Main events on July 1st

• US President Trump said that Israel has agreed “to the necessary conditions” to finalise a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza.
• Trump threatened Hamas to accept the deal, otherwise “it will only get worse”.
• The death toll in Gaza from Israeli attacks today has risen to 98, hospital sources in the besieged enclave told Al Jazeera.
• More than 165 international aid organisations called for the immediate end of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, created by Israel and the US to push aside international aid to the besieged enclave and take control of it themselves.
• Israeli police arrested a couple suspected of spying for Iran.
• A group of UN human rights experts has urged the UK not to designate the direct action protest group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation.

Outrage over Bob Vylan for Glastonbury chant exposes West’s hypocrisy on Gaza

The UK parliament devoted hours to discuss a chant made by a little-known rapper, Bob Vylan, at the Glastonbury festival. Even the US reacted by cancelling his visa. But, as Rifat Jawaid explains, the same UK parliament didn’t have time expression its shock on the apocalyptic scenes in Gaza and Trump is busy welcoming Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court.

How the Israel lobby got Keir Starmer to ban Palestine Action

As Palestine Action ask the courts to stop them being banned as a terror organisation, we look at the pro-Israel groups that have been lobbying the government to proscribe them.

Britain’s home secretary Yvette Cooper will ask MPs this week to decide whether to ban Palestine Action alongside two far-right organisations, one of which is called the Maniac Murder Cult.

The draconian move comes after Palestine Action broke into RAF Brize Norton airbase and damaged a military plane with red paint. Those two activists, armed with little more than red paint and e-scooters, were able to breach the security of Britain's biggest airbase - causing the government serious embarrassment on the world stage.

We're Paying For The Weapons": Colbert's Mainstream US Audience Hears Ugly Israel-Gaza Facts

Israel yet to comment on Trump’s 60-day proposal

There hasn’t been any sort of official confirmation from the Israelis just yet, because it is around 3am local time there.

It is important to note that the Israelis had previously accepted a 60-day proposal that was brought forth by the Americans back in March.

It was presented by the American envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, who said that this was a 60-day proposal only, but it had guarantees for Israel to return to the fighting, and that was the main reason why Hamas decided not to accept that proposal.

This has been a huge sticking point throughout these negotiations.

Reports within Israeli media indicated tonight that for the first time in more than 20 months, Benjamin Netanyahu had signalled a willingness to negotiate an end to the war.

Netanyahu, up until this point, has said that Israel has a lot of different goals and that the war on Gaza will only end when they achieve “total victory”.

Now what the US president is saying is that Israel has agreed to the necessary conditions to finalise this 60-day ceasefire. He also said that mediators are going to be giving this final draft to Hamas.

Israel has not sent the negotiating team to the Qatari capital or the Egyptian capital for some time, but has been doing this sort of shuttle diplomacy with the Americans to try and finalise something.

And even though there is momentum towards this sort of deal, the Israelis still have not confirmed anything on their end.

Israel threatens to turn Gaza ‘into dust’ if Hamas fails to agree a truce: Report

Israeli officials have warned that the country’s military will escalate its operations in Gaza if negotiations on a ceasefire and captive exchange deal do not advance soon, according to the US-based Axios news outlet.

Israel on Monday ordered civilians in additional areas of Gaza City to evacuate south, signalling preparations for a potential expansion of the army’s ground offensive.

“We’ll do to Gaza City and the central camps what we did to Rafah. Everything will turn to dust,” the outlet quoted a senior Israeli official as saying. “It’s not our preferred option, but if there’s no movement toward a hostage deal, we won’t have any other choice.”

The report comes as Trump said Israel had agreed to the “necessary conditions” to finalise a 60-day truce and urged Hamas to accept the deal. There has been no official word from Israel or Hamas yet.

Openly threatening more genocide and ethnic cleansing, yet the ICJ continues debating...

_{Neighbours and civil defence teams search for survivors after an Israeli attack on Khan Younis on Tuesday}

What are the sticking points in Israel-Hamas truce talks?

We’ve been reporting on a new push by the US for a 60-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

The Axios news website is reporting that Trump’s announcement came after talks between his envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer at the White House. It said the two discussed “an updated ceasefire and hostage proposal put forward by Qatar”.

There has been no comment from Doha yet.

Here’s a reminder of the hurdles in previous rounds of talks:

US senator slams Irish ban on trade with Israeli settlements as ‘hateful’

Jim Risch, the Republican chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has accused Ireland of “blatant” anti-Semitism for its plan to ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements.

“Ireland, while often a valuable US partner, is on a hateful, antisemitic path that will only lead to self-inflicted economic suffering,” Risch said in a post on X.

“If this legislation is implemented, America will have to seriously reconsider its deep and ongoing economic ties,” Risch added.

Irish Deputy Prime Minister Simon Harris said last week that Ireland had become “the first country in Europe to bring forward legislation to ban trade with the Occupied Palestinian Territories”.

“Ireland is speaking up and speaking out against the genocidal activity in Gaza,” Harris said.

The Israeli Settlements Bill, approved by the Republic of Ireland’s cabinet last month, would make it an offence under the Customs Act to import goods from illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory.

US says UN expert is waging ‘warfare against the American economy’

The US Mission to the UN has accused Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese of committing “political and economic warfare against the American and worldwide economy” after she released a new report mapping the corporations aiding the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.

The mission accused Albanese of using “deeply flawed legal arguments to support extreme and unfounded accusations” that “dozens of entities worldwide, including major American corporations”, are “complicit in gross human rights violations, apartheid, and genocide”.

The mission called for UN Chief Antonio Guterres to condemn Albanese’s activities and for the removal of the independent rapporteur, who was appointed to her role by the UN Human Rights Council, a body made up of 47 member states.

The American economy is committing genocide... Complicity in genocide is a crime under international law.

UN report lists companies complicit in Israel’s ‘genocide’: Who are they?

We’ve been reporting on the US response to a UN report that maps the corporations aiding Israel in the displacement of Palestinians and its “genocidal” war on Gaza. The report by the UN expert on Palestine, Francesca Albanese, names 48 corporate actors, including US tech giants Microsoft, Alphabet Inc, Google’s parent company, and Amazon.

A database of more than 1,000 corporate entities was also put together as part of the investigation.

“[Israel’s] forever-occupation has become the ideal testing ground for arms manufacturers and Big Tech – providing significant supply and demand, little oversight, and zero accountability – while investors and private and public institutions profit freely,” the report said.

“Companies are no longer merely implicated in occupation – they may be embedded in an economy of genocide,” it said, in a reference to Israel’s ongoing assault on the Gaza Strip.

The report stated that its findings illustrate why Israel’s “genocide” continues – “Because it is lucrative for many.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/1/un-report-lists-companies-complicit-in-israels-genocide-who-are-they

Death toll from Israeli attacks at GHF sites rises to 600

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza says at least 600 people have been killed and more than 4,278 others wounded at GHF sites since the group began operations in late May.

As we’ve been reporting, global criticism of the US and Israel-backed initiative has been mounting with the rising toll.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), said in a post on X that the scheme “provides nothing but starvation and gunfire to the people of Gaza”.

Countries at war seeing US, Israeli actions in Gaza ‘as a model to follow’

We’ve been speaking to Antony Loewenstein, a journalist and the author of The Palestine Laboratory, a book on Israel’s arms and surveillance industry.

He told Al Jazeera that he is worried that other countries will see the US and Israel’s militarised aid operations, via the GHF, as a model.

“I’ve written a lot about the issue of Palestine being a model for the surveillance and weapons industry, and it’s now exported globally. What I am already hearing is that what Israel and America is doing in Gaza is looked at by other countries as a model,” Loweinstein said.

“You and I might see this as a disaster – civilians are being murdered at huge rates – but that’s not an impediment to other countries doing the same thing in their own conflicts.

“Why? Because there’s no accountability. There’s been hundreds of Palestinians killed in the last month, but no Israeli soldiers are being held to account, no trial is happening in Israel, and there frankly won’t be.

“Israel investigates itself, and easily finds itself innocent,” Lowenstein added.

“This is what worries me, that what’s happening in Gaza is a model that other countries will follow in the months and years ahead.”

It's already happening in Sudan... Next to kissing the NPT goodbye after Israel/US attack on Iran.

GHF’s operations in Gaza are part of a ‘dark mission’ to expel Palestinians

We have more from Antony Loewenstein, a journalist and author of The Palestine Laboratory. He said Israel and the US’s push to take over aid distribution from the UN in Gaza, via the GHF, is aimed at pushing out Palestinians from the coastal enclave.

He said Israel loathes the UN’s presence in occupied Palestinian territory because it sees the world body as “perpetuating the Palestinian issue”.

“It’s nonsense. The issue is that there is an occupation that has been going on for decades. That’s what’s perpetuating the situation, not the UN,” Loewenstein said.

He went on to note that a recent study published in the Nature magazine has found that an estimated 84,000 people have been killed in Gaza as a result of Israel’s war.

“These are staggering numbers of people,” he said.

“And in the last five weeks, since this aid operation has begun, there’s been well over 600 killed, and there’s no indication right now that that’s stopping. And it’s worth saying that the goal is also pretty clear. Israel now controls the whole of the Gaza Strip militarily, and Palestinian civilians are in pretty much 20-21 percent of it, meaning that the vast majority of Gaza has no Palestinians or very, very few,” he continued.

“And the fear that I have … is that the so called long term goal here is to, for those Palestinians who stay, who refuse to leave – assuming they’re given any option to do anything else – their life will be essentially misery and intense siege forever, at least for the foreseeable future. And this aid operation is part of that very, very dark mission.”

More than 100 staff accuse BBC of ‘anti-Palestinian racism’

The 107 employees, along with 300 media industry figures, have written to BBC leadership, accusing the broadcaster of “censorship” when it comes to Israel and “performing PR for the Israeli government and military”.

Their letter, published in Deadline, cited in particular the BBC’s recent decision not to air the Gaza: Medics under Fire documentary, saying the move was “just one in a long line of agenda driven decisions”.

“Much of the BBC’s coverage in this area is defined by anti-Palestinian racism,” the employees said.

They also said the BBC has failed to offer any significant analysis of the UK government’s involvement in the war on Palestinians, including weapons sales or their legal implications.

“Since October 2023 it has become increasingly clear to our audiences that the BBC’s reporting on Israel/ Palestine falls short of our own editorial standards. There is a gulf between the BBC’s coverage of what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank and what our audiences can see is happening via multiple credible sources,” they said.

“The BBC’s editorial decisions seem increasingly out of step with reality. We have been forced to conclude that decisions are made to fit a political agenda rather than serve the needs of audiences,” they added.

All the BBC staff who signed the letter did so anonymously, while the industry figures supporting their call included actors Khalid Abdalla and Miriam Margolyes.

That's not a lot out of 41K BBC employees world wide :/

Law firms call on UK Parliament to halt F-35 parts’ export to Israel

Two law firms challenging British exports of F-35 parts to Israel have described a recent London court ruling on their case as “disappointing”.

Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) and Al-Haq say they are considering appealing the decision.

They also said it is now up to the UK Parliament to act, after the high court said “it is Parliament’s role, not the court’s” to scrutinise if the “government decision to continue to arm Israel through the F-35 carve-out is consistent with its international law obligations”.

“The court’s decision, which continues to allow the UK to arm Israel, through the F-35 carve-out, is disappointing; however, our teams are looking into whether to appeal the judgment,” GLAN and Al-Haq said in a statement.

“Yesterday’s decision does not affect the UK government’s obligation under international law to prevent genocide and atrocity crimes,” they added.

Joint statement from GLAN and @alhaq_org: The court will not decide - Parliament must act to end UK arms for Gaza genocide https://t.co/VHHjceJxiG #stoparmingisrael

— GLAN | Global Legal Action Network (@GLAN_LAW) July 1, 2025

Detained Gaza doctor ‘suffering from critical health conditions’, family says

The family of Hussam Abu Safia, who has been detained by Israel since December, says the doctor has lost 30kg (66 pounds) and is “suffering from critical health conditions”.

His son, Elias, told the Palestinian Information Center that the doctor is enduring “harsh and catastrophic” conditions in the Israeli jail and has been deprived of medication and is being subjected to inhumane treatment.

Abu Safia was awarded the 2025 Nizar Banat Award for human rights defenders by the Palestinian group Lawyers for Justice on Monday.

Even behind bars, my father never stops making history.
Today, he is honored with the 2025 Human Rights Defender Award…
Because truth cannot be imprisoned, and humanity knows no chains.
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya – the pride of Palestine. pic.twitter.com/ayNjTnNAoq

— Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya د.حسام أبو صفية (@HussamAbuSafiya) June 29, 2025

Amnesty, HRW, MSF and other NGOs urge Israel to release Palestinian health workers

The group of 25 rights organisations are demanding an end to Israel’s arbitrary detention of healthcare workers in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

“At least 185 healthcare workers from Gaza and the West Bank were estimated to be in Israeli detention as of February 2025,” the group said in a statement. “The conditions of many of those still detained remain unknown. Many of those released have reported severe abuse, while some have died in custody.”

The detentions are part of a wider assault on Gaza’s health system, the NGOs said.

“Since October 2023, there have been around 700 attacks on health, including aerial bombardments of hospitals, health clinics and ambulances. Over 1,500 health workers and 460 aid workers have been killed.”

In an age of abundance and ceasefires, Gaza starves, and the war won’t stop

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/6/27/in-an-age-of-abundance-and-ceasefires-gaza-starves-and-the-war-wont-stop

Israel and Iran fought for 12 days, firing bombs, drones and missiles at each other, with the US also joining in. Then it stopped.

Last month, India and Pakistan attacked each other, and the world feared the outbreak of an all-out war between the two nuclear powers. But then, after four days, it stopped.

In Gaza, we haven’t been so lucky. The word “ceasefire” doesn’t apply to us – even after 20 months of slaughter, death, and starvation. Instead, as wars erupt and end elsewhere, Gaza is neglected, slipping down the news agenda, and disconnected from the internet for days.

World leaders who can end wars decisively can’t deliver medicine to Gaza, can’t bring in food aid without daily bloodshed. That inadequacy has left us Palestinians in Gaza isolated, abandoned, and feeling worthless. We feel humiliated and degraded, as if our dignity has been erased.

‘A murderous freefall’

Sam Rose, director of UNRWA affairs in Gaza, says the situation in the enclave and the killings near aid distribution hubs are getting “immeasurably worse” and show no sign of ameliorating, considering how much Palestinians are in need of food.

“This will continue because people are so desperate to get food, they are making impossible choices and taking impossible risks,” Rose told Al Jazeera, referring to more than 600 people killed in the past five weeks while waiting for food.

“And it gets worse because we had a population on the verge of starvation three months ago and those conditions are getting immeasurably worse – this needs to come to an end,” Rose said, speaking from Amman, Jordan.

The militarisation of aid forces people to travel long distances through conflict zones, “which means that those who are in greatest need are at greatest risk of not being able to get that assistance”, he said. “It is treating people in an incredibly undignified way.”

No aid organisation would have been allowed to continue operating in light of the number of people killed each day near its hubs, Rose said, “but for some reason this is allowed to pass”.

“It’s a murderous freefall.”

Iran made preparations to close Strait of Hormuz: Report

Quoting two US officials, Reuters news agency reports that the Iranian military loaded naval mines onto vessels in the Gulf some time after Israel launched its initial missile attack against Iran on June 13.

The loading of the mines, which have not been deployed in the strait, suggests that Tehran may have been serious about closing one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, a move that would have escalated an already-spiralling conflict and severely hobbled global commerce. About one-fifth of global oil and gas shipments pass through the Strait of Hormuz, and a blockage would likely have spiked world energy prices.

The report also said it wasn’t clear if the mines have since been unloaded. The sources did not disclose how the US determined that the mines had been put on the Iranian vessels, but such intelligence is typically gathered through satellite imagery, clandestine human sources or a combination of both methods.

The two officials said the US government has not ruled out the possibility that loading the mines was a ruse. The Iranians could have prepared the mines to convince the US that Tehran was serious about closing the strait, but without intending to do so, the officials said.

Iran’s military could have also simply been making necessary preparations in the event that Iran’s leaders gave the order, they said.

Netanyahu may seek US guarantees for strikes on Iran’s rebuilt nuclear and missile sites: Report

The Israeli broadcaster Kan reports that PM Netanyahu is likely to ask President Trump for guarantees to be able to strike Iran should it detect that Iranian authorities are trying to rebuild their nuclear programme or missile arsenal.

Netanyahu, who is scheduled to travel to Washington next week, may request a written letter from the US, the report said.

In their 12-day war, Israel deeply damaged Iran’s missile production and damaged its nuclear capabilities. While the extent of the damage remains disputed, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi acknowledged last week that the country’s nuclear facilities sustained “significant and serious damages” after the US dropped bunker busters on three key sites.

Acknowledged or claimed? Best way to get US/Israel to back off is to make them believe their own lies lol.

Iranian president approves law suspending cooperation with IAEA

Masoud Pezeshkian has approved a law requiring the government to suspend Iran’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the official Press TV and other Iranian news agencies report.

Last week, Iran’s parliament passed the legislation to suspend cooperation with the IAEA. The move came after growing tensions between Tehran and the UN nuclear watchdog over monitoring access and transparency in the wake of recent military confrontations with Israel and the US.

Israeli FM urges E3 nations to reinstate Iran sanctions

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has called on Germany, France and the UK – the three European signatories to a nuclear deal with Iran in 2015 – to impose new sanctions on Tehran.

“The time to activate the Snapback mechanism is now! I call upon the E3 countries – Germany, France and the UK – to reinstate all sanctions against Iran!” Saar posted on X.

Israeli forces arrest 14 Palestinians in Bethlehem

Wafa news agency reports that 14 Palestinians have been arrested in Israeli raids across the Bethlehem governorate in the occupied West Bank. They include two 15-year-olds from the town of al-Khader in the south.

Israeli forces have also arrested a Palestinian in Hebron, Wafa reports.

Israeli demolitions in West Bank will make 400 families homeless

Palestinians have gathered in the Tulkarem refugee camp in the occupied West Bank to attempt to recover their possessions from their homes before they are demolished by Israeli forces.

The head of the popular committee in the camp told our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic that about 400 families would be made homeless by the Israeli order to demolish more than 100 homes.

The official said a two-hour deadline given by Israeli authorities to retrieve belongings was insufficient for families to remove their possessions.

أهالي مخيم طولكرم الذين طردوا وأخرجوا من بيوتهم قبل أشهر، يحاولون العودة اليوم لمنازلهم لاستخراج بعض مقتنياتهم قبل أن يهدمها الاحتلال. pic.twitter.com/k2cFLitJGP

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) July 2, 2025

[Translation: The residents of Tulkarem camp, who were expelled and driven from their homes months ago, are trying today to return to their homes to retrieve some of their belongings before the occupation demolishes them.]

Israeli minister calls for seizing ‘historic opportunity’ to annex West Bank

Justice Minister Yariv Levin says the current times offer a “historic opportunity” to seize the occupied West Bank, Israeli media reports. According to The Times of Israel, Levin said, “Beyond the current issues, [it] is a time of historic opportunity that we must not miss.

“The time for sovereignty has come, the time to apply sovereignty. My position on this matter is firm, it is clear.”