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2 injured, 2 missing, says York-based Committee to Protect Journalists

 The Israeli army said air defenses intercepted two flying aircraft overnight Friday above the northern city of Haifa. A statement said the aircraft were shot down after air-raid sirens blared near the Arab-majority city of Shefa-Amr in Israel. No injuries were reported. Tension flared along the Israeli-Lebanese border, with Israeli forces and the Hezbollah group exchanging fire multiple times in the past week in the deadliest confrontations since a month-long war in 2006. Israeli forces launched a sustained and forceful military campaign against the Gaza Strip in response to a military offensive by the Palestinian group Hamas in Israeli territories. The conflict began last Saturday when Hamas initiated Operation Al-Aqsa Flood — a multi-pronged surprise attack including a barrage of rocket launches and infiltrations into Israel via land, sea and air. Hamas said the operation was in retaliation for the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem and Israeli settlers’ growing violence against Palestinians. The Israeli military then launched Operation Swords of Iron against Hamas targets within the Gaza Strip. That response has extended into cutting water and electricity supplies to Gaza, further worsening the living conditions in an area that has reeled under a crippling siege since 2007.  More than 3,300 people have been killed since the outbreak of the conflict on Saturday, including 1,900 Palestinians and 1,400 Israelis.

Pro-Palestine solidarity marches are being held around the world in a continuation of weeklong demonstrations, with protesters demanding their respective governments impose sanctions and a military embargo to cut the supply of weapons to Israel. The bombings began on Saturday after the Palestinian armed group Hamas launched an unprecedented incursion inside the Israeli territory. More than 1,300 people have been killed in Israel and at least 100 taken captive by Hamas. The French police have used tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters who took to the streets in support of the Palestinians, shortly after the government moved to ban all such rallies. Police broke up a rally in capital Paris on Thursday, following orders from Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin to ban all pro-Palestine demonstrations in the name of “public order”. Critics called the order an attack on civil liberties. No restrictions have been announced for events in support of Israel. “Let’s not add, through illusions or calculations, domestic divides to international divides,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday. “The shield of unity will protect us from hatred and excesses.”

HRW verifies videos taken in Lebanon and Gaza showing airbursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus.

Treating Palestinian militants in public hospitals caused ‘tremendous difficulty’ on health system, says Moshe Arbel