Israel-Gaza updates: Poliovirus detected in wastewater across Gaza, WHO says

Houthis took responsibility for a drone that flew into Tel Aviv undetected.

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.


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Netanyahu shuts down plan to build field hospital for Gazan children

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has scrapped Defense Minister Yoav Gallant's plans to establish a field hospital for Gazans along the border with Gaza.

Netanyahu "announced in writing that he does not approve the establishment of a hospital for Gazans on Israeli territory -- therefore it will not be built," his office said in a statement Thursday.

Gallant had announced Wednesday that he had ordered the establishment of a temporary field hospital in southern Israel along the border with Gaza to treat sick Palestinian children who are unable to leave the war-torn enclave for medical care abroad, amid the extended closure of Gaza's Rafah crossing into Egypt. Gallant said he had told his American counterpart, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, about the plan for the field hospital during a call earlier this week, according to a readout.

The World Health Organization’s representative for Gaza and the West Bank, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, told reporters Wednesday that some 10,000 patients in Gaza still require urgent evacuation for medical treatment.

-ABC News' Jordana Miller


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.


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


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