Live: At least 75 killed in Israeli strikes on second day of Eid al-Adha
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Israeli arms exports hit an all-time high of $14.7bn in 2024, according to the defence ministry, including a sharp rise in deals with Arab states.
"Israel again reached an all-time peak in defence exports in 2024, marking the fourth consecutive record-breaking year in the scope of defence agreements," the ministry said.
Around 57 percent of the agreements signed were "mega-deals" valued at at least $100m each, the ministry said, adding that "operational achievements" in the war on Gaza drove demand.
"The war's operational achievements and the proven battlefield performance of Israeli systems have driven strong international demand for Israeli defense technology, concluding 2024 on a remarkably high note with record-breaking export deals," it said.
Sales to Arab countries which signed normalisation deals with Israel, dubbed the Abraham Accords, rose from three percent in 2023 to 12 percent last year. The UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan normalised relations with Israel in 2020.
Elsewhere, Europe made up 54 percent of exports; Asia and the Pacific region were 23 percent; North America imported nine percent; Latin America was at one percent, while Africa made up one percent.
The United Nations' aid chief has said that recent "horrifying scenes" of Palestinians in Gaza being killed by Israeli forces while trying to access food aid were the result of "deliberate choices".
"The world is watching, day after day, horrifying scenes of Palestinians being shot, wounded or killed in Gaza while simply trying to eat," UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said.
"This is the outcome of a series of deliberate choices that have systematically deprived two million people of the essentials they need to survive."
The UK government has called for an "immediate and independent investigation" into the deaths of Palestinians at aid distribution sites in the Gaza Strip this week.
Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer said the deaths of Palestinians as they sought food were "deeply disturbing", and called Israel's new measures for aid delivery "inhumane".
On Tuesday, Israeli forces killed at least 27 Palestinians as they were attempting to reach a distribution site in Rafah for the US-Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
It was the latest in a string of Israeli attacks on Palestinians seeking aid at newly established GHF-run distribution points.
At least 102 Palestinians have been killed and over 490 wounded, in similar attacks over the past eight days since the initiative's launch, according to the Government Media Office in Gaza.
Israeli air strikes targeted southern Syria on Wednesday morning, just hours after two missiles were launched towards the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The missiles were reportedly fired from the town of Tasil in Syria's Daraa Governorate - an area where Israel conducted military operations in April as part of its ongoing incursions into Syrian territory.
A previously unknown group calling itself the Martyr Mohammed Deif Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. The group is named after the late commander of Hamas's armed wing.
"From the heart of occupied Palestine, we announce the establishment of the Martyr Mohammed Deif Brigades, in loyalty to the pure blood shed and as a continuation of the resistance path," the group said in a statement.
"We are a generation born under bombardment and raised to the sound of guns. We will not accept a life of humiliation or subjugation. It is either a life that pleases our friends or a death that angers our enemies.
Read more: Israel strikes Syria hours after missiles launched towards occupied Golan Heights
Spain has cancelled a contract to buy 168 firing posts and 1,680 anti-tank missiles from Israeli defence company Rafael, according to Spanish media.
The deal was worth 287.5 million euros ($327m), El Pais reported, cited unnamed government sources.
The equipment had been set to be manufactured in Spain under licence from Rafael.
Spanish defence ministry sources told AFP that Madrid had "begun a process to revoke licences of Israeli origin" and was working to redirect its procurement programmes "with the goal of achieving greater technological independence and autonomy".
In April, Spain cancelled a contract to buy bullets from IMI Systems, another Israeli firm. The move was heavily condemned by Israel.
A majority of British people support a full arms embargo on Israel, according to a new poll commissioned by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
The poll, conducted by Opinium Research between 30 May and 2 June, found that 57 percent of people think the UK should impose a full arms embargo, with only 13 percent opposed.
The poll also found 53 percent of people think Israel should be expelled from the United Nations, while 50 percent said Israeli products in supermarkets should be boycotted.
Fifty-four percent backed sanctioning far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has been a staunch supporter of Israel’s total blockade of the Gaza Strip that has left over 93 percent of the population suffering from acute food insecurity.
Increasing numbers of public figures in the UK are speaking out against Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed at least 54,607 Palestinians and wounded 125,341 since 7 October 2023.
Read more: Majority of British people support arms embargo on Israel
The British government believes the US could sanction prominent human rights lawyer Amal Clooney over her role advising the ICC chief prosecutor on arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, Middle East Eye can reveal.
In April it emerged that the British Foreign Office had warned senior British lawyers involved in the ICC’s war crimes case against two senior Israeli leaders that they are at risk of US sanctions.
This came after the Trump administration imposed financial and visa sanctions on Karim Khan, the court’s British chief prosecutor, in February.
Last November the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Trump’s executive order, a response to the arrest warrants, warned further measures could follow “on those responsible for those transgressions”.
Read more: Exclusive: UK believes Trump may sanction Amal Clooney over ICC Palestine role
The BBC on Wednesday defended its reporting of an incident in which Palestinians were killed near a Gaza aid centre after the White House accused the broadcaster of taking "the word of Hamas".
Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli gunfire killed at least 31 people on Sunday near the US-backed aid centre.
The Israeli military, however, denied its troops had fired on civilians in or around the centre, and both it and the aid centre's administrator accused Hamas of sowing false rumours.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday that the BBC had to "correct and take down" its story about the incident. But the BBC said the White House claims were not accurate and that it had not removed its story.
"The claim the BBC took down a story after reviewing footage is completely wrong. We did not remove any story, and we stand by our journalism," it said in a statement.
The broadcaster added that the death toll was clearly attributed to various sources, including medics, the Gaza health ministry and the Red Cross.
Leavitt also criticised the Washington Post for its reporting of the incident. The Post updated one article amid pressure, saying that the changes made it clear that "there was no consensus about who was responsible."
A public Israeli facility is teaching children as young as six how to shoot firearms, become undercover operatives, dress as "terrorists" and play soldiers taking control of a Palestinian village, HaMakom reported on Tuesday.
The facility, called "Fauda Base", is located in central Israel.
It is named after the controversial Israeli Netflix series Fauda (meaning "chaos" in Arabic), which follows an elite mista'arvim undercover unit who spend their days infiltrating occupied Palestinian territories and killing Palestinians.
The facility is run in collaboration with the company YES, which produces the hit TV series. It was established in 2021 by veteran members of Mista'arvim and other special units.
Fauda Base simulates an espionage operation to save the country and captives, said one of the operators of the facility back in 2021.
Read more: ‘Fauda Base’: Israeli children taught to play ‘terrorist’ hunters in mock Palestinian town
Lebanese media reported that an Israeli military boat crossed into Lebanese waters, surrounded a fisherman’s vessel and detained him off the coast of Ras Naqoura in southern Lebanon.
#فيديو_متداول | زورق تابع لـ "جيش" الاحتلال الإسرائيلي طوّق مركب صياد لبناني، واختطفه مقابل رأس الناقورة #جنوب_لبنان.#الميادين_لبنان #لبنان pic.twitter.com/FQ9XsyhHgh
— الميادين لبنان (@mayadeenlebanon) June 4, 2025
The controversial US-backed initiative to distribute aid in Gaza, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), has named an evangelical leader and former adviser to US President Donald Trump as its new chief.
Johnnie Moore, a former member of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, who has dismissed reports of mass killings at the GHF aid sites as “fictional massacres”, was appointed after the initiative’s former head, Jake Wood, resigned.
The appointment comes as major partners abandon the project amidst the mass killings of Palestinians seeking aid.
Wood cited concerns over the GHF’s ability to adhere to the “humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence”.
The GHF’s first week of operations descended into chaos, with over 75 Palestinian aid seekers killed by Israeli forces at its distribution points in less than six days.
Read more: Gaza Humanitarian Foundation appoints US evangelical leader who denied mass killings as chief
At least 95 Palestinians have been killed and 440 injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 24 hours, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza.
The ministry said two bodies of people killed in previous Israeli attacks were also recovered from the rubble.
The total death toll from Israel’s war on Gaza is 54,607 killed and 125,341 injured since 7 October 2023, it said.
Israel has killed 4,335 Palestinians and injured 13,300 since breaking a ceasefire in March this year.
Twelve countries and the European Union issued a joint press statement on Wednesday in "strong solidarity with the Palestinian community of Mughayir a-Deir", an occupied West Bank village whose residents have fled due to settler violence amid a "prevailing climate of impunity".
The United Kingdom, France, Germany and Canada were among the countries that joined the statement, calling on Israel to "respect its obligations under international law" and urging Israeli authorities to dismantle the settler outpost and ensure the return of the displaced residents.
The statement said Mughayir a-Deir is part of a "broader pattern of displacement" in the West Bank, "where a coercive environment marked by repeated settler violence, movement restrictions, land confiscation, demolitions and inadequate access to essential services is making life untenable and pushing communities to leave".
Joint statement on the situation in Mughayir A-Deir 👇 pic.twitter.com/q2Elv4VYrw
— UK in Jerusalem🇬🇧 (@UKinJerusalem) June 3, 2025
Israeli forces have hit the roof of an administrative building at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Gaza’s central city of Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera reported, citing the health ministry in Gaza.
The attack caused “fear and confusion among medical staff, patients and their companions”, the statement said.
The ministry condemned Israel for continuing a “systematic policy of undermining” Gaza’s health system and called for the “urgent … protection of health facilities”.
The death toll from Israeli raids on several areas in the Gaza Strip has reached at least 26 since dawn, Al Jazeera reported, citing medical sources.
At least 18 of those were killed in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, when the Israeli military bombed a school sheltering displaced Palestinians.
