[IMPORTANT] Hamas launches foot assault against settlements.

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Turkey has filed a request to join South Africa's genocide lawsuit against Israel
Gaza City: An independent UN-appointed expert accused Israel of committing "genocide" in its Gaza war after an Israeli strike targeting a school on Saturday killed 93 people, according to local rescuers.

"Israel is genociding the Palestinians one neighbourhood at the time, one hospital at the time, one school at the time, one refugee camp at the time, one safe zone at the time," Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the rights situation in Palestinian territories, said on social media platform X.

Hamas denounced the "dangerous escalation" in north Gaza, which came after international mediators invited the warring sides to resume next Thursday talks towards a long-sought ceasefire and hostage-release deal.

Calls for urgent probe
The foreign ministry of Qatar said it renews the Gulf emirate's "demand for an urgent international investigation, including the dispatch of independent UN investigators, to ascertain the facts regarding the Israeli occupation forces' continued targeting of schools and shelters for displaced persons".

Jordan's foreign ministry also said the timing of the school strike "is an indication of the Israeli government's efforts to obstruct and thwart these efforts."

’Bodies ripped to pieces‘
Civil defence in the Hamas-ruled territory said three Israeli missiles hit the school in Gaza City while people performed dawn prayers.

"Their bodies were torn apart," civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP. "It reminds us of the first days of the war in the Gaza Strip."

With most of Gaza's 2.4 million people displaced during the war started by Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel, many have sought refuge in school buildings, which have been hit at least 14 times since July 6, according to an AFP tally.

Engulfed by fire
The killing last week of Hamas's Ismail Haniyeh during a visit to Tehran had sidelined truce talks. Iran and Hamas blamed Israel, which has not directly commented.

Iran's mission to the United Nations on Saturday said the Islamic republic has "the legitimate right to self-defence" after its sovereignty was "violated".

"However, we hope that our response will be timed and conducted in a manner not to the detriment of the potential ceasefire," it said.

Violent settlers attacked an Arab-Israeli family by pelting them with stones and burning their car after the family made a wrong turn in the West Bank on Friday night, according to Israeli media.

The al-Jaar family—Nofa, Hind, Ragda, Lamis, and her three-year-old daughter Alif, from Rahat—were traveling to Nablus when they made a wrong turn into the West Bank settlement of Giva'at Ronen.

On Friday, N12 reported the family had suffered burn wounds and bruises.

They were evacuated by the IDF to Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Campus for treatment, with the hospital saying they had minor wounds.

Members of the security establishment told Maariv that the incident was defined as a "serious escalation in the activity of right-wing activists," and due to the seriousness of the incident, the investigation was immediately transferred to the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency).

The settlers attack
Nofa told the Israeli media outlet,Ynet, "We wanted to go to Nablus, but Waze misled us," referring to the wrong turn that took them off the main road to Nablus and onto the side route that goes to Giva'at Ronen.

"We saw that there were religious people, settlers. They started running after us. We turned [the car] around because we wanted to escape from the scene, but there was no way out. You can't go back, and you can't move forward; there was a type of spring [in the way]."

"Many people ran in our direction. Two had guns. After they broke all the windows, one raised a gun. Our [little] girl started screaming. They asked, 'Are you from the territories [West Bank]? Did you come from Gaza? Do you have anyone from Gaza?' 'We want to kill you,' they told us. They didn't stop, even with the [little] girl."

Following this, the settlers reportedly sprayed the family with tear gas and chased them down the hill toward IDF troops, "The army came, and we also called the police - but there was no [sense of] urgency," the family told Ynet.

"It took a long time, about fifteen minutes. [The soldier] told me, 'Bring the cell phones, everything you have in your bag.' He pulled the bag from my hand, and everything fell to the floor. I don't know why he did it. I told him that I only had an identity card and medical documents."

Once the army arrived, the settlers fled. Nofa said, "This is [such] cruelty, [what] heartless people. What did we do? We saw death before our eyes. They wanted to kill us. After that, they burned our car before the police arrived. They put the gun to my 3-year-old girl's head."

A cousin of the women, Khaled al-Jaar, told Ynet, "It could have ended in disaster. If a person makes a mistake and enters a certain area, there is probably a danger to life. People are crazy, take the law into their hands and carry out lynchings."

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich implies he believes that blocking humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip is “justified and moral” even if it causes 2 million civilians to die of hunger, adding however that the international community won’t allow this to happen.

“We are bringing in aid because there is no choice,” Smotrich says at a conference in Yad Binyamin hosted by the Israel Hayom outlet. “We can’t, in the current global reality, manage a war. Nobody will let us cause 2 million civilians to die of hunger even though it might be justified and moral until our hostages are returned. Humanitarian in exchange for humanitarian is morally justified, but what can we do? We live today in a certain reality, we need international legitimacy for this war.”

He argues that Israel must regain full control over what exactly enters the Strip, saying he opposes the stance of the military and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on the matter and that “I don’t know if the prime minister doesn’t want or isn’t managing to rein them in.” He says Hamas plundering the aid is the “main factor” extending the war.

The far-right minister adds that while he supports Israel resettling Gaza, he hasn’t demanded that this be defined as one of the war’s goals. He argues that if Israel hadn’t pulled out of Gaza in 2005, the October 7 massacre would never have happened.

The video, which has been verified by Al Jazeera, shows the prisoner being selected from a larger group lying bound on the floor. The victim is then escorted to a wall, where guards, using their shields to hide their identity from the camera, proceed to rape him.

The attack is believed to have been so brutal that, after he was transferred to hospital, Israeli media reported that the victim was unable to walk.

Ten soldiers were ultimately arrested for the rape on July 29, in a case that has rocked Israeli society. The soldiers belong to a unit known as Force 100, which is tasked with guarding the Sde Teiman facility, according to Haaretz.

Military prosecutors released three of the arrested soldiers on August 4, adding to the two previously released by investigators following a military court hearing in Kfar Yona on July 30, at which protesters gathered in support of the soldiers under arrest.

The video has shocked many within Israeli society. Some observers, including a local rights group and two UN agencies, have voiced concerns about the treatment of Palestinian prisoners.

However, for some, including the country’s far-right finance minister, the outrage has centred on the “crime” of recording the video, rather than the alleged rape itself.

Taking to X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday night, Bezalel Smotrich demanded “an immediate criminal investigation to locate the leakers of the trending video that was intended to harm the reservists and that caused tremendous damage to Israel in the world and to exhaust the full severity of the law against them”.

Others, including the hard right and ultranationalist politicians, such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, within Israel, have argued that any action – even gang rape – is permissible if it is undertaken for the security of the state.

Defending the indefensible
Following the arrest of the reservists on July 29, far-right mobs, some of which included government ministers, stormed the facility at Sde Teiman in southern Israel later the same day.

Unable to find and free the imprisoned soldiers, they then turned to the base at Beit Lid, 60km away, where the soldiers were being held for questioning, to call for the soldiers’ release.

That unrest continued during a high court hearing, convened on Wednesday to hear the petitions of Sde Teiman prisoners who are alleged to have been tortured. The proceedings were interrupted by demonstrators, who included victims of the October 7 Hamas-led attack, who shouted “Disgrace” and “We are the sovereign”.

Israeli pressure group Guarding the Soldiers – a new organisation formed in defence of the soldiers accused of rape – was quoted in Israeli media as saying: “The hearing in the high court this morning is absurd and a gift to [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar and murderers.”

Israeli politicians, including cabinet members, have also defended the accused. Ben-Gvir, who is responsible for the prison service, told Israeli media on the day of the reservists’ arrest that it was “shameful” for Israel to arrest “our best heroes”. The same day, Smotrich, who had been among the right-wing mob to storm the prison, published a video message, saying that “IDF soldiers deserve respect” and must not be treated as “criminals”.

On being asked by Ahmad Tibi, one of the Arab MPs within the Israeli Knesset last week if it was legitimate “to insert a stick into a person’s rectum”, Hanoch Milwidsky, a member of Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party, responded: “If he is a Nukhba [Hamas militant], everything is legitimate to do! Everything!”

‘Just the tip of the iceberg’
The video of the alleged gang rape at Sde Teiman is the latest piece in a growing body of evidence of abuse, sexual assault and the systematic withholding of food and medical care that Palestinians endure within the Israeli prison system.

A report titled Welcome to Hell, published this week by the Israeli human rights advocacy group, B’Tselem, includes interviews with 55 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli detention centres since October 7. In firsthand accounts, the prisoners, the majority of whom were later released without charge at locations across the occupied Palestinian territory, Gaza and within Israel, recount being assaulted, insulted and sexually abused by guards.

“The conditions at Sde Teiman aren’t unique. They’re just the tip of the iceberg,” the organisation’s spokesperson, Shai Parnes, told Al Jazeera by phone from Jerusalem.

“We heard similar accounts of sexual abuse, starvation and assault from separate prisoners held in 16 different locations across Israel. It was depressing. As we gathered the testimonies, we realised that every witness account was almost identical, no matter what their age, gender or location was. There’s no doubt. This kind of abuse is systematic,” he said.

‘At odds with international law’
Allegations of the systematic abuse of prisoners within a justice system which critics say is fundamentally at odds with international law have also been detailed in a separate report published on Monday by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR), and in an unpublished report – seen by Al Jazeera in March – from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

Responding to warnings of overcrowding within the prison system from the security agency Shin Bet in early July, Ben-Gvir repeated his call for Palestinian prisoners to be executed, tweeting that one of his principal goals since attaining office had been to “worsen the conditions of the terrorists in the prisons, and to reduce their rights to the minimum required by law”.

He said: “Everything published about the abominable conditions” of the Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons “was true”.

Human rights up for debate
The United States, Israel’s principal ally, called the allegations of sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners “horrific”, saying Israel must investigate “swiftly” and “fully”.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told the media on Wednesday: “There ought to be zero tolerance for sexual abuse, rape of any detainee. Period. That’s a fundamental belief of the United States.”

On Thursday, the European Union also expressed dismay. Peter Stano, a spokesperson for the EU’s diplomatic service, told Politico: “The EU is gravely concerned by the allegations of human rights violations and abuses, including torture and sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees at the Sde Teiman military facility in Israel and elsewhere.”

Nevertheless, many within Israel continue to defend the conditions in which Palestinian prisoners are being held, as well as the rape alleged to have been carried out by the soldiers at Sde Teiman.

“Look, the question really isn’t about rape,” Ori Goldberg, a Tel Aviv-based political analyst, told Al Jazeera. “The question is – can Israel, or Israelis, be reproached for anything they do in defence of the state?”

In the opinion of some, Goldberg explained, no act, no matter how immoral it might appear to the outside world, is off limits, if it is carried out to further the security of Israel.

“We even had a journalist on breakfast television criticising not the rape but the ‘disorganised’ way it was carried out,” Goldberg added.

That outlook remains a minority view, he cautioned. Nevertheless, even among the Israeli liberals who argue against that view of their country and its actions, little thought is given to the Palestinian victims.

“Oh, it’s got nothing to do with the victims,” Goldberg said, ‘this is all about Israel.”

The IDF prosecution has asked the military court to extend until Tuesday the detentions of five IDF Sde Teiman prison guards suspected of sodomy against a Palestinian detainee-suspected terrorist.

At the same time, the IDF prosecution has said that it will not oppose starting a social worker evaluation process of the prison guards for the possibility of releasing them to house arrest or some other situation short of full detention.

The fact that the IDF Prosecution took that position suggests it is close to completing key aspects of its investigation and possibly even closer to filing indictments.

Accusations against the guards
On July 29, 10 guards were arrested for a mix of alleged sodomy and beatings. Two were quickly released and three more were released some days later after their detention was initially extended by an IDF pretrial court.

Since then, the remaining five suspect prison guards’ detention has been extended several times.

Multiple times the IDF pretrial court and even once the IDF appeals court have ruled in favor of the prosecution and alluded to the case being much stronger than has been leaked to the public to date.

The Jerusalem Post understands that some of the evidence includes a majority of the medical reports and medical experts’ testimony as well as video footage of aspects of the alleged torture.

"Iran's aerial operations against Israel could last three to four days," said Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani, a member of the Iranian Parliament's National Security Commission, Iran International reported on Saturday night, citing an interview published by 'Iran Watch.

He told the interviewer that "bloodshed would be carried out" to avenge Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Tehran while attending the inauguration of new Iranian president Pezeshkian.

"Therefore, Iran's response to this crime of the Zionist regime will be definitive and there is no doubt about it."

Ardestani also told Iran Watch that prolonging the response, or making Israel wait for the response, was in Iran's favor as Israel "feels every night that it is in limbo, and keeping Israel in limbo is part of the revenge operation."

"Adopting a policy of patience and waiting is part of the revenge process of the Islamic Republic."

Many experts have claimed that psychological warfare is part of Iranian strategy. David Menashri, an Iran expert at Tel Aviv University, told The Media Line “Israel is not that good at the game of patience like Iran, so it will be interesting to see if it will act first. Iran is clearly winning the psychological warfare at the moment.”

Israel-Hamas negotiations
Referring to claims by Iran's mission to the UN on Friday that Tehran would honor any Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal accepted by Hamas, and therefore may refrain from attacking, Ardestani said that this would indeed be the only situation in which Iran would not retaliate. However, he added that the state of negotiations between the two sides showed "that it is unlikely that the two sides will reach such an agreement in the future, and for this reason, the Islamic Republic will not let go of the bloodshed of Martyr Haniyeh."

When asked if the attack would be similar in nature to "Operation True Promise" - the name given by Iran to the drone and missile attack on Israel in April - Ardestani said that it might be similar, but of a greater scale.

Ardestani also alluded to the potential joint involvement of Iranian proxies in an attack on Israel, potentially Hezbollah in Lebanon. "This time, like the previous time, the resistance groups of the region will definitely accompany the Islamic Republic in providing its response," he added.

April attack
April attack
Speaking on the April drone attack, Ardestani stated that the then-intention was not to "escalate tension in the region" but to "prove to America that Iran was capable of penetrating the protection umbrella created over [Israel] and entering the territory."

However, he claimed that, unlike the previous attack in which the US was notified before it occurred, "this time we will definitely not inform the enemy."

Regarding the coalition of countries which took part in intercepting aerial threats in April, such as Jordan, Ardestani said it was "unfortunate" that these nations "defended the Zionist regime under the pretext of defending their airspace."

He also seemingly threatened the countries by saying that if Israel chooses to attack Iran with missiles or jets using the skies of these countries (with permission), then this would "create a challenge for those countries."

Western diplomats told KAN on Monday that such a coalition would be possible to restore the regional coalition should Iran attack again.

Speaking on the assassination of Haniyeh, Ardestani told Iran Watch that the Intelligence Ministry in Iran believed no infiltration took place, seemingly referring to claims that IRGC agents were hired by Israel to plant the explosives. However, he said his "personal analysis was that, considering the circumstances that occurred in this assassination, infiltration must have played a role in it."

Amid the US show of force in the Middle East, the political echelon is in a dilemma: whether to continue to preserve the northern arena as a secondary front, remaining vigilant and on high alert for fear of a reaction by Iran and its allies, or launch a pre-emptive strike and deprive Hezbollah of strategic capabilities such as precision missiles, rockets, long-range missiles, and weapons stockpiles?

This question is only sharpened in view of the call of quite a few elements in the security system, who are pushing for "surprises" that will not necessarily escalate the reaction of Iran and its allies but will deter them from an action that will lead to the killing of civilians in Israel.

The IDF is having an impact on Hezbollah and positions Nasrallah in countless dilemmas every day concerning the military activities he can take against Israel.

The security establishment estimates that Nasrallah does not really enjoy full freedom of action and is waiting for Tehran to dictate the framework of the response. Tehran is itself debating the military response. Iran is reportedly evaluating what kind of military response might trigger an all-out war with Israel.

The 'black cloud' scenario
Senior officials in the defense establishment warned of a strategic change in the Middle East since Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, and Iran all operate in joint coordination. For this reason, they must be considered one piece until further notice. Some in the security system call this change a "black cloud."

The sources estimated that Iran prefers a "battle of attrition" that will exact a price from Israel rather than a broad military response that will bring the region to the brink of war.

On the other hand, the American administration embraces Israel and holds frequent talks with it. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has had over 100 conversations with his counterpart, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, since the beginning of the war.

In recent weeks, the two have sometimes spoken daily and even twice a day to coordinate intelligence and developments.

One of the sources said that the Iranians are very afraid of what the Americans are capable of doing against Iran, especially since the White House has a president who will be replaced in a few months and would not want an occurrence in the Middle East to damage his legacy.

Apparently, the school massacre didn't cause a large scale uproar in media/social media.

Did the world get already habituated to the killing of Palestinian kids again?

Hamas launched rockets toward Tel Aviv on Tuesday for the first time in months, as Israeli troops continued to operate in Gaza and Palestinian medics claimed at least 19 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes throughout the Strip.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, the terror group fired two rockets toward central Israel on Tuesday afternoon, with one falling in the sea and the second failing to cross the border and falling short inside Gaza.

No sirens were set off as neither rocket threatened any populated areas, though some residents reported hearing a loud boom from the underwater explosion.

Hamas claimed responsibility for the rockets, its first attack on Tel Aviv since late May.

The projectiles were launched from the Khan Younis area in Gaza, not far from where the 98th Division is operating.

Hamas later released footage of the failed attack, which showed operatives using makeshift rocket launchers instead of the standard launch pits that the terror group would normally use for long-range rocket fire on Israel.

The IDF has assessed that Hamas still possesses the capability to carry out attacks on central Israel or Jerusalem, but the terror group does not have many long-range rockets or launchers left to use.

Several hours after the rocket attack, the military issued a new evacuation order for Palestinians in Khan Younis, with the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman publishing a list of the zones that need to be cleared.

The announcement by Col. Avichay Adraee called for Palestinians in the specified areas to evacuate to the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone.

The military said earlier Tuesday that troops in that division were pushing ahead with a new offensive in Khan Younis, and had also targeted a cell of terrorists who had launched a site in an airstrike. Evacuation orders were also issued for these areas before the raid.

A Hamas representative in Lebanon confirmed to CBS News that a delegation from the militant group will not attend Thursday's attempt to restart cease-fire negotiations with Israel, saying Hamas has not received assurances that Israel would commit to negotiate on the basis of an earlier proposal dated July 2.

"We are not against the concept of negotiations and we were flexible in the previous rounds," said Ahmad Abdul Hadi, Hamas' representative in Lebanon, in a statement to CBS News Tuesday. "But Netanyahu and his government rejected (the July 2nd proposal), put new conditions, they assassinated the head of our movement," referring to the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas' political wing, in the Iranian capital of Tehran late last month. Haniyeh had been Hamas' lead negotiator in the cease-fire talks.

"Therefore we won't participate" in the Aug. 15 talks, Abdul Hadi added, "and we will go back to square one."

Hamas said it is willing to meet with mediators after Thursday's talks in Qatar, if Israel gives what they call a "serious response," according to a diplomat briefed on the talks.

"We are serious on reaching an agreement as it is our responsibility towards our people to stop the massacres and the famine war the occupation (sic) is committing against our people," Abdul Hadi said.

Hezbollah may plan to hold off on a retaliatory attack against Israel while negotiations for a hostage deal are underway in Qatar, a source close to Hezbollah told the Washington Post, Army Radio reported Friday morning.

According to the source, Hezbollah does not want to be responsible for disrupting a possible deal.

"Hezbollah will not launch its retaliation during the Qatar talks because the party does not want to be held accountable for disrupting the talks or a potential deal," the source said.

Hostage deal talks show promise
The talks for a hostage deal, which are continuing on Friday, involve CIA Director William J. Burns and White House Middle East Coordinator Brett McGurk. On the Israeli side, Shin Bet head Ronen Bar and Mossad Director David Barnea have attended. Also participating are Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani and Egyptian Intelligence Chief Abbas Kamel.
White House Spokesperson John Kirby said the Doha talks are focused, and the remaining gaps concern the steps to implement the deal. According to him, the US believes that the gaps can be closed.

Dozens of Israeli civilians, some of whom were masked, entered the village of Jit in the West Bank on Thursday night, hurling stones and Molotov cocktails and setting vehicles and buildings on fire, the military said.

Following the initial reports, the army added that forces had been transferred to the area and removed the rioters from the village.

One Israeli civilian was arrested by the security forces, and the military said it was examining the report that a Palestinian was killed during the events.

The IDF also added that a joint IDF, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and police investigation had been opened into the incident.

Earlier on Thursday, Israeli media reported that rioters had set fire to buildings and vehicles in the Jit village near the West Bank's Nablus.

Politicians respond
In response to the events, the Prime Minister's Office released a statement which read, "Prime Minister Netanyahu takes seriously the riots that took place this evening in the village of Jit, which included injury to life and property by Israelis who entered the village."

"Those who fight terrorism are the IDF and the security forces, and no one else," the statement added.

The statement concluded, "Those responsible for any criminal act will be caught and prosecuted."

President Isaac Herzog condemned the events in a post on X, formerly Twitter, "This is an extreme minority that harms the law-abiding settler population, the settlement as a whole, and the name and position of Israel in the world during a particularly sensitive and difficult period.

This is not our way and certainly not the way of Torah and Judaism. Law enforcement officials must act immediately against this serious phenomenon and bring the lawbreakers to justice," Herzog concluded.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in response to the events, "At a time when our troops are fighting on the frontlines and defending the State of Israel, a group of radical individuals have launched a riot, and attacked innocent people. They do not represent the values of the communities living in the West Bank.

"I strongly condemn any form of violence, and fully support the IDF, ISA, and Israeli Police in fulfilling their roles and addressing this issue.

Gallant further stated, Violent, radical riots are the opposite of every code and value upheld by the State of Israel.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said in response, "I told the Chief of Staff this evening that the fact that we do not back soldiers to shoot any terrorist who throws stones leads to events such as that which happened tonight.

"At the same time, it is unequivocally forbidden to take the law into one's own hands," he added.
"The one who needs to deal with terrorism and deterrence, including against terrorists from the village of Jit, is the IDF," Ben-Gvir affirmed.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also issued a statement in response to the events, which read, "The rioters tonight in Jit are not related in any way to the settlement and the settlers. They are criminals who should be dealt with by the law enforcement authorities with the full severity of the law."

"We build and develop the settlement in a legal manner, support the IDF in its fight against terrorism, and strongly disapprove of any manifestation of anarchist criminal violence," Smotrich continued.

Opposition head Yair Lapid said with regard to the events, "The riots of the Jews in the West Bank are a terrible moral low. When there are those in the government who support such events, it will only get worse. This has nothing to do with Judaism."
MK Benny Gantz stated, "The handful of lawbreakers who committed the acts of violence today in Jit village should be behind bars.

Ceasefire negotiators in Doha are coming off of what a senior Biden administration official is calling the "most constructive 48 hours of the negotiation process in months" with the final bridging proposal in place which mediators are hopeful can be agreed upon with talks concluding in Cairo next week.

"It was a consensus of all the participants here over the last 48 hours that there's really a new spirit here to drive this to a conclusion," said the official, speaking from Doha.

The official laid out the timeline of the terms of the deal in place, saying Israel put down a proposal on May 27 that was the basis of the President's speech on May 3.

On July 3, Hamas came back with a response to that, with a number of changes, many of which were not acceptable, according to the official, but many of which were a basis for further discussion. On July 27, Israel issued some clarification to the text.

"Basically, what we've done is taken the gaps that remain and have bridged those in a way that we think is a deal that is now ready to close, implement and move forward," the official said, adding there is still more work to do.

On points of contention from Doha, such as the IDF remaining in control of the Philadelphi corridor, the official said the issue is "moving the right way" and consistent with the May 27 version of the deal in which Israel remains in control of the area bordering Egypt and Gaza.

"Is stipulated in the deal that particularly people going from South to North, displaced persons meeting civilians without arms, that is a core provision of the deal," according to the official.
"And obviously, the Israelis want to make sure that that provision is followed through. We believe, as do the other mediators, that that is a material principle of the deal, and that if anyone is carrying arms from South to North, that would be a violation of the deal."

Additional meetings in Doha and Cairo will talk about the implementation process of the deal, notably the extensive humanitarian provisions and ensuring their rapid implementation once the deal is concluded.

The official noted the significant humanitarian provision of the deal in not just the amount of aid that's needed in Gaza but also the clearing of rubble, rehabilitation of medical services and electricity.

Meetings will also focus on the actual exchange of detainees and hostages, as well as other areas of the deal the official said requires some monitoring to make sure that there's compliance.

Exchanging terrorists for hostages
The official acknowledged what he called the "uncomfortable" parts of the deal, noting the "difficult" element of exchanging Palestinian prisoners for hostages.

"That will be ongoing through the week, and then again in Cairo, before the end of next week, we will gather again at this level with an aim to conclude this. That is the goal," the official said. "That is something that President al Sisi and Emir Tamim just confirmed with [Biden], and that is something we'll be driving toward."

Though he added he didn't want to underscore how difficult the coming week will be.

Lebanon is struggling with a “total blackout” across the country after the state-run power firm said it has ran out of gas oil amid intensifying cross-border assaults between Hezbollah and Israel.

Electricite Du Liban said that the last remaining production unit of the Zahrani power plant has been “forcibly shut down” and that the blackout will affect the country’s airport, ports, water pumps, sewage systems and prisons, state-run National News Agency reported Saturday.

The blackout comes shortly after Hezbollah — designated a terrorist organization by the US — fired a salvo of rockets at Israel in response to a strike that killed 10 Syrian nationals and wounded five others in South Lebanon. Tens of thousands of Israelis and Lebanese have evacuated their homes to escape the cross-border fighting, which erupted around the time Hamas invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and triggering the war in Gaza.

Lebanon has been reeling since late 2019 from its worst financial meltdown in decades. The government has defaulted on its international debt and has failed to take the measures required to clinch foreign support.

The cash-strapped Mediterranean country has been suffering from severe power rationing for decades as political bickering stalled plans to overhaul the electricity sector, but outages have worsened during the current financial crisis. Lebanese households and institutions already rely on subscriptions to private backup generators as mismanagement and corruption mean EDL has for years failed to provide 24-hour electricity.

IDF intelligence chiefs never told Israel’s most senior military and political leaders that Unit 8200 had in April 2022 obtained a document setting out Hamas’s plans for what proved to be the October 7 invasion and slaughter in southern Israel, Channel 12 reported on Saturday.

The existence of the document, which Israeli military intelligence codenamed “Jericho Walls,” was first reported in The New York Times in November 2023.

The 40-page plan, the Times reported at the time, laid out almost exactly how Hamas eventually wound up carrying out the attack: “The document called for a barrage of rockets at the outset of the attack, drones to knock out the security cameras and automated machine guns along the border, and gunmen to pour into Israel en masse in paragliders, on motorcycles and on foot — all of which happened on Oct. 7.”

Israeli intelligence officers reportedly determined that the terror group was incapable of carrying out an assault of such a large scope, or possibly unwilling, and dismissed concerns about it.

According to a Channel 12 report on Saturday night, the Arabic language document, which was written in October 2021, was obtained by Unit 8200 in April 2022 and translated. It was seen by IDF intelligence chief Aharon Haliva, 8200 commander Yossi Sariel, Gaza division commander Avi Rosenfeld, and then IDF Southern Command chief Eliezer Toledano, the report says.

It was not seen by IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, deputy chief Amir Baram, Israel Air Force chief Tomer Bar, or senior IDF operations officers Oded Basyuk and Shlomi Binder. It was also not seen by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, or the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

The document showed “Hamas was not deterred,” contradicting the prevailing IDF assessment, former IDF intelligence chief Aharon Ze’evi-Farkash told Channel 12. Therefore it should obviously have been followed up rather than dismissed. “It needed to be thoroughly checked.”

The TV report said that in the months preceding October 7, IAF chief Bar, in the months felt the Air Force was not getting adequate intelligence on developments in Gaza and that meetings were held with Unit 8200 about this concern — the last one of which was held about a week before October 7. But even then, Bar was not told about the Hamas “Jericho Walls” battle plan document.

The air force had seen “no scenario” for the kind of mass breach of the border, with dozens of points of entry, that Hamas carried out on October 7, Brigadier General (Res.) Yaron Rosen, a former senior IAF officer and pilot, told Channel 12, and thus there were “no relevant orders” to activate that morning, and the IAF was forced to improvise. Had it known of the attack plan, it would have drawn up a response and “hopefully” would have been able to prevent the invasion, Rosen said.

The Channel 12 report also described efforts by an intelligence officer in the IDF Southern Command identified by the initial “Aleph” to alert more senior military officers to what he recognized as “something extremely unusual going on — heightened readiness on the other side [in Gaza]” in the hours before Hamas invaded.

It said “Aleph” contacted Haliva and IDF southern command chief Yaron Finkelman to report these indications, and that this was after Israeli intelligence officers had already noticed that dozens of Hamas terrorists had activated Israeli SIM cards in their phones, another tell-tale sign of attack that was ignored.

Haliva was on vacation in Eilat, Channel 12 stated, and did not immediately return to work following “Aleph’s” report.

As had been previously reported, Finkelman headed to the IDF’s Southern Command headquarters overnight October 6-7 and alerted Halevi, who held telephone consultations but did not order a major alert.

“Aleph” also contacted Unit 8200 commander Sariel via WhatsApp to what he described as “a highly unusual event,” seeking intelligence from a “particularly important” technical network that had for years provided information on Hamas activities, the TV report said. Sariel, checking, was told that this network had not been working for the past several hours. The network was only reactivated at around the time that the invasion began.

Several Unit 8200 soldiers also recognized unusual activity in Gaza in the hours before the invasion and sent six emails to a “non-relevant user,” the report stated.

Israeli soldiers are using Palestinian civilians as human shields in Gaza to enter and clear tunnels and buildings they suspect may have been booby-trapped, a leading Israeli NGO and newspaper have reported.

The practice was so widespread across different units fighting in Gaza that it could in effect be considered a “protocol”, said Nadav Weiman, the executive director of Breaking the Silence, a group founded by Israeli combat veterans to document military abuses.

The group has collected testimony describing the practice from veterans of the 10-month war in Gaza. The accounts they have heard match those reported in an investigation by the newspaper Haaretz, which claimed that the chief of staff’s office was aware of the practice.

“The senior ranks know about it,” one source said to have taken part in finding civilians to serve as human shields told the paper. “Our lives are more important than their lives,” Haaretz quoted commanders telling their soldiers.

The practice is said to be so routine that Israeli soldiers have a name for the human shields, who are referred to as shawish – informal slang for a low-ranking soldier – and the process was described by several witnesses.

Palestinian civilians, mostly young men, are picked up by Israeli soldiers, dressed in Israeli army uniforms, then sent into tunnels and damaged houses ahead of Israeli forces, soldiers told Haaretz and Breaking the Silence.

Their hands are tied together and a camera is attached to their bodies as they go in. “Palestinians are told: ‘Do one mission of … a [tunnel] shaft and you’re free,’” Haaretz quoted one soldier saying.

Afterwards, the men are reportedly released to join their families – underlining to the soldiers who spoke to Haaretz and Breaking the Silence that they were civilians who did not pose any military threat and had been detained only for the clearance operations.

Footage of Palestinian civilians, including some in IDF uniform, being sent into devastated buildings was obtained by Al Jazeera and broadcast in July.

Breaking the Silence said it had heard reports of civilians being used as human shields from the early stages of the war in Gaza. Initially it said it thought it had been one commander acting illegally, but testimony started coming in from soldiers stationed across the territory.

“We heard it from different units, fighting in different times and different places inside Gaza,” Weiman said. “Then we understood it’s something a lot more widespread – or even, I could say, a protocol – in the IDF.”

One soldier had been told Palestinian civilians were being used to replace the dog units that search for explosives “because too many dogs had died”, he added.

Many soldiers had raised concerns about a practice that is illegal under international and Israeli law, Weiman said.

In Israel in 2005, the supreme court banned using Palestinians as human shields in response to a petition against the military’s “neighbour procedure” in the West Bank, in which soldiers forced civilians to go ahead of them when raiding houses there.

Haaretz also reported heated arguments, including shouting, between soldiers and commanders ordering the use of human shields. “Most of them realised there was a problematic incident here, and it was hard for them to process,” one source said.

The reports of the Israel Defense Forces using civilian human shields come after the Israeli military has repeatedly justified attacks on civilian targets, including schools and hospitals, by alleging Hamas uses them, and uses the people inside them as human shields.

“How we can say that kind of thing after we’re doing this, after we’re taking Palestinians as human shields?” Weiman said.

An Israel airstrike in Gaza has killed at least 18 people from the same family, even as mediators expressed optimism for an imminent ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas after 10 months of war.

The airstrike on Saturday hit a house and adjacent warehouse sheltering displaced people at the entrance to the town of Zawaida, according to al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, to where casualties were taken. An Associated Press reporter there counted the dead.

Among those killed was Sami Jawad al-Ejlah, a wholesaler who coordinated with the Israeli military to bring meat and fish to Gaza. The dead also included his two wives, 11 of their children aged two to 22, a grandmother to the children, and three other relatives, according to a list provided by the hospital.

Omar al-Dreemli, a relative, said: “We are in the morgue seeing indescribable scenes of limbs and severed heads and children who are dismembered.”

Abu Ahmed, a neighbour, said of Ejlah: “He was a peaceful man.” He said more than 40 civilians had been sheltering in the house and warehouse at the time.

The Israeli military, which rarely comments on individual strikes, said it had struck “terrorist infrastructure” in central Gaza from where rockets had been fired toward Israel in recent weeks.

Reports were received that as a result of the strike, civilians in an adjacent structure were killed. The incident is under review,” it said.

Another mass evacuation was ordered for parts of central Gaza. An Israeli military spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, in a post on X cited Palestinian rocket fire and said Palestinians in areas in and around the urban Maghazi refugee camp should leave.

Ahmad Omrani, one of those affected by the order, said: “The suffering began from the day we left our homes.” As heavily laden vehicles, bikes and donkey carts weaved through the rubble, he said: “We suffer from fear and anxiety, and fear for the children playing in the street. You cannot sleep, sit or eat well.”

Issa Murad, a Palestinian displaced to Deir al-Balah, said: “During each round of negotiations, they exert pressure by forcing evacuations and committing massacres.”

The vast majority of Gaza’s population has been displaced, often multiple times, and about 84% of the territory has been put under evacuation orders by the Israeli military, according to the UN.

The Hamas terror group published an official statement on Sunday evening in which it rejected the terms for a hostage release-ceasefire deal which were discussed in Doha on Thursday and Friday, and blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for putting up new obstacles in the talks.

Netanyahu, for his part, reportedly told cabinet ministers earlier on Sunday that he was pessimistic about the chances for a deal, especially given that Israel had been effectively negotiating with mediating countries rather than with Hamas, which refused to send a delegation to the latest round of talks.

“The chances are not high,” the Kan public broadcaster quoted Netanyahu as telling ministers.

Netanyahu’s pessimism, coupled with Hamas’s rejection of the terms discussed in Doha, appeared to contradict reports from mediators that the negotiations were making progress, with a potential successful end in sight.

Netanyahu is to host visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday. Blinken is then set to fly to Cairo, where talks on a deal are ongoing.

The US has indicated that it aims to hold a second summit later this week and hopes to get deal finalized by the end of the week.

Among the main sticking points in the negotiations is Netanyahu’s demand that the IDF remain deployed on the Philadelphi Corridor, which runs along the Gaza-Egypt border, to prevent Hamas from smuggling weapons into Gaza and reconstituting its military. This demand was not specified in Israel’s May 27 hostage deal proposal which has served as the basis for the subsequent talks, and is rejected by Hamas.

Israel’s negotiators were reported to have told the prime minister on Sunday that without a compromise on the issue there would be no deal, and urged flexibility. The prime minister reportedly countered that so long as Hamas insisted on a full IDF withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor, there would indeed be no deal.

In its statement on Sunday evening, Hamas charged that Netanyahu “sets new conditions and demands” to thwart the talks and prolong the war in Gaza.

The terror group further claimed that the latest US-backed text — a “bridging proposal” that was conveyed to Israel and to Hamas at the end of the talks in Doha on Friday — was aligned with Israel’s demands. It cited stipulations that it said were contained in the proposal relating to the Philadelphi Corridor, the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, and the Netzarim Corridor which the IDF has established separating northern and southern Gaza. (A Hamas source was quoted in Saudi media earlier Sunday setting out some of these ostensible pro-Israel clauses.)

Hamas also claimed Netanyahu had introduced new demands relating to the release of Palestinian security prisoners.

Bitter arguments reported between Netanyahu and his negotiators
Netanyahu’s pessimistic outlook on the deal at Sunday’s cabinet meeting followed a contentious meeting earlier in the day with the Israeli negotiating team — led by Mossad’s David Barnea, Shin Bet’s Ronen Bar and the IDF’s Nitzan Alon — ahead of negotiators’ departure for follow-up talks in Cairo.

The team reportedly warned Netanyahu that his insistence on ongoing Israeli control of the Philadelphi Corridor was dooming the negotiations.

But a Channel 12 report said the prime minister refused to budge even after they told him flatly that it was “either Philadelphi or a deal.”

In fact, the report said, Netanyahu retorted that there would indeed be no deal unless Hamas relinquished its demand for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Corridor.

The negotiators told Netanyahu that they had managed to bring US mediators closer to Israel’s positions and demands on most issues, including such crucial matters as how many living hostages would be released in the first phase of the deal and the mechanism regarding Palestinian security prisoners who would go free.

But they reportedly told the prime minister that they were “certain” that the issue of an ongoing IDF presence on Philadelphi was a “deal-breaker.”

They told Netanyahu that the US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators regarded Israel’s demand for an ongoing presence at the Gaza-Egypt border as an indication that the prime minister is not truly interested in a deal. As such, those countries were not prepared to press Hamas with full force to accept the proposal.

Urging compromise, the negotiators reportedly stressed to the prime minister that there are “security solutions” that would allow an IDF withdrawal from the border. Netanyahu said in response that the issue was not only a security issue but also a strategic one, since a temporary withdrawal could become permanent. Israel, he reportedly said, needs to control all the border crossings, and access to the Gaza Strip from all directions, as a matter of strategic importance.

Netanyahu said he was prepared to discuss how the troops would be deployed, but not to compromise on the fundamental imperative for them to be present.

He also reportedly accused the team of being too ready to compromise during their contacts with mediators.

“You are carrying out negotiations. You can’t fold after two days,” Netanyahu was said to chastise them.

In response, the negotiators were quoted as having said: “We have not been negotiating for two days. We have been negotiating for months. The Philadelphi Corridor is not a [critical] security issue [for the period while the deal is being implemented]. We will return there if we need to.”

Reopening the Rafah Crossing
Israel’s security chiefs have for weeks been reported as telling Netanyahu in a series of meetings that it would be possible to withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor during the initial six-week phase of the potential deal without Hamas significantly rearming itself, and having offered various alternative options for solving the issue.

According to Channel 12 on Sunday, the options range from maintaining an IDF presence all along the 14-kilometer border route, withdrawing with the right to return if needed, and withdrawing but with ongoing coordination with the Egyptians.

Various “technological” solutions have also been proposed, and reportedly discussed with the mediators, to prevent Hamas from being able to smuggle weaponry under the border.

In addition to the premier’s insistence that the IDF not withdraw from Philadelphi, Israel is demanding that there be an international presence at the Rafah Border Crossing separating Gaza and Egypt, Channel 12 also said.

The report stated that this was because while Hamas used tunnels beneath the border to smuggle in weaponry, “the vast majority” of its arms were brought into Gaza at the crossing itself.

Channel 12 quoted Arab media reports claiming that in the US “bridging proposal” conveyed to Israel and Hamas on Friday, it is stated that the Palestinian Authority would run the Rafah Crossing, with remote Israeli oversight.

Amid numerous Hebrew media reports on the content of his discussions with the security chiefs, Netanyahu blasted “serial leakers” both for divulging ostensible material from the consultations and for criticism of his prosecution of the war and handling of the negotiations on a deal.

At odds with Gallant
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was reported Sunday to have appealed to Netanyahu twice in recent days to hold deliberations over the deal in a wider cabinet forum.

At present, the consultations are generally held in a small forum that comprises Netanyahu, Gallant, Minister Ron Dermer and MK Aryeh Deri, and key security chiefs and negotiators.

It turns out there are bad guys using Palestinian civilians as human shields.

The military leader of Hamas has said he believes he has gained the upper hand over Israel and that the spiralling civilian death toll in Gaza would work in the militant group’s favor, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal, citing leaked messages the newspaper said it had seen.

“We have the Israelis right where we want them,” Yahya Sinwar told other Hamas leaders recently, according to one of the messages, the WSJ reported Monday. In another, Sinwar is said to have described civilian deaths as “necessary sacrifices” while citing past independence-related conflicts in countries like Algeria.