Live: Hamas agrees to release 10 Israeli captives

Israel's military has confirmed carrying out a strike in southern Syria's Mazraat Beit Jinn area, claiming it targeted a Hamas member.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the attack hit a vehicle, killing one person and wounding two others.

The monitoring group reports this marks Israel's 61st military operation in Syria this year, with 51 conducted by air and 10 by ground.

Israel has ordered the military to block an aid boat headed for Gaza with 12 activists on board, including Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg.

"I have instructed the military to prevent the Madleen flotilla from reaching Gaza," Israel Katz said in a statement from his office.

"To Greta the antisemite and her companions, Hamas propaganda mouthpieces, I say clearly: turn back because you will not reach Gaza."

Thunberg and 11 other activists set off from Sicily on 1 June, carrying urgent supplies for besieged and starving Palestinians. 

The aid includes baby formula, flour, rice, diapers, women’s sanitary products, water desalination kits, medical supplies, crutches, and children’s prosthetics.

Read more: Israel orders military to stop aid boat with Greta Thunberg reaching Gaza

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, criticised the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's aid delivery system, calling the use of “aid distribution” a form of “humanitarian camouflage”.

She described it as “an essential tactic of this genocide” in a post on X.

“History will prove right those who had sounded the alarm, and it will be of no consolation: the damage is done,” Albanese wrote, placing blame on what she called the “moral and political corruption of the world we live in”.

The statement comes amid repeated reports of deadly Israeli gunfire near aid distribution points in Gaza, where hundreds of Palestinians have been killed while attempting to access humanitarian assistance.

A humanitarian boat bound for Gaza, with 12 activists on board - including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg - will continue its journey "until the last minute", campaigners said on Sunday after Israel ordered its military to block the vessel.

"We'll stay mobilised until the last minute - until Israel cuts the internet and networks," European parliament member Rima Hassan told AFP from the boat, named Madleen.

The Madleen, part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, left Sicily last week with a cargo of relief supplies to "break Israel's blockade on Gaza", where the Israeli war has entered its 21st month.

"There are twelve of us civilians on board. We are not armed. There is only humanitarian aid," said Hassan.

Earlier in the day, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz ordered the military to block the boat from reaching Gaza.

The coalition responded in a statement on X, saying it expected "interception and an attack from Israel at any moment" and calling for the governments of those on board to protect them. 

Nationals of Germany, France, Brazil, Turkey, Sweden, Spain and the Netherlands are on the boat.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition was founded in 2010 to oppose this blockade and deliver humanitarian aid.

Reporting by AFP

The Israeli military said its forces have carried out multiple strikes across Gaza over the past day, claiming to have killed dozens of Hamas members and destroyed militant infrastructure.

In a statement, the Israeli military said it targeted fighters emerging from combat compounds near Israeli troops. It also said an air strike in Jabalia hit a command-and-control centre, killing several Hamas members inside.

The military also said it carried out a targeted operation on 31 May that killed Arafat Diab, claiming he was a Hamas member involved in the 7 October attack. 

Israeli air strikes and gunfire have killed more than 30 Palestinians since this morning and over 100 in the past 24 hours, with hundreds more wounded.

At least 31 people have been killed by Israeli forces across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, according to medical sources at local hospitals. The toll has risen from the 21 deaths reported earlier.

Among the casualties, at least 13 Palestinians were shot and killed near an aid distribution point operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Around 100 others were wounded in the same attack.

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli attacks on Sunday killed at least 10 people, including two girls, in the Palestinian territory.

"Five martyrs and dozens of wounded were taken to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis after the (Israeli) occupation forces opened fire on civilians at around 6:00 am", agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

The civilians had been heading to an aid distribution centre west of Rafah, near a site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The United Nations refuses to work with the GHF, citing concerns over its practices and neutrality.

Asked to comment on the latest killings, the Israeli military said it fired on people who "continued advancing in a way that endangered the soldiers" despite warnings. It said the area around the distribution point had been declared an "active combat zone" at night.

"Around 4:30 am, people started gathering in the Al-Alam area of Rafah. After about an hour and a half, hundreds moved toward the site and the army opened fire," eyewitness Abdallah Nour al-Din told AFP.

Outside the Nasser hospital, where the emergency workers brought the casualties, AFPTV footage showed mourners crying over blood-stained body bags.

"I can't see you like this," said Lin al-Daghma by her father's body, while a man lay over his brother's corpse.

Reporting by AFP

The government media office in Gaza denied Israeli military claims that a tunnel was found beneath the European Hospital in southern Gaza, saying the allegation was false and fabricated.

In an official statement, the office said the video released by the Israeli army shows a narrow metal pipe that cannot fit a person, has no stairs or equipment and is located in an area used for rainwater drainage.

The office accused Israeli forces of digging the site themselves and staging the footage near the hospital’s emergency department, which remains crowded with patients. It said this is part of a broader Israeli campaign to justify attacks on Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure.

Previous claims about tunnels under hospitals - including al-Shifa, Nasser and Hamad - were also disproven, the office said, with no tunnels found in those facilities.

Israel's defence minister on Sunday ordered the military to block an aid boat headed for Gaza with 12 activists on board, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg.

"I have instructed the military to prevent the Madleen flotilla from reaching Gaza," Israel Katz said in a statement from his office. "To Greta the antisemite and her companions, Hamas propaganda mouthpieces, I say clearly: turn back because you will not reach Gaza."

Reporting by AFP

The Palestinian health ministry warned in a statement that two of Gaza's most vital medical facilities - al-Shifa Medical Complex and al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital - could go out of service within the next 24 hours due to a severe fuel shortage.

The ministry said both hospitals are currently providing emergency care to the wounded and sick in Gaza City and the northern part of the strip, following the closure of several other facilities in the area for similar reasons.

“If al-Shifa and al-Ahli go out of service, it would mean the collapse of the remaining health infrastructure in Gaza City,” the ministry warned.

The Nasser Medical Complex, another major hospital in southern Gaza, is also facing a critical fuel shortage. It is operating on a limited supply that is expected to last no more than two days, according to the statement.

The ministry added that despite the worsening crisis, it has not received any indication or communication that fuel will be allowed into Gaza to power hospital generators.

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said on Monday that the bodies of 108 people killed by Israeli strikes have been brought to hospitals in the past 24 hours.

Hospitals also received 393 wounded, the ministry said in its daily report. 

The new deaths brought the total death toll from Israel’s war on Gaza to 54,880 since 7 October 2023, with 126,227 wounded.

The ministry said the tally includes 4,603 dead and 14,186 wounded since Israel resumed the war on March 18, ending a nearly two-month ceasefire.

It also reported that five people were killed and more than 123 injured since this morning after being shot near aid distribution sites. The total number of reported deaths from designated aid distribution areas has now reached 115, with over 1,110 injuries, the ministry added.

An Israeli strike in Jabalia killed at least two people and left others wounded, a local medical source told Al Jazeera. In a separate attack, a person was killed in Gaza City’s Shujaiya neighbourhood, according to staff at al-Ahli hospital.

These deaths come in addition to at least 21 others reported earlier today, including several children, amid intensifying bombardment across the strip.

The Israeli military has accused Mahmoud Bassal, spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Defence (PCD), of being an "active terrorist" affiliated with Hamas - a claim Bassal strongly denies.

The allegation, announced on Sunday, is based on what the army says are documents recovered during military operations in the Gaza Strip. These documents, described as lists of Hamas members, were shared with media outlets but lack context regarding when and how they were obtained.

The army further accused Bassal of spreading false information about Israeli operations in Gaza to support Hamas’ objectives.

In response, Bassal rejected the accusations as baseless, telling AFP: "I do not work for any military organisation." He defended the PCD's role, saying that it operates in accordance with international humanitarian law.

The organisation has long been responsible for emergency response in Gaza, particularly transporting victims of Israeli airstrikes to hospitals.

PCD has featured prominently in international media coverage throughout the war, now in its 21st month, often providing updates on casualties and footage from the ground. 

• At least five people were killed near the Israel- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid distribution points in Rafah and central Gaza’s Netzarim Corridor.
• GHF reopened two of its sites today after halting aid operations, accusing Hamas of issuing “direct threats” against its operations, claims Hamas denies.
• Drone strikes on tents in Khan Younis’ al-Mawasi “safe zone” killed five Palestinians, including two girls.
• Israeli strikes in Gaza’s Sabra neighbourhood killed at least 16 people and injured over 50 yesterday, including the targeted killing of a senior Mujahideen figure, Sheikh Asaad Abu Sharia.
• The body of a Thai national abducted during Hamas’s October 7 attacks was recovered by Israeli forces inside Gaza yesterday.
• The Madleen, carrying humanitarian aid and activists, including climate activist Greta Thunberg, remains stalled off Egypt’s coast, still awaiting safe passage to Gaza.