Middle East latest: Israeli hostage speaks in Hamas video; defiant Netanyahu hits out at UK arms ban (2024)

That brings an end to our live coverage today.

Protests are due to begin around now across Israel for a third consecutive night.

If anything significant happens, we will be back to bring you all you need to know.

In the meantime, here's a reminder of the day's key events:

• Hamas released a video of Israeli hostage Eden Yerushalmi, who Israel says was murdered. It is not clear when the footage was taken or the circ*mstances of how it was filmed, but in it, Ms Yerushalmi, delivers a message directed at Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and says she misses her family.

• It comes as Mr Netanyahu called the UK government's decision to suspend 30 arms licences to Israel "shameful". In a number of posts on X, the Israeli leader said with or without British arms, "Israel will win this war and secure our common future".
• The IDF said it killed a Hamas commander who helped orchestrate the 7 October attack on a settlement in southern Israel. In a post on Telegram, the IDF said Ahmed Fawzi Nasser Muhammad Wadiyya was among eight Hamas militants "eliminated" in the attack;
• Wadiyya is said to have invaded the village of Netiv HaAsara using a paraglider and "took command of the massacre of civilians".
• The head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency has said the people in Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank havefaced six days of "violence and destruction" after the IDF launched raids across the territory and sealed off the city.

An estimated 11 people were killed and others were wounded in an Israeli strike on a building once used as a school in Gaza.

Two strikes targeted the area just minutes apart, the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said on Monday.

The IDF said the school was being used as a Hamas command centre.

You can watch the moment one of the missiles hits the building below...

Companies hoping to salvage a tanker that was attacked by the Houthis in the Red Sea and left on fire have hit an obstacle.

The tanker is full of crude oil and presents a "significant environmental threat", but the EU naval mission Aspides has said the private companies trying to salvage it have concluded it is not safe to tow away and "alternative solutions are now being explored".

The Yemen-based Houthis have launched repeated attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, which they claim have links to Israel.

The vessels have often had no, or very limited, links to the country.

After Benjamin Netanyahu's criticism of the UK's decision to ban some arms to Israel ourMiddle East correspondent Alistair Bunkallexplains Labour's decision to take a fresh approach.

Labelling the Israeli prime minister's more "angry" than "dismayed," Bunkall says the new Labour government is determined to turn a new page in the war.

"The first thing they did when they came into power was restore funding to UNWRA [the UN Palestinian refugee agency], which Israel has repeatedly tried to link to Hamas and discredit.

"The second thing was to remove the objections that the Tory government had made to the attempt to seek arrest warrants through the International Criminal Court, and now this.

"So, we are seeing in British politics a very different, tougher approach towards Israel than we saw previously."

While Bunkall says the practical impact of the partial arms ban will be minimal, he says the diplomatic repercussions will be a different story.

"Israel, the last time we had records, imported 0.02% of its weapons from the UK. It's nothing, it's minuscule.

"But diplomatically, for this to have been announced by a close ally of Israel's is awkward, to say the least."

A city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has faced six days of "violence and destruction", the head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency has said.

Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of theUN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), posted on X that residents in Jenin have been caught in the middle of "an Israeli military operation, armed clashes and the use of explosives by Palestinian armed groups".

He said this has been responsible for death and injuries among civilians and has limited access to food, water and medicine.

Images emerging from Jenin today show damaged roads and huge amounts of rubble as civilians attempt to navigate through the city.

Israeli security forces and military vehicles were also pictured.

For context: The Israel Defence Forces launched raids across the occupied West Bank and sealed off the city of Jenin last week in what the Israeli foreign minister described as a "full-fledged war" against "Islamic-Iranian terrorist infrastructures".

The armed wings of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah said in separate statements that their gunmen were fighting Israeli forces in the three West Bank areas.

Jordan has praised the UK's decision to ban some arms sales to Israel, calling on countries around the world to impose "a complete arms embargo".

Foreign minister Ayman Safadi urged "an expansion of this suspension" announced by David Lammy, the foreign secretary, yesterday and added: "Unless consequences are real, Netanyahu will not end his aggression on Gaza and the West Bank, and will not stop violating international law and threatening the security of the whole region."

Jordan shares a large mutual border with Israel, with its military cooperating with the Israeli military to keep the border secure.

The small kingdom is home to the highest number of Palestinians in the world living outside the territories, and the Jordanian Queen, Rania, is of Palestinian origin.

The grandson of an Israeli hostage has said "time is running out" to rescue still in Gaza after the recovery of six bodies over the weekend.

Daniel Lifsh*tz told Sky News that he was "very worried" for his 84-year-old grandfather Oded Lifsh*tz, who has been held hostage for 330 days.

He said he believes the six hostages - Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino - were "shot and executed" by Hamas militants but does not know why.

"When I heard six bodies had been rescued, I was very worried that my grandfather might be there, we knew there was going to be bad news about hostages," Mr Lifsh*tz said.

"I am very close to the families of Carmel Gat and Hersh Goldberg-Polin and it was such a [heart]breaking moment.

"Now we know that time is running out because hostages are being executed.

"I am so worried that something like that will happen to the rest of the hostages and if there are no hostages, there may not be a ceasefire deal."

Mr Lifsh*tz said his grandfather did "everything in his life for the co-existence with Palestinians" and the rights of minorities.

"He is the only great-grandfather being held hostage in the world, I am so devastated for humanity," he said.

Mr Lifsh*tz called on the Israeli government to "find a solution to end all suffering" adding that it is clear the government are currently not doing enough as "the hostages are not here".

A third night of protests in Israel has been organised by theHostages and Missing Families Forum.

The volunteer-led organisation, which supports hostage families, said a "huge demonstration" led by young relatives would begin in Tel Aviv at 7pm local time (5pm UK time), with demonstrations planned outside the homes of foreign minister Israel Katz and agricultural minister Avi Dichter.

"Only a powerful public protest that will shake the country will bring everyone home!" the group said.

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis joined protests on Sunday after the bodies of six hostages killed in Gaza were found late on Saturday night. More demonstrations were held yesterday as part of a general strike called by Israel's biggest labour union over Benjamin Netanyahu's failure to agree a ceasefire deal, with roads blocked, some clashes with police and multiple arrests.

The Hamas-run health ministry says at least 40,819 Palestinians have now been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October - up from 40,786 yesterday.

The figures reported by the ministry do not differentiate between fighters and civilians.

A further 94,291 have been injured, it added.

For context: While some Israeli officials have sought to cast doubt on fatality figures given out by the ministry in Gaza, a number of independent groups say they have proved to be largely reliable and broadly in line with those later produced by the UN and Israel itself.

The figures do not distinguish civilians from Hamas militants, but the Israel Defence Forces said it had "eliminated" 17,000 Hamas fighters inside Gaza as of 15 August.

Palestinian medical staff are back working at the Al Shifa hospital after the repair and reopening of its emergency department.

It was damaged in an Israeli offensive five months ago in Gaza City.

Once the biggest and most advanced medical facility in Gaza, it became a battleground in the war after Israel claimed there was a Hamas headquarters hidden in tunnels below the building. Hamas and hospital workers denied the claims.