Discover today’s Live coverage of global news headlines and insights into all the latest Current Affairs, Sports, Health, Weather, Entertainment, Business and Travel News from around the world.
Here’s where things stand on Saturday, May 31 2025:
- The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Gaza is the “hungriest place on Earth” and the enclave’s entire 2.3 million people face “catastrophic hunger”.
- The Israeli army has killed two more people seeking aid at a distribution point in the west of Rafah, south Gaza.
- US President Donald Trump said a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas is “very close”, and could be announced as early as today.
- Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 54,321 Palestinians and wounded 123,770, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
- The Government Media Office updated its death toll to more than 61,700, saying thousands of people missing under the rubble are presumed dead.An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023, and more than 200 were taken captive.
Israel says Lebanon air strike targeted Hezbollah operative
The Israeli military has confirmed that it was behind the drone attack in the southern Lebanese town of Deir ez-Zahrani that we reported on earlier.
It said in a short statement that the attack killed a “terrorist” with Hezbollah who was allegedly a local missile and rocket commander with the armed Lebanese group.
The army claimed that he was behind the launch of “numerous” projectiles against Israel during the war on Gaza, and “recently engaged in attempts to restore Hezbollah’s terrorist infrastructure in the area”.
The Israeli military, which has kept attacking Lebanon despite the ceasefire with Hezbollah, said the attempts by the alleged Hezbollah member were a “blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon”.
Israel blocks Ramallah meeting with Arab ministers
Israel will not allow a planned meeting in the Palestinian administrative capital of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, to go ahead, an Israeli official says, after media reported that Arab ministers planning to attend had been stopped from coming.
The delegation included ministers from Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, Palestinian Authority officials said. The ministers would require Israeli consent to travel to the West Bank from Jordan.
An Israeli official told Reuters news agency the ministers intended to take part in “a provocative meeting” to discuss promoting the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“Such a state would undoubtedly become a terrorist state in the heart of the land of Israel,” the official said. “Israel will not cooperate with such moves aimed at harming it and its security.”
A Palestinian Authority official said that the issue of whether the meeting in Ramallah would be able to go ahead was under discussion.
Gaza food delivery group ‘not humanitarian aid’: UN
UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food Michael Fakhri says the UN is ready to send its convoys, but that Israel is still denying aid following its 80-day blockade of Gaza.
Fakhri described the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a shadowy organisation which Israel has authorised to distribute food, as “bait to corral people” which “violates every principle of international law”.
“This is aid being used … to push people out from the north into militarised zones … and it’s about humiliating people, and it’s about controlling the population. This has nothing to do with stopping starvation.”
An Israeli ban has prevented the UN’s refugee agency from delivering aid to the displaced and hungry people fleeing relentless strikes.
Fakhri emphasised that Israel’s plan, announced in early April, was criticised by every major humanitarian organisation and the secretary-general of the UN.
People ‘desperate for one bag of flour’
Not much food is coming into the Gaza Strip. The number of trucks entering is very limited and what they are carrying is also limited. And despite the trucks’ entry over the past few days, Palestinians say they have not really received any food because there have not been any normal distribution points.
Meanwhile, we’ve seen people queueing at hot meal kitchens. After waiting long hours, they still sometimes go home with their pots empty.
Without bread or any other type of food, some parents say they are giving their children water just to make them feel full. People say they are willing to do anything for one bag of flour or one food parcel. They are very desperate.
Four killed in northern Gaza
An Israeli strike has hit a tent sheltering displaced people in the Shati area, north of Gaza City, killing at least four people, our colleagues on the ground report.
Israeli artillery attacks have also hit central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp, according to the Quds News Network.
UNRWA says Israel making allegations ‘without evidence, due process’
In a letter to its Foreign Ministry, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini says that the government of Israel has been making serious allegations against the UN agency “without evidence and due process”.
“The Government of Israel has neither shared adequate evidence with the UN, nor pursued its own criminal proceedings,” the statement posted on X said.
“The minimum requirements are sufficient evidence and due process. The absence of both more than one year later raises the possibility that the accusations were unfounded,” added the statement, which was also posted on the UNRWA website.
UNRWA is the main UN humanitarian arm in Gaza, supporting six million Palestinian refugees globally. An Israeli ban, however, has prevented the agency from delivering aid to the displaced and hungry people fleeing unrelenting Israeli strikes.
Israeli army accused of ramming vehicle carrying Hajj pilgrims in occupied West Bank
According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, the car-ramming incident early on Saturday took place in the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
Wafa quoted witnesses and officials as saying that the minibus, which was carrying Palestinians heading to Saudi Arabia by way of Jordan, was hit “deliberately”, causing panic among the elderly passengers.
Deputy Governor of Jenin Mansour Al-Saadi confirmed that an Israeli army vehicle rammed directly into the vehicle, which was parked outside the governorate compound.
Although no injuries were reported, the minibus sustained damage and the incident caused significant distress among the pilgrims.
Dead, wounded in Khan Younis
We are getting reports of another deadly strike in southern Gaza.
The attack, in the central Khan Younis area, has killed at least one person and injured others, local media and our colleagues on the ground report.
We’ll bring you more information as we have it.
Protesters march in Mauritania against Israeli siege of Gaza
Video footage taken by our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues showed residents of the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, taking to the streets to denounce the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza.
The protesters, including children and women, were seen waving Mauritanian and Palestinian flags while shouting slogans against Israel.
The protesters are demanding that Israel lift the blockade against starving Palestinians and end the deadly strikes that have displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
According to the latest figures from UN OCHA, nearly 200,000 people were displaced in Gaza in the last two weeks alone.
What is Project Esther, the playbook against pro-Palestine movement in US?
When the Heritage Foundation, a prominent right-wing think tank in the United States, released a playbook last year for how to destroy the Palestine solidarity movement, it did not garner much attention.
But more than eight months later, the policy document – known as Project Esther – now faces heightened scrutiny from activists and media outlets, in part because President Donald Trump appears to be following its blueprint.
The authors of Project Esther have presented their report as a set of recommendations for combating anti-Semitism, but critics say the document’s ultimate aim is to “poison” groups critical of Israel by painting them as Hamas associates.
Project Esther was created as a response to growing protests against the US support for Israel’s war on Gaza, which United Nations experts and rights groups have described as a genocide.
So, what is Project Esther, and how is it being applied against activists? Find out in our explainer, here.
Israeli drone strike hits car, killing one in southern Lebanon: Reports
An Israeli drone attack targeted a vehicle in the southern Lebanese town of Deir ez-Zahrani earlier this morning, killing a man on his way to morning prayers, reports Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.
A photo shared by the agency shows the attacked car scorched and wrecked.
Although a truce last November halted months of heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, Israeli forces have continued to carry out regular air strikes in Lebanon ever since, killing dozens of people.
Arrests near Jenin, Tulkarem
Israeli forces have carried out violent raids and arrests in the occupied West Bank, reports the Wafa news agency.
Overnight, Israeli troops stormed the town of Kfirt, near Jenin, where they raided and ransacked several homes, said Wafa. The troops also detained and assaulted a group of people, it said.
Early this morning, Israeli troops also raided the town of Anabta, near Tulkarem, and arrested a woman, according to the report.
Deaths reported in Israeli strike on southern Gaza Strip
We are getting reports from our colleagues from Al Jazeera Arabic that two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli drone strike in the town of Suheila, east of Khan Younis.
We will bring you more details on these latest developments as soon as we can.
UN Arab Group accuses Israel of weaponising starvation in Gaza
Arab states are accusing Israel of weaponising hunger in Gaza, rejecting its new aid system as illegal
“Starvation is being used as a weapon of war,” said UAE envoy Mohamed Abushahab, speaking on behalf of 22 Arab League members at the UN.
Israel’s Katz to Hamas: Agree to ceasefire or face ‘annihilation’
Defence Minister Israel Katz said Hamas must agree to a ceasefire proposal presented by US envoy Steve Witkoff or be destroyed, after the Palestinian group said the deal failed to satisfy its demands.
“The Hamas murderers will now be forced to choose: accept the terms of the ‘Witkoff Deal’ for the release of the hostages – or be annihilated.”
Israel has repeatedly said that the destruction of Hamas is a key aim of the war.
Two people shot and killed while trying to reach aid centre in Rafah
Israeli forces have fired on a group of people trying to reach an aid centre near Rafah, killing at least two, reports the Wafa news agency.
Dozens more were wounded, report our colleagues on the ground.
The scene mirrors events from yesterday, when Israeli troops also fired on Palestinians trying to access newly established aid centres, wounding at least 20.
A recap of recent developments
Here’s what you need to know:
- A spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office warns that Gaza’s entire population is at risk of famine as Israel’s blockade has turned the enclave into “the hungriest place on Earth”.
- Israeli forces have shot at Palestinians seeking food at a US-backed distribution point in Gaza, injuring at least 20 people.
- At least 72 deaths and 278 injuries have been reported to Gaza hospitals over the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry says, as Israel continues to pummel the Strip.
- US President Trump says a Gaza ceasefire deal is “very close” after a proposal was submitted to Hamas for review; the Palestinian group says it is still assessing the plan.
- Irish actor Liam Cunningham says the latest Gaza Freedom Flotilla mission has reached Sicily, and is preparing to leave for Gaza in an attempt to break Israel’s blockade.
Welcome to our live coverage
Hello, and thank you for joining our live coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza, as well as its attacks on the occupied West Bank and the wider region.
Follow this page for round-the-clock updates and analyses of the latest developments.
You can read about key events from Friday, May 30, here.
