Israel war on Gaza updates: Health Ministry declares polio epidemic in Gaza

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Read an analysis on how the Israel-Hezbollah conflict could escalate after the occupied Golan Heights attack, here.

Read more about the polio epidemic declared in Gaza, here.

And, to follow our continuing live coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza, click here.

This live page will close soon. Here’s a recap of today’s events:

• Gaza’s Health Ministry declared a polio epidemic across Gaza, the latest sign of a worsening public health emergency caused by Israel’s war on the Palestinian territory.
• Israeli protesters, including far-right members of the Knesset, clashed with military police after the detention of at least nine soldiers suspected of abusing a Palestinian prisoner at the Sde Teiman prison.
• The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says that 86 percent of Gaza is currently under evacuation orders, as thousands of people fled the Bureij and Nuseirat refugee camps in central Gaza on Monday after the Israeli army ordered them to leave.
• An Israeli drone attack killed two Hezbollah fighters in the southern Lebanese town of Chaqra, as tensions remain high after the rocket attack on Saturday that killed 12 people, most of them children, in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the UN’s World Health Organization, has posted on X highlighting that “over 10,000” patients in the Gaza Strip need medical evacuations.

Late last week, WHO official Hanan Balkhy said that since Israel closed the Rafah border crossing with Egypt in May, as it began its assault on Gaza’s southernmost city, only 23 patients have been transported abroad for treatment. Balky also said that Gaza’s struggling medical system cannot handle the needs of the severely injured and chronically ill.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has condemned the violent protests against the detention of nine Israeli soldiers accused of abusing Palestinian prisoners in the Sde Teiman prison and he called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to sack ministers that joined the demonstrations.

“We are not on the brink of the abyss, we are in the abyss. All red lines were crossed today,” Lapid said on X.

“If Netanyahu does not fire the ministers who participated in these violent raids today, he is not fit to represent the State of Israel.”

On July 19, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an advisory ruling pertaining to Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Much will go into analysing that ruling, but there is one big question that needs to be asked: How is this reminder of international law, and its position on Israel’s occupation, going to reverberate in the United States particularly, and the West more widely?

Read the analysis from HA Hellyer, a scholar in the Middle East program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, here.

Earlier today, during a news conference, US National Security Adviser John Kirby suggested that the Golan Heights, an area occupied by Israel since 1967, is part of Israel’s territory.

The Arab American Institute says in a statement that those comments are “dangerous” and represent the first indication that the administration of President Joe Biden accepts and endorses the decision of former President Trump to recognise Israel’s sovereignty over the territory.

Trump’s move made the US the first country to recognise Israel’s right to hold the Golan Heights.

“Rules-based order does not allow for the illegal annexation of occupied land –  whether in Ukraine – or Syria, Palestine and Lebanon,” the group’s statement reads.

The Wafa news agency reports that a 62-year-old Palestinian man was beaten up in the occupied West Bank town of Huwara.

Wafa quoted the Palestine Red Crescent, which said that Israeli settlers beat the man as they attacked the town, which is south of the city of Nablus.

Israeli settlers have carried out at least 1,334 attacks against communities in the occupied West Bank in 2024 alone, according to Wafa’s numbers.

It’s been hailed as a “historic moment for the cause of Palestinian liberation”.

Fourteen Palestinian groups, including longtime rivals Fatah and Hamas, signed a deal for “national unity” aimed at maintaining Palestinian control of Gaza once the continuing Israeli assault is over.

What will that mean for Palestine?

Israel has promised that Hezbollah will “pay a heavy price” for a deadly attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Hezbollah denies that it carried out the attack.

Watch our video to learn what’s going on:

The US army’s Central Command (CENTCOM) says its forces successfully destroyed one Iran-aligned Houthi uncrewed aerial vehicle in a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen in the past 24 hours.

“It was determined this weapon presented an imminent threat to U.S. coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region,” CENTCOM’s statement added.

The US has been acting against the Houthis for months as the Yemeni group continues its attacks on commercial shipping in the waters surrounding Yemen and, less frequently, on Israeli territory.

The United Kingdom has advised British nationals to leave Lebanon and not to travel to the country as diplomats race to contain any escalation between Israel and Hezbollah.

“We are advising British nationals to leave Lebanon and not to travel to the country. This is a fast-moving situation,” Foreign Secretary David Lammy posted on X.

Margaret Harris, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization, says a polio variant is spreading rapidly in Gaza due to lack of vaccination access.

“It’s actually a variant that developed originally a long time ago. … Wherever we see it pop up, we do a big vaccination response to it, and that usually shuts it down,” she told Al Jazeera from Geneva.

“But we have to have the security. We have to have the means of getting the vaccine into Gaza and to the children. Vaccines are no good if they’re sitting in a vial or sitting in a truck. So there is an answer, but the answer is we need a ceasefire.”

Abdallah Bou Habib has told CNN that Lebanon has received “assurances” that Israel’s anticipated retaliation for the deadly attack on Majdal Shams in the occupied Golan Heights will not draw Hezbollah into a full-scale war.

Bou Habib said Lebanon was not given specifics by the international actors that provided this information, which he declined to name.

“To us, this means they will not hit the southern suburbs of Beirut or the airport, which would surely lead to war,” he said.

Israel has repeatedly promised to retaliate against Hezbollah, which it blames for the attack that killed 12 people on Saturday.

The Lebanese group denies responsibility for the attack.

Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi also condemned the demonstrators who stormed a military base to protest against the arrests of nine Israeli soldiers accused of abusing a Palestinian prisoner.

“Breaking into a military base and disturbing the order there is severe behaviour that is not acceptable in any way,” Halevi said in a statement.

“We are in the midst of a war and actions of this type endanger the security of the state.”

“I strongly condemn the incident, and we are working to restore order at the base,” the army chief said.

The Israeli defence minister has taken to X to condemn the protests that saw demonstrators storm a military court building at the army’s Beit Lid base.

“I have now spoken with the Chief of Staff and stated that the [Israeli army] has full backing from me as the Minister of Defense to take measures and act immediately to prevent the entry of unauthorized citizens into [army] bases,” Gallant wrote.

The demonstrators are protesting the detention of nine Israeli soldiers who are being investigated for reported abuse of a Palestinian prisoner at the Sde Teiman prison.

Israel’s foreign minister has called on NATO to expel Turkey as a member of the military alliance in a move likely to further raise tensions between the countries.

“In light of Turkish President Erdogan’s threats to invade Israel and his dangerous rhetoric, Foreign Minister Israel Katz instructed diplomats … to urgently engage with all NATO members, calling for the condemnation of Turkey and demanding its expulsion from the regional alliance,” the Foreign Ministry said.

On Sunday, Erdogan said Turkey might enter Israel as it had done in the past in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh although he did not spell out what sort of intervention he was suggesting.

“We must be very strong so that Israel can’t do these ridiculous things to Palestine. Just like we entered Karabakh, just like we entered Libya, we might do similar to them,” Erdogan told a meeting of his ruling AK Party in his hometown of Rize.

Dozens of Israeli protesters, including far-right members of the Knesset, have clashed with military police after at least nine soldiers suspected of abusing a Palestinian prisoner were detained for questioning from the Sde Teiman detention facility in southern Israel.

The protesters waved Israeli flags and stormed through the facility’s gate on Monday to try to prevent the soldiers’ detention as they chanted “shame”. They defended the soldiers, saying they were doing their duty. Several Israeli civilians rushed to lend support to the soldiers, according to media reports.

Some unsuccessfully tried to break into the facility. One soldier was quoted as saying by the Haaretz newspaper that some members of the military directed pepper spray at the military police who came to detain the soldiers.

Demonstrators also tried to breach the Beit Lid military base, where the soldiers were transported, according to local media.

Read more: Israeli far-right politicians protest arrest of soldiers suspected of abuse