement on Friday that he “insists that Israel remain on the Philadelphi Corridor,” as some call the border area.
But in private discussions last week with the Egyptian government, senior Israeli envoys indicated that Israel might be willing to withdraw if Egypt agreed to measures that would prevent arms smuggling along the border, according to the three officials….
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In Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, the municipality issued an urgent statement saying it was no longer able to provide 700,000 people in the area with drinking water after running out of fuel.
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Unrwa’s head, Philippe Lazzarini, said in a post on X on Monday that the agency’s headquarters in Gaza was “flattened” after being “turned into a battlefield” during heavy fighting. “Another episode in the blatant disregard of international humanitarian law,” he wrote.
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In the southern Gaza city of Rafah, the main focus of Israel’s offensive since May, residents reported renewed fighting on Monday. The military also reportedly intensified aerial and tank shelling in central Gaza in the al-Bureij and al-Maghazi historic refugee camps.
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At least 38,664 Palestinian people have been killed and 89,097 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement. An estimated 80 Palestinians were killed and 216 injured in the past 24 hours alone, the ministry said.
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David Lammy called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza during his first visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories as the UK’s foreign secretary.
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Gaza’s health ministry updated the death toll from an Israeli airstrike on a school in central Gaza on Sunday, saying it had increased from 15 to 22. The Abu Araban school was run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, and housed “thousands of displaced people”, civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told Agence France-Presse (AFP)…..
Jul 15, 2024 – ISW Press
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not yet confirmed whether it killed Hamas’ top military commander, Mohammad Deif. The IDF conducted an airstrike in the al Mawasi humanitarian zone on July 13 targeting Deif and Hamas Khan Younis Brigade Commander Rafe Salamah. The IDF confirmed on July 14 that the strike killed Salamah. Hamas officials maintain that Deif is alive but have not provided evidence to back their assertion.