Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least 10 people were killed across the Palestinian territory on Saturday, including civilians who were waiting to collect aid. Civil defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP that at least six people were killed and 30 wounded after Israeli troops targeted civilians assembling near an aid point in central Gaza.
It comes after, early Friday, the Israeli security cabinet approved plans to launch major operations to seize Gaza City, triggering a wave of outrage across the globe. Despite the backlash and rumours of dissent from Israeli military top brass, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu remained defiant over the decision.
In a post on social media late Friday, Netanyahu said “we are not going to occupy Gaza – we are going to free Gaza from Hamas”. Netanyahu faces mounting pressure to secure a ceasefire to bring the territory’s more than two million people back from the brink of famine and free the hostages held by Palestinian militants.
Meanwhile:
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The worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and Israel’s plans to expand military control over the enclave have pushed Germany to curb arms exports to Israel, a historically fraught step for Berlin driven by a growing public outcry. Conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz, hitherto a staunchly pro-Israel leader, made the announcement on Friday arguing that Israel’s actions would not achieve its stated war goals of eliminating Hamas militants or bringing Israeli hostages home.
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The UN Security Council announced an emergency meeting on Israel’s plans was rescheduled to 10am EDT on Sunday (3pm BST) after originally being scheduled to take place at 3pm EDT (8pm BST) on Saturday. The UN Mission of Panama, which holds the council presidency this month, provided no details, but Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath and Israel is certain to want to speak at the meeting.
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The efforts for a new ceasefire have the backing of major Arab Gulf monarchies, according to two officials who spoke to AP anonymously due to the sensitivity of the discussions. One is involved directly in the deliberations and the second was briefed on the efforts. The monarchies are concerned about further regional destabilisation if Israel fully reoccupies Gaza, the officials said. A senior Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorised to brief the media, said the group has yet to receive details on the latest efforts to revive ceasefire talks.
Here are some of the lates images coming out of Gaza as the war continues:
Several Arab and Muslim countries on Saturday condemned as a “dangerous escalation” Israel’s plan to take control of Gaza City.
Some 20 countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, said the plan constituted “a flagrant violation of international law, and an attempt to entrench the illegal occupation and impose a fait accompli… in contravention of international legitimacy”.
The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has launched an undiplomatic attack on Keir Starmer by invoking the allied second world war bombing of Dresden after the British prime minister criticised the Israeli security cabinet’s decision to expand the war in Gaza.
“So Israel is expected to surrender to Hamas & feed them even though Israeli hostages are being starved?” Huckabee wrote on social media in response to a post by Starmer calling for an immediate ceasefire and lamenting the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as well as the fate of the remaining Israeli hostages being held by Hamas.
Provocatively, Huckabee added: “Did UK surrender to Nazis and drop food to them?
“Ever heard of Dresden, PM Starmer? That wasn’t food you dropped. If you had been PM then UK would be speaking German!”
Read the full report here:
The US and UK have “disagreements” on Gaza including over whether to recognise a Palestinian state, JD Vance has suggested as he arrived in England for his summer holiday.
The US vice-president was speaking before a bilateral meeting with David Lammy, the UK foreign secretary, at his 17th-century grace-and-favour country house, Chevening.
His remarks on Gaza marked a note of discord in what otherwise appeared to be a convivial meeting between the two politicians, who have struck up an unlikely friendship. The pair have bonded over their Christian faith and difficult childhoods.
The vice-president says that, unlike Britain, the White House has no plans to recognise the Palestinian state. Read the full report here:
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff met Qatar’s prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on Saturday in Ibiza, Spain to discuss a plan to end the war in Gaza and release hostages, Axios reporter Barak Ravid said on X.
Microsoft is investigating how Israel’s military surveillance agency, Unit 8200, is using its Azure cloud storage platform, amid concerns the company’s staff in Israel may have concealed key details about its work on sensitive military projects.
Senior executives are scrambling to assess what data Unit 8200 holds in Azure after a Guardian investigation revealed how the spy agency has used the cloud platform to store a vast collection of intercepted Palestinian mobile phone calls.
The joint investigation with the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call found Unit 8200 has used a customised and segregated area within Azure to store recordings of millions of calls made each day in Gaza and the West Bank.
There are concerns that the tech company’s Israel-based staff may have concealed key details of work, read the full piece here:
Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least 10 people were killed across the Palestinian territory on Saturday, including civilians who were waiting to collect aid. Civil defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP that at least six people were killed and 30 wounded after Israeli troops targeted civilians assembling near an aid point in central Gaza.
It comes after, early Friday, the Israeli security cabinet approved plans to launch major operations to seize Gaza City, triggering a wave of outrage across the globe. Despite the backlash and rumours of dissent from Israeli military top brass, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu remained defiant over the decision.
In a post on social media late Friday, Netanyahu said “we are not going to occupy Gaza – we are going to free Gaza from Hamas”. Netanyahu faces mounting pressure to secure a ceasefire to bring the territory’s more than two million people back from the brink of famine and free the hostages held by Palestinian militants.
Meanwhile:
-
The worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and Israel’s plans to expand military control over the enclave have pushed Germany to curb arms exports to Israel, a historically fraught step for Berlin driven by a growing public outcry. Conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz, hitherto a staunchly pro-Israel leader, made the announcement on Friday arguing that Israel’s actions would not achieve its stated war goals of eliminating Hamas militants or bringing Israeli hostages home.
-
The UN Security Council announced an emergency meeting on Israel’s plans was rescheduled to 10am EDT on Sunday (3pm BST) after originally being scheduled to take place at 3pm EDT (8pm BST) on Saturday. The UN Mission of Panama, which holds the council presidency this month, provided no details, but Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath and Israel is certain to want to speak at the meeting.
-
The efforts for a new ceasefire have the backing of major Arab Gulf monarchies, according to two officials who spoke to AP anonymously due to the sensitivity of the discussions. One is involved directly in the deliberations and the second was briefed on the efforts. The monarchies are concerned about further regional destabilisation if Israel fully reoccupies Gaza, the officials said. A senior Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorised to brief the media, said the group has yet to receive details on the latest efforts to revive ceasefire talks.
