US Secretary of State leaves the Middle East again. Five hostage bodies are expected to be recovered in the Gaza Strip. All developments in the news blog.
5.45 am: In her speech at the Democratic Party Convention in the USA, US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris stressed that she will always support Israel’s right to self-defense. US President Joe Biden and she herself are working day and night to end the war in the Gaza Strip.
“What has happened in Gaza over the last ten months is devastating. So many innocent people have lost their lives, desperate, hungry people who keep fleeing for safety. The extent of the suffering is heartbreaking,” she says. Harris wants to continue to work to ensure that “the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can exercise their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.”
Circles: Negotiation teams arrive in Cairo
10.15 p.m.: According to informed sources, delegations from the USA and Israel have arrived at Cairo airport in Egypt for further talks on ending the Gaza war. The visit is planned to last several hours, it was said. The Israeli news portal “Ynet” reported that the head of the Israeli foreign intelligence service Mossad, David Barnea, and the head of the domestic intelligence service Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, have arrived in Cairo for further negotiations.
Palestinians: Deaths after military operation in the West Bank
13:23: According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, three people were killed in an Israeli army operation in the West Bank. According to medics, the men were killed in drone attacks on a house in the city of Tulkaram in the north of the West Bank, among other places. According to local reports, at least one of the dead is a member of the military wing of the Islamist Hamas.
When asked, Israel’s army said that armed men were the target of the anti-terror operation. An aircraft was used to attack the house. The Israeli army often uses drones in its raids in the West Bank.
8.48 am: According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, at least one person was killed in Israeli air strikes in the interior of Lebanon. At least twenty others were injured in the attacks shortly after midnight.
According to Lebanese security sources, the air strikes hit the Bekaa Valley near the city of Baalbek in the northeast of the country. The area is considered a Hezbollah stronghold. Hezbollah says the dead man is one of its members.
The Israeli army announced this morning that the attacks were aimed at weapons depots belonging to the Shiite Hezbollah militia. There were secondary explosions after the attacks, indicating that there were large quantities of weapons on site. The attacks were also aimed at a site in northeastern Lebanon that is used by the Hezbollah militia’s air defense system, the statement added.
5.10 am: At least eleven people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a residential building in the town of Beit Lahija in the north of the Gaza Strip early Thursday morning, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa. Further details, including whether there are any injuries, are not yet known.
19:27: Israel claims to have defeated Hamas in the Rafah area in the south of the Gaza Strip. Israeli Defense Minister Joav Galant said during a visit to the border area between the Gaza Strip and Egypt: “The Rafah Brigade has been defeated and more than 150 tunnels in this region have been destroyed.” He has instructed the troops to concentrate in the coming period on destroying the remaining tunnels on the border between the coastal strip and Egypt.
In May, despite massive international criticism, Israel advanced into Rafah to destroy the remaining forces of the Islamist terrorist organization. Around a million refugees who had crowded into the city, according to estimates, left the city again. Israeli troops also captured the Rafah border crossing to Egypt and the so-called Philadelphia Corridor.
This approximately 14-kilometer-long area is considered one of the biggest points of contention in the negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire. Hamas is demanding a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on the other hand, insists that Israel must continue to control the corridor even after a ceasefire in order to prevent weapons smuggling, for example.
