Live Updates: Israel's Gaza invasion – Day 647 – Dawn

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October 7, 2023: Israel begins bombarding Gaza in retaliation to Hamas attacks
Israel resumes massive attacks on March 18, killing over 400 in a day — two months after ceasefire ending 15 months of relentless attacks began
Future governance of Gaza remains unclear as Trump suggests US takeover but Arab countries propose alternative plan, which UK, others back
Hamas and Israel exchange 25 hostages, bodies and 1,700 detainees in seven swaps
Over 54,000 Palestinians, 400 Israeli soldiers dead; nearly all of Gaza displaced
Multi-billion dollar challenges ahead to reconstruct decimated enclave
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has again criticised government plans to build a “humanitarian city” in Gaza, calling it a “crazy idea even by the standards of this government”, Al Jazeera reports.
“Will its residents be allowed to leave it? If not, how will they prevent them from leaving? Will there be a fence around it? Will it be an ordinary fence or an electric one? How many soldiers will guard the fence? What will the soldiers do if children try to leave the city?” Lapid told a press conference.
“Who will provide the residents with food, water, and electricity? What will happen if epidemics and diseases break out there? Who will treat them? And the most important question for the citizens of Israel: how much will it cost us?”
Lapid said the plan would cost at least 15 billion shekels ($4.5 billion), with some estimates reaching 20 billion shekels ($6bn) or more.
“This city in Gaza will not be established … it is a very crazy idea,” he said, accusing the government of wasting public funds on a “delusion”.
Gaza ceasefire mediators are ramping up efforts to overcome obstacles hindering indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas, Al Jazeera reports citing Egyptian media.
The state-affiliated Al-Qahera News channel, citing unnamed sources, said Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad met with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani as part of Egypt’s broader push to secure a ceasefire in Gaza.
The timing and location of the meeting were not disclosed. Rashad has held a series of discussions with both Palestinian and Israeli negotiators, the sources added.
Israel is resuming plans to build in the E1 area of the occupied West Bank — a move that would sever the north from the south, Al Jazeera reports, citing Israeli news outlet Haaretz.
The Higher Planning Committee in the Civil Administration is scheduled to discuss the project on August 6, marking the first time the proposal has advanced since 2021.
Opponents — including Palestinians living in the area and groups such as Peace Now, Ir Amim, and the Association for Environmental Justice — were summoned last week to present their objections.
The construction threatens remaining land reserves around Ramallah, East Jerusalem, and Bethlehem, critics said.
According to Haaretz, the plan involves the construction of 3,412 housing units across 12 square kilometres, north and west of the Ma’ale Adumim settlement, which is illegal under international law.

A BBC documentary about children’s lives in Gaza narrated by the 13-year-old son of a deputy agriculture minister in the Gaza government breached the British public broadcaster’s editorial guidelines on accuracy, an internal review has shown, Reuters reports.
The BBC’s investigation, however, found there were no other breaches of its editorial guidelines, including on impartiality, and no evidence that outside interests “inappropriately impacted on the programme”.
The BBC removed Gaza: How To Survive A War Zone from its online platform in February, five days after it was broadcast, saying it had “serious flaws”. The documentary was made by independent production company HOYO Films.
A review found the programme breached a guideline on accuracy that deals with misleading audiences. The background on the narrator’s father was “critical information” that was not shared with the BBC before broadcast, the review found.
Read more here.
Christian leaders have accused Israeli settlers of attacking sacred sites in the West Bank, in violence that one said was forcing some to consider quitting the occupied territory, Reuters reports.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III — visiting the Christian town of Taybeh with other Jerusalem-based clerics — said settlers had started a fire near a cemetery and a 5th-century church there last week.
“These actions are a direct and intentional threat to our local community … but also to the historic and religious heritage,” the patriarch told diplomats and journalists at a press conference in Taybeh.
Settlers had also attacked homes in the area, he said.
“We call for an immediate and transparent investigation on why the Israeli police did not respond to emergency calls from the local community and why these abhorrent actions continue to go unpunished,” he added.
Read more here.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has said there have been some signs of more trucks and supplies getting to Gaza but the EU doesn’t see enough improvement on the ground, ahead of a meeting with senior Middle Eastern and EU officials in Brussels, Reuters reports.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty has said “nothing has changed” since an agreement between Israel and the European Union on the resumption of humanitarian aid to Gaza, Reuters reports.
He made the statements to reporters ahead of the EU-Middle East meeting in Brussels.
US President Donald Trump has expressed optimism about a deal to halt Israel’s offensive on the Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera reports.
“We’re doing pretty well on Gaza, Steve Witkoff is here, and I think we could have something fairly soon to talk about,” Trump told a news conference at the White House.

The X account of Sesame Street’s Elmo, a beloved children’s TV character, has shared antisemitic and anti-Donald Trump posts after being hacked, AFP reports.
A slew of messages calling for the extermination of Jewish people and labelling the US president a “puppet” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were shared on the account, according to the US media reports.
Around 650,000 users follow Elmo, the fuzzy red monster who teaches his young audience about kindness and patience.
Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind Sesame Street, said that an unidentified hacker was behind the posts, which were published on Sunday afternoon before being removed.
“Elmo’s X account was compromised today by an unknown hacker who posted disgusting messages, including antisemitic and racist posts,” it said in a statement carried by the New York Times.

The footage below, taken by Israeli soldiers and released by local media, shows the demolition of a residential block in the Saudi neighbourhood of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera reports.

Hamas has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of not wanting to reach a deal to end the fighting in Gaza as talks in Qatar enter their second week, AFP reports.
“Netanyahu is skilled at thwarting one round of negotiations after another, and is unwilling to reach any agreement,” the Palestinian group said in a statement on its Telegram channel.

Children queue with pots to receive meals from a charity kitchen in Gaza City on July 14. — AFP
Children queue with pots to receive meals from a charity kitchen in Gaza City on July 14. — AFP

Mediators are pursuing “innovative mechanisms” to bridge the gaps between Israeli and Hamas delegations after a week of Gaza truce talks in Qatar, an official with knowledge of the negotiations has told AFP.
“Mediators are actively exploring innovative mechanisms to help bridge the remaining gaps and maintain momentum in the negotiations,” the official said, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
The father of an Israeli captive held in Gaza says he had travelled to Washington DC with “hope” of a ceasefire but has returned to Israel to a “reality of stagnation that is difficult to bear”, Al Jazeera reports.
Kobi Kalfon, father of Segev Kalfon, told Israeli public radio that he and the other family members of captives were in a “race against time” as their loved ones remained in captivity.
“At the timing we are going through, you expect a breakthrough. Last week, we were in Washington, and I clung to a certain hope. Then we returned to the country, and the negotiations are stuck,” Kobi Kalfon said.
He added that in the US, the “feeling” was that a ceasefire was about to be reached.
“When is it supposed to happen?” he asked.
Gaza’s water crisis has intensified since Israel blocked nearly all fuel shipments into the enclave on March 2. With no fuel, desalination plants, wastewater treatment facilities and pumping stations have largely shut down, Al Jazeera reports.
Asem Alnabih, a spokesperson for Gaza’s municipality, said yesterday that only 12 of more than 70 municipal wells remain operational.
“We’re on the verge of death. Water can reach only 50 per cent of the city,” Alnabih told Al Jazeera, adding that the rest get nothing.
According to the International Rescue Committee, most people in Gaza now receive far less than the World Health Organisation’s emergency minimum of 15 litres per person per day.
Israeli attacks across Gaza have killed 47 Palestinians since dawn, Al Jazeera reports citing medical sources.
Among them are 27 people killed in strikes on central and southern Gaza.
Israel’s military offensive on Gaza has killed at least 58,026 people and wounded 138,520, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Israeli soldiers have demolished the house of a Palestinian in al-Maara village, which is south of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.
Footage below, published by Palestinian platforms and verified by Al Jazeera, shows bulldozers bringing down the four-storey house as Israeli attacks continue to escalate in the area.

Latest Israeli air strikes have killed at least 22 people, including at least 10 in Gaza City, AFP reports citing Gaza’s civil defence agency.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that 10 Palestinians were killed in three separate air strikes in various parts of Gaza City, in the territory’s north, with 12 more people killed in attacks on the southern area of Khan Younis.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was looking into the reports. A military statement said that Israeli troops had destroyed “buildings and terrorist infrastructure” used by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants in Gaza City’s Shujaiya and Zeitun areas.
The Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, which has fought alongside Hamas in Gaza, released footage that it said showed its fighters firing missiles at an Israeli army command and control centre near Shujaiya.
Israeli jets have launched air strikes on a house near the al-Shurafa Roundabout in the Tuffah neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City, Al Jazeera reports.
Jets also targeted a home in the Sabra neighbourhood in southern Gaza City, where one person was wounded.
At the same time, an ambulance and emergency source said that one person was killed due to the bombing of a house in Sabra.
Gaza’s Health Ministry reports that at least 360 medical personnel have been arrested by Israel inside the enclave since the start of the onslaught and those detained are “living in tragic and harsh conditions”, Al Jazeera reports.
Among the detainees are doctors, further depriving thousands of wounded Palestinians of medical care, the ministry said in a statement.
It called for urgent international intervention “to criminalise the occupation’s practices against imprisoned medical staff and to pressure for their release”.
The Israeli army has killed at least 1,400 healthcare and medical workers across Gaza since the start of the offensive in October 2023, according to the ministry.
Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, spoke to TRT Balkan about the sanctions imposed on her by the United States.
“The personal attacks, the reputational damage, the threats,” she told TRT. “This was not really unexpected but unnecessary.
“By sanctioning me, the US is violating the 1946 Vienna Convention on Privileges and Immunities, which is immediately self-executing in US courts.”


The health of Dr Hussam Abu Safia, a prominent paediatrician and the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, has deteriorated significantly while in Israeli detention, his lawyer said in a statement posted on social media, Al Jazeera reports.
Abu Safia was detained in December last year, when Israeli forces raided Kamal Adwan Hospital, taking him, other medical staff and patients into custody, and forcing the last major hospital in northern Gaza out of service.
According to his lawyer, Abu Safia has lost more than 40 kilogrammes (88 pounds) since his arrest, dropping from 100 kilogrammes (220 pounds) to about 60 kilogrammes (132 pounds). He was reportedly severely beaten on June 24 at Ofer Prison, sustaining injuries to his ribs, face and back. Despite requesting medical care and cardiology tests for an irregular heartbeat, his requests were denied.
He remains in solitary confinement under harsh conditions, deprived of sunlight, and still wearing winter clothes in the summer heat. His lawyer warned that Abu Safia and many other Palestinian detainees are in grave condition.
The foreign minister of Palestine, Varsen Aghabekian Shahin, is scheduled to hold meetings with a number of European foreign ministers, including Kaja Kallas, in an EU meeting in Brussels, where Israel’s foreign minister will be present as well, AFP reports.
Israeli and Palestinian foreign ministers were also due to meet in Brussels today, but the Palestinian Authority denied that the two would meet.
According to a statement by the Palestinian Authority, “The minister will demand an immediate halt to the crimes of genocide, displacement and annexation, and to compel the Israeli government to comply with the international will for peace and open a political negotiation process to end the occupation and enable our people to exercise their right to self-determination,”.
Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Saar is also expected to meet with foreign ministers on the sidelines of the event and will hold talks with the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas.

 A man holding a placard attends a demonstration organised by several French labour unions and French left-wing political parties in support of Palestinians in Gaza, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and for unhindered access for humanitarian aid at the Place de la Republique in Paris, France on June 14, 2025. — Reuters
A man holding a placard attends a demonstration organised by several French labour unions and French left-wing political parties in support of Palestinians in Gaza, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and for unhindered access for humanitarian aid at the Place de la Republique in Paris, France on June 14, 2025. — Reuters

 A woman holding a placard attends a demonstration organised by several French labour unions and French left-wing political parties in support of Palestinians in Gaza, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and for unhindered access for humanitarian aid at the Place de la Republique in Paris, France on June 14, 2025. — Reuters
A woman holding a placard attends a demonstration organised by several French labour unions and French left-wing political parties in support of Palestinians in Gaza, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and for unhindered access for humanitarian aid at the Place de la Republique in Paris, France on June 14, 2025. — Reuters

 Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of French far-left opposition party La France Insoumise  attends a demonstration organised by several French labour unions and French left-wing political parties in support of Palestinians in Gaza, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and for unhindered access for humanitarian aid at the Place de la Republique in Paris, France on June 14, 2025. — Reuters
Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of French far-left opposition party La France Insoumise attends a demonstration organised by several French labour unions and French left-wing political parties in support of Palestinians in Gaza, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and for unhindered access for humanitarian aid at the Place de la Republique in Paris, France on June 14, 2025. — Reuters

 A woman holding a placard reading “Stop international hypocrisy, free Palestine” attends a demonstration organised by several French labour unions and French left-wing political parties in support of Palestinians in Gaza, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and for unhindered access for humanitarian aid at the Place de la Republique in Paris, France on June 14, 2025. — Reuters
A woman holding a placard reading “Stop international hypocrisy, free Palestine” attends a demonstration organised by several French labour unions and French left-wing political parties in support of Palestinians in Gaza, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and for unhindered access for humanitarian aid at the Place de la Republique in Paris, France on June 14, 2025. — Reuters

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