- Israeli forces have bombed the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis again, after unleashing a wave of attacks that have killed at least six people in the southern city.
- The attacks come as the Israeli military began a large-scale ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 151 Palestinians on Sunday.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says it will allow a limited amount of aid into Gaza, but it’s not clear when the supplies will enter the enclave.
- Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 53,339 Palestinians and wounded 121,034, 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.
Israeli forces kill five in northern Gaza
Al Jazeera’s Arabic’s correspondent reports that five people were killed in an Israeli air attack targeting displaced people near the Al-Faluja market, in Jabalia refugee camp.
US policy shifts on Syria, Yemen, Iran – but not Israel
Trump’s visit to the Middle East saw a shift in US policy on Yemen, Iran, and Syria, but not Gaza.
As famine stalks the Palestinian enclave, the US is supporting an Israeli plan to bypass humanitarian agencies, as a condition of lifting its punishing blockade.
Matt Duss, the executive vice president of the Center for International Policy, told Al Jazeera’s The Bottom Line that Israel’s plan would “force the ethnic cleansing of a huge part of Gaza’s population”.
Israel’s deadly attacks on Nasser Hospital
The latest Israeli attack on the medical complex in Khan Younis, which damaged its pharmaceutical laboratory, is the latest in a series of assaults on the facility.
Last Tuesday, Israeli forces bombed the hospital, killing at least two people, including Palestinian journalist Hassan Eslaih, who was seeking treatment there.
And last month, Israeli forces bombed the media tent outside the hospital, killing at least two people, in an attack that targeted Eslaih. In March, they bombed the hospital’s emergency building, killing at least five people, including a member of Hamas’s political bureau as well as a 16-year-old boy, who were admitted there.
In February last year, Israeli ground troops also laid siege to the hospital for more than a week, forcing thousands of people sheltering in its grounds to leave, before raiding it.
They arrested more than 200 people, including 70 medical staff.
During that operation, Israeli forces killed dozens of people, many of whom were reportedly shot by snipers as they tried to reach the hospital.
At least eight patients died due to a lack of oxygen during the siege, according to the Wafa news agency.
Israeli forces arrest, beat Palestinian child in occupied West Bank
The Wafa news agency is reporting that Israeli forces have raided the town of Beit Ummar, in Hebron, where they arrested a child after severely beating him.
It identified the child as Shams al-Din Saeed, but did not state his age.
Israeli settlers also wounded two young Palestinians in an attack on the town of Deir Ballut, in Salfit, according to Wafa. The settlers also set fire to three homes and fired live bullets during the attack
Large numbers of Israeli forces also raided the town of Idhna, in Hebron, and the village of Kafr ad-Dik, in Salfit, local sources told Al Jazeera Arabic.
If you’re just joining us
Let’s bring you up to speed:
- Israeli forces have bombed the Nasser Hospital again after unleashing a wave of air attacks on Khan Younis that killed at least six people.
- Medics say the death toll from Israel’s attacks on Gaza since this morning has risen to at least 17.
- The director-general of Gaza’s Health Ministry, Munir al-Bursh, says an Israeli aircraft targeted a patient inside the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, “without prior warning”, during the attack on the medical facility yesterday.
- The US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which plans to take over aid distribution in the enclave, welcomes the Israeli plan to let food in as “an important interim step”.
- Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Vatican City and called for “urgent, life-saving humanitarian aid to reach” Gaza.
One in five people in Gaza are facing famine
Israel’s announcement of plans to let a “basic amount” of aid into Gaza comes more than two months after it imposed a total blockade on the enclave.
The world’s leading hunger monitor, known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system, warned last week that the entire population of Gaza is experiencing high levels of food shortages and that one in five people is facing starvation.
Here’s a reminder of what the IPC report said:
- The Gaza Strip is “still confronted with a critical risk of Famine” amid the ongoing war and blockade on aid.
- Some 2.1 million people across Gaza – roughly the entire population – will likely experience high levels of acute food shortages by the end of September, with 469,500 of them projected to hit “catastrophic” levels, the fifth level of the IPC’s five-level scale.
- This marks a “significant deterioration” compared with the previous IPC analysis in October last year, and the already dire conditions detected between April 1 and May 10, which classified 244,000 people in Phase 5 and 925,000 people in Phase 4.
Gaza’s medical system in ruins as Israel intensifies attacks
Dr Mohammed Abu Silmiyeh, the director of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, has described catastrophic conditions as Israeli attacks cripple medical services in northern Gaza.
Dr Abu Silmiyeh said Al-Shifa is housing eight patients in spaces meant for four, with tents erected for overflow. Hourly arrivals include 50 dead and 130 wounded, amid critical blood shortages.
He warned that intensive care and surgeries are collapsing, with staff “suffering” under impossible demands.
The doctor was speaking to Al Jazeera shortly after news broke of an Israeli attack on the Indonesian Hospital, the last remaining hospital in the North Gaza governorate, which includes Jabalia, Beit Hanoon and Beit Lahiya.
Death toll in Gaza rises
Medical sources say at least 17 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since the early hours of this morning.
This includes the six people who were killed in the Israeli bombardment of Khan Younis.
Six Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks on Khan Younis
We’ve been reporting on Israeli bombardment in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Al Jazeera Arabic is reporting that at least six Palestinians have been killed in the attacks, while dozens more have been wounded.
We’ll bring you more soon.
Israeli forces blocked rescue effort after deadly attack on south Gaza: Report
The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has released the findings of a preliminary investigation into an Israeli attack on the multistorey home of Abdul Karim al-Afghani, located east of Khan Younis, on May 13.
It said the building was housing at least 24 people, most of them women and children, when it was struck amid “intense fire belts targeting” the European Hospital and its surrounding area.
Shortly after the bombing, civil defence crews arrived at the scene.
“Footage captured rescuers calling out to locate anyone alive. A young girl’s voice was heard pleading for help. As one rescuer moved toward the sound, Israeli warplanes suddenly struck the same site again, targeting the building and rescue teams,” it said.
“The attack injured two civil defence workers, while others narrowly escaped. The team was forced to withdraw, leaving the child who had cried out for help unrescued.”
Euro-Med said that residents of the neighbourhood kept issuing urgent appeals for help, but rescuers were unable to respond, “as Israeli aircraft continued to target anyone approaching the area – whether unarmed civilians or emergency responders”.
The group added, “The repeated targeting of the home and rescue teams can only be seen as a deliberate decision to execute those still alive beneath the rubble and to obstruct all rescue efforts. This represents a stark example of systematic mass killing and a clear intent to exterminate civilians – not only through bombing, but also by denying them any chance of survival.”
Photos: Palestinians pull survivors from the rubble in Jabalia
Israeli forces attack Nasser Hospital amid intense bombardment
Al Jazeera Arabic is reporting that Israeli forces have bombed the pharmaceutical laboratory of the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, as Palestinians who were killed and wounded from other attacks were being brought to the hospital.
Israeli forces have launched some 30 air raids on Khan Younis in the past hour, AJA reported.
We’ll bring you more soon.
Canada’s prime minister calls for ‘life-saving’ aid to reach Gaza
Mark Carney’s office says the Canadian leader “stressed the imperative of an immediate ceasefire in Gaza” during his meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in the Vatican City on Sunday.
Carney also “called for urgent, life-saving humanitarian aid to reach civilians and affirmed Canada’s support for a two-state solution”.
He “reiterated the need for Hamas to release all hostages” and agreed with Herzog that “Hamas must lay down its weapons and have no future role in the governance of Gaza”.
Carney also met with the executive director of the World Food Programme, Cindy H McCain, and “emphasised Canada’s $100 million support earlier this year” to provide food and humanitarian aid to Gaza.
GHF welcomes Israeli plan to let aid into Gaza
The head of the US and Israel-backed charity that plans to take over aid distribution in Gaza says the Israeli announcement “marks an important interim step”.
Jake Woods said in a statement that the move is “consistent with the commitment made to us to serve as a bridging mechanism until the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is fully operational”, according to The Times of Israel.
“We expect GHF’s new aid mechanism – including the establishment of four initial Secure Distribution Sites – to be up and running before the end of the month,” he added.
“We have secured, and will continue to mobilize, funding from the international community to support GHF’s operations.”
As we’ve been reporting, the UN says it won’t work with the GHF because their distribution plan is not impartial, neutral or independent.
What is the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation?
We’ve been covering Israel’s announcement that it intends to allow a “basic” amount of food into Gaza.
Israeli sources say that the UN’s food agency and the World Central Kitchen are going to assist with the distribution for about a week until the US and the Israel-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), takes over.
Here’s what we know about the GHF:
- The charity, registered in Switzerland, is led by former US Marine Jake Woods.
- It aims to initially set up four distribution sites in southern Gaza, run by private security companies and overseen by the Israeli military, to “ensure aid is not diverted” by Hamas.
- The UN says it won’t work with the foundation because the distribution plan is not impartial, neutral or independent. Officials there also dismiss Israeli claims of large-scale diversion of aid by Palestinian fighters.
- Aid groups note that the GHF seeks to supplant the existing system run by the UN, which already has 400 distribution points across Gaza, and will reach only a limited number of people.
- Aid officials told the US’s NPR it would also advance Israel’s military plans to coerce Palestinians to move from north to south Gaza, and eventually out of the enclave altogether.
- UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said in a statement on Friday: “To those proposing an alternative modality for aid distribution, let’s not waste time. We already have a plan. We have the people. We have the distribution networks. We have the trust of the communities on the ground. And we have the aid itself – 160,000 pallets of it – ready to move. Now.”
‘We can’t be complicit in starving kids to death’
Ben Cohen, the cofounder of the famed US ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s, has urged Americans to speak out against starvation in Gaza.
“We are expected to be good Americans and look the other way as Israel prevents food, water, and medicine from reaching the remaining people of Gaza,” Cohen said in a post on X.
“Israel is literally starving them to death… We must speak out and demand a change in policy,” he added.
“We can’t be complicit in starving kids to death.”
Cohen, who is Jewish, was arrested last week for disrupting a Senate hearing to protest US’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
UN chief decries ‘collective punishment’ of Palestinians
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has again expressed concern over the situation in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, and called for a two-state solution to “deliver sustainable peace”.
In a series of posts on X, he wrote:
“Nothing justifies the atrocious October 7 terror attacks by Hamas. And nothing justifies the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
Guterres also called for a permanent ceasefire, the unconditional release of Israeli captives and the “free flow of humanitarian aid” into Gaza.
He went on to urge the world to stay focused on the “terrible situation” in the occupied West Bank.
“Annexation is illegal,” he said. “Settlements are illegal.”
‘Bloody night’ in Gaza’s Jabalia as Israeli forces kill dozens
Israel’s expanded ground offensive in Gaza has brought devastating strikes to Jabalia, with nighttime attacks killing dozens, including women, children and the elderly, on Sunday.
The Nasser family home was obliterated in a midnight air raid without warning, killing more than 30 people and leaving many trapped under rubble. Adjacent buildings suffered severe damage as rescue teams struggled to reach survivors.
Israel’s true goal in Gaza is ethnic cleansing, says top Palestinian politician
Musthafa Barghouti, the secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, says Israel “knows full well that it is incapable of eradicating” the Palestinian resistance, and that its true goal in Gaza is “ethnic cleansing”.
The politician, in an interview with Al Jazeera, urged Arab and Muslim nations to unite and “stop the aggression and genocide” in Gaza.
He denounced continued Israeli bombardment in Gaza, noting that those killed include people lining up for food.
“What is the value of giving a person a loaf of bread and then bombing him?” he asked.
