Key events
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to the today’s live blog.
The Israeli military has renewed evacuation orders to Palestinian residents in several districts in eastern Khan Younis, saying it would act forcefully against militants who had fired rockets from those areas.
The army posted the evacuation order on X, and residents of the southern Gaza city said they had received text and audio messages.
Residents said dozens of families had begun to leave their homes and head west towards Al-Mawasi, an area designated as a humanitarian zone by Israel but one that is already severely overcrowded by displaced families from around the enclave and which lacks basic necessities including food, water and proper shelter.
The site has also previously been the target of Israeli attacks despite its designation including one in July in which at least 90 Palestinians were killed and hundreds more injured when Israel bombed the area in what it said was a bid to kill Hamas military chief, Mohammed Deif.
Khan Younis, Gaza’s second largest city, has also already been devastated by the Israeli assault reduced largely to piles of cement and rubble.
More on that in a moment, first here’s a summary of the day’s other main news.
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The leaders of the US, Egypt and Qatar have called on Israel and Hamas to resume urgent negotiations in order to finalise a ceasefire and hostage release deal, saying there were no excuses “from any party for further delay”. The three countries, which have been trying to mediate a deal, said in a joint statement the talks could take place in either Doha or Cairo on 15 August, adding that it was “time to bring immediate relief both to the longsuffering people of Gaza as well as the longsuffering hostages and their families.”
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Israel’s Channel 12 on Wednesday broadcast security camera footage that reportedly showed the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Last week, the detention of the soldiers accused of involvement in the alleged abuse sparked violent riots. The surveillance footage showed what appeared to be Israeli soldiers lifting up a blindfolded prisoner and taking him out of sight of the camera. They then covered themselves and the prisoner with their riot shields as they encircled him.
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Israeli forces stepped up strikes across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing at least 25 people, Palestinian medics said. The continued battles with Hamas-led militants came as Israel braced for potential wider war in the region.
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The Israeli military said it had struck an area where two schools were situated in Gaza on Thursday, which it claims had Hamas command centres embedded within. “The school compounds were used by Hamas terrorists and commanders as command-and-control centres, from which they planned and carried out attacks against Israel Defense Forces troops and the state of Israel,” it said.
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Israel has given notice it will no longer accredit Norwegian diplomats serving the occupied Palestinian territories, Norway’s foreign ministry said on Thursday, calling it “an extreme act” by the Israeli government. Later in the day, Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz said the decision was due to Norway’s “anti-Israel conduct”.