Israel strikes kill dozens across Gaza, including at a water distribution point

Israeli forces have killed at least 43 people on Sunday, striking homes, refugee camps and even water and aid distribution points.
10 min read
13 July, 2025
Last Update
14 July, 2025 03:59 AM

Israeli forces continued to launch air and artillery strikes across the Gaza Strip since dawn on Sunday, killing at least 43 Palestinians, including six near a water distribution point.

Palestinians were also killed near the Nuseirat refugee camp south of Gaza City, its Sabra neighbourhood as well as near the Al-Mawasi camp, south of the territory.

This comes after the death toll on Saturday in the war-battered enclave stood at 110, including 34 killed at aid distribution points.

Meanwhile, ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas continue to hang in the balance as Israeli troops are reportedly insisting on remaining in the Gaza Strip beyond a 60-day ceasefire period.

One Palestinian source said on Saturday that mediators had asked both sides to postpone discussions until US President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, arrives in the Qatari capital.

"Hamas's delegation will not accept the Israeli maps... as they essentially legitimise the reoccupation of approximately half of the Gaza Strip and turn Gaza into isolated zones with no crossings or freedom of movement," they said.

Thank you for joining us
3:58 AM
The New Arab Staff

This live blog is now closed. Join us again at 8am for further updates on the war on Gaza.

Trump hopes to get Gaza 'straightened out' over next week
3:03 AM
The New Arab Staff & Agencies

US President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday that talks are ongoing over Israel's war on 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 4 July.

Anger at US during funeral of Palestinian-American in WB
10:26 PM
The New Arab Staff & Agencies

 Frustration among Palestinians grew towards the United States on Sunday as mourners packed the roads to a cemetery in the occupied West Bank town of Al-Mazr'a Ash-Sharqiya for the burial of two men, one of them a Palestinian-American, killed by settlers.

Palestinian health authorities and witnesses said Sayfollah Musallet, 21, was beaten to death, and Hussein Al-Shalabi, 23, was shot in the chest by settlers during a confrontation on Friday night.

Most of the small town's roughly 3,000 residents share family ties to the United States, and many hold citizenship, including Musallet, who was killed weeks after flying to visit his mother in Al-Mazr'a Ash-Sharqiya, where he travelled most summers from Tampa, Florida.

"There's no accountability," said his father, Kamel Musallet, who flew from the United States to bury his son.

"We demand the United States government do something about it ... I don't want his death to go in vain."

Israeli killings of U.S. citizens in the West Bank in recent years include those of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, Palestinian American teenager Omar Mohammad Rabea, and Turkish American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said on Friday it was aware of the latest death, but that the department had no further comment "out of respect for the privacy of the family and loved ones" of the victim.

Many family and community members said they expected more, including that the United States would spearhead an investigation into who was responsible.

Netanyahu aide faces indictment over Gaza leak
9:21 PM
The New Arab Staff & Agencies

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

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

The prime minister has described probes against Urich and other aides as a witch-hunt.

U.S. envoy Witkoff 'hopeful' on Gaza talks
6:56 PM
The New Arab Staff & Agencies

U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, said on Sunday that he was "hopeful" about Gaza ceasefire negotiations.

Witkoff told reporters in Teterboro, New Jersey, that he planned to meet senior Qatari officials on the sidelines of the FIFA Club World Cup final. 

Israeli missile hits Gaza children collecting water
6:53 PM
The New Arab Staff & Agencies

At least eight Palestinians, most of them children, were killed and more than a dozen were wounded in central Gaza when they went to collect water on Sunday, after an Israeli strike hit them. 

The Israeli military claimed the missile was intended to hit an alleged fighter in the area, but that a malfunction had caused it to fall "dozens of metres from the target".

The strike hit a water distribution point in Nuseirat refugee camp, killing six children and injuring 17 others, said Ahmed Abu Saifan, an emergency physician at Al-Awda Hospital.

Water shortages in Gaza have worsened sharply in recent weeks, with fuel shortages causing desalination and sanitation facilities to close, making people dependent on collection centres where they can fill up their plastic containers.

Hours later, 12 people were killed by an Israeli strike on a market in Gaza City, including a prominent hospital consultant, Ahmad Qandil, Palestinian media reported. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the attack.

Gaza's health ministry said on Sunday that more than 58,000 people had been killed since the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023, with 139 people added to the death toll over the past 24 hours.

Israeli attacks kill nearly 100 Palestinians in Gaza
5:58 PM
The New Arab Staff

Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling have killed at least 92 people across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, with at least 42 killed in Gaza City alone.

Al-Shifa to run out of fuel 'tomorrow' if not supplied
5:23 PM
The New Arab Staff

The director of al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Muhammad Abu Salmiya, warned on Sunday that hospitals in the war-battered enclave will cease operations tomorrow if they are not supplied with the necessary fuel.

Abu Salmiya said the Israeli army withholds much-needed fuel "up to the point of death," and only then are hospitals given a very small amount of fuel, in an interview with Al Jazeera Arabic.

"Hospitals cannot function properly in this way. We have patients, medical teams who want to work in full force. Instead, they are all on edge … the fuel crisis is a massive one," Abu Salmiya added.

Clashes in predominantly Druze Syrian city kill 8
4:39 PM
The New Arab Staff & Agencies

Clashes between Bedouin tribes and local fighters in the predominantly Druze city of Suweida in southern Syria killed eight people, local media reported on Sunday.

Citing medical sources, local outlet Sweida 24 gave a preliminary toll of eight people killed, "including a child, and about 20 wounded as a result of armed clashes and mutual shelling in the Maqus neighbourhood east of Sweida city". Syrian authorities did not immediately comment on the incident.

Israel detains Palestinian journalists covering demolitions
4:32 PM
The New Arab Staff

Israeli forces detained Palestinian journalist Muath Ghannam on Sunday as he was covering ongoing bulldozing operations in the northern West Bank.

Ghannam was detained in the Jabal al-Salma area, located in the village of Raba east of Jenin, according to local sources cited by the Wafa agency.

UNRWA: Food shortages pushing children to the brink
4:17 PM
The New Arab Staff

Food shortages in the Gaza Strip are pushing the enclave's children to the brink, UNRWA is warning, adding that without urgent care - "they would die".

The Palestinian agency called on Israel's blockade to be lifted in order to deliver life-saving aid and healthcare.

UNRWA says it has thousands of ad trucks ready to enter the Gaza Strip.

Gaza death toll tops 58,000, health ministry says
3:09 PM
The New Arab Staff & Agencies

 The Palestinian death toll in the 21-month-long war in Gaza has topped 58,000, Gaza health officials say.

Syria signs $800 million agreement with DP World for ports
1:51 PM
The New Arab Staff & Agencies

Syria's General Authority for Land and Sea Ports signed on Sunday a $800 million agreement with UAE's DP World to bolster Syrian ports infrastructure and logistical services, Syrian state news agency SANA reported.

The agreement follows procedures related to a memorandum of understanding signed between the two sides in May.

New Gaza-bound aid boat leaves Italy
1:35 PM
The New Arab Staff & Agencies

A Gaza-bound boat carrying pro-Palestinian activists and humanitarian aid left Sicily on Sunday, over a month after Israel detained and deported people aboard a previous vessel.

The Handala, operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, left the port of Syracuse shortly after 12:00 pm (1000 GMT), an AFP journalist saw, carrying about fifteen activists.

Several dozen people, some holding Palestinian flags and others wearing keffiyeh scarves, gathered at the port to cheer the boat's departure with cries of "Free Palestine".

The former Norwegian trawler - loaded with medical supplies, food, children's equipment and medicine - will sail for about a week in the Mediterranean, covering roughly 1,800 kilometres (1,120 miles), in the hope of reaching Gaza's coast.

The boat will make a stop at Gallipoli, in southeastern Italy, where two members of the hard-left France Unbowed party (LFI) are expected to join.

The initiative comes six weeks after the departure of the Madleen, another ship that left Italy for Gaza transporting aid and activists, including Greta Thunberg.

The Gaza-bound Handala vessel left the Italian island of Sicily on Sunday [Getty]
Israeli army vandalises Tulkarem mosque
1:03 PM
The New Arab Staff

One of Tulkarem's mosques has been subject to vandalism at the hands of Israeli forces over the weekend.

The Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Mosque, located in the Nur Shams refugee camp sustained significant damage according to videos online. Books, furniture and other belongings can be seen broken and vandalised.

Officials in Tulakrem have called on international and human rights institutions to intervene to stop the targeting of places of worship, stressing that mosques should be preserved, according to international and humanitarian laws.

 

Bulldozers level land near Jenin for army road project
12:54 PM
The New Arab Staff

Israeli bulldozers continued for the second consecutive day on Sunday razing agricultural land in Raba village, east of Jenin, as the military prepares to construct a military road near Jabal al-Masalma area on the outskirts of the village, local officials said, as cited by Wafa.

Ghasan Bzour, head of the Raba Village Council, said the road construction is encroaching on areas not previously included in land seizure orders, placing nearly 2,200 dunums of farmland in the eastern area of the village at risk of becoming completely inaccessible to local residents.

Gaza death toll on Sunday rises to 31
11:47 AM
The New Arab Staff

The death toll from Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 31, with strikes on Nuseirat and Al-Mawasi.

Settlers set barn in Ramallah on fire, destroying property
10:58 AM
The New Arab Staff

Israeli settlers set fire to a barn early on Sunday morning in the village of Deir Dibwan, east of Ramallah, according to security sources, as cited by the Palestinian Wafa agency.

The settlers raided the Al-Marj and Wadi al-Qutun areas on the outskirts of the village and threw flammable substances at a barn owned by two local Palestinians, destroying the property.

Israel launches communications satellite from Florida
10:11 AM
The New Arab Staff & Agencies

Israel on Sunday said it had launched a new national communications satellite on board a SpaceX rocket from the United States.

The Dror 1 satellite was blasted into orbit on a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral in Florida, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and the foreign ministry said.

"This $200 million 'smartphone in space' will power Israel's strategic and civilian communications for 15 years," the ministry wrote on X.

Accompanying video footage showed the reusable, two-stage rocket lift off into the night sky. SpaceX said the launch happened at 1:04 am in Florida (0504 GMT Sunday).

IAI, which called the launch "a historic leap for Israeli space technology", said when it announced the project to develop and build Dror 1 that it was "the most advanced communication satellite ever built in Israel".

In September 2016, an unmanned Falcon 9 rocket exploded during a test in Florida, destroying Israel's Amos-6 communications satellite, which was estimated to have cost between $200 and 300 million.

Israeli forces continue to demolish homes in Tulkarem
9:45 AM
The New Arab Staff

Israeli forces continued their demolition campaign in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, bulldozing homes in Tulkarem's Nur Shams refugee camp.

Israel arrests Palestinians in West Bank raids
8:31 AM
The New Arab Staff

Israeli forces carried out multiple overnight raids across the occupied West Bank early on Sunday, detaining at least 10 Palestinians.

Arrests and raids took place in the city of Salfit, where three Palestinians were arrested.

Three Palestinians were also detained in Nablus, including a father and a son from the Al-Masken Al-Sha’bia area.

Arrests also took place in the Bethlehem and Ramallah governorates. 

Malnutrition cases rising in Gaza: UNRWA
8:20 AM
The New Arab Staff

Malnutrition cases in the Gaza Strip have increased over the months, as a result of Israel's intensified siege on the territory, according to the UN agency for refugees, UNRWA.

"UNRWA hasn’t been allowed to bring in any humanitarian aid since. Despite a critical shortage in supplies essential for treatment, our teams continue their work in Gaza to help the most vulnerable, including through nutritional assessment for children," the agency said on X.

29 killed in Gaza, including at water distribution points
8:14 AM
The New Arab Staff & Agencies

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli air strikes on Sunday killed at least 29 Palestinians, including six near a water distribution point.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that Gaza City was hit by several strikes overnight and in the early morning, killing eight people "including children and women" and wounding others.

An Israeli air strike hit a family home near Nuseirat refugee camp, south of Gaza City, resulting in "10 martyrs and several injured", Bassal said.

Another strike "hit a potable water distribution point... in an area for displaced people west of the Nuseirat camp", Bassal added, reporting "six martyrs and several injured".

In the territory's south, three people were killed when Israeli jets hit a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians in the coastal Al-Mawasi area, according to the civil defence spokesman.