Fuel shortages in Gaza at 'critical levels' as dozens killed, including aid seekers

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The Israeli military confirmed its attack on southern Lebanon, which killed one person on Saturday.

The army claims it killed a fighter from Hezbollah’s antitank unit.

Almost 40 Israeli air strikes have targeted Beit Hanoon in the north of the territory, Al Jazeera Arabic report.

Iran said Saturday its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency "will take on a new form", expressing a desire for a diplomatic solution to resolve concerns over its nuclear programme.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday that Iran's cooperation with the IAEA "has not stopped, but will take on a new form", after the Islamic Republic formally ended cooperation with the UN watchdog in early July.

A Syrian and an Israeli official are expected to meet in Baku later Saturday on the sidelines of President Ahmed al-Sharaa's visit to Azerbaijan, a diplomatic source in Damascus with knowledge of the issue said.

"There will be a meeting between a Syrian official and an Israeli official on the sidelines of the visit being conducted by Sharaa in Baku," said the source, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.

The diplomatic source stressed that Sharaa himself would not attend the Baku meeting, which would focus on "the recent Israeli military presence in Syria".

An Israeli airstrike on Iran's capital last month killed five inmates at Evin prison and resulted in the escape of several others, Iranian media reported Saturday.

The semi-official ILNA news agency and other Iranian media quoted a spokesman for Iran's judiciary that the five inmates killed in the June 23 strike had been convicted on financial offences. The spokesman didn't name the victims or give any further details.

The judiciary's own news website, Mizanonline, quoted spokesman Asghar Jahangir as saying only that "a small number" of inmates were killed. He added that an "insignificant number of inmates" had also escaped and that authorities would soon bring them back into custody.

Jahangir said no one serving time at Evin prison for working with Israel's spy agency Mossad was injured in the attack.

Police in London arrested dozens of protesters on a second successive Saturday for supporting Palestine Action, campaigners said, a week after the UK government banned the activist group under anti-terror laws.

Campaign group Defend Our Juries, which had announced it would hold rallies Saturday in several UK cities "to defy" the ban, said police in the UK capital had arrested "more than 40 people" and criticised the response.

"The Metropolitan Police were out in force again today, arresting more than 40 people in Parliament Square for holding signs opposed to genocide and supporting Palestine Action," a spokesperson told AFP.

"Who do the police think they are serving in this?" the spokesperson added, calling the ban "Orwellian".

The United Nations warned Saturday that dire fuel shortages in the Gaza Strip had reached "critical levels", threatening to further increase the suffering in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

Seven UN agencies said in a joint statement that "fuel is the backbone of survival in Gaza".

Fuel was needed to "power hospitals, water systems, sanitation networks, ambulances, and every aspect of humanitarian operations", they said, highlighting that bakeries also needed fuel to operate.

Now, "fuel shortage in Gaza has reached critical levels", warned the agencies, including the World Health Organisation, the World Food Programme and the humanitarian agency OCHA.

"After almost two years of war, people in Gaza are facing extreme hardships, including widespread food insecurity," they pointed out.

"When fuel runs out, it places an unbearable new burden on a population teetering on the edge of starvation."

At least seven Palestinians were killed after Israeli warplanes conducted airstrikes targeting residential areas in Gaza City, Wafa reports.

The strike struck a home near Al-Shafi'i Mosque in the Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood, south of Gaza City.

At least 67 Palestinian children have died from severe malnutrition over the last few months as Israel continues its siege, deepening the humanitarian crisis.

Medical sources told Wafa that over 650,000 children under five are facing immediate and life-threatening risks of acute malnutrition in the coming weeks​​​​​​.

At least 57,882 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023 as Israel continues its war on the Gaza Strip. Over 138,095 have been wounded.

At least 59 Palestinians have been killed and 208 others have been injured over the past 24 hours by the Israeli onslaught.

Israeli settlers have erected several tents on lands belonging to the town of Deir Istiya, northwest of Salfit, Wafa reports.

The tents were pitched on the western side of the town, between Deir Istiya and the neighbouring village of Qarawat Bani Hassan, with activists warning it's aimed at taking land for a new settler outpost.

A US-Palestinian man has been killed in an Israeli settler attack in the occupied West Bank, his family said on Saturday, demanding that Washington launch a probe into his death.

Musalat's family said they were "devastated" at his death, describing the 20-year-old as a "kind, hard-working and deeply respected" man who was deeply connected to his Palestinian heritage.

They said he was "protecting his family's land from settlers who were attempting to steal it".

According to the family's statement, settlers blocked an ambulance and paramedics from reaching Musalat as he lay injured, and he died before making it to the hospital.

His death was "an unimaginable nightmare and an injustice that no family should ever have to face", they added.

"We demand the US State Department lead an immediate investigation and hold the Israeli settlers who killed Saif accountable for their crimes. We demand justice."

Lebanon's health ministry said an Israeli strike on south Lebanon on Saturday killed one person, the latest attack despite a ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah.

In a statement, the ministry said that an "Israeli enemy strike" on a home in Wata al-Khiam killed one person.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the incident.

The Israeli army says it attacked Gaza over the past two days, claiming to be targeting "terrorists".

The army claimed to have killed dozens in areas including the Shujayea and Zeitoun neighbourhoods in northern Gaza.

Three mobile homes were set up by Israeli settlers west of Bardala in the northern Jordan Valley, Wafa reports.

Sources told the agency the settlers placed three caravans in the same place where they established the outpost a year ago, sparking concerns of further settler expansion, paving the way for an increased presence of settlers in the area.

At least 27 aid seekers have been killed by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip since dawn.

At least 16 Palestinians have been killed since Saturday morning in a series of Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip, Wafa reports.

A mother and her three children were killed west of Gaza City, separate attacks killed several women and others in the Al-Tuffah and Sheikh Radwan neighbourhoods, a young girl was killed in the Nuseirat camp, while a drone strike in Deir al-Balah killed a family of five in a displacement camp in Al-Manasra.

Civil defence teams in Khan Younis recovered two more bodies.

The US State Department said on Friday it was aware of the reported death of a US citizen in the Israeli-occupied West Bank after reports emerged of Israeli settlers fatally beating a Palestinian American.

Palestinian news agency Wafa, citing the local health ministry, said Saif al-Din Kamel Abdul Karim Musallat, aged in his 20s, died after Israeli settlers beat him on Friday evening in an attack that also injured many people in a town north of Ramallah.

Relatives of Musallat, who was from Tampa, Florida, were also quoted by the Washington Post as saying he was beaten to death by Israeli settlers.

"We are aware of reports of the death of a U.S. citizen in the West Bank," a State Department spokesperson said, adding the department had no further comment "out of respect for the privacy of the family and loved ones" of the reported victim.

The Israeli military said Israel was probing the incident in the town of Sinjil. It said rocks were hurled at Israelis near Sinjil and that "a violent confrontation developed in the area".

Indirect talks between Hamas and Israel for a ceasefire in Gaza are being held up by Israel's proposals to keep troops in the territory, two Palestinian sources with knowledge of the discussions told AFP on Saturday.

One Palestinian source said Israel's refusal to withdraw all of its troops from Gaza was holding back progress on securing a deal.

"The negotiations in Doha are facing a setback and complex difficulties due to Israel's insistence, as of Friday, on presenting a map of withdrawal, which is actually a map of redeployment and repositioning of the Israeli army rather than a genuine withdrawal," the source said.

Hamas has said it wants the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, which is home to more than two million people.

The source said, however, that the Israeli delegation presented a map at the talks which proposed maintaining military forces in more than 40 percent of the Palestinian territory.

"Hamas's delegation will not accept the Israeli maps...as they essentially legitimise the reoccupation of approximately half of the Gaza Strip and turn Gaza into isolated zones with no crossings or freedom of movement," the source added.

Ten Palestinians were reported killed Friday while waiting for rations in Gaza, adding to nearly 800 similar deaths in the last six weeks, according to the UN, with Israel's army saying it issued new instructions to troops following repeated reports of fatalities.

The UN, which refuses to cooperate with GHF over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives, said Friday that 798 people have been killed seeking aid between late May and July 7, including 615 "in the vicinity of the GHF sites".

"Where people are lining up for essential supplies such as food and medicine, and where... they have a choice between being shot or being fed, this is unacceptable," UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva.