Israel war on Gaza updates: Israelis reported killed in fierce battles

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For the latest on the fighting in Gaza’s north, read this.

To learn more about Israel’s approval of new settlements, watch this.

And to follow all of our coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza, read more here.

We will be closing this live page soon. Here is a recap of today’s events:

• Palestinian fighters have ambushed and killed four Israeli soldiers, and wounded five others, in the Shujayea neighbourhood of Gaza City, according to Israeli media.
• Intense Israeli attacks displaced at least 60,000 Palestinians from Gaza City on Thursday, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Friday.
• The Pentagon says a temporary, issue-prone US aid pier has again been removed from Gaza’s shoreline due to high seas, and it will be towed to an Israeli port.
• The International Court of Justice has said Spain has requested to join the case filed by South Africa at the World Court accusing Israel of genocide in its war on Gaza.
• Donald Trump has called US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer a “Palestinian”, a day after using the same word as a slur against US President Joe Biden.

Here are a few highlights from the content recently published on Israel’s war against Gaza:

• Watch: Trump calls Biden a ‘bad Palestinian’ in US presidential debate jab
• Interactive: Mapping 7,400 cross-border attacks between Israel and Lebanon
• From the West Bank: Israeli forces arrest 28 Palestinians in raids in occupied West Bank
• Watch: Israel’s Smotrich promises ‘a million’ new settlers under expansion plan

And there’s plenty more here.

The Palestinian Civil Defence Agency has reported that three of its medics were killed in an overnight Israeli air strike near its headquarters in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip.

Al Jazeera’s Michael Appel reports:

The Israeli army says it detected three explosive-laden drones and rockets fired from Lebanon towards northern Israel but that it launched interceptor missiles that downed the projectiles.

It added that 25 rockets were fired towards the Western Galilee area and at the Kiryat Shmona settlement, noting that most were intercepted.

At least some of the rockets, however, caused damage to a building in the Western Galilee area and started several fires in northern Israel. They triggered the activation of sirens in different areas in northern Israel.

No injuries were reported from the attacks, said the army.

After some countries issued warnings to their nationals to leave or avoid travel to Lebanon amid tension with Israel, Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib urged them to stop causing “concern among citizens and visitors [to Lebanon]” and instead show solidarity.

Amid growing tension between Israel and Lebanon, several countries, including Germany, Canada, North Macedonia, Netherlands, the US and others have urged their nationals to leave or avoid travel to Lebanon.

In recent weeks, tensions have escalated between the Israeli army and the Lebanese armed group, Hezbollah, raising concerns about a potential full-scale war following Tel Aviv’s recent approval of operational plans for a “wide-scale attack” against Lebanon.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says it received two aid trucks loaded with flour.

In coordination with the UN refugee agency, the aid was distributed among some 1,240 displaced families in Gaza and in northern Gaza, the group said in a post on X.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society received two aid trucks loaded with flour, donated and supported by the @krcs_org_kw , in coordination with the @_JNRCS . Today, these aids were distributed to approximately 1,240 displaced and affected families by the Israeli aggression in both… pic.twitter.com/4VictZi43B

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) June 28, 2024

Here’s a recap of the latest developments:

• Two children were killed and five others wounded in an Israeli attack on Gaza City, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.
• Israeli media has reported that four Israeli soldiers were ambushed and killed by Palestinian fighters in the Shujayea neighbourhood of Gaza City
• Donald Trump has called US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer a “Palestinian”, a day after using the same word to insult US President Joe Biden.
• Spain will join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel.
• A young man was injured by Israeli army gunfire in the town of Beit Ummar, south of Hebron, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
• The Pentagon says a temporary US aid pier has again been removed from the Gaza coast due to high seas and will be towed to an Israeli port.

Palestinians in Gaza are sheltering in tents as heat passes 40 °C (104 °F). As waste accumulates and Israel denies the entry of most aid, disease is spreading as well. pic.twitter.com/8PrJEHa431

— AJ+ (@ajplus) June 28, 2024

The Biden administration has sent to Israel massive shipments of munitions, including more than 10,000 highly destructive 2,000-pound bombs and thousands of Hellfire missiles, since the start of the war in Gaza, said two US officials, Reuters news agency reported.

The US has transferred at least 14,000 of the MK-84 2,000-pound bombs, 6,500 500-pound bombs, 3,000 Hellfire precision-guided air-to-ground missiles, 1,000 bunker-buster bombs, 2,600 air-dropped small-diameter bombs, and other munitions, according to the officials.

The tally of shipments suggests there has been no significant drop-off in US military support for Israel.

“While these numbers could be expended relatively quickly in a major conflict, this list clearly reflects a substantial level of support from the United States for our Israeli allies,” Tom Karako, a weapons expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Reuters.

Earlier this week, a senior Biden administration official said that the US sent $6.5bn worth of weapons to Israel since the war began.

Palestinian fighters engaged Israeli forces in fierce battles in northern Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood a day after tanks and troops rolled in and sent tens of thousands of terrified civilians fleeing.

In a statement on Friday, al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said it blew up a booby-trapped residential building in Shujayea, killing four Israeli soldiers and wounding five others.

The improvised explosive device used was an undetonated F-16 missile recovered intact after it was fired from an Israeli warplane, it said.

The Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, said its fighters also continue to engage in “violent clashes” while “inflicting deaths and injuries” in attacks with anti-tank rockets and small-arms fire.

Read more here.

At least five others were wounded when Israeli fighter jets targeted a residential home in Gaza City’s Yarmouk neighbourhood, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.

It added several Palestinians were wounded in a separate attack on central Gaza’s Maghazi refugee camp a short while ago.

Donald Trump has called US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer a “Palestinian”, a day after using the same word to insult US President Joe Biden.

“He’s become a Palestinian. He was very loyal to Israel and to Jewish people. But he’s become a Palestinian because they have a couple more votes or something,” Trump said about Schumer, who is Jewish, at a campaign rally in Virginia on Friday.

During the first presidential debate with Biden in Atlanta, Georgia on Thursday, former President Trump had said Biden was “a very bad Palestinian” who does not want to help Israel “finish the job” against Hamas in its war on Gaza.

Ayah Ziyadeh, director of American Muslims for Palestine, told Al Jazeera that Trump’s use of the term “bad Palestinian” was “very blatantly racist”.

“Using Palestinian as a slur shows the depths of racism that exists here,” Ziyadeh said.

Yemen’s Houthis have claimed carrying out a joint military operation with an Iranian-backed Iraqi group, known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, targeting four vessels in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a televised statement that the group fired drones and missiles at an oil tanker and cargo ships over noncompliance with a ban on entering “ports of occupied Palestine”.

The latest attacks come in response to the “massacres of the Israeli enemy against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip”, he said.

#معركة_الفتح_الموعود_والجهاد_المقدس pic.twitter.com/X3cgvMFYqt

— أمين حيان Ameen Hayyan (@ameenhayan) June 28, 2024

The Palestinian Civil Defence Agency has reported that three of its medics were killed in an overnight Israeli air raid near its headquarters in Nuseirat, located in the central Gaza Strip.

Al Jazeera’s Michael Appel reports.

The International Court of Justice says Spain has requested to join the case filed by South Africa at the World Court, which accuses Israel of violating its obligations under the Genocide Convention in its war on the Gaza Strip.

South Africa brought its case against Israel in late December, accusing it of committing genocide against Palestinians in the besieged territory.

Spain announced it was joining the case earlier this month, shortly after Turkey announced it would also join.

Israel forces displaced at least 60,000 people from Gaza City on Thursday, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Friday.

“Humanitarian partners are reporting new displacement … Yesterday, the Israeli military ordered people living in 28 residential blocks in areas east of Gaza City to immediately evacuate … at least 60,000 people were displaced from this area, which spans over seven square kilometres [2.7 square miles]”, Dujarric told reporters.

He added that an overnight military operation in the area of al-Mawasi of Rafah resulted in many casualties and displacement of at least 5,000 people.

Two rockets were fired at Sderot city, southern Israel, with one being shot down by the Iron Dome air defence system, the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth said, citing a military source.

The incident triggered the activation of rocket-incoming sirens in Sderot and other settlements around the Gaza Strip, the daily added.

So far, no injuries or material damage have been reported in connection with the incident.

Earlier, the Islamic Jihad group’s armed wing, al-Quds Brigades, said in a brief statement that it had fired rockets and hit Israeli settlements near the Gaza Strip.

A young man was injured by Israeli army gunfire in the town of Beit Ummar town, south of Hebron, according to local activist Mohammad Awad, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Israeli forces opened fire towards residents and their houses and injured the man with a live round in the shoulder, Wafa reported.

Police also fired tear gas at people in the town, the agency also reported.

Israeli raids across the West Bank have intensified since the war in Gaza began in October.

In Morocco, the demonstrations took place in several cities including Fez, Meknes, Tangier, Kenitra, Agadir, Berkane, Oujda, and Jerada.

The protesters called for action to support the Palestinian cause and the delivery of aid, considering the immense suffering and humanitarian crisis in the blockaded enclave.

In Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, crowds gathered and raised banners with messages such as: “There is no dignity for nations without victory for Gaza.”

Similar demonstrations took place in other provinces, including Hodeidah, Hajjah, Saada, Taiz, and Ad Dali.