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

[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’...

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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...

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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.​

 

[Saif]

Netanyahu sees 'opportunities' to free Gaza hostages

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that his country's "victory" over Iran in their 12-day war had created "opportunities", including for freeing hostages held in Gaza.

en.prothomalo.com

Netanyahu sees 'opportunities' to free Gaza hostages

AFP Jerusalem
Published: 30 Jun 2025, 10: 21

Israel`s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. AFP file photo

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that his country's "victory" over Iran in their 12-day war had created "opportunities", including for freeing hostages held in Gaza.

"Many opportunities have opened up now following this victory. First of all, to rescue the hostages," Netanyahu said in an address to officers of the security services.

"Of course, we will also have to solve the Gaza issue, to defeat Hamas, but I estimate that we will achieve both goals," he added, referring to his country's campaign to crush the Palestinian militant group.

In a statement late Sunday, the main group representing hostages' families welcomed "the fact that after 20 months, the return of the hostages has finally been designated as the top priority by the prime minister".

"This is a very important statement that must translate into a single comprehensive deal to bring back all 50 hostages and end the fighting in Gaza," the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said.

Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages during Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Of these, 49 are still believed to be held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead. Hamas also holds the body of an Israeli soldier killed there in 2014.

The forum called for the hostages' "release, not rescue".

"The only way to free them all is through a comprehensive deal and an end to the fighting, without rescue operations that endanger both the hostages and (Israeli) soldiers."

The 7 October attack triggered a fierce Israeli offensive to destroy Hamas and free the hostages.

That campaign has killed at least 56,500 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. The United Nations considers these figures to be reliable.

Hamas's attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli forces kill 34 in Gaza as ceasefire momentum builds

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed 34 people on Monday, including 11 waiting for aid, as momentum built behind a ceasefire push for the war-ravaged Palestinian territory...

www.newagebd.net

Israeli forces kill 34 in Gaza as ceasefire momentum builds
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 01 July, 2025, 00:44

Palestinian children line up to receive a hot meal at a food distribution point in Nuseirat on Monday. | AFP photo

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed 34 people on Monday, including 11 waiting for aid, as momentum built behind a ceasefire push for the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a day earlier that his country’s ‘victory’ over Iran had created ‘opportunities’, including for freeing hostages held by militants in Gaza.

His comments raised hopes for a new ceasefire in the conflict that has created dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza.

Key mediator Qatar said Monday that ‘momentum’ had been created by the Iran-Israel ceasefire.

‘We won’t hold our breath for this to happen today and tomorrow, but we believe that the elements are in place to push forward towards restarting the talks,’ foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari told journalists.

Meanwhile, on the ground, Gaza’s civil defence agency said that 34 people had been killed by Israeli strikes or gunfire since midnight.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that ‘11 people were killed near aid distribution points in the central and southern parts of the territory.’

Eyewitnesses and local authorities have reported repeated killings of Palestinians near distribution centres over recent weeks.

Samir Abu Jarbou, 28, said by phone that he had gone with four relatives to pick up food aid in an area of central Gaza around midnight.

‘Suddenly the Israeli army opened fire, and drones started shooting. We ran away and got nothing,’ he said.

‘The situation is catastrophic. We are suffering from terrible hunger. My only wish is to succeed in getting a bag of flour to feed my seven siblings.’

Bassal said 23 people were killed in at least seven separate strikes across the territory, mainly in the north.

When asked for comment by AFP, the Israeli military said it needed more information to look into the reports.

Restrictions on media in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the full tolls and details provided by rescuers.

Israel’s military issued a fresh evacuation order on Monday, for several areas in and around Gaza City.

‘For your safety, immediately evacuate further westward and southward toward Al-Mawasi,’ the military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X.

Despite being declared a safe zone by Israel, Al-Mawasi has been hit by repeated strikes.

Israel launched its campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Of the 251 hostages seized during the assault, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 56,531 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations considers these figures to be reliable.​