Almost 100 killed in Gaza in 24 hours as Israel stops aid

International activists seeking to sail an aid boat to Gaza condemned Wednesday what they called Israel's threats and "declared intent to attack" their vessel as it crosses the Mediterranean.

Israel's military said Tuesday it was ready to "protect" the country's seas, after the vessel -- the Madleen, sailed by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition -- left Sicily on Sunday carrying around a dozen people, including environmental activist Greta Thunberg.

"The navy operates day and night to protect Israel's maritime space and borders at sea," army spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said.

Asked about the aid vessel, he said: "For this case as well, we are prepared."

He added: "We have gained experience in recent years, and we will act accordingly."

In a statement on Wednesday, the activist coalition said it "strongly condemns Israel's declared intent to attack Madleen", calling it a "threat".

According to Al Jazeera Arabic, the mayor of Deir Dibwan has reported that 35 Palestinians were injured in a settler attack near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

Meanwhile, local sources told the network that Israeli forces assaulted Palestinians during a raid in the Kuttab neighbourhood of Tulkarem, in the northern part of the occupied territory

The United States vetoed Wednesday a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire and unrestricted humanitarian access in Gaza, which Washington claimed undermined ongoing diplomacy to resolve the conflict.

It was the 15-member body's first vote on the situation since November, when the United States -- a key Israeli ally -- also blocked a text calling for an end to fighting.

"This resolution would undermine diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire that reflects the realities on the ground and emboldens Hamas," Washington's United Nations envoy Dorothy Shea said ahead of the vote.

"This resolution also draws false equivalence between Israel and Hamas," she said.

The draft resolution had demanded "an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza respected by all parties."

Syria's Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani condemned on Wednesday Israeli strikes as aimed at destabilising his country, after Israel bombed southern Syria in retaliation for rocket fire.

"The latest Israeli strikes on Syrian territory are not only violations of international law, but coordinated provocations aimed at undermining Syria's progress and stability", Shaibani told a news conference alongside visiting EU Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica.

The United Nations has appointed Major-General Diodato Abagnara as the new head of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

According to a statement from UNIFIL, Abagnara will take over from Lieutenant-General Aroldo Lázaro Sáenz.

Despite the official end to hostilities under the truce between Israel and Hezbollah, intermittent cross-border attacks have persisted in Lebanon.

A Moroccan organisation on Wednesday called for participation in an "international march" to Gaza, set to begin on 9 June.

The initiative is part of a campaign launched by a coalition of trade union and human rights groups from over 32 countries, aimed at breaking the siege on the Strip, delivering humanitarian aid, and halting what it described as the genocidal war Israel has been waging for 20 months.

The call came in a statement by Abdelhafid El Sriti, coordinator of the National Action Group for Palestine (a non-governmental organisation in Morocco), to Anadolu Agency on the sidelines of a press conference held by the group regarding preparations for participation in the international march.

Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, says the humanitarian situation in Gaza has deteriorated further since April, a time when the Strip was already “hell on Earth”.

"The fact that we are watching people being entirely stripped of their human dignity should really shock our collective conscience," she said in an interview with the BBC.

According to Spoljaric, the world is witnessing a form of warfare in Gaza that "shows utmost disrespect for civilians".

"The fact that we are watching people being entirely stripped of their human dignity should really shock our collective conscience."

Mirjana Spoljaric, ICRC President, shared with @BowenBBC about the dire situation for civilians in Gaza and made a call for leaders to act now👇🏽 pic.twitter.com/aF99fzcGWP

— ICRC (@ICRC) June 4, 2025

Israel signed defence contracts worth nearly $15 billion last year, surpassing its all-time record, the country's defence ministry said Wednesday, even as international outrage mounts over the war in Gaza. Over half the deals were with European countries.

The contracts — a 13% increase from 2023, itself a record year — came as Israel faces growing international condemnation and isolation over the nearly 20-month war.

Some of Israel's closest allies, including Canada and France, recently stepped up their censure of Israel’s actions in Gaza, and the U.K. suspended free trade talks. Some critics of Israel's conduct in the Palestinian enclave have called for countries to suspend trade with it.

The report also said that 12% of defence deals came from Arab countries that have normalised relations with Israel.

The United States has told Israel it will veto the draft UN Security Council resolution slated for a vote on Wednesday, an Axios reporter said in a post on X, citing two Israeli officials.

The resolution is on a demand for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and humanitarian access across Gaza, where malnutrition is widespread and aid has only trickled in since Israel lifted an 11-week blockade in late May.

(Reuters)

Ireland's prestigious Trinity College Dublin said on Wednesday that it would cut all links with Israel in protest at "ongoing violations of international and humanitarian law".

The university's board informed students by email on Wednesday that it had accepted the recommendations of a taskforce to sever "institutional links with the State of Israel, Israeli universities and companies headquartered in Israel".

The recommendations would be "enacted for the duration of the ongoing violations of international and humanitarian law", said the email sent by the board's chairman Paul Farrell, and seen by AFP.

The taskforce was set up after part of the university's campus in central Dublin was blockaded by students for five days last year in protest at Israel's actions in Gaza.

Among the taskforce's recommendations approved by the board were pledges to divest "from all companies headquartered in Israel" and to "enter into no future supply contracts with Israeli firms" and "no new commercial relationships with Israeli entities".

The university also said that it would "enter into no further mobility agreements with Israeli universities".

Germany's foreign minister said on Wednesday that the country would continue arms deliveries to Israel despite earlier suggesting that these were under review.

Johann Wadephul told a heated session in parliament that Israel, amid its military campaign in Gaza, was under threat from Yemen's Huthi rebels, the Lebanese Hezbollah militia and Iran, and that "Germany will continue to support Israel, including with weapons deliveries".

Last week, Wadephul said that Germany was assessing "whether what is happening in Gaza is in line with international law" and that arms sales to Israel would be evaluated on this basis.

This brought criticism from some within Wadephul's own CDU/CSU conservative alliance, who accused him of insufficient support for Israel.

Israel’s refusal to allow Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat to meet with the Palestinian president could undermine normalisation efforts between Riyadh and Tel Aviv, Israeli media cited a Saudi source as saying.

"Israel made a mistake in its decision, and [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu’s behaviour is wrong. He is trying to protect himself to preserve his own interests," the Saudi royal family source said, according to Israel’s public broadcaster Kan.

The source accused Netanyahu of lacking a genuine desire for peace and instead "stirring up trouble", adding that the intended Ramallah visit was meant to send a clear message to Israel that there would be no normalisation without a two-state solution.

"Saudi Arabia is reaching out for peace, while Israel pulls away," the source added.

Read more here.

Thousands gathered on Wednesday to form a human chain around the UK parliament, demanding immediate sanctions against Israel and a complete halt to arms exports amid its ongoing war on Gaza.

The demonstrators linked hands, wearing red to symbolise the blood of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since October 2023. The protest condemned the UK government's support for Israel, declaring it a "crossing of the red line".

The demonstration coincided with parliament's debate on a bill introduced by independent MP Jeremy Corbyn calling for a full, public, and independent inquiry into the UK’s role in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.

In comments to The New Arab, Corbyn expressed hope for sufficient support to pass the bill, stating: "Many of us remain disgusted by the continued supply of components for the F-35 fighter jet programme."

He added: "I am shocked the government openly admits to making ‘exceptions’ to its partial suspension. Does this breach its legal obligations to prevent genocide? One thing is clear: this government still supplies weapons to a state whose leader is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity."

Read more here.

The UN aid chief said on Wednesday that recent "horrifying scenes" of Gazans being killed while trying to access food aid were the result of "deliberate choices" to deprive them of essentials.

"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 in a statement, adding: "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 on Wednesday called for an "immediate and independent investigation" into a string of deadly incidents 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" as he called Israel's new measures for aid delivery "inhumane".

An elderly Palestinian detainee from Gaza has died while in Israeli prison, the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners' Society (PPS) announced.

Mohammad Ibrahim Hussein Abu Habel, 70, was detained on 12 November 2024 at a "Civil Administration" checkpoint.

Abu Habel died as Palestinian detainees continue to face intensified and systematic abuses in Israeli prisons since Israel's war on Gaza.

Israel's defence ministry said Wednesday that its arms exports hit an all-time high of more than $14.7 billion in 2024, with a sharp rise in deals with Arab Gulf states, despite international criticism of Israel's ongoing war against on Gaza.

"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, which oversees and approves the exports of Israel's defence industries, said in a statement.

Turkey is training and advising Syria's armed forces and helping improve its defences, and has no immediate plans for the withdrawal or relocation of its troops stationed there, Defence Minister Yasar Guler told Reuters.

It has promised to help rebuild neighbouring Syria and facilitate the return of millions of Syrian civil war refugees, and played a key role last month in getting US and European sanctions on Syria lifted.

The newfound Turkish influence in Damascus has raised Israeli concerns and risked a standoff or worse in Syria between the regional powers.

In written answers to questions from Reuters, Guler said Turkey and Israel, which carried out its latest airstrikes on southern Syria late on Tuesday, are continuing de-confliction talks to avoid military accidents in the country.

Turkey's overall priority in Syria is preserving its territorial integrity and unity, and ridding it of terrorism, he said, adding Ankara was supporting Damascus in these efforts.

"We have started providing military training and consultancy services, while taking steps to increase Syria's defence capacity," Guler said, without elaborating on those steps.

(Reuters)

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday a US proposal for a nuclear agreement was against the national interest, amid sharp differences over whether Tehran can continue to enrich uranium.

On Saturday, Iran said it had received "elements" of the US proposal through Omani mediators, the details of which have not been publicly disclosed.

"The proposal presented by the Americans is 100 percent against" the ideals of the 1979 Islamic revolution, Khamenei said in a televised speech.

"Independence means not waiting for the green light from America and the likes of America."

Khamenei said enrichment is "key" to Iran's nuclear programme and that the United States "cannot have a say" on the issue.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem, the Tehran-backed Lebanese group said Wednesday, with the militants under domestic and international pressure to disarm.

The statement did not specify where or when the meeting with Araghchi, who arrived in Beirut on Tuesday, took place.

Qassem, who took over last year after an Israeli strike killed the group's longtime chief Hassan Nasrallah, thanked Araghchi for Iran's "ongoing support for the Lebanese people" and Hezbollah.

He also told Araghchi of Hezbollah's "work to revive Lebanon and its stability and sovereignty, and to expel the [Israeli] occupation from (Lebanese) territory", the statement said, referring to Israel.

Turkish Airlines subsidiary AJet said it will start flights to Damascus International from Istanbul and Ankara airports in mid-June.

AJet said in a statement that flights from Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen airport will begin from June 16. Flights will initially take place four times per week before operating daily from July, it added.

Flights to Damascus from the Turkish capital Ankara will start from June 17, three-times per week, the carrier also said.

Turkish Airlines resumed flights to Damascus in January after a 13-year suspension.

Turkey, a close ally of the new government in Damascus, has pledged to support the country's reconstruction. Ankara has already helped with the improvement and maintenance of Syria's airports, the Turkish transport minister has said.

Syrian authorities insisted Wednesday they would "never be a threat" to anyone in the region, after Israel bombed the country's south in retaliation for overnight rocket fire on the Golan Heights.

Defence Minister Israel Katz held Syria's leader Ahmed al-Sharaa "directly responsible".

Syria condemned the Israeli shelling as a "blatant violation of Syrian sovereignty" that "aggravates tensions in the region".

"Syria has never been and will never be a threat to anyone in the region," the foreign ministry said, in a statement carried by the official SANA news agency.

The ministry denied responsibility and said it could not confirm whether rockets were launched towards Israel, blaming "numerous parties... trying to destabilise the region".

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".

Responding to a question about the incident, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday that the BBC had to "correct and take down" its story about the incident.

"The administration is aware of those reports and we are currently looking into the veracity of them because, unfortunately, unlike some in the media, we don't take the word of Hamas with total truth," she said.

"We like to look into it when they speak, unlike the BBC, who had multiple headlines," she said, citing stories that gave different death tolls.

"And then, oh, wait, they had to correct and take down their entire story, saying 'We reviewed the footage and couldn't find any evidence of anything'," she added.

However, the BBC stated that 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.

Over 54,607 Palestinians have been killed and 125,341 have been injured since 7 October, the Gaza Health Ministry revealed.

Over the past 24 hours, 97 bodies have been recovered, including 440 wounded civilians.

Spain, which has strongly criticised Israel's offensive in Gaza, has cancelled a contract to buy 168 firing posts and 1,680 anti-tank missiles from Israeli defence company Rafael, Spanish media reported Wednesday.

The deal was worth 287.5 million euros ($327 million), according to top-selling daily Spanish newspaper El País, which cited unnamed government sources.

The equipment was to be manufactured in Spain under licence from Rafael.

Spanish defence ministry sources told AFP that the government "has 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".

Lawmakers were on Wednesday debating whether Norway's $1.9 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, should divest from all companies with activities in the occupied Palestinian territories.

A formal vote was expected around 3 pm. Parliament was expected to reject a wholesale boycott.

"We have an established ethical regime for the fund," Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg told the chamber in a debate on several aspects of the way the fund is run.

"We divest from the companies that contribute to Israel's breach of international law, but we do not divest from all companies that are present on the ground."

(Reuters)

The Gaza Health Ministry has said an Israeli strike hit the roof of an administrative building at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Gaza’s central city of Deir el-Balah.

The ministry accused Israel of continuing a “systematic policy of undermining” Gaza’s health system and called for the “urgent … protection of health facilities”.

Israeli authorities bulldozed 15 homes on Wednesday morning in the Bedouin village of Arab al-Mask, displacing the 100 residents in the village, Wafa reports.

This follows a decision by the Be’er Sheva District Court ordering all residential structures in the village to be destroyed and its residents evacuated.

At least 50,000 pregnant and nursing women's lives in the Gaza Strip are at risk due to a lack of proper food and essential medicines, the spokesman for the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, Khalil al-Daqran, warned on Wednesday.

Al-Daqran also noted a rise in miscarriage rates, almost six times higher than before the war, including a rise in premature births.

The controversial US and Israeli-backed aid centres in hunger-wracked Gaza will temporarily close on Wednesday, with the Israeli army warning that roads leading to distribution stations are considered combat zones".

Twenty-seven people were killed in southern Gaza on Tuesday when Israeli troops opened fire near one of the centres operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

The GHF said its "distribution centres will be closed for renovation, reorganisation and efficiency improvement work" on Wednesday and would resume operations on Thursday.

The Israeli army, which confirmed the temporary closure, warned against travelling "on roads leading to the distribution centres, which are considered combat zones".

The civil defence agency in Gaza said an Israeli strike on a tent housing displaced Palestinians near the southern city of Khan Younis on Wednesday killed at least 12 people.

"At least 12 people were killed, including several children and women, in a strike by an Israeli drone this morning on a tent for displaced persons" near Khan Younis, the agency's spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP, adding that four more people had been killed in other strikes.

The UN Security Council scheduled a vote Wednesday on a resolution which demands “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza respected by all parties.” UN diplomats said the United States is likely to veto it.

The resolution, drafted by the council’s 10 elected members who serve two-year terms, reiterates its demand for the release of all captives held by Hamas and other groups following the 7 October attacks.

Calling the humanitarian situation in Gaza “catastrophic,” the proposed resolution also demands “the immediate and unconditional lifting of all restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza and its safe and unhindered distribution at scale, including by the UN and humanitarian partners.”