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Here’s where things stand on Wednesday 2 July 2025:
- Israeli forces have killed at least 43 Palestinians across Gaza as they target aid seekers and displaced people sheltering in tents.
- More than 600 Palestinians have been killed in just five weeks while waiting for food parcels at the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) sites.
- US President Donald Trump says Israel has agreed to “the necessary conditions to finalise” a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, and urges Hamas to accept the proposal.
- Officials at al-Shifa, the largest medical centre in northern Gaza, say hundreds of patients are “facing death” as the hospital runs out of fuel amid Israel’s blockade.
- Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 56,647 people and wounded 134,105, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7 attacks, and more than 200 were taken captive.
Photos: Aftermath of Israeli hits on tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis
Time for a recap
If you’ve just joined us, here are the latest updates:
- The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza since dawn has risen to 43, hospital sources have told Al Jazeera. Nearly 600 Palestinians have been killed in five weeks, 250 of them in the past 48 hours.
- Wafa news agency reports that 14 Palestinians have been arrested in Israeli raids across the Bethlehem governorate in the occupied West Bank, where about 400 families would be made homeless by an Israeli army’s order to demolish more than 100 homes.
- Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin says the current times offer a “historic opportunity” to seize the occupied West Bank, Israeli media reports.
- Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has approved a law requiring the government to suspend Iran’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
- Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has called on Germany, France and the UK – the three European signatories to a nuclear deal with Iran in 2015 – to impose new sanctions on Tehran.
- Saar has also commented on the prospect of a truce between Israel and Hamas, saying that any opportunity to free captives held in Gaza should not be missed, after US President Donald Trump said Israel had agreed to finalise a 60-day ceasefire.
Attacks on densely populated areas continue as dozens killed across Gaza
The situation remains very tense as I can hear the drones hovering above me in the sky above central Gaza. This has been part of the ongoing intelligence activities by the Israeli military.
On the ground, there has been a very significant expansion of ground operations in border towns and villages, specifically in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoon and the eastern part of Gaza city, which are being subjected to intense military operations.
We’ve also had reports in the past hour of a surge of air attacks on residential houses in the Zeitoun neighbourhood, where a building has been flattened. The victims and casualties have been transported to al-Ahli Hospital for emergency treatment.
Across the territory, more than 40 Palestinians have been killed since dawn today. There’s no sign of these Israeli attacks on heavily populated areas abating.
Israeli minister calls for seizing ‘historic opportunity’ to annex West Bank
Justice Minister Yariv Levin says the current times offer a “historic opportunity” to seize the occupied West Bank, Israeli media reports.
According to The Times of Israel, Levin said, “Beyond the current issues, [it] is a time of historic opportunity that we must not miss.
“The time for sovereignty has come, the time to apply sovereignty. My position on this matter is firm, it is clear.”
The occupied West Bank has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967, but was never formally annexed – a prospect that far-right ministers have long pushed for. Yet, after the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas and the ensuing war on Gaza, Israeli authorities have been redrawing the map of the Palestinian territory.
Since then, the Israeli army has intensified its daily raids and mass arrests, especially in the north, where Israeli bulldozers have razed entire residential areas, forcibly expelling at least 40,000 people.
In 2024, 24,700 dunams (6,100 acres or 2,470 hectares) were classified as “state land” by Israeli authorities, surpassing the 23,000 dunams annexed between 2000 and 2023. Additionally, 68 illegal settlement outposts were recognised by Israel and provided with infrastructure, deepening Israeli control.
Photos: Israel bombs Shujayea neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City
Death toll in Gaza rises by 43
The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza since dawn has risen to 43, hospital sources have told Al Jazeera.
In the last 48 hours, at least 250 Palestinians have been killed, many of them while seeking aid at the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution centres.
Israeli demolitions in West Bank will make 400 families homeless
Palestinians have gathered in the Tulkarem refugee camp in the occupied West Bank to attempt to recover their possessions from their homes before they are demolished by Israeli forces.
The head of the popular committee in the camp told our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic that about 400 families would be made homeless by the Israeli order to demolish more than 100 homes.
The official said a two-hour deadline given by Israeli authorities to retrieve belongings was insufficient for families to remove their possessions.
‘A murderous freefall’
Sam Rose, director of UNRWA affairs in Gaza, says the situation in the enclave and the killings near aid distribution hubs are getting “immeasurably worse” and show no sign of ameliorating, considering how much Palestinians are in need of food.
“This will continue because people are so desperate to get food, they are making impossible choices and taking impossible risks,” Rose told Al Jazeera, referring to more than 600 people killed in the past five weeks while waiting for food.
“And it gets worse because we had a population on the verge of starvation three months ago and those conditions are getting immeasurably worse – this needs to come to an end,” Rose said, speaking from Amman, Jordan.
The militarisation of aid forces people to travel long distances through conflict zones, “which means that those who are in greatest need are at greatest risk of not being able to get that assistance”, he said. “It is treating people in an incredibly undignified way.”
No aid organisation would have been allowed to continue operating in light of the number of people killed each day near its hubs, Rose said, “but for some reason this is allowed to pass”
Israel kills nearly 600 Palestinians at aid centres
The number of Palestinians killed while seeking food in Gaza is now more than 600 in just five weeks.
They are dying at US- and Israeli-backed distribution points run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The UN calls them “death traps”.
Israeli FM urges E3 nations to reinstate Iran sanctions
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has called on Germany, France and the UK – the three European signatories to a nuclear deal with Iran in 2015 – to impose new sanctions on Tehran.
“The time to activate the Snapback mechanism is now! I call upon the E3 countries – Germany, France and the UK – to reinstate all sanctions against Iran!” Saar posted on X.
His call came after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian put into effect a law passed by the parliament last week to suspend cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog.
Iran had threatened to halt cooperation with the IAEA, accusing it of siding with Western countries and providing justification for Israel’s air strikes, which began a day after the IAEA board voted to declare Iran in violation of obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
‘We are living the most difficult days’
Palestinians in Gaza, who have been forcibly displaced multiple times and face daily struggles to find food 21 months into Israel’s military campaign, said US President Donald Trump’s statements on a likely ceasefire have provided a glimmer of hope.
“Everyone is hopeful that it would work this time, there is no room for more failures, every day more costs us our lives,” Tamer al-Burai, a Palestinian businessman, told the Reuters news agency.
“We are living the most difficult days. People want an end to the war, an end to the starvation and humiliation.”
There was no immediate official comment by either Israel or Hamas on Trump’s latest statement regarding the progress of a truce plan.
Talk of ceasefire met with guarded hope, scepticism in Gaza
Here on the ground in Gaza, the reaction to [US President] Donald Trump’s announcement of a proposed ceasefire has been met with a mix of guarded hope and deep scepticism.
After nearly 21 months of widespread destruction, mass displacement and bombardment, Palestinians here are desperate for any pause in the attacks.
But this hope has been dampened by their previous bitter experience. Previously, ceasefire talks have repeatedly collapsed, and many Palestinians say they’ve heard this rhetoric before from Trump.
At the moment, though, they believe there’s serious will from Trump to pressure both Hamas and Israel to reach a ceasefire deal.
Until now, Israel has not publicly confirmed the agreement, and the fact that Hamas remains silent only deepens the uncertainty.
The overwhelming sentiment among Palestinians is that they are looking for a full and comprehensive de-escalation in hostilities, and to see a mitigation in their appalling humanitarian conditions. And that cannot take place without a sustained ceasefire.
GHF may be liable for criminal prosecution over aid site killings in Gaza
British international human rights lawyer Toby Cadman says the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) may be liable for criminal prosecution over the daily killings of Palestinians by Israeli forces near aid sites it operates in Gaza.
“As we’ve seen, the targeting of civilians, particularly those who are seeking aid, is relentless,” he told Al Jazeera. “We have seen hundreds of casualties so far.”
He said the question of criminal liability would “come down to the circumstances and the evidence surrounding each individual attack”.
“But what we are seeing very clearly is that they are not taking sufficient steps [to ensure the safety of Palestinian aid seekers] – if not being directly involved.”
There were “very real risks that they are not providing sufficient care, which imposes a form of criminal liability”, he said.