The Trump administration's Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff was set to meet with a senior Israeli official about ceasefire talks, a sign that lower-level negotiations that have dragged on for weeks could be approaching a breakthrough.
Israel's war in Gaza, launched in response to Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack, has killed more than 59,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Its count doesn't distinguish between militants and civilians, but the ministry says that more than half of the dead are women and children.
Here is the latest:
Israel’s parliament backs symbolic motion to annex the West Bank
Knesset lawmakers voted 71-13 in favor of the measure, which calls for “applying Israeli sovereignty to Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley,” the biblical terms for the area.
The motion, advanced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, is declarative and has no direct legal implications, although it could place the issue of annexation on the agenda of future debates in the parliament.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians want all three for a future state. Some 3 million Palestinians and over 500,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank.
Annexation of the West Bank could make it impossible to create a viable Palestinian state alongside Israel, which is seen internationally as the only realistic way to resolve the conflict.
Last year, the Israeli parliament approved a similar symbolic motion declaring opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Israel's ambassador accuses UN humanitarian agency of ‘bias’
Israel has accused the United Nations' humanitarian agency of “bias” and “defamation” in Gaza and announced new actions
Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that hundreds of employees of the Organization for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, known as OCHA, are now undergoing security vetting.
He claimed Israel has uncovered “clear evidence of Hamas affiliations within OCHA’s ranks” and said “key employees” will not have their permits renewed, and international staff will have their visas cut to just one month.
Danon accused UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher of abandoning “his sacred responsibility to act without bias” and demanded that he retract his statement “that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.” He said Jonathan Whittall, who heads OCHA in the Palestinian territories, must leave Israel by July 29 because of alleged bias against Israel.
OCHA spokeswoman Eri Kaneko said: “Any reduction of our own staff will stifle our already curtailed efforts to reach civilians across Gaza in urgent need of life-saving humanitarian aid.”
WHO warns Gaza nears starvation as malnutrition spikes
The head of the World Health Organization warned that over 2 million people in Gaza face starvation, citing a “deadly surge” in malnutrition and related diseases.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said acute malnutrition centers in Gaza are full of patients, but lack adequate supplies. He said that rates of acute malnutrition exceed 10% and that among pregnant and breastfeeding women, more than 20% are malnourished, often severely.
“The hunger crisis is being accelerated by the collapse of aid pipelines,” Tedros said, adding that 95% of households in Gaza face severe water shortages.
Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for Occupied Palestinian Territories, said there were more than 30,000 children under 5 with acute malnutrition in Gaza so far this year, and that there had been 21 deaths. He noted that many of the U.N. health agency’s supplies were destroyed after its main warehouse was destroyed during attacks in Deir al-Balah on Sunday.
Israel says Gaza starvation warnings are ‘propaganda’
Israel's Foreign Ministry accused the groups of "echoing Hamas' propaganda." It said it has allowed around 4,500 aid trucks to enter Gaza since lifting a complete blockade in May, and that more than 700 are waiting to be picked up and distributed by the United Nations.
That’s an average of around 70 trucks a day, the lowest rate of the war and far below the 500-600 trucks a day the U.N. says are needed, and which entered during a six-week ceasefire earlier this year.
The U.N. says it has struggled to deliver aid inside Gaza because of Israeli military restrictions, ongoing fighting, and a breakdown of law and order.
In the letter issued Wednesday, 115 human rights and charity groups said they were watching their own colleagues, as well as the Palestinians they serve, “waste away.”
Israeli official to meet US envoy in Rome
An official familiar with ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas said a top adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ron Dermer, was traveling to Rome to meet U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff on Thursday to discuss the state of the talks.
The official spoke Wednesday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive negotiations.
U.S. officials said Witkoff planned to head to Europe this week. The U.S. State Department spokesperson said he was headed to the Middle East in a sign that momentum may be building toward a deal.
— By Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel
Israeli military says Gaza church was struck accidentally
The Holy Family Church in Gaza City was struck last week by an Israeli shell, an attack that killed three, wounded 10 and damaged the church's compound.
The military said an internal inquiry found the church was hit after an “unintentional deviation of munitions.”
The strike drew condemnation from Pope Leo XIV and U.S. President Donald Trump, and prompted statements of regret from Israel.
Holy Family is the only Catholic church in Gaza. Top church leaders from the Holy Land visited the site a day after the incident and said they encountered a Gaza “almost totally destroyed.”
Houthi attacks on Red Sea vessels are war crimes, rights group says
The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen attacked two ships, the Magic Seas and the Eternity C, on July 6 and 9, killing some of their crew and detaining others, Human Rights Watch said in a statement.
The rebels have been launching missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region in what the group’s leadership has described as an effort to end Israel’s offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
HRW, however, said the Houthis' attacks on the two vessels "violates the laws of war applicable to the armed conflict between the Houthis and Israel."
“The Houthis have sought to justify unlawful attacks by pointing to Israeli violations against Palestinians,” said Niku Jafarnia, HRW’s Yemen and Bahrain researcher.
Jafarnia called for the rebels to end all attacks on ships that don’t take part in the Israeli-Hamas war and immediately release detained crew members.
Detention of a senior Gaza health official is extended
Dr. Marwan al-Hams, acting director of Gaza’s field hospitals and the Health Ministry’s spokesman, was detained by Israeli soldiers earlier this week in the Palestinian territory.
Alaa al-Sakafi, head of Addameer, a Palestinian rights group, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that lawyers have not been allowed to see al-Hams. His detention in a southern Israel prison was extended until the end of the month, al-Sakafi said.
He said al-Hams suffered from a gunshot wound in his leg, which he sustained during his detention in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah on Monday.
Israel has not commented on al-Hams’ detention.
Israeli forces ‘deepening’ activity in Gaza City
The Israeli military said in a statement Wednesday that forces were operating in Gaza City, as well as in northern Gaza.
It said without elaborating that in Jabaliya, an area hard-hit in multiple rounds of fighting, an air strike killed “a number of” Hamas militants.
Troops struck roughly 120 targets throughout Gaza over the past day, including militant cells, tunnels and booby-trapped structures, among others, the military said.
Overnight strikes kill at least 21
More than half of those killed were women and children, health authorities said.
One Israeli strike hit a house Tuesday in the northwestern side of Gaza City, killing at least 12 people, according to the Shifa Hospital, which received the casualties.
The dead included six children and two women, according to the Health Ministry's casualty list.
Another strike hit an apartment in the Tal al-Hawa area in northern Gaza, killing at least six people. Among the dead were three children and two women, including one who was pregnant. Eight others were wounded, the ministry said.
A third strike hit a tent in the Naser neighborhood in Gaza City late Tuesday and killed three children, Shifa Hospital said.
The Israeli military said it struck an Islamic Jihad militant in the strike that killed 12, saying the incident was under review because of reports of civilian casualties. It had no immediate comment about the other strikes.
Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the militants operate from populated areas.
Human rights groups and charities demand more Gaza aid
In the letter issued Wednesday, 115 human rights and charity groups warned of a dire situation pushing more people toward starvation. They said they were watching their own colleagues, as well as the Palestinians they serve, “waste away.”
The letter slammed Israel for what it said were restrictions on aid into the war-ravaged territory. It lamented “massacres” at food distribution points, which have seen chaos and violence in recent weeks as desperation has risen.
“The government of Israel’s restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death,” the letter said.
The letter called for aid to be scaled up as well as for a ceasefire. `
Israel says that it has allowed the entry of thousands of trucks since May and blames aid groups for not consistently delivering goods.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP