Israel-Gaza war live: Polio vaccination campaign continues despite bombardments; IDF campaign in Jenin enters seventh day | Israel-Gaza war

Julian Borger

Julian Borger is the Guardian’s world affairs editor

The mass protests in Tel Aviv over the past two nights, and the smaller ones every Saturday night for the past few months, have been almost entirely about a deal with Hamas so that Israeli hostages are freed and come home.

There is very little said at these rallies about the deaths of an estimated 41,000 plus Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank since 7 October. Israelis see very little of what is going on there in their media.

Concern for Palestinians is not entirely absent however. The protests are made up of different factions and one of them, dressed in purple with purple flags on Monday night, is Standing Together, which organises joint Israeli and Palestinian action for peace.

They were chanting: “Israeli and Palestinian kids want to live”, and shouted accusations of Netanyahu’s alleged war crimes.

“Netanyahu faces the same fate as Slobodan Milošević at the Hague war crimes tribunal,” Dov Khenin, a veteran communist and former member of the Knesset (MK), told the crowd.

Unlike many demonstrators who were disappointed by Monday’s short-lived general strike, Khenin saw the fact that there was any union action at all as an important breakthrough, as political strikes are banned in Israel.

“It is very, very important to realise that there is a real struggle inside Israeli society,” Khenin told the Guardian. “It is a key to change towards a different future for Israel and Palestinians alike.”

“Netanyahu, unfortunately, has a very stable coalition with 64 out of 120 MK’s. That is very difficult to overcome. However, Netanyahu does not have the majority in Israeli public opinion,” Khenin said.

“Your [the UK] prime minister thinks that it is very important to be a friend of Israel, and sometimes believes that being a friend of Israel is also being a friend of the Israeli government,” he added.

“It is very important to realise that another Israel exists: an Israel of protest, an Israel of peace, an Israel that is totally against our current government.”

Israeli forces continued their assault on the city of Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, and its camp for the seventh consecutive day, resulting so far in the killing of 18 people, Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, reported.

The military campaign, according to Israeli leaders, is designed to pre-empt attacks on Israelis after a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv last month. Hundreds of troops backed by drones and helicopters have taken part in the assault, which has caused extensive damage to houses and infrastructure in Jenin and the densely packed refugee camp adjacent to the city.

This report is from Wafa. The claims in it have not yet been independently verified by the Guardian:

The occupation forces continue to destroy the centre of Jenin city, as the occupation bulldozers razed Cinema Street and large parts of Hospitals Street to the vicinity of Al-Shifa Hospital, and destroyed shops in the Cinema Roundabout area and re-razed Post Street.

The occupation bulldozers attacked a group of journalists while they were covering the destruction of Cinema Roundabout and the surrounding shops, and opened fire directly on them, which resulted in the injury of several journalists.

In Al-Jabariyat neighborhood, the occupation forces stormed the house of the detainee Zakaria Al-Zubaidi and detained his brother Yahya, after vandalizing and destroying the contents of the house.

The occupation forces also continued their large-scale detention campaigns of young men in Jenin camp and the villages of Al-Silah Al-Harithiya, Al-Yamoun and Kafr Dan west of Jenin.

Later last night, the occupation forces stormed the town of Qabatiya along with an Israeli special force. They began shooting at citizens’ homes, which resulted in a young man being shot in the chest while he was inside his home.

My colleagues Malak A Tantesh and Bethan McKernan have this report on the struggles of delivering the huge polio vaccination campaign in Gaza, where much of the healthcare system has been destroyed by the Israeli military during the war:

Like so many in Gaza, Eid al-Attar, a teacher from the north of the territory, now spends his days trying to find enough food and water to keep his family alive. Displaced eight times since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out in October, the 42-year-old has tried his best to shield his five children from the conflict. Now the Palestinian territory is facing a new danger: the highly infectious and potentially deadly disease, polio.

“We cannot protect our children. We are exposed to death at any moment due to the constant bombardment and insecurity. And I cannot protect them from diseases either,” he said in Deir al-Balah on Sunday as a UN-led vaccination campaign got under way.

“We live in a tent, which does not protect us from anything, there are no medicines, there is garbage everywhere, and the streets are filled with wastewater.”

Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza has decimated the territory’s healthcare system, with 31 of 36 hospitals damaged or destroyed, according to the World Health Organization.

About 90% of the 2.3 million people who live in the Gaza Strip have been displaced from their homes, with the majority living in very overcrowded, unsanitary makeshift camps. Hepatitis, pneumonia and diarrheal diseases such as dysentery, as well as scabies, lice and debilitating rashes are already rife, the WHO said.

The number of deaths caused by illness of more than 40,000 casualties recorded by the health ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory is unclear. But one of healthcare workers’ worst fears were confirmed last week when Gaza recorded its first case of type 2 polio in a quarter century. The contagious disease can cause paralysis and death, particularly in infants and young children.

The UK’s defence secretary, John Healey, has been asked by the BBC why components for F35 jets are not included in the suspension.

He said there was a “deliberate carve out” for the jets, of which there are about 1,000 that are used by 20 countries around the world.

“The UK makes important, critical components for all those jets that go into a global pool,” he said, adding that it’s “hard to distinguish” which components would go into Israeli jets because of this.

“This is a global supply chain, with the UK a vital part of that supply chain. We are not prepared to put at risk the operation of fighter jets that are central to our own UK security, that of our allies and of Nato.” He has rejected claims that the announcement was Labour simply making a political gesture.

Healey told Times Radio that the country’s suspension of 30 of its 350 arms export licences to Israel will not threaten Israel’s ability to defend itself.

“It will not have a material impact on Israel’s security,” he said this morning.

Healey said he informed his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, about the suspension before it was announced.

He said:

As I said to the defence minister Yoav Gallant yesterday when I spoke to him before the announcement, we have a duty to follow the law, but this does not alter our unshakable commitment to support Israel’s right to self-defence and to the defence of Israel if it comes under direct attack again, just as UK jets back in April helped intercept Iranian drones and missiles that were targeted directly at Israeli civilians.

Gallant said he was deeply disheartened by the UK’s decision, while Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, said he was “disappointed” by it, adding it sent “a very problematic message” to Hamas and “its sponsors in Iran”.

Oxfam GB have responded to the UK suspending 30 out of 350 UK arms licenses to Israel because of a “clear risk” they may be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.

The charity’s chief executive, Halima Begum, welcomed the suspension of some of the licenses but called for the British government to go further in order to reduce the high number of Palestinian civilians being killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza. More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks since 7 October, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, who made the announcement, said the suspension would almost entirely exclude all UK components for the F-35 fighter jet programme, seen as a significant loophole by many as Israel is using the jets in its bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Begum, who took over as Oxfam GB chief executive in April, called for the suspension of all arms exports, saying the government’s slight shift in policy was “little more than window dressing” as Israel can still order weapons via third parties.

She said:

The government’s suspension of some weapons exports to Israel is welcome recognition of the clear risk that Israel is using UK arms in serious breaches of international humanitarian law in Gaza.

But suspending just 30 licences out of 350, and crucially leaving loopholes for components in F-35 fighter jets that have been dropping 2,000-pound bombs on Palestinians for months now, is nowhere near adequate.

In the time Parliament has been in recess alone, Oxfam estimates that over 1,100 people have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli military. By leaving a loophole that allows Israel to order weapons via third parties, the suspension is little more than window dressing.

Stronger, more committed action from the UK government is urgently needed, with a suspension of all arms exports and the closure of all loopholes.

As we mentioned in the opening summary, a large-scale vaccination campaign to inoculate children against the newly emerged threat of polio in the Gaza Strip has continued into its third day.

Israel has agreed to limited pauses in fighting to facilitate the campaign, according to the World Health Organization. But despite this pledge, there are reports of Israel continuing to launch airstrikes on Gaza.

A journalist from the Agence France-Presse news agency reported troops blowing up homes in Gaza City and warplanes hitting a house to the east overnight into Tuesday.

The territory’s civil defence agency said Israel carried out a deadly strike on a tent sheltering displaced people in southern Khan Younis, as well as bombarding central Gaza.

Israel said the polio vaccination programme, which is hoped to reach some 640,000 Palestinian children, would continue through 9 September and last eight hours a day.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Israel’s war in Gaza and the wider crisis in the Middle East.

Hamas’s armed wing, al-Qassam Brigades, has said hostages would return to Israel “inside coffins” if military pressure continued, warning that new instructions were issued in June to militants guarding the captives on what to do if Israeli troops approached.

Spokesperson Abu Obeida said in a statement: “[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s insistence on liberating the prisoners through military pressure instead of concluding a deal will mean that they will return to their families inside coffins.”

The announcement comes days after Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. According to Israel’s health ministry, they had been shot at close range about two days before their remains were discovered.

The new instructions, Obeida said, were given to guards of hostages after a rescue operation by Israel in June. At that time, Israeli forces freed four hostages in a raid in which scores of Palestinians, including women and children, were killed.

In a press conference on Monday, the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “Israel will not accept the massacre of six hostages, Hamas will pay a heavy price.”

Below is a summary of some of the latest developments:

• The US president, Joe Biden, said that a “final” deal for the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza was “very close” but that he did not think the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was doing enough to secure such an agreement. Netanyahu, in a press conference, said he did not believe that Biden made those comments.

• Netanyahu insisted that Israeli forces must retain control over the Philadelphi Corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border, which has emerged as a primary sticking point in Gaza ceasefire talks. He described it as “Hamas’s oxygen pipe”.

• The UK moved to immediately suspend 30 arms export licences to Israel after a review by the government found a “clear risk” that UK arms may be used in serious violation of humanitarian law relating to the treatment of Palestinian detainees and the supply of aid to Gaza.

• Protests against the Israeli leader’s government suffered a blow yesterday when a court ordered an early end to a general strike. Israel’s biggest trade union, Histadrut, said hundreds of thousands of people joined its strike. Israel’s labour court ruled that the strike, which affected many businesses, schools and transport routes, had to end at 14:30 local time (12:30 BST). It was due to finish at 18:00 local time (16:00 BST).

• The demonstrations were prompted by the discovery of the bodies of six hostages in Gaza, and brought tens of thousands of Israelis out on to the streets to protest against the government’s handling of the war in Gaza and efforts to release dozens of hostages who remain in captivity.

• Ben Gurion international airport near Tel Aviv saw some flights delayed, and none at all for two hours leading up to 10am. Tel Aviv and the northern coastal city of Haifa heeded the strike calls, but not all municipalities slowed down or ceased their activities.

• Further protests took place outside Netanyahu’s residences in Jerusalem and Caesarea.

• At least 40,786 Palestinian people have been killed and 94,224 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Monday.

• UN agencies and other organisations will administer polio vaccines to children under the age of 10 in central Gaza today, as the vaccination campaign continues for its third day. The health ministry said about 160,000 children received the first dose of the polio vaccine in the central governorate in the Gaza Strip on Sunday and Monday.