UN rights office condemns killing of accused Israel collaborator in Gaza

The UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory has condemned the “extrajudicial execution” of a Palestinian man accused of collaborating with Israeli forces by a “group affiliated with Hamas”.

In a statement, UN Human Rights OPT says a group self-identifying as the “Resistance Security” executed the man on July 1.

The execution “continues a pattern of unlawful killings by Gaza de facto authorities and units in pro-Hamas security forces of dozens of Palestinians” who were mostly accused of either collaborating with Israeli forces or working with “armed elements that are apparently funded, armed, and backed by Israel”, the UN said.

The agency also condemned what it said are reports of torture by people or groups affiliated with Hamas, and of threats against several Palestinians in advance of a planned protest on July 26 against Hamas in Gaza.

“Unlawful killings, torture, and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment constitute war crimes and grave violations of international human rights law,” it said.

Gaza’s de facto authorities, it adds, “must put in place measures to prevent human rights violations by members of their security forces or individuals affiliated with them, investigate all reports of unlawful killings, torture, and ill-treatment, and hold perpetrators accountable.”

Israeli settlers attack activists, Palestinians trying to access their land

Israeli settlers have targeted a foreign rights activist and another individual while also obstructing access to Palestinian agricultural land, subsequently forcing the local Palestinian residents to retreat using pepper spray and stones.

Over the past few weeks, Israeli settlers have escalated their incursions and land confiscations throughout the occupied West Bank, conducting raids that included seizing or demolishing Palestinian residences and damaging essential infrastructure.

Israel arrests two Palestinians in Nablus, occupied West Bank

Israel has arrested two young Palestinian men in Nablus in the occupied West Bank, the Wafa news agency reports.

Local sources told Wafa that Israeli forces stormed the city of Nablus early on Saturday, raided several homes and then arrested the two young men, who were identified as Awni al-Shakhshir and Ibrahim al-Fino.

Israeli politicians engaged in ‘definite and consistent push’ to resettle Gaza

Top Israeli leaders have offered the clearest signals yet that they are considering establishing new Jewish settlements in what remains of the Gaza Strip after almost three years of genocidal warfare.

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told reporters this week that his ministry had prepared plans for three settlements in northern Gaza, and that all that was needed to move forward with the plan was a green light from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The following day, Netanyahu came close to providing it.

“The question is whether you prefer to do or to talk,” the prime minister replied cryptically when asked by the Channel 14 news outlet whether the establishment of settlements in Gaza was a possibility.

Neve Gordon, an Israeli professor at Queen Mary University of London, said Smotrich isn’t engaged in “just rhetoric”.

“There is a definite and consistent push from across much of Israel’s politics to resettle the Gaza Strip,” Gordon said.

Israeli forces raid Tubas, Aqqaba and Far’a camp in West Bank

Israeli forces have stormed the city of Tubas, the nearby town of Aqqaba and the Far’a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Israeli troops raided and searched several Palestinian homes in the three areas before withdrawing, with no detentions reported.

The raids come amid continued Israeli army operations across the occupied West Bank, where forces carry out near-daily home raids, arrests and road closures, alongside repeated settler attacks on Palestinians and their property.

Israeli colonists raid Bedouin community in occupied West Bank

Israeli colonists have attacked Khilat al-Homs, a Bedouin community located south of the town of Yatta, in the occupied West Bank’s Hebron Governorate.

The Palestinian Wafa news agency reported that settlers, “under the protection of Israeli occupation forces”, also “assaulted” a local family, “resulting in citizens suffering bruises and suffocation due to being sprayed with pepper spray”.

Israeli forces also arrested a resident “who was injured during the attack and activists from a foreign solidarity group who support the residents in the area”.

Death toll from Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza increases

At least 73,090 Palestinians have been killed and 173,550 wounded since Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began in October 2023, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Since a US-brokered “ceasefire” was put in place last October, 1,066 Palestinians have been killed and 3,445 wounded by Israeli forces across the besieged enclave.

Three Palestinians wounded in Israeli attack on West Bank village

Three Palestinians have been wounded by rubber-coated metal bullets shot by Israeli forces in a village northwest of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, according to the Wafa news agency.

The Israeli forces had arrived in the village of Umm Safa after it was attacked by Israeli settlers, local sources told Wafa.

Marwan Sabbah, head of the Umm Safa village council, said that on Saturday, Israeli settlers had entered the outskirts of the village and stolen four sheep. He said residents of the village confronted the settlers, after which Israeli forces arrived at the scene and fired rubber-coated metal bullets at the residents, wounding three people.

At least 1,179 Palestinians have been killed and more than 12,532 wounded in attacks by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank since Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began in October 2023.

Gaza settlement plans gain further traction in Israeli political debate

Netanyahu and his far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich have offered the clearest signal yet that they are considering the establishment of new Jewish settlements on what remains of the Gaza Strip, after almost three years of their country’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the enclave.

Last Monday, Smotrich, who made his continued participation in the ruling coalition conditional on being granted increased control over Israel’s settlement enterprise, told reporters that his ministry had prepared plans for three settlements in northern Gaza, and that all that was needed to move forward was a green light from Netanyahu.

The following day, Netanyahu came close to providing it. Speaking on Israel’s staunchly right-wing Channel 14, he refused to rule out the prospect of settlements in Gaza.

“The question is whether you prefer to do or to talk,” the prime minister replied cryptically when asked whether the establishment of settlements was a possibility. “And yes, I prefer not to address it.”

Israel’s current settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem are illegal under international law.

Two people killed in Israeli shelling in northern Gaza

Two bodies have been retrieved following Israeli shelling on the town of Beit Lahiya, emergency services sources in northern Gaza are reporting

The Israeli army has been intensifying military operations with gunfire and shelling to expand what is known as the “yellow zone” in northern Gaza.

Israeli drone attack kills one Palestinian in Gaza City

One Palestinian has been killed and one wounded in an Israeli drone attack on the Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City, sources at al-Ahli Arab Hospital are reporting.

At least 16 killed in Gaza in 48 hours: Gaza health officials

At least sixteen Palestinians have been reportedly killed in Gaza over the past two days, according to latest figures released by Gaza’s health ministry.

They include nine bodies retrieved from collapsed buildings.

The ministry says 16 injured people have been registered at various hospitals.

Physicians for Human Rights says Hussam Abu Safia’s life in grave danger

The Israeli medical NGO is warning that the life of the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, who was abducted by Israel in late 2024 and has been held in detention ever since, is in grave danger.

Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) issued a statement saying Abu Safia’s lawyer, Nasser Odeh, who visited his client at the underground Rakefet interrogation facility in Nitzan Prison, reported a severe deterioration in his health “to the point of tangible danger to his life”.

The organization called for his “immediate transfer from the facility and an urgent judicial visit to assess his condition – before it’s too late”.

The Israeli army seized Abu Safia on December 27, 2024, during a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital. He has since been held under Israel’s “Unlawful Combatant Law” legislation enacted in 2002 that allows indefinite detention without formal charges and strips prisoners of protections under the Geneva Conventions.

The doctor had previously defied Israeli forced displacement orders to leave the hospital and stayed to treat his patients. He became well known for his video statements asking the world to stop Israel’s attacks on medical facilities.

‘No one has done more for Gaza than EU’, von der Leyen claims

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said her bloc has done more for Gaza than any other international player, while responding to a question on why the commission was soft on Israel.

“Since October 23 we have earmarked over 2.7 billion euros [$3.09bn] in humanitarian aid and budget support. We are the world’s largest provider of assistance to the Palestinian people, the largest. No one does more than us”, said von der Leyen.

Von der Leyen also said illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are “utterly unacceptable and the violence used to achieve this expansion is abhorrent”, but that there is no common ground within the EU on how to proceed on the issue.

The president of the EU Commission was speaking in Cork, Ireland, while meeting Irish ministers in the country, as Ireland begins its six-month term leading the Council of the EU.

Data collected by Statewatch shows that public institutions in EU countries are signing profitable contracts with Israeli companies despite Israel’s long track record of war crimes in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank.

Israeli attack kills Palestinian in Jabalia refugee camp

An Israeli drone strike killed a Palestinian and injured others in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, reports the Wafa news agency.

As we’ve been reporting, earlier Israeli attacks killed two people in Beit Lahiya and one in Gaza City.

El-Sisi calls for urgent implementation of Gaza ceasefire, Iran MoU

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has stressed the need for the urgent implementation of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, signed in Sharm el-Sheikh last October, as well as the US-Iran MoU signed last month in Switzerland.

El-Sisi said any attempt to undermine both the Gaza and the Iran ceasefire deal had to be prevented.

The Egyptian president revealed that his country had lost more than $10bn in revenue from the Suez Canal as a result of Houthi attacks on vessels transiting the Bab al-Mandeb strait in the Red Sea.

Two killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza this evening

Others were wounded in the attacks, some critically, which came in both the central and northern Gaza Strip, according to the Wafa news agency.

Medical sources told Wafa that one Palestinian was killed in a drone attack that targeted a group of people near the Asqoula junction in Gaza City.

In another drone attack, a Palestinian was killed in the central Gaza Strip when Israel attacked close to the Abu Sharikh roundabout in the Jabalia refugee camp.