Palestinians gather at the site of Israeli strikes and gunfire in Gaza City, September 1, 2026.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a residential apartment, according to medics, in Gaza City, on August 2, 2026.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Palestinians mourn over the bodies of men killed in an Israeli strike in al-Bureij refugee camp, before their funeral at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, April 11, 2026.
| Photo Credit: AP

Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 57 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, health officials said Thursday (October 2, 2025), as Hamas was still considering its response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal for ending the nearly two-year war.

The plan requires Hamas to return all 48 hostages — about 20 of them thought by Israel to be alive — give up power and disarm in return for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and an end to fighting. However, the proposal, which has been accepted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, sets no path to Palestinian statehood.

Palestinians long for the war to end but many believe the plan favours Israel, and a Hamas official told The Associated Press that some elements were unacceptable, without elaborating. Qatar and Egypt, two key mediators, said it requires more negotiations on certain elements.

Israel intercepts activist aid flotilla

At least 29 people were killed by Israeli fire in southern Gaza, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies. Officials there said 14 of them were killed in an Israeli military corridor where there have been frequent shootings around the distribution of humanitarian aid.

Officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah said they had received 16 dead from Israeli strikes.

Doctors Without Borders said one of its occupational therapists was killed while waiting for a bus in Deir al-Balah, in a strike that seriously wounded four other people. The international charity described Omar Hayek, 42, as a “quiet man of profound kindness and professionalism.”

Hayek, who had recently fled south from Gaza City, is the 14th staffer from the organisation to have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, it said.

In Gaza City, health officials at Shifa Hospital said they received five bodies and several wounded people, adding that its staff are having difficulties reaching the hospital as Israel wages a major offensive aimed at occupying the city.

Other hospitals reported an additional seven deaths from Israeli fire. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which says it only strikes militants and accuses Hamas of putting civilians in danger by operating in populated areas.

Israel has meanwhile intercepted most of the more than 40 vessels in a widely watched flotilla carrying a symbolic amount of humanitarian aid for Palestinians and aiming to break Israel’s 18-year blockade of Gaza, according to organisers.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said on social media that activists on board — including Greta Thunberg and several European lawmakers — were safe and were being taken to Israel to begin “procedures” for their deportation.

In the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian militant was killed and another arrested on Thursday after they carried out a car-ramming and shooting attack on an Israeli army checkpoint, the military said, adding that no soldiers were wounded.

Awaiting word from Hamas

A senior Hamas official told The Associated Press on Wednesday (October 1, 2025) that some points in the proposal agreed upon by Trump and Netanyahu are unacceptable and must be amended, without elaborating.

He said the official response will only come after consultations with other Palestinian factions. Speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media about the ongoing talks, the official said Hamas had conveyed its concerns to Qatar and Egypt.

The Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 that triggered the war killed some 1,200 people while 251 others were abducted. Most of the hostages have been freed under previous ceasefire deals.

The Trump plan would guarantee the flow of humanitarian aid and promises reconstruction in Gaza, placing its more than 2 million Palestinians under international governance.

Mounting toll in Gaza

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 66,200 Palestinians and wounded nearly 170,000 others, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and militants in its toll, but has said women and children make up around half the dead.

The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government. UN agencies and many independent experts view its figures as the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.

Around 400,000 Palestinians have fled famine-stricken Gaza City since Israel launched a major offensive there last month. On Thursday morning, smoke could be seen in northern Gaza and people were fleeing the area headed south.

Israel’s defense minister on Wednesday ordered all remaining Palestinians to leave Gaza City, saying it was their “last opportunity” and that anyone who stayed would be considered a militant supporter.

While Hamas’ military capabilities have been vastly depleted, it still carries out sporadic attacks. On Wednesday, at least seven projectiles were launched into Israel from Gaza, but all were either intercepted or fell in open areas, with no reports of casualties, the Israeli military said.

Published – October 03, 2025 07:08 am IST

People walk at the site of Israeli strikes on Nasser hospital where Palestinian cameraman Hussam al-Masri, who was a contractor for Reuters, was killed along with other journalists and people, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip in this still image taken from video, August 25, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

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Israel carried out fresh air strikes on Gaza on Thursday and accused Hamas of backtracking on parts of a fragile ceasefire and hostage release deal ahead of an expected vote by its cabinet.

The truce, announced by mediators Qatar and the United States on Wednesday, would take effect on Sunday and involve the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, after which the terms of a permanent end to the war would be finalised.

Israel-Hamas ceasefire Updates

But the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that Hamas had “reneged on parts of the agreement reached… in an effort to extort last-minute concessions”.

It also said that the Israeli cabinet, which has yet to approve the agreement, “will not convene until the mediators notify Israel that Hamas has accepted all elements of the agreement”.

Hamas political bureau member Sami Abu Zuhri said there was “no basis” for Israel’s accusations.

In Gaza, the civil defence agency said Israel pounded several areas of the territory after the deal was announced, killing at least 75 people and wounding hundreds more.

The agreement followed months of fruitless negotiations to end the deadliest war in Gaza’s history and, if finalised, would pause hostilities one day before the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump.

Netanyahu spoke with both US President Joe Biden and Trump on Wednesday, the Israeli leader’s office said, thanking them for their help securing the agreement but also cautioning that “final details” were still being worked on.

The war was triggered by the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

During the attack, the deadliest in Israeli history, Palestinian militants also took 251 people hostage, 94 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s ensuing campaign has destroyed much of Gaza, killing 46,788 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.

Mixed feelings

In Israel and Gaza, there were celebrations welcoming the truce deal, but also anguish.

Saeed Alloush, who lives in north Gaza, said he and his loved ones were “waiting for the truce and were happy”, until overnight strikes killed his relatives.

“It was the happiest night since October 7” until “we received the news of the martyrdom of 40 people from the Alloush family”, he said.

In Tel Aviv, pensioner Simon Patya said he felt “great joy” that some hostages would return alive, but also “great sorrow for those who are returning in bags, and that will be a very strong blow, morally”.

Two far-right party leaders in Netanyahu’s cabinet have publicly opposed the agreement.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said it was a “dangerous deal”, while National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir called it “disastrous”.

Israeli media said the government’s ratification of the agreement may be delayed, in part, by disagreements within the ruling coalition.

The deal followed intensified efforts from mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani announced on Wednesday that the “two belligerents in the Gaza Strip have reached a deal”.

“We hope that all parties will commit to implementing all the terms of this agreement,” he said, adding that the three mediators would monitor its implementation.

During an initial 42-day ceasefire, 33 hostages would be released, the Qatari prime minister said, including women, “children, elderly people, as well as civilian ill people and wounded”.

Also in the first phase, Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza’s densely populated areas and allow displaced Palestinians to return “to their residences”, he said.

Aid needed

Announcing the deal from the White House, Mr. Biden said he was “deeply satisfied this day has come”, calling the negotiations some of the “toughest” of his career.

He added that the second phase of the agreement, if finalised, would bring a “permanent end to the war”.

Envoys from both Trump’s incoming administration and Biden’s outgoing one had been present at the latest negotiations, with a senior Biden official saying the unlikely pairing had been a decisive factor in reaching the deal.

Mr. Trump on social media hailed the “EPIC ceasefire agreement”.

Biden said the deal would “surge much needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, and reunite the hostages with their families”.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi also underscored the “importance of accelerating the entry of urgent humanitarian aid” into Gaza.

Egypt’s state-linked Al-Qahera News cited a security source as saying coordination was “underway” to reopen the Rafah crossing on Gaza’s border with Egypt to allow in aid.

The UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, facing an Israeli ban on its activities set to take effect later this month, welcomed the ceasefire deal.

“What’s needed is rapid, unhindered and uninterrupted humanitarian access and supplies to respond to the tremendous suffering caused by this war,” UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X.

A body is carried to the area outside the hospital after an Israeli army strike in the Muwasi area of Khan Younis in the central Gaza Strip on January 2, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP

More than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Thursday (January 9, 2025), as the conflict raged into a 16th month with no end in sight.

The Ministry said a total of 46,006 Palestinians have been killed and 1,09,378 wounded. It has said women and children make up more than half the fatalities, but does not say how many of the dead were fighters or civilians.

The Israeli Military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence. It says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames Hamas for their deaths because the militants operate in residential areas. Israel has also repeatedly struck what it claims are militants hiding in shelters and hospitals, often killing women and children.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza. Israeli authorities believe at least a third of them were killed in the initial attack or have died in captivity.

The war has flattened large areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its 2.3 million people, with many forced to flee multiple times. Hundreds of thousands are packed into sprawling tent camps along the coast with limited access to food and other essentials.

In recent weeks, Israel and Hamas have appeared to inch closer to an agreement for a ceasefire and the release of hostages. But the indirect talks mediated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt have repeatedly stalled over the past year, and major obstacles remain.

Another strike in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed at least seven people, according to the Awda Hospital. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip killed at least 26 people overnight and into Wednesday (December 11, 2024), including one that hit a home where displaced people were sheltering in the isolated north, killing 19, according to Palestinian medical officials.

That strike occurred in the northern town of Beit Lahiya near the border with Israel, according to the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital, which received the bodies. Hospital records show that a family of eight were among those killed, including four children, their parents and two grandparents.

Also Read | Gaza civil defence says 25 killed in Israeli strikes in territory’s north

Another strike in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed at least seven people, according to the Awda Hospital. Records show the dead included two children, their parents and three relatives.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel has been waging a renewed offensive against Hamas militants in northern Gaza since early October. The military says it tries to avoid harming civilians and accuses militants of hiding among them, putting their lives in danger.

The army said militants in central Gaza fired four projectiles into Israel on Wednesday, two of which were intercepted. The other two fell in open areas, and there were no reports of casualties.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people, including children and older adults. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 44,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health officials. They say women and children make up more than half the dead but do not distinguish between fighters and civilians in their count. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days’ fuel left before they must restrict services, afer the U.N. warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled.

The alarm came a day after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant more than a year into the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas militants.

The United Nations and others have repeatedly decried humanitarian conditions, particularly in northern Gaza where Israeli security services said Friday, they had killed two commanders involved in Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war.

Medics in the Palestinian territory said an overnight Israeli raid on Beit Lahia and nearby Jabalia resulted in dozens killed or missing.

“We raise an urgent warning as all hospitals in Gaza Strip will stop working or reduce their services within 48 hours due to the occupation’s (Israel’s) obstruction of fuel entry,” Marwan al-Hams, director of Gaza’s field hospitals, said during a press conference.

The World Health Organization had already expressed grave concern Tuesday for hospitals still partly operating in Gaza.

“It’s getting harder and harder to get the aid in,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said in Geneva.

Late Thursday, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, Muhannad Hadi, said: “The delivery of critical aid across Gaza, including food, water, fuel and medical supplies, is grinding to a halt.”

In a statement, he said that for more than six weeks Israeli authorities “have been banning commercial imports” while “a surge in armed looting” has targeted aid convoys.

‘Absurd and false’

Vowing to stop Hamas from regrouping in northern Gaza, Israel on October 6 began its air and ground operation in Jabalia and then expanded it to Beit Lahia.

Gaza’s civil defence rescue agency could not immediately give an exact toll after the latest Israeli raid, but the health ministry says Israel’s operation in the north has killed thousands.

The U.N. says more than 100,000 have been displaced from the area, and an oficial told the Security Council last week that people “are efectively starving”.

Issuing the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, the Hague-based ICC said there were “reasonable grounds” to believe they bore “criminal responsibility” for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, and crimes against humanity including over “the lack of food, water, electricity and fuel, and specific medical supplies”.

The unprecedented move drew a furious reaction from Netanyahu, who said in a statement: “Israel rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions and accusations made against it.”

Netanyahu also said the judges were “driven by anti-Semitic hatred of Israel”.

On Friday he thanked his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban for his show of “moral clarity” for inviting him to visit in defiance of the ICC warrant which Orban branded “political”.

Hungary currently holds the European Union’s rotating presidency.

U.S. President Joe Biden, whose country is Israel’s top military supplier, called the warrants against Israeli leaders “outrageous”, but other world leaders expressed support for the court.

Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said Friday Netanyahu would be arrested if he set foot in the country.

Warrant for Hamas chief

The ICC also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas’s military chief Mohammed Deif, saying it had grounds to suspect him of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the attacks on Israel that sparked the war, and including “sexual and gender-based violence” against hostages.

Israel said it killed Deif in July, but Hamas has not confirmed his death.

On the day the warrants were issued, a UN representative said an Israeli raid on Syria this week was “likely the deadliest” by Israel on the country so far. On Friday a war monitor said the strikes on Palmyra killed 92 pro-Iran fighters.

Israel again bombed Gaza on Friday.

In Gaza City, just south of Jabalia, one man who said he took his cousins to hospital afer a strike urged “the world… to put an end” to the war.

“We’ve had enough,” said Belal, who gave only his first name and said 10 members of his family had been killed. “I’m the only one lef,” he said.

At least 44,056 people have been killed in Gaza during more than 13 months of war, most of them civilians, according to figures from Gaza’s health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.

Hamas triggered the war with the deadliest attack in Israeli history, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

The war expanded to Lebanon in late September when Israel escalated air strikes against Iran backed Hezbollah and later sent in ground troops to southern Lebanon against the group, after nearly a year of tit-for-tat cross border clashes which Hezbollah said were in support of Hamas.

Lebanon’s health ministry says more than 3,580 people have been killed in Lebanon, most of them since late September.

Thousands of UN peacekeepers are based in southern Lebanon. They have reported coming under attack numerous times, blaming both Israel and “non-state” actors.

On Friday, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Hezbollah was probably behind a rocket attack that hit their position and lef four Italian peacekeepers lightly hurt.

Israeli air strikes again hit Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold Friday, as well as south Lebanon, the oficial National News Agency said

Smoke rises from North Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Sderot, Israel, November 17, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Gaza’s civil defence agency said 30 people were killed on Sunday (November 17, 2024), including children, and dozens were missing after an Israeli air strike hit a building in the Palestinian territory’s north.

Israel’s army said it had conducted overnight strikes and hit “terrorist targets” in the area.

Also Read: Israel Palestine war updates

After the strike early Sunday, 30 bodies were pulled from the rubble of the five-storey residential building in Beit Lahia, “including children and women”, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said, updating a previous figure of 26.

Seven persons were injured, Mr. Bassal added. Earlier on Sunday he said at least 59 people were missing.

“The chances of rescuing more wounded are decreasing because of the continuous shooting and artillery shelling,” Mr. Bassal said.

AFP images showed men covered in dust scrambling to reach people under the rubble, as some of the bodies were taken away on a donkey-pulled cart.

Other AFP images showed the flattened building with broken concrete and twisted metal sticking out from the ruins as more bodies covered in blankets lay nearby.

Vowing to stop Hamas militants from regrouping in already ravaged north Gaza, Israel on October 6 began a major air and ground assault that began in Jabalia and then expanded to Beit Lahia.

Israel’s army said there were “ongoing terrorist activities in the area of Beit Lahia”, adding: “Overnight, several strikes were conducted on terrorist targets in the area.”

“We emphasise that there have been continuous efforts to evacuate the civilian population from the active war zone in the area,” the ministry said in a statement.

Hamas, which runs the territory, accused Israel of committing a “massacre” which it said is “a continuation of the genocidal war and revenge against unarmed civilians”.

‘Halt atrocities’

Palestinian presidency spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh condemned the United States, Israel’s biggest supporter, for “enabling this continued bloodshed”.

In a statement issued from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, he also demanded that “the United States force Israel to stop its aggression and comply with international law”.

The Palestinian foreign ministry urged the international community to act to “immediately halt these atrocities”.

Earlier on Sunday, Gaza’s civil defence said other Israeli strikes killed at least 20 people, including four women and three children, across the war-torn territory.

Gaza’s health ministry on Sunday said the overall death toll in more than 13 months of war had reached 43,846.

The majority of the dead are civilians, according to ministry figures, which the United Nations considers reliable.

Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.