The war began when Hamas-led fighters attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostage. They are still holding 53 captives, less than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Israel’s use of aid as a weapon of war has provoked outrage. It has prevented essential supplies from entering Gaza. And yet its new effort to distribute aid is also proving deeply controversial. Hamas says it is a front for the idf. International aid organisations have decried it. What is this new network and what is it trying to do?

At least 120 Palestinians were killed in the last 24 hours across the enclave, bringing the death toll in Gaza to 55,104. Gaza’s Health Ministry added that at least 474 people have been injured over the past day.

At least five Palestinians working for the Israel-U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation were killed and several injured after Hamas gunmen allegedly opened fire on a bus bringing them to one of its distribution hubs in southern Gaza.

U.S. allies sanction far-right Israeli officials Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich over "extremist rhetoric" calling for "Palestinians to be driven from their homes."

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Palestinian death toll from the 20-month Israel-Hamas war passed 55,000, the Gaza Health Ministry said Wednesday, and hospitals said at least 21 people were killed while on their way to aid distribution sites.

Britain and four other nations imposed sanctions on Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, accusing them of repeatedly inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Australia is growing increasingly concerned about conflicts in the Middle East, after Israel carried out strikes on the Iranian capital.

The decision by Western governments friendly to Israel was a sharp rebuke of Israel’s settlement policies in the West Bank and of settler violence.