A senior Hamas official has told the BBC that mediators have intensified their efforts to broker a new ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza, but that negotiations with Israel remain stalled.

The comments came as US President Donald Trump said “great progress” was being made since Israel and Iran ended their 12-day war on Tuesday, and that his envoy Steve Witkoff thought an agreement between Israel and Hamas was “very close”.

Israeli attacks across Gaza on Wednesday killed at least 45 Palestinians, including some who were seeking aid, the Hamas-run health ministry said.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military announced that seven soldiers were killed in a bomb attack on Tuesday claimed by Hamas.

Wales shirts not available to buy in Switzerland

Image source, Claire O’Sullivan Image caption, Claire O’Sullivan (centre) says she was “appalled” when she was unable to buy a Wales shirt in Switzerland

10 July 2025

A former Wales international has said it is “disgraceful” she was unable to buy a Wales shirt in Switzerland during Euro 2025.

Claire O’Sullivan, who manages Pontypridd United and formerly coached the Wales women’s youth team, attempted to buy the shirts in two Adidas concession stores.

She said she was “appalled” that each had shirts for every side in the 16-team tournament except Wales, and “there was a Wales badge on the screen, but no shirts”.

The Football Association of Wales (FAW) directed questions to Adidas.

Adidas said due to high demand ahead of the tournament for the Wales women’s team jerseys, they were currently only available via the retailer JD Sports.

Ms O’Sullivan, from Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, arrived in Switzerland on 3 July and first went to an Adidas store at Zurich train station later that day.

She then went to a pop-up store in the fan zone in Lucerne, in the afternoon, but neither had the shirt.

She asked the staff why they had not got any Wales tops.

“I challenged both of them and I asked to speak to a manager, but they didn’t come out,” she said.

“They said they had never had them, and they weren’t delivered there.

“I think it’s appalling. They had shirts for every team but nothing for Wales.”

Image source, Claire O’Sullivan Image caption, The Wales shirt was not for sale at the concession stand at Zurich railway station

She said she went to another store on Wednesday and saw a Wales shirt hanging up but they “didn’t have any to sell.”

“I’m having the best time as a Wales fan out here, but that’s really disappointing,” she said.

“The tournament started on Wednesday, and to not have any shirts on the Thursday is disgraceful.”

She added that to be the only country without representation was “awful”.

“I’ve come with my own shirt but wanted to buy a momento, and the fact that you can’t is just disgraceful.”

BBC Wales understands that the FAW said they were not involved in stock decisions, and that JD Sports ran out of online stock in the lead up to the tournament and that was a priority for them to restock.

A spokesperson for Adidas said: “Fans wanting to show support for their teams with a jersey can purchase from our stores, our website and our retail partners while stocks last.

They added that the company’s Zurich stores would be restocked in the coming days.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — At least 31 Palestinians were fatally shot on their way to an aid distribution site in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, while Israeli airstrikes killed at least 28 Palestinians including four children, Palestinian hospital officials and witnesses said.

There were no signs of a breakthrough in ceasefire talks following two days of meetings between U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump had said he was nearing an agreement between Israel and Hamas that would potentially wind down the war.

READ MORE: As Trump seeks to be a peacemaker, Netanyahu leaves Washington without breakthrough on Gaza deal

The 31 Palestinians shot dead were on their way to a distribution site run by the Israeli-backed American organization Gaza Humanitarian Foundation near Rafah in southern Gaza, hospital officials and witnesses said.

The Red Cross said its field hospital saw its largest influx of dead in more than a year of operation after the shootings, and that the overwhelming majority of the more than 100 people hurt had gunshot wounds.

Airstrikes in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah killed 13 including the four children, officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said. Fifteen others were killed in Khan Younis in the south, according to Nasser Hospital. Israel’s military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Intense airstrikes continued Saturday evening in the area of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza.

Israelis rallied yet again for a ceasefire deal. “Arrogance is what brought the disaster upon us,” former hostage Eli Sharabi said of Israeli leaders.

Teen’s first attempt to pick up food ends in death

The 21-month war has left much of Gaza’s population of over 2 million reliant on outside aid while food security experts warn of famine. Israel blocked and then restricted aid entry after ending the latest ceasefire in March.

“All responsive individuals reported they were attempting to access food distribution sites,” the Red Cross said after the shootings near Rafah, noting the “alarming frequency and scale” of such mass casualty incidents.

WATCH: Gaza family documents their desperate search for food in a barren landscape

Israel’s military said it fired warning shots toward people it said were behaving suspiciously to prevent them from approaching. It said it was not aware of any casualties. The GHF said no incident occurred near its sites.

Abdullah al-Haddad said he was 200 meters (655 feet) from the aid distribution site run by the GHF close to the Shakoush area when an Israeli tank started firing at crowds of Palestinians.

“We were together, and they shot us at once,” he said, writhing in pain from a leg wound at Nasser Hospital.

Mohammed Jamal al-Sahloo, another witness, said Israel’s military had ordered them to proceed to the site when the shooting started.

Sumaya al-Sha’er’s 17-year-old son, Nasir, was killed, hospital officials said.

“He said to me, ‘Mom, you don’t have flour and today I’ll go and bring you flour, even if I die, I’ll go and get it,’” she said. “But he never came back home.”

Until then, she said, she had prevented the teenager from going to GHF sites because she thought it was too dangerous.

Witnesses, health officials and U.N. officials say hundreds have been killed by Israeli fire while heading toward GHF distribution points through military zones off limits to independent media. The military has acknowledged firing warning shots at Palestinians who it says approached its forces in a suspicious manner.

The GHF denies there has been violence in or around its sites. But two of its contractors told The Associated Press that their colleagues have fired live ammunition and stun grenades as Palestinians scramble for food, allegations the foundation denied.

In a separate effort, the U.N. and aid groups say they struggle to distribute humanitarian aid because of Israeli military restrictions and a breakdown of law and order that has led to widespread looting.

The first fuel — 150,000 liters — entered Gaza this week after 130 days, a joint statement by U.N. aid bodies said, calling it a small amount for the “the backbone of survival in Gaza.” Fuel runs hospitals, water systems, transport and more, the statement said.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in their Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the war and abducted 251. Hamas still holds some 50 hostages, with at least 20 believed to remain alive.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 57,800 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, under Gaza’s Hamas-run government, doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count. The U.N. and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.

A Palestinian-American killed in the West Bank

Friends and relatives paid their respects a day after Palestinian-American Seifeddin Musalat and local friend Mohammed al-Shalabi were killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Musalat was beaten to death by Israeli settlers on his family’s land, his cousin Diana Halum told reporters. The settlers then blocked paramedics from reaching him, she said.

READ MORE: Israeli settlers attack Palestinians and IDF military vehicles in West Bank

Musalat, born in Florida, was visiting his family home. His family wants the U.S. State Department to investigate his death and hold the settlers accountable. The State Department said it was aware of the reports of his death but had no comment out of respect for the family.

A witness, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid Israeli retaliation, said the settlers descended on Palestinian lands and “started shooting at us, beating by sticks and throwing rocks.”

Israel’s military has said Palestinians hurled rocks at Israelis in the area earlier on Friday, lightly wounding two people and setting off a larger confrontation.

Palestinians and rights groups have long accused the military of ignoring settler violence, which has spiked — along with Palestinian attacks and Israeli military raids — since the war in Gaza began.

DEIR al-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas said Friday it has given a “positive” response to the latest proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza but said further talks were needed on implementation.

It was not clear if Hamas’ statement meant it had accepted the proposal from U.S. President Donald Trump for a 60-day ceasefire. Hamas has been seeking guarantees that the initial truce would lead to a total end to the war, now nearly 21 months old. Trump has been pushing hard for a deal to be reached, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to visit the White House next week to discuss a deal.

The Hamas statement came as Israeli airstrikes killed 15 Palestinians in Gaza early Friday, while a hospital said another 20 people died in shootings while seeking aid.

READ MORE: Dozens killed in Gaza as the UN says hundreds have died while seeking aid near sites run by U.S. group

The U.N. human rights office said it has recorded 613 Palestinians killed within the span of a month in Gaza while trying to obtain aid. Most were killed while trying to reach food distribution points run by an Israeli-backed American organization, while others were massed waiting for aid trucks connected to the United Nations or other humanitarian organizations, it said.

Efforts ongoing to halt the war

Trump said Tuesday that Israel had agreed on terms for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, during which the U.S. would “work with all parties to end the war.” He urged Hamas to accept the deal before conditions worsen.

In its statement late Friday, Hamas said it “has submitted its positive response” to Egyptian and Qatari mediators.

It said it is “fully prepared to immediately enter into a round of negotiations regarding the mechanism for implementing this framework.” It did not elaborate on what needed to be worked out in implementation.

WATCH: Dozens in Gaza killed by Israeli strikes and gunfire as U.S. makes new push for ceasefire

An official close to the talks said Hamas had several issues it was requesting — that Israeli troops in Gaza pull back to positions it held on March 2 before it broke the previous ceasefire; that aid flow into Gaza in sufficient quantities through the U.N. and other international humanitarian agencies; and that negotiations continue beyond 60 days if needed to reach a deal for a permanent end to the war and the release of all remaining hostages.

Previous rounds of negotiations have run aground over Hamas demands of guarantees that further negotiations would lead to the war’s end, while Netanyahu has insisted Israel would resume fighting to ensure the destruction of the militant group.

“We’ll see what happens. We’re going to know over the next 24 hours,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One late Thursday when asked if Hamas had agreed to the latest framework for a ceasefire.

20 killed Friday while seeking aid

Officials at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said at least three Palestinians were killed Friday while on the roads heading to food distribution sites run by the Israeli-backed the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in southern Gaza.

Since GHF began distributions in late May, witnesses have said almost daily that Israeli troops open fire toward crowds of Palestinians on the roads leading to the food centers. To reach the sites, people must walk several kilometers (miles) through an Israeli military zone where troops control the road.

WATCH: Desperation mounts in Gaza as Palestinians are killed while seeking food aid

The Israeli military has said previously it fires warning shots to control crowds or at Palestinians who approach its troops. The GHF has denied any serious injuries or deaths on its sites and says shootings outside their immediate vicinity are under the purview of Israel’s military.

On Friday, in reaction to the U.N. rights agency’s report, it said in a statement that it was investigating reports of people killed and wounded while seeking aid and that it had given instructions to troops in the field based on “lessons learned” from reviewing the incidents. It said it was working at “minimizing possible friction between the population” and Israeli forces, including by installing fences and placing signs on the routes.

Separately, witnesses have said Israeli troops open fire on crowds of Palestinians who gather in military-controlled zones to wait for aid trucks entering Gaza for the U.N. or other aid organizations not associated with GHF. The crowds are usually made up of people desperate for food who grab supplies off the passing trucks, and armed gangs have also looted trucks.

On Friday, 17 people were killed waiting for trucks in eastern Khan Younis in the Tahliya area, officials at Nasser Hospital said.

Three survivors told the AP they had gone to wait for the trucks in a military “red zone” in Khan Younis and that troops opened fire from a tank and drones.

It was a “crowd of people, may God help them, who want to eat and live,” said Seddiq Abu Farhana, who was shot in the leg, forcing him to drop a bag of flour he had grabbed. “There was direct firing.”

Airstrikes also hit the Muwasi area on the southern end of Gaza’s Mediterranean coast, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians driven from their homes are sheltering in tent camps. Of the 15 people killed in the strikes, eight were women and one was a child, according to the hospital.

Israel’s military said it was looking into Friday’s reported airstrikes. It had no immediate comment on the reported shootings surrounding the aid trucks.

U.N. investigates shootings near aid sites

The spokeswoman for the U.N. human rights office, Ravina Shamdasani, said the agency was not able to attribute responsibility for the killings. But she said “it is clear that the Israeli military has shelled and shot at Palestinians trying to reach the distribution points” operated by GHF.

In a message to The Associated Press, Shamdasani said that of the total tallied, 509 killings were “GHF-related,” meaning at or near its distribution sites.

In a statement Friday, GHF cast doubt on the casualty figures, accusing the U.N. of taking its casualty figures “directly from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry”and of trying “to falsely smear our effort.”

Shamdasani, the U.N. rights office spokesperson, told the AP that the data “is based on our own information gathering through various reliable sources, including medical, human rights and humanitarian organizations.”

Rik Peeperkorn, representative of the World Health Organization, said Nasser Hospital, the biggest hospital operating in the south, receives dozens or hundreds of casualties every day, most coming from the vicinity of the food distribution sites. The overwhelmed hospital has become “one massive trauma ward,” he said. The WHO supports Nasser Hospital and other health facilities.

The International Committee of the Red Cross also said in late June that its field hospital near one of the GHF sites has been overwhelmed more than 20 times in the previous months by mass casualties. It said the casualties had been on their way to the food distribution sites, and “the vast majority of patients suffered gunshot injuries.”

Also on Friday, Israel’s military said two soldiers were killed in combat in the north of Gaza and it was investigating. Over 860 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the war began, including more than 400 during the fighting in Gaza.

The Israeli military also issued new evacuation orders Friday in northeast Khan Younis in southern Gaza and urged Palestinians to move west ahead of planned military operations against Hamas in the area. The new evacuation zones pushed Palestinians into increasingly smaller spaces by the coast.

The Health Ministry in Gaza said the number of Palestinians killed in the territory has passed 57,000. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says more than half of the dead are women and children. The ministry is run by medical professionals employed by the Hamas government, and its numbers are widely cited by the U.N. and international organizations.

The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking roughly 250 hostages.

Kullab reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten reported from Geneva and AP writer Julia Frankel contributed.

That is when the GHF took over most aid distribution in Gaza in an attempt by Israel to bypass the UN as the main supplier of aid.

The move followed a complete three-month Israeli blockade during which no food entered the territory, putting the entire population at critical risk of famine according to a UN-backed assessment.

In almost all incidents, witnesses have said that Israeli troops opened fire, although there have also been reports of local armed gunmen shooting at people.

A spokesperson for al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat confirmed they received 23 bodies and more than 100 wounded. Images from the hospital showed bodies on the floor.

The IDF said the incident was under review.

The UN children’s agency Unicef said the Israel- and US-backed food distribution system run by GHF was “making a desperate humanitarian situation worse”.

Unicef spokesperson James Elder said a lack of public clarity on when the sites, some of which are in combat zones, were open was leading to mass casualty events.

“There have been instances where information (was) shared that a site is open, but then it’s communicated on social media that they’re closed, but that information was shared when Gaza’s internet was down and people had no access to it,” he told reporters in Geneva.

He said many women and children had been wounded while trying to receive food aid, including a young boy who was wounded by a tank shell and later died.

On Thursday, at least 12 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces while waiting for aid, according to rescuers and medics. The GHF denied there were any incidents near its site. The Israeli military told Reuters that “suspects” had attempted to approach forces in the area of Netzarim, and that soldiers had fired warning shots.

On Tuesday witnesses said more than 50 people were killed when Israeli forces opened fire and shelled an area near a junction to the east of Khan Younis, where thousands of Palestinians had been gathering in the hope of getting flour from a World Food Programme (WFP) site, which also includes a community kitchen nearby. The Israeli military said “a gathering” had been identified “in proximity to IDF troops operating in the area” and the incident was under review.

Unicef also warned that Gaza was facing a man-made drought as its water systems were collapsing. Just 40% of drinking water production facilities were still functioning, Mr Elder said.

“Children will begin to die of thirst,” he said, adding: “We are way below emergency standards in terms of drinking water for people in Gaza.”

In a separate Israeli attack on Friday, a medic with the Palestinian Red Crescent told the BBC that 11 Palestinians were killed and others injured in an Israeli airstrike targeting a home in the al-Ma’sar area west of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.

Eyewitnesses said Israeli warplanes struck a two-storey house belonging to the Ayash family.

Hamas-run civil defence officials say Israel has carried out a wave of deadly air strikes on Gaza in recent days, following a brief lull in air operations that coincided with the escalation between Israel and Iran.

They reported on Thursday that at least 77 Palestinians had been killed in such strikes, which heavily targeted the Shati area in western Gaza City.

Local sources speculated that the renewed strikes may be linked to the targeting of Hamas security elements who have recently re-emerged across parts of Gaza, attempting to reassert control amid a breakdown in law and order. These movements appear to have been timed with the temporary easing of Israeli aerial surveillance due to the simultaneous military focus on Iran.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 55,706 people have been killed in Gaza since then, including more than 15,000 children, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.