Gaza: Israeli forces kill 31 Palestinians, injure hundreds in massacre at Israel-backed aid hub

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Egypt and Qatar said on Sunday they are continuing efforts to converge views and overcome disagreements to reach a Gaza ceasefire, based on a proposal by US President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.

In a joint statement carried by Egypt's Foreign Ministry, the two countries called on all parties to support mediators' efforts to end the war.

(Reuters)

Israel's defence minister said Sunday that he had ordered the army to push ahead with its fight against Hamas "regardless of any negotiations", after a US envoy called the group's latest response to a Gaza truce proposal unacceptable.

"I have instructed the IDF to continue forward in Gaza against all targets, regardless of any negotiations", Israel Katz said in a statement. "Either Hamas releases the hostages, or it will be destroyed."

(AFP)

Emilia-Romagna on Saturday became the second Italian region to sever economic and cultural ties with Israel in response to its genocidal assault on Gaza.

Regional president Michele De Pascale said there would be no relationship with Israeli organisations until the country ends its attacks against Gaza, according to Italian news agency ANSA.

This comes a few days after southern Italian region Puglia decided to cut ties with Israel.

The Israeli army said it had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen on Sunday after air raid sirens sounded in Jerusalem and other cities.

"Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted," the army said in a statement.

Yemen's Houthi rebels have repeatedly launched missiles and drones at Israel since it began its onslaught on Gaza in October 2023.

The head of the UN agency of Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has condemned Israel's "heinous" attack on Palestinians waiting for food in Rafah, writing on social media the Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has turned aid delivery into a "death trap".

At least 31 aid seekers were reportedly killed near a GHF-operated aid hub on Sunday morning when Israeli drones and tanks opened fire on the crowd.

#Gaza: aid distribution has become a death trap.
Mass casualties including scores of injured & killed among starving civilians due to gunshots this morning. This is according to reports from international medics on ground.

A distribution point by the Israeli- American plan was…

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) June 1, 2025

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud said the Israeli government's refusal to allow a delegation of Arab ministers to the occupied West Bank showed its "extremism and rejection of peace".

His statement came during a joint press conference in Amman with counterparts from Jordan, Egypt and Bahrain, after they met as part of an Arab contact group that was going to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.

"Israel's refusal of the committee's visit to the West Bank embodies and confirms its extremism and refusal of any serious attempts for [a] peaceful pathway .. It strengthens our will to double our diplomatic efforts within the international community to face this arrogance," the Saudi minister said.

On Saturday, Israel said it would not allow a planned meeting on Sunday that would have included ministers from Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, Palestinian Authority officials said.

(Reuters)

Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani on Sunday condemned Israeli attacks on Lebanon as he hosted Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, on his first visit to Baghdad since taking office.

Israel has continued to strike Lebanon despite a November ceasefire that ended more than a year of conflict with Shiite armed group Hezbollah, which emerged severely weakened.

Lebanese authorities reported on Sunday the third deadly Israeli raid on the country's south in four days.

In a joint press conference with Aoun, Sudani denounced "repeated Israeli attacks against Lebanon's sovereignty" which he said were in "violation of international law".

The Iraqi prime minister called to "fully implement" a UN Security Council resolution that ended a 2006 war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah and served as the basis for the latest truce, which went into effect on 27 November.

Under the truce terms, Hezbollah fighters were to withdraw north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the border, and dismantle their military posts to the south.

One person has been killed and five others injured in an Israeli strike on a house in Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, the territory's civil defence said on Sunday.

The Israeli military has confirmed launching an airstrike in southern Lebanon, writing on social media that it killed a Hezbollah operative near the town of Arnoun.

Lebanon's health ministry earlier said one person had been killed in an Israeli strike.

Israel has displaced more than 630,000 Palestinians since it resumed its onslaught on Gaza on 18 March, according to the UN's humanitarian agency.

The Israeli military has issued more than 30 displacement orders across Gaza and seized more land over the past 10 weeks, leaving more than three-quarters of the territory off limits to Palestinians.

At least 28 aid workers have been killed by Israeli forces since 1 May, the agency said.

People in #Gaza face a crisis of survival.

Half of them are children.

Over 632,000 people have been displaced again since 18 March.

The health system is overwhelmed.

At least 28 aid workers have been killed in Gaza since 1 May.

Read more: https://t.co/KzYbbjF32r pic.twitter.com/TutlehCKUa

— OCHA OPT (Palestine) (@ochaopt) June 1, 2025

Israeli forces have killed at least 32 Palestinians and injured 136 others in Gaza over the past 24 hours, according to the territory's health ministry.

Five bodies were also recovered from the rubble, the ministry said in a statement.

The overall death toll from Israel’s war on Gaza has risen to at least 54,418, according to the ministry's latest tally. Thousands of others are thought to be buried beneath the rubble.

At least 124,190 others have been injured since 7 October 2023.

The Trump administration's Lebanon envoy Morgan Ortagus will reportedly soon step down after just five months in the position, according to far-right Israeli broadcaster Channel 14.

Ortagus, an ardent supporter of Israel, is serving as US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff's deputy and has led the administration's efforts to disarm Hezbollah and encourage Lebanon's new government to normalise ties with Israel.

"This is not good news for Israel," Channel 14 journalist Tamir Morad wrote on social media. "Ortagus was very pro-Israel and worked quite assertively to promote the disarmament of Hezbollah."

Israeli warplanes killed eight Palestinians and injured several others on Sunday after bombing a vehicle in Khan Younis, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The airstrike reportedly hit a vehicle in the east of the city.

One person has reportedly been killed and 32 injured in an Israeli attack near a second aid hub operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

The attack took place near a facility close to the so-called Netzarim military zone, according to the Gaza government media office.

Details of what happened at the facility remain unclear.

This is the second such attack to occur today after Israeli forces killed dozens of desperate Palestinians trying to receive food at a GHF-operated centre in Rafah, south Gaza. More than 200 people were reportedly injured in the violence.

US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has criticised French president Emmanuel Macron's push for the recognition of a Palestinian state, calling it "revolting".

"If France is really so determined to see a Palestinian state, I have a suggestion for them – carve out a piece of the French Riviera and create a Palestinian state," the diplomat said in an interview with Fox News.

"They are welcome to do that, but they are not welcome to impose that kind of pressure on a sovereign nation," he continued.

Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, is an outspoken supporter of Israeli sovereignty over the occupied territories.

At least 39 people were killed and more than 220 others injured in the Israeli attack on Palestinian aid-seekers in Rafah earlier this morning, according to the Gaza government media office.

The attack took place near an aid distribution site operated by the Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

The GHF and the Israeli military have denied that anyone was killed near the facility.

One person was reportedly killed in an Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon on Sunday morning.

The attack targeted a motorcycle near the town of Arnoun al-Shaqif, Lebanon's state news agency said.

The crowd of Palestinian aid seekers came under fire from Israeli drones and tanks on Sunday in an attack which is thought to have killed at least 30 people and injured more than 100 others.

"They began distributing aid, but suddenly quadcopter drones opened fire on the people, and tanks started shooting heavily. Several people were killed right in front of me," Sameh Hamuda, a displaced resident from Beit Lahia, told AFP.

Another eyewitness described "chaos, screaming, and overcrowding" at the scene.

"The army opened fire from drones and tanks. Chaos broke out, and the area was filled with martyrs and wounded. I don't understand why they call people to the aid centres and then open fire on them," Abdullah Barbakh told the news agency. "What are we supposed to do?"

(AFP and TNA staff)

A Freedom Flotilla Coalition ship will begin its journey towards the Gaza Strip today in a bid to break "Israel’s illegal siege and escalating war crimes", the group said on Sunday.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg, Games of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham, and European politician Rima Hassan are among those on board the Madleen, which will depart from the port of Catania, Sicily.

A previous ship used by the group was bombed in May in an attack widely thought to have been carried out by Israel.

'Madleen' ⛵️sails today to Gaza carrying humanitarian aid and solidarity. This is not charity. This is a nonviolent, direct action to challenge Israel’s illegal siege and escalating war crimes. Demand your government safeguards our journey to Gaza.#BreakTheSiege #AllEyesOnDeck pic.twitter.com/Y73U4eqPgL

— Freedom Flotilla Coalition (@GazaFFlotilla) May 31, 2025

The Israeli military and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation have denied anyone was killed on Sunday morning as thousands of Palestinians gathered to receive food at one of the Israel-backed organisation's aid hubs.

Scores of people are believed to have been killed early on Sunday morning after Israeli troops opened fire on a crowd of Palestinians at a GHF-operated facility.

Officials at a nearby Red Cross hospital said at least 21 people were killed and another 175 were wounded.

"There are no known casualties from IDF gunfire inside the division compound," the Israeli military wrote in a short post on social media, adding that the incident is being investigated.

The GHF said that Israeli troops fired "warning shots" as Palestinians gathered to receive aid on Sunday morning and that reports of deaths are "false reporting", in a statement picked up by the Associated Press.

Israel's extremist national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has criticised the US proposal for a temporary ceasefire agreed to by the Israeli prime minister 

The proposal, submitted by US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff earlier this week, would see Hamas release 28 living and dead Israeli captives in exchange for a 60-day ceasefire, but does not commit Israel to negotiating a permanent end to the war.

In a televised interview on Sunday, Ben-Gvir rejected the plan, saying that "the only truce that needs to be done with [Hamas] is a bullet in the head".

Hamas condemned Israeli troops for the massacre of starving Palestinian civilians at the Rafah aid distribution site on Sunday.

Israel committed "a new massacre against hungry civilians who had gathered at the so-called 'humanitarian aid' distribution sites", the Palestinian group said in a statement.

It called the facilities operated by the Israel-backed NGO the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation "mass death traps, not humanitarian relief points".

Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd of starving Palestinians at one of its new aid distribution sites in southern Gaza on Sunday morning, killing at least 30 people and injuring more than 100 others, according to Al Jazeera.

The site is operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israel-backed organisation attempting to circumvent the UN-coordinated humanitarian effort.