Live: Hamas agrees to release 10 Israeli captives

Two infants have died in the Gaza Strip from severe malnutrition and a shortage of infant formula, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

The infants died at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis and were buried on Thursday evening, Wafa said. Both deaths were linked to a lack of basic nutrition and limited access to medical treatment.

Medical officials in Gaza last week warned of a worsening health crisis affecting newborns and infants, citing the continued unavailability of baby formula and essential medicines due to the Israeli siege and war.

The State Prosecution said that it opposes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's request to postpone his upcoming testimony in his criminal trial to devote his time to security matters, including the Gaza war, according to Haaretz.

In its response, the prosecution stated that "the general arguments outlined in the request do not justify cancelling two weeks of hearings, especially not right before the court's summer recess".

Israeli settlers broke into the holy site of Joseph’s Tomb, east of Nablus in the occupied West Bank at dawn on Friday, and clashed with Palestinians.

Israeli settlers and Palestinian residents threw stones at each other before they were removed from the area by Palestinian Authority police, according to Israel’s Walla news site.

Israeli settlers carried out at least 23 attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank during the week of 17 to 23 June, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported.

OCHA said one Palestinian man was killed and 14 others were injured in the incidents, which also caused property damage including arson, vandalism, and the destruction of sapling trees, mostly olive.

The attacks took place in several Palestinian communities across the territory, it said.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

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

• Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Thursday became the most prominent European leader to describe the situation in Gaza as a "genocide", as rescuers in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory said Israeli forces killed 65 people.

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has raised the alarm on an Israeli military notice that all buildings will be destroyed in 13 Palestinian communities in the Masafer Yatta area in the occupied West Bank.

  At least 1,200 people, including more than 500 children, are now at risk of “forced displacement” if the military carries out its planned demolitions, the OCHA said.

• Israeli police have released five Israeli settlers arrested in connection with a deadly attack on the occupied West Bank village of Kafr Malek that killed three Palestinians on Wednesday. 

• The Israeli military has bombed a tent housing displaced Palestinians in the al-Mawasi area of southern Gaza, killing at least two people, including a doctor and his niece, according to the Palestinian Information Center.

• The latest Israeli attacks across Gaza have killed at least 74 people in the last 24 hours, Al Jazeera reported, citing sources at hospitals in Gaza.

Our live blog will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are the day's key developments:

- Late on Thursday evening, local time, Gaza's al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat said it had so far received one dead and 30 wounded after Israeli forces opened fire on aid seekers on Salah al-Din Street in central Gaza. 

- By midday Thursday, local time, Gaza's Civil Defence said that 56 people had already been killed by Israeli gunfire that day.

- At least 549 Palestinians have been killed and 4,066 people injured while seeking aid at distribution points run by the US-Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) since it began operating four weeks ago, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office.

- Israeli forces detained 23 Palestinians during overnight raids Wednesday into Thursday across several areas of the occupied West Bank, including Nablus, Qalqilya and Hebron, Wafa news agency reported, citing security and local sources.

- Pope Leo said that conflicts in the Middle East were raging with an unprecedented "diabolical intensity" and appealed for greater respect for international law, in comments to Catholic bishops and aid agencies operating in the region.

- Israeli Hayom reported that a phone call between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump, which occurred right after US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities last week, included an agreement between them on winding down the war in Gaza. However, the conditions would have to include the normalisation of relations between Israel and two key regional players: Saudi Arabia and Syria. 

Gaza's al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat says it has so far received one dead and 30 wounded after Israeli forces opened fire on aid seekers on Salah al-Din Street in central Gaza. 

Intial reports of the attacks came just after midnight local time on Thursday night.

Gaza's deeply connected and well-armed clans rejected on Thursday the Israeli accusation that Hamas is once again stealing aid from trucks coming into Gaza, the Times of Israel reported.

The aid trucks that enter Gaza via the Kareem Abu Salem crossing in the south and Zikim in the north carry flour, food and medical equipment, and are intended to supplement the aid distributed by the US military contractor-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the Times of Israel said. 

“The clans came… to form a stance to prevent the aggressors and the thieves from stealing the food that belongs to our people,” Abu Salman al-Moghani, a representative of the major tribes, said. 

However representatives from the GHF also said they were not aware of any aid trucks having crossed into Gaza at all, and that GHF is the only aid operation in the enclave. 

On Wednesday, during the 2025 Nato summit, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney appeared in an interview with Christiane Amanpour on CNN, where he made confusing remarks about the need for “a Zionist Palestinian state”, triggering backlash online.

Amanpour asked Carney about his vision for peace in the Middle East, specifically concerning the issue of a Palestinian state, where its indigenous people can live in harmony and peace. 

In response, Carney said that “in working on a path to a Palestinian state, living side by side in security with Israel… a Zionist Palestinian state if you will, that recognises the right of Israel to exist, not just to exist, but to prosper. We can’t have peace unless we move towards that.” 

Read more: Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, a grassroots NGO, called Carney 'dead wrong'

The US State Department has approved $30m in funding for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the State Department said on Thursday, calling on other countries to also support the scandal-plagued US-Israeli aid scheme in Gaza.

"This support is simply the latest iteration of President Trump's and Secretary Rubio's pursuit of peace in the region," State Department deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott told reporters on Thursday. 

More than 500 people have been killed trying to collect bags of flour distributed at four different GHF aid sites across the strip. 

Israeli Hayom reported on Thursday that a phone call between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump, which occurred right after US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities last week, included an agreement between them on winding down the war in Gaza. 

However, the conditions would have to include the normalisation of relations between Israel and two key regional players: Saudi Arabia and Syria, the paper reported, citing "a source familiar with the [phone] discussion's substance".

Per Israel Hayom, the five points discussed were as follows:

1. Wrapping up the war on Gaza within two weeks and allowing for Egypt and the UAE to administer Gaza, replacing Hamas. Israel's remaining captives in the strip would also be released during this time. 

2. Multiple countries taking in Gaza residents for resettlement. 

3. The Abraham Accords expanding to include Saudi Arabia and Syria, and potentially other neighbours. 

4. Israel declaring its "willingness for future Palestinian conflict resolution" under the "two-state solution" concept, contingent upon reforms of the Palestinian Authority. 

5. Washington acknowledged Israel's "limited" sovereignty over the occupied West Bank. 

In a video statement on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated that Israel's "victory" over Iran is an "opportunity" for further "peace agreements" in the region.

He did not specify what countries he is referring to, or if that also means he would finally agree to a ceasefire in Gaza.

The Israeli Broadcasting Authority had reported earlier that US President Donald Trump is looking to strike a major deal that not only concludes Israel's war on Gaza, but also returns Israeli captives and establishes diplomatic relations between an Arab nation and Israel. 

"The victory opens an opportunity for a dramatic expansion of peace agreements - alongside the release of our hostages. There is a window here that must not be missed, not even a single day wasted," Netanyahu said in his video. 

In response, far-right Cabinet Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that while "expanding the Abraham Accords is a wonderful thing," if it's "a shiny wrapper for an existential threat in the form of dividing the land, handing over territories to the enemy, and establishing a Palestinian terror state, then no! Thank you." 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked US President Donald Trump on Thursday after the latter called for the cancellation of his corruption trial.

"I was deeply moved by your sincere support for me, and your incredible support for Israel and the Jewish people," Netanyahu wrote in English on X, after reposting Trump's message Wednesday on Truth Social in which the US president called his trial in Israel a "witch hunt".

This trial "should be CANCELED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Great Hero granted a pardon," Trump wrote.

Gaza's Civil Defence announced that 56 people, including six seeking humanitarian aid, were killed by Israeli gunfire on Thursday.

Seventeen people were killed following an Israeli strike on a group of civilians near the al-Baraka junction in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah, Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP.

According to Bassal, these new casualties bring the total number of deaths since dawn to 56, including six people who were waiting for humanitarian aid distribution.

- Reporting from AFP

Pope Leo said on Thursday that conflicts in the Middle East were raging with an unprecedented "diabolical intensity" and appealed for greater respect for international law, in comments to Catholic bishops and aid agencies operating in the region.

At a meeting in the Vatican, the pontiff said countries in the region were being "devastated by wars, plundered by special interests, and covered by a cloud of hatred that renders the air unbreathable and toxic.

"Today, violent conflict seems to be raging... with a diabolical intensity previously unknown," he said, adding that the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza was "tragic and inhumane".

Leo, elected on 8 May to replace the late Pope Francis, appealed last month for Israel to allow more humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.