Hamas official urges US to 'exert real pressure on Netanyahu' for a truce: Day 335 of the Gaza war

Thank you for joining our live reporting on the Gaza war and its implications on the region, particularly Lebanon. 

We will resume our coverage tomorrow morning. 

Thousands of Israelis gathered outside the national defense headquarters in Tel Aviv, calling for a hostage deal, reported Haaretz.

Hundreds more are protesting in several locations in Jerusalem.

The Jordanian Foreign Minister, Ayman Safadi, has declared that "any attempt to move Palestinians from the West Bank to Jordan will be considered a declaration of war," according to the National News Agency.

Protestors in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sept. 5, 2024. (Credit: Florion Goga/Reuters)

Families of Israeli hostages marched in Tel Aviv today, joined by hundreds of others, carrying coffins symbolizing those killed in captivity, reports Haaretz.

They criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of failing to secure the hostages' release and allowing others to be killed.

The demonstration marks the fifth consecutive day of protests, demanding a global agreement for the return of all hostages and the proper burial of the deceased.

Here are the latest updates from the Lebanon-Israel border:

- Hezbollah announced that it launched a missile attack at 6 p.m. on the Israeli position of Rowaisat al-Alam, located in the disputed Kfar Shuba hills. "The target was hit directly," said the party's statement.

- Hezbollah also stated that it targeted the spy equipment at the Israeli site of Birket Risha, opposite the Lebanese town of Houla (Marjayoun caza), at 6.30pm, "using appropriate weapons."

- Israeli artillery is now shelling the outskirts of Alma al-Shaab and Naqoura (Sour), residents told our correspondent. 

The chief Hamas negotiator, Khalil al-Haya, urged the United States to put pressure on Israel to reach a truce agreement in Gaza involving the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in Israel, reported AFP.

"If the U.S. administration and its president Biden really want to reach a cease-fire and a prisoner exchange agreement, they must abandon their blind bias for the Zionist occupation and exert real pressure on Netanyahu and his government," said al-Hayan in a statement from the movement.

Israeli artillery shelling targeted Kfar Kila, in the Marjayoun district, residents told our correspondent.

Here’s the latest updates from the Lebanon-Israel border:  

- In retaliation to the Israeli attack on Kafra, Hezbollah announced that it attacked with a fleet of exploding drones that Israeli position of the Western Brigade 300 south of the Ya'ara barracks, "targeting its officers and soldiers and hitting their targets accurately." The Israeli position faces the Lebanese village of Alma al-Shaab. 

- Hezbollah also claimed to have attacked with missiles a gathering of Israeli soldiers on Tal al-Tayhat hill, near the Blue Line and opposite the Lebanese village of Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun), at 4:15 p.m.

- The party claimed a third that it shelled the Israeli Malikiyah site, located opposite the Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab (Bint Jbeil), at 4:30 p.m.

At least 40,878 people have been killed and 94,454 wounded in Israeli military attacks on Gaza since October 7, the enclave’s Health Ministry says.

Of those, 17 Palestinians were killed and 56 wounded in the last 24 hours, the ministry added.

Speaking on American news outlet Fox News, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly contradicted the White House's statements about a cease-fire deal being around 90 percent complete, with the exception of issues relating to the hostage exchanges and the Philadelphi Corridor.

“That's exactly inaccurate,” Netanyahu said on Fox News. “There's a story and a narrative out there that there's a deal out there.” 

(Credit: Photo provided by our correspondent)

The village of Qabrikha (Marjayoun) bid farewell to Sabah Fahs Oum Ziad, killed the yesterday by an Israeli strike targeting the village.

Ayoub Hamid, deputy of the Amal Movement, Melhem Khalaf, deputy of the Forces of Change, Islamic dignitaries and a crowd of residents attended the procession, according to our correspondent in South Lebanon.

Israeli artillery shelling targeted the outskirts of the town of Shebaa (Hasbaya district) and the town of Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun district), local residents reported.

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

*Hezbollah launched a "coordinated attack using a squadron of drones and Katyusha rockets on the [Israeli] Ramot Naftali barracks, hitting their targets accurately." The barracks are located in the Upper Galilee near the Lebanese border.

*The party also stated in a separate announcement that it "deployed a squadron of drones to target the command headquarters of the Sahel Battalion at the Beit Hilal barracks, hitting the target accurately."

Families of American hostages held by Hamas are asking that the White House cut a unilateral deal with the terrorist organization to secure the release of their relatives, but administration officials say a deal that includes Israel is the best approach, reports NBC News.

According to the report, U.S. officials said the Biden administration explored this possibility half a year ago, but it did not advance.

"Hamas wants two things that only Israel can deliver: a cease-fire and nearly 1,000 Palestinian prisoners currently in Israeli jails. Every other proposal has gone nowhere because that is what Hamas demands for the hostages," an administration official told NBC.

The aftermath of Israeli military raid in Tulkarem, in the West Bank, on Sept. 5, 2024. (Credit: Mohammed Torokman/Reuters)

Hezbollah announced the death of its fighter Abbas Ayoub, born in 1988 in the southern town of Selaa in the Sour district, "who ascended as a martyr on the path to Jerusalem." According to our correspondent in the south, Ayoub was killed in the Israeli strike earlier on Kafra in the Bint Jbeil district.

One of Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Gaza, Tareq Abu Azzoum, visited a tent camp near al-Aqsa Hospital that was hit by an Israeli air attack earlier today.

The aftermath, he says, is devastating, with dozens of tents completely wiped out and displaced people searching for what is left of their belongings.

Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said the country will inevitably go to war with Hezbollah, a fight he acknowledged will be “complex and costly”.

“We are now paying the price for 30 years of misconceptions and the unwillingness to bear the costs of war,” said Smotrich in comments carried by Israel’s Maariv news outlet. “The war must end with no Hamas and no Hezbollah.

“There is no choice. It [the war] will be complex and costly, but the time for change has come.”

The Public Health Emergency Operations Center, affiliated with the Ministry of Public Health, released a statement announcing that an Israeli airstrike on the town of Kafra (Bint Jbeil district) this morning killed one person and injured another.

The situation in southern Lebanon:

- Following the strike on Kafra, the Civil Defense of the Islamic Mission Scouts Association (affiliated with Amal) announced that they had transported "a victim" to a hospital in the area. The person's condition and identity were not immediately known.

- Israeli artillery fire targeted Aita al-Shaab and Beit Lif, in the Bint Jbeil district, according to local residents.

- Shells also hit a house in Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun), according to testimonies from residents.

The night then saw a lull until 6:30 a.m., when an airstrike targeted a house on the outskirts of Kafra, in the Bint Jbeil district, according to local residents. The strike resulted in one death and one injury, according to a local source cited by our correspondent. This report has not yet been confirmed by the Ministry of Health.

The Israeli army commented on its overnight operation, stating it had "attacked more than ten Hezbollah launch platforms and military infrastructures" in southern Lebanon. These infrastructures "posed a threat to Israeli citizens," according to the Israeli army's Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, who posted a video of the strikes on X.

In southern Lebanon, the night was marked by a series of violent Israeli strikes between 10 and 11 p.m.

According to security sources cited by our correspondent in the South, more than 20 missiles were fired at different targets in wooded areas along the border, particularly around the following localities: Jibbayn and Shihine in the district of Sour; Yater, Ramiej and Salhani in the district of Bint Jbeil; Zawtar Gharbieh in the district of Nabatieh; and Almane-Deir Siriane in the district of Marjayoun.

In Tubas, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, where the Israeli army has been continuing its large-scale operation launched on Aug. 28, five men aged 21 to 30 were killed and two others were injured "during an attack on a car," the Palestinian Red Crescent said in a statement. Israeli forces stormed the Faraa refugee camp in Tubas Governorate, where explosions were heard, witnesses told AFP.

The Red Crescent also reported that the Israeli army handed over the lifeless body of a 17-year-old boy at the entrance to the Faraa camp, after preventing them from providing medical care, according to the organization.

At least 35 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the start of the operation, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

"Despite the poor conditions" in Gaza, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced Wednesday that it has managed to administer a first dose of the polio vaccine to some 187,000 children in the central part of the territory. After the discovery of the first polio case in Gaza in 25 years, a large-scale campaign began on Sunday, following initial vaccinations on Saturday during "humanitarian pauses" in the fighting.

The WHO is set to begin vaccinations today in the southern part of the territory, where it aims to reach 340,000 children in four days. From Sept. 9 to 11, the organization will conduct vaccinations in northern Gaza.

According to an Amnesty International report reviewed by AFP, more than 90 percent of buildings along a strip 1 to 1.8 km wide near the Palestinian enclave’s border with Israel appear to have been "destroyed or severely damaged" by the Israeli army in an effort to create a buffer zone.

The human rights organization is calling for an international investigation into "war crimes," condemning what it describes as "an unjustified campaign of destruction."

In Gaza, an Israeli airstrike killed four people sheltering in tents near the Martyrs of Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah (central Gaza), according to a medical source speaking to AFP this morning.

The Israeli army stated that it had targeted "a command center" used by Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants in Deir al-Balah.

Further south, in the Al-Mawasi area, a missile strike killed one person and injured several others, the Palestinian Red Crescent reported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants Israel to maintain control over the Philadelphi Corridor, a buffer zone along the Gaza-Egypt border, for as long as he deems necessary to prevent Hamas from smuggling weapons into Gaza or using tunnels to move hostages or fighters into Egypt.

Hamas is demanding a complete Israeli withdrawal from the area. According to Hamas, Netanyahu’s insistence on controlling the Philadelphi Corridor "aims to prevent reaching an agreement."

Hamas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have recently been blaming each other for the failure of negotiations on a cease-fire in Gaza.

Since the Israeli army announced on Sunday that the bodies of six hostages were found, Netanyahu has been under intense pressure to reach an agreement for the release of the remaining hostages, in exchange for a temporary halt in fighting that could lead to a permanent cease-fire after nearly eleven months of war. "We are trying to find common ground to start negotiations [but] they (Hamas) refuse [and say] there is nothing to discuss," Netanyahu said during a press conference last night.

Hamas, on the other hand, insists on implementing a plan announced on May 31 by U.S. President Joe Biden, which it had already accepted. "We do not need new proposals," Hamas wrote on Telegram this morning, accusing Netanyahu of "using negotiations to prolong the aggression against the Palestinian people."

Make sure to read today's Morning Brief to stay up to date with yesterday's key events and today's upcoming ones.

Good morning! Thank you for joining us for today's live coverage of the Gaza war and its regional impacts.