At least two Hezbollah fighters killed in Israeli strike on Houla, southern Lebanon: Gaza war, day 289

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We will continue our coverage of the conflict tomorrow morning.

Update from south Lebanon:

* The Israeli army has fired on a Lebanese Army position on the outskirts of of Alma al-Shaab, lightly wounding two soldiers, according to a security source contacted by our correspondent.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tabled a draft declaration rejecting the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

According to Haaretz, the draft was drawn up without input from Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miaraet, but with a legal opinion written by Talia Einhorn, a law professor at the University of Ariel, one of Israel's main settlements in the occupied West Bank.

"The people of Israel are not occupiers on their own land and in their eternal capital, Jerusalem," the document reads. "Israel rejects the advisory opinion of the ICJ in The Hague, which blatantly ignored the natural and historical right of the Jewish people to the State of Israel, recognized by international law.

The statement also claims that the ICJ opinion ignores the right of Israeli citizens to settle in any part of the territory, citing "international legal principles concerning territories that had no foreign sovereign" and "Israel's right to self-defense and secure borders."

Hezbollah has announced two more strikes against northern Israel:

* The party said it launched "in retaliation for the Israeli attacks on Adloun (Saida) and Houla (Marjayoun), an airstrike targeting the new headquarters of [Israeli] enemy forces in the Hanita settlement [in western Galilee]."

* The party also claimed to have attacked "the headquarters of the Northern Corps at the Ein Zeitim base [in northern Israel] with Katyusha rockets."

(Credit: Zain Jaafar/AFP)

Foreign volunteers from the USA receive treatment at Rafidia Hospital in Nablus after being attacked by Israeli settlers in the village of Qusra in the occupied West Bank on July 21, 2024.

Several foreign activists for the Palestinian cause claimed to have been injured by Israeli settlers on Sunday on farmland in Qusra, a village in the north of the occupied West Bank. The village's mayor, Hani Odeh, spoke of "four wounded" and claimed that the assailants came from the nearby Esh Kodesh settlement.

These volunteers were accompanying Palestinians to olive groves close to Israeli settlements. Foreign activists regularly escort Palestinians they consider vulnerable in the occupied territories.

The war in Gaza has led to an intensification of violence in the occupied West Bank, where at least 579 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers since Oct. 7, according to the Palestinian authorities.

Israeli artillery shelling has targeted the outskirts of Naqoura (Sour district), local residents report.

Israel has started vaccinating its troops in Gaza against polio and supplying vaccines for the Palestinian population after health agencies said the virus has been found in the territory, the military said today, AFP reports. 

According to the news agency, the army did not give a figure for the number of soldiers involved but thousands of regular and reservist troops are reported to be fighting in the war. ➡️ More details here.

Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud says his ministry is following events in Yemen with "great concern" after Israeli strikes against the port of Hodeida, which have left six people dead, three missing and 83 injured, according to a latest toll provided by the Houthi rebel-run Saba news agency.

"We are following with great concern the developments of the military escalation in Yemen after the Israeli attacks that took place in the Hodeida governorate on Saturday, July 20, 2024, which doubles the current tension in the region and harms the ongoing efforts to end the war on Gaza," Riyadh said in a statement published on X, quoted by AFP.

At the same time, Teheran "strongly condemned" the Israeli strikes and warned "against the risk of escalating tensions and the spread of war in the region," according to Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani.

New update on the security situation on the border between south Lebanon and northern Israel:

* Israeli artillery has targeted the suburbs of Ainata and Kounin (both in Bint Jbeil), according to reports from residents.

* Israel also fired on the outskirts of Maroun al-Ras (also in Bint Jbeil), according to local residents.

* Israeli aircraft also targeted a field on the outskirts of the Aitaroun area (Bint Jbeil), causing a fire, again according to local residents.

Here’s an update on the Hezbollah attacks against Israeli positions:

* Hezbollah targeted the Israeli Samaka site in the disputed Kfar Shuba hills at 2:08 p.m.

* Hezbollah targeted the Israeli Ramtha site in the disputed Kfar Shuba hills at 1:24 p.m.

Hezbollah has announced another fighter's death: Ahmad Ali Moussa, known as "Karrar," born in 1985 in Houla (Marjayoun).

According to a security source contacted by our correspondent, Moussa was killed in an Israeli raid on Houla this morning. Hezbollah has thus lost at least two men in Houla today and 378 fighters in total in Lebanon and Syria since Oct. 8.

The Palestinian "Prisoners' Club" said Israeli security forces had arrested at least 26 Palestinians over the past two days in the occupied West Bank.

Among those arrested was Ibtihal Amar, a student and daughter of imprisoned journalist Nawaf al Amar, the association said in a statement.

Since the start of the war, at least 9,750 Palestinians have been arrested in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian Prisoners' Club.

Hezbollah has announced the death of another of its members: Yassine Hussein, born in 2006 in Houla (Marjayoun district). According to our correspondent, he was killed earlier in the day in an Israeli strike on the same locality.

This brings to 377 the total number of Hezbollah members killed in Lebanon and Syria since Oct. 8.

Hezbollah has announced its first retaliatory attack for the Israeli strike last night on Adloun (Saida). The party claims to have targeted the Israeli town of Dafna, near the Upper Galilee region, Katyusha rockets. Dafna lies across the border from Houla (Marjayoun) .

⚡ The death toll from an Israeli strike on Houla has risen to two after one of the injured succumbed to his wounds, a security source told L'Orient Today.

The outskirts of Odaisseh, Rashaya Fawqar and Aita al-Shaab are all under Israeli artillery shelling, according to local residents.

⚡ Here’s an update on the security situation in southern Lebanon:

* One person was killed in the Israeli airstrike on Houla (Marjayoun) earlier this morning, and one person was severely injured, a security source told L’Orient Today.

Rescue workers from the al-Risala Scouts, affiliated to the Amal Movement, announced that they had intervened to extinguish fires caused by Israeli fire on the outskirts of Bani Hayyan (Marjayoun), west of the town of Markaba. (Credit: Photo released

⚡ Yemeni rebels on Sunday threatened Israel with a "huge response" to its deadly strikes against the still-burning port of Hodeida, AFP reported.

"The response … to the Israeli aggression against our country is inevitable and will be enormous," said their military spokesman, Yahya Saree.

Other operations against the Houthis will follow "if they dare to attack us," said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Firefighting teams continue to battle a blaze at the Houthi-run port in Yemen's Hodeida, hours after an Israeli strike on the harbor triggered a massive fire and killed six people. Israel's strike came in retaliation for a Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv that left one person dead ➡️ More details here.

⚡ At least 38,983 Palestinians have been killed and 89,727 others injured in Israel's military offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, Reuters reports, citing Gaza's Health Ministry. Some 64 people killed in the last 24 hours, the news agency adds.

Hezbollah has announced the death of its fighter Mustafa Hassan Fawaz, born in 1975 in the town of Debaal (Sour district), “who was martyred on the path to Jerusalem.”

Fawaz was reportedly killed in the Israeli strike on Adloun (Saida district) last night, residents of the town told L’Orient Today. This raises the total death toll of Hezbollah members killed in Lebanon and Syria since Oct. 8 to 376.

The EU's top diplomat Josep Borrell says on X that the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, according to which Israel's presence in the occupied Palestinian territories is illegal and must cease, is "largely consistent with EU positions."

The ICJ's opinion, issued Friday, was welcomed by the Palestinian Authority and criticized by Israel.

Still on the border between Lebanon and Israel:

* The rest of the night and the beginning of today were relatively calm. The first incident of the day, an Israeli artillery bombardment on the outskirts of Houla (Marjayoun), which resulted in injuries, was recorded in the late morning, according to reports from local residents.

Here's an update on other incidents on the border between south Lebanon and northern Israel overnight, according to security sources and residents contacted by our correspondent in South Lebanon, Muntasser Abdallah:

* After 9.30 p.m. last night, Hezbollah announced that, in retaliation for the Israeli bombardment of the town of Safad al-Battikh (Bint Jbeil), it had launched an "air attack using a squadron of assault drones on positions used by Israeli artillery and rocket launchers in Zaaoura," in the disputed Golan Heights. Hezbollah claimed that its attack had hit its target and caused casualties.

* After 10.30 p.m., Israeli warplanes launched another raid targeting the outskirts of Majdal (Sour). The attack left a number of wounded, who were evacuated by ambulance crews who arrived on the scene. Rescue workers from the al-Risala Scouts, the medical association affiliated with the Amal Movement, said they had also battled "fires" started by the strikes.

Meanwhile, the Gaza war's repercussions continue to resonate across the region:

Israeli airstrikes yesterday targeted the strategic port of Hodeida in Yemen. The attack killed three people, the Houthi rebels claimed today. The strikes came two days after a the Houthis carried out a drone attack on Tel Aviv, which killed one person.

➡️ Read more here.

In southern Lebanon, Israeli aircraft targeted a Hezbollah arms depot late on Saturday evening in Adloun, a coastal town between Saida and Sour.

➡️ Read more here.

The conflict has so far claimed more than 39,000 lives, most of them civilians, according to data from the Gaza government's Health Ministry.

Hamas also claimed to have seen Israel's latest strikes on Gaza as a "response" to Friday's ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories since 1967 is "unlawful."

Israel's war on the enclave has displaced more than half of the 2.4 million people in the small territory, which is threatened by famine and in which no place is now safe according to the U.N.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to visit Washington and address Congress on Wednesday. He is expected to meet President Joe Biden if the latter recovers from COVID-19.

On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reaffirmed America's determination to reach a cease-fire agreement. But this is "not enough," it is "essential to make sure that we have a plan" for the post-war period in Gaza, "for governance, for security, for humanitarian aid, for reconstruction," he said.

Washington also reaffirmed its commitment to the two-state solution, Palestinian and Israeli, after the Israeli parliament adopted a resolution opposing the creation of a Palestinian entity with authority over the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

Fighting continues to rage in Gaza:

According to Gaza Civil Defense quoted by AFP, there have been at least 30 deaths in Israeli raids this weekend, including six in Bureij, six in Armida and one more in Nuseirat overnight. 

Yesterday, a strike on the Nuseirat camp (central Gaza) killed two women and a child, said an official at al-Awda hospital. In the same hospital, a baby was rescued from the womb of its mother, also killed in Nuseirat.

The Israeli army claimed yesterday to have "eliminated terrorists" in strikes and fighting.

Hello, 
We'll be here all day with live updates from Israel's war in Gaza, the cross-border conflict in southern Lebanon and related developments across the region.