Live: 54 Palestinians killed, 831 wounded in 24 hours

At least seven Palestinians seeking aid have been killed in an Israeli assault near a distribution point south of Khan Younis, Al Jazeera Arabic reported, citing Nasser Hospital.

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday evening imposing a 15 percent tariff on imports from Israel and dozens of other countries, a slight reduction from the 17 percent rate initially proposed in April.

The tariffs will take effect on 7 August, following a one-week delay to allow for regulatory adjustments, according to a senior US official.

According to Ynet, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appealed for a significantly reduced tariff, citing Israel’s war on Gaza. Israeli officials believed that the final rate would be tied to Israel’s willingness to wind down the war.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Friday that France is sending four flights carrying 10 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Gaza from Jordan.

"This is emergency aid but still not sufficient" in the face of this "revolting" situation, Barrot told broadcaster Franceinfo.

A global hunger monitor said on Tuesday that a famine scenario was unfolding in the Gaza Strip, with malnutrition soaring, children under five dying of hunger-related causes and humanitarian access severely restricted.

Israeli settlers set fire overnight to a car belonging to a foreign activist in the Palestinian village of Susya in the southern occupied West Bank, along with water tanks owned by a local family, an activist said on X.

The social media post said the settlers also sprayed pepper spray at family members and activists and attempted to set the house on fire.

המתנחלים הגיעו לפתח ביתה של המשפחה, דפקו בחוזקה על הדלת ואז ריססו לתוך הבית גז פלפל. לאחר מכן הציתו את הרכב של פעילות הסולידריות, ומבנה בבית המשפחה. נכון לעכשיו צוות כיבוי השתלט על האש שפרצה מהרכב, ושרפה יחד איתו גם את מיכלי המים של המשפחה. המבנה שהוצת עדין בוער. https://t.co/w9GJkg7c9F pic.twitter.com/O75UU6C5sB

— מחוץ לעדר (@masafering) July 31, 2025

Good morning, Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates from Israel's ongoing war on Gaza:

• Israel is evacuating most of its diplomatic mission staff in the United Arab Emirates, Israeli media reported late on Thursday.

• Hamas said on Thursday that "Israel withdrew from talks last week without any justification," and announced that it is prepared to restart negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire.

• More than 150 retired senior Israeli security officials held a press conference outside the defence ministry and military headquarters in Tel Aviv, calling on the government to end the war on Gaza and reach an agreement for the return of all captives.

• The Palestinian Authority has escalated political arrests in the occupied West Bank, with at least 17 people currently detained over expression of opinion or participation in pro-Gaza protests, the group Lawyers for Justice said.

• At least nine people were killed in Israeli air strikes that hit Deir al-Balah overnight, the Palestinian Information Center reported.

At least two Palestinians have died from starvation in the last 24 hours, bringing up the total to 159 people, Al Jazeera reported on Thursday.

At least 90 of those who have died from starvation are children. There is currently a shortage of formula for babies in the Strip. 

More than 100 humanitarian aid organisations have  called on Israel to allow food, water, medicine and fuel into the strip. 

The Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Israeli ambassador to Ljubljana on Thursday to protest against the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza caused by severe restrictions on the entry of urgent humanitarian aid, Wafa news agency reported.

In a statement posted on its official X account, the ministry said: “The Slovenian ministry of foreign affairs has taken diplomatic action by summoning the accredited Israeli ambassador to protest the grave humanitarian catastrophe resulting from the blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza.”

Ruth Cohen-Dar was recently appointed as the Israeli ambassador.

US President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee plan to enter Gaza on Friday to inspect aid distribution sites, as global rage mounts over the looming famine in the Gaza Strip.

"Tomorrow, special envoy Witkoff and ambassador Huckabee will be travelling into Gaza to inspect the current (aid) distribution sites and secure a plan to deliver more food and meet with local Gazans to hear firsthand about this dire situation on the ground," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday.

The visit will be Witkoff’s second to Gaza and the first visit from a US ambassador to the enclave in over two decades. It reflects mounting pressure by Trump to address the enclaves' starving Palestinians, as resentment grows not only among US allies but within his own MAGA base.

Trump dispatched Witkoff to Israel on Thursday, where he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

You can read more here.

More than 70 women in the village where Awdah Hathaleen was killed on Monday have launched a hunger strike, calling for Israeli police to return his body and release residents arrested in the wake of his murder.

Their protest comes as they say Israeli forces have raided family homes in the village each night since the killing, arresting their husbands and brothers and beating other family members. 

"A woman would be not properly dressed, lying in bed, and they would come in and open the door and say, 'We want your husband, we want your brother'," Ikhlas Hazalin, Hathaleen's sister-in-law, told Middle East Eye on Thursday.

"Whenever they didn't find whom they were looking for, other family members would be beaten – his brother, or one of his family members – until the wanted person was brought in."

Hazalin added: "I've never seen such brutality."

Awdah Hathaleen was a 31-year-old English teacher and peaceful anti-settlement activist. He was allegedly shot by an Israeli settler, previously sanctioned by the US, in a confrontation captured on video.

You can read more here.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has welcomed steps being taken by European countries to recognise a Palestinian state.

“We find the recent humanitarian reactions coming from Europe, particularly from France and Britain, very valuable. We welcome every step taken toward recognition of the State of Palestine,” Erdogan said.

“No one can remain silent in the face of the atrocities in Gaza, where children are dying of hunger and civilians seeking food are deliberately shot,” he added.

France announced last week it would recognise a Palestinian state. The move was followed by the UK on Tuesday and Portugal on Thursday.

Photographs of extremely thin, often skeletal, children in Israeli-starved Gaza have become all too familiar.

One such image, of the severely malnourished infant Mohammed al-Mutawaq, went viral last week. 

The 18-month-old child's picture featured in several international media outlets, including the BBC, CNN, The Times, The New York Times and the Daily Express. 

It added yet more evidence of starvation in Gaza as a result of a near-total Israeli blockade on food and humanitarian aid since March. 

But the images of Mutawaq's frail body have hit the headlines again, for different reasons. 

It has been reported that the toddler has cerebral palsy, a fact which was not mentioned in every use of his photo in recent days. 

As a result of this omission, several pro-Israeli voices are now saying that Mutawaq's case proves that starvation in Gaza is “a lie”. 

You can read more here.

Led by far-right activist Daniella Weiss, hundreds of ultranationalist Israeli settlers marched toward Israel's boundary with Gaza while chanting "Gaza, ours forever" and "take back our land" on Wednesday.

The settlers hope to establish new Israeli settlements in Gaza.

Weiss says there are 1,000 families ready and willing to resettle the besieged strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed a plan to annex parts of the Gaza Strip earlier this week.

Brown University in Rhode Island reached an agreement with the Trump administration on Wednesday to restore research funding after federal funds were pulled over accusations that "antisemitism" had thrived on campus.

The deal will see Brown University pay $50m over 10 years to improve Rhode Island’s workforce development programmes.

Israeli settlers on Thursday set fire to a tire repair workshop in the village of Bazaria, near Nablus in the West Bank, Wafa news agency reported. 

According to head of the Bazaria village council, Taysir Safarini, settlers carried out an arson attack on the tire repair shop and workshop, causing serious damage and leading to a standoff between residents and settlers.

Attacks on Palestinian communities by Israeli settlers in the West Bank have surged this year and show no signs of abating as the Israeli government voted overwhelmingly to annex the West Bank earlier in July. 

Three Palestinians were killed and dozens were injured on Thursday following Israeli air strikes on civilians across the Gaza Strip, Wafa news agency reported.

At least one woman was killed and multiple civilians - including children - were wounded when Israeli warplanes targeted a home in Jabalia al-Balad, in the north of the Gaza Strip.

In a separate incident, a man was killed by an Israeli drone strike in the Qizan al-Najjar area, south of Khan Younis.

Al-Shifa medical complex reported receiving one dead person and several injured people after an Israeli air strike on the al-Karama neighbourhood in northwestern Gaza City.