Israeli Defence Ministry presents cheaper, quicker plan for Gaza ‘concentration camp’: Report

The Israeli Ministry of Defense presented Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with an updated estimate of the cost of establishing the so-called “humanitarian city” for Palestinians in the southern Gaza Strip, the Israeli Army Radio has reported.

The latest plan is estimated to cost 4 billion shekels (about $1.2bn) and the construction of the site – which would provide tents, electricity, water, and food – would take about two months, it said.

The report comes amid widespread criticism of the Israeli scheme that would move 600,000 already uprooted Palestinians into a small piece of land in southern Gaza – a scheme that critics say amounts to the establishment of a “concentration camp” and ethnic cleansing.

The first iteration of the idea, floated by Defence Minister Israel Katz earlier this month, was estimated to cost between $2.7bn and $4bn, senior officials told Israeli media.

According to two officials who spoke to Reuters, Netanyahu dismissed the first proposition, saying it was far too costly and complicated, and ordered the military to propose something cheaper and quicker.

Israeli army says it opens new corridor splitting Khan Younis area

The Israeli army has announced the opening of a new corridor in southern Gaza that splits the Khan Younis area.

The Magen Oz Corridor runs between eastern and western Khan Younis, stretching about 15km (9.3 miles), the military said, adding that it would apply pressure on Hamas and help dismantle the group’s brigade operating in what remains of the southern city.

In an illustration published by the Israeli army, the new corridor connects to the Morag Corridor, which was established in April to separate Khan Younis from Rafah.

New Israeli corridor disrupts ceasefire hopes and deepens Palestinian isolation

The newly established Magen Oz Corridor runs straight through the heart of Khan Younis, separating a very large rural area of Khan Younis from the rest of that district. In effect, it cuts off several municipalities where there was agriculture, where people had hoped they would be able to return if there’s a ceasefire to resettle in their homes or what is left of them.

Israeli media report this as a way not just to apply military pressure but also to create new facts on the ground.

In fact, we see reporting from the Israeli Army Radio about this area, which has been ethnically cleansed of its Palestinian population. According to the report, this is an opportunity to clear it of all buildings and to possibly use it as an extension to the concentration zone that Israel has been talking about and planning to erect on the ruins of Rafah to accommodate more Palestinian confined in those areas.

This will complicate ceasefire talks, which are faltering in Doha because of these facts on the ground, because Israel does not want to leave these expanding buffer zones – shrinking the areas where Palestinians can live in Gaza.

Israeli attacks on Gaza kill 58,573 Palestinians since October 2023

Since the war on Gaza began on October 7, 2023, Israeli attacks on the enclave have killed 58,573 people and wounded 139,607, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. In the latest 24-hour reporting period, 94 people have been killed and 252 injured.

Since March 18 when Israel broke the January ceasefire, at least 7,750 Palestinians have been killed and 27,566 have been wounded.

UN says 10 children per day lose their legs in Gaza

The UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) has said that “10 children per day lose one or both of their legs,” in Gaza.

In total, “134,105 people including over 40,500 children have new war-related injuries,” OHCHR said in a post on X.

This includes more than 35,000 people “believed to have significant hearing damage due to explosions”.

In Gaza, 134,105 people including over 40,500 children have new war-related injuries. 25% are estimated to have new disabilities requiring acute and ongoing rehabilitation. 35,000+ people are believed to have significant hearing damage due to explosions.https://t.co/DQtaDRn1WF

— UN Human Rights Palestine (@OHCHR_Palestine) July 15, 2025

Countries hesitant to take in medical evacuees from Gaza since Trump back in office: MSF

More than 10,000 people in Gaza urgently require medical evacuation, according to the World Health Organization. However, Israel often blocks their passage abroad while severely limiting critical supplies getting to hospitals and attacking medical facilities.

Hani Isleem – a project coordinator with Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF – told Al Jazeera that before Donald Trump was re-elected as US president, many countries were open to accepting medical evacuees but Israel prevented the vast majority of them from leaving the Strip.

“Most of the time, they were denied, and even if the patient was allowed to leave, they were refusing their companion, and there were no clear reasons behind these refusals and no justification,” he said.

Isleem said that after Trump was re-elected and he floated plans to remove Palestinians from Gaza, many countries became reluctant to accept medical evacuees in principle.

“That made a lot of countries who were willing to take people from Gaza hesitate and change their plan because of the political stance,” he said.

Isleem said it is not only those wounded in attacks who require evacuation but many people with chronic conditions such as cancer, renal failure and cardiovascular problems also need treatment abroad.

“The situation in Gaza is beyond catastrophic,” he said.

At least 20 Palestinians killed at GHF site in southern Gaza

The US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) says at least 20 Palestinians have been killed at its food distribution point in Khan Younis, the latest people to lose their lives at the sites described by the UN as “death traps”.

“At least 19 of the victims were trampled and one was stabbed amid a chaotic and dangerous surge, driven by agitators in the crowd,” the GHF said in a statement.

“We have credible reason to believe that elements within the crowd – armed and affiliated with Hamas – deliberately fomented the unrest,” it said without providing any evidence.

GHF personnel identified multiple firearms in the crowd, the organisation said, adding that a US worker was threatened with a firearm by someone in the crowd.

The GHF has faced intense criticism since it began distributing aid in late May. The UN has condemned its operations after multiple reports that its contractors and Israeli forces have opened fire on aid seekers. More than 870 Palestinians have been killed near or at its distribution sites.

Ministry says 21 killed, including 15 from suffocation and stampede, after tear gas fired at GHF site

At least 21 people have been killed, including 15 from a stampede and suffocation due to tear gas being fired at Palestinians seeking food, at one of the GHF distribution hubs in Khan Younis, Gaza’s Health Ministry says in a statement.

“For the first time, deaths have been recorded due to suffocation and the intense stampede of citizens at aid distribution centers,” the ministry said.

It accused the Israeli army and the US of “deliberately” committing “massacres against the starving people in a systematic manner”.

The ministry issued the statement after the US- and Israel-backed GHF acknowledged this morning that 20 people had been killed at its distribution point in Khan Younis, accusing Hamas-affiliated elements of fomenting the unrest.

Since it began distributing aid in late May, the GHF has been engulfed in criticism for setting up sites that the UN describes as “death traps”. More than 870 Palestinians have been killed near or at its distribution sites.

After more aid seeker deaths, GHF justifications again contradicted by subsequent reports

As long as the GHF is controlling the humanitarian aid system and mechanism in the Gaza Strip, we’re likely to see more of these horrific incidents happening.

It started on the first day of operations, but every time an incident occurs, the GHF rushes to its official website and publishes a statement justifying what happened.

Just minutes after the incident that occurred earlier this morning, where 21 people have been confirmed dead, the GHF said it was very sorry for the loss of civilians waiting for aid, but went on to justify what happened, claiming there were armed groups within the crowd that caused the unrest.

Now, as time goes by and the day progresses, there are more shocking revelations as to what happened.

A witness from the crowd said tear gas was fired at it, causing mayhem and chaos to spread, and the stampede followed. This is very consistent with the report from the hospitals where most of the cases were transferred, including those who are still alive.

At least 74 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza today

Medical sources in the Gaza Strip have told Al Jazeera the number of people killed so far today in Israeli attacks across the besieged and bombarded territory has risen to at least 74.

As we reported earlier, the grim toll includes at least 21 aid seekers.

Israeli settlers burn cars in occupied West Bank village


_{Residents said a group of settlers stormed the village of Burqa and torched several cars, with flames spreading to surrounding land}

Israeli forces arrest Palestinians in West Bank raids, demolish home

Israeli forces have arrested at least 10 Palestinians in early morning raids in the occupied West Bank, the Wafa news agency reports.

This includes seven Palestinians from the Ramallah and el-Bireh governorate, including three young men from the village of Burqa aged between 17 and 20 years.

It also includes three Palestinians from the town of Azzun, in Qalqilya, Wafa reported.

Meanwhile, Israeli authorities demolished a three-storey house in the Palestinian-majority Israeli town of Kafr Qasim, Wafa also reported.

‘Idea of a humanitarian camp is totally unbearable and unpractical’

Ehud Olmert, the former Israeli prime minister from 2006-09, has clarified his comments on the planned forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into a small zone in southern Gaza.

“I said some will try to interpret it [as a concentration camp]. It’s bad, it shouldn’t be done. But it’s not a concentration camp, and it’s not a genocide. It’s just stupid, reckless, irresponsible and something that may amount to a crime, which should be prevented,” Olmert told Al Jazeera.

“And I hope my voice and the voices of many Israelis will succeed to stop it. The idea of a ‘humanitarian camp’ is totally unbearable and impractical. It won’t help to provide the humanitarian needs of the population,” he added.

“The idea that you can deport 600,000 people from where they’re supposed to live in the north part of Gaza into the south and then keep them segregated in an area that will be walled and they won’t have a chance to move around is just totally unacceptable.”

Backtracking already? 3 days ago:

Humanitarian city’ would be concentration camp for Palestinians, says former Israeli PM
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/13/israel-humanitarian-city-rafah-gaza-camp-ehud-olmert

The “humanitarian city” Israel’s defence minister has proposed building on the ruins of Rafah would be a concentration camp, and forcing Palestinians inside would be ethnic cleansing, Israel’s former prime minister Ehud Olmert has told the Guardian.


It's also a genocide as per the definitions and backed up by many legal scholars and international organizations. For example:

https://www.bu.edu/articles/2024/is-israel-committing-genocide-in-gaza/

The report continues: “after reviewing the facts established by independent human rights monitors, journalists, and United Nations agencies, we conclude that Israel’s actions in and regarding Gaza since October 7, 2023, violate the Genocide Convention.

UN humanitarian chief paints a grim Gaza picture

This meeting at the United Nations was convened by several UN Security Council members, including the United Kingdom, France, Greece, Slovenia, and Denmark, who are seeking increased access for aid to enter Gaza – given the current situation there.

UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said “it’s hard to come up with the words to describe” what UN staff are seeing in Gaza.

In just the last month, some 5,800 women and children have been treated for malnourishment, 70 percent of essential medicines are missing in the Gaza Strip, and the UN has also reported that people are sleeping outside without any shelters or protection because they’ve been displaced so many times.

This was essentially a call for help from Fletcher, who also explained that, despite its presence on the ground in Gaza, the UN is still unable to meet the vast needs of the people there.

_{Large crowds gather in Gaza for a rare meal}

War on Gaza ‘a complete human tragedy’, says Swedish doctor

Marit Halmin, a Swedish doctor currently in Gaza, says she met fathers who are going to deadly aid distribution sites despite being scared for their lives and aware of the likelihood of being shot.

She also described having to put dead children and their mothers into body bags.

“This is a complete human tragedy that the world is witnessing and allows to happen,” Halmin told told Sweden’s national broadcaster SVT.

UNICEF says the world has failed Gaza’s children

More than 17,000 children have reportedly been killed and 33,000 wounded in the ongoing war in Gaza, UNICEF’s executive director, Catherine Russell, says.

She told the UN Security Council an average of 28 kids die daily in Gaza – “a whole classroom of children killed every day for nearly two years”.

Malnutrition has surged with nearly 6,000 children acutely malnourished in June, a 180 percent increase since February, she said.

Food supplies are running out, and Gaza civilians are being shot while seeking something to eat, UN Under-Secretary-General Tom Fletcher said.

“Civilians are exposed to death and injury, forcible displacement, stripped of dignity,” Fletcher told the Security Council, emphasising Israel’s obligation under the Geneva Conventions to provide food and medical aid as the occupying power in Gaza.

Missile launched from Yemen ‘intercepted’: Israel

The Israeli military says it shot down a missile fired from Yemen after air raid sirens sounded in several areas of southern Israel. The Houthi group in Yemen has repeatedly targeted Israel with missile fire since it launched the war on Gaza in 2023.

More than 100 ships have since been attacked in operations the Houthis say are in solidarity with the besieged Palestinians. Last week, the Houthis sank two vessels in the Red Sea as the armed group ramps up military pressure attempting to bring the war on Gaza to an end.

Yemen’s Houthis target multiple locations in Israel

Yemen’s Houthi militia says it attacked Israel’s Ben Gurion airport, Eilat port and a military site in the Negev region in a series of coordinated missile and drone attacks.

“The Houthi missile force launched a ballistic missile of the Zulfiqar type at Lod airport [Ben Gurion] in the Tel Aviv area,” Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a statement.

The strike forced “occupying Zionist settlers into shelters and halted airport operations”, he added.

Earlier, the Israeli army said it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen, triggering air raid sirens in several southern areas. The army did not mention any drone activity in its statement.

Parties in Syria agree on steps to end clashes, says Rubio

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the various parties fighting in Syria have agreed on specific steps to end the clashes there.

“We have engaged all the parties involved in the clashes in Syria. We have agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end tonight,” Rubio said on X.

“This will require all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made and this is what we fully expect them to do.”

US tells Syria to pull forces out of the south after Israeli attacks

The US is calling on Syria to withdraw its troops from the southern border area to allow for de-escalation with Israel.

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce made the comments after clashes between Syrian government troops and local Druze fighters resumed in the southern city of Suwayda hours after a ceasefire agreement.

“We are calling on the Syrian government to withdraw their military in order to allow all sides to be able to de-escalate,” Bruce said in an interview on Fox News.

UN chief denounces Israel’s attack on Syria

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned Israel’s air strikes on Suwayda, Deraa and Damascus.

In a statement by Guterres’s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, the UN chief also denounced the Israeli army’s “redeployment of forces in the Golan”.

“He calls for an immediate cessation of all violations of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and for respect of the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement,” said Dujarric.

Iran condemns Israel’s ‘unhinged aggression’

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has denounced Israel after it bombed Syria’s capital and other areas. “The rabid Israeli regime knows no bounds and only grasps one language. The world, including the region, must unite to end its unhinged aggression,” he said.

Syria called for the United Nations Security Council to meet as soon as possible to “address the consequences of the Israeli aggression on Syrian territory”.

Unfortunately, this was all too predictable. Which capital is next?

The rabid Israeli regime knows no bounds and only grasps one language. The world, including the region, must unite to end its unhinged aggression.

Iran supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of… pic.twitter.com/93kueERy2S

— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) July 16, 2025

Syria’s army begins withdrawal from Suwayda

The Syrian government earlier announced a new ceasefire in Suwayda after clashes a war monitor said killed more than 300 people since Sunday.

The Syrian army “has begun withdrawing from the city of Suwayda in implementation of the terms of the adopted agreement, after the end of the sweep of the city for outlaw groups”, a Defence Ministry statement said.

The statement did not mention any pullout of other government security forces, which deployed to the city on Tuesday following days of deadly fighting between Druze fighters and local Bedouin tribes.

Witnesses have reported that government forces joined with the Bedouins in attacking Druze fighters and civilians in a bloody rampage through the city.