• Israeli forces have killed at least six Palestinians and wounded seven others in Gaza, as Israeli military raids and colonist attacks spread across the occupied West Bank, including in Hebron, Nablus and Tulkarem.

Israel’s Smotrich announces plan to expand illegal colony near Nablus

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says Israel plans to build 763 new units in the illegal Eli colony south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, near the scene of a deadly shooting on Friday.

According to the Anadolu news agency, Smotrich – a leading candidate in upcoming elections – told Israel’s Channel 14 that the government intends to continue building colony farms and communities.

Anadolu said the 763 units he announced plans for would triple the size of the illegal Eli colony in the coming years.

On Friday, four Palestinians and two Israelis were killed near the village of Tal, southwest of Nablus, after Israeli colonists attacked the area, according to Palestinian authorities.

Earlier this month, Smotrich said Israel’s security cabinet approved a budget of 1.3 billion shekels ($434m) for establishing 34 new colonies in the occupied West Bank. He said the government had approved 104 new colonies and 160 agricultural outposts in the occupied West Bank since taking office in late 2022.

The colonies are illegal under international law.

Israeli colonists attack and seize Palestinians’ vehicles in the occupied West Bank

Israeli colonists have attacked vehicles owned by Palestinians and seized a Palestinian citizen’s private car in the occupied West Bank, as violent attacks across the territory increase.

The Palestinian Wafa news agency reported that colonists blocked the road connecting the Salfit and Qalqilia governorates and attacked several vehicles driven by Palestinians with stones and sticks. No injuries were reported for now.

Sources told Wafa that Israeli forces have continued to close the iron gate at the entrance to an-Nabi Elyas village, east of Qalqilia, obstructing Palestinians’ movement.

Israeli colonists also seized a Palestinian’s private vehicle in Khirbet al-Ras al-Ahmar, southeast of Tubas in the occupied West Bank.

Human rights activist Aref Daraghmeh told the Wafa news agency that colonists intercepted Palestinian citizen Suleiman Jamil Bani Odeh, also seizing his private vehicle.

Israel claims killing 3 Hamas fighters in Gaza

Israel’s military says it has killed two Hamas commanders and an intelligence operative over the past week.

It says it killed the commander of Hamas’s Nukhba cell, Muhannad Asaad Mahmoud Abu Ghazal, in an air strike in central Gaza on Monday, and the commander of its Aerial Surveillance Platoon, Raed Hani Mohammed al-Amsi, in an air strike in northern Gaza on Tuesday.

The military says Tuesday’s strike also killed the head of the military intelligence desk of Hamas’s Gaza Brigade, Nabhan Mohammed Nabhan al-Amsi.

There was no immediate response from Hamas.

Israeli forces have killed 73,317 Palestinians in Gaza since their genocidal war began in October 2023. Most of the victims have been women and children.

Behind the Israeli crackdown in the occupied West Bank

The Israeli military has stepped up its operations in the occupied West Bank, storming several Palestinian towns and villages. The government is also fast-tracking the expansion of illegal colonies and outposts.

At the same time, Israeli colonists are intensifying their attacks on Palestinians.

This escalation is nothing new. But it comes just three months before general elections in Israel.

Opinion polls suggest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could lose power. Land grabs and accelerating the establishment of new illegal colonies sit well with his right-wing support base.

Israeli colonists accused of setting fire to West Bank mosque

Israeli colonists have set fire to al-Rahma Mosque in the town of Qusra in the occupied West Bank, according to local media, as Israeli forces arrested 80 Palestinians in raids across the Palestinian territory.

Videos verified by Al Jazeera showed a fire consuming the mosque in the town located south of Nablus.

The Palestinian Information Center, citing local sources, said the mosque had been set ablaze by colonists.

The incident came as the Wafa news agency reported that Israeli forces had launched a campaign of arrests in the occupied West Bank following the recent attacks that killed four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers.

It said 30 people were arrested in the village of Tal, 14 in Ramallah, five in Jenin, eight in Hebron, three in Bethlehem and six in Tulkarem.

Wafa also reported that Israeli forces have launched a large-scale raid across the city of Jenin and several towns and villages in the governorate of Jenin, including Zababdeh, Faqqua, Yabad, Burqin, Jalbun, Qabatiya, Jalqamus, Silat al-Harithiya, al-Yamoun, Kafr Dan, Deir Abu Daif and Zububa.

The Israeli Kan broadcaster meanwhile reported that Israeli forces have imposed strict traffic restrictions and numerous security checkpoints on major roads and at the entrances to villages across the occupied West Bank.

Israeli military plans to demolish Palestinian homes over soldiers’ deaths

Lieutenant Colonel Ella Waweya, a spokesperson for the Israeli army, says Israeli forces are raiding the homes of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank whom they accuse of involvement in a shooting that killed two Israeli soldiers on Friday.

Waweya said the homes, in the village of Tal near Nablus, “were raided in preparation for their temporary sealing, as a preliminary step preceding their demolition”.

Israel has a policy of demolishing the homes of Palestinians accused of carrying out lethal attacks, a practice rights groups condemn as collective punishment that violates international law.

The move comes after four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed on Friday when Israeli forces and colonists clashed with Palestinians, southwest of Nablus.

Palestinian sources say the violence began when Israeli colonists attacked Tal, a village near the illegal Israeli colony of Havat Gilad. Local and security sources said the colonists opened fire as Palestinians tried to defend their homes.

The Israeli military, however, said it had dispatched troops to the area following “an attack on Israelis hiking in the area”.

International law strictly prohibits punitive home demolitions as illegal, classifying them as prohibited collective punishment and a violation of the laws of war. Specifically, this practice breaches Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and lacks justification under military necessity.

Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War

Article 33
No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.

Pillage is prohibited.

Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited.

‘There is no accountability for Israeli colonists’

Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, says the violence in the occupied West Bank is a “major escalation” and that Israeli colonists are not being held accountable for their crimes.

“We’re seeing an increase in direct war crimes,” she said.

Referring to the attacks in the village of Tal, in which four Palestinians and two Israelis were killed on Friday, she said: “The colonists were the first group to attack the village… But what I think is very clear here is that whenever there is any kind of an incident like this, the response by the Israeli military and the colonists is to punish all the Palestinians. There is no accountability for Israeli colonists,” she said.

Bennis said Israel’s distinction of colonists and soldiers are false.

“Some of the colonists are themselves part of the Israeli military. They serve in the reserves. They are armed by the military. Many are trained by the military. They’re all using US provided arms. So this distinction is not a very important one. They are all supported by the Israeli state,” she said.

“And what we’re seeing here is a decision that they make to deliberately commit war crimes. So we’re seeing collective punishment. We’re seeing attacks on hospitals, [such as in Nablus where] patients, as well as doctors and other staff were detained, were bound,” she said.

How many Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank?

Since October 7, 2023, Israeli forces and colonists have killed at least 1,185 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including at least 250 children. At least 12,652 Palestinians have been wounded and more than 24,000 have been detained.

As of July 1, 2026, 9,299 Palestinians remain in Israeli jails, of whom 3,244 are held without charge.

The UN and rights groups have criticised Israel for a lack of accountability in the violence, saying colonists are rarely prosecuted and Israeli soldiers are seldom convicted.

Israelis protest in Tel Aviv against colonist violence

Police have arrested nine protesters after hundreds gathered in Tel Aviv to protest against the surge in colonist violence in the occupied West Bank and Israeli military rule in the Palestinian territory.

The protests took place on Kaplan Street on Saturday, according to Israeli media.

Police said the demonstrations had gone ahead without authorization and had begun to “disrupt public order and block the roadway”.

Israeli forces launch ‘major raid’ in Rafidia in occupied West Bank

Israeli occupation forces are currently raiding Rafidia near Nablus.

They were also spotted in Huwara, also in the Nablus area, assaulting a paramedic and a man. There is video circulating from witnesses about that.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society also reported an assault on one of its paramedics in Masafer Yatta, to the south of Hebron.

So, all across the occupied West Bank there were overnight raids.

There is a major raid now going on in Rafidia, and Israeli forces are taking measurements of the homes of the Palestinians killed in Tal in order to demolish them. This is one of the many measures that the Israeli government announced it will take against the Palestinians following that colonist raid that turned so deadly.

Israel approves ‘Board of Peace’ pilot scheme in Gaza’s Rafah

Israel’s security cabinet has approved a pilot project enabling the multinational Board of Peace to launch its efforts in the southern Gaza Strip.

The pilot scheme will centre on the Tal as-Sultan district in Rafah, establishing temporary housing units and restoring basic municipal services for war-displaced Palestinians. Under the plan, civilians entering the designated zones will undergo security screening to ensure no operational or political ties to Hamas, reported Israeli news outlet Ynet.

The project represents the first field test for the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), a transitional Palestinian technocratic body established under UN Security Council Resolution 2803 to manage civil service and humanitarian aid delivery following Hamas’s formal announcement dissolving its governing bodies in the enclave.

Israeli army says it kills Hamas drone commander

The Israeli army says it has killed a Hamas commander in an attack in central Gaza on Saturday.

It identified him as Hamam Eid, saying he was responsible for the production of drones.

It accused Eid of recently trying “to work to restore the Hamas terrorist organization’s aerial array, in violation of the ceasefire agreement”.

The reference is to a US-brokered ceasefire reached in October, which called for the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the verified disarmament of Hamas.

Implementation of the agreement has largely stalled. Israel has continued near-daily attacks across the enclave while expanding its military control over parts of the Strip. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since October, according to Palestinian health authorities. Four Israeli soldiers have also been killed during the same period.

Israeli violence continues in occupied West Bank

Earlier today, the Israeli military had launched an aggressive crackdown in the occupied West Bank, storming several towns and villages and detaining hundreds of Palestinians in a furious reaction to a shootout in a village near Nablus in which four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed.

The “wide-scale military operation” across the West Bank ordered by Netanyahu intensified today with colonists becoming more violent, storming through villages, scrawling graffiti on buildings and attacking Palestinians.

We now have more on what has happened in the past few hours, according to the Palestinian Wafa news agency:

• Colonists attacked Palestinian residents and farmers in the village of Zita Jamma’in, southwest of Nablus.
• Israeli authorities delivered 10 demolition notices to Palestinian residents in the town of Beit Dajan, east of Nablus.
• Israeli forces raided the town of Abu Dis, east of occupied East Jerusalem.

One injured in Israeli raid on the Qalandiya refugee camp in occupied West Bank

Israeli forces have raided the Qalandiya refugee camp, north of occupied East Jerusalem, injuring one Palestinian.

Local sources told the Wafa news agency that a large number of soldiers entered the camp and fired live ammunition. They also stopped a number of cars, firing sound bombs and tear gas, the report added.

The incident comes on a day of violence across the occupied West Bank, as the Israeli military stormed several towns and villages and detained hundreds of Palestinians, following a shootout in a village near Nablus in which four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed.

More on Qalandiya refugee camp raid by Israeli forces

According to the Wafa news agency, the victim was a Palestinian boy who was shot by live fire.

The attack also led to the burning of the old trees in the Qalandiya Institute for Technical Training.

Wafa cited the Palestinian Red Crescent as saying the Israeli army prevented its crews from reaching an injured person. It was unclear if it was the boy who had been shot.

The report added that the Israeli army also raided the home of Ahmed Khader, who was released today after spending 25 years in an Israeli prison.

Egypt welcomes Ireland’s colony goods ban, urges EU to follow suit

Egypt has lauded Ireland’s enactment of a law banning imports of goods from illegal Israeli colonies in occupied Palestinian territory, calling on European Union countries and the international community to adopt similar measures.

In a Foreign Ministry statement published on Sunday, Cairo said the Irish legislation reflected a commitment to international law and UN resolutions and affirmed a rejection of “illegal Israeli colony activities” that it said violated Palestinian rights and undermined prospects for a just and lasting peace.

Egypt renewed its call for EU member states and the broader international community to take equivalent legal and practical steps to ensure they do not contribute “directly or indirectly, to supporting or sustaining illegal colonies”.

The statement also reaffirmed Egypt’s longstanding position supporting the “legitimate and inalienable rights” of the Palestinian people and said Middle East security and stability require an end to the Israeli occupation and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state along pre-1967 lines.

Ireland’s parliament passed the Occupied Territories Bill this month, making it the first EU member state to prohibit the import of goods from Israeli colonies in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The move has drawn sharp criticism from Israel, which has called the legislation “discriminatory” and warned of diplomatic repercussions.

Palestinian Foreign Ministry welcomes Ireland’s settlement goods ban

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has welcomed Ireland’s enactment of a law banning imports of goods from Israeli settlements and urged other countries to pass similar legislation, casting it as a step towards cutting off support for the illegal settlement system.

Irish President Catherine Connolly signed the Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory Bill 2026 into law on July 23, making Ireland one of the first EU countries to ban trade with Israel’s illegal settlements.

In a statement, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said the move was consistent with Palestinian efforts to “dry up the sources and channels of support” for settlements and reflected Dublin’s commitment to international law.

Applying that law was “not merely political rhetoric”, but a legal obligation on states not to recognise or help maintain the situation created by occupation and settlement, including through commercial, financial and investment ties, it said.

The ministry called on governments, parliaments and legislators worldwide to follow suit, activate accountability mechanisms and impose sanctions on the settlement system, settlers and the entities backing them, describing the occupation as “the primary root of all crimes”.

Human rights groups warn ‘worst is yet to come’ in occupied West Bank

The Israeli military commander overseeing the occupied West Bank said just a week ago that so-called agricultural outposts are part of the army’s strategy.

Under this Netanyahu government’s tenure, more than 185 illegal settlement outposts have been set up on Palestinian land alongside 104 new illegal settlements while 119 Palestinian communities have been dispossessed.

This is part of official Israeli government policy. Settler groups receive backing and protection from the army, which has emboldened them to push farther into Palestinian cities and towns.

Human rights organizations in Palestine, Israel and beyond are unanimously warning that the worst is yet to come with no sign of the escalation slowing as settlers continue vowing more is on the way.

Iran’s deputy FM says Netanyahu using US to escape ICC warrant

Kazem Gharibabadi says that Netanyahu has “brazenly” declared that the US secretary of state has pledged to move against the court pursuing him. Israel and Washington had branded the ICC “corrupt,” he said, because it had dared to pursue a wanted man.

The ICC issued arrest warrants in November 2024 for Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza. Israel rejects the court’s jurisdiction and denies the charges.

The Iranian deputy foreign minister’s remarks follow comments by Netanyahu, who said he had spoken with Marco Rubio, and that the US secretary of state had reaffirmed Washington’s intention to act firmly against the ICC, a body Netanyahu cast as a threat to the sovereignty of democratic states.

Netanyahu also criticised ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan, who was removed from his position on Friday. The court’s member states voted 82-13 to oust him over sexual misconduct allegations, which he denies, the first such removal in the court’s history. Khan’s legal team has called the move “political”.

Israeli forces continue raids, arrests across occupied West Bank

Israeli forces and settlers are continuing to intensify their attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

The Wafa news agency reports that Israeli forces have arrested dozens of people and are preparing to demolish Palestinian homes. The moves come after four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed on Friday, when Israeli forces and settlers attacked Palestinians near the village of Tal, southwest of Nablus.

Israeli forces raided several homes and neighbourhoods across the occupied West Bank on Sunday in ongoing operations, Wafa said, including in the city of Nablus, the New and Old Askar refugee camps, as well as the towns of Tal, Huwara, Urif Kafr Qallil, Salim, and Asira al-Shamaliya in the Nablus governorate.

Israeli authorities later handed out 10 demolition notices in the town of Beit Dajan, east of Nablus, the news agency added.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera correspondents said Israeli forces also raided the towns of Bir Zeit and Deir Jarir in the Ramallah district, Deir Samt near Hebron, Arrabeh west of Jenin, and Hizma in the Jerusalem district.

They also opened fire with live ammunition during their storming of the Qalandiya refugee camp, north of Jerusalem, injuring a boy.