The Times of Israel is liveblogging Friday’s events as they happen.
Hamas urges attacks on Israelis following death of jailed leader
The Hamas terror group is calling for supporters to carry out violent attacks against Israelis to avenge the death of a leader of the group who in Israeli custody.
Mustafa Muhammad Abu Ara, 63, a senior Hamas figure in the West Bank, died after being transferred to a hospital from the Ramon jail in southern Israel, Palestinian officials said early Friday.
Hamas claims in a statement that Abu Ara is the victim of a “slow killing,” alleging that Israeli prison officials refused to provide him medical treatment for an unspecified chronic condition.
“We call on all fighters to aim bullets and explosives at occupation soldiers and settlers in revenge for the blood of the martyr and other righteous martyrs,” the terror group says.
There is no comment from Israel.
Biden discussed closing remaining gaps in hostage deal with Netanyahu — White House
WASHINGTON — US President Joe Biden in his meeting earlier today with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “expressed the need to close the remaining gaps” in the negotiations for a hostage release and ceasefire agreement in order to bring about “a durable end to the war in Gaza,” the White House says.
Biden “also raised the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the need to remove any obstacles to the flow of aid and restoring basic services for those in need and the critical importance of protecting civilian lives during military operations,” a White House statement says.
The president “reaffirmed the US ironclad commitment to Israel’s security against all threats from Iran and its proxies, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis,” it says.
Netanyahu’s office has not yet issued a statement on the meeting.
Overnight rocket siren in Gaza-area community declared false alarm
A rocket siren that sounded near the Gaza periphery was a false alarm, the Israel Defense Forces says.
Sirens had rang out at 3 a.m. in the community of Yated, some five kilometers (three miles) from the Gaza border.
Israeli demands in hostage talks complicating deal, sources say
Officials speaking to Reuters say changes to a hostage deal proposal demanded by Israel have complicated efforts to reach a final deal to halt nine months of combat and free over 100 hostages held in Gaza since October 7 or longer.
According to a Western official and a Palestinian and two Egyptian sources, Israel wants displaced Palestinians to be screened as they return to the enclave’s north when a ceasefire begins, retreating from an agreement to allow civilians who fled south to freely return home.
Israeli negotiators “want a vetting mechanism for civilian populations returning to the north of Gaza, where they fear these populations could support” Hamas fighters who remain entrenched there, the Western official says.
Hamas has rejected the Israeli demand, according to the Palestinian and Egyptian sources.
Another sticking point, Egyptian sources say, is over Israel’s demand to retain control of Gaza’s border with Egypt, which Cairo says is also outside the contours of what the sides have agreed to.
The Israel Defense Forces says the nine-mile (14 km) strip of land, referred to as the Philadelphi corridor, hosts smuggling tunnels through which Hamas has received weapons and other supplies. Egypt says it destroyed tunnel networks leading to Gaza years ago and created a buffer zone and border fortifications that prevent smuggling.
The last several days have seen efforts to “work around” that issue, either through an Israeli withdrawal “or there could be some understanding about how that is managed,” says the Western official, who does not elaborate.
Israel has long demanded the deal include a mechanism to control access to Gaza’s north, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has for weeks insisted that he will not agree to withdraw troops from the Philadelphi corridor.
Relatives of hostages who met with Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden Thursday said they had been told that an updated Israeli proposal was slated to be sent to Hamas within days.
Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri also rejects the assertion from a senior Biden administration official who said Wednesday that Hamas had yet to detail “the hostages who are going to come out” in the first phase of a deal.
“The US administration is trying to cover up for Netanyahu’s undermining of the deal by saying there are things demanded from the two sides. This isn’t true,” he says.
Hamas leader in West Bank dies in Israeli custody
A Hamas leader in the West Bank has died in Israeli custody after a deterioration in his health condition, the Palestinian Commission of Detainees Affairs says in a statement.
Mustafa Muhammad Abu Ara, 63, died after being transferred to a hospital from the Ramon jail in southern Israel, the PA body says.
“Before his arrest, he was suffering from serious health problems and needed intensive medical follow-up. However, from the moment of his arrest, Sheikh Abu Ara, like all prisoners, has faced unprecedented crimes … since the beginning of the war of extermination,” the commission says.
⚡️ Martyrdom of #Hamas leader Sheikh Mustafa Abu Ara in the occupation prisons.
Sheikh Mustafa is from the first generation of #Hamas in the West Bank. pic.twitter.com/XxuK63bTOV
— Middle East Observer (@ME_Observer_) July 25, 2024
Abu Ara was arrested in October, and spent a total of 12 years behind bars, according to Hamas.
There is no immediate comment from Israel.
Harris says she told PM ‘time to get deal done,’ vows to speak up on Gazan suffering
WASHINGTON — US Vice President Kamala Harris says there “there has been hopeful movement” hostage talks and that she told Prime Minister Netanyahu in their meeting earlier today at the White House that “it is time to get this deal done.”
Harris makes the comments in her first major public remarks regarding the Israel-Hamas war since she became the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee.
The vice president makes a point of reading out the names of all eight American-Israel hostages still held captive by Hamas — something no US official has done in this manner.
Harris says she has met several times with their families, telling them, “they are not alone, and I stand with them.”
“Let’s get the deal done, so we can get a ceasefire to end the war. Let’s bring the hostages home, and let’s provide much needed relief to the Palestinian people,” she says.
The vice president says she had a “frank and constructive” conversation with Netanyahu during which she pledged to him that she will “always ensure that Israel is able to defend itself,” including from Iran and its proxies.
Highlighting her long history with the state of Israel, Harris recalls how she raised money as a child to plant trees in the Jewish state. It has been a go-to anecdote for her in engagements with pro-Israel audiences and it seems she’ll be using the recollection the way US President Joe Biden has with his story about meeting former prime minister Golda Meir as a young senator.
“From when I was a young girl, collecting funds to plant trees for Israel, to my time in the United States Senate and now at the White House, I’ve had an unwavering commitment to the existence of the State of Israel, to its security, and to the people of Israel,” Harris says in an apparent effort to boast her pro-Israel bonafides amid a drumbeat of reports that she has served as the bad-cop foil to Biden — a narrative US officials have dismissed to The Times of Israel.
“Israel has a right to defend itself and how it does so matters,” she says.
Harris brands Hamas a “brutal terror organization” that triggered the ongoing war with its October 7 onslaught, noting that it included “horrific acts of sexual violence.”
At the same time, she expresses her “serious concern about the scale of human suffering in Gaza, including the death of far too many innocent civilians.”
“I made clear my serious concern about the dire humanitarian situation there with over two million people are facing high levels of food insecurity,” she adds.
“What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating. The images of dead children and desperate hungry people fleeing for safety — sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time.”
“We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent.”
Harris says she remains committed to “a path forward that can lead to a two-state solution,” acknowledging that it cannot be reached immediately but that it is still the best framework for both sides.
Addressing the American public, she urges it to remember that the Israel-Hamas war “is not a binary issue.”
“I asked my fellow Americans to help encourage efforts to acknowledge the complexity, the nuance and the history of the region,” she says.
“Let us all condemn terrorism and violence. Let us all do what we can to prevent the suffering of innocent civilians, and let us condemn antisemitism, Islamophobia and hate of any kind,” Harris adds.
Netanyahu-Harris meeting ends after 40 minutes
A meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Vice President Kamala Harris has ended after 40 minutes, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office says.