The Times of Israel is liveblogging Saturday’s events as they happen.
Kuwait calls on its citizens in Lebanon to leave ASAP
Kuwait’s foreign ministry calls on its citizens in Lebanon to leave the country as soon as possible, amid concerns that recently escalating skirmishes between Israel and Hezbollah could descend into full-scale war.
Netanyahu: ‘Gays for Gaza an absurdity. If you’re gay there, you’ll be shot in the back of the head’
Ahead of his address to Congress next month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slams anti-Israel protesters in the United States, lamenting a recent poll in which some 20 percent of respondents say they back Hamas over Israel in the war in Gaza.
“Who are they supporting — these murderers, these rapists of women, the beheaders of babies, the burning of innocent civilians, the taking of hostages, including Holocaust survivors,” Netanyahu says in an interview with Punchbowl News. “There’s obviously an issue that affects parts of American society that challenges not Israel but challenges America.”
He adds: “The people who protest with these killers … You have Gays for Gaza. That’s an absurdity if I’ve ever heard one. If you are gay in Gaza, you’ll be shot in the back of the head. Women for Gaza. What are women in Gaza — they’re chattel and other such absurdities.”
Netanyahu’s remarks came in response to question about what his goal was for his upcoming speech, with the interviewer asking how we would address criticism that it would be partisan in light of the decision by some Democrats to boycott the July 24 address.
“I’m not a partisan, I’m not a Republican or a Democrat. I’m an Israeli patriot, and I speak on behalf of the Israeli people,” the premier says. “I intend to speak to the broad spectrum of the American people and to cull bipartisan support that is still solid in America and we need it to stay solid.”
IDF says ‘no indication’ it launched deadly strike on Gaza tent camp; Red Cross office damaged
An a military spokesman says “there is no indication” that Israeli forces carried out a deadly strike in an area of Gaza where hundreds of displaced Palestinians are living in tents.
“An initial inquiry conducted suggests that there is no indication that a strike was carried out by the IDF in the humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi. The incident is under review,” the IDF spokesman tells AFP.
The International Committee of the Red Cross says 22 people were killed in the shelling. The ICRC doesn’t specify who fired the “heavy calibrer projectiles” but in a statement on social media platform X says the shells “damaged the structure of the ICRC office” in Gaza.
It says 22 bodies and 45 wounded were taken to a nearby Red Cross field hospital after the shelling, and there are “reports of additional casualties.”
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says there are 25 dead and 50 injured in the shelling, which it blamed on Israel.
French prosecutors charge teens for planning terror attack on Jewish targets
PARIS — French prosecutors have charged a 19-year-old man and a youth in the Paris region with planning a terrorist attack on Jewish targets, a judicial source tells AFP.
While no details on the pair have been released, French anti-terrorist investigators have expressed increased concern over the young age of some suspects detained in recent months for planning terror attacks.
The 19-year-old has been charged with “terrorist conspiracy” to commit attacks and the “acquisition and possession of arms for a terrorist enterprise,” says the judicial source, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The youth aged under 18 was detained on June 13, the source says.
The pair made contact on social media and were planning a “a violent action notably aiming at Jewish targets,” says the source without giving details on the plot.
Anti-terrorism investigators say a growing number of youths have been held in recent months for preparing attacks.
French politicians have also condemned a growing number of attacks on the country’s Jewish community, the biggest outside Israel and the United States.
Outrage has been expressed over the rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in a park in the Paris suburbs last Saturday. Two 13-year-old boys have been charged with rape and making antisemetic insults.
UN chief says most aid going into Gaza is being looted amid ‘total lawlessness’
The United Nations chief says that “total lawlessness” and “chaos” in Gaza is preventing the distribution of humanitarian aid within the enclave, which is why an immediate ceasefire is needed.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres tells reporters that “most of the trucks with humanitarian aid inside Gaza are now looted because this is a war that is different from any other one.”
“We have attacks, we have bombings, and then troops move to other places,” he says. “Hamas returns to the original ones and there is total chaos in Gaza, and there is no authority in most of the territory.” He adds that “Israel does not even allow the so-called blue police to escort our convoys because it’s local police linked to the local administration [Hamas], so lawlessness is total.”
The UN chief also stresses that those obstacles pose “extreme difficulty” to distribute aid.
“There must be a mechanism, guarantee that there is a minimum of law and order that allows for that (aid) distribution to take place and that’s why a cease-fire is so necessary,” he said.