- Israel says it has not committed to a ceasefire “in any way” for Hamas’s release of US-Israeli captive Edan Alexander, but will set up a “safe corridor” to facilitate the move.
- Hamas says the release will take place today.
- Israeli forces continue bombarding Gaza, killing at least 17 people at a school-turned-shelter, as the total blockade of the Strip enters its 71st day.
- Hamas says it will release US-Israeli captive Edan Alexander and confirms having direct talks with the United States.
- Israel kills 26 Palestinians in Gaza as its total blockade on the Gaza Strip enters its 71st day.
- Israeli forces also launch attacks on Yemen’s Hodeidah after warning residents of three ports under Houthi control – Ras Isa, Hodeidah and Salif – to flee.
- Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 52,829 Palestinians and wounded 119,554, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The Government Media Office updated the 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 on October 7, 2023, and more than 200 were taken captive.
Captive handover expected in Gaza’s Khan Younis area: Report
Israel’s public broadcaster reports that the Israeli military is scaling back its fire in Gaza in anticipation of the release of captive Edan Alexander.
The release is expected to take place near the southern city of Khan Younis, according to the broadcaster.
As we previously reported, the Red Cross plans to oversee the handover process, as it has with prior captive exchanges.
Israel welcomes Alexander’s imminent release but rules out prisoner swap
Earlier this morning, Netanyahu’s office released a statement, saying they are welcoming the release of Edan Alexander.
However, it also said Israel is not committed to any sort of ceasefire or the release of any Palestinian prisoners, going on to note that there is an offer on the table that Hamas has refused – known as the Witkoff proposal.
That was given several months ago, during the negotiations after Israel decided to break the ceasefire agreement, because they did not want to negotiate for a phase two of that deal. Instead, they wanted an extension of phase one of that deal, so they could release more captives without committing to an end to the war.
But now, the Israelis are saying that any negotiations are still going to happen under fire, and during the expansion of the ground operations inside Gaza.
Now, it’s still unclear exactly when Alexander is going to be freed from Gaza, but the Israelis say they are opening a safe corridor so he can be released.
Gaza war cannot be solved by military means, says top German diplomat
Germany’s new Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, who is visiting Israel, has called for “serious negotiations” on a ceasefire in Gaza, according to the German Foreign Office.
In a series of posts on X attributed to Wadephul, the office said the top diplomat met his Israeli counterpart, Gideon Saar, on Sunday and said the conflict in Gaza cannot be resolved through military means.
He also called for a “political solution” for Gaza’s reconstruction without Hamas.
“The Arab Reconstruction Plan which foresees a strong role for the Palestinian Authority is a good starting point,” Wadephul said.
“Gaza is part of the Palestinian Territories. I agreed with my Israeli counterpart, that the Palestinians in Gaza indeed have their future, that they will not be forced to leave by anyone and that the presence of the Israeli army in Gaza can only be temporary,” he added.
Death toll rises from Israel’s attacks on Gaza today
Medical sources say Israeli forces have killed at least 17 people in attacks across Gaza since the early hours of this morning.
As we’ve been reporting, the attacks include one on a school-turned-shelter in northern Jabalia as well as a mosque in central Nuseirat.
Israel’s deadliest attacks on Gaza’s schools-turned-shelters
Israel’s deadly attack on the Fatima Bint Asad School in the Jabalia refugee camp earlier this morning is the latest in a series of Israeli assaults on schools housing displaced Palestinians in Gaza.
Here’s a look at some of the deadliest attacks:
- In November 2023, shortly after the start of the war, Israeli bombs and artillery strikes killed at least 50 people, including children, inside the al-Buraq School in Gaza City.
- In two attacks in November 2023 that were two weeks apart, the Israeli military struck the Al Fakhoura school in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, killing at least 65 people.
- In July 2024, the Israeli military killed at least 30 people in an attack on al-Awda School located in the southern town of Abasan, near Khan Younis.
- In August 2024, more than 100 people were killed when Israeli forces bombed the al-Tabin School in Gaza City as Palestinians gathered for their morning prayers.
- In April 2025, at least 33 Palestinians were killed and more than 100 wounded in Israeli air attacks on three schools in the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City.
UN experts have said Israel’s attacks on civilian institutions such as schools and hospitals could amount to war crimes.
Aid agencies say Israeli forces have destroyed or damaged some 95 percent of the territory’s schools since October 2023.
Embrace the occupation – A new phase in Israel’s genocide in Gaza
One might think that images of starving children, as political leaders withhold aid and openly call for ethnic cleansing, would be topping news agendas everywhere.
In the case of Gaza, the failure of many in the international media to meet the moment has made them part of the story.
Death toll from Israel’s attacks on Gaza today rises to 17
Medical sources say Israeli forces have killed at least 17 people in attacks across Gaza since the early hours of this morning.
As we’ve been reporting, the attacks include one on a school-turned-shelter in northern Jabalia as well as a mosque in central Nuseirat.
If you’re just joining us
Here’s what happened overnight:
- Israeli forces have bombed a school-turned-shelter and a mosque in Gaza, killing 16 Palestinians, including at least one child.
- Trump has confirmed that US-Israeli captive Edan Alexander will be released, describing it as a “step taken” in good faith to “put an end to this very brutal war”.
- Netanyahu’s office says Israel has not committed to a ceasefire of any kind for Alexander’s release, “but only to a safe corridor that will allow” for the move.
- The Times of Israel reports the release could take place as early as later today, while US captives envoy, Adam Boehler, says he is travelling to Israel with Alexander’s family for their reunion.
- Norway’s Norges Bank Investment Management, which is the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, has divested from Israel’s Paz Retail and Energy because of its support for illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Israel commits ‘only to a safe corridor’ to allow for Alexander’s release
Netanyahu’s office, in a post on X, says “Israel has not committed to a ceasefire of any kind” or the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Alexander’s freedom.
But Israel is committing “only to a “safe corridor that will allow for the release of Edan,” it said.
The Israeli premier’s office also claimed Alexander’s release is being made possible due to the country’s “vigorous policy” in Gaza as well as its military pressure”.
“We are in the midst of critical days in which Hamas has been presented with a deal that would enable the release of our hostages. The negotiations will continue under fire, during preparations for an intensification of the fighting,” it added.
Death toll from Israel’s attacks on Gaza on Sunday rises
Medical sources say the toll has risen from 26 to 40.
And as we’ve been reporting, at least 16 people have been killed since the early hours of this morning.
Gaza’s burn patients suffer as Israel’s blockade chokes crucial medical supplies
Medics in Gaza say they face enormous difficulties treating the many burn victims across the Strip.
The situation has been made worse by Israel’s renewed blockade of medicine and food, which began more than two months ago.
Mahmoud Khalil pens letter to his newborn son from US prison
The Columbia student activist, who is being held at a detention facility in the state of Louisiana as he fights the Trump administration’s efforts to deport him, has expressed his sorrow and grief at not being present for his son’s birth.
In the letter, published by the Guardian newspaper, Khalil tells his son, Deen, that his heart aches, knowing that “I could not hold you in my arms and hear your first cry, that I could not unfurl your clenched fists or change your first diaper”.
But Khalil, who is Palestinian, says his absence is not unique.
“Like other Palestinian fathers, I was separated from you by racist regimes and distant prisons. In Palestine, this pain is part of daily life,” he writes. “Babies are born every day without their fathers – not because their fathers chose to leave, but because they are taken by war, by bombs, by prison cells and by the cold machinery of occupation. The grief your mother and I feel is but one drop in a sea of sorrow that Palestinian families have drowned in for generations.”
Khalil adds that he is a political prisoner in Louisiana because of his “firm belief” that the Palestinians deserve to be free.
“One day, you might ask why people are punished for standing up for Palestine, why truth and compassion feel dangerous to power. These are hard questions, but I hope our story shows you this: the world needs more courage, not less. It needs people who choose justice over convenience.”
When will Alexander be released?
As we’ve been reporting, Hamas has confirmed in a statement that it will be releasing the US-Israeli captive as part of its efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza.
The Palestinian group, however, did not indicate when the Israeli soldier would be released.
Alexander’s family said it could happen soon, saying in a statement after the Hamas announcement that they were in continuous contact with the US government, “regarding the possibility of Edan’s expected release in the coming days”.
The Times of Israel, citing a senior US official, said it could happen as soon as later today, while the Reuters news agency, citing a source familiar with the matter, said it will likely happen on Tuesday.
Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, is expected to travel to Israel from Oman today, while Boehler, the US’s captives envoy, said he is also travelling to Israel with Alexander’s mother for her reunion with her son.
Trump, too, is set to depart for Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE on a Middle East tour later today.
US captives envoy traveling to Israel for Alexander’s release
Adam Boehler, in a post on X, says he is travelling with Alexander’s mother, Yael, for her reunion with her son.
Earlier, Trump had confirmed that the 21-year-old soldier will be returning home as part of efforts to end the war on Gaza and secure the release of all remaining captives. Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, is also expected in Israel for Alexander’s release.US Vice President JD Vance says if Hamas releases Alexander, “it will have been another triumph of Witkoff, who continues to face withering attacks for freeing hostages, negotiating complex diplomatic proposals, and serving his country”.
EXPLAINER
What’s happened in Gaza since Israel abandoned truce deal?
- March 2: Israel blocks the entry of all aid into Gaza after Hamas rejects its effort to change the terms of the ceasefire deal agreed to in January.
- March 15: The US launches large-scale attacks on Yemen, killing at least 53 people, after Houthi rebels threaten to resume attacks on Israel-linked ships in the Red Sea.
- March 18: Israel abandons the ceasefire and bombards Gaza, killing more than 400 Palestinians, many of them children, in a single day.
- April 25: The World Food Programme (WFP) says its food stocks in Gaza are completely depleted.
- May 3: Authorities in Gaza say at least 57 Palestinians have starved to death since Israel imposed its total blockade.
- May 4: A Houthi missile lands near Israel’s main international airport.
- May 5: Netanyahu announces expansion of Gaza war, says Palestinians in the enclave will be moved, as the military plans to call up tens of thousands of reservists.
- May 7: Oman announces US-Houthi ceasefire. Israel attacks Yemen’s main airport in Sanaa.
- May 9: US says a new body – the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation – is being established to distribute aid in the enclave, bypassing the system run by the UN and other agencies.
- May 11: Hamas says it will free US-Israeli captive, Edan Alexander, as part of efforts to reach a ceasefire.
Child killed in Israeli attack on central Gaza mosque
Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic say the child, Rimas Samir Obaid, was killed in an Israeli attack on a mosque in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
The site was identified as the Hammad al-Hasnat mosque.
The deadly attack comes shortly after Israeli forces killed 15 people in an attack on a school-turned-shelter in the northern Jabalia refugee camp.
‘No more war’ – Pope Leo XIV calls for peace in Gaza, Ukraine
Pope Leo XIV has called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza in his first Sunday noon blessing as pontiff.
“I am deeply saddened by what is happening in the Gaza Strip. Let there be a ceasefire immediately,” Leo said in the address to an estimated 100,000 people.
“I, too, address the world’s great powers by repeating the ever-present call ‘Never again war’,” he said in the blessing, which also called for peace in Ukraine.
CPJ renews call for accountability in Shireen Abu Akleh’s murder
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says it honours the legacy of the Palestinian American journalist who was killed by an Israeli soldier in the occupied West Bank three years ago, on May 11, 2022.
“For 25 years as an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent, Abu Akleh was a trailblazer for women in journalism and a trusted voice for millions of viewers in the region,” the group wrote.
“We continue to call on the U.S. to investigate her killing by Israel and to hold those responsible to account.”
As we reported earlier, a new investigative documentary released by the Washington, DC-based media company Zeteo identified a 20-year-old Israeli soldier as the person who shot Abu Akleh.
Norway wealth fund divests from Israeli company over West Bank activities
The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund has sold all of its shares in Israel’s Paz Retail and Energy, because the company “is contributing to the violation of international law” by helping to supply fuel to illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages the government’s pension fund, said in a statement that Paz operates infrastructure that supplies fuel to Israeli settlements and that there is an “unacceptable risk that the company contributes to serious violations of the rights of individuals in war or conflict”.
The decision is based on a recommendation the fund’s ethics watchdog, the Council on Ethics, made in December last year.
The fund also previously divested from Shapir Engineering and Industry Ltd and Mivne Real Estate KD Ltd, over their activities associated with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, in 2021.
Last year, Norway’s largest private pension fund also announced it was divesting from Caterpillar “over concerns about its role in human rights abuses in occupied Palestine”.
Israeli attack on Gaza school-turned-shelter kills 15
Al Jazeera Arabic is reporting that the Israeli attack on the Fatima Bint Asad School in the Jabalia refugee camp has killed at least 15 people, including children.
We’ll bring you more soon.
Civilian casualties mount as Israel keeps up attacks, blockade
Israeli military has carried out more attacks, killing and wounding many civilians.
What’s really concerning is more families are being deliberately targeted by the Israeli military inside their homes or the tents that they are sheltering in. Starting from the early hours of Sunday, many of these attacks targeted tents in the city of Khan Younis, particularly the al-Mawasi evacuation zone, which has turned into more of a death trap for the displaced and traumatised population.
The majority of casualties transferred to the Nasser Medical Complex were women and children.
This scenario keeps repeating itself over and over across Gaza.
In the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City, a man and his daughter were reported killed by Israeli drone strikes. Another attack on the same neighbourhood targeted a family in their home, killing more children and more women.
Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation continues to be quite difficult and challenging with each passing day, with hundreds of thousands of people living on less than a meal a day – particularly the children, who do not have proper access to food supplies or water.
Several killed in Israeli attack on school-turned-shelter in north Gaza
Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that Israeli forces have bombed the Fatima Bint Asad School in Jabalia refugee camp, killing and wounding a number of people.
The bombing comes as Israeli forces continued attacks across the Gaza Strip, including Gaza City in the north, Rafah in the south and the Nuseirat refugee camp in the centre.
Hamas decision to free Alexander follows direct talks with US
Hamas has confirmed in a statement that the group is going to be releasing dual-national citizen Edan Alexander.
He was an Israeli soldier at the time he was taken captive on October 7, 2023 and the US envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, says that he’s arriving in Israel on Monday in hopes of bringing Alexander back to the United States, where he also holds citizenship.
It’s worth mentioning that these talks happened behind the scenes between the Americans and Hamas directly. The last time there were direct talks between the two parties, the Israelis were very angry because they were not involved, and the Americans hit back then, saying that they did not need anyone’s permission to negotiate when it came to the US captives who were being held in Gaza.
Now, when it comes to the rest of the 58 captives still being held in Gaza, the Israeli public says that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is prioritising his own personal and political gains over the lives of those remaining in captivity.
Netanyahu’s office did release a statement on Alexander’s release, saying he is set to be freed for nothing in exchange, but rather as a goodwill gesture to the Americans and to President Trump, who is set to arrive in the region on Tuesday.
Qatar, Egypt welcome Hamas plan to free US-Israeli captive
The mediating countries have issued a joint statement hailing Hamas’s decision to release Alexander.
“They regard this as a gesture of goodwill and a positive step toward resuming negotiations aimed at reaching a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, securing the release of prisoners and detainees, and ensuring the safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid to address the dire conditions in the Strip,” the statement said.
“Qatar and Egypt affirm their continued joint efforts in mediating the situation in the Gaza Strip, in coordination with the United States of America.”
aTrump confirms US-Israeli captive returning home in step towards ending ‘brutal war’
The US president says Alexander, a 21-year-old soldier who has been held captive since October 2023, “is coming home to his family”.
In a post on his social media site, Truth Social, Trump acknowledged the efforts of mediators Qatar and Egypt and said Alexander’s release was a “step taken in good faith towards the United States” to “put an end to this very brutal war and return ALL living hostages and remains to their loved ones”.
“Hopefully this is the first of those final steps necessary to end this brutal conflict. I look very much forward to that day of celebration!” he said.
The announcement comes as Trump is due to begin a visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Hamas to free last surviving US-Israeli captive held in Gaza, Edan Alexander
The direct talks between the US and Hamas come as ceasefire negotiations in Gaza have remained at a stalemate since Israel abandoned the ceasefire in March.
Since then, the Israeli government has been accused of trying to grab land rather than free the captives still held in Gaza.
A recap of recent developments
- Hamas says it will release US-Israeli captive Edan Alexander and confirms it is holding direct talks with the US to secure a ceasefire with Israel in Gaza.
- Israeli media reports that US envoy Steve Witkoff will be in Israel later today as part of that deal.
- US President Donald Trump is also travelling to the Middle East this week, on a tour that includes stops in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, but not Israel.
- Israeli forces continue bombarding Gaza, killing at least 26 Palestinians on Sunday alone, as the total blockade on all aid, including food and water, enters its 71st day.
- Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has said that Israel fully endorses Trump’s plan to get humanitarian aid into Gaza.
- Israel attacks Yemen’s Hodeidah after the Israeli military warns residents of three ports under Houthi control – Ras Isa, Hodeidah and Salif – to flee.
Welcome to our live coverage
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