Live: UK halts trade deal talks with Israel, summons ambassador over Gaza

The Palestinian health ministry says Israeli forces have encircled the Indonesian Hospital in the north of the besieged enclave, triggering panic among patients, doctors and wounded civilians inside.

In a statement shared today, the ministry said: “The Israeli occupation army has intensified its targeting and siege of the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip.”

It added that the hospital has become inaccessible, making it impossible for the wounded to reach care, and warned that “panic and confusion among patients, the wounded, and medical staff is hampering the provision of emergency healthcare”.

Two patients were reportedly injured while trying to flee the facility.

The ministry accused Israel of ramping up what it described as a “systematic campaign” to render Gaza’s hospitals inoperable - just days after the European Gaza Hospital was knocked out of service.

“We call on all concerned authorities to intervene urgently to provide protection for medical staff, patients, and the wounded inside the hospital,” the statement said.

At least three people have been killed in an Israeli air strike targeting al-Baraka Street in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah, according to Wafa news agency.

The report said others were also wounded in the attack.

With these latest fatalities, the number of Palestinians killed today has climbed to 132.

All hospitals in northern Gaza are now "out of service" as Israel says it is open to ending the violence in the besieged enclave.

On Sunday, the Palestinian health ministry accused Israel of laying siege to the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, where it said "a state of panic and confusion is prevailing".

The ministry later said Israel had cut off the arrival of patients and staff, "effectively forcing the hospital out of service".

"[With] the shutdown of the Indonesian Hospital, all public hospitals in the North Gaza Governorate are now out of service," it said.

Israeli strikes have killed 125 Palestinians in Gaza since dawn.

Read more: All hospitals in northern Gaza 'out of service' as Netanyahu hints at end to fighting

Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, has sharply criticised a plan to hand over humanitarian operations in Gaza to a US-backed private group.

Taking to X, Egeland called the move “a deliberate stalling tactic”, rejecting the notion that private security firms should be involved in delivering aid.

“The perverse idea that private security companies should take over humanitarian work is a deliberate stalling tactic,” he wrote, adding that Israel “has never given any evidence that the system that worked well and saved lives had any major flaws”.

Egeland went on to accuse Israeli authorities of wilfully obstructing lifesaving efforts.

“Gaza’s children, women, families are deliberately starved. We are prevented from saving lives,” he said.

My grandfather, Ismail Abou Shhadeh - known to most as Abu Subhi - never spoke to us about the Nakba. He talked about everything else but had always avoided describing what happened in 1948.

It was only through interviews he gave to various media outlets that we came to understand what it meant to live through the catastrophe of 1948 in what was then one of Palestine's most prominent cities, Jaffa (Yafa in Arabic).

And it was only through one interview in particular, with Al Jazeera, that we learned how his father, Haseen Abou Shhadeh, died.

Haseen was born during the Ottoman era, when land was often seen as belonging to those who worked it - a principle that had shaped generations of Palestinian agricultural life, even as formal land ownership laws changed.

In 1948, Zionist militias exploited that deep sense of rootedness and security, catching unsuspecting Palestinian villagers off guard and using terror to drive them from their homes and seize their land and property. 

Read more: The Nakba: Jaffa's erasure is a warning to Gaza - but history is yet to be written

Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post has warned that while ties with Washington remain strong, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government must be ready to defend its “core interests” - even if that means clashing with the United States.

In a newly published editorial, the paper argued: “There may be moments when [Israel] will need to act to protect its core interests, even in the face of American objections.”

It added that US President Donald Trump “may feel a strong affinity toward Israel” but is ultimately driven by what he sees as America’s priorities.

“His overriding priority is clear: he is looking out for what he defines as America’s interests - and increasingly, those are transactional in nature. So Israel must do the same,” the editorial stated.

The comments come as Israel intensifies its assault on Gaza. In the last 72 hours alone, hundreds have been killed, with at least 125 deaths reported since midnight.

Lebanon’s army says an Israeli drone strike hit a military checkpoint in the southern village of Beit Yahoun, wounding one soldier.

In a statement issued Sunday, the army confirmed the two people including a soldier were wounded in the attack

Ibrahim al-Aqqad's ink has outlived him. On many streets in Khan Younis and its refugee camp, the elegant strokes of his calligraphy still grace shop signs.

Just four months ago, amid the destruction, he hand-painted the name of my sister's husband's pharmacy: al-Aqqad Pharmacy.

Earlier this month, Ibrahim, aged 54, a father of six, was killed alongside his wife, children and extended family - 26 members in total - when an Israeli air strike flattened their four-storey home without warning. 

The strike wiped out three generations of the Aqqad family in a single attack.

Ibrahim's story is one of thousands in Gaza, including my own, where entire families are being systematically annihilated, killed with precision in their homes, tents, on the roads, and in the ruined hospitals and schools repurposed as shelters.

Read more: The Aqqad family was erased in Gaza. But Ibrahim's ink still speaks

The bodies of five Palestinians killed in Israeli drone attacks have been taken to Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, reported Al Jazeera Arabic

The victims were targeted in fresh strikes on the north of the besieged enclave, where bombardments have continued throughout the day.

The Palestinian health ministry says the number of people killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023 has reached 53,339, with 121,034 others wounded.

In the past 24 hours alone, hospitals have admitted 361 injured people as Israeli attacks persist.

A growing number of the world’s leading genocide scholars believe that Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute genocide, according to an investigation by Dutch newspaper NRC. 

The paper interviewed seven renowned genocide researchers* from six countries - including Israel - all of whom described the Israeli campaign in Gaza as genocidal. Many said their peers in the field share this assessment.

"Can I name someone whose work I respect who does not think it is genocide? No, there is no counterargument that takes into account all the evidence," Israeli researcher Raz Segal told NRC. 

Professor Ugur Umit Ungor of the University of Amsterdam and NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies said that while there are certainly researchers who say it is not genocide, "I don't know them".

The Dutch paper reviewed 25 recent academic articles published in the Journal of Genocide Research, the field’s leading journal, and found that “all eight academics from the field of genocide studies see genocide or at least genocidal violence in Gaza”.

Read more: Top genocide scholars unanimous that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza: Dutch investigation

Iran’s foreign ministry has sharply criticised Israel’s latest wave of air and ground attacks that have killed hundreds of Palestinians in just three days, according to the semi-official Mehr News Agency.

Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei “strongly condemned” the ongoing assault and demanded “an end to impunity” for Israeli leaders behind the military campaign.

“These individuals are directly involved in the operations that have killed at least 53,200 people since 7 October 2023,” Baghaei said.

His remarks come as Israel expands its offensive, intensifying air strikes and launching a fresh ground assault across parts of the Gaza Strip.

At least five Palestinian journalists have been confirmed killed in recent Israeli air strikes across the Gaza Strip.

Al Jazeera Arabic reported on Sunday that three had been confirmed dead, while Ramy Abdu, a Palestinian financial and human rights advocate, named two additional victims.

The journalists were identified as Aziz al-Hajjar, Nour Qandil, Abdul Rahman al-Abadleh, Khaled Abu Seif and Ahmad Al-Zinati

Quds News Network says Hajjar died along with his wife and children when their home was struck in Bir an-Naaja, northern Gaza.

Qandil was reportedly killed in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, in an air raid that also took the lives of her husband and their baby daughter.

After being unaccounted for over two days, Abadleh’s body was found in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on al-Qarara, in the southern part of the enclave, according to Quds News.

Since 7 October 2023, Israeli assaults have killed over 230 Palestinian journalists and media professionals in Gaza, marking the bloodiest period on record for the press in any conflict.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers, 

Here are some of the latest updates from the Israeli war on Gaza, now in its 589th day: 

• Israeli air strikes kill 125 in Gaza, including 36 displaced people sheltering in al-Mawasi camp, according to Palestinian officials.

• The US embassy in Tripoli rejects the NBC News report claiming the Trump administration is considering relocating people in Gaza to Libya, calling it "false".

• Protesters in Tel Aviv demand a ceasefire and the return of remaining captives, putting pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

• The Israeli military says it shot down a missile launched from Yemen in another escalation in regional tensions.

• A senior Hamas official tells Drop Site News that Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, "personally promised to convince Israel to lift the Gaza blockade in exchange for US-Israeli captive Edan Alexander".