Israel’s war on Gaza updates: Palestinian children hit hard by lack of aid

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For more on why a Gaza ceasefire deal has remained elusive for months, watch Al Jazeera’s latest episode of The Bottom Line here.

And to better understand efforts to pressure the US to end its unwavering support for Israel amid the Gaza war, read our report from this week’s Democratic National Convention here.

We will soon be closing this live page. Here’s a recap of today’s events:

• The United Nations confirms a 10-month-old baby in Gaza has been paralysed due to polio in the first case reported in the Palestinian enclave in 25 years.
• Israeli attacks continue across the Gaza Strip, with Israel issuing more evacuation orders for neighbourhoods in northern Gaza after rockets were fired towards Israel.
• There has been a surge in attacks across the Israel-Lebanon border, with seven people, including a child, killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon; Hezbollah says it targeted 15 locations in northern Israel, where no casualties were reported.
• The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor is urging a panel of judges to rule on whether the court has jurisdiction to issue arrest warrants for Israel’s Netanyahu and Gallant, and Hamas leader Sinwar.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians are enduring the sweltering summer heat, packed into makeshift tents.

Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda spoke to families struggling to survive without basic necessities in a video for AJ+.

“I am 75 years old. I can’t live in a tent. The heat is suffocating us,” said Harba Abul-Aal, a Palestinian woman displaced from Rafah in southern Gaza. “I left my home with only the clothes I had on. I have no summer or winter clothes.”

Another displaced resident, Salwa Ayoush, said she places water bottles under several blankets to keep them cool enough to drink.

“As for hot water, I leave a bucket out, cover it to protect it from the dust, and put it there to warm up for bathing,” she said. “What else can I do?”

Two radically contrasting realities have emerged out of this week’s four-day Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

On one side, there was happiness and excitement as Kamala Harris formally accepted the party’s presidential nomination and set her sights on November’s election.

But for Palestinian rights supporters, the convention brought further pain and disappointment.

The convention’s “uncommitted” delegates, who had been calling for an arms embargo against Israel amid its devastating war on Gaza, were dealt a blow after Harris said – in no uncertain terms – that she would continue to provide weapons to the US ally.

“There are balloons raining down on the Democrats in our party, and there are bombs raining down on children and families and people I love,” Asma Mohammed, a delegate from Minnesota, told Al Jazeera as tears streamed down her cheeks.

Read more of this story here.

Al Jazeera’s Soraya Lennie breaks down what’s going on in the video below.

As we’ve been reporting, there has been an uptick in attacks across the Israel-Lebanon border today, with Hezbollah now claiming it targeted 15 locations in northern Israel.

The Lebanese armed group claimed several direct hits, although Israel’s military has said it intercepted most of the launches and others fell into open areas.

No casualties were reported.

Lebanon’s National News Agency earlier reported that seven people, including a child, were killed today in Israeli strikes in the country’s south.

Hezbollah and Israeli forces have traded attacks since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza, stoking fears of a wider escalation. Hezbollah leaders have said the launches would stop when Israel ends its operation in Gaza.

Earlier today, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, John Kirby, told reporters that talks that have been taking place in Cairo – both on Thursday and on Friday – have been “constructive”.

The CIA director, William Burns, is in Cairo, as is Brett McGurk, the top adviser on Mideast issues at the White House.

They are planning to meet with mediators again on Sunday to continue trying to close this negotiation so that there can be a change in the status quo.

Our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues in Gaza are reporting that Israeli forces have also blown up residential buildings in the Kuwait Roundabout area.

Additionally, Israeli troops conducted raids in Aliyin Square and south of Gaza City.

Earlier, we reported that three people were killed in Israeli attacks east of Jabalia, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

A fourth person was also killed west of Beit Lahiya.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitor, has said the fighters were killed in four Israeli strikes in Homs and Hama.

It said those killed were members of Iran-aligned groups, although it did not identify which groups.

Another 10 people were wounded in the attacks.

A weapons depot, an air defence battery, and a fuel storage belonging to Syrian members of the Lebanon-based group Hezbollah were among the targets of the strikes, the monitor said.

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, has filed a brief urging a panel of pre-trial judges to “urgently render its decisions” on the requests he filed in May.

Citing possible war crimes and crimes against humanity, Khan had requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

Khan had also sought warrants for Hamas officials Mohammed Deif, who Israel said it killed in a Gaza strike, and Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Tehran last month in an attack widely believed to have been carried out by Israel.

The chief prosecutor’s brief came in response to legal filings by several parties arguing both for and against the court’s jurisdiction in the matter.

“It is settled law that the Court has jurisdiction in this situation,” he wrote.

Eight-year-old Sama Tabil has lost her hair due to stress and trauma caused by Israel’s war on Gaza.

She says she wants to travel to get treatment so she can “be beautiful again”.

Watch the video below:

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says the medical points have temporarily gone out of service because of the “ongoing actions of the Israeli occupation”.

These “include storming various areas of the Gaza Strip, as well as enforcing a policy of forced displacement”, the PRCS said.

The locations are meant to provide primary care and other services to relieve the enclave’s overburdened hospitals.

The PRCS added that many of its remaining locations are operating “at their lowest capacity”.

Tariq Habash, a former Biden administration appointee who resigned over US support for the Israeli war on Gaza, says enthusiasm for Harris’s presidential campaign was palpable at this week’s Democratic National Convention.

But the Democratic presidential candidate’s speech on Thursday to close out the convention “fell a little bit short when it came to recognising the need to support Palestinians” in the US and bring an end to the Gaza war, Habash said.

“She did talk about it, but I do also think that we haven’t seen a substantive shift in policy,” he said.

For more of Habash’s analysis, watch the latest episode of Al Jazeera’s Inside Story below.

The US president has spoken to his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, according to the Egyptian presidency.

The office said the two leaders emphasised the importance of Israel and Hamas showing flexibility in negotiations to reach a Gaza ceasefire deal.

The White House said Biden also spoke with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

The calls come as several US officials are travelling to the Middle East in the hopes of reaching a breakthrough in the negotiations, which have been stalled for months.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) says the missile system was destroyed in an area of Yemen controlled by the Yemeni armed group.

“It was determined this system presented a clear and imminent threat to US and coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region,” CENTCOM said in a post on X.

Since November, Yemen’s Houthis have carried out attacks on vessels passing through the Red Sea that they claim are linked to Israel. The group has said the attacks are an act of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

US news outlet HuffPost is reporting that Mira Resnick has been appointed to a special Israel-Palestine role at the US State Department, prompting rebuke from critics of the administration’s policy.

Resnick had previously worked in a bureau that oversaw billions in arms shipments to Israel, the report said. A source also told HuffPost that Resnick has more recently been privately defending new arms transfers to Israel to lawmakers and their staff.

The appointment “reflects a doubling down on the administration’s determination to continue to provide unconditional material support for Israel’s genocidal campaign against civilians in Gaza”, former State Department official Annelle Sheline, who quit over the Biden administration’s Israel policy, told the news outlet.

Resnick is set to replace Andrew Miller as deputy assistant secretary for Israeli-Palestinian affairs in the State Department’s Middle East office.

Sheline said Miller was known to be wary of the Biden administration’s approach, and “did his best” to push back.

Demonstrators rallying in Stockholm have called for an end to Israel’s war on Gaza.

Footage from the protest verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking unit Sanad showed activists carrying “Free Palestine” banners while others chanted and waved Palestinian flags.

Here are the latest developments:

• The Lebanese Ministry of Health has said seven people, including a child, were killed in Israeli raids on the towns of Tayr Harfa, Aita al-Jabal, Meiss el-Jabal and Aitaroun.
• Israel says dozens of launches were fired from Lebanon. Two were also fired from Gaza, but no casualties were reported.
• The Israeli military has issued fresh orders for residents to evacuate some neighbourhoods in northern Gaza as Israel upped its attacks in the north and centre of the enclave.
• The United Nations has warned that Palestinian children in Gaza are facing a spike in acute malnutrition, with a 300 percent increase reported between May and July in the north.