US-backed GHF suspends Gaza aid for full day

The United States- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) will suspend aid distribution in the war-torn territory on Wednesday, a day after Israeli forces again opened fire on Palestinian aid seekers near a GHF distribution site, killing at least 27 and injuring more than 100.

Israel’s military also said that approach roads to the aid distribution centres will be “considered combat zones” on Wednesday, and warned that people in Gaza should heed the GHF announcement to stay away.

“We confirm that travel is prohibited tomorrow on roads leading to the distribution centers … and entry to the distribution centers is strictly forbidden,” an Israeli military spokesperson said.

In a post on social media, GHF said the temporary suspension was necessary to allow for “renovation, reorganisation and efficiency improvement work”.

Palestinians recall Gaza aid massacre horror

Yazan Musleh, 13, lies in a hospital bed set up in a tent on the grounds of Nasser Hospital, his T-shirt pulled up to reveal a large white bandage on his thin torso.

Beside him, his father, Ihab, sits fretfully, still shaken by the bloodied dawn he and his sons lived through on Sunday when Israeli forces opened fire on thousands of people gathered to receive aid from the Israeli-conceived, and United States-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Ihab, 40, had taken Yazan and his 15-year-old brother, Yazid, from their shelter in al-Mawasi, Khan Younis, to the Rafah distribution point that the GHF operates.

They set out before dawn, walking for about an hour and a half to get to the al-Alam Roundabout in Rafah, near the distribution point. Worried about the size of the gathering, hungry crowd, Ihab told his sons to wait for him on an elevation near the GHF gates.

“When I looked behind the hill, I saw several tanks not far away,” he says. “A feeling of dread came over me. What if they opened fire or something happened? I prayed for God’s protection.”

_{Yazan Musleh was shot in the stomach, the bullet tearing through his intestines. He is only 13 years old}

“I was terrified. I immediately looked towards my sons on the hill, and saw Yazan get shot and collapse,” he recalls.

Yazid, also sitting by his brother’s bedside, describes the moments of terror. “We were standing on the hill as our father told us, and suddenly, the tanks opened fire.” He says. “My brother was hit in the stomach immediately.” “I saw his intestines spilling out – it was horrifying. Then people helped rush him to the hospital in a donkey cart.”

Down by the gates, Ihab was struggling to reach his sons, trying to fight against the crowd while avoiding the shots still ringing out. “Shooting was coming from every direction – from tanks, quadcopters.  “I saw people helping my son, eventually dragging him away.” When Ihab managed to get away from the crowd, he ran as best as his malnourished body could manage, towards Nasser Hospital, in hopes that Yazan had been taken there. It felt like more than an hour, he says.

At Nasser Hospital, he learned that Yazan had been taken into surgery. “I finally breathed. I thanked God he was still alive. I had completely lost hope,” he says. The bullet that hit Yazan had torn through his intestines and spleen, and the doctors say he needs long and intensive treatment. Sitting by him is his mother, Iman, who asks despairingly why anyone would shoot at people trying to get food. She and Ihab have five children, the youngest is a seven-month-old girl.

“I went to get food for my children. Hunger is killing us,” says Ihab. “These aid distributions are known to be degrading and humiliating – but we’re desperate. I’m desperate because my children are starving, and even then, we are shot at?” He had tried to get aid once before, he says, but both times he came away empty-handed. “The first time, there was a deadly stampede. We barely escaped. This time, my son was wounded and again… nothing,” he says.

But he knows he cannot stop trying. “I’ll risk it for my family. Either I come back alive or I die. I’m desperate. Hunger is killing us.”

‘GHF seen to be running away from its responsibilities to provide aid’

After a week of repeated failures in delivering meaningful aid and setting up a safe framework for aid seekers, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) seems to be facing serious challenges.

In a carefully-worded statement, the group cited security concerns and the need for “renovation, reorganisation and efficiency improvement” [for its one-day suspension of operations]. But this raises more questions than it answers.

When it comes to security – Gaza has not seen any absolute security for 20 months. When it comes to logistics – roads are destroyed and damaged, there is a fuel shortage.

These are all things that can cause the flow of aid to slow down, but suspending humanitarian operations altogether highlights the organisation’s incompetence in contingency planning. Many smaller humanitarian organisations, including local ones, were able to keep operating despite the challenges on the ground.

The GHF is seen to be running away from its responsibilities to provide aid.

Israel’s militarised aid takeover creates ‘absurd theatre’ in Gaza

Mads Gilbert, an emergency medicine coordinator who has worked extensively in Gaza, has slammed the Israeli-conceived Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) for sidelining established aid groups and putting starving Palestinians in the line of fire.

“Israel has made a whole new set of rules, in which they exclude the common UN mechanism of distributing help to people in need and replace it with a militarised type of distribution,” he told Al Jazeera.

Pointing to recent deadly attacks on aid seekers in Rafah, Gilbert said Israel had created an “absurd theatre” in which desperate people are forced to risk their lives for parcels of food.

“What needs to happen is for Israel to keep its hands off the distribution of humanitarian aid,” said Gilbert. “We need robust sanctions and a stop to Israel’s outrageous killing of starving people.”

British charity calls Israel’s US-backed aid mechanism in Gaza an ‘atrocity in action’

Action for Humanity, a British humanitarian organisation that operates in Gaza, has blasted the Israeli-conceived Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) for failing to bring aid to most of Gaza’s population while subjecting civilians to deadly violence near aid sites.

“Today, this system – the GHF – has shuttered: depriving thousands of aid access, while Israeli forces escalate military operations in civilian areas and declare aid distribution points as ‘combat zones’,” the organisation wrote in a statement. “An entire population has been denied, humiliated and traumatised by this negligent and insufficient system.”

“Beyond the countless casualties since the programme launch, according to its own data, the GHF has reached only 13 percent of Gaza’s population with food aid – a catastrophic failure by any standard,” it added. “This isn’t a solution; it’s an atrocity in action.”

_{Displaced Palestinians return from a food distribution centre in Rafah, where rescuers said Israeli forces opened fire, June 1}

Israel kills 18 Palestinians in attack on school in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis

At least 18 people have been killed, including children, in an Israeli air attack on a school sheltering displaced people in the southern city of Khan Younis, according to a medical source at Nasser Hospital quoted by our colleagues.

Residents said air raids and shelling had ramped up in parts of the city, after leaflets were dropped instructing people to leave and head west. The leaflets said Israeli forces would be attacking Hamas fighters in the area.

Casualty toll rises ‘by the hour’ after intense overnight Israeli attacks

The worst of the attacks happened overnight in Khan Younis, where a school was targeted in an Israeli air attack, killing at least 18 people. The school was housing displaced families, many newly displaced from eastern Khan Younis. This highlights the illusion of safe zones, security zones, or even shelters.

There are more attack victims in the northern part of the Strip – both in Jabalia and here, in Gaza City.

In southwest Gaza City, a very crowded area, three people – a man and his children – were killed in a drone attack as they were leaving the house they were sheltering in. Two other people in Jabalia were struck by a drone.

The casualty toll is rising by the hour. Many people who have been brought to hospitals have had to wait a long time for doctors to treat them, given how overcrowded and lacking in supplies the facilities are.


_{Palestinians inspect the damage of an Israeli air strike on a tent sheltering displaced people at the Gaza seaport, in Gaza City, June 4}

G️aza’s Health Ministry accuses Israel of striking hospital building in Deir el-Balah

In a statement, the ministry says Israeli forces have hit the roof of an administration building at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Gaza’s central city of Deir el-Balah. The attack, it said, caused “fear and confusion among medical staff, patients and their companions”.

The ministry condemned Israel for continuing a “systematic policy of undermining” Gaza’s health system and called for the “urgent … protection of health facilities”.

Gaza death toll rises

At least 95 Palestinians have been killed and 440 injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 24 hours, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry. Two bodies of people killed in previous Israeli attacks were also recovered from the rubble in the war-torn territory, the ministry said.

The total death toll from Israel’s war on Gaza has risen to 54,607 killed and 125,341 injured since October 7, 2023, it said. Israel has killed 4,335 Palestinians and injured 13,300 since breaking a ceasefire in March this year.

Hospitals struggle to treat patients with heavy bleeding after drone attacks

We are at the point where we can’t really keep up with the drone strikes. In the span of just 30 minutes, three drone strikes targeted people across Gaza City, as well as tents in central Gaza.

Civilians in the eastern part of Gaza City – particularly near the Shujayea neighbourhood – also reported quadcopters chasing them as they headed to the west.

The attacks have caused numerous civilian casualties. The drone missiles [people were targeted with] are quite fatal. When they explode, shrapnel and pieces of metal packed inside fly out at a high speed, piercing through bodies and causing severe bleeding.

Due to the huge influx of injured people [suffering from such bleeding] and a shortage of medical supplies, staff at al-Shifa Hospital and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital have been unable to intervene properly.

Israel destroyed 60 percent of equipment in Gaza’s blood banks, labs: Ministry

Gaza’s Health Ministry says most equipment in hospital labs and blood banks has been destroyed, with the remainder poorly maintained and lacking spare parts.

“Sixty percent of the equipment has been destroyed, deliberately damaged” by Israeli forces, said the ministry, warning that labs urgently need supplies to test and treat the wounded.

12-year-old boy among two killed near Khan Younis: Report

An Israeli aerial attack has killed two people and injured others to the west of Khan Younis, reports the Wafa news agency. One of those killed is a 12-year-old boy, it said.

Attack victims were rushed to the Kuwaiti Field Hospital in Khan Younis for treatment, said the agency. It comes after two other children were killed earlier by an Israeli drone attack in southwestern Gaza City.

_{Residents escape with their belongings from the al-Amal neighbourhood in Khan Younis}


More than 90% aid stocks nearly exhausted in Gaza

A survey of 46 Palestinian and international aid groups working in Gaza has found 93 percent reported their existing aid stocks are totally or nearly exhausted because of Israel’s devastating restrictions on humanitarian assistance.

About two-thirds also reported being unable to deliver services to communities in some parts of the Strip, and one-third said staff members had been wounded or killed in Israeli attacks.

“The government of Israel’s systemic obstruction of aid and the deterioration of the operating environment have severely affected the provision of assistance to communities in need,” a snapshot of the survey results said.

UNICEF spokesman ‘shocked’ by extent of malnutrition in Gaza

UNICEF spokesman James Elder, currently in Gaza, has described the “horrors” he witnessed within just 24 hours.

Speaking from al-Mawasi, Elder told Al Jazeera that Gaza’s hospitals and streets are filled with malnourished children. “I’m seeing teenage boys in tears, showing me their ribs,” he said, noting that children were pleading for food.

He described people so desperate they walk kilometres to aid centres – despite knowing “massacres” have recently taken place there.

“Imagine knowing there’d be a massacre, but being so desperate to feed your family that you still go,” he said, blaming the Israel-US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation for enabling the violence and then shutting down operations without delivering enough aid.

_{Displaced Palestinian children in northern Gaza City}

UN humanitarian chief says aid must be let into Gaza at scale

Tom Fletcher says a series of “deliberate choices” have deprived more than two million people of life-saving assistance in Gaza.

“Open all of the crossings. Let in lifesaving aid at scale, from all directions. Lift restrictions on what and how much aid we can bring in. Ensure our convoys aren’t held up by delays and denials,” he said.

“Release the hostages. Implement the ceasefire. Let us work.”

Open all of the crossings. Let in lifesaving aid at scale, from all directions. ⁰⁰Lift restrictions on what & how much aid we can bring in. Ensure our convoys aren’t held up by delays and denials.⁰⁰Release the hostages. Implement the ceasefire.⁰⁰Let us work. pic.twitter.com/g6Y5pzDcbI

— Tom Fletcher (@UNReliefChief) June 4, 2025

Clear surge in Israeli attacks across Gaza

Israeli missiles continue to assail Gaza and there’s been a focus in the past two hours on targeting residential areas in Deir el-Balah.

We have seen different distressing images of Israeli bombings, and we have also recorded a new air strike on the al-Mawasi area. Three Palestinians were killed in the attack, including two children.

This reflects a very confusing Israeli strategy. The military has been calling residents, telling them to move to al-Mawasi. Families packed up and started to set up tents in this very tiny strip of land that continues to be bombarded by Israeli ground and air forces.

There has been a clear surge of attacks, the latest on Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the water system has been critically destroyed.

Palestinians being ‘stripped of their human dignity’: Red Cross boss

Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, says humanitarian conditions in Gaza have become worse since April, when the Strip was “hell on Earth”.

“The fact that we are watching people being entirely stripped of their human dignity should really shock our collective conscience,” she said in an interview.

The world is seeing a type of warfare in Gaza that “shows utmost disrespect for civilians”.

"The fact that we are watching people being entirely stripped of their human dignity should really shock our collective conscience."

Mirjana Spoljaric, ICRC President, shared with @BowenBBC about the dire situation for civilians in Gaza and made a call for leaders to act now👇🏽 pic.twitter.com/aF99fzcGWP

— ICRC (@ICRC) June 4, 2025

At least 19 Palestinians arrested by Israeli forces in occupied West Bank

Israeli forces have arrested 19 Palestinians, including activists, in dawn raids in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office (ASRA). The arrests were largely made in the town of Tammun and the Far’a refugee camp in the northern West Bank, the ASRA report published on Telegram said.

Among those arrested were at least five former prisoners, ASRA said, while the wife of a former prisoner was also arrested and detained for hours at a checkpoint east of Nablus.

It says the raids are part of Israel’s escalated targeting of released prisoners and their families through night raids and arrests.

Israel demolishes 15 homes in Bedouin village: Report

Bulldozers have torn down 15 homes in the village of Arab al-Mask, home to a community of more than 100 Bedouins in southern Israel’s Negev region, according to the Wafa news agency.

The demolitions have displaced the community of the village, which Israel does not recognise, said Wafa.

As we’ve previously reported, Israel regularly demolishes Arab homes that it claims are built without official authorisation, which Bedouins say is nearly impossible to secure.

No Other Land filmmaker raises alarm over Israeli raid on Palestinian co-director’s village

Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham says Israeli forces have again stormed the occupied West Bank village of his Palestinian colleague Hamdan Ballal, with whom he co-directed the Oscar-winning film No Other Land.

In a post on X this morning, Abraham said Israeli forces entered Susya and set up an “outpost” right in front of the home of Ballal, who fears for his and his neighbours’ safety.

Back in March, as we reported, Ballal was arrested by Israeli forces after being beaten by Israeli soldiers and settlers. The attack took place just three weeks after he won an Oscar in Hollywood.

NOW: Settlers are invading No Other Land director Hamdan Ballal’s village again and building a new outpost inside the village directly in front of his house.

— Yuval Abraham יובל אברהם (@yuval_abraham) June 4, 2025

Elderly man from Gaza dies in Israeli custody

A 70-year-old man from Gaza has died in Israeli custody, Palestinian prisoners’ rights groups say. Muhammad Ibrahim Hussein Abu Habl died on January 10, the Commission for Prisoners’ and Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said in a statement.

The groups were recently notified of his death by the Israeli military. No cause was specified.

Abu Habl, a father of 11 children, was arrested at a checkpoint in November 2024

NGO survey finds increased restrictions on movement in occupied West Bank

A report detailing the results of a survey of 29 non-governmental organisations operating in the occupied West Bank has found many aid groups have reduced or suspended operations there and are facing greater restrictions on movement.

The report said “93 percent of surveyed NGOs in the West Bank report a sharp increase in movement restrictions throughout the reporting period”, and noted that 86 percent reported that things such as increased waiting time at Israeli checkpoints have hindered efforts to distribute aid.

About 72 percent of NGOs also said violent attacks by Israeli settlers are affecting their areas of operation.

Settlers storm village in occupied West Bank

Israeli settlers attacked the village of Deir Dibwan, east of Ramallah, in footage published by locals in the occupied West Bank on Telegram and verified by Al Jazeera.

In the videos, smoke can be seen rising from homes and farms in the area as Palestinians try to extinguish fires. A large vehicle can also be seen completely burned out, with flames still visible in the back as a Palestinian sprayed water from a hose to contain the fire.

Injuries reported after Israeli settlers storm occupied West Bank village

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says seven Palestinians have been injured in the settler attack on the village of Deir Dibwan, east of Ramallah, that we reported on earlier.

The West Bank is home to more than three million Palestinians who live under Israeli military rule, with the Palestinian Authority governing in limited areas. Israel has already built more than 100 illegal settlements across the occupied West Bank that are home to some 500,000 settlers. The settlements range from small outposts to larger communities with modern infrastructure.

Israeli settlers rarely face consequences for West Bank attacks

There have been two attacks on separate villages just east of Ramallah, where at least seven people have been injured by these Israeli settlers who set fire to Palestinian homes, vehicles and agricultural land.

Oftentimes, these attacks happen under the protection of Israeli forces. There is little to no consequence whatsoever, and Palestinians will tell you they’re essentially defenceless from settler attacks and Israeli army raids, with no one to protect them.

Israeli settlers are often rewarded by the Israeli government. Just last week, there were 22 new illegal settlements that were approved, many of which were outposts illegal even under Israeli law.

This is when Israeli settlers set up some caravans or tents on privately owned Palestinian land, and then the state of Israel ends up recognising that – effectively taking that land away from the Palestinians.

So these types of settler attacks have only increased since the war on Gaza began, and the UN says they’re at record-high numbers.

Israeli gunboats ‘kidnap’ fisherman from Lebanese waters

A Lebanese security source has told Al Jazeera that four Israeli gunboats surrounded a Lebanese fishing boat in Lebanon’s territorial waters off the coast of the southern town of Naqoura, kidnapping one of the fishermen.

Lebanese local media posted the picture of the fisherman Ali Fneish, from the southern town of Ma’roub, from his boat off Naqoura. They said he was taken to the occupied Palestinian territory.

UN appoints new head of UNIFIL

The UN has selected Major-General Diodato Abagnara to lead the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). A UNIFIL statement said Abagnara will succeed Lieutenant-General Aroldo Lazaro Saenz.

In Lebanon, although the truce between Israel and Hezbollah officially ended hostilities, sporadic cross-border attacks have continued.

Israel has regularly broken the truce and carried out air raids across southern Lebanon, also hitting neighbourhoods in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah retains strong support.

Human Rights Watch says US strike on Yemeni port likely a war crime

The international human rights watchdog says an April 17 US attack on Ras Issa Port in Hodeidah should be investigated as a war crime.

The group said the attack, carried out as part of a US campaign against the Houthi rebel group, resulted in dozens of civilian casualties and seriously damaged port infrastructure.

“The US government’s decision to strike Ras Issa Port, a critical entry point for aid in Yemen, while hundreds of workers were present demonstrates a callous disregard for civilians’ lives,” said Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch.

“At a time when the majority of Yemenis don’t have adequate access to food and water, the attack’s impact on humanitarian aid could be enormous, particularly after Trump administration aid cutbacks.”

Activist-led humanitarian aid ship en route to Gaza

The Madleen ship, launched by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), is on its way to Gaza carrying humanitarian aid and rights activists protesting Israel’s illegal blockade of the Strip.

If there are no disruptions, the ship and its 12-person crew, including climate activist Greta Thunberg, are expected to reach the enclave on June 7.

Err... That boat can barely carry enough food for the 12 people on board. It's a brave gesture I guess.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/6/3/whos-onboard-the-madleen-gaza-flotilla-and-where-has-it-reached-so-far

According to an FFC press release, the Madleen is carrying things urgently needed by people in Gaza, including medical supplies, flour, rice, baby formula, nappies, women’s sanitary products, water desalination kits, crutches and children’s prosthetics.

Must be bigger on the inside :p
Expected to arrive in 3 days.

https://freedomflotilla.org/ffc-tracker/

French leader voices support for European Parliament member on flotilla

Jean-Luc Melenchon, the leader of the left-wing La France Insoumise party, has lauded European Parliament member Rima Hassan for accompanying the activists on the Madleen aid ship, saying that what she is doing to break the siege on Gaza is “extremely useful”.

Melenchon spoke to Hassan via video feed on the channel Al Jazeera Mubasher. The French politician, who came within a whisker of the run-off round for the 2022 French presidential elections, also criticised the European Union for its close ties to Israel.

He said the bloc has not honoured the accord that governs its relations with Israel — known as the Association Agreement — which calls for respecting human rights. “In the face of the genocide in Gaza, the European Union has been and remains lamentable,” Melenchon said.

Israel will not allow ship to approach Gaza: Report

Kan, Israel’s public broadcaster, reports that the Israeli security establishment has decided to block the Madleen aid ship from reaching the besieged enclave. But it is unclear how Israeli forces will confront the ship.

In 2010, the Israeli military raided the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, which was carrying assistance for Palestinians, in international waters and killed 10 activists on board.

It won't be hard to attach a chain to the front of that boat and drag it away...

Ultra-Orthodox party poised to quit Israeli government over conscription dispute

Israel’s government has been thrown into turmoil by an ultra-Orthodox party’s threat to dissolve the ruling coalition amid a dispute about compulsory military service.

Senior rabbis have instructed their representatives in the United Torah Judaism alliance, which holds seven seats in Israel’s parliament, to pull their support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government, the DPA news agency and Israeli media reported.

The alliance’s withdrawal would leave Netanyahu’s right-wing, religious government with just 61 seats in the 120-member parliament.

The split has come amid a debate over compulsory military service for Israel’s ultra-Orthodox minority, known as the Haredim. The ultra-Orthodox have for decades been granted an exemption from compulsory military service, but that exemption lapsed last year.

Netanyahu’s government has not passed a law exempting the ultra-Orthodox from the draft, despite pressure from the community to do so. Many ultra-Orthodox Jews see military service as incompatible with their beliefs.

The Haredi population in Israel is currently around 13% of the total population, projected to reach 16% by 2030.

Israeli army promotes officer accused of ordering attack on people with white flag in Gaza: Report

An unnamed Israeli military officer who soldiers say issued a shoot-to-kill order against two people carrying a white flag in Gaza has been promoted to the rank of a battalion commanding officer, according to Israel’s Haaretz newspaper.

The publication reported on the incident in December last year through an op-ed written by an Israeli soldier, Haim Har-Zahav, who said he witnessed it in the so-called Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza earlier that year.

The order to shoot was countermanded by another officer, and the men who were waving their hands above their heads were not shot. Following the publication of the op-ed, Israeli military police called on Har-Zahav to give a statement. But they have not summoned the accused officer for questioning, Haaretz reported, instead awarding him command of an infantry battalion.

Israeli arms exports hit all-time high last year: Ministry

Israel exported a record-high $14.7bn worth of arms in 2024, according to its Defence Ministry. Nearly half of the weapons sales involved missile, rocket and air defence systems.

Defence Minister Israel Katz attributed the uptick to the Israeli military’s combat “successes” in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen and elsewhere.

At the same time, numerous states, including traditional allies such as Spain, Italy, Canada and France, have suspended or sharply limited arms sales to Israel due to its ongoing attacks in Gaza.

Genocide is a racket.