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Here’s where things stand on Friday 11 July 2025:
- Israel attacks school housing displaced Palestinian families in northern Gaza, killing several children.
- As the Israeli attacks intensify, signs of hunger become visible everywhere across the forcibly starved territory, according to our team on the ground.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he hopes to reach a deal in a few days for the release of more Israeli captives held in Gaza.
- Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 57,762 people and wounded 137,656, 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.
18 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in Gaza since dawn
Eighteen Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza since dawn, hospital sources tell Al Jazeera, with more than half of them aid seekers.
As we reported earlier, 10 people seeking aid were killed, and more than 60 others injured, near a GHF aid distribution hub northwest of Rafah in southern Gaza.
Israeli army claims to have killed PIJ commander in Gaza City
Fazal Abu al-Ata, identified by the Israeli military as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) commander, has been killed in the Shujayea neighbourhood of Gaza City, according to the army update.
The military operation was carried out on Monday in coordination with the Shin Bet intelligence agency, it added, claiming that he took part in the October 2023 attack on Israel and planned other attacks on troops.
The army claimed that it also killed Hamad Kamel Abd al-Aziz Ayad, another senior PIJ fighter.
‘Malicious’: Hamas slams Netanyahu for claiming Gaza deal impossible
The Palestinian group says, “war criminal Netanyahu’s statements, in which he informed the families of captives that a comprehensive deal [on Gaza] is impossible, confirm the war criminal Netanyahu’s malicious and malicious intentions”.
Hamas said in a statement on Telegram that the Israeli leader “places obstacles in the way of reaching an agreement that would lead to the release of captives and the cessation of aggression against our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip”.
‘Beyond horrific. I saw a little girl without a head’: Witness of Israeli school attack
Our colleague Ibrahim al-Khalili has spoken to survivors of the deadly overnight Israeli attack that we reported earlier on Halimah al-Saadiyah School, which was sheltering displaced people in Jabalia an-Nazla, in northern Gaza.
“I saw the whole area filled with dust – that’s when I realised the strike had hit this place,” Abu Haitham Khalla told Al Jazeera, standing among the rubble.
“The panic, fear, and terror that swept through the school was overwhelming. There were about 1,000 displaced people sheltering here – tents and classrooms all being used as refuge,” he said.
“So far, 10 people have been confirmed killed, in addition to many injuries – all of them women and children.”
Another witness, Ahmed Khalla, said he found dead people lying on the floor of a classroom.
“Children torn apart, charred. Women who had done absolutely nothing. The scenes were beyond horrific. I saw a little girl without a head – literally, without a head.”
Netanyahu leaves US with no announcement of agreed ceasefire deal
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has taken off from Washington, Israeli media is reporting, wrapping up a four-day visit to the United States.
While the trip – which included two meetings with President Donald Trump – did not produce a much-anticipated announcement of a ceasefire in Gaza, Netanyahu has said the country is likely to reach a 60-day ceasefire agreement with Hamas “within a few days”.
Netanyahu’s flight to Washington prompted criticism from UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese towards the Rome Statute countries like Italy, France and Greece for letting the Israeli leader, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, use their airspace.
She questioned why they had provided “safe passage” to Netanyahu, who they were theoretically “obligated to arrest” as an internationally wanted suspect when he flew over their territory.
Nearly 800 Palestinians killed at Gaza aid points, convoys: UN human rights office
The UN human rights office says it has recorded at least 798 killings both at aid points run by the US and Israeli-backed GHF and near humanitarian convoys run by other relief groups, including the UN.
“Up until the seventh of July, we’ve recorded now 798 killings, including 615 in the vicinity of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, and 183 presumably on the route of aid convoys,” OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May.
‘Silence not an option’: UN committee slams US sanctions on Albanese
The UN’s Coordination Committee of the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council has “strongly condemned” the US Government’s sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories.
“These are not only sanctions against one independent human rights expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council,” it said.
“Rather, they reflect the continued assault of the current US administration on the entire UN system and its core values of human rights, justice, accountability and the rule of law,” the committee said in a statement.
The committee pointed out that Albanese has only been discharging her mandate given by the Human Rights Council, which specifically requests the special rapporteur to investigate Israel’s violations.
It added: “We applaud the courage of Francesca Albanese in speaking truth to power and stand in solidarity with her.”
Albanese has long criticised Israeli treatment of the Palestinians, and this month published a report accusing at least 60 companies, including some US firms, of supporting Israeli settlements in the West Bank and military actions in Gaza.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday that Albanese would be added to the US sanctions list for work which had prompted what he claimed were illegitimate prosecutions of Israelis at the International Criminal Court.
Universities in Gaza accuse Israel of ‘scholasticide’, call for international support
The presidents of three universities in Gaza say Israel is waging a systematic war on the territory’s higher education infrastructure, and have appealed to the international academic community for support.
In a joint statement, the presidents of al-Aqsa University, al-Azhar University – Gaza, and the Islamic University of Gaza, accused Israel of “scholasticide – a systematic and deliberate attempt to eliminate our universities, their infrastructure, faculty, and students”.
“This destruction is not collateral,” the statement said. “It is part of a targeted effort to eradicate the foundations of higher education in Gaza – foundations that have long stood as pillars of resilience, hope, and intellectual freedom under conditions of occupation and siege.”
The statement said that despite the Israeli assault, universities were working to continue their mission “under unimaginably harsh conditions … Constant bombardment, starvation, restrictions on internet access, unstable electricity, and the ongoing horrors of genocide have not broken our will.”
The statement called on the academic community internationally to support the universities by calling for a ceasefire, supporting efforts to continue teaching and researching, partnering with universities in Gaza and committing to their long-term rebuilding.
Israeli army claims to have killed fighters in Khan Younis
An update by the military says troops continue to operate in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.
It claimed that infrastructure used by fighters – above and below the ground – was dismantled as weapons and military equipment were confiscated.
The statement also claimed that a fighter cell in the city was “eliminated” and a tunnel of 1km (0.6 miles) in length was destroyed.
We have reported earlier, based on an emergency service source speaking to Al Jazeera, that at least 10 aid seekers were shot dead by Israeli forces at a food distribution site near Rafah this morning.
Israeli plans for ethnic cleansing of Gaza revealed ‘in dribs and drabs’
British-Israeli analyst Daniel Levy says Israel’s vision for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza, which he says it currently appears to be pursuing, has been revealed “in dribs and drabs” during the war.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Levy, the president of the US/Middle East Project, said that in December 2023, plans had circulated in the Israeli prime minister’s office “for something called the Gaza Rehabilitation Authority, which was designed to … ‘rebuild Gaza from nothing’”.
“We know of plans that circulated in Israeli government ministries to push Palestinians into the Sinai,” he said. “We then know that Israeli ministers openly talked about ethnic cleansing, and pushed Palestinians from as much of Gaza as possible, trying to push them into southern areas.”
In February, Israel had created “a Directorate for the Voluntary Transition of Gaza Residents”, Levy said, adding that “there’s nothing voluntary about pushing people out when you’ve destroyed all the homes”.
He said the latest stages had seen GHF aid distribution hubs set up that have become “slaughter zones”, and Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz’s proposal for Palestinians to receive aid in a “humanitarian city” established in the ruins of Rafah.
Conditions in Gaza deteriorate even further after GHF shut most aid points
Palestinians are struggling to afford necessities and food available in local markets. The amount of food given by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is not enough, either.
The realities on the ground started to deteriorate sharply after the GHF decided to close down most of the aid centres it operated in the enclave. It kept only one aid centre operational in Rafah city, in the far south of the Strip.
This step has been raising serious concerns as aid workers say one active aid centre will not be enough to meet the catastrophic needs of two million Palestinians. Most of them are injured, displaced, hungry and traumatised.
Israel’s plan to push Palestinians into Rafah part of ‘second Nakba’
British Israeli analyst Daniel Levy says he believes the Israeli proposal to drive Palestinians in Gaza to a “humanitarian city” amid the ruins of Rafah is part of an Israeli plan for a “second Nakba”, more comprehensive than the original ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
“We are witnessing, it seems, a second Nakba,” Levy, president of the US/Middle East Project, told Al Jazeera, referring to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians during the 1948 establishment of Israel.
“The idea of displacing Palestinians, removing them from the geographical expanse is not a new one,” he said.
“The intention is for this to be more comprehensive than the original ethnic cleansing … and the attempts subsequently to displace Palestinians.”
As cash runs out in Gaza, people pay middlemen 40 percent just to get their own money
Cash is the lifeblood of Gaza’s economy, but Israel stopped allowing its entrance to the besieged territory at the start of the war.
Today, like all other necessities in Gaza – food, fuel, and medicine – cash is in extremely short supply.
With nearly every bank branch and ATM inoperable, people have become reliant on an unrestrained network of powerful cash brokers to get money for daily expenses – and commissions on those transactions have soared to about 40 percent, according to an AP report.
“The people are crying blood because of this,” said Ayman al-Dahdouh, a school director living in Gaza City. “It’s suffocating us, starving us.”
“If I need $60, I need to transfer $100,” said Mohammed Basheer al-Farra, who lives in southern Gaza after being displaced from Khan Younis.
“This is the only way we can buy essentials, like flour and sugar. We lose nearly half of our money just to be able to spend it.”
MSF says clinic in Khan Younis evacuated amid Israeli military advance
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says an Israeli advance on western Khan Younis in southern Gaza has led it to evacuate a clinic and “seriously impacted” operations at another.
In a post on social media platform X, the charity said the expansion of an Israeli military incursion into an area full of displaced civilians had driven them into a smaller area next to the sea, with jets and drones firing without warning, and tanks advancing on crowds of people.
The advance meant MSF had to suspend activities and evacuate its al-Attar clinic, as tanks came as close as 100 metres (328 feet) to the facility, and bullets and shrapnel hit the building.
“The quadcopter and the military vehicles stationed near the clinic were firing. Several bullets penetrated the facility. Then we heard multiple explosions around the clinic, and shrapnel hit the building,” said Rami Abu Anza, MSF nursing team supervisor at the clinic.
The post said MSF’s al-Mawasi clinic was also affected. It said it had received two boys who had been shot and critically injured at the GHF aid distribution site in Rafah, but was unable to transfer them to hospitals because those nearby were too dangerous to reach, or full.
Mostly aid seekers among 12 people killed by Israeli forces in southern Gaza
At least 10 Palestinians have been shot dead and more than 60 others injured near an aid centre northwest of Rafah city, according to a medical source speaking to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic.
Separately, a source in Nasser Hospital said two people were killed in Israeli shelling of the al-Satar area, northwest of Khan Younis city.
Signs of hunger everywhere in Gaza
It’s been very difficult watching the death toll rising amid a humanitarian situation that is worsening by the hour.
The decision by the GHF to suspend operations in all but one of its distribution sites is devastating and likely to exacerbate an already desperate situation.
We’re talking about 2 million people who rely on these centres due to the GHF monopoly on the aid system.
Hunger is quite visible now. Signs of it are everywhere. People are going hungry and fainting in the street because they don’t eat enough.
Any food parcels they might pick up are not enough to feed a family. Families are only allowed to pick up one parcel each time they show up at a distribution centre.
Footage shows Palestinian children injured in Israeli attack west of Gaza City
Footage verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency shows a young girl, her face bloodied, lying on the floor of al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on a house in the Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City.
Next to her, a younger boy, his face also bloodied and covered in dust, has a drip inserted in his arm as he lies in the corridor. In another scene, a man squats in a corridor cradling a toddler, whose legs are bloodied.
More Israelis express optimism over Gaza ceasefire deal: Polls
According to a survey conducted by Israel’s Maariv newspaper, 47 percent of Israelis who replied have expressed optimism about reaching a ceasefire deal with Hamas that would bring about the release of the remaining captives.
About a third, or 37 percent, however, expressed pessimism about a deal that could also pave the way for the release of detained Palestinians held by Israel.
Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country is likely to reach a 60-day ceasefire agreement with Hamas “within a few days”.
Netanyahu willing to agree to 60-day truce, but prepared to resume war
For the first time, Netanyahu has acknowledged publicly that Israel is seeking an end to the war. However, they want it on their terms.
Netanyahu has said in Washington that Israel is willing to enter into this 60-day temporary ceasefire and start negotiations for a permanent end to the war.
But there are what he calls minimal requirements for Israel to end the fighting in Gaza. The first is for Hamas to lay down its weapons. The second is for Hamas to militarily and politically disband. The third is for Hamas to not be in the picture going forward.
Netanyahu says one way or another, Israel is going to achieve its objectives – that if during those 60 days, Israel is not getting what it wants diplomatically, they’re going to return to the fighting.
