• Israeli forces continue attacks on Gaza, killing at least two Palestinians in northern Gaza City and the Jabalia refugee camp.

More than 140 Palestinian citizens of Israel killed so far this year

The AFP news agency is reporting that more than 140 Palestinian citizens of Israel have been killed so far this year in incidents driven predominantly by criminal gangs, family feuds, easy access to firearms and what the community decries as a lack of police enforcement.

The figure represents a 12 percent rise over the same period last year, AFP said, citing data from the Abraham Initiatives, a nongovernmental organization that promotes peaceful coexistence among Israel’s Jewish and Arab communities.

The latest deaths include five people who were killed in a series of gun and car bomb attacks on June 28. According to the AFP, if the current rate of killings continues, the count for this year will surpass the record 252 recorded killings in 2025.

Some 21 percent of Israel’s 10.2 million people are Palestinians.

Many in the community say they are discriminated against by the Jewish majority and accuse Israeli authorities of failing to properly investigate the violence, AFP added.

Rights group cheers cancellation of Ben-Gvir’s trip to New York

The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) has welcomed reports that Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has cancelled a trip to New York for a UN policing conference.

Israeli media reported the cancellation on Friday.

The HRF described the cancellation as a “significant and concrete victory” and said the move followed calls for his prosecution, initiated by the group, as well as planned demonstrations by pro-Palestinian groups.

“Israeli political and military leaders have traveled the world expecting impunity. That expectation is beginning to erode,” said the foundation, a nongovernmental group that advocates for Palestinian rights.

It is named after Hind Rajab, a five-year-old Palestinian girl who was trapped in a car by Israeli soldiers with her dead family members before she herself was killed during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

Palestinian who served 40 years in Israeli custody dies at 68

Maher Abdul Latif Younis, who had been imprisoned for four decades by Israel, has died at the age of 68, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Israeli authorities detained Younis in 1983 over his involvement in armed resistance against the Israeli occupation and his affiliation with the Fatah movement.

He was initially sentenced to death, but his sentence was later commuted to life, then set at 40 years. He was released in 2023.

A cause of death was not mentioned.

Iran’s foreign minister meets Hamas delegation in Tehran

Abbas Araghchi has held separate meetings in Tehran with delegations from Hamas before the funeral for the late supreme leader.

The Hamas delegation, led by Mohammad Darwish, the head of Hamas’s Shura Council, offered condolences for Khamenei’s death and briefed Araghchi on conditions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, according to the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

Darwish described the international response to the situation in Gaza as “catastrophic” and called for Israel to be held accountable. He also praised Iran’s historical support for Palestine and congratulated Tehran on what he described as its military and diplomatic gains during the US-Israel war.

Araghchi thanked the delegation and reaffirmed Iran’s support for Palestinian statehood, according to the ministry.

Developments in the occupied West Bank

• Israeli troops stormed the city of Jenin with military vehicles entering the city and infantry deployed near the civil defense headquarters, according to footage published by local media.
• Undercover Israeli police abducted a young man, Tarek Maher Zakarneh, from Jenin’s Nablus Street, after surrounding a residential building and searching his home, the official Wafa news agency reported.
• Israeli forces seized a Palestinian home in Zububa, west of Jenin, and converted it into a military post.
• Colonists set a cafe on fire near Al-Zaytouna University in Salfit governorate, and torched a restaurant in al-Lubban Asharqiya and Ammuriya, south of Nablus.
• Israelis released livestock into the Bedouin community of Kaabneh, near Anata east of Jerusalem, and separately broke into the Al-Kaabneh Bedouin community near Amara.
• Colonists attacked Palestinian homes in Khirbet al-Kharaba and the Zaatut area northeast of Yatta, south of Hebron, damaging vehicles, solar panels and windows, according to the Shehab news agency.

Palestinian Dr. Abu Safia’s life in danger in Israeli prison, rights group warns

Physicians for Human Rights Israel warns that Dr Hussam Abu Safia’s life is in immediate danger after a serious deterioration in his health following a transfer to an underground interrogation center in Ramla prison.

The group said Abu Safia’s lawyer visited him two days ago and found serious bruising on his head and around his eyes, ears and neck. He appeared weak and struggled to breathe and speak.

Abu Safia told his lawyer that four or five prison guards beat him inside his cell.

Abu Safia, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, has been detained by Israel since December 27, 2024, when troops raided the medical facility and arrested him along with hospital staff and patients.

His lawyer Nasser Odeh previously said Abu Safia was kept shackled during a legal visit, denied clean drinking water, adequate food and regular medical care despite chronic health conditions.

UN warns growing Israeli occupation of Gaza endangers civilians

The United Nations and humanitarian NGOs warn the expansion of areas under Israeli control in Gaza since the “ceasefire” is endangering civilians and further restricting relief efforts.

A UN and NGO-led coordination body said Israeli troops have used lethal force to enforce access restrictions in those areas, where air attacks and exchanges of fire occurred.

Between October 10, 2025, and early April 2026, the UN verified the killing of 196 Palestinians, including 18 women and 43 children, in Israeli attacks reported near where soldiers are deployed.

Humanitarian access remains severely constrained by Israeli restrictions, delaying or halting life-saving activities, with some organisations forced to scale down or suspend operations after aid workers were killed.

Most Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced multiple times and are now concentrated in shrinking areas with limited access to essential services.

The UN and NGOs called for an end to the targeting of Palestinians, full protection of civilians under international law, and safe, unimpeded humanitarian access across Gaza.

Israeli army says it killed two Hamas fighters in Gaza

Two Hamas fighters were killed by Israeli forces in separate air strikes in the Gaza Strip last week, according to the Israeli military.

The Palestinians were identified as Muhammad Najib Ashur and Taamir Saeed Abu Nahal, the Israeli military said. It alleged that Ashur was a commander in Hamas’s Nukhba unit and Abu Nahal headed a Hamas cell.

The military claimed both were involved in planning attacks against Israeli soldiers.

Egypt’s leader says no ties with Israel until Palestine occupation ends

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi says there can be no normalisation of relations with Israel until its occupation of Palestinian territory ends.

“There will be no lasting peace, no true stability and no popular normalisation except with a just peace that ends the occupation, puts an end to injustice and aggression, restores rights to their rightful owners and provides security for all,” he said in a speech.

El-Sisi, whose country was the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, said the solution to Middle East conflicts lies in a comprehensive peace agreement between Israel and Palestine.

A just peace would provide the people of the region with “an opportunity to live in stability and prosperity”, he said.

He also called for support for the Gaza “ceasefire” that took effect in October 2025. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since then.

No rebuild of Gaza until Hamas surrenders its weapons: Netanyahu

Netanyahu says no reconstruction of Gaza will start until Hamas is fully disarmed.

Speaking on Lebanon, the Israeli leader said, “We are working according to our own considerations,” despite the interim deal between Iran and the US stating Israel must stop attacks on Lebanon and end its occupation.

On Saturday, Netanyahu marked the 250th anniversary of US Independence Day with a video praising the United States as “the greatest force for liberty the modern world has known”.

“Freedom is never cheap. It must be continually purchased. It must be continually defended. … When America and Israel stand together, freedom stands stronger,” he said in the message.

“The tyrants we face chant, ‘Death to America, death to Israel’. They think freedom is weak. They think democracies are weak. They’re wrong about our two democracies.”

Israel releases 9 Palestinian detainees from Gaza

Israeli authorities have released nine Palestinian detainees from Gaza after facilitation from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

They were transferred directly to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, where medical teams are checking their conditions.

The hospital has received many released detainees during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, which started in October 2023. Many required treatment for physical abuse.

Among those detained are thousands arrested under Israel’s 2002 Unlawful Combatants law, which allows authorities to seize individuals if they believe they are linked to organisations deemed “unlawful”, such as Hamas, even if they cannot tie the individual to a specific act.

Gaza patients demand medical access blocked by Israel

A number of Palestinian patients have staged a sit-in in front of al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City, demanding permission to travel for healthcare outside the Gaza Strip.

A woman appeared during the demonstration, shouting, “Let me go for treatment for the sake of my daughters. I’m not going out for fun. New lumps appeared in my neck, and I’m terrified. I need treatment.”

Another woman shouted: “What is our fault? We are cancer patients dying just because we are Palestinians.”

Israel shut Gaza’s crossings on February 28 at the beginning of the US-Israeli war on Iran after briefly opening some following an October 2025 “ceasefire” in Gaza.

Only a few patients managed to travel in the period it was open, and thousands remain on waiting lists.

The Rafah crossing, which connects to Egypt and is Gaza’s main gateway to the outside world, was closed for long periods during Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the Strip that began in October 2023.

Developments in the occupied West Bank

• Israeli forces detained two Palestinian brothers after raiding their home in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron.
• Israeli settlers have attacked the outskirts of the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah, and attempted to break into houses before being confronted by residents who forced them to retreat.
• Colonists set fire to a restaurant near the towns of al-Lubban Asharqiya and Ammuriya south of Nablus.
• Israeli troops detained four Palestinians during a predawn raid on the town of Burqa, northwest of Nablus.
   

Two killed in Israeli drone attack in Gaza City

Two people have been killed in an Israeli drone attack in the al-Samar area east of Gaza City, a source in Gaza’s ambulance and emergency services says.

A number of people have also been wounded in the attack.

Palestinian wounded by Israeli army gunfire in Qalandia refugee camp

Israeli army gunfire has wounded a Palestinian in the Qalandia refugee camp, north of Jerusalem, Wafa news agency is reporting.

The report quoted the Jerusalem governorate as saying that Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) paramedics “provided first-aid treatment to a young man who sustained a gunshot injury in the thigh after Israeli occupation forces shot him”.

Baby dies in the occupied West Bank after Israeli forces obstruct access to medical care

A four-month-old Palestinian boy has died after Israeli forces blocked his urgent medical transfer through a military checkpoint at the entrance to the village of Deir Ammar, west of Ramallah, Wafa is reporting, citing a local official, Laila Ghannam.

She said soldiers also fired tear gas canisters at residents and vehicles, depriving the child of urgent access to medical care.

She described the incident as “a stain on the conscience of humanity” and consistent with Israeli policy implemented through military checkpoints, gates, and closures aimed at obstructing the movement of civilians, patients, and ambulances.