Access to drinking water 'struggle' in Gaza, warns UNRWA: Day 321 of the Gaza war

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Electricité du Liban announced in a statement reported by the National News Agency (NNA) that the locality of Taybeh (Marjayoun district) has been successfully reconnected to the electricity distribution network after being cut off due to Israeli bombings.

⚡ In southern Lebanon:

* Two Israeli-guided missiles were fired at Shihine (Sour district), according to residents. Two homes were hit, and ambulances were dispatched to the area.

In southern Lebanon:

The Hezbollah announced its 11th operation of the day, reporting that it had targeted an Israeli troop deployment near the Avivim barracks, across from the Lebanese village of Aitaroun (Bint Jbeil district).

Here’s an update on the security situation:

*Israeli shelling targeted with tank shells on the town of Aita al-Shaab from the opposing Israeli positions, local residents reported.

*Israeli artillery shelling targeted the outskirts of the town of Jibbayn in the Sour district, according to local residents.

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

*Hezbollah said, in its ninth statement of the day, that it targeted “buildings used by enemy soldiers” in Manara, northern Israel, opposite the Lebanese village of Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun).

*Hezbollah targeted a building used by Israeli soldiers in the Israeli town of Zar'it, in the Upper Galilee.

In the Gaza Strip, where around 2.4 million residents face a humanitarian disaster, the Israeli army reported having "dismantled dozens of terrorist sites" and "eliminated more than 50 terrorists," according to AFP.

Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesperson for the Civil Defense in Gaza, reported that five bodies were recovered from the rubble of a house in Khan Younis (south) hit by an Israeli strike.

Witnesses reported bombings in central and southern Gaza, as well as clashes between the army and Palestinian fighters in the north.

A Gaza cease-fire and hostage release deal "now is in sight," the U.S. envoy to the United Nations told the Security Council on Thursday as she urged the 15-member body to press Hamas to accept a bridging proposal, according to Reuters.

"It's a decisive moment for cease-fire talks and for the region, and so every member of this council should continue to send strong messages to other actors in the region to avoid actions that would move us away from finalizing this deal," said U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, cited by Reuters.

⚡Local residents report that Civil Defense teams from the Islamic Health Organization, affiliated with Hezbollah, were targeted by artillery shells while extinguishing fires caused by Israeli attacks in the Hammoul area, north of Naqoura in the Sour district. This attack resulted in damage to two ambulances and firefighting vehicles.

Israeli shelling with mortar shells targets the town of Kfar Kila in the Marjayoun district, according to local residents.

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

*Hezbollah said it targeted the Israeli Marj site, opposite Markaba (Marjayoun district), at 3 p.m.

*Hezbollah also said it targeted buildings used by Israeli soldiers in the town of Metula, facing Khiam in the Marjayoun district, with appropriate weapons.

According to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), many of the remaining functional water wells and sanitation facilities in Gaza are now in newly evacuated areas, making access to clean water even more challenging.

“With overcrowding, lack of hygiene and unbearable heat, access to clean water continues to be a struggle,” said the U.N. agency in a post on X.

Hezbollah said it targeted the Israeli Malikiyah site, facing the Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab in the Bint Jbeil district, with artillery shells at 3 p.m.

A ship says it has suffered damage after an explosion from an unmanned surface vessel went off near it off the coast of Yemen, reports the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO). No crew were injured in the incident, which took place 57 nautical miles (106km) south of Yemen’s port city of Aden.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have regularly waged attacks against vessels passing through the Red Sea during the Gaza war, killing at least four sailors and sinking two ships.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reports that Qatar’s prime minister will visit Tehran in the coming days to discuss bilateral ties and regional issues.

The visit by Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani comes as Gaza cease-fire talks, in which Qatar is a crucial mediator, stretch on.

Hezbollah stated that it targeted Israeli army positions around the Ghajar area with "appropriate weaponry," achieving a direct hit and resulting in casualties among the Israeli troops, including both deaths and injuries.

Ghajar is an Arab village on the Hasbani River, on the border between Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights.

At least 40,265 people have been killed and 93,144 wounded in Israeli military attacks on Gaza since Oct. 7, the enclave’s Health Ministry says.

Of those, 42 Palestinians were killed and 163 wounded in the past 24 hours reporting period, the ministry added.

Hezbollah said that at 10:50 am its fighters targeted positions of Israeli army soldiers around the Israeli Metula site, facing Khiam, "with appropriate weapons, achieving a direct hit." Haaretz reported that no injuries were reported.

Spain’s Prime Minister José Manuel Albares says he has spoken with his Palestinian counterpart, Mohammed Mustafa, about the two countries’ bilateral ties and developments in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

In a post on X, Albares emphasized the need for a Gaza cease-fire deal, the release of captives and the flow of more aid into the war-torn enclave.

Hezbollah said it targeted "surveillance equipment at the Israeli Jal al-Alam site (facing the Lebanese village of Naqoura) with a precision strike at 11:30 am."

"Families have started to go to areas away from the bombardment. They are heading to the western side of Deir el-Balah, close to the beach," Tarek Abu Azzoum, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, reported.

"The families are looking for any empty piece of land where they can set up their makeshift tents. They lack all sorts of basic humanitarian needs, including food and water," Abu Azzoum said.

Israeli police detained four Israeli settlers accused of taking part in a deadly rampage in the Palestinian village of Jit last week, reports The Times of Israel.

The four suspects are being investigated for “terrorism against Palestinians,” said The Times of Israel, citing a statement from police and the Shin Bet security service.

China called on its citizens to leave Lebanon "as soon as possible," according to a statement from its embassy, ​​the day after an Israeli strike in the country killed Khalil Maqdah, a military leader of the Palestinian Fatah movement.

"Recently, the situation at the Lebanon-Israel border has continued to be tense, and the security situation in Lebanon is serious and complex," the Chinese embassy in Beirut wrote. "The current risk level for travel to South Lebanon and Nabatiyeh is red (extremely high risk), and in other areas [of the country] it is orange (high risk)," the embassy said. The statement advised Chinese nationals currently in Lebanon to "seize the opportunity, while commercial flights are still operational, to return to China or leave the country as soon as possible. "

Hezbollah said it launched an "aerial attack with a squadron of precision drones targeting the positions of Israeli soldiers in the Kiryat Shmona settlement [in northern Israel] ... hitting their targets with accuracy." Haaretz reported that fires broke out in Kiryat Shmona, as a result of rocket fire from Lebanon, and were out by firefighting services.

A fire broke out near a school in Kiryat Shmona after a rocket fired from Lebanon, Haaretz reported. The fire was quickly extinguished, according to firefighters quoted by the Israeli media. 

Israeli forces pressed deeper into areas of the central and southern Gaza Strip as they battled Hamas fighters, while Palestinian health officials said on Thursday that Israeli strikes had killed at least 22 people across the enclave, Reuters reported.

In the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, a strike on a house killed 11 people, while another killed six, including a local journalist, in a house in Al-Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip, medics, cited by Reuters, said. Five others were killed in separate strikes in the south.

The Israeli military said its forces had intensified their operations in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, and Khan Younis, in the south, dismantling dozens of military structures, locating rockets, and killing militants, over the past 24 hours.

It said forces killed 50 militants in the area of Rafah, in the far south of the enclave, over the past day.

Since 7 a.m.:

- Israeli artillery fire has again targeted Aita al-Shaab, according to local residents.

- Others targeted the outskirts of Kfar Kila and Deir Mimas (Marjayoun), according to residents' testimonies.

- An artillery shell fell on the surroundings of Markaba (Marjayoun).

- Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a strike, at 7 a.m., against the Biranit barracks (opposite Rmaish).

- A security source reported that Hezbollah drones were launched towards Israeli positions around 8:30 a.m. and that detonations of Israeli interceptor missiles were heard. This attack has not yet been claimed by the party. 

In addition to the 1 a.m. strikes, several other incidents occurred during the night:

- At 10:00 p.m., flares were launched over Adaisseh and Kfar Kila (Marjayoun).

- At 11 p.m., Israeli artillery struck Aita al-Shaab (Bint Jbeil).

- Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a strike carried out at 9:40 p.m. yesterday evening against an artillery platform on the position of "Za'oura," opposite Wazzani (Hasbaya). 

Commenting on the overnight strikes, the Israeli army said it had targeted Hezbollah positions, including arms depots, buildings used by the party and a rocket launcher.

"The widespread strikes follow a Hezbollah attack yesterday on the northern town of Katzrin (Qatsrin in Arabic), which caused damage and injured an Israeli," the Times of Israel reported.

Qatsrin is located in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. 

U.S. President Joe Biden "stressed the urgency of finalizing an agreement on a cease-fire and the release of hostages" in the Gaza Strip during an exchange yesterday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House said.

The conversation also focused on "upcoming discussions in Cairo to remove remaining obstacles" before reaching a compromise between Israel and Hamas, according to a statement, as hopes for a truce fade. 

Find more details here.

The resigning head of Israeli military intelligence (Aman) asked his fellow citizens for "forgiveness" last night for failing to protect them against the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, according to an Israeli army video.

Major General Aaron Haliva is the first Israeli civilian or military official in office on the day of the bloody attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement, which took Israel completely by surprise, to ask for forgiveness.

Read the full story here.

The Israeli army launched 10 strikes on eight different villages in southern Lebanon. According to security sources cited by L'Orient Today's local correspondent, these strikes took place in 45 minutes, at around 1:15 a.m.

These bombings targeted a building in Khiam (Marjayoun), which was destroyed and damaged surrounding buildings; Kfar Shouba (Hasbaya); Mhaibib (Marjayoun); houses in Aita al-Shaab (Bint Jbeil); Ghazzieh (Sour); the outskirts of Ramieh (Bint Jbeil); a house in Kaouthariet al-Sayyad (Saida), about thirty kilometers from the Blue Line; and homes in Kfar Kila.

According to the information available so far, no casualties have been reported during these bombings. 

Be sure to read the Morning Brief so you are caught up with what has been happening.

Morning Brief

Israel starts to 'look north' as fighting intensifies with Hezbollah: Everything you need to know to start your Thursday

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Thank you for joining us for our live coverage of the ongoing war in Gaza and its regional and global impacts.