Deadly Israeli bombings hit Gaza aid area amid ceasefire deadlock

TNA’s live coverage of the latest from the war on Gaza concludes for today. Join us again tomorrow at 0800 GMT for updates from the besieged Palestinian enclave.
 

Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Monday that Israel welcomes the participation of Syria in the EU-Middle East meeting in Brussels.

"We welcome the participation of the Syrian minister. We will be together in the same meeting. Let's see what will happen," Saar told reporters ahead of Monday's meeting.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said "nothing has changed" since an agreement between Israel and the European Union on the resumption of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

He made the statements to reporters ahead of the EU-Middle East meeting in Brussels on Monday.

Israel's army said Monday that it would not permit the "threat" of a military presence in Syria's south after it struck several tanks near Sweida, the scene of clashes between Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze fighters.

"The presence of these (tanks) in southern Syria may pose a threat to the State of Israel. The (Israeli army) will not allow the establishment of a military threat in southern Syria and will operate against it," the army said in a statement.

Hardline Iranian lawmaker Esmail Kosari said any closure of the Strait of Hormuz was still under review but no decision has yet been made, in comments carried by Iran's state media on Monday.

"Military measures concerning the Strait of Hormuz have been completed, but no decision has yet been made regarding its (closure) and the matter is still under review," Kosari, a member of the national security committee in the Iranian parliament, was quoted as saying.

It was not immediately clear what military measures he may be referring to.

The possibility of Iran closing the waterway, through which about a fifth of global oil and gas shipments pass, was speculated upon during the 12-day air war between Israel and Iran last month.

The strait lies between Oman and Iran and links the Gulf with the Gulf of Oman to the south and the Arabian Sea beyond.

Iran has over the years threatened to close it but has never followed through on that threat.

"It's us who decide what time it is open and what time it would be closed; currently we are reviewing and we can execute whenever it's necessary," Kosari added. 

The Lebanese army said on Monday it raided a major captagon factory in the northeastern Baalbek province near neighbouring Syria, previously the largest exporter of the amphetamine-like narcotic.

In a statement, the army said that "after the intelligence directorate received information about a major captagon pill factory in the town of Yammouneh, Baalbek, a patrol from the directorate, supported by an army unit, raided the factory".

The military added that the factory "turned out to be one of the largest factories seized to date".

Soldiers dismantled the machinery and seized a "large quantity" of pills, though the army did not specify how many.

Captagon became Syria's largest export following the eruption of the civil war in 2011, and a key source of illicit funding for former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government.

In Lebanon, Assad's ally Hezbollah also faced accusations of using the captagon trade to finance itself.

The drug has flooded the region, with neighbouring countries occasionally announcing captagon seizures and asking Lebanon and Syria to ramp up efforts to combat the trade.

Lebanon has previously faced pressure to counter the production and trafficking of the drug from conservative Gulf nations, where the main consumer market is located.

At least 89 people have been killed in ongoing clashes between Syrian Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouin tribes, a monitor said Monday, as security forces were deployed to quell the violence.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory Observatory for Human Rights said that "46 Druze fighters, four civilians from Sweida, 18 Bedouin fighters, 14 security personnel, and seven unidentified individuals in military uniform were among the dead".

A BBC documentary about children's lives in Gaza narrated by the 13-year-old son of a Gaza government official breached its editorial guidelines on accuracy, an internal review by the British public broadcaster said on Monday.

The investigation, however, found there were no other breaches of the BBC's editorial guidelines, including on impartiality, and no evidence that outside interests "inappropriately impacted on the programme".

The BBC removed "Gaza: How To Survive A War Zone" from its online platform in February, five days after it was broadcast, saying it had "serious flaws". The documentary was made by independent production company HOYO Films.

A review found the programme breached a guideline on accuracy that deals with misleading audiences.

The background on the narrator's father- a minister in the civilian government in Gaza who is conflated to be a Hamas official- was "critical information", which was not shared with the BBC before broadcast, the review found.

Israeli settlers have uprooted approximately 1,500 olive trees and erected tents on privately owned Palestinian land in the village of al-Maniya, located southeast of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.

According to Zayed Kawazba, head of the village council, the settlers stormed the al-Qarn area in the heart of the village, establishing four new tent encampments and destroying olive saplings belonging to local families from the al-Motawer and Jabarin clans.

The attack is part of a broader and intensifying campaign of settler expansion, which in the first half of 2025 alone has seen the establishment of 23 new outposts- all under the protection of Israeli forces.

During the same period, settlers have carried out over 2,150 documented attacks, resulting in the deaths of four Palestinians.

The incident in al-Maniya underscores the ongoing dispossession of Palestinian communities through coordinated land seizures, agricultural sabotage, and settler violence, further deepening tensions across the West Bank.

Israel's military said it struck on Monday several tanks in the Sweida province of southern Syria, where dozens have been killed in clashes between Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze fighters.

The military struck "several tanks a short while ago in the area of Sami village (in the Sweida region) in southern Syria. To be continued," the military's Arabic language spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X.

The health of Dr Hussam Abu Safia, a prominent paediatrician and director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, has sharply deteriorated during his detention by Israeli authorities, his lawyer has warned.

Abu Safia was arrested in December when Israeli forces raided Kamal Adwan Hospital, detaining staff, patients, and rendering the facility- the last major hospital in northern Gaza- inoperative.

According to a statement posted by his lawyer on social media, Abu Safia has lost over 40kg (88lb) since his arrest, now weighing just 60kg (132lb).

He was allegedly beaten severely at Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank on 24 June, suffering injuries to his ribs, face, and back. Despite showing signs of an irregular heartbeat, requests for cardiology tests and medical care were reportedly denied.

The paediatrician is being held in solitary confinement under harsh conditions- deprived of sunlight and still wearing winter clothing in the summer heat. His lawyer says Abu Safia’s condition is critical and warns that many other Palestinian detainees face similarly dire circumstances.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has dismissed the proposed “humanitarian city” in Gaza as political “spin” aimed at masking the terms of an emerging ceasefire agreement.

Ben-Gvir claimed the plan is being used to deflect attention from ongoing negotiations between Israel and Hamas, which are being mediated by international actors.

Central to the talks is the potential withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza during a ceasefire period.

 Six members of Syria's security forces have been killed in the predominantly Druze city of Sweida, a security source told Reuters, after they deployed to halt deadly sectarian clashes that local media reported had resumed on Monday.

Sunday's fighting between Druze militiamen and Bedouin tribal fighters was the first time that sectarian violence erupted inside the city of Sweida itself, following months of tensions in the broader province.

The fighting left 30 people dead and prompted Syria's security forces to deploy units to the city to restore calm and guarantee safe passage for civilians looking to leave, the defence ministry said in a statement.

But intense clashes broke out again on Monday, local news outlet Sweida24 reported. At least six Syrian troops were subsequently killed, a defence ministry source told Reuters.

Israeli warplanes launched air strikes on residential areas in Gaza City overnight, targeting a house near Al-Shurafa roundabout in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood, according to Al Jazeera English.

Another home was hit in the Sabra neighbourhood, in southern Gaza City. AJE, citing emergency sources, reported that one person was killed and another wounded in the Sabra strike.

Top Israeli and Palestinian diplomats were due at a meeting in Brussels between the EU and its southern neighbours on Monday, but the Palestinian Authority denied claims that the two would meet.

The office for Israel's foreign minister said that alongside the ministerial meeting, Gideon Saar would hold talks with the EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas and the bloc's Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica.

Saar is also expected to meet with foreign ministers on the sidelines of the event, the statement added.

The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) confirmed the attendance of Palestinian minister of state for foreign affairs Varsen Aghabekian Shahin but denied media reports that any meeting with Saar was on the agenda.

In a statement, it said the meeting in Brussels aimed to "launch a new charter for regional cooperation in the Mediterranean... in the fields of environment, economy, and business, serving security, peace and sustainable development in the region."

The Palestinian ministry of foreign affairs added that Shahin would give a speech "focusing on the suffering of the Palestinian people under the ongoing war of extermination and displacement in the Gaza Strip, the systematic starvation policy practised by the occupying state, and the financial blockade imposed on the Palestinian government".

Iran said Monday it had "no specific date" for a meeting between its foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, and US envoy Steve Witkoff on Tehran's nuclear programme.

"For now, no specific date, time or location has been determined regarding this matter," said foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei. Iran had been negotiating with the United States, before Israel began strikes on its nuclear facilities last month which Washington later joined.

The ongoing Israeli blockade of Gaza is sharply escalating the risk of disease outbreaks, as critical shortages of medical supplies leave the territory's healthcare system on the brink of collapse.

Aid organisations and health experts warn that with hospitals destroyed and access to clean water severely limited, conditions are becoming ripe for the spread of infectious diseases- particularly among displaced children.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the destruction of medical facilities and the collapse of sanitation infrastructure have heightened the threat of meningitis and other diseases in the overcrowded shelters now housing thousands of displaced Palestinians.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been providing small amounts of food, but offers no medicine, water, or shelter support.

 An aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces indictment on security charges pending a hearing, Israel's attorney general has said, for allegedly leaking top secret military information during Israel's war in Gaza.

Netanyahu's close adviser, Jonatan Urich, has denied any wrongdoing in the case, which legal authorities began investigating in late 2024.

Netanyahu has described probes against Urich and other aides as politically motivated and on Monday said that Urich had not harmed state security. Urich's attorneys said the charges were baseless and that their client's innocence would be proven beyond doubt.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said in a statement late on Sunday that Urich and another aide had extracted secret information from the Israeli military and leaked it to German newspaper Bild.

Their intent, she said, was to shape public opinion of Netanyahu and influence the discourse about the slaying of six Israeli hostages by their Palestinian captors in Gaza in late August 2024.

The Israeli military reported launching more than 100 airstrikes on Gaza within the past 24 hours, targeting what it described as "terrorist organisations" operating in the region.

Alongside the intensive aerial bombardment, ground operations persist across the besieged enclave, with a particular focus on northern Gaza.

According to the Israeli army, heavy fighting is ongoing in the heavily damaged neighborhoods of Shujayea and Zeitoun in Gaza City, as well as in Beit Hanoon and Jabalia in the North Gaza governorate. 

Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad have made clear that any indirect negotiations with Israel must lead to a comprehensive resolution of the conflict in Gaza.

Following a joint meeting between their delegations on Sunday, the two groups outlined key demands for a ceasefire agreement.

They insist that talks result in a complete end to the war on Gaza, including a full Israeli withdrawal from the territory.

Additionally, they call for the reopening of crossings between Israel and Gaza to allow movement of people and goods, as well as the commencement of reconstruction efforts to rebuild the devastated region.

US President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday that talks are ongoing over Israel's conflict in Gaza and he hopes for progress in the next week, even as ceasefire negotiations in Doha stalled.

"Gaza -- we are talking and hopefully we're going to get that straightened out over the next week," Trump said, echoing similarly optimistic comments he made July 4.