🔴 Live: Russia launches sixth air attack on Kyiv this month

Russia launched its sixth air attack this month on Kyiv early on Tuesday, the military administration of the Ukrainian capital said, with air raid alerts blaring for more than three hours over the city and east half of the country. Also, the UN’s nuclear watchdog said it had found anti-personnel mines in an area of the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine and complained for the second month running that this violated safety procedures. Read our live blog for all the latest developments. All times are Paris time (GMT+2). 

Driver rams car into judicial reform protesters in Israel

Three people were injured in the incident as demonstrations and clashes with police intensified on Monday

Three people were injured in Israel after a driver rammed into a crowd of protesters during a rally against the country’s highly controversial judicial reform. Clashes with police have erupted during demonstrations in several cities, resulting in dozens of arrests. 

The incident took place on Monday night near the town of Kfar Saba, located about 16 kilometers (10 miles) northeast of Tel Aviv, where a group of demonstrators gathered to march against a sweeping judicial overhaul moving through Israel’s parliament, the Knesset.

In a video of the attack circulating online, a white vehicle is seen accelerating through the crowd and over a small bonfire, kicking up a plume of flames as protesters fled in panic. Three people were “lightly wounded” in the ramming, Haaretz reported, citing police.

Judicial reform protests: A car drove through a crowd of protesters in central Israel, lightly injuring three people pic.twitter.com/TtD2zEC9CB

— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) July 24, 2023

A male suspect in his 20s was arrested, local police told the outlet. Israeli journalist Noga Tarnopolsky later described the man as a “West Bank settler.”

Thousands of Israelis turned out for protests in multiple cities as lawmakers passed the first part of the new judicial reform on Monday. The law, which imposes major limits on the Supreme Court’s oversight of government actions, has been the subject of heated debate and controversy since it was proposed earlier this year, triggering a wave of demonstrations across the country.

At least 34 people were arrested on Monday, while police unleashed water cannons on protesters in both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, local media reported. Police in Tel Aviv said 10 officers were injured during clashes there.

מכתזיות בכינון ישיר לראשי מפגינים. איילון צפון.
קרדיט: אחים לנשק pic.twitter.com/AK6FQoxHDk

— 🏳️‍🌈🏴ShAuLi (@Shaulirena) July 24, 2023

Demonstrators also blocked a number of roads and highways. The Ayalon freeway near Tel Aviv was obstructed with crowds, fires and barricades for several hours before law enforcement intervened. According to the Times of Israel, many remained in the area afterward, while up to 15,000 were reportedly on the Ayalon freeway at the peak of the protest.


READ MORE: Israel passes controversial judicial reform

A security guard fired a handgun into the air during a scuffle with protesters near the Hatzerim Kibbutz in southern Israel, the Jerusalem Post reported, noting that the guard and six others were arrested later on Monday night.

Clarification: the shooter is the Kibbutz security guard, apparently legally wielding his weapon. https://t.co/4XjyvfW3HG

— Noga Tarnopolsky נגה טרנופולסקי نوغا ترنوبولسكي💙 (@NTarnopolsky) July 24, 2023

Following the contentious Knesset vote, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a video statement, saying he was willing to renew talks over the reform with his opponents. Seeking to reassure critics of the bill, he insisted that “no side will take over the court.”

In his own video, opposition leader Yair Lapid denounced the premier for “lies” and “empty theater,” saying he was merely aiming to “lull the protests to sleep.” The lawmaker went on to declare that Netanyahu’s “extremist and messianic government cannot tear our democracy apart in the afternoon, and in the evening say that he proposes dialogue.”

US makes NATO pledge to Poland

The State Department promised to defend the territory of its Eastern European ally

Washington will defend Poland in case of an attack from abroad, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters on Monday, commenting on rumors that fighters from the private military company Wagner currently stationed in Belarus wanted to “go on tour” in the neighboring state. 

During the daily press briefing, Miller was asked about the statements by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who claimed that Wagner members were eager to settle scores with those who provided Ukraine with weapons and suggested that they could “go on a tour to Warsaw.” 

“I don’t know how much you should read into [that],” Miller said.“I would just reiterate that our alliance with Poland is strong. Poland is a NATO member, of course, and we will defend, if necessary, every inch of NATO territory.”

Several thousands Wagner fighters have relocated to Belarus over the past month after their failed mutiny in Russia, which ended with Lukashenko’s mediation. The Belarusian leader, who visited Moscow over the weekend, told President Vladimir Putin he was “concerned” by their apparent desire to cross into Poland. Lukashenko specifically mentioned Rzeszow, a hub for NATO efforts to supply Ukraine with weapons, ammunition, equipment and repairs.

Putin said last week that any attack on Belarus from Poland would be treated as an attack on Russia itself. Moscow and Minsk have a defense pact, and Russian troops are stationed in Belarus. Russia also deployed nuclear warheads to Belarus last month, citing ongoing tensions with NATO over Ukraine. 

Read more

Poland to form new military unit amid tensions with Russia, Belarus

The Russian president suggested that Warsaw was drawing up a “coalition” with Lithuania to seize parts of western Ukraine under the guise of peacekeeping, and that some in Kiev might collaborate with this project. Polish officials have denied any plans to occupy Ukrainian territory. 

A swath of territory currently belonging to Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania was held by Poland between 1919 and 1939. These “eastern borderlands” were ceded to the USSR at the end of the Second World War in exchange for Eastern Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia, from which the local Germans were deported. 

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki bristled at Putin’s description of Poland’s current western border as a “gift from Stalin.” He denounced the late Soviet leader as “a war criminal” and vowed to summon the Russian ambassador in protest.

Warsaw beefed up its military presence along the border with Belarus in early July, citing the threat from Wagner. On Monday, Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak announced the creation of a new unit, to be stationed near the border with Lithuania in the so-called Suwalki Gap, which separates Belarus from the Russian Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad.