June 8, 2025

The IDF has located the body of senior Hamas operative Mohammed Sinwar, believed to be the head of the militia in Gaza, the Israeli military said.

"In a targeted operation of the IDF (military)... and following the completion of an identification process, it is now confirmed that the body of Mohammed Sinwar was located in the underground tunnel route beneath the European Hospital in Khan Yunis," the IDF said in a statement cited by the AFP news agency.

Army spokesperson Effie Defrin said that "DNA checks and other checks" confirmed that the body they discovered was that of Sinwar. According to the Times of Israel, other bodies are still undergoing identification.

Israelis previously said Sinwar had been "eliminated" on May 13. Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied those claims.

Hamas is designated as a terrorist group by the US, the EU, Israel, and other countries.

June 8, 2025

A boat carrying aid for Gaza, with Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg onboard, will continue its journey "until the last minute," campaigners said on Sunday, despite Israel ordering the vessel to turn back.

The Madleen, part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, left Sicily last week with vital supplies for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The United Nations has warned that the entire Gaza population of more than two million is at risk of famine.

"We'll stay mobilised until the last minute — until Israel cuts the internet and networks," European parliament member Rima Hassan, who is onboard, told the AFP news agency.

"There are twelve of us civilians on board. We are not armed. There is only humanitarian aid," Hassan added.

Earlier, Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the military to block the boat from reaching the Palestinian territory, warning the activists to "turn back because you will not reach Gaza."

June 8, 2025

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the military would stop the boat carrying climate advocateGreta Thunberg and several other activists to Gaza.

The British-flagged Madleen aims to deliver humanitarian aid to the war-torn territory, which has been blockaded by Israel.

"I instructed the IDF to act so that the Madleen ... does not reach Gaza," Katz said in a statement. "To the antisemitic Greta and her Hamas-propaganda-spouting friends, I say clearly: You'd better turn back, because you will not reach Gaza."

Operated by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the ship left Sicily on June 6 and is currently just off the Egyptian coast.

Thunberg said she joined the mission to "challenge Israel's illegal siege and escalating war crimes" in Gaza and highlight the desperation for humanitarian aid.

FFC press officer Hay Sha Wiya said on Sunday the boat was currently some 160 nautical miles (296 kilometers) from Gaza and was "preparing for the possibility of interception."

In addition to Thunberg, there are 11 other crew members aboard. Among them Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament.

Israeli media have reported that the military plans to intercept the yacht before it reaches Gaza and escort it to the Israeli port of Ashdod, before deporting the crew.

"The State of Israel will not allow anyone to break the naval blockade on Gaza, whose primary purpose is to prevent the transfer of weapons to Hamas," Katz said.

June 7, 2025

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a controversial US/Israeli-backed private aid organization, has claimed that it received threats from Hamas, the Islamist militant group that runs Gaza, forcing it to freeze operations.

"Hamas is the reason hundreds of thousands of hungry Gazans were not fed today," a GHF statement on Saturday said. "The group issued direct threats against GHF operations. These threats made it impossible to proceed today without putting innocent lives at risk."

Hamas officials rejected the GHF claim, with Reuters news agency quoting one as saying he had no knowledge of "alleged threats."

Several people have been killed in chaotic scenes near GHF sites since the outfit was appointed by Israel to replace UN and international humanitarian aid agencies in distributing food in Gaza. 

Critics of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — which is championed by right-wing evangelical Christians like US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee — say its appointment and operation not only heightens the threat of starvation in Gaza due to the organization's inability to physically distribute sufficient amounts of food; but that it also represents the weaponization of food aid, calling it a clear violation of rules of neutrality regarding the survival of civilians in Gaza.

June 7, 2025

Iranian state television on Saturday reported that the country's intelligence services had managed to gain possession of a trove of highly sensitive data on Israel's nuclear program as well as plans outlining Israeli national defense measures. 

"Although the operation to obtain the documents was carried out some time ago, the sheer volume of materials and the need to transport them safely into Iran necessitated a news blackout to ensure they reached the designated protected locations," state-run PressTV reported, citing anonymous government sources.

The station said its sources had claimed that "the abundance of documents is so vast that reviewing them, along with viewing images and videos, has consumed a significant amount of time."

Israel did not immediately respond to the claim.

Iran and Israel have been waging an intelligence war for decades, with Iran never recognizing Israeli statehood, and Israel determined to keep Tehran from attaining a nuclear weapon.

The spy war between the two is thought to include cyber, drone and sabotage attacks, as well as the targeted killing of Iranian nuclear scientists and proxy group attacks on Israeli facilities abroad.

June 7, 2025

Palestinians in Gaza continue to face starvation during one of the most important Islamic holidays, Eid al-Adha.

Israel's blockade has left most families with very little to eat during the festival, which is usually marked by sharing meals together.

June 7, 2025

Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli forces has killed at least 36 Palestinians, six of them in a shooting near a US-backed aid distribution center.

The Israeli military told the French AFP news agency that troops had fired "warning shots" at individuals that it said were "advancing in a way that endangered the troops."

Reports say some of the dead were trying to get food aid.

The facility in the southern district of Rafah had recently resumed aid deliveries following a brief pause in the wake of similar deaths earlier this week.

Meanwhile, four Israeli airstrikes hit the Muwasi area in southern Gaza between Rafah and Khan Younis.

Another strike in northern Gaza hit an apartment, killing seven people, including a mother and five children.

At least 15 people were killed and 50 wounded by strikes in the Gaza City district of Sabra, local health authorities said.

The United Nations and humanitarian organizations have been warning of famine in the devastated enclave, amid Israel's aid blockade, which has now lasted two and a half months.

Israeli military ground and air operations in Gaza since the October 7, 2023 attacks have thus far killed over 54,700 Palestinians, according to local health officials in the Hamas-run territory.

June 7, 2025

Thailand said it was "deeply saddened" by the death of a Thai hostage in Gaza whose body was retrieved by Israeli forces earlier in the day.

Thai Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Nikorndej Balankura said in a video statement that the Royal Thai Embassy in Tel Aviv had been informed by Israel's government that Nattapong Pinta, the last Thai hostage, has been confirmed dead.

Israel said Pinta's body was retrieved from the Rafah area and returned to Israel in a special military operation.

Pinta was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz and killed in captivity near the start of the war, Israeli authorities said.

He had come to Israel from Thailand to work in agriculture.

The bodies of two other Thai hostages have yet to be retrieved. 

June 7, 2025

Humanitarian groups say the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition in Gaza has nearly tripled — compared to the ceasefire period earlier this year, when aid flowed more freely.

DW spoke with James Elder of UN children's agency UNICEF about the current humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Elder, who has just returned from Gaza, said the youngest children in the Palestinian territory are facing a "man-made nutritional crisis."

"I'm seeing malnourished children who will not be alive next week," he said of those being treated in still functioning hospitals. 

There is a lack of basic medical supplies, including painkillers, he said.

"The sheer weight of injured children is the same; it's been consistent, but the lack of painkillers is something you don't just see, but you hear... these blood-curdling screams," he said. 

Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza on March 2, claiming it was to pressure Hamas, which is considered a terrorist group by many Western governments and Israel, to release hostages still being held by the militants. Israeli officials said that Hamas was stealing aid and using it to supply its own fighters, without providing evidence to support this claim. This blockade was only partially eased two weeks ago.

"Now we have three or four distribution points run by military contractors, where children are being killed as they try to access this aid; it's not aid; it's food being dumped," Elder said. 

Elder pointed out that during a brief ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, the UN and other agencies were able to send hundreds of trucks into Gaza on a daily basis, and there was no large-scale looting. 

However he added, "when you deprive an entire population of food and then you allow the United Nations a few trucks down only one route, creating the circumstances for looting, it'll happen and it's being stolen by everyday people because they are absolutely desperate."

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a controversial US and Israel-backed aid network, began operating last week but has halted operations following days of deadly incidents in which scores of Palestinians were killed. 

It circumvents United Nations aid agencies and other initiatives, and it has been accused of endangering civilians in the process.

"What's been happening now is that the circumstances have been created for looting so as to sideline a system a humanitarian system that's worked since World War Two in scores of countries around the world," Elder said.

"You can't ask grandmothers and sick people and amputees and children to walk 20 kilometers |12.4 miles], you cannot use aid as bait, that's what's being done right now," he added. 

June 7, 2025

Iran on Saturday condemned US President Donald Trump's administration for imposing a travel ban on Iranian citizens as well nationals from 11 other mostly Middle Eastern and African nations.  

The travel ban will come into effect on June 9. 

Alireza Hashemi-Raja, the Iranian Foreign Ministry's director general for the affairs of Iranians abroad, said the policy shows "a clear sign of the dominance of a supremacist and racist mentality among American policymakers."

The ban also applies to citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Seven other nations are being hit with partial travel restrictions.  

June 7, 2025

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Saturday that the Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai national from Gaza who was taken hostage during the the October 7, 2023 terror attack.

Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups carried out the terror attack on Israel, which killed some 1,200 people. Hamas is deemed a terror organization by Israel, the US, Germany and several other countries. 

Hamas  took 251 hostages into Gaza as part of the attack. Thai and Nepalese farm workers were kidnapped by Hamas as part of the assault. 

Pinta was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz. Israel said a special operation conducted by the Israeli military and Shin Bet retrieved Pinta's body from Gaza.  

Pinta was the last known Thai national being held hostage in Gaza.

Israel says the Mujahideen Brigades Palestinian group was responsible for taking Pinta hostage.    

June 7, 2025

This is DW's updates blog following the latest developments in Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, Iran and other parts of the Middle East.

This blog will bring you the latest news, analysis, multimedia content and on-the-ground reporting from DW correspondents in the region.