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Here’s where things stand on Thursday 3 July 2025:
- An Al Jazeera investigation shows that Palestinians have been pushed out of 83.5 percent of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis by Israeli army forced displacement orders since March 18.
- At least 118 Palestinians, including 12 aid seekers, have been killed and 581 injured in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.
- Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, has called on countries to impose a full arms embargo and cut off trade and financial ties with Israel, which she accused of waging a “genocidal campaign” in Gaza.
- Meanwhile, Hamas says it is studying a new proposal for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza, after US President Donald Trump said Israel had agreed to a 60-day truce.
- Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 57,130 people and wounded 134,592, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7, 2023 attacks and more than 200 were taken captive.
Israel carrying out extensive bombing campaign in southern Lebanon
Reporting from Beirut, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said the Israeli air strikes have targeted the hills overlooking the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh.
Lebanese media outlet Aljadeed says some of the villages of Al-Jarmaq, Al-Mahmoudiya, Al-Ayshiya are being targeted.
The attacks come shortly after the Israeli military attacked a vehicle south of Beirut, killing at least one person, according to a preliminary tally from the Lebanese Health Ministry.
We’ll bring you more on the latest strikes as soon as we can.
Tech giants ‘making very clear’ products can be used for military purposes
We’ve spoken to Samer Abdelnour, a senior lecturer at the University of Edinburgh Business School, about UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s report on corporate complicity in Israel’s genocide against Palestinians.
Abdelnour noted that the report alludes to “how companies, especially in Big Tech, are using and utilising the experience of the genocide in Gaza to enter into new markets”.
“That’s a massive market providing states and weapons companies with AI and cloud-computing services,” Abdelnour told Al Jazeera, explaining that companies such as Google, Amazon and Microsoft are producing “dual-use” technologies.
“Big Tech companies have shown that they’re willing and in fact already utilising their technology for the development of specifically autonomous weapons systems, or what’s known in the international community as killer robots,” he said.
“By participating in the genocide, companies like Google – also Amazon and Microsoft – are making very clear that they’re willing to pivot their technologies … for military purposes.”
In her report, Albanese said Microsoft, Alphabet – Google’s parent company – and Amazon have granted Israel “virtually government-wide access to their cloud and AI technologies”, enhancing its data processing and surveillance capacities.
You can read more on the findings here.
Netanyahu sneaks into Nir Oz for first visit since October 7
The Israeli prime minister’s visit to the kibbutz, which was targeted by Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023, was met with protesters who blocked the road, demanding he make a deal to see the return of the remaining Israeli captives held there.
About a year ago, Netanyahu’s office announced he was preparing to visit the kibbutz, but the visit never took place, despite repeated pleas from residents, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports. During one of his news conferences over a year ago, the prime minister presented a map of the Gaza border communities with the Kibbutz’s name missing.
Nearly a quarter of Nir Oz’s residents – 117 people – were killed or kidnapped to Gaza on the day of the massacre.
Footage posted on social media shows Netanyahu’s convoy arriving.
The victims of Israel’s attack on a Gaza beach cafe
A one-year-old girl and an aspiring female boxer were among at least 39 people who were killed in an Israeli attack on a beach cafe in Gaza, which had been a haven from Israel’s genocide.
Five killed in Deir el-Balah: Report
Wafa, quoting local sources, is reporting that five Palestinians have been killed and several others wounded following Israeli military attacks on the city of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.
It reports that four civilians were killed and others injured when an Israeli drone attacked a civilian vehicle in the west of the city, while Israeli shelling killed a civilian and wounded more in its east.
Israel forcing Palestinians out of most of Khan Younis, data shows
The Israeli army has issued forced evacuation orders for 83.5 percent of the southern city of Khan Younis since March 18, Al Jazeera’s Sanad verification unit has found, amounting to an area of nearly 89sq km (34sq miles).
Using satellite images, Sanad found that the pace of Israeli military operations in Khan Younis has intensified in the past few weeks, with Palestinians being pushed into western parts of the city.
“The latest warnings force displaced people to leave Khan Younis and head north to the remaining areas in central Gaza, particularly Deir el-Balah, which is overcrowded with hundreds of thousands of displaced persons,” it said.
Overall, Sanad found that Israel has pushed Palestinians into a 74.4sq-km (28.7sq-mile) area of the Gaza Strip, which represents about 20 percent of the enclave.
“In contrast, approximately 290.4 square kilometers, which account for 80 percent of the total area of the besieged Strip, have been marked as hazardous red zones,” it said.
1 killed, 3 wounded in Israel’s strike on Lebanon: Report
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency has cited the Health Ministry for the preliminary casualty toll in the Israeli attack on a vehicle near Beirut.
As we reported earlier, an Israeli air raid hit a vehicle in the Khaldeh area, about 12km (eight miles) south of the Lebanese capital.
We’ll bring you more on the situation when we can.
Photos: Amid Israeli attacks, Palestinians in Gaza seek shelter from summer heat
39 children among 660 arrested by Israel in West Bank last month alone
Israeli forces arrested 660 Palestinians over the past month, including 25 women and 39 children, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office (ASRA).
The organisation said those arrests add to 18,000 made from October 7, 2023, to the end of May this year. During that period, 570 women and girls and about 1,400 minors were arrested, it added.
“The occupation escalated arrests after June 13, coinciding with the aggression against Iran, carrying out mass raids and converting homes into interrogation centres,” the ASRA statement published on Telegram said.
“The occupation arrested more than (300) Palestinians from the West Bank within six days on the pretext of entering Jerusalem without a permit, and arrested (32) Jerusalemites on charges of providing assistance,” it added.
As Gaza runs out of fuel, ‘2.1 million lives on the brink’: NRC chief
Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), has warned that fuel reserves “are gone” in the bombarded enclave.
“The last drops are being rationed to keep bare-minimum services alive. No fuel means no water, no food distribution, no health care, no telecoms – 2.1 million lives on the brink. This is no longer a logistical issue – it is life or death,” he wrote on X.
Egeland said the aid group is now trucking water to 33 sites in Gaza – down from 64 previously – to provide 85,000 Palestinians with 4.5 litres [1.1 gallons] of water per day.
That is “barely enough to drink”, he said, and “far below the 15-litre [3.9-gallon] survival standard”.
“Half of these sites depend on the municipal water utility, which has fuel for just 10 days left – after that, their water stops completely,” Egeland added.
Israeli drone attack hits car south of Beirut
Several Lebanese media outlets have reported that an Israeli air raid has hit a vehicle on a busy motorway in the Khaldeh area, about 12km (8 miles) south of Beirut.
A Lebanese security source told Al Jazeera that casualties resulted from the strike, but these reports are still unconfirmed.
Bombing an area near the Lebanese capital marks another escalation by Israel, which has been carrying out near-daily attacks in Lebanon since it reached a ceasefire with Hezbollah in November of last year.
In a statement, Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee said the military carried out an attack against a person “involved in arms smuggling” and planning attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians.
It is not clear if the attack Adraee was referring to is the same drone attack on the vehicle south of Beirut.
We will bring you more information on this as it becomes available.
Israeli forces use drugs to recruit collaborators in the Gaza Strip: Hamas
A Hamas security official has told our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic that the Israeli forces are working to create and prolong issues that will lead to the emergence of criminal gangs, as it directs them to destabilise security in the Palestinian enclave.
The official also said the group had prevented an attempt by Israel to smuggle spying equipment and modern phones to collaborators in the Gaza Strip so they could carry out missions.
The official stated that drugs are often used to “ensnare young people, bring them down, and assign them to security and espionage missions” and that agents had been smuggling large quantities of drugs from intelligence officers assigned to the aid teams that have access to the aid distribution points.
Israeli intelligence officers use the aid distribution points as a recruiting ground, the Hamas official said.
Israel’s push to crush Hamas militarily ‘proven impossible’
Dan Perry, an Israeli affairs analyst, says the latest ceasefire proposal that Washington has said Israel agreed to does not appear to include a guarantee of an end to the war on Gaza.
“My assessment is that Israel will insist on a full Hamas disarmament, and also that Israel will come under pressure to allow the [Palestinian Authority] to be the umbrella brand under which Gaza is governed, presumably with the help of Arab countries,” Perry told Al Jazeera.
“Neither of those things have been agreed to, respectively, by Hamas or Israel.”
Hamas has said it is studying the new proposal for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, but insisted it is seeking an agreement that would bring an end to the war.
Meanwhile, Perry said that, in Israel, there is strong opposition to prolonging the war.
“It’s been 21 months and Israel’s idea that it can completely crush Hamas militarily without also killing the hostages in the process. That has proven impossible, or at least extremely difficult, as many people predicted,” he said.
Palestine Action says four people charged over military base protest
The campaign group says that four people have been charged with entering a prohibited place and criminal damage after its activists broke into a UK military base last month and sprayed red paint on two planes in protest at the UK’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza.
In a post on X, it says the state stated that the protest had a “terrorist connection” as it called people to mobilise outside the Westminster Magistrates Court in solidarity with those charged.
PA, the UK news agency, says that the four have been remanded in custody at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
Parliament voted 385-26 in favour of the measure against the group on Wednesday, proscribing the campaign group as a “terrorist” organisation.
Critics decried the chilling effect of the ban, which puts Palestine Action on a par with armed groups like al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) in the UK, making it a criminal offence to support or be part of the protest group.
Deadly Israeli attack on central Gaza
A source at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah tells Al Jazeera that at least three people were killed when the Israeli army carried out an attack on the city.
Gaza Humanitarian Foundation denies AP report on irresponsible practices
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has denied a report by The Associated Press news agency that found that US contractors at the group’s aid distribution centres have used bullets and other weapons against Palestinians seeking food.
“GHF launched an immediate investigation when the Associated Press first brought these allegations to our attention. Based on time-stamped video footage and sworn witness statements, we have concluded that the claims in the AP’s story are categorically false,” the organisation said in a statement.
“At no point were civilians under fire at a GHF distribution site. The gunfire heard in the video was confirmed to have originated from the [Israeli army], who was outside the immediate vicinity of the GHF distribution site. It was not directed at individuals, and no one was shot or injured.”
Multiple witness testimonies and videos have shown Palestinians being fired on while seeking desperately needed food at GHF sites amid Israel’s blockade on the Gaza Strip.
More than 500 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid at GHF sites, which began operating in late May, according to humanitarian organisations that have called for the immediate closure of the group’s operations in Gaza. Nearly 4,000 others have been injured.
The AP’s report, which quoted two unnamed American contractors, said that “security staff hired were often unqualified, unvetted, heavily armed and seemed to have an open license to do whatever they wished”.
GHF said in its statement on the report that it was “pursuing legal action”.
Israeli government expected to deny and attack UN expert’s report
Israel has a very consistent policy towards UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, and UN agencies, in general.
Ever since she assumed her position, various Israeli agencies have tried to malign her, to accuse her of anti-Semitism, to call for her dismissal. And as those efforts have not succeeded, they continue to cast doubt on the legitimacy of her reports and the work of the Human Rights Council.
But it’s important to highlight that human rights organisations in Israel, and in Palestine, take these reports very seriously. In fact, they count on them because they also contribute to them.
These reports are a product of many months of research. In particular, Albanese asks human rights organisations in Israel and Palestine to provide evidence so there is a sense of partnership, at least in the humanitarian community, about these reports and their significance to build on them moving forward.
There will be a disparity between what is said by human rights defenders and by Israel, which has not issued an official statement yet. But we can expect that the report will be met with ferocious denial and attacks against her person.
From chants to jet parts, UK stance on Gaza is under scrutiny
UK rappers are under criminal investigation over chants at Britain’s Glastonbury Festival against Israel, while the UK government fought for the right to send them jet parts that could be used for genocide.
If you’re just joining us
Here’s what you need to know:
- Israel has continued its attacks across the Gaza Strip, including an attack that hit the Mustafa Hafez School sheltering displaced people west of Gaza City, killing 11 people.
- UN expert Francesca Albanese has told reporters at the Human Rights Council in Geneva that arms companies have turned near-record profits by equipping Israel with cutting-edge weaponry to unleash 85,000 tonnes of explosives to destroy Gaza.
- Dozens of Israeli settlers have stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam’s third-holiest site, in occupied East Jerusalem, according to the Wafa news agency.
- The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society says Israeli forces have arrested seven high school students in the occupied West Bank at dawn, hours before they were scheduled to take their exams this morning.
Palestinian groups claim attacks on Israeli army in Gaza
The armed wing of Hamas, Qassam Brigades, yesterday targeted an Israeli personnel carrier with a missile in Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip, the group says on Telegram.
Separately, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, al-Quds Brigades, said its fighters destroyed a Merkava tank by detonating two explosive devices left behind by Israeli troops in a street in central Khan Younis. It did not clarify the timing of the attack.
Palestinian families ordered to vacate homes in occupied West Bank: Report
Israeli authorities have ordered 22 Palestinian families to vacate their homes in the village of Sur Baher, south of occupied East Jerusalem, by July 7, according to the Wafa news agency.
According to the Jerusalem Governorate cited in the report, the eviction orders target families residing near the Har Homa settlement, which is built on Palestinian land.
Quoting a resident, the Palestinian news agency said that about 180 Palestinians would be affected by the orders.
Albanese’s ‘very damning’ report puts spotlight on 48 companies
We have watched the UN special rapporteur for Palestine, Francesca Albanese, presenting a report that she spent months working on, which was released late on Monday.
Now, she gave a summary to the media, taking some questions and giving a broad overview.
This report is certainly very damning. She looks specifically at companies that were involved, or are involved, according to her allegations, in illegal activity that helped prompt Israel’s war crimes in Gaza and its crimes in the occupied West Bank.
The big headline out of this is that she has identified 48 different companies allegedly involved in some way.
She started this news conference with some very strong words, saying Palestine is a crime scene, and the fingerprints of all of us are on it.
What she meant by that was that where we buy our products, the companies we choose to associate with, the banks we invest in – all have some bearing on whether the international community is involved in this ongoing genocide.
Photos: Aftermath of Israeli attack on Gaza City
