Israeli Military Announces “Tactical” Pauses in Gaza
The daily ten-hour pauses in fighting in three population centers in Gaza will allow more aid trucks to enter the territory (AP)
Israel has also increased permissions for aid airdrops and restarted the power to a water desalination plant (WaPo)
Humanitarian groups welcomed the permissions but said they were still not enough to address rising hunger in the enclave (CNN)
Despite the pause, Israeli air raids across Gaza allegedly killed sixty-three people; one attack targeted Gaza City, a designated safe area (Al Jazeera)
Moreover, Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported that six Palestinians, including two children, died from starvation (Al Jazeera)
The World Food Programme stated that one in three Gazan residents has gone days without eating, nearly five hundred thousand people are in “famine-like conditions”, and 20 percent of pregnant and breastfeeding women are malnourished (Al Jazeera)
Israel to Revive Airdrops Into Gaza
Amid ongoing international pressure and a hunger crisis in Gaza, the Israeli military announced that it was going to restart the practice of dropping aid from airplanes and would work to ease the process for aid convoys entering by land (NYT)
However, the Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said that the plan to distribute aid through airdrops “will not reverse the deepening starvation;” rather, he called for Israel to lift the siege and guarantee the safe movement of aid trucks into Gaza (CNN)
Separately, Israeli attacks killed at least fifty-three, including people waiting for aid in Zikim and Khan Younis, as well as civilians in Gaza City and the crowded tent camp in Muwasi (AP)
Netanyahu Pursuing “Alternative” Options to End War in Gaza
After claiming that Hamas allegedly does not want to make a deal to end the ongoing violence in Gaza, Netanyahu expressed that he was reviewing “alternative” options to bring the hostages home; Trump reiterated Netanyahu’s assertion that Hamas did not want to make a deal, adding that he thinks Hamas leaders “want to die” (Reuters)
Trump also downplayed French President Macron’s decision to recognize Palestinian statehood, as he said: “what [Macron] says does not matter… that statement does not carry weight” (Reuters)
Meanwhile, thirty-eight people were killed across the Gaza Strip, including six Palestinians attempting to receive food aid (Al Jazeera)
Gaza Ceasefire Talks Stall as France Recognizes Palestinian Statehood
The Israeli Prime Minister’s office announced that its negotiators were returning to Israel to further discuss Hamas’s response to Israel’s ceasefire proposal (Reuters)
Sources suggested that Israel’s decision to bring the delegation home does not indicate that the talks have collapsed, but a rapid deal is reportedly not within reach (Reuters)
U.S. envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said that the United States was also recalling its delegation because Hamas’s response “clearly shows a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire in Gaza,” and added that the United States will “consider alternative options to bring the hostages home,” but did not specify further (Reuters; AP)
A U.S. State Department spokesperson said that Washington will not attend an upcoming UN conference on a two-state solution (Reuters)
European leaders intensified their positions to end the war in Gaza, as President Emmanuel Macron announced that France will recognize Palestine as a state, which will be formalized at the UN General Assembly in September (France24)
Furthermore, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer urged Israel to immediately allow aid into Gaza and reach a ceasefire agreement to pave the way toward recognizing Palestinian statehood and a two-state solution; he also asserted that the UK, France, and Germany would hold an emergency call to discuss urgent next steps in the conflict (AP; Barrons)
In Gaza, Israeli forces launched airstrikes and tank shelling across central Gaza, including in Nuseirat, Deir Al-Balah, and Bureij, killing at least eight people and wounding others; Israeli gunfire in southern Gaza near the Morag axis reportedly killed three people seeking aid (Reuters)
Additionally, Israeli forces allegedly killed two Palestinian teenagers and injured two more amid gunfire in al-Khader, south of Bethlehem in the West Bank; Israeli forces also arrested twenty-five Palestinians across the West Bank in multiple raids, including in Beit Ummar, Idhna, Dura al-Qari, Ramallah, al-Mazraa ash-Sharqiya, and Nablus (Al Jazeera)
Separately, far-right Israeli government minister Amichay Eliyahu said in a radio interview that Israel does not have a duty to alleviate starvation in Gaza and Israel is “rushing toward Gaza being wiped out”; however, an Israeli military official said that Eliyahu’s comments are not reflective of Israeli military policy, and Israeli opposition politicians condemned Eliyahu’s statement (NYT)
The UN’s Palestinian Refugee Agency stated that over one hundred people have died of hunger in Gaza, and the crisis “has never been so dire” as one in five people is malnourished with cases rising daily; the agency also reported that “people in Gaza are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses” (BBC)
Additionally, the World Health Organization director said Gazans are experiencing man-made “mass starvation,” while the Associated Press, AFP, the BBC, and Reuters said that their journalists in Gaza are “increasingly unable to feed themselves” (Reuters;WaPo)
Israeli officials have previously denied the claims of starvation in Gaza and said that UN bodies are not distributing the food and aid supplies (Times of Israel)
Hamas Turns in Response to Ceasefire Proposal
According to an Israeli source, Hamas submitted a “disappointing” response to mediators regarding Israel’s ceasefire proposal; the most contentious aspects of the deal are over guarantees that Israel will not resume fighting during a ceasefire, Israeli control of major routes in the Gaza Strip, aid distribution, and the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for hostages (Haaretz)
To help achieve the ceasefire, U.S. envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff traveled to Europe to meet with various key officials in the Middle East, including Ron Dermer, a top advisor to Netanyahu (AP; CBS)
In Gaza, overnight airstrikes by Israel in northern Gaza, Nuseirat refugee camp, and Gaza City reportedly killed at least twenty-nine people; Israeli forces claim that they killed one Islamic Jihad militant and one Hamas operative (AP)
More than one hundred aid organizations said mass starvation was spreading across Gaza in an open letter; they called on Israel to lift aid restrictions and for an immediate and permanent ceasefire (AP)
Israel Launches Ground Operations in Central Gaza City of Deir al-Balah
This is the Israeli military’s first such offensive in Deir al-Balah since the war began, as Israeli officials believe that Hamas was holding hostages there (Reuters)
A group representing the families of the hostages said it was “shocked and alarmed” by the Israeli forces’ decision to enter the area with tanks two hours after ordering people to evacuate (AP)
The foreign ministers of twenty-eight countries, including Canada, Japan, and the United Kingdom, said in a joint statement that the war in Gaza “must end now” (AP)
They condemned both Israel’s killing of civilians and Hamas’s continued holding of hostages, as well as voiced opposition to “territorial or demographic change in the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” saying a recently announced Israeli settlement plan would be a “flagrant breach of international law” (UKG)
Israel and the U.S. ambassador to Israel rejected the statement (ABC)
Furthermore, the UN World Food Program said that almost a third of Gazans were not eating for multiple days in a row (UN)
One of Deadliest Days Yet for Palestinians Seeking Food Aid in Gaza
Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least sixty-seven people were killed in northern Gaza (Reuters)
The UN World Food Program said Israeli “tanks, snipers, and other gunfire” shot at a crowd surrounding an aid convoy; the Israeli military said it had fired “warning shots” to remove an “immediate threat” (NYT)
Also on Sunday, Israel’s military dropped leaflets in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, demanding people evacuate the area; Israeli airstrikes subsequently struck three buildings (Reuters)
Across Gaza, health authorities estimated that ninety people were killed by Israeli gunfire and airstrikes (Reuters)
Separately, the UN said that civilians urgently need an influx of aid, as Gaza’s health ministry claimed that eighteen people had died of hunger on Sunday (Reuters)
Furthermore, Pope Leo called for “an immediate halt to the barbarity” in Gaza after an Israeli strike hit the Holy Family Catholic parish on Thursday (Vatican News)
West Bank Church Attack
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee visited a Christian village in the West Bank on Saturday, where a church had been attacked earlier this month, calling the incident an “act of terror” (Reuters)
Clerics said Israeli settlers started the fire nearby; Israel did not immediately comment (Reuters)
Last week, Huckabee called for a probe after a Palestinian American man was beaten to death in the West Bank (Politico)
Additionally, Israeli forces allegedly shot and killed at least thirty-two people on their way to a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid site near Khan Younis; witnesses said the troops encircled a group, and subsequently indiscriminately fired at a crowd while using machine guns mounted on tanks and drones (AP)
Israeli Strikes Continue in Gaza
In Tuffah in eastern Gaza City, Jabalia an-Nazla in northern Gaza, and al-Mawasi in southern Gaza, Israeli attacks killed at least forty-one Palestinians, including drone missiles allegedly packed with nails, metals, and shrapnel (Al Jazeera)
Israeli Attacks Strike Gaza’s Sole Catholic Church
Israeli forces launched airstrikes that struck the Holy Family Church in Gaza, a Catholic church where Pope Francis regularly spoke with parishioners, killing two Palestinians and injuring an unspecified number of people (Reuters)
Other Israeli airstrikes in central Gaza, Jabalia, and Zeitoun killed at least twenty-two people, including eight men protecting aid trucks (Reuters)
Gaza Humanitarian Fund Acknowledges Killings at Aid Sites for First Time
The Israel- and U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF) blamed Hamas for twenty deaths without offering evidence, while witnesses and the Gaza Health Ministry said GHF had used tear gas and caused a stampede (AP)
GHF had not previously recognized widely reported killings near its distribution sites, which have been estimated at nearly eight hundred between late May and July 7 (CBC;CNN)
Israeli attacks across Gaza killed sixty-one Palestinians, including twenty-two in Gaza City, and thirty-nine in Khan Younis, twenty of which were at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution center (AP; Reuters)
Separately, the ultra-Orthodox Shas party announced its departure from the government after Netanyahu’s administration denied military exemptions for ultra-Orthodox students, leaving Netanyahu with a minority in the Knesset (AP)
Shas stated that it will neither align with opposition parties nor vote to topple Netanyahu’s government—unless a compromise on the draft law is reached by the start of the Knesset’s winter session (Haaretz)
Shas Joins UTJ, Prepares to Quit Netanyahu’s Coalition
Following the resignation of the United Torah Judaism party, the Shas party has also announced its withdrawal, protesting the lack of progress on legislation to exempt ultra-Orthodox Jewish citizens from military service (Haaretz)
If the Shas party officially withdraws, Netanyahu would lose his Knesset majority (Times of Israel)
Furthermore, Israeli airstrikes across Gaza, including in the Shati refugee camp and Gaza City, allegedly killed 93 Palestinians and injured 278; a Hamas member of the Palestinian legislature and over a dozen women and children were among those killed (AP)
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) raised the overall death toll at aid sites in Gaza to 875, including 674 deaths in the vicinity of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites (Reuters)
OHCHR also reported an increase in attacks and killings by settlers and security forces against Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in recent weeks (Reuters)
UNRWA, additionally, stated that malnutrition rates in Gaza have doubled since March, when Israel imposed increased restrictions on the entry of food (AP)
Elsewhere, France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot stated that France would prepare a roadmap for the recognition of a Palestinian state in post-war Gaza at a conference from July 28 to 29; however, President Macron is not expected to attend, reportedly facing resistance from allies (Reuters)
Meanwhile, EU Foreign Policy Chief Kaja Kallas is demanding updates and increased action from Israel on an aid deal it agreed to last week; Kallas said that despite the opening of more border crossings, increases in trucks entering Gaza, and heightened electricity operations, more must be done as “the situation is still untenable” (AP)
Trump Says Gaza Ceasefire Progress Is Going “Pretty Well”
While speaking to reporters, President Trump said that U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff was working on the Gaza ceasefire deal and there could be something “fairly soon to talk about;” Trump also considered the Gaza Strip “one of the worst real estate deals ever made,” presumably referencing Israel’s disengagement in 2005 (AP; Times of Israel)
An ultra-Orthodox party in Israel announced that it would quit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition in protest of a bill limiting exemptions from military conscription (FT)
The party’s seven resignations go into effect tomorrow, leaving Netanyahu with only a one-seat majority in parliament (Bloomberg)
It is unclear whether a second ultra-Orthodox party, which holds eleven seats, will follow; Netanyahu would lose his majority if so (Reuters)
IDF “Error” Kills Six Children
An Israeli air strike killed ten people, including six children, at a water collection point in Gaza, emergency service officials said (BBC)
Israel’s military blamed a “technical error” and said it would investigate (WaPo)
Israel’s strikes killed at least 32 people in total on Sunday, driving the Palestinian death toll since the start of the war in Gaza to above 58,000, according to health officials (AP)
Separately, President Trump optimistically stated that he hopes a breakthrough in a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza will be realized within a week, despite the current gridlock of the conversations (Times of Israel)
Ninety-Five Palestinians Killed Across Gaza Strip
At least thirty-one Palestinians were shot and killed on their way to a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation site near Rafah in southern Gaza, and airstrikes in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis killed at least twenty-eight Palestinians, including four children (PBS/AP)
Additionally, bombings in Gaza City, Jabalia, and Shati reportedly killed thirty-six Palestinians and injured at least ten others (Al Jazeera)
Gaza’s Government Media Office also reported that sixty-seven children have died of malnutrition in the war so far, and that hundreds of thousands are at risk for “acute malnutrition in the coming weeks” (Al Jazeera)
Meanwhile, ceasefire talks have stalled one week since they began, with Israel and Hamas disagreeing over the extent of Israeli forces’ withdrawal from Palestinian territory (Reuters)
Palestinian-American Man Killed in West Bank
In Sinjil, north of Ramallah, a Palestinian-American twenty-year-old man was beaten to death by a group of Israeli settlers; a twenty-three-year-old man was also shot and killed in the attack (Reuters)
Meanwhile, the spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that in the six weeks since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s aid distribution sites opened, 798 people died either near these sites or while traveling to them (Reuters)
EU, Israel Agree to Send More Aid, Increase Food Access in Gaza
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, announced that the EU and Israel struck a deal to reactivate aid corridors from Jordan and Egypt, send more aid and food trucks into Gaza, repair vital infrastructure, protect aid workers, and reopen community bakeries and kitchens across Gaza (AP)
Current fuel shortages may lead to Gaza hospital shutdowns, as some doctors have reported that several premature babies are being put in single incubators (Reuters)
Israeli strikes in Gaza continued: thirty-seven Palestinians were allegedly killed throughout Gaza, including fifteen in al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, where eight children and two women were among those killed (BBC)
Trump, Netanyahu Discuss Hostage Releases
Hamas said that it would release ten hostages as a signal of its “commitment to the success” of peace talks (NBC)
White House envoy Steve Witkoff reportedly said the sides had reached a breakthrough in three out of four areas of disagreement, Axios reported (Axios)
Witkoff expressed hope for a deal this week; he is expected to travel to Qatar but delayed a Tuesday departure(Times of Israel)
Meanwhile, Israeli strikes across Gaza continued and killed at least forty people, including twenty-seven women and children in Khan Younis (AP)
Israel’s Defense Minister Instructs Military to Relocate All Palestinians in Gaza Strip Into “Humanitarian” Zone in Rafah
The plan was disclosed in a closed meeting with military media in Israel on Monday, and later widely reported; Katz said the move would initially affect hundreds of thousands of Gaza residents and eventually the territory’s entire population of around 2 million (AP)
The plan’s first stage would relocate some 600,000 Palestinians from an existing coastal so-called humanitarian zone to Rafah, a southern city near Gaza’s border with Egypt that Israel’s war has ravaged; Palestinians entering the zone would undergo a screening to separate civilians from Hamas, Israeli officials said (WaPo)
Israel’s military could start construction on the zone during a potential sixty-day ceasefire being discussed this week in Qatar, Katz said (CNN)
Katz reportedly said that people would not be allowed to leave the zone afterward; in a media briefing, he referred to an “emigration plan, which will happen,” according to Haaretz (Haaretz)
A separate official later told the outlet that Israel does not plan to facilitate emigration, and no other country had agreed to take Gazans (Haaretz)
Legal experts critical of the plan condemned it as a violation of international law, with one Israeli human rights lawyer calling it “an operational plan for a crime against humanity’; human rights groups expressed concern that it could set the stage for a mass removal of Palestinians from Gaza (Guardian)
Separately, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned that the sharp uptick in mass casualties from attacks near aid sites is overwhelming Gaza’s healthcare system; in south Gaza alone, the ICRC said that its field hospital recorded 200 deaths and treated 2,200 weapon-wounded patients from over 21 mass casualty events since the aid distribution sites were launched in May (Guardian)
Additionally, Israeli strikes persisted amid ongoing ceasefire talks, killing forty-two people in southern and central Gaza and at least seventy-eight in total (Al Jazeera)
Netanyahu in Washington
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Trump in Washington to discuss a newly proposed sixty-day ceasefire in Gaza and recent operations in Iran (BBC)
Netanyahu remarked that the United States and Israel were working to find other host countries for Palestinians in Gaza, and that Palestinians will be given free choice to stay in or leave the area (Al Jazeera)
Additionally, Defense Minister Israel Katz stated that he hopes to establish a “humanitarian city” in Rafah and ultimately move the entire population to the area; Katz also instructed the military to prepare to move all residents of Gaza to a camp in Rafah (BBC)
The latest round of ceasefire talks in Qatar ended without a breakthrough, though indirect talks continued (Guardian)
The newest proposal sent to Hamas by mediators includes a hostage and prisoner exchange, as well as ramped-up aid distributed by the United Nations (AP)
Israeli Strikes Reportedly Kill Eighty-Two Across Gaza
Throughout Gaza, overnight strikes by Israeli forces killed eighty-two people, including fifty-nine in Gaza City (Al Jazeera). Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a negotiating team to Qatar where further details of the proposed sixty-day ceasefire were emphasized, including the withdrawal of Israeli troops to a buffer zone, the return of ten living and eighteen dead hostages to Israel, and the delivery of more aid into Gaza (AP)
Prime Minister Netanyahu reaffirmed his desire to bring back all hostages and end Hamas’ military and political power before traveling to the United States, where he will meet with U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss the ceasefire (AP)
Two U.S. Citizens Injured in Attack Near Aid Distribution Site
While working with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in Khan Younis, two Americans were injured after perpetrators threw grenades at the site; the GHF and a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State claimed that the attack was carried out by Hamas, but did not provide evidence (CBS/AP)
The Israel Defense Forces claimed in a statement that they killed one hundred people in Gaza in the past week and now hold operational control of 65 percent of Gaza (Reuters)
Additionally, Israeli airstrikes killed thirty-two Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, including eight near an unidentified aid site in the Strip’s south and eight others near two schools in Gaza City (Times of Israel)
UN Reports Over 600 Deaths at Aid Distribution Sites
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that it had recorded 509 deaths at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution areas, which started in May 2025, and 114 deaths at other humanitarian sites (Reuters)
Hamas Eyeing “Complete End of the War”
After U.S. President Donald Trump urged Hamas to accept his ceasefire proposal, a Hamas official said today that the group was “ready and serious regarding reaching an agreement” if it “clearly leads to the complete end of the war,” raising doubts about whether the ceasefire will actually take place (AP)
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel would not accept an end to the war until Hamas no longer exists and all Israeli hostages are released (Jerusalem Post)
Hamas later stated that it was reviewing new ceasefire offers presented by Qatari and Egyptian mediators, but that it sought to reach an agreement involving the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and an end to the war (Reuters)
Across Gaza, reported attacks by Israeli forces killed fifteen people in al-Muwasi, fifteen people at a school in Gaza City, forty people waiting for aid across the Gaza Strip, and five people waiting for assistance near a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation site in Khan Younis (AP)
Additionally, Amnesty International released a report stating that Israeli authorities were weaponizing aid sites by turning “aid-seeking into a booby trap for desperate starved Palestinians” and by using Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites as a “militarized ‘aid’ scheme” where hundreds have been killed and thousands injured (Amnesty International)
Israeli authorities refuted this report, claiming that Amnesty International was working with Hamas and had adopted its “propaganda lies” (Times of Israel)
Trump Touts Updated Proposal for Sixty-Day Ceasefire
Trump said that Israel agreed to its terms, while Israel’s foreign minister said that a chance to release hostages from Gaza “must not be missed” (WaPo;Guardian)
Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff met with a top Israeli official; Trump said that as a next step, Qatar and Egypt would deliver the proposal (Axios)
Earlier in the day, Trump said that he was planning on meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, July 7, to discuss the situations in Iran and Gaza; Trump claimed that he would be “very firm” with Netanyahu to work on a ceasefire deal (Reuters)
Meanwhile, Israeli planes and tanks targeted homes in both northern and southern Gaza; its military did not immediately comment on the operation (Reuters)
Furthermore, more than 170 charities have called for the shutdown of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation—an aid distribution organization backed by Israel and the United States—citing the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians seeking aid since the group started its work in late May (BBC)
The nonprofits said Israeli forces and armed groups “routinely” shoot at Gazans seeking aid (NBC)
Their statement follows previous assertions by unnamed Israeli military officials to Haaretz that they were ordered to shoot toward crowds of people seeking assistance; Israel denied its forces deliberately shoot at people receiving aid and said GHF bypasses Hamas to help those in need (Haaretz)