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Here’s where things stand on Sunday 1, June 2025:
- Israeli forces have opened fire on Palestinians gathered at aid distribution sites run by a US-backed group in southern and central Gaza, killing at least 31 people in Rafah and one more near the Netzarim Corridor today alone.
- Hamas is seeking changes to a ceasefire deal proposed by the US, but the country’s Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, says that the group’s response is “unacceptable”.
- Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 54,418 Palestinians and wounded 124,190, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
- The Gaza 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.
Netanyahu buying time with talks as he aims to implement Trump’s plan
The Israeli prime minister has set out a very clear vision of how the war is going to end in Gaza, political scientist Sultan Barakat tells Al Jazeera.
“He wants Hamas defeated, its leaders exiled and Trump’s plan implemented, which means the eviction of the Palestinians from Gaza,” the lecturer at Hamad Bin Khalifa University said.
While Netanyahu does not intend to reach a permanent end to the war, talks on a temporary ceasefire are a way “to buy time”, Barakat said.
“He’s also trying to defuse some of the pressure that has been building from countries, including the UK, France, Canada, who are not only calling for an immediate end of the war now, but they’re also calling for a permanent solution to the Palestinian question, for the two-state solution,” Barakat said.
Israeli attacks on homes ‘dismantling civilian life’ in Gaza City
Attacks have intensified in Gaza City for the second day in a row. The Israeli military has been targeting residential buildings. We’re talking about five-storey buildings and above.
It’s more than just a crisis right now. It’s the dismantling of civilian life. Many of these buildings were not just residential. They were businesses, offices, student centres. And now they are just rubble.
Close to 70 buildings have been destroyed, and the bombings, drone strikes and artillery shelling does not stop. Residents are only given a short window of time to gather their belongings and whatever food supplies they have.
It is widely believed the Israeli military is pursuing this strategy to push people further into displacement. This time, it’s not only inside Gaza City but as part of Israel’s plan to transfer the population into the southern part of the Strip.
The fact that we’re seeing this number of buildings completely flattened in the past 48 hours is an indication this strategy is already being implemented.
Houthis claim responsibility for missile attack on Ben Gurion Airport
The Yemeni militia says it’s responsible for a ballistic missile attack on Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, Israel that we reported on earlier today.
The missile triggered sirens across central Israel and caused a brief airspace closure at the airport, according to Israeli media.
“Our operations will not stop until the war on our brothers in Gaza stops and the complete siege on them is lifted,” a statement by the Houthis said.
One killed, others injured in Israeli air raid on Gaza City
At least one person was killed and several others wounded after an Israeli air attack on a group of people in Gaza City, Wafa reports.
Medical teams also recovered the body of a slain Palestinian from the Bir an-Naaja area in northern Gaza, it said.
Meanwhile, in central Gaza, Israeli forces carried out intense artillery shelling southeast of the Maghazi refugee camp.
Palestinians enduring the ‘unliveable’, surviving the ‘unforgivable’
Save the Children has condemned Israel’s militarised aid distribution model in Gaza after dozens of Palestinians have been killed and injured by Israeli forces in Rafah and Wadi Gaza.
The charity described the killings as a “blatant and shocking disregard of international humanitarian law”, saying in a statement that directing desperate families to military-run sites only to open fire on them is turning aid distribution into a tool of war.
Ahmad Alhendawi, Save the Children’s regional director, said food parcels being distributed lack essentials, such as baby formula and nutrition for badly malnourished children.
The majority of those killed have been men, fathers and brothers, who play a vital role in protecting and providing for their families, Save the Children noted.
“Aid is a right, and humanitarian organisations know how to deliver it. But we’re not being allowed to do it,” its statement said. “This militarised model is the weaponisation of aid against a starving population.”
Ambulances have been reportedly blocked from reaching the wounded. “Every day brings the opportunity to make a different choice,” Alhendawi said, adding that the world must act to protect Palestinians who have endured the “unliveable” and survived the “unforgivable”.
‘Absolute carnage’ as aid site shooting victims brought to hospital
A British doctor working at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza has described the scene as “absolute carnage” as dozens of victims have been brought in after Israeli forces opened fire on people at a nearby food distribution site.
“I’m in the emergency department at the Nasser complex. We’ve had a shooting at the GHF aid distribution centre near Rafah,” she said in a video with patients and chaos in the background.
“People come through the door. At the moment, the locals are quoting anything from 100 to 200 injured people. These are all gunshot wounds, and as you can see behind me, all the bays are full. It’s absolute carnage here, and there are even more people in the main emergency department.”
More than 30 Palestinians seeking food aid from a GHF distribution site in Rafah were killed when Israeli tanks and drones reportedly opened fire.
Landings at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport delayed due to Houthi attack: Reports
Aircraft scheduled to land at Israel’s main international airport outside Tel Aviv have been delayed due to a missile launched from Yemen, according to Israeli media reports.
“Among the delayed flights were an El Al flight from Boston and an El Al flight from London,” the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported.
Earlier, the Israeli army said a ballistic missile fired from Yemen was intercepted by the country’s air defences.
Gaza Civil Defence: 31 missions carried out amid Israeli attacks
The Civil Defence agency in Gaza says it has completed 31 emergency missions from Saturday morning to Sunday during Israeli bombardment.
These included three rescue operations for bombing victims, 17 medical evacuations and five firefighting responses across multiple governorates, it said in a statement.
Here is a breakdown:
North Gaza:
- A fire was extinguished at a Jabalia home belonging to the Ma’rouf family.
- Rescuers pulled one person from under rubble after a strike on the Halawin family home.
- Medics responded to an injury after a strike on a gathering of people.
- Medics treated a person who sustained gunshot wounds before the patient was taken to al-Shifa Hospital.
Gaza City:
- A fire broke out after a strike on the Asleim family home in the Zeitoun neighbourhood.
- Two people were wounded in an attack on the al-Shobaki home in the al-Nafaq area.
Central Gaza:
- Crews extinguished a fire in Deir el-Balah after a bombing of the Baraka family home.
Khan Younis:
- Two civilians were injured in a strike on a telecommunications hub in Bani Suheila.
- Five bodies and wounded people were recovered after an attack near the Jenin Mosque in al-Mawasi.
- Nine people were injured and evacuated after a strike on an aid distribution point.
A rescue worker looks for survivors in Khan Younis in southern Gaz
Hamas claims Ben-Gvir seeks to ban call to prayer in occupied Palestine
Israeli far-right National Security Minister Ben-Gvir has issued a directive to ban the call to prayer in mosques inside the occupied Palestinian territory, Hamas claims in a statement on Telegram.
Here is what else the statement said:
- Hamas affirms that this measure represents a blatant provocation of the feelings of Muslims everywhere and is part of a series of escalating violations that do not exclude mosques and Islamic holy sites.
- We strongly reject these occupation policies and the brutal religious war targeting worship, rituals, and holy sites, in blatant disregard for all international laws and conventions that guarantee the protection of holy sites and religious and historical rights.
- The increasing attacks perpetrated by the occupation authorities against Palestinians, their mosques, and holy sites, with the direct support of the extreme right-wing government and its ministers, will have a devastating impact on the occupation and will ignite waves of popular anger in the face of this dangerous escalation.
‘All humanitarian principles have been thrown against the wall’
Ahmed Bayram, from the Norwegian Refugee Council, says traditional aid distribution systems are done by humanitarian organisations that are unattached to military units, but that’s not the case with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
He described aid distribution in Gaza as “the most dangerous in the world that has been set up by Israel and the GHF”.
“It is obviously linked to Israeli security aims. There’s nothing independent about this, there’s nothing neutral. Clearly, this is linked to what Israel wants to achieve on the ground. Impartiality is out of the window,” Bayram told Al Jazeera.
“All humanitarian principles have been thrown against the wall.”
His comments come after dozens of Palestinian aid seekers were killed or wounded at two GHF sites on Sunday in Gaza.
Israel using same tactics to pressure Hamas during negotiations
Israel has been using strong-arm methods every time there is a deadlock in the negotiations process, Tamer Qarmout, associate professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, tells Al Jazeera.
“If Hamas does not compromise, then they massacre more Palestinians, and this has been the modus operandi since the beginning,” he said. “The Trump administration wants a victory, but at whose expense? The Americans and Israelis are expecting the Palestinians to pay the price, as if they hadn’t paid enough so far.”
Qarmout said Hamas is fighting a “liberation war” and will not surrender. “But I believe that Hamas is willing to look at dignified exits that preserve the minimum dignity of the Palestinian people.”
A key requirement for the group has been achieving a permanent ceasefire that puts an end to the war, but so far, Israel and the US have not included this in any proposal.
Italian region officially cuts ties with Israeli government
The Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy has formally severed all institutional ties with the Israeli government because of the ongoing “massacre” in Gaza.
According to Italy’s ANSA agency, Michele De Pascale, president of the Emilia-Romagna region, urged regional authorities to suspend relations with all entities linked to the Israeli government “that are not openly and declaredly motivated … to put an end to the ongoing massacre until respect for international law is restored”.
De Pascale emphasised that the decision is directed at the Israeli government, not the Israeli people.
UNRWA chief calls Gaza aid system ‘a death trap’
Philippe Lazzarini has called the conditions surrounding GHF-led aid distribution in Gaza “a death trap”.
“This humiliating system has forced thousands of hungry & desperate people to walk for tens of miles to an area that’s all but pulverized due to heavy bombardment by the Israeli Army,” he said in a post on X.
He urged Israel to lift the siege and grant the UN safe, “unhindered” access to avert “mass starvation” in Gaza.
The ‘facade of humanitarianism’ in Gaza
Formed just months ago, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is a US-Israeli coalition of private military contractors that includes former CIA and military personnel.
Al Jazeera’s Listening Post speaks with Jeremy Scahill, cofounder of Drop Site News, who has investigated the GHF together with Palestinian journalists on the ground.
GHF has a pattern of denying violence at aid distribution points
Earlier, the Israeli army said it was unaware of any sort of casualties that occurred at aid distribution sites, but it is “looking into the matter”.
When Israeli media followed up asking if Israeli troops opened fire, it did not deny it.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) – an incredibly controversial aid group because of questions over where its funding comes from – released a statement denying any chaos or violence, claiming it was “fabricated by Hamas”.
This has been a pattern from the GHF, denying any sort of incident when there is chaos and shots fired at Palestinians going to these aid distribution sites.
Israeli defence minister orders continued fighting in Gaza despite talks
Israel Katz says he has instructed the military to continue advancing towards “all targets” in Gaza despite ongoing ceasefire negotiations.
“The Israeli army will use all necessary means by air, land, and sea to dismantle and crush Hamas,” he said on X, adding it is continuing attacks “with great strength, paving the way for advancing ground forces”.
“Whoever slaughters and fights us will pay the full price,” Katz continued. “Hamas is faced with two options: either release the hostages or face annihilation.”
Israel says it intercepts missile fired from Yemen
The Israeli army says defence systems have intercepted a missile launched from Yemen.
Sirens sounded in several areas in Israel after the launch, it added.
Yemen’s Houthi group has been launching attacks on Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. The group said Israel’s recent retaliatory strikes on Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and Houthi infrastructure would not deter it.
Aid ship to leave for Gaza from Italy today
A vessel carrying humanitarian relief is to depart for Gaza from Italy to deliver desperately needed aid.
The ship is scheduled to depart from the port of Catania, Sicily. The crew is made up of a dozen people, including Greta Thunberg, the Swedish environmental activist, said Marco Grimaldi, deputy leader of Italy’s left-wing Greens and Left Alliance party.
The trip was organised by Freedom Flotilla, a coalition of groups opposed to the blockade of humanitarian aid for Gaza that Israel imposed on March 2.
Operating theatres overwhelmed after Israeli attack on Rafah aid site
Tom Potoka, a consultant plastic surgeon at Nassar Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, has described to Al Jazeera the chaotic aftermath of the Israeli attack on a food distribution site in Rafah.
“The five operating theatres upstairs were fully occupied with patients who came in from this,” Potoka said, adding patients had a range of injuries, including gunshot wounds, head injuries, and trauma to major blood vessels and abdominal organs.
“I was working with Palestinian colleagues in another block with two theatres, and one of those had to stop also to allow an emergency case in. Other patients I know have been transferred to the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] field hospital.”
Earlier, Gaza’s Health Ministry said the Israeli army is using the new aid distribution mechanism for “mass killings and as a tool for the forced displacement of Gaza residents”.
Saudi FM says Israel blocking Ramallah meeting proof of ‘extremism’
Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud says the Israeli government’s refusal to allow a delegation of Arab ministers to the occupied West Bank showed its “extremism and rejection of peace”.
His statements came during a joint news conference with counterparts from Jordan, Egypt and Bahrain in Amman.
On Saturday, Israel said it would not allow a planned meeting on Sunday in the Palestinian administrative capital of Ramallah to go ahead.
Read more here.
Five cancer patients die daily in Gaza: Hospital director
Muhammad Abu Salmiya, director of al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, has spoken to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic about the healthcare situation in the Strip.
Here are his translated comments:
- We are losing a lot of sick and wounded people due to the scarcity of blood.
- Hospitals are suffering from a shortage of clean water, even in dialysis units.
- Five cancer patients die every day at home due to a lack of medical care.
US-backed group in Gaza denies reports of killings near aid centres
The Israel- and US-backed aid group in charge of aid deliveries in Gaza says news reports that dozens of people have been killed and wounded near two of its distribution centres in the territory are “untrue”.
“All aid was distributed today without incident,” an unnamed spokesperson for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) told the AFP news agency.
“We have heard that these fake reports have been actively fomented by Hamas. They are untrue and fabricated.”
The comments contradict hospital evidence, witness accounts and footage from the scenes of the attacks.
If you’re just joining us
Let’s bring you up to speed on the latest developments:
- Hamas condemns Israel’s “brutal” attack on aid distribution points in Rafah in southern Gaza as the Israeli army claims to be “unaware” of the incidents.
- Gaza’s Health Ministry says the Israeli army is using the new aid distribution mechanism for mass killings and as a tool for the forced displacement of Gaza residents.
- The UN says more than 632,000 Palestinians have been displaced since Israel broke the nearly two-month-old ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza.
- The Israeli army claims to have killed a Hamas commander who led an RPG attack that killed 21 Israeli soldiers operating near the Gaza fence on January 22 last year.
Israeli army says it kills Hamas commander
Khalil Abed al-Nasser Mohammad Hatib has been killed in a drone strike this weekend, an Israeli military statement says.
According to the army, he commanded a Hamas cell that carried out a rocket-propelled grenade attack that killed 21 Israeli soldiers operating near the Gaza fence on January 22 last year.
Palestinian journalist’s health at ‘serious risk’ in Israeli custody: Media union
Palestinian journalist Ali al-Samoudi is at risk of dying as his health deteriorates in Israeli detention, a local media union warns.
Al-Samoudi, 58, was arrested by the Israeli army in Jenin in the occupied West Bank in late April. He has since been held without charge or trial.
“Samoudi suffers from chronic illnesses and requires ongoing medical care,” the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said in a statement. “The continued medical neglect in the occupation’s prisons puts his life at serious risk.”
The group appealed to all international and human rights organisations to “take immediate action and exert pressure on Israel to save Samoudi’s life”.
Iraq, Lebanon leaders call for urgent intervention to ‘save the people of Gaza’
The plea has come during a joint news conference in Baghdad between Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and visiting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun.
The two leaders called for an immediate intervention to “save the people of Gaza” and denounced the continued Israeli assault on the enclave amid “suspicious international silence”.
Al-Sudani expressed Iraq’s full support for political consensus within Lebanon and condemned the “ongoing aggression by the Zionist [Israeli] entity on Lebanese territory”.
He also reaffirmed Iraq’s support for Syria and the preservation of its territorial unity.
Aoun emphasised Lebanon’s commitment to state sovereignty and social peace, stating the importance of preserving civil stability “without compromising the state’s authority”. He noted the delicate balance Lebanon seeks to maintain amid rising regional tensions.
At least 1 killed in Israeli attack on family home in central Gaza’s Bureij
Israeli forces have attacked the Saloul family home in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, according to the enclave’s Civil Defence agency.
Emergency crews recovered one body and rescued five injured people from the rubble, according to a Civil Defence statement published on Telegram.
The post was accompanied by photos showing the delivery of the casualties to what appeared to be al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp.
Families mourn loved ones killed near aid distribution point in southern Gaza
We have been reporting for several hours now on Israeli forces opening fire on Palestinians gathered at a US-backed aid distribution site in Rafah.
Reda Abu Jazar said her brother was among those killed as he waited to collect food in Rafah.
“Let them stop these massacres, stop this genocide. They are killing us,” she said as Palestinian men gathered for funeral prayers.
Arafat Siyam said his brother had left at 11pm (21:00 GMT) the previous evening to collect food for his wife and eight children from the same distribution site in Rafah.
Siyam accused the Israeli military of killing his brother. “This is unfair. What they are doing is unfair,” he said.
Gaza’s ‘so-called aid centres have become Israeli death traps’: Health Ministry
The ministry says the Israeli army is using the new mechanism for distributing aid for mass killings and as a tool for the forced displacement of Gaza residents.
Its statement, published on Telegram, quoted Dr Munir al-Bursh, the director general of the ministry, as condemning “the international silence regarding the massacres being committed against the starving residents of the Gaza Strip”.
He also indicated that hospitals in Gaza are facing dire conditions due to a severe shortage of medicines and other supplies, adding that Israel is still preventing about 3,000 trucks with medical supplies in the Egyptian city of El Arish from crossing into the enclave.
Al-Bursh also accused Israel of “deliberately spreading infectious diseases and epidemics” through the blockade.
Gaza doctor succumbs to injuries after Israeli bombing killed his 9 children
Gaza doctor Hamdi al-Najjar has died eight days after suffering severe injuries in an Israeli attack that killed nine of his 10 children.
His death leaves his 11-year-old son as the sole survivor of the attack.
Malnutrition in Gaza worsening blood donor availability: Health official
Sahar Ghanem, the director of the Health Ministry’s department of medical laboratories and blood banks in Gaza, has spoken to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic about the situation of blood banks in the coastal enclave.
Here is a summary of her translated comments:
- We are facing a shortage of blood stock in all hospitals.
- Malnutrition in Gaza has significantly affected the number of blood donors.
- We urgently need blood units from abroad, as well as blood testing and storage equipment.
Gaza death toll rises
At least 32 Palestinians have been killed and 136 injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 24 hours, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.
Five bodies of people killed in previous Israeli attacks were also recovered from the rubble in the war-torn territory, the ministry statement said.
The total death toll from Israel’s war on Gaza has risen to 54,418 killed and 124,190 injured since October 7, 2023, it said.
Israel has killed 4,149 Palestinians and injured 12,149 since breaking a ceasefire in March this year.
Palestinians on aid point attacks: ‘They flock us towards their fire’
Witnesses in the southern Gaza city of Rafah have spoken to Al Jazeera about the chaotic scenes near the aid distribution point this morning that killed dozens of aid seekers.
“The Israelis opened fire on us. We ran to get our hands on some food, we were met with gunfire, drone bombs and shells,” one Palestinian said. “We are starving to death, just trying to get our hands on some food,” they added.
Another Gaza resident recounted a father’s desperate attempt to feed his family and his “starving children”.
“He was trying to get some flour to feed his children. He’s gone but came back carried on a stretcher,” they said. “Trump alleges it is a safe humanitarian zone, but it is all lies. They flock us towards their fire.”
UN says Israel displaced 630,000 people in Gaza since March 18
In its latest humanitarian situation update, the UN says more than 632,000 Palestinians have been displaced since Israel broke the nearly two-month-old ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza.
Moreover, at least 28 aid workers have been killed since May 1, it said, adding that 452 in total have been killed since Israel’s war began on October 7, 2023.
Photos: Israel hits house west of northern Gaza’s Jabalia city
Israeli air raids hit residential buildings in Gaza City
Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that Israeli air raids destroyed three residential buildings in the Sheikh Radwan and as-Saftawi areas north of Gaza City.
We will bring you more information when we have it.
At least 32 killed today in Israeli attacks on Gaza aid points: Media Office
Gaza’s Government Media Office says at least 31 people have been killed by Israeli gunfire and 200 wounded near an aid distribution centre in the southern city of Rafah.
One person was also killed and 32 injured at another aid distribution centre near the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza, the statement on Telegram said.
In total, 49 Palestinians have been killed and more than 300 injured around the GHF-run distribution centres in Rafah and the Netzarim Corridor since the first such deadly incident on May 27.
Israeli drone attack kills 1 in southern Lebanon
The strike has been carried out with a guided missile and targeted a motorcycle on the road to the village of Arnoun in Lebanon’s Nabatieh governorate, according to the official National News Agency.
Witnesses recount deadly Israeli attack on aid seekers in Rafah
Sameh Hamuda, a displaced resident from northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya city, says he has walked from Gaza City and spent the night with relatives in a tent near Rafah before heading to the aid centre at dawn to wait among a crowd of people.
“They began distributing aid, but suddenly quadcopter drones opened fire on the people, and tanks started shooting heavily. Several people were killed right in front of me,” the 33-year-old told AFP. “I ran and survived. Death follows you as long as you’re in Gaza.”
Abdullah Barbakh, 58, described “chaos, screaming, and overcrowding” at the scene.
“The army opened fire from drones and tanks. Chaos broke out, and the area was filled with martyrs and wounded. I don’t understand why they call people to the aid centres and then open fire on them,” he said. “What are we supposed to do?”
Israeli army claims to have killed dozens of fighters in Khan Younis
In a military update, the army also claims to have destroyed about 100 infrastructures used by fighters in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.
Troops located and demolished a 700-metre-long (2,296 feet) Hamas tunnel, according to the statement.
‘No room for mistakes’ as people are starving in Gaza: Aid worker
Afeef Nessouli, a volunteer with medical aid organisation Glia International, says local NGOs refuse to work with the mechanism put in place by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the US-backed aid distribution organisation.
“It is because, in general, the mechanism that was in place with the UN and our partners in the past was tried and true,” he said.
Nessouli said hundreds of distribution sites were set up through the previous mechanism backed by the UN, adding that the new system is “absolutely disorganised” in comparison.
Earlier, the distribution sites “could get food and supplies to people at home”, Nessouli said, reminding that there are many disabled people in Gaza due to the ongoing genocide.
He said the new process is implemented by people who have no experience in aid work, and the last few attempts at distribution are proof of it.
“When you ghettoise the population into being absolutely starving for three months, there is going to be a lot of assertive and aggressive competition for food,” Nessouli said, adding that there has been no credible proof of the claims that Hamas is stealing aid.
Nessouli concluded that the aid distribution in Gaza went backwards at a time when there is “no room for mistakes” as people are starving in the Strip.
GHF has been weaponising food since day one: Aid worker
Afeef Nessouli, a volunteer with medical aid organisation Glia International, says the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation “has not been able to have a successful distribution of aid” since Israel recently allowed limited aid into the enclave.
Nessouli, talking to Al Jazeera from the town of al-Qarara near Rafah in southern Gaza, said the US-backed aid group has been weaponising food since it started the job.
“It has been an incredibly loud morning [in al-Qarara]. It seems these distribution sites are disorganised and have malintent [malevolent intent], to be honest,” he said.
“The GHF has not been successful to this day and has even seemed to target Palestinians when they are extremely hungry as they try to get aid,” the volunteer stressed.
Hamas-Israel ceasefire talks lack good faith
Tamer Qarmout, an associate professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, says the ongoing ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel are taking place with “no good faith whatsoever”.
“They [Israel] are fixated on one key goal, which is Hamas’s capitulation and surrender, and disappearing from the scene,” he told Al Jazeera.
He added: “Hamas is engaged in these negotiations just to try to reduce the horrors of the war, to allow some humanitarian aid to enter and to also look for a dignified exit. No one in Hamas wants to see themselves surrendering this way.”
According to Qarmout, Hamas laying down weapons was a “no-go”.
“Hamas say ‘no, I will not do this as long as the [Israeli] occupation is there’,” he added.
PRCS says it transported bodies of 23 Palestinians killed in Rafah
Twenty-three other injured people have also been transferred to hospital from an aid distribution point in Rafah.
The organisation said its teams also carried 14 injured people from the aid distribution point near the so-called Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza, which separates northern and southern parts of the Strip.
Earlier, Hamas said 35 people were killed and about 150 wounded in an Israeli attack in Rafah near the aid distribution point set up by the US-backed GHF, responsible for delivering humanitarian supplies into the enclave.
The Israeli army claimed that it is unaware of the attack.
Rafah attack death toll rises
At least 39 Palestinians have been killed and more than 220 wounded in the Israeli attack west of Rafah city near the GHF aid distribution point, according to the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, cited by our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic.
Separately, as we have been reporting, at least one person was killed and others were injured after the Israeli army opened fire at people near another GHF aid site on the Netzarim Corridor.
Photos: Gaza mourns as dozens of aid seekers killed in Israeli attacks
Israeli army claims to be ‘unaware’ of deadly incident at Rafah aid point
We have been reporting on the attack in Rafah by Israeli forces near the aid distribution point that killed at least 35 aid seekers.
The Israeli army said in a statement on Telegram in English that it was “currently unaware of injuries caused by [Israeli troops’] fire within the humanitarian aid distribution site” and that the incident was still under review.
Israeli forces arrest 12 Palestinians in occupied West Bank
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office (ASRA) has said Israeli forces arrested 12 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank in the early hours of Sunday morning.
More than half of the people detained were from Jenin, while the others were from Nablus, Tulkarem, and Ramallah.
Israeli forces have arrested 15 times as many Palestinians as they have freed in ceasefire deals since October 2023.
Israel, US replaced 400 aid points with 4 while ‘100 percent of Gaza is hungry’: Charity chief
Speaking from Gaza City, Bassam Zaqout of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society said the current aid distribution mechanism has replaced 400 former distribution points with just four.
“I think there are different hidden agendas in this aid distribution mechanism,” he told Al Jazeera. “The mechanism does not cater to the needs of the people, such as the elderly and people with disabilities.”
“Currently, only about 1 percent of the aid distribution points are available in Gaza. Meanwhile, various UN agencies and international humanitarian organisations are prepared to operate 400 distribution points to facilitate aid delivery,” Zaqout said, adding that “100 percent of the population is hungry”.
Hamas condemns Israel’s ‘brutal’ Rafah attack
The Gaza-based armed group has released a statement regarding the Israeli attack in Rafah near the GHF aid distribution point.
Here are its translated comments:
- A brutal massacre was committed by the fascist occupation army, targeting thousands of citizens who had headed to an aid distribution centre west of Rafah.
- This resulted in more than 35 killings and more than 150 injuries. This massacre confirms the fascist nature of the occupation and its criminal objectives behind this mechanism.
- The army brutally opened fire on them, in a blatant confirmation of the premeditated intent to commit this crime.
- We hold the Zionist occupation, along with the US administration, fully responsible for the massacres committed at the sites where the occupation’s aid distribution mechanism is being implemented, and for the use of starvation as a weapon of war against our people.
- We call on the UN to form an independent international commission of inquiry and enter the Gaza Strip to investigate these systematic crimes against civilians and hold those responsible accountable as war criminals.
GHF claims Israeli soldiers fired ‘warning shots’, reports of deaths ‘false’
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) says that Israeli soldiers fired “warning shots” as aid seekers gathered to receive food early on Sunday morning, according to the Associated Press news agency.
The Israel-backed aid group denied reports that dozens of Palestinians were killed, describing them as “false reporting about deaths, mass injuries and chaos”.
In an earlier statement, the GHF said 16 truckloads of aid were distributed early on Sunday “without incident”.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Israeli soldiers open fire when crowds grow at aid points: Charity chief
Bassam Zaqout, director of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, has described the chaotic scenes at aid distribution points following the deadly Israeli attack in Rafah.
“People walk for miles from early morning, trying to reach the limited aid points, now just four across Gaza … and all surrounded by Israeli soldiers. When they sense the crowds grow and are not controllable, soldiers open fire on those waiting for supplies,” Zaqout told Al Jazeera from Gaza City.
Zaqout added that the healthcare system in Gaza was overwhelmed.
“The hospitals are operating with extremely limited resources. Medical staff are forced to focus only on life-saving procedures for the wounded… those patients with non-critical or mild injuries receive basic treatment so they can recover,” he said.
“But those with severe injuries who require more advanced treatments … doctors work with them to put them in a stabilisation situation … and some of them will go on a waiting list with other thousands of wounded people to reach the health assistance outside Gaza Strip.”
Flour prices hit $20 per kg in Gaza as Israeli blockade leaves families scavenging
Gaza’s flour markets reveal the brutal economics of survival under blockade, where a kilogram of flour, globally averaging $1.50, now costs up to $20 amid Israel’s restrictions.
With pre-war daily wages at just $18 and unemployment rampant, families ration tiny portions, some stretching a single kilogram over days while relying on besieged charity kitchens.
Parents speak of impossible choices: paying exorbitant prices or watching children beg for food as malnutrition deaths rise. Widows and vulnerable groups face hardship, often dependent on dwindling aid that rarely reaches them.
Israel committed ‘full-fledged war crime’ by killing aid seekers in Rafah: PFLP
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) has condemned “the new massacre of the starving people in Rafah”, in which at least 30 people were killed when Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians approaching a US-backed aid point, saying it was “a genocide with international complicity and American participation”.
“What happened constitutes a full-fledged war crime,” said the leftist group, which warned Palestinians several days ago that the aid distribution points set up by Israel and the US were “death traps”.
“We demand urgent international and Arab intervention to stop this ongoing massacre and impose strict accountability mechanisms on the criminal occupation, in addition to immediately breaking the siege,” the PFLP said.
Timeline of Israeli attacks on new US-backed aid sites
- On Monday, the newly created Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began operations in the Gaza Strip, opening its first of four distribution points in Rafah, in the south.
- Early the next morning, as thousands of Palestinians lined up at the aid site, Israeli forces opened fire, killing three Palestinians and injuring dozens.
- The GHF said it opened a second site on Wednesday, the same day that Israeli forces again opened fire on aid seekers at one of its sites west of Rafah, this time killing at least six Palestinians.
- Early on Sunday morning, less than a week after the Israel and US-backed GHF opened in the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces again opened fire, killing at least 30 people at a GHF site in Rafah.
- Soon after, a Palestinian was reported killed in a shooting at the GHF’s fourth distribution point, in Gaza City, south of the so-called Netzarim Corridor.
Israeli forces opened fire as people went to receive aid near Rafah: Witness
Ibrahim Abu Saoud, who witnessed the Israeli attack on aid seekers near Rafah, says Israeli forces opened fire at people moving towards the Israeli-backed distribution centre.
“There were many martyrs, including women”, Abu Saoud, 40, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency. “We were about 300 metres [328 yards] away from the military.”
Abu Saoud said he saw many people with gunshot wounds, including a young man who he said had died at the scene.
“We weren’t able to help him.”
Palestinians being killed while trying to secure ‘one meal for their children’
People are very stressed, and all they want is to feed their families, to secure one meal for their children.
This is why Palestinians have been going to these distribution points, despite the fact that they know that they are controversial. They [distribution points] are backed by the US and Israel, but they do not have any other option.
They’re saying that all we want, all we need, is to get food, and even the food parcels that were distributed to Palestinians are barely enough.
We’re talking about one kilo of flour, a couple of bags of pasta, a couple of cans of fava beans – and it’s not nutritious. It’s not enough for a family in Gaza nowadays.
So, Palestinians are very very stressed and devastated. Whatever is coming in of the wheat flour and food is not distributed yet. And the situation is very, very dire.
Israel preventing ambulances from reaching Rafah attack site: Gaza ambulance director
We’ve been reporting on the Israeli attack on the US-backed GHF aid site in Rafah that has killed at least 30 Palestinians and injured dozens.
The director of ambulance services in Gaza has now spoken to Al Jazeera about the attack, and the wider issues facing ambulance services in the coastal enclave.
Here is a summary of his translated comments:
- Israeli forces are preventing ambulances from reaching the bombing site in Rafah to provide aid to the wounded.
- Paramedics risk their lives to rescue the wounded from the Israeli bombing in Rafah [as they regularly come under direct attack].
- There are not enough ambulances to deal with the ongoing Israeli bombardment.
- Aid distribution centres have become centres of humiliation, and the international community must stop them.
What is Project Esther, the playbook against pro-Palestine movement in US?
When the Heritage Foundation, a prominent right-wing think tank in the US, released a playbook last year for how to destroy the Palestine solidarity movement, it did not garner much attention.
But more than eight months later, the policy document – known as Project Esther – now faces heightened scrutiny from activists and media outlets, in part because President Trump appears to be following its blueprint.
The authors of Project Esther have presented their report as a set of recommendations for combating anti-Semitism, but critics say the document’s ultimate aim is to “poison” groups critical of Israel by painting them as Hamas associates.
Project Esther was created as a response to growing protests against the US support for Israel’s war on Gaza, which United Nations experts and rights groups have described as a genocide.
So, what is Project Esther, and how is it being applied against activists?
Find out in our comprehensive explainer here.
Eight students, staff at CUNY keep up hunger strike over Gaza war
The group from the City University of New York (CUNY) are continuing the hunger strike that they started on May 27, calling on the institution’s chancellor to divest from Israel-linked companies.
In an op-ed published by Mondoweiss, a US-based news outlet, the group said that CUNY had so far refused to disclose its investments in Israel.
But as of 2021, CUNY had 13 contracts exceeding $8.5m with “companies that aid in, or profit from, zionist colonization, occupation, and war crimes, including Dell, IBM, HP, Lenovo, Cisco, and BMC Software”, they said.
“We refuse to allow our tuition and tax dollars to fund genocide. We refuse to allow our university to profit off our academic research into colonialism while materially investing in the most brutal forms of colonial violence. We will be on hunger strike until CUNY divests,” they added.
Another Palestinian killed in Israeli shooting at US-backed aid hub in central Gaza
We’ve been following an Israeli attack on the GHF’s aid site in southern Rafah, which killed at least 30 Palestinians and wounded 120 others.
We are now getting reports of another deadly Israeli attack at another GHF site in central Gaza, near the so-called Netzarim Corridor.
At least one person has been killed and another wounded, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.
We’ll bring you more when we have it.
‘We hope to God that we will be rid of this war’
Palestinians are clinging to the hope that a ceasefire deal can be reached.
Motasim, a displaced man in Deir el-Balah, said Palestinians would find a way to feed themselves as long as the war ends.
“We suffered, some of us died of hunger, no one cared about us, no Arab cares about us,” he said.
“We hope to God that we will be rid of this war. We want to stop the bloodshed. We don’t want aid from anyone. We will plant and feed ourselves. We hope to God that the bloodshed in Gaza will stop, the massacres that are taking place daily will stop. We are exhausted. I swear to God, we are exhausted.”
Abu Tamer Haniyeh, another displaced person, said: “A fundamental demand of every Palestinian, young and old, is to stop the war and establish calm so that aid can reach the people properly.”
