Israel’s war on Gaza updates: 30 killed in Israeli attacks on schools

Thank you for joining us.

Read more about the latest Israeli attacks on Gaza City schools, here.

For more on Hamas’s consultations for a new leader after Haniyeh’s assassination, go here.

And you can always find all our latest coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza, here.

We will shortly be moving to a new live page but before we do, here’s a quick recap of what happened today:

• At least 30 Palestinians were killed when the Israeli military targeted two more schools in Gaza City.
• The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders for southern and southeastern parts of Khan Younis as it advances with its ground invasion of the area.
• Iran’s President Pezeshkian told Jordan’s foreign minister in Tehran that assassinating Ismail Haniyeh was Israel’s “big mistake” which will not go unanswered.
• Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu said that “increasing military pressure” is the only solution in Gaza, threatening that anyone who hurts Israel “will pay a very heavy price”.
• The Houthis claimed their first attack in two weeks, saying they hit a cargo ship with missiles and downed a US-made MQ-9 Reaper drone over Sanaa.
• Israeli seized $26m of tax money meant for the Palestinian Authority to give to the families of Palestinian “terror”.

مسيرة للمستوطنين في محيط أبواب المسجد الأقصى تحت حماية شرطة الاحتلال#الجزيرة #فيديو pic.twitter.com/2Q2f2SEmS5

— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) August 4, 2024

Translation: Settlers march around the gates of Al-Aqsa Mosque under the protection of the occupation police.

We’re getting reports that Israeli attacks targeting a house in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza have killed two Palestinians.

The Wafa news agency, citing witnesses, reported that some people were also wounded after the Israeli military hit a house in the centre of Deir el-Balah.

Pope Francis has once again appealed to all sides to resume negotiations to achieve an “immediate ceasefire in Gaza and on all fronts”.

The pope also denounced “attacks, even targeted ones, and killings” in an address to thousands of pilgrims and tourists in St Peter’s Square.

Such attacks “can never be a solution”, he said, adding that they “do not help us walk in the path of justice, the path of peace, but generate even more hatred and revenge”.

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has ordered the seizure of about 100 million shekels ($26m) of tax funds meant to be transferred to the Palestinian Authority.

He says the money will be given to the families of Israeli victims of “terror” inflicted by Palestinians.

“The fight against terrorism is not only a military fight but a combined fight that includes a war against the wild incitement of the Palestinian Authority and the terrorist funds which it directs from its budget to the families of terrorists,” Smotrich wrote in a post on X.

“We will continue to protect the security of the citizens of Israel and fight with all the tools at our disposal against terrorism and its supporters.”

The Palestinian health ministry has launched a blood donation campaign for the people of Gaza, the Wafa news agency reports.

Announcing the blood drive in Ramallah, Health Minister Majid Abu Ramadan said that the campaign titled “Our blood is one” will be “active at all blood banks within the ministry’s hospitals, as well as through a mobile blood bank vehicle” in the occupied West Bank.

The blood will be transferred to Gaza, where more than 90,000 have been injured in the Israeli offensive since October 7.

A senior official in the administration of President Joe Biden has told Israeli daily Haaretz that Netanyahu is ungrateful towards the US and disregards the significant amount of aid it has provided to Israel throughout the past 10 months of war.

The official also described the last two conversations between the two men – one during a White House meeting some 10 days ago, the other over the phone last week – as difficult and tense, according to Haaretz.

“Biden realised that Netanyahu was lying to him about the hostages,” the official told the publication.

“He’s not saying it publicly yet, but in the meeting between them, he specifically told him, ‘Stop bull*****ing me.'”

The official said the US is preparing to help Israel in the face of an Iranian and Hezbollah response to last week’s assassinations in Beirut and Tehran but stressed there would be no support for actions that further expand the scope of the conflict.

“Netanyahu is trying to prolong the war instead of focusing on how to get to a hostage deal,” the official said. “It’s making it harder for us to continue supporting Israel over time.”

Haaretz said the Israeli prime minister responded to the reports about the tense discussions with Biden through a press release attributed to his office that said: “The prime minister does not interfere in American politics and will work with whoever is elected president, just as he also expects the Americans not to interfere in Israeli politics.”

Three Palestinians from Gaza who are being held in Israel’s Ofer Prison have recounted abuse and mistreatment, according to the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs.

Mohammed Jamous, 44; Fadi Ayad, 39; and Fadi Howaydi, 38, told the commission’s lawyer who visited them last week that they were stripped of their clothes, beaten, tortured, bound and blindfolded.

The detainees described Israeli soldiers as “rabid beasts” who took pleasure in their suffering.

“We were turned into prey to these monsters, who enjoyed our hunger, thirst, screams and illnesses. We still do not believe that we are still alive,” a prisoner was quoted as saying.

The abuse, according to the detainees, began immediately upon their detention in Gaza and continued through transportation in military vehicles where they faced insults, degradation and torture.

“Today, we are all sick,” a detainee said, according to the commission. “Our bodies are exhausted, and we have become prey to illness and injury. No medical treatment or medication is provided. Despite these dire conditions, we cling to the hope of returning to our families alive.”

اعتصام أمام البرلمان النرويجي للتضامن مع غزة#فيديو #حرب_غزة pic.twitter.com/zm3kSlSTrg

— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) August 4, 2024

Translation: A sit-in in front of the Norwegian Parliament in solidarity with Gaza.

In this episode of Head to Head, Mehdi Hasan challenges prominent Israeli historian Benny Morris on his support for Israel’s war on Gaza, the history around the founding of Israel and the Nakba.

Hasan and Morris are joined by a panel of three experts:

• Diana Buttu – a Palestinian lawyer and former adviser for the PLO
• Daniel Levy – a former Israeli peace negotiator and current president of the US/Middle East Project
• Emmanuel Navon – an international relations lecturer at Tel Aviv University

In a statement on its Telegram channel, Hezbollah says that two of its fighters, identified as Muhammad Hassan Farhat and Ali Mustafa Amr, have been killed.

The Israeli military earlier today claimed to have killed two Hezbollah operatives in separate strikes.

Footage shared by Palestinian media outlets, and verified by Al Jazeera, documents fighting between young Palestinian men and Israeli forces conducting a raid in the town of Sa’ir, northeast of Hebron.

In dramatic scenes, a vehicle can be seen in flames as smoke billows over the town’s skyline. Several other vehicles appear to be damaged.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has released this footage of its paramedics transporting some of the Palestinian victims of Israeli strikes on two schools in northern Gaza today.

At least 30 people were killed, mostly children, in the attacks carried out by the Israeli military.

🚑The Palestine Red Crescent crews transported four martyrs, victims of the Israeli occupation’s targeting of Al-Nasr and Hassan Salama schools in #Gaza City, after citizens managed to pull them out from under the rubble a short while ago.
📷Footage by volunteer: Yousef Khader. pic.twitter.com/WLAFzL9dAc

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) August 4, 2024

Israeli research centre Israel-Alma estimates that Iran will launch a large-scale attack on Israel with the backing of its “axis of resistance”, with emphasis on Hezbollah.

The retaliatory attack will include ballistic and cruise missiles and drones launched from areas across the country by both Iran’s army and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

According to the Iranian statements in recent days, it seems that an Iranian attack in response to the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran is expected to be significant and extensive, more so than the attack on April 14.

In our estimation, this attack will be a combined… pic.twitter.com/wW9CSyQHoq

— Israel-Alma (@Israel_Alma_org) August 4, 2024

The Palestine Action network of activists has released this video of its members targeting the London offices of CDW.

The group accuses the US-based technology provider of having ties with major arms manufacturer Elbit Systems.

BREAKING: Actionists target CDW’s London offices, demanding the tech firm stops working for Israel’s biggest weapons producer, Elbit Systems pic.twitter.com/kgejxpNpbl

— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) August 4, 2024

We’re still receiving horrific reports from inside the only health facility in central Gaza, the al-Ahli Hospital.

The hospital was already overwhelmed from previous attacks, but today’s strikes caused further casualties and a great deal of destruction.

Victims arrived at the hospital with severe bleeding and burns and the hospital does not have enough medical staff or supplies required for treatment.

The two schools that were targeted were next to each other and housing thousands of people who had come from different parts of Gaza.

Some came recently from neighbourhoods of northern Gaza due to the recurring Israeli incursions that forced them to be internally displaced again.