Israel’s war on Gaza updates: 70 killed in Israeli assault on Khan Younis

This live page is now closed.

Read more about how dozens of Palestinians were killed in Khan Younis as they tried to flee Israel’s renewed offensive, here.

You can read about what Palestinian rights advocates said about Biden’s legacy and Gaza, here.

And you can always find our latest coverage on Israel’s war on Gaza here.

These are the key developments:

• At least 70 people were killed in an Israeli attack on eastern Khan Younis which began minutes after the Israeli military issued mass evacuation orders.
• The Palestinian Civil Defence said the new evacuation order affects more than 400,000 people.
• UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said that Israeli forces shot at a UN convoy heading to Gaza City on Sunday despite the movement being approved by Israeli authorities.
• Israel’s Knesset passed three bills banning UNRWA, and designating it a “terrorist organisation”.
• Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the Knesset’s moves are equal to “an attempt to kill the agency, assassinate it politically”.
• Journalists and human rights groups urged US President Joe Biden to press Netanyahu on the killing of journalists and press access in Gaza during his visit to the US.

A video posted on X by Israeli Army Radio shows the barrage of rockets being launched at the Israeli town of Tsurial.

Reports indicate that two people were wounded in this attack.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah said that Tsurial was being “introduced” to its “fire schedule”, as a response to an Israeli “attack that targeted civilians in the town of Hanin and injured a family there”.

כ-10 רקטות נורו לעבר הגליל המערבי – מרביתן יורטו@Doron_Kadosh pic.twitter.com/UP8XizcCJd

— גלצ (@GLZRadio) July 22, 2024

Translation: About 10 rockets were fired towards the Western Galilee – most of them were intercepted.

The Wafa news agency reports that dozens of settlers entered Muslim holy places in the West Bank town of Kifl Haris, north of Salfit.

Witnesses told Wafa that the setters entered the shrines under the protection of Israeli soldiers, and performed religious rituals inside.

Provocative acts against the Arab Muslim population of the West Bank by Jewish Israeli settlers are common, and are even undertaken by high-level members of the Israeli government.

Last week, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir entered Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, sparking anger not only among Palestinians but across the Muslim world.

Democratic politicians and commentators in the United States have heaped praise on President Joe Biden since he dropped out of the 2024 presidential race on Sunday.

Representative Maxine Waters, for instance, called Biden a “kind and decent man”. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, extolled his “vision, values and leadership”.

But while political leaders showered Biden with compliments, bombs continued to rain down on Gaza, killing dozens and sparking another wave of mass displacement in Khan Younis.

For many Palestinian rights advocates, the carnage and abuses in Gaza will define Biden’s place in the history books, as the US remains steadfast in its support of Israel’s war in the Palestinian territory.

Read the full story here.

An independent UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) has welcomed the recent findings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Israel’s occupation of Palestine is unlawful.

“The Court was clear and unambiguous, and the advisory opinion entails international legal obligations not only for Israel, but for the UN and all states,” said Navi Pillay, the chair of the commission.

“The maintenance and promotion of the international rules-based order will depend on compliance with this advisory opinion,” Pillay added.

The @UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, welcomed the ICJ's Advisory Opinion stating that the Israeli occupation is illegal under international law. Learn more: ➡️https://t.co/CbDieaKofn pic.twitter.com/uTZNYPiLPd

— United Nations Human Rights Council (@UN_HRC) July 22, 2024

We reported earlier that Israeli forces began a raid of the occupied West Bank city and that one young Palestinian man was wounded after being shot in the chest by soldiers.

Fighting between the soldiers and local Palestinian fighters has broken out, local media reports, and a power outage in the city has persisted since the beginning of the raid.

There are also reports that Israeli military bulldozers have begun vandalising infrastructure and private property in the city, and that that Palestinian fighters have set off at least one homemade explosive device targeting Israeli forces.

We will continue to update you on this raid as events develop.

US President Joe Biden has pledged to continue working to end the Gaza war during his final months in office after he bowed out of his re-election bid.

“I’ll be working very closely with the Israelis and with the Palestinians to try to work out how we can get the Gaza war to end, and Middle East peace, and get all those [Israeli] hostages home,” Biden said in a public call into his campaign headquarters, which has transitioned to supporting Vice President Kamala Harris.

Talks between Israel and Hamas over Biden’s ceasefire proposal, which has been on the table for months, are set to restart this Thursday.

The UN’s Palestinian refugee agency says on X that the orders, issued earlier today, “mean more suffering and displacement” for the exhausted population of the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army’s evacuation orders affect about 400,000 people in Khan Younis. The order quickly preceded a huge assault on areas of the city which has left at least 70 people killed since this morning.

The agency shared a video of this latest evacuation of Khan Younis, saying that the people forced to flee have “nowhere safe to go.

New evacuation orders today in Khan Younis mean more suffering and displacement. Families had to pack what is left of their belongings and run, amid bombardment, and with nowhere safe to go.

People in #Gaza are exhausted, living in inhumane conditions, with no safety at all. pic.twitter.com/LSYTEBxMRM

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) July 22, 2024

The Palestinian Olympic Committee has joined calls for Israel to be excluded from the games in an open letter to International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach.

The letter accused Israel of breaching the traditional Olympic truce, which is scheduled to run from July 19 until after the Paralympics in mid-September, with its continued war on Gaza.

It “emphasised that Palestinian athletes, particularly those in Gaza, are denied safe passage and have suffered significantly due to ongoing conflict”.

It also said that “approximately 400 Palestinian athletes have been killed, and the destruction of sports facilities exacerbates the plight of athletes who are already under severe restrictions”.

The committee also referenced the recent opinion by the UN’s top court finding Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal.

The Lebanese group says it fired “dozens of Katyusha rockets” at the Israeli town of Tsurial, which it said was being “introduced” to its fire schedule as it was bombed for the first time.

Hezbollah says that this attack is “a response to the Israeli enemy attack that targeted civilians in the town of Hanin and injured a family there”.

Israeli Army Radio reports that two people were injured in Tsurial and video from local sources in Israel shows a building and bus damaged in the attack.

Hezbollah has so far been cautious in its attacks on Israeli territory, largely limiting strikes to Israeli military positions, but attacks on civilian settlements have become more frequent as Israel has escalated its attacks on the group’s military leadership.

Israeli athletes will receive 24-hour protection during the Paris Olympics, France’s interior minister has said.

On Monday, Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said at a meeting with European Union counterparts in Brussels: “I want to say on behalf of France, to the Israeli delegation, we welcome you to France for these Olympic Games.”

He said he would emphasise that point in an imminent phone call with his Israeli counterpart, and also “tell him that we are ensuring the security of the Israeli delegation”.

We’ve been reporting today on moves by Israel’s parliament to close the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees  (UNRWA) and designate it a “terrorist organisation”. The Knesset, Israel’s name for its parliament, passed three bills in its first readings to this effect today.

Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs says in a statement posted to X that the Knesset’s moves are equal to “an attempt to kill the agency, assassinate it politically, and target its symbolism, which affirms the right of Palestinian refugees to return and compensation in accordance with international law”.

The ministry’s spokesman, Sufyan Al-Qudah, added that Israel’s actions against UNRWA, which aim to “kill it and cancel its pivotal and basic role in providing humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people”, are a violation of international law.

A short while ago Israeli forces began a raid on the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarem, as video captured by local media showed the incursion of army vehicles in the city.

A correspondent from Palestine’s Wafa news agency reports that a young man was shot in the chest by Israeli soldiers, and that he was transferred to the nearby governmental hospital in “moderate to serious” condition.

Wafa’s correspondent also reports the presence of Isralei surveillance drones above the city as the raid continues.

تغطية صحفية: جانب من اقتحام قوات الاحتلال لمدينة طولكرم. pic.twitter.com/YI4FMqa1YV

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) July 22, 2024

The Israeli military issued an evacuation order for parts of Gaza’s Khan Younis today, then started attacking moments later, killing at least 70 people.

Watch our video to learn more: 

The military wings of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad say their fighters:

• Targeted Israeli military vehicles in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip
• Targeted a military bulldozer and three Merkava tanks with Yasin 105 rockets in the Bani Suheila neighbourhood on the eastern outskirts of Khan Younis, also in the southern Gaza Strip
• Shelled the military sites at Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) and the Sufa outpost in eastern Rafah
• Launched a surface-to-air missile at an Israeli Apache gunship in the central Gaza Strip
• Continued to use 114mm short-range “Rajoum” rockets to target Israeli military command centres in the Netzarim Corridor, which Israel set up during the war to separate northern Gaza from the south

US news outlet Politico reports that the Israeli prime minister has requested an in-person meeting with the former US president, as Netanyahu begins his trip to the country. 

Politico cited two people familiar with the meeting request without naming them.

Netanyahu will meet with President Joe Biden, who yesterday removed himself as a candidate from the 2024 US presidential race, and Vice President Kamal Harris, who Biden has endorsed as his replacement, along with other US lawmakers.

Politico’s sources say “Trump has yet to agree to a meeting, but also has not outright rejected the idea”.

The Palestinian group says the bill in Israel’s parliament, which passed a first reading, forewarns of a “starvation war that Israel is launching against refugees, not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank refugee camps, and in Jerusalem”.

In a statement on its official Telegram channel, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad said this is a step towards the complete Israeli annexation of the West Bank.

“It is also one of many steps taken by Israel to liquidate Palestinian rights and end the Palestinian cause by going after refugees and their rights,” it charged.

The Good Shepard Collective, a grassroots organisation that addresses violent and unjust structures in Palestine, says “there has been a ramp-up in Israeli military operations as a means to depopulate strategic areas of control.”

Since the beginning of this year, it said, Israel has carried out 225 military operations across occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank alone, destroying 638 structures and displacing 783 people.

“But over the last 90 days, demolitions and displacements have been rapidly increasing. The year-to-date average for the daily displacement of people is 3.915 while in the previous 90 days, the figure has risen to 6.79,” the group said.

It added that during the past 90 days, there were 130 Israeli military operations. These operations displaced 550 people – 139 men, 141 women and 270 children. A total of 329 structures were destroyed over this time, it said.

Our Demolition Report is out. As you can see, home demolitions across East Jerusalem and the West Bank are on the rise, aligning with the Knesset formally declaring the end of a Palestinian state.

There are also some critical updates on Gaza as well. https://t.co/TR8ggvg7qb pic.twitter.com/jtlXXxSUDV

— Good Shepherd Collective (@Shepherds4Good) July 22, 2024

Israel has launched a new military operation on the city of Khan Younis.

At least 27 Palestinians have been killed and dozens of wounded taken to hospital, and a tent being used by journalists outside the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah was also hit by an Israeli drone strike.

At least one person has been killed.

Watch below to find out more: