Gaza Turmoil
Live Reporting
New UK Foreign Secretary Lammy backs ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Gaza
Britain’s newly appointed Foreign Secretary David Lammy has reiterated his support for international efforts to secure an “immediate ceasefire” in the Israel-Hamas fighting and for the release of remaining hostages, AFP reports.
“The job now is to get to work with tireless diplomacy to support an immediate ceasefire and move towards getting those hostages out,” Lammy told UK broadcasters in his first comments after becoming the country’s top diplomat hours earlier.
Hamas official says expects quick Israeli response to ceasefire ‘ideas’
A top Hamas official has told AFP the group expects a swift Israeli response — “likely today or tomorrow morning” — to its new “ideas” for halting the Gaza conflict and freeing hostages.
With Israeli negotiators scheduled to arrive in Qatar for talks with mediators, Osama Hamdan insisted that the group’s military wing remains “in a good condition” to keep up the nine-month-old fighting.
Hamdan said there were no new concrete proposals in a document sent to Israel this week but “some ideas were proposed to overcome” Israeli reticence about a ceasefire.
Hamas says it rejects any statements about foreign forces entering Gaza
Hamas has said it rejects all statements and positions that support plans for foreign forces to enter the Gaza Strip under any name or justification, Reuters reports.
The group said the administration of the Gaza Strip is a purely Palestinian matter. “The Palestinian people […] will not allow any guardianship or the imposition of any external solutions or equations,” it added.
Gaza clothing workshop reborn from the rubble to provide jobs
A Palestinian businessman has opened a clothing factory to aid the enclave’s economy after nine months of Israeli bombardment, Reuters reports.
“I opened this factory for the displaced, so they can work and so I can create work for [them],” said Omar Samer Shaat, whose previous factory in Rafah was destroyed by an Israeli bombardment.
Salvaging machinery, fabric, thread and other materials from the rubble of the factory, he used them to start a new workshop in nearby Khan Younis and offered jobs to tailors who had been displaced by the fighting.
Pakistan to host Palestinian medical students for the completion of their studies
The Foreign Office (FO) has announced that the federal government will allow medical students from Gaza to complete their education in Pakistan on humanitarian grounds.
In a post on X, the FO has stated that the decision was “made on the directions of the Deputy Prime Minister & Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar […] by Pakistan Medical & Dental Council (PMDC)” and would allow students to “continue the final years of their medical education in the fields of cardiology, orthopedics, oncology, pediatrics and surgery to address critical needs in Gaza’s health care system”.
PM Shehbaz's position on Palestinian cause ‘historic’: Atta Tarar
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar has said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s position on Palestine at the recent Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting was 'historic'.
“When the prime minister said that Israel is killing innocent Palestinians and committing war crimes … he made a very clear point that Israel must be held accountable,” he said at a press conference.
He added that PM Shehbaz also reiterated Pakistan’s position on the two-state solution, where Palestine is given its independence with the pre-1967 borders and Jerusalem as its capital.
UN agency welcomes report ‘helping the world understand’ its work in Gaza
Officials at the embattled UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) have welcomed a report on its work by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nicholas Kristof for “helping the world understand what this UN agency does for humanity”, Al Jazeera reports.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said in a post on social media that the US-based journalist had travelled in the occupied West Bank with his agency and “witnessed firsthand the critical role” it plays in providing health and education services to Palestinian communities.
Israeli army says 50 targets bombed across Gaza
Israeli air attacks on residential homes killed at least five people in Jabalia and two near Khan Younis overnight.
The Israeli army claims the air force bombed 50 targets across the Gaza Strip, including booby-trapped buildings, armed cells and rocket launch sites.
As for the ground forces, the army said its 162nd Division Command killed a number of Palestinian fighters and destroyed several booby-trapped buildings in Rafah, while the 99th Division killed a number of fighters in the central Gaza Strip.
No news coming out of Shujayea after days of Israeli ground invasion
There is no news coming out of Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood where an Israeli ground invasion is continuing.
The Israeli forces are not letting ambulances, firefighters or journalists reach that area.
Heavy shelling and air strikes are being heard. The Palestinians who were trapped there and were requesting evacuation have gone quiet.
People are worried for their loved ones.
Palestinian team determined to play World Cup qualifiers in occupied West Bank
After advancing further than ever before in the World Cup, the Palestinian national football team is determined to host a game in the occupied West Bank, the Associated Press (AP) news agency reports.
The Palestinian team progressed through the second round of its group qualifying for the first time in its history in June but, because of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip, had played its matches in nearby Kuwait and Qatar.
The Palestinian Football Association (PFA) has now proposed playing games in the third stage of its Asian qualification campaign in the occupied West Bank and already has support from a number of its opponents, starting against Jordan on September 10, the AP reports.
“Playing at a neutral venue isn’t permanent and was never meant to be so,” Susan Shabali, the PFA’s deputy president said.
“Faisal Al-Husseini is ready to host,” Shabali said.
The 12,500 capacity Faisal Al-Husseini International Stadium is situated in the occupied West Bank town of Al Ram.
In 2019, it hosted the team’s last competitive home game, a World Cup qualifier against Saudi Arabia that ended 0-0.
Two children trapped under rubble after deadly strike in Gaza City’s Daraj area: Civil defence
Gaza’s civil defence has recovered the bodies of two women and rescued an unidentified number of injured people following an attack on a house in Gaza City’s Daraj neighbourhood.
The rescue service said on Telegram that two children were still trapped under the rubble of the Bardawil family home.
Two bodies and seven injured people were taken from the Bardawils’ house to the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, medical sources said.
Witnesses confirmed a number of dead were still under the rubble of the destroyed building.
“We were inside our house, and we heard an explosion … All the young men went to help the injured,” a witness said.
Israeli forces surround hospital in Jenin
Wissam Bakr, director of the Jenin Governmental Hospital, says Israeli forces have surrounded his medical facility in the occupied West Bank’s Jenin where a military raid is continuing.
The hospital received the bodies of four Palestinians killed by Israeli forces, alongside seven critically wounded people.
Israeli military carries out overnight attacks on southern Lebanon
Israel’s air force attacked Hezbollah targets in the al-Jebbayn and Kafr Hamman areas of southern Lebanon while artillery hit a target in the Naqoura area, the military said in a post on social media.
Earlier, Israel said its forces had attacked “terrorist infrastructure” in the Meiss el-Jabal and Ayta ash Shab areas.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog has congratulated incoming UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on what is set to be a landslide election victory for the Labour Party.
Washington believes there is a “pretty significant opening” in ongoing ceasefire-for-captives talks between Israel and Hamas, the AFP news agency reports, citing an anonymous senior US official.
US and Israeli officials said a “breakthrough” has been achieved following Hamas’s latest response to a ceasefire proposal, with a senior US official saying a framework has been established to reach a final agreement.
Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have slammed a decision by Israel to approve the largest land seizure in more than three decades in the occupied West Bank.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah says it has launched more than 200 rockets and attack drones targeting Israeli military positions in northern Israel, a day after senior commander Muhammad Nimah Nasser was killed in an Israeli strike.
US sees 'breakthrough' in Israel-Hamas talks, senior official says
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hamas made a pretty significant adjustment in its position over a potential hostage release deal with Israel, a senior US administration official said on Thursday (Jul 4), expressing hope that it would lead to a pact that would be a step to a permanent ceasefire.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Palestinian militant group's latest response "moves the process forward and may provide the basis for closing the deal," while stressing it does not mean an agreement was likely in the coming days, and that "significant work" remained on implementation steps.
