al Jazeera:

Major Israeli strikes on central Gaza kill 19 in Bureij refugee camp

By Urooba Jamal, Federica Marsi and Tim Hume

Published On 29 May 202529 May 2025

• Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed at least 37 people so far today, including 19 killed in an intense wave of strikes on central Gaza’s Bureij.
• Condemnation is growing over the killings of 10 Gaza aid seekers by Israeli troops in southern Gaza, with authorities in the Strip saying soldiers opened fire on hungry people.
• Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 54,084 Palestinians and wounded 123,308, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The Government Media Office updated its death toll to more than 61,700, saying thousands of people missing under the rubble are presumed dead.

Gaza’s healthcare system has been dismantled by Israeli blockade, attacks: Doctor

• 3m ago

   (09:38 GMT)

  

  Gaza death toll rises

  At least 54,249 Palestinians have been killed since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza and 123,492 wounded, according to the latest update by Gaza’s Health Ministry.

  The Israeli army has killed 3,986 Palestinians and wounded 11,451 others since violating the ceasefire agreement on March 18.

  The ministry added that 67 bodies and 184 injured people arrived at Gaza hospitals in the past 24 hours.
• 12m ago

   (09:30 GMT)

  

  Approval of new settlements aims to thwart two-state solution

  Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim has said Israel’s decision to approve 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank aimed to cement Israel’s hold over the area and thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state.

  “They are retroactively recognising illegal settlements that already exist [to fill] in the gaps of places remaining for the Palestinians in the West Bank,” she said.

  “More Western governments are now discussing recognising a Palestinian state, that’s why we have seen settler leaders pressuring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to … cement their control.”

  According to the UN, Israel demolished more than 1,700 Palestinian homes last year and seized 24 square kilometres of land. Palestinians need Israeli permits to build infrastructure in 61 percent of the occupied West Bank, which are rarely approved.

  Israel’s Defence Ministry stated that the goal was “to strengthen the Israeli hold on the territory, to avoid the establishment of a Palestinian state, and to create the basis for future development of settlement in the coming decades”.
• 27m ago

   (09:15 GMT)

  Israeli opposition leader says PM must accept ceasefire deal

  Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a ceasefire framework mediated by a US envoy.

  He said he is willing to give political support to Netanyahu to accept the deal, even if hardliners in the Israeli cabinet reject it.

  “Israel must publicly and immediately accept the outline published this morning by American mediator Steve Witkoff,” Lapid posted on X.

  “I remind Netanyahu: He has a full safety net from me to accept the outline, even if [National Security Minister Itamar] Ben-Gvir and [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich try to torpedo it.”

  Last night, Hamas said it had reached an agreement with Witkoff on a general framework for a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the unhindered entry of humanitarian aid.

  Following that, Witkoff made an appearance alongside Trump in the Oval Office and announced he had drafted “a new term sheet” for the president’s approval, Axios reported.
• 57m ago

   (08:45 GMT)

  Limited humanitarian aid a ‘strategy’ to distract from ongoing violence: Doctor

  Emergency physician James Smith, who spent several weeks working in Gaza since Israel launched its war, has criticised the Israeli-led and US-backed mechanism that began distributing some aid in Gaza this week.

  “This is a strategy to distract from ongoing violence and ongoing ethnic cleansing,” the British doctor told Al Jazeera. “This strategy has long been used, it has a name, it’s called the ‘humanitarian alibi’, whereby so-called humanitarian provision distracts from the acts perpetrated by genociders and other belligerents.”

  Smith said the distribution of dry food posed a question of how Palestinians would be able to find water to cook it with. The distribution of much-needed medicine has also not been addressed.

  Such conditions leave medics largely unable to respond to emergencies. “I’ve worked with medics who had spent the previous day and night looking for food for themselves and their family, living in tents, being subjected to the same conditions as everyone else,” Smith said. “Everyone is collectively traumatised by Israel’s violence in Gaza.”

  Almost 700 attacks on medical facilities and personnel have been documented, but Smith said the figure was likely to be “a gross underestimation”.
• 1h ago

   (08:30 GMT)

  What’s happening in the occupied West Bank?

  Here are the latest updates:

  • Israeli forces are currently storming the village of al-Mughair, northeast of Ramallah, to carry out home demolitions, our colleagues report.
  • Israeli forces have been raiding the city of Nablus for the last few hours, with an intense deployment of soldiers and military vehicles. Troops have forced dozens of residents living near the slain Jafar Muna home to vacate their homes. Muna’s house is being demolished by Israeli forces, as authorities claim he was responsible for a bombing in Tel Aviv in 2024. Local sources reported that the Israeli forces fired sound bombs during their storming of the old town in Nablus.
  • Israeli settlers destroyed Palestinian agricultural land east of Yatta, south of Hebron, sources told Al Jazeera.
  • Israeli forces stormed the town of Ceres, south of Jenin, and surrounded a house, alongside an intense army deployment in the vicinity of the town.
  • Israeli forces arrested five Palestinians during a raid on several homes in the town of Zeita, north of Tulkarem, before withdrawing, following a 24-hour assault on the town. Sources reported that troops carried out a campaign of raids and searches of several homes. They also set up military checkpoints at the town’s entrances, preventing residents from moving, detaining a few, and interrogating them on the spot.