[🇧🇩] Israel and Hamas war in Gaza-----Can Bangladesh be a peace broker?

[Saif]

German minister says future arms deliveries to Israel depend on Gaza situation

Germany will decide whether or not to approve new weapons shipments to Israel based on an assessment of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said in an interview published on Friday. Wadephul questioned whether Israel's actions in its war with Palestinian militant g

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German minister says future arms deliveries to Israel depend on Gaza situation

REUTERS
Published :
May 30, 2025 21:45
Updated :
May 30, 2025 21:45

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul attends a press conference in Lisbon, Portugal, May 26, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Pedro Rocha/Files

Germany will decide whether or not to approve new weapons shipments to Israel based on an assessment of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said in an interview published on Friday.

Wadephul questioned whether Israel's actions in its war with Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza were in line with international law.

"We are examining this and, if necessary, we will authorise further arms deliveries based on this examination," he said in an interview with Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

The comments build on a shifting tone from Berlin and mounting international criticism of Israel in recent days as the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza after an Israeli aid blockade and mounting civilian deaths test German support.

Wadephul said it was important that Israel can defend itself given the threats it faces, including from Houthi militants, Hezbollah and Iran.

"For me, there is no question that we have a special responsibility to stand by Israel's side," he said, reiterating the principle of "Staatsraeson" which underpins German support for Israel in atonement for the Holocaust of World War Two.

"On the other hand, of course, this does not mean that a government can do whatever it wants," he said.

Three months into the war, South Africa filed a case to the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed the accusations as outrageous.

Israel's aid blockade of Gaza, which began after the breakdown of a ceasefire in early March, has also been contested at the World Court. Half a million people in the Gaza Strip face starvation, a global hunger monitor said in mid-May.

Netanyahu has dismissed charges that Israel was deliberately causing starvation in Gaza by imposing the 11-week blockade that was relaxed last week after mounting pressure from close allies.

On Tuesday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said airstrikes on Gaza were no longer justified by the need to fight Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 assault on Israel killed some 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies, and triggered the war.

More than 54,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's air and ground campaign, according to Gaza health authorities.​

 

[Saif]

Gaza and the collapse of Western morality

Humans sit at the top of the food chain and kill animals for food. But even in killing, there are moral boundaries. Animals are not starved for weeks or subjected to unnecessary suffering before being killed. Yet in Gaza today, such basic mercy is not extended to people. Around two million human be

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Gaza and the collapse of Western morality

SYED MUHAMMED SHOWAIB
Published :
May 31, 2025 00:10
Updated :
May 31, 2025 00:10

Humans sit at the top of the food chain and kill animals for food. But even in killing, there are moral boundaries. Animals are not starved for weeks or subjected to unnecessary suffering before being killed. Yet in Gaza today, such basic mercy is not extended to people. Around two million human beings living there are enduring a level of cruelty that would be deemed unacceptable even in a slaughterhouse. For three months, Israel has systematically denied food, water and basic supplies to Gaza's civilian population, weaponising hunger in what constitutes a clear crime against humanity. The deprivation has been so extreme that on May 20, the UN warned that 14,000 infants could die within 48 hours if aid did not reach them. Even the US president Donald Trump, a staunch ally of Israel, was compelled to acknowledge the severity of the crisis. Under mounting international pressure, Israel finally allowed a small amount of food into Gaza which aid workers described as a drop in the ocean compared to the overwhelming need.

Beyond the deliberate starvation of civilians, since October 8, 2023, Israel has waged an unrelenting campaign of bombardment and military violence in Gaza. Israeli forces have killed civilians on a massive scale, with the official death toll exceeding 62,000 and thousands more remaining buried under rubble, presumed dead. This is beyond tragic. This is madness. No sane country, no professional army, kills innocent civilians as a matter of routine, shoots babies in the head and chest with sniper rifles, executes people waving white flags, or bombs hospitals with impunity. Yet in Gaza, these horrors occur daily.

The people there have nowhere to flee. Borders are sealed, the sea patrolled by warships, and even so-called safe zones are bombed. Schools have turned into overcrowded shelters where strangers share bare floors. Food is gone, clean water non-existent, and the constant roar of explosions never stops.

The language of Israel's own leadership makes the intention of their campaign abundantly clear. Just last week, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said, "We are there to conquer, cleanse and remain. We are disassembling Gaza into piles of rubble." He even boasted, "We're doing something that no one's done in the world before. Yes, the Gazans will have to leave."

What is perhaps most tragic is that these atrocities are unfolding in full view of the world. Many Western countries continue to provide the weapons, funding and diplomatic backing that enable the violence. For instance, according to Israel's Defence Ministry, since October 8, 2023, the US has delivered more than 90,000 tons of military aid in Israel via 800 transport planes and 140 ships which include armoured vehicles, munitions and protective gear. European governments like Germany and France banned demonstrations in support of Palestinians, along with Palestinian flag and symbols. In this atmosphere, even appeals for Israel to adhere to basic humanitarian norms are often denounced as antisemitic.

This is a moral unravelling of the Western civilisation which has long claimed to champion human rights. A civilisation that watches the weaponisation of starvation and does nothing has forfeited any claim to ethical leadership and is inching closer to collapse. The only meaningful challenge to the moral failure of the West has come from the US university campuses, where students and faculty have protested to call out the ongoing genocide. But their resistance has come at a cost. For speaking out against Israeli atrocities, these institutions have faced punitive measures including withdrawal of federal funding, research contracts, grants, and even the right to enrol foreign students.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has taken a historic step by seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former IDF chief Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. In the wake of these developments, many around the world who once sympathised with the historical suffering of the Jewish people are now turning away in disillusionment. Attempts to dismiss criticism as antisemitism are losing their power. The façade is cracking, and a growing number now recognise the devastation of Gaza as a deliberate campaign to destroy a people.

Defenders of Israel often frame the onslaught in Gaza as a justified response to Hamas' October 7 assault which killed 1,200 Israelis. But this narrative deliberately ignores the context. The October 7 attack did not occur in isolation. It was the explosion of a pressure cooker sealed shut for decades. It followed 75 years of displacement, 56 years of military occupation and 17 years of a suffocating blockade on Gaza. Since 2007, two million Palestinians have been trapped in what Human Rights Watch called an "open-air prison." Their borders are guarded by snipers, their fishermen fired upon at sea, and even food imports are monitored with strict limits, down to calorie count. October 7 emerged from this despair. As historian Norman Finkelstein notes, the Hamas' attack on Israel is akin to a slave revolt against colonial masters.

Had Israel limited its response to targeting Hamas within the bounds of international law, the world might have viewed it as a harsh but legitimate military operation. But what is happening goes far beyond that. It is the wholesale slaughter of a captive population, most of whom had no part in the initial attack. When even infants are stripped of innocence and treated as legitimate targets, no justification can stand. No matter how loudly this campaign of extermination in Gaza is defended by voices in Western media and political circles, it perfectly fits the definition of genocide and ethnic cleansing under international law.

Perhaps one day this nightmare will end. When it does and the dust finally settles, the world will have to confront hard and uncomfortable truths. Accountability must extend to every journalist, politician, propagandist and online voice who enabled, excused, financed or shielded these atrocities. None should be allowed to escape the judgment of history. This reckoning will be essential, not merely as justice for the victims, but as the only way to reclaim collective humanity.

​

 

[Saif]

Unilever’s Ben & Jerry’s calls war in Gaza a ‘genocide’

The independent board of Ben & Jerry's said the conflict in Gaza is a genocide, escalating a bitter feud between the ice cream maker and its longtime London-based corporate parent, Unilever. "Ben & Jerry's believes in human rights and advocates for peace, and we join with those around the world wh

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Unilever’s Ben & Jerry’s calls war in Gaza a ‘genocide’

REUTERS
Published :
May 30, 2025 20:56
Updated :
May 30, 2025 20:56

The independent board of Ben & Jerry's said the conflict in Gaza is a genocide, escalating a bitter feud between the ice cream maker and its longtime London-based corporate parent, Unilever.

"Ben & Jerry's believes in human rights and advocates for peace, and we join with those around the world who denounce the genocide in Gaza," the board said in a statement viewed by Reuters. "We stand with all who raise their voices against genocide in Gaza - from petition-signers to street marchers to those risking arrest."

Unilever and Ben & Jerry's have been at odds since at least 2021 when the Chubby Hubby ice cream maker said it would stop selling in the Israel-occupied West Bank. Ben & Jerry's sued its owner last year over its alleged attempts to silence it on Gaza and criticise US President Donald Trump. Its statement on Gaza is unusual for a major US brand.

A Unilever spokesperson said that the comments reflect the views of the independent social mission board of Ben & Jerry's, and they do not speak for anyone other than themselves.

"We call for peace in the region and for relief for all those whose lives have been impacted," the spokesperson said.

Unilever asked a US judge to dismiss Ben & Jerry's lawsuit. The company is also in the process of separating out its ice cream business, including Vermont-based Ben & Jerry's, to an independent company this summer.

Ben & Jerry's has said its year 2000 merger agreement with Unilever gave its independent board "primary responsibility" to pursue the company's social mission. The crux of the dispute between Ben & Jerry’s and Unilever is how much leeway the board actually has.​

 

[Saif]

Israel’s settlement plan in occupied West Bank draws criticism

Katz said the initiative “changes the face of the region and shapes the future of settlement for years to come”.

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Israel’s settlement plan in occupied West Bank draws criticism
AFP Jerusalem
Published: 30 May 2025, 14: 09

A Palestinian demonstrator reacts to a sound grenade fired by Israeli forces during a protest against Jewish settlements and Israel's planned annexation of parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, in the Palestinian town of Asira ash-Shamaliya, 17 July 2020. Reuters

Israel announced Thursday the creation of 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, drawing sharp condemnation from Britain, Jordan and others already at odds with the country over its Gaza war.

London called the move a “deliberate obstacle” to Palestinian statehood, while UN chief Antonio Guterres’ spokesman said it pushed efforts towards a two-state solution “in the wrong direction”.

Israeli settlements in the West Bank are regularly condemned by the United Nations as illegal under international law and are seen as a major obstacle to lasting peace.

The decision, taken by Israel’s security cabinet, was announced by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, himself a settler, and Defence Minister Israel Katz, who oversees the communities.

“We have made a historic decision for the development of settlements: 22 new communities in Judea and Samaria, renewing settlement in the north of Samaria, and reinforcing the eastern axis of the State of Israel,” Smotrich said on X, using the Israeli terms for the southern and northern West Bank, which it has occupied since 1967.

“Next step: sovereignty!” he added.

Katz said the initiative “changes the face of the region and shapes the future of settlement for years to come”.

Not all of the 22 settlements are new. Some are existing outposts, while others are neighbourhoods of settlements that will become independent communities, according to the left-wing Israeli NGO Peace Now.

Hamas accused Israel of “accelerating steps to Judaize Palestinian land within a clear annexation project”.

“This is a blatant defiance of the international will and a grave violation of international law and United Nations resolutions,” Gaza’s Islamist rulers said.

Britain’s minister for the Middle East, Hamish Falconer, said the plan imperils “the two-state solution” and does not protect Israel.

Jordan called the decision illegal and said it “undermines prospects for peace by entrenching the occupation”.

“We stand against any and all” expansion of the settlements, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, repeating calls for Israel to halt such activity, which he said blocks peace and economic development.

On Telegram, the right-wing Likud party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the move a “once-in-a-generation decision” and said it “includes the establishment of four communities along the eastern border with Jordan, as part of strengthening Israel’s eastern backbone”.

A map posted by the party showed the 22 sites scattered across the territory.

‘Heritage of our ancestors’

Two of the settlements, Homesh and Sa-Nur, are particularly symbolic.

Located in the north of the West Bank, they are resettlements, having been evacuated in 2005 as part of Israel’s disengagement from Gaza, promoted by then prime minister Ariel Sharon.

Netanyahu’s government, formed in December 2022 with the support of far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties, is the most right-wing in Israel’s history.

Human rights groups and anti-settlement NGOs say a slide towards at least de facto annexation of the occupied West Bank has gathered pace, particularly since the start of the Gaza war triggered by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel.

“The Israeli government no longer pretends otherwise: the annexation of the occupied territories and expansion of settlements is its central goal,” Peace Now said in a statement.

In his announcement, Smotrich offered a pre-emptive defence of the move, saying: “We have not taken a foreign land, but the heritage of our ancestors.”

Some European governments have moved to sanction individual settlers, as did the United States under former president Joe Biden—though those measures were lifted under Donald Trump.

The announcement comes ahead of an international conference led by France and Saudi Arabia at the United Nations next month aimed at reviving the two-state solution.​

 

[Saif]

UN warns all of Gaza at risk of famine

The UN warned Friday that the entire population of Gaza was at risk of famine, as an Israeli far-right minister urged the use of ‘full force’ against Hamas.

www.newagebd.net

UN warns all of Gaza at risk of famine
Agence France-Presse . Jerusalem 31 May, 2025, 00:18

Children collect items as Palestinians check the site of an overnight Israeli strike, in Jabalia in the central Gaza Strip, on Friday, amid the war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. | AFP photo

The UN warned Friday that the entire population of Gaza was at risk of famine, as an Israeli far-right minister urged the use of ‘full force’ against Hamas.

Negotiations to end nearly 20 months of war have so far failed to achieve a breakthrough, with Israel resuming operations in Gaza in March following a short-lived truce.

Israel recently intensified its offensive in what it says is a renewed push to destroy Hamas, drawing global condemnation over the dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza.

Recent AFPTV footage has shown chaotic scenes as large crowds of Palestinians desperate for food rushed to a limited number of aid distribution centres to pick up supplies.

‘Gaza is the hungriest place on earth,’ Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, said on Friday.

‘It’s the only defined area — a country or defined territory within a country — where you have the entire population at risk of famine. One hundred per cent of the population at risk of famine.’

Laerke said 900 UN aid trucks had been authorised by Israel to enter so far, but only 600 had been offloaded on the Gaza side of the border, and an even smaller number had been picked up there due to security considerations.

Laerke described the ‘limited number of truckloads’ as ‘drip-feeding food’.

Adding to the international pressure, French president Emmanuel Macron said Friday that European countries should ‘harden the collective position’ against Israel if it did not respond appropriately to the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Action was needed ‘in the next few hours and days’, he added.

The White House announced Thursday that Israel had ‘signed off’ on a new ceasefire proposal submitted to Hamas, but the Palestinian militant group said the deal failed to satisfy its demands, while stopping short of rejecting it outright.

Far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir, addressing prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a Telegram post Friday, said that ‘after Hamas rejected the deal proposal again — there are no more excuses’.

‘The confusion, the shuffling and the weakness must end,’ he added. ‘It is time to go in with full force, without blinking, to destroy, and kill Hamas to the last one.’

Gaza’s civil defence agency said that at least 22 people had been killed in Israeli attacks on Friday, including seven in a strike targeting a family home in Jabalia in the north.

Palestinians sobbed over the bodies of their loved ones at Gaza City’s Al Shifa Hospital following the strike, AFPTV footage showed.

‘These were civilians and were sleeping at their homes. The house was destroyed due to the indiscriminate bombardment,’ said neighbour Mahmud al-Ghaf, describing ‘children in pieces’.

‘Stop the war!’ said Mahmud Nasr, who lost relatives. ‘We do not want anything from you, just stop the war.’

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Jabalia strike, but said separately that the air force had ‘struck dozens of targets throughout the Gaza Strip’ over the past day.

The White House said on Thursday that president Donald Trump and US envoy Steve Witkoff had ‘submitted a ceasefire proposal to Hamas that Israel backed’.

Israel has not confirmed that it approved the new proposal.

Hamas sources said last week that the group had accepted a US-backed deal, but on Thursday political bureau member Bassem Naim said the new version meant ‘the continuation of killing and famine and does not meet any of our people’s demands, foremost among them halting the war’.Political party merchandise

‘Nonetheless, the movement’s leadership is studying the response to the proposal with full national responsibility,’ he added.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt added that discussions were ‘continuing’ with the militants.

Naim on Friday reiterated that a review was on-going, while a source close to Hamas said one of the group’s main concerns was the lack of American guarantees that talks towards a permanent ceasefire would continue.

According to two sources close to the negotiations, the new proposal involves a 60-day truce, potentially extendable to 70 days, and the release of five living hostages and nine bodies in exchange for Palestinian prisoners during the first week, followed by a second exchange the next week.

Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

As of Thursday, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said at least 3,986 people had been killed in the territory since Israel resumed major operations on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 54,249, mostly civilians.

Hamas’s attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.​

 

[Saif]

New US-backed truce proposal does not meet demands: Hamas

The White House said Thursday Israel had ‘signed off’ on a new Gaza ceasefire proposal submitted to Hamas, but the Palestinian group said the deal failed to satisfy its demands.

www.newagebd.net

New US-backed truce proposal does not meet demands: Hamas
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 31 May, 2025, 01:11

The White House said Thursday Israel had ‘signed off’ on a new Gaza ceasefire proposal submitted to Hamas, but the Palestinian group said the deal failed to satisfy its demands.

Negotiations to end more than 19 months of war have so far failed to achieve a breakthrough, with Israel resuming operations in Gaza in March after a brief truce.

The White House said president Donald Trump and US envoy Steve Witkoff had ‘submitted a ceasefire proposal to Hamas that Israel backed’.

‘Israel signed off on this proposal before it was sent to Hamas,’ press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, adding discussions were ‘continuing’ with the militants.

Israel has not confirmed that it approved the new proposal.

Hamas sources said last week the group had accepted a US-backed deal, but on Thursday political bureau member Bassem Naim said the new version meant ‘the continuation of killing and famine and does not meet any of our people’s demands, foremost among them halting the war’.Political party merchandise

‘Nonetheless, the movement’s leadership is studying the response to the proposal with full national responsibility,’ he added.

A source close to the group said the new version ‘is considered a retreat’ from the previous one, which ‘included an American commitment regarding permanent ceasefire negotiations’.

According to two sources close to the negotiations, the new proposal involves a 60-day truce, potentially extendable to 70 days, and the release of 10 living hostages and nine bodies in exchange for Palestinian prisoners during the first week.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire despite aid beginning to trickle back into the territory after a more than two-month Israeli blockade.

Food security experts say starvation is looming for one in five people.

Israel has also intensified its military offensive in what it says is a renewed push to destroy Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack triggered the war.

Gaza’s civil defence said 54 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Thursday, including 23 in a strike on a home in Al-Bureij, and two by Israeli gunfire near a US-backed aid centre in the Morag axis, in the south.

The centre, run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, is part of a new aid distribution system designed to keep supplies from Hamas. It has drawn criticism from the United Nations and the European Union.

‘What is happening to us is degrading,’ said Gazan Sobhi Areef, who visited a GHF centre on Thursday.

‘We go there and risk our lives just to get a bag of flour to feed our children.’

Israel’s military said it was not aware of the shooting near the aid centre. In Al-Bureij, it said it struck a ‘Hamas cell’ and was reviewing reports of civilian deaths.

In a phone call with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safadi accused Israel of ‘systematic starvation tactics’ that had ‘crossed all moral and legal boundaries’.

The aid issue has come sharply into focus amid starvation fears and intense criticism of the GHF, which has bypassed the longstanding UN-led system in the territory.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, said aid trucks were entering via the Kerem Shalom crossing, and accused the UN of ‘trying to block’ GHF’s work.

The United Nations said it was doing its utmost to distribute the limited aid allowed in.

Gazans who went to GHF’s newly opened distribution centre in the central Netzarim corridor Thursday described a chaotic scene.

‘Some people caused a big commotion and stormed the aid distribution point because people are very hungry,’ Mohammed Abdel Aal, 29, said.

‘I ran, like everyone else, trying to get an aid box.’

He left empty-handed after forces at the facility ‘fired bullets and grenades at us, which forced us to retreat’.

A 17-year-old from Al-Bureij, who gave his name as Yousef, offered a similar account, saying in spite of the gunfire, ‘hunger is stronger than fear’.

Asked to comment, GHF said its ‘personnel encountered a tense and potentially dangerous crowd that refused to disperse’.

To ‘ensure the safety of civilians and staff, non-lethal deterrents were deployed — including smoke and warning shots into the ground’, it said.

Medical facilities in Gaza, meanwhile, have come under increasing strain and repeated attack.

Al-Awda Hospital said Israeli troops were ‘carrying out a forced evacuation of patients and medical staff’, adding it was ‘the only hospital that was still operating in the northern Gaza Strip’.

The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel that killed 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Out of 251 hostages seized during the attack, 57 remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Thursday that at least 3,986 people had been killed in the territory since Israel ended the ceasefire on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 54,249, mostly civilians.

On Thursday, the military said an ‘employee of a contracting company that carries out engineering work’ was killed in northern Gaza.

Israel also intercepted a missile fired from Yemen Thursday in an attack claimed by the country’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels.​

 

[Saif]

Don’t let Israel forcefully deport Palestinians

Israel’s genocide in Gaza has now been going on for over 600 days.

www.thedailystar.net

Don’t let Israel forcefully deport Palestinians

Palestinians, displaced by the Israeli military offensive, shelter in a UNRWA school in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on May 28, 2025. PHOTO: REUTERS

Israel's genocide in Gaza has now been going on for over 600 days. The Israeli government's larger vision is clear: erase the demography of Gaza and all of Occupied Palestine, and seize the geography. The intentions have been demonstrated by Israel through both actions and words. Its finance minister recently said the government was planning to "apply sovereignty" to the West Bank, Occupied Palestine in the near future, and within half a year, the population of Gaza would be "concentrated" in a "humanitarian zone," essentially a fenced-off piece of land in the destroyed Gaza Strip.

So the genocidal regime's plan goes like this: use evacuation orders and intense bombardment to trap Palestinians in Gaza in a concentration camp, then starve them there to a state of hopelessness so that they want to leave themselves. And then they will claim Palestine from Palestinians. We have seen this before during the Nakba in 1948 and the Six-Day War in 1967.

Israel's latest mission is executing an arrangement and threatening the people of Gaza—manipulating them into leaving on their own "will" through the shutdown Israeli border. Earlier in March, its Defence Minister Israel Katz released a video statement warning Palestinians in Gaza, "Take the advice of the US president. Return the hostages and eliminate Hamas, and other options will open for you—including going to other places in the world for those who wish. The alternative is complete destruction and devastation."

Two bordering nations, Egypt and Jordan, supporting Palestinian statehood, have rejected the proposition of "taking in" Palestinian refugees in order to support the establishment of Palestinian statehood. Following that, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the wing in Israel's defence ministry that is responsible for overseeing "civilian matters in Gaza," is now executing the heinous scheme to push out Palestinian Gazans through the Israeli border. In March, the security cabinet launched "Voluntary Emigration Bureau for Gaza residents interested in relocating to third countries" to facilitate this goal with COGAT, which blocked 3,000 trucks of humanitarian aid from entering Gaza through that same border for 11 weeks to starve the children in Gaza to death. The images of their skeletal bodies are being circulated all throughout social media as I write this.

Since the development of this "voluntary exit plan," the Palestinian citizens in Gaza—young, old, injured, and starving—have received messages from Israeli numbers, including law firms based in Tel Aviv, offering them paperwork to "safely" travel out of Gaza. News reports have revealed that Israeli agencies are persuading Gazans to give them "extensive assistance," to travel to Ramon Airport in Israel from where they are. In reality, they are being deported. Israel's Interior Minister Moshe Arbel said on April 7 that Palestinians had been deported to various destinations in at least 16 flights by then. The term "deportation" implies they will not be allowed to return, further cementing that the goal of this policy is to simply empty the Gaza Strip of Palestinians.

Israel's rationale for "voluntary exit" under the premise of "humanitarian assistance" also collapses under international law. As upheld by international tribunals, particularly the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, "It is impermissible to use forced displacement as a response to a disaster that one has created."

It has come to our knowledge that some entities—including in parts of the world that have demonstrated solidarity to Palestinians—are knowingly or unknowingly helping Israel expel Palestinians from Gaza under initiatives that appear humane on the surface. We must not fall into this trap after seeing with our own eyes what Israel has done to the Palestinians in Gaza over more than 600 days.

We must understand that "helping" Palestinians by hosting them as refugees forced out through the border of Israel undermines the Palestinian cause. I appeal to the people of conscience in Bangladesh as well as the decision-makers to not allow such heinous acts to take place under the pretext of protecting Palestinian lives in the Gaza Strip. Bangladesh should not be an alternative refuge for pushed-out, exploited citizens in Gaza under any circumstances. Israel's deceitful plan has also been criticised by UN officials who emphasise the Palestinians' right to live in their own land, and warn that forced migration is directly fostering Israel's vision to annihilate Gaza. It is imperative that the world realises that, especially the people of Bangladesh, who have set standards of humanity by unwaveringly standing beside Palestine throughout its history and shown historic solidarity for the Palestinians during Israel's genocide in Gaza.

Yousef SY Ramadan is the ambassador of Palestine to Bangladesh.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli attack near aid delivery point kills 31 in Gaza, truce talks falter

An Israeli attack near an aid distribution point run by a private US-based group killed at least 31 people in Gaza on Sunday, local health authorities said, as Hamas and Israel exchanged blame over a faltering effort to secure a ceasefire.

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Israeli attack near aid delivery point kills 31 in Gaza, truce talks falter
Reuters Cairo, Gaza
Published: 01 Jun 2025, 17: 25

A paramedic carries a Palestinian man wounded in an Israeli strike, at Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, 1 June, 2025. Reuters

An Israeli attack near an aid distribution point run by a private US-based group killed at least 31 people in Gaza on Sunday, local health authorities said, as Hamas and Israel exchanged blame over a faltering effort to secure a ceasefire.

The incident in Rafah in the south of the enclave was the latest in a series highlighting the volatile security situation complicating aid delivery to Gaza, following the easing of an almost three-month Israeli blockade last month.

"There are martyrs and injuries. Many injuries. It is a tragic situation in this place. I advise them that nobody goes to aid delivery points. Enough,” paramedic Abu Tareq said at Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Younis city.

The local Palestinian Red Crescent, affiliated with the international Red Cross, said its medical teams had recovered the bodies of 23 Palestinians and treated another 23 injured near an aid collection site in Rafah. The US-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation operates the aid distribution sites in Rafah.

The Red Crescent also reported that 14 more Palestinians were injured near a separate site in central Gaza. GHF also operates the aid distribution site in central Gaza.

Earlier, the Palestinian news agency WAFA and Hamas-affiliated media put the number of deaths at 30. Local health authorities said at least 31 bodies had so far arrived at Nasser Hospital.

Israel's military said in a statement it was looking into reports that Palestinians had been shot at an aid distribution site but that it was unaware of injuries caused by military fire. GHF denied anyone had been killed or injured near their site in Rafah and that all of its distribution had taken place without incident.

The US company accused Hamas of fabricating "fake reports".

Residents and medics said Israeli soldiers fired from the ground at a crane nearby that overlooks the area, and a tank opened fire at thousands of people who were en route to get aid from the site in Rafah. Reuters footage showed ambulance vehicles carrying injured people to Nasser Hospital.

The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said Israel has turned the distribution sites into "death traps" for people desperate to get some aid.

Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, near the Israel-Gaza border, as seen from Israel, 31 May, 2025. AFP

"We affirm to the world that what is taking place is a deliberate and malicious use of aid as a 'weapon of war', employed to exploit starving civilians and forcibly gather them at exposed killing zones, which are managed and monitored by the Israeli military," it said.

GHF is a US-based entity backed by the US and Israeli governments that provides humanitarian aid in Gaza, bypassing traditional relief groups. It began work in Gaza last month and has three sites from where thousands have collected aid.

GHF has been widely criticised by the international community and its executive director resigned in May, citing what he said was the entity’s lack of independence and neutrality. It is not clear who is funding the company.

Israeli officials have said that Palestinians collecting aid would be screened to exclude anyone linked to Hamas.

Ceasefire Talks Falter

Sunday's incident happened as Israel and Hamas traded blame for the faltering of a new Arab and US mediation bid to secure a temporary ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza by Hamas, in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli jails.

Hamas said on Saturday it was seeking amendments to a US-backed ceasefire proposal, but President Donald Trump's envoy rejected the group's response as "totally unacceptable."

The Palestinian militant group said it was willing to release 10 living hostages and hand over the bodies of 18 dead in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. But Hamas reiterated demands for an end to the war and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, conditions Israel has rejected.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his government had agreed to Witkoff's outline.

Israel began its offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on communities in southern Israel on 7 October, 2023, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli tallies, and saw 251 taken as hostages into Gaza.

Israel's campaign has devastated much of Gaza, killing over 54,000 Palestinians and destroying most buildings. Much of the population now live in shelters in makeshift camps. Gaza health officials report that most of the dead are civilians, though the number of militants killed remains unclear.​

 

[Saif]

‘All I think about is Gaza’

Away from home in Gaza, Palestinian pilgrim Mohammed Shehade said the rare chance he was given to perform hajj is overshadowed by fears for his family trapped in the war-battered territory.

www.thedailystar.net

‘All I think about is Gaza’
War weighs heavy on hajj pilgrims

Demonstrators lie on the ground covered with white sheets as they take part in a protest performance in support of the Palestinian people of Gaza, under the slogan “Stop genocide, Break with Israel now!” in the Spanish Basque city of San Sebastian, yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

Away from home in Gaza, Palestinian pilgrim Mohammed Shehade said the rare chance he was given to perform hajj is overshadowed by fears for his family trapped in the war-battered territory.

The 38-year-old engineer had been granted a permit to leave as he sought life-saving cancer treatment in Egypt, but Israeli authorities barred his family from accompanying him.

He said his departure from the Gaza Strip in February presented him with "the opportunity of a lifetime" to apply for the annual Muslim pilgrimage, which begins on Wednesday.

But even as he visited the holy sites in the Saudi city of Makkah, his heart was heavy with thoughts of his wife and four children stuck in Gaza under relentless bombardment.

"This is life's greatest suffering, to be far away from your family," Shehade told AFP on a roadside leading to Makkah's Grand Mosque.

He is among hundreds of Gazans set to perform Islam's holiest rites alongside more than a million worshippers from across the globe.

As pilgrims robed in white filed by, Shehade said he had been praying day and night for the Gaza war to end and to be reunited with his family.

"You could be in the best place in the world but if you are away from your family, you will never be happy," he said.

Leaving Gaza has become practically impossible for most inhabitants, but some like Shehade have been evacuated on medical grounds.

"Here I am preparing to perform hajj but there are things I can't speak about. If I do I will cry," he said as tears began to form in his eyes.

Shehade left Gaza during a truce, but Israel has since renewed its intense bombing campaign and blocked aid deliveries, with the United Nations warning of widespread famine.

"When I left I was caught between two fires," Shehade said of the choice to travel for an essential surgery and leave his family behind.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said yesterday that at least 4,149 people have been killed in the territory since Israel resumed its offensive on March 18, taking the war's overall deaths toll to 54,418, mostly civilians.​

 

[Saif]

Qatar, Egypt say will intensify efforts to resume Gaza truce talks

Netanyahu vowed on Monday to bring back all captives in Gaza, “living and dead” amid uncertainty in the hostage negotiations.

en.prothomalo.com

Qatar, Egypt say will intensify efforts to resume Gaza truce talks

AFP Doha
Published: 02 Jun 2025, 09: 31

A boy walks with a sack of salvaged items through debris at the site of Israeli bombardment on a residential block in Jalaa Street in Gaza City on 14 January, 2025 amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. AFP

Qatar and Egypt announced on Sunday plans to step up efforts for Gaza truce negotiations, as the Palestinian militant group Hamas said it was prepared to “immediately” hold a fresh round of talks.

“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,” the statement added.

Doha, Cairo and Washington have been engaged in months of back-and-forth mediation with Israel and Hamas but another round of negotiations aimed at ending 20 months of war in Gaza this week appeared to conclude once more without a breakthrough.

A two-month truce, in which dozens of hostages held by Hamas were released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, collapsed in March, with Israel intensifying military operations in Gaza afterwards.

Following the statement by the Arab mediators, Hamas said it was ready “to immediately begin a round of indirect negotiations to reach an agreement on the points of contention”.

Hamas previously said it had responded positively—albeit with requested amendments—to the latest US-backed truce proposal on Saturday which would see 10 living hostages released form Gaza.

Militants took 251 hostages during the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel which triggered the war, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead.

The United States envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, wrote on X that Hamas’s response was “totally unacceptable and only takes us backward”.

“Hamas should accept the framework proposal we put forward as the basis for proximity talks, which we can begin immediately this coming week,” the envoy said.

“That is the only way we can close a 60-day ceasefire deal in the coming days,” he added.

Netanyahu vowed on Monday to bring back all captives in Gaza, “living and dead” amid uncertainty in the hostage negotiations.

Israel has in recent weeks expanded its offensive in the Gaza Strip, drawing international condemnation as aid trickles in following a months-long blockade that has caused severe food and medical shortages.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 4,149 people have been killed in the territory since Israel resumed its offensive on 18 March, taking the war’s overall toll to 54,418, mostly civilians.

Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.​

 

[Saif]

Hospital in southern Gaza overwhelmed

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders yesterday said the staff at Nasser Hospital in Gaza’s Khan Younis are working in dire conditions, facing severe shortages of medical supplies.

www.thedailystar.net

Hospital in southern Gaza overwhelmed
Says medical NGO, blames new US aid group for chaos; multiple burn injuries in attack at Israeli hostage protest in US

Palestinian children wait alongside others for food at a distribution point in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, yesterday. UN chief Antonio Guterres called for an independent investigation into the killing of dozens of Palestinians near a US-backed aid centre in Gaza after rescuers blamed the deaths on Israeli fire and the military denied any involvement. Photo: AFP

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders yesterday said the staff at Nasser Hospital in Gaza's Khan Younis are working in dire conditions, facing severe shortages of medical supplies.

"There is no room for all of the patients. We have patients in corridors… and more come in today, dead and wounded," Claire Menara, an emergency coordinator with Doctors Without Borders, told Al Jazeera.

The NGO, known by its French name MSF, blamed the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's aid distribution system for chaos at the scene in the southern Gaza town of Rafah on Sunday that killed 31 Palestinians.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres yesterday called for an independent investigation into the deaths of Palestinians near the aid distribution site.

Meanwhile, a man yelling "Free Palestine" used a makeshift flamethrower to torch protesters rallying in support of Israeli hostages, injuring at least eight people in the US state of Colorado on Sunday evening.

The FBI said it was investigating the incident as a "targeted terror attack" and identified the suspect as 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman, reports AFP.

In Gaza, civil defence agency said an Israeli strike on a home in the northern town of Jabalia killed 14 people yesterday.

Israeli forces destroyed the only facility for kidney dialysis patients in the north of the enclave. The troops also demolished the wall of the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis, while also carrying out bulldozing activities in the vicinity of the hospital.

On Sunday evening, Qatar and Egypt announced plans to step up efforts for truce negotiations, as the Palestinian group Hamas said it was prepared to "immediately" hold a fresh round of talks.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said that Israel's blocking of a visit by Arab diplomats to the occupied West Bank showed its "rejection of... a diplomatic path to peace".

Speaking at a joint press conference in Amman with his Jordanian on Sunday evening, Egyptian and Bahraini counterparts, Prince Faisal said Israel's move "illustrates and confirms its extremism and its rejection of any serious attempt to engage in a diplomatic path toward peace... it is clear that they only want violence."​

 

[Saif]

Three people reported killed and dozens wounded near aid site in Gaza, medics say

Israeli fire killed at least three Palestinians and wounded dozens of others near an aid distribution site operated by the US-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, local health authorities said on Monday. The Israeli military said it was aware of reports of casualties and the incident was being thor

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Three people reported killed and dozens wounded near aid site in Gaza, medics say

REUTERS
Published :
Jun 03, 2025 12:20
Updated :
Jun 03, 2025 12:20

Israeli soldiers fire a mortar towards Gaza from their position near the border, as seen from Israel on June 2, 2025 — Reuters photo

Israeli fire killed at least three Palestinians and wounded dozens of others near an aid distribution site operated by the US-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, local health authorities said on Monday.

The Israeli military said it was aware of reports of casualties and the incident was being thoroughly looked into.

It said in a statement that troops operating overnight in Rafah, which is under full Israeli military control, in the southern Gaza Strip, had fired warning shots "to prevent several suspects approaching them", adding the incident took place about 1 km (0.6 miles) away from the aid distribution site.

The GHF, a private group sponsored by the United States and endorsed by Israel, said there had been no fatalities or injuries at its distribution site or the surrounding area.

Reuters could not independently verify what took place.

The reported incident was the latest in a series underscoring the volatile security situation that has complicated aid delivery to Gaza, following the easing last month of an almost three-month Israeli blockade.

On Sunday, Palestinian and international officials said at least 31 people were killed and dozens wounded near the same site, one of four operated by the GHF in Rafah.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Monday he was appalled by reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid in Gaza on Sunday, and called for an independent investigation.

The Israeli military denied firing at people gathering to collect aid, and the GHF said Sunday's distribution was carried out without incident, describing reports of deaths as fabricated by Hamas.

In a separate statement, the Israeli military said that in the past day its forces expanded ground operations in the Gaza Strip, killed gunmen, and dismantled weapons storage facilities and military infrastructure above and under the ground.

Meanwhile, the Gaza health ministry said Israeli strikes across the enclave had killed 51 people and wounded 500 others in the past 24 hours. Local health authorities said at least 16 of those were killed at a house in Jabalia, in northern Gaza, earlier on Monday.

RISK OF FAMINE

The GHF said Monday's deliveries raised the number of meals it has distributed since it began operations to nearly 6 million.

The United Nations has said most of Gaza's 2 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade on aid entering the strip.

The GHF launched its first distribution sites last week and said it would launch more.

Its aid plan, which bypasses traditional aid groups, has come under fierce criticism from the UN and humanitarian organisations, which say the GHF does not follow humanitarian principles.

The Palestinian NGOs Network urged a boycott of what it called the "U.S.-Israeli aid mechanism" in protest over the killings on Sunday.

At Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, relatives of Hussam Wafi, a 37-year-old father-of-six, who was killed near the aid site on Sunday, arrived to pay their last respects before burial. Wafi's brother Ali said the victims were driven by hunger.

“The U.S. and Israel, what do they tell us? Go and get your food and water, and the aid. When the aid arrives, they hit us. Is this fair?" Wafi told Reuters.

"They were going peacefully, they were killed. They went to get food and water for their children, to get a can of hummus or fava beans, a box or whatever is available, and they got shot, they died,” Wafi's neighbour, Abu Youssef, told Reuters.

CEASEFIRE TALKS TO RESUME

Israel and Hamas, meanwhile, traded blame for the faltering of a new Arab and US mediation bid to secure a temporary ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza by Hamas, in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli jails.

On Monday, a Palestinian official close to the mediation effort said Hamas leaders were in constant contact with Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo and Doha.

Israel says it accepts a temporary truce to release hostages, but that war can only end once Hamas is driven out of Gaza.

Israel began its offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli tallies, and saw 251 taken as hostages into Gaza.

Israel's campaign has devastated much of Gaza, killing more than 54,000 Palestinians and destroying most buildings. Much of the population now lives in shelters in makeshift camps.​

 

[Saif]

27 killed in Gaza after gunfire on aid seekers: Red Cross

Early this morning, the 60-bed Red Cross Field Hospital in Rafah received a mass casualty influx of 184 patients.

en.prothomalo.com

27 killed in Gaza after gunfire on aid seekers: Red Cross
AFP GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories
Published: 03 Jun 2025, 22: 57

Children play around waste in front of the closed UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City, on 20 May 2025, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. AFP

The International Committee of the Red Cross said its field hospital in Gaza's Rafah city recorded 27 deaths on Tuesday, matching a toll given by rescuers after Israeli forces had opened fire near an aid centre.

"Early this morning, the 60-bed Red Cross Field Hospital in Rafah received a mass casualty influx of 184 patients. This includes 19 cases who were declared dead upon arrival and eight more who died due to their wounds shortly after," the ICRC said, adding that survivors said they had been "trying to reach an assistance distribution site".​

 

[Saif]

Israeli fire kills 27 near Gaza aid point

Rescuers said the Israeli military killed at least 27 people near a US-backed aid centre in Gaza on Tuesday, with the army reporting it had fired on ‘suspects who advanced toward the troops’.

www.newagebd.net

Israeli fire kills 27 near Gaza aid point
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 03 June, 2025, 23:49

Palestinians who were injured in Israeli strikes on displacement tents in Khan Yunis, react after they arrive at the Nasser hospital in the southern Gaza Strip on June 3, 2025. | AFP photo

Rescuers said the Israeli military killed at least 27 people near a US-backed aid centre in Gaza on Tuesday, with the army reporting it had fired on ‘suspects who advanced toward the troops’.

The UN human rights chief condemned such attacks on civilians as ‘a war crime’ after a similar shooting in the same area on Sunday killed and wounded scores of Palestinians seeking aid, according to the civil defence agency.

Tuesday’s deaths in the southern city of Rafah came as rescuers reported 19 people killed in other Israeli attacks in the territory, and as the Israeli army announced three soldiers had been killed in northern Gaza.

‘Twenty-seven people were killed and more than 90 injured in the massacre targeting civilians who were waiting for American aid in the Al-Alam area of Rafah,’ said civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal, who earlier said the deaths occurred ‘when Israeli forces opened fire with tanks and drones’.

The Al-Alam roundabout is about a kilometre (just over half a mile) from a centre run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a recently formed group that Israel has worked with to implement a new aid distribution mechanism in the territory.

The United Nations and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the group over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.

The military said a crowd was moving towards the aid centre when troops saw them ‘deviating from the designated access routes’.

‘The troops carried out warning fire, and after the suspects failed to retreat, additional shots were directed near a few individual suspects who advanced toward the troops,’ it said, adding it was looking into reports of casualties.

At Nasser Hospital, the husband and children of Reem Al-Akhras, who was killed at Al-Alam, were beside themselves with grief.

‘How can I let you go, mum?’ her son Zain Zidan said through tears as he cradled her white-shrouded head outside the hospital.

‘She went to bring us some food, and this is what happened to her.’

Akhras’s husband, Mohamed Zidan, said ‘every day, unarmed people’ were being killed.

‘They carry no weapons or knives — just bags to collect aid.

‘This is not humanitarian aid, it’s a trap,’ he said.

Rania al-Astal, 30, said she had gone to Al-Alam with her husband to try to get food.

‘The shooting began intermittently around 5:00 am. Every time people approached Al-Alam roundabout, they were fired upon,’ she said.

‘But people didn’t care and rushed forward all at once — that’s when the army began firing heavily.’

Fellow witness Mohammed al-Shaer, 44, said at first ‘the Israeli army fired shots into the air, then began shooting directly at the people’.

In the end, he said, ‘I didn’t reach the centre, and we didn’t get any food.’

The army maintained it was ‘not preventing the arrival of Gazan civilians to the humanitarian aid distribution sites’.

GHF said the operations at its site went ahead safely on Tuesday, but added it was aware the military was ‘investigating whether a number of civilians were injured’.

‘This was an area well beyond our secure distribution site and operations area,’ it added, advising ‘all civilians to remain in the safe corridor when travelling to our distribution sites’.

The previous shooting on Sunday killed at least 31 people at the Al-Alam roundabout as they congregated before heading to the aid centre, rescuers said.

A military source later acknowledged ‘warning shots were fired towards several suspects’ about a kilometre from the aid site on Sunday.

UN chief Antonio Guterres urged an independent investigation into that shooting, calling it ‘unacceptable that Palestinians are risking their lives for food’.

‘Deadly attacks on distraught civilians trying to access the paltry amounts of food aid in Gaza are unconscionable,’ UN human rights chief Volker Turk said after Tuesday’s deaths.

‘Attacks directed against civilians constitute a grave breach of international law and a war crime.’

Israel has come under mounting pressure to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where people are facing severe shortages after Israel imposed a more than two-month blockade on supplies.

The blockade was recently eased, but the aid community has urged Israel to allow in more food, faster.

The US-backed GHF says it has distributed more than seven million meals’ worth of food.

Israel has stepped up its offensive in what it says is a renewed push to defeat Hamas, whose October 2023 attack on Israel sparked the war.

The army said three of its soldiers had been killed in combat in northern Gaza, bringing the number of Israeli troops killed in the territory since the start of the conflict to 424.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said at least 4,240 people have been killed in the territory since Israel resumed its offensive on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 54,510, mostly civilians.

Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.​

 

[Sharma Ji]

 

[Sharma Ji]

Gretard yahan bhi ghuss gai lol

 

[Saif]

Israeli strike kills 12 in south Gaza

THE civil defence agency in Gaza said an Israeli strike on a tent housing displaced Palestinians near the southern city of Khan Yunis on Wednesday killed at least 12 people...

www.newagebd.net

Israeli strike kills 12 in south Gaza
Gaza City - Palestinian Territories 05 June, 2025, 04:42

THE civil defence agency in Gaza said an Israeli strike on a tent housing displaced Palestinians near the southern city of Khan Yunis on Wednesday killed at least 12 people.

At least 12 people were killed, including several children and women, in a strike by an Israeli drone this morning on a tent for displaced persons' near Khan Yunis, the agency's spokesman Mahmud Bassal said, adding that four more people had been killed in other strikes. Since a truce collapsed in March, Israel has intensified its operations to destroy Hamas, the Palestinian group whose October 7, 2023 attack triggered the war in Gaza. Hamas's unprecedented attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 4,240 people have been killed in the territory since Israel re- sumed its offensive on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 54,510, mostly civilians. Meanwhile, a US and Israeli-backed group operating aid sites in the Gaza Strip announced the temporary closure of the facilities on Wednesday, with the Israeli army warning that roads leading to distribution centres were​

 

[Saif]

Gaza doctors give their own blood to patients after scores gunned down seeking aid

Doctors in the Gaza Strip are donating their own blood to save their patients after scores of Palestinians were gunned down while trying to get food aid, the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Thursday. Around 100 MSF staff protested outside the UN headquarters in Geneva against

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Gaza doctors give their own blood to patients after scores gunned down seeking aid

REUTERS
Published :
Jun 05, 2025 21:45
Updated :
Jun 05, 2025 21:45

Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from Israel, Jun 4, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Amir Cohen

Doctors in the Gaza Strip are donating their own blood to save their patients after scores of Palestinians were gunned down while trying to get food aid, the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Thursday.

Around 100 MSF staff protested outside the UN headquarters in Geneva against an aid distribution system in Gaza run by an Israeli-backed private company, which has led to chaotic scenes of mass carnage.

“People need the basics of life...they also need it in dignity,” MSF Switzerland’s director general, Stephen Cornish, told Reuters at the protest.

“If you’re fearing for your life, running with packages being mowed down, this is just something that is completely beyond everything we’ve ever seen,” he said. “These attacks have killed dozens...They were left to bleed out on the ground.”

Cornish said staff at one of the hospitals where MSF operates had to give blood as most Palestinians are now too poorly nourished to donate.

Israel allowed the private Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to begin food distribution in Gaza last week, after having completely shut the Gaza Strip to all supplies since the beginning of March.

Gaza authorities say at least 102 Palestinians were killed and nearly 500 wounded trying to get aid from the food distribution sites in the first eight days.

Eyewitnesses have said Israeli forces fired on crowds. The Israeli military said Hamas militants were to blame for opening fire, though it acknowledged that on Tuesday, when at least 27 people died, that its troops had fired at “suspects” who approached their positions.

The United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Wednesday supported by all other Council members, which would have called for an “immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” in Gaza and unhindered access for aid.​

 

[Saif]

Anger as US blocks Gaza ceasefire resolution at UN Security Council

UN Security Council members criticized the United States Wednesday after it vetoed a resolution calling for a ceasefire and unrestricted humanitarian access in Gaza

en.prothomalo.com

Anger as US blocks Gaza ceasefire resolution at UN Security Council

AFP United Nations, United States
Published: 05 Jun 2025, 10: 50

UN Security Council meeting Reuters file photo

UN Security Council members criticized the United States Wednesday after it vetoed a resolution calling for a ceasefire and unrestricted humanitarian access in Gaza, which Washington said undermined ongoing diplomacy.

It was the 15-member body's first vote on the situation since November, when the United States -- a key Israeli ally -- also blocked a text calling for an end to fighting.

"Today, the United States sent a strong message by vetoing a counterproductive UN Security Council resolution on Gaza targeting Israel," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement after Wednesday's 14 to 1 vote.

He said Washington would not support any text that "draws a false equivalence between Israel and Hamas, or disregards Israel's right to defend itself.

"The United States will continue to stand with Israel at the UN."

The draft resolution had demanded "an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza respected by all parties."

It also called for the "immediate, dignified and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas and other groups," and demanded the lifting of all restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Hamas, whose unprecedented attack inside Israel on 7 October, 2023 sparked the war, condemned the "disgraceful" US veto, reiterating accusations of "genocide" in Gaza, something Israel vehemently rejects.

The veto "marks a new stain on the ethical record of the United States of America," the group said in a statement, accusing Washington of "legitimizing genocide, supporting aggression, and rationalizing starvation, destruction, and mass killings."

'Moral stain'

Pakistan's ambassador to the UN Asim Ahmad meanwhile said the failed resolution would "remain not only a moral stain on the conscience of this council, but a fateful moment of political application that will reverberate for generations."

China's ambassador to the UN Fu Cong said: "today's vote result once again exposes that the root cause of the council's inability to quell the conflict in Gaza is the repeated obstruction by the US."

The veto marks Washington's first such action since US President Donald Trump took office in January.

Israel has faced mounting international pressure to end its war in Gaza.

That scrutiny has increased over flailing aid distribution in Gaza, which Israel blocked for more than two months before allowing a small number of UN vehicles to enter in mid-May.

The United Nations, which warned last month the entire population in the besieged Palestinian territory was at risk of famine, said trickle was far from enough to meet the humanitarian needs.

'Judged by history'

"The Council was prevented from shouldering its responsibility, despite the fact that most of us seem to be converging on one view," said France's ambassador to the UN Jerome Bonnafont.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the UN, said after the Security Council vote he would now ask the General Assembly to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire.

Israel's ambassador to the UN Danny Danon however said that the Palestinian plan to put the resolution to a vote at the General Assembly, where no country can veto it, was pointless, telling countries "don't waste more of your energy."

"This resolution doesn't advance humanitarian relief and undermines it. It ignores a working system in favor of political agendas," he said.

"The United Nations must return to its original purpose-promoting peace and security-and stop these performative actions," Rubio said.​

 

[Saif]

16 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, health officials say

Sixteen Palestinians were killed by the Israeli military in Gaza on Friday, according to local health authorities, as a US- and Israeli-backed group said it had handed out aid in the enclave after earlier saying that its distribution sites were closed. The military had no immediate comment on the

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

16 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, health officials say

REUTERS
Published :
Jun 06, 2025 20:36
Updated :
Jun 06, 2025 20:36

Palestinians gather to collect what remains of relief supplies from the distribution center of the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 5, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Stringer

Sixteen Palestinians were killed by the Israeli military in Gaza on Friday, according to local health authorities, as a US- and Israeli-backed group said it had handed out aid in the enclave after earlier saying that its distribution sites were closed.

The military had no immediate comment on the reports of deaths in war-shattered Gaza. Health authorities said strikes had killed people in Gaza’s Jabalia, Tuffah and Khan Younis areas.

Witnesses and medics told Reuters that Israeli planes and tanks had intensified strikes on Jabalia and nearby Beit Hanoun since the early hours.

The Israeli military issued evacuation orders to residents of certain blocks in northern Gaza on Friday, spokesperson Avichay Adraee posted on X.

The US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) told Reuters by email it had delivered aid on Friday, despite earlier announcing on its official Facebook page that its distribution sites were closed until further notice and that people should stay away from the sites “for their safety” after a series of deadly shootings.

The GHF opened two sites in southern Gaza on Thursday after closing all of its centres the previous day in the wake of shootings in the vicinity of its operations. It has so far operated four distribution centres.

The organisation bypasses traditional relief agencies and has been criticised by humanitarian organisations, including the United Nations, for alleged lack of neutrality, which it denies.

Palestinians collecting aid from GHF sites told Reuters that there was no clear distribution system, describing the process as disorganized and chaotic. Footage released this week by the organisation has shown similar scenes at one of its sites.

GHF halted distributions on Wednesday and said it was pressing Israeli forces to improve civilian safety beyond the perimeter of its operations after dozens of Palestinians were shot dead near the Rafah site over three consecutive days.

The Israeli military said on Sunday and Monday that its soldiers had fired warning shots. On Tuesday, it said, forces also fired warning shots before firing towards Palestinians that it said were advancing towards troops. GHF has said that aid was safely handed out from its sites without any incident.

Military spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote on X on Friday that Palestinians would have ‘free movement’ to aid distribution sites between 06:00 and 18:00, but warned that outside those hours the area would be a ‘closed military zone’ and movement would pose a significant risk to life.

Israel has re-intensified an offensive against Gaza’s dominant Hamas militant group since breaking a two-month-old ceasefire in March in a war triggered by Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct 7, 2023.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli airstrikes kill 55, body of Thai hostage retrieved from Gaza

The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday, as Israeli airstrikes killed 55 people, according to local medics. Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinia

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Israeli airstrikes kill 55, body of Thai hostage retrieved from Gaza

REUTERS
Published :
Jun 08, 2025 00:05
Updated :
Jun 08, 2025 00:05

Palestinians search for casualties at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Gaza City, June 7, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Ebrahim Hajjaj

The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday, as Israeli airstrikes killed 55 people, according to local medics.

Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian militant group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.

Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the U.S.- and Israeli-backed aid group, said on Saturday it was unable to distribute assistance to Palestinian civilians, blaming threats by Hamas, which Gaza’s dominant militant group denied.

Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.

There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.

The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.

Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as U.S., Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.

Medics in Gaza said 55 people in total were killed in Israeli airstrikes across the enclave on Saturday.

At least 15 Palestinians were killed and 50 wounded by airstrikes in the Gaza City district of Sabra in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday, local health authorities said.

More than one missile landed in the area. The target seemed to have been a multi-floor residential building, but the explosion damaged several other houses nearby, according to witnesses and media.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment. It later warned people to evacuate the nearby district of Jabalia, saying it was going to strike there after rockets were launched by militants in the vicinity.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said on Saturday that Gaza’s hospitals only had fuel for three more days and that Israel was denying access for international relief agencies to areas where fuel storages designated for hospitals are located.

There was no immediate response from the Israeli military or COGAT, the Israeli defence agency that coordinates humanitarian matters with the Palestinians.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military said it had uncovered “an underground tunnel route, including a command and control center from which senior Hamas commanders” operated beneath the European Hospital compound in southern Gaza.

It added that it had located several bodies of militants whose identities were “under examination”.

The Israeli government and military said last month it had killed Mohammad Sinwar, Hamas’ Gaza chief, but Hamas did not confirm his death.

US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS

The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.

Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the GHF said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations.

The GHF, which has been fiercely criticised by humanitarian organisations for alleged lack of neutrality, said it was unable to distribute any humanitarian aid on Saturday because Hamas had issued “direct threats” against its operations.

“These threats made it impossible to proceed today without putting innocent lives at risk,” the GHF said in a statement in which it also said it intended to resume aid distribution “without delay”.

A Hamas official told Reuters he had no knowledge of such “alleged threats”.

On Wednesday, the GHF suspended operations and asked the Israeli military to review security protocols after Palestinian hospital officials said more than 80 people had been shot dead and hundreds wounded near distribution points between June 1-3.

Eyewitnesses blamed Israeli soldiers for the killings. The Israeli military said it fired warning shots on two days, while on Tuesday it said soldiers had fired at Palestinian “suspects” who were advancing towards their positions.

The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to the U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.

The war erupted after Hamas-led militants took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.

Israel’s military campaign has since killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health authorities in Gaza, and flattened much of the coastal enclave.​

 

[Saif]

Israel army announces 4 soldiers killed in Gaza, thousands more troops needed

Israel's military announced Friday the deaths of four soldiers in Gaza, saying it needed thousands more troops to press its offensive, just as the premier's coalition faces the prospect of collapse over ultra-Orthodox conscription.

en.prothomalo.com

Israel army announces 4 soldiers killed in Gaza, thousands more troops needed
AFP Jerusalem
Published: 07 Jun 2025, 09: 45

An Israeli soldier stand atop a tank at a position along the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip on June 5, 2025, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. AFP

Israel's military announced Friday the deaths of four soldiers in Gaza, saying it needed thousands more troops to press its offensive, just as the premier's coalition faces the prospect of collapse over ultra-Orthodox conscription.

News of the soldiers' deaths came as Gaza's civil defence agency reported 38 killed Friday in Israeli attacks across the territory, where Palestinians observed the Eid al-Adha holiday under the shadow of war for a second consecutive year.

Military spokesman Effie Defrin said the four soldiers were killed as they "were operating in the Khan Yunis area, in a compound belonging to the Hamas terrorist organisation".

"Around six in the morning, an explosive device detonated, causing part of the structure to collapse," he said, adding that five other soldiers were wounded, one of them severely.

"The losses suffered today by the occupation in Khan Younis... illustrate what the occupation forces will face wherever they are present," said a statement attributed to Abu Obeida, spokesman for the armed of Hamas, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, while urging the Israeli public to "force its leaders to end the war of extermination or prepare to receive more of its sons in coffins".

The deaths bring to 429 the number of Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza since the start of the ground offensive in late October 2023.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu extended his condolences to the soldiers' families, saying they "sacrificed their lives for the safety of all of us".

Israel recently stepped up its Gaza campaign in what it says is a renewed push to defeat Hamas, whose 7 October, 2023 attack sparked the war.

Conscription row

Asked by a reporter about the issue of ultra-Orthodox conscription, which has emerged as a thorn in the side of Netanyahu's government, Defrin said "this is the need of the moment, an operational necessity".

The army was short around 10,000 soldiers, he added, including about 6,000 in combat roles, adding that "tens of thousands more notices will be issued in the upcoming draft cycle".

The conscription issue has threatened to sink Netanyahu's government, with ultra-Orthodox religious parties warning they will pull out of his coalition if Netanyahu fails to make good on a promise to codify the military exemption for their community in law.

At the same time, much of the public has turned against the exemption amid the increasing strain put on reservists' families by repeated call-up orders during the war.

In April, a military representative told a parliamentary committee that of 18,000 draft notices sent to ultra-Orthodox individuals, only 232 received a positive response.

Netanyahu's office announced shortly after 1:00 am on Friday that he had met with a lawmaker from his Likud party who has recently pushed for a bill aimed at increasing the ultra-Orthodox enlistment and toughening sanctions on those who refuse.

The premier's office said "significant progress was made", with "unresolved issues" to be ironed out later.

Netanyahu also faced scrutiny after he admitted to supporting an armed group in Gaza that opposes Hamas.

Knesset member and ex-defence minister Avigdor Liberman had told the Kan public broadcaster that the government, at Netanyahu's direction, was "giving weapons to a group of criminals and felons".

The European Council on Foreign Relations think tank describes the group a "criminal gang operating in the Rafah area that is widely accused of looting aid trucks".​

 

[Saif]

Gaza rescuers say Israel fire kills 36 including 6 near aid centre

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 36 Palestinians on Saturday, six of them in a shooting near a US-backed aid distribution centre...

www.newagebd.net

Gaza rescuers say Israel fire kills 36 including 6 near aid centre
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City, Palestinian Territories 07 June, 2025, 19:09

Palestinians visit the graves of their loved ones on the first day of the Muslim Eid al-Adha festival in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, on June 6, 2025, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. | AFP photo

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 36 Palestinians on Saturday, six of them in a shooting near a US-backed aid distribution centre.

The shooting deaths were the latest reported near the aid centre run by the Gaza Humanitarian Fund in the southern district of Rafah and came after it resumed distributions following a brief suspension in the wake of similar deaths earlier this week.

An aid boat with 12 activists on board, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, was meanwhile nearing Gaza in a bid to highlight the plight of Palestinians in the face of an Israeli blockade that has only been partially eased.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that at around 7:00 am (0400 GMT), ‘six people were killed and several others wounded by the forces of the Israeli occupation near the Al-Alam roundabout’.

Gazans have gathered at the roundabout almost daily since late May to collect humanitarian aid from the GHF aid centre about one kilometre (a little over half a mile) away.

AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls compiled by the civil defence agency or the circumstances of the deaths it reports.

The Israeli military told AFP that troops had fired ‘warning shots’ at individuals that it said were ‘advancing in a way that endangered the troops’.

Samir Abu Hadid, who was there early Saturday, told AFP that thousands of people had gathered near the roundabout.

‘As soon as some people tried to advance towards the aid centre, the Israeli occupation forces opened fire from armoured vehicles stationed near the centre, firing into the air and then at civilians,’ Abu Hadid said.

The GHF, officially a private effort with opaque funding, began operations in late May as Israel partially eased a more than two-month aid blockade on the territory.

UN agencies and major aid groups have declined to work with it, citing concerns it serves Israeli military goals.

Israel has come under increasing international criticism over the dire humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory, where the United Nations warned in May that the entire population was at risk of famine.

The aid boat Madleen, organised by an international activist coalition, was sailing towards Gaza on Saturday, aiming to breach Israel’s naval blockade and deliver aid to the territory, organisers said.

‘We are now sailing off the Egyptian coast,’ German human rights activist Yasemin Acar told AFP. ‘We are all good,’ she added.

In a statement from London, the International Committee for Breaking the Siege of Gaza -- a member organisation of the flotilla coalition -- said the ship had entered Egyptian waters.

The group said it remains in contact with international legal and human rights bodies to ensure the safety of those on board, warning that any interception would constitute ‘a blatant violation of international humanitarian law’.

The Palestinian territory was under Israeli naval blockade even before the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas that sparked the Gaza war and the Israeli military has made clear it intends to enforce the blockade.

‘For this case as well, we are prepared,’ army spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said on Tuesday, when asked about the Freedom Flotilla vessel.

‘We have gained experience in recent years, and we will act accordingly.’

A 2010 commando raid on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, which was part of a similar attempt to breach Israel’s naval blockade, left 10 civilians dead.

The Israeli military has stepped up its operations in Gaza in recent weeks in what it says is a renewed push to defeat Hamas, whose October 2023 attack sparked the war.

During the attack, militants abducted 251 hostages, 55 of whom remain in Gaza, including 31 the Israeli military says are dead.

In a special operation in the Rafah area on Friday, Israeli forces retrieved the body of Thai hostage Nattapong Pinta, Defence Minister Israel Katz said.

‘Nattapong came to Israel from Thailand to work in agriculture, out of a desire to build a better future for himself and his family,’ Katz said.

He was ‘brutally murdered in captivity by the terrorist organisation Mujahideen Brigades’, the minister charged.

The Mujahideen Brigades is an armed group close to Hamas ally Islamic Jihad that Israel has also accused over other deaths of hostages seized from Kibbutz Nir Oz near the border.

The military said Nattapong’s family and Thai officials had been notified of the operation to recover his body.

Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Nikorndej Balankura said the country was ‘deeply saddened’ by his death.​

 

[Saif]

Egyptian, Turkish FMs discuss Gaza ceasefire efforts

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty reaffirmed Cairo's ongoing efforts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza during a phone call on Sunday with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan, Egypt's Foreign Ministry said. The two ministers discussed the "brutal Israeli aggression" in Gaza and the worsening hum

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Egyptian, Turkish FMs discuss Gaza ceasefire efforts

FE ONLINE DESK
Published :
Jun 09, 2025 00:17
Updated :
Jun 09, 2025 00:17

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty reaffirmed Cairo's ongoing efforts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza during a phone call on Sunday with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan, Egypt's Foreign Ministry said.

The two ministers discussed the "brutal Israeli aggression" in Gaza and the worsening humanitarian crisis in the enclave, reports Xinhua.

According to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, Abdelatty highlighted Egypt's role in pushing for a ceasefire, the release of hostages and detainees, and the delivery of humanitarian, medical, and shelter aid to Gaza.

Türkiye has not issued an official statement, but Turkish media, citing unnamed diplomatic sources, said Fidan also spoke with his Egyptian and Jordanian counterparts on Sunday to discuss developments in Gaza and efforts to end the conflict.​

 

[Saif]

Gaza rescuers say Israeli fire kills 36, six near aid centre

Gaza's civil defence agency said Saturday that Israeli forces had killed at least 36 Palestinians, six of them in a shooting near a US-backed aid distribution centre.

en.prothomalo.com

Gaza rescuers say Israeli fire kills 36, six near aid centre
AFP Gaza City, Palestine
Published: 08 Jun 2025, 10: 10

A plume of smoke erupts during Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip as pictured from across the border in southern Israel on 5 June, 2025, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. AFP

Gaza's civil defence agency said Saturday that Israeli forces had killed at least 36 Palestinians, six of them in a shooting near a US-backed aid distribution centre.

The Israeli military told AFP that troops had fired "warning shots" at individuals it said were "advancing in a way that endangered the troops".

The shooting deaths were the latest reported near the aid centre run by the Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF) in the southern district of Rafah, and came after it resumed distributions following a brief suspension in the wake of similar deaths earlier this week.

Meanwhile, an aid boat with 12 activists on board, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, was nearing Gaza in a bid to highlight the plight of Palestinians in the face of an Israeli blockade that has only been partially eased.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that at around 7:00 am (0400 GMT), "six people were killed and several others wounded by the forces of the Israeli occupation near the Al-Alam roundabout", where they had gathered to seek humanitarian aid from the distribution centre around a kilometre away.

AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls compiled by the civil defence agency or the circumstances of the deaths it reports.

Samir Abu Hadid, who was there early Saturday, told AFP that thousands of people had gathered near the roundabout.

"As soon as some people tried to advance towards the aid centre, the Israeli occupation forces opened fire from armoured vehicles stationed near the centre, firing into the air and then at civilians," Abu Hadid said.

The GHF said in a statement it had not distributed aid on Saturday because of "direct threats" from Hamas.

Later Saturday, the Israeli army said an operation in Gaza City resulted in the killing of Asaad Abu Sharia, reportedly head of the Mujahideen Brigades.

The armed group is close to Hamas ally Islamic Jihad that Israel has also accused over deaths of hostages seized from Kibbutz Nir Oz near the border.

The army said he had taken part in the bloody attack on Nir Oz when Hamas launched its 7 October, 2023 attack on Israel.

It said he was "directly implicated" in the killings of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, a family who became a symbol of seized hostages for many in Israel.

Activist boat nears Gaza

The GHF, officially a private effort with opaque funding, began operations in late May as Israel partially eased a more than two-month-long aid blockade.

UN agencies and major aid groups have declined to work with it, citing concerns it serves Israeli military goals.

On Saturday, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said that the overall toll for the Gaza war had reached 54,772, the majority civilians. The UN considers these figures reliable.

The war was sparked by Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

Israel has come under increasing international criticism over the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, where the UN warned in May that the entire population was at risk of famine.

The aid boat Madleen, organised by an international activist coalition, was sailing towards Gaza on Saturday, aiming to breach Israel's naval blockade and deliver aid to the territory, organisers said.

"We are now sailing off the Egyptian coast," German human rights activist Yasemin Acar told AFP, saying they expected to reach Gaza by Monday.

The Palestinian territory was under Israeli naval blockade even before Hamas's October 2023 attack and the Israeli military has made clear it intends to enforce it.

A 2010 commando raid on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, which was part of a similar attempt to breach Israel's naval blockade, left 10 civilians dead.

Evacuation order

The Israeli military has stepped up its operations in Gaza in recent weeks in what it says is a renewed push to defeat Hamas, whose October 2023 attack sparked the war.

On Saturday, the military issued evacuation orders for neighbourhoods in northern Gaza, saying they had been used for rocket attacks.

Also on Saturday, Hamas released a photograph of one of the remaining hostages, Matan Zangauker, appearing to be in poor health, with a warning that he would not survive.

His mother, Einav Zangauker, speaking at a protest in Tel Aviv, said "I can no longer bear this nightmare. The angel of death, Netanyahu, continues to sacrifice the hostages".

During the October 2023 attack, militants abducted 251 hostages, 55 of whom remain in Gaza, including 31 the Israeli military says are dead.​

 

[Sharma Ji]

Time for a Mohammed remix ?



@Mainerik

 

[Saif]

Israeli forces boarded Gaza-bound boat carrying Greta Thunberg, says Aid group

The organisers of a Gaza-bound aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg and other activists said Israeli forces intercepted the vessel on Monday, after Israel vowed to prevent it from reaching the Palestinian territory.

en.prothomalo.com

Israeli forces boarded Gaza-bound boat carrying Greta Thunberg, says Aid group
AFP Cairo
Published: 09 Jun 2025, 09: 53

The organisers of a Gaza-bound aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg and other activists said Israeli forces intercepted the vessel on 9 June 2025. Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC)

The organisers of a Gaza-bound aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg and other activists said Israeli forces intercepted the vessel on Monday, after Israel vowed to prevent it from reaching the Palestinian territory.

The Madleen aimed to deliver aid and challenge Israel's decades-long naval blockade of Gaza.

AFP lost contact with the activists onboard early Monday morning after the organisers said alarms sounded and life jackets were being prepared for a possible interception.

"Connection has been lost on the 'Madleen'. Israeli army have boarded the vessel," the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the activist group operating the vessel, posted on Telegram. It added that the passengers had been "kidnapped" by Israeli forces.

The activist group posted a series of pre-recorded videos from those onboard, including one from Thunberg.

"If you see this video we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters," she said.

Mahmud Abu-Odeh, a Germany-based press officer with the coalition, told AFP that "the activists seemed to be arrested".

Defence Minister Israel Katz said he had ordered Israel's army to stop the ship from reaching Gaza or violating a blockade he described as needed to prevent Palestinian militants from importing weapons.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the activists' boat was instructed to change course as it approached "a restricted area" early Monday. About an hour later, it said the boat was being towed to Israeli shores.

"The passengers are expected to return to their home countries," the ministry wrote on social media.

"The tiny amount of aid that was on the yacht and not consumed by the 'celebrities' will be transferred to Gaza through real humanitarian channels," it added.

Swedish climate campaigner Thunberg is among a multi-national group of activists aboard the Madleen, which departed from Italy on 1 June to raise awareness about the humanitarian plight in Gaza.

The United Nations has repeatedly warned of famine, malnutrition and disease throughout the 21 months of the Israel-Hamas war.​

 

[Saif]

Britain sanctions Israeli far-right ministers over Gaza comments

Britain and other allies imposed sanctions on two far-right Israeli ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, on Tuesday over "their repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian communities", the UK's foreign ministry said. Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway joined Britain

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Britain sanctions Israeli far-right ministers over Gaza comments

REUTERS
Published :
Jun 10, 2025 22:27
Updated :
Jun 10, 2025 22:27

Britain and other allies imposed sanctions on two far-right Israeli ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, on Tuesday over "their repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian communities", the UK's foreign ministry said.

Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway joined Britain in freezing the assets and imposing travel bans on Israel's national security minister Ben-Gvir - a West Bank settler - and finance minister Smotrich.

"Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich have incited extremist violence and serious abuses of Palestinian human rights. These actions are not acceptable," British foreign minister David Lammy, along with the foreign ministers of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway said in a joint statement.

"This is why we have taken action now to hold those responsible to account."

Israel's foreign minister, Gideon Saar, said the move was "outrageous" and the government would hold a special meeting early next week to decide how to respond to the "unacceptable decision".

Smotrich, speaking at the inauguration of a new settlement in the Hebron Hills, spoke of "contempt" for Britain's move.

"Britain has already tried once to prevent us from settling the cradle of our homeland, and we cannot do it again. We are determined God willing to continue building."

Britain, like other European countries, has been increasing pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to end the blockade on aid into Gaza, where international experts have said famine is imminent.

In Tuesday's joint statement, allies tried to soften the blow by saying Britain reiterated its commitment to continuing "a strong friendship with the people of Israel based on shared ties, values and commitment to [its] security and future".

"We will strive to achieve an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the immediate release of the remaining hostages by Hamas which can have no future role in the governance of Gaza, a surge in aid and a path to a two-state solution," the statement said.​

 

[Saif]

Macron calls for release of Gaza activists as thousands demonstrate

Tens of thousands of people staged rallies after Israel stopped the boat, the Madleen, that was carrying 12 activists.

en.prothomalo.com

Macron calls for release of Gaza activists as thousands demonstrate

AFP Nice, France
Published: 10 Jun 2025, 08: 40

Protestors hold signs and a Palestinian flag as they attend a demonstration to show their support for activists aboard a boat stopped by Israeli forces enroute to deliver aid to Gaza, in Toulouse, south-western France on June 9, 2025. AFP

French President Emmanuel Macron called on Israel to quickly free activists, including Greta Thunberg, on a boat that was seized Monday as it headed for Gaza in an operation that sparked angry protests in several European cities.

Tens of thousands of people staged rallies after Israel stopped the boat, the Madleen, that was carrying 12 activists.

In France, rallies in Paris and at least five other cities were called by left wing parties. Jean-Luc Melenchon, head of the France Unbowed (LFI) party, called the seizure of the Gaza boat by the Israeli military “international piracy”.

In Switzerland, several hundred people blocked train stations in Geneva and Lausanne to protest Israel’s military operations in Gaza, media reports said.

Some 300 protesters carrying Palestinian flags occupied two tracks at Geneva’s main station for about an hour, leading to delays and cancellations, the reports said. A similar protest was staged in nearby Lausanne where police cleared the tracks.

Macron meanwhile urged the immediate liberation of French nationals among the 12 activists on the vessel.

Macron had “requested that the six French nationals be allowed to return to France as soon as possible,” his office said.

Protestors hold signs and a Palestinian flag as they attend a demonstration to show their support for activists aboard a boat stopped by Israeli forces enroute to deliver aid to Gaza, in Toulouse, south-western France on June 9, 2025 AFP

France was “vigilant” and “stands by all its nationals when they are in danger,” he added. The French government had also called on Israel to ensure the “protection” of the activists. Macron also called the humanitarian blockade of Gaza “a scandal” and a “disgrace”.

Israel’s foreign ministry said earlier that “all the passengers of the ‘selfie yacht’ are safe and unharmed”, and it expected the activists to return to their home countries.

Israel has virtually sealed off Gaza as part of its military operation in the Palestinian territory since the Hamas militant group’s attacks on Israel on 7 October, 2023.​

 

[Saif]

Last days of Gaza

THIS is the end. The final blood-soaked chapter of the genocide. It will be over soon. Weeks. At most. Two million people are camped out amongst the rubble or in the open air. Dozens are killed and wounded daily from Israeli shells, missiles, drones, bombs and bullets...

www.newagebd.net

Last days of Gaza
12 June, 2025, 00:00

The genocide is almost complete. When it is concluded it will have exposed the moral bankruptcy of western civilisation, writes Chris Hedges

THIS is the end. The final blood-soaked chapter of the genocide. It will be over soon. Weeks. At most. Two million people are camped out amongst the rubble or in the open air. Dozens are killed and wounded daily from Israeli shells, missiles, drones, bombs and bullets.

They lack clean water, medicine and food. They have reached a point of collapse. Sick. Injured. Terrified. Humiliated. Abandoned. Destitute. Starving. Hopeless.

In the last pages of this horror story, Israel is sadistically baiting starving Palestinians with promises of food, luring them to the narrow and congested nine-mile ribbon of land that borders Egypt. Israel and its cynically named Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, allegedly funded by Israel’s ministry of defence and the Mossad, is weaponising starvation.

It is enticing Palestinians to southern Gaza the way the Nazis enticed starving Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto to board trains to the death camps. The goal is not to feed the Palestinians. No one seriously argues there is enough food or aid hubs. The goal is to cram Palestinians into heavily guarded compounds and deport them.

What comes next? I long ago stopped trying to predict the future. Fate has a way of surprising us. But there will be a final humanitarian explosion in Gaza’s human slaughterhouse. We see it with the surging crowds of Palestinians fighting to get a food parcel, which has resulted in Israeli and U.S. private contractors shooting dead at least 130 and wounding over seven hundred others in the first eight days of aid distribution.

We see it with Benjamin Netanyahu’s arming ISIS-linked gangs in Gaza that loot food supplies. Israel, which has eliminated hundreds of employees with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, doctors, journalists, civil servants and police in targeted assassinations, has orchestrated the implosion of civil society.

I suspect Israel will facilitate a breach in the fence along the Egyptian border. Desperate Palestinians will stampede into the Egyptian Sinai. Maybe it will end some other way. But it will end soon. There is not much more Palestinians can take.

We — full participants in this genocide — will have achieved our demented goal of emptying Gaza and expanding Greater Israel. We will bring down the curtain on the live-streamed genocide. We will have mocked the ubiquitous university programs of Holocaust studies, designed, it turns out, not to equip us to end genocides, but deify Israel as an eternal victim licensed to carry out mass slaughter.

The mantra of never again is a joke. The understanding that when we have the capacity to halt genocide and we do not, we are culpable, does not apply to us. Genocide is public policy. Endorsed and sustained by our two ruling parties.

There is nothing left to say. Maybe that is the point. To render us speechless. Who does not feel paralysed? And maybe, that too, is the point. To paralyse us. Who is not traumatised? And maybe that too was planned. Nothing we do, it seems, can halt the killing. We feel defenseless. We feel helpless. Genocide as spectacle.

I have stopped looking at the images. The rows of little shrouded bodies. The decapitated men and women. Families burned alive in their tents. The children who have lost limbs or are paralysed. The chalky death masks of those pulled from under the rubble. The wails of grief. The emaciated faces. I can’t.

This genocide will haunt us. It will echo down history with the force of a tsunami. It will divide us forever. There is no going back.

And how will we remember? By not remembering.

Once it is over, all those who supported it, all those who ignored it, all those who did nothing, will rewrite history, including their personal history. It was hard to find anyone who admitted to being a Nazi in post-war Germany, or a member of the Klu Klux Klan once segregation in the southern United States ended.

A nation of innocents. Victims even. It will be the same. We like to think we would have saved Anne Frank. The truth is different. The truth is, crippled by fear, nearly all of us will only save ourselves, even at the expense of others. But that is a truth that is hard to face. That is the real lesson of the Holocaust. Better it be erased.

In his book One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, Omar El Akkad writes: ‘Should a drone vaporise some nameless soul on the other side of the planet, who among us wants to make a fuss? What if it turns out they were a terrorist? What if the default accusation proves true, and we by implication be labeled terrorist sympathisers, ostracised, yelled at? It is generally the case that people are most zealously motivated by the worst plausible thing that could happen to them.

‘For some, the worst plausible thing might be the ending of their bloodline in a missile strike. Their entire lives turned to rubble and all of it preemptively justified in the name of fighting terrorists who are terrorists by default on account of having been killed. For others, the worst plausible thing is being yelled at.’

You cannot decimate a people, carry out saturation bombing over 20 months to obliterate their homes, villages and cities, massacre tens of thousands of innocent people, set up a siege to ensure mass starvation, drive them from land where they have lived for centuries and not expect blowback.

The genocide will end. The response to the reign of state terror will begin. If you think it won’t you know nothing about human nature or history. The killing of two Israeli diplomats in Washington and the attack against supporters of Israel at a protest in Boulder, Colorado, are only the start.

Chaim Engel, who took part in the uprising at the Nazis’ Sobibor death camp in Poland, described how, armed with a knife, he attacked a guard in the camp.

‘It’s not a decision,’ Engel explained years later. ‘You just react, instinctively you react to that, and I figured, “Let us to do, and go and do it.” And I went. I went with the man in the office and we killed this German. With every jab, I said, “That is for my father, for my mother, for all these people, all the Jews you killed.”’

Does anyone expect Palestinians to act differently? How are they to react when Europe and the United States, who hold themselves up as the vanguards of civilisation, backed a genocide that butchered their parents, their children, their communities, occupied their land and blasted their cities and homes into rubble? How can they not hate those who did this to them?

What message has this genocide imparted not only to Palestinians, but to all in the global south?

It is unequivocal. You do not matter. Humanitarian law does not apply to you. We do not care about your suffering, the murder of your children. You are vermin. You are worthless. You deserve to be killed, starved and dispossessed. You should be erased from the face of the earth.

‘To preserve the values of the civilised world, it is necessary to set fire to a library,’ El Akkad writes: ‘To blow up a mosque. To incinerate olive trees. To dress up in the lingerie of women who fled and then take pictures. To level universities. To loot jewelry, art, food. Banks. To arrest children for picking vegetables. To shoot children for throwing stones.

‘To parade the captured in their underwear. To break a man’s teeth and shove a toilet brush in his mouth. To let combat dogs loose on a man with Down syndrome and then leave him to die. Otherwise, the uncivilised world might win.’

There are people I have known for years who I will never speak to again. They know what is happening. Who does not know? They will not risk alienating their colleagues, being smeared as an antisemite, jeopardising their status, being reprimanded or losing their jobs.

They do not risk death, the way Palestinians do. They risk tarnishing the pathetic monuments of status and wealth they spent their lives constructing. Idols. They bow down before these idols. They worship these idols. They are enslaved by them.

At the feet of these idols lie tens of thousands of murdered Palestinians.

ScheerPost.com, June 10. Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for 15 years for the New York Times.​

 

[Saif]

Israel fire near aid centre in Gaza kills 31

The Gaza civil defence agency said Israeli forces opened fire on people waiting to enter a US-backed food distribution centre on Wednesday, killing 31 and wounding ‘about 200’...

www.newagebd.net

Israel fire near aid centre in Gaza kills 31
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 12 June, 2025, 01:07

The Gaza civil defence agency said Israeli forces opened fire on people waiting to enter a US-backed food distribution centre on Wednesday, killing 31 and wounding ‘about 200’.

‘We transported at least 31 martyrs and about 200 wounded as a result of Israeli tank and drone fire on thousands of citizens on their way to receive food from the American aid centre,’ civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said.

Restrictions imposed on media in the Gaza Strip and the difficulties of access on the ground mean AFP is not able to independently verify the death tolls announced by the civil defence agency.

Bassal said thousands of Palestinians had been gathering since 2:00am (2300 GMT Tuesday) in the hope of reaching the US and Israeli-backed food distribution centre.

‘Israeli tanks fired several times, then at around 5:30am intensified their fire, coinciding with heavy fire from drones targeting civilians,’ he said.

Mohammad Abu Salima, head of Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital, said it had received the bodies of 24 people killed while waiting to enter the aid centre and was treating 96 who had been wounded.

Al-Awda hospital, in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, said in a statement that it had received seven bodies and was treating 112 people who had been wounded in the same incident.

There have been a series of deadly shootings since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation first opened aid distribution points in the Palestinian territory on May 27, as Israel faced mounting international condemnation over the humanitarian conditions.

Israel recently allowed some deliveries to resume after barring them for more than two months and began working with the newly formed, US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

But UN agencies and other aid organisations have criticised the GHF and the United Nations refuses to work with it, citing concerns over its practices and neutrality.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Tuesday that ‘Israeli military operations have intensified in recent days, with mass casualties reported’.

The Hamas attack that triggered the war in October 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 54,981 people, the majority of them civilians, have been killed in the territory since the start of the war. The United Nations considers the figures reliable.

Out of 251 people taken hostage during the Hamas attack, 54 are still held in Gaza including 32 the Israeli military says are dead.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli ‘starvation’ of Gaza a ‘war crime’

Israel’s refusal to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza and its targeting of aid distribution points is causing civilians to starve which constitutes a war crime, Sweden’s foreign minister said Thursday.

www.newagebd.net

Israeli ‘starvation’ of Gaza a ‘war crime’
Agence France-Presse . Stockholm 12 June, 2025, 22:30

Women cry as they mourn the death of a loved one killed during overnight Israeli bombardment on Thursday, at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, amid the on-going war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group. | AFP photo

Israel’s refusal to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza and its targeting of aid distribution points is causing civilians to starve which constitutes a war crime, Sweden’s foreign minister said Thursday.

In early June, UN human rights chief Volker Turk said deadly attacks on civilians around aid distribution sites in the Gaza Strip constituted ‘a war crime’, while several rights groups including Amnesty International have accused Israel of genocide.

Israel has vehemently rejected that term.

‘To use starvation of civilians as a method of war is a war crime. Life-saving humanitarian help must never be politicised or militarised,’ Maria Malmer Stenergard said at a press conference.

‘There are strong indications right now that Israel is not living up to its commitments under international humanitarian law,’ she said.

‘It is crucial that food, water and medicine swiftly reach the civilian population, many of whom are women and children living under wholly inhumane conditions,’ she said.

Sweden announced in December 2024 it was halting funding to the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA after Israel banned the organisation, accusing it of providing cover for Hamas militants.

Swedish international development minister Benjamin Dousa told Thursday’s press conference that Stockholm was now channelling aid through other UN organisations, and was ‘the fifth-biggest donor in the world ... (and) the second-largest donor in the EU to the humanitarian aid response in Gaza’.

The country’s humanitarian aid to Gaza since the start of the war in October 2023 currently amounts to more than 1 billion kronor ($105 million), while funding earmarked for Gaza for 2025 totals 800 million kronor, he said.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority said internet and fixed-line communication services were down in Gaza on Thursday following an attack on the territory’s last fibre optic cable it blamed on Israel.

‘All internet and fixed-line communication services in the Gaza Strip have been cut following the targeting of the last remaining main fibre optic line in Gaza,’ the PA’s telecommunications ministry said in a statement, accusing Israel of attempting to cut Gaza off from the world.

‘The southern and central Gaza Strip have now joined Gaza City and the northern part of the Strip in experiencing complete isolation for the second consecutive day,’ the ministry said in a statement.

It added that its maintenance and repair teams had been unable to safely access the sites where damage occurred to the fibre optic cable.

‘The Israeli occupation continues to prevent technical teams from repairing the cables that were cut yesterday’, it said, adding that Israeli authorities had prevented repairs to other telecommunication lines in Gaza ‘for weeks and months’.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said the communication lines were ‘directly targeted by occupation fores’.

It said the internet outage was hindering its emergency services by impeding communication with first responder teams in the field.

‘The emergency operations room is also struggling to coordinate with other organisations to respond to humanitarian cases.’

Maysa Monayer, spokeswoman for the Palestinian communication ministry, told AFP that ‘mobile calls are still available with very limited capacity’ in Gaza for the time being.

Now in its 21st month, the war in Gaza has caused massive damage to infrastructure across the Palestinian territory, including water mains, power lines and roads.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli fire kills 22 in Gaza

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli fire killed 22 people across the Palestinian territory on Thursday, including 16 who were waiting to collect aid.

www.newagebd.net

Israeli fire kills 22 in Gaza
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 13 June, 2025, 00:45

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli fire killed 22 people across the Palestinian territory on Thursday, including 16 who were waiting to collect aid.

The distribution of food and basic supplies in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip has become increasingly fraught and perilous, exacerbating the territory’s deep hunger crisis.

Civil defence official Mohammed al-Mughayyir said that the Al-Awda Hospital received 10 dead and around 200 wounded, including women and children, ‘after Israeli drones dropped multiple bombs on gatherings of civilians near an aid distribution point around the Netzarim checkpoint in central Gaza’.

He said that Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital received six dead following Israeli attacks on aid queues near Netzarim and in the Al-Sudaniya area in northwestern Gaza.

The Israeli army said it was looking into the reports when asked for comment by AFP.

Restrictions imposed on media in the Gaza Strip and the difficulties of access on the ground mean AFP is not able to independently verify the death tolls announced by the civil defence agency.

Mughayyir said another six people were killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza.

The US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation accused Palestinian militant group Hamas of attacking aid workers en route to a distribution centre on Wednesday, saying at least five people were killed.

GHF said a bus carrying its staff to a distribution site near the southern city of Khan Yunis was ‘brutally attacked by Hamas’ around 10:00pm (1900 GMT).

In an email to AFP, the group added that all five of the people killed were Palestinian aid workers for GHF.

In a post on X, Israel’s foreign ministry accused Hamas of ‘weaponising suffering in Gaza — denying food, targeting lifesavers and forsaking its own people’.

Dozens of Palestinians have been killed while trying to reach GHF distribution points since they began operating in late May, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency.​

 

[Saif]

While the world marches for Gaza, the West remains silent

This silence is not accidental. It is carefully engineered

www.thedailystar.net

While the world marches for Gaza, the West remains silent

I've been trying to follow the Global March to Gaza for over a month now. The only glimpses I've found come from Al Jazeera, Turkey's Anadolu Ajansı, and a handful of Palestinian news portals.

But the march is happening -- right now -- and most of the Western world either doesn't seem to notice or is blatantly choosing not to. It's most likely the latter.

Across every inhabited continent, thousands are mobilising: marching, chanting, risking arrest, demanding justice for Gaza. Among them are doctors and teachers, imams and priests, students and elders -- united in historic solidarity.

And yet, if you turned on your television this morning, scrolled through your feed, or flipped through a newspaper, you'd barely know it was happening.

This silence is not accidental. It is carefully engineered.

Picture this: a convoy of nine buses carrying nearly a thousand activists, backed by unions, bar associations and rights groups, departing Tunis and crossing into Libya -- en route to Egypt's Rafah crossing. They're supported by Tunisian labour leaders and legal defenders, standing in defiance of a siege in what the UN calls "the hungriest place on Earth". Even yesterday, Swiss activists set out for Egypt.

Their goal is symbolic and profound: to break the blockade, deliver aid, bear witness to genocide, and pressure world leaders into action -- much like the Madleen crew, whose mission was intercepted just days ago.

The convoy is expected to arrive in Cairo today. From there, they plan to march through Sinai, traverse El Arish, and reach Rafah -- even while knowing Egypt may deny them entry and Israeli forces await at the border.

This is a truly global movement. Activists from 50 countries are converging in Cairo under banners like the Palestinian Youth Movement, Codepink, and Jewish Voice for Labour -- with support from 150 organisations across 31 nations. Hundreds more are joining from Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Mauritania. Some will come by land, others by sea.

On the Mediterranean, the aid ship Madleen, bound for Gaza with humanitarian supplies and carrying Greta Thunberg, a French MEP, a journalist and many more, was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters. All passengers were detained -- some later deported, others imprisoned in Israel. The act drew international condemnation -- from France, Spain and Turkey.

The stakes could not be higher. Gaza has been under siege for more than 20 months. A genocidal war has killed over 54,900 Palestinians and injured more than 126,000. Aid distribution sites have become death zones -- Israeli forces have killed over 224 Palestinians gathering food since May 27 alone, wounding nearly 2,000. Schools lie in ruins, hospitals are bombed out, water is scarce. Hunger is weaponised. Gaza is collapsing.

And still, the Western media says almost nothing.

This diverse, global act of civilian resistance doesn't fit the dominant narrative where Palestine is framed as fringe insurgency, Israel as self-defence. To acknowledge thousands marching peacefully against genocide would dismantle that fiction. So, the silence holds -- no live feeds, no front pages, no analysis. Just vacuum. A sickening and deliberate vacuum.

In fact, over 100 BBC employees have allegedly accused the British broadcaster of pro-Israel bias in its coverage of the Gaza war. The claim was made in an open letter sent to BBC director Tim Davie and signed by more than 230 figures in the UK's media industry and other sectors, who said the public broadcaster has failed to provide "fair and accurate" coverage of the conflict.

The letter, first seen by The Independent, said the BBC must "recommit to fairness, accuracy and impartiality".

Behind that vacuum stands the United States -- the world's most powerful enabler of this violence. Washington sends $3.8 billion in unconditioned military aid to Israel each year. Its vetoes at the UN Security Council block ceasefires and investigations. Its diplomatic shield allows siege, bombing, displacement and starvation to continue with impunity.

Every bomb dropped, every sniper's bullet, every bulldozed home carries the imprint of American complicity.

And because the US sits at the centre of global media power, it shapes narratives at will. Palestinian suffering is erased. Israeli violence is sanitised. Headlines mimic government talking points, not witness testimony. What you see is not journalism; it's narrative warfare.

But silence cannot contain solidarity.

The people are marching -- they are acting how they can. And you can too, in your own way. Share livestreams; amplify images; write to political leaders and demand an end to arms transfers, call for ceasefire and UN investigations, insist on open humanitarian corridors; organise vigils, teach-ins, divestment campaigns, legal actions; support grassroots Palestinian media and aid organisations.

Don't ask, "How do I go to Gaza?" or "Can I adopt a Palestinian child?" Recognise your abilities, your logistics -- and direct your emotions through logic. We all have roles to play -- and every single act matters.

Because the choice is clear: in the face of genocide and silence, neutrality is not peace. It is violence. Standing by means siding with power. But going over your own head will also be of no help. Extend help within your means -- but extend it anyhow.

Make no mistake: this march, and every other act in support of the Palestinian people at this point in time, is not just mere protest.

All of this combined has now become a moral reckoning. This defines history.

When people touch the cables of silence, they spark cracks. When voices break through the cover-up, truth begins to seep.

If the world's media won't show the march, we must. If the powerful won't act, we must. If neutrality is not an option, then action becomes an obligation.

The march is underway. So is history.

We can walk with it or stay silent and be left behind. But history remembers voices, not voids.

Let them blackout the outlets. Let them scrub the headlines.

They cannot erase the footsteps. They cannot mute the movement.

The world is walking. And they -- nay, none of us -- will stop.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli fire kills 35 people in Gaza, many at aid site

The Gaza health ministry said on Saturday that at least 274 people have so far been killed, and more than 2,000 wounded.

en.prothomalo.com

Israeli fire kills 35 people in Gaza, many at aid site
Reuters Cairo
Published: 14 Jun 2025, 20: 13

Military vehicles manoeuvre in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, 11 June, 2025. Reuters

Israeli fire and airstrikes killed at least 35 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, most of them near an aid distribution site operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, local health authorities said.

Medics at Al-Awda and Al-Aqsa Hospitals in central Gaza areas, where most of the casualties were moved to, said at least 15 people were killed as they tried to approach the GHF aid distribution site near the Netzarim corridor.

The rest were killed in separate attacks across the enclave, they added. There has been no immediate comment by the Israeli military or the GHF on Saturday's incidents.

The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral.

The Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Saturday that at least 274 people have so far been killed, and more than 2,000 wounded, near aid distribution sites since the GHF began operations in Gaza.

Hamas, which denies Israeli charges that it steals aid, accused Israel of "employing hunger as a weapon of war and turning aid distribution sites into traps of mass deaths of innocent civilians."

Later on Saturday, health officials at Shifa Hospital in Gaza said Israeli fire killed at least 12 Palestinians, who gathered to wait for aid trucks along the coastal road north of the strip, taking Saturday's death toll to at least 35.

The Israeli military ordered residents of Khan Younis and the nearby towns of Abassan and Bani Suhaila in the southern Gaza Strip to leave their homes and head west towards the so-called humanitarian zone, saying it would forcefully work against "terror organisations" in the area.

The war in Gaza erupted 20 months ago after Hamas-led militants raided Israel and took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, on 7 October, 2023, Israel's single deadliest day.

Israel's military campaign since has killed nearly 55,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health authorities in Gaza, and flattened much of the densely populated strip, which is home to more than two million people. Most of the population is displaced, and malnutrition is widespread.

Despite efforts by the United States, Egypt, and Qatar to restore a ceasefire in Gaza, neither Israel nor Hamas has shown willingness to back down on core demands, with each side blaming the other for the failure to reach a deal.​

 

[Saif]

Tens of thousands protest in Netherlands over Israel's actions in Gaza

Tens of thousands of protesters, including families with children, gathered in the Netherlands on Sunday to oppose Israel's siege of Gaza and the Dutch government's policy on the war. The second major rally in a month drew an estimated 150,000 people to The Hague, according to organisers. Particip

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Tens of thousands protest in Netherlands over Israel's actions in Gaza

REUTERS
Published :
Jun 15, 2025 21:40
Updated :
Jun 15, 2025 21:40

The body of a Palestinian is transported on a car as mourners attend the funeral of Palestinians who were killed, according to medics, in Israeli fire, at Al-Shifa hospital, in Gaza City, Jun 12, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

Tens of thousands of protesters, including families with children, gathered in the Netherlands on Sunday to oppose Israel's siege of Gaza and the Dutch government's policy on the war.

The second major rally in a month drew an estimated 150,000 people to The Hague, according to organisers. Participants dressed in red to create a "red line" against ongoing Israel attacks and alleged war crimes against Palestinians.

Demonstrators sang, held speeches and marched past the International Court of Justice, which is hearing a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide. Last year the court ordered Israel to halt a military assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah and allow access for humanitarian aid.

Israel rejects allegations of war crimes and genocide, and says its campaign is in self defence, targeting Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The war in Gaza began 20 months ago after Hamas-led militants raided Israel and took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, on Oct 7, 2023.

Israel's military campaign since has killed nearly 55,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health authorities in Gaza, and flattened much of the densely populated strip, which is home to more than two million people. Most of the population is displaced, and malnutrition is widespread.

In May, now caretaker Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Caspar Veldkamp asked the European Union to reconsider cooperation agreements with Israel. Demonstrators on Sunday called for the caretaker government to speak out against what they said were ongoing violations of international law by Israel.

The Dutch government, which collapsed on Jun 3, has so far refrained from outright criticism of Israel. Anti-Muslim populist Geert Wilders, whose far right party led the last government, has repeatedly voiced unwavering support for Israel.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli fire kills 12 in Gaza

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli fire killed at least 12 people on Saturday, including eight who had gathered near aid distribution sites in the Palestinian territory suffering severe food shortages.

www.newagebd.net

Israeli fire kills 12 in Gaza
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 22 June, 2025, 00:18

File photo

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli fire killed at least 12 people on Saturday, including eight who had gathered near aid distribution sites in the Palestinian territory suffering severe food shortages.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that three people were killed by gunfire from Israeli forces while waiting to collect aid in the southern Gaza Strip.

In a separate incident, Bassal said five people were killed in a central area known as the Netzarim corridor, where thousands of Palestinians have gathered daily in the hope of receiving food rations.

The Israeli army told AFP it was ‘looking into’ both incidents, which according to the civil defence agency occurred near distribution centres run by the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Its operations began at the end of May—when Israel eased a total aid blockade that lasted more than two months—but have been marred by chaotic scenes and neutrality concerns.

UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the foundation over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.

The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said on Saturday that 450 people had been killed and 3,466 others injured while seeking aid in near-daily incidents since late May.

The Israeli blockade imposed in early March amid an impasse in truce negotiations had produced famine-like conditions across Gaza, according to rights groups.

Israel’s military has pressed its operations across Gaza more than 20 months since an unprecedented Hamas attack triggered the devastating war, and even as attention has shifted to the war with Iran since June 13.

Bassal told AFP that three people were killed on Saturday in an Israeli air strike on Gaza City in the north, and one more in another strike on the southern city of Khan Yunis.

Israeli forces also demolished more than 10 houses in Gaza City ‘by detonating them with explosives’, he added.

Israeli restrictions on media in the Gaza Strip and difficulties in accessing some areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by rescuers and authorities.

Earlier this week, the UN’s World Health Organization warned that Gaza’s health system was at a ‘breaking point’, pleading for fuel to be allowed into the territory to keep its remaining hospitals running.

The Hamas attack in October 2023 that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 55,908 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry. The UN considers these figures reliable.​

 

[Saif]

21 killed in Gaza as UN slams US-backed aid system

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed another 21 people waiting for aid in the Palestinian territory on Tuesday, as rights groups and UN agencies slammed the US-backed system for distributing food there...

www.newagebd.net

21 killed in Gaza as UN slams US-backed aid system
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 25 June, 2025, 00:06

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed another 21 people waiting for aid in the Palestinian territory on Tuesday, as rights groups and UN agencies slammed the US-backed system for distributing food there.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that 21 people were killed and around 150 wounded ‘as a result of the Israeli occupation forces’ targeting of gatherings of citizens waiting for aid in the central Gaza Strip with bullets and tank shells’ in the early hours of Tuesday.

Footage from an AFP journalist showed wounded residents carried to a nearby hospital, with some appearing to be unconscious and pale.

‘How long will this situation go on? How long will people have to endure this? We want a solution for these victims who are dying,’ Rabhi al-Qassas, an eyewitness, said.

The Israeli military later said that a gathering overnight had been identified in an area ‘adjacent’ to its troops in the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza, where the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid group is known to hand out food.

It said reports of individuals injured by military fire in the area were ‘under review’.

Crowds of Palestinians gather near the Netzarim corridor every night in the hope of receiving rations, with the Gaza population of more than two million suffering famine-like conditions after an Israeli blockade, according to rights groups.

GHF is a privately-run US- and Israeli-backed organisation brought into Gaza at the end of May to replace United Nations-run aid operations.

As news of the latest incident broke, the UN condemned the ‘weaponisation of food’ in Gaza as a war crime and urged Israel’s military to ‘stop shooting at people trying to get food’.

‘Israel’s militarised humanitarian assistance mechanism is in contradiction with international standards on aid distribution,’ the UN human rights office said in written notes provided before a briefing.

UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with GHF over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.

The International Committee of the Red Cross announced Tuesday that one of its workers had been killed in the Gaza Strip — the fifth since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

‘Mahmoud Barakeh, who worked supporting logistics at the Red Cross Field Hospital in Rafah, was killed on Sunday,’ the ICRC said in a statement, adding that he was killed on his way home.

According to figures issued on Saturday by the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, at least 450 people have been killed and nearly 3,500 injured by Israeli fire while seeking aid since late May.

Many of those have been near sites operated by the GHF, according to rescuers, but GHF says some deadly incidents have occurred near UN convoys.

On Monday, more than a dozen human rights organisations called on GHF to cease its operations, warning of possible complicity in war crimes.

‘This new model of privatised, militarised aid distribution constitutes a radical and dangerous shift away from established international humanitarian relief operations,’ the 15 organisations said in an open letter.

Over the weekend, Jonathan Whittall, the head of the UN humanitarian office in the Palestinian territories, denounced ‘a chilling pattern of Israeli forces opening fire on crowds gathering to get food’.

Bassal added on Tuesday that five people were killed and several injured in an Israeli air strike that targeted a house in Gaza City at dawn.

Israeli restrictions on media in the Gaza Strip and difficulties in accessing some areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by rescuers and authorities in the Palestinian territory.

Israel’s opposition leader called for an end to the war in Gaza on Tuesday, after Israel announced it had agreed to a ceasefire with Iran after 12 days of war.

‘And now Gaza. It’s time to finish it there too. Bring back the hostages, end the war,’ Yair Lapid wrote on X.

The October 2023 attack on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas that sparked the war in Gaza resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 55,908 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry. The UN considers these figures reliable.​

 

[Saif]

Israel forces kill 40 in Gaza

Israeli forces killed at least 40 Palestinians in Gaza and ordered new evacuations yesterday, local medics and residents said, in further bloodshed shortly after Israel and Iran reached a ceasefire to end a 12-day air war.

www.thedailystar.net

Israel forces kill 40 in Gaza
19 of them killed while seeking food aid at Israeli-backed humanitarian hub

Mourners react during the funeral of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire while attempting to receive aid in central Gaza, at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, yesterday. Photo: AFP
​

• Israel orders new evacuations in Gaza, say residents​
• New aid delivery mechanism is 'a death trap': UN​
• Qatar's PM said he is working on resuming truce talks​

Israeli forces killed at least 40 Palestinians in Gaza and ordered new evacuations yesterday, local medics and residents said, in further bloodshed shortly after Israel and Iran reached a ceasefire to end a 12-day air war.

The Israel-Iran deal announced by US President Donald Trump raised hopes among Palestinians of an end to over 20 months of war in Gaza that has widely demolished the territory and displaced most residents, with malnutrition widespread.

A plume of smoke billows in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip during an Israel strike on June 19, 2025. Photo: AFP

"Enough! The whole universe has let us down. (Iran-backed Lebanese group) Hezbollah reached a deal without Gaza, and now Iran has done the same," said Adel Farouk, 62, from Gaza City. "We hope Gaza is next," he told Reuters via a chat app.

Mediator Qatar's said yesterday it was working on resuming Gaza ceasefire talks in days, urging Israel not to exploit a truce with Iran to "unleash everything it wants to unleash" on the blockaded strip.

But deadly violence continued with little respite.

Marwan Abu Naser, of the Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in central Gaza, said it had received 19 dead and 146 injured from crowds who tried to reach a nearby aid distribution centre of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Abu Naser told Reuters the casualties resulted from gunfire.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations' Palestinian aid agency UNRWA, told reporters in Berlin yesterday that the new mechanism was an "abomination" and "a death trap".

Israel's military said that a gathering overnight was identified adjacent to forces operating in Gaza's central Netzarim Corridor, and it was reviewing reports of casualties.

Responding to a Reuters request for comment, the GHF said in an e-mail that it had not heard of any violent incident near their aid site, which it said was located several kilometres south of the Netzarim Corridor.

UN aid trucks entering Gaza also use area roads and Palestinians have in the past few days reported killings of people by Israeli fire as they waited at roadsides to grab bags of flour from the trucks.

Israel has been channelling much of the aid it lets into Gaza through the GHF, which operates a handful of distribution sites in areas guarded by Israeli forces.

The United Nations rejects the GHF delivery system as inadequate, dangerous, and a violation of humanitarian impartiality rules. Israel says it is needed to prevent the Hamas it is fighting from diverting aid deliveries. The Palestinian group denies doing so.

Separately, 10 other people were killed by an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City, taking yesterday's death toll to at least 29, medics said.

Israel says Hamas use built-up residential areas for operating cover. Hamas denies this.

Palestinians said they wished the Israel-Iran ceasefire announced by Trump had applied to Gaza.

Adding to their frustration, the Israeli military dropped leaflets over several areas in north Gaza ordering residents to leave their homes and head towards the south, in what appeared to herald renewed Israeli military strikes against Hamas.

"Coming back to combat areas represents a risk to your lives," the army statement said.

Sources close to Hamas told Reuters there had been some new efforts to resume ceasefire talks with Israel. They said Hamas was open to discussing any offers that would "end the war and secure Israel's withdrawal from Gaza". But these echoed longstanding Hamas conditions that Israel has always rejected.​

 

[Saif]

Trump sees ‘progress’ on Gaza ceasefire

US president Donald Trump said on Wednesday that ‘great progress’ was being made to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza as a new ceasefire push began more than 20 months since the start of the conflict...

www.newagebd.net

Trump sees ‘progress’ on Gaza ceasefire
7 Israeli soldiers, 20 killed in Gaza
Agence France-Presse . Jerusalem 25 June, 2025, 18:09

Palestinian children queue at a food distribution point in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, on June 23, 2025. | AFP photo

US president Donald Trump said on Wednesday that ‘great progress’ was being made to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza as a new ceasefire push began more than 20 months since the start of the conflict.

‘I think great progress is being made on Gaza,’ Trump told reporters ahead of a NATO summit in the Netherlands, adding that his special envoy Steve Witkoff had told him ‘Gaza is very close.’

He linked his optimism about imminent ‘very good news’ for the Gaza Strip to a ceasefire agreed on Tuesday between Israel and Hamas backer Iran to end their 12-day war.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also suggested that Israel’s blitz of Iran’s nuclear and missile facilities, as well as its security forces linked to overseas militant groups, could help end the Gaza conflict.

Netanyahu faces growing calls from opposition politicians, relatives of hostages being held in Gaza and even members of his ruling coalition to bring an end to the fighting, triggered by Palestinian group Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.

In one of the war’s deadliest incidents for the Israeli army, it said seven of its soldiers were killed on Tuesday in southern Gaza.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Wednesday that Israeli fire killed at least another 20 people, including six who were waiting for aid.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that a crowd of aid-seekers was hit by Israeli ‘bullets and tank shells’ in an area of central Gaza where Palestinians have gathered each night in the hope of collecting rations.

Key mediator Qatar announced Tuesday that it would launch a new push for a ceasefire, with Hamas on Wednesday saying talks had ‘intensified’.

‘Our communications with the brother mediators in Egypt and Qatar have not stopped and have intensified in recent hours,’ Hamas official Taher al-Nunu said.

He cautioned, however, that the group had ‘not yet received any new proposals’ to end the war.

The Israeli government declined to comment on any new ceasefire talks beyond saying that efforts to return Israeli hostages in Gaza were on-going ‘on the battlefield and via negotiations’.

Israel sent forces into Gaza to root out Iran-linked Hamas and rescue hostages after the Hamas attack that resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s military campaign has killed at least 56,156 people, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The United Nations considers its figures reliable.

The latest Israeli military losses led to rare criticism of the war effort by the leader of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, a partner in Netanyahu’s coalition government.

‘I still don’t understand why we are fighting there. Soldiers are getting killed all the time,’ lawmaker Moshe Gafni told a hearing in the Israeli parliament on Wednesday.

The slain soldiers were from the Israeli combat engineering corps and were conducting a reconnaissance mission in the Khan Yunis area in southern Gaza when their vehicle was targeted with an explosive device, according to a military statement.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main group representing relatives of those held in Gaza, endorsed Gafni’s criticism of the war.

‘On this difficult morning, Gafni tells it like it is... The war in Gaza has run its course, it is being conducted with no clear purpose and no concrete plan,’ the group said in a statement.

Of the 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the Hamas attack, 49 are still held in Gaza including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

Rights groups say Gaza and its population of more than two million face famine-like conditions due to Israeli restrictions, with near-daily deaths of people queuing for food aid.

The privately run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation was brought into the Palestinian territory at the end of May but its operations have been marred by chaotic scenes, deaths and neutrality concerns.

The GHF has denied responsibility for deaths near its aid points.

The Gaza health ministry says that since late May, nearly 550 people have been killed near aid centres while seeking scarce supplies.

The civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed 46 people waiting for aid on Tuesday.​

 

[Saif]

Trump sees ‘progress’ on Gaza, raising hopes for ceasefire

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that progress was being made to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, as a new ceasefire push began more than 20 months since the start of the conflict. “I think great progress is being made on Gaza,” Trump told reporters, adding that his special envoy Steve...

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Trump sees ‘progress’ on Gaza, raising hopes for ceasefire
Israel’s military campaign has killed at least 56,156 people, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The United Nations considers its figures reliable.

AFP Jerusalem
Published: 26 Jun 2025, 10: 10

People, some carrying aid parcels, walk along the Salah al-Din road near the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, used by food-seeking Palestinians to reach an aid distributution point set up by the privately-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), on 25 June 2025. AFP

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that progress was being made to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, as a new ceasefire push began more than 20 months since the start of the conflict.

“I think great progress is being made on Gaza,” Trump told reporters, adding that his special envoy Steve Witkoff had told him: “Gaza is very close.”

He linked his optimism about imminent “very good news” to a ceasefire agreed on Tuesday between Israel and Hamas’s backer Iran to end their 12-day war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces growing calls from opposition politicians, relatives of hostages being held in Gaza and even members of his ruling coalition to bring an end to the fighting, triggered by Palestinian militant group Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack.

Key mediator Qatar announced Tuesday that it would launch a new push for a ceasefire, with Hamas on Wednesday saying talks had stepped up.

“Our communications with the brother mediators in Egypt and Qatar have not stopped and have intensified in recent hours,” Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP.

He cautioned, however, that the group had “not yet received any new proposals” to end the war.

The Israeli government declined to comment on any new ceasefire talks beyond saying that efforts to return Israeli hostages in Gaza were ongoing “on the battlefield and via negotiations”.

‘No clear purpose’

Israel sent forces into Gaza to root out Iran-linked Hamas and rescue hostages after the group’s October 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s military campaign has killed at least 56,156 people, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The United Nations considers its figures reliable.

In one of the war’s deadliest incidents for the Israeli army, it said seven of its soldiers were killed on Tuesday in southern Gaza, taking its overall losses in the territory to 441.

The latest losses led to rare criticism of the war effort by the leader of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, a partner in Netanyahu’s coalition government.

“I still don’t understand why we are fighting there... Soldiers are getting killed all the time,” lawmaker Moshe Gafni told a hearing in the Israeli parliament on Wednesday.

The slain soldiers were from the Israeli combat engineering corps and were conducting a reconnaissance mission in the Khan Yunis area when their vehicle was targeted with an explosive device, according to a military statement.

Palestinians gather at an aid distributution point set up by the privately-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), near the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on 25 June 2025 AFP

At the funeral of 20-year-old Staff Sergeant Ronel Ben-Moshe in Rehovot south of Tel Aviv on Wednesday, inconsolable loved ones sobbed alongside babyfaced soldiers in uniform.

One former comrade who served with Ben-Moshe in Gaza told AFP of the strain the war was putting on soldiers, saying it was time for it to end.

“Me, I was unable to complete my military service. I was so bad off mentally that I was demobilised,” said the former soldier, who gave his name only as Ariel.

“I have seen so many kids like me die. It’s time for it to stop.”

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main group representing relatives of captives held in Gaza, endorsed the call to end the war.

“The war in Gaza has run its course, it is being conducted with no clear purpose and no concrete plan,” the group said in a statement.

Of the 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the Hamas attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

Human rights groups say Gaza and its population of more than two million face famine-like conditions due to Israeli restrictions, with near-daily deaths of people queuing for food aid.

Gunfire near aid site

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Wednesday that Israeli fire killed another 35 people, including six who were waiting for aid.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that a crowd of aid-seekers was hit by Israeli “bullets and tank shells” in an area of central Gaza where Palestinians have gathered each night in the hope of collecting rations.

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was “not aware of any incident this morning with casualties in the central Gaza Strip”.

The United Nations on Tuesday condemned the “weaponisation of food” in Gaza, and slammed a US- and Israeli-backed body that has largely replaced established humanitarian organisations there.

The privately run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) was brought into the Palestinian territory at the end of May, but its operations have been marred by chaotic scenes, deaths and neutrality concerns.

The GHF has denied that deadly incidents have occurred in the immediate vicinity of its aid points.

The Gaza health ministry says that since late May, nearly 550 people have been killed near aid centres while seeking scarce supplies.​

 

[Saif]

UN chief says US-backed Gaza aid operation is unsafe, killing people

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday that a US-backed aid operation in Gaza is “inherently unsafe,” giving a blunt assessment: “It is killing people.” He also said UN-led humanitarian efforts are being “strangled,” aid workers themsel

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

UN chief says US-backed Gaza aid operation is unsafe, killing people

REUTERS
Published :
Jun 27, 2025 21:59
Updated :
Jun 27, 2025 21:59

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday that a US-backed aid operation in Gaza is “inherently unsafe,” giving a blunt assessment: “It is killing people.”

He also said UN-led humanitarian efforts are being “strangled,” aid workers themselves are starving and Israel – as the occupying power - is required to agree to and facilitate aid deliveries into and throughout the Palestinian enclave.

“People are being killed simply trying to feed themselves and their families. The search for food must never be a death sentence,” Guterres told reporters.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli forces kill 62 in Gaza

Gaza’s civil defence agency said that Israeli forces killed at least 62 people on Friday, including 10 who were waiting for aid in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

www.newagebd.net

Israeli forces kill 62 in Gaza
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 28 June, 2025, 00:42

Men cover their faces as smoke billows while first-responders attempt to extinguish a blaze following an Israeli strike at the UNRWA’s Osama bin Zaid school in the Saftawi district in western Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday. | AFP photo

Gaza’s civil defence agency said that Israeli forces killed at least 62 people on Friday, including 10 who were waiting for aid in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

The reported killing of people seeking aid marks the latest in a string of deadly incidents near aid sites in Gaza, where a US- and Israeli-backed foundation has largely replaced established humanitarian organisations.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that 62 Palestinians had been killed Friday by Israeli strikes or fire across the Palestinian territory.

When asked by AFP for comment, the Israeli military said it was looking into the incidents, and denied its troops fired in one of the locations in central Gaza where rescuers said one aid seeker was killed.

Bassal said that six people were killed in southern Gaza near one of the distribution sites operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, and one more in a separate incident in the centre of the territory, where the army denied shooting ‘at all’.

Another three people were killed by a strike while waiting for aid southwest of Gaza City, Bassal said.

The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory says that since late May, more than 500 people have been killed near aid centres while seeking scarce supplies.

GHF has denied that fatal shootings have occurred in the immediate vicinity of its aid points.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders on Friday slammed the GHF relief effort, calling it ‘slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid’.

It noted that in the week of June 8, shortly after GHF opened a distribution site in central Gaza’s Netzarim corridor, the MSF field hospital in nearby Deir el-Balah saw a 190 per cent increase in bullet wound cases compared to the previous week.

Aitor Zabalgogeaskoa, MSF emergency coordinator in Gaza, said in a statement that under the way in which the distribution centres currently operate: ‘If people arrive early and approach the checkpoints, they get shot.’

‘If they arrive on time, but there is an overflow and they jump over the mounds and the wires, they get shot’.

‘If they arrive late, they shouldn’t be there because it is an ‘evacuated zone’, they get shot,’ he added.

Meanwhile, Bassal said that ten people were killed in five separate Israeli strikes near the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, east of which he said ‘continuous Israeli artillery shelling’ was reported Friday.

Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said they shelled an Israeli vehicle east of Khan Yunis Friday.

The Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas-ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said they had attacked a group of Israeli soldiers north of Khan Yunis in coordination with the Al-Qassam Brigades.

Bassal added that thirty people were killed in six separate strikes in northern Gaza on Friday, including a fisherman who was targeted ‘by Israeli warships’.

He specified that eight of them were killed ‘after an Israeli air strike hit Osama Bin Zaid School, which was housing displaced persons’ in northern Gaza.

In central Gaza’s al-Bureij refugee camp, 12 people were killed in two separate Israeli strikes, Bassal said.

Israeli restrictions on media in the Gaza Strip and difficulties in accessing some areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by rescuers and witnesses.

Israel’s military said it was continuing its operations in Gaza on Friday, after army chief Eyal Zamir announced earlier in the week that the focus would again shift to the territory after a 12-day war with Iran.

Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 56,331 people, also mostly civilians, according to Gaza’s health ministry. The United Nations considers its figures reliable.​

 

[Saif]

At least 49 killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza

At least 49 people were killed across Gaza by Israeli strikes, health staff say, as Palestinians face a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and ceasefire prospects inch closer. The strikes began late Friday and continued into Saturday morning, among others killing 12 people near the Palestine Stad

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

At least 49 killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza

AP
Published :
Jun 28, 2025 17:24
Updated :
Jun 28, 2025 17:24

At least 49 people were killed across Gaza by Israeli strikes, health staff say, as Palestinians face a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and ceasefire prospects inch closer.

The strikes began late Friday and continued into Saturday morning, among others killing 12 people near the Palestine Stadium in Gaza City, which was sheltering displaced people, and eight more living in apartments, according to staff at Shifa hospital where the bodies were brought. More than 20 bodies were taken to Nasser hospital, according to health officials.

The strikes come as U.S. President Donald Trump says there could be a ceasefire agreement within the next week. Taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office Friday, the president said, "we're working on Gaza and trying to get it taken care of."

An official with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press that Israel's Minister for Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer, will arrive in Washington next week for talks on Gaza's ceasefire, Iran and other subjects. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Talks have been on again, off again since Israel broke the latest ceasefire in March, continuing its military campaign in Gaza and furthering the Strip's dire humanitarian crisis. Some 50 hostages remain in Gaza, fewer than half of them believed to still be alive. They were part of some 250 hostages taken when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, sparking the 21-month-long war.

The war has killed over 56,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. It says more than half of the dead were women and children.

There is hope among hostage families that Trump's involvement in securing the recent ceasefire between Israel and Iran might exert more pressure for a deal in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is riding a wave of public support for the Iran war and its achievements, and he could feel he has more space to move toward ending the war in Gaza, something his far-right governing partners oppose.

Hamas has repeatedly said it is prepared to free all the hostages in exchange for an end to the war in Gaza. Netanyahu says he will only end the war once Hamas is disarmed and exiled, something the group has rejected.

Meanwhile, hungry Palestinians are enduring a catastrophic situation in Gaza. After blocking all food for 2 1/2 months, Israel has allowed only a trickle of supplies into the territory since mid-May.

Efforts by the United Nations to distribute the food have been plagued by armed gangs looting trucks and by crowds of desperate people offloading supplies from convoys.

Palestinians have also been shot and wounded while on their way to get food at newly formed aid sites, run by the American and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, according to Gaza's health officials and witnesses.

Palestinian witnesses say Israeli troops have opened fire at crowds on the roads heading toward the sites. Israel's military said it was investigating incidents in which civilians had been harmed while approaching the sites​

 

[Saif]

Trump hopes for Gaza ceasefire this week

US president Donald Trump voiced optimism Friday about a new ceasefire in Gaza, as criticism grew over mounting civilian deaths at Israeli-backed food distribution centres in the territory...

www.newagebd.net

Trump hopes for Gaza ceasefire this week
Agence France-Presse . Washington 29 June, 2025, 00:37

US president Donald Trump voiced optimism Friday about a new ceasefire in Gaza, as criticism grew over mounting civilian deaths at Israeli-backed food distribution centres in the territory.

Asked by reporters how close a ceasefire was between Israel and Hamas, Trump said: ‘We think within the next week, we’re going to get a ceasefire.’

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 23 people in the war-stricken territory on Saturday, including at least three children who died when a house was struck.

‘At least 23 dead and dozens of wounded were taken [to hospitals] after Israeli firing and raids’ across Gaza, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

Among the casualties were three children who were killed in an air strike on a home in Jabalia, northern Gaza.

AFP video footage from Gaza City showed relatives weeping over the bodies of children killed in nearby Jabalia.

Bassal said the children were among 21 people killed in six air strikes by drones and planes across the territory.

He said two other people were killed by Israeli fire while waiting for food aid in the Netzarim zone in central Gaza.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The United States brokered a ceasefire in the devastating conflict in the waning days of former president Joe Biden’s administration, with support from Trump’s incoming team.

Israel broke the ceasefire in March, launching new devastating attacks on Hamas, which attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.

Israel also stopped all food and other supplies from entering Gaza for more than two months, drawing warnings of famine.

Israel has since allowed a resumption of food through the controversial US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which involves US security contractors with Israeli troops at the periphery.

United Nations officials on Friday said the GHF system was leading to mass killings of people seeking aid, drawing accusations from Israel that the UN was ‘aligning itself with Hamas.’

Eyewitnesses and local officials have reported repeated killings of Palestinians at distribution centres over recent weeks in the war-stricken territory, where Israeli forces are battling Hamas militants.

The Israeli military has denied targeting people and GHF has denied any deadly incidents were linked to its sites.

But following weeks of reports, UN officials and other aid providers on Friday denounced what they said was a wave of killings of hungry people seeking aid.

The health ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory says that since late May, more than 500 people have been killed near aid centres while seeking scarce supplies.

The country’s civil defence agency has also repeatedly reported people being killed while seeking aid.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders branded the GHF relief effort ‘slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid.’

That drew an angry response from Israel, which said GHF had provided 46 million meals in Gaza.

‘The UN is doing everything it can to oppose this effort. In doing so, the UN is aligning itself with Hamas, which is also trying to sabotage the GHF’s humanitarian operations,’ the foreign ministry said.

Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a report in left-leaning daily Haaretz that military commanders had ordered troops to shoot at crowds near aid distribution sites to disperse them even when they posed no threat.

Haaretz said the military advocate general, the army’s top legal authority, had instructed the military to investigate ‘suspected war crimes’ at aid sites.

The Israeli military declined to comment to AFP on the claim.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli cabinet to discuss partial Gaza deal amid internal debate

The Israeli cabinet is set to hold a special session to review the future of its military operations in Gaza, Al Jazeera reports, citing Israel’s centre-right newspaper Israel Hayom. According to the report, the meeting will include security officials, coalition bloc leaders, and Strategic A

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Israeli cabinet to discuss partial Gaza deal amid internal debate

FE ONLINE DESK
Published :
Jun 29, 2025 22:39
Updated :
Jun 29, 2025 22:39

An Israeli tank manoeuvres near the Israel-Gaza border, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Israel, April 10, 2024. Photo : REUTERS/Amir Cohen/Files

The Israeli cabinet is set to hold a special session to review the future of its military operations in Gaza, Al Jazeera reports, citing Israel’s centre-right newspaper Israel Hayom.

According to the report, the meeting will include security officials, coalition bloc leaders, and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer. The discussion is expected to focus on a possible partial agreement that includes a temporary ceasefire.

Chief of Staff General Eyal Zamir is scheduled to brief the cabinet on the progress of current combat operations. While the Israeli military is likely to present the ground offensive as nearing completion, several government officials reportedly disagree, arguing that Hamas remains active and the stated war objectives have not been fulfilled.

The report highlights that the “Witkoff Plan,” named after US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, is currently under serious consideration. The plan proposes a temporary ceasefire and a captive-prisoner exchange but leaves the option open for resuming hostilities later. General Zamir is said to support this proposal, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to uphold his original goal of dismantling Hamas.

However, concerns remain within the cabinet that sustained pressure from the United States could transform a temporary agreement into a long-term arrangement, effectively altering the nature of Israel’s military objectives in Gaza.​

 

[Saif]

Israel orders evacuations in northern Gaza as Trump calls for war to end

The Israeli military ordered Palestinians to evacuate areas in northern Gaza on Sunday before intensified fighting against Hamas, as US President Donald Trump called for an end to the war amid renewed efforts to broker a ceasefire. "Make the deal in Gaza, get the hostages back," Trump posted on hi

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Israel orders evacuations in northern Gaza as Trump calls for war to end

REUTERS
Published :
Jun 29, 2025 17:37
Updated :
Jun 29, 2025 17:37

Mourners react during the funeral of Palestinians killed in an overnight Israeli strike on a tent, according to Gaza's health ministry, at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, June 29, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Hatem Khaled

The Israeli military ordered Palestinians to evacuate areas in northern Gaza on Sunday before intensified fighting against Hamas, as US President Donald Trump called for an end to the war amid renewed efforts to broker a ceasefire.

"Make the deal in Gaza, get the hostages back," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform early on Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to hold talks later in the day on the progress of Israel's offensive. A senior security official said the military will tell him the campaign is close to reaching its objectives, and warn that expanding fighting to new areas in Gaza may endanger the remaining Israeli hostages.

But in a statement posted on X and text messages sent to many residents, the military urged people in northern parts of the enclave to head south towards the Al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis, which Israel designated as a humanitarian area. Palestinian and UN officials say nowhere in Gaza is safe.

"The (Israeli) Defense Forces is operating with extreme force in these areas, and these military operations will escalate, intensify, and extend westward to the city center to destroy the capabilities of terrorist organizations," the military said.

The evacuation order covered the Jabalia area and most Gaza City districts. Medics and residents said the Israeli army's bombardments escalated in the early hours in Jabalia, destroying several houses and killing at least six people.

In Khan Younis in the south, five people were killed in an airstrike on a tent encampment near Mawasi, medics said.

NEW CEASEFIRE PUSH

The escalation comes as Arab mediators, Egypt and Qatar, backed by the United States, begin a new ceasefire effort to halt the 20-month-old conflict and secure the release of Israeli and foreign hostages still being held by Hamas.

Interest in resolving the Gaza conflict has heightened in the wake of US and Israeli bombings of Iran's nuclear facilities.

A Hamas official told Reuters the group had informed the mediators it was ready to resume ceasefire talks, but reaffirmed the group's outstanding demands that any deal must end the war and secure an Israeli withdrawal from the coastal territory.

Hamas has said it is willing to free remaining hostages in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed to still be alive, only in a deal that will end the war. Israel says it can only end it if Hamas is disarmed and dismantled. Hamas refuses to lay down its arms.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, Israeli tallies show.

Israel's subsequent military assault has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry, displaced almost the entire 2.3 million population, plunged the enclave into a humanitarian crisis and left much of it in ruins.​

 

[Saif]

Gaza civil defence says Israeli forces kill 37, including children

He said the dead included three children who were killed in an air strike on a home in Jabalia, in northern Gaza.

en.prothomalo.com

Gaza civil defence says Israeli forces kill 37, including children
AFPGaza City, Palestinian Territories
Published: 29 Jun 2025, 08: 27

Boys mourn by the body of a Palestinian man who was killed a day earlier in Israeli fire while seeking food aid, during his funeral at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on 18 June, 2025. Gaza's civil defence agency said 30 people were killed by Israeli fire in the Palestinian territory on Wednesday, including 11 who were seeking aid. AFP

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed 37 people in the devastated territory on Saturday, including at least nine children who died in strikes.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP 35 people were killed in seven Israeli drone and air strikes in various locations, and two others by Israeli fire while waiting for food aid in the Netzarim zone in central Gaza.

He said the dead included three children who were killed in an air strike on a home in Jabalia, in northern Gaza.

Bassal said at least six more children died in a neighbourhood in the northeast of Gaza City, including some in an air strike near a school where displaced people were sheltering.

The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment by Saturday evening.

As international criticism mounted over civilian deaths in Gaza, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Saturday that his country “stands ready, Europe as well, to contribute to the safety of food distribution” in Gaza.

Such an initiative, he added, would also deal with Israeli concerns that armed groups such as Hamas were intercepting the aid.

Barrot did not provide any details on how France could help secure aid distribution to Gaza’s civilians.

Restrictions on media in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by rescuers.

AFP images showed mourners weeping over the bodies of seven people, including at least two children, wrapped in white shrouds and blankets at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.

Video footage filmed from southern Israel showed smoke rising over northern Gaza after blasts.

Other AFP footage filmed in Gaza City showed a cloud of smoke rising from buildings after a strike.

In Jabalia, an AFP photographer saw civil defence rescuers aiding a man with blood on his backGaza ceasefire drive

Israel launched its offensive in Gaza in October 2023 in response to a deadly attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas.

After claiming victory in a 12-day war against Iran that ended with a ceasefire on June 24, the Israeli military said it would refocus on its offensive in Gaza, where Palestinian militants still hold Israeli hostages.

Qatar said on Saturday that it and fellow mediators the United States and Egypt were engaging with Israel and Hamas to build on momentum from the ceasefire with Iran and work towards a Gaza truce.

“If we don’t utilise this window of opportunity and this momentum, it’s an opportunity lost amongst many in the near past. We don’t want to see that again,” said Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari.

Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 56,412 people, also mostly civilians, according to Gaza’s health ministry. The United Nations considers these figures to be reliable.​