Israeli forces kill dozens in Gaza as war drags on

We're closing this live blog now.

Join us back here from 0900 tomorrow for more live coverage of developments in Gaza and the region.

Thanks for following.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Thursday that he had discussed the crisis in Gaza with his UK counterpart, Keir Starmer, and reiterated his government's strong support for a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.

Starmer this week said Britain was prepared to recognise a Palestinian state in September at the United Nations General Assembly in response to growing public anger over the images of starving children in Gaza.

Australia has not yet made a formal decision to recognise Palestine though Albanese supports Israel's right to exist within secure borders and Palestinians' right to demand their own state.

In a statement, Albanese said they agreed on the importance of using international momentum to secure a ceasefire, the release of all Israeli hostages and the acceleration of aid. They also want to ensure militant group Hamas does not play a role in a future Palestinian state.

(Reuters)

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed Canada's "historic" move to recognise the state of Palestine during a phone call with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Wafa reported Wednesday.

Abbas "appreciated Canada's historic position in recognizing the State of Palestine, which will enhance peace, stability, and security in the region", the official Palestinian news agency said.

(AFP)

Israel's foreign ministry has accused Canada of "rewarding Hamas" after Prime Minister Mark Carney announced plans to recognise a Palestinian state in September.

"Israel rejects the statement by the Prime Minister of Canada. The change in the position of the Canadian government at this time is a reward for Hamas and harms the efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and a framework for the release of the hostages," the ministry said in a statement.

Carney earlier announced that Canada would recognise Palestinian statehood at the UN General Assembly in September if the Palestinian Authority commits to reform and holds elections in 2026.

Canada "intends" to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday, a dramatic policy shift he said was necessary to preserve hopes of a two-state solution.

"Canada intends to recognize the State of Palestine at the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2025," Carney said, citing "intolerable" suffering in Gaza.

(AFP)

The co-founder of pro-Palestinian activist group Palestine Action can launch a court bid to overturn the UK government's decision to ban the group under anti-terrorism laws, a judge ruled Wednesday.

The government earlier this month banned the group days after activists broke into an air force base in southern England.

Being a member or supporting the group is now a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Co-founder Huda Ammori asked a judge to allow her to launch a High Court challenge over the ban, calling it an attack on free speech.

And judge Martin Chamberlain on Wednesday ruled that it was "reasonably arguable" that the ban amounted to a "disproportionate interference" of Ammori's right to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.

He also said the claim that the government was "in breach of natural justice" by failing to consult the group beforehand was also "reasonably arguable".

Police have arrested over 100 people in London and other cities for supporting Palestine Action during protests over the government's decision to ban the activist group.

(AFP)

Medics say 86 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza so far on Wednesday, including 71 people seeking aid, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.

The United States on Wednesday slapped sanctions on a shipping empire controlled by the son of a top political advisor to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The Treasury Department said sanctions were being imposed on companies and vessels operated by Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, the son of Ali Shamkhani, who has been subject to US sanctions since 2020.

(AFP)

The United Nations' humanitarian agency said Wednesday that the conditions for delivering aid into Gaza were "far from sufficient" to meet the immense needs of its "desperate, hungry people".

OCHA also said fuel deliveries were nowhere near what is needed to keep health, emergency, water and telecommunications services running in the besieged Palestinian territory.

This week, Israel launched daily pauses in its military operations in some parts of the Gaza Strip and opened secure routes to enable UN agencies and other aid groups to distribute food in the densely populated territory of more than two million.

However, these pauses alone "do not allow for the continuous flow of supplies required to meet immense needs levels in Gaza", OCHA said in an update.

"While the UN and its partners are taking advantage of any opportunity to support people in need during the unilateral tactical pauses, the conditions for the delivery of aid and supplies are far from sufficient," the agency said.

"For example, for UN drivers to access the Kerem Shalom crossing -- a fenced-off area -- Israeli authorities must approve the mission, provide a safe route through which to travel, provide multiple 'green lights' on movement, as well as a pause in bombing, and, ultimately, open the iron gates to allow them to enter."

(AFP and TNA staff)

The Israeli military said on Wednesday evening it downed a drone fired from Yemen.

Israeli media report that the aircraft was intercepted near Israel's border with Egypt.

The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza on Wednesday has risen to 73, including 61 people waiting for food aid, medical sources tell Al Jazeera Arabic.

In northern Gaza, 37 aid seekers were killed and another 270 others were wounded by the Israeli military, according to head of the Al Shifa Hospital. 

Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty and US special envoy Steve Witkoff discussed in a phone call on Wednesday intensifying pressure to reach a ceasefire deal in Gaza.

Witkoff is set to travel to Israel on Thursday to address the situation in Gaza as mediators push for an end to the fighting.

(Reuters and TNA staff)

Seven more people starved to death in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the local health ministry said earlier today.

This brings the total number of malnutrition-related deaths since 7 October 2023 to 154.

Eighty-nine of them were children, the ministry said.

The majority of the deaths have come in the past two weeks as Israel's restrictions on aid intensify the hunger crisis gripping the enclave.

Israel has told Hamas that it will start to annex parts of Gaza if it does not agree to the US-backed proposal for a temporary ceasefire in the coming days, Israeli media quote officials as saying.

Israel and the US walked away from truce talks last week after Hamas pushed for a larger withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and guarantees that a permanent ceasefire would be negotiated.

In its response on Wednesday, Israel said it would not withdraw from the Egypt-Gaza border or the buffer zone around the perimeter, and would not allow the Rafah border crossing to be opened.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly meeting with aides and senior ministers this evening to discuss the negotiations.

In a security cabinet meeting earlier this week, the Israeli leader proposed to gradually annex the entire territory if Hamas rejects a ceasefire.

This comes as Western nations and Arab states increase pressure on both sides to reach an agreement to end the devastating conflict.

The Arab League and Turkey on Tuesday demanded that Hamas disarm and leave Gaza in order to end the war. 

Meanwhile, the UK threatened to join France in recognising Palestinian statehood in September if Israel does not agree to end the war and re-engage with the peace process.

US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Israel for the first time in several months tomorrow to discuss the intensifying famine in Gaza, US news media reported earlier this afternoon. 

A Trump administration official later confirmed the visit, telling reporters that Witkoff "will meet with officials to discuss next steps in addressing the situation in Gaza".

Witkoff could also enter Gaza to visit an aid site operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US official told Axios.

The Israel- and US-backed organisation is coming under intensifying criticism in the US over the almost-daily massacres of Palestinians by Israeli forces near its facilities.

More than 1,000 Palestinians have been shot dead and more than 6,000 others injured by the Israeli military since the GHF began operating at the end of May.

At least 61 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza so far today, medics tell Al Jazeera Arabic.

The majority of the dead were reportedly killed while waiting for aid, they say. More than 150 others were wounded in the violence.

The Gaza health ministry earlier said that the overall death toll since 7 October 2023 had risen to at least 60,138. More than 146,200 others have been wounded.

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem stated on Wednesday that all calls - whether domestic, Arab, or international - for the group to surrender its weapons serve the Israeli agenda. He asserted that disarming Hezbollah would mean stripping Lebanon of "its strength," and he urged the state to take action against those he described as inciting division and serving Israeli interests.

"The enemy is not content with the five occupied [border] points; it is waiting for the disarmament of the resistance to continue its expansion and settlement building," Qassem said during a televised speech marking the one year anniversary of Israel's assassination of Hezbollah commander Fouad Shokr.

He affirmed that "the resistance remains strong across political and social dimensions," which he said explains why Israel has continued to violate the 27 November ceasefire agreement.

The United Arab Emirates has begun construction on a major pipeline to carry desalinated water from Egypt to southern Gaza, according to multiple sources.

Technical teams sent by the UAE have started transporting equipment needed for the project, the Emirati state news agency WAM reported on Wednesday.

The nearly seven-kilometre (4.5-mile) pipeline aims to help alleviate what WAM described as a "water crisis" in the Gaza Strip.

The project would link a desalination plant in Egypt to the Al-Mawasi area along Gaza's coast and could supply about 600,000 people daily, said COGAT - the Israeli defence ministry body overseeing civil affairs in the Palestinian territories.

WAM said the UAE had launched "several initiatives to drill and rehabilitate potable water wells".

A Syrian-Israeli ministerial meeting is set to take place Thursday in the Azerbaijan capital Baku, with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer in attendance, a diplomat told AFP.

The diplomat, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said the meeting will focus on "the security situation, particularly in southern Syria".

This comes on the heels of a similar meeting between the two ministers in Paris last week and will take place after Shaibani's unprecedented visit to Moscow on Thursday.

A Spanish military plane will fly 13 ailing children from war-torn Gaza and their families from Jordan to Spain for hospital treatment, Defence Minister Margarita Robles said Wednesday.

An A400 military transport aircraft is being fitted with medical equipment and is scheduled to depart later Wednesday for Amman to bring them to Spain "so they can be treated", she said.

"The situation in Gaza is absolutely terrible. The level of cruelty shown by (Benjamin) Netanyahu is absolutely unacceptable, and I believe the international community must respond," Robles said, referring to Israel's prime minister.

✈️ 🩺 Preparados para una nueva misión.

🔴 9 militares de la #UMAER @EjercitoAire, entre ellos médicos y enfermeras, medicalizan en la #BATTorrejón un avión #A400 en el que trasladarán desde Jordania a 13 menores y sus familias, procedentes de Gaza, para ser atendidos en España. pic.twitter.com/dR8yyOH43m

— Ministerio Defensa (@Defensagob) July 30, 2025

The World Health Organization's chief said getting a continuous flow of medical supplies into Gaza was "critical", as WHO trucks carrying aid headed for the border on Wednesday.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the UN health agency had moved 10 trucks from El-Arish in Egypt to Israel's Kerem Shalom border crossing into the Gaza Strip.

The trucks are carrying "essential medicines, laboratory and water testing supplies", he said, with two additional trucks with medical supplies, along with 12 pallets of blood products, expected to join them on Thursday.

"All WHO supplies will then be moved into Gaza, along with three trucks with medical supplies from health partners," Tedros said on X.

"The health needs in Gaza are immense. A continuous flow of medical supplies is critical ... We continue to call for sustained, safe, and unhindered access for medical aid into and across Gaza and for a ceasefire. Peace is the best medicine."

Jordan's King Abdullah II said Wednesday that the "humanitarian catastrophe" unfolding in the Gaza Strip was the worst in modern history.

"Gaza is witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe that exceeds anything we have witnessed in modern history," the longtime Western ally said, adding that Jordan was in contact with international partners "to pressure for an end to the war", now in its 22nd month.

Israel could threaten to annex parts of Gaza to increase pressure on the militant group Hamas, an Israeli minister said on Wednesday, an idea that would deal a blow to Palestinian hopes of statehood on land Israeli now occupies.

The comment by security cabinet member Zeev Elkin came a day after Britain said it would recognise a Palestinian state in September unless Israel takes steps to relieve suffering in Gaza and reaches a ceasefire in the war with Hamas.

Accusing Hamas of trying to drag out ceasefire talks to gain Israeli concessions, Elkin told public broadcaster Kan that Israel may give the group an ultimatum to reach a deal before further expanding its military actions.

"The most painful thing for our enemy is losing lands," he said. "A clarification to Hamas that the moment they play games with us they will lose land that they will never get back would be a significant pressure tool."

US envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to travel to Israel on Wednesday for talks on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Axios reported, citing two US officials.

The Euro-Med rights monitor said that an unprecedented number of elderly Palestinians have died over the past two months as a result of the famine sweeping Gaza, caused by Israel's siege of the enclave.

The siege has drastically limited the availability of food and medicine needed for survival.

At least 1,200 elderly Palestinian have died since May, but the death toll is expected to be higher.

The monitor attributed the cause of death to malnutrition, lack of medical care and starvation.

Approximately 1,200 elderly Palestinians have died in #Gaza over the past two months due to Israel’s starvation policy, malnutrition, and lack of medical care, all of which have intensified in recent days.

The actual death toll may be significantly higher, noting an… pic.twitter.com/tQHCeUEfuh

— Euro-Med Monitor (@EuroMedHR) July 30, 2025

Turkey will start exporting natural gas from Azerbaijan to Syria this Saturday, the energy minister announced, as Damascus said the imports would go toward electricity production.

"We will start exporting natural gas from Azerbaijan to Aleppo via Kilis", a province in southernmost Turkey near the Syrian border, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said Wednesday.

"The goal is to increase the current three to four hours of daily electricity availability to 10 hours, making a positive impact on people’s lives," Bayraktar said.

According to Syrian state news agency SANA, Energy Minister Mohammad al-Bashir confirmed that "from August 2, Syria will begin to receive 3.4 million cubic metres of gas from Azerbaijan" via Turkey.

The gas "will allow the production of around 900 megawatts of electricity, as part of joint cooperation aiming to support the Syrian energy sector", SANA reported.

Belgium will take part in a multi-country operation coordinated by Jordan to air drop aid to Gaza, the government announced Wednesday, as UN agencies warn the Palestinian territory is slipping into famine.

A Belgian plane carrying medical supplies and food worth some 600,000 euros ($690,000) will fly "soon" to Jordan, and will remain on stand-by to conduct air drops in coordination with Amman, the defence and foreign ministries said in a statement.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani will travel to Russia on Thursday, a source said, the most senior Syrian official to visit Moscow since Russia's ally Bashar al-Assad was ousted in December and replaced by a new, Islamist-led government.

Russia and Syria's new government have been in talks over Moscow's hopes to continue operating its naval and air bases in northwest Syria.

The United Nations is preparing to send a convoy of humanitarian aid to Syria's southern province of Suweida, three aid officials told Reuters, after days of bloodshed left hundreds dead and displaced an estimated 175,000 people.

The preparations began after Syria's foreign ministry granted U.N. aid agencies a green light to access Suweida directly, according to correspondence seen by Reuters, following three deliveries of U.N. aid to the province carried out by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.

The new U.N. convoy will include food and other supplies, according to Marianne Ward, head of the U.N.'s World Food Programme in Syria.

"We're organising a convoy with a variety of different U.N. agencies' support, which we expect will be the beginning of blanket access" to vulnerable communities, Ward told Reuters.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that Moscow was concerned about the threat of new strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, and a deal on Tehran's nuclear programme could be reached through dialogue.

Iran and the United States bombed Iranian nuclear sites in June. Zakharova said a promise of no new strikes was a prerequisite for the resumption of cooperation between Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer held a phone call with Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday before announcing his country's intention to recognise a Palestinian state in September, a source familiar with the matter said.

Hamas's Gaza-based Government Media Office (GMO) has accused Israel of "engineering chaos and starvation" in the Gaza Strip.

It said in a Telegram statement that the 109 aid trucks that had entered into the Gaza Strip yesterday were mostly "subjected to lootings and theft as a result of lawlessness systematically and intentionally created by the Israeli occupation".

It said that of the six air drops of aid, four of which "fell in dangerous combat areas under the Israeli occupation army's control".

The GMO accused the Israeli army of aiming to "abort aid distribution and deprive civilians of that aid in the context of engineering chaos and starvation".

The final statement of the two-state solution conference held at the UN headquarters in New York has given support to the Palestinian Authority (PA) taking control over governing Gaza.

"Hamas should end its control on the Gaza Strip and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority," the statement said.

The statement also "denounced the attacks carried out by Hamas on 7 October [2023] against civilians" in southern Israel.

It also emphasised "rejection of all attacks by any party against civilians".

Arab countries including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt joined calls Tuesday for Hamas to disarm and end its rule of Gaza, in a bid to end the devastating war in the Palestinian territory.

"In the context of ending the war in Gaza, Hamas must end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority, with international engagement and support, in line with the objective of a sovereign and independent Palestinian State," said the declaration.

It followed a call Monday by the Palestinian delegation at the United Nations for both Israel and Hamas to leave Gaza, allowing the Palestinian Authority to administer the coastal territory.

Malta will declare recognition of a Palestinian state during the general assembly of the United Nations in September, Prime Minister Robert Abela said on Tuesday evening.

Abela made the announcement hours after a similar declaration by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and days after France also announced its recognition plans.

"Our position reflects our commitment to efforts for a lasting peace in the Middle East," Abela said in a Facebook post.

The Malta government had been under increasing pressure from within its ranks to recognise a Palestinian state and the centre-right Opposition in mid-July also called for immediate recognition.

Britain on Wednesday rejected criticism that it was rewarding militant group Hamas by setting out plans to recognise a Palestinian state unless Israel took steps to improve the situation in Gaza and bring about peace.

Asked about that criticism, British Transport Minister Heidi Alexander - designated by the government to respond to questions in a series of media interviews on Wednesday - said it was not the right way to characterise Britain's plan.

"This is not a reward for Hamas. Hamas is a vile terrorist organisation that has committed appalling atrocities. This is about the Palestinian people. It's about those children that we see in Gaza who are starving to death," she told LBC radio.

"We've got to ratchet up pressure on the Israeli government to lift the restrictions to get aid back into Gaza."

France and 14 other Western nations called on countries worldwide to move to recognise a Palestinian state, France's top diplomat said Wednesday.

"In New York, together with 14 other countries, France is issuing a collective appeal: we express our desire to recognise the State of Palestine and invite those who have not yet done so to join us," French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot wrote on X account, following a conference aimed at reviving the two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.