Israel war on Gaza updates: 32 killed as Israel hits displaced Palestinians
Gaza’s Civil Defence says at least five camps for Palestinians displaced by violence have been targeted in the last day.
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- Gaza’s Health Ministry says at least 32 people have been killed and 139 in the last day, as the Civil Defence says Israel has targeted five displacement camps.
- Israeli military attacks on a home in central Khan Younis and a tent sheltering displaced people in al-Mawasi have killed and injured at least six people.
- Hamas chief Haniyeh’s sister among 10 reported killed in attack on Shati camp. Two other attacks on schools kill at least 14 people.
- A high risk of famine remains in Gaza as more than 495,000 Palestinians experiencing “catastrophic” food shortages.
- At least 37,658 people killed and 86,237 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7. The revised death toll in Israel from the Hamas-led attacks stands at 1,139, with dozens of people still held captive in Gaza.
That’s a wrap for today
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The extent of the hunger crisis imposed on Gaza by Israel has been revealed in a new UN report. Find out more here.
Israeli air strikes killed dozens of Palestinian civilians across Gaza. Read about the attacks here.
The US and Israel have missed many opportunities for peace with Hamas. Understand why here.
And to follow all of our coverage of Israel’s war in Gaza, go here.
A recap of today’s developments
Here’s a quick look at what happened today:
- Gaza’s Health Ministry has said that at least 32 people have been killed and 139 wounded in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the last day.
- Israeli forces have deliberately targeted five displacement camps across Gaza within fewer than 48 hours, Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal has told Al Jazeera.
- Al Jazeera has obtained leaked clips from a camera attached to an Israeli army dog, showing it attacking an elderly Palestinian woman in her home in Jabalia, northern Gaza.
- Israel’s top court has ruled unanimously that the state must draft ultra-Orthodox Jewish men into military service, with opposition leader Yair Lapid welcoming the decision, saying it meant “no more exemptions”.
- Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Israel would prefer a diplomatic resolution to the conflict with Hezbollah, according to State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.
Israeli army strikes southern Gaza
Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Gaza reports that Israeli artillery shelling has targeted the Saudi neighbourhood and Tal as-Sultan areas in the western area of the city of Rafah.
We will bring more on this as soon as we have additional information.
PRCS distributes hygiene packs in north Gaza
The Palestine Red Crescent has shared photos on X of its staff distributing packages with hygiene items in the north of the Strip, which the group says is aimed at reducing the spread of disease that has resulted from overcrowding at displacement shelters.
“The PRCS is striving to reactivate all medical and relief services in the Gaza and North Gaza Governorates and is currently working on operating several clinics and medical points in both governorates,” the group said.
Health and hygiene concerns were voiced last week by UN World Food Programme Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau, who said the challenges in Gaza were “like nothing I have ever seen”.
“One million people in southern Gaza are trapped without clean water or sanitation in a highly congested area along the beach in the burning summer heat. We drove through rivers of sewage,” Skau said.
The Palestine Red Crescent teams distributed 150 hygiene packages to displaced families in the North Gaza Governorate. This effort aims to alleviate the disaster and reduce diseases resulting from the overcrowding of displaced people in unhealthy conditions. The PRCS is striving… pic.twitter.com/yvIMEMQtC8
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) June 25, 2024
Gaza ‘population cannot endure these hardships any longer’: Aid group
A new UN report has revealed the extent of the forced hunger crisis imposed by Israel in its ongoing war, showing that some 495,000 Palestinians are experiencing “catastrophic” food shortages.
In light of the report, US-based Mercy Corps says the situation in the Gaza Strip “remains dire”, particularly in northern Gaza and in the southern city of Rafah.
“Desperate Gazans are trading clothes for money and a third of the population is resorting to picking up trash to sell,” the aid group said in a statement.
Vice President of Global Policy and Advocacy for Mercy Corps, Kate Phillips-Barrasso, said that “the world has been watching Gaza’s humanitarian crisis worsen for nine months”, adding that Israel’s “Rafah offensive brought the aid response to a halt, thwarting the ability of humanitarian organisations to mitigate the suffering of 2.15 million people who are experiencing severe food insecurity”.
Phillips-Barrasso urged the international community to exert “relentless pressure” to secure a ceasefire.
“The population cannot endure these hardships any longer. The toll of military action has been far too high, and we fear without dramatic changes to the provision of humanitarian aid, the death toll will climb as people succumb to months of deprivation,” she added.
Qatar reaffirms full support for UNRWA
Qatar’s representative to the UN, Hind Abdulrahman Al Muftah, told a meeting of the UNRWA advisory commission that his country will continue to support the organisation in the face of continued attacks on its credibility.
“UNRWA has been coming under numerous and gratuitous attacks and polemics that primarily aim to undermine the agency and end its operations in the pursuit of liquidating the issue of the Palestinian rights and their right to return back to their regions and homes under international law and relevant United Nations resolutions”, a statement from Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs read.
In late April, an independent review led by a former French foreign minister found that Israeli accusations against UNRWA, that its staff took part in Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel, had not been supported by credible evidence.
Based solely on the Israeli accusations, 18 donor countries, including UNRWA’s principal donor, the United States, suspended funding to the agency.
US reschedules cancelled meeting with Israeli officials: Report
A report from US news site Axios says that the administration of US President Biden will go ahead with a meeting it cancelled last week after Netanyahu accused the US of withholding weapons from Israel.
In a video message, Netanyahu said that it was “inconceivable” that the United States had been “withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel” in recent months.
Now, the meeting, which was scheduled to cover developments in Iran’s nuclear programme, will happen sometime in July, five unnamed US officials have told Axios.
US major who resigned amid Gaza war says many feel dissatisfaction
Harrison Mann, the Jewish US service member who resigned from the US Defence Intelligence Agency in November 2023 over the US’s handling of the war in Gaza, has spoken to Al Jazeera.
According to Mann, he decided to resign after he lost confidence in the Defense Intelligence Agency, a combat support agency of the Department of Defense.
The former US major said there were others who felt the same dissatisfaction that prompted him to resign, adding that the war in Gaza would not continue without US support for Israel.
Several other US military personnel have quit since the war in Gaza. In February, US airman Aaron Bushnell died after setting himself on fire in protest outside Israel’s embassy in Washington, DC.
Israel’s eight-month-long war has killed more than 35,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, with most of the enclave’s 2.3 million people displaced and short of food and medicine.
Risks to humanitarian workers in Gaza are ‘intolerable’
The United Nations says it has pressed Israel for more effective coordination with aid groups, approval for the UN to use essential security equipment and for the Israeli military to facilitate aid deliveries.
“Humanitarian operations have repeatedly been in the crosshairs in Gaza,” the UN’s secretary-general’s spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, told reporters.
“The risks, frankly, are becoming increasingly intolerable.”
He said the head of UN safety and security met on Monday with COGAT, the Israeli military branch responsible for aid transfers, to discuss UN difficulties working in Gaza amid the ongoing war.
“Every day, we assess the situation and look at how we can operate safely, both for our own staff, but most importantly for those who are receiving the aid,” Dujarric said. “Every day we need to grab whatever opportunities we can.”
Israeli forces hit home in northern Gaza
Locals in Gaza have shared footage, verified by Al Jazeera, of an Israeli attack targeting the house belonging to the Abu Awad family in Beit Lahiya.
According to local sources, a number of people remain missing under the rubble as Civil Defence crews try to rescue them. Others can be seen voluntarily helping using their mobile phones to find survivors.
Among those injured were children, the footage showed.
Restoring ‘order’ crucial for aid work, humanitarian officials say
Humanitarian officials say conditions for civilians and aid workers have worsened since early May, when Israel launched an offensive in the southern city of Rafah where many aid groups had their bases of operation.
The offensive has crippled what had been the main border crossing for food and other aid coming into the Gaza Strip.
Aid workers trying to get shipments through the main remaining crossing, Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom), face risks from fighting, damaged roads, unexploded ordnance and Israeli restrictions, including spending five or more hours a day waiting at checkpoints, Steve Taravella, a spokesman for the UN’s World Food Programme said, according to AP news agency.
“Restoring order is crucial for an effective humanitarian response to meet soaring needs. UN agencies and others need a safe environment to be able to access people and scale up,” he added.
Attacks ongoing in Gaza
In the past few hours, there have been up to five major attacks on densely populated areas across the Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud is reporting.
“The attacks included evacuation centres in Gaza City and also tent sites in the western part of Khan Younis city,” he said.
We will bring you updates on these attacks as soon as more information becomes available.
‘There are no hospitals or anything to treat my injury’
Dawlat Abdullah Al Tanani, from the Jabalia refugee camp, has been identified as the elderly woman attacked by an Israeli military dog – an incident we reported on earlier.
Al Jazeera obtained leaked clips from a camera attached to the dog, showing it attacking the woman in her home in northern Gaza.
The woman told Al Jazeera that she had refused to leave her home, so Israeli forces set a dog on her while she was still in bed.
The dog “dragged me and pulled me all the way to the entrance [of the house]. Now I have a serious injury. There are no hospitals or anything to treat my injury. My hand is still untreated,” she said.
Al Tahani said she was mauled and suffered fractures. “Now, I am suffering from [injuries to] my arm, and my injury is serious. There are no hospitals or medicine,” she repeated.
US envoy slams Israel’s West Bank policies during UN Security Council meeting
Linda Thomas-Greenfield has said that the United States is “deeply concerned about violence committed by extremist settlers in the West Bank – and we have sanctioned a number of extremist settlers and their organisations.”
“We will use the tools at our disposal to expose and promote accountability for those who threaten peace, security, and stability,” she said.
In her statement to the council, she also highlighted the high number of Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank and the need for Israel to release the tax revenue owed to the Palestinian Authority to prevent its collapse.
The US has long said that it sees the Palestinian Authority as Hamas’s successor, and wants it to take governmental control of the Gaza Strip once Israel’s war on the enclave ends.
The United States remains deeply concerned about violence committed by extremist settlers in the West Bank – and we have sanctioned a number of extremist settlers and their organizations.
We will use the tools at our disposal to expose and promote accountability for those who…
— Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (@USAmbUN) June 25, 2024
Diplomats scramble to avert war in Lebanon: Report
We’ve been reporting on comments from US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, ahead of a meeting with Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant earlier today, warning Lebanon’s Hezbollah against “provocations” towards Israel and saying that they threaten to drag Lebanon into war.
A report from the UK newspaper The Financial Times says that White House officials are “increasingly concerned” about the prospects of a full-blown war between Hezbollah and Israel, as daily exchanges of fire between the two continue to intensify.
The report also says that US diplomats have made several trips to the Middle East to try to avert war.
The Israeli army last week announced that it is ready for an “all-out war” in Lebanon and has plans approved for an offensive targeting Hezbollah.
WATCH: Israeli air raid kills 10 family members of Hamas chief Haniyeh in Gaza
An Israeli air raid has killed 10 members of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh’s family in northern Gaza’s Shati refugee camp.
Watch our video report below to learn more:
Ultra-Orthodox minister calls supreme court ruling on conscription ‘arbitrary’
Earlier, we reported that Israel’s top court ruled unanimously that the state must draft ultra-Orthodox Jewish men into military service.
Ultra-Orthodox politician Yitzhak Goldknopf, a United Torah Judaism party leader and housing minister in Netanyahu’s cabinet, condemned “an expected but very unfortunate and disappointing decision”.
Shas, which is the largest partner in the ruling alliance, also slammed the court ruling.
“No arbitrary ruling will abolish the society of Torah learners in the land of Israel, which is the branch on which we all sit,” Shas chief Aryeh Deri said in a statement.
However, opposition lawmakers welcomed the ruling.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid said it meant “no more exemptions”, calling on the defence ministry “to uphold the law and issue tens of thousands of draft orders for young … men who evaded military service until now”.
Many in Gaza facing ‘severe’ food insecurity: IFRC
The secretary-general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says the food crisis in the coastal enclave has reached a “critical point”.
“Many people are already facing severe food insecurity, and the situation worsens each day. Children are especially affected, with many suffering from malnutrition,” Jagan Chapagain posted on X.
“In Rafah, recent hostilities have exacerbated the already dire humanitarian crisis, disrupting food distribution due to supply shortages and severely impacting people’s health.”
The food crisis in Gaza has reached a critical point, with the risk of hunger increasing daily.
Many people are already facing severe food insecurity, and the situation worsens each day. Children are especially affected, with many suffering from malnutrition.
In Rafah, recent…
— Jagan Chapagain (@jagan_chapagain) June 25, 2024
Exclusive: Leaked camera clips show Israeli forces attacking Palestinian woman
Al Jazeera has obtained leaked clips from a camera installed on an Israeli army dog, showing it attacking an elderly Palestinian woman in her home in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip.
The woman told Al Jazeera that she was attacked while she was sleeping in her home, and she was mauled and suffered fractures.
This video was deemed too graphic to share on this live page.
Hamas says it supports all efforts to boycott Israel
The group has said it also supports those carrying out “boycotts of the [Israeli] occupation in the framework of a comprehensive resistance plan”.
“It considers that these efforts have achieved significant accomplishments in undermining the entity’s economy, isolating it, and delegitimising it,” Hamas said in a statement on its official Telegram channel.
“We call upon the peoples of our Arab and Islamic nations and the free people of the world to support all efforts leading to boycotting and isolating [Israel] and its backers,” the group said.
UN Palestinian envoy urges immediate ceasefire to undermine Netanyahu’s goals
“We are well aware of the objective of the conflicting messages from Israeli leaders, notably Netanyahu himself, suggesting this is all a scheme and that the assault will continue under any circumstances,” Riyad Mansour said at a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian issue.
“The aim is to sabotage the US initiative without taking the blame for it, to sabotage the efforts of Egypt and Qatar and the international community as a whole.”
Mansour said the best way to “frustrate” Netanyahu’s objectives is by securing an “immediate ceasefire”.
“Achieve an immediate ceasefire now so as not to allow them to continue playing with the minds of so many of you. The best way to save human life is by achieving an immediate ceasefire”, he said.
Israel extends ‘administrative detention’ of female Palestinian journalist
An Israeli military court has extended the detention of Rasha Hirzallah, a Nablus-based journalist working for the Palestinian news agency Wafa, until 11 August.
She was initially placed under administrative detention – without charge or a trial – in early June for alleged incitement on social media platforms. Her detention order has been extended twice so far since then.
According to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society and the Commission for Detainees’ Affairs, Israeli authorities detained the journalist and interrogated her on June 2, and placed her under administrative detention.
US Muslim rights group questions Biden administration’s ‘humanity’
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organisation in the United States, has questioned whether the administration of US President Joe Biden has a “shred of humanity” as the Israeli war on Gaza rages on.
“Israel, with the complicity of the Biden administration, has already slaughtered more than 37,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and more than 14,000 children. Israeli forces and illegal settlers have killed 54 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank in 2024 alone,” CAIR said in a statement.
Red Cross reiterates calls for protection of civilians, unhindered access across Gaza
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has urged for the opening of “all available corridors for a continuous and expanded flow of humanitarian aid” and the release of all captives in Gaza.
“We take no side other than the side of humanity,” it said in a post on X. “Protect civilians, healthcare workers and facilities.”
We take no side other than the side of humanity.
We reiterate our calls on all parties to:
– Protect civilians, healthcare workers and facilities.
– Ensure safe and unhindered access throughout the entire Gaza Strip.
– Open all available corridors for a continuous and expanded… pic.twitter.com/baCD9enXQL— IFRC (@ifrc) June 25, 2024
Killing of health workers in Gaza has had devastating impact: UN
The killing, detention and enforced disappearance of health workers has had a devastating impact on the people of Gaza, the UN Human Rights Office has said, decrying the reported killing of 500 health workers since October 7.
“These killings have occurred against the backdrop of systematic attacks on hospitals and other medical facilities in violation of the laws of war,” the OHCHR said.
The latest health worker killed was Hani al-Jaafarwi, head of emergency and ambulance services at a health clinic in Gaza City on June 23. Many health workers have also died with their family members when residential buildings were struck by the Israeli army.
“Health workers have been subjected to other serious violations under international humanitarian and human rights law during this period. Our office has gathered credible information that [Israeli military] raids on hospitals have often led to mass detention and enforced disappearances, including of medical staff,” it said in a statement.
It cited arrests of health personnel, including hospital directors, at al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals in North Gaza, al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City, and al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis.
“Some released health workers have alleged they were subjected to torture and other forms of ill-treatment in Israeli custody. Two Palestinian doctors, Dr Adnan Al Bursh of Al Shifa Medical Complex and Dr Iyad Al Rantisi of Kamal Adwan Hospital, reportedly died in [Israeli military] detention in Gaza as a result of torture and ill-treatment,” the UN agency said.