Israel’s war on Gaza updates: Immediate orders to evacuate in Deir el-Balah

This live page is now closed. Thank you for joining us.

You can read our explainer on today’s exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah, here.

To read our story on the latest Gaza ceasefire negotiations in Cairo and Hamas’s statement on the talks, check out our story, here.

Finally, you can find all our latest coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza, here.

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

• Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets and drones into Israel in what it called its much-awaited and promised retaliation for the killing of its top commander in late July.
• Israel said it had launched a preemptive strike on Hezbollah sites in Lebanon before the attack began and denied any significant damage in Israel.
• Hamas has rejected new Israeli conditions put forward in Gaza ceasefire talks in the Egyptian capital, Cairo. A Hamas delegation left Cairo on Sunday after meeting with mediators and receiving an update on the latest round of negotiations.
• The Gaza Health Ministry says Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah is still working and its staff are staying on the premises to provide services to the sick and wounded despite Israeli orders to evacuate the nearby areas in central Gaza.
• Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, says its fighters have launched an M90 rocket at the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan says Washington is still working in Cairo towards reaching a ceasefire deal in Gaza, adding that the US is concerned about the conflict escalating into a broader regional war.

Sullivan, who was speaking to reporters in Halifax, Canada, said the Biden administration is in constant communication with Israel about the situation with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Hamas earlier this evening in a statement said its delegation in Cairo demanded that Israel be bound by what was agreed upon on July 2, following a plan laid out by US President Joe Biden and a UN Security Council resolution.

While the Palestinian group confirmed its readiness to implement that deal to achieve the interests of the Palestinian people and stop the destruction of the Gaza Strip, it stressed the need for any agreement to include a permanent ceasefire and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Our reporters on the ground say several people have been killed and wounded as a result of an Israeli air strike on a house on al-Shuhada Street in the west of Gaza City.

Earlier, the Gaza Civil Defence said an Israeli attack on the Dawlat area of the Zeitoun neighbourhood, also in Gaza City, killed three people.

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report that several people have been killed and injured after an Israeli strike on the home of the Abu Rida family.

Casualties were brought to the European Gaza Hospital in the southeast of Khan Younis.

Israel has ordered the immediate evacuation of parts of Deir el-Balah near Al-Aqsa Hospital.

Some foreign medical staff have received calls from the Israeli military telling them to leave the facility. It is the only hospital still functioning in central Gaza.

Watch our video report below:

Shlomo Yehonatan Hazut, 36, from Ashdod was killed in combat in the central Gaza Strip, the army has said in a statement.

More than 300 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the war on Gaza began nearly 11 months ago.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim says the Western world needs to stop trying to control the international media merely for the sake of highlighting “inaccurate narratives” about the ongoing war in Gaza.

Inaugurating the All-Malaysian Mosque Summit for Al-Aqsa and Palestine in Kuala Lumpur, he stressed that the West does not need to teach the Muslim world about the “meaning of democracy, human rights, and sustainable development,” Anadolu reported, quoting the Malaysian state-run Bernama news agency.

“We need to be clear and cannot be determined by the Western countries that want to start the narrative on October 7,” Anwar was quoted as saying.

“The continuous destruction [in Palestine] happened since 1948, followed by the direct invasion of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in 1969. In fact, now the destruction continues, whether infrastructure or human and genocide. This is what happened,” he said.

Israeli forces are carrying out shelling in the vicinity of the Friends of the Patient’s Hospital west of Gaza City, Gaza’s Civil Defence has said.

Earlier, the group said three people had been killed in an Israeli shelling of the Dawlat area of the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City.

An AFP news agency’s photographer in Acre, an Israeli city 20km (12 miles) from the Lebanese border, reported damage to three homes from a Hezbollah rocket that struck a roof, with shrapnel smashing windows and destroying a bed.

“There were explosions in the area of Haifa,” said Abigail Levy, a resident of the coastal city further south. “I was stopped and was told not to go to the beach.”

AFPTV footage from early on Sunday showed dozens of interceptor rockets being launched into dense clouds above the Upper Galilee in northern Israel.

In a statement released this evening, the General Authority of Civil Affairs said two Palestinian men were killed by Israeli gunfire near Salfit, according to the Palestine Ministry of Health.

The deceased were identified as Adi Nizar Nimr Abu Naasa and Musab Hassan Ali Maqsas, the authority said, according to the ministry’s Telegram channel.

Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly says she has been in touch with her Israeli counterpart as she “reiterated Canada’s support for Israel’s security, including against Hezbollah”.

“The international community must continue to do everything it can to prevent further escalation,” she posted on X. “We continue to support an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, alongside the complete release of hostages.”

The Canadian government, along with other Western countries that provide military support for Israel, most notably the US, is facing growing calls to impose an arms embargo on Israel.

2/2 We continue to support an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, alongside the complete release of hostages.

Canada will keep working for regional stability and the protection of civilians.

— Mélanie Joly (@melaniejoly) August 25, 2024

Hezbollah’s leader has made a televised speech after a heavy exchange of fire between the Lebanese group and Israel.

Hezbollah’s attack was billed as its response to the Israeli assassination of its senior military commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut last month.

To read more about what Nasrallah said after the attack, read our story here.

A batch of polio vaccines has arrived in the coastal enclave with “1,260,000 doses of the OPV2 vaccine and 500 vaccine cases”, the Gaza Health Ministry says.

“Preparations are under way to launch the campaign in coordination with partners,” it said on its Telegram channel.

Last week, the UN said it was readying 1.6 million polio vaccine doses for the children of Gaza after the virus was found in sewage in the enclave and the first polio case in 25 years was diagnosed there this month.

Two Palestinians have been injured by Israeli gunfire near the Tarqumiyah checkpoint close to Hebron in the occupied West Bank, the Palestine Red Crescent Society says.

Israeli raids in the West Bank have intensified since the war on Gaza began in October with more than 600 people killed and 10,000 people arrested.

Tor Wennesland says a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip is needed as is the release of Israeli captives being held there. “There is no time to lose,” he said in a post on X.

“Ongoing ceasefire/hostage release talks in Cairo are crucial to saving civilian lives, reducing regional tensions and enabling the UN, in cooperation with the PA [Palestinian Authority], to accelerate efforts to address the pressing needs of Gaza’s long-suffering population,” he said.

His comments came after a meeting with PA Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

1/3 Met with Prime Minister Mustafa in the immediate hours after this morning's intense exchanges between Israel and Hizbullah across the Blue Line. pic.twitter.com/7sDVtHB2fm

— Tor Wennesland (@TWennesland) August 25, 2024

Guterres says the exchange of fire between Hezbollah and Israel puts both Lebanese and Israeli populations at risk and threatens “regional security and stability”.

“I call for immediate de-escalation and appeal to the parties to return to a cessation of hostilities,” the secretary-general posted on X.

I'm deeply concerned by the increase in exchanges of fire across the Blue
Line.

These actions put the Lebanese & Israeli populations at risk & they threaten regional security & stability.

I call for immediate de-escalation & appeal to the parties to return to a cessation of…

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) August 25, 2024

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report an Israeli drone attack has been carried out near the eastern town of Zawtar.

More details are awaited.

Hezbollah and Israeli forces exchanged attacks across the Israel-Lebanon border earlier in the day in a marked escalation of the tit-for-tat engagement they have been undertaking since October 8.