The UK foreign secretary has said he is “appalled, sickened” by the “grotesque” targeting of starving Palestinians seeking food by the Israeli military, saying there would be further sanctions if the war did not end soon.
Israel on Monday launched air raids and a ground operation in Gaza, targeting Deir al-Balah, the main hub for humanitarian efforts. Military action over the weekend resulted in the highest death toll in almost two years as Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least 93 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli fire as they were queueing for food.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, David Lammy said he deeply regretted that it was not within the UK’s unilateral power to end the war and insisted, despite criticism from human rights groups, that there were no arms licences issued by the UK that could be used in Gaza and that RAF surveillance flights did not share intelligence with the Israeli military.
The UK has joined 27 other countries, including Australia, Canada and France, in condemning Israel for depriving Palestinians of “human dignity”, and urging the Israeli government to lift restrictions on the flow of aid, arguing that the suffering of civilians had “reached new depths”.
Rights groups including Amnesty International called the statement “empty words” and said all arms exports must be halted whether direct or indirect, including components for F-35 fighter jets.
Asked why there were still more than 300 licences in operation, Lammy said: “We have suspended arms sales that can be used in Gaza. I’m satisfied that we are not in any way complicit in a breach of international humanitarian law. That’s the sober undertaking that I take as foreign secretary.”
Lammy said the UK could not single-handedly force an end to the war. “I wish we could, but the truth is … we are unable to do that just as the United Kingdom. We have to work in partnership with our allies, that is what we have done. And I’m afraid if we do not see this war come to an end, there will be more action.
“But I stand on my record and it’s a good record. I believe it’s one that we can hold up, and it’s one that you would find other governments have not done as much as the UK government has done to bring the war to an end, but have we succeeded at this point? We have obviously failed until it succeeds. That is the truth.”
Asked ifRAF flights that overfly Gaza shared information to help Israel conduct the war, Lammy said: “No … We are not assisting, and it would be quite wrong for the British government to assist in the prosecution of this war in Gaza. We are not doing that. I would never do that.”
Lammy told BBC Breakfast he felt “appalled, sickened” by the scenes of starving Palestinians being shot as they sought food.
“These are not words that are usually used by a foreign secretary who is attempting to be diplomatic, but when you see innocent children holding out their hand for food, and you see them shot and killed in the way that we have seen in the last few days, of course Britain must call it out,” he said.
“We will continue to pressure, we will continue to act, we will continue to urge this Israeli government to listen to 83% of its public who are urging them now to move to a ceasefire so those hostages can come out.”
Asked by ITV’s Good Morning Britain what more he planned to do if Israel did not agree to end the conflict, Lammy replied: “Well, we’ve announced a raft of sanctions over the last few months.
“There will be more, clearly, and we keep all of those options under consideration if we do not see a change in behaviour and the suffering that we are seeing come to an end.”
Hundreds of students gathered outside the smoldering remains of a school in the Bangladeshi capital on Tuesday to demand answers after a military jet slammed into the campus, killing dozens of children.
An ordinary school day turned into terror on Monday when a Bangladesh Air Force jet suffered a mid-air mechanical fault and ploughed into the Milestone School and College in Dhaka, engulfing the two-story building in flames and smoke.
Young students were finishing up afternoon classes and parents had gathered outside the gates to greet their children when the aircraft hit, killing at least 31 people – including 25 children – in the country’s deadliest air incident in recent memory. Some 165 others were left injured, according to the armed forces public relations directorate (ISPR), many with severe burns.
That most of the dead and injured are young children has compounded the tragedy that shocked the nation of 171 million people and sent the country into national mourning.
As police and air force personnel worked at the scene to retrieve parts of the crashed plane on Tuesday, the gathered crowd began shouting at officials, with some students telling CNN they believe the death toll may be higher thanofficially released.
The government has denied it is withholding information about the casualties of the crash, state media BSS News reported, citing the Chief Adviser’s press wing. It added that the identities of those killed are still being verified.
At the crash site on Tuesday, witnesses were still visibly shaken by the horror they had seen the day before.
“We saw scattered parts of different bodies, of children, guardians,” Mohammad Imran Hussein, a lecturer in the school’s English department, told CNN.
“I cannot express everything in words,” he said, emotionally distressed and struggling to speak.
Hussein said he was in a school building across the playground when the jet crashed.
“The sound was really intolerable. And I looked around to see what happened, I saw the tail of the plane. I saw a huge flame of fire,” he said.
Milestone College has a kindergarten, an elementary school and a high school on its campus. The building destroyed in the crash was one of about 20 housing almost 100 students between the ages of six and 13, Hussein said.
“It’s like this building was turned into a death trap. It was horrible, totally horrible,” said Sheik Rameen, 21, a student at the high school.
“I saw a lot of children, I tried to save their lives,” he told CNN at the site. “I saw a burnt child seek help but nobody came to help them.”
The FT-7 jet was on a routine training mission when it crashed soon after take off at around 1:18 p.m. local time on Monday (3:18 a.m. EST) after a mechanical fault, according to BSS News, citing the country’s armed forces.
The plane’s pilot, who has been named as Flight Lieutenant Towkir Islam, made “every effort to divert the aircraft away from densely populated areas toward a more sparsely inhabited location,” the military said.
The F-7 BGI is the final and most advanced variant in China’s Chengdu J-7/F-7 aircraft family, according to Jane’s Information Group. Reuters reported that Bangladesh signed a contract for 16 aircraft in 2011 and deliveries were completed by 2013.
Images from the crash site showed parts of the mangled wreckage of the jet lodged into the side of the scorched school as emergency crews continued their operations.
Following the crash, emergency crews and families rushed the injured to hospitals in the capital where doctors raced to treat severe burns caused by the inferno. The hospitals quickly became overwhelmed with frantic relatives desperate for news of their loved ones.
Most of the injured at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital’s burns unit are children under the age of 12, resident surgeon Harunur Rashid told Reuters.
Video shows crowds waiting outside the hospital and waiting rooms packed with anxious families.
Bangladesh’s interim government leader Muhammad Yunus said on Monday that, “I have no words. I don’t know how to begin.”
“None of us ever imagined it. It wasn’t within anyone’s expectations. But we had to suddenly accept this unbelievable reality,” Yunus said in a video message.
Yunus said the training aircraft “crashed and fell upon these innocent children” and many were “burned to death in the fire.”
“What answer can we give to their parents? What can we possibly say to them? We can’t even answer ourselves,” he said.
Smoke rises over western Deir al-Balah during an Israeli offensive on Monday
The World Health Organization (WHO) says Israel’s ground offensive in central Gaza has compromised its efforts to continue working, after its facilities came under attack.
The UN agency accused Israeli forces of attacking a building housing its staff and their families in the city of Deir al-Balah on Monday and mistreating those sheltering there. Its main warehouse was also attacked and destroyed.
The Israeli military has not yet commented.
Its first major ground operation in Deir al-Balah since the start of the war with Hamas 21 months ago has displaced tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, amid warnings of a severe hunger crisis across the territory.
The UN said on Monday it was receiving reports of malnourished people arriving at clinics and hospitals in extremely poor health, while the Hamas-run health ministry said 19 people had died from malnutrition since Saturday.
On Sunday, the Israeli military ordered the immediate evacuation of six city blocks in southern Deir al-Balah, warning that it would be operating “with great force to destroy the enemy’s capabilities and terrorist infrastructure”.
The estimated 50,000 to 80,000 people living in the affected areas were instructed to head south towards the al-Mawasi area in the south of the territory.
The UN’s humanitarian office said UN staff would remain in Deir al-Balah despite the evacuation order, spread across dozens of premises whose co-ordinates had been shared with Israel, and stressed that they had to be protected.
On Monday night, the WHO put out a statement saying it condemned “in the strongest terms” attacks on its facilities.
It said the WHO staff residence was attacked three times, and that staff and their families, including children, were “exposed to grave danger and traumatized after air strikes caused a fire and significant damage”.
“Israeli military entered the premises, forcing women and children to evacuate on foot toward al-Mawasi amid active conflict. Male staff and family members were handcuffed, stripped, interrogated on the spot, and screened at gunpoint,” it added.
“Two WHO staff and two family members were detained. Three were later released, while one staff member remains in detention.”
The WHO demanded the immediate release of its detained staff member and the protection of its other staff, who have been relocated with their families to its office in Deir al-Balah.
The WHO’s main warehouse in the city was damaged after “an attack caused explosions and fire inside”, the organisation said. The warehouse was later looted by desperate crowds, it added.
The agency did not attribute blame for the attack, but said it was “part of a pattern of systematic destruction of health facilities”.
The WHO warned that its operational presence in Gaza was “now compromised, crippling efforts to sustain a collapsing health system and pushing survival further out of reach for more than two million people”.
There has been no comment yet from the Israeli military on the attacks on the WHO’s premises or on the wider offensive in Deir al-Balah.
But Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported on Monday that troops were operating to “establish a corridor that will cut through the city, severing it from the al-Mawasi area and preventing free movement between central Gaza refugee camps where the Israeli army has no ground presence”.
According to the UN, about 87.8% of Gaza is now covered by Israeli evacuation orders or is within Israeli militarized zones, leaving the 2.1 million population squeezed into about 46 sq km of land where essential services have collapsed.
Israeli sources say that the possible presence of Israeli hostages held by Hamas is one reason why Deir al-Balah has so far not been the target of a ground offensive. At least 20 of the 50 hostages still in captivity are believed to be alive.
Hostages’ families have expressed concern that an offensive could endanger them.
The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
At least 59,029 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry.
Gaza is ‘hell on earth’ with doctors fainting from hunger, UN warns, as 1,000 estimated to have been killed seeking food
The head of the UN Palestinian Refugee Agency said on Tuesday that its staff members as well as doctors and humanitarian workers are fainting on duty due to hunger and exhaustion, Reuters reports.
Unrwa commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement, shared by his spokesperson at a press briefing in Geneva:
Caretakers, including UNRWA colleagues in Gaza, are also in need of care now, doctors, nurses, journalists, humanitarians, among them, UNRWA staff are hungry. Many are now fainting due to hunger and exhaustion while performing their duties.
Lazzarini described the situation in Gaza as “hell on earth”, adding that nowhere was safe.
The Unrwa estimates that 1,000 starving people have been reported killed while seeking food aid since the end of May.
After talks to extend a six-week ceasefire broke down, Israel imposed a full blockade on Gaza on 2 March, allowing nothing in until trucks were again permitted at a trickle in late May.
In a post on X on Monday, Unrwa said that shortages in the Palestinian territory had caused food prices to increase by 40 times, while the aid stockpiled in its warehouses outside Gaza could feed “the entire population for over three months.”
Palestinians carry aid supplies after trucks loaded with aid entered from Israel through central Gaza, in Gaza City on 22 July 2025. Photograph: Khamis Al-Rifi/Reuters
Key events
Iran said on Tuesday that 27 inmates were still at large after an Israeli airstrike last month targeted Evin prison in the north of the capital, Tehran, local media reported, according to the Associated Press (AP)
The airstrikes were part of Israel’s 12-day bombardment of Iran that killed about 1,100 people, while 28 were left dead in Israel in Iranian retaliatory strikes.
Judiciary’s news website, Mizanonline, quoted spokesperson Asghar Jahangir as saying 75 prisoners had escaped after the strike, of which 48 were either recaptured or voluntarily returned. He said authorities will detain the others if they don’t hand themselves over.
Jahangir said the escapers were prisoners doing time for minor offences.
Amnesty International calls for war crimes investigation into Israeli strike on Iranian prison
Amnesty International on Tuesday called for a war crimes investigation into Israel’s deadly air attack on Tehran’s Evin prison during last month’s 12-day war.
The strike, confirmed by Israel, killed 79 people, according to a provisional tally by Iranian authorities.
It also destroyed part of the administrative building in Evin, a large, heavily fortified complex in the north of Tehran, which rights groups say holds political prisoners and foreign nationals.
Amnesty International, an international non-governmental organisation that campaigns to protect human rights, said in a statement that the Israeli attack “deliberate” and “a serious violation of international humanitarian law”.
The airstrikes should therefore be “criminally investigated as war crimes”, it said.
Amnesty said:
The Israeli military carried out multiple air strikes on Evin prison, killing and injuring scores of civilians and causing extensive damage and destruction in at least six locations across the prison complex.
The organisation based its assessment on what it said were verified video footage, satellite images and witness statements.
There was nothing to suggest that Evin prison could justifiably be seen as a “legal military objective”, it said.
The victims of the 23 June attack on the prison included administrative staff, guards, prisoners and visiting relatives, as well as people living nearby.
Between 1,500 and 2,000 prisoners were being held at the time in the prison.
Government offices in at least 10 Iranian provinces, including the capital, have been ordered to close on Wednesday in a bid to conserve water and electricity, as temperatures in parts of southern and south-western Iran soared above 50C (122F), Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
At least 10 provincial capitals recorded temperatures above 40C on Monday, including Tehran, which reached 40C for the first time this year, the meteorological agency said.
The heatwave comes amid a sharp drop in rainfall – the worst in 60 years in the capital, according to Tehran’s provincial water supply company.
The drought has seen the water levels of dams supplying Tehran drop to “their lowest level in a century”, the company said, advising people to use a tank and pump to cope with ongoing water disruptions.
Many residents across Tehran reported water outages lasting several hours in the past few days.
“The water crisis is more serious than what is being talked about,” president Masoud Pezeshkian warned on Sunday, adding that the country would “face a situation in the future for which no solution can be found” if current trends continue.
He said:
Measures such as transferring water from other places to Tehran will not solve the problem fundamentally
Gaza is ‘hell on earth’ with doctors fainting from hunger, UN warns, as 1,000 estimated to have been killed seeking food
The head of the UN Palestinian Refugee Agency said on Tuesday that its staff members as well as doctors and humanitarian workers are fainting on duty due to hunger and exhaustion, Reuters reports.
Unrwa commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement, shared by his spokesperson at a press briefing in Geneva:
Caretakers, including UNRWA colleagues in Gaza, are also in need of care now, doctors, nurses, journalists, humanitarians, among them, UNRWA staff are hungry. Many are now fainting due to hunger and exhaustion while performing their duties.
Lazzarini described the situation in Gaza as “hell on earth”, adding that nowhere was safe.
The Unrwa estimates that 1,000 starving people have been reported killed while seeking food aid since the end of May.
After talks to extend a six-week ceasefire broke down, Israel imposed a full blockade on Gaza on 2 March, allowing nothing in until trucks were again permitted at a trickle in late May.
In a post on X on Monday, Unrwa said that shortages in the Palestinian territory had caused food prices to increase by 40 times, while the aid stockpiled in its warehouses outside Gaza could feed “the entire population for over three months.”
Palestinians carry aid supplies after trucks loaded with aid entered from Israel through central Gaza, in Gaza City on 22 July 2025. Photograph: Khamis Al-Rifi/Reuters
The Roman Catholic church’s most senior cleric in the Holy Land said on Tuesday that the humanitarian situation in Gaza was “morally unacceptable”, after visiting the war-torn Palestinian territory, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa told a news conference:
We have seen men holding out in the sun for hours in the hope of a simple meal.
It’s morally unacceptable and unjustified.
Nick Maynard
Prof Nick Maynard is a consultant surgeon at Oxford university hospital who has been travelling regularly to Gaza for 15 years. He is currently volunteering with Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) at Nasser hospital in Gaza.
I’m writing this from Nasser hospital in southern Gaza, where I’ve just finished operating on another severely malnourished young teenager. A seven-month-old baby lies in our paediatric intensive care unit, so tiny and malnourished that I initially mistook her for a newborn. The phrase “skin and bones” doesn’t do justice to the way her body has been ravaged. She is literally wasting away before our eyes and, despite our best efforts, we are powerless to save her. We are witnessing deliberate starvation in Gaza right now.
This is my third time in Gaza since December 2023 as a volunteer surgeon with Medical Aid for Palestinians. I experienced mass casualty events and raised the alarm about malnutrition back in January 2024. But nothing has prepared me for the sheer horror I’m witnessing now: the weaponisation of starvation against an entire population.
The malnutrition crisis has become catastrophic since my last visit. Every day I watch patients deteriorate and die, not from their injuries, but because they are too malnourished to survive surgery. The surgical repairs that we carry out fall to pieces, patients get terrible infections, then they die. It is happening repeatedly, and it is heartbreaking to watch. Four babies have died in the last few weeks in this hospital – not from bombs or bullets, but from starvation.
Families and staff do their best to try to bring in what they can, but there simply isn’t enough food available in Gaza. For infants, we have virtually no baby formula. Children are being given 10% dextrose (sugar water), which has no nutritional value, and often their mothers are too malnourished to breastfeed. When an international colleague tried to bring baby formula into Gaza, Israeli authorities confiscated it.
You can read more of Nick Maynard’s piece here: I’m witnessing the deliberate starvation of Gaza’s children – why is the world letting it happen?
Regarding the possibility of reimposing international sanctions on Iran, state media quoted the country’s deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi as saying on Tuesday that the Iranian government feels the “snapback” mechanism lacks any legal ground, Reuters reports.
He was speaking ahead of a meeting on Friday with three European states known as the E3 – Britain, France and Germany.
The E3 have said that if no progress is reached by the end of August over Iran’s nuclear programme, they will invoke a “snapback” mechanism – a process that would reimpose UN sanctions on Tehran that were lifted under a 2015 deal in return for restrictions on Iran’s nuclear programme.
Referring to Friday’s meeting in Istanbul, Gharibabadi said:
We will express our position regarding the E3’s comments on the snapback mechanism, which we think lacks any legal ground.
Nonetheless, our effort will be to see if we can find common solutions to manage the situation.
The three European countries, along with China and Russia, are the remaining parties to the 2015 nuclear deal – from which the US withdrew in 2018.
Gharibabadi added:
It has been seven years that the nuclear deal is not being implemented by the Europeans following the U.S. departure from it. How can they argue that Iran is not following the deal when they themselves have not done so?
Tehran denies seeking a nuclear weapon and says its nuclear programme is solely meant for civilian purposes.
A severe heatwave sweeping Iran has disrupted water and electricity supplies in much of the country, with reservoir levels dropping to their lowest point in a century, state media said on Tuesday, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
At least 18 of the country’s 31 provinces, including Tehran, have been affected by the extreme temperatures, which began on Friday and expected to ease gradually by Thursday, according to meteorological authorities cited by state television.
15 people killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza, defence agency says
Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed 15 people in the Palestinian territory on Tuesday, as the military expanded ground operations to the central city of Deir al-Balah, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
Agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP that Israeli strikes on the al-Shati camp west of Gaza City killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 50.
Most of Gaza’s population has been displaced at least once during 21 months of conflict and the al-Shati camp, on the Mediterranean coast, hosts thousands of people displaced from the north in tents and makeshift shelters.
Bassal said two more people were killed inDeir al-Balah, where the Israeli army said it would expand its ground operations, having ordered the evacuation of much of the area.
Palestinians mourn their relatives killed from an Israeli army bombardment of Gaza, at Shifa hospital in Gaza City on 22 July 2025. Photograph: Jehad Alshrafi/AP
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) estimated that between 50,000 and 80,000 people were living in the area, which until now had been considered relatively safe. About 30,000 were living in displacement sites.
AFP footage from central Gaza showed a large plume of smoke rising over Deir al-Balah on Tuesday while a surveillance drone was heard buzzing overhead.
Ocha said nearly 88% of the entire Gaza Strip was now either under evacuation orders or within Israeli militarised zones, forcing the population of 2.4 million into an ever-shrinking space.
French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Tuesday urged Israel to allow foreign press into the besieged Palestinian territory of Gaza, as warnings of famine mount after 21 months of war, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
He told France Inter radio in an interview from eastern Ukraine:
I ask that the free and independent press be allowed to access Gaza to show what is happening there and to bear witness.
He spoke after the AFP news agency warned that the lives of Palestinian freelance journalists it was working with in Gaza were in danger and urged Israel to allow them and their families to leave the occupied coastal territory.
Asked if France would help evacuate these stringers, Barrot said France was “addressing the issue”.
He said:
We hope to be able to evacuate some collaborators of journalists in the coming weeks.
Barrot urged an “immediate ceasefire” after Israel on Monday expanded military operations to the central city of Deir al-Balah.
He said:
There is no longer any justification for the Israeli army’s military operations in Gaza.
This is an offensive that will exacerbate an already catastrophic situation and cause new forced displacements of populations, which we condemn in the strongest terms.
Death toll in Iran from 12-day war rises to 1,062, government says
At least 1,062 people died in Iran in its 12-day war with Israel last month, government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said on Tuesday, Reuters reports.
There were 102 women and 38 children among the dead. The previous official death toll was 935.
Yemen’s Houthi rebelslaunched two attackstargeting Israel’s main airport, the latest on Tuesday, with the Israeli army intercepting both, a day after striking the rebel-held Yemeni port of Hodeida, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
Israel has repeatedly struck Houthi-held parts of Yemen after the Iran-backed rebels began targeting the country with missile and drone attacks, claiming solidarity with Palestinians over the Gaza war.
The Houthis targeted Ben Gurion International airport “using a ‘Palestine 2’ hypersonic ballistic missile”, according to military spokesperson Yarya Saree, who had hours earlier claimed a similar attack on the airport.
On Monday, Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said “Yemen’s fate will be the same as Tehran’s” after hitting Houthi targets in Hodeida port in an attack aimed to prevent any attempt to restore infrastructure previously hit.
A Houthi security official, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, told AFP that “the bombing destroyed the port’s dock, which had been rebuilt after previous strikes.”
The Houthis recently resumed deadly attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, targeting ships they accuse of having links to Israel, to put pressure on Israel to end the Gaza war.
Reimposing international sanctions will only make the situation over Iran’s nuclear issue more complex, Iranian deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on Tuesday, according to state media, ahead of a meeting on Friday with three European states, Reuters reports.
The so-called E3 – Britain, France and Germany – have warned they will invoke the UN snapback mechanism to reimpose international sanctions on Iran if no progress is reached by end of August over the country’s nuclear programme.
WHO says Israeli forces attacked staff residence and main warehouse in Gaza
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said the Israeli military attacked its staff residence and main warehouse in Deir al-Balah on Monday, compromising its operations in Gaza.
The WHO said its staff residence was attacked three times, with airstrikes causing a fire and extensive damage, and endangering staff and their families, including children.
On Monday, Israeli tanks for the first time pushed into southern and eastern districts of Deir al-Balah, an area where Israeli sources said the military believes hostages may be held. Tank shelling in the area hit houses and mosques, killing at least three Palestinians and wounding several others, local medics said.
The WHO said:
Israeli military entered the premises, forcing women and children to evacuate on foot toward al-Mawasi amid active conflict. Male staff and family members were handcuffed, stripped, interrogated on the spot, and screened at gunpoint.
Two WHO staff and two family members were detained, it said in a post on X. It said three were later released, while one staff member remained in detention. Its director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “WHO demands the immediate release of the detained staff and protection of all its staff.”
Deir al-Balah is packed with Palestinians displaced during more than 21 months of war in Gaza, hundreds of whom fled west or south after Israel issued an evacuation order, saying it sought to destroy infrastructure and the capabilities of the militant group Hamas.
But the area is also the main hub for humanitarian efforts in the devastated territory and Gaza health officials have warned of potential “mass deaths” in coming days from hunger.
Israeli tank shelling killed at least 12 Palestinians and wounded dozens others in a tent encampment in western Gaza City north of the territory, local health authorities said early on Tuesday.
Medics said the tanks stationed north of Shati camp fired two shells at tents, housing displaced families, killing at least 12 people.
There has been no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the incident.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s coverage of the Middle East.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said the Israeli military attacked its staff residence and main warehouse in Deir al-Balah on Monday, compromising its operations in Gaza.
The WHO said its staff residence was attacked three times, with airstrikes causing a fire and extensive damage, and endangering staff and their families, including children.
On Monday, Israeli tanks for the first time pushed into southern and eastern districts of Deir al-Balah, an area where Israeli sources said the military believes hostages may be held. Tank shelling in the area hit houses and mosques, killing at least three Palestinians and wounding several others, local medics said.
“Israeli military entered the premises, forcing women and children to evacuate on foot toward al-Mawasi amid active conflict. Male staff and family members were handcuffed, stripped, interrogated on the spot, and screened at gunpoint,” the WHO said.
Two WHO staff and two family members were detained, it said in a post on X. It said three were later released, while one staff member remained in detention. Its director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “WHO demands the immediate release of the detained staff and protection of all its staff.”
Israel on Monday rejected the joint statement published by over 20 countries calling for an end to the war in Gaza, “as it is disconnected from reality and sends the wrong message to Hamas”, the foreign ministry said.
The international statement – signed by Australia, the UK, France, Canada, New Zealand and Japan among others – warned “the suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths”.
Israeli tank shelling killed at least 12 Palestinians and wounded dozens others in a tent encampment in western Gaza City north of the territory, local health authorities said early on Tuesday.
Medics said the tanks stationed north of Shati camp fired two shells at tents, housing displaced families, killing at least 12 people.
There has been no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the incident.
In other developments:
In its daily update, Gaza’s health ministry said on Monday at least 130 Palestinians had been killed and more than 1,000 wounded by Israeli gunfire and military strikes across the territory in the past 24 hours, one of the highest such totals in recent weeks.
An Israeli army strike on the only Catholic church in Gaza last week has pushed the Vatican to change its tone on Israel and blame it more directly in the dragging war. The strike killed three people in the Holy Family Church in the centre of Gaza City, prompting condemnation by politicians and by religious leaders of various denominations. Pope Leo XIV on Sunday slammed the “barbarity” of the war and the blind “use of force”, denouncing “the attack by the Israeli army”.
An Israeli undercover force detained Marwan Al-Hams, a senior Gaza Health Ministry official, outside the field hospital of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday, the ministry said. It said that Hams, in charge of field hospitals in the territory, was on his way to visit the ICRC hospital in the city of Rafah when an Israeli force “abducted” him after opening fire, killing one person and wounding another civilian nearby.
Belgian authorities said on Monday that they had briefly held and questioned two Israeli citizens who attended an electronic music festival, after pro-Palestinian groups accused them of war crimes. Prosecutors said they received legal complaints alleging that two Israeli soldiers responsible for “serious violations of international humanitarian law” in Gaza were spotted at the Tomorrowland festival near the northern city of Antwerp last week.
Syrian authorities evacuated Bedouin families from the Druze-majority city of Sweida on Monday, after a ceasefire in the southern province halted a week of sectarian bloodshed that a monitor said killed more than 1,260 people. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said the ceasefire was largely holding despite isolated gunfire in areas north of Sweida city, with no new reports of casualties.
US president Donald Trump was “caught off guard” by Israeli strikes in Syria last week, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said on Monday, adding that he discussed the issue with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel had launched strikes on the capital Damascus and the southern Druze-majority city of Sweida, saying it aimed to put pressure on the Syrian government to withdraw its troops from the region amid ongoing clashes there.
Iran has no plans to abandon its nuclear programme including uranium enrichment despite the “severe” damage caused by US strikes to its facilities, the country’s foreign minister said ahead of renewed talks with European powers. Iran is scheduled to meet Britain, France and Germany in Istanbul on Friday, to discuss its nuclear programme, with Tehran accusing European powers of scuppering a landmark 2015 nuclear deal. The meeting will be the first since Iran’s 12-day war with Israel last month, during which the United States carried out strikes against Tehran’s nuclear facilities.
Visiting US envoy Tom Barrack said Monday that disarming Hezbollah was a domestic issue, even as Washington presses the new authorities for action after the group was weakened by war with Israel. Lebanese leaders who took office in the aftermath of more than a year of hostilities, including two months of open war between Israel and Hezbollah, have vowed a state monopoly on bearing arms, while demanding Israel comply with a November ceasefire.
The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen toward Israel that triggered sirens across several areas in the country. The launch from Yemen follows an Israeli military attack on Houthi targets in Yemen’s Hodeidah port on Monday in its latest assault on the Iran-backed militants, who have been striking ships bound for Israel and launching missiles against it.
Iranian authorities have asked people to limit water consumption amid severe heatwaves and a water crisis across the country. Iran is experiencing its hottest week of the year, according to the national meteorological service, with temperatures exceeding 50C in some areas. On top of the extreme heat, the country is in a serious water crisis.
BEIRUT: As pressure intensifies on Lebanon’s new government to resolve the question of Hezbollah’s arms, it confronts a fundamental challenge: Can the Iran-backed group relinquish its military wing and become a purely political party? And if it does, will Lebanon’s state institutions and political culture prove capable of supporting such a transition?
Earlier this month, Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkiye and special envoy for Syria, telegraphed Washington’s growing impatience with the status quo in Lebanon in remarks to journalists following his visit to Beirut. He described Hezbollah’s disarmament as an essential condition for the renewal of international financial aid and long-term political stability in Lebanon.
As part of a proposal presented to Lebanese officials, the US offered support for Lebanon’s economic reform efforts in exchange for Hezbollah’s complete disarmament, Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory, and the release of Lebanese detainees held by Israel.
“If Lebanon doesn’t hurry up and get in line, everyone around them will,” Barrack said. He acknowledged what he described as a “spectacular” response from Beirut in a short time, but criticized the Lebanese political system’s ingrained culture of “delay, detour, and deflect,” saying time was running out for the country to adapt to a fast-changing regional order.
But disarming Hezbollah is far from straightforward. Despite suffering significant losses last year during its war with Israel, including the death of longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah and the destruction of much of its military infrastructure, Hezbollah has shown no willingness to give up its arms.
The World Bank has estimated the cost of Lebanon’s reconstruction at $11 billion. (AFP)
The group’s new leader, Sheikh Naim Qassem, reiterated that stance in a video address on July 19. “We will not surrender or give up to Israel; Israel will not take our weapons away from us,” he said.
According to him, any disarmament would be discussed only as part of a national defense strategy determined internally by Lebanon, and only after a complete Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory.
That position is tied to continued Israeli airstrikes, including recent attacks in the south that killed two individuals on July 20, as per local media reports.
Hezbollah cites these violations, along with Israel’s continued occupation of five positions seized after the November 2024 ceasefire, as justification for retaining its arms.
Although the group claims to have handed over 190 of its 265 southern military positions to the Lebanese army, it continues to maintain a significant arsenal in the region and in other strongholds.
Hezbollah emerged as Lebanon’s most powerful military force and dominant political actor in the post-civil war era, representing a significant portion of the Shiite population alongside the Amal party. Together, the two groups hold all the 27 Shiite seats in the 128-member parliament.
Analysts say that Hezbollah’s ideological foundation has long rested on armed resistance, so shifting toward civilian politics would require not only strategic recalculation but also a new political message capable of sustaining its popular base.
Lebanese army troops patrol the destroyed southern border village of Adaisseh. (AFP)
“For decades, the party has emphasized armed resistance against Israel as central to its appeal,” said David Wood, senior analyst on Lebanon at the International Crisis Group (ICG).
“If Hezbollah wants to transition into a normal political party, it will need to craft another electoral narrative based around how it can improve the socio-economic fortunes of its constituents.”
Such a transformation is not without precedent. Other armed movements in the region, such as the Palestinian Fatah in earlier decades, have evolved into political organizations. However, the Lebanese context is unique in many ways. Years of economic collapse, institutional paralysis and political gridlock have left the state too weak to assert its authority.
The November 2024 ceasefire, brokered by the US and France, was intended to revive the terms of UN Resolution 1701, which calls for Israeli withdrawal from all Lebanese territory, a halt to Hezbollah’s military operations near the southern border, and full control of arms by the Lebanese state. But little progress has been made.
Bilal Saab, associate fellow in the Middle East and North Africa Program at Chatham House, expressed doubt over Hezbollah’s ability to function effectively as a conventional political party. He pointed to signs of waning support in southern Lebanon and other Hezbollah strongholds.
The group’s military losses, the destruction of southern villages, and the economic suffering in Hezbollah-controlled areas are undermining its grassroots support, Saab told Arab News. “It is therefore unclear whether an unarmed Hezbollah could compete effectively in free elections, within Lebanon’s complex political system.”
For Lebanon’s new leadership under President Joseph Aoun, left, and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, the challenge is to preserve national stability while dealing with an increasingly polarized domestic landscape and pressure from powerful external actors. (AFP)
He said the obstacles ahead of the government are political willingness and “exaggerated” fears of sectarian violence. The new leaders, he said, “must recognize that the chances of sectarian tensions are higher with the status quo unchanged.”
According to Saab, lack of serious action to address the issue of Hezbollah’s arms would prompt Israel to continue its attacks and cause more damage and human casualties. “If that happens, war-weary and economically dispossessed Lebanese could blame Hezbollah for causing even more death and destruction. This would in turn increase the risk of sectarian violence and people taking up arms against Hezbollah and its supporters,” he said.
For Lebanon’s new leadership under President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, the challenge is to preserve national stability while dealing with an increasingly polarized domestic landscape and pressure from powerful external actors.
Though both leaders have reiterated their commitment to imposing a state monopoly on arms, they have insisted that any progress depends on Israel’s complete withdrawal from Lebanese territory and an end to violations of Lebanese sovereignty.
While Barrack’s proposal received praise for its ambition, its feasibility depends on wider geopolitical considerations. Paul Salem, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, believes that Iran, Hezbollah’s principal backer, will have the final say.
“The key decision of disarming Hezbollah would have to be made in Iran, the group’s main backer, not in Lebanon,” he told Arab News. “For the time being, it is clear that Tehran is encouraging Hezbollah to drag its feet and not to hand over all its arms and I think that will remain the case.”
Salem emphasized the need for a coordinated domestic and international effort to encourage Hezbollah’s transition into a political entity. This, he said, would require guarantees from the US, a defined role for the LAF, and political assurances from the Arab Gulf states.
“Hezbollah, at a minimum, would need assurances about Israel’s withdrawal and protection of its operatives in Lebanon, which would have to come from the US, as well reassurances from Gulf countries of aid for reconstruction of the war-ravaged areas,” Salem said.
“They would want some of that money to come through their auspices so they could benefit politically.”
The World Bank has estimated the cost of Lebanon’s reconstruction at $11 billion. US and Gulf officials have indicated that significant portions of that aid will only be unlocked if Hezbollah agrees to disarm.
Lebanese emergency responders inspect the debris at the site of a reported Israeli strike on a vehicle in Khaldeh, south of the capital Beirut. (AFP)
The issue of integrating Hezbollah supporters into Lebanon’s broader political and economic fabric is also paramount. Wood emphasized that the process of disarming Hezbollah should come with assurances that the Shiite community would remain part of the nation-building process in a country long paralyzed by factional politics.
“Lebanon’s leaders must think very carefully about how to fully integrate Hezbollah’s supporters into the country’s future, or else they risk creating dangerous fissures in Lebanese society,” the ICG’s Wood said.
Despite mounting pressure, few expect a quick resolution. Reports suggest Hezbollah is conducting a strategic review of its military posture, exploring possible scenarios but delaying concrete action. “Hezbollah is taking a ‘wait and see’ approach for now,” Wood said. “Perhaps it wants to know if regional circumstances might improve for it before seriously entertaining the idea of surrendering its military wing.”
Meanwhile, the Lebanese army has consolidated control over Rafik Hariri International Airport and large parts of the south, improving state authority and border security. A successful disarmament, officials argue, would boost the credibility of Lebanon’s institutions and the case for the state’s monopoly on force.
The Middle East Institute’s Salem cautioned that Hezbollah is unlikely to fully relinquish its arms without assurances that go beyond Lebanese borders. If anything, he said, the disarmament would reduce sectarian tensions “with the Sunnis, Christians, Druze and other communities that have been afraid of Hezbollah’s arms.”
Firefighters work at the site of an Israeli drone attack in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Roumman. (AFP)
The potential rewards for Lebanon are clearly substantial. Hezbollah’s disarmament would enable Lebanon to form new alliances with regional and global partners. The disarmament process could also unlock vital economic assistance, helping the country recover from years of political paralysis, financial crisis and social unrest.
However, Lebanon’s leadership remains caught between the demands of the international community and the compulsions of domestic sectarian politics. For now, a delicate balance holds. But as pressure builds, time may be running out for Lebanon’s politicians to chart the country’s future — before others do it for them.
Many of the victims were students who had just come out of class when a F-7 jet crashed into their school
Bangladesh is observing a day of mourning after at least 27people were killed when a military jet crashed into a school.
Many of the victims were students who had just come out of class when a F-7 jet crashed into the Milestone School and College in the capital Dhaka.
The armed forces said that the jet had reportedly experienced a mechanical fault after taking off for a training exercise, with the pilot being among those killed, adding that an investigation would be held.
The crash marks the deadliest aviation disaster the country has seen in decades, and while details are still emerging, here’s what we know about the crash so far.
How did the crash happen?
The training aircraft had taken off from a Bangladesh Air Force Base in Dhaka at just after 13:06 local time (07:06 GMT) and crashed soon after in the Uttara neighbourhood.
The air force said in a statement that the F-7 jet had suffered a mechanical fault and the pilot, Flight Lieutenant Md. Taukir Islam, had tried to steer it to a less crowded area. He was among those killed.
A teacher at the college, Rezaul Islam, told BBC Bangla that he saw the plane “directly” hit the building.
Another teacher, Masud Tarik, told Reuters that he heard an explosion: “When I looked back, I only saw fire and smoke… There were many guardians and kids here.”
Images from the scene in the hours after the crash showed scores of emergency service workers sorting through charred rubble in a bid to find survivors.
An investigation committee has been formed to look into the incident, said the armed forces in a statement.
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The plane crashed into the Milestone School in Dhaka
Who are the victims?
Most of the victims were enrolled at the Milestone School and College, a private institution with around 2,000 students, from pre-school to senior secondary levels.
At least 17 of the deceased are children, the health ministry said on Monday.
Year 10 student Farhan Hasan told BBC Bangla he had just left the building after finishing an exam when he saw the plane crash into the building.
“My best friend, the one I was in the exam hall with, he died right in front of my eyes,” he said.
“And many parents were standing inside because the younger kids were coming out since it was the end of the school day… the plane took the parents along with it.”
One man’s eight-year-old nephew was among the students who died in the crash. “My beloved nephew is in the morgue right now,” he said, his hand resting on the arm of his younger brother, the boy’s father, who kept repeating: “Where is my son?”
A teacher told the Dhaka Tribune that classes for grades five to seven were being held in the building where the plane crashed.
“Although classes ended around 13:00, many students were waiting for private coaching,” the teacher said.
At least 170 people were injured with an on-duty doctor at the Uttara Adhunik Medical College Hospital saying most of the injured were aged between 10 and 15 years old, many suffering from jet fuel burns.
More than 50 people were taken to hospital with burns, many in critical condition, said a doctor at the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery.
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More than 50 people were taken to hospital with burns
How common are air crashes like these?
Plane crashes are relatively rare in Bangladesh.
The last time it saw a major plane disaster was in 1984, when all 49 people aboard a Biman flight – Bangladesh’s national flag carrier – died after the plane crashed into a marsh while landing near the airport in Dhaka.
In 2018, a US-Bangla Airlines flight crashed while trying to land at an airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, killing 51 people.
In 2008, another F-7 training jet crashed outside Dhaka, killing the pilot.
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The F-7 BGI training jet reportedly experienced a technical problem shortly after taking off
What happens now?
The city is still reeling from the mass casualty event, and medical efforts are underway.
The National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery was on Monday swarmed by family members trying to find their loved ones, as well as volunteers who queued up to donate blood to the injured. A number of politicians were also seen visiting victims at the hospital.
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Family members swarmed hospitals trying to find out news of their loved ones
An emergency hotline has been launched to deal with casualties from the crash, Muhammad Yunus, leader of Bangladesh’s interim government, wrote on X.
Yunus said that the bodies of those who could be identified would be handed to their families, while the others would be identified through DNA testing.
He also urged the public to avoid unnecessarily crowding at hospitals to allow medical work to continue undisrupted.
“Necessary measures” would be taken to investigate the cause of the incident and “ensure all kinds of assistance”, he said.
An investigation committee has been set up to look into the incident, authorities have said.
The incident has drawn condolences from leaders of neighbouring countries, including Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.
Russia and Ukraine will hold a new round of peace talks in Istanbul on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
“Today, I discussed with [Ukrainian Security Council chief] Rustem Umerov the preparations for a prisoner exchange and another meeting in Turkey with the Russian side,” Zelensky said in his daily address on Monday. “Umerov reported that the meeting is scheduled for Wednesday.”
Zelensky proposed fresh talks at the weekend, days after US President Donald Trump threatened Russia with “severe” sanctions if there was no ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv within 50 days.
Washington has also pledged new weapons for the Ukrainian military, after Russia intensified attacks.
A child was killed overnight into Tuesday, when a Russian glide bomb hit an apartment block in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, local officials said. Six areas of the capital Kyiv had earlier come under a combined drone and missile attack.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces said they had pushed back more than 50 attacks in the Pokrovsk area of eastern Ukraine, where Russia has concentrated much of its firepower in recent months. Russian sabotage groups have already tried to enter the city, according to Ukraine’s military commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi.
Moscow has not commented on the peace talks planned to take place in Istanbul. Two rounds took place in the city in May and June and led to a series of prisoner exchanges.
Russia’s RIA news agency, quoting a source, said the latest round of talks would take place over two days, on Thursday and Friday.
A Turkish government spokesperson said Wednesday’s talks would take place in the same venue where previous negotiations in May and June failed to work towards a ceasefire, the Agence France-Presse news agency reported.
This week’s talks will be yet another attempt to bring an end to the war that has been going on for more than three years, and will come after Trump expressed frustration with Vladimir Putin. The US president told the BBC he was “disappointed” but “not done” with the Russian leader.
The Istanbul talks could focus on further prisoner exchanges and a possible meeting between Zelensky and Putin, a senior Ukrainian official told AFP.
Moscow, however, has downplayed the likelihood of reaching any concrete outcome anytime soon.
Commenting on the prospects for a breakthrough, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that the two sides were “diametrically opposed” and “a lot of diplomatic work lies ahead”.
Russia has intensified its drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities in recent weeks, causing record civilian casualties. It launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbour in 2022.
