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Here’s where things stand on Wednesday 16 July 2025:
- The Israeli army has attacked the Syrian army headquarters in the capital, Damascus, as it launches further strikes on Syrian forces in the southern city of Suwayda.
- The Health Ministry in Gaza says at least 21 people have been killed at a food distribution site of the controversial US- and Israeli-backed GHF in southern Gaza.
- The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says one in 10 children screened in its clinics in Gaza are malnourished as Israel’s siege on the triggers triggers a man-made starvation crisis.
- Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 58,479 people and wounded 139,355, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks, and more than 200 were taken captive.
Israeli army to reinforce border with Syria
The Israeli army has said it will send reinforcements to the security fence area bordering Syria.
The statement comes as Israel has threatened to continue targeting Syrian forces if they do not withdraw from Suwayda province, southern Syrian.
Clashes between government forces and Druze armed groups continued in Suwayda today after a ceasefire agreed on Tuesday collapsed.
Syria’s defence ministry hit by two Israeli drone attacks
In the last few minutes we’ve heard multiple drones circling above us […] and there has been some gunfire from the ministry’s defences towards these drones.
This goes to show that the situation is escalating, as Israeli strikes have now reached the heart of Damascus.
Israel attacks Syrian army headquarters in Damascus
The Israeli army says it has bombed the entrance gate of the Syrian army’s headquarters in Damascus.
The military’s statement comes soon after the sound of an explosion was heard in the Syrian capital.
The Israeli military separately said it was attacking the Druze-majority city of Suwayda in Syria’s south, adding that it was prepared “for various scenarios”.
Earlier, the Syrian state news agency said Israeli drones had targeted the city, causing civilian casualties.
The attacks came after fighting in Suwayda between armed groups and government forces resumed today despite a ceasefire agreed on Tuesday.
After more aid seeker deaths, GHF justifications again contradicted by subsequent reports
As long as the GHF is controlling the humanitarian aid system and mechanism in the Gaza Strip, we’re likely to see more of these horrific incidents happening.
It started on the first day of operations, but every time an incident occurs, the GHF rushes to its official website and publishes a statement justifying what happened.
Just minutes after the incident that occurred earlier this morning, where 21 people have been confirmed dead, the GHF said it was very sorry for the loss of civilians waiting for aid, but went on to justify what happened, claiming there were armed groups within the crowd that caused the unrest.
Now, as time goes by and the day progresses, there are more shocking revelations as to what happened.
A witness from the crowd said tear gas was fired at it, causing mayhem and chaos to spread, and the stampede followed.
This is very consistent with the report from the hospitals where most of the cases were transferred, including those who are still alive.
Death toll in Gaza today rises to 43
At least 43 Palestinians, including 21 aid seekers, have been killed across Gaza since dawn, according to medical sources.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said 15 of the aid seekers died from a stampede and suffocation due to tear gas being fired at Palestinians seeking food at a GHF food distribution hub in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Earlier, an Israeli attack on a camp of displaced people in al-Mawasi killed nine people.
Israeli army arrests 1 person in northern Jordan Valley
Israeli forces have arrested one person while he was grazing his livestock in the northern Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank.
Quoting local sources, the Wafa news agency identified the person who was arrested as Hussein Yousef Basharat.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office, Israeli forces have arrested more than 18,000 Palestinians in the West Bank since the war on Gaza began in October 2023.
Ministry says 21 killed, including 15 from suffocation and stampede, after tear gas fired at GHF site
At least 21 people have been killed, including 15 from a stampede and suffocation due to tear gas being fired at Palestinians seeking food, at one of the GHF distribution hubs in Khan Younis, Gaza’s Health Ministry says in a statement.
“For the first time, deaths have been recorded due to suffocation and the intense stampede of citizens at aid distribution centers,” the ministry said.
It accused the Israeli army and the US of “deliberately” committing “massacres against the starving people in a systematic manner”.
The ministry issued the statement after the US- and Israel-backed GHF acknowledged this morning that 20 people had been killed at its distribution point in Khan Younis, accusing Hamas-affiliated elements of fomenting the unrest.
Since it began distributing aid in late May, the GHF has been engulfed in criticism for setting up sites that the UN describes as “death traps”. More than 870 Palestinians have been killed near or at its distribution sites.
Israeli defence minister threatens more attacks on Syria
Defence Minister Israel Katz says the Israeli army will continue to attack Syria unless government forces there pull out from the Druze-majority city of Suwayda.
The Israeli army “will continue to strike regime forces until they withdraw from the area, and will soon escalate its response against the regime if the message is not understood”, Katz said in a statement.
He issued the message as fighting between Syrian government troops and local Druze fighters resumed in the southern city this morning, just hours after a ceasefire was announced.
The Syrian Ministry of Defence told Al Jazeera that outlawed groups attacked government forces in the city, breaching the truce. Local news outlet Sweida24 said Suwayda and nearby villages were coming under heavy artillery and mortar fire.
Critics said the Israeli army uses the pretext of protecting the Druze community to hit targets in Syria and further entrench its control beyond areas it already occupies in southern Syria.
On Tuesday, Israeli forces launched air raids on Syrian military positions and said the attacks were intended to keep the border area demilitarised and to shield the Druze community.
At least 37 Palestinians killed across Gaza since dawn
At least 37 Palestinians have been killed across Gaza since dawn on Thursday, medical sources have told our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic.
Among the dead, 20 were killed at a GHF food distribution point in Khan Younis, in the latest deaths of aid seekers in the enclave.
The day’s death toll is likely to be higher than 37, as sources in Gaza hospitals reported earlier that 20 Palestinians were also killed in Israeli air attacks on the Strip since dawn.
Nasser Hospital reported that the death toll from the Israeli bombing of displaced people’s tents in al-Mawasi, Khan Younis, has risen to nine.
Trump to meet with Qatari foreign minister today to discuss Gaza ceasefire
Qatari Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani will meet the US president to discuss the ceasefire negotiations in Gaza, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.
Israeli and Hamas negotiators have been taking part in the latest round of ceasefire talks in Doha since July 6, discussing a US-backed proposal for a 60-day ceasefire that envisages a phased release of captives from Gaza, Israeli troop withdrawals from parts of the enclave and discussions on ending the conflict.
Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, said on Sunday that he was “hopeful” about the ceasefire negotiations under way in Qatar, which has been a key mediator between Israel and Hamas.
US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have been working to secure an agreement. However, Israel and Hamas are reportedly divided over the extent of an eventual Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave.
New Israeli corridor disrupts ceasefire hopes and deepens Palestinian isolation
The newly established Magen Oz Corridor runs straight through the heart of Khan Younis, separating a very large rural area of Khan Younis from the rest of that district.
In effect, it cuts off several municipalities where there was agriculture, where people had hoped they would be able to return if there’s a ceasefire to resettle in their homes or what is left of them.
Israeli media report this as a way not just to apply military pressure but also to create new facts on the ground.
In fact, we see reporting from the Israeli Army Radio about this area, which has been ethnically cleansed of its Palestinian population. According to the report, this is an opportunity to clear it of all buildings and to possibly use it as an extension to the concentration zone that Israel has been talking about and planning to erect on the ruins of Rafah to accommodate more Palestinian confined in those areas.
This will complicate ceasefire talks, which are faltering in Doha because of these facts on the ground, because Israel does not want to leave these expanding buffer zones – shrinking the areas where Palestinians can live in Gaza.
Countries hesitant to take in medical evacuees from Gaza since Trump back in office: MSF
More than 10,000 people in Gaza urgently require medical evacuation, according to the World Health Organization. However, Israel often blocks their passage abroad while severely limiting critical supplies getting to hospitals and attacking medical facilities.
Hani Isleem – a project coordinator with Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF – told Al Jazeera that before Donald Trump was re-elected as US president, many countries were open to accepting medical evacuees but Israel prevented the vast majority of them from leaving the Strip.
“Most of the time, they were denied, and even if the patient was allowed to leave, they were refusing their companion, and there were no clear reasons behind these refusals and no justification,” he said.
Isleem said that after Trump was re-elected and he floated plans to remove Palestinians from Gaza, many countries became reluctant to accept medical evacuees in principle.
“That made a lot of countries who were willing to take people from Gaza hesitate and change their plan because of the political stance,” he said.
Isleem said it is not only those wounded in attacks who require evacuation but many people with chronic conditions such as cancer, renal failure and cardiovascular problems also need treatment abroad.
“The situation in Gaza is beyond catastrophic,” he said.
‘No choices left’ for starving, displaced PalestiniansHani MahmoudHani MahmoudReporting from Gaza City, GazaTragically, there are no other choices left for the hungry, displaced Palestinians whether they are here in the north, the central or the southern part of the Gaza Strip.They all have to go to these centres in order to pick up one food parcel or whatever is available of the basic necessities and take them back to their families and hungry children at the displacement sites.If Palestinians are not dying because of the ongoing air strikes or shooting by the Israeli military, they are dying of something else – it’s the forced starvation and dehydration [that] people are forced into [under] these unbearable conditions.It’s important to remember that before joining these crowds at the sites, people have already been displaced multiple times.They are hungry, they are thirsty and they have not been eating well. They are low on carbs, on protein and vitamins, so it takes a really dangerous and very hard trip to go and stand in a large crowd where tens of thousands of Palestinians are waiting for food supplies.
‘No choices left’ for starving, displaced Palestinians
Tragically, there are no other choices left for the hungry, displaced Palestinians whether they are here in the north, the central or the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
They all have to go to these centres in order to pick up one food parcel or whatever is available of the basic necessities and take them back to their families and hungry children at the displacement sites.
If Palestinians are not dying because of the ongoing air strikes or shooting by the Israeli military, they are dying of something else – it’s the forced starvation and dehydration [that] people are forced into [under] these unbearable conditions.
It’s important to remember that before joining these crowds at the sites, people have already been displaced multiple times.
They are hungry, they are thirsty and they have not been eating well. They are low on carbs, on protein and vitamins, so it takes a really dangerous and very hard trip to go and stand in a large crowd where tens of thousands of Palestinians are waiting for food supplies.
Israeli forces arrest Palestinians in West Bank raids, demolish home
Israeli forces have arrested at least 10 Palestinians in early morning raids in the occupied West Bank, the Wafa news agency reports.
This includes seven Palestinians from the Ramallah and el-Bireh governorate, including three young men from the village of Burqa aged between 17 and 20 years.
It also includes three Palestinians from the town of Azzun, in Qalqilya, Wafa reported.
Meanwhile, Israeli authorities demolished a three-storey house in the Palestinian-majority Israeli town of Kafr Qasim, Wafa also reported.