Israeli strikes in Gaza kill two, including police chief

Israeli drone strikes killed at least two people and wounded several others in Gaza on Thursday.

The attacks came days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected US President Donald Trump’s latest Gaza peace plan.

Israel says it killed Hamas commander in Gaza

The Israeli military says it killed Mohammed Bassam Mohammed Mushtaha in northern Gaza on July 30, alleging he was a Hamas commander involved in holding several Israeli captives during the war.

The killing occurred despite a so-called ceasefire being agreed in Gaza last year.

Three Palestinian fishermen injured by Israeli naval fire

Three Palestinian fishermen have been injured after Israeli naval boats and quad copter drones opened fire at a fishing boat west of Gaza City, reported the Palestinian news agency, Wafa.

The Fishermen’s Committees Union in Gaza said Israeli naval boats fired machineguns towards the fishing boat, injuring three fishermen who were taken to hospital.

Wafa reported that the incident comes amid continued attacks against Gaza’s fishermen, threatening their lives and blocking them from earning a livelihood amid persistent dangers at sea.

Two Palestinians wounded by Israeli forces in Khan Younis

Two Palestinians have been wounded by Israeli military gunfire outside areas under Israeli military control in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, according to our colleagues on the ground, citing Nasser Medical Complex.

One of those wounded is in critical condition, the hospital said.

Kushner heading to Israel for Gaza talks next week: Report

Axios reports, citing US sources, that Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and Middle East envoy, is planning to visit Israel next week for talks on Gaza.

The visit is expected to focus on advancing the next steps of the Board of Peace’s plan for Gaza.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel “rejects” the US president’s 15-point roadmap for Gaza, which would include Hamas disarmament and a potential Israeli withdrawal.

A US official told Axios that Washington sees “eye-to-eye on the strategic goal, but Israel has expressed some doubts about the plan, and we want to talk to them in order to make sure we are coordinated”.

Turkish FM accuses Israel of seeking to expel all Palestinians from Gaza

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan says Israel aims to expel all Palestinians from Gaza and that pressure must be increased immediately on Netanyahu to comply with international demands.

Speaking at a joint press briefing in the Egyptian city of El Alamein alongside his counterpart Badr Abdelatty, Fidan said that Netanyahu “develops policies that trample human dignity”.

He also pointed out that Turkiye and Egypt had joined the Trump-backed Gaza Board of Peace to “stop the genocide in Gaza”.

“Thankfully, together we succeeded in this. We have stopped the genocide to a certain extent,” he added.

Kushner leads delegation to Israel and Egypt to discuss ‘next steps’ for Gaza

A Board of Peace official tells Al Jazeera that Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, will be travelling to Jerusalem next week. He’ll be accompanied by Tony Blair, the former British leader, as well as Nikolay Mladenov, who is an ex-UN envoy now serving as a high representative for Gaza.

The focus of the meetings in Jerusalem is to discuss President Trump’s 20-point peace plan endorsed by the Israeli Prime Minister in September 2025.

But more recently, Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a 15-point peace plan to do just that, and as a result, the focus of these meetings will be for there to be a listening session as well as discussing next steps.

The Board of Peace official said that what is certain, however, is that the United States and Israel do agree that Hamas must be demilitarized.

Following the discussions in Israel, there will also be meetings with the trio travelling to Cairo to meet with Egyptian leaders as well as what is being referred to as other mediators to try and implement the roadmap and discuss next steps.

The goal ultimately, the Board of Peace official says, is to enable reconstruction for the people of Gaza.

UK minister condemns Israeli colonist violence in West Bank

British MP Stephen Doughty expresses outrage over reports of Israeli colonist violence against Palestinians in Qusra in the occupied West Bank.

In a post on X, the UK minister of state for MENA, Afghanistan and Pakistan said he was “appalled” by the reports, adding that “civilians must be protected” and “perpetrators held to account”.

He called for international law to be upheld, adding that Israeli “colonies are illegal under international law and undermine the viability of a two-state solution”.

Israeli colonists had besieged three Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank village of Qusra south of Nablus for multiple days, cutting off water and electricity, blocking access roads and restricting essential supplies.

Happened yesterday in the occupied West Bank

Israeli forces and colonists have continued a campaign of raids, arrests, demolitions and land grabs across the occupied West Bank on Thursday, according to the Palestinian Wafa news agency.

• Israeli forces detained seven relatives of Palestinians killed in past raids during a predawn military raid on homes in Qalqilya.
• Seven young men were detained in the village of Farkha, southwest of Salfit, after Israeli forces stormed the village and raided several homes.
• Israeli troops forced residents to evacuate two homes in the Ras al-Ain area of Qusra, south of Nablus, and converted 16 homes in the town into military barracks after storming the town in large numbers.
• Colonists attacked the home and farm of the Jabarin family in the Jabal al-Qarn area east of Bethlehem, stealing more than 100 sheep and a vehicle, uprooting over 100 olive trees and cutting the water line; two family members were beaten, with one detained by Israeli forces despite his injuries.
• Three Palestinians, including a child, were injured southwest of Jenin after colonists attacked their vehicle with pepper spray between the towns of Arrabeh and Yabad.
• Israeli authorities demolished about 20 seasonal dwellings used by Palestinian farmers, including three that were inhabited, in al-Jiftlik in the Jordan Valley, and issued demolition notices for roughly 40 more homes belonging to sheep herders in the area.
• A Palestinian family in Jalazone refugee camp, north of Ramallah, evacuated their home ahead of its demolition after being given a week’s notice by the Israeli military, while four more families were notified to vacate their homes.
• Israeli authorities issued demolition notices for a 10-storey residential building and three homes, one still under construction, in Kafr Sur, south of Tulkarem, giving owners a week to appeal.
• Colonists re-established a colony east of Jenin, 21 years after it was evacuated under Israel’s 2005 disengagement plan, as Israeli forces sealed off roads to secure the event.
• colonists began establishing a new outpost in an-Nazla al-Sharqiya, north of Tulkarem, bulldozing land and installing roughly 20 caravan homes.
• Colonists entered Khirbet Samra in the northern Jordan Valley and roamed among residents’ tents, which locals said frightened women and children; daily incursions in the area have already forced two families to leave.

Fear grips Taybeh, the last all-Christian town in the West Bank

Historic Taybeh, a Palestinian Christian town in the occupied West Bank, has been targeted by colonists in coordinated attacks.

Underneath a painting of Jesus and his disciples, Sandra Basir brought out what she and her husband, Roland, now keep to protect their home: a couple of fire extinguishers.

They keep them because the last time Israeli colonists set fire to a neighbor's car outside their house, no one else came. “Civil defence – when did they even show up? After everything was already over,” Roland says.

colonist attacks and nighttime military raids have besieged Palestinian communities for years. Sandra is, by her own description, always half-awake – listening for whoever might be coming for her four small children while they sleep.

Ben-Gvir pledges to continue arming Israelis

Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has pledged to “continue turning cities and colonies into eligible areas for firearms” and urged Israelis to “go arm yourselves,” after the attorney general recommended closing investigation files against members of his office.

The investigation concerned allegations that tens of thousands of firearms licences had been distributed illegally, including through Ben-Gvir’s office and under his direct supervision, according to Israel’s Channel 14. Investigators also sought to establish whether Ben-Gvir himself could be directly linked to the alleged conduct.

In a post on X, Ben-Gvir described the investigation as “another affair of persecution against me and the people in my office”.

He pledged to “continue arming Israel’s citizens”, saying about 300,000 Israelis had received a firearms license since October 7, 2023.

“I will continue with full force,” he said. “Check your eligibility and go arm yourselves. A weapon saves lives!”

‘This is exactly what apartheid looks like’: Israeli MP on Qusra siege

An Israeli parliamentarian was briefly blocked from entering the occupied West Bank village of Qusra, where Israeli colonists have been on a rampage for days.

Ofer Cassif, a politician from the left-wing, Arab-majority Hadash-Ta’al party, Hadash being the Hebrew acronym for the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality, wrote in a post on X: “I came to the village of Qusra today to see with my own eyes what is happening and to try to assist the besieged Palestinian families, who are being denied food, water and medicine solely in order to protect a terrorist colonist outpost that was re-established today.”

“At the entrance to the village, the occupation forces detained me, claiming that this was Area B. Shortly afterward, they even issued a closed military zone order, clearly intended specifically for me,” he wrote.

“Only after about 20 minutes, and following intervention by a Knesset officer, was I allowed to enter,” he added.

“This is exactly what apartheid looks like. This is exactly what occupation looks like,” Cassif noted. “We will not give up! We will continue to fight against the terror of the occupation and for a just peace.”

An hour later, Cassif posted another update on X, noting that his efforts to deliver water, food and medicine to the besieged homes in the village of Qusra succeeded, using his “immunity as a Member of Knesset”.

Cassif added that he “brought equipment to restore the water supply that was cut by the colonist terrorists”.

PA condemns Israeli move to transfer illegal settlement policing powers

Palestinian Authority Vice President Hussein al-Sheikh has condemned Israel’s decision to transfer law enforcement powers in colonies in the occupied West Bank to Israeli police.

Al-Sheikh described the move as “a new attempt to impose Israeli law and sovereignty on the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and to entrench the illegitimate annexation of Palestinian land”.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said he had instructed the Israeli military to prepare a plan to transfer civilian enforcement authority over Israeli colonists in the occupied West Bank to the police, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Al-Sheikh called on the international community, particularly the UN Security Council, to act to halt the move. Israeli colonies in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law.

Armed Israeli colonist fires towards activists near Bethlehem

An armed Israeli colonist has been filmed firing into the air and then pointing his weapon towards Palestinian and Israeli activists on privately owned Palestinian land near Beit Sahour, in the southern occupied West Bank.

About 100 activists, accompanied by the Palestinian landowners, had traveled to the site following a colonist takeover of an abandoned building, according The Times of Israel. Shots were fired after activists removed Israeli flags from the building and replaced them with Palestinian flags, it said.

The report added that Israeli soldiers later arrived and declared the area a closed military zone but did not present an order or remove the colonists.

France calls on Israel to arrest colonists occupying Palestinian homes

France has called on Israeli authorities to arrest and prosecute colonists blockading Palestinian homes in Qusra in the occupied West Bank and to protect Palestinian civilians.

“France strongly condemns the occupation of several Palestinian homes in the village of Qusra in the West Bank by Israeli colonists, as well as the acts of violence committed against Palestinian civilians,” the French Foreign Ministry said, according to AFP.

Israeli colonies in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law.

France condemns Israeli colonists for occupying Palestinian homes

France has condemned Israeli colonists for the occupation of Palestinian homes in the village of Qusra.

Posting on X, France called on “Israeli authorities to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators of these acts”, adding that Israel’s settlement policy threatens a two-state solution.

The US is pushing for PM Netanyahu to condemn the rash of settler attacks in Qusra in the occupied West Bank. US Ambassador Mike Huckabee – a staunch Israel ally – has described the colonists as “Israeli terrorists”.

 

Israeli colonies take over 87% of Bethlehem as Palestinian families face displacement

At least 40 illegal colonies and outposts have taken over 87 percent of the Bethlehem district, leaving little space for Palestinian homes. Settlement expansion has also taken control of water resources, while Palestinian families face intimidation and pressure to leave.

Hamas slams Israel decision to transfer civilian enforcement in occupied West Bank to police

The Palestinian group says in a brief statement issued on Telegram that Israeli Minister of Defence Israel Katz’s decision to transfer powers of enforcement related to Israeli settler activities from the military to the police ” represents a dangerous step towards de facto annexation and the consolidation of control over the occupied Palestinian territories through the imposition of occupation laws”.

The decision would mean that Israeli police, who currently have no jurisdiction in the occupied West Bank, would from here on be responsible for handling complaints related to extremist settler attacks.

The move was announced earlier today by the defence minister.

Under international law, transferring civilian enforcement powers over colonists in the occupied West Bank from the military to domestic police forces is viewed by legal experts, the United Nations, and Palestinian officials as a step toward de facto or de jure annexation.

The Israeli move violates core principles of the law of belligerent occupation under the Hague Regulations and the Fourth Geneva Convention, which dictate that an occupying power must administer occupied territory through temporary military authority rather than extending its domestic civilian governance or sovereignty over the land.

Israeli lawmaker says decision to move colonist enforcement authority to police goes against international law

Gilad Kariv, an Israeli lawmaker and member of the Democrats party, said that Defence Minister Katz’s announcement today that he planned to move enforcement authority for matters related to colonists in the occupied West Bank to Israel’s police is “contrary to Israeli law, international law, and our country’s clear national security interests.”

In comments reported by the Jerusalem Post, Kariv said: “This directive will not be implemented, but it sends a clear message to [Israeli army] troops on the ground: Do not act against Jewish terrorism and the hilltop youth gangs. Commanders who do act will be punished,”

He also accused Katz of attempting to set up an “Iron Dome protecting Jewish terrorism in the [West Bank].”

See previous comment.

‘Israel’s government can’t disown West Bank colonist violence’

Israeli colonists have marauded across the occupied West Bank for months, attacking Palestinian towns and villages with impunity.

Events in Qusra, a village south of Nablus, where Israeli colonists have laid siege to three Palestinian households since Sunday, have even led to a rare condemnation of settler behaviour by the Israeli government, with spokesperson David Mercer calling the colonists’ actions “deplorable” and “unacceptable”, and promising that Israeli authorities would investigate and arrest those responsible.

Analysts, campaigners, and Israeli parliamentarians have reacted to that with disbelief and incredulity, pointing to the inability of the Israeli military to stop the siege, in which the colonists have cut off water and electricity to Qusra. Israeli soldiers were initially even seen mingling and even praying with colonists in Qusra.

Israeli colonists open fire on Palestinians in Hebron, reports Palestine Red Crescent Society

Palestine Red Crescent Society said Palestinians have been shot in two separate attacks by Israeli colonists near Hebron.

Israeli colonists attacked Palestinians in the the town of Sa’ir, north of Hebron in the Occupied West Bank.

The agency says its teams took two Palestinians to hospital to receive more treatment for wounds in the head and back after Israeli colonists shot them in the Al Adisa area in Hebron.

Under international law, the distribution and expansion of arms to Israeli colonists in the occupied West Bank violate an occupying power's core legal duties. International bodies and legal experts state that arming civilians in an illegally occupied territory breaches humanitarian law, deepens unlawful annexation, and implicates the state in rising violence and displacement.

What does international law say when armed colonists resort to aggressive and violent versions of the military occupation in the West Bank. Do these colonists loose protection by international law?

 Civilians—including colonists or colonists—temporarily lose their immunity from being targeted only "for such time as they take a direct part in hostilities" (Article 51(3) of Additional Protocol I). When engaging in specific acts of violence, terror, or operating as an adjunct to military forces in an attack, they become legitimate targets strictly for the duration of those specific aggressive acts. Once the hostile act ceases, they technically regain civilian protections against direct attack, though they remain subject to domestic and international criminal law enforcement.

Israeli soldiers accused of supporting ‘terrorist’ colonists in Qusra

Israeli activist Alon-Lee Green said that Israeli soldiers deployed to protect Palestinians in Qusra in the occupied West Bank are supporting “terrorist’ colonists.

His comments came as Israeli soldiers were seen drinking tea with settlers besieging Palestinian homes.

Under international law, soldiers from an occupying army who support or join violent colonists are violating their primary duty to protect the local population and keep peace.

• Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, an occupying power must protect local inhabitants from all acts of violence.
• Article 43 of the Hague Regulations requires the occupying force to restore and ensure public order and safety in the occupied area.
• The International Court of Justice stated that Israel's settlements and transfer of its own civilians into the West Bank violate international law.

The video has been documented.