LIVE UPDATES: 5 killed in Israeli attack on Palestinians near aid truck in Gaza

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Here is where things stand on Saturday 24 May 2025:

• At least five Palestinians killed, 50 wounded by an Israeli attack that targeted people gathering around a truck carrying flour in southern Gaza.
• Witnesses to Israel’s bombing of a family home in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp that left some 50 people dead or missing told Al Jazeera that “the Israeli military is killing civilians for fun”.
• UN chief Antonio Guterres said the conflict in Gaza has reached the “cruellest phase of this cruel conflict” as Palestinians starve while Israel allows only a “teaspoon of aid” to enter the famished enclave and “nothing has reached the besieged north”.
• Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 53,901 Palestinians and wounded 122,593, 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

In numbers: Palestinians targeted across occupied West Bank

At least 981 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers across the occupied West Bank since October 7, 2023.

The figure includes 199 children.

In addition, more than 8,785 Palestinians have been wounded in these attacks.

Israeli settlers attack water supply of West Bank communities

Israeli settlers damaged water pipes supplying Palestinian families in the al-Auja waterfall area, located north of Jericho in the occupied West Bank, according to a local rights organisation.

Hassan Mleihat, general supervisor of the Al-Baidar Organization for the Defense of Bedouin Rights, told Wafa news agency that settlers tampered with the water supply to force Palestinian residents into leaving their land.

Israeli killing of Palestinians in occupied West Bank spirals

While the world’s attention is focused on the spiralling death toll in Gaza – where more than 53,822 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7, 2023, the number of Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank continues to mount, according to the UN.

The death toll in the occupied West Bank now stands at 938 Palestinians killed since Israel began its war on Gaza. At least 198 children were counted among that figure of those killed by Israeli forces or settlers, the UN said.

The UN also notes that 132 Palestinians – including at least 25 children – have been killed since the start of this year.

Alongside the killings of Palestinians in the West Bank, approximately 42,000 residents of the occupied territory’s Nur Shams, Tulkarem and Jenin refugee camps remain displaced after Israeli forces mounted a major military operation against Palestinian communities there in January.

Israeli army says jets struck 100 targets in Gaza over past day

An army update claims one of the targets was a rocket launcher that was used to fire at southern Israel yesterday.

Palestinian fighters, as well as tunnels and infrastructure used by them, were among the other targets hit, according to the statement.

More than 70 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks across Gaza since yesterday.

Israel’s aim to ‘entirely destroy’ Gaza

As Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza intensifies, its allies begin to speak up.

The images coming out of Gaza are apocalyptic, depicting the latest – and perhaps final – chapter in a genocide.

Under an operation called Gideon’s Chariots, the Israeli military is forcing Palestinians into tiny corners of the besieged enclave. Its next phase: another full-scale invasion aimed at taking complete control of the territory.

What is going on in Gaza ‘unequivocally weaponisation of aid’

Martin Griffiths, the former head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, says Israel’s recent attacks on Gaza are “the worst” that have been experienced in the war so far.

“It is worse than ever,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that this is visible in the daily death toll in the enclave.

He said what is going on in Gaza is “unequivocally weaponisation of aid to create starvation and children are dying because of it”.

“There is no way you can look at it in any other way,” Griffiths, who is currently with private diplomacy firm Mediation Group International, stressed.

He said the amount of aid that recently went into the enclave is “tiny”, and it was kept in the south, adding that it is part of Israel and the US’s new plan for aid distribution. He stressed that the aid is kept in the south to draw people from the north to make a “dangerous journey”.

“Surely IDF [Israeli army] will check identities, and actually it is going to be a one-way trip,” Griffiths said. “It is aid with displacement, it is aid with victimisation, and not enough aid anyway.”

Israel’s antiwar protests small, but growing

Alon-Lee Green was among some 600 people who on Sunday gathered along Israel’s fence with Gaza to call for an end to the war.

The protesters represent part of a small but increasingly visible groundswell of opposition in Israel to a war that, for various reasons, many Israelis are turning their backs on.

“Some people are protesting because they see it as a political war,” Green, who is the national codirector of the activist group Standing Together, said of the growing sense in Israel that the war on Gaza only serves to sustain Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition.

“Some are tired of fighting, some want the hostages [to be released from Gaza], and some [are protesting against] what we’re doing to Palestinians. All are welcome,” said Green, who was arrested at the protest and placed under house arrest after spending two nights in an Israeli jail.

Polls in Israel show that the majority now favour a deal that would secure the release of the captives held in Gaza, even if that means an end to the war. Nevertheless, the war has continued.

Read more here.

Four killed in Israeli bombing near Gaza City

An Israeli bombing in the Tuffah neighborhood, east of Gaza City, killed four people and wounded a number of others, Palestinian outlet Al-Aqsa is reporting.

It added that Israeli forces carried out a raid on the al-Mashala neighbourhood in Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza.

Thirty Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes on the besieged enclave since dawn.

Number of people killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza rises to 53,901

The Health Ministry in Gaza has provided its latest daily update on the number of people killed and wounded by Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.

In a statement, it said the bodies of at least 79 people, including five recovered from earlier attacks, had arrived at hospitals across the territory in the past 24 hours, excluding the facilities based in northern Gaza due to the inability to access them.

Another 211 injuries were recorded over the same period, it added.

The figures bring the number of confirmed deaths since the start of the war to at least 53,901, with 122,593 also wounded.

If you’re just joining us

Here’s a recap of some recent developments:

• Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territory, condemned Israel’s bombing of a home on Friday belonging to Palestinian doctors Alaa and Hamdi al-Najjar, in which nine of their 10 children were killed.
• Hamas called US House Representative Randy Fine’s suggestion to use nuclear weapons on Gaza “an incitement to genocide and a crime against humanity”.
• The director of medical relief in Gaza said only 92 aid trucks entered the Strip in three days, after Israel claimed 107 trucks entered on Thursday and 83 trucks on Friday.
• The Israeli army said it “neutralised” an assailant who attempted to carry out a stabbing attack at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron.

Palestinian Mujahideen Movement slams Israel’s aid distribution method

In a statement issued on Telegram, the Palestinian group says it “strongly condemns the international inaction and silence” over the siege of Gaza.

“The mechanism and method of aid planned by the Zionist entity in cooperation with American companies is another facet of the policy of starvation and blockade,” it said, referring to Israel’s recent move to allow limited aid to enter the territory.

The statement added: “While we reject any aid mechanism that serves the enemy’s criminal goals, we appreciate the position of institutions and companies that refuse to engage with aid distribution mechanisms that serve the agendas of the fascist enemy.”

Deadly Israeli attack targets people near truck carrying flour

At least five Palestinians have been killed and 50 wounded by an Israeli attack that targeted people gathering around a truck carrying flour in al-Mawasi, southern Gaza.

Al-Mawasi has previously been designated a “humanitarian zone” by Israel.

Israeli forces target al-Awda Hospital, ambulances: Director

Our colleagues on the ground are reporting artillery shelling in the vicinity of al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza.

The hospital’s director told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces had bombed the perimeter of the facility, with shrapnel scattering in the area.

He said the hospital has been targeted for days and also reported attacks against ambulances transporting the sick and wounded.

The Israeli army has targeted Gaza’s healthcare system since the start of the war, with most hospitals in the territory out of service.

Captives’ families call for return of ‘all in one deal’

Israeli media, citing some social media users, report they received phone calls from unknown numbers with recorded messages of captives held in Gaza asking for help to be released, with the sounds of explosions in the background.

In a statement, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said it had nothing to do with the phone calls.

“We emphasise that the conversations and recordings are not on behalf of [us],” the group representing captive families said on X.

“The people of Israel are in favour of return of all the abductees and ending the war,” it added, calling on the government “to fulfil the will of the people and return them all in one deal. 596 days that the kidnapped have been crying out”.

Separately, Israeli media are reporting demonstrations outside the residences of the Israeli president and the chairman of the Knesset Security Committee, demanding a captive exchange deal.

Israeli army says it ‘neutralised’ stabbing attacker in Hebron

The Israeli military says its forces have “neutralised” an assailant who attempted to carry out a stabbing attack at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron.

No casualties were reported, it said in a statement, without offering further details.

Do criticisms of Israel amount to anti-Semitism?

Israel was quick to label the killing of two of its embassy staff in Washington, DC, this week as anti-Semitic.

Other officials in the West have followed suit.

But as its war in Gaza expands, does criticising Israel amount to anti-Semitism?

And does this narrative serve any purpose?

Three reported killed in Israeli attack on Gaza City area

We’re getting reports of an Israeli attack on Gaza City’s Tuffah neighbourhood, with three people being killed and several others wounded.

Only 92 aid trucks entered Gaza, says Palestinian official

The director of medical relief in Gaza says only 92 aid trucks have entered the Strip in three days.

He added that the healthcare, water, and food situation in Gaza is very difficult, and no food or medical aid has reached northern Gaza.

Earlier today, the Israeli army claimed 83 trucks entered Gaza on Friday, while yesterday it said 107 trucks entered on Thursday.