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Here’s where things stand on Sunday 1, June 2025:
- Israel continued its relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip, killing at least 54 people, while maintaining a strict blockade as a famine looms.
- Israeli tanks and drones opened fire on Palestinians gathered at aid distribution sites run by a Israel-and-US-backed group, killing more than 30 people as they searched desperately for food.
- Israeli forces completely destroyed the Noura al-Kaabi Dialysis Hospital, the only facility for dialysis patients in northern Gaza, which served more than 160 people after having been renovated and reopened just weeks ago.
- The United Nations said more than 632,000 Palestinians have been displaced since Israel broke the nearly two-month-old ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza on March 18.
- Mediators Qatar and Egypt announced renewed efforts to secure a ceasefire deal based on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce and the entry of humanitarian aid.
- Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for a ballistic missile attack on Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, Israel. The missile was intercepted, authorities said.
US rights group denounces Israel’s aid ‘killing zones’
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has denounced the killing of dozens of hungry Palestinians who gathered at Israel-run distribution sites in Gaza.
“These ‘aid’ concentration sites – in which a handful of desperate people are given starvation rations as a cruel publicity stunt designed to deflect attention from Israel’s forced starvation campaign – are in reality ‘killing zones’ for that state’s machine of death and destruction,” CAIR said in a statement.
“This is pure evil operating with impunity and with the world’s silence. The genocide must stop and the Palestinian people must be recognized as human beings deserving freedom and justice on their own land.”
Medical NGO blames new US aid group for deadly Gaza chaos
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says survivors it treated at a Gaza aid site run by a new US-backed organisation reported being “shot from all sides” by Israeli forces.
It blamed the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation‘s aid distribution system for chaos at the scene in the southern Gaza town of Rafah.
“Patients told MSF they were shot from all sides by drones, helicopters, boats, tanks and Israeli soldiers on the ground,” MSF said in a statement.
Communications officer Nour Alsaqa reported hospital corridors filled with patients, mostly men, with “visible gunshot wounds in their limbs”.
MSF quoted one wounded man, Mansour Sami Abdi, as describing people fighting over just five pallets of aid. “They told us to take food – then they fired from every direction,” he said.
Photos: Protesters in Istanbul denounce Israeli war on Gaza
Italian president says starving Gaza population is ‘inhuman’
Italian President Sergio Mattarella says the “refusal to apply the rules of humanitarian law to the citizens of Gaza is unacceptable”.
“That an entire population, from children to the elderly, should be starved is inhuman,” Mattarella said ahead of celebrations marking Italy’s national day, Italian media reported.
“It is essential that the Israeli army makes the territories of the [Gaza] Strip accessible to the action of international bodies, making it possible to resume full humanitarian assistance to the people,” he said.
Saudi Arabia calls Israel barring Arab ministers West Bank trip ‘extremism’
Saudi Arabia has accused Israel of “extremism and rejection of peace” after it blocked a planned visit by Arab foreign ministers to the occupied West Bank.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud made the remarks during a joint news conference in Jordan’s capital, Amman, on Sunday with his counterparts from Jordan, Egypt, and Bahrain.
“Israel’s refusal of the committee’s visit to the West Bank embodies and confirms its extremism and refusal of any serious attempts for [a] peaceful pathway … It strengthens our will to double our diplomatic efforts within the international community to face this arrogance,” Prince Faisal said.
Read the full story here.
Israel army ‘completely flattening’ Gaza City structures
Gaza resident Mo’men al-Fayomi has described the ongoing destruction of tall buildings still standing in Gaza City after 19 months of Israeli army bombardment.
About 70 buildings that are five storeys or higher have been blown up in the past two days in relentless Israeli strikes.
“What happened was all of a sudden, we saw people running. We asked, ‘What’s going on?’ People said, ‘it’s an evacuation for the building behind us’. We ran about 50 metres [164 feet]. The building was bombed and caused severe damage, and we could not take any of our belongings. There are no Hamas or other fighters in the area, just business owners and stores,” al-Fayomi told Al Jazeera.
Palestinians say this number of buildings completely flattened in the past 48 hours is an indication of Israel’s strategy to push them out of the north permanently.
A new Gaza aid system marred by chaos
Multiple witnesses say Israeli troops fired on crowds near aid sites run by the new Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Before Sunday, 17 people were killed while trying to reach them, according to Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Gaza Health Ministry’s records department.
The GHF says private security contractors guarding its sites have not fired on crowds. Israel’s military has acknowledged firing warning shots on previous occasions.
United Nations agencies and major aid groups have refused to work with the new GHF system, saying it violates humanitarian principles.
On Sunday, thousands of people headed towards the distribution site hours before dawn. As they approached, Israeli forces ordered them to disperse and come back later, witnesses said. When the crowds reached the Flag Roundabout, 1km (0.6 mile) away, at around 3am, Israeli forces opened fire, the witnesses said.
“There was fire from all directions, from naval warships, from tanks and drones,” said Amr Abu Teiba, who was in the crowd.
Health Ministry director says destroyed dialysis hospital was serving 160 patients
The director of Gaza’s Ministry of Health, Muneer al-Boursh, has posted images of the Noura al-Kaabi Dialysis Hospital, which was struck multiple times by the Israeli military.
Al-Boursh said the centre, the only one of its kind in northern Gaza, was serving more than 160 patients after having been renovated and reopened weeks ago.
Israeli army says it killed a Hezbollah member in southern Lebanon
The Israeli military has said in a statement that it “eliminated” a Hezbollah operative with the group’s artillery unit in the area of Aita al-Shaab, in southern Lebanon.
Earlier, Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said Israeli attacks had killed at least two people.
Israel and Hezbollah signed a ceasefire deal in November, but Israel has continued to strike Lebanon, claiming the group is attempting to regroup after two months of all-out war.
Hamas welcomes new mediation efforts by Qatar, Egypt
The Palestinian group has issued a statement praising the earlier declaration by Qatar and Egypt saying they are intensifying efforts to reach a ceasefire based on a proposal put forward by the US envoy to the Middle East.
“We are ready to immediately begin a round of indirect negotiations to reach an agreement leading to a permanent ceasefire and a full withdrawal of the occupation,” Hamas said.
“Qatar and Egypt, in coordination with the United States of America, affirm their intention to intensify efforts to overcome the obstacles facing the negotiations,” the two mediators said in a joint statement.
“The two countries are also striving to swiftly reach a 60-day temporary truce, which would pave the way for a permanent ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip.”
Palestinian man injured when Israeli forces assault him at checkpoint
Israeli forces have assaulted a young Palestinian man at a military checkpoint near the entrance to Jericho in the occupied West Bank, injuring him, the news agency Wafa reports.
The man, identified as Izz al-Din Khaled Abu Rabee from Fawwar refugee camp south of Hebron, was reportedly subjected to a beating before being transferred to al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron for treatment.
Israel launched a military campaign in the West Bank in January. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, has called the assault “by far the longest and most destructive operation in the occupied West Bank since the second intifada in the 2000s”.
Death toll rises to 54 after day of Israel attacks on Gaza
Medical sources say 54 people have been killed in Israeli attacks throughout the Gaza Strip since the early morning.
Among the dead were 35 Palestinians killed while waiting for desperately needed food near two of the recently established, Israel-backed aid distribution centres.
Israeli attacks have killed 4,149 people and wounded 12,149 in the war-battered territory since Israel broke a ceasefire with Hamas on March 18, the Health Ministry says.
Israeli army incursion in occupied West Bank’s Arraba
The Israeli army has raided the town of Araba, south of Jenin, Al Jazeera correspondents report.
An infantry unit entered the town from the Dotan military checkpoint and ransacked a house as drones hovered in the air.
Israeli forces have intensified their assaults on towns and villages in the Jenin governorate since the start of the offensive on Jenin city and its refugee camp on January 21.
Israel claims footage shows gunmen opened fire on Palestinian aid seekers
The Israeli army has released drone footage that it says shows armed men opening fire on Palestinians trying to obtain food from an aid distribution centre.
It accused Hamas of trying to prevent the people of Gaza from reaching the aid, which is coordinated by the Israeli army and US security contractors. It wasn’t possible to independently verify the video.
Gaza’s Government Media Office earlier accused Israel of using fake footage to cover up its “massacre”.
Gaza aid seeker killed trying to get food for 3 starving children
A Palestinian woman whose brother-in-law was killed while waiting for aid near Rafah has described what the killing by Israeli soldiers means to her family.
“He went to get food for his children. His children were dying of hunger. He said, ‘I want to go.’ He left his three children behind and died. Three little children. One of them is still breastfeeding. He’s nine months old,” Elham al-Qudra said.
Dr Bassam Zaqout from the Palestinian Medical Relief Society explained what happens at the Israel-backed aid sites.
“All the distribution points are surrounded by Israeli troops, and when they see a crowd that is not controlled, they usually shoot toward the people waiting for aid,” he said.
Israel using fake video to cover up Rafah ‘massacre’: Gaza media office
Gaza’s Government Media Office has accused the Israeli army of releasing a fabricated drone video to try to deflect responsibility for an incident in southern Gaza’s Rafah that killed 31 Palestinians and injured 200 near an aid distribution point run by a US-backed group.
The office dismissed the Israeli claim “gunmen” opened fire on a crowd seeking aid, calling it a “blatant lie” that contradicts witness accounts and field evidence. Survivors reported direct Israeli gunfire on unarmed civilians with no fighting observed in the area.
The statement also pointed out the video footage was taken in eastern Khan Younis, not western Rafah, where the massacre occurred. It added the video shows flour bags being distributed – something not provided at the aid site – further undermining its credibility.
The media office said Israel has repeatedly used such manipulated media to justify deadly attacks, including strikes on UN-run schools, while systematically blocking aid, targeting relief convoys and enabling armed gangs that loot humanitarian supplies.
“The truth is clear. Israeli soldiers opened fire on starving crowds. No video can erase that crime,” the media office said.
Netanyahu ‘weaponising diplomacy’ in Gaza in bid to discredit Witkoff on Iran
Al Jazeera Senior Political Analyst Marwan Bishara says the Israeli prime minister has been “weaponising” diplomatic efforts on Gaza in a bid to “discredit” US special envoy Steve Witkoff.
“My sense is we’re no longer in the good-cop-bad-cop logic but rather that Netanyahu is playing Witkoff – embarrassing Witkoff – and perhaps Netanyahu is trying to weaken Witkoff because he is way ahead on the Iran nuclear deal,” Bishara said.
“Netanyahu is weaponising diplomacy in Palestine not only to continue the bombings in Gaza but also to discredit Witkoff’s negotiations with the Iranians.”
Bishara said Israel is also banking on US President Donald Trump’s remarks on turning Gaza into the Riviera of the Middle East.
“Trump just said something in a press conference, and I don’t think he meant it. Netanyahu has been playing the game, saying, ‘We have to fulfil Trump’s vision.’ Because Trump is not paying attention, Netanyahu is running away with the shop.”
‘Forcible displacement’ a main aim of Israel’s aid scheme
Rafah, the site of deadly attacks on aid seekers in southern Gaza, has been emptied of its civilian population with the Israeli military continuously destroying what’s left of any infrastructure there, a humanitarian worker says.
Ahmed Bayram from the Norwegian Refugee Council told Al Jazeera that Israel’s chosen aid distributor has asked starving people to come back “under the bullets and the bombs” as the needs of hungry Palestinians reach “unprecedented levels”.
“What’s happening can be seen as a pretext to displace more people from the north. Let’s be clear – it’s nothing new. It’s just a new tactic in the grand scheme of Israeli aims. Forcible displacement is very much an aim as part of this operation,” Bayram said.
Israeli forces blow up Gaza’s only dialysis hospital in the north
Israeli forces have demolished the Noura al-Kaabi Dialysis Hospital in northern Gaza, the only facility in the area providing life-saving treatment to kidney patients.
The hospital, located near Beit Lahiya, served dozens of patients from surrounding areas, including Beit Hanoun, Jabalia and the village of Umm al-Nasr.
Before today’s destruction, the facility had already been struck multiple times, damaging most of its dialysis machines and leaving only eight operational. The hospital has now been wiped out, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.
This latest attack comes amid a broader pattern of Israeli strikes on Gaza’s healthcare system. Hospitals and clinics across the besieged enclave have been repeatedly bombed, raided and rendered nonfunctional, leaving Palestinians with extremely limited access to medical care.
Gaza’s Health Ministry as well as humanitarian groups have warned that the collapse of the healthcare sector is fuelling an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe during Israel’s aid blockade.
Turks march for Gaza in Istanbul on anniversary of Israeli attack on Mavi Marmara
A march condemning the escalating pace of Israel’s aggression on Gaza has been held in the Turkish city of Istanbul, videos verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad unit show.
Demonstrators also marked the 15th anniversary of the Israeli attack on the Mavi Marmara. The ship was leading a flotilla sailing towards Gaza to break the siege on the enclave when it was boarded by Israeli soldiers, who killed 10 volunteers.
The anniversary was also marked by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition with the launch of a new mission to Gaza on Sunday, with volunteers including Greta Thunberg, the Swedish environmental activist.
Photos: Israel intensifies attacks on Gaza City as Palestinians flee
Israeli army chief: Gaza ground offensive to expand to new areas
Eyal Zamir has instructed the military to expand the ground invasion to additional areas of the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli media.
“We are in the midst of a powerful and uncompromising campaign,” Israel’s army chief was quoted as saying to troops in southern Gaza. “Hamas is losing control.”
Zamir also said he was instructed to establish additional aid distribution sites.
A former tank commander, Zamir was sworn in as Israel’s new military chief in March. Previously director of the Defence Ministry, the 59-year-old replaced Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi, who resigned in January, admitting he failed to fulfil his duties during Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Lebanon: Two people killed in Israeli air strikes in the south
Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon have killed two people as ceasefire violations continue, the Health Ministry in Beirut says.
One person was killed in an Israeli air raid that “targeted a vehicle on the Debl road” in the Bint Jbeil district, and another attack on a car in nearby Beit Lif wounded one person, the ministry said.
Earlier, an Israeli missile strike hit a motorcycle on a road leading to the village of Arnoun in Lebanon’s Nabatieh governorate, killing the rider.
Israel has continued attacks on Lebanon despite a November 27 ceasefire, which sought to end more than a year of hostilities, including two months of all-out war, with Hezbollah, which emerged severely weakened.
Israeli settlers brutally assault brothers near Ramallah
Illegal Israeli settlers, under military protection, attacked two Palestinian brothers from the village of Burqa, east of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, the news agency Wafa reports.
It cited eyewitnesses as saying the settlersambushed the men in the Wadi al-Shami area, severely beating them and smashing their car before detaining them. The victims were identified as Ghassan Mohammed Issa Abduljabir, 40, and his brother Imad, in his 30s.
The incident adds to a growing number of settler attacks across the occupied West Bank carried out with the backing of Israeli forces.
Qatar and Egypt push for new ceasefire under US-backed proposal
Qatar and Egypt say they are intensifying efforts to reach a ceasefire, working to bridge gaps between Hamas and Israel based on a proposal put forward by the US envoy to the Middle East.
In a joint statement, both countries confirmed coordination with the United States and urged concerned sides to engage responsibly in indirect negotiations aimed at ending the war.
The proposed deal includes a 60-day truce that could lead to a permanent ceasefire, the entry of humanitarian aid and the reopening of crossings, the statement said. The goal is to relieve the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and launch full-scale reconstruction efforts in line with the roadmap adopted at the Arab League summit in Cairo in March.
Previous ceasefire efforts have repeatedly broken down over Israel’s rejection of key terms. In past rounds of negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the US, Israel has walked back commitments related to a permanent halt to the war and full withdrawal of troops from Gaza.
Talks have also collapsed when Israel refused to agree to timelines for lifting its blockade or restoring humanitarian access, conditions that Palestinian factions, including Hamas in Gaza, view as essential. Even during temporary truces, Israeli air strikes and ground operations continued in violation of the ceasefires’ terms.
Red Cross: Mass shooting victims were at Israel-backed aid site
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says its field hospital in the southern city of Rafah has received 179 casualties, including women and children.
At least 21 of the victims were declared dead upon arrival, the majority with gunshot or shrapnel wounds, it said in a statement.
“All patients said they had been trying to reach an aid distribution site,” the ICRC said, calling it the highest number of “weapon-wounded” people in a single incident since the hospital was set up a year ago.
Three killed in shelling of al-Mawasi
Three people have been killed in Israeli shelling of al-Mawasi – a mass cluster of tents near Khan Younis that Israel has designated “a humanitarian zone”, but that it constantly bombs.
Al Jazeera correspondents reported that the victims included a disabled child, and at least 20 others were wounded.
At least 90 Palestinians were killed and 300 wounded in Israeli strikes on al-Mawasi in July 2024, with Israel still forcibly ordering Gaza civilians to relocate there.
Reports of shooting at aid distribution centre ‘appalling’: UK minister
British Minister for the Middle East and North Africa Hamish Falconer says reports of dozens of people killed and wounded near the Rafah aid delivery site are “appalling” and point to “the desperate need to get aid in”.
“Israel must allow partners to operate in line with humanitarian principles and deliver lifesaving aid,” Falconer said on X.
Gaza authorities say Israeli gunfire killed at least 31 Palestinians near a US-backed aid distribution site in southern Gaza and more than 100 people were wounded.
Israeli army claims it ‘did not fire at civilians’ at Gaza aid centre
A military statement says an “initial investigation” has found “troops did not shoot at civilians while they were near or in the humanitarian aid distribution area”.
“Hamas is doing everything in its power to prevent the success of the food distribution in Gaza,” Israel’s army said.
The army has consistently denied or played down deadly attacks it carried out on civilians throughout its devastating war on Gaza. Its statement is contradicted by eyewitness statements, video footage, and hospital reports on the aid site shootings.
Earlier, Hamas condemned Israel’s “brutal” attack on aid distribution points, particularly in Rafah, where dozens were reported killed by the authorities in Gaza.
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.
