'Progress has been made' in Cairo cease-fire talks, White House says: Day 322 of the Gaza war

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- Israeli artillery fire using phosphorus shells has targeted the hills of Kfar Shuba and Kfar Hamam, according to residents speaking to our correspondent.

- Rockets have been fired from southern Lebanon towards Israeli sites, a security source told our correspondent. According to Haaretz, alarm sirens have been activated in northern Israel for the third time in less than an hour.

Here are the latest developments in southern Lebanon:

- Israeli artillery fire has targeted the outskirts of Beit Lif (Bint Jbeil) and the areas around Tibbeh and Deir Seriane (Marjayoun).

- Hezbollah has announced the death of another fighter, Ali Akram al-Haq, born in 1997 and from Kouakh in the Bekaa. According to our correspondent, he was killed in the drone strike targeting a motorcycle in Aïtaroun earlier in the day.

- At 7:30 p.m., Hezbollah targeted the Zariit barracks facing the Lebanese village of Ramieh (Bint Jbeil) with artillery shells.

Two Israeli planes flew over northern Lebanon, from Tripoli to Akkar, according to our correspondent Michel Hallak.

Powerful explosions were heard on the Syrian side of the border, on the outskirts of Homs, and were also heard in several neighborhoods of Akkar, he added.

Israeli fighter jets conducted a raid on the western outskirts of Tiri (Bint Jbeil), according to our correspondent.

Israeli fighter jets targeted the area between Tiri, Haddatha, and Hanine (Bint Jbeil), according to local residents who spoke to our correspondent.

The Hezbollah claimed to have targeted the Malikiya position, facing Aitaroun (Bint Jbeil), with artillery shells, asserting that it was hit directly.

They also targeted espionage equipment at the Ibad site, across from the Lebanese village of Houla (Marjayoun).

Hezbollah announced the death of its member Saeed Diab, born in 1990 from the town of Bourj Rahal (Sour district). According to our correspondent, he was killed in the Israeli drone strike that targeted a car on the road between Sour and Tayr Debba.

Three fires have been reported on a tanker abandoned by its crew, which was attacked on Wednesday off the coast of Yemen by Houthi rebels supported by Iran, according to the British maritime security agency UKMTO, as cited by AFP.

The vessel "appears to be adrift," added the UKMTO. The European Union mission in the Red Sea stated on Thursday that it had evacuated the crew of the tanker "Sounion," warning of the "environmental risk" posed by the abandoned ship.

The daughter of an Israeli hostage said she believes an agreement for a cease-fire and the release of hostages in Gaza "will not happen soon," following a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"I left (the meeting) with a heavy and difficult feeling; this (cease-fire plan) will not happen soon," said Ella Ben Ami, as quoted in a statement from the Hostages Forum, which represents some of the families of the hostages, reported by AFP. "I am afraid for my father's life, for the women who are there, and for everyone else," she added.

Her father, Ohad Ben Ami, 55, was abducted on Oct. 7.

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

*Hezbollah targeted at 6:25 pm the Israeli Ramim barracks, opposite the Lebanese village of Markaba (Marjayoun district) with rocket weapons.

*Hezbollah said it targeted at 6:10pm "surveillance equipment and a position where Israeli enemy soldiers are stationed at the Metula site [opposite Khiam in the Marjayoun district] using appropriate weapons, achieving a direct hit."

Photo courtesy of Muntasser Abdallah

Due to Israeli bombing on Khiam in the Marjayoun district, a shell hit a diesel tank, causing the tank to explode and caused a huge fire from which columns of black smoke rose, local residents told our correspondent in the south.

Hezbollah said it targeted the headquarters of the Israeli Northern Corps Command at the Israeli Ain Zeitim base “with missile launchers and directly hit it.”

The White House denied that discussions in Cairo for a Gaza cease-fire were close to failure, stating instead that "progress had been made," according to AFP.

"We now need both sides to come together and work on implementing" an agreement, said White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby, adding that CIA Director William Burns was in Egypt for the talks.

One man has succumbed to his wounds after an Israeli strike targeted his car on the road between Sour and Tayr Debba (Sour district), according to a security source.

Hezbollah targeted the Israeli Samaka site in the disputed Kfar Shuba hills at 5:23 p.m.

Hezbollah announced the death of its member Mohamad Najem, born in 1971, from the town of Aita al-Jabal in the Bint Jbeil district. According to our correspondent, he was killed in the Israeli strike on Aita al-Jabal earlier today.

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

*Hezbollah targeted the Israeli site Rwaisat al-Alam in the disputed Kfar Shuba hills at 3:55 pm.

*Hezbollah targeted the Israeli site, Khirbet Maer in northern Israel, “with a rocket barrage and hit it directly."

Picture courtesy of Muntasser Abdallah/OLJ

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

*A security source stated that an Israeli drone targeted a car on the main road between Sour and Tayr Debba (Sour district), critically injuring one person.

*Illuminating bombs were dropped by Israel on the Khiam plain in the Marjayoun district, "with the aim at igniting fires" according to local residents.

Hezbollah announced the death of its member Hussien Shoukeir from Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun district) who was born in 1998. According to our correspondent he was killed in yesterday's Israeli strike against Mais al Jabal.

Israel breached the sound barrier over West Bekaa, according to our correspondent in the Bekaa.

Israel breached the sound barrier over Saida and several Palestinian refugee camps nearby, our correspondent in the South reported.

Hezbollah announced that it had hit Israeli "soldiers" with artillery shells near the site of "Tallet al-Khazzan," located opposite the Lebanese village of Mais al-Jabal (Marjeyoun).

The situation in southern Lebanon:

- After the strike on Mais al-Jabal, a security source reported one death. The Ministry of Health confirmed this toll, adding that the strike also injured two people.

- A targeted drone strike on a moped traveling in Aitaroun killed one person and injured one, according to a security source and the Health Ministry.

"To help improve health conditions and reduce the risk of disease spreading," the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a post on X that it "has sent hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of chlorine tablets, gloves and hygiene products to five of Gaza’s hospitals."

"It plans to deliver additional supplies to two more facilities this week," it said.

The situation in southern Lebanon:

- In addition to the deadly strikes on Tayr Harfa and Aita al-Jabal, the Israeli air force also bombed Meis al-Jabal, according to L'Orient Today's correspondent's sources. A fighter jet and a drone attacked the eastern neighborhood there, injuring four people, including one in serious condition, who were hospitalized.

- Artillery fire targeted the outskirts of Deir Mimas and Kfar Kila (Marjayoun).

- Israeli jets also flew low over the northern Bekaa, according to L'Orient Today's correspondent.

Europe's leading airline, Lufthansa, announced that it is extending the suspension of its flights to Beirut until Sept. 30, and until Sept. 2 for Tel Aviv and Tehran, in the face of the risk of worsening of the conflict in the region.

Flights to Amman, Jordan, and Erbil, Iraq, will resume on August 27, according to the German group, which specifies that a "corridor in the north of Iraqi airspace" will be used to reach Erbil.

The director of the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza, speaking to Al Jazeera reporter Moath al-Kahlout, warned of an impending disaster due to a severe fuel shortage.

"The Indonesian Hospital is at risk of shutting down within the next 24 hours because of the fuel scarcity. This hospital is a critical facility in the northern Gaza Strip, and without fuel, its closure will result in a catastrophe," the director said.

Portraits of the three victims of the Israeli strike on Tayr Harfa. (Credit: Hezbollah press office)

Hezbollah announced the deaths "on the road to Jerusalem" of three of its members, Hassan Wissam Harkous and Kassem Saleh Harkous, born respectively in 2005 and 2004 and originally from Toura in south Lebanon, as well as Akil Kassem Gharib, born in 1990 and originally from Tayr Harfa. According to information from L'Orient Today's correspondent in the south, these are the three victims of this morning's strike on Tayr Harfa.

According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, the strike on Aita al-Jabal, which targeted a car and damaged a house, left two dead, including a seven-year-old child. 

In the Gaza Strip, witnesses reported to AFP on Friday intense Israeli artillery fire in Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah where a child was injured in the bombardment.

The Israeli army said that over the past day, Israeli troops had "eliminated dozens of terrorists and dismantled dozens of terrorist infrastructure sites" in the Khan Younis area and on the outskirts of Deir al-Balah. "Many terrorists" were also killed in the Rafah area, it said.

Witnesses heard intense Israeli tank fire in the western neighborhoods of the southern city of Rafah. According to an AFP journalist, armed clashes were also taking place Friday morning between Palestinian fighters and the Israeli army in the south of Gaza City.

An Israeli drone strike targeted a house and a car with two missiles in the vicinity of the town of Aita al-Jabal (Bint Jbeil), according to local residents. This is the first time this village has been targeted since the clashes between Hezbollah and Israel began on Oct. 8, according to L'Orient Today's correspondent in the south.

Australia will take command of the maritime task force in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in October, the Department of Defense said on Friday, in comments cited by Reuters. The Combined Maritime Force, with its Task Force 153, was established in April 2022 to focus on maritime security in the region. It was strengthened in December in response to Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.

The Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz, said a Palestinian state would mean an Iranian base in Gaza and the occupied West Bank – just like in Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iraq.

He added on X that this would threaten Israel’s population centers, flight paths, shipping routes and economic hubs.

“We cannot let this happen,” Katz also said.

Hundreds of rockets and drones targeting northern Israel last week are proof of the government’s inability to deal with Hezbollah’s threats, Avigdor Liberman, the chairman of the Yisrael Beytenu Party, says.

He wrote on X: “Tens of thousands of residents do not know if the school year will start when they are evacuated from their homes, and many factories and workplaces have been closed or moved from the north to other areas.”

Liberman said challenges in the north are too great for the current Israeli government and therefore it has no right to continue to rule.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir took to X, slamming Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, after the latter denounced him, Haaretz reported. "You promised to return Lebanon to the Stone Age, but in the meanwhile, you're returning [Israel's] north to the Stone Age," Ben-Gvir wrote.

"Instead of attacking me on Twitter, start attacking Hezbollah in Lebanon," he added.

An update on the situation along the Lebanese-Israeli border:

- At around 10 a.m., an Israeli drone fired a missile on the outskirts of Wazzani (Hasbaya).

- Hezbollah also claimed responsibility, around 10 a.m., for a strike in "response to the enemy's attacks on the villages in the South," which targeted "surveillance equipment from the headquarters of the aerial surveillance unit in the Meron base," located a few kilometers inside Israeli territory opposite Yaroun. The targeted equipment "was destroyed," according to the party.

- A second attack, carried out with artillery fire, was claimed by the group, against "the position of Malkia," which faces Aitaroun.

This morning's strike on Tayr Harfa left two dead, according to a medical source contacted by L'Orient Today's correspondent. A third person remains in serious condition. The identities of the victims were not immediately known. 

A rescuer from the "Scouts of the Islamic Mission" (Amal) association at the scene of the strike in Tayr Harfa. (Photo provided by the Scouts of the Islamic Mission to L'Orient Today's correspondent)

The latest developments in southern Lebanon last night and this morning:

- After 11:00 p.m., the Israeli air force flew over southern Lebanon up to Iqlim al-Tuffah (Chouf) at medium and low altitude

- Israeli planes dropped flare bombs over the village of Alma al-Shaab (Sour) and pounded the surroundings of the village with machine guns.

- The surroundings of the villages of Aita al-Shaab and Rmaish (Bint Jbeil) were also targeted by machine guns from the Israeli site of Raheb.

- Israeli sites in the disputed Shebaa Farms and Kfarchouba Heights launched missiles towards Lebanese positions.

- Israeli bombings hit the surroundings of the villages of Kfar Hammam and Kfar Shouba (Hasbaya).

- A house was targeted in the village of Tayr Harfa (Sour) by an Israeli ground-to-ground missile, and ambulances were dispatched to the scene. According to a security source, one person was seriously injured in the strike and is hospitalized. 

At the Democratic National Convention, Vice President Kamala Harris, the party's presidential nominee, promised "self-determination" for the Palestinians.

"President Biden and I are working to end this war so that Israel is safe, the hostages are freed, the suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can exercise their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination," the U.S. vice president said in a speech in Chicago where she officially accepted the Democratic Party's nomination.

"So many innocent lives have been lost. Desperate and hungry people are fleeing for safety. The scale of the suffering is heartbreaking," she added.

Israeli negotiators held talks in Cairo yesterday aimed at securing a truce in the Gaza Strip and the release of hostages, as the war between Israel and Hamas continues in the Palestinian territory. The talks come a week after talks in Doha between American, Qatari and Egyptian mediators and the head of Israel's Mossad (foreign intelligence), David Barnea, and Shin Bet (internal security), Ronen Bar.

Barnea and Bar negotiated in Cairo "to advance an agreement to [free] the hostages," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesperson Omer Dostri told AFP last night. He did not specify who was also present at the talks, but Israeli media reports say the Americans are in Cairo.

During the negotiations in Doha last week, Washington announced a compromise proposal for a truce, the content of which has not been made public. Blinken said that Netanyahu accepted it and called on Hamas to do the same. But the Israeli authorities have yet to publicly announce that they have approved the American proposal and Hamas has rejected it, accusing the United States of having included "Israeli conditions" in it, notably on the "Philadelphi corridor."

The differences include the corridor, a strip of land between the Gaza-Egypt border that is currently controlled by Israeli troops. Netanyahu has been adamant about keeping Israeli troops in the area.

"The prime minister stands by the principle that Israel must control the Philadelphia Corridor in order to prevent Hamas from rearming and allowing it to repeat the horrors of Oct. 7," Netanyahu's office said Thursday. As he left the Middle East on Wednesday, Blinken stressed American opposition to "a long-term Israeli occupation of Gaza."

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

Morning Brief

US seeks to push forward cease-fire talks as death toll in Gaza continues to climb: Everything you need to know to start your Friday

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