Israeli military denies firing at civilians after Hamas-run health ministry says 31 killed

Sebastian Usher

Middle East editor, reporting from Jerusalem

Image source, Getty Images Image caption, An ambulance drives through a crowd of people to the Nasser hospital in Gaza

Reports of heavy casualties from Israeli fire, along with videos of the dead and wounded being carried on donkey carts, began appearing early in the morning.

Palestinian sources in Rafah said the incident occurred as Palestinians were, once again, queuing ahead of one of the new aid distribution centres opening for the day.

One Palestinian who said he was there said that chaos broke out among the huge crowd and that Israeli forces opened fire as the situation got out of control. Hamas has said it shows that the new aid are death traps.

The Israel Defense Forces said initial findings show its forces “did not fire at civilians while they were near or within” the aid centre.

Earlier, the Israel and US backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation issued a strong statement of denial, saying the reports are false and fabricated, and asserted that its distribution of aid had gone ahead without incident.

An Israeli soldier in Rafah contacted the BBC to support this claim, saying that Israeli soldiers did fire near the crowd but not at them and that no one was hit.

Whatever did happen, it is clear that at least one medical facility, the Nasser hospital, received a large number of casualties, with a doctor telling the BBC that many had bullet wounds.

The incident has also raised more questions over the new mechanism for supplying aid to Gazans, backed by the US and Israel but rejected by UN agencies, who had been doing the job until now.

We’re ending our live coverage now, but you can catch up on everything that’s happened today in Gaza by reading our full report.

However fragile it may be, on Tuesday, Israel and Iran agreed to a “ceasefire” just three days after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the bombing of three nuclear sites in Iran, which he claimed were “obliterated.”

Global markets welcomed this development and crude oil futures prices fell. Nevertheless, there are reasons to be skeptical about the prospects for a sustained ceasefire, which both sides already appear to have violated. The first is that the Iranian nuclear facilities might not have been “obliterated” as Trump claimed. In contradiction to the president, an initial U.S. intelligence report found that the bombings only delayed Tehran’s nuclear ambitions by a few months.

The second, more fundamental reason, to doubt Trump’s prospects for success in the Middle East is his growing inability to govern and lead as he becomes increasingly bogged down in quagmires both at home and abroad.

Two confidence votes, each fewer than seven days apart, tell much of the story of Israel’s political transformation since it launched attacks on longstanding regional nemesis Iran on Friday.

Early on Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government narrowly survived a vote that ensured its continuation after an 11th-hour deal was reached with ultra-Orthodox parties who are a key force within it. Had a deal not been found, then parliament would have been dissolved and new elections called, leaving Netanyahu vulnerable as opposition against him grew.

But then on Monday, a similar attempt to dissolve parliament failed miserably after no confidence motions brought forward by parties led by Palestinian citizens of Israel failed to attract any support from the centre and the right.

Of course, in between, Israel had launched its attacks on Iran, upending domestic Israeli politics as well as regional geopolitics.

Rejecting Monday’s no confidence motions, opposition politician Pnina Tamano-Shata – who has been critical of Netanyahu in the past – told lawmakers the efforts were “disconnected from reality”.

That is now the mainstream view in Israeli politics, with opposition parties falling into line behind Netanyahu and a war against Iran that the prime minister has been promoting for at least two decades.

Writing in Israeli media the day after Israel’s strikes on Iran began, former Prime Minister and self-styled centrist Yair Lapid, who less than a month earlier had been calling upon the prime minister to seek a truce in Gaza, wrote of his full support for the attacks on Iran while urging the United States to participate in the war. He was then pictured shaking Netanyahu’s hand with a map of Iran on a wall behind the two men.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met today with Leader of the Opposition MK Yair Lapid for a security update. pic.twitter.com/dvCMEjivXb — Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) June 17, 2025

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Former right-wing Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, whom polls have shown to be a favourite to replace Netanyahu if early elections were called, also told Israeli media: “There is no right, no left, no opposition and no coalition” in regard to the attacks on Iran.

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Tuesday, Aida Touma-Suleiman, a member of parliament representing the Hadash-Ta’al Party, said: “Politically, the switch to supporting the war by the main opposition isn’t surprising. It took them a year and a half to say it’s forbidden to kill children. It will probably take them another year and a half to realise they don’t automatically have to fall in behind Netanyahu every time there’s a new crisis.”

“There are no voices in Israel questioning this, apart from us, and we’re Palestinians and leftists, so apparently not to be trusted,” Touma-Suleiman said. “Even those who call themselves the Zionist left are supporting the war.”

“Israelis are raised being told they’re in danger and that they’re going to need to do everything they can to survive,” she added.

Changed fortunes

Only last week, things seemed very different. Domestically, Netanyahu and his coalition were under pressure from a parliament, public and even military that appeared to have grown tired of the country’s seemingly endless war on Gaza.

Open letters protesting the burden that the war was imposing upon Israeli lives and, in some cases, Palestinian ones had come from members of the military and from within its universities and colleges. Large numbers of reservists were also believed to be refusing to turn up for duty.

There was also pressure to hold an inquiry into Netanyahu and his government’s failure to prevent the October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, and a corruption trial that has haunted Netanyahu since 2019 rumbled on.

Now, the prime minister leads a public and parliament that, apart from a few notable exceptions, appears united behind his leadership and its new attacks upon an old enemy, Iran. That is despite the unprecedented attacks that Israel has faced over the past week with ballistic missiles crashing into Tel Aviv, Haifa and other Israeli cities – killing at least 24 Israelis.

On Monday, a poll conducted by Israel’s Channel 14 showed “overwhelming” public support for the prime minister with editorials and coverage across much of the Israeli media similarly supportive of the prime minister.

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On Tuesday, one of the country’s leading newspapers, The Times of Israel, echoed the claims of politicians, such as Lapid, that Iran was committing war crimes in response to Israel’s unprovoked attacks on Friday, itself deemed illegal by some legal scholars. No mention was made of the accusations of genocide against Israel being considered by the International Court of Justice or the warrants for war crimes issued against Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant by the International Criminal Court.

“Through a [long] campaign led by Netanyahu and others, the idea that Iran is the source of all anti-Israeli sentiment in the region, not the plight of the Palestinians, who are occupied and subjected to ethnic cleansing, has largely become entrenched within Israeli politics,” Israeli political analyst Nimrod Flaschenberg said of the dramatic political unity that has followed on the heels of Friday’s attacks. “The idea that Iran is the source of all evil has become embedded across Israeli society.”

Uncertain future

However, Netanyahu has squandered support before, and he may do so again.

Much like in Gaza, Netanyahu has set maximalist war aims. In Gaza, it was a “total victory” over Hamas while with Iran he has said Israel will end Iran’s nuclear programme and even suggested the possibility of regime change in Tehran.

Netanyahu may find once again that it is easy to start wars but not to finish them in a manner that is satisfactory to his political base.

“Netanyahu is making a big gamble,” Dov Waxman, professor of Israel studies at the University of California-Los Angeles, told Al Jazeera. “If the war doesn’t succeed in destroying Iran’s nuclear programme or forcing Iran to make unprecedented concessions to reach a new nuclear agreement, then it will be considered a failure in Israel, and this will no doubt hurt Netanyahu politically. And if the war drags on and Israeli casualties continue to mount, then Israeli public opinion may well turn against the war and blame Netanyahu for initiating it.”

However, the degree to which a change in the public and political mood may act as a check upon Netanyahu and his government is unclear. Netanyahu has repeatedly ignored the public pressure to find a deal to secure the release of Israeli captives held in Gaza with some government members even directly criticising family members of captives.

“Netanyahu has just weeks, maybe even days, of public support left to him if the damage continues,” Flaschenberg said, “But as we’ve seen in Gaza, that doesn’t really matter. So if he does stretch it out, as part of his apparent policy of endless war, then that’s what he’ll do. The only thing that can really stop this new war is a decisive stand by the US. That’s it.”

A year and a half later, Israel is still making the same mistakes over humanitarian aid in Gaza.

In the confused days after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, Israeli leaders took to the microphones to boast about how vigorously they would block aid into the Gaza Strip.

Two days after the horror, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared: “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed.”

That quickly proved unrealistic. Less than two weeks into the war, the siege was lifted, and the first aid trucks bearing food and medicine crossed in from Egypt.

By mid-November, pressure from the US and international organizations pushed Israel to reverse course on fuel as well, and trucks started to bring in fuel tanks for hospitals, aid trucks, water pumps, desalination plants, bakeries and sewage plants.

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Fuel would also go to the Paltel telecom company so that Gazans could have phone and internet service.

Israel also promised that no aid would come in through the Kerem Shalom crossing or Ashdod Port, as if the route through which the aid traveled made some difference to the outcome of the war.

Predictably, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu relented under US pressure on Kerem Shalom in December 2023, then allowed a massive shipment of aid to go through Ashdod Port the next month.

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After a deadly erroneous IDF strike on World Central Kitchen workers in April 2024, Israel went further, advertising that Kerem Shalom would be open for longer hours and that Ashdod Port would be permanently open for aid.

“Israel’s response has been to instinctively deny each request, then ultimately agree to those same demands when circumstances on the ground leave little choice. That approach, which seems built around domestic political calculations, is causing Israel to bleed support even as victory doesn’t seem especially imminent,” this writer noted shortly after the WCK incident. “Instead of showing its allies that it is leading the aid effort, Israel is seen as dragging its feet as the humanitarian situation in the Strip gets worse. That perception — not at all unfounded — is putting the entire campaign in danger.”

Those same words could have been written today.

Creating a crisis

In March, Israel declared that a two-month ceasefire with Hamas had ended, and with it the entry of massive amounts of humanitarian aid.

“Israel has decided to stop letting goods and supplies into Gaza, something we’ve done for the past 42 days,” Netanyahu said on March 2. “We’ve done that because Hamas steals the supplies and prevents the people of Gaza from getting them.”

“It uses these supplies to finance its terror machine, which is aimed directly at Israel and our civilians – and this we cannot accept,” he said.

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The next day, government spokesman David Mencer was even more pointed: “Food intended for widespread distribution has been feeding the guards that starve our own hostages.

“Get real. The aid we send is used to kill. No more.”

As concerns about famine in Gaza grew in the ensuing months, the Israeli and US governments prepared for a new civilian outfit, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, to become the primary vehicle for aid to civilians.

Shortly before the GHF began operations in late May, Defense Minister Israel Katz said that under the new initiative, the civilian population would be evacuated to southern Gaza, where three of the four distribution sites were set up, to drive a wedge between them and Hamas terrorists.

The GHF succeeded in distributing almost 100 million meals in two months. But there were almost daily killings of Gazans on their way to GHF sites, drastically undermining any chance that the effort would have the strategic benefit Israel desired.

Other organizations, like the United Nations World Food Programme, distributed far more food than the GHF over the same period, but regularly used the means of “self-distribution” — a euphemism for letting civilians storm the trucks and grab what they can.

Throughout that two-month period, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza steadily worsened, as international criticism grew in proportion. It reached a crescendo last week as 28 Western allies, including the UK, Australia, Canada, France, and Italy, said in a joint statement that the war in Gaza “must end now,” arguing that civilian suffering had “reached new depths.”

“We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food,” said the statement, calling it “horrifying” that “over 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid.”

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The pressure kept mounting.

More than 100 aid organizations and human rights groups warned on Wednesday that “mass starvation” was spreading in Gaza. Hundreds of rabbis worldwide signed a letter on Friday calling for Israel to stop using starvation as a “weapon of war.” Even the Israel Medical Association (IMA) sent letters to top defense officials calling for medical equipment and basic humanitarian conditions for Gazans.

Israel’s aid policy since March achieved none of its goals. It didn’t cause Hamas to accept proposals for a hostage deal, nor did it isolate the population from Hamas. The terror group didn’t surrender, and victory doesn’t appear to be any closer.

In fact, Israel’s aid policy rendered a victory even less likely, as it gave most of the world renewed urgency to end the war at any cost in order to stop the shooting and starving deaths of Gazans.

Back to feeding Hamas, apparently

And now, once again, Israel is boasting about the amount of aid it is pumping into Gaza.

The IDF announced on Sunday that it would conduct daily 10-hour pauses in densely populated areas. There would be new aid corridors, and Arab countries would resume airdrops into Gaza. Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories proudly stated that work had begun on a water pipeline from Egypt to the southern Gaza Strip.

Israel even itself dropped aid into Gaza for the first time.

The about-face raises serious questions about Israel’s previous claims. How exactly is anyone going to prevent Hamas from taking over aid dropped from the sky or in the heart of densely populated cities? The government’s recent concerns about feeding Hamas’s guards and funding its terror machine seem suddenly not so pressing. Or, even more worryingly, Israel has backed itself so deeply into a corner that it is willing to allow Hamas to enrich itself in order to relieve international pressure.

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Netanyahu has repeatedly announced new aid policies, enforced them just long enough for criticism to reach a fever pitch, then reversed course entirely.

“The wheel must be broken at some point,” said Bar Rapaport of Mitvim: The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies.

“Israel needs to manage the humanitarian effort in a proactive fashion,” instead of hastily announcing new policies in crisis mode, she urged.

Netanyahu can regain some legitimacy to finish the job against Hamas by showing initiative. That would include opening crossings, appointing a humanitarian aid czar, conducting regular meetings with aid organizations, and even establishing field hospitals on the border.

Most importantly, Israel has to decide what it wants an alternative ruler to Hamas in Gaza to look like.

“There is no one today holding a strategic discussion on what needs to happen on the day after,” said Rapaport.

If there was a clear postwar vision on who replaces Hamas, Israel would have an interlocutor through which to send aid, thereby creating facts on the ground and slowly establishing areas of Gaza ruled by someone other than Hamas.

So far, the government is avoiding that politically sensitive discussion, but it will have to engage in it at some point.

Otherwise, Israel will just keep hearing more promises that the government has finally landed on the key to defeating Hamas, and that victory is right around the corner.

Netanyahu claims Hamas is trying to dictate which Palestinian prisoners be freed

Both sides celebrate after agreement reached to release hostages in phases

Lammy: “Now is not the time for any backtracking ” on ceasefire deal

Israeli settlers have gathered near government buildings in west Jerusalem to protest against the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. The demonstrators blocked some roads.

A veteran Israeli settler activist has claimed that Donald Trump is making life “hell” for Jewish people following the announcement of the ceasefire deal.

Daniella Weiss, speaking at a conference in Jerusalem on Thursday, criticised the president-elect, claiming that many in Israel had deluded themselves about him.

She said many people on Israel’s right had convinced themselves that Trump “will bring us only good things, as if he is the Messiah. But here he is, already seeking peace with Saudi Arabia,” which she called an “illusion of world peace”.

Weiss said: “Trump promised hell for Gaza, and he is giving us hell, the Jewish people.” She called for the ceasefire deal to be “cancelled”.

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Jewish Power won’t be part of deal, insists Ben-Gvir

Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s hardline national security minister, has said his party will not be part of the “irresponsible” ceasefire deal.

Ben-Gvir said: “If this irresponsible deal is approved and implemented, we, the members of Jewish Power, will submit letters of resignation to the prime minister.” He added that his party would not topple the government but it would not be part of the deal.

Ben-Gvir this week urged the finance minister Bezalel Smotrich to join him in a last-ditch attempt to prevent a ceasefire deal, which he described as a dangerous capitulation to Hamas.

Smotrich has described the deal to halt the fighting in Gaza and exchange Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners as a catastrophe for Israel but has not threatened the quit the government.

Egypt urges immediate start to ceasefire

Egypt has called for the ceasefire in Gaza to “start without delay”, a day after mediators announced that Israel and Hamas had reached a truce.

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The agreement is set to take effect on Sunday but since the deal was announced, the Gaza civil defence agency has said at least 80 people have been killed and hundreds wounded in strikes by Israel.

In a telephone call with the US secretary of state Antony Blinken, Egypt’s foreign minister Badr Abdelatty called for an immediate start to the truce. He stressed “the need for the parties to adhere to its provisions and work to implement its stages on the specified dates”.

In a separate statement, the ministry said Egypt was ready to host an international conference on the reconstruction of Gaza. The United Nations has said it would take more than a decade to rebuild the territory’s civilian infrastructure.

Ben-Gvir vows to resign if ‘terrible’ deal is approved

Itamar Ben-Gvir, centre, said he would step down over the release of “hundreds of murderers” OHAD ZWIGENBERG/AP

Israel’s hardline national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has said he will resign from government if the Gaza ceasefire deal is approved.

The Israeli cabinet is set to ratify the deal at a meeting on Friday. Ben-Gvir said the deal was “terrible” because it includes the release of “hundreds of murderers” and also meant Israel withdrawing from the Philadelphi corridor on the Egypt-Gaza border.

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On Tuesday Ben-Gvir claimed he had repeatedly foiled a hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas over the past year, prompting criticism from inside Israel.

Rome’s chief rabbi criticises Pope over stance on Gaza

Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, right, said the Pope “must denounce the sufferings of all” not take sides REMO CASILLI/REUTERS

The chief rabbi of Rome has criticised the Pope over his recent rhetoric against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza in an unusually forceful speech during a Jewish-Catholic event.

Francis has focused his attention on Israel instead of other conflicts, including those in Sudan, Yemen, Syria and Ethiopia, said Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, the spiritual leader of Rome’s Jewish community since 2001.

“Selective indignation weakens the Pope’s strength,” said Di Segni. “A Pope cannot divide the world into children and stepchildren and must denounce the sufferings of all,” he said. “This is exactly what the Pope does not do.”

Francis, the leader of the 1.4 billion-member Roman Catholic Church, has recently been more outspoken about Israel’s military campaign against Hamas. Last week, he called the humanitarian situation in Gaza “very serious and shameful”.

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We’ll attack if Israel breaches deal, say Houthi rebels

The leader of Yemen’s Houthi rebels has threatened to keep up their attacks if Israel does not respect the agreed ceasefire.

“We will watch the implementation of the agreement and if there is any Israeli breach, massacres or attacks, we will be ready to provide military support to the Palestinian people,” Abdulmalik al-Houthi said.

He also claimed Israel had “failed miserably” in Gaza. “The Israeli enemy failed to achieve its declared and clear goals, and failed miserably to recover its prisoners without an exchange deal,” he said, insisting that Israel and the US were “obliged” to accept the ceasefire.

Likud minister vows to resign if IDF leaves corridor

A minister from Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud party has said he will resign from the government if Israel withdraws from the Philadelphi corridor, a sign of the potential political fallout in Israel over the terms of the ceasefire deal.

Amichai Chikli, the diaspora affairs minister, said on X that he would stand down if “God forbid” the Israeli military pulls back from the Gaza-Egypt border before the goals of toppling Hamas and freeing the hostages are achieved.

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The corridor is on the border between Gaza and Egypt. There have been reports that Israel has agreed to gradually pull out of the corridor from the start of the ceasefire, which officials have denied. They claim Israel Defence Forces troops would remain there throughout the 42 days of the first stage of the agreement.

170,000 buildings damaged or destroyed in Gaza

One hundred and seventy thousand buildings have been damaged or destroyed during the war, it has been claimed.

Before the war in Gaza 2.4 million people lived on the 365 sq km strip of land, one of the most densely populated in the world. By December 1 last year about 69 per cent of the buildings in Gaza had been destroyed or damaged, according to satellite imagery analysed by the United Nations Satellite Centre, which amounts to 170,812 buildings.

The American researchers Corey Scher and Jamon Van Den Hoek reportedly counted 172,015 damaged or destroyed buildings in Gaza on January 11.

Journalist accuses Blinken of genocide

Sam Husseini, an independent journalist, interrupted Antony Blinken over Gaza policy at the secretary of state’s final news conference on Thursday

During his final press conference as secretary of state, Antony Blinken was heckled by a journalist who shouted: “How does it feel to have your legacy be genocide?”

Sam Husseini, an independent journalist who was sitting in the press area, said: “Three-hundred reporters in Gaza were on the receiving end of your bombs.” He also shouted at Blinken: “Why aren’t you at the Hague?”

He was escorted out by State Department officials.

The Committee to Protect Journalists says that at least 166 journalists and media workers have been killed during the 15-month conflict.

Gaza health system ‘will cost $10bn to rebuild’

At least $10 billion will be needed to rebuild Gaza’s devastated health system over the next five to seven years, according to an initial assessment by the World Health Organisation.

“The needs are massive,” Rik Peeperkorn, the UN health agency’s representative in the Palestinian territories, said in Geneva. The initial assessment of the cost to rebuild just the health sector was “for even more than $3 billion for the first one and a half years and then $10 billion for the five to seven years”.

Blinken: ‘We’re tying up a loose end for deal’

Antony Blinken said it was not surprising there had been a last-minute glitch LUIS M ALVAREZ/AP

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said he is confident that a Gaza ceasefire will begin on Sunday as expected, despite a last-minute glitch.

Blinken, in his last news conference as Washington’s most senior diplomat, said he had been speaking to the American negotiator Brett McGurk and Qatari officials on Thursday morning to resolve the issue.

“It’s not exactly surprising that in a process and negotiation that has been this challenging and this fraught, you may get a loose end,” he said. “We’re tying up that loose end as we speak.”

Israeli cabinet ‘ready to approve ceasefire deal’

The Israeli cabinet is expected to meet on Friday to discuss the ceasefire deal, it has emerged.

The Times of Israel said the cabinet is set to approve the agreement because the “final hurdles” have been cleared.

Earlier on Thursday the Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s office accused Hamas of having “reneged on parts of the agreement” and creating a “last-minute crisis”.

Philadelphi corridor a sticking point, says Israel

David Mencer, a spokesman for Benyamin Netanyahu, has said the hold-up in the ceasefire deal concerned the Philadelphi corridor, the strip of land between Egypt and Gaza.

Israel sent troops into the corridor early in the conflict to stop weapons being smuggled to Hamas, it previously said.

Under the ceasefire agreement, Israel is to withdraw the troops between day 42, the end of the first phase of the hostage exchange, and day 50.

“Hamas have reneged on this hostage agreement and created a crisis to extort more concessions,” Mencer said. He demanded that Hamas accepts all aspects of the agreement that have been agreed. He said the deployment of troops in the corridor was “vital”.

He refused to be drawn on the issue of which Palestinian prisoners would be released, an issue also cited in reports as a last-minute obstacle.

Wizz Air resumes flights to Tel Aviv

The UK-based airline Wizz Air said it had restarted its London to Tel Aviv route on Thursday and other carriers said they would review or restore flights soon.

Before the ceasefire was announced, the low-cost carrier Ryanair said it was hoping to run a full summer schedule to and from Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport.

EasyJet said on Thursday it will review its plans in the coming days. British Airways has suspended flights to Tel Aviv until the end of March.

On Thursday Germany’s Lufthansa Group announced it will resume flights to and from Israel from February 1, including Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, Austrian Airlines and Swiss. Air France-KLM said its operations to and from Tel Aviv remain suspended until January 24 and flights between Paris and Beirut will be suspended until January 31.

‘Stubborn negotiations’ lie ahead, says Herzog

The Israeli president did not elaborate on the “significant detail” that needed to be discussed SAUL LOEB/AFP

President Herzog has confirmed there are still “stubborn negotiations” to be done on aspects of the hostage release-ceasefire deal.

The president, 64, did not elaborate and said he fully backs the deal in principle. However, he added there are “stubborn negotiations on a very significant detail. I hope and expect that this will be completed as soon as possible.”

Herzog was speaking in a meeting with relatives of hostages, fallen soldiers and reservists. Supporting the deal is “the right thing to do, the most just and the most necessary” and all stages of it must be implemented, he said, adding: “What we need to do now is to give it full support” and we will soon “begin to see them coming home”.

Aid lorries await entry to Gaza

The terms of the ceasefire could result in 600 truckloads of aid being allowed into Gaza each day REUTERS

Lorries carrying medicines, food and fuel have been queuing at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza in anticipation of being allowed into the territory.

The terms of the ceasefire announced on Wednesday could result in 600 truckloads of humanitarian aid being allowed into Gaza each day of the ceasefire, with 50 carrying fuel.

Up to 90 per cent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people have been made homeless or displaced by the war. Aid agencies have complained of severe shortages of essential supplies since Israel imposed a blockade and restricted access to the territory 15 months ago.

81 killed in Gaza in past 24 hours, says health ministry

Gaza’s health ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government, said at least 81 people had been killed in the territory over the past 24 hours and 188 had been injured.

The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said at least 77 had been killed since the ceasefire deal was announced on Wednesday night.

The Israeli military is looking into the reports, a spokesman said.

Is this a lesson that talking doesn’t work?

The role of Donald Trump in pressing for a deal has also been discussed by UK MPs. A lesson for British foreign policy might be that “talking does not work”, Kit Malthouse, a former Conservative minister, said.

“While the foreign secretary has attributed much of the work to diplomats, it’s obvious that — whatever you think about him — by all reports the critical intervention has been that of president-elect Trump,” said Malthouse.

“While he has issued public threats to Hamas, he’s quite obviously, again, by all reports, outlined a serious of consequences and accountabilities to the Israeli government.”

“Is there a lesson here for British foreign policy in this regard that … talking does not work? And unless it is followed up with sure and certain consequence and accountability — whether that’s bilateral or indeed through international institutions — there will be no movement?”

David Lammy, the foreign secretary, replied: “My own reflections are that this has been in some ways the most challenging political environment for this conflict, partly because there was an election in the United States for much of 2024 and had we been able to achieve a more bipartisan approach sooner, we might have seen the pressure that was necessary to bring both parties to the deal that we have finally reached.”

SNP: ‘History will judge those who armed Israel’

Stephen Flynn, Westminster leader of the SNP, earlier noted that the ceasefire deal was not yet certain. He also told the Commons that those “who armed extremists in the Israeli government will be judged by history”.

Flynn told MPs: “As we hope for this ceasefire deal and for the release of hostages, we continue to mourn all of those who have been killed since the vicious terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7 2023 …

“Collective punishment of the Palestinian people will not be forgotten by history, just as all of those who sat silent, who encouraged and who armed extremists in the Israeli government, will be judged by history too.”

Family accuse Netanyahu of political posturing

A family member of one of the hostages held in Gaza has accused Binyamin Netanyahu of political posturing after the Israeli prime minister said Hamas had reneged on the deal (Tom Ball writes in Tel Aviv).

A meeting of Israel’s security cabinet, convened in order to ratify the truce, has been delayed after the prime minister’s office accused Palestinian militants of trying to dictate which prisoners were released.

Eyal Kalderon, cousin of Ofer Kalerdon 54, who has been held hostage in Gaza since October 7, 2023, said he believed that Netanyahu “putting on a show for political reasons”.

The Israeli prime minister is under pressure from his far-right coalition partners, who have described the deal as “bad and dangerous”.

Deal will be in place by Sunday, says US

Another American official said that the US fully expected the ceasefire deal to be implemented by Sunday.

Jon Finer, the deputy national security adviser, told CNN that complications were expected “in deals that are complicated … and when there is literally zero trust between the two parties to the agreement”.

He said that US diplomats were in “very close touch with the mediators” and with the Israeli government as final details are worked out.

“We fully expect the deal to be implemented as described by the president and by the mediators, Egypt and Qatar yesterday, and on the timeline that was described.”

US ‘confident that truce will be approved’

The Biden administration is “aware of these issues” raised by Israel over the potential deal to release hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners but is confident they will be overcome.

“We’re going to get there,” John Kirby, the White House national security council spokesman told NBC News, adding that the deal “has got to get approved by the Israeli government”.

Asked why it had not been agreed months ago, Kirby replied: “Hamas is weaker now and more willing to make a deal.”

He acknowledged that Donald Trump, the president-elect, “certainly helped” to push the deal forward. “There’s plenty of credit to go around. The hostages don’t care, the people of Gaza don’t care — they just want to go home”.

Lammy: ‘No backtracking on deal’

David Lammy makes a statement on the Gaza ceasefire agreement

Making a statement to the Commons on Thursday, Lammy said the conflict has been “littered with missed opportunities” and added the chance for a “lasting peace” must be grabbed with both hands.

“Much remains to be done,” he said. “Now is not the time for any backtracking. Both sides must implement each phase of the deal in full and on time. The history of this conflict is littered with missed opportunities.

“It would be a tragedy to let slip the chance before us, not just for a ceasefire but for a lasting peace, the chance to break the cycle of violence which has inflicted so much suffering on innocent people on both sides.

“The government is committed to sustaining momentum, however fragile the process at first may be. Every hostage must be released, as set out in the agreement, every ounce of aid promised to Gaza must reach those in need.”

Lammy: Hamas cannot be eliminated by force

Lammy also told MPs that he “never believed” that Hamas could be eradicated “solely by military force”.

The foreign secretary was responding to the Conservative former minister Andrew Mitchell, who told MPs that the ceasefire deal “must be implemented in good faith” and welcomed a comment from Lammy that Hamas “can never again govern” the Gaza Strip.

Lammy replied: “I never believed, as some in the Israeli government believed, that they could eradicate Hamas solely by military force.

“What eradicates extremism is diplomacy and a political solution, and a political horizon that pulls the rug from under the terrorists, and that’s why it’s hugely important that the UK now plays its full role on that political solution, that political horizon that actually brings about the peace, and not another generation of militant young men with terrorism and pain in their hearts.”

Lammy urges Israel to ‘do the right thing’

David Lammy, the foreign secretary, urged the Israeli government to “do the right thing’ when they met to discuss the potential ceasefire deal.

“[The Labour party] has always stressed the seriousness of the security and Israel’s security in this toughest of neighbourhoods, with Iran and its proxies up to so much malign intent,” he said.

“But we have always insisted that it must be within international humanitarian law, and we have raised our concerns at every turn when we felt that that was being breached.

“It is my sincere hope as the Israeli cabinet meet to approve this deal that they hear what president-elect Trump has said about his expectations on this deal, that they hear a united House of Commons at this moment and our expectations on this deal, and that they do the right thing.”

Minister announces grants for released hostages

Israeli hostages released under the new ceasefire deal could receive payments worth about £13,570 to help them on their return home.

Yoav Ben Tzur, minister for labour and welfare, welcomed the ceasefire-hostage deal as a “big day for the state of Israel”.

He said hostage would be entitled to grants of 2,260 for immediate needs and £11,300 for medical treatment, along with “the unconditional recognition of 50 per cent disability status”.

He said: “All of this won’t help them forget so fast what they went through, but I hope that God will heal their bodies and souls.”

Israel launches airstrikes on Gaza

Palestinians in Gaza reported heavy Israeli bombardment overnight after the ceasefire deal was announced

EU pledges €120m aid for Gaza

A queue of aid delivery trucks formed on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing this morning GETTY IMAGES

The European Union has pledged €120 million in further aid for Gaza following the ceasefire announcement.

This will bring its aid package to address the humanitarian crisis up to €450 million since 2023.

Under the ceasefire terms up to 600 trucks of aid will be allowed to enter Gaza each day, with the wounded allowed to be evacuated for treatment abroad.

Will Israel be forced to release Marwan Barghouti?

The issue holding up ratification of the deal is said to concern the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for hostages (Richard Spencer writes).

The release 13 years ago of Gilad Shalit, a young soldier with the Israel Defence Forces, for 1,000 Palestinian prisoners set an extraordinary benchmark that is unlikely to be repeated. Instead, the figures talked about include 30 prisoners for a civilian hostage and 50 for a military hostage.

It is estimated that there are 10,400 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, half of them arrested since October 7, 2023. A third are in administrative detention — a form of jail without trial.

One question not yet answered is whether the list of prisoners to be released includes Marwan Barghouti, seen by many Palestinians as a future leader of their state. The Israelis say he is a terrorist.

According to some reports, he was not on the initial list. But Lebanese media says he may be exiled to Qatar — suggesting that, at the very least, his freedom is a key Hamas demand.

Jewish blood is not cheap, chant protesters

Hundreds of demonstrators marching in protest to the ceasefire deal have reached Israel’s Knesset.

Families of soldiers who have died fighting in Gaza, conservatives and young Orthodox protesters make up the majority of those showing their anger in front of the parliament building.

“Bibi wake up, Jewish blood is not cheap!” protesters are chanting, while others carry coffins representing those killed by Hamas in Gaza.

“The goal of these Arabs — Hamas and everyone else around — is to tarnish Israel’s honor,” a rabbi told The Times of Israel. His son, Yeddiya, was killed in the war.

Some families believe that under the terms of the agreement they will not be able to retrieve their relatives’ remains from Gaza.

Deal is important step, says Russia

Russia, which has not designated Hamas a terrorist group, said it hoped that the ceasefire would lead to “long-term stabilisation” in the region.

Maria Zakharova, the foreign ministry spokesperson, said the deal was an “important practical step towards the long-term stabilisation in the zone of the Palestinian-Israeli confrontation”.

President Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said: “Any settlement that leads to a ceasefire, an end to the suffering of the people of Gaza, and increases Israel’s security can only be welcomed. Let’s wait for the finalisation of the process.”

Row grows over Hamas prisoner release

Security sources privy to the talks told The Times that Hamas was “piling up” difficulties over the list of prisoners (Gabrielle Weiniger writes).

According to the agreement, Israel will release about 1,000 terrorists in exchange for the hostages. The list of names is due to be published in order to give time for the public to petition the High Court of Justice to block releases.

Hamas wants numerous high-profile prisoners released, including some who have been convicted of the mass murder of Israelis.

The group gave up on its demand that Israel release prisoners such as Marwan Barghouti — regarded as the leader of the first and second intifadas — and top military figures from Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Israel has also vetoed the release of any of Hamas’s Nukhba (elite fighters) who were involved in the October 7 attack, and insisted that prisoners from the West Bank convicted of murder be exiled.

Israel also planned to free 1,000 Gazans arrested since the start of the war who were not directly involved in the Hamas-led attack.

Why has Israel postponed meeting to ratify deal?

Hamas is demanding the right to decide which prisoners are released, despite a clause in the agreement that gives Israel a right of veto, according to office of the Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu (Gabrielle Weiniger writes).

As a result, the Israeli cabinet has postponed convening “until the mediators notify Israel that Hamas has accepted all of the agreement”.

A statement issued early on Thursday said: “Hamas is demanding that it determine the identity of the terrorists to be released.” It added that Netanyahu had instructed the team to reject this demand.

Israel-Hamas deal brings celebrations

Israel and Hamas agreed to end 15 months of conflict in Gaza, at least until the remaining Israeli hostages are released in exchange for thousands of Palestinian prisoners (Richard Spencer and Samer Al-Atrush write).

Soldiers’ families march against truce

REUTERS

Hundreds of Israelis are marching to the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem in protest at the proposed ceasefire deal with Hamas.

Leading the march are family members of deceased soldiers, affiliated with the right-wing Gevurah (“Heroism”) Forum.

The crowd has derided the deal as a surrender to Hamas. “We all know that this deal will only weaken the Jewish people,” Elkana Weitzen, the brother of a fallen soldier, told the Times of Israel.

Lebanese leader welcomes deal

President Aoun of Lebanon welcomed Gaza’s ceasefire deal, expressing hope that it would lead to an end to “the tragic reality in the Strip”.

But in a statement posted on X he added: “Serious commitment by Israel needs to be followed up, as it has accustomed us to evading its obligations and disavowing international resolutions.”

Israeli bombardment continues in Gaza

Scores of women and children are said to have been killed or injured overnight GETTY IMAGES

GETTY IMAGES

Palestinians in Gaza reported heavy Israeli bombardment overnight even as people were celebrating the potential ceasefire deal. In previous conflicts, both sides have stepped up military operations in the final hours before ceasefires were due to take effect.

“We were expecting that the occupation would intensify the bombing, like they did every time there were reports on progress in the truce [negotiations],” said Mohammed Mahdi, who fled his home a few months ago and is sheltering in Gaza City.

Ahmed Mattar, who lives near the city’s Al-Ahly hospital, told AP news agency that he had heard “massive airstrikes” overnight.

‘Dozens killed in Gaza’ after ceasefire deal

A Palestinian child in hospital in Gaza after the Israeli airstrikes GETTY IMAGES

Gaza’s civil defence agency said on Thursday that dozens of people had been killed and hundreds injured in the Gaza Strip since yesterday.

“Since the ceasefire agreement was announced, Israeli occupation forces have killed 73 people, including 20 children and 25 women,” Mahmud Bassal, an agency spokesman said, adding that another 230 people were wounded in the “bombardments that are continuing” after the announcement.

Olmert: ‘I don’t see war ending’

Ehud Olmert, a former prime minister of Israel, has told Times Radio that he is “happy” that 33 hostages will be returned to Israel but that he cannot see the conflict ending.

He told Times Radio he was “not certain that there is open mind in the Israeli government at this stage to declare the end of the war”.

He said that Donald Trump “probably had an enormous impact” on Netanyahu’s decision to agree to a deal after months of negotiations.

“On the one hand I’m very happy that hopefully we will have 33 hostages back in Israel. But I’m not certain that there is much more to be happy about.

“It seems to be obvious that Hamas was not eliminated completely. They are negotiating, they are shooting, they are killing Israeli soldiers. So I think that Netanyahu wants to go on with this indefinitely maybe and as a result we may lose another group of hostages — the 65 who are still held by Hamas. And I don’t see an end to this.”

Lufthansa resumes flights to Tel Aviv

Germany’s Lufthansa airline group will resume flights to Tel Aviv next month, the company said on Thursday.

“Flights to and from Tel Aviv will resume from February 1,” the group said in a statement. However, it added that its suspensions of flights to Tehran and Beirut would remain in place until at least February 14 and 28 respectively.

The Lufthansa group, whose carriers include Swiss, Austrian Airlines and Eurowings, has repeatedly modified its schedule in recent months in response to the course of the conflict in the Middle East, as have other airlines.

Deal sows seeds of future conflict

Both Israel and Hamas have failed in their aims, so compromise was essential for peace. It will not be easy to swallow on either side (Richard Spencer writes)

Hamas says it is committed to ceasefire deal

A senior Hamas official denied suggestions that the group had reneged on some details of the hostage-ceasefire deal. Izzat el-Risheq said the group was committed to the agreement announced by mediators, Al-Araby news reported.

The Israeli prime minister’s office issued two statements on Thursday accusing Hamas of backtracking on several issues.

Who are the hostages still left in Gaza?

Since 2023, The Times and Sunday Times has maintained a database of the fates of the 255 identified people taken hostage by Hamas.

To date, as of publicly available information, 95 remain in Gaza, 62 of whom are presumed to be alive, with 33 bodies being held.

What will Gaza ceasefire deal involve?

Israel and Hamas have signed a ceasefire deal that will end the war in Gaza and release Israeli hostages held there. Mediators including the United States, Qatar, and Egypt hope the agreement will lead to a durable peace after a devastating war that changed the Middle East for ever (Samer Al-Atush writes).

The details are unconfirmed but it is expected be a 42-day truce, which would be the first since a week-long pause in the second month of fighting.

Israeli coalition partners fiercely oppose deal

Israel’s security cabinet was expected to ratify the ceasefire deal despite vociferous opposition from far-right members of the government.

Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, and Itamar Ben-Gvir, the security minister, have both denounced the truce, describing it as “disastrous” and a “bad and dangerous deal for the security of the state of Israel”.

The deal would likely to pass without their support. However, both have previously said that they would look to bring down the coalition government in the event of a deal ending the war with Hamas.

Netanyahu has reportedly been pressuring Smotrich, leader of the hard-right Religious Zionism party, to resist calls from Ben-Gvir to quit the government.

If both parties were to leave the coalition this could trigger a general election.

Israel accuses Hamas of backtracking on deal

The office of the Israeli prime minister has accused Hamas of backing out of some agreements and creating a last-minute “crisis” in finalising the hostage release deal.

“Hamas is reneging on the understandings,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on Thursday morning. “The Israeli cabinet will not convene until the mediators notify Israel that Hamas has accepted all elements of the agreement.”

The statement suggests that approval of the deal could be delayed.

Family grieve for son who died in captivity

Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose son Hersh died in captivity in Gaza after being abducted from the Nova music festival during the October 7 attacks, said they welcomed the deal but grieved because it did not come sooner.

“Our beloved son Hersh and so many other innocent civilians should have been saved long ago by a deal like this one,” the bereaved parents add, noting that the deal outline was virtually the same as one presented in May 2024 that failed to make it through rounds of tense negotiations.

“We will struggle with that failure for the rest of our lives,” the couple said in a statement. “But today we celebrate the impending reunifications of the 98 remaining hostages with their loved ones with whom we have been tirelessly advocating and so many of whom have become like family to us during this 467-day struggle.”

The total of 98 Israeli hostages includes four captured before the October 7 attacks as well as those thought to have died in Gaza since then.

Trump election forced Netanyahu’s hand

Both the outgoing US president, Joe Biden, and the incoming president, Donald Trump, tried to claim credit for the ceasefire deal announced last night.

Trump’s imminent return to the White House may have been decisive in forcing the Israeli leader Binyamin Netanyahu to confirm a long-awaited agreement. While Trump has publicly threatened Hamas in the run up to his second term, reports suggest that his influence on the negotiations was “the first time there has been real pressure on the Israeli side to accept a deal” (Gabrielle Weiniger writes).

Families of hostages cautiously optimistic

High hopes for British woman held in Gaza

Emily Damari was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023

Relatives of hostages held in Gaza have also expressed relief after months of campaigning for their release.

However, some now face an agonising wait of further days or weeks before being reunited with surviving loved ones.

The family of Emily Damari, who has British and Israeli citizenship, hope that she could be among the 33 hostages released in the first phase.

Her mother, Mandy, shared photos of football fans at a match on Wednesday night who had brought messages of support for her daughter, a Tottenham Hotspur fan.

“You have come together to say ‘bring her home’. Thank you,” she wrote on X.

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Gazan resident: ‘I’m so happy but still scared’

In the Gaza Strip, those bereaved and displaced by war have been expressing hope and relief for a potential end to the fighting.

Najiya Awda, 57, fled her home in eastern Gaza for the south of the territory, where many of the nearly two million refugees have sought shelter.

“I feel so happy but I am still scared. I have been forced to leave my home more than seven times. I can’t wait to go back to my city and my house,” she told The Times last night.

“Thank God, now we feel a little safer. We are no longer moving our tents from one place to another. Finally, I will see my neighbours and friends again. My joy is so big that I feel like I could fly. For the first time in a long time, we feel some hope to rebuild our lives and find peace again.”

Ceasefire is great victory for Palestinians, claims Iran

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has also claimed that the proposed ceasefire in Gaza represents a “great victory” for the Palestinian resistance.

“The end of the war and the imposition of a ceasefire on the Zionist regime [Israel] is a clear and great victory for Palestine and a greater defeat for the Zionist regime,” a statement by the IRGC said.

On X, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the Palestinian resistance and the Iranian-backed “Resistance Axis” had forced Israel to “retreat”.

Western officials, including the White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, say the war has significantly weakened Tehran.

The IRGC commander Hossein Salami boasted last week that Iran’s enemies were having a “false sense of delight” about recent regional developments, including the fall of President Assad’s regime in Syria. He claimed that Tehran’s missile forces were stronger than ever.

Hamas leader praises massacre that started war

A senior Hamas leader has claimed that Israel failed to achieve its goals and was defeated in Gaza as he declared the potential ceasefire-hostage deal a “historic moment”.

“Our people have thwarted the declared and hidden goals of the occupation,” Khalil al-Hayya told the German news agency DPA. “Today we prove that the occupation will never defeat our people and their resistance.”

He praised the Hamas-led massacre of some 1,200 Israelis on October 7, 2023 that started the war in Gaza as a “military accomplishment” and “a source of pride for our people”.

The deputy chairman of Hamas’s political bureau also said that the group would continue to pursue Israel’s destruction and hailed its allies Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthi rebels in Yemen for also attacking Israel.

“Our enemy will never see a moment of weakness from us,” he added.

IDF bombards Gaza overnight

Even as people in Gaza and Israel celebrated the announcement Israel’s military escalated attacks, the civil emergency service and residents said.

Heavy Israeli bombardment, particularly in Gaza City, killed 32 people late on Wednesday, medics said. The strikes continued early on Thursday and destroyed houses in Rafah in southern Gaza, Nuseirat in central Gaza, and in northern Gaza, residents said.

Israel’s military said Gaza militants fired a rocket into Israel this morning; there were no casualties.

Hamas ‘backtracking on terms of prisoner swap’

Hamas has backtracked on an earlier understanding of the ceasefire agreement and is trying to dictate which Palestinian prisoners would be released, the Israeli prime minister’s office said overnight.

Israel has a veto over the release of “mass murderers who are symbols of terror,” the statement said.

The proposed ceasefire agreement would see at least 33 hostages, including women, children and men over the age of 50, released in the coming weeks, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

A potential second phase would see between 30 and 40 male hostages freed in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners.

The released Palestinians will include a number of people convicted of terrorist crimes including murder, but also women and children.

Netanyahu’s statement, released around 3.30am local time, said Hamas “is demanding to dictate the identity of these murderers” and accuses the militant group of seeking “to go back on the understandings” in the agreement.

Israeli ministers expected to back deal

Israel’s cabinet will vote to approve the ceasefire deal today after the agreement was announced last night by the Qatari prime minister.

Any deal will need to be approved by Binyamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet and then his government.

The hardline security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir opposes making any concessions to Hamas and has previously threatened to resign if the deal is approved.

However, a majority of ministers are expected to back the phased ceasefire deal, which details a halt to fighting and the release of hostages in stages.