Israel’s war on Gaza updates: Israeli forces step up attacks on Gaza City

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To read more about how Israeli attacks continue in Gaza as polio vaccinations are under way, go here.

To gain a deeper understanding of Israel’s deadly seven-day raid in the occupied West Bank’s Jenin, read our timeline, here.

And follow along with all our coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza, here.

Here’s a quick look at the latest news:

• Norway’s wealth fund may divest from companies that aid Israel, the Reuters news agency reported.
• A young man and a child were shot with live bullets during clashes that broke out between Palestinians and Israeli forces who stormed the city of ad-Dhahiriya, south of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank.
• Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the GCC all expressed solidarity with Egypt over comments Netanyahu made earlier this week accusing the country of allowing weapons to be smuggled to Hamas through the Egyptian border.
• The US announced criminal charges against Hamas’s top leadership, including the group’s chief Yahya Sinwar, accusing them of leading efforts to kill civilians and destroy the state of Israel.
• The number of Palestinians killed by Israel’s weeklong incursion into the occupied West Bank, ongoing since last Wednesday, has risen to 33, the Health Ministry said.
• Gaza’s Civil Defence reported that nine people were been killed by Israeli forces bombing a residential building near a municipal park in central Gaza City.

Nine months ago, Fadi Aldeeb missed several calls from his brother in Gaza. The next day, Aldeeb found out he had been killed in an Israeli attack on his home.

Aldeeb, the only Palestinian athlete at the Paris Paralympics, left the Gaza Strip a decade ago for a wheelchair basketball career that took him to Turkey and Greece before he finally arrived in France.

“On December 7, I received [the news from Gaza] that ‘OK, your brother was killed in an attack on our building,’” Aldeeb said, adding that he often wonders what his brother’s last message was.

In Paris, Aldeeb, who took part in the Paralympics shot put event, is feeling the pressure of being what he says is the voice of his people at the Paralympics.

Read the rest here.

Several have been injured, including children, in an Israeli air attack on a home in the Daraj neighbourhood of Gaza City, the Wafa news agency is reporting, citing medical sources.

Earlier, we reported that nine people had been killed in an Israeli attack on a home in Gaza City, which is in the north of the Gaza Strip.

The Palestine Authority’s minister of health, Majid Abu Ramadan, renewed his appeal to the international community to keep pressure on Israel to halt its bombings and allow authorities to carry out a large-scale vaccination campaign against polio in Gaza, the Wafa news agency reports.

Ramadan said 350,000 doses of polio vaccines arrived in the Strip tonight, making the number of doses that have arrived in Gaza about 1.6 million. This is the amount needed to vaccinate all children aged between one day and 10 years with two doses each, Wafa said.

Polio has made a comeback in the Gaza Strip after 25 years, forcing the United Nations and local health authorities to launch a vaccination campaign in the Palestinian enclave ravaged by 11 months of war.

The US claims it is working on a proposal to ensure the release of the remaining captives being held in Gaza and relief for Palestinians.

White House National Security spokesman John Kirby made those comments a day after President Joe Biden said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wasn’t doing enough to reach a deal to end the war.

Al Jazeera’s White House correspondent Kimberly Halkett has more:

Norway’s $1.7 trillion wealth fund may soon be forced to divest shares of companies that violate the fund watchdog’s new, tougher ethics standards for businesses that aid Israel’s operations in the occupied Palestinian territory, Reuters news agency reports.

The Council on Ethics for the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund sent a letter in late August to the Finance Ministry that summarises the changes, the agency said.

The letter did not specify how many nor name companies whose stocks might be sold but suggested it would be a small number, should the board of the central bank, which has the final say, follow recommendations that the council makes.

Some of the companies that the watchdog will be looking at are RTX Corp, General Electric and General Dynamics.

According to NGOs, they make weapons used by Israel in Gaza, where its military offensive has killed nearly 41,000 Palestinians.

The fund is widely influential and has been an international leader in the environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment field. It owns 1.5 percent of the world’s listed shares across 8,800 companies.

Since the start of the war in Gaza in October, the fund’s ethics watchdog has been investigating whether more companies fall outside its permitted investment guidelines.

Qatar and Saudi Arabia expressed solidarity with Egypt over comments Netanyahu made earlier this week accusing the country of allowing weapons to be smuggled to Hamas through the Egyptian border.

“[Netanyahu] tried to use Egypt’s name to distract Israeli public opinion and obstruct joint mediation efforts aimed at a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the exchange of hostages and detainees,” Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs asserts that the Israeli occupation’s approach based on an attempt to falsify facts and mislead world public opinion by repeating lies will ultimately lead to the demise of peace efforts and the expansion of violence in the region.”

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry also chided Netanyahu’s accusation, saying it condemns it as a “futile [attempt] to justify continued Israeli violations of international laws and norms”.

The kingdom said it was “affirming its solidarity and support for the sisterly Arab Republic of Egypt in confronting these Israeli allegations”.

Slovenia’s UN envoy, the president of the UN Security Council for September, says the 15-member body could consider taking action if a ceasefire is not reached soon in Gaza.

“I think the patience is out,” Ambassador Samuel Zbogar told reporters. “Either there is a ceasefire or the council then reflects on what else we can do to bring the ceasefire.

“There are many tools that the council has at its disposal,” Zbogar added, noting that it had been waiting for three months for a US-sponsored ceasefire resolution to be implemented.

The US announced criminal charges against Hamas’s top leadership, including the group’s chief Yahya Sinwar, accusing them of leading efforts to kill civilians and destroy the state of Israel.

“As outlined in our complaint, those defendants — armed with weapons, political support, and funding from the Government of Iran, and support from Hizballah — have led Hamas’s efforts to destroy the State of Israel and murder civilians in support of that aim,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

Other Hamas leaders charged include Marwan Issa, the deputy leader of Hamas’s armed wing in Gaza, Khaled Meshaal, a deputy of slain former Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh and a former leader of the group, Mohammed al-Masri and Ali Baraka.

A journalist pressed US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on the UK’s decision to suspend some arms sales to Israel, asking how the US has not reached similar conclusions about possible violations of international law.

Watch the exchange below:

The secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has stated that he gives his “full solidarity and support with Egypt against the provocative statements of the Israeli prime minister”.

“The statements aim to tarnish Egypt’s image and undermine its leading and significant role in the region,” Jasem Mohammed Al-Budaiwi said in a statement.

Netanyahu had on Monday made accusations that weapons were being smuggled to Hamas through the Egyptian border.

“We reject these irresponsible statements which do not serve peace in the region but rather contribute to increasing tension,” Al-Budaiwi said.

Hundreds of Israeli soldiers backed by helicopters and drones have been operating in Jenin and Tulkarem as well as other areas of the West Bank for the past week.

The operation has caused severe damage to infrastructure as armoured bulldozers have torn up large stretches of city streets and destroyed or severely damaged houses and other buildings.

As the operation has gone on, aid workers have begun to warn that people in the area are starting to run low on food and water.

Paramedic officer Murad Khamayseh from Jenin, who works with the disaster unit in the Palestine Red Crescent Society, said his unit has been distributing bread, water, milk, medical supplies and nappies.

“You are talking about seven days in a row. People were not ready for such a raid, aside from the fact that no one knows how long the raid will be,” he said.

In response to criticism by former war cabinet member Gantz, Netanyahu’s office has listed Israel’s achievements since Gantz pulled out of the government and the war cabinet in June.

“The reality speaks for itself. Since Gantz and his party left the government, Israel eliminated Hamas’s chief of staff and Hezbollah’s chief of staff, attacked the Houthis, seized the Philadelphi Corridor – the lifeline by which Hamas arms itself – and carried out a preemptive strike against Hezbollah, which thwarted its malicious plan and destroyed thousands of rockets aimed at the Galilee,” Netanyahu said, according to his office.

“Whoever does not contribute to the victory and the return of the hostages would do well not to interfere.”

Gaza’s Civil Defence is reporting that two people were pulled out from under the rubble of the former “Safad” school in Gaza City.

The people were identified as Rajab Mashthay and Khaled Bulbul.

The former school, which now houses displaced Palestinians, was bombed earlier this week by Israeli forces.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s main political rival, Benny Gantz, has accused him of focusing on his political career rather than the interest of the country.

This comes after Netanyahu reiterated that he wouldn’t budge on calls for Israel to leave the Philadelphi Corridor, a position he has turned into a key obstacle to a ceasefire agreement.

Speaking at the Israel Bar Association’s annual conference in Tel Aviv, Gantz said: “If he [Netanyahu] is not strong enough to withstand the international pressure, let him put the keys down and go home.”

Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan says there are no developments in the ceasefire talks and Washington is not applying enough pressure on the Israeli prime minister to accept a deal.

Hamdan reiterated the group’s stance that there is no need for a new proposal but rather more effort is needed to pressure Netanyahu to accept the agreement that Hamas had previously agreed upon. 

He also said: “Our position on the Philadelphi Corridor is clear. We reject any status quo that allows for Israel’s presence there. The corridor is part of the withdrawal process from the Gaza Strip that was previously agreed upon.”

“If Washington does not pressure Netanyahu to withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor, then we consider this to be an attempt to save him and his political career from the repercussions of the captives’ killing.”

Hamdan also said the six captives whose bodies were retrieved at the weekend by Israeli forces were killed either “by Israeli shelling, Israeli shootings or during clashes”.