- UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy pauses trade deal negotiations with Israel, as country’s government summons ambassador over expansion of Israel’s military operation in Gaza.
- Israeli forces bomb Gaza, killing over 70 people since midnight, including in an attack on displacement shelter in Gaza City that killed 22, including children.
- The leaders of Canada, France and the UK threaten to take “concrete action” against Israel if it does not end its renewed offensive in Gaza, while 22 countries urge Israel to let aid into the besieged enclave.
- Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 53,573 Palestinians and wounded 121,688, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The Government Media Office updated the 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 on October 7, 2023, and more than 200 were taken captive.
Rubio says US has not discussed deportation of Palestinians to Libya
Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the United States hasn’t discussed the deportation of Palestinians from Gaza to Libya, but added Washington has asked other countries in the region if they’d be open to accepting Palestinians who want to move voluntarily.
“What we have talked to some nations about is if someone voluntarily and willingly says I want to go somewhere else for some period of time because I’m sick, because my children need to go to school, or what have you, are there countries in the region willing to accept them for some period of time?”
Rubio added he’s not aware of Libya being included in that group.
He also told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee the US understands another 100 trucks are behind the initial ones to cross in to Gaza and more might enter in the coming days.
More from the EU’s top diplomat
“The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The aid that Israel has allowed in is of course welcomed, but it’s a drop in the ocean. Aid must flow immediately, without disruption, and at scale, because this is what is needed,” said Kaja Kallas.
“I’ve made these points also in my talks with the Israelis. I’ve had talks with UN and regional leaders as well. Pressure is necessary to change the situation,” she added.
“It is clear from today’s discussion that there is a strong majority in favour of review of article two of our association agreement with Israel. So we will launch this exercise, and in the meantime it is up to Israel to unblock the humanitarian aid. Saving lives must be our top priority.”
UK’s military support to Israel: What to know
Amid the UK’s latest announcement on measures against Israel’s actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, its military support has come under question.
According to a government press release in January, the country granted arms export licences to Israel worth £42 million ($56.1m) in 2022, which it said was “less than one percent of Israel’s defence imports”.
In 2023, arms export licences dropped to £18 million ($24mn).
Between October 7, 2023 and May 31, 2024, the British government granted Israel 108 licences for “military and non-military controlled goods”.
Shortly after the current Labour government came to power last year, Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced 30 arms export licences out of 350 would be banned.
However, last week, a report by British pro-Palestinian organising groups found the UK sent “8,630 separate munitions” to Israel since the suspensions took effect, contrary to what Lammy announced.
Moreover, the report found F-35 fighter jet parts continued to be sent to Israel.
EU’s Kallas asks for a review of EU-Israel trade deal
The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, has decided to order a review of the EU-Israel association agreement, a free trade deal between the two regions.
The move comes in the wake of Israel’s decision to block life-saving aid to Gaza as starvation turns to famine.
“In the meantime it is up to Israel to allow humanitarian aid. This decision is reversible and dependent on progress,” said Kallas.
Earlier, the UK’s Foreign Minister David Lammy announced a suspension of talks on a free trade agreement with Israel as the West begins to pressure the Netanyahu government over its devastating war on Gaza.
Oxfam says UK ‘remains complicit’ so long as military assistance to Israel continues
The global charity Oxfam has also welcomed the British government’s decision take measures against Israel for its actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, but says that more serious steps, including an end to all weapons transfers to Israel, are still needed.
“Without suspending parts for Israeli F-35 fighter jets, the UK Government remains complicit in the deaths of thousands of civilians across Gaza,” Halima Begum, chief executive of Oxfam GB, said in a statement.
“Any further delays will literally mean the difference between life and death for countless Palestinians and could jeopardise the safe release of hostages.”
Begum said people in Gaza, including thousands of children, are starving in Gaza “while Israel commits the war crime of using starvation as a weapon of war”.
She called on Lammy to suspend all arms exports to Israel and impose a full package of sanctions on political leaders and settlers in Israel “who are seeking to erase Palestine from the map”.
Gaza war not about ‘freeing hostages, dismantling Hamas’: Israeli politician
Israeli opposition politician Yair Golan has responded to a storm of criticism after criticizing the Netanyahu government for turning the country into “a pariah state” over the war on Gaza.
“What began as a just campaign has become a war without a security or national purpose. This is not a manoeuvre to free hostages or to dismantle Hamas,” he said in comments to Israel’s Channel 12 News.
Earlier, Golan told The Times of Israel “a sane country does not fight against civilians, does not kill children as a hobby, and does not give itself the aim of expelling populations”.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu accused Golan – the army’s former deputy chief of staff – of “wild incitement against our heroic soldiers”.
Israel ‘not going to cave’ in to external pressure after UK criticism
The UK decision to pause trade deal talks certainly is not being received well in Israel.
A lengthy statement from the foreign ministry slammed the UK’s decision to not only suspend the trade agreement they were working on, but also saying the sanctions imposed on Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank are “surprising”.
Settler violence against Palestinians has been on the rise since Israel’s war on Gaza began and there is often no prosecution of these settlers who operate under the protection of Israeli forces.
The statement then goes on to say Israel is going to continue fighting this war and not going to cave into any sort of external pressure.
But notably absent from this statement is anything relating to the humanitarian situation Gaza, the resumption of humanitarian aid in this very little “basic” amount – as is being called by the Israelis.
The international pressure on the Israelis is what made them allow this minimal quantity of food to go into Gaza.
UK Jewish group welcomes government steps against Israel
We have a statement by Yachad UK about the measures announced by the British government earlier today.
The British Jewish organisation said the steps are the inevitable result of the Israeli government’s “appalling statements” and its “decision to continue to prosecute the war in Gaza in a manner that is totally unjustifiable”.
“We fully support the UK government’s announcement this afternoon to take significant action, including the suspension of negotiations on the UK-Israel Free Trade Agreement,” added the group, which has frequently criticised Israel’s actions in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territory.
Israel’s war on Gaza has prompted debate and a variety of responses from Jewish communities around the world.
Yachad UK said: “Our community does not speak with one voice, and we represent the voices of many thousands of British Jews and Israelis who are deeply troubled by the humanitarian situation on the ground in Gaza, the abandonment of the hostages, calls to ethnically cleanse the people of Gaza and the violence being waged by settlers towards Palestinians in the West Bank.”
Lammy’s condemnation of Israeli actions in Gaza ‘strongest yet’
I think these are the strongest words yet about the situation in Gaza uttered by any cabinet minister inside the House of Commons since October 7, 2023.
David Lammy, the foreign secretary, delivered his statement followed by a deeply, deeply engaged debate that is still ongoing. It has been running for nearly an hour now.
Lammy’s strong words are that the events in Gaza are “dangerous”, “repellant”, “monstrous”. He went on to say, “it is morally unjustifiable, it is disproportionate and utterly, utterly counterproductive”.
The government also says it is suspending with immediate effect trade negotiations with Israel. More sanctions are also coming into place against settlers in the West Bank. And the Israeli ambassador has been summoned to the foreign office to be addressed about the British position.
There is a sense these strong words and sanctions are welcome, but it is not going to be enough. And the government is very much talking about more action being prepared to come.
Many MPs have been calling for stronger action by the government for a long time. They were promised on Monday that action would come if the Israelis did not change course in Gaza.
UK measures against Israel: What to know
As we’ve been reporting, the UK has taken a series of measures against Israel over what Lammy calls “cruel and indefensible” actions in Gaza as well as settlement expansion and settler violence in the occupied West Bank.
Here’s what the British government announced and how Israel responded:
- The UK suspended free-trade agreement negotiations with Israel, saying it could not advance discussions while the Israeli government is pursuing “egregious policies”.
- It also announced sanctions targeting three people, including leading settler activist Daniella Weiss, as well as two illegal outposts and two organisations in the occupied West Bank.
- Israel’s ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, has been summoned over the expansion of Israel’s military operation in Gaza and its 11-week block on aid.
- In response, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein said external pressure would not “divert Israel from its path in defending its existence and security” and referred to the UK’s new measures as an “anti-Israel obsession”.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy
Rights group calls for ‘urgent international action’ on Gaza
In a new statement, Al Haq says the world must act to stop Israel from moving forward with plans for the “full and permanent military control of Gaza following the systematic forcible displacement of Palestinians and the deliberate weaponisation of life-saving humanitarian aid”.
“We urge people of conscience across the world to continue to assert maximum pressure on their governments to take immediate and concrete actions to put an end to Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people,” the Palestinian rights organisation said.
It called for “a full arms embargo on Israel” along with economic, diplomatic and individual sanctions.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry says UK willing to ‘harm own economy’ over ‘anti-Israel obsession’
Israel’s Foreign Ministry has hit back at the UK’s move to pause negotiations on a new trade deal with Israel over the war in Gaza, calling it politically motivated and counter to the UK’s own interests.
“The agreement serves the mutual benefit of both countries,” ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein said in comments carried by Arutz Sheva, a media outlet identifying with religious Zionism. “If, due to anti-Israel obsession and internal political considerations, the British government is willing to harm its own economy, that is its decision.”
Marmorstein also slammed the newly unveiled sanctions by the UK, traditionally one of Israel’s top allies in Europe. They target settlers in the occupied West Bank who have been linked to acts of violence against Palestinians. Marmorstein called them “puzzling” and “regrettable”.
UNRWA chief says world is failing people of Gaza
Philippe Lazzarini says the international community is failing to uphold its commitments to safeguard human rights and protect the people of Gaza during Israel’s assault on the Strip and denial of food and humanitarian assistance.
“At the European humanitarian forum in Brussels today, I said that the world is again failing its commitment of ‘never again’ with the people of Gaza. We failed them under our watch, day after day,” he said in a social media post.
The phrase “never again” is often used in reference to the Holocaust, spoken as a commitment to never again allow humanity to repeat a similar mass slaughter.
“The war is making International Humanitarian Law, including the Geneva Conventions, almost irrelevant. That will have consequences far beyond Israel and Palestine. ‘Never Again’ cannot and must not be selectively applied. It has to remain our commitment to humanity.”
Government Media Office in Gaza urges public to protect aid trucks
Gaza’s Government Media Office has called on Palestinians to safeguard humanitarian aid trucks and ensure their unimpeded entry into the Strip as nine aid trucks are expected to arrive today.
In a statement, the office described the trucks as a “lifeline” for civilians facing catastrophic conditions caused by Israel’s “genocide and aggression”. It urged families, community leaders and youth groups to act as protectors of aid convoys and to prevent any looting, obstruction or exploitation.
“These trucks are meant to meet the basic needs of our besieged and devastated people,” it said, calling the effort a “national, moral, and collective responsibility”.
Authorities also praised the efforts of local police and aid organisations coordinating the aid deliveries and encouraged continued cooperation.
US official says Lebanon must do more to disarm Hezbollah
Morgan Ortagus, the US’s deputy Middle East envoy, has said Lebanon is making progress towards the goal of disarming the paramilitary group Hezbollah, but that more work is needed.
“They have done more in the last six months than they probably have in the last 15 years. However, there’s a lot more to go,” said Ortagus. “We in the US have called for the full disarmament of Hezbollah. And so that doesn’t mean just south of the Litani. That means in the whole country.”
Under the terms of the November ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, the Lebanese army would take control of the southernmost areas of Lebanon and be the only armed presence there.
Israeli army says it kills Hezbollah operative in southern Lebanon
Israel’s military says it has launched an air strike that has killed a Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon’s al-Mansouri area.
The announcement, posted on X, included video footage that appeared to show an Israeli aircraft targeting a vehicle.
Despite a truce in November aimed at ending a year of cross-border clashes with Hezbollah, Israel has continued to carry out strikes in Lebanon.
Israel slams UK moves over its war on Palestine
Israel has denounced the British government decision to pause free trade agreement negotiations and impose sanctions on illegal settlers over violence against Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
“Even prior to today’s announcement, the free trade agreement negotiations were not being advanced at all by the current UK government,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The ministry called the UK sanctions “unjustified and regrettable.”
“The British Mandate ended exactly 77 years ago,” it said.
Delta to resume direct flights between New York and Tel Aviv
The major US carrier says it will move forward with daily round-trip flights between New York City and Tel Aviv, which were paused in early May after Yemen’s Houthi rebel group launched a missile that hit a road at Ben Gurion International Airport.
The group has recently warned that it could target the airport again.
Sweden seeks EU sanctions against Israeli ministers
Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard says Sweden will push for EU sanctions against Israeli ministers because of insufficient steps to protect civilians in Gaza.
“Since we do not see a clear improvement for the civilians in Gaza, we need to raise the tone further. We will therefore now also push for EU sanctions against individual Israeli ministers,” Stenergard said in a statement.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says at least 3,427 people have been killed since Israel resumed attacking the Palestinian territory on March 18 after a two-month ceasefire, taking the war’s overall death toll to 53,573 since October 2023.
The UN says 14,000 babies could die in the coming days because of Israel’s 11-week aid blockade on the Strip.
Gaza aid blockade ‘cruel and indefensible’, says UK minister
The British parliamentary undersecretary of state for the Middle East, Hamish Falconer, says the Israeli ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, has been summoned due to the Netanyahu government’s “opposition to the wholly disproportionate escalation of military activity in Gaza” and the expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Falconer said he will emphasise to Hotovely that the 11-week blockade on aid to Gaza has been “cruel and indefensible”.
“Israel must abide by its obligations under international humanitarian law and ensure full, rapid, safe and unhindered provision of humanitarian assistance to the population in Gaza. The limited amount of aid entering is simply not enough,” Falconer said.
“We must get an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages, and a path to a two-state solution is the only way to ensure the long-term peace and security of both Palestinians and Israelis,” he added.
French foreign minister says Israel must end ‘blind violence’ in Gaza
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot says Israel has turned Gaza into a “place of death” and Israel’s “blind violence” and blockade of humanitarian assistance must come to an end.
France has previously warned that it could place sanctions on Israel if it does not take steps to lift its siege on Gaza, stop a new round of expanded military operations and curb the expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
“This must stop,” Barrot told the French radio broadcaster France Inter.
Palestinian paracyclist among those killed in Gaza
A Palestinian paracyclist who lost his leg to an Israeli missile 11 years ago has been killed in an air raid on southern Gaza, his team says.
Ahmed al-Dali, a 33-year-old father of four, was a member of a paracycling team known as the Gaza Sunbirds. He was killed in an Israeli air attack on Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on Monday night, the team said in a statement.
Al-Dali had worked as a bike mechanic prior to the outbreak of war in 2023, the team said.
“Ahmed survived the missile that took his leg in 2014, but… a second missile took his life,” said his cousin Alaa al-Dali, the cycling team’s cofounder and captain. “He was a great person filled with positivity and a love for sport.”
Al-Dali lost his leg in an Israeli bombing in 2014, when he was pronounced dead and taken to a morgue before his family discovered he had survived.
He also played para-football and joined the Sunbirds alongside other amputee athletes three years ago.
“Ahmed’s courage on the bike was matched only by his devotion to his children and his community,” Karim Ali, the cofounder and team manager of the Sunbirds, said in a statement, calling on international sporting bodies, disability‑rights organisations and humanitarian agencies to take urgent action to protect civilians in Gaza.
Greek foreign minister laments ‘nightmare’ in Gaza
Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis says the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza is intolerably high and a massive influx of humanitarian aid is needed along with a ceasefire.
“I cannot really tolerate what is happening now in the Middle East,” Gerapetritis said in an interview with The Associated Press.
He will oversee a UN Security Council meeting on the need to protect civilians in warfare on Thursday.
UK pauses free trade agreement negotiations with Israel
Earlier we reported that the British foreign secretary had announced the formal pause of free trade agreement negotiations with Israel over its war on Gaza.
“While the UK government remains committed to the existing trade agreement in force, it is not possible to advance discussions on a new, upgraded FTA with a Netanyahu government that is pursuing egregious policies in the West Bank and Gaza,” a government press release read.
The pause comes as Lammy announced sanctions on settler organisations and activists, a day after Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the French and Canadian leaders threatened sanctions on Israel due to its actions in Gaza.
Moreover, British Minister for the Middle East Hamish Falconer has also summoned Israeli Ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely over the expansion of military operations in Gaza.
‘The world is judging,’ British foreign secretary says
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy has announced a pause in trade deal negotiations with Israel and summoned Israel’s ambassador over its expansion of its military assault on Gaza.
Lammy said Israel’s conduct in its war on Gaza and the government’s support for illegal settlements is “damaging our relationship with your government”.
“I have seen for myself the consequences of settler violence, the fear of its victims, the impunity of its perpetrators. Today we are demonstrating again that we will continue to act against those that are carrying out heinous abuses of human rights,” Lammy told parliament as he announced sanctions on three people and four entities in the occupied West Bank.
The foreign secretary urged Netanyahu to return to a ceasefire to ease the suffering of people in the conflict. “The world is judging. History will judge them [Israel],” Lammy added.
“Blocking aid, expanding the war, dismissing the concerns of your friends and partners – this is indefensible, and it must stop,” he said, reiterating that the two-state solution remains the “only framework for a just and lasting peace”.
‘This is injustice’, says Palestinian sheltering at school targeted by Israel
Following an Israeli attack on a school in the Daraj neighbourhood of Gaza City, where displaced families had been sheltering, residents are picking up the charred pieces of their belongings.
“What is our fault? What is the fault of children? What is the fault of the women we found on the stairs with their hair and clothes torn and burned?” Omar Ahel, who had been sheltering at the school, told the Reuters news agency.
“By God, this is injustice,” Ahel said.
At the same time, outside a hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, Younis Abu Sahloul told Reuters that his brother, sister-in-law, and their four children were killed in an air raid on a camp sheltering displaced Palestinians.
According to medics in Gaza, in the past eight days, Israeli attacks have killed more than 500 people as the military campaigns intensify across the enclave.
‘No sign yet’ of aid entering Gaza today
Reporting from Deir el-Balah, central Gaza
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reports that there are still no signs of aid trucks entering Gaza today, after the United Nations said Israel had cleared 100 trucks to go in.
Even this number of trucks would be “a drop in the ocean of needs,” said Abu Azzoum from central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah.
UNRWA chief says he fears Gaza could reach a point where it becomes unlivable
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency, warns that Israel’s expanding operations could eventually create conditions where Palestinians are not able to live in Gaza.
“What I see for the time being is a continuation of the destruction, of the deaths and killing of the Palestinians in Gaza. And my fear is that we might reach a point where Gaza might not be a land any more for Palestinians to live in,” he said in a media interview.
Top Israeli officials have said as much in public comments as to their plans and goals for the enclave.
UK sanctions Israeli settler groups, activists
The UK has announced sanctions on a number of individuals and groups in the occupied West Bank who it said have been linked with acts of violence against Palestinians.
Among those targeted is Zohar Sabah, who the government says is involved in threatening, perpetrating, permitting and supporting acts of aggression and violence against Palestinians.
In November, the US also sanctioned Sabah for engaging in “acts of violence” in the West Bank.
The UK has also sanctioned Daniella Weiss, an outspoken activist, for the creation of more illegal settlements.
Editor’s Choice: What to read and watch right now
Here are a few highlights published in recent hours covering all aspects of the war:
- “Targeted sanctions”: UK, France, Canada threaten “concrete actions” against Israel over Gaza
- “Nonprofit killer”: Measure targeting pro-Palestine NGOs disappears from US tax bill
- Between Us: Gaza’s ongoing Nakba
- Opinion: Cheer up, people of Gaza! You’ll get killed on a full stomach
And there’s plenty more here.
Israeli army says it carried out dozens of attacks on Gaza
In its latest war update, the Israeli military says it carried out attacks on 100 targets in Gaza in the last 24 hours.
According to it, these targets included numerous fighters, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad weapons depot, a tunnel, and other military sites.
The military also claimed it carried out a joint operation with the Shin Bet intelligence service last week that killed Hamas’s commander of air operations in northern Gaza.
As we’ve been reporting, Israel’s latest wave of attacks on the territory – one of which hit a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City – has also killed numerous civilians, including children.
Golan a ‘brave, direct man’, former Israeli PM Barak says
As we’ve been reporting, opposition leader and former deputy chief of staff for the Israeli military Yair Golan has come under fire from Israeli officials for his comments this morning that “a sane country … does not kill babies for a hobby”.
However, former Prime Minister Ehud Barak has called Golan a “brave, direct man” in stark contrast to Netanyahu’s condemnation.
“If I had to go on a raid tonight or a tough political campaign tomorrow, I would prefer him by my side, over all his detractors and defenders of the last few hours,” Barak wrote on X in Hebrew.
“Even if it would have been better if he had chosen 1-2 other words, it is clear that he meant the political leadership, not the fighters. And in the ‘processes’ precedent, he was also right!”
Pregnant woman among victims of Israeli attack on Gaza school shelter
We’ve been reporting on a deadly overnight attack on Gaza City’s Musa bin Nusair School.
Among the 12 people killed in the assault was a pregnant woman. Dozens more are injured.
Students clubbed in raid on pro-Gaza protest in Dutch university
Footage has emerged of violent scenes as Dutch police raided a protest camp set up by students at Utrecht University, named in honour of slain Al Jazeera journalist Hossam Shabat.
Video clips circulated by activists and verified by Al Jazeera showed Dutch police officers striking protesters with long batons near the protest camp, named “Martyr Hossam Shabat”. Shabat, a journalist for Al Jazeera Mubasher, was killed by Israel in a targeted strike on his vehicle in March.
The raid on Monday evening took place 13 days after the protest camp was set up, calling on the university to cut ties with Israeli companies and institutions.
The footage shows a large crowd of students chanting “Shame on you” in English at police officers, as they clashed with the line of protesters.
Local media reported 49 protesters who had occupied a building on the campus were arrested for trespassing.
UK ‘horrified’ by Israeli escalation, to outline response today: Starmer
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he and his French and Canadian counterparts are “horrified” by Israel’s escalation in Gaza, a day after the three countries released a joint statement threatening to issue sanctions against Israel.
“We repeat our demand for a ceasefire as the only way to free the hostages, we repeat our opposition to settlements in the West Bank, and we repeat our demand to massively scale up humanitarian assistance into Gaza,” Starmer told parliament.
The prime minister added that Foreign Secretary David Lammy would later today outline Britain’s “response in detail”.
“We must coordinate our response because this war has gone on for far too long,” he said.
Starving Palestinians resort to eating animal feed, flour mixed with sand
The urgent calls to get humanitarian aid into Gaza are being made against a backdrop of acute suffering among Palestinians.
According to the UN’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), more than 93 percent of children in Gaza – about 930,000 – are at risk of famine due to the ongoing war and blockade.
Since early March, at least 57 children are reported to have died from malnutrition.
If Israel’s blockade of the Strip continues, it says, nearly 71,000 children under the age of five are expected to suffer acute malnutrition during the next 11 months.
Families in Gaza are resorting to eating animal feed, expired flour and flour mixed with sand, while children suffer from hunger-induced illnesses such as diarrhoea and extreme fatigue.
Gaza’s death toll rises
Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed at least 87 people and wounded 290 during the past 24-hour reporting period, according to the latest daily update by the Health Ministry in the besieged and bombarded territory.
The casualties bring the total number of people confirmed killed in Gaza during the war to 53,573 with 121,688 wounded, the ministry said.
Many victims are still missing under the rubble where rescuers cannot reach them, it added.
If you’re just joining us
Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
- Israeli raids continue across Gaza, causing casualties from northern Beit Lahiya to southern Khan Younis. At least 73 people have been killed today, according to local medical sources.
- The UN says about 100 aid trucks have been cleared to enter Gaza today, after just a trickle got through yesterday for the first time in 11 weeks.
- Humanitarian groups say the amount of aid promised barely scratches the surface of the needs in Gaza, where half a million people face starvation.
- Among them are 14,000 children that a UN humanitarian official warns could die within 48 hours without urgent aid.
- Israeli opposition leader Yair Golan is facing an onslaught of criticism in Israel after saying the country is becoming a “pariah state” ruled by people with “no morals”.
Kuwait condemns Israeli targeting of Sheikh Hamad Hospital in Gaza
The Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs has condemned Israel’s targeting of the Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani Hospital for Rehabilitation and Prosthetics in Gaza City on Monday as a “flagrant violation of international law, international humanitarian law, and humanitarian norms”.
In a statement on X, the ministry warned against Israel’s escalation in Gaza and its “continued perpetration of systematic crimes against the defenceless Palestinian people without deterrence or accountability”.
It called on the international community and the UN Security Council to assume their responsibilities in protecting Palestinians, their institutions and ensuring the “immediate delivery of aid and humanitarian relief supplies to them, while respecting their right to a safe and dignified life”.
On Monday, artillery shelling struck the hospital, which has been out of service for days due to intense Israeli attacks that have damaged the facility.
‘Women, children look like they haven’t eaten in weeks’
Claire Manera, emergency coordinator of medical aid group Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, says conditions in Gaza are “like nothing [she’s] ever seen”, with people flooding into clinics malnourished and displaced.
Israel’s nearly three-month aid blockade, which the government has said it is just starting to ease, has caused enormous harm to women and children in particular, says Manera.
“I see women and children who look like they haven’t eaten for weeks,” she told Al Jazeera from central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah. “We know that they’re suffering because they can’t find a safe place to sleep at night and the hospital facilities that are open are becoming fewer and fewer because they’re being targeted.”
Manera said her team has yet to see any aid on the ground from a first batch of nine trucks cleared for entry yesterday. “And nine trucks is nothing compared to the need here,” she added. “We need access to our own aid and we need to be able to use this impartially for the population.”
Golan’s comments a ‘clear admission’ of ‘genocide’ against Palestinians: Gaza media office
Gaza’s Government Media Office says Israeli attacks have killed more than 50 people in the past five hours, including 33 children.
In a statement on Telegram, the office says the death toll embodies a “complete crime and demonstrates the [Israeli] occupation’s insistence on using killing and starvation as means of war”.
It added that the attacks come as former Israeli deputy chief of staff, Yair Golan, said a “sane country does not fight against civilians, does not kill children as a hobby”.
The media office said Golan’s comment “represents a clear admission from within the Israeli military establishment of the ongoing crime of genocide against our Palestinian people”.
“We affirm that this criminal behaviour by the occupation army, supported by this pattern of hateful and incitement-filled statements, reveals the true face of the occupation as a racist colonial regime practising organised terrorism in full view of the world,” the media office added.
Israeli drone hits fishermen in Lebanon: Report
Lebanon’s National News Agency reports that an Israeli drone has fired at fishermen off the coast of the southern Lebanese village of Ras an-Naqoura.
The report did not mention casualties.
UN official warns 14,000 babies could die in next 48 hours without aid
Tom Fletcher, the UN’s under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, has warned 14,000 babies are at risk of dying in the next 48 hours if aid doesn’t reach them – a figure he called “utterly chilling”.
“We need to flood the Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid,” he said in an interview with the BBC. “I want to save as many of these 14,000 babies as we can in the next 48 hours.”
EU’s top diplomat: Israel’s aid plans for Gaza ‘not enough’
The EU’s foreign policy chief has called for unrestricted aid to flow in Gaza, describing the volumes Israel planned to allow in as “a drop in the ocean”.
Speaking to Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra in Brussels, Kaja Kallas said European ministers gathered in Brussels were set to have a “very hard discussion on Gaza and what is happening there”.
Specifically, the ministers would be discussing a Dutch proposal to review the Association Agreement between the EU and Israel, particularly Article 2, which states that both parties must respect human rights.
“I can’t predict the outcome of this discussion,” she said. “But I think what is important, where we all have similar views, is that humanitarian aid should reach Gaza as soon as possible.”
She said Israel’s decision to allow a limited amount of aid into Gaza, following a months-long blockade, was “welcomed, but it’s not enough”.
“There are thousands of trucks behind the borders waiting,” she said. “It is European money that has funded this humanitarian aid, and it has to reach the people, because the situation is extremely grave.”
