Here is a summary of today’s events
We’re closing this blog shortly, here is an overview of the day’s main developments:
Gaza civil defence has said 20 people, including at least six children, have been killed in Israeli airstrikes overnight. Agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP the first hit a tent housing displaced people in Khan Younis in the south shortly after midnight local time (9pm GMT Tuesday) and the second struck a camp in the north soon afterwards.
Humanitarian workers, medical officials and doctors in Gaza say they have been overwhelmed by almost daily “mass casualty incidents” as they struggle to deal with those wounded by Israeli fire on Palestinians seeking aid.
An Israeli report released Tuesday accuses Hamas of using sexual violence as a weapon of war during its 7 October 2023 attacks. The findings are based on survivor and witness testimonies, first responder accounts, and forensic evidence.
The UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories said the governments of Italy, France, and Greece “must explain why they provided airspace and safe passage to ICC-wanted Benjamin Netanyahu, whom they are obligated to arrest.”
The Liberia-flagged, Greek-operated bulk carrier Eternity C has sunk after a Houthi attack off Yemen. Rescuers have pulled seven crew members alive from the Red Sea, and are still looking for 14 more missing.
Russia said on Wednesday its embassy in Tehran had reopened to the public, noting that the security situation in Iran has stabilised after the two-week conflict with Israel.
The Israeli military said it launched targeted operations in southern Lebanon to dismantle infrastructure belonging to the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
Israel’s foreign minister says a Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal is achievable. Gideon Saar told a press conference in Bratislava that if a temporary truce was sealed, Israel would negotiate on a permanent end to the hostilities.
The British consulate in Jerusalem has condemned “unchecked settler violence” against Palestinians in the West Bank. It called for Israel to “respect its obligations under international law, including the prohibition of forcible transfer.”
A survey of Doctors Without Borders (known by its French initials MSF) staff and their families found that mortality increased tenfold for children under five compared to pre-7 October 2023 Gazan ministry of health estimates.
The survey found 48% of the people who died from blast injuries among their colleagues’ households were children; 40% were under 10 years old.
Amande Bazerolle, deputy manager of MSF’s emergency department, said: “This disregard for children’s lives clearly indicates that this war run by Israel in Gaza is against all Palestinians. The children of Gaza are being decimated. Israel’s allies must put all their efforts to end the genocide taking place before our very eyes.”
We conducted a retrospective mortality survey among our colleagues and their families in Gaza. The results show an appalling death rate when compared to before Israel’s all-out war – including that mortality increased tenfold for children under 5.https://t.co/YXioM1U7iH
— MSF International (@MSF) July 9, 2025
Israel’s foreign minister says a Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal is achievable. Gideon Saar told a press conference in Bratislava that if a temporary truce was sealed, Israel would negotiate on a permanent end to the hostilities.
“Israel is serious in its will to reach a hostage deal and a ceasefire. I believe it’s achievable. If a temporary ceasefire is achieved, we will negotiate on a permanent ceasefire,” he said at the conference with his Slovakian counterpart.
Rescuers have pulled seven Eternity C crew members alive from the Red Sea
Rescuers have pulled seven crew members alive from the Red Sea, and are still looking for 14 more missing from the second of two freighters sunk within two days by suspected Houthi attackers. The seven who were rescued say they spent more than 24 hours at sea.
Four of the 25 people aboard the Eternity C cargo ship were killed before the rest of the crew abandoned the vessel, which sank on Wednesday morning after being attacked on Monday and Tuesday, sources at security companies mounting the rescue said.
The ships were first attacked on Monday afternoon with sea drones and rocket-propelled grenades fired from speed boats by suspected Yemen-based Houthi militants, maritime security sources said.
There was no comment from the Houthis regarding Eternity C, but the group claimed responsibility for a similar attack on Sunday targeting another ship, the Magic Seas. All crew from the Magic Seas were rescued before it sank.
The attacks on the two ships renew a campaign by the Iran-aligned fighters, who had attacked more than 100 ships between November 2023 and December 2024 in what they said was solidarity with the Palestinians, but had halted their campaign this year.
Updated
The British consulate in Jerusalem has condemned “unchecked settler violence” against Palestinians in the West Bank.
In a post on X, the consulate said its staff had re-visited the Palestinian community of Mughayyir a-Deir, who were now “living in difficult conditions in an industrial area, facing deep uncertainty” after facing violence from Israeli settlers in the area.
The post reads: “This is not an isolated incident: It is a trend of unchecked settler violence causing displacement, as we have seen this month in Ein Al-Hilweh and Al-Mu’arajat. Palestinian communities must be protected, not forced to uproot their homes and belongings.”
Yesterday we re-visited the Palestinian community of Mughayyir a-Deir, who were displaced from their land and are now living in difficult conditions in an industrial area, facing deep uncertainty. 1/2 https://t.co/T9SUoMWsUb pic.twitter.com/GrRMnbWZLH
— UK in Jerusalem🇬🇧 (@UKinJerusalem) July 9, 2025
The statement issued by the consulate also calls on Israel to “respect its obligations under international law, including the prohibition of forcible transfer.”
“We also reaffirm our clear and consistent opposition to settlements, which are illegal under international law. We emphasise Israel’s responsibility to protect all Palestinian communities in Area C.”
A shipment of bulldozers from the US arrived in Israel today, after months of delays – Israel’s defence ministry says.
The Caterpillar D9 bulldozers and other equipment for the IDF Ground Forces have been unloaded from a ship at Haifa Port before being taken to an IDF logistics centre to install armour on them.
In November, the then US president Joe Biden’s administration reportedly halted the sale of D9 bulldozers due to the IDF’s use of them to raze homes in Gaza. The IDF said that these houses were being used by Hamas and that civilians were being used as human shields.
However it has been reported that current US president Donald Trump’s administration has removed halts implemented by Biden, and back in February Trump announced the approval of the sale of more than $7.4bn in bombs, missiles and related equipment to Israel.
As reported by the Times of Israel, since 7 October 2023, 870 transport planes and 144 ships have delivered more than 100,000 tons of armaments and military equipment to Israel, mostly from the US.
The Israeli army has said it has launched ‘special, targeted operations’ in south Lebanon
Today (9 July), the military said it launched targeted operations in southern Lebanon to dismantle infrastructure belonging to the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
As reported by AP News, an army statement said: “Following intelligence information and the identification of Hezbollah weapons and terrorist infrastructure in several areas of southern Lebanon, the soldiers launched special, targeted operations to dismantle them and prevent Hezbollah from reestablishing itself in the area.”
The outlet reports that the Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether this was the first time Israeli troops had operated on the ground in Lebanon since a November ceasefire.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images coming through from Gaza:
Updated
On Tuesday, the European Union force patrolling the Red Sea told AFP that three people were killed and at least two injured - including a Russian electrician who lost a leg - in the attack on the Eternity C.
Twenty-two people were aboard the Greek-operated vessel, all but one from the Philippines, according to Filipino officials.
20250708-UKMTO_WARNING_INCIDENT_027-25-UPDATE 003https://t.co/yo0ifPJbtT#MaritimeSecurity #MarSec pic.twitter.com/7VTJBPT8Tt
— UKMTO Ops Centre (@UK_MTO) July 9, 2025
The British navy’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said: “Search and rescue operations commenced overnight.
“Five crew members have been rescued and searches continue for those remaining,” it added.
Updated
Russia said on Wednesday its embassy in Tehran had reopened to the public, noting that the security situation in Iran has stabilised after the two-week conflict with Israel.
The mission had stopped providing consular services on June 15 after Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign hitting Iran’s nuclear facilities and military infrastructure, as well as residential areas.
The attacks killed more than 1,000 people, including senior military commanders and nuclear scientists.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a regular briefing that there was “some stabilisation” of the situation, adding that “the consular service of the Russian embassy in Tehran is already operating as usual”.
At least six aid seekers have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, Al Jazeera reports. A medical source told journalists at Al Jazeera Arabic that Israeli forces have shot six Palestinians dead and injured several more as they waited for aid north of Gaza’s southern city of Rafah.
This comes as medical officials, humanitarian workers and doctors in Gaza say they have been overwhelmed by almost daily “mass casualty incidents” as they struggle to deal with those wounded by Israeli fire on Palestinians seeking aid.
According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, the casualties among those seeking aid totalled 640 killed and more than 4,500 injured between 27 May and 2 July.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Tuesday its doctors in Gaza had seen a sharp surge over the past month in mass casualty incidents linked to aid distribution sites.
Updated
Seven soldiers serving in the Israeli air force’s Arrow air defense system array have been detained for allegedly abusing junior soldiers in their unit as part of a hazing ritual – the Times of Israel reports.
The IDF says a military police investigation has been opened into “serious actions during ‘initiation ceremonies’ of veteran soldiers against juniors” in the 136th Air Defense Battalion, which operates the Arrow 2 and 3.
“The IDF is working to thoroughly investigate the suspicions and to bring those involved to justice,” it says. It then added that “the IDF views any act of violence seriously and adopts a zero-tolerance approach toward initiation ceremonies of this and other kinds.”
The Liberia-flagged, Greek-operated bulk carrier Eternity C has sunk after a Houthi attack off Yemen, four maritime security sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
Now, efforts to rescue the crew are under way.
Some of the crew were in lifejackets in the water and at least five people have been rescued so far, two of the sources said.
Overnight Israeli airstrikes kills at 20 Palestinians
Gaza’s civil defence agency’s spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP that 10 people, of the 20 Palestinians who were killed in an overnight Israeli airstrike, were from the same family.
The 10 members of the family were killed during the first airstrike, as they were sheltering in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis. A second airstrike on the Al-Shati camp near Gaza City, also left more than 30 wounded.
The victims were from two families, Bassal added.
“The explosion was massive, like an earthquake,” said Zuhair Judeh, 40, who saw the Al-Shati airstrike.
“It destroyed the house and several nearby homes. The bodies and remains of the martyrs were scattered,” he added, calling it “a horrific massacre”.
Several people remained missing, presumed trapped under the rubble, he said.
Updated
Here are some images coming to us over the wires:
The UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories said the governments of Italy, France, and Greece “must explain why they provided airspace and safe passage to ICC-wanted Benjamin Netanyahu, whom they are obligated to arrest.”
Francesca Albanese, an Italian legal scholar who has been the special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories since 2022, said that the citizens of the countries, which are all parties to the Rome Statute, “deserve to know that every political action violating the international legal order, weakens and endangers all of them.”
The United States, which is now hosting Netanyahu, is not one of the 125 countries party to the Rome Statute – the treaty that established the international criminal court (ICC) and laid out four international crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression.
Trump’s administration recently sanctioned four ICC judges, accusing them of taking “illegitimate and baseless actions” against the US and its allies – which includes Israel.
The governments of Italy, France, and Greece must explain why they provided airspace and safe passage to ICC-wanted Benjamin Netanyahu, whom they are obligated to arrest. Italian, French and Greek citizens deserve to know that every political action violating the int'l legal… https://t.co/gfcAZQOOFi
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) July 9, 2025
This comes after Albanese called for sanctions and an arms embargo on Israel and for global corporations to be held accountable for “profiting from genocide” in Gaza.
Her report last week to the UN Human Rights Council pointed to the deep involvement of global companies in supporting Israel during its 21-month onslaught in Gaza.
“While life in Gaza is being obliterated and the West Bank is under escalating assault, this report shows why Israel’s genocide continues: because it is lucrative for many,” the report said.
Updated
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.
Gaza civil defence has said 20 people, including at least six children, have been killed in Israeli airstrikes overnight.
Agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP the first hit a tent housing displaced people in Khan Younis in the south shortly after midnight local time (9pm GMT Tuesday) and the second struck a camp in the north soon afterwards.
Elsewhere, medical officials, humanitarian workers and doctors in Gaza say they have been overwhelmed by almost daily “mass casualty incidents” as they struggle to deal with those wounded by Israeli fire on Palestinians seeking aid.
As reported by the Guardian’s Jason Burke, doctors describe many of the casualties they are treating describe being shot as they try to reach distribution sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a secretive US- and Israel-backed organisation that began handing out food in late May.
“The scenes are truly shocking – they resemble the horrors of judgment day. Sometimes within just half an hour we receive over 100 to 150 cases, ranging from severe injuries to deaths … About 95% of these injuries and deaths come from food distribution centres – what are referred to as the ‘American food distribution centres’,” said Dr Mohammed Saqr, director of nursing at Gaza’s Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis.
In other developments:
AP News reports that an Israeli report released Tuesday accuses Hamas of using sexual violence as a weapon of war during its Oct. 7, 2023 attacks. The findings are based on survivor and witness testimonies, first responder accounts, and forensic evidence.
The report says that many victims may have been killed, silencing them and complicating investigations. It asks for new legal approaches to prosecuting sexual violence in conflict, suggesting evidence beyond victim testimony and holding all attackers jointly responsible. Hamas denies the allegations.
This comes as Israel and Hamas are negotiating a ceasefire. Reporters were told that the anticipated agreement would involve a 60-day ceasefire, with the release of ten live hostages and nine deceased individuals.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with US president Donald Trump to discuss any potential ceasefire deal options.
Netanyahu said the meeting was focused around freeing hostages held in Gaza, and stressed his determination to “eliminate” the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas.
