Israel and Hezbollah exchange attacks as Hamas downplays rumors of impending Gaza ceasefire – live | Israel
Benjamin Netanyahu: Attack on Lebanon is “not the end of the story”
Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s crackdown on the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement in Lebanon was “not the end of the story.”
According to Reuters, the Israeli prime minister said the country’s air defenses had intercepted all missiles and drones fired at the country.
He also said the leaders of Hezbollah and Iran should know that the response was “another step towards changing the situation in the north and the safe return of our residents to their homes.”
Important events
Summary
Here is a summary of the day’s most important events:
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US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered two aircraft carrier battle groups to remain in the Middle East, Reuters reports, citing the Pentagon. The announcement was made in a summary of a phone call between Austin and his Israeli counterpart on Sunday.
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Reuters reported that Hamas rejects Israel’s new conditions in the ongoing ceasefire talks in the Gaza Strip. According to an interview by Hamas official Osama Hamdan with Al-Aqsa TV on Sunday, the rumors about an impending agreement are false.
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According to Reuters, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a public address that there had been delays in the group’s response, partly due to the massive mobilization of the Israeli and American military. He added: “We will assess the impact of today’s operation. If the results are not sufficient, we will respond another time.”
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Jordan warned that increased escalation between Israel and Hezbollah could lead to a “regional war,” echoing earlier comments by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Foreign Ministry spokesman Sufain Qudah said Israel’s relentless “aggression” in the Gaza Strip and the failure of a ceasefire put the region at risk of an escalation of the conflict, Jordanian state media reported.
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The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA) has announced that it will launch a polio vaccination campaign for more than 600,000 children under the age of ten in the coming days, together with the World Health Organization, Unicef and other partners. The UN is calling on Israel and Hamas to initiate a humanitarian ceasefire to allow humanitarian workers to carry out the vaccination campaign.
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Europe’s highest-ranking diplomat will call for sanctions against two far-right Israeli ministers as the EU struggles to salvage its credibility in Middle East policy. At a meeting of the EU’s 27 foreign ministers on Thursday, Josep Borrell will call for sanctions against Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, two far-right government ministers whose inflammatory statements and behavior have drawn international criticism.
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Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has warned the highest-ranking American general about the dangers of a major conflict in Lebanon. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Air Force General CQ Brown, arrived in Egypt hours after the missile exchange between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
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A Hezbollah official said the group’s rocket and drone attack on Israel on Sunday in retaliation for the killing of a senior commander last month had been postponed due to “political considerations,” Reuters reported. The official said the group had been “working” to ensure that its response to the July 30 killing of Fuad Shukr would not trigger an all-out war.
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British Airways has suspended flights between London and Tel Aviv following the overnight escalation of hostilities in the Middle East. A spokesman for the airline said on Sunday: “We are continuously monitoring the situation in the Middle East and have taken the operational decision to suspend our flights to and from Tel Aviv until Wednesday, August 28th.
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At least 40,405 Palestinians have been killed and 93,468 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, the Gaza Strip’s Health Ministry said in a statement on Sunday. The ministry said there were likely thousands more dead in the rubble of the enclave.
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Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels on Sunday praised Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel and again threatened to launch their own attack in response to Israeli strikes on a Yemeni port. “We congratulate Hezbollah and its Secretary General on the great and courageous attack the resistance carried out this morning against the Israeli enemy,” the Houthis said in a statement.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered two aircraft carrier battle groups to remain in the Middle East, Reuters reports, citing the Pentagon.
The announcement was made in a summary of a phone call between Austin and his Israeli counterpart on Sunday.
Reuters reported that the Pentagon had originally stationed the Abraham Lincoln carrier battle group in the region to replace the Theodore Roosevelt carrier battle group.
Reuters reported that Hamas rejects Israel’s new conditions in the ongoing ceasefire talks in the Gaza Strip.
According to an interview by Hamas official Osama Hamdan with Al-Aqsa TV on Sunday, the rumors about an impending agreement are false.
Reuters reports that the group remains committed to its July 2 ceasefire proposal and that the US claim of an imminent agreement is for election campaign purposes.
The Attorney General for England and Wales has intervened in the Foreign Office’s review of arms sales to Israel.
Kiran Stacey of the Guardian reports:
Keir Starmer’s most senior legal adviser has intervened in the controversial decision on whether to ban British arms sales to Israel because Israeli authorities find it difficult to distinguish between “offensive” and “defensive” weapons, the Guardian has learned.
According to sources, Attorney General Richard Hermer has told U.S. State Department officials that he will not agree to a ban on certain arms sales but will allow others until it can be said with certainty which weapons could be used to violate international humanitarian law.
The main reason for the delay in the decision is said to be legal disputes at the top of the government, which have become even more delicate in recent weeks given the escalation of the Middle East crisis.
A State Department spokesman declined to comment on Hermer’s role, but said: “This government is committed to upholding international law. We have made it clear that we will not export goods if they could be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian law.”
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Charles Q. Brown Jr., chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, has arrived in Israel following heavy exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah, Reuters reports.
Brown is expected to meet with senior Israeli military officials.
The previous Sunday, he was in Egypt, where he met with Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi and other Egyptian commanders. They discussed regional tensions, including Israel’s war in Gaza and the possible reopening of the Rafah border crossing.
In Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Red Crescent distributed around 500 mobile toilets in the Al-Mawasi area, the group said on Sunday.
The distribution operations, carried out with the support of the International Committee of the Red Cross, come amid a serious sanitation crisis resulting from Israel’s deadly bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
The PRCS Disaster Risk Management Teams, in collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross, distributed around 500 mobile toilets in several gatherings of displaced people in the Al-Mawasi area in #KhanYunis. pic.twitter.com/5i6QN5c5pH
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) 25 August 2024
In July, UNICEF reported that 60 percent of all WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) facilities had been destroyed or severely damaged. Access to clean water for drinking and bathing, toilets and even soap was severely limited.
Hezbollah chief: “If the results are not enough, we will react another time”
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah added:
“We will assess the impact of today’s operation. If the results are not sufficient, we will respond another time.”
In his speech, Hassan Nasrallah added that the Israeli military began attacks on Lebanon 30 minutes before the group’s operation, but that the areas attacked had nothing to do with the operation.
He further said that the group’s military operation was completed as planned and “with precision.” Nasrallah also said that Hezbollah attacked a military intelligence base 110 kilometers inside Israeli territory, 1.5 kilometers from Tel Aviv.
He added that Hezbollah had used Katyusha rockets to prevent Israel’s Iron Dome and other anti-drone systems from entering Israeli airspace.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a public address that there had been delays in the group’s response because of, among other things, a massive mobilization of the Israeli and American military, Reuters reports.
The group has decided not to respond to the killing of its top commander with attacks on civilian areas, Nasrallah added, saying the group has decided not to carry out attacks on Israeli infrastructure.
He added that Hezbollah wanted to attack military sites near Tel Aviv and that the group had decided to attack a military intelligence base where an Israeli surveillance unit operates.
To prevent further escalation, Israel and Lebanon exchanged messages through intermediaries on Sunday, two diplomats told Reuters anonymously.
The main message, according to one diplomat, was that both sides considered Sunday’s heavy bombings “over” and that neither side wanted a full-scale war.
