Media Report 2025.07.01
Israeli bombardment in Gaza kills 58 people in one day
ABC / Reuters | 1 July 2025
- A beachfront cafe and schools were among targets struck on Monday as Israel stepped up its latest campaign in Gaza.
- The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has signalled it would be intensifying operations in the Palestinian enclave after a ceasefire was struck with Iran last week.
- There is still no timeline for a potential ceasefire, but Donald Trump will host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at White House on July 7 amid US pressure to end the conflict.
A beachfront cafe and four schools were among the targets struck as Israel intensified its latest campaign against Hamas in Gaza, killing at least 58 people on Monday alone.
The strikes came as Israel’s opposition leader Yair Lapid joined a growing chorus inside and outside of Israel calling for the war to end.
On Sunday, US President Donald Trump urged an end to the 20-month-old war and for the return of the remaining hostages.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit the White House on July 7 for talks with Mr Trump, according to two US administration officials.
Mr Netanyahu’s visit comes after Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer’s visit to Washington this week for talks with senior administration officials on a Gaza ceasefire, Iran and possible wider regional diplomatic deals.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued evacuation orders on Monday to residents in large districts in the northern Gaza Strip, forcing a new wave of displacement.
Israeli tanks pushed into the eastern areas of Zeitoun suburb in Gaza City and shelled several areas in the north.
Aircraft also bombed at least four schools after the Israeli military warned hundreds of families sheltering inside to leave, residents said.
Salah, 60, a father of five children in Gaza City, told Reuters he felt the bombardment “never stopped”.
“They bombed schools and homes. It felt like earthquakes.”
“In the news we hear a ceasefire is near, on the ground we see death and we hear explosions.”
It is the latest offensive of the 20-month war, which started when Hamas militants entered Israel on October 7, 2023, killing more than 1,200 people and taking a further 251 hostage.
Israel’s subsequent military assault has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry.
Fighting in the enclave has displaced almost 2.3 million people and plunged the enclave into a humanitarian crisis.
Beachfront cafe among targets
Authorities in the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said that of the 58 people killed, 10 of them were in the town of Zeitoun and at least 13 killed south-west of Gaza City.
Medics said most of the 13 were hit by gunfire, but residents also reported an air strike.
Twenty people, including women, children and a local journalist were killed in an Israeli air strike on a beachfront cafe in Gaza City, medics said.
The Palestinian Journalist Syndicate said more than 220 journalists had been killed in Gaza since the war began in October 2023.
The Israeli military said it struck militant targets in northern Gaza, including command and control centres, after taking steps to mitigate the risk of harming civilians.
There was no immediate word from Israel on the reported casualties south-west of the Gaza Strip and the beachfront cafe.
It also followed intense bombardment on Sunday, in which 27 people were killed.
Israel has warned residents in vast areas of Gaza’s north to evacuate in recent days, as it steps up military operations in the territory following the ceasefire with Iran last week.
IDF says ‘lessons learned’ after aid deaths
The Israeli military acknowledged on Monday that Palestinian civilians were harmed at aid distribution centres in Gaza, saying that instructions had been issued to forces following “lessons learned”.
Since Israel lifted an 11-week blockade on Gaza on May 19, allowing limited United Nations aid deliveries to resume, the United Nations says more than 400 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid.
A military spokesperson said incidents in which Gazans were harmed were under review.
In a post on X, the IDF said it was making changes which “aim to ensure safe civilian passage, orderly aid distribution, and the continuity of IDF operations”.
“The IDF is conducting ongoing assessments to improve operational response, minimise friction with the population, and ensure aid reaches its intended recipients and not Hamas,” it said.
It follows Israel’s military decision last week to launch a probe into deaths near aid sites, which have occurred with increased frequency and lethality since the US-backed organisation Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) took over the distribution of aid in Gaza.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday that GHF’s operation in Gaza is “inherently unsafe,” and was “killing people”.
Netanyahu aide in White House visit
Israel’s strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer, a confidant of Mr Netanyahu’s, was expected on Monday at the White House for talks on Iran and Gaza, an Israeli official said.
The meeting in Washington DC came a day after the US president called for Israel and Hamas to “make the deal in Gaza, get the hostages back”.
In Israel, the prime minister’s security cabinet was expected to convene to discuss the next steps in Gaza.
High-profile members of the Israeli government have appeared more willing to contemplate a potential ceasefire in Gaza in recent days.
On Friday, Israel’s military chief said the present ground operation was close to having achieved its goals.
On Sunday, Mr Netanyahu said new opportunities had opened up for recovering the hostages, 20 of whom are believed to still be alive.
Qatar and Egypt, who are both mediating negotiations between Hamas and Israel, also appeared willing to capitalise on the recent ceasefire between Israel and Iran.
Palestinian and Egyptian sources with knowledge of the latest ceasefire efforts said that Qatar and Egypt have stepped up their contacts with the two warring sides, but that no date has been set yet for a new round of truce talks.
Israeli opposition leader calls for war to end
On Monday, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid became the latest public figure to advocate for an end to the war, which has been raging for 20 months.
He joins Mr Trump as well as Israeli ex-prime minister Naftali Bennett in pressing Mr Netanyahu to find an off-ramp in the fight with Hamas.
“There is no longer any benefit for the State of Israel from continuing the war in Gaza. Only damage on the security, political and economic level,” Mr Lapid told a meeting of lawmakers from his parliamentary group.
Mr Lapid said Arab countries such as Egypt should be engaged to find a way to loosen Hamas’s grip of the Palestinian enclave.
“Hamas will not be eliminated as long as an alternative government is not brought into Gaza,” he said.
A public opinion poll published the day after Tuesday’s ceasefire with Iran by public broadcaster Kan showed that nearly two-thirds of respondents wanted the Gaza war to end.
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Trump calls for hostage ‘deal’ in Gaza as Israel intensifies assault
ABC / Reuters, AFP | 30 June 2025
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-30/gaza-israel-trump-deal-hostages-gunfire/105475138
- At least 23 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and strikes in Gaza on Sunday, as Israel warns residents to leave some areas of the enclave’s north.
- US President Donald Trump has taken to social media to call for a deal to be reached to secure the release of Israeli hostages kidnapped on October 7, 2023.
- Qatar and Egypt, backed by the US, are seeking to capitalise on the recent ceasefire between Israel and Iran to secure a similar agreement in Gaza.
Israel’s military has issued fresh evacuation notices for parts of Gaza, heralding a new operation in the Palestinian enclave against Hamas, as it carried out further strikes on Sunday.
It came as US President Donald Trump called for Israel and Hamas to “make a deal” in Gaza to see the return of remaining hostages kidnapped by Hamas after the October 7, 2023 terrorist attacks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later said the ceasefire between Israel and Iran created “opportunities” for the release of hostages in Gaza.
Israel has been conducting a campaign in Gaza since Hamas’s attack, which killed more than 1,200 people in Israel and took a further 251 hostage.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel’s military assault in Gaza has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry, displaced almost the entire 2.3 million population and plunged the enclave into a humanitarian crisis.
Gaza’s civil defence agency, which is run by militant group Hamas, said Israeli air strikes and gunfire killed 23 people in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory on Sunday, including at least three children.
The Israeli military told news agency AFP it was not able to comment on the reported incidents but said it was fighting “to dismantle Hamas military capabilities”.
In a statement posted on X and text messages sent to many residents, Israel’s military urged people in northern parts of the enclave to head south towards the city of Khan Younis, which Israel designated as a humanitarian area.
“The [Israel] Defense Forces is operating with extreme force in these areas, and these military operations will escalate, intensify, and extend westward to the city centre to destroy the capabilities of terrorist organisations,” the military said.
The evacuation order covered the Jabalia area and most Gaza City districts.
‘End this occupation’
Medics and residents said the Israeli army’s bombardments escalated in the early hours in Jabalia, destroying several houses and killing at least six people.
In Khan Younis in the south, five people were killed in an air strike on a tent encampment near Mawasi, medics said.
At least 12 other people were killed in separate Israeli military strikes and gunfire across the enclave, taking Sunday’s death toll to at least 23, medics said.
At Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, relatives arrived to pay their respects to white-shrouded bodies before they were buried.
“A month ago, they [Israel] told us to go to Al-Mawasi [in Khan Younis] and we stayed there for a month, it is a safe zone,” Zeyad Abu Marouf said.
He said three of his children were killed and a fourth was wounded in the Israeli air strike.
“We ask God and the Arabs to move and end this occupation and the injustice taking place against us,” Abu Marouf told Reuters.
Israel’s military also said in a statement that a 20-year-old soldier was killed “during combat in the northern Gaza Strip”.
Ceasefire push
Amid the ongoing fighting, there has been a renewed diplomatic push to bring an end to violence in Gaza.
On Sunday, US President Donald Trump joined the ranks of those calling for a diplomatic end to the war.
“Make the deal in Gaza, get the hostages back,” Mr Trump posted on Truth Social.
Later on Sunday, Mr Netanyahu said his country’s “victory” over Iran in their 12-day war had created “opportunities”, including for freeing Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
“Many opportunities have opened up now following this victory. First of all, to rescue the hostages,” the Israeli prime minister said.
“Of course, we will also have to solve the Gaza issue, to defeat Hamas, but I estimate that we will achieve both goals.”
Hamas has said it was willing to free remaining hostages in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed to still be alive, only in a deal that will end the war.
The Israeli government has maintained it can only end the war if Hamas is disarmed and dismantled. Hamas refuses to lay down its arms.
Arab mediators Egypt and Qatar, backed by the United States, are pushing a new ceasefire effort to halt the 20-month-old conflict and secure the release of Israeli and foreign hostages still being held by Hamas.
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Trump escalates his push for Gaza deal
The Age (& Sydney Morning Herald) / AP | Tia Goldenberg | 1 July 2025
US President Donald Trump has pushed again for Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire in the 21-month war in Gaza, as the Israeli military ordered the mass evacuation of swaths of northern Gaza and looked to escalate attacks into Gaza City.
“Make The Deal In Gaza. Get The Hostages Back!!!” Trump wrote on social media a day after criticising legal proceedings against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on trial for alleged corruption, calling them “a Political Witch Hunt”.
Trump had raised expectations on Friday for a deal, saying there could be an agreement within a week.
Ron Dermer, a top adviser to Netanyahu, was set to travel to Washington this week for talks on a ceasefire, an Israeli official said, and plans were being made for Netanyahu to travel there in the coming weeks, a sign there may be movement on a deal. Netanyahu was to meet his security cabinet yesterday, the official said on condition of anonymity.
Trump has repeatedly called for Israel and Hamas to end the war. An eight-week ceasefire was reached just as he took office earlier this year, but Israel resumed the war in March after trying to get Hamas to accept new terms on the next steps.
Some Palestinians greeted the possibility of a new truce with scepticism, having watched the previous ceasefire shatter.
“Since the beginning of the war, they have been promising us something like this: release the hostages, and we will stop the war,” Abdel Hadi Al-Hour said. “They did not stop the war.”
The new evacuation orders in northern Gaza cover neighbour hoods in eastern and northern Gaza City, as well as the Jabaliya refugee camp. Northern Gaza is home to hundreds of thousands of people who returned during the ceasefire earlier this year.
An Israeli military offensive aims to move Palestinians to southern Gaza so forces can more freely operate to combat militants. Rights groups say this would amount to forcible displacement.
Colonel Avichay Adraee, a military spokesperson, posted the order on social media and said the military would expand its escalating attacks westward to the city’s centre, calling for people to move towards the Muwasi area in southern Gaza. Talks between Israel and Hamas have repeatedly faltered over a major sticking point whether the war should end as part of any ceasefire agreement.
Hamas official Mahmoud Merdawi accused Netanyahu of stalling progress on a deal, saying on social media that the Israeli leader insisted on a temporary agreement that would free just 10 of the hostages. About 50 hostages remain, with fewer than half believed to be alive.
Netanyahu spokesperson Omer Dostri said that “Hamas was the only obstacle to ending the war”, without addressing Merdawi’s claim.
During a visit on the week end to Israel’s internal security service, Shin Bet, Netanyahu said the Israel-Iran war and subsequent ceasefire had opened many opportunities: “First of all, to rescue the hostages. Of course, we will also have to solve the Gaza issue, to defeat Hamas, but I estimate that we will achieve both tasks.”
Hamas says it is willing to free all the hostages in exchange for a full withdrawal of Israeli troops and an end to the war in Gaza. Israel rejects that offer, saying it will agree to end the war if Hamas surrenders, disarms and goes into exile, something the group refuses.
The war in Gaza began with the Hamas-led attack on south ern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which militants killed 1200 people and took about 250 hostages.
Gaza’s Health Ministry on Sunday said another 88 people had been killed by Israeli fire over the previous 24 hours, raising the war’s toll among Palestinians to 56,500. The ministry, which operates under the Hamas government, doesn’t distinguish between militants and civilians in its count, but it says more than half of the dead are women and children.
The war has displaced most of Gaza’s population, often several times, obliterated much of the territory’s urban landscape and left people overwhelmingly reliant on outside aid, which Israel has limited since the end of the latest ceasefire.
Fewer than half of Gaza’s hospitals are even partly functional, and more than 4000 children need medical evacuation abroad, a new United Nations humanitarian assessment says. “We are exhausted, we are tired. We hope to God that the war will end,” said one Palestinian, Mahmoud Wadi.
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Netanyahu’s miscalculation of Iran will echo for years
The Age (& Sydney Morning Herald) | Amin Saikal | 1 July 2025
Though a peace deal has been struck between Israel and Iran, the ceasefire still hangs precariously in the balance.
Worse for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally, the war has proven to be a grave miscalculation that will linger in the memories of Israelis and Americans for years to come. First, it gave Iran the opportunity to show its retaliatory strength to the world. Second, it revealed Israel’s vulnerability and utter dependence on the United States.
Initially, the US and Israel appeared to be in lockstep, with the president and prime minister showering praise on each other following the US airstrikes.
If the US had joined Israel’s campaign against Iran in full, it would have been a major victory for Netanyahu. But within days, Donald Trump was telling global media that the US had entered the war to “save Israel”, and was savaging the Israeli Defence Forces for breaking the ceasefire, telling reporters that neither Iran nor Israel “know what the f— they’re doing”.
Yet any embarrassment caused to Netanyahu by Trump’s claims of victory in Iran will now have been balanced by him declaring Netanyahu a great wartime leader, and calling on the Israeli judiciary to drop their bribery and fraud charges against the prime minister.
For much of his political career, Netanyahu has viewed his personal ambitions and Israel’s security through the prism of conflict rather than peace. Historically, his idea of “peace through strength” has meant hitting opponents hard and forcing peace on his terms.
And while Netanyahu would have always expected the US to enter the conflict because Israel is unable to do the heavy lifting alone, dragging into the fray a president whose aversion to international conflict was a selling point to many American voters has placed Trump in a quandary: whether to keep his election promise of not involving the United States in another endless Middle East war, given America’s Iraq and Afghanistan fiascos, or to back Israel in its moment of need.
But where Netanyahu expected a relatively sharp and swift victory, to which Israel has been accustomed, Tehran was able to make maximum use of its missile and drone arsenals, and rely on the Iranian people’s love of their country, to rally behind the government of the day – no matter whether popular or not – in the face of foreign aggression.
Whatever the future, the war has changed the dynamics for both Israel and Iran. It has also impacted many of Trump’s key supporters’ view of Israel, with leading MAGA ideologue Steve Bannon going so far as to label the Jewish state as America’s “protectorate”.
Another blow for Israel was Trump lifting sanctions on Iran to allow it to sell oil to China. As the president later explained, “They just had a war … They fought it bravely … They’re going to need money to put that country back into shape. We want to see that happen.”
Though Trump offered to lift all sanctions in exchange for Iran’s “total surrender”, Tehran has rejected the call and banned the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency from visiting Iran.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s passion to get rid of Iran’s Islamic regime remains, as does his vision of a “greater Israel”, whereby it is the only nuclear armed state in the region.
With Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz having ordered the IDF to break the ceasefire when needed and Iran vowing to re build its nuclear capability, it’s clear that neither side is truly content with what has been achieved.
Though the US did come to Israel’s aid, Netanyahu’s expectations of the US ultimately fell short. Netanyahu was keen to see the US join Israel’s campaign with sustained American firepower so that Iran was dis abled totally from its missile and drone capability. This would mean the Islamic regime could be brought to its knees, opening the way for regime change. The regime has not only survived, but revels in what it also claims to be a “victory”.
With the war in Gaza continuing, the little spark that the war with Iran brought to Netanyahu has already dissipated.
Amin Saikal is emeritus pro fessor at the ANU; adjunct pro fessor at University of Western Australia; Vice Chancellor’s Strategic Fellow at Victoria University; and author of Iran Rising: The survival and future of the Islamic Republic.
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Out of rubble of Iran, renewed hopes for a Gaza ceasefire
Sydney Morning Herald | Editorial | 1 July 2025
Without being too rosy-eyed, the possibility of a new cease f ire in Gaza looks the best it has since death took a brief holiday in January when US President Donald Trump was inaugurated.
That ceasefire collapsed after just two months, and it was back to war as usual following the murderous Hamas raid of October 7, 2023, in which some 1200 people were killed and 251 taken as hostages. Horror has piled upon horror for most of the 20 months since, with kidnapped Israelis used as pawns and Israel killing nearly 100,000 Palestinians.
Now basking in the glory of bringing an end to Israel’s 12-day war with Iran, Trump has taken the opportunity to push again for Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire. He has hinted at an agreement this week, when an adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to arrive in Washington for ceasefire talks. There are also plans for Netanyahu to visit the US soon.
Trump also appears to be calming legal storms buffeting Netanyahu by linking US aid to Israel with the prime minister’s corruption trial, after a court rejected his request last week for a delay while he negotiated the fallout from the conflict with Iran.
Netanyahu made a latter-day political career out of waging a war on Gaza that polarised many of his fellow Israelis. But the US bombing strikes on Iranian nuclear sites have turned the Israeli leader into a good guy at home for many, and his improved poll ratings have certainly afforded him a better shot at re-election.
Consequently, there are renewed hopes in some quarters that Netanyahu has won new flexibility on seeking a Gaza resolution.
A ceasefire in Gaza is long overdue and much needed. The obscenity of the initial Hamas raid has been countered by remorseless Israeli attacks on in nocent civilians, and the more recent footage showing the aftermath of Palestinians killed or wounded by gunfire, tanks and airstrikes, some while desperately waiting at aid distribution points.
Hamas has said it is willing to free remaining hostages in Gaza under any deal to end the war, while Israel says it can end only if Hamas is disarmed and dismantled. Hamas refuses to lay down its arms. And Israel is continuing air strikes on Gaza.
But there is hope among families of hostages that Trump’s involvement in securing the recent ceasefire between Israel and Iran might lead to more pressure for a deal in Gaza. Of course, as is often the case with Trump, he speaks with a forked tongue, a habit that makes it difficult for anyone to place much faith in his multitudinous pronouncements, such as spruiking bleach to treat COVID-19, promising to end Middle East and Ukraine conflicts, and imposing tariffs.
But the US attack on Iran has certainly given him skin in the Middle East war game. Many may not like to admit it, but should he engineer a Gaza ceasefire, it would be another coup for Trump.
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Bibi turns attention to Gaza hostages
The Australian / Wall Street Journal | Angus Berwick | 1 July 2025
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country’s recent war with Iran had created “opportunities” for freeing hostages held by Hamas militants in Gaza, where witnesses and rescuers reported more than 30 people killed on Sunday.
His comments lifted hope for a new ceasefire in the devastating conflict in the Palestinian territory, after US President Donald Trump said he hoped a truce could be sealed within days.
Israel is bombarding Gaza in a bid to destroy the Hamas militant group after its deadly attack on Israel in October 2023.
Mr Netanyahu said that after Israel’s recent “victory” over Iran in their 12-day war, “many opportunities have opened up … first of all, to rescue the hostages”.
“Of course, we will also have to solve the Gaza issue, to defeat Hamas, but I estimate that we will achieve both goals,” he said.
Following the war that ended with a ceasefire on June 24, domestic and diplomatic pressure has risen on Mr Netanyahu to also secure a halt to the fighting in Gaza.
Posting on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, Mr Trump weighed in, writing: “MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!!”
The US President had said on Friday he hoped for a new ceasefire “within the next week”.
While Israel and the US were bombing Iran’s nuclear sites, another battlefield emerged behind the scenes: the financial infrastructure that keeps Tehran connected to the world.
Israeli authorities, and a pro-Israeli hacking group called Predatory Sparrow, targeted financial organisations Iranians use to move money and sidestep the US-led economic blockade, according to Israeli officials and other sources. US sanctions, imposed off and on for decades due to Tehran’s nuclear program and support for Islamist groups, have aimed to cut Iran off from the international financial system.
Predatory Sparrow, which operates anonymously and posts updates of its activities on X, said it had crippled Iran’s state-owned Bank Sepah, which services Iran’s armed forces and helps them pay suppliers abroad, knocking out its online banking services and cash machines. Iranian state media acknowledged the damage.
The group also breached Nobitex, Iran’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, popular with locals for transferring money overseas. The hackers extracted about $US100m ($152.7m) in funds and forced the platform to shut down, according to the exchange.
Iran’s government pulled the plug on much of the country’s online activities to prevent further attacks and keep a lid on dissent. Non-Iranian websites were blocked. Citizens were warned against using foreign phones or messaging platforms the government claimed could collect audio and location data for Israeli spies. Government officials were banned from using laptops and smartwatches.
Predatory Sparrow said the two hacks were directed against the “financial lifelines” of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the most powerful faction of Iran’s military that also controls swathes of the economy. “Noble people of Iran! Withdraw your funds before it is too late,” it tweeted.
Both targeted companies remain hobbled. Nobitex said it faced serious challenges in restoring services and was aiming to relaunch trading this week. Some Bank Sepah users have posted online saying they still aren’t receiving deposits. Predatory Sparrow did not say if it was acting on behalf of Israeli authorities.
“The group’s sophistication, target selection and geopolitical messaging fit the profile of an Israel-aligned, state-sponsored cyber actor,” said Deddy Lavid, chief executive of Cyvers, a Tel Aviv-based cybersecurity firm.
Predatory Sparrow did not respond to requests for comment sent to the administrator of its Telegram group.
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Radical rabble
The Australian | Letters | 1 July 2025
While Israel fights for its existence and the IDF contends with terrorists on several fronts, an indulgent mob at the Glastonbury music festival wave Palestinian flags and chant “death to the IDF”. There are dozens of wars currently taking place across Africa and the Middle East. However, these stunts, under the guise of free speech, are only directed at Israel.
Why? This radical chic lot should embrace a journey of political exploration and discovery.
Perhaps a revolutionary Long March through the Middle East will enlighten them with a few lightbulb moments: music festivals like Glastonbury, diversity and democracy (and other freedoms) only exist in Israel. Israel and the IDF have been doing the heavy lifting against terrorism while the chanting throng shame themselves. They should be very careful about biting the hand that feeds them.
Glenn Marchant, Pascoe Vale, Vic
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Heavy-handed response
Daily Telegraph | Letters | 1 July 2025
Aided by Trump’s bombing, Israeli PM Netanyahu has succeeded in further exposing and repressing Iran, a totalitarian regime loathed by many of its people.
Nevertheless, the cost in the fraught Middle East has been harrowing, especially in the tragedy that is Gaza.
Daily, we see sickening pictures of starving children fighting among themselves for food in that battered territory.
Israel had no choice but to respond to the murderous Hamas attacks of October 7 which initiated the Gaza conflict but Netanyahu’s politically motivated reluctance to let enough food be delivered reveals a disturbing and needless revenge mentality.
The consequences of his excessive response will be more people dying, fighting for survival and fleeing, widespread horror by democratic allies of Israel, and an increase everywhere in anti-Semitism. Lamentably, there is no end in sight.
Ron Sinclair, Windradyne
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Israel acknowledges civilians harmed at Gaza aid sites
Canberra Times / AAP | 1 July 2025
The Israeli military has acknowledged that Palestinian civilians were harmed at aid distribution centres in the Gaza Strip, saying that instructions have been issued to forces following “lessons learned”.
Since Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade on the enclave on May 19, allowing limited United Nations deliveries to resume, the UN says more than 400 Palestinians have been killed while seeking handouts of aid.
“Following incidents in which harm to civilians who arrived at distribution facilities was reported, thorough examinations were conducted in the Southern Command and instructions were issued to forces in the field following lessons learned,” the Israeli military said in a statement.
It said incidents in which Gaza Strip civilians were harmed were under review.
A senior UN official said on Sunday that the majority of people killed were trying to reach aid distribution sites of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
The GHF began distributing food packages in the Gaza Strip at the end of May, overseeing a new model of deliveries which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral.
But many Gazans say they have to walk for hours to reach the sites, meaning they must start travelling well before dawn if they are to stand any chance of receiving food.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday that a US-backed aid operation in Gaza is “inherently unsafe,” adding: “It is killing people.”
Israel and the United States want the UN to work through the GHF but the world body has refused, questioning its neutrality and accusing the distribution model of militarising aid and forcing displacement.
“Any operation that channels desperate civilians into militarised zones is inherently unsafe. It is killing people,” Guterres told reporters.
Responding to Guterres on Friday, Israel’s foreign ministry said its military never targets civilians and accused the UN of “doing everything it can” to oppose the GHF aid operation.
“In doing so, the UN is aligning itself with Hamas, which is also trying to sabotage the GHF’s humanitarian operations,” it posted on X.
A GHF spokesperson said on Friday there had been no deaths at or near any of the GHF aid distribution sites.
Israel and the United States have accused Hamas of stealing aid from the UN-led operations, which the Palestinian militants deny.
The war erupted after Hamas-led militants in the Gaza Strip took 251 hostages and killed 1200 people, most of them civilians, in an October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
Israel’s military campaign has since killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health authorities in the Gaza Strip, and flattened much of the coastal enclave.
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Israel launches waves of Gaza airstrikes after new displacement orders
Scores of Palestinians reported killed as senior Netanyahu adviser due to arrive in Washington for ceasefire talks
The Guardian / Reuters, AFP | Jason Burke & Malak A Tantesh | 1 July 2025
Israel ramped up its offensive in Gaza on Monday, with new displacement orders sending tens of thousands of people fleeing the north of the devastated territory and waves of airstrikes killing about 60 Palestinians, according to local officials and medical staff.
The violence in Gaza came as a senior adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, was due to arrive in Washington for talks on a new ceasefire, a day after Donald Trump called in a social media post for a deal to end the 20-month war and free 50 hostages held by Hamas.
Ron Dermer, the strategic affairs minister and a close confidant of Netanyahu, is expected to meet senior US officials to discuss ongoing indirect negotiations with Hamas, the aftermath of Israel’s war against Iran and the possibility of regional diplomatic deals.
An Israeli government spokesperson told reporters on Monday that Netanyahu was working to end the war in Gaza “as soon as possible” through the release of the hostages, of whom more than half are thought to be dead, and the defeat of Hamas. A US official said Netanyahu would travel to the US on 7 July to meet Donald Trump.
The new “evacuation orders” warned of impending assaults around densely populated Gaza City and told Palestinians to head south to overcrowded coastal zones, where there are few facilities and limited water. About 80% of Gaza is now covered by such orders or controlled by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
The orders also said that the IDF planned to advance into the centre of Gaza City to fight Hamas militants based there.
On Monday, Israeli tanks and infantry pushed into the Zeitoun neighbourhood on the eastern edge of Gaza City and shelled several areas in the north, while aircraft bombed at least four schools after ordering hundreds of families sheltering inside to leave, residents said.
“Explosions never stopped; they bombed schools and homes. It felt like earthquakes,” said Salah, 60, from Gaza City. “In the news we hear a ceasefire is near; on the ground we see death and we hear explosions.”
In the afternoon, an airstrike hit a crowded cafe on the shore in Gaza City, killing at least 22 people, including women, children and a local journalist.
The IDF said it struck militant targets in northern Gaza, including command and control centres, after taking steps to mitigate the risk of harming civilians.
Analysts have detected changes in the rhetoric of senior Israeli officials in recent days, which may suggest a new ceasefire is now being considered.
Throughout the conflict, Israeli attacks have intensified at significant moments in negotiations. Israeli officials have said one aim of Israel’s latest offensive, which was launched in May after the breakdown of a two-month ceasefire in March, was to seize territory that could later be given up during talks as a “bargaining chip”.
On Friday, Eyal Zamir, the IDF chief of staff, said the offensive was close to having achieved its goals. Netanyahu has also reinforced his political position within Israel and so is better placed to ignore threats by right-wing coalition allies to withdraw support in the event of a deal with Hamas.
A deal remains difficult though, officials close to the negotiations said, with both Israel and Hamas sticking to previous incompatible positions.
Hamas is demanding that Israel agrees to a definitive end to the war and is refusing to disarm. Israel refuses Hamas demands to withdraw entirely from Gaza and says it will end its campaign only when the militant organisation has given up its weapons and its leaders have agreed to leave the territory.
Yair Lapid, the Israeli opposition leader, on Monday added his voice to those in Israel calling for an end to the war in Gaza.
“There is no longer any benefit for the state of Israel from continuing the war in Gaza. Only damage on the security, political and economic level,” Lapid told a meeting of parliamentarians. “The army has no more objectives in Gaza.”
A public opinion poll published the day after Tuesday’s ceasefire with Iran by public broadcaster Kan showed that nearly two-thirds of respondents wanted the Gaza war to end. The result was in line with dozens of similar polls in recent months. Israel’s military has suffered significant casualties this month, which has added to the public pressure for a deal.
Nasser hospital in Khan Younis said on Monday it had received the bodies of 11 people who were shot while returning from an aid site associated with the Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund in southern Gaza, Ten others were killed at a United Nations aid warehouse in northern Gaza, according to the health ministry.
The Israeli military acknowledged on Monday that Palestinian civilians had been harmed as they sought food from distribution centres in Gaza and other locations, saying that instructions had been issued to forces after “lessons learned”.
Food, fuel and other basics are scarce in Gaza, with distributions by the GHF coming nowhere close to meeting the needs of 2.3 million people.
Israel says Hamas steals aid to finance military and other operations. The group denies that accusation and aid agencies say their monitoring systems are robust.
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked into southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza.
Israel’s subsequent military assault has killed more than 56,500 Palestinians, mostly civilians, displaced almost the entire 2.3 million population and reduced much of the territory to rubble.
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Benjamin Netanyahu corruption trial delayed on diplomatic and security grounds
The Israeli court’s decision to cancel this week’s hearing in the long-running trial came after Donald Trump said the case should be thrown out
The Guardian / Reuters, AFP | 30 June 2025
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/30/benjamin-netanyahu-corruption-trial-delayed-ntwnfb
An Israeli court has cancelled this week’s hearings in Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-running corruption trial, accepting a request made by the prime minister on classified diplomatic and security grounds.
“Following the explanations given … we partially accept the request and cancel at this stage Mr Netanyahu’s hearings scheduled” for this week, the Jerusalem district court said in its ruling, published online by Netanyahu’s Likud party.
The ruling said that new reasons provided by Netanyahu, the head of Israel’s spy agency the Mossad and the military intelligence chief justified cancelling the hearings.
It comes after Donald Trump last week called for the case to be thrown out. In remarks on social media, the US president suggested the trial could interfere with Netanyahu’s ability to join negotiations with the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Iran, adding that the US was “not going to stand” for the continued prosecution, prompting Netanyahu to thank him in a message on X.
In a social media post, Trump described the case against the Israeli premier as a “witch hunt”, saying the trial “should be CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Pardon given to a Great Hero”.
Netanyahu was indicted in 2019 on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust – all of which he denies. He has cast the trial against him as an orchestrated leftwing witch-hunt meant to topple a democratically elected right-wing leader.
In one of the cases, he and his wife, Sara, are accused of accepting more than $260,000 worth of luxury goods such as cigars, jewellery and champagne from billionaires in exchange for political favours.
In two others, Netanyahu is accused of attempting to negotiate more favourable coverage from two Israeli media outlets. The prime minister has requested multiple postponements to the trial since it began in May 2020.
Netanyahu’s lawyers had asked the court to excuse him from testifying over the next two weeks so he could focus on security issues after a ceasefire with Iran and amid ongoing fighting in Gaza where Israeli hostages are held.
They submitted the prime minister’s schedule to the court to demonstrate “the national need for the prime minister to devote all his time and energy to the political, national and security issues at hand”.
The court initially rejected the lawyers’ request, but said in its ruling on Sunday that it had changed its judgment after hearing arguments from the prime minister and other senior officials.
A spokesperson for the Israeli prosecution declined to comment on Trump’s post.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said last week that Trump “should not interfere in a judicial trial in an independent country”.
Trump said Netanyahu was “right now” negotiating a deal with Hamas, though neither leader provided details, and officials from both sides have voiced scepticism over prospects for a ceasefire soon.
On Friday, the Republican president told reporters he believed a ceasefire was close.
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