Israel-Gaza war live: 'Day of disruption' begins in Israel as war enters tenth month

Israelis began protests outside politicians' homes on Sunday, exactly nine months since the war began, as a "day of disruption" got under way.

Crowds gathered outside the homes of Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana and government minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf, among others, calling for a ceasefire deal in Gaza and the return of Israeli hostages held in the enclave.

Protests are also expected to take place outside the army headquarters in Tel Aviv.

It comes as part of a "week of resistance" organised by Israeli activists, who gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday to rally against the government and push for a deal with Hamas.

Air strikes concentrated on central Gaza between Saturday and Sunday morning, killing 55 people in the ministry's 24-hour reporting period.

Another 123 people were wounded, taking the total number of injured to 87,828.

One person was seriously wounded by rocket shrapnel in northern Israel on Sunday, according to Israel's emergency services, as rocket launches from Lebanon sparked fires near the Sea of Galilee.

A 28-year-old man was taken to hospital after being injured in the Galilee area, Israel's ambulance service said on X.

The army said dozens of rockets had been fired, while fires were reported in several communities around Tiberias.

The Iran-backed group named Maytham Mustafa Al Attar as the commander killed. Israel said it had targeted the commander in Baalbek, 100km north of the border with Israel.

An Israeli army statement claimed he had been trained by Iran and had expertise in air defences.

The attack follows a major escalation last week, when Hezbollah retaliated over the killing of Muhammad Neamah Naser, a senior commander, by launching 200 rockets and several drones into Israel. The number of missiles fired in one of the biggest attacks to date reached the daily peak of the 34-day Lebanon-Israel war in 2006.

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Tank tracks still fresh on his field in southern Gaza's coastal area of Al-Mawasi, Nedal Abu Jazar lamented the damage war has wrought on his trees and crops.

"Look at the destruction," the 39-year-old farmer told AFP, holding an uprooted tomato plant.

He pointed to his greenhouse's metal frame and its white plastic sheeting strewn across the plot, inside an area designated a humanitarian zone by the Israeli army.

"People were sitting peacefully on their farmland ... and suddenly tanks arrived and fired at us, and then there were strikes."

Abu Jazar said the Israeli operation in late June destroyed about 10 acres of land and killed five workers.

Across Gaza, 57 per cent of agricultural land has been damaged since the war began, according to a joint assessment published in June by the UN's agriculture and satellite imagery agencies, FAO and UNOSAT.

-AFP

Six people were killed in a strike on a home in Sheikh Radwan, north of Gaza city, while the bodies of three people were recovered after a strike on a home in the city's western Mina neighbourhood.

It came hours after six people were killed in a strike on the central town of Al Zuwayda.

Four others were wounded in strikes on the Radi family home in Nuseirat refugee camp.

Shelling was also reported at Nuseirat and Al Bureij refugee camp.

Israeli forces arrested at least 16 people in a dawn raid near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian media has reported.

Soldiers raided dozens of homes, vandalised property, beat residents and smashed windows in the town of Silwad, east of Ramallah, according to the official Wafa news agency.

It said 16 young men were arrested, including several people from the Murshid and Abu Al Ezz families.

An Israeli air strike on a home in central Gaza killed six people overnight, the official Wafa news agency has reported.

Others were wounded in the attack on the Jawada family home in the town of Al Zawayda, the agency said.

Four people were also injured in strikes on Nuseirat refugee camp.

Three people were wounded after missile strikes on Khan Younis' post office, resulting in a fire which spread to a nearby displacement camp, Wafa added.

More than 38,000 people have been killed across Gaza since October, according to the enclave's Health Ministry.

Nagham Mohanna reports:

History seems to be repeating itself in the Gaza war, with Israeli forces deliberately attacking and destroying Palestinian heritage and history.

A vast trove of books were looted from Palestinian public and private libraries after the mass dispossession of Palestinians in 1948, which is known as the Nakba.

Between 1948 and 1982 Israel seized about 38,000 films, 2.7 million photos, 96,000 recordings, and 46,000 maps and aerial photographs from Palestinian archives and personal libraries, according to Palestinian historians.

And now Israeli forces have been bombing most of the enclave's public libraries and research centres, which contain thousands of documents and archives, often rare and irreplaceable.

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Egypt will host Israeli and US delegations to discuss "outstanding issues" in a possible Gaza ceasefire deal, Egypt's state-affiliated Al Qahera News TV has said.

Citing a senior official, Al Qahera News said Egypt was conducting talks with Hamas to conclude ceasefire and hostages-for-prisoners swap deals. 

At the scene, Ayman al-Atouneh told Reuters: "We came here running to see the targeted area, we saw bodies of children, in pieces, this is a playground, there was a trampoline here, there were swing-sets and vendors.”

The Health Ministry updated the initial death toll from 13.

Mahmoud Basal, spokesman of the Gaza Civil Emergency Service, said the number of dead could rise because many of the wounded were in critical condition.

The Israeli military said it took precautions to minimise risk to civilians before it targeted gunmen who were using the area as a hideout. Hamas denied its fighters were there.

Israel carried out deadly air strikes in Gaza on Saturday and engaged in combat with Hamas fighters, while to the north it exchanged fire with Hezbollah militants across the Lebanese border. The fighting raged as diplomatic efforts to halt the war, which will enter its 10th month on Sunday, continued with Israel saying on Friday it would send a delegation next week to continue talks with Qatari mediators. There has been no truce since a one-week pause in November during which 80 Israeli hostages were freed in return for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.The war continued unabated on Saturday, with Israel's military saying it had conducted operations across much of the Gaza Strip, including Shujaiya in the north, Deir Al Balah in central Gaza and Rafah in the south.

Shujaiya is among the areas the military had previously declared to be cleared of Hamas, but where fighting is again taking place.

-AFP

At least two people were killed in Israeli artillery shelling in Gaza city's Al Zeitoun neighbourhood on Saturday, Wafa news agency reported.

Local sources said Israeli artillery targeted the area around the district's Salba junction, also injuring several others.

Six Palestinians were killed and two others injured in an Israeli air strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, Wafa news agency reported.

Local sources said the strike targeted a vehicle in the Al Shakoush area in north-western Rafah.

Children in Gaza can spend between six and eight hours a day collecting water and food, often carrying heavy loads and walking long distances, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said.

Sanitation and infrastructure are severely compromised, forcing thousands of families to rely on seawater to wash, clean and drink, the agency said on X.