- Israel has killed at least 10 people trying to get aid in the past two days in a “heinous crime” committed in southern Gaza, according to the enclave’s Government Media Office. It says soldiers “opened direct fire at hungry Palestinian civilians” at an aid distribution centre run by the newly formed, Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says a strike on Gaza has killed Hamas leader Mohammad Sinwar. The Palestinian group has yet to comment.
- At least 43 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza today, including eight killed in an attack on the home of journalist Osama al-Arbid in the northern Strip.
- Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 54,084 Palestinians and wounded 123,308, 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.
Photos: Palestinians struggle to get food at charity kitchen in Deir el-Balah
‘We can’t survive without it’: Palestinians rely on community kitchens
Lina Abu Shaaban, a Gaza City resident, says her family depends on a community kitchen because food has become so expensive amid shortages caused by the Israeli blockade.
“We can’t survive without it. I wait five to seven hours in the heat just to get food, and I’m always scared of being bombed,” she told Al Jazeera while waiting in line for a bowl of lentils at the kitchen, which was set up at a school housing displaced people.
Another resident in line, Um Ahmad al-Sayfi, also said she has no choice but to get food from the community kitchen because her family is suffering from a lack of supplies. She condemned Israel’s targeting of the food distribution points.
“They bomb them so that we die of hunger. I saw a kitchen get hit just days ago – children were burning. Why don’t they want us to live?” she told Al Jazeera.
Armed wing of Hamas publishes footage of apparent attack on Israeli forces
The Qassam Brigades has released footage it says shows part of its ongoing operation in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya.
In the video, fighters are seen targeting an Israeli force sheltering inside a residential building. That scene is followed by a strike on a Merkava tank using what the group said was an antipersonnel shell and a locally made Yasin-105 rocket.
Smoke and debris can be seen rising from the targeted site with the fighters retreating after the strike.
Israel targets Gaza community kitchens, food distribution points
Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking unit says the Israeli military “deliberately targeted” more than 20 community kitchens and food distribution and storage sites across Gaza between Monday and Tuesday.
Sanad’s analysis showed that most of the Israeli air strikes took place in Gaza City and other parts of northern Gaza – an area that has not received any aid since Israel began enforcing its total blockade on the enclave in early March.
Eight incidents were reported there since March 18, Sanad said. Seven other attacks took place in Deir el-Balah and refugee camps in central Gaza while five more were reported in Khan Younis in the south.
Citing data from the Government Media Office in Gaza and Palestinian media sources, at least 60 people were killed in the Israeli attacks. Hundreds of others were also injured.
Hezbollah condemns Israeli strike on Yemen, urges global action
The Lebanese armed group has issued a statement condemning what it called Israel’s “barbaric aggression”, following an air strike on Sanaa International Airport in Yemen, which targeted the last remaining civilian aircraft.
The group accused Israel of expanding its attacks across the region – from Gaza and Lebanon and now, to Yemen – and described the strike as a flagrant violation of international and humanitarian law.
Hezbollah blamed the US for enabling Israel’s actions and criticised the international community’s “shameful silence”.
It voiced strong solidarity with the Yemeni people and praised their leadership for standing firmly with the Palestinians in Gaza.
The group called on Arab, Islamic, and free nations to take urgent action to lift the siege on Gaza and back Yemen’s stance in standing up for Palestine.
‘How many more must die before action is taken?’
Here’s some of what’s been said during the UN Security Council debate:
- Algeria: “How many more must die before action is taken by the Security Council? How many orphans must roam the ruins of Gaza? How much more blood must be spilled before this council acknowledges that enough is enough? … The time for indecision is over.”
- France: “The highly limited [aid] quantities of recent days are insufficient when it comes to meeting the needs of the populations, especially after 12 long weeks of total blockade. The images of desperate, starving people throwing themselves on trucks and aid distribution points are a tragic illustration of this.”
- Guyana: “The judgement of future generations will be justifiably harsh towards us, we who saw the attempts at obliterating an entire people but did not act. This council has the opportunity to act now. Enough is enough.”
- United Kingdom: “The UN warned of the risks from the Israeli government’s plan for aid delivery. In Rafah yesterday, we saw this warning become a reality. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation lost control of its distribution centre with multiple casualties reported and great distress for those desperately seeking aid. In contrast, the UN has a clear plan to deliver life-saving aid at scale. It contains robust mitigations against aid diversion. Brave humanitarians stand ready to do their jobs. Nine thousand trucks wait at the border.”
UN hears ‘dramatic testimony’ from experts on crisis in Gaza
This hearing is happening against a backdrop of utter despair in Gaza and the sidelining of the United Nations in its efforts to bring aid to Gaza. The longest-standing aid operations in Gaza, of course, have been from the UN.
We’ve heard from Sigrid Kaag – the special coordinator for Middle East peace – about the need to allow the UN back into Gaza, to have unfettered access to the people there, to do the job that they are uniquely qualified to do.
We also heard from Feroze Sidhwa, a surgeon who does emergency procedures. … The message from both of these experts was again calling for a ceasefire and the full resumption of aid into the Gaza Strip.
We are [also] hearing from countries about the need for more aid to get in. Denmark was interesting, speaking … [about] representing the overwhelming majority of voices in the Security Council when it comes to humanitarian aid being allowed to flow freely and at scale in Gaza.
The ambassador talked about the need for medical access as well, again highlighting the unbearable conditions of people on the ground and the growing concern among the international community that this could not be allowed to go on.
Israel kills 10 aid seekers in two days in Rafah: Gaza’s Government Media Office
Gaza’s Government Media Office says 10 Palestinians have been killed and 62 injured in two days as they rushed to get aid from a distribution centre run under a US and Israeli mechanism.
Israeli forces “opened direct fire on hungry Palestinian civilians who had gathered to receive aid”, the office said in a statement. “This heinous crime occurred during peaceful gatherings of citizens driven by desperate need and extreme hunger to head to locations supposedly providing aid.”
“This crime was part of a dubious engineering project run by the American organization called Gaza Humanitarian Relief (GHF),” which “denies the principles of humanitarian action, namely humanity, neutrality, integrity, and independence”.
The government added that aid distribution centres set up under the scheme were “nothing but a false humanitarian cover for racist security schemes aimed at humiliating, starving, and, if necessary, killing Palestinians”.
Hamas fighters claim sniper attack on Israeli soldier
The armed wing of Hamas, Qassam Brigades, says its fighters sniped and directly hit an Israeli soldier yesterday.
It said the attack, which wounded the soldier, took place on Baghdad street in the eastern Shujayea neighbourhood of Gaza City.
Sanaa airport attack bid to weaken Gaza support: Houthi leader
Houthis leader Abdel-Malik al-Houthi has described Israel’s strikes on Sanaa airport as part of an effort to weaken the Yemeni people’s support for Palestine, and pledged to maintain his movement’s strong support for Hamas.
In a speech in the Yemeni capital Sanaa hours after four Israeli strikes hit the city’s airport, al-Houthi said Israel wanted to isolate Palestinians, and ensure no Muslim nation responded to its actions in Gaza.
“We are striving for a stronger position alongside the Palestinian people, who are enduring an unprecedented level of suffering,” he said, according to the state-run SABA news agency.
Israel strikes on Sanaa International Airport, the second in a month, destroyed “the last functional aircraft belonging to Yemeni Airlines” at the airport, according to the facility’s director. The aircraft had been scheduled to fly to the Saudi city of Jeddah for the Hajj pilgrimage.
“One of the objectives of the Israeli strike on Sanaa Airport may be to hinder the transport of pilgrims, but, God willing, they will fail,” said al-Houthi.
Palestinians shot, killed trying to recover food from their homes
People have been killed and shot at not only at [aid] distribution points but in other areas as they try to get food.
For example, in the past couple of hours, two people were reported killed in the Shujayea neighbourhood [of Gaza City]. They were killed trying to get to their homes.
They were forced to evacuate in the past few weeks. They left everything behind. All of their belongings, all of their food supplies that they managed to get … [were] inside the house.
As they were trying to get back to the house to pick up two bags of flour, as one family member who was waiting for them told us, … they were shot and killed.
So whether it’s a distribution point or inside their homes that they left, Palestinians are shot at and killed as they try to get food.
US representative calls on UN to work with GHF in Gaza
John Kelley, the alternate US representative at the UN, has called on the international body to work with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which he says is an “independent” institution established to “provide a secure mechanism for the delivery of aid to those in need”.
“We call on the UN to work with the GHF and Israel to reach an agreement on how to operationalise this system in a way that works for all,” he said. “One that provides the opportunity to deliver aid directly to civilians without diversions to Hamas and other terrorist and criminal groups.”
“The council should apply pressure to free Palestinians of Hamas’s tyranny,” he told the UN Security Council. “The United States fully stands behind Israel and its right to defend itself. In order to move forward, Hamas must be defeated.”
The comments come after a second day of chaotic scenes in southern Gaza as desperate Palestinians try to access aid through the US-backed model. Several Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire as they rushed to get aid today.
Photos: Pro-Palestine activists protest South African coal exports to Israel
Red Cross field hospital comes under fire in al-Mawasi: Ministry
The Red Cross field hospital in southern Gaza’s al-Mawasi area has come under Israeli fire, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
It said in a statement published on Telegram that the incident sowed panic among patients and visitors, resulting in several injuries.
Gaza’s healthcare facilities have been targeted repeatedly. Targeting of health facilities, medical personnel and patients is considered a war crime under the 1949 Geneva Conventions.
UAE summons Israeli ambassador over Jerusalem rally ‘violations’
The United Arab Emirates has summoned Israel’s ambassador to the country to express its condemnation of “provocative practices by Israeli extremists” during a rally in Jerusalem earlier this week, according to the WAM state news agency WAM.
Thousands of right-wing Israelis marched through occupied East Jerusalem on Monday to celebrate Israel’s occupation of the city in 1967 following the Six-Day War.
They made their way through Palestinian neighbourhoods, chanting “death to Arabs” and anti-Islamic slogans.
WAM said the UAE condemned “the deplorable and offensive violations against the Palestinian people that took place in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Mosque”.
It said the Gulf state had urged the Israeli government “to assume full responsibility, condemn these hostile acts, hold perpetrators accountable without exception to ministers and officials”.
aPope renews calls for end to Israel’s war on Gaza
Pope Leo XIV has released a brief message on social media, highlighting the plight of Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip.
“From #Gaza, the cries of parents rise to heaven ever more intensely as they clutch the lifeless bodies of their children, searching for food and shelter from bombs,” he wrote.
“I renew my appeal to leaders: cease fire, release all hostages, and fully respect international humanitarian law!”
The pontiff has spoken out against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza several times since becoming the head of the Catholic Church earlier this month, urging the delivery of critical humanitarian aid.
His predecessor, the late Pope Francis, also was outspoken in his support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Francis held nightly calls with the leaders of a church in Gaza sheltering displaced families.
Ministry of Health warns of medical care collapse amid Gaza oxygen shortage
The ministry has provided an update on the availability of oxygen in hospitals across the coastal enclave amid Israeli attacks.
Here is a summary of their translated comments:
- 25 out of 34 oxygen stations were completely destroyed during the Israeli occupation’s invasion of hospitals.
- Only nine oxygen stations are partially operational and do not meet the needs of patients.
- We warn of a catastrophe threatening medical care if the remaining oxygen stations stop or fail.
Photos: Palestinian families shelter at UN school in Khan Younis
Red Cross field hospital comes under fire in al-Mawasi: Ministry
The Red Cross field hospital in southern Gaza’s al-Mawasi area has come under Israeli fire, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
It said in a statement published on Telegram that the incident sowed panic among patients and visitors, resulting in several injuries.
Gaza’s healthcare facilities have been targeted repeatedly. Targeting of health facilities, medical personnel and patients is considered a war crime under the 1949 Geneva Conventions.
US doctor urges action to prevent ‘erasure’ of Palestinian people
Dr Feroze Sidhwa, a US-based physician who has volunteered at Gaza hospitals over the course of the war, says Israel is carrying out “the deliberate destruction” of the healthcare system in the enclave.
Speaking at the UN Security Council meeting in New York, Sidhwa said his patients in Gaza “were six-year-olds with shrapnel in their heart and bullets in their brains, and pregnant women whose pelvises had been obliterated”.
“Mothers sheltering in the hospital cooked bread on hotplates in the emergency department during mass casualty events as we dealt with the rain of fire and death falling around us everywhere,” said Sidhwa, who most recently volunteered at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in March and April.
He stressed that the healthcare crisis in Gaza is “man-made” and “entirely preventable”.
“Participating in it or not, allowing it to happen is a choice. This is a deliberate denial of conditions necessary for life: food, shelter, water and medicine. Preventing genocide means refusing to normalise these atrocities,” he told the council.
Pro-Palestine supporters protest outside German foreign office
Employees of aid organisations working in the Gaza Strip have demonstrated in front of the German Foreign Office in Berlin, demanding that Israel respect international humanitarian law.
About 120 people took part in the rally in the German capital. The organisers called for a significant increase in aid deliveries to the civilian population in Gaza and an end to attacks on medical facilities.
“We need an unmistakable signal from Berlin to the Israeli government,” the alliance said in a statement.
“This is the only way to achieve a massive increase in the import of urgently needed goods and an end to the attacks on medical facilities, medical personnel and the civilian population,” it added.
Special coordinator tells UN aid in Gaza is ‘not negotiable’
The UN Security Council is holding its monthly open briefing and closed consultations on the situation in the Middle East, including the situation in Gaza.
Sigrid Kaag, special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process ad interim, said “aid cannot be negotiable and there cannot be a question of forced displacement”.
“Humanitarian aid and assistance need to urgently reach all people in Gaza,” she said. “Forced displacement of civilians must be rejected and prevented as per international law. Palestinians should be supported to stay on their land.”
Kaag warned that the international community needs to pivot “from declarations to decisions”.
“Peace cannot be a transaction or a partial temporary arrangement,” she added. “Durable security cannot be achieved solely through force. It must be built on mutual recognition, justice and rights for all.”
Today’s death toll in Gaza rises again
The enclave’s Health Ministry reports that at least 43 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since the early hours of this morning.
‘I don’t know when I will go back to my home’: Displaced teacher
Tarek al-Farra, a teacher in Gaza who has been displaced for more than a year, says daily life in the enclave is dominated by uncertainty.
“I don’t know how long I will be here, displaced,” he told Al Jazeera from Khan Younis in southern Gaza. “I don’t know when I will go back to my home. Although my home is destroyed, I would rather build a tent on the rubble of my home rather than be displaced in a place I don’t belong [in].”
Al-Farra said despite the dire conditions in Gaza – and serious challenges in finding food and other supplies – he had decided against trying to get aid from the US-Israeli-backed group that distributed limited aid this week in Rafah.
“It was like a suicide mission, to walk all this distance just to get a coupon. I don’t know if it will be enough for me and my family,” he said of what was being distributed. “I didn’t receive any aid, I didn’t receive any humanitarian supplies for more than 70 days.”
Israel kills 6 more Palestinians trying to reach Gaza aid distribution point
Ismail al-Thawabta, director of the Government Media Office in Gaza, has confirmed to Al Jazeera that at least six people were shot and killed by Israeli forces today while trying to reach an aid distribution point west of Rafah in the south of the enclave.
Al-Thawabta identified the six people killed today, a day after the killing of three others yesterday as:
- Salem Ata Salem Abu Mousa
- Kifah Odeh Suleiman al-Sawarka
- Mohammed Imad Ramadan Abdel Hadi
- Khalil Ashraf Khalil Mousa
- Ashraf Anwar Khalil Mousa
- Khalil Anwar Khalil Abu Mousa
Hamas claims to have reached agreement with US envoy over Gaza ceasefire
Hamas says it has reached an agreement with the US Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, on a general framework for a ceasefire in Gaza.
In a statement published on Telegram, the group said the deal would involve the “complete withdrawal of occupation forces” from Gaza, secure the flow of aid into the territory, and establish a “professional committee” to assume control of Gaza’s affairs once the agreement was announced.
The accord would involve Hamas releasing 10 Israeli captives, and an unspecified number of bodies, in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners, according to the group. The statement did not specify how many Palestinian prisoners would be released.
Hamas added that it was waiting on a final response to the proposed framework.
The announcement comes a day after our report on Tuesday that Hamas and Witkoff had agreed to the draft deal at a meeting in the Qatari capital, Doha. Al Jazeera sources said the deal involved a 60-day ceasefire, and the release of 10 living Israeli captives held in Gaza over two stages.
But an unnamed US official rejected the claim, saying the deal being discussed was “unacceptable”, while Israeli officials said that no Israeli government could accept the terms, according to the Reuters news agency.
If you’re just joining us
Here are the latest developments:
- Nearly 380 writers from the UK and Ireland have signed an open letter demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, labelling Israel’s actions in the enclave a “genocide”.
- The head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, has condemned the new US-backed aid model, calling it a “distraction from atrocities” taking place in Gaza.
- Twenty-two out of Gaza’s 38 hospitals are out of service, the Health Ministry has said, with those still operating facing a “catastrophic” shortage of supplies.
- The Israeli army has said it confiscated more than 7 million shekels ($2m) during raids on money exchanges in the West Bank yesterday, which killed at least one Palestinian and wounded more than 30.
- Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has said he plans to continue expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law, despite reports that the International Criminal Court is preparing to issue an arrest warrant against him.
Netanyahu says Hamas leader Mohammad Sinwar killed
There has been no immediate comment from Hamas on the Israeli prime minister’s claim.
Mohammad Sinwar became the group’s Gaza chief after his brother Yahya was killed by the Israeli military last year.
We’ll bring you more on this when we can.
US-backed Gaza aid group opens second site amid widespread criticism
The controversial US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said aid distribution continued in the coastal enclave without incident and it had opened a second distribution site.
“Across the two sites, approximately 14,550 food boxes have been distributed so far. Each box feeds 5.5 people for 3.5 days, totaling 840,262 meals,” the foundation said in a statement.
As we reported earlier, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has said it had temporarily halted aid distribution in Gaza due to disorder, in a statement carried by Reuters.
The GHF is working to open four sites and said it has “plans to build additional sites across Gaza in the weeks ahead”.
The GHF operation has come under severe criticism from aid groups and international organisations such as the United Nations.
Earlier today, the head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, condemned the aid model, saying it is a “distraction from atrocities” taking place there.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported at least one person was killed and dozens of others were wounded on Tuesday at a GHF aid distribution point in Rafah after Israeli forces opened fire.