Live: Hamas agrees to release 10 Israeli captives
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At least 549 Palestinians have been killed and 4,066 people injured while seeking humanitarian aid at distribution points run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) since it began operating four weeks ago, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office.
Calling the aid centres “death traps" in a statement, the Gaza authority also said that 39 aid seekers are reported missing.
“What is taking place at these so-called ‘centres’ constitutes a full-fledged war crime for which the Israeli occupation bears primary and direct responsibility. We strongly condemn this ongoing crime, wherein starving civilians are lured and then systematically and deliberately gunned down on a daily basis according to pre-set schedules,” Gaza’s Government Media Office said.
“The occupation is using food as a weapon of mass killing, turning what it claims to be ‘aid’ into a tool of extermination and domination.”
Israeli forces detained 23 Palestinians during overnight raids across several areas of the occupied West Bank, including Nablus, Qalqilya and Hebron, Wafa news agency reported, citing security and local sources.
In Nablus, 14 people were detained following searches of multiple homes in various neighbourhoods, the sources said. In the Qalqilya governorate, three people were detained during raids in the city and the village of Far’ata.
Soldiers also reportedly dismantled a memorial erected in honour of two Palestinians killed in a previous Israeli operation.
In Hebron, six people were detained. Local sources reported property damage during the raids, including broken doors and destroyed furniture.
At least 31 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza so far this morning, Al Jazeera reported, citing sources in hospitals in the territory.
Nine of the victims were killed in the bombing of a school housing displaced people in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City, while three were killed as they waited near aid distribution points - attacks that we reported on earlier.
Two people have been killed in a bombing of the Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City, while another person was killed in an attack on Jabalia, farther north.
Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has called the humanitarian aid currently entering Gaza "an absolute disgrace,” calling for “not a temporary halt to ‘humanitarian’ aid, but a complete stop”.
The minister's comments came after the Israeli government accused Hamas of seizing aid and halted aid deliveries to Gaza until the Israeli military presents a plan, according to a report by Israel’s Channel 12 news.
“When I warned repeatedly, and was unfortunately the only one who voted a month and a half ago against bringing aid, I was certain it would grant Hamas a lifeline,” the far-right minister said in a post on X.
“Halting aid will expedite reaching victory. I will demand that the prime minister bring the issue of introducing aid to the sector to a vote again in the next cabinet session.”
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has condemned the attacks carried out by armed settlers against Palestinian civilians on Wednesday night in the town of Kafr Malik, east of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
The settlers yesterday set fire to several homes and vehicles and opened live fire at residents, killing three Palestinians inside their homes and injuring at least seven others.
The ministry said the scenes last night reflected "the complicity of the occupation authorities with these terrorist militias".
"Israeli forces prevented ambulance crews from reaching the wounded and obstructed civil defence teams from entering the area for hours, which worsened the damage caused by the fires the settlers started," the ministry said.
Israeli bombing of a school housing displaced persons in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City killed nine people, according to Al Jazeera, citing a source at Al-Shifa Hospital.
Good morning Middle East Eye readers,
Here are the latest developments from Israel's war on Gaza:
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The Palestinian health ministry said three people were killed and seven others were injured by Israeli settlers who stormed the town of Kafr Malik near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank and set homes and cars on fire on Wednesday.
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Another group of Israeli settlers have set fire to Palestinian homes and vehicles in the Christian town of Taybeh, east of Ramallah, according to a Palestinian activist in the occupied West Bank, Ihab Hassan.
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Fourteen people have been killed in Israeli attacks this morning across Gaza, Al Jazeera Arabic reported citing sources in the enclave.
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US President Donald Trump weighed in on ally Benjamin Netanyahu's long-running corruption trial Wednesday, urging for Israel's "Great War Time Prime Minister" to be exonerated after the conflict with Iran.
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The Israeli military has arrested at least 14 Palestinians, including journalist Mujahid Tabanj, in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, the Palestinian Information Centre reported.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also told British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the Nato summit in The Hague that the tension between Israel, Iran and the US "must not leave the humanitarian crisis in Gaza - which has reached a disastrous level - forgotten".
Our live blog will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.
Here are the day's key developments:
- At least 100 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in Gaza since dawn on Wednesday.
- Israel bombed the Amr Ibn Al-Aas School, which currently shelters forcibly displaced Palestinians in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City. At least five people are declared dead.
- The spokesperson for the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, vowed that there would be more "funerals and corpses of enemy soldiers" to come. Abu Obeida praised the Tuesday ambushes that killed seven Israeli soldiers and wounded some 15 others.
- 62 percent of Israelis want their government to strike a deal with Hamas to secure the release of captives held in Gaza, and to end war in the enclave, according to a poll by Walla, an online media company owned by the Jerusalem Post.
Israel has bombed the Amr Ibn Al-Aas School, which currently shelters forcibly displaced Palestinians in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, multiple local reports said.
The attack appears to have taken place close to midnight on Wednesday.
Bodies are burying recovered from the site. At least five people have been declared dead so far.
Aljazeera Arabic's Gaza correspondent Anas al-Sharif revealed on Wednesday that 100 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in the Strip since dawn.
The spokesperson for the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, vowed on Wednesday that there would be more "funerals and corpses of enemy soldiers" to come.
Abu Obeida praised the Tuesday ambushes that killed seven Israeli soldiers and wounded some 15 others.
"Our fighters are offering unique examples of heroism and courage," he said. "The recent ambushes are... proving that our people's fighters are the most courageous and self-sacrificing freedom fighters of the modern era."
"The funerals and corpses of enemy soldiers will become a regular occurrence, God willing, as long as the occupation's aggression and criminal war against our people continue," Abu Obeida said.
The military wing of Hamas, al-Qassam Brigades, released footage on Wednesday showing how its fighters ambushed two Israeli armoured personnel carriers (APCs) near the Ali Ibn Abi Talib Mosque in Khan Younis.
The second vehicle contained the rescue team that moved in to try and save the first group that was attacked.
Seven Israeli soldiers were killed and more than dozen were wounded, the military confirmed.
WATCH | Al-Qassam Fighter Storms Israeli APC in Khan Younis, Kills 7 Soldiers in Close-Range Ambush
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) June 25, 2025
In a dramatic ambush captured on video, resistance fighters from Hamas’s military wing carried out a complex operation against two Israeli armored personnel carriers (APCs) near… pic.twitter.com/Ds135XnbuQ
French President Emmanuel Macron said he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday and had reaffirmed to him the importance of both Israel and Iran respecting their recent ceasefire deal.
Macron added he had also reaffirmed to Netanyahu the need for a ceasefire deal in Gaza.
- Reporting by Reuters
The British government is set to ban the direct action group Palestine Action under anti-terror legislation after activists broke into RAF Brize Norton earlier this month and spray-painted two planes.
The group said the airbase was targeted because flights leave there daily "for RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, a base used for military operations in Gaza and across the Middle East". The activists damaged Airbus Voyager aircraft, which carry military cargo and refuel fighter jets and military planes.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has said she will bring legislation to proscribe the group before Parliament on 30 June.
