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Here’s where things stand on Thursday 24 July 2025:
- Hospitals in the besieged Gaza Strip have recorded two more deaths “due to famine and malnutrition” in the past 24 hours, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, bringing the total to at least 113.
- Hamas says it has submitted to mediators its response to a proposed Gaza ceasefire deal. Israel says it is examining it.
- The response reportedly includes amendments to conditions around the entry of aid, areas from which the Israeli army should withdraw, and guarantees on securing a permanent end to the war.
- Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 59,587 people and wounded 143,498. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7, 2023 attacks, and more than 200 were taken captive.
‘Sociocidal war’: How Israel pushed Gaza to breaking point
Derek Summerfield, a United Kingdom-based psychiatrist who has written on the effects of war and atrocity, says “Israeli policy has left Gaza uninhabitable”.
“It’s destroyed the idea of a society and every institution that might serve it, from universities to hospitals to mosques. It’s become a sociocidal war,” he told Al Jazeera, describing a conflict intended to destroy a society’s entire structures and sense of identity.
“People have been left with nothing, and are feeling they can’t go on.”
Read more here.
‘Israel is allowed to act without consequences’: EU lawmaker
We’ve spoken to Lynn Boylan, an Irish member of the European Parliament (MEP) who signed on to today’s letter to the European Union’s foreign policy chief demanding an emergency meeting to take action against Israel.
As we reported earlier, the letter calls for sanctions to be imposed against Israel as well as for Kaja Kallas to lobby EU member states to implement an arms embargo on Israel, among other things.
Boylan said racism is a factor in why the EU so far has failed to take concrete actions against Israel over its deadly bombardment and starvation-inducing blockade of Gaza.
“Clearly, Palestinian lives are not seen by the elite in the EU as equivalent to, for example, Ukrainian lives,” Boylan told Al Jazeera. “We saw the swift action that was taken when Russia illegally invaded Ukraine, and we haven’t seen any action from the EU” regarding Israel.
Boylan added that Israel also remains “quite influential” in the EU. “There’s a chilling effect, that if you dare to speak up against Israel, if you dare to call out the war crimes that you’re witnessing, there is immediately a backlash and an attack,” she said.
Netanyahu recalls ceasefire negotiators for ‘consultations’
The Israeli PM’s office says in a statement that the team will return to Israel “in light of the response that Hamas gave this morning”.
“We appreciate the efforts of the mediators Qatar and Egypt and the efforts of [US] envoy [Steve] Witkoff to bring about a breakthrough in the talks”, the statement reads.
Palestinians face ‘worst days’ in Gaza under Israel’s starvation policy
Enforced starvation, enforced dehydration, and hunger are gripping the Gaza Strip, with more people reported with malnutrition and a severe, acute shortage of food supplies and other basic necessities.
If you look at the number of people reported with war wounds, it’s now about the same as the number of people reported with malnutrition.
Many of these people have been diagnosed as malnourished. According to the World Health Organization, we are at Stage 5 of malnutrition – this is the final and most dangerous stage of malnutrition.
It means people are not going to recover from all the negative effects of starvation.
According to what we hear from health sources, people’s immune systems are falling apart. They’re unable to fight the many diseases that are spreading because their bodies are unable to fight.
Starvation of Gaza’s people ‘stain’ on international community’s conscience: Abbas
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called on “US President Trump to intervene to allow UN agencies to deliver food and medical aid”.
He also urged “the international community to find immediate ways to deliver the hundreds of thousands of tonnes of humanitarian aid currently present in the Gaza Strip”.
In a televised address broadcast on Palestine TV, he said, “The starvation and killing of our people in Gaza in front of aid centres is a stain on the international community’s conscience if it does not act immediately to stop this genocide.”
If you’re just joining us
Here are the latest developments:
- At least four Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike on the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in Gaza City and two others west of the city, medical sources told Al Jazeera Arabic.
- International news agencies AFP, AP, and Reuters, as well as the BBC, have called on Israel to allow journalists in and out of Gaza, which is subject to a strict blockade.
- Hamas claims to have bombed an Israeli command and control site in the so-called Morag Corridor last night in southern Gaza with a short-range missile.
- The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has condemned the Israeli parliament’s vote on the nonbinding motion to impose sovereignty on the occupied West Bank, calling it “colonial and racist”.
- More than 60 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have demanded an emergency meeting to push actions against Israel in a letter sent to EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.
Gaza death toll rises
At least 79 Palestinians, including 23 aid seekers, have been killed and 453 others injured in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.
In the same time period, 10 bodies were also recovered from the rubble of previous Israeli attacks, the ministry said.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed a total of 59,587 Palestinians and injured 143,498 others since October 7, 2023, the statement issued on Telegram said. It noted that 279 previous killings were added to the statistic after the enclave’s judicial committee confirmed the deaths of previously missing people.
The total number of aid seekers killed since May 27 when Israel imposed a new aid mechanism has reached 1,083, with more than 7,275 others injured, the ministry said.
Hind Rajab Foundation calls on Netherlands to arrest two Israelis accused of war crimes
The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF), in collaboration with the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), has filed a criminal complaint with the authorities in the Netherlands, calling for the arrest of two Israelis it accuses of war crimes committed in Gaza.
The foundation and GLAN had already filed a complaint against the two men in Belgium after learning that they were in the country to attend the Tomorrowland music festival. The two were interrogated and later released. The prosecutor’s office said it would not release further information at this stage of the investigation.
Now, the HRF says the individuals are in the Netherlands and therefore urged Dutch authorities to take action.
The Belgium-based HRF has been campaigning for legal action against Israeli soldiers over alleged war crimes in Gaza. The foundation is named after a six-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed by Israeli fire while fleeing Gaza City with her family, early in Israel’s war on Gaza.
Since its formation last year, the foundation has filed dozens of complaints in more than 10 countries, targeting both low- and high-ranking Israeli military personnel.
Hamas submitted ‘real and positive’ response to ceasefire proposal: Mediator
Bishara Bahbah, the national chairman for Arab Americans for Trump (now, Arab Americans for Peace), who has been part of the indirect negotiations in Doha, says “Hamas this morning gave its response to the Israeli proposal on the subject of redeployment and a prisoner exchange.
“Hamas’s response has been real and positive,” he said on Facebook. “Now Israel must enter into serious and swift negotiations to reach a ceasefire. Everyone is waiting for relief. The people of Gaza have suffered enough killing, destruction, and starvation.”
Gaza death toll since dawn rises to 41
Israeli attacks have killed at least 41 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip since dawn, according to medical sources speaking to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic.
The latest killings were confirmed by a source at Nasser Hospital, which received seven bodies after an Israeli air raid east of the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israeli parliamentary panel approves $275m for West Bank roads: Report
The Knesset Finance Committee has approved 918 million shekels (nearly $275m) in funding for roads and transport infrastructure in the occupied West Bank in a move hailed by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, according to The Times of Israel.
“This is how you do facto sovereignty. This is how you bring in a million residents [to the West Bank]. This is how you take the idea of a Palestinian terrorist state off the table,” Smotrich said, according to the report.
The investment was part of a plan for “strengthening settlement, physically and politically connecting the region to the State of Israel, and making sovereignty a fait accompli on the ground”, he said.
The annexation of the occupied Palestinian territory has long been one of the main political goals of Smotrich, who lives in an illegal settlement himself.
In the past years, the ultranationalist minister has adopted a series of administrative measures to bring the West Bank under civilian rule while also dramatically expanding the presence of illegal settlements there.
Dozens of EU lawmakers demand sanctions, arms embargo on Israel
More than 60 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) demand an emergency meeting to push actions against Israel in a letter sent to EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.
Marc Botenga, a Belgian MEP from the Left group, said on X: “No more silence, no more complicity.”
“We are writing to you today to demand immediate action is taken given the appalling humanitarian situation in Gaza and the continued Israeli attacks on Palestinians at aid distribution sites which have so far resulted in the deaths of over 1,000 people,” the MEPs wrote.
They said the recent EU-Israel aid agreement delivered “no tangible change” in conditions on the ground. Earlier in July, Kallas said Israel had agreed to expand humanitarian access to Gaza, including increasing the number of aid trucks, crossing points and routes to distribution hubs.
The MEPs demanded that sanctions be imposed against Israel, the GHF and individuals within the organisation. They also demanded that the top EU diplomat lobby member states to implement an arms embargo on Israel.
Israel confirms 8 soldiers injured in car ramming near West Bank
We have reported earlier that a suspected car ramming attack injured eight Israelis in the city of Kfar Yona in central Israel, and the manhunt was under way in the occupied West Bank where the vehicle was found.
Hamas later said the victims were Israeli soldiers and the attack was “a natural response” to Israeli crimes against Palestinians.
Israel’s army now confirmed that the casualties were soldiers, two of whom were moderately injured and six lightly.
They were evacuated to a hospital, and their families have been notified, the military statement said on Telegram.
Israeli air raid kills 4 Palestinians in Gaza City
At least four Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air raid on the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in Gaza City.
That’s according to a source in Gaza’s emergency and ambulance service speaking to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic.
EU has leverage on Israel but some member states blocking action
James Moran, former EU ambassador to Egypt and Jordan, has told Al Jazeera that there are a number of European Union countries that would like to see “a lot more action taken” to end Israel’s war on Gaza.
“But there are some on the other side who tend to take the side of Israel,” he said from Cambridge, UK.
“Recently, there has been a lot of debates going on among the European Union foreign ministers about suspending the EU-Israel association agreement, which covers about a third of Israel’s foreign trade and certainly provides leverage on Israel to change its course,” Moran said.
“But up till now, it has been blocked by a number of member states, including Germany and others, for reasons which are complicated but nevertheless it is there.”
Israeli attack on tent kills 2 displaced people near Gaza City
At least two displaced people have been killed in an Israeli attack on a tent west of Gaza City.
That’s according to a source in Gaza’s emergency and ambulance service speaking to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic.
Israel carries on demolition of Palestinian property in Jordan Valley
Videos on social media, verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad agency, show Israeli bulldozers demolishing Palestinian property in the Ein el-Hilweh area, in the northern Jordan Valley.
The footage shows Israeli soldiers next to the machinery, pushing away residents from their homes.
Since the start of the war, there has been a sharp increase in the number of Palestinian homes being demolished.
According to data collected by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in 2024 and 2025, more than 2,700 structures have been demolished, forcing at least 5,600 people out of their homes.
Medical school graduate reflects on Gaza’s ‘never-ending nightmare’
A graduate of the Faculty of Medicine at the Islamic University of Gaza
Before this catastrophe began, I was living the happiest days of my life, surrounded by the warmth of my family, the affection of my friends, and dreams that felt within reach.
I spent most of 2023 preparing for my graduation and getting ready to move from lecture halls to practical training fields, rotating between the laboratories of the Islamic University in Gaza and the eye hospitals spread across the Gaza Strip.
On the evening of October 6, I was organising my books, tools and white coat, getting ready for a long training day at Al-Nasr Eye Hospital in Gaza. My feelings were a mix of excitement and nervousness, but I had no idea that night would mark the end of my peaceful life.
At 6am on October 7, it wasn’t the sound of my alarm that woke me, but the sound of rockets. I opened my eyes, wondering, “Is this a dream or a nightmare?” But the truth was impossible to deny. A war had begun, turning our once-bright lives into a never-ending nightmare.
Read more here.
Hungary bans pro-Palestinian Irish rap group Kneecap
Members of the Irish-language rap group Kneecap have been banned from entering Hungary before their scheduled performance at the popular Sziget Festival as authorities argued the musicians’ presence in the country would constitute a risk to national security.
Government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs wrote on X that the decision to ban Naoise O Caireallain, JJ O Dochartaigh and Liam Og OhAnnaidh for three years was due to “antisemitic hate speech and open praise for Hamas and Hezbollah”.
The Belfast trio, scheduled to play on Sziget’s closing day on August 11, accuse critics of trying to silence the band because of its support for the Palestinian cause throughout Israel’s war in Gaza and say they do not support Hezbollah and Hamas nor condone violence.
The group performed in April at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California, where they accused Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians enabled by the US government.
That led to calls for the rappers’ US visas to be revoked, and several Kneecap gigs have since been cancelled as a result.
Rescue workers retrieve three bodies from fire in Gaza
Gaza’s Civil Defence crews retrieved the bodies of two people from a family home following a fire in a residential apartment in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
Rescue workers recovered a body from another fire in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. Two people were injured.
Both fires have been extinguished, they said.
AFP, AP, Reuters, BBC urge Israel ‘to allow journalists in and out of Gaza’
International news agencies Agence France-Presse (AFP), The Associated Press (AP) and Reuters, as well as the BBC, have called on Israel to allow journalists in and out of Gaza, which is subject to a strict blockade.
“We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families,” the media groups said in a joint statement.
“We once again urge the Israeli authorities to allow journalists in and out of Gaza,” they added.