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People attend the funeral of assassinated Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Doha, Qatar, August 2, 2024, in this screengrab taken from video. [Qatar TV via Reuters] (Reuters)
Published On 2 Aug 2024

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2 Aug 2024 - 23:59
 (23:59 GMT)

Thanks for joining us

This live page is now closed.

Read more about Ismail Haniyeh’s funeral in Doha, here.

Watch a video explaining Israeli protests in support of soldiers accused of sexually abusing Palestinian detainees, here.

To follow all of our coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza, go here.

2 Aug 2024 - 23:50
 (23:50 GMT)

Here’s what happened today

We will be closing down this live page soon. Here’s a quick look at what happened today:

  • The US is sending more warships and other military assets to the Middle East as the Iran-led axis of resistance is coordinating a response to Israel’s assassination of Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah’s Fuad Shukr.
  • Israel has continued its relentless bombardment in Gaza, killing at least five people, including three children, in one attack in Gaza City.
  • Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has announced that Israeli negotiators have been authorised to travel to Cairo to resume Gaza ceasefire talks.
  • Middle East officials have joined tens of thousands of people attending Haniyeh’s funeral in the Qatari capital Doha.
  • Across the region, people also rallied in multiple countries – including Lebanon, Yemen, Jordan and Somalia – to pay tribute to Haniyeh.
  • Turkey and Israel have intensified their war of words, with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan calling his Israeli counterpart Israel Katz a “monument to the insolence and impudence of the genocidal Netanyahu government”.
Destroyed buildings in Gaza, as the Israeli military continues to pound the besieged enclave to devastating effect, August 1, 2024 [Amir Cohen/Reuters]
2 Aug 2024 - 23:40
 (23:40 GMT)

UK decries killing of Al Jazeera journalists

The UK’s consulate in Jerusalem has called for the protection of journalists after Israel killed Al Jazeera’s Ismail al-Ghoul and his companion cameraman Rami al-Rifi in Gaza.

“[Two] more journalists were killed in Gaza this week – now a total of 113 Palestinian journalists since 7 October. Journalists must be protected at all times, everywhere,” the consulate said in a social media post.

According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, 165 journalists have been killed in the besieged enclave since the war broke out.

2 Aug 2024 - 23:30
 (23:30 GMT)

Yemen’s Houthis call for ‘day of rage’ mass marches

The Houthis have called on the Yemeni people to gather in large numbers tomorrow morning in support of the “day of rage” that Hamas has asked all Palestinians to observe following Haniyeh’s assassination.

The Iran-aligned group called for demonstrations across the capital Sanaa, including in front of the United Nations building and at Sanaa University.

Thousands demonstrated earlier today in Sanaa as part of weekly pro-Palestine protests which have been held in Yemen since the start of the war on Gaza.

Translation: ‘The blood of leader Ismail will overthrow Israel’. This is the promise of Yemenis and their pledge to the martyred leaders, confidence in the inevitability of the demise of the Zionist entity, in the million-person march (in loyalty to the blood of martyrs, with Gaza until victory).

2 Aug 2024 - 23:20
 (23:20 GMT)

Possible Kamala Harris VP pick faces criticism for anti-Palestinian op-ed

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who is said to be among the frontrunners to be Harris’s running mate, is facing rebuke for an article he wrote when he was in college in which he said Palestinians are “too battle-minded” to have peace with Israel.

The op-ed, first exposed by the Philadelphia Inquirer, played down the prospect of solving the conflict after White House talks between then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 1993.

“Palestinians will not coexist peacefully,” Shapiro wrote in the article. “They do not have the capabilities to establish their own homeland and make it successful even with the aid of Israel and the United States. They are too battle-minded to be able to establish a peaceful homeland of their own.”

The would-be governor also wrote that Arafat was in danger of being assassinated “by his fellow belligerent Arabs”. But it was Rabin who was killed by a fellow Israeli in 1995.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Action said Shapiro’s comment was disqualifying.

“The racist, anti-Palestinian views Governor Shapiro clearly expressed are deeply disturbing and should disqualify him from further consideration as the 2024 Democratic [vice] president nominee,” the group said in a statement.

Earlier this year, Shapiro compared college students protesting in solidarity with Gaza with the Ku Klux Klan [File: Alex Brandon/AP Photo]
2 Aug 2024 - 23:09
 (23:09 GMT)

AIPAC says US must ‘stand with Israel’ against Iran

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has suggested that Washington and its allies should support Israel in retaliating to a possible Iranian response to the killing of Haniyeh in Tehran.

“As Iran plans an attack that could cause mass destruction in Israel and spark a regional war, America and our allies must work together to deter Iran by demonstrating that we will stand with Israel as it responds to any strikes by the Iranian regime and its proxies,” the pro-Israel lobby group said in a message to supporters.

AIPAC has spent tens of millions of dollars in recent US elections to help defeat candidates critical of Israel.

AIPAC is considered one of the most powerful foreign policy lobby groups in the US [File: Brian Snyder/Reuters]
2 Aug 2024 - 22:57
 (22:57 GMT)
Developing

Israeli airstrike targets Lebanon-Syria border region

The Israeli military has struck an area near the border between Lebanon and Syria.

“A hostile air raid targeted a truck carrying food in the Hawsh al-Sayed Ali area on the Lebanese-Syrian border, without causing any injuries,” reported Lebanon’s National News Agency.

Translation: A raid targeting a truck on the Hawsh road.

2 Aug 2024 - 22:45
 (22:45 GMT)
Analysis

Iran-led axis can now ‘direct fate of the region’: Analyst

Netanyahu has said Israel is sending a negotiating team to Cairo for ceasefire talks in the coming days, but Tel Aviv-based commentator Ori Goldberg says such announcements usually do not come from the Prime Minister’s Office.

“This time, it seems like it is an effort directly organised by the prime minister, which may mean he has given the team a mandate to negotiate more briskly and perhaps even reach a deal,” Goldberg told Al Jazeera.

He added that the assassination of Haniyeh and the Israeli confirmation of the death of Mohammed Deif – regardless of whether it is true – could potentially supply Israel with a victory image that will allow it to declare mission accomplished in Gaza even if it is “hollow”.

“I don’t think the current situation is sustainable at all,” Goldberg said. “But the axis of resistance now has the advantage. They can now direct the fate of the region. Israel has exhausted its options. [The] most it can do is assassinate some more and try to escalate some more. Israel is a one-trick pony.

“The axis now has the option of choosing what kind of retaliation will take place [and] deciding how many fronts are going to be opened as a result of this assassination. The tables have turned.”

2 Aug 2024 - 22:33
 (22:33 GMT)

Palestinian press group slams Israeli allegations against Ismail al-Ghoul

The Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate has slammed Israel’s assertion that the slain Al Jazeera correspondent was a member of Hamas’s elite fighting unit, saying that the Israeli statement is an “official” admission of guilt.

Al-Ghoul and his companion cameraman Rami al-Rifi were killed in a direct Israeli air raid on their vehicle in the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza on Wednesday.

The Israeli military claimed on Thursday – without evidence – that al-Ghoul was a fighter with the Palestinian group, boasting that he was “eliminated”.

The Syndicate ridiculed the allegation, noting that the journalist had been previously detained and released by Israeli forces.

“Millions of viewers and followers of the war on Gaza have watched al-Ghoul daily fulfilling his role as a journalist, and he was on air with Al Jazeera channel hours before his assassination,” it said.

“Throughout the war, he has been moving in his press gear and vehicle in northern Gaza – an area under the occupation of Israeli forces, which controls it with dozens of military drones that never leave its sky. So, how could he move around all this time if he were wanted?”

Al Jazeera Media Network had also denounced the “baseless” Israeli claim.

Read more about Al Jazeera’s response here.

Al Jazeera Arabic journalist Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Rifi [Al Jazeera]
2 Aug 2024 - 22:21
 (22:21 GMT)
Developing

More on US bolstering its military presence in Middle East

The Pentagon has said it is adjusting its force posture to “increase support for the defense of Israel and to ensure the United States is prepared to respond to various contingencies”.

It said Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has ordered additional ballistic missile defence-capable cruisers and destroyers to the US European Command and Middle East-based US Central Command regions.

“The Department is also taking steps to increase our readiness to deploy additional land-based ballistic missile defense,” the Pentagon said in a statement.

“The Secretary has also ordered the deployment of an additional fighter squadron to the Middle East, reinforcing our defensive air support capability.”

2 Aug 2024 - 22:13
 (22:13 GMT)
Houthi

Pentagon to send more military assets to Middle East

The Pentagon says the US military will deploy additional fighters and Navy warships to the region amid growing anticipation about possible Iranian retaliation against Israel for the killing of Haniyeh in Tehran.

We will bring you more details on this as they become available.

2 Aug 2024 - 22:06
 (22:06 GMT)

Hamas official rejects claim Haniyeh was killed with a bomb

The representative of Hamas in Tehran has refuted reports that Ismail Haniyeh was killed by a bomb planted in his room long before his arrival in the Iranian capital.

Khaled Qaddoumi said he was in the building where the Palestinian leader was assassinated on the fourth floor, as quoted by a report in the London-based news outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

“It was clear from the appearance of the place after the attack and from the body of the martyred leader Ismail Haniyeh that the targeting was carried out by an airborne projectile,” he said, adding that he will not discuss further details as Iran is still investigating.

Qaddoumi said a wall and the ceiling of the room Haniyeh was staying in had collapsed due to the severity of the impact of the projectile.

The New York Times has reported, citing unidentified Middle East officials, that Haniyeh was killed by a bomb placed in his usual residence in Tehran two months before the assassination.

2 Aug 2024 - 21:53
 (21:53 GMT)

US legislator says ‘world is safer’ after Israeli assassinations

Despite growing fears of an all-out regional war, Republican Congresswoman Lisa McClain has lauded Israel for killing Hamas’s Haniyeh and Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, claiming that the “world is safer” after the assassinations.

Israel has not taken responsibility for the killing of Haniyeh in Tehran.

2 Aug 2024 - 21:41
 (21:41 GMT)

Hamas says will remain solid and maintain its line

Hamas official Mohammad Nazzal has said that the Palestinian group “will remain solid and maintain the rights of its people and will not make concessions that divide [lessen] the balance of the Palestinian people”.

At a mourning house for Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Doha, Nazal said: “Netanyahu believes that the assassination of Haniyeh can break the will of the Palestinian people and resistance at the negotiation table and outside [it]. Netanyahu is delusional.

“Hamas is an institutionalised movement with legislative institutions, and it is the decision-maker in dealing with any event that takes place within the movement, so I assure the public opinion that Hamas will maintain its line.

“The leading institutions of Hamas will certainly discuss what happened with Haniyeh and will take the appropriate decisions regarding the management of the movement’s affairs during the next phase.”

2 Aug 2024 - 21:30
 (21:30 GMT)

WATCH: Demonstrators in Jordan condemn Haniyeh assassination

The Israeli embassy in Jordan’s Amman, which has been the site of many protests since the start of the war on Gaza, sees demonstrations again – this time to condemn the assassination of the Palestinian leader in Tehran.

Translation: A demonstration near the [Israeli] embassy in Jordan denouncing the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh.

2 Aug 2024 - 21:20
 (21:20 GMT)

Turkish Airlines postpones Friday night flights to Iran, state media says

Turkish Airlines has postponed its flights to Iran tonight due to tensions between Israel and Iran, Turkey’s state-owned Anadolu news agency has reported, without specifying its source.

It said flights planned to different cities in Iran would resume starting Saturday morning.

2 Aug 2024 - 21:10
 (21:10 GMT)

‘Surgeries without sterile clothing’

Fadel Naim, a Gaza-based orthopedic surgeon, has said that for the first time at Nasser Medical Complex, surgeons have run out of scrubs and are forced to perform surgery without them.

The hospital is in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip,

“Surgeons were forced to perform a surgery without sterile clothing, exposing the patient to complications such as infection and surgical failure,” he wrote in a post on X.

Medical centres and hospitals are running out of medicine, medical equipment and sterile scrubs with the dwindling of humanitarian aid coming into the besieged coastal enclave due to the Israeli blockade.

2 Aug 2024 - 21:00
 (21:00 GMT)

If you’re just joining us

The time is now 12am (21:00 GMT) in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory. Here are the main events of the past few hours:

  • Iranian commander Hossein Salami says “enemies of the nation” should expect revenge for the killing of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
  • Israel says it is sending negotiators to Cairo for ceasefire talks, but Hamas stresses that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “does not want to stop the war”.
  • An Israeli attack in Gaza City has killed five people, including three children, according to the Palestinian Civil Defence.
  • Israel detains Al-Aqsa Mosque preacher Ekrima Sabri for calling Haniyeh a “martyr” during a sermon.
  • Tens of thousands rally across the Middle East – including in Lebanon, Yemen and Jordan – to pay tribute to Haniyeh after he was laid to rest in Qatar.
  • Turkey and Israel intensify their war of words, with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan calling his Israeli counterpart Israel Katz a “monument to the insolence and impudence of the genocidal Netanyahu government”.
  • Hamas says it fired 10 rockets at a military base in Israel, but the Israeli army says the projectiles were intercepted or fell in open areas.
2 Aug 2024 - 20:50
 (20:50 GMT)

WATCH: ‘This is my only hope,’ says Palestinian who farms to combat hunger

Youssef Abu Rabie, 24, farms his own food amid sever shortages in Gaza due to the Israeli blockade. “We were living through the most difficult kind of famine,” he says.

2 Aug 2024 - 20:40
 (20:40 GMT)

Palestinian Red Crescent volunteer dies of wounds from Israeli fire

The Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that Tamer Saqr, 21, has succumbed to his injuries after being shot during an Israeli raid in the Balata Refugee Camp in the occupied West Bank last week.

Israel has killed at least 569 Palestinians in the West Bank since the outbreak of the war on Gaza, according to UN figures.