The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said its members were shocked and alarmed by reports of the IDF’s assault in the Deir al-Balah area of the Gaza Strip – a part of the enclave where the military had not operated since the start of the war.

“The families of the hostages are shocked and alarmed by these reports,” the forum said in a statement. “As of this moment, we have received no official, organized updates or satisfactory answers on this matter.”

The forum demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz, IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir and IDF Spokesperson Effie Defrin appear before the families and the public this evening to “clearly explain why the offensive in the Deir al-Balah area does not put the hostages at serious risk.”

“The people of Israel will not forgive anyone who knowingly endangered the hostages – both the living and the deceased,” the statement continued. “No one will be able to claim they didn’t know what was at stake.”

From 11 Jul 2025 10.42 BST At least 798 killed while trying to receive food aid in Gaza At least 798 people have been killed while trying to receive food aid in Gaza since the end of May, the UN human rights office said on Friday, Reuters reports. Of the total number of people killed while receiving food assistance since 27 May, 615 were in the vicinity of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, a spokesperson for the Office of the high commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) told reporters. It added that 183 of the total figure were on the routes of aid convoys. Aid groups say Israeli military restrictions and recurring violence have made it difficult to deliver assistance in Gaza even after Israel eased its 11-week total blockade in May. Experts have warned the strip is at risk of famine, 21 months into the Israel-Hamas war, the Associated Press (AP) reports. Share Updated at 13.18 BST

11 Jul 2025 16.14 BST Closing summary At least 798 people have been killed while trying to receive food aid in Gaza since the end of May, the UN human rights office said on Friday. Of the total number of people killed while receiving food assistance since 27 May, 615 were in the vicinity of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, a spokesperson for the Office of the high commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) told reporters.

The number of people killed by strikes in Gaza on Friday has risen to seven, according to the region’s civil defence agency, including five at a school-turned-shelter. “Five martyrs and others injured in an Israeli strike on Halima al-Saadia school, which was sheltering displaced persons in Jabalia al-Nazla, northern Gaza,” the agency said in a brief statement.

In a separate strike on Gaza City, to the south, the agency said at least one person was killed and several others wounded. In central Gaza on Friday, the Al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat said it received several casualties after Israeli forces had opened fire at civilians near an aid distribution point.

An Iranian attack on an airbase in Qatar key to the US military likely hit a geodesic dome housing equipment used by the Americans for secure communications, satellite images analysed by the Associated Press (AP) show. The US military and Qatar did not immediately respond to requests for comment over the damage, which so far has not been publicly acknowledged.

Lebanese president Joseph Aoun ruled out normalisation between his country and Israel on Friday, while expressing hope for peaceful relations with Beirut’s southern neighbour, which still occupies parts of southern Lebanon, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports. Aoun’s statement is the first official reaction to Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar’s statement last week in which he expressed his country’s interest in normalising ties with Lebanon and Syria.

Iran’s foreign minister has confirmed that his country is detaining a teenage French-German cyclist who disappeared last month, French newspaper Le Monde reported on Friday. The cyclist, Lennart Monterlos, “was detained for having committed an infraction,” the newspaper quoted Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi as saying, AP reports.

Al Jazeera reports that Hamas has criticised the decision by the US to impose sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza. The group described the move as a “blatant expression of the US administration’s blatant bias toward Zionist war crimes” and called for the country’s administration to reverse its actions.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has condemned an attack which it claims wounded one of its staff members and a Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) volunteer during a rescue mission in Gaza. The committee said the individuals were injured by gunshots and immediately evacuated to receive treatment. Both are reportedly in a stable condition.

Commercial ships still sailing through the Red Sea are broadcasting messages about their nationality and even religion on their public tracking systems to avoid being targeted by Yemen’s Houthis after deadly attacks this week by the militia. The Red Sea is a critical waterway for oil and commodities but traffic has dropped sharply since Houthi attacks off Yemen’s coast began in November 2023 in what the Iran-aligned group said was in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza war, Reuters reported.

The EU’s diplomatic service has drawn up a list of options to sanction Israel, after finding “indications” that the Middle Eastern country had breached its human rights obligations over its conduct in Gaza and the West Bank. A document for EU foreign ministers to discuss next week outlines 10 options, such as suspending the EU-Israel association agreement or visa-free-travel for Israelis, freezing preferential trade terms, or terminating Israel’s participation in Europe’s research and student exchange programmes.

A UN team got about 75,000 litres of fuel into Gaza on Wednesday, the first such delivery in 130 days, said UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric on Thursday. “The amount entered yesterday isn’t sufficient to cover even one day of energy requirements. Fuel is still running out and services will shut down if far greater volumes do not enter immediately,” Dujarric told reporters. It comes as doctors at Gaza’s largest hospital say crippling fuel shortages have led them to put several premature babies in single incubators as they struggle to keep the newborns alive while Israel presses on with its military campaign.

The EU has reached an agreement with Israel to improve the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, including increasing trucks for aid and opening crossing points and certain aid routes, the EU’s top diplomat said on Thursday. “These measures are or will be implemented in the coming days, with the common understanding that aid at scale must be delivered directly to the population and that measures will continue to be taken to ensure that there is no aid diversion to Hamas,” Kaja Kallas said in a statement.

Militant fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) began handing over their weapons near the northern Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah on Friday, marking a symbolic but significant step in the decades-long conflict between Turkey and the outlawed group. The disarmament ceremony marks a turning point in the transition of the PKK from armed insurgency to democratic politics, as part of a broader effort to draw a line under one of the region’s longest-running conflicts.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, has responded to news that she will be sanctioned by the Trump administration with a post on X saying “the powerful punishing those who speak for the powerless, it is not a sign of strength, but of guilt”. On Wednesday, as part of its effort to punish critics of Israel’s 21-month war in Gaza, the state department sanctioned Albanese, an independent official tasked with investigating human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories. Share

11 Jul 2025 15.37 BST William Christou At least 798 people have been killed while seeking food at distribution points operated by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and other humanitarian convoys since the end of May, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) said on Friday. The GHF, proposed by Israel as an alternative to the UN aid system in Gaza, has been almost universally condemned by rights groups for its violation of principles of humanitarian impartiality and what they have said could be complicity in war crimes. “Up until the seventh of July, we’ve recorded now 798 killings, including 615 in the vicinity of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, and 183 presumably on the route of aid convoys,” the OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva. Israel backed the GHF after claiming that Hamas diverted aid from the UN-led aid system, a claim for which the UN said there was no evidence. The private company employs American mercenaries to oversee four food distribution zones, as opposed to the previous 400 non-militarised zones run under the UN system. The GHF said the UN figures were “false and misleading” and denied that deadly incidents occurred at its sites. “The fact is the most deadly attacks on aid sites have been linked to UN convoys,” a GHF spokesperson said. In Gaza, the GHF has become infamous for the near-daily shootings of people seeking food who have queued to receive meals since the group started operating in early May. Palestinians seeking food have to navigate a complicated set of instructions and stick to specific routes, as well as walk long distances to access the food sites. Even then there is no guarantee they will be safe. Nearly 800 killed at Gaza food hubs and aid convoy routes since end of May, UN says Read more Share Updated at 16.13 BST

11 Jul 2025 15.14 BST Commercial ships still sailing through the Red Sea are broadcasting messages about their nationality and even religion on their public tracking systems to avoid being targeted by Yemen’s Houthis after deadly attacks this week by the militia. The Red Sea is a critical waterway for oil and commodities but traffic has dropped sharply since Houthi attacks off Yemen’s coast began in November 2023 in what the Iran-aligned group said was in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza war, Reuters reported. The group sank two ships this week after months of calm and its leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi reiterated there would be no passage for any company transporting goods connected to Israel. In recent days more ships sailing through the southern Red Sea and the narrow Bab al-Mandab strait have added messages to their AIS public tracking profiles that can be seen when clicking on a vessel. Messages have included referring to an all-Chinese crew and management, and flagging the presence of armed guards on board. “All Crew Muslim,” read one message, while others made clear the ships had no connection to Israel, according to MarineTraffic and LSEG ship-tracking AIS data. Maritime security sources said this was a sign of growing desperation to avoid attack by Houthi commandos or deadly drones – but they also thought it was unlikely to make any difference. Houthi intelligence preparation was “much deeper and forward-leaning”, one source said. Share

11 Jul 2025 14.51 BST Two ICRC staff members injured in Gaza rescue mission, organisation says The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has condemned an attack which it claims wounded one of its staff members and a Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) volunteer during a rescue mission in Gaza. The committee said the individuals were injured by gunshots and immediately evacuated to receive treatment. Both are reportedly in a stable condition. The ICRC said the mission was launched to evacuate a wounded ICRC staff member and his family who had been unreachable since 4 July due to ongoing hostilities. It added that the colleague and his family members remain unreachable. All staff involved in the mission were said to be travelling in illuminated and clearly marked vehicles bearing the Red Cross and Red Crescent emblems. The committee said that it was in constant dialogue with authorities throughout the mission, which was notified and coordinated beforehand. The ICRC said in a statement: The ICRC condemns this attack. This is the second incident in which an ICRC staff member has been injured by bullets in less than a week. Both the PRCS and the ICRC have already faced numerous security incidents over the past few months. The ICRC is outraged by these incidents which are a stark reminder of the grave danger civilians in Gaza face every day. Medical and humanitarian assistance is critical for the civilian population that continues to bear the brunt of intensifying hostilities. Under international humanitarian law, medical and humanitarian relief personnel must never be attacked. The parties must do their utmost to ensure their safety including providing clear and strict instructions on respect for red cross and red crescent emblems. All possible steps must be taken to search for, collect, and evacuate the wounded and provide them with the medical care they require. Share

11 Jul 2025 14.36 BST Israeli army says ‘lessons learned’ following probe on ‘harm to civilians’ Israel’s military on Friday said it learned lessons after a probe into reports of “harm to civilians”. The statement came after the UN said nearly 800 people had died trying to access handouts in Gaza since late May, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports. The army said the incidents were under review and added: Following incidents in which harm to civilians who arrived at distribution facilities was reported, thorough examinations were conducted… and instructions were issued to forces in the field following lessons learned. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) told Reuters that the UN figures which claimed 798 people have been killed while trying to receive food aid in Gaza since the end of May were “false and misleading”. The aid distribution service began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May after Israel lifted an 11-week-old aid blockade. It has repeatedly denied that deadly incidents have occurred at its sites. “The fact is the most deadly attacks on aid sites have been linked to U.N. convoys,” a GHF spokesperson said. The Israeli army said it had sought to minimise friction between Palestinians and the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) by installing fences and signs and opening additional routes. The UN rights office (OHCHR) said it based its figures on a range of sources such as information from hospitals in Gaza, cemeteries, families, Palestinian health authorities, NGOs and its partners on the ground. Most of the injuries to Palestinians in the vicinity of aid distribution hubs recorded by the OHCHR since 27 May were gunshot wounds, OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said. She added: We’ve raised concerns about atrocity crimes having been committed and the risk of further atrocity crimes being committed where people are lining up for essential supplies such as food. Regarding the GHF assertion that the OHCHR figures are false and misleading, Shamdasani said: It is not helpful to issue blanket dismissals of our concerns – what is needed is investigations into why people are being killed while trying to access aid. Israel has repeatedly said its forces operate near the relief aid sites to prevent supplies falling into the hands of militants it has been fighting in the Gaza war triggered by the Hamas-led cross-border attack on 7 October 2023. Share

11 Jul 2025 14.20 BST Al Jazeera reports that Hamas has criticised the decision by the US to impose sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza. The group described the move as a “blatant expression of the US administration’s blatant bias toward Zionist war crimes” and called for the country’s administration to reverse its actions. The outlet reported that the group said in a statement on Telegram: The punitive measures taken by the United States against institutions and individuals performing their professional and moral role in the war of extermination in the Gaza Strip, most recently Albanese, undermine the foundations of international and humanitarian law and encourage the occupation’s war criminal leaders to continue their brutal crimes. Albanese responded to the news that she would be sanctioned with a post on X saying “the powerful punishing those who speak for the powerless, it is not a sign of strength, but of guilt”. She added: All eyes must remain on Gaza, where children are dying of starvation in their mothers’ arms, while their fathers and siblings are bombed into pieces while searching for food. Share

11 Jul 2025 14.09 BST Below is a video showing senior PKK figure Bese Hozat reading a statement in Turkish outside the mouth of a cave near Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdistan region of Iraq’s north on Friday as militant fighters began handing over their weapons. 0:56 Kurdistan Workers’ party fighters burn weapons in disarming ceremony – video The ceremony marks a turning point in the transition of the PKK from armed insurgency to democratic politics in the four-decade conflict between Turkey and the outlawed group. Share

11 Jul 2025 13.53 BST Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, has described Gaza as a “graveyard of children and starving people”. Lazzarini was speaking in response to the 15 people who were killed in a strike outside a medical centre where families were queueing to receive medical treatment and baby formula in Deir al Balah in the Gaza Strip on Thursday. He said in a post on X: Inaction & silence are complicities. Under our watch, #Gaza has become the graveyard of children & starving people. No way out. Their choice is between 2 deaths: starvation or being shoot [sic] at. The most cruel & machiavellian scheme to kill, in total impunity. Our norms & values are being buried. Inaction will bring more chaos. Time to act is overdue. Share

11 Jul 2025 13.35 BST Lebanese president Joseph Aoun ruled out normalisation between his country and Israel on Friday, while expressing hope for peaceful relations with Beirut’s southern neighbour, which still occupies parts of southern Lebanon, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports. Aoun’s statement is the first official reaction to Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar’s statement last week in which he expressed his country’s interest in normalising ties with Lebanon and Syria. Aoun “distinguished between peace and normalisation”, according to a statement shared by the presidency. The president said in front of a delegation from an Arab thinktank. Peace is the lack of a state of war, and this is what matters to us in Lebanon at the moment. As for the issue of normalisation, it is not currently part of Lebanese foreign policy. Lebanon and Syria have technically been in a state of war with Israel since 1948, with Damascus saying that talks of normalisation were “premature”. The president called on Israel to withdraw from the five points near the border it still occupies. Israel was required to fully withdraw from southern Lebanon under a November ceasefire seeking to end its war with Iran-backed Hezbollah. Aoun said that Israeli troops in Lebanon “obstruct the complete deployment of the army up to the internationally recognised borders”. According to the ceasefire agreement, Hezbollah must pull its fighters north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the border with Israel, leaving the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers as the only armed parties in the area. Share

11 Jul 2025 13.15 BST An Iranian attack on an airbase in Qatar key to the US military likely hit a geodesic dome housing equipment used by the Americans for secure communications, satellite images analysed by the Associated Press (AP) show.

The US military and Qatar did not immediately respond to requests for comment over the damage, which so far has not been publicly acknowledged. The Iranian attack on Al Udeid airbase outside Doha, Qatar’s capital, on 23 June came as a response to the American bombing of three nuclear sites in Tehran – and provided the Islamic Republic a way to retaliate that quickly led to a ceasefire brokered by president Donald Trump ending the 12-day Iran-Israel war.

The Iranian attack otherwise did little damage — likely due to the fact that the US evacuated its aircraft from the base home to the forward headquarters of the US military’s Central Command ahead of the attack. Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC show the geodesic dome visible at the Al Udeid airbase on the morning of 23 June, just hours before the attack. View image in fullscreen This satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows modernized enterprise terminal, center, at the Al Udeid Air Base outside of Doha, Qatar, 23 June 2025. Photograph: Planet Labs PBC/AP The US air force’s 379th Air Expeditionary Wing, which operates out of the base, in 2016 announced the installation of the $15m piece of equipment, known as a modernised enterprise terminal. Photos show a satellite dish inside of the dome, known as a radome. Images taken on 25 June and every day subsequently show the dome is gone, with some damage visible on a nearby building. The rest of the base appears largely untouched in the images. View image in fullscreen This satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows damage after an Iranian attack at the Al Udeid Air Base outside of Doha, Qatar, June 25, 2025. Photograph: Planet Labs PBC/AP It’s possible a fragment or something else struck the dome, but given the destruction of the dome, it was likely an Iranian attack, possibly with a bomb-carrying drone given the limited visible damage to surrounding structures. The London-based satellite news channel Iran International first reported on the damage, citing satellite photos taken by a different provider. Potentially signalling he knew the dome had been hit, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei separately claimed the base’s communications had been disconnected by the attack. Ahmad Alamolhoda, a hard-line cleric, said: All equipment of the base was completely destroyed and now the U.S. command stream and connection from Al Udeid base to its other military bases have been completely cut.

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11 Jul 2025 12.58 BST Iran’s foreign minister has confirmed that his country is detaining a teenage French-German cyclist who disappeared last month, French newspaper Le Monde reported on Friday.

The cyclist, Lennart Monterlos, “was detained for having committed an infraction,” the newspaper quoted Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi as saying, AP reports.

He didn’t elaborate on the nature of the alleged offence.

Araghchi said France’s embassy in Tehran has been notified, the newspaper added. Monterlos was cycling across Iran and hasn’t been heard from since mid-June, it said.

France’s foreign ministry didn’t confirm the detention, but said that it’s in contact with Iranian authorities about “the situation of our national” and also with the family.

Citing concerns for his security, it said it had no other comment. It reiterated previous warnings that French nationals shouldn’t travel to Iran.

The cyclist is the third French national known to be detained in Iran, which is accused by France of practising hostage diplomacy.

Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, have been held in Iran for more than three years in prison conditions that France likens to torture and on charges that Paris says are without foundation.

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11 Jul 2025 12.46 BST We have more on the 30 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants who burned their weapons in northern Iraq on Friday. Reuters reports that the fighters, in beige military fatigues, were flanked by four commanders, including senior PKK figure Bese Hozat, who read a statement in Turkish declaring the group’s decision to disarm. “We voluntarily destroy our weapons, in your presence, as a step of goodwill and determination,” she said, before another commander read the same statement in Kurdish. Helicopters hovered overhead, with dozens of Iraqi Kurdish security forces surrounding the mountainous area, a witness said. Share

11 Jul 2025 12.27 BST The EU on Friday said it “deeply regrets” the US decision to impose sanctions on United Nations expert Francesca Albanese after she criticised Washington’s policy on Gaza, AFP reports. EU spokesperson Anouar El Anouni said: The European Union strongly supports the United Nations human rights system and we deeply regret the decision to impose sanctions on Francesca Albanese. Share

The Israeli Air Force struck Syrian military weapons facilities in the southern part of the country early this Wednesday, the IDF announced. The strikes followed rocket fire from Syria toward the southern Golan Heights on Tuesday night.

In a statement, the IDF said, “The Syrian regime is responsible for what transpires within Syria and will continue to bear the consequences as long as hostile activity continues from its territory. The IDF will act against any threat to the State of Israel.”

Earlier, the Syrian Foreign Ministry addressed the rocket launches toward the southern Golan Heights, stating there was no proof rockets were fired from Syrian territory into Israel and that Syria “is not interested in posing a threat to any party in the region.” The ministry also commented on the Israeli airstrikes, claiming that many people were injured and significant damage was caused in the city of Daraa.

On Tuesday evening, two projectiles from Syrian territory crossed into Israel and landed in open areas. Following these launches, sirens sounded in the southern Golan Heights. After the rockets hit the southern Golan, the IDF responded with artillery fire toward the sources of the launches in Syria. According to reports in Syrian media, the strikes focused on the Daraa Governorate in the country’s south.

Defense Minister Israel Katz stated after the rocket fire, “We view the Syrian president as directly responsible for any threat and firing toward the State of Israel, and the full response will come swiftly.” Katz added, “We will not allow a return to the reality of October 7th.”