That concludes our live coverage for today. Thanks for joining us, we'll be back tomorrow morning with more news updates and analysis.
According to our correspondent, Israeli fighter jets and drones bombed southern Lebanon 19 times this evening, across several locations within Nabatieh, Jezzine and Marjayoun districts. So far, three injuries have been reported.
Israel bombed the outskirts of the Nabatieh district village of Ansar twice, our correspondent reports, while several other attacks hit Jezzine's Mahmoudieh village and one airstrike hit the outskirts of Jbaa, also in Nabatieh district.
Israel resumes bombardment of south Lebanon
The Israeli military air force is once again carrying out air strikes against several locations in southern Lebanon, our correspondent report. The air raids are hitting areas between Ansar and Zrarieh, in Nabatieh district as well as the town of Mahmoudieh and the hills surrounding Iqlim al-Tuffah, in Jezzine district.
Deir Siryan village responds to heavy Israeli bombardment
The municipality of Deir Siryan has released a statement condemning the "brutal and repeated Israeli attacks targeting safe areas in the South,” following a heavy wave of attacks on the village earlier this evening.
The bombings “endanger the lives of civilians and their property, in flagrant violation of all international and humanitarian laws,” the municipality states, and are “a continuation of the policy of aggression and provocation practiced by the Israeli enemy against our people.”
The Deir Siryan municipality said it views such attacks as an “attempt to break the resilience and unity” of southern Lebanese, but responded with the assertion that it would “only strengthen our commitment to our right to defend our land and our people by all legitimate means.”
The municipality said it would “put all its resources at the service of its citizens in order to strengthen their resilience” and called on the Lebanese and international authorities to “assume their responsibilities to put an end to this flagrant aggression.”
“We wish a speedy recovery to the wounded and victory to our resistant people,” the statement concluded.
Three wounded transferred to Marjayoun hospital
Three people who were wounded by the heavy Israeli bombardment of Deir Siryan have been transferred to Marjayoun Hospital, our southern Lebanon correspondent is reporting. Paramedics were prevented from approaching the sites of the attacks for some time due to the ongoing presence of Israeli drones over the village
The drones continue to fly over the districts of Nabatieh and Marjayoun.
Israeli fighter jets are flying over northern Bekaa, according to our correspondent in eastern Lebanon, Sarah Abdallah.
The village of Deir Siryan — on the southern banks of the Litani River — and its surroundings have been bombed by the Israeli army at least five times.
Successive Israeli strikes continue to hit Deir Siryan village
Israeli drones continue to fire missiles at the Marjayoun district village of Deir Seryan and its surrounding area. Residents in the region can hear successive explosions, our correspondent, Muntasser Abdallah, is reporting.
Paramedics and first responders are unable to access the areas hit by the Israeli army due to the Israeli drones that continue to fly overhead.
The Israeli strikes have caused injuries in Deir Siryan, according to our correspondent. Israeli jets had bombed a garage where bulldozers were being stored. The bombardment was then following by further Israeli drone strikes of the same location.
🔴 Israeli bombardment across southern Lebanon
The Israeli air force bombed southern Lebanon in at least 10 separate locations, our correspondent in the South is reporting. The sites of the bombardment include Deir Siryan, Taybeh, and Adsheet al-Qouseir in Marjayoun district and Yohmor al-Shaqif in Nabatieh district.
Several of the areas that have been bombed are located north of the Litani River, which has acted as an unofficial demarcation line in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. The November cease-fire stipulated Hezbollah's military withdrawal from all areas south of the river.
Only 1.5% of Gaza farmland, less than one square mile, is usable, says FAO
Only 1.5 percent of Gaza's farmland is accessible and undamaged — less than a square mile — according to the latest satellite survey published today by the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization.
The July 28 survey found that 8.6 percent of Gaza's farmland was accessible, but only 1.5 percent, or 2.3 square kilometers was both accessible and usable.
An additional 12.4 percent of farmland is undamaged, but not accessible. An overwhelming majority of Gaza's farmland — 86.1 percent — is damaged, the survey found.
"People are starving not because food is unavailable, but because access is blocked, local agrifood systems have collapsed, and families can no longer sustain even the most basic livelihoods," the FAO's director-general Qu Dongyu said in a statement.
Smotrich says war has cost Israel $87.5 billion
In a recent video shared on his X account addressing his backing of funding for aid to Gaza, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that Israel's military offensive against Gaza had so far cost the country 300 billion shekels, approximately 87.5 billion U.S. dollars.
Total Israeli military spending from Oct. 7, 2023 until the end of 2024 came to 141.6 billion shekels, less than half of what Israel has already spent in eight months.
U.S. support for Israel reportedly accounts for 15 percent of its military budget, according to the U.S.-based Council on Foreign Relations.
Hundreds protest outside Israeli army HQ in Tel Aviv, clash with police
Clashes have broken out between Israeli army headquarters security and some of the hundreds of protestors who have gathered there to protest the government's insistence on continuing its war against Gaza, Haaretz reports.
Hostages' families leading the rally, which calls for Netanyahu to agree to a hostage deal and abandon reported plans at occupying the Strip, ended up in physical confrontations with security at the army's HQ, known at the Kirya, in the heart of Tel Aviv.
The rally originally planned for the march to encircle the Kirya, but according to Haaretz, protestors are attempting to enter it.
Israeli drone drops leaflets in Mais al-Jabal
An Israeli drone dropped incendiary leaflets on the fountain square in Mais al-Jabal, in Marjayoun district, in southern Lebanon, according to our correspondent Mountasser Abdallah.
The leaflets bare the message, written in Arabic: "The fact that Mohammed Ali Ahmed Sharaf's house has remained standing to this day without being demolished or attacked proves that he cares only about himself, even if it is to the detriment of his neighbors. The one who terrorized and frightened the village in the past, attacked members of the Amal Movement and threatened his family, the one who prevents construction and reconstruction in the South, and brings you destruction and devastation, there is no place for him or his ilk among you."
The message also tells residents to listen to Radio 106FM for more information.
The Israeli army is systematically demolishing homes and shelters in villages situated along the Blue Line, and during the all out war that ostensibly ended in November, Israel leveled entire villages in the South.
Israeli army chief of staff clashes with Netanyahu over Gaza take-over plan
Israel's military chief has pushed back against Benjamin Netanyahu's plans to seize areas of Gaza it doesn't already control, three Israeli officials told Reuters, as the prime minister faces increasing pressure over the war both at home and abroad.
During a tense, three-hour meeting yesterday, Eyal Zamir, the military chief of staff, warned the prime minister that taking the rest of Gaza could trap the military in the territory, which it withdrew from two decades ago, and could lead to harm to the hostages being held there, the sources briefed on the meeting said.
This afternoon, Defense Minister Israel Katz wrote on X that the military chief has both the right and the duty to voice his opinion, but said that the military would carry out the government’s decisions until all war objectives are achieved.
Smotrich pulls 180, backs millions in shekels for Gaza aid
In an unexpected move, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he's backed a move to direct millions of shekels from Israel’s coffers toward providing humanitarian aid to Gaza — despite his previous positions, such as saying that starving millions in the Strip would be "justified and moral."
Speaking to the Kan public broadcaster, Smotrich claimed such funding is “not money for humanitarian aid, it’s money to win the war. Had we controlled the humanitarian aid to Gaza we would have won the war a while ago.”
The finance minister suggests that it would be preferable to pull the troops from an Israeli army division from fighting “and put that money toward supporting the American companies who are managing the humanitarian aid. This is money that’s inseparable from the war effect,” he said, in comments cited by Times of Israel.
Smotrich previously threatened to quit the coalition over an Israeli decision to lift a blockade on aid entering the Strip.
Palestinians inspect the damage after an overnight strike on the Sheikh Radwan Health Center run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the north of Gaza City on Aug. 6, 2025. (Credit: Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP)
Four flares were fired from Israel towards the town of Wazzani (Marjayoun), reported L'Orient Today's correspondent in the region.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported on X that Israeli forces targeted the eighth floor of its headquarters in Khan Younis with an artillery shell.
One dead after Israeli drone strike on Tuline
According to L'Orient Today's correspondent in the region, one person, an 11-year-old boy, who was critically injured by an Israeli drone strike on a house in Tuline (Marjayoun), succumbed to his injuries. The other person injured was his father. The boy has been identified as Abbas Merhi.
A drone also dropped a stun grenade on Yaroun (Bint Jbeil), but no one was injured.
Israeli artillery and drone fire on south Lebanon
Israeli artillery fired two shells at the outskirts of Shebaa (Hasbaya), reported L'Orient Today's correspondent in the region. An Israeli drone dropped two bombs in the eastern neighborhood of Khiam (Marjayoun) near the al-Baraka school.
The government media office in Gaza announced that only 84 trucks of humanitarian aid entered the enclave yesterday, the majority of which were looted and stolen due to the "security chaos." In its statement, it said that Gaza needed at least 600 trucks of humanitarian aid and fuel per day to meet the needs of its residents, given "the near-total collapse of infrastructure and the genocidal war waged by the occupation."
Israeli chief of staff to 'execute' political decisions on Gaza, says Katz
The Israeli army chief of staff has the right to "express" his opinion on the next phase of the war in the Gaza Strip, but he must "determinately execute" the government's political decisions, warned Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz.
"It is the right and duty of the chief of staff to express his position in the appropriate forums," the minister posted on X. "But after decisions are made by the political echelon, the army will execute them with determination and professionalism ... until the war's objectives are achieved."
The Israeli press has been reporting for several days the reservations, and even opposition, of the chief of staff to an extension of army operations in Gaza.
Man convicted of spying for Israel executed
Iranian authorities executed a man convicted of spying for Israel after accusing him of passing on information about a nuclear scientist killed in Israel's 12-day war in June, the judiciary said.
"Roozbeh Vadi ... was executed following a judicial process and after the Supreme Court upheld his sentence," Mizan Online reported to AFP, adding that he had provided information on "a nuclear scientist who was assassinated during the recent aggression of the Zionist regime." The condemned man was hanged, the same source said. According to Mizan Online, Vadi worked in one of Iran's "key and sensitive organizations" and his position allowed him to pass on "confidential information" after being recruited online by the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service.
A drone is flying at medium altitude over Baalbeck and the surrounding villages, reported L'Orient Today's correspondent in the region.
The man killed yesterday in an Israeli drone strike on Brital, in the Baalbeck region, and identified as Houssam Kassem Ghreib, "operated from Lebanese territory to lead terrorist cells in Syria that planned rocket attacks on the Golan Heights region," according to the Israeli military.
The Israeli army did not mention Hezbollah's "Unit 1900," which was mentioned by the Israeli channel Kan 13, of which Ghreib was allegedly a leader. Unit 1900 is allegedly a logistics unit that moves weapons for Hezbollah to Lebanon.
Good morning!
Thank you for joining us for our live coverage. Be sure to read the Morning Brief so you are caught up with what has been happening.
Israeli army calls for evacuation of Gaza City neighborhood
The Israeli army, notably through its Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee, issued displacement orders for the Zeytoun neighborhood of Gaza City, before "expanding its operations." In his message posted on social media, Adraee called on people in the neighborhood to leave "toward the al-Mawassi area, to the south."
20 Palestinians killed in aid truck overturn
The Gaza Information Ministry announced that 20 Palestinians were killed and dozens injured this morning when a truck carrying humanitarian aid overturned. According to the ministry, the Israeli army had "forced the driver of the vehicle to drive on a dangerous road, which did not allow safe passage."
Sisi denounces a 'war of extermination' in Gaza and defends Egypt's role
"The ongoing war in Gaza is no longer a war to achieve political goals or free hostages alone," Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Tuesday at a press conference with his Vietnamese counterpart, Luong Cuong, AFP reported. "This war has long since surpassed any logic or justification and has become a war of famine and genocide, as well as a means of exterminating the Palestinian cause," he added.
The Egyptian president called accusations that Cairo was blocking aid from entering via Rafah, the only crossing between Gaza and Egypt, "irresponsible." Sisi said humanitarian aid could only enter "as long as no Israeli forces are stationed on the Palestinian side" of the border, while claiming that more than 5,000 trucks were still waiting on the Egyptian side.
"Egypt will always remain a gateway for aid and not a gateway for the displacement of Palestinians," the president stated.
Civil Defense reported 68 people killed by Israeli gunfire on Tuesday
The Gaza Civil Defense announced Tuesday the deaths of 68 people killed by Israeli gunfire during various incidents in the Palestinian territory, including 56 who were waiting for food aid distributions.
And Tuesday night, according to medical sources speaking with Al Jazeera, five Palestinians, including a woman and two children, were killed in a strike on the Nousseirat camp, in the center of the enclave.
Israeli army incursions into Quneitra province
An Israeli army patrol carried out an incursion on the Jbata al-Khashab road towards the village of Ain al-Nouriya, located in the northeast of the province of Quneitra, in southern Syria, according to a statement on X by Syria TV.
Expanded Israeli operations would have 'catastrophic consequences,' UN Says
A senior U.N. official warned Tuesday of the "catastrophic consequences" that an expansion of Israeli military operations in Gaza could have, at a time when the Israeli press is reporting a plan to occupy the entire Palestinian territory.
“International law is clear in this regard: Gaza is and must remain an integral part of a future Palestinian state,” said Miroslav Jenca, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas, during an emergency Security Council meeting on the conflict. He also deplored the fact that Israel “continues to severely restrict humanitarian aid entering Gaza,” which is “grossly insufficient.”
“Hunger is everywhere in Gaza, visible on the faces of children and in the desperation of parents who risk their lives to access the most basic needs,” he added.
Trump calls Hamas video of Israeli hostage 'horrible'
U.S. President Donald Trump has described as "horrible" the video of Israeli hostage Evyatar David, skin and bones, released a few days ago by Hamas, which shocked both Israel and abroad.
Asked by the press in Washington if he had seen the video, Trump replied: "I have seen it, yes, I find it horrible and I hope that a lot of people will see it ... because I think it is a horrible thing."
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