Iran considers it 'fundamental to avoid war' but 'will never remain silent in the face of aggression,' says Iranian president: Day 306 of the Gaza war

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"I see a maximum state of readiness, both for attack and defense. We will know how to carry out a very rapid offensive anywhere in Lebanon, anywhere in Gaza, anywhere in the Middle East, above ground and underground," warned the Israeli army's chief of staff, Rear Admiral Herzi Halevi, during a visit to the Tel Nof airbase. These statements were shared in a message published on the Israeli army's X account.

The funeral of Hezbollah member Hassan Mansour Mansour in the village of Jibsheet on Aug. 7, 2024. (Photo provided by L'Orient Today's correspondent Muntasser Abdallah)

“We are prepared both defensively and offensively. We strike at our enemies and are determined to defend ourselves,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told new recruits at the Tel Hashomer military school near Tel Aviv.

The Houthis announced on Wednesday that they had targeted with ballistic missiles a ship identified as the Contaship Ono in the Red Sea, as well as two American destroyers, Reuters reported.

"Hassan Nasrallah could push Lebanon to pay extremely high prices," Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said while visiting the Israeli army's Northern Command, Yedioth Aharonoth newspaper reported.

"Your capabilities here are currently focused on operational defense activity, but we are also preparing things for attack capabilities," Gallant told the military personnel present. "We have to prepare, we have to be ready. Starting today, we are striking the enemy in our own way. This was true for the operations that eliminated Mohammad Deif and Rafa Salama in Khan Younis, for the attack against the Houthis in Yemen and for the elimination carried out in the southern suburbs of Beirut," he added.

Egypt ordered all its airlines to avoid Iranian airspace for a three-hour period early Thursday morning, Reuters reports.

According to a safety notice provided to pilots on Wednesday, the instruction will be in effect from 1:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. GMT. "All Egyptian carriers should avoid flying over the Tehran FIR (Flight Information Region). No flight plans will be accepted for overflights over this territory during this three-hour period," the notice said.

Latest developments on the Lebanese-Israeli border:

- Artillery fire targeted the outskirts of the village of Rashaya al-Foukhar (Hasbaya), residents reported to L'Orient Today's correspondent.

- Hezbollah said in a statement that its fighters targeted the Israeli site of Samaka in the disputed Kfar Shouba hills at 7:05 p.m. The party also claimed to have bombed an Israeli army headquarters in Ein Zeitim with a salvo of Katyusha rockets.

- According to a security source, the Israeli air force bombed Mount Rihan (Jezzine).

After the outbreak of fires near the village of Kounin following an Israeli strike, firefighters from the Union of Municipalities of the Bint Jbeil dsitrict went to the scene, and the fires were brought under control after numerous attempts, according to a source from the Civil Defense reported by L'Orient Today correspondent.

In the village of Yaroun (Bint Jbeil), an Israeli artillery shell caused a fire on the outskirts of the village. Firefighters are on the scene. According to a Civil Defense source, the Israelis are using flammable materials, which is rekindling the fires in different parts of the village.

The White House has assured that a cease-fire agreement and the release of hostages in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas is very close to being concluded.

"We have always talked about these negotiations for a cease-fire ... We believe that we have never been so close" to sealing an agreement, the spokesperson for the National Security Council of the American presidency, John Kirby, told journalists.

The "ignoble" assassination of the leader of the Palestinian Hamas movement, Ismail Haniyeh, risks tipping the Middle East into a "wider conflict," the president of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) warned.

Gambian Foreign Minister Mamadou Tangara was speaking at the start of an extraordinary meeting of the OIC in the coastal city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The meeting of foreign ministers was requested by Iran, which has accused Israel of assassinating Haniye in Tehran on July 31.

For the first time in years, a majority of Americans oppose sending U.S. troops to defend Israel if its neighbors attack it, a poll conducted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and cited by the Washington Post found.

The poll found that 55 percent of Americans oppose sending troops to defend Israel, while 41 percent support it. Republicans are more supportive of such a measure, with 55 percent supporting sending troops, compared to 35 percent of Democrats and independents. Additionally, the poll found that the proportion of Americans who support sending U.S. troops to defend Israel if its neighbors attack it (41 percent) is the lowest since the Chicago Council began asking the question in 2010, with previous levels of support ranging from 47 percent to 53 percent.

Iran's response to the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran will come "at the right time and in the right form," Iranian caretaker Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani said in a statement cited by Reuters.

Iran and Hamas accuse Israel of carrying out Haniyeh's assassination on July 31. Israel has neither claimed nor denied responsibility.

"A new military escalation would be of no interest to anyone," Emmanuel Macron told his Iranian counterpart, President Masoud Pezeshkian, reports AFP.

The World Health Organization announced it will send more than a million polio vaccines to the Gaza Strip, as a strain of the virus was detected in sewage samples, AFP reports.

"WHO is sending more than a million polio vaccines ... to be administered in the coming weeks. The detection of polio in Gaza's sewage is a telling sign that the virus has been circulating in the community, putting unvaccinated children at risk," the organization's head, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told a news conference.

Hezbollah announced the death of one of its members, Hassan Fares Jeshi, born in 1986 in Jowaya, and killed in the strike carried out today by Israel on this village according to L'Orient Today's correspondent. This brings to 359 the number of Hezbollah members killed in Lebanon since Oct. 8.

The Lebanese Health Ministry's Emergency Operations Center has updated its toll on the Israeli drone strike on a motorcycle in Jowaya. According to its statement, two people were killed and seven others were injured. The injured were taken to Jabal Amel Hospital. Three were treated in the emergency room and the other four had to be hospitalized. Their condition is stable.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron that Tehran considers it "a fundamental principle to avoid war and strive to establish peace and security in the world," Reuters reported, citing Iranian state media. However, he assured that his country "will never remain silent in the face of aggression against its interests and security."

During his meeting with Macron, Pezeshkian also said that if Western countries really want to avoid war, they must "force Israel to end the genocide in Gaza and accept a cease-fire."

Turkey has joined South Africa's case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over alleged violations of the 1948 Genocide Convention, AFP reports.

A delegation of Turkish parliamentarians accompanied by the Turkish ambassador to the Netherlands went to The Hague for this purpose, to the seat of the ICJ, according to public television TRT which followed it live. This "declaration of intervention" is based on Article 63 of the ICJ Statute, recalled on X the spokesperson for the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Oncu Keceli, stressing that no country in the world is above international law.

The state of preparedness of the Lebanese administrations in the event of a widening of the conflict with Israel was at the heart of a series of meetings at the Grand Serail in Beirut, between caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and several ministers of his cabinet, reports a statement from his press office.

Caretaker Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib received Australian Ambassador to Beirut Andrew Barnes and South Korean Ambassador to Lebanon Park Il, whose country currently holds a non-permanent seat on the Security Council.

On behalf of the Australian government, Barnes expressed the hope that Lebanon and the region would "avoid military escalation and resolve differences and disputes." The Korean ambassador called for "calm and restraint" and affirmed "his country's support for the full implementation of resolution 1701 and the extension of the UNIFIL mandate".

Bou Habib stressed that "Lebanon does not seek war and is committed to implementing resolution 1701." He urged "the international community to force Israel to stop its aggression against Lebanon and Gaza."

An update on the situation in southern Lebanon:

- ⁠Israeli jets targeted a house in Halta in the eastern sector of southern Lebanon (Hasbaya), residents told L'Orient Today's correspondent. Ambulances headed to the targeted site.

-⁠ ⁠Israeli jets targeted Kfar Kila (Marjayoun) and the outskirts of Kounine (Bint Jbeil), a security source told L'Orient Today's correspondent.

The South Lebanon Water Authority called on residents of the region to fill their water tanks and ration water usage, following the announcement by Electricite du Liban (EDL) of the total interruption of electricity production at the Deir Ammar power plant and the upcoming shutdown of the Zahrani power plant, by Aug. 17, 2024.

"We invite residents to fill their tanks and rationalize water usage as much as possible, knowing that the absence of electricity supply to the facilities will lead to a reduction in the duration of water supply," the statement said.

The agency has promised to operate generators in the event of power cuts but says this will not be enough to provide enough water to supply all the towns and villages under its jurisdiction.

"UNIFIL has not been a family duty station since April. Families and dependents left Lebanon in May. But the peacekeeping force continues to be operational," assured the spokesperson for the international force, Andrea Tenenti, contacted by L'Orient Today, after rumors of the evacuation of personnel's families.

These statements come in response to information published by Haaretz, which attributed responsibility to the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, which is close to Hezbollah, according to which the families of UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) officials had been evacuated from Lebanon and officials already outside the country had been asked to return without their families.

Media outlets such as the Jerusalem Post and The Cradle report that in the event of a wider war between Iran and Israel, Pakistan would be ready to supply Tehran with Shaheen-3 ballistic missiles, with a range of up to 2,750 km. This information comes from "numerous Arab sources" that have not been specified. However, no official Pakistani statement has confirmed this possibility so far.

"The risk of a devastating regional war remains very high. But White House officials said they believed Biden's efforts were bearing fruit. Iran may reconsider its plan for major retaliation after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last Wednesday," the Washington Post reported.

The White House's efforts have included talks with Iran to urge restraint, "blunt warnings" to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to obstruct a cease-fire in Gaza, and the dispatch of a U.S. naval and air armada to protect Israel and other U.S. allies if deterrence fails, the paper said.

Last Thursday, at the end of a lively telephone conversation between Biden and Netanyahu, the latter "came closer to the ceasefire agreement reached under the aegis of the United States," added the Washington Post.

(Credit: Photo sent by al-Rissala Scouts to our correspondent, Muntasser Abdalla)

The Civil Defense of al-Rissala Scouts, affiliated to the Amal movement, reported participating in efforts to extinguish fires after an Israeli phosphorous attack on Aitaroun (Bint Jbeil district).

Hezbollah claimed to have successfully targeted the Israeli site of Jal al-Alam, which faces Lebanese Naqoura, with artillery shells at 1:45pm.

"Further escalation in the Middle East is in no one's interest," said British head of diplomacy David Lammy on X.

"I spoke to Iran's acting Foreign Minister, Ali Bagheri Kani, and cautioned that any Iranian attack would have devastating consequences for the region. Iran and all parties must urgently and immediately de-escalate," he added.

⚡ The death toll from the Israeli drone strike on the motorcycle in Jwayya, South Lebanon, has risen.

According to the Emergency Operations Center of the Lebanese Ministry of Health, two people were killed and six injured.

More updates from South Lebanon:

- Israeli artillery fire targeted the area between Alma al-Shaab and Naqoura, both in the Sour district, residents told our correspondent.

- Two people were wounded in an earlier reported Israeli strike on Aitaroun (Bint Jbeil ), according to the Emergency Operations Center of the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

More details on the Israeli drone strike that targeted a motorcycle in Jwayya, east of Sour (South Lebanon):

One person was killed, and five others were injured in the Israeli strike, the Emergency Operations Center of the Lebanese Ministry of Health announced in a statement.

According to a security source quoted by our correspondent, the victim was driving the motorcycle, while the wounded were in a nearby car. The President of the Jwayya Municipal Council told our correspondent that four people who were close to the area of the strike were injured.

Updates on the security situation along the southern Lebanese-Israeli border:

- Hezbollah said in a statement that it successfully targeted at 12:40 p.m. the Israeli Raheb outpost, opposite to the Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab (Bint Jbeil district), with artillery shells.

- An Israeli drone launched a missile hitting a motorcycle in the town of Jwayya, east of Sour, causing casualties, residents told our correspondent. Ambulances were dispatched to the targeted site.

- An Israeli sonic boom coincided with a fire on the outskirts of Dahr Al-Ahmar village (Rashaya District). Our correspondent confirmed they are two unrelated events and that no strike took place in the aforementioned region.

The U.S. Embassy in Lebanon today reiterated that U.S. citizens who need help getting back to Washington can apply for "a repatriation loans."

The State Department can provide repatriation loans to U.S. citizens who "need assistance," it said, noting that this loan can "cover transportation expenses, short-term food, lodging, and fees associated with travel to the United States."

The embassy also indicated that "interest, penalties and other charges in the event of late payment," apply to the loan. It also noted that current costs for a one-way ticket from Beirut to the U.S. may "be higher than normal due to limited flight availability and the security situation in Lebanon."

Israeli phosphorus artillery fire targeted the village of Shebaa (Hasbaya district) earlier in the day, resulting in the hospitalization of a citizen who suffered from suffocation, the Emergency Operations Center of the Lebanese Health Ministry announced in a statement.

In South Lebanon, the Israeli air force is currently bombing Aitaroun (Bint Jbeil district), reported our correspondent, who has been informed by residents.

Three missiles have hit homes, according to preliminary information.

In South Lebanon, the Israeli air force is currently bombing Aitaroun (Bint Jbeil district), reported our correspondent, who has been informed by residents.

Three missiles have hit homes, according to preliminary information.

In South Lebanon, the Israeli air force is currently bombing Aitaroun (Bint Jbeil district), reported our correspondent, who has been informed by residents.

Three missiles have hit homes, according to preliminary information.

In South Lebanon, the Israeli air force is currently bombing Aitaroun (Bint Jbeil district), reported our correspondent, who has been informed by residents.

Three missiles have hit homes, according to preliminary information.

The health ministry in the Gaza announced today a new death toll of 39,677 in the Palestinian territory since the start of the war with Israel — in its eleventh month, reported AFP.

At least 24 people have been killed in the last 24 hours, the ministry said in a statement, adding that 91,645 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7.

According to the National News Agency (NNA), Israeli aircraft also broke the sound barrier over South Lebanon and Mount Lebanon.

⚡ Israeli warplanes broke the sound barrier over Beirut at least twice. It's notable that today's sounds were not as loud as those of yesterday afternoon.

⚡ German airline Lufthansa is extending its decision to avoid using Iranian and Iraqi airspace until Aug. 13, reported AFP.

It also extended a suspension of services to Tel Aviv, Tehran, Beirut, Amman and Erbil to the same date, the group said in a statement.

⚡ Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides told Bloomberg that his country was preparing to evacuate citizens from the island "if necessary," referring to the escalating security situation at regional level in the wake of the Gaza war and rising tensions between Iran and Israel.

Speaking in an interview with the channel, Christodoulides added that his country was contributing to diplomatic efforts led by other countries in the region, including Jordan and Egypt, to prevent such a scenario from occurring.

He added that "some countries have already moved their diplomatic staff from Lebanon to Cyprus" and that the Cypriot government had received requests from "more than 10 countries so far" to use the island as an evacuation point for their nationals.

Amal MP from Sour, South Lebanon, Michel Moussa told Radio Voix du Liban that it was "difficult to predict what might happen, especially after the latest developments in the war," referring to the Gaza conflict and the open support fronts.

He also hoped the communication and calls "made in recent hours will enable de-escalation ... while preserving the right to respond to the latest Israeli aggression in the southern suburbs of Beirut".

Addressing the issue of displaced persons fleeing South Lebanon, he said that the region's municipalities are working according to an emergency plan to help people who wish to leave the areas where the fighting is taking place.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a message on X that its forces had succeeded in destroying in the last 24 hours "one Iranian-backed Houthi uncrewed aerial vehicle and two Iranian-backed Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles launched from ... Yemen"

"These weapons presented a clear and imminent threat to U.S. and coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region. This reckless and dangerous behavior by Iranian-backed Houthis continues to threaten regional stability and security," CENTCOM added.

Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam congratulated Hamas on the appointment of Yahya Siwar as the head the Hamas political bureau as Ismail Haniyeh's successor.

In a message published on X, Mr. Abdulsalam wrote that the Houthis prayed that Siwar would receive "divine support and guidance to assume this responsibility in this historic phase of confrontation with the Israeli enemy."

Israel informed U.S. officials that it was responsible for the assassination of former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh immediately after the Tehran attack, reported the Washington Post.

The American newspaper added that despite a tense call between American President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after Haniyeh's assassination, there are no signs that the US president is ready to exert significant pressure on Israel to "try to contain its actions, such as conditioning or limiting military aid," according to several sources familiar with internal discussions contacted by the WP.

Turkey will submit a statement of intervention in South Africa's genocide case against Israel to the International Court of Justice in The Hague this afternoon.

"Turkey's intervention pushes the international community to recognize and address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza," a diplomatic source cited by Haaretz said.

In May, Turkey said it had decided to join the case launched by South Africa, which has intensified its measures against Israel over the war in Gaza, adding that its offer would follow the necessary legal preparations.

Gaza urgently needs to procure 1.3 million doses of polio vaccine, as there is a risk of an epidemic among children in the Palestinian enclave, reported the health ministry in the Gaza Strip. 

One person was wounded and admitted to a hospital after the Israeli artillery fire targeted the outskirts of Shaqra last night, announced the emergency operations center of the Public Health Ministry announced in a statement.

Reacting to the appointment of Yahya Sinwar as the head of Hamas' political bureau, dozens of cars and motorcycles honked their horns on the roads of Saida, southern Lebanon, in form of celebration. 

And in the al-Bass Palestinian refugee camp in Sour, dozens of residents marched through the main streets, chanting slogans in support of Siwar and Hamas.

This morning's calm in southern Lebanon was finally broken shortly after 9am.

- Israeli artillery shelled the area around Zibqin (Sour district), according to local residents.

- Two Israeli shells also targeted the northern outskirts of Kfar Shuba (Hasbaya), reports our correspondent.

Also in South Lebanon last night:

- At 11 p.m., Israeli artillery bombarded the locality of Yaroun (Bint Jbeil). In a press release, Civil Defense teams dispatched to the scene reported, "putting out the fires that broke out after the phosphorus bombardments in the areas of Wadi Slouki, Houla and Kfar Kila," all in the Marjayoun district.

- At midnight, the Israeli army intermittently shelled the area around the town of Shaqra.

In South Lebanon, the day after the speech by Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, a precarious calm dominated the border between Lebanon and Israel this morning, until around 9 a.m. — after a very turbulent night, according to security sources contacted by our correspondent Muntasser Abdallah.

- Before 9 p.m., Several Israeli airstrikes targeted the village of Kfar Kila (Marjayoun district), destroying the municipal headquarters after having bombed it earlier. According to residents, drones flew over several towns in the south.

- From 10 pm onwards, Israeli artillery pounded the locality of Wadi Slouki (Marjayoun) and the surrounding villages of Shaqra (Bint Jbeil) and Baraasheet (Bint Jbeil), while warplanes overflew the area.

Israel has been on the alert for almost a week, awaiting the response promised by Iran and its allies - including Hezbollah, which lost one of its top commanders in a strike claimed by Israel in Beirut's southern suburbs a few hours before the one that killed Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

However, according to a European diplomat based in Tel Aviv, the absence of any change in the army's directives to civilians means, in theory, that an attack is not so imminent.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is due to hold an extraordinary ministerial meeting in Jeddah on today, to discuss Israel's continuing crimes against the Palestinian people, several Arab media and news agencies have reported. According to the U.S. media, this emergency meeting has been requested by Iran.

The Israeli army continues to bombard the besieged Gaza Strip. An Israeli drone strike left one person dead, according to rescue workers in Deir al-Balah, in the center of the Palestinian territory. Yesterday, the Gaza health ministry announced a new death toll of 39,653 in the Palestinian territory since the start of the war.

At the same press conference, Antony Blinken also commented on the decision, announced by Hamas yesterday, to appoint its leader in Gaza, Yahya Siwar, one of Israel's most wanted men, as head of the movement in place of Ismail Haniyeh

Blinken stated that Siwar "has been and remains the primary decider when it comes to concluding the cease-fire" in Gaza, while Washington has for weeks been urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seal an agreement. 

Siwar's appointment also sent Israeli diplomacy into overdrive. "The appointment of the arch-terrorist Yahya Siwar as head of Hamas, replacing Ismail Haniyeh, is yet another reason to eliminate him swiftly and wipe this despicable organization off the map," Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz immediately reacted on X.

A Hamas official said on Tuesday that the designation of Sinwar sent a "strong message" to Israel, 10 months after the start of the war. Hezbollah used the same expression in a statement yesterday evening, saying that the choice of Siwar "confirms that the enemy has failed to achieve its objectives" against Hamas.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement, Hamas's rival, for its part considered Siwar's appointment "logical" and "expected," hailing, through one of its leaders, Jibril Rajoub, a "pragmatic, realistic and logical personality".

After Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah's speech and the appointment of a new head of Hamas's political bureau to replace Ismail Haniyeh, killed in an Israeli strike in Teheran on July 31 — urges for diplomacy and de-escalation in the region echoed today. 

With regional tensions mounting, the head of U.S. diplomacy, Antony Blinken, publicly urged Iran and Israel for the first time on yesterday to avoid "escalating" into a new military conflict in the Middle East.

"No one should escalate this conflict. We've been engaged in intense diplomacy with allies and partners, communicating that message directly to Iran. We communicated that message directly to Israel," Blinken told reporters at a joint press conference with Defense Minister Lloyd Austin and their Australian counterparts, Penny Wong and Richard Marles.

"Our commitment to Israel's security is ironclad. We will continue to defend Israel against attacks from terrorist groups or their sponsors, just as we'll continue to defend our troops," emphasized Antony Blinken, referring to Iran and its network of regional partners.

Good morning ☀

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