Why were Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan being held prisoner in Russia
(NEW YORK) — Here’s a look at the Americans returning to the United States as part of the prisoner exchange with Russia happening Thursday.
Evan Gershkovich
The 32-year-old Wall Street Journal reporter was sentenced last month to 16 years in a Russian penal colony on charges of espionage after a guilty verdict was announced in his closed-door trial. His newspaper and the U.S. had denounced the legal proceedings, which saw only two days of hearings, as a sham and have denied the allegations. The American was arrested in March 2023 while on a reporting trip in Yekaterinburg, with the U.S. classifying him as unjustly detained.
Paul Whelan
The 54-year-old former U.S. Marine was sentenced to 16 years in a Russian prison following a closed-door trial in June 2020. He was convicted of spying charges, which he and the U.S. have claimed were fabricated in order to seize him as a political hostage. The U.S. classified him as wrongfully detained following his arrest in 2018 while visiting Moscow for a friend’s wedding. In his first interview following his conviction, Whelan, who worked for the auto parts supplier BorgWarner at the time of his arrest, told ABC News he believed he was targeted partly due to sanctions retaliation.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — As the Israel-Hamas war continues, tensions are escalating after the assassinations of two Hamas and Hezbollah leaders this week.
Here’s how the news is developing:
Hamas leaders decline ‘new conditions’ in cease-fire talks
Hamas leaders are asking mediators of the cease-fire negotiations with Israel to present a plan based upon previous talks instead of engaging in new ones, according to a statement Sunday.
Hamas also appeared to decline to discuss the “new conditions” proposed to the cease-fire plan by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in July, saying Israel then “went on to escalate its aggression against our people and commit more massacres.”
The new development in the ongoing cease-fire negotiations came after a diplomatic push from the United States, Egypt and Qatar for a new round of talks to take place between Israel and Hamas on Aug. 15 in either Doha or Cairo. Israel agreed to send a delegation, but Hamas had yet to respond –- until now.
The upcoming talks were widely seen as the last, best possible chance at securing an agreement between the warring parties.
-ABC News’ Ghazi Balkiz, Nasser Atta
IDF expands evacuation orders in Khan Younis
The Israel Defense Forces on Sunday ordered civilians in the al-Jalaa neighborhood of northern Khan Younis to evacuate as Israeli troops began raiding the area it alleges is being used by Hamas terrorists.
The IDF said the area — part of a humanitarian zone the Israeli military had initially set up in the southwestern Gaza Strip — was being exploited by Hamas “for terrorist activity” and is now considered “dangerous.” As a result, the IDF said, the boundaries of the humanitarian zone would be adjusted to exclude the al-Jalaa neighborhood.
The move comes just days after the Israeli military launched a fresh assault on Khan Younis, ordering civilians to evacuate the heavily destroyed eastern districts, where many Palestinians had returned less than two weeks ago after the IDF’s last incursion into Gaza’s second-largest city in July, according to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency. The area was also once part of the designated humanitarian zone.
“Due to significant terrorist activity, exploitation of the Humanitarian Area for terrorist activity and rocket fire toward the State of Israel from the al-jalaa area, remaining in this area has become dangerous,” the IDF said in a statement Sunday morning. “Accordingly, at this time, the Humanitarian Area will be adjusted. The adjustment is being carried out in accordance with precise intelligence indicating that Hamas has embedded terrorist infrastructure in the area defined as a Humanitarian Area.”
The IDF said early warnings to civilians were being made to mitigate harm to the civilian population and keep civilians away from areas of combat.
-ABC News’ Morgan Winsor
World leaders react to Israeli attack on school killing 85 Palestinians
Leaders around the world have condemned an Israeli strike on a school in Gaza, making an appeal to the international bodies to stop the killing of civilians and protect displaced Palestinians. They also address the potential damage this attack has on the potential cease-fire negotiations.
“The deliberate killing of these huge numbers of unarmed civilians whenever the mediators’ efforts intensified to try to reach a formula for a ceasefire in the Strip is conclusive evidence of the absence of political will on the part of the Israeli side to end this fierce war,” the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement.
Qatar called for an independent international investigation into the strike and for full protection for displaced people.
“The State of Qatar has strongly condemned the Israeli occupation’s bombing of a school sheltering displaced people east of Gaza city, which led to dozens of martyrs and injured, and deemed it as horrific massacre and brutal crime against defenseless civilians and a flagrant infringement of the fundamental precepts of international humanitarian law,” Qatar said in a statement.
Turkey also called it “a new crime against humanity.”
“This attack demonstrated once again that the Netanyahu Government intends to sabotage the negotiations for a permanent ceasefire. International actors who do not take steps to stop Israel are complicit in Israel’s crimes,” the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement.
The European Union said it was “horrified” by the images of the strike.
“At least 10 schools were targeted in the last weeks. There’s no justification for these massacres We are dismayed by the terrible overall death toll,” Josep Borrell High Representative of the EU said in a statement.
Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur, called Gaza the “largest and most shameful concentration camp of the 21st Century.”
“Israel is genociding the Palestinians one neighborhood at the time, one hospital at the time, one school at the time, one refugee camp at the time, one ‘safe zone’ at the time. With US and European weapons. And amid the indifference of all ‘civilised nations.’ May the Palestinians forgive us for our collective inability to protect them, honoring the most basic meaning of intl law,” Albanese said.
Scores killed following strike on school in Gaza City
Scores have been killed following a strike on Al-Tabeen School in Gaza City early Saturday.
Al-Tabeen School is in Al Darj area of Gaza city and the school was housing hundreds of displaced persons, officials in Gaza said.
Many of the displaced people sheltering at the school had been performing dawn prayers at the time of the strike, according to the Government Information Office in Gaza.
Initial reports from Gaza officials said almost 100 people have been killed and dozens wounded, with an official casualty count expected to come from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
“Today, an Air Force aircraft attacked, under the intelligence guidance of the Israel Defense Forces, the Shin Bet and the Southern Command, terrorists who were operating in a military headquarters located in the ‘Al-Tabin’ school complex near the mosque in Darje Tafah area, which is used as a shelter for the residents of Gaza City,” read a statement from the IDF following the strike.
Gaza’s Civil Defence said two floors of the school were targeted: the first was housing women and the ground was a prayer hall for the displaced.
There were a total of “93 martyrs, including 11 children and 6 women, as a result of the massacre committed by the occupation against the displaced people in the Al-Tabaeen School in the Al-Daraj neighborhood,” according to the Gaza Civil Defense.
Israel raids eastern Khan Younis for at least 4th time in past month
For at least the fourth time in the past month, the Israel Defense Forces raided the eastern part of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Israeli forces have killed at least 29 people in the central and southern areas of Gaza so far on Friday, including 19 in Khan Younis, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
The IDF ordered civilians east of Khan Younis to evacuate Thursday. On Friday morning, the IDF announced that its troops have begun “operational activity in the Khan Younis area” after receiving “intelligence indicating the presence of terrorists and terror infrastructure.”
The IDF withdrew from the east of Khan Younis just 10 days ago.
Since dawn on Friday, there have been dozens of bombardments and shelling in various areas across war-torn Gaza, including the southern city of Khan Younis. The hardest-hit areas were Al-Maghazi camp, east of Al-Nuseirat camp; the eastern areas of Khan Younis; Bait Lahia in the north of Gaza; and Zaytoon neighborhood in the east of Gaza City.
At least 23 people have been killed in the central and southern areas of Gaza so far on Friday, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
US official says there’s ‘significant’ work to be done in cease-fire negotiations
A senior U.S. official told ABC News on Thursday that the call from President Joe Biden, the Egyptian President and the Qatari Amir for Israel and Hamas to return to the negotiating table to work out a cease-fire deal was a step forward, despite more work needing to be done.
“It’s not like the agreement is going to be ready to be signed on Thursday,” the official said. “There’s still a significant amount of work to do, but we do believe that what’s left here really can be bridged, and there’s really just no time to lose.”
The official said that both Israel and Hamas have “very firm positions” on “about four or five issues” each. And though the official said they might seem to be “unbridgeable,” they have been able to find a way forward working through the issues one by one.
“We are determined to do all that we possibly can, recognizing that lives are on the line,” the official added.
US, Egypt and Qatar call on Israel and Hamas to resume cease-fire talks
In a joint statement, leaders from the U.S., Egypt and Qatar called on Israel and Hamas to resume discussions on Gaza.
The statement — signed by President Joe Biden, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Amir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar — called for both sides to meet in Doha or Cairo on Aug. 15.
“It is time to bring immediate relief both to the long-suffering people of Gaza as well as the long-suffering hostages and their families,” the statement read. “The time has come to conclude the ceasefire and hostages and detainees release deal.”
Palestinian death toll climbs to 39,755
At least 39,755 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
On Oct. 7, about 1,200 Israelis were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage.
IDF soldiers accused of abusing Palestinian prisoners denied release
Five Israel Defense Forces soldiers who are in custody under suspicion of aggravated abuse of a Palestinian prisoner have been denied release by a military court on Thursday, according to the IDF.
The Military Court of Appeals approved the detention of the suspects until Sunday, stating that from the evidence presented, there is “reasonable suspicion of the commission of the acts attributed to them. The military court also determined that there was a clear cause of danger from the attributed acts,” the IDF said.
United Nations experts have called the reported widespread torture of Palestinian detainees a “preventable crime against humanity.”
“Reports of alleged torture and sexual violence in Israel’s Sde Teiman prison are grossly illegal and revolting, but they only represent the tip of the iceberg, independent human rights experts warned,” U.N. experts said on Tuesday.
Around 9,500 Palestinians, including hundreds of children and women, are currently imprisoned — about one-third of them without charge or trial, according to the U.N.
27 killed in Gaza, IDF says Hamas weapons workshop found in Khan Younis
At least 27 people were killed in different parts of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. Of those killed, 18 Palestinians were killed in eastern and central Khan Yunis.
The Israeli Defense Forces said they found a Hamas weapons manufacturing workshop in a tunnel below Khan Yunis in a statement Wednesday.
-ABC News’ Diaa Ostaz and Jordana Miller
Egypt advises airlines to avoid Iranian airspace
Egypt has issued a notice to all Egyptian airlines to not fly over Iranian airspace at times when Iran is conducting military exercises on Wednesday and Thursday.
59.3% buildings in Gaza Strip damaged or destroyed, CUNY analysis shows
A new map based on open-access satellite data shows the damage across the Gaza Strip through July 27, where an estimated 59.3% of buildings have been damaged or destroyed since Oct. 5, 2023.
According to the analysis, most of the destruction in July was in Rafah, where 750 additional buildings were damaged or destroyed last month, bringing the total infrastructural damage in the southernmost city of Gaza to 45.4%.
The damage analysis of the Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite data was done by Corey Scher of CUNY Graduate Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University.
-ABC News’ Camilla Alcini
2 killed, 6 injured in Israeli strike on southern Lebanon
At least two people were killed and six others were injured in an Israeli drone raid on the town of Joya in southern Lebanon Wednesday.
The attack comes as Israel awaits a military response from Hezbollah or Iran after it assassinated leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas.
Hezbollah said it carried out three retaliatory strikes on northern Israel on Wednesday — attacking the Al-Raheb site with artillery shells, the Jal Al-Alam site with artillery shells and the Al-Malikiyah site with rockets.
IDF calls Sinwar terrorist following appointment, remains committed to killing him
Shortly after Hamas announced it appointed Yahya Sinwar as a the head of its political bureau after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, a spokesperson for the IDF said Israel remains committed to killing him.
“Yahya Sinwar is a terrorist, who is responsible for the most brutal terrorist attack in history – October 7th. There is only one place for Yahya Sinwar, and it is beside Mohammed Deif and the rest of the October 7th terrorists. That is the only place we’re preparing and intending for him,” Daniel Hagari said in an interview with Al-Arabia.
Last Israeli designated missing after Oct. 7 attack confirmed dead
Bilha Yinon, the last hostage who was unaccounted for by the Israeli government, has now been confirmed dead.
Yinon was killed on Oct. 7, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
Yahya Sinwar will replace Haniyeh as head of Hamas political bureau
Hamas has announced that Yahya Sinwar will replace Ismail Haniyeh as the head of the group’s political bureau after Israel’s assassination of Haniyeh. Sinwar was the head of Hamas in Gaza.
Sinwar has a $400,000 bounty on his head following the group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Sinwar was chosen unanimously in negotiations managed by leadership, according to a top Hamas official.
-ABC News’ Nasser Atta and Ghazi Balkiz
‘Hezbollah is obligated to respond’ to Israel, Nasrallah says
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has vowed to respond to the Israeli assassination of senior official Fouad Shukr, and predicted a response from Iran after Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran last week.
“After the assassination of Commander Sayyed Fouad Shukr, Hezbollah is obligated to respond, and the enemy is waiting, anticipating, and calculating that every shout at him is a response. This Israeli weeklong waiting in anticipation — for a Hezb response — is part of the punishment, part of the response,” Nasrallah said in a speech Tuesday.
Multiple IDF troops injured in Rafah, humanitarian road closed
Several Israeli troops were injured and a humanitarian road was shut down after anti-tank missiles were fired toward them during operations in Rafah.
Injured troops have been evacuated to a hospital for medical treatment.
The Kerem Shalom Crossing and the other entry routes for humanitarian aid are operating, according to the IDF.
Lebanon aims to prevent Hezbollah response to avoid wider war, says foreign minister
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said the country is working to ensure that Hezbollah’s response to Israel does not trigger a total war, saying, “It would not benefit any of the countries involved.”
“Only those who want to incite conflict would gain from such a situation. We, as officials, do not want any war. Therefore, if a response is necessary, it should not be collective or so severe that it escalates into a broader conflict,” Bou Habib said.
At least 8 Palestinians killed during Israeli military raids in occupied West Bank
At least eight Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces during military raids in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, Palestinian health authorities said.
Five were killed in the city of Jenin, two in the nearby village of Khafer Dan and one in the city of Bethlehem, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the West Bank.
Earlier, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said at least 15 people were injured during the raid in Jenin on Tuesday. A spokesperson for PRCS told ABC News that the organization’s medical teams were stopped by Israeli troops from reaching the wounded.
ABC News has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment.
-ABC News’ Nasser Atta and Camilla Alcini
Palestinians in West Bank being blocked from medical care: New report
Palestinians in the West Bank are being restricted access to medical care, including for physical injuries and mental trauma, according to a new report from Doctors Without Borders.
“Access to medical care for Palestinians in Hebron is rapidly deteriorating because of restrictions imposed by Israeli forces and violence perpetrated by Israeli soldiers and settlers,” Doctors Without Borders said.
Ministry of Health clinics across Hebron, in the West Bank, have been forced to close, pharmacies have run short of medications and ambulances transporting the sick and wounded have been obstructed and attacked. Faced with restrictions on their movements and the threat of violence, many sick people delay seeing a doctor or have no choice but to stop medical treatments altogether, according to data collected by Doctors Without Borders between June 2023 and April 2024.
“The movement restrictions, and harassment and violence by Israeli forces and settlers, is inflicting immense and unnecessary suffering on Palestinians in Hebron,” said Frederieke van Dongen, the group’s humanitarian affairs manager.
Israeli prisons are ‘network of torture’ for Palestinians: Human rights group
B’tselem, a major Israeli human rights group, published a report alleging that the Israeli prison system has become a “network of torture camps” for Palestinians arrested since Oct. 7.
The group reported abuse including “frequent acts of severe, arbitrary violence; sexual assault; humiliation; deliberate starvation and sleep deprivation.”
The number of Palestinians in Israeli jails and detention centers stands at 9,623, the rights group said, including, 4,781 held without charge. An estimated 60 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody.
The Israeli army and government have denied allegations of systematic abuse, and the prisons service said it is are not aware of the claims in the report.
But, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right minister for national security who is in charge of the prisons service, has long championed the deteriorating conditions in prisons for Palestinian prisoners, who he said are “terrorists,” as a matter of policy.
“Since I assumed the position of Minister of National Security, one of the highest goals I have set for myself is to worsen the conditions of the terrorists in the prisons, and to reduce their rights to the minimum required by law,” he said in July. “Everything published about the abominable conditions of these vile murderers in prison was true.”
In response to claims of overcrowding, Ben-Gvir has advocated the death penalty as a response.
Israel, Hezbollah exchange fire, killing at least five in Lebanon and injuring two in Israel
Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets and drones toward northern Israel on Tuesday morning and afternoon, injuring at least two people, after an earlier Israeli airstrike killed at least five people in southern Lebanon, according to authorities on both sides.
The Lebanese militant group said in separate statements that Tuesday’s attacks against Israel — at least four so far — were carried out both in support of the Palestinian people in the war-torn Gaza Strip and in response to recent Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon.
One of those drones was intercepted by Israeli air defense and the falling shrapnel injured “several civilians” south of Nahariya, the northernmost coastal city of Israel, according to the IDF.
Israel’s Magen David Adam rescue service said its first responders were deployed to the scene and treated a 30-year-old man in serious condition and a 30-year-old woman in mild-to-moderate condition with shrapnel injuries to the lower limbs. Both patients were transported to the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya.
“We saw the male unconscious in the car with a severe head injury from shrapnel. A female who was fully conscious with shrapnel injuries to her lower limbs was in a parking lot nearby,” paramedic Roi Vishna and senior EMT Noam Levi said in a joint statement released by MDA.” We treated the male including ventilating him and providing medications, and evacuated him by MICU in very serious condition to hospital. The female casualty was evacuated in mild to moderate condition.”
Hezbollah launched the counterattacks after an Israeli airstrike on the town of Mifdoun in southern Lebanon killed at least five people on Tuesday morning, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. It was not immediately clear whether civilians were among the casualties.
Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily strikes for the past 10 months amid the ongoing war in Gaza. But regional tensions have soared following last week’s assassinations of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran’s capital and Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur in Lebanon’s capital.
Israel kills another Hezbollah commander
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed on Monday they had killed another Hezbollah commander in a strike on Lebanon. Ali Jamal Aldin Jawad, a commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force, was killed in the strike.
The death was also confirmed by Hezbollah.
“His elimination significantly degrades the capabilities of the Hezbollah terrorist organization to promote and carry out terror activities from southern Lebanon against northern Israel,” the IDF said.
Israel’s killing of a Hezbollah official in Beirut, Fuad Shukr, and a Hamas official in Iran, Ismail Haniyeh, has pushed the Middle East to the brink of further war.
Remains of about 80 deceased Palestinians returned after being taken by IDF
The deceased remains of an estimated 80 Palestinians — which Israeli forces took from Gazan cemeteries to identify whether hostages had been buried there — were returned by the Israel Defense Forces.
The bodies were decomposed beyond recognition, with Gazan officials saying between three and four bodies were in each bag. They will be reburied in a mass grave in Khan Younis.
A Gazan civil defense official on the ground said there is no data as to who these individuals were.
“I wished I could find him, to be at peace,” Suwa Abu Rajilah, a mother who traveled to the site to see if her son, killed in the war, was there. “To say I buried him, but I couldn’t find him.”
-ABC News’ Dia Ostaz
9 UN employees fired after investigation into ties to Oct. 7 attack
The U.N. has fired nine employees following a lengthy investigation into ties to the Oct. 7 attacks, the organization said.
The U.N.’s Office of Internal Oversight Services investigated 19 staff members with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East as part of the probe.
For nine of the staffers, evidence was found that they “may have been involved in the armed attacks,” the U.N. said.
“The employment of these individuals will be terminated in the interests of the Agency,” the organization said in a statement.
There was no evidence or insufficient evidence that the other investigated staffers had been involved, they added.
At least 7 Hezbollah attacks Monday
In another active day on the northern Israeli border, Hezbollah launched at least seven attacks on Monday.
The IDF said they “successfully intercepted” the projectiles, and no injuries were reported.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying in a statement they had launched them “in support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in support of their valiant and honorable resistance.”
The IDF also said Monday that they had “identified a terrorist cell operating a drone in the area of Meiss El Jabal in southern Lebanon.”
“Shortly following the identification, the IAF struck and eliminated the terrorists,” they said.
Israeli officer and soldier injured in aerial attack from Lebanon: IDF
An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officer and a soldier were injured after an aerial attack in northern Israel’s upper Galilee region near Ayelet HaShahar early Monday morning local time, the IDF said in a statement.
The aerial targets crossed from Lebanon, the IDF said.
“Israel Fire Services are currently operating to extinguish a fire that was ignited in the area as a result of the attack,” the IDF said.
Netanyahu says Israel will strike wherever necessary
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel is prepared to stand against attacks from Iran and its proxies.
“Iran and its detractors seek to surround us with a choke ring of terrorism on seven fronts. Their open aggression is insatiable,” Netanyahu said during a state memorial service commemorating the death of Revisionist Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky in 1940.
Netanyahu added, “We are determined to stand against them on every front, in every arena, far and near. “
Netanyahu’s comments came just days after the assassination in Iran of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. He was killed in an explosion on Wednesday at a guest house in Tehran that he was staying in while attending the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian. Israel has not claimed responsibility for Haniyeh’s death.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called for “revenge” against Israel.
Haniyeh’s assassination followed the death of Mohammed Deif, commander of Hamas’ military wing, in a “precise, targeted strike” in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis on July 13. Deif was allegedly one of the masterminds of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
IDF officials also announced that they killed top Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in a precision missile strike Tuesday in Beirut, Lebanon. Officials claim he had been orchestrating drone and rocket attacks on northern Israel, including one on July 27 in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights that killed 12 children and teenagers playing soccer.
“Anyone who murders our citizens, anyone who harms our country, will not be cleared of responsibility,” Netanyahu said Sunday. “He will pay a very heavy price. Our long hand strikes in the Gaza Strip, in Yemen, in Beirut, wherever necessary.”
Netanyahu said Israel’s goals are to “secure our future” and the ensure that hostages taken by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7 attack in Israel are returned home.
“We will continue to press the pedal,” Netanyahu said. “We did not let up from the pressure in all combat areas. We will take an offensive, creative, persistent initiative — until victory comes.”
(NEW YORK) — As the Israel-Hamas war continues, the U.S. military announced it is moving more forces to the Middle East.
The United States and its allies continue to plead for a cease-fire deal while Israel anticipates possible retaliatory action from Iran or Hezbollah following multiple assassinations of top Hamas and Hezbollah leaders in recent weeks.
Here’s how the news is developing:
Biden expects Iran to hold off on retaliatory attack if a cease-fire deal is reached
President Joe Biden addressed the rising tensions in the Middle East Tuesday after U.S. officials warned Iran could launch a retaliatory attack on Israel as early as “this week.”
Biden told reporters he expects Iran to hold off on carrying out a retaliatory attack against Israel if a cease-fire deal with Hamas is reached.
“That’s my expectation, but we’ll see,” Biden said after arriving in New Orleans, LA.
Last week, Biden along with the leaders of Egypt and Qatar jointly called for Israel and Hamas to return to the negotiating table and reach an agreement that would free hostages and end the war in Gaza.
Hamas leaders declined the new set of cease-fire conditions on Sunday, asking for negotiations to resume around what was presented in July.
US approves $20 billion more in arms sales to Israel
The U.S. State Department has signed off on several large arms transfers to Israel, notifying Congress on Tuesday that it has approved the sale of more than $20 billion worth of weaponry and military equipment.
All of the sales surpass the value threshold that requires the State Department to formally notify Congress 15 days before initiating the transfer process. Congress can move to reject the transaction by adopting a joint resolution of disapproval within that timeframe.
Some of the items aren’t scheduled to arrive in Israel for years.
Israeli forces kill two Hezbollah fighters, IDF says
Israeli forces killed two Hezbollah fighters from its Southern Front on Tuesday, the Israeli Defense Forces said in a statement. Hezbollah has confirmed the death of two of their fighters on Tuesday.
These attacks come as Israel awaits a response from Hezbollah and Iran for killings in recent weeks.
CIA director, Biden aide to head to Middle East to salvage hostage talks
Several U.S. officials are headed to the Middle East this week in a bid to de-escalate regional tensions and try to salvage hostage negotiations, as the window for a deal appears to be closing.
CIA Director Bill Burns is expected to arrive in Doha, Qatar, this week, where he will lead a crucial meeting on the hostages, according to a U.S. official. It’s not clear, however, whether a representative of Hamas will attend.
Meanwhile, Brett McGurk, Biden’s top adviser on the Middle East at the White House, was expected to travel separately to Cairo, according to the U.S. official.
Axios first reported the travel plans for Burns and McGurk, noting that McGurk’s plan was to nail down a security plan for the Egypt-Gaza border.
The diplomatic trip also comes as the U.S. has been scrambling to revive a coalition of countries that helped to defend Israel last April during an attack by Iran.
Israel has been bracing for Iran to launch a retaliatory attack following the assassination of a senior Hamas official in Tehran.
The U.S. official acknowledged “there have been complications” with getting some of the Arab countries on board but added they’ve been “able to put in place preparations” to defend Israel successfully.
-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty
Western leaders call on Iran to ‘stand down’
The leaders of the U.S., U.K., France, Germany and Italy called on Iran to “stand down” and expressed their support for Israel’s defense “against Iranian aggression” during a call on Monday, according to a joint statement released by the White House.
“We called on Iran to stand down its ongoing threats of a military attack against Israel and discussed the serious consequences for regional security should such an attack take place,” the statement said.
The leaders also expressed their support for ongoing efforts to reach a cease-fire and hostage release deal in Gaza, according to the statement.
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Hostage deal talks expected to move forward: State Department
As the Middle East continues its uneasy wait for Iran’s response to the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, the State Department is pressing on with its high-stakes diplomatic campaign to constrain military action from Tehran amid fresh waves of uncertainty.
“We continue to work diplomatically to prevent any major escalation in this conflict,” deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters Monday. “We obviously don’t want to see any kind of attack or response happen in the first place.”
Multiple officials within the State Department said they are still cautiously optimistic that Iran will limit the scope of its retaliation, but that they increasingly expect the country will strike at Israel before Thursday — the date the Biden administration, along with Egypt and Qatar, set to relaunch hostage/cease-fire deal talks in hopes of bringing Israel and Hamas back to the table for a final push.
A joint statement issued by the mediators last week was designed not only to pressure the parties involved, but as a message to Iran that an agreement was in the offing meant to persuade the country against military action that could scuttle a deal, according to an official.
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby also publicly warned Monday that Iranian military action could impede progress at a critical point in the negotiations.
However, Hamas’ earlier announcement that it would not participate in the round of negotiations and public infighting among top Israeli officials have cast significant doubt over whether the Thursday meeting will even happen — undercutting the administration’s intended message to Tehran.
At the podium Monday, Patel said mediators “fully expect talks to move forward as they should” in order to “bring this deal to conclusion.”
He declined to say whether Hamas or Israel was the bigger impediment.
“I’m not going to color it one way or the other,” Patel said while noting that “the prime minister of Israel immediately welcomed this initiative and confirmed that the Israeli team will be there, and they’ll be prepared to finalize the details of implementing the deal.”
-ABC News’ Shannon K. Kingston
Retaliatory attack on Israel could come ‘this week’: Kirby
A United States assessment shows a retaliatory attack by Iran and its proxies against Israel could be launched “this week,” the White House said Monday.
“We share the same concerns and expectations that our Israeli counterparts have with respect to potential timing here. Could be this week,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters. “We’re continuing to watch it very, very closely.”
Kirby said it’s difficult to ascertain what a potential attack could look like at this time but that “we have to be prepared for what could be a significant set of attacks.”
Meanwhile, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari told reporters on Monday that Israel remains “on high alert.”
“We take seriously the threats of our enemies and that is why we are on high alert offensively and defensively,” he said.
Hagari said the IDF will “work hard to give the public time to get organized.”
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Netanyahu accuses defense minister of ‘adopting anti-Israel narrative’
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant appeared to take a swing at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a Knesset committee meeting about Israel’s response to ongoing cross-border tensions with Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
“I hear all the heroes with the war drums, the ‘absolute victory’ and this gibberish,” Gallant reportedly said, alluding to Netanyahu’s slogan through the war, according to Israeli media.
Netanyahu’s office released a statement shortly after, saying Gallant too is bound by the policy of “absolute victory.”
“When Gallant adopts the anti-Israel narrative, he hurts the chances of reaching a deal for the release of the abductees,” the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said. “He should have attacked [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar, who refuses to send a delegation to the negotiations, and who was and remains the only obstacle to the kidnapping deal.”
National Unity Party Chairman Benny Gantz warned about internal divisions in Israel during an address on Monday.
“If we don’t come to our senses, there will be a civil war here,” Gantz said.
He said there have been “heroes,” from soldiers to volunteers, in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack, but also “leadership that dissolves, networks that poison the well from which we live.”
“The patriotic Israeli majority should stop the hatred and make amends,” Gantz said.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Hezbollah says it is still determined to attack Israel
While the weekend passed with no direct retaliation from Hezbollah for the killings of several top leaders by Israeli strikes, the group said it still plans to strike.
“The response is coming and inevitable and there is no turning back from it,” Ali Damoush, the deputy chairman of the Executive Council of Hezbollah, said Monday.
The Hezbollah official saif America, Great Britain, Germany and everyone who supplies Israel with weapons is a partner in the Gaza massacres.
“Israel does not find any practical and serious response to its massacres, and this is what encourages it to continue committing crimes and massacres, and without effective pressure Netanyahu will not stop his crimes,” Damoush claimed.
Israeli Air Force bans travel abroad
Amid fears that an attack from Iran may be imminent, the commander of Israel’s Air Force, Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, has issued an order barring servicemembers from traveling abroad. The directive applies to career officers and non-commissioned officers, not conscripts, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
US is ‘strengthening’ military force in Middle East over ‘escalating’ tensions
The U.S. is “strengthening” its capabilities in the Middle East by sending an additional guided missile submarine to the region “in light of escalating regional tensions,” according to a statement from Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder issued on Sunday.
The update comes the same day Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant.
“Secretary Austin reiterated the United States’ commitment to take every possible step to defend Israel,” according to the statement.
Secretary Austin ordered the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, equipped with F-35C fighters, to accelerate its transit to the Middle East, which was previously expected to get there by the end of the month.
The Lincoln was already en route to replace the USS Theodore Roosevelt, but will now add to the capabilities of the Roosevelt
Additionally, Austin has ordered the USS Georgia guided missile submarine to the Middle East.
The statement doesn’t say how soon the Lincoln or the USS Georgia will arrive in the region.
Israeli forces intercept ‘projectiles’ crossing from Lebanon, no injuries: IDF
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) intercepted approximately 30 “projectiles” that were identified as crossing from Lebanon into northern Israel early Monday morning local time, the IDF said in a statement.
No injuries were reported from the attacks, the IDF said.
“The IDF is striking the sources of fire,” the IDF added.
(LONDON) — Israel’s military has conducted at least eight airstrikes in recent months in an area it designated as an expanded humanitarian zone, an ABC News investigation has found using verified videos, photos and personal testimonies.
Israeli officials confirmed the strikes to ABC News, but maintained they were efforts to destroy Hamas militants, commanders and infrastructure hidden within Palestinian neighborhoods. The strikes examined by ABC News all together killed at least 110 people, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, and hit hospitals in the safe zone that treated victims.
International observers said the strikes, which occurred over a period of weeks, raised questions about whether Israel had intentionally targeted areas where they directed civilians to take refuge. Doing so could be a war crime, according to international law experts.
Muntaha Zaqzouq, 20, moved to this expanded humanitarian area from the southern Gaza city of Rafah after the Israel Defense Forces warned civilians to go there.
At least 800,000 people fled Rafah in May, the majority of whom found shelter in the expanded humanitarian area, according to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, which works with Palestinian refugees.
Zaqzouq and her two siblings were in their tent in the courtyard of a school when a bomb fell nearby, on July 3, she told ABC News in an interview. The siblings rushed to each other’s side, huddling together inside the tent, before a second bomb ripped apart their tent, she said.
“When the dust started to clear, I looked and found my brother full of blood. I looked at myself and found that I was full of blood, my T-shirt, and my legs had blood on them,” she said.
Zaqzouq’s brother needed 35 stitches to his head, and she herself needed stitches to her leg, she said.
Satellite images and ABC News video corroborate Zaqzouq’s story, showing two strikes north of the school where she was living with her siblings, and her tent shredded.
She and her family had moved six times before settling in the safe zone in Khan Younis, near Nasser hospital, she told ABC News. She said the IDF did not warn them before the bombings.
“No one warned us, no one said that there would be a strike, and they did not call anyone. The strike happened suddenly and the square was full of people sitting outside,” she said.
The IDF told ABC News it “struck a terrorist infrastructure at the provided coordinates.”
As the IDF launched its ground operation in Rafah in May, the Israeli military announced the expansion of an official humanitarian area where the city’s residents could go to be safe.
In a May 6 post on social platform X, the IDF spokesperson for Arabic Media released a map of the designated humanitarian area, which had been expanded to include not just Al-Mawasi, a small area in the southwest of Gaza, but also the western parts of the nearby city of Khan Younis and the entire city of Deir al-Balah to the north.
“For your safety, the IDF calls on you to evacuate immediately to the expanded humanitarian zone,” the post said.
Confirming the borders of the humanitarian area, the IDF in June referred ABC News to their website which has an interactive map of Gaza with the humanitarian zone outlined. Text on the page, referring to following IDF instructions related to the map, reads, “Residents of Gaza! It is a safe way to preserve your safety, your lives, and the lives of your families.”
The IDF amended the boundaries of the humanitarian area on July 22 and again on July 27, removing portions to the east of the “safe zone,” because of what it said was “significant terrorist activity and rocket fire toward the State of Israel from the eastern part of the Humanitarian Area in the Gaza Strip.” None of the IDF airstrikes examined by ABC News occurred in these areas.
ABC News asked the IDF about eight specific airstrikes in the humanitarian area.
“The IDF does not aim to strike humanitarian areas as such,” the IDF told ABC News in June, saying that Palestinian militants use civilian infrastructure for military purposes, but that, “Nevertheless, and on account of the concentrated presence of civilians in these areas, the approval process for these strikes is more stringent.”
In another statement to ABC News in July, the IDF accused Hamas of increasing “its military presence and operations from humanitarian zones,” including firing rockets toward Israel.
The rules around strikes on safe zones are clear, according to David Crane, an American international law expert who has prosecuted war crimes for the United Nations.
“There’s no gray area, it’s black and white,” he told ABC News. “If you intentionally target a safe zone where there are civilians, that’s a war crime.”
Janina Dill, co-director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law, and Armed Conflict, said that there are strict legal rules under international humanitarian law, which is based on rules laid out in the Geneva Conventions, for what is considered a safe zone. She said she believes “Israel’s so-called safe zones do not easily meet the criteria of any of these legally recognized areas.” Thus, strikes in this area would not alone be enough to designate a war crime, she said.
She said that when Israel creates “safe zones” it can be seen as the military attempting to fulfill its legal obligations to warn civilians before attacks in combat areas.
Dill said that attacks in areas designated by Israel as safe “that kill a lot of civilians weaken the legal framing of the evacuation orders as improving the safety of the civilian population.”
Dill also said that when “reasonably foreseeable” civilian casualties are greater than the military advantage of an attack, the attack is prohibited under international law. This is called the “principle of proportionality,” and Dill said when civilians are displaced to an area Israel designated as safe, civilian casualties from attacks in that area are necessarily “reasonably foreseeable.”
She said that “it is very possible that some of these attacks in safe zones are war crimes because they are clearly disproportionate, or they could also be indiscriminate. However, generally, criminality can definitively only be established in and by a court of law.”
Palestinian journalists and Gaza residents who were near three of the strike sites in the humanitarian zone told ABC News they had received messages from the IDF warning them to evacuate the building before an imminent strike. Within a few hours, videos verified by ABC News show the buildings were destroyed by IDF airstrikes.
The IDF told ABC News they were targeting military infrastructure belonging to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad at each of the three sites where prior warning was given.
An IDF airstrike in northwest Rafah killed at least 45 people on May 26, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. The IDF said it had not conducted that strike within the borders of the humanitarian area.
“Contrary to circulating reports, we carried out the aforementioned strike outside the area considered a humanitarian zone to which we invited residents to move,” an IDF spokesperson wrote in Arabic on X on May 26.
But two days before, on May 24, the IDF dropped a bomb on a tent camp in Al Mawasi, in the center of the humanitarian area.
A journalist within a few hundred yards at the time of the strike told ABC News people received warning to evacuate before the strike and that no one was killed as a result.
Verified video filmed in the aftermath of the strike shows the massive crater left behind, and people attempting to dig up destroyed tents and belongings.
A woman who witnessed a strike in Khan Younis on June 20, who did not want to share her name for fear for her safety, told the ABC News team in Gaza, “People here came to the Khan Younis area and Nasser Hospital on the basis that it is a safe area. Schools for displaced people have been evacuated.”
Two of the strikes where warnings were given were within 100 feet of schools housing displaced people. Videos from Khan Younis show destruction at the nearby school, with parts of the walls missing and debris covering beds.
Other strikes, including five that ABC News has studied, were not preceded by IDF warnings, witnesses and victims said. ABC News provided the IDF with the details of deadly strikes for which there were no public warnings, but the IDF declined to specify whether precautions were taken to minimize civilian harm in those cases.
Several explosions followed by clouds of smoke sent people running in the Al Mawasi area of Gaza on July 13, as seen in social media videos from the scene, that were verified as authentic.
First responders in ambulances and fire trucks rushed toward the scene. As they arrived, another explosion rang out, video shows, this one on the street where medics had stopped, north of the first strike.
ABC News’ cameras captured dozens of people, including women, children and first responders, rushing into the nearby Nasser Hospital. Ninety people were killed and 300 injured in this attack, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said.
The IDF said the strike was targeting Mohammed Deif, the commander of Hamas’ military wing and a key figure behind the Oct. 7 attack. An Israeli official also told ABC News that they believe “that many of the casualties were also terrorists.”
The strike was one of the deadliest single events of the war.
“There is no ‘safe’ or ‘humanitarian’ zone in Gaza. These ‘designations’ were misleading and deceiving,” the commissioner general of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, said following the strike.
An earlier IDF airstrike on July 2 hit a home in Deir al-Balah, killing 13 people, including four children and two women, according to the nearby Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the bodies were taken.
Video from the scene shows rescuers digging through the rubble of the upper floors of the house, where the walls appear to have been blown out.
The IDF told ABC News that it “struck a terrorist operative in a military building” but did not comment on the deaths of the women and children also in the building or whether specific measures to avoid harming civilians were taken in this strike.
Another strike on June 14 hit another home in Deir al-Balah not far from the Al Aqsa hospital, videos show. Two people were killed, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
Verified videos filmed by local journalists show at least four children being rescued from the building. People are seen digging through rubble to free two of them. Once one girl is freed, the footage shows her taken to an ambulance, where a young boy, blood covering his face, is already on a stretcher.
One video also shows an unconscious woman being rushed to a waiting ambulance, and medical responders attending to an elderly woman emerging from the building.
Asked about this strike, the IDF told ABC News that it “struck a military infrastructure at the coordinate provided.”
The IDF told ABC News that Palestinian militant groups “embed their military objects strategically in, near, and under civilian infrastructure including humanitarian zones.” The IDF also claims Hamas members routinely use Palestinian civilians as human shields.
Dill, the Oxford international law expert, said that civilian casualties must still be taken into account in these situations.
“If an attack against this Hamas member would be disproportionate – due to the use of civilians as human shields in a safe zone – this attack would still be prohibited,” Dill said. “The violation of international law by one party to a conflict does not release the other party from its own obligations neither does it – generally – weaken these obligations.”
Crane, the former UN prosecutor, said safe zones should always be protected.
“If you have safe zones and you have civilians moving into the safe zones, with the understanding that they will not be targeted, that’s important,” he said. “If Israel or Hamas or any, any party to the conflict, if they violate that, then they are in fact committing war crimes.”