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Israel-Gaza live updates: 1 dead, 4 injured in explosion in Tel Aviv, officials say

As the war goes on, negotiations have stalled to secure the release of hostages.

Last Updated: July 18, 2024, 11:17 AM EDT

As the Israel-Hamas war continues, efforts to secure the release of hostages taken by the terrorist organization are ongoing, and Israeli forces have launched an assault in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Jul 18, 2024, 11:17 AM EDT

Palestinians held in Israeli secret detention describe torture, beatings, starvation

Human rights group Amnesty International has accused Israel of mass incommunicado detention and torture of Palestinian detainees from Gaza, citing the documented cases of 27 Palestinians who were detained for periods of up to four-and-a-half months without access to their lawyers or contact with their families.

Those detained included doctors taken into custody at hospitals for refusing to abandon their patients, mothers separated from their infants while trying to cross the so-called "safe corridor" from northern Gaza to the south, human rights defenders, U.N. workers, journalists and other civilians.

The Israeli Prison Service told the Israeli NGO HaMoked that -- as of July 1 -- 1,402 Palestinians were detained under a law that grants its military sweeping powers to detain anyone from Gaza they suspect of engaging in hostilities against Israel or of posing a threat to state security for indefinitely-renewable periods without having to produce evidence. This count excludes those held for an initial 45-day period without a formal order.

"The Israeli authorities must immediately repeal this law and release those arbitrarily detained under it. Torture and other ill-treatment including sexual violence are war crimes - these allegations must be independently investigated by the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor’s office," Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard.

"The Israeli authorities must also grant immediate and unrestricted access to all places of detention to independent monitors - access that has been denied since 7 October," Callamard said.

Israel said it holds detainees lawfully and denies allegations of torture and says prisoners are granted their basic rights, according to the Associated Press.

Jul 17, 2024, 4:29 PM EDT

Gaza aid pier shut down, aid to flow in through Ashdod

The JLOTS temporary pier system has been shut down, with humanitarian aid from Cyprus to Gaza will now taking place through the civilian port of Ashdod, CENTCOM told reporters.

The pier had successfully delivered close to 20 million pounds of humanitarian aid to Gaza, which USAID estimates provided food for 500,000 people for a month. The pier’s overall cost will come in "well underneath" the $230 million costs currently estimated though he couldn’t say by how much, Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, the deputy commanding general of CENTCOM, told reporters.

Cooper said that 1 million pounds of aid has already entered Gaza as a “proof of concept” and that there are about 5 million pounds of aid to still deliver from Cyprus.

-ABC News' Luis Martinez

Jul 17, 2024, 3:29 PM EDT

Netanyahu ally urges him to accept cease-fire deal

The leader of Israel's Shas party, Areyeh Deri, is urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a cease-fire deal, publicly adding its voice to the choir of those calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, according to a letter from the Shas party.

"We believe that the conditions created now following the welcomed military pressure and the targeted assassinations create an appropriate time to reach a deal that preserves Israel's vital security interests and returns the abductees home," the letter said.

This comes amid reports in Israeli media that Mossad chief David Barnea and Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant have pushed Netanyahu to accept the deal. Without Shas, the Netanyahu-coalition would crumble.

-ABC News' Will Gretsky

Jul 17, 2024, 3:08 PM EDT

Group calls on Netanyahu to release journalists, allow access to Gaza ahead of US visit

The Committee to Protect Journalists released a statement calling on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to release journalists held without charge and allow free, unimpeded access to Gaza ahead of his planned trip to the U.S.

From the start of the war, Israel has continuously denied independent access to the media as Palestinian journalists struggle to survive. The loss of local journalists, an almost total ban on media from outside Gaza leaves a vacuum for propaganda, mis and disinformation. Claims and counterclaims remain extraordinarily difficult to verify independently. Facts are easily evaded and truth withers. No credible democracy engages in what is, in effect, a growing censorship regime," Jodie Ginsburg, the CEO of CPJ, said in a statement Wednesday.

Military vehicles maneuver inside Gaza, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, as seen from Israel, July 16, 2024.
Abir Sultan/AP

More than 100 journalists have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7 and others have been arrested, often without charge, according to the CPJ.

"Journalists, like the thousands of civilians in Gaza killed, arrested or displaced continue to pay an astonishing toll," Ginsburg said.

"An unprecedented number of journalists and media workers have been arrested, often without charge. They have been mistreated and tortured. The number of journalists reporting in Gaza is dwindling, and those who remain are doing so in treacherous conditions, but they cannot do so alone," Ginsburg said.

-ABC News' Guy Davies

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