Israel war on Gaza updates: Israeli attacks across enclave kill 60 people

Thank you for following Al Jazeera’s live coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza.

For more reporting on the day’s events, please check out our story on Hezbollah’s “axis of resistance” and a push by the United Nations to gain greater access to Gaza.

And you can follow all of our coverage here.

Our live coverage is soon coming to an end. Here is a recap of the latest news:

• Outcry has accompanied an attack on the northern Gaza city of Beit Lahiya, where an estimated 15 people were killed in a strike on a home.
• Israeli strikes continue along the Lebanon border and in southern Syria, with casualties reported.
• Germany has encouraged its citizens to leave Lebanon as a result of the cross-border fighting.
• Israel’s National Security Minister Yoav Gallant met with United States National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to reaffirm the “ironclad commitment” their two countries share after Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu publicly criticised the US for withholding a single weapons shipment in May.
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also found himself in a war of words with the Israeli government, after Israel’s foreign minister called him a “war criminal”.

Lebanese state media has reported that five people have been injured after an Israeli strike on a two-storey building in the town of Nabatieh in southern Lebanon.

The strike destroyed the building at around 10pm local time (19:00 GMT), it said, adding that five people who were in the vicinity of the structure were wounded and taken to hospital.

Earlier on Wednesday, Hezbollah claimed six attacks against Israeli military positions in the border region.

Al Jazeera Arabic reporters on the ground in Gaza say people have been killed and injured as a result of an Israeli raid on a house in Beit Lahiya.

The attack comes less than 24 hours after at least 15 people were killed in another Israeli attack in the northern Gaza city.

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report that Israeli forces have launched six raids on a school in the town of Abasan, east of the city of Khan Younis.

Israeli attacks have continued across the Gaza Strip, with Al Jazeera Arabic reporting earlier about a deadly attack on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.

The Syrian state media agency SANA has reported that two people have been killed and a soldier injured after Israel launched an “air aggression” targeting sites in Syria’s southern region.

A military source told SANA that Israel launched the attack from the direction of the “occupied Syrian Golan, targeting a number of points in the southern region”.

The source added that its air defences shot some of the missiles down.

Khaled Shakhshir, a volunteer hospital technician at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, says the conditions under which the health facility is operating are “not normal”, as he struggles to keep equipment working.

Pointing to two image intensifiers – machines used in surgeries and other procedures – Shakhshir told Al Jazeera that for the past 10 days, neither has been working. One of the two was finally fixed yesterday.

“All emergency operations and surgeries had to be pushed, put on hold, and patients are just piling up, which made a big workload for the doctors,” he said.

To further compound problems, Shakhshir revealed that all three anaesthesia machines in the hospital were also down.

“My overall [outlook] about the situation is it’s unbearable. It’s not normal. Hospitals shouldn’t be that way. Hospitals are overcrowded. They are running on 300-percent capacity,” he said.

Arwa Damon, the founder of the International Network for Aid, Relief and Assistance (INARA), says that – on a recent trip to Gaza City to distribute aid – she saw “how widespread the destruction is of every single aspect of life that would make the Gaza Strip inhabitable”.

Watch the video below:

The Israeli army has stormed the al-Ahmad Medical Complex in Jenin and deployed snipers on residential buildings adjacent to it, according to Al Jazeera Arabic reporters on the ground.

They also say Israeli forces are closing the streets leading to al-Shifa and Jenin hospitals.

Lebanese platforms and journalists on the social media platform X have shared footage of the Israeli raid on the Mashaa neighbourhood in the town of Nabatieh.

The videos, verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking unit Sanad, show plumes of smoke rising and damage caused by the attack.

غارة إسرائيلية تستهدف مبنى في مدينة #النبطية بمنطقة حي المشاع #لبنان #جنوب_لبنان pic.twitter.com/u0yLYcuKKL

— Ahmad El Hajj | أحمد الحاج (@AhmadElHajj007) June 26, 2024

Late on Tuesday, incumbent US Representative Jamaal Bowman lost to a fellow Democrat in his New York primary, after the pro-Israel lobby group the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) spent millions of dollars to unseat him.

But other progressives face similarly tight races — a fact underscored by a new poll out on Wednesday.

Cori Bush, a US Congresswoman representing Missouri, is headed for her own contentious primary in August, and Wednesday’s poll shows her trailing her centrist rival Wesley Bell.

He was ahead of Bush by one point, with 43 percent support to her 42 percent, a difference well within the margin of error. The poll was conducted by the Mellman Group, on behalf of the pro-Israel group Democratic Majority for Israel.

The publication The Hill, however, said the poll could indicate weakness in Bush’s re-election efforts. “This is a notable improvement for Bell from January, when a poll by the firm found Bush leading by 16 points,” it said.

Like Bowman, Bush has been outspoken against Israel and has called for a ceasefire in its war in Gaza.

The Hill reported that Bell’s website states that he supports Israel’s right to defend itself and “pursue those responsible for conducting the October 7 attack”.

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report that several Palestinians have been killed, and others wounded, in an Israeli raid on the Jabalia refugee camp.

They say Israeli forces struck the al-Alami area in the camp.

The US State Department has addressed Tuesday’s killing of a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) physiotherapist, saying Washington does not have the ability to “litigate claims” made by conflicting sources.

Speaking at a Wednesday news briefing, spokesperson Matthew Miller took questions about the Israeli attack that killed Fadi al-Wadiya, 33, in Gaza City.

MSF has said al-Wadiya was bicycling to work when he was killed. He is the sixth MSF worker to be killed in Gaza since October 7, when the war in Gaza began.

The Israeli military has alleged, without providing any proof, that al-Wadiya was a Palestinian fighter.

“We don’t, at first blush, have the ability to litigate claims made by the different parties in this conflict. And so sometimes I’m asked to pronounce judgment. It’s frustrating that we can’t do it, but the incident yesterday was the exact situation why oftentimes, in the middle of a conflict, it is difficult to draw definitive conclusions when there is conflicting information,” Miller told reporters.

“There are times when it is quite obvious what happened, and we do make specific determinations very quickly,” he added.

We are outraged and strongly condemn the killing of our colleague, Fadi Al-Wadiya, in an attack this morning in Gaza City.

The attack killed Fadi, along with five other people including three children, while he was cycling to work, near the MSF clinic where he was providing… pic.twitter.com/nEDPImr6q8

— Doctors w/o Borders (@MSF_USA) June 25, 2024

A day after US Representative Jamaal Bowman lost his district’s Democratic primary, his fellow Congress member Cori Bush issued a statement denouncing the outside spending in the race.

Bowman’s loss was historic. More than $20m was spent in his New York primary race, as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) — a pro-Israel lobby — and other forces sought to advance the candidacy of a centrist candidate. Bowman and Bush have both been outspoken critics of Israel’s war in Gaza.

“20 million dollars. That was the staggering price tag put on unseating Jamaal Bowman,” Bush wrote on social media. She said it was evidence of “just how desperate these billionaire extremists are in their attempts to buy our democracy, promote their own gain, and silence the voices of progress and justice”.

Progressive groups said the battle to unseat Bowman was a direct result of his vocal criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza.

Bowman is part of a small but growing number of voices in Congress questioning the US’s commitment to Israel, its “ironclad” ally. He ultimately lost Tuesday’s Democratic primary to George Latimer, an executive for Westchester County.

My statement on AIPAC’s threat to Democracy.

Their far-right SuperPac and allies spent $20M to unseat my brother @JamaalBowmanNY.

Read more here: pic.twitter.com/NHKNyqJU1z

— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) June 26, 2024

Gaza’s Civil Defence says Israel’s bombardment of northern Gaza has left a level of destruction that “defies imagination”.

Watch our video report below:

The situation in northern Gaza remains “extremely volatile”, and limited aid is entering the area, according to Hisham Mhanna, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

“For weeks now, the necessary nutritional intake has very much been limited for many people, and this could carry irreversible consequences for many of the vulnerable groups, including newborn babies, pregnant women, people who are sick and injured,” he told Al Jazeera.

“We should not reach to a point where the world declares a famine in Gaza. It should be prevented and stopped by immediate actions.”

Furthermore, Mhanna said that Israel, as an “occupying power”, must ensure civilians have access to necessities including food, medicine and security.

As UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour Party leader Keir Starmer prepared to debate on Wednesday night, protesters gathered outside the debate venue in Nottingham to show their support for the Palestinians facing war in Gaza.

Some demonstrators waved Palestinian flags. Others raised banners reading, “Condemn genocide.”

On the debate stage, host Mishail Husain addressed the shouts, which could be heard from within the venue.

“If you can hear any noises, ladies and gentlemen or anyone at home, there is a protest taking place outside, which is also an aspect of our democracy and people exercising their freedom of speech,” she said.

To follow the debate live, please read our coverage here.

📸 Pro-Palestine protest outside #BBCDebate

The protest, which could be heard on TV, is "part of democracy", says host Mishal Husain

Follow the latest 👇https://t.co/EB6b2Z68n4 pic.twitter.com/I1VQT0m1mV

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) June 26, 2024

Pro-Palestine activists and technology workers have disrupted the Amazon Web Services Summit in Washington, DC, to protest Amazon and Google’s $1.2bn contract with the Israeli government and military called Project Nimbus.

The contract, signed in 2021, aims to provide cloud computing infrastructure, artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology services to Israel, which has faced condemnation for its war on Gaza.

United Nations experts and several countries have accused Israel of inflicting a “genocide” on the Palestinian people as part of its military offensive.

Since the contract was signed, Amazon and Google workers have called on their companies to end Project Nimbus and carried out demonstrations in protest.

BREAKING — activists and tech workers in the DMV disrupt the Amazon Web Services Summit to protest Amazon & Google's $1.2B contract with the Israeli gov't and military called Project Nimbus @JVPDCMetro @alx4Pal pic.twitter.com/UDNaGbbMUG

— No Tech For Apartheid (@NoTechApartheid) June 26, 2024