Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 93 Palestinians, including several families and legislator

TNA’s live coverage of the latest from the Middle East and the war on Gaza concludes for today.

Join us again at 0800 GMT for updates on the region.
 

A 17-year-old Palestinian was shot in the thigh by Israeli forces during a raid on the town of Idhna, west of Hebron in the occupied West Bank.

According to local reports, Israeli troops stormed the town, blocking its main road and sparking clashes with residents. Soldiers used live ammunition, sound bombs, and tear gas during the incursion.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society provided initial treatment to the wounded teen before transferring him to hospital for further care.

At least 61 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes across Gaza since Tuesday morning, according to medical sources cited by Al Jazeera English.

The deadliest attack occurred at the Shati refugee camp, where 23 people were reportedly killed. In a separate incident near an aid distribution centre north of Rafah, two people were killed and over 30 others injured by Israeli gunfire.

At least 203 people have been killed in southern Syria's Suweida province, a war monitor said Tuesday, giving an updated toll after several days of clashes that triggered the deployment of government forces.

The dead include 92 members of the Druze minority, 21 of them civilians "killed in summary executions by government forces", according to a Britain-based war monitor, as well as 93 security personnel and 18 Bedouin.

 The administration of President Donald Trump has asked Israel to stop its strikes on Syrian military forces in the south of the country, Axios reported on Tuesday, citing a U.S. official.

Israel told the Americans that it would cease the attacks on Tuesday evening, Axios reporter Barak Ravid posted on X, citing the official.

The Trump administration asked Israel to stop its strikes on Syrian military forces in the south of the country, a U.S. official said. The official said Israel promised that it would cease the attacks on Tuesday evening

— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) July 15, 2025

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has defended the country's recent air strikes on southern Syria, framing them as part of a wider effort to prevent a new front similar to Lebanon emerging along Israel’s border.

“We are working in Syria today, since the morning,” Netanyahu said in recorded remarks broadcast by Army Radio during a visit to Israeli troops.

“We have an obligation to maintain the southwestern Syria area as a demilitarized zone on Israel’s borders.”

Netanyahu claimed the operations are intended “to protect the Druze population through strong operations”- a justification that may draw increased scrutiny amid growing concerns over civilian casualties from Israeli strikes across the region.

“I hope we do not have to do more,” he added. “That depends a lot on what they understand and do or do not do in Damascus.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged Israel to halt its violations of Syrian sovereignty following recent airstrikes, warning that continued attacks risk escalating tensions across the region.

“The secretary-general is also concerned by Israel’s air strikes on Syrian territory, and calls on Israel to refrain from violations of Syria’s independence, its sovereignty and its territorial integrity,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters.

Guterres also expressed deep concern over ongoing violence in southern Syria’s Suwayda governorate, where clashes between Druze militias and Bedouin fighters have left more than 30 people dead and many others injured.

"He is disturbed by reports of arbitrary killings of civilians, sectarian incitement and the looting of private property," Dujarric said. Guterres "condemns all violence against civilians, especially acts that risk inflaming sectarian tensions."

Responding to an Israeli minister’s recent call for the “elimination” of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Dujarric added, "The last thing this region needs is more incitement to violence and more violent rhetoric."

 U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the foreign ministers of France, Germany and the UK agreed in a phone call on Monday to set the end of August as the de facto deadline for reaching a nuclear deal with Iran, Axios reported, citing three sources.

If no deal is reached by that deadline, the three European powers plan to trigger the "snapback" mechanism that automatically reimposes all UN Security Council sanctions that were lifted under the 2015 Iran deal, according to the Axios report.

U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has spoken out following the death of Sayfollah Musallet, a Palestinian-American citizen who was killed during a recent visit to the occupied West Bank. Jeffries described the killing as “shocking and appalling.”

In an uncommon public statement, the Democratic leader called on Israeli authorities to "thoroughly investigate this killing and hold any and all settlers responsible for the brutal death of Mr. Musallet accountable to the fullest extent of the law."

He further condemned increasing attacks on Palestinian civilians by Israeli settlers, stating, "the rise in violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank directed at Palestinian civilians is completely and totally unacceptable."

Jeffries also criticised the Trump administration’s response to the ongoing violence: “The Trump administration cannot continue to turn a blind eye to what is happening in the West Bank if it is truly committed to finding a just and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinian people.”

The United Nations’ special rapporteur for Gaza and the West Bank said Tuesday that it's time for nations around the world to take concrete actions to stop what she called the "genocide" in Gaza.

Francesca Albanese spoke to delegates from 30 countries meeting in Colombia’s capital to discuss the Gaza war and ways that nations can try to stop Israel’s military offensive in the territory.

Many of the participating nations have described the violence as genocide against the Palestinians.

"Each state must immediately review and suspend all ties with the State of Israel ... and ensure its private sector does the same," Albanese said.

"The Israeli economy is structured to sustain the occupation that has now turned genocidal."

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar described the failure of efforts within the European Union to sanction Israel as an “important diplomatic success,” crediting the outcome to resisting what he called “obsessive attempts by several countries.”

"The very attempt to impose sanctions on a democratic country defending itself against attempts to destroy it is outrageous," Saar wrote on X, expressing gratitude to the foreign ministers who opposed the sanctions.

He added: "The attempts to harm Israel’s image, diplomatically and legally, will continue. Our struggle is in full swing. We will continue to fight for the justice of Israel’s cause and to strengthen its diplomatic ties. We will open – already in the coming months – additional embassies."

Saar’s comments followed a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, where possible punitive measures were discussed after Israel failed to uphold a pledge to increase aid deliveries to Gaza.

A meeting of Israel’s “mini-cabinet” is expected to take place soon to discuss the proposed construction of a controversial "humanitarian city" in the ruins of Rafah, according to Israel Hayom.

Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir is set to present a revised, more cost-effective plan after an earlier estimate placed the project’s cost at $4 billion.

Officials are also due to receive an update on negotiations for a potential ceasefire aimed at securing the release of captives held in Gaza.

According to the report, some progress has been made on mapping out the areas from which Israeli forces would withdraw under a possible agreement.

US diplomat Tom Barrack said Tuesday that deadly violence in Syria's southern province of Sweida was "worrisome" and that his government was working to restore calm in the country.

"The recent skirmishes in Sweida are worrisome on all sides, and we are attempting to come to a peaceful, inclusive outcome for Druze, Bedouin tribes, the Syrian government and Israeli forces," Barrack, Washington's special envoy to Syria, said on X, naming the parties involved in the violence since Sunday.

Syria's foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that Israel holds full responsibility for the latest attacks on southern Syria and the consequences.

The ministry claimed it is keen to protect all Syrian citizens without exception, including the Druze minority.

Israel carried out strikes against Syrian government forces in southwestern Syria for a second day on Tuesday, vowing to keep the area demilitarised and to protect the Druze minority.

The Israeli military said dozens of Israeli citizens had crossed into Syria from the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

It said it was currently operating to ensure safe return of the Israelis who crossed the border.

It was not immediately clear how the citizens ended up across the border, but Israel carried out strikes against Syrian government forces in southwestern Syria for a second day on Tuesday, vowing to keep the area demilitarised and to protect the Druze minority.

Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group condemned an Israeli air strike that killed 12 people in the eastern Bekaa region on Tuesday, as a "major escalation".

In a statement, the group said Israel's attack "constitutes a major escalation in the context of the ongoing aggression against Lebanon and its people". It called on Lebanese authorities to "take serious, immediate, and decisive action" to uphold a November ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

Israel said it targeted training camps belonging to the group's Radwan Force. The attacks killed at least five Hezbollah fighters, according to a security source.

Israel needs to take more concrete steps to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza and fully implement the agreement it made with the European Union last week, the EU's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Tuesday.

"Israel needs to take more concrete steps to improve the humanitarian situation on the ground. The European Union will keep a close watch," Kallas told reporters after meeting EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

The pace and scale of Afghans returning from Iran are overwhelming already fragile support systems, a senior U.N. official warned Tuesday, with tens of thousands of people crossing the border daily exhausted and traumatized, relying on humanitarian aid.

So far this year, more than 1.4 million people have returned or been forced to return to Afghanistan, including over 1 million from Iran.

The "sheer volume of returns —many abrupt, many involuntary," should be setting off alarm bells across the global community, Otunbayeva said.

"Without swift interventions, remittance losses, labor market pressures and cyclical migration will lead to devastating consequences such as the further destabilization of both returnee and host populations, renewed displacement, mass onward movement, and risks to regional stability," she said.

The European Council said in a statement on Tuesday it had imposed sanctions on eight people and one entity from Iran over "serious human rights violations" and "transnational repression".

The statement said they are responsible for abuses on behalf of Iranian state bodies outside of Iran, in particular extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions and killings, as well as enforced disappearances of people deemed to be opponents of or critical of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Israeli strikes on the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon killed 12 people on Tuesday, Lebanese state media reported, as the Israeli army said it hit Hezbollah targets in the area.

"Enemy warplanes launched raids on the Wadi Fara area in the northern Bekaa Valley, one of which targeted a camp for displaced Syrians, resulting in the deaths of 12 martyrs, including seven Syrians, and eight wounded," Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported.

At least 12 Druze civilians have been shot dead by Syrian security forces in the southern city of Suweida, where violence between the Druze population and Bedouin tribes.

"Members of the defence and interior ministries carried out field executions of 12 citizens after storming the Radwan family guest house in the city of Suweida," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor with sources on the ground.

An unverified video clip circulating on social media showed at least 10 people in civilian clothes covered in blood inside a guest house. Pictures of Druze dignitaries lay scattered around the room, alongside damaged furniture.

The New Arab could not verify these reports.

Denmark has extradited to Germany a man accused of spying on Jewish institutions in Berlin on behalf of Iran, German prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Germany's Federal Court of Justice formally ordered the Danish national's detention on Tuesday, the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

The suspect, identified only as Ali S., was extradited to Germany on Monday, nearly three weeks after his arrest in the Danish city of Aarhus, the office said.

Prosecutors allege that Ali S. in June gathered intelligence on three Jewish sites in Berlin, possibly in preparation for future attacks.

Suspected of acting on behalf of Iranian intelligence, Ali S. could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

Gaza ceasefire talks remain in their "first phase" after more than a week of talks, even as mediators step up efforts to broker a truce between Israel and Hamas, Qatar said Tuesday.

"Discussions on the framework agreement are still ongoing. Both delegations are present here in Doha, and the mediators are intensifying efforts to reach an agreement," Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari told reporters.

"The negotiations are still in the first phase, which is specifically about reaching an agreement of principle ahead of negotiations that will begin, God willing, in the next phase," he said.

But uncertainty loomed over the efforts, which had appeared deadlocked over the weekend, with each side accusing the other of staking out positions that prevented a deal from being reached.

"We cannot say whether an agreement will be reached tomorrow or whether the negotiations will collapse tomorrow," Ansari said.

A rescheduled United Nations conference this month will discuss post-war plans for Gaza and preparations for the recognition of a Palestinian state by France and others, France's foreign minister said on Tuesday.

France and Saudi Arabia had planned to host the conference in New York from June 17-20, aiming to lay out the parameters of a roadmap to a Palestinian state, while ensuring Israel's security.

"The aim is to sketch out post-war Gaza and prepare the recognition of a Palestinian state by France and countries that will engage in this approach," Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in Brussels before a meeting of European Union foreign ministers.

France, the United Kingdom and Germany will launch the U.N. snapback mechanism on Iran by the end of August at the latest if no concrete progress has been made on a nuclear deal by then, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Tuesday.

"France and its partners are ... justified in reapplying global embargoes on arms, banks, and nuclear equipment that were lifted 10 years ago. Without a firm, tangible, and verifiable commitment from Iran, we will do so by the end of August at the latest," Barrot told reporters ahead of a meeting with EU Foreign Ministers in Brussels.

Israel's military said it was striking military vehicles belonging to government forces in the Suweida area of southern Syria, after Syrian state media reported a new strike on the Druze-majority city.

"A short while ago, the (Israeli army) began striking military vehicles belonging to Syrian regime forces in the area of Suweida in southern Syria," a military statement said, shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said they had ordered the army to "immediately strike regime forces and weaponry that were brought into the Suweida region in the the Druze mountains in Syria in order to carry out operations against the Druze".

Syria's defence minister declared a ceasefire Tuesday in the Druze-majority city of Suweida, following clashes with Druze fighters.

"To all units operating within the city of Suweida, we declare a complete ceasefire after an agreement with the city's notables and dignitaries," Syrian Defence Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra posted on X.

"We will respond only to sources of fire and deal with any targeting by outlaw groups," he added.

"We will begin handing over neighbourhoods in Suweida city to the Internal Security Forces as soon as the combing operations are completed," Abu Qasra said.

Authorities had initially announced a curfew in the city to contain the unrest. Syrian state-run news agency SANA later reported Israeli air strikes on Suweida as government forces were advancing.

There has been an increase in killings of and attacks against Palestinians by settlers and security forces in the occupied West Bank in recent weeks, the United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday.

"Israeli settlers and security forces have intensified their killings, attacks and harassment of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in the past weeks," Thameen Al-Kheetan, a spokesperson for the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OCHCR), told reporters in Geneva.

About 30,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced in the north of the occupied West Bank since the Israeli military launched its "Iron Wall" operation.

It is contributing to the ongoing consolidation of annexation of the West Bank, in violation of international law, the OHCHR said.

The U.N. rights office said on Tuesday it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza run by the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and convoys run by other relief groups, including the United Nations.

The OHCHR said 674 of those killed were in the vicinity of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, while the remaining 201 were killed on the routes of other aid convoys.

Israel has taken some positive steps but is not yet fully implementing an agreement with the European Union to increase humanitarian aid supplies in Gaza, EU aid chief Hadja Lahbib said on Tuesday.

"We have (seen) some positive developments. It's true that we have trucks that are able to enter, but we don't know exactly how many. And what is clear is that the agreement is not fully implemented," she told reporters ahead of a meeting EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that ongoing Israeli military strikes in Lebanon were a clear message to Hezbollah, which he said was plotting to rebuild raid capabilities against Israel through its Radwan Force.

The Israeli military said earlier on Tuesday it had begun striking targets belonging to the Radwan Force in the Beqaa region of Lebanon, specifically in the Baalbek district.

Iran said it will hold talks with its main Asian partners, Russia and China, on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit on Tuesday, as Tehran looks for support following a 12-day air war with Israel last month.

"We will have bilateral meetings with the Chinese foreign minister, which naturally has its own importance in the current situation, as well as with the Russian foreign minister," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Telegram.

"The SCO is gradually opening up its place in the global arena, meaning it is gradually going beyond the regional arena, and it has many different issues on its agenda, including in the economic, political and security fields," Araqchi wrote.

A drone strike forced a US company to suspend operations at an oil field in northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region Tuesday, amid a wave of similar attacks targeting the region's energy infrastructure.

The Kurdistan natural resources ministry said the Sarsang oil field in Duhok province was hit, calling the strike "an act of terrorism against the Kurdistan Region's vital economic infrastructure".

The attack followed a similar drone strike a day earlier in neighbouring Erbil province.

Explosion at HKN Energy’s Sarang Field Triggers Emergency Response; No Injuries Reported!

Despite the absence of casualties, the facility remains engulfed in flames. Emergency response teams are currently on site, working to contain the fire and prevent further damage.

🔗:… pic.twitter.com/YbdX9gdbRp

— Kurdistan 24 English (@K24English) July 15, 2025

Violent clashes erupted in southern Syria's Druze-majority Suweida on Tuesday as government forces entered the city, an AFP correspondent at an entrance to Suweida reported.

A statement from Druze religious authorities had called for local fighters to lay down their arms. But influential Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, who had initially welcomed the entry of government forces, later called in a statement for "resisting this brutal campaign by all available means".

Europe's top diplomats are assessing a new deal with Israel to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, according to Kaja Kallas, the European Union's foreign policy chief.

Foreign ministers from the EU's 27-member nations are meeting Tuesday in Brussels in the wake of a new aid deal for Gaza largely forged by Kallas and Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar, who met with EU leaders on Monday, to allow desperately needed food and fuel into the coastal enclave of 2.3 million people who have endured more than 21 months of war.

"We have reached a common understanding with Israel to really improve the situation on the ground, but it’s not about the paper, but actually implementation of the paper," Kallas said before the meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council.

"As long as it hasn’t really improved, then we haven’t all done enough," she said, before calling for a ceasefire.

The Israeli military conducted airstrikes in east Lebanon's Baalbek district Tuesday, claiming to be targeting sites belonging to Hezbollah's Radwan Force.

Airstrikes targeted the outskirts of the towns of Shmistar, Brital and Khreibeh. No casualties were reported.

"Moments ago, Israeli Air Force fighter jets... began numerous strikes toward Hezbollah terror targets in the area of Beqaa, Lebanon," the military said in a statement.

"The military compounds that were struck were used by the Hezbollah terrorist organisation for training and exercising terrorists to plan and carry out terrorist attacks against (Israeli) troops and the State of Israel," it added.

#عاجل - بالصور والفيديو - غارات إسرائيلية عنيفة تستهدف منطقة البقاع شرق لبنان https://t.co/f0afFdfckl pic.twitter.com/vsT6MLIWGc

— Annahar النهار (@Annahar) July 15, 2025