Live: Hamas agrees to release 10 Israeli captives

Hungry, terrified, and crammed into a small apartment, as intense Israeli bombardment rocked the area around them.

This is how Hadeel Saleh and her family of nine spent several days in March 2024 during a violent Israeli raid on Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital and the surrounding neighbourhood.

Their ordeal was interrupted by dozens of Israeli soldiers storming the home without warning.

Without hesitation, they shot and killed her 60-year-old Palestinian father. When her older brother rushed to help, he too was gunned down. 

During the raid on the hospital, Israeli forces had put it out of service and then went door to door to neighbouring buildings, killing at will and forcing survivors to flee.

Read more: Israeli troops executed her father and brother. Then taunted the survivors

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has announced the suspension of Tehran's cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), according to the official Press TV and Mehr news agency.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that the president has signed off on legislation requiring the government to cut ties with the IAEA.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates on Israel's war on Gaza and developments in the occupied West Bank:

• Detained doctor Hussam Abu Safia's son says his father has lost 30kg (66 pounds) and is “suffering from critical health conditions” and has been deprived of medication in the Israeli jail.

• The 107 employees, along with 300 media industry figures, have published a letter on Deadline to BBC leadership, accusing the broadcaster of “censorship” when it comes to Israel and “performing PR for the Israeli government and military”.

• Israeli officials have threatened that "everything will turn to dust” in Gaza City and the central camps if negotiations on a ceasefire and captive exchange deal do not advance soon, according to the US-based Axios news outlet.

• At least 600 people have been killed and more than 4,278 others wounded at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites since the group began operations in late May, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.

• Israeli forces have attacked the city of Khan Younis as well as the so-called humanitarian zone of al-Mawasi, killing at least six people, according to Al Jazeera, citing sources at the Nasser Medical Complex.

Israel's military said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen on Tuesday. 

"Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile that was launched from Yemen was intercepted" by the Israeli air force, an Israeli military statement said.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree posted on Telegram on Tuesday that the group launched a military operation targeting Ben Gurion Airport using a “hypersonic ballistic missile". 

Saree said the operation achieved its goal, "causing millions of herds of usurping Zionists to flee to shelters and halting airport operations."

He also added that three other Israeli-occupied areas were targeted using drones.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz threatened the Houthis after the attack, saying "Yemen will be treated like Tehran".

"After striking the head of the snake in Tehran, we will also strike the Houthis in Yemen. Anyone who raises a hand against Israel will have their hand cut off," Katz said, according to a statement from his office, the AFP reported.

Georgetown University researcher Badar Khan Suri can remain free while he fights his deportation, a federal appeals court panel ruled on Tuesday.

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals panel rejected the Trump administration’s request that Suri be returned to immigration detention while it seeks to deport him by a vote of 2-1.

Suri was arrested on 17 March by masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents outside his home in Virginia in retaliation for constitutionally protected speech and association, and he spent eight weeks in detention, mostly in Texas. Upon his release in May, he returned home to his wife and three children in Virginia, where his lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of his arrest is proceeding. 

“I am grateful for my freedom and for the time I have to spend with my family,” said Dr Suri. “I have faith that the American judiciary will protect my constitutional rights.”

President Donald Trump annpunced Israel has agreed to "the necessary conditions to finalize" a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza on a post on his Truth Social account on Tuesday.

Trump said he would use this period to work with all parties "to end the War". 

He also threatened Hamas if they did not accept the deal, saying "it will not get better — IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE".

Zohran Kwame Mamdani has officially bested Andrew Cuomo according to final round results of the New York City Democratic primary mayoral election that were released on Tuesday.

The final round ranked-choice voting results show that state assemblyman Mamdani obtained 56 percent of the vote, beating former New York governor Cuomo by 12 percent.

First round results showed Mamdani leading Cuomo 43.5 percent to 36.5 percent a few hours after the polls closed. Cuomo conceded the primary the same night.

UN human rights experts and hundreds of lawyers are among those urging the UK Home Secretary not to designate direct action protest group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation.

Both the Network for Police Monitoring (Netpol) lawyers’ group and the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers told Home Secretary Yvonne Cooper that proscribing the group would set a dangerous precedent as it would conflate protest with terrorism.

Several UN human rights experts also urged the government not to ban Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation under the Terrorism Act 2000.

“We are concerned at the unjustified labelling of a political protest movement as ‘terrorist’,” the experts said in a statement.

“According to international standards, acts of protest that damage property, but are not intended to kill or injure people, should not be treated as terrorism.”

The UK government says some members have allegedly caused criminal damage to property at military bases and arms companies.

The Israeli military has intensified air strikes on Gaza City and has been bombing both the al-Daraj and al-Zaytoun neighbourhoods, Quds News Network reported on Tuesday. 

Hundreds of olive trees were destroyed after Israeli settlers set fire to large swathes of agricultural land in the Palestinian village of Duma, south of Nablus, according to officials cited by the Wafa news agency.

Head of the village council, Abdullah Ziyada, said settlers from the Yitzhar settlement set fire to fields along a bypass road.

Although local residents, with the help of civil defence crews, tried to contain the fires, their efforts were reportedly blocked by settlers and Israeli forces. Both groups obstructed Palestinians from accessing the village’s water well to refill their fire trucks. The water well is located near the al-Murabba checkpoint.

Olive trees are central to many Palestinian livelihoods and have been burned down by Israeli settlers many times.

A 29-year-old Palestinian man has died as a result of severe malnutrition in Gaza, with the Israeli authorities' continued blockade compounding the humanitarian catastrophe in the besieged enclave

Ayoub Abu al-Hussain died on Monday at the Kuwait Specialised Field Hospital in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip. 

Photos and videos published show the man in a skeletal state, with notable weight loss caused by the restrictions on food aid and essentials. 

According to a post by the hospital, Ayoub had arrived "lifeless" due to the malnutrition in a "scene that embodies the magnitude of the worsening humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip due to the closure of crossings and the ongoing aggression".

"The severe shortage of food and medicine threatens the lives of thousands of citizens, especially children, the elderly, and those with chronic diseases, amid the lack of the most basic necessities of life," the post added. 

You can read more here.

Two Palestine Action activists were arreested after they blockaded the entrance to arms manufacturer Elbit System’s UK headquarters in Bristol and occupied the rooftop of one of their subcontractors.

The direct-action group said the occupation “successfully halted operations at Guardtech”, a subcontractor which it said “provides essential clean room services” to Instro Precision, a subsidiary of Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms manufacturer.

The group published footage on X of its activists blockading the only entrance to the company’s Bristol headquarters.

“Just a reminder we, Palestine Action, we are not the terrorists,” an activist said in the video.

"Elbit are the real terrorists”.

The actions come as Home Secretary Yvette Cooper laid a draft order for the banning of Palestine Action under counter-terror legislation before parliament. On Wednesday, parliamentarians will vote on the order to proscribe the group.

Palestine Action is seeking to challenge the move after the High Court granted the group an urgent hearing to consider a judicial review of the decision.

“Palestine Action affirms that direct action is necessary in the face of Israel’s ongoing crimes against humanity of genocide, apartheid, and occupation, and to end British facilitation of those crimes," a Palestine Action spokesperson said in a statement.

You can read more here.

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators protested outside the Welsh Parliament in Cardiff on Tuesday, calling for an end to Israel’s war on Gaza, according to multiple news outlets.

Protestors held a long red banner around a vast proportion of the parliament, meant to represent their belief that every red line had been crossed since “the UK is arming, training and backing Israel’s genocide in Gaza”, and many Welsh politicians who have remained silent.

Protestors are campaigning for an arms embargo and sanctions on Israel.

The protest was organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign Cymru, Cardiff Stop the War, and BLM Cardiff, among others.

The beach cafe that was bombed by Israel on Monday, leading to the deaths of 24 Palestinians, was a place that people came to temporarily escape the atrocities and obtain internet connection, AFP reported on Tuesday.

Prior to the war, al-Baqa cafe was full of life and a place that was popular with intellectuals and artists.

Prior to being bombed on Monday, the kitchens were closed since no food is entering Gaza except limited humanitarian aid, but it was still possible to sit there, with one's back to the destruction of Gaza.

A few weeks ago, the cafe was able to offer internet connection again, attracting its pre-war clientele.

Maher al-Baqa, 40, the brother of the owner of the cafe, told AFP, "It's one of the most well-known cafes on the Gaza coast, frequented by educated youth, journalists, artists, doctors, engineers and hardworking people".

"Young people were fleeing the tragedies and difficult conditions in Gaza," he recalled. "They came for work appointments or just to take a breather. They used to feel free and safe there - it was like a second home to them. The occupier (Israel) betrayed these people and bombed the place without any justification."

Still in shock, Mr Baqa said he lost four employees and three family members, including two nephews, in the strike.

The Israeli army told AFP on Tuesday that the strike had targeted "several Hamas terrorists" and that "measures [had] been taken [...] to reduce the risk of harming civilians," while specifying that it was an "incident [...] under review".

The military maintained it had taken steps "to mitigate the risk of harming civilians using aerial surveillance".

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that eight people were killed near aid distribution sites in central and southern Gaza on Tuesday, the latest in a series of daily deadly attacks on those seeking food since the specially created Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) took over food distribution on 27 May.

One person was killed and 50 wounded when tanks and drones opened fire as crowds were waiting to collect aid near the Wadi Gaza Bridge in the centre of the Gaza Strip, Bassal said.

The civil defence said another six people were killed nearby while trying to reach the same aid centre.

Asked for comment, the Israeli military told AFP its forces "fired warning shots to distance suspects who approached the troops", adding it was not aware of any injuries but would review the incident.

At least one more person was killed near another aid centre in Rafah, the civil defence said.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by rescuers.

A group of 169 aid organisations called on Monday for an end to Gaza's "deadly" new US-and Israeli-backed aid distribution scheme, which they said forced starving civilians to "trek for hours through dangerous terrain and active conflict zones, only to face a violent, chaotic race" for food.

They urged a return to the UN-led aid mechanism that existed before Israel imposed a full blockade on humanitarian assistance entering Gaza on 2 March.

Israeli soldiers and army officials told Haaretz newspaper that they had targeted Palestinian civilians who had come seeking aid from GHF.