[🇧🇩] Israel and Hamas war in Gaza-----Can Bangladesh be a peace broker?

[Saif]

UN reports 798 deaths near Gaza aid hubs in six weeks

The UN rights office said on Friday it had recorded at least 798 killings within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and near convoys run by other relief groups. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to ge

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UN reports 798 deaths near Gaza aid hubs in six weeks

REUTERS
Published :
Jul 11, 2025 21:14
Updated :
Jul 11, 2025 21:14

Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border, Jul 10, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Amir Cohen

The UN rights office said on Friday it had recorded at least 798 killings within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and near convoys run by other relief groups.

The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a UN-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the allegation.

After the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian civilians trying to reach the GHF’s aid hubs in zones where Israeli forces operate, the United Nations has called its aid model “inherently unsafe” and a violation of humanitarian impartiality standards.

“(From May 27) up until the seventh of July, we’ve recorded 798 killings, including 615 in the vicinity of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, and 183 presumably on the route of aid convoys,” UN rights office (OHCHR) spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told a media briefing in Geneva.

The GHF, which began distributing food packages in Gaza in late May after Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade, told Reuters the UN figures were “false and misleading”. It denies that deadly incidents have occurred at its sites.

“The fact is the most deadly attacks on aid site have been linked to UN convoys,” a GHF spokesperson said.

“Ultimately, the solution is more aid. If the UN (and) other humanitarian groups would collaborate with us, we could end or significantly reduce these violent incidents”.

The Israeli army told Reuters in a statement that it was reviewing recent mass casualties and that it had sought to minimise friction between Palestinians and the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) by installing fences and signs and opening additional routes.

GUNSHOT WOUNDS

The OHCHR said it based its figures on sources such as information from hospitals in Gaza, cemeteries, families, Palestinian health authorities, NGOs and its partners on the ground.

Most of the injuries to Palestinians in the vicinity of aid distribution hubs recorded by the OHCHR since May 27 were gunshot wounds, Shamdasani said.

“We’ve raised concerns about atrocity crimes having been committed and the risk of further atrocity crimes being committed where people are lining up for essential supplies such as food,” she said.

After the GHF assertion that the OHCHR figures are false and misleading, Shamdasani said: “It is not helpful to issue blanket dismissals of our concerns - what is needed is investigations into why people are being killed while trying to access aid”.

Israel has said its forces operate near the relief aid sites to prevent supplies from falling into the hands of militants it has been fighting in the Gaza war triggered by the Hamas-led cross-border attack on Oct 7, 2023.

The GHF said on Friday it had delivered more than 70 million meals to Gaza Palestinians in five weeks, and that other humanitarian groups had “nearly all of their aid looted” by Hamas or criminal gangs. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has previously cited instances of violent pillaging of aid, and the UN World Food Programme said last week that most trucks carrying food assistance into Gaza had been intercepted by “hungry civilian communities”.

There is an acute shortage of food and other basic supplies 21 months into Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, during which much of the enclave has been reduced to rubble and most of its 2.3 million inhabitants displaced.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli strike kills children near Gaza clinic with no immediate truce in sight

An Israeli airstrike hit Palestinians near a medical centre in Gaza on Thursday, killing 10 children and six adults, local health authorities said, as ceasefire talks dragged on with no immediate deal expected. Verified video footage from the strike in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip showe

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Israeli strike kills children near Gaza clinic with no immediate truce in sight

REUTERS
Published :
Jul 10, 2025 23:30
Updated :
Jul 10, 2025 23:30

Palestinian newborns share an incubator at Al-Helou hospital due to fuel crisis, according to medics, amid the Israeli military offensive, in Gaza City, July 10, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

An Israeli airstrike hit Palestinians near a medical centre in Gaza on Thursday, killing 10 children and six adults, local health authorities said, as ceasefire talks dragged on with no immediate deal expected.

Verified video footage from the strike in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip showed the bodies of women and children lying in pools of blood amid dust and screaming. One clip showed several motionless children lying on a donkey cart.

"She didn't do anything, she was innocent, I swear. Her dream was for the war to end and that they announce it today, to go back to school," said Samah al-Nouri, sitting by the body of her daughter who was killed in the blast.

"She was only getting treatment in a medical facility. Why did they kill them?" she said, with other bodies laid out around her at a nearby hospital.

Israel's military said it had struck a militant who took part in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war. It said it was aware of reports regarding a number of injured bystanders and that the incident was under review.

The Deir al-Balah missile strike came as Israeli and Hamas negotiators hold talks with mediators in Qatar over a proposed 60-day ceasefire and hostage release deal aimed at building agreement on a lasting truce.

A senior Israeli official said on Wednesday that an agreement was not likely to be secured for another one or two weeks, however US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday he was hopeful of a deal.

"I think we're closer, and I think perhaps we're closer than we've been in quite a while," Rubio told reporters at the ASEAN summit in Malaysia.

Several rounds of indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas have failed to produce a breakthrough since the Israeli military resumed its campaign in March following a previous ceasefire.

Repeated attacks by Israeli forces in recent weeks have killed hundreds of Gazans, many of them civilians, and injured thousands, according to local health authorities, putting an enormous strain on the enclave's few remaining hospitals.

Dwindling fuel supplies risk further disruption in the semi-functioning hospitals, including to incubators at the neonatal unit of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, doctors there said.

"We are forced to place four, five or sometimes three premature babies in one incubator," said Dr Mohammed Abu Selmia, the hospital director, adding that premature babies were now in a critical condition.

TALKS

US President Donald Trump met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week to discuss the situation in Gaza amid reports that Israel and Hamas were nearing agreement on a US-brokered ceasefire proposal after 21 months of war.

The Israeli official who was in Washington with Netanyahu said that if the two sides agree to the ceasefire plan, Israel would use that time to offer a permanent truce requiring Hamas to disarm.

If Hamas refuses, "we'll proceed" with military operations in Gaza, the official said on condition of anonymity.

A Palestinian official said the talks in Qatar were in crisis and that issues under dispute, including whether Israel would continue to occupy parts of Gaza after a ceasefire, had yet to be resolved.

The two sides previously agreed a ceasefire in January but it did not lead to a deal on a permanent truce and Israel resumed its military assault two months later, stopping all aid supplies into Gaza and telling civilians to leave the north of the tiny territory.

Israel's military campaign in Gaza has now killed more than 57,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities. It has destroyed swathes of the territory and driven most Gazans from their homes.

The Hamas attack on Israeli border communities that triggered the war killed around 1,200 people and the militant group seized around 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

There has also been repeated violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. An Israeli man was killed at a shopping centre in the territory on Thursday by two Palestinian militants, who were then shot dead, police said.

In a separate incident, a Palestinian man was shot dead after he stabbed and injured a soldier, the army said.​

 

[Saif]

Gaza truce talks faltering over withdrawal, Palestinian and Israeli sources say

Talks aimed at securing a ceasefire in Gaza are stalling over the extent of Israeli forces' withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave, Palestinian and Israeli sources familiar with the negotiations in Doha said on Saturday. The indirect talks over a US proposal for a 60-day ceasefire are nonetheless

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Gaza truce talks faltering over withdrawal, Palestinian and Israeli sources say

REUTERS
Published :
Jul 12, 2025 16:36
Updated :
Jul 12, 2025 16:36

A Palestinian child stands at the site of an overnight Israeli air strike on a house, in Gaza City, July 11, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/Files

Talks aimed at securing a ceasefire in Gaza are stalling over the extent of Israeli forces' withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave, Palestinian and Israeli sources familiar with the negotiations in Doha said on Saturday.

The indirect talks over a US proposal for a 60-day ceasefire are nonetheless expected to continue, the sources said, despite the latest obstacles in clinching a deal.

A Palestinian source said that Hamas has rejected the withdrawal maps which Israel has proposed, as they would leave around 40 per cent of the territory under Israeli control, including all of the southern area of Rafah and further territories in northern and eastern Gaza.

Two Israeli sources said Hamas wants Israel to retreat to lines it held in a previous ceasefire before it renewed its offensive in March.

The Palestinian source said matters regarding aid and guarantees for ending the war were also presenting a challenge, and added that the crisis may be resolved with more US intervention.

The White House said on Monday that Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff, who played a major role in crafting the latest ceasefire proposal, will travel to Doha this week to join discussions there.

Delegations from Israel and Hamas have been in Qatar since Sunday in a renewed push for an agreement which envisages a phased release of hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals and discussions on ending the war entirely.

Hamas has long demanded an end to the war before it would free remaining hostages; Israel has insisted it would end the fighting only when all hostages are released and Hamas is dismantled.

The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages into Gaza. At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages there are believed to still be alive.

Israel's subsequent campaign against Hamas has since killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, displaced almost the entire population of more than 2 million people, sparked a humanitarian crisis and left much of the territory in ruins.​

 

[Saif]

Gaza ceasefire talks stalled over Israeli withdrawal plans

Indirect talks between Hamas and Israel for a ceasefire in Gaza are being held up by Israel’s proposals to keep troops in the territory, two Palestinian sources with knowledge of the discussions told AFP on Saturday...

www.newagebd.net

Gaza ceasefire talks stalled over Israeli withdrawal plans
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 13 July, 2025, 01:46

Indirect talks between Hamas and Israel for a ceasefire in Gaza are being held up by Israel’s proposals to keep troops in the territory, two Palestinian sources with knowledge of the discussions told AFP on Saturday.

Delegations from both sides began discussions in Qatar last Sunday to try to agree on a temporary halt to the 21-month conflict sparked by Hamas’s deadly October 2023 attack on Israel.

Israel has meanwhile kept up its strikes on Gaza and the territory’s civil defence agency said more than 20 people were killed on Saturday, including in an air strike on an area sheltering the displaced.

‘We all generally came here because we were told it was a safe area,’ Bassam Hamdan told AFP after the overnight attack in an area of Gaza City.

In southern Gaza, bodies covered in white plastic sheets were brought to the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis while wounded in Rafah were taken for treatment by donkey cart, on stretchers or carried, AFP photographs showed.

If an agreement for a 60-day ceasefire were reached, both Hamas and Israel have said 10 hostages taken in 2023 who remain alive in captivity would be released.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was prepared then to enter talks for a more permanent end to hostilities.

But one Palestinian source, speaking anonymously, said Israel’s refusal to accept Hamas’s demand to withdraw all of its troops from Gaza was holding back progress.

A second source said mediators had asked both sides to postpone the talks until the arrival of US president Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, in the Qatari capital.

They added that Israel was proposing to maintain military forces in more than 40 per cent of the Palestinian territory, forcing hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians into a small area near the city of Rafah, on the border with Egypt.

‘Hamas’s delegation will not accept the Israeli maps... as they essentially legitimise the reoccupation of approximately half of the Gaza Strip and turn Gaza into isolated zones with no crossings or freedom of movement,’ they said.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli government.

The second Palestinian source accused the Israeli delegation of having no authority, and ‘stalling and obstructing the agreement in order to continue the war of extermination’.

The Gaza war began after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, resulting in the deaths of at least 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Of the 251 hostages seized, 49 are still being held, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

At least 57,882 Palestinians, also mostly civilians, have been killed since the start of the war, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

Seven UN agencies warned in a joint statement on Saturday that if fuel runs out in Gaza, it would be ‘an unbearable new burden on a population teetering on the edge of starvation’.

The Israeli military said on Saturday it had attacked ‘approximately 250 terrorist targets throughout the Gaza Strip’ in the previous 48 hours.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli missile hits Gaza children collecting water, IDF blames malfunction

At least eight Palestinians, most of them children, were killed and more than a dozen were wounded in central Gaza when they went to collect water on Sunday, local officials said, in an Israeli strike which the military said missed its target. The Israeli military said the missile had intended to

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Israeli missile hits Gaza children collecting water, IDF blames malfunction

REUTERS
Published :
Jul 13, 2025 22:11
Updated :
Jul 13, 2025 22:11

A Palestinian boy inspects the site of an Israeli strike that killed Palestinians, gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Stringer

At least eight Palestinians, most of them children, were killed and more than a dozen were wounded in central Gaza when they went to collect water on Sunday, local officials said, in an Israeli strike which the military said missed its target.

The Israeli military said the missile had intended to hit an Islamic Jihad militant in the area but that a malfunction had caused it to fall "dozens of metres from the target".

"The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians," it said in a statement, adding that the incident was under review.

The strike hit a water distribution point in Nuseirat refugee camp, killing six children and injuring 17 others, said Ahmed Abu Saifan, an emergency physician at Al-Awda Hospital.

Water shortages in Gaza have worsened sharply in recent weeks, with fuel shortages causing desalination and sanitation facilities to close, making people dependent on collection centres where they can fill up their plastic containers.

Hours later, 12 people were killed by an Israeli strike on a market in Gaza City, including a prominent hospital consultant, Ahmad Qandil, Palestinian media reported. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the attack.

Gaza's health ministry said on Sunday that more than 58,000 people had been killed since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in October 2023, with 139 people added to the death toll over the past 24 hours.

The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its tally, but says over half of those killed are women and children.

TALKS STALLED

Negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire appeared to be deadlocked, with the two sides divided over the extent of an eventual Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave, Palestinian and Israeli sources said at the weekend.

The indirect talks over a US proposal for a 60-day ceasefire are being held in Doha, but optimism that surfaced last week of a looming deal has largely faded, with both sides accusing each other of intransigence.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a video he posted on Telegram on Sunday said Israel would not back down from its core demands - releasing all the hostages still in Gaza, destroying Hamas and ensuring Gaza will never again be a threat to Israel.

Netanyahu was expected to convene ministers later on Sunday to discuss the ceasefire talks.

The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages into Gaza. At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages there are believed to still be alive.

Israel's campaign against Hamas has displaced almost the entire population of more than 2 million people, but Gazans say nowhere is safe in the coastal enclave.

Early on Sunday morning, a missile hit a house in Gaza City where a family had moved to after receiving an evacuation order from their home in the southern outskirts.

"My aunt, her husband and the children, are gone. What is the fault of the children who died in an ugly bloody massacre at dawn?" said Anas Matar, standing in the rubble of the building.

"They came here, and they were hit. There is no safe place in Gaza," he said.
​

 

[Saif]

Death and destruction in Gaza in 21 months of war with Israel

Israel invaded the Gaza Strip in Oct 2023 in response to a cross-border attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Israel’s military campaign over the past 21 months has laid waste to vast swathes of the Palestinian enclave. Below is a summary of the death and destruction, with much of

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Death and destruction in Gaza in 21 months of war with Israel

REUTERS
Published :
Jul 13, 2025 21:59
Updated :
Jul 13, 2025 21:59

Mourners sit next to dead bodies during the funeral of Palestinians killed in an overnight Israeli strike on a house, according to medics, at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City Jul 13, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

Israel invaded the Gaza Strip in Oct 2023 in response to a cross-border attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Israel’s military campaign over the past 21 months has laid waste to vast swathes of the Palestinian enclave. Below is a summary of the death and destruction, with much of the data drawn from reports released by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

DEATHS IN GAZA

Between Oct 7 2023 and Jul 13 2025, the Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that at least 58,026 Palestinians were killed, and 138,520 injured. This includes more than 7,200 killed since a ceasefire broke down on Mar 18. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its tally, but says over half of those dead are women and children. Israel says at least 20,000 are fighters.

The United Nations said on Jul 11 that 798 people had been killed trying to access food since the end of May, when the US-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) started distributing food. Of these deaths, 615 were registered near GHF sites and 183 on the routes of mainly UN aid convoys.

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said on Jul 10 that the population of Gaza had fallen to 2,129,724 from 2,226,544 in 2023. Some 100,000 Palestinians are estimated to have left Gaza since the war started.

ISRAELI DEATHS

Between Oct 7 2023 and Jul 13 2025, according to official Israeli sources, almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict. This includes 1,200 killed on Oct 7 and 446 soldiers killed in Gaza or along the border in Israel since the beginning of the ground operation in Oct 2023. Of these, 37 soldiers were killed and 197 injured since the re-escalation of hostilities in March. An estimated 50 Israelis and foreign nationals remain captive in Gaza, including 28 hostages who have been declared dead and whose bodies are being withheld.

DISPLACEMENT

Since Mar 18 this year, the Israeli military has issued 54 displacement orders, covering about 81 percent of the Gaza Strip. The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said this has meant that more than 700,000 people had been forced to relocate during this period. As of Jul 9, 86 percent of the Gaza Strip is within Israeli-militarised zones or under displacement orders. Many people have sought refuge in overcrowded displacement sites, makeshift shelters, damaged buildings and streets, OCHA says.

FOOD AND HUNGER

WFP said that since May 21, when border crossings re-opened to limited amounts of its aid, the UN agency had dispatched more than 1,200 trucks carrying 18,247 metric tons of food aid, according to a Jul 5 update.

“Despite these efforts, the food delivered to date is still a tiny fraction of what a population of over two million people need to survive,” it said.

Most trucks carrying food assistance into Gaza are intercepted by hungry civilians, it said. It added that its target, agreed with Israel, was to bring 2,000 metric tons of food aid into Gaza every day.

Some 470,000 people are expected to face “catastrophic hunger” between May and September of this year, WFP said. Malnutrition is surging and some 90,000 children and women urgently need treatment, it added.

The GHF began delivering food at the end of May from a small number of distribution centres. It operates outside the United Nations and is supported by Israel. It said on Jul 8 that it had delivered more than 66 million free meals in over a month. Reaching its sites has proved often deadly for locals.

The Israeli military has acknowledged that Palestinian civilians were harmed near aid distribution centres, saying that Israeli forces had been issued new instructions following what it called “lessons learned”.

REPORTED DAMAGE

An estimated 436,000 housing units (92 percent of the total) have been damaged or destroyed, OCHA reported on Jul 9, with 70 percent of all structures and 81 percent of all classified roads damaged or destroyed in the territory. 83 percent of arable land, 83 percent of agricultural water wells and 71 percent of greenhouses have been damaged, according to a UN report released in April.

HEALTHCARE

OCHA said only 18 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals were functioning, but only on a partial basis. Ten out of 16 field hospitals are operational. Just over a third of Gaza’s primary health care centres were partially functioning.

UNICEF said more than one million children were in need of some sort of mental health and psycho-social support. OCHA said 1,580 health care workers had been killed in the conflict.​

 

[Saif]

Gaza truce talks in the balance as Israel and Hamas trade blame

Gaza ceasefire talks hung in the balance as Hamas and Israel on Saturday accused the other of blocking attempts to strike a deal, nearly a week into an attempt to halt 21 months of bitter fighting in the Palestinian territory.

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Gaza truce talks in the balance as Israel and Hamas trade blame
AFP Gaza City
Published: 13 Jul 2025, 09: 43

A man lying down on salvaged belongings looks on as Palestinians inspect destroyed tents at a makeshift displacement camp following a reported incursion a day earlier by Israeli tanks in the area in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza strip on 11 July, 2025. AFP

Gaza ceasefire talks hung in the balance as Hamas and Israel on Saturday accused the other of blocking attempts to strike a deal, nearly a week into an attempt to halt 21 months of bitter fighting in the Palestinian territory.

A Palestinian source with knowledge of the indirect talks in Qatar told AFP that Israel's proposals to keep its troops in the war-torn territory were holding up a deal for a 60-day pause.

But on the Israeli side, a senior political official, also speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivities of the talks, accused the militants of inflexibility and deliberately trying to scuttle an accord.

On the ground, Gaza's civil defence agency said at least 38 people were killed across the territory on Saturday, including in an overnight air strike on an area sheltering the displaced.

"While we were sleeping, there was an explosion... where two boys, a girl and their mother were staying," Bassam Hamdan told AFP after the attack in an area of Gaza City.

"We found them torn to pieces, their remains scattered," he added.

In southern Gaza, bodies covered in white plastic sheets were brought to the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis while wounded in Rafah were taken for treatment by donkey cart, on stretchers or carried.

In Tel Aviv, thousands took to the streets urging the government to seal a hostage release deal. "The window of opportunity... is open now and it won't be for long," said Eli Sharabi, who was freed in February.

Both Hamas and Israel have said that 10 hostages held since the militants' October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war would be released -- if an agreement is reached.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was prepared then to enter talks for a more permanent end to hostilities.

Enclave plans?
But one Palestinian source said Israel's refusal to accept Hamas's demand for a complete withdrawal of troops from Gaza was holding back progress in the talks.

A second source said mediators had asked both sides to postpone discussions until US President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, arrives in the Qatari capital.

The first source said Israel was proposing to maintain its military in more than 40 percent of the Palestinian territory, forcing hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians into a small area near the city of Rafah, on the border with Egypt.

"Hamas's delegation will not accept the Israeli maps... as they essentially legitimise the reoccupation of approximately half of the Gaza Strip and turn Gaza into isolated zones with no crossings or freedom of movement," they said.

Israeli media reported that new maps would be presented on Sunday, quoting an unnamed foreign official with knowledge of the details.

A senior Israeli political official countered later that it was Hamas that rejected what was on the table, accusing the group of "creating obstacles" and "refusing to compromise" with the aim of "sabotaging the negotiations".

"Israel has demonstrated a willingness to show flexibility in the negotiations, while Hamas remains intransigent, clinging to positions that prevent the mediators from advancing an agreement," the official added in a statement sent to AFP.

The Hamas attacks on Israel in 2023 resulted in the deaths of at least 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Of the 251 hostages seized, 49 are still being held, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

At least 57,882 Palestinians, also mostly civilians, have been killed since the start of the war, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

Military operations
The Israeli military said on Saturday it had attacked "approximately 250 terrorist targets throughout the Gaza Strip" in the previous 48 hours.

It said fighter jets hit "over 35 Hamas terror targets" around Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza.

Two previous ceasefires -- a week-long truce beginning in late November 2023 and a two-month one from mid-January this year -- saw 105 hostages released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

The second Palestinian source said "some progress" had been made in the latest talks on plans for releasing Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and getting more aid to Gaza.

Netanyahu, who is under domestic and international pressure to end the war, said this week that neutralising Hamas as a security threat was a prerequisite for any long-term ceasefire talks.

That included disarmament, he said, warning that failure to do so would mean Israel would have to do so by force.​

 

[Saif]

Gaza civil defence says Israeli strikes kill at least 27

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli air strikes on Sunday killed at least 27 Palestinians, including six near a water distribution point.

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Gaza civil defence says Israeli strikes kill at least 27
AFP Gaza City
Published: 13 Jul 2025, 13: 10

Palestinians sit amid the rubble of a house in the aftermath of an overnight Israeli strike that hit Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on 13 July, 2025. AFP

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli air strikes on Sunday killed at least 27 Palestinians, including six near a water distribution point.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that Gaza City was hit by several strikes overnight and in the early morning, killing eight people "including children and women" and wounding others.

An Israeli air strike hit a family home near Nuseirat refugee camp, south of Gaza City, resulting in "10 martyrs and several injured", Bassal said.

Another strike "hit a potable water distribution point... in an area for displaced people west of the Nuseirat camp", Bassal added, reporting "six martyrs and several injured".

Palestinians assess the damage in the aftermath of an overnight Israeli strike that hit Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on 13 July, 2025. AFP

In the territory's south, three people were killed when Israeli jets hit a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians in the coastal Al-Mawasi area, according to the civil defence spokesman.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has recently intensified its operations across Gaza, more than 21 months into the war triggered by Hamas's October 2023 attack.

The vast majority of Gaza's population of more than two million people have been displaced at least once during the war, which has created dire humanitarian conditions in the territory.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency and other parties.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli strikes kill 43 including children at a water distribution point

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli air strikes on Sunday killed more than 40 Palestinians, including children at a water distribution point

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Israeli strikes kill 43 including children at a water distribution point
AFP Gaza, Palestine
Published: 14 Jul 2025, 09: 38

Two Palestinians stand on the roof of a building as smoke billows following Israeli strikes on Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on July 13, 2025.

Delegations from Israel and the Palestinian militant Hamas group have now spent a week trying to agree on a temporary truce to halt 21 months of devastating fighting in the Gaza Strip. AFP

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli air strikes on Sunday killed more than 40 Palestinians, including children at a water distribution point, as talks for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas stalled.

Delegations from Israel and the Palestinian militant group have now spent a week trying to agree on a temporary truce to halt 21 months of devastating fighting in the Gaza Strip.

On the ground, civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said eight children were among the 10 victims of a drone strike at a water point.

Israel's military blamed it on a "technical error" when targeting a militant in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, adding "the munition fell dozens of meters from the target".

Washington is Israel's top ally and Donald Trump has been pushing for a ceasefire, with the US president saying Sunday he was hopeful of a deal.

But there was no immediate sign an end to the fighting was near. Strikes across the Palestinian territory on Sunday killed at least 43 people, including 11 at a Gaza City market, Bassal said.

In Nuseirat, resident Khaled Rayyan told AFP he was woken by the sound of two large explosions.

"Our neighbour and his children were under the rubble" of a house hit, he said.

Another resident, Mahmud al-Shami, called on the negotiators to secure a ceasefire deal.

"What happened to us has never happened in the entire history of humanity," he said. "Enough."

Targets

The Israeli military, which has recently intensified operations across Gaza, said that in the past 24 hours the air force "struck more than 150 terror targets".

It released aerial footage of what it said were fighter jet strikes attacking Hamas targets around Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza, showing explosions on the ground and thick smoke in the sky.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency and other parties.

The war was sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which led to 1,219 deaths, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Of the 251 people taken hostage by militants that day, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry says that at least 58,026 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israel's retaliatory campaign. The United Nations considers those figures reliable.

UN agencies on Saturday warned that fuel shortages had reached "critical levels", threatening to worsen conditions for Gaza's more than two million people.

"Only 150,000 litres of fuel have been allowed in over the past few days -- an amount that covers less than one day's needs," the head of the Palestinian NGOs Network in Gaza, Amjad Shawa, told AFP on Sunday. "We require 275,000 litres of fuel per day to meet basic needs."

Forced displacement fears

Talks in the Qatari capital Doha to seal a 60-day ceasefire and hostage release were in the balance on Saturday after Israel and Hamas accused each other of trying to block a deal.

Despite the deadlock, Trump said "hopefully we're going to get that straightened out over the next week", speaking to reporters Sunday as he echoed similarly optimistic comments he made 4 July.

Hamas wants the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, but a Palestinian source with knowledge of the talks said Israel had presented plans to maintain troops in more than 40 percent of the territory.

The source said Israel wanted to force hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into the south of Gaza "in preparation for forcibly displacing them to Egypt or other countries".

A senior Israeli official said Israel had demonstrated an openness "to flexibility in the negotiations, while Hamas remains intransigent, clinging to positions that prevent the mediators from advancing an agreement".

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is prepared to enter talks for a more lasting end to hostilities once a temporary truce is agreed, but only if Hamas disarms.

Netanyahu on Sunday evening faced renewed pressure to secure the release of all hostages when protesters beamed images of captives onto buildings near his Jerusalem office.

"The absolute majority want a deal even (at the cost of) ending the fighting," Yotam Cohen, whose brother Nimrod is still being held, told AFP.​

 

[Saif]

Deadlocked Gaza truce talks limp on, US hopes for deal

Stuttering Gaza ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas entered a second week on Monday, with US president Donald Trump still hopeful of a breakthrough and as more than 20 people were killed on the ground.

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Deadlocked Gaza truce talks limp on, US hopes for deal
Agence France-Presse . Jerusalem 15 July, 2025, 00:14

Children queue with pots to receive meals from a charity kitchen in Gaza City on Monday. | AFP photo

Stuttering Gaza ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas entered a second week on Monday, with US president Donald Trump still hopeful of a breakthrough and as more than 20 people were killed on the ground.

The indirect negotiations in the Qatari capital, Doha, appeared deadlocked at the weekend after both sides blamed the other for blocking a deal for a 60-day ceasefire and the release of hostages.

In Gaza, the Palestinian territory’s civil defence agency said at least 22 people were killed in the latest Israeli strikes on Monday in and around Gaza City, and Khan Yunis in the south.

One strike on a tent in Khan Yunis on Sunday killed the parents and three brothers of a young Gazan boy, who only survived as he was outside getting water, the boy’s uncle said.

Belal al-Adlouni called for revenge for ‘every drop of blood’ saying it ‘will not be forgotten and will not die with the passage of time, nor with displacement or with death’.

AFP reporters in southern Israel meanwhile saw large plumes of smoke in northern Gaza, where the military said fighter jets had pounded Hamas targets over the weekend.

Trump, who met Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington last week, is keen to secure a truce in the 21-month war, which was sparked by Hamas’s deadly October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

‘Gaza — we are talking and hopefully we’re going to get that straightened out over the next week,’ he told reporters late on Sunday, echoing similarly optimistic comments he made on July 4.

A Palestinian source with knowledge of the talks said on Saturday that Hamas rejected Israeli proposals to keep troops in over 40 per cent of Gaza and plans to move Palestinians into an enclave on the border with Egypt.

In response, a senior Israeli political official accused Hamas of inflexibility and trying to deliberately scupper the talks by ‘clinging to positions that prevent the mediators from advancing an agreement’.

Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Saar and the Palestinian minister of state for foreign affairs Varsen Aghabekian Shahin headed to Brussels on Monday for talks between the EU and its Mediterranean neighbours.

But the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority denied media reports that any meeting between the two was on the agenda.

In Israel, Netanyahu has said he would be ready to enter talks for a more lasting ceasefire when a deal for a temporary truce is agreed and only when Hamas lays down its weapons.

But he is under pressure to quickly wrap up the war, with military casualties mounting and with public frustration both at the continued captivity of the hostages and a perceived lack of progress in the conflict.

Politically, his fragile governing coalition is holding, for now, but Netanyahu is seen as beholden to a minority of far-right ministers in prolonging an increasingly unpopular conflict.

He also faces a backlash over the feasibility and ethics of a plan to build a so-called ‘humanitarian city’ from scratch in southern Gaza to house displaced Palestinians if and when a ceasefire takes hold.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has described the proposed facility as a ‘concentration camp’ and Israel’s own security establishment is reported to be unhappy at the plan.

Israeli media said the costs were discussed at a security cabinet meeting at the prime minister’s office on Sunday night, just hours before his latest court appearance in a long-running corruption trial on Monday.

Hamas’s attacks on Israel in 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

A total of 251 hostages were taken that day, of which 49 are still being held, including 27 that the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s military reprisals have killed 58,026 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.​

 

[Saif]

UN says 875 Palestinians have been killed near Gaza aid sites

The U.N. rights office said on Tuesday it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza run by the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and convoys run by other relief groups, including the United Nations. The majority of those killed were in t

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UN says 875 Palestinians have been killed near Gaza aid sites

REUTERS
Published :
Jul 15, 2025 16:46
Updated :
Jul 15, 2025 16:46

A general view shows destruction in North Gaza, as seen from Israel, May 27, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Amir Cohen/Files

The U.N. rights office said on Tuesday it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza run by the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and convoys run by other relief groups, including the United Nations.

The majority of those killed were in the vicinity of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, while the remaining 201 were killed on the routes of other aid convoys.

The GHF uses private U.S. security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a U.N.-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the allegation.

The GHF, which began distributing food packages in Gaza in late May after Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade, previously told Reuters that such incidents have not occurred on its sites and accused the U.N. of misinformation, which it denies.

The GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest UN figures.

“The data we have is based on our own information gathering through various reliable sources, including medical human rights and humanitarian organizations,” Thameen Al-Kheetan, a spokesperson for the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in Geneva.

The United Nations has called the GHF aid model “inherently unsafe” and a violation of humanitarian impartiality standards.

The GHF said on Friday it had delivered more than 70 million meals to Gaza Palestinians in five weeks, and that other humanitarian groups had “nearly all of their aid looted” by Hamas or criminal gangs.

The Israeli army previously told Reuters in a statement that it was reviewing recent mass casualties and that it had sought to minimise friction between Palestinians and the Israel Defence Forces by installing fences and signs and opening additional routes.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has previously cited instances of violent pillaging of aid, and the U.N. World Food Programme said last week that most trucks carrying food assistance into Gaza had been intercepted by “hungry civilian communities”.​

 

[Saif]

Crush at Gaza aid site kills at least 20, GHF blames armed agitators

19 people were trampled and one fatally stabbed during the crush at one of its centres in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

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Crush at Gaza aid site kills at least 20, GHF blames armed agitators
Reuters Cairo/Jerusalem
Published: 16 Jul 2025, 21: 10

People carry a body as they mourn Palestinians who were killed in an incident on Wednesday while seeking aid in Khan Younis, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on 16 July, 2025. Reuters

At least 20 Palestinians were killed on Wednesday at an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in what the US-backed group said was a crowd surge instigated by armed agitators.

The GHF, which is supported by Israel, said 19 people were trampled and one fatally stabbed during the crush at one of its centres in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

"We have credible reason to believe that elements within the crowd – armed and affiliated with Hamas – deliberately fomented the unrest," GHF said in a statement.

Hamas rejected the GHF allegation as "false and misleading", saying GHF guards and Israeli soldiers sprayed people with pepper gas and opened fire.

GHF said Hamas' account was "blatantly false".

"At no point was tear gas deployed, nor were shots fired into the crowd. Limited use of pepper spray was deployed, only to safeguard additional loss of life," GHF said in a written response to Reuters via e-mail.

"Today’s incident is part of a larger pattern of Hamas trying to undermine and ultimately end GHF. It is no coincidence that this incident occurred during ceasefire negotiations, where Hamas continues to demand that GHF cease operations."

Witnesses told Reuters that guards at the site sprayed pepper gas at them after they had locked the gates to the centre, trapping them between the gates and the outer wire-fence.

“People kept gathering and pressuring each other; when people pushed each other...those who couldn’t stand fell under the people and were crushed," said eyewitness Mahmoud Fojo, 21, who was hurt in the stampede.

"Some people started jumping over the netted fence and got wounded. We were injured, and God saved us. We were under the people and we said the Shahada (death prayers). We thought we were dying, finished," he added.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army on Hamas and eyewitness accounts.

Palestinian health officials told Reuters that 21 people had died of suffocation at the site. One medic said lots of people had been crammed into a small space and had been crushed.

On Tuesday, the UN rights office in Geneva said it had recorded at least 875 killings, opens new tab within the past six weeks in the vicinity of aid sites and food convoys in Gaza - the majority of them close to GHF distribution points.

Most of those deaths were caused by gunfire that locals have blamed on the Israeli military. The military has acknowledged that Palestinian civilians were harmed near aid distribution centres, saying that Israeli forces had been issued new instructions with "lessons learned".

The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a U.N.-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the accusation.

The UN has called the GHF’s model unsafe and a breach of humanitarian impartiality standards - an allegation GHF has denied.

Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGOs Network, accused the GHF on Wednesday of gross mismanagement.

"People who flock in their thousands (to GHF sites) are hungry and exhausted, and they get squeezed into narrow places, amid shortages of aid and the absence of organization and discipline by the GHF," he told Reuters.

The war in Gaza, triggered in October 2023 by a deadly Hamas attack on Israel, has displaced almost all of the territory's population and led to widespread hunger and privation.

Israeli army road

Earlier on Wednesday, the Israeli military said it had finished paving a new road in southern Gaza separating several towns east of Khan Younis from the rest of the territory in an effort to disrupt Hamas operations.

Palestinians see the road, which extends Israeli control, as a way to put pressure on Hamas in ongoing ceasefire talks, which started on July 6 and are being brokered by Arab mediators Egypt and Qatar with the backing of the United States.

Palestinian sources close to the negotiations said a breakthrough had not yet been reached on any of the main issues.

Hamas said it rejected an Israeli demand to keep at least 40 per cent of Gaza under its control as part of any deal. Hamas also demanded the dismantlement of the GHF and the reinstatement of a UN-led aid delivery mechanism.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the war will end once Hamas is disarmed and removed from Gaza.

Gaza local health authorities said Israeli military strikes have killed at least 87 people across the enclave in the past 24 hours.

Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed more than 58,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.

Almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict, including 1,200 killed in the 7 October, 2023, Hamas attack, by Israeli tallies.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli strike on Gaza’s only Catholic church kills two

An Israeli strike on Gaza’s only Catholic church killed two people on Thursday, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said, as Israel said it ‘never targets’ religious sites and regretted any harm to civilians.

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Israeli strike on Gaza’s only Catholic church kills two
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 18 July, 2025, 01:48

AFP photo

An Israeli strike on Gaza’s only Catholic church killed two people on Thursday, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said, as Israel said it ‘never targets’ religious sites and regretted any harm to civilians.

Pope Leo XIV said he was ‘deeply saddened’ by the attack, which came as Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that Israeli strikes across the Palestinian territory killed at least 20 people.

‘With deep sorrow the Latin Patriarchate can now confirm that two persons were killed as a result of an apparent strike by the Israeli army that hit the Holy Family Compound this morning,’ it said in a statement.

‘We pray for the rest of their souls and for the end of this barbaric war. Nothing can justify the targeting of innocent civilians.’ Gaza civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said ‘two citizens from the Christian community’ were killed in an Israeli strike on the church in Gaza City, with which the late Pope Francis kept regular contact through the war.

AFP photographs showed the wounded being treated in a tented area at Gaza City’s Al-Ahli Hospital, also known as the Baptist Hospital, with parish priest Father Gabriel Romanelli with a bandage around his lower leg. Some of the wounded arrived on stretchers, with one man wearing an oxygen mask.

The patriarchate, which has jurisdiction for Catholics in Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Jordan and Cyprus, condemned the strike and said it ‘destroyed large parts of the complex’.

‘Targeting a holy site currently sheltering approximately 600 displaced persons, the majority of whom are children and 54 with special needs, is a flagrant violation of human dignity and a blatant violation of the sanctity of life and the sanctity of religious sites, which are supposed to provide a safe haven in times of war,’ it said.

Israel expressed ‘deep sorrow’ over the damage and civilian casualties, adding that the military was investigating.

‘Israel never targets churches or religious sites and regrets any harm to a religious site or to uninvolved civilians,’ the foreign ministry said on X.

Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni said attacks on civilians in Gaza were ‘unacceptable’ while her foreign minister Antonio Tajani called the church attack ‘a serious act against a Christian place of worship’.

Out of the Gaza Strip’s population of more than two million, about 1,000 are Christians. Most of them are Orthodox but according to the Latin Patriarchate, there are about 135 Catholics in the territory.

Since the early days of the war which erupted in October 2023, members of the Catholic community have been sheltering at the Holy Family Compound in Gaza City, where some Orthodox Christians have also found refuge.

Pope Francis repeatedly called for an end to the war and in his final Easter message, a day before his death on April 21, he condemned the ‘deplorable humanitarian situation’ in the Palestinian territory.

Monsignor Pascal Gollnisch, the head of Catholic charity l’Oeuvre d’Orient, said the raid was ‘totally unacceptable’.

‘It is a place of worship. It is a Catholic church known for its peaceful attitude, for being a peacemaker. These are people who are at the service of the population,’ he said.

‘There was no strategic objective, there were no jihadists in this church. There were families, there were civilians. This is totally unacceptable and we condemn in the strongest possible terms this attitude on the part of Israel.’

More than 21 months of war have created dire humanitarian conditions for Gaza’s population, displacing most residents at least once and triggering severe shortages of food and other essentials.

The war was triggered by a Hamas attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 58,573 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency and other parties.​

 

[Saif]

At least 32 killed by Israeli fire while seeking aid in Gaza, hospital says

At least 32 people were killed by Israeli fire while they were on their way to an aid distribution site in Gaza at dawn on Saturday, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. The Israeli military said it had fired warning shots at suspects who approached its troops

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At least 32 killed by Israeli fire while seeking aid in Gaza, hospital says

REUTERS
Published :
Jul 19, 2025 18:29
Updated :
Jul 19, 2025 18:29

Mourners react next to a body during the funeral of Palestinians killed in an early morning Israeli strike, according to medics, at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, July 19, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

At least 32 people were killed by Israeli fire while they were on their way to an aid distribution site in Gaza at dawn on Saturday, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

The Israeli military said it had fired warning shots at suspects who approached its troops after they did not heed calls to stop, about a kilometre away from an aid distribution site that was not active at the time.

Gaza resident Mohammed al-Khalidi said he was in the group approaching the site and heard no warnings before the firing began. “We thought they came out to organise us so we can get aid, suddenly (I) saw the jeeps coming from one side, and the tanks from the other and started shooting at us,” he said.

The Gaza Humanitarian Fund, a US-backed group which runs the aid site, said there were no incidents or fatalities there on Saturday and that it has repeatedly warned people not to travel to its distribution points at dark.

“The reported IDF (Israel defence Forces) activity resulting in fatalities occurred hours before our sites opened and our understanding is most of the casualties occurred several kilometres away from the nearest GHF site,” it said.

The Israeli military said it was reviewing the incident.

DEATHS NEAR AID SITES

GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a UN-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the accusation.

The UN has called the GHF’s model unsafe and a breach of humanitarian impartiality standards, which GHF denies.

On Tuesday, the UN rights office in Geneva said it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks in the vicinity of aid sites and food convoys in Gaza - the majority of them close to GHF distribution points.

Most of those deaths were caused by gunfire that locals have blamed on the Israeli military. The military has acknowledged that civilians were harmed, saying that Israeli forces had been issued new instructions with “lessons learned”.

Smoke billowed over the embattled southern Syrian city of Sweida on Friday, following nearly a week of bloodshed that has killed more than 300 people.

At least 18 more people were killed in other Israeli attacks across Gaza on Saturday, health officials said. The Israeli military said that it had struck militants’ weapon depots and sniping posts in a few locations in the enclave.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza.

The Israeli military campaign against Hamas in Gaza has since killed around 58,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians according to health officials, displaced almost the entire population and plunged the enclave into a humanitarian crisis, leaving much of the territory in ruins.

Israel and Hamas are engaged in indirect talks in Qatar aimed at reaching a 60-day ceasefire though there has been no sign of any imminent breakthrough.​

 

[Saif]

Israel’s enduring pursuit of Palestinian disunity

ISRAEL is aggressively implementing plans to shape Palestine’s future and the broader region, sculpting its vision for the ‘day after’ its genocide in Gaza...

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Israel’s enduring pursuit of Palestinian disunity
Ramzy Baroud 20 July, 2025, 00:00

Counter Punch/Dylan Shaw

ISRAEL is aggressively implementing plans to shape Palestine’s future and the broader region, sculpting its vision for the ‘day after’ its genocide in Gaza.

The latest, bizarre iteration of this strategy proposes fragmenting the occupied West Bank into so-called ‘emirates,’ starting with the ‘emirate of Hebron.’

This unexpected twist in Israel’s protracted search for alternative Palestinian leadership first surfaced in the staunchly pro-Israeli US newspaper, the Wall Street Journal. It then quickly dominated all Israeli media.

The report details a letter from a person identified by the WSJ as ‘the leader of Hebron’s most influential clan.’ Addressed to Nir Barakat, Jerusalem’s former Israeli mayor, the letter from Sheikh Wadee’ al-Jaabari appeals for ‘cooperation with Israel’ in the name of ‘co-existence.’

This ‘co-existence,’ according to the ‘clan leader’, would materialize in the ‘Emirate of Hebron.’ This ‘emirate’ would ‘recognize the State of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people,’ in exchange for reciprocal recognition of the ‘Emirate of Hebron as the Representative of the Arab residents in the Hebron District.’

The story may seem perplexing. This is because Palestinian discourse, regardless of geography or political affiliation, has never entertained such an absurd concept as united West Bank ‘emirates.’

Another element of absurdity is that Palestinian national identity and pride in their people’s unwavering resilience, especially in Gaza, are at an unprecedented apex. To float such clan-based alternatives to legitimate Palestinian leadership seems ill-conceived and is destined to fail.

Israel’s desperation is palpable. In Gaza, it cannot defeat Hamas and other Palestinian factions who have resisted the Israeli takeover of the Strip for 21 months. All attempts to engineer an alternative Palestinian leadership there have utterly collapsed.

This failure has compelled Israel to arm and fund a criminal gang that operated before October 7, 2023, in Gaza. This gang functions under the command of Yasser Abu Shabab.

The gang has been implicated in a litany of violent activities. These include hijacking humanitarian aid to perpetuate famine in Gaza and orchestrating violence associated with aid distribution, among other egregious crimes.

Like the clan leader of Hebron, the Abu Shabab criminal gang possesses no legitimacy and no public support among Palestinians. But why would Israel resort to such disreputable figures when the Palestinian Authority, already engaged in ‘security coordination’ with Israel in the West Bank, is ostensibly willing to comply?

The answer lies in the current Israeli extremist government’s adamant refusal to acknowledge Palestinians as a nation. Thus, even a collaborating Palestinian nationalist entity would be deemed problematic from an Israeli perspective.

While Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is not the first Israeli leadership to explore clan-based alternatives among Palestinians, the Israeli prime minister and his extremist allies are exceptionally determined to dismantle any Palestinian claim to nationhood. This was explicitly stated by extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. He famously declared in Paris, in March 2023, that a Palestinian nation is an ‘invention.’

Thus, despite the Palestinian Authority’s willingness to cooperate with Israel in controlling Gaza, Israel remains apprehensive. Empowering the PA as a nationalist model fundamentally contravenes Israel’s overarching objectives of denying the Palestinian people their very claim to nationhood and, consequently, statehood and sovereignty.

Though Israel has consistently failed to establish and sustain its own alternative Palestinian leadership, its repeated efforts have invariably proven disruptive and violent.

Prior to the Nakba of 1948, the Zionist movement, alongside British authorities colonizing Palestine, heavily invested in undermining the Arab Higher Committee, a nationalist body comprising several political parties. They achieved this by empowering collaborating clans, hoping to dilute the Palestinian nationalist movement.

When Israel occupied the remainder of historic Palestine in 1967, it reverted to the same divide-and-conquer tactics. For instance, it established a Palestinian police force directly commanded by Israeli military administrations, in addition to creating an underground network of collaborators.

Following the overwhelming victory of nationalist candidates in the 1976 elections in occupied Palestine, Israel responded by cracking down on PLO-affiliated politicians, arresting, deporting and assassinating some.

Two years later, in 1978, it launched its ‘Village Leagues’ project. It hand-picked compliant traditional figures, designating them as the legitimate representatives of Palestinians.

These individuals, armed, protected and financed by the Israeli occupation army, were positioned to represent their respective clans in Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Gaza and elsewhere.

Palestinians immediately denounced them as collaborators. They were widely boycotted and socially ostracized.

Eventually, it became evident that Israel had no alternative but to engage directly with the PLO. This culminated in the Oslo Accords in 1993 and the subsequent formation of the Palestinian Authority.

The fundamental problem, however, persisted: the Palestinian Authority’s insistence on a Palestinian state remains anathema to an Israel that has shifted dramatically to the right.

This explains Netanyahu’s government’s unwavering insistence that the PA has no role in Gaza in any ‘day after’ scenario. While the Palestinian Authority could serve Israel’s interest in containing the rebellious Strip, such a triumph would inevitably recenter the discussion of a Palestinian state — a concept repugnant to most Israelis.

There is no doubt that neither the Abu Shabab gang nor the Hebron emirate will govern Palestinians, either in Gaza or the West Bank. Israel’s insistence on fabricating these alternatives, however, underscores its historic determination to deny Palestinians any sense of nationhood.

Israel’s persistent fantasies of control invariably fail. Despite their profound wounds, Palestinians are more unified than ever, their collective identity and nationhood hardened by relentless resistance and countless sacrifices.

CounterPunch.org, July 18. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the editor of The Palestine Chronicle.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli fire kills 39 near two aid centres: Gaza civil defence

Gaza's civil defence agency said on Saturday that Israeli fire killed 39 people and wounded more than 100 near two aid centres, in the latest deaths of Palestinians seeking food.

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Israeli fire kills 39 near two aid centres: Gaza civil defence
AFP Gaza City
Published: 20 Jul 2025, 12: 24

Palestinians transport casualties of an Israeli strike on an apartment at the Nuseirat refugee camp, into Al-Awda hospital in the central Gaza Strip on 19 July, 2025. AFP

Gaza's civil defence agency said on Saturday that Israeli fire killed 39 people and wounded more than 100 near two aid centres, in the latest deaths of Palestinians seeking food.

Deaths of people waiting for handouts in huge crowds near food points in Gaza have become a regular occurrence, with the territory's authorities frequently blaming Israeli fire.

But the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which has replaced UN agencies as the main distributor of aid in the territory, has accused militant group Hamas of fomenting unrest and shooting at civilians.

Civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the deaths happened near a site southwest of Khan Yunis and another centre northwest of Rafah, both in southern Gaza, attributing the fatalities to "Israeli gunfire".

One witness said he headed to the Al-Tina area of Khan Yunis before dawn with five of his relatives to try to get food when "Israeli soldiers" started shooting.

"My relatives and I were unable to get anything," Abdul Aziz Abed, 37, told AFP. "Every day I go there and all we get is bullets and exhaustion instead of food."

Three other witnesses also accused troops of opening fire.

'Warning shots

In response, the Israeli military said it "identified suspects who approached them during operational activity in the Rafah area, posing a threat to the troops".

Soldiers called for them to turn back and "after they did not comply, the troops fired warning shots", it said, adding that it was aware of the reports about casualties.

"The incident is under review. The shots were fired approximately one kilometre (more than half a mile) away from the aid distribution site at nighttime when it's not active," it said in a statement.

GHF said reports of deaths near its sites were "false".

"We have repeatedly warned aid-seekers not to travel to our sites overnight and early morning hours," it wrote on X.

An elderly woman holds out an empty pot at a food distribution point in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on 19 July, 2025. AFP

Elsewhere, the civil defence agency reported that an Israeli strike on a house near Nuseirat, in central Gaza, killed 12 people, the latest in a series of deadly bombardments.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency and other parties.

The war in Gaza, sparked by militant group Hamas's deadly attack on Israel on 7 October, 2023, has created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people who live in the coastal territory.

Most people have been displaced at least once by the fighting, and doctors and aid agencies say they were seeing the physical and mental health effects of 21 months of war, including more acute malnutrition.

The World Food Programme said nearly one in three people in Gaza were not eating for days at a stretch and "thousands" were "on the verge of catastrophic hunger".

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, on Saturday said it had enough food for all of Gaza for more than three months but it was stockpiled in warehouses and blocked from being delivered.

The free flow of aid into Gaza is a key demand of Hamas in indirect negotiations with Israel for a 60-day ceasefire in the war, alongside a full Israeli military withdrawal.

'Agitators'

After a more than two-month Israeli aid blockade, GHF took over the running of aid distribution in late May, despite criticism from the United Nations which previously coordinated handouts, that it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.

GHF acknowledged for the first time that 20 people died at its Khan Yunis site on Wednesday but blamed "agitators in the crowd... armed and affiliated with Hamas" for creating "a chaotic and dangerous surge" and firing at aid-seekers.

The previous day, the UN said it had recorded 875 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food, including 674 "in the vicinity of GHF sites", since it began operating.

Hamas's 2023 attack on Israel led to the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel's retaliatory military action has killed 58,765 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli fire kills 57 aid seekers in Gaza

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd of Palestinians waiting to collect humanitarian aid in the territory’s north on Sunday, killing 57 people and wounding dozens more...

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Israeli fire kills 57 aid seekers in Gaza
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 21 July, 2025, 01:01

Women react as they stand near mourners praying by the bodies of victims who were killed the previous day by Israeli bombardment as they lie outside during the funeral at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday. | AFP photo

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd of Palestinians waiting to collect humanitarian aid in the territory’s north on Sunday, killing 57 people and wounding dozens more.

Further to the south, the Israeli military ordered Palestinians to leave Deir el-Balah, in the centre of the Strip, before launching its first operations against Hamas militants in the area.

Pope Leo XIV, meanwhile, called for peace in Gaza days after Israeli tank fire hit the territory’s only Catholic church, killing three.

Deaths of civilians seeking aid have become a regular occurrence, with the authorities in Gaza blaming Israeli fire as crowds facing chronic shortages of food and other essentials gather in huge numbers near aid centres.

Qasem Abu Khater, 36, said he had rushed to the Al-Sudaniya area of Gaza City in the hope of getting a bag of flour, joining a ‘desperate’ crowd of thousands.

‘There was deadly overcrowding and pushing — women, men and children,’ said Khater, who was displaced from Jabalia, north of the city.

‘It felt like we were no longer alive, like we had no souls left. The tanks were firing shells randomly at us and Israeli sniper soldiers were shooting as if they were hunting animals in a forest,’ he added.

‘Dozens of people were martyred right before my eyes and no one could save anyone.’

Civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that ‘Israeli forces opened fire on civilians waiting for aid’, and that ‘dozens’ were wounded.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the agency and other parties.

Asked for comment, the military said it was looking into the latest reports of deaths.

The army has maintained that it works to avoid harm to civilians, saying this month that it issued new instructions to its troops on the ground ‘following lessons learned’ from a spate of similar incidents.

The war was sparked by Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, leading to the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed 58,895 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday expressed his regret to Pope Leo XIV after what he described as a ‘stray’ munition killed three people sheltering at the Holy Family Church in Gaza City.

At the end of the pope’s Angelus prayer on Sunday, the leader of the world’s Catholics said the strike was part of the ‘on-going military attacks against the civilian population and places of worship in Gaza’.

‘I appeal to the international community to observe humanitarian law and respect the obligation to protect civilians, as well as the prohibition of collective punishment, the indiscriminate use of force, and the forced displacement of populations,’ he added.

The Catholic Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pier Battista Pizzaballa, held mass at the Gaza church on Sunday after travelling to the territory on Friday.

Most of Gaza’s population of more than two million people have been displaced at least once during the war and there have been repeated evacuation calls across large parts of the coastal territory.

On Sunday, the Israeli military told residents and displaced Palestinians sheltering in the Deir el-Balah area to move south immediately.

Israel was ‘expanding its activities’ against Hamas around Deir el-Balah, ‘where it has not operated before’, the military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X.

The announcement prompted concern from families of hostages held since October 7, 2023 that the Israeli offensive could harm their loved ones.

They called in a statement for Israeli authorities to ‘urgently explain to Israeli citizens and families what the fighting plan is and how exactly it protects the abductees who are still in Gaza’.

Delegations from Israel and militant group Hamas have spent the last two weeks in indirect talks on a proposed 60-day ceasefire in Gaza and the release of 10 living hostages.

Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas’s 2023 attack, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.​

 

[Saif]

UK, France and other nations call for an immediate end to war in Gaza

Britain and more than 20 other countries called on Monday for an immediate end to the war in Gaza and criticised the Israeli government's aid delivery model after hundreds of Palestinians were killed near sites distributing food. France, Italy, Japan, Australia, Canada, Denmark and other countries

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

UK, France and other nations call for an immediate end to war in Gaza

REUTERS
Published :
Jul 21, 2025 20:01
Updated :
Jul 21, 2025 20:01

Smoke rises during Israeli strikes amid the Israeli military operation in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, July 21, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Hatem Khaled

Britain and more than 20 other countries called on Monday for an immediate end to the war in Gaza and criticised the Israeli government's aid delivery model after hundreds of Palestinians were killed near sites distributing food.

France, Italy, Japan, Australia, Canada, Denmark and other countries said more than 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid and condemned what it called the "drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians".

The majority of those killed were in the vicinity of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) sites, which the United States and Israel backed to take over aid distribution in Gaza from a network led by the United Nations.

"The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity," the countries' foreign ministers said in a joint statement.

The call for an end to the war and the way Israel delivers aid comes from several countries which are allied with Israel and its most important backer, the United States.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation uses private US security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a UN-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the accusation.

The UN has called the GHF’s model unsafe and a breach of humanitarian impartiality standards, which GHF denies.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli undercover force detains senior Gaza health official, ministry says

An Israeli undercover force detained Marwan Al-Hams, a senior Gaza Health Ministry official, outside the field hospital of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday, the health ministry said. Hams, in charge of field hospitals in the enclave, was on his way

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Israeli undercover force detains senior Gaza health official, ministry says

REUTERS
Published :
Jul 21, 2025 19:29
Updated :
Jul 21, 2025 19:29

Marwan Al-Hams, a senior Gaza Health Ministry official, speaks at his office in Gaza, in this screen grab taken from a video shot on October 21, 2024. Photo : REUTERS/Files

An Israeli undercover force detained Marwan Al-Hams, a senior Gaza Health Ministry official, outside the field hospital of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday, the health ministry said.

Hams, in charge of field hospitals in the enclave, was on his way to visit the ICRC field hospital in northern Rafah when an Israeli force "abducted" him after opening fire, killing one person and wounding another civilian nearby, according to the ministry.

Medics said the person killed was a local journalist who was filming an interview with Hams when the incident happened.

The Israeli military and the Red Cross did not immediately respond following separate requests by Reuters for comment.

Israel has raided and attacked hospitals across the Gaza Strip during the 21-month war in Gaza, accusing Hamas of using them for military purposes, an accusation the group denies. But sending undercover forces to carry out arrests has been rare.​

 

[Saif]

UK, Canada, 26 other countries say the war in Gaza ‘must end now’

Twenty-eight countries, including Britain, Japan and a host of European nations issued a joint statement Monday saying the war in Gaza "must end now" - the latest sign of allies' sharpening language as Israel's isolation deepens. The foreign ministers of countries also including Australia and Cana

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

UK, Canada, 26 other countries say the war in Gaza ‘must end now’

AP
Published :
Jul 22, 2025 18:01
Updated :
Jul 22, 2025 18:01

Twenty-eight countries, including Britain, Japan and a host of European nations issued a joint statement Monday saying the war in Gaza "must end now" - the latest sign of allies' sharpening language as Israel's isolation deepens.

The foreign ministers of countries also including Australia and Canada said "the suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths." They condemned "the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food."

The statement described as "horrifying" the recent deaths of over 800 Palestinians who were seeking aid, according to the figures released by Gaza's Health Ministry and the U.N. human rights office.

"The Israeli government's aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity," the countries said. "The Israeli government's denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable. Israel must comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law."

Israel and U.S. reject the criticism

Israel's Foreign Ministry rejected the statement, saying it was "disconnected from reality and sends the wrong message to Hamas." It accused Hamas of prolonging the war by refusing to accept an Israeli-backed proposal for a temporary ceasefire and hostage release.

"Hamas is the sole party responsible for the continuation of the war and the suffering on both sides," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein posted on X.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee also rejected the statement from many of America's closest allies, calling it "disgusting" in a post on X and saying they should instead pressure the "savages of Hamas."

Germany was also notably absent from the statement.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul wrote on X that he spoke with Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar on Monday and expressed the "greatest concern about the catastrophic humanitarian situation" in Gaza as Israel's offensive widens. He called on Israel to implement agreements with the EU to enable more humanitarian aid.

A worsening humanitarian crisis

Gaza's population of more than 2 million Palestinians is in a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, now relying largely on the limited aid allowed into the territory. Israel's offensive has displaced some 90% of the population, with many forced to flee multiple times.

Most of the food supplies Israel has allowed into Gaza go to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an American group backed by Israel. Since its operations began in May, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in shootings by Israeli soldiers while heading to the sites, according to witnesses and health officials. The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots at those who approach its forces.

Israel's 21 months of war with Hamas have pushed Gaza to the brink of famine, sparked worldwide protests and led to an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israel has brushed off previous criticism

Allies' criticism about Israel's actions has had little clear effect. In May, Britain, France and Canada issued a joint statement urging Netanyahu's government to stop its military operations in Gaza and threatening "concrete actions" if it didn't.

Israel rejects criticism of its wartime conduct, saying its forces have acted lawfully and blaming civilian deaths on Hamas because the militants operate in populated areas. It says it has allowed enough food in to sustain Gaza and accuses Hamas of siphoning off much of it. The United Nations says there is no evidence for widespread diversion of humanitarian aid.

The new joint statement called for an immediate ceasefire, saying countries are prepared to take action to support a political pathway to peace in the region.

Israel and Hamas have been engaged in ceasefire talks but there appears to be no breakthrough, and it's not clear whether any truce would bring the war to a lasting halt. Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until all the hostages are returned and Hamas is defeated or disarmed.

Speaking to Parliament, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy thanked the U.S., Qatar and Egypt for their diplomatic efforts to try to end the war.

"There is no military solution," Lammy said. "The next ceasefire must be the last ceasefire."

Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Tuesday the hostages needed to be released and the war must end, but the images of destruction and killing coming out of Gaza were "indefensible."

"We're all hoping that there'll be something that will break this," Burke told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Hamas triggered the war when militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage. Fifty hostages remain in Gaza, but fewer than half are thought to be alive.

Israel's military offensive has killed more than 59,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Its count doesn't distinguish between militants and civilians, but the ministry says more than half of the dead are women and children. The ministry is part of the Hamas government, but the U.N. and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.​