Israeli air strikes kill 14 Palestinians in Gaza, including 10 seeking food
The bloodshed comes as US-led ceasefire efforts aimed at halting a nearly 21-month war appear to be gaining momentum.
Hamas gave a 'positive' response late on Friday to the latest US proposal for a 60-day truce, but said further talks are needed on implementation.
Israel continues to pound targets in Gaza (AP)
Guarantees are being sought by Hamas that the initial truce would lead to a total end to the war and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
US President Donald Trump has been pushing for an agreement and is set to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House next week to discuss a deal.
The Israeli air strikes struck tents in the Muwasi area on the southern end of Gaza's Mediterranean coast, killing seven people, including a Palestinian doctor and his three children, according to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
Across #Gaza, attacks on tents and schools hosting displaced people and on people trying to access food continue to be reported, resulting in mass casualties.
Between 7 October 2023 and 25 June 2025 in Gaza:🚨at least 57,012 Palestinians have reportedly been killed🚨134,592… pic.twitter.com/apkIfBpOh6
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) July 5, 2025
Four others were killed in the town of Bani Suheila in southern Gaza, and three people were killed in three different strikes in Khan Younis. The Israeli army did not provide immediate comment on the strikes.
Meanwhile, eight Palestinians were killed near a GHF aid distribution site in the southern city of Rafah, the hospital said.
One Palestinian was also killed near another GHF point in Rafah.
Much of Gaza's population has been displaced (AP)
It was not clear how far away the Palestinians were from the sites.
GHF denied the killings happened near their sites. Previously the organisation has said no-one has been shot at its sites, which are guarded by private contractors but can only be accessed by passing Israeli military positions hundreds of yards away.
The army had no immediate comment, but has said it fires warning shots as a crowd-control measure and it only aims at people when its troops are threatened.
One Palestinian was also killed waiting in crowds for aid trucks in eastern Khan Younis, officials at Nasser Hospital said.
Fuel is a lifeline in #Gaza – it runs hospital generators, ambulances, bakeries, and water pumps.
Without urgent shipments of fuel into Gaza, a complete shutdown of basic services with will bring even more suffering: a collective punishment.
Fuel must be allowed in at scale… pic.twitter.com/jcL8Zpogvm
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) July 5, 2025
The United Nations and other international organisations bring in their own supplies of aid. It was unclear to which organisation the aid trucks the Palestinians were waiting for belonged to, but the incident did not appear to be connected to GHF operations.
Crowds of Palestinians often wait for trucks and unload or loot their contents before they reach their destinations. These trucks must pass through areas under Israeli military control. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the incident.
The war in Gaza was set off after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage.
Israel responded with an offensive that has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry, displaced nearly all of Gaza's two million people and left many on the edge of famine.
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The Independent
15 minutes ago
- The Independent
Israel heads to Qatar for Gaza talks despite calling Hamas demands ‘unacceptable'
Israel will send a delegation to Qatar on Sunday for proximity talks with Hamas over the latest Gaza ceasefire and hostage release proposal. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to the talks despite calling Hamas 's proposed changes to the mediator-backed plan 'unacceptable', his office said. The prime minister's security cabinet held a meeting late on Saturday after Hamas said it had delivered a 'positive response' to the proposal for a 60-day ceasefire and was 'fully prepared and serious' about immediately entering a new round of negotiations. 'The changes that Hamas is seeking to make in the Qatari proposal were conveyed to us last night and are unacceptable to Israel,' Mr Netanyahu's office said in a statement on Sunday. However, it added: 'In light of an assessment of the situation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has directed that the invitation to proximity talks be accepted and that the contacts for the return of our hostages - on the basis of the Qatari proposal that Israel has agreed to - be continued. The negotiating team will leave tomorrow.' The US-led ceasefire talks have appeared to gain momentum ahead of Mr Netanyahu's visit to Washington. The Israeli prime minister is set to leave on Sunday to meet the US president Donald Trump, who has been pushing for a ceasefire. It remains unclear what specific changes Hamas has requested to the US-led ceasefire proposal. According to Al Jazeera, Hamas has made three core demands for amending the current ceasefire proposal: a long-term resolution to end the war after the 60-day pause, the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza without the involvement of the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the territory. The US plan envisages the staggered release of 10 living Israeli hostages held by Hamas, as well as the return of the bodies of 18 others, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and a halt to the bombing of Gaza. Mr Trump, who announced the 'final proposal' for a 60-day ceasefire, said that Israel had accepted the 'necessary conditions' to end the hostilities. He posted on Truth Social that he wanted to be 'very firm' with Mr Netanyahu during their talks and planned to issue a warning to Hamas. 'I hope, for the good of the Middle East, that Hamas takes this Deal, because it will not get better — IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE,' Mr Trump wrote. However, Mr Netanyahu is likely to face opposition within his own government, with some right-wing members demanding the complete destruction of Hamas. Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, wrote on X on Saturday night that the Israeli military must reconquer the entire enclave, halt all humanitarian aid, and encourage the people of Gaza to emigrate. 'The only way to achieve victory and securely return our hostages is through the complete conquest of the Strip, a total cessation of 'humanitarian' aid, and the encouragement to emigration,' he said. 'I call on the prime minister to abandon the path of surrender and return to the path of victory.' Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa, the families and supporters of Israeli hostages held a massive anti-government rally to demand the release of their loved ones. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum demanded a comprehensive deal to end the war and the release of the remaining hostages. Some 50 of the 200 people taken captive during the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023 remain in Gaza. Israel believes some 27 of them are dead. In Gaza, weary Palestinians expressed cautious hope after Hamas gave a 'positive' response late on Friday. 'We are tired. Enough starvation, enough closure of crossing points. We want to sleep in calm where we don't hear warplanes or drones or shelling,' said Jamalat Wadi, one of Gaza's hundreds of thousands of displaced people, speaking in Deir al-Balah. Previous negotiations have stalled over Hamas demands for guarantees that further negotiations would lead to the war's end, while Mr Netanyahu has repeatedly pledged a 'total victory' over Hamas and has refused to withdraw from Gaza. 'Send a delegation with a full mandate to bring a comprehensive agreement to end the war and bring everyone back. No one must be left behind,' Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, told the weekly rally by relatives and supporters in Tel Aviv. Over 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to Gaza's health ministry, which is led by medical professionals employed by the Hamas government.
The Herald Scotland
an hour ago
- The Herald Scotland
Who are the shadowy figures running US-Israeli aid operation in Gaza?
At their disposal was $3 million in $100 bills, satellite communications equipment, and the weapons required for their covert mission of linking up with anti-Taliban forces and laying the groundwork for the larger US invasion to come. It goes without saying that none of the initial seven-member team were exactly household names, even if their extensive time within what was then known as the CIA's 'Special Activities Division' (SAD) had forged them something of a formidable reputation. Among the team was its deputy leader Philip Francis Reilly, who had been doing much the same 'special activities' in Central America back in the early 1980s to the early 1990s where he helped train Nicaragua's right-wing insurgent Contra militias trying to topple the socialist Sandinista government. It all seems like a long time ago, but Reilly has been a fixture in the US intelligence and covert community for quite a while now. Currently – albeit unnoticed by many – his activities are still making headlines, for Reilly's present area of operations these days is in Gaza. There he runs the US private military contractor Safe Reach Solutions (SRS) which, along with another private security contractor, UG Solutions, act as partner to the controversial US-Israeli organisation the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) that has sidelined the UN and other international organisations as the main supplier of aid in Gaza. Last week, GHF was hit by fresh controversy when one former security contractor who had worked for them told journalists that he witnessed colleagues opening fire several times on hungry Palestinians who posed no threat. Members of a private US security company, contracted by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private US-backed aid group which the UN refuses to work with over neutrality concerns, direct displaced Palestinians as they gather to receive relief Heated debate WHILE GHF has said the allegations are categorically false, the shadowy group from its very inception has been at the centre of heated debate as to precisely what role it performs in Gaza and at who's behest. So just what is known about GHF, those behind it and where its money comes from? The organisation was first established in February this year, shortly after Israel passed legislation seeking to bar the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA), the single largest provider of humanitarian aid in occupied Palestine. Israel has long sought to neuter the work of UNWRA which it claims was close to the Hamas authorities. The Israeli authorities say that Hamas made between $0.5bn and $1bn from stealing aid last year, though they have provided no backing for these figures. Other sources reckon Hamas's income was $1bn last year, mostly from foreign earnings. But by early March through to mid-May, Israel anyway had blocked all aid from entering Gaza before announcing its solution: the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Almost overnight, a 14-page leaked document circulated among aid groups and journalists setting out the concept and modus operandi of GHF. In short, this was to provide aid to Palestinians from a network of aid distribution hubs secured by armed private contractors and ultimately, beyond their perimeter, by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). So far, Israel has established three such centres south of the Morag corridor, a security strip in southern Gaza, and a fourth near Gaza City, in the north. GHF was registered in America two weeks after Donald Trump took office, and its address is one of a company that incorporates firms. Delaware is a US state acknowledged to have a less than rigorous approach towards ensuring company transparency. Asked by one reporter who visited the company why an organisation would have its registered address there but not be based there, one employee is said to have replied: 'So they're not bothered.' As well as being registered in the US, the GHF is also listed as a non-profit organisation in Switzerland. Since then, Trial International, a Swiss NGO, has filed a request for an investigation, asking authorities to investigate whether GHF adheres to international humanitarian law and Swiss law. READ MORE DAVID PRATT IN UKRAINE: Devastating snapshots of a brutal conflict with no end in sight DAVID PRATT IN UKRAINE: Inside the small village that stood fast against Russia's attempt to capture Kyiv David Pratt on The World: The signs that war in Europe can be avoided are anything but good David Pratt's Four Corners: Black Sea deal offers a grain of hope – but it won't end this brutal war Last week, Switzerland initiated proceedings to dissolve the Geneva branch of the GHF, citing legal shortcomings in its establishment. 'The ESA may order the dissolution of the foundation if no creditors come forward within the legal 30-day period,' the Federal Supervisory Authority for Foundations (ESA) said in a creditors notice published in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce last Wednesday. The ESA told reporters the GHF had not fulfilled certain legal requirements including having the correct number of board members, a postal address, or a Swiss bank account. For its part, the 'GHF confirmed to the ESA that it had never carried out activities in Switzerland... and that it intends to dissolve the Geneva-registered (branch),' the ESA added in a statement. Right-wing Knesset members Itamar Ben-Gvir (L) and Bezalel Smotrich, attend a special session at the Knesset Israel's parliament, to approve and swear in a new right-wing government, in Jerusalem 'Out of nowhere' THE absence of a funding paper trail along with the sometimes opaque backgrounds of some key players in setting up the GHF are only a few of many concerns since it first appeared almost out of nowhere. As far as the structure of the GHF operation goes, its components are as follows: GHF acts as the overall umbrella organisation. After the early resignation of its original executive director Jake Wood in May, who said the GHF would not be able to fulfil the principles of 'humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence', he was replaced by former USAID official John Acree and former Trump adviser Johnnie Moore. The latter is an evangelical preacher and public relations professional with close ties to both the White House and Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Moore was instrumental in an evangelical Christian drive during Trump's first term in office to convince the president to recognise Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and move the US embassy there. Alongside GHF run its private security partners Safe Reach Solutions and UG Solutions, headed by Reilly and the sole American director of SRS's Israeli branch and financial officer, Charles 'Chuck' J Africano. According to a report by the broadcaster France 24, Africano and Reilly have had past professional dealings, including around 2015 at another security firm Constellis – a successor to the controversial private military contractor Blackwater that gained notoriety for a civilian massacre in Iraq. The two also overlapped at the private security and surveillance firm Circinus, itself a subject of some past controversy related to dealings with foreign governments and its access to high-ranking US officials. Africano's connections with the GHF were first highlighted by the online news portal Middle East Eye and independently confirmed from public records by France 24, says the broadcaster. In a recent report, it also cited Africano as a member of the 'private LinkedIn group of the Tampa-based special operations contractor Quiet Professionals' which it says was acquired last month by the private equity firm McNally Capital. Quiet Professionals is led by Andy Wilson who, on his company's own webpage, is described as a 'valorous combat decorated retired Sergeant Major of the United States Army with 20 years of service… 14 of which were served in a Special Mission Unit'. Quiet Professionalss chief business officer Leo Kryszewski is also known to have spent four years with the CIA's Special Activities Division and the US Army's Office of Military Support, a clandestine intelligence unit often referred to within Joint Special Forces Command (JSOC) as Task Force Orange Helping draw up the blueprint for the GHF, comprising of these main constituent players and parties, was one of the world's most prestigious consulting firms – the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), though the group has since distanced itself from yjr GHF. But as a Financial Times (FT) investigation revealed a few days ago, before disavowing the project, 'BCG's role was more extensive than it has publicly described'. People carry boxes of relief supplies from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) Israeli think tank ACCORDING to the FT investigation, BCG was originally engaged by Orbis, a Washington-area security contractor that was preparing the study on behalf of the Tachlith Institute, an Israeli think tank. BCG was chosen as a consultant, according to people familiar with the early work, says the FT, 'because of its longstanding relationship with Philip Reilly, an ex-CIA operative who worked for Orbis'. Citing the same sources, the FT said BCG's involvement stretched 'over seven months covering more than $4m of contracted work and involving internal discussion at senior levels of the firm'. As part of the project, codenamed 'Aurora', the BCG team is said to have also built a financial model for the post-war reconstruction of Gaza. This included cost estimates 'for relocating hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from the strip' and the economic impact of such a mass displacement. One scenario estimated more than 500,000 Gazans would leave the enclave with 'relocation packages' worth $9,000 per person, or around $5bn in total, the FT detailed. For its part, BCG told the FT senior figures were repeatedly 'misled on the scope of the work by the partners running the project'. Referring to the work on post-war Gaza, BCG said: 'The lead partner was categorically told no, and he violated this directive. We disavow this work.' Just precisely where much of the funding for the GHF comes from remains as shrouded in secrecy as the background of some of the individuals involved. These past weeks the US announced $30m for the GHF but it's thought to have received over $150m so far, much of which is believed to have has gone on hiring mercenaries, some from American private security firms. One job advertisement from UG Solutions said it was seeking 'Special Forces qualified personnel, SFOD-A/CAG, Green Berets, Army Rangers, PJs, Marine Reconnaissance (MARSOC), or other similar backgrounds'. Those 'skilled in unconventional warfare tactics' and selected ' must be ready to deploy within two weeks of May 20, 2025', the advertisement confirmed. While questions remain as to where exactly all of GHF's funding comes from, last month former Israeli defence minister and opposition MP, Avigdor Lieberman, told Israeli newspaper Haaretz he was convinced that Israel's defence ministry and its intelligence arm Mossad were the main paymasters. To date, the GHF's performance in Gaza has been abysmal and mired in controversy. According to most global humanitarian organisations, its presence is only making an already dire situation in Gaza even worse. As a result, these past few days, more than 170 NGOs have called for immediate action to end the 'deadly' GHF aid scheme and revert back to United Nations-led aid co-ordination mechanisms. GHF's role has thrown into sharp focus the dangers of outsourcing core humanitarian functions to private actors and whether, in fact, it is legally or ethically defensible. What happens next with the GHF involves two possible scenarios. The first is that its presence will be transitory, having failed to deliver on an aid mission that should be undertaken by the UN. The cost, meantime, in terms of Palestinian suffering and lives will only continue to rise. The second scenario is that the GHF remains and becomes an instrument of power as part of a strategy that many believe is aimed at herding Palestinians into designated areas to enable a wider process of ethnic cleansing. 'Greater Israel' ISRAEL'S far-right politicians including finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, doubtless see the work of the GHF as crucial in their messianic mission to create a 'greater Israel'. Israeli prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, continues to speak of creating 'a sterile zone' for Palestinians. For decades now the CIA's Special Activities Division – now renamed the Special Activities Center (SAC) – has performed countless covert roles, some helping to orchestrate regime change in many places. The Latin motto of SAC is Tertia Optio, which means 'Third Option'. In other words, covert action represents an additional option within the realm of national security when diplomacy and military action are not feasible. With diplomacy at an effective standstill over Gaza, the obvious danger is that other 'options' become in the eyes of some the real way 'forward'. While the GHF's security partners Safe Reach Solutions and UG Solutions are private companies, the fact that their chief officers and many within their ranks are past operatives of the CIA and its SAC leaves many uneasy. Just as the likes of Philip Reilly and his CIA team all those years ago in Afghanistan were tasked with laying the groundwork for what was to come, could it be that now, through the use of private contractors, much the same is being done in Gaza today? The fact that figures like Reilly and others still have the ear or indeed direct links to senior US government and Israeli officials only adds to this growing disquiet over the actual motives behind GHF's shadowy role in Gaza.
Spectator
an hour ago
- Spectator
Ireland will regret its planned Israeli settlements trade ban
If Ireland's foreign affairs minister expected plaudits from EU leaders for the republic's looming ban on Israeli settlement goods, he was sorely disappointed. Ireland, Simon Harris pontificated in Brussels, 'is the only country in the entire European Union that has published any legislation ever in relation to banning trade with the occupied Palestinian territories, but it's pretty lonely out there.' Frankly, this is hardly surprising when you take your country on a solo run into perilous economic and diplomatic territory. The Israeli Settlements (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (PIGS) will ban goods produced, or partly produced, in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. It applies to every type of goods, from dates and avocados, manufactured goods, raw materials to natural resources. It is purely symbolic, representing €1.5 million (£1.29 billion) of the €4.36 billion (£3.88 billion) trade between Ireland and Israel. But the penalties are draconian, the likely diplomatic and economic fallout ignored, and no thought was given to the many Palestinians employed by Israeli settlement companies whose livelihoods may be jeopardised by this ban. Well, it is the symbolism that counts. When enacted, Irish, UK and other citizens ordinarily resident in Ireland could face a five-year jail term, a €125,000 (£107,000) fine or both should they buy a string of beads or a bottle of holy water in the old city of East Jerusalem and turn up at Dublin airport with the offending items in their backpacks. Incredibly, the Bill has extraterritorial effect – although quite how this will be enforced is anyone's guess. Its astonishing implications have never been explored. The PIGS Bill is the renamed Occupied Territories Bill published by independents in the Irish parliament in 2018. But since October 2023, multifarious radical groups have effectively hijacked the legislation and are using it as a trojan horse to dismantle the entire EU-Israel trade agreement worth €46 billion (£39.6 billion). On the streets, mainly peaceful protesters demanding an end to Israeli trade march in lockstep with extremists carrying Hezbollah flags chanting 'let's go bomb Tel Aviv' and 'burn the settlers to the ground'. And nobody bats an eyelid. Since 2018, three attorneys general have warned the government that enacting this legislation would be at 'substantial risk to the state' because it violates EU law on international trade, free movement and customs rules by imposing a trade ban unilaterally. As one seasoned political correspondent put it, there's a reason this bill has been left hanging around since 2018: 'It stank'. The PIGS Bill aims to get around infringing EU law by framing the legislation on the advisory opinion published by the International Court of Justice last July urging states not to trade or invest in the occupied territories. Although not legally binding, the opinion allowed the government enough wriggle room to push the bill forward. Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin pressed pause momentarily when he got an earful from powerful Jewish organisations during his annual St Patrick's Day trip to Washington, but it's now full steam ahead in Ireland's war on dates and avocados. There remains, however, extreme nervousness about the bill in government and the likely diplomatic and economic fallout. One government figure described it as 'economic treason'. Documents have now emerged showing that John McCarthy, chief economist in the department of finance, raised the prospect of conflict between the state's diplomatic and economic policies. The ban 'might pose problems for businesses based in Ireland, including multinationals, which do not usually operate different regimes between Ireland and other EU countries,' he warned. Ireland acts as the gateway to Europe for US companies. They directly employ 211,000 people in the country and indirectly support a further 168,000 jobs. As things stand, 38 US states penalise businesses that boycott Israeli trade, which puts Ireland on a direct collision course with American multinationals based there. So far, the bill only applies to goods but the clamour to include services is getting louder. If services are included, companies such as Airbnb – which has its European headquarters in Dublin – may have a problem. And what of security software reportedly developed by an Israeli software firm and used by Irish banks? That could prove interesting. Ireland's head of police is none too happy either after spending €500,000 (£430,000) on the Israel-made technology 'Cellebrite', a vital tool for solving violent crime by extracting data from computers. Gardai commissioner Drew Harris said: It's a tool that we need to properly investigate crime which has some form of cyber or digital element. When you look at the detections we are getting, the crimes we're preventing and the convictions that there are, we'd be very reluctant to step away from a very important tool. All this is being put at risk for a legislative mess that will do nothing to help the Palestinian people. But symbolism matters. This will be the first piece of legislation in Europe since 1945 that will criminalise trade with Jewish businesses. Ireland will be the toast of Hamas yet again as its anti-Israel stance crosses another red line. Other European states are not exactly clamouring to jump aboard this particular bandwagon, but Harris has made clear Ireland is happy to go it alone. 'In the absence of Europe moving together, we're going to go ahead with our own domestic legislation', he said. Of course he is. This is a man who reopened an Irish embassy in Teheran and disinvite the Israeli ambassador from his party conference, all the while feting the Iranian one. Ireland is the most pro-Palestine state in the western world; this is the hill it is choosing to die on. But falling foul of EU law is the least of its problems. US President Donald Trump already has Ireland in his sights over its preferential 12.5 per cent corporation tax. Given the US President's unwavering support for Israel, is the Irish government prepared for the cold winds that will come from Washington if it panders to demands from keffiyeh-covered stormtroopers to cut trade ties with Israel? We will soon find out.
