The Times of Israel liveblogged Friday’s events as they unfolded.
Ghislaine Maxwell, the accomplice of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has been moved from a prison in Florida to a minimum security facility in Texas, the Bureau of Prisons says.
No reason is given for the move, but it comes a week after a top Justice Department official met with Maxwell to ask her questions about Epstein, who died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking underage girls.
“We can confirm Ghislaine Maxwell is in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons at the Federal Prison Camp (FPC) Bryan in Bryan, Texas,” a Bureau of Prisons spokesman says.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, US President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, interviewed Maxwell for two days at a Florida courthouse last week in a highly unusual meeting between a convicted felon and a high-ranking Justice official.
US President Donald Trump’s administration is actively discussing with Azerbaijan the possibility of bringing that nation and some Central Asian allies into the Abraham Accords, hoping to deepen their existing ties with Israel, according to five sources with knowledge of the matter.
As part of the Abraham Accords, inked in 2020 and 2021 during Trump’s first term in office, four Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel after US mediation.
Azerbaijan and every country in Central Asia, by contrast, already have longstanding relations with Israel, meaning that an expansion of the accords to include them would largely be symbolic, focusing on strengthening ties in areas like trade and military cooperation, say the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Such an expansion would reflect Trump’s openness to pacts that are less ambitious than his administration’s goal to convince regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia to restore ties with Israel while war rages in Gaza.
The kingdom has repeatedly said it would not recognize Israel without steps toward Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state. A soaring death toll in Gaza and starvation in the enclave due to the blockage of aid and military operations by Israel have buoyed Arab fury, complicating efforts to add more Muslim-majority countries to the Abraham Accords.
Another key sticking point is Azerbaijan’s conflict with its neighbor, Armenia, since the Trump administration considers a peace deal between the two Caucasus nations as a precondition to join the Abraham Accords, three sources say.
While Trump officials have publicly floated several potential entrants into the accords, the talks centered on Azerbaijan are among the most structured and serious, the sources say. Two of the sources argue a deal could be reached within months or even weeks.
Trump’s special envoy for peace missions, Steve Witkoff, traveled to Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, in March to meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. Aryeh Lightstone, a key Witkoff aide, met Aliyev later in the spring in part to discuss the Abraham Accords, three of the sources say.
As part of the discussions, Azerbaijani officials have contacted officials in Central Asian nations, including in nearby Kazakhstan, to gauge their interest in a broader Abraham Accords expansion, those sources say. It was not clear which other countries in Central Asia – which include Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan – were contacted.
The State Department, asked for comment, does not discuss specific countries, but says expanding the accords has been one of the key objectives of Trump. “We are working to get more countries to join,” says a US official.
The Azerbaijani government declined to comment.
IDF Chief Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir pleaded with cabinet ministers during a meeting this week to present a strategy for how they want the army to proceed amid the standstill in hostage talks, Channel 12 reports, highlighting the government’s lack of clear game-plan, as Jerusalem’s diplomatic standing plummets due to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Israel has reportedly considered annexing parts of Gaza in an attempt to pressure Hamas to release hostages, but no decision has been made yet.
Strategy was discussed during US special envoy Steve Witkoff’s meetings in Jerusalem on Thursday.
Hostage talks have been at an impasse since last week when Israel and the US pulled their negotiators from Doha due to frustration with Hamas’s response to the latest proposal for a partial hostage deal.
The sister of hostage Evyatar David pleads with the public not to publicize the video Hamas just released showing her brother in captivity.
Ye’ela David says her brother and mother haven’t seen it yet, and she doesn’t want them to have to watch it for the first time while unassumingly scrolling on Instagram.
She says watching the clip caused her to feel “one million punches to the heart.”
Sixty-seven percent of Israelis feel that the government’s policies and the decisions it makes don’t represent their will, according to a poll aired on Channel 12’s Friday evening news.
Just 29 percent of Israelis say the government’s policies and decisions represent what they want.
Even among voters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, 44% of respondents said that the government’s policy doesn’t represent their will, compared to 51% who said that it does.
US President Donald Trump says that he has ordered the deployment of two nuclear submarines in response to “highly provocative” comments by a senior Russian official.
“Based on the highly provocative statements of the former president of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev… I have ordered two nuclear submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that,” Trump posts on his Truth Social platform.
“Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences. I hope this will not be one of those instances,” he adds.
If Israel and the US abandon their efforts to reach the phased hostages deal that they’ve been negotiating for months with Hamas, it will take “a long time,” to reach an understanding on a comprehensive deal to release all of the hostages in exchange for an end to the war, a senior Israeli official familiar with the talks tells The Times of Israel.
Hostage talks have been at an impasse since last week when Israel and the US pulled their negotiators from Doha due to frustration with Hamas’s response to the latest proposal for a partial hostage deal.
Arab mediators have told The Times of Israel that while Hamas’s response slowed progress that had been made, the gaps are still bridgeable.
However, the deal on the table would only see the release of 28 of the 50 hostages during the two-month truce under discussion. The remainder would only be released if Israel and Hamas reach an agreement during those 60 days on terms for a permanent ceasefire.
Viki Cohen, whose son Nimrod is being held captive in Gaza, writes on X after watching the recently released Hamas video of hostage Evyatar David, “Holocaust 2025.”
David’s family has not yet approved the release of the hard-to-watch video of Evyatar.
A ballistic missile launched by the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen at Israel a short while ago was intercepted by air defenses, the military says.
There are no immediate reports of impacts or injuries. Sirens had sounded in central Israel and the Jerusalem area.
Since March 18, when the IDF resumed its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis in Yemen have launched 67 ballistic missiles and at least 17 drones at Israel. Several of the missiles have fallen short.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir tells troops during a visit to the Gaza Strip, “I estimate that in the coming days we will know whether we will be able to reach a partial deal to release our hostages.”
“If not, the fighting will continue unabated,” Zamir says.
Hostage talks have been at an impasse since last week when Israel and the US pulled their negotiators from Doha due to frustration with Hamas’s response to the latest proposal for a partial hostage deal.
Yesterday, a senior Israeli official, briefing reporters after US special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said that Jerusalem and Washington have shifted course to seeking a comprehensive deal to free the remaining hostages and permanently end the war.
Sirens sound in central Israel and the Jerusalem area following the launch of a ballistic missile from Yemen.
The IDF says it is working to shoot down the projectile.
A ballistic missile has been launched from Yemen at Israel, the military says.
Sirens are expected to sound in the coming minutes.
The Hamas terror group has published a new video of hostage Evyatar David.
The family has yet to approve its publication to the public.
In the largest airdrop operation since efforts to increase the supply of aid to Gaza began, 126 packages of humanitarian supplies were dropped in the Strip by aircraft from six countries, the Israeli military says.
Aircraft from Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and — for the first time in over a year — Spain, Germany, and France airdropped food in both northern and southern Gaza.
The IDF says the airdrops were carried out “in accordance with the directives from the political echelon and as part of the cooperation between Israel, the UAE, Jordan, Egypt, Spain, France, and Germany.”
The airdrops are part of a “series of actions aimed at improving the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip,” the military says.
“The IDF will continue to work in order to improve the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip, along with the international community, while refuting the false claims of deliberate starvation in Gaza,” it adds.
Por Gaza
@AECID_es @MAECgob @Defensagob pic.twitter.com/Gam8ImqyDt
— José Manuel Albares (@jmalbares) August 1, 2025
US special envoy Steve Witkoff visits the Western Wall following his visit to Gaza.
The Western Wall Heritage Foundation that manages the site says Witkoff placed a note in the wall and said that he is praying for the hostages and an end to the war in Gaza.
שליח טראמפ ויטקוף הטמין פתק בכותל בו כתב כי הוא מתפלל עבור החטופים ועל סיום המלחמה pic.twitter.com/49RGBPKX0N
— Gili Cohen (@gilicohen10) August 1, 2025
The Foreign Ministry says its missions to the United Arab Emirates are open on Friday and representatives continue to operate at the embassy in Abu Dhabi and the consulate in Dubai in cooperation with local authorities, and this includes ensuring the protection of Israeli diplomats.
On Thursday, Hebrew media reported that Israel was evacuating most of its diplomatic staff in the UAE after the National Security Council heightened its travel warning for Israelis staying in the Gulf country.
Stroking the hair of her emaciated daughter on a hospital bed in Gaza City, Nasma Ayad fears time is running out for a medical evacuation of the malnourished eight-year-old to avoid the fate of her sister, who died last month.
“I feel I’m slowly losing my daughter, day after day — everything she’s suffering from is multiplying,” Ayad says.
With few medical supplies and limited food, treating malnourished Palestinian children with complicated conditions in war-shattered Gaza has become increasingly difficult, according to medical staff and humanitarian agencies.
Jana received treatment for malnutrition last year at an International Medical Corps clinic in the central town of Deir al-Balah after showing signs of weakness and delayed growth.
Though she improved, the frequent interruption of healthcare services and increasing scarcity of food, as Israeli forces who control all access to Gaza have kept up their offensive against Hamas terrorists, led to a relapse, Ayad says.
She weighs just 11 kilograms (24 pounds) and has trouble seeing, speaking or standing up.
“She started having an edema, which is fluid retention that makes the limbs and the body swell and store water because of the lack of protein and food,” says Suzan Marouf, a therapeutic nutritionist at Patient Friend’s Benevolent Society Hospital.
Jana’s sister, Joury, died on July 20. The child had kidney problems exacerbated by malnutrition, her mother said.
The European Union pans Israeli authorities for refusing to release the body of Palestinian activist Awdeh Hathaleen to a “dignified burial” after he was killed on Monday by an Israeli settler sanctioned by the EU over his violent extremism.
Israeli authorities have been demanding that Hathaleen’s family commit to a series of conditions, including not erecting a mourning tent in the area of their home, capping the funeral at 15 people and holding the funeral at night, a lawyer in touch with the family told The Times of Israel.
The family has thus far refused those conditions.
A delegation of EU diplomats visited Hathaleen’s village of Umm al-Khair on Thursday to pay their condolences to his family.
“Since January 2023, over 2,800 Palestinians have been displaced due to settler violence and related coercive practices,” the EU’s mission to the Palestinians posts on X. “In 2025 alone, settlers have reportedly killed 4 Palestinians, including Hathaleen, and injured more than 350.”
The EU says, “Israel must take concrete steps to prevent settler violence against Palestinians and ensure that perpetrators are held accountable.”
????German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul visited the Christian village of Taybeh in the West Bank today, following a wave of brutal Israeli settler attacks on the town.
He condemned the violence as organized terrorism and crimes that must be addressed and stopped. pic.twitter.com/c2nuofKYf6
— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) August 1, 2025
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, who visited the West Bank earlier today, says in a statement afterward that Berlin “is committed to further sanctioning violent settlers. The illegal settlements are a major obstacle to the two-state solution. The policy of settlement construction is clearly contrary to international law.”
Wadephul also says Germany will provide 5 million Euros ($5.78 million) for aid to Gaza through the World Food Programme.
The EU is continuing to provide aid through UN organizations, while calling out the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has been the Trump administration’s preference.
“Due to insufficient Israeli security commitments, the UN can currently not provide aid that is desperately needed. This must change,” Wadephul says.
Speaking about Gaza, US President Donald Trump tells the Axios news site, “We want to help people. We want to help them live. We want to get people fed. It is something that should have happened a long time ago.”
During a phone call with the news site, Trump blames Hamas for stealing and selling aid that has entered Gaza.
He says he has not yet been briefed by US special envoy Steve Witkoff on the latter’s visit to a distribution site run by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Trump says Witkoff is “doing great work.”
He declines to provide details on the new humanitarian plan that the White House says it will announce shortly.
It is unclear whether it will simply amount to the expansion of GHF or the creation of a new mechanism entirely.
Asked about an Israeli official’s assertion on Thursday that the US and Israel have agreed to pursue a comprehensive Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal after talks on a phased framework hit another impasse last week, Trump responds, “You will see soon.”
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee deleted a tweet claiming Gazans “love Trump” after his visit to one of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s distribution sites earlier today, the Telegraph reports.
Huckabee claims Palestinians fondly refer to “one of the few” remaining six-story buildings in Rafah as “Trump tower.”
“They love @realDonaldTrump & believe he is helping,” the Telegraph quotes Huckabee as having written.
Award-winning Israeli author David Grossman calls his country’s campaign in Gaza “genocide” and says he is using the term with a “broken heart.”
This came days after a major Israeli rights group also used the same term, amid growing global alarm over starvation in the besieged territory.
“For many years, I refused to use that term: ‘genocide,'” the prominent writer and peace activist tells Italian daily La Repubblica in an interview published on Friday.
“But now, after the images I have seen and after talking to people who were there, I can’t help using it.”
Grossman tells the paper he is using the word “with immense pain and with a broken heart.”
“This word is an avalanche: Once you say it, it just gets bigger, like an avalanche. And it adds even more destruction and suffering,” he says.
Grossman’s works, which have been translated into dozens of languages, have won many international prizes.
He also won Israel’s top literary prize in 2018, the Israel Prize for Literature, for his work spanning more than three decades.
He says it was “devastating” to “put the words ‘Israel’ and ‘famine’ together” because of the Holocaust and our “supposed sensitivity to the suffering of humanity.”
The celebrated author has long been a critic of the Israeli government.
US special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff says he spent five hours inside Gaza today “level setting the facts on the ground, assessing conditions and meeting with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.”
“The purpose of the visit was to give US President Donald Trump a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza,” Witkoff tweets.
HELSINKI, Finland — Finland’s President Alexander Stubb says he is ready to approve recognition of a Palestinian state if the government moves forward with such a proposal.
Many countries, including France and Canada, have pledged to recognize a Palestinian state at the 80th UN General Assembly in September.
“The decisions by France, the United Kingdom and Canada reinforce the trend towards recognizing Palestine as part of efforts to breathe new life into the peace process,” Stubb says in a post to X.
Finland’s president, elected for six years, has limited powers but helps coordinate the country’s foreign policy in close cooperation with the government.
“If I receive a proposal to recognize the Palestinian state, I am prepared to approve it,” Stubb says, deploring an “inhumane” situation in Gaza.
He says he understood that Finns had “different opinions on the recognition of Palestine, and that there is also concern,” calling for an “open” and “honest” debate.
The far-right Finns Party and the Christian Democrats oppose recognizing a Palestinian state.
Finland’s Prime Minister Petteri Orpo on Friday reiterated Helsinki’s support for a two-state solution, without specifying whether the government was ready to recognize a Palestinian state.
Discussions on foreign policy and the Middle East with the president would continue up to the UN conference at the end of September, he said.
Likud MK and suspected rapist Hanoch Milwidsky denies the allegations against him in a post on X.
Milwidsky, who is being investigated by police on suspicion of rape and witness tampering, says he is cooperating with investigators, and accuses some people of using the allegations to try to thwart his appointment to the Knesset’s Finance Committee earlier this week.
“It is important for you to know: The events over which I was questioned occurred many years ago, and the details were published in a series of television reports starting in 2017 and were known to everyone, including the Israel Police. So why have I not been questioned until now? The answer is infuriatingly simple: The acts attributed to me do not constitute a criminal offense! That’s it, easy, simple, and clear,” he claims.
He says the allegations, which are being spread by “several female Knesset members who have lost their way,” are “a blood libel!!”
The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court refuses a police request to extend the house arrest of Yinon Levi, a sanctioned settler who allegedly shot dead a Palestinian activist on Monday during a confrontation near the West Bank village of Umm al Kheir.
The court says evidence has “weakened” suspicions that the shot fired by Levi killed the Palestinian activist.
It releases Levi on the condition that he stay away from those involved in the case.
The police are seeking to charge Levi with reckless manslaughter and unlawful use of a firearm over the killing of Awdah Hathaleen, a prominent Palestinian activist who was shot in the upper body during a confrontation on Monday. The shooting occurred as pro-Palestinian activists tried to block construction work close to Umm al Kheir being carried out by Levi and a minor driving a heavy construction vehicle.
Levi and the minor were carrying out earthworks close to the Carmel settlement, which is immediately adjacent to Umm al Kheir. According to the Peace Now organization, Hathaleen sent a WhatsApp message to activists in the area saying that Levi had tried to sever the main water pipe for the Palestinian village, and then went with other activists to try to stop the construction vehicle.
Levi is among several West Bank settlers who were placed under economic sanctions by the former administration of US President Joe Biden for perpetrating violence against Palestinians. President Donald Trump lifted the sanctions, but sanctions imposed by Canada, the UK, and the European Union remain in place.
After touring one of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s aid distribution sites in Gaza alongside US special envoy Steve Witkoff, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee calls the joint US- and Israeli-backed initiative “an incredible feat.”
Sharing photos from the visit, Huckabee writes on his official X account that the two senior US officials entered Gaza “to learn the truth about [GHF] aid sites,” which have sparked controversy over their failure to significantly alleviate the humanitarian crisis and over reports of IDF shootings near distribution points.
“We received briefings from [the IDF] and spoke to folks on the ground. GHF delivers more than one million meals a day, an incredible feat!,” Huckabee adds.
On his personal X account, Huckabee adds: “Hamas hates GHF [because] it gets food to [people without] it being looted by Hamas. Over 100 MILLION meals served in 2 months,” citing the foundation’s own estimates.
This morning I joined @SEPeaceMissions Steve Witkoff for a visit to Gaza to learn the truth about @GHFUpdates aid sites. We received briefings from @IDF and spoke to folks on the ground. GHF delivers more than one million meals a day, an incredible feat! pic.twitter.com/GyVK5cwNgZ
— Ambassador Mike Huckabee (@USAmbIsrael) August 1, 2025
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar condemns recent strikes by Russia on several districts of Kyiv, which he says damaged the home of an Israeli embassy staffer.
“I condemn the Russian strikes against residential neighborhoods in Kyiv, which resulted in an immense and tragic loss of life,” Sa’ar writes on X, adding that he just spoke with the secretary of the Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine, whose home was hit by the strikes.
“We call for a durable and lasting peace, which ensures security for Ukraine,” Sa’ar adds.
The remarks come two weeks after Sa’ar met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, where he announced that Israel and Ukraine have launched a strategic dialogue on the Iranian threat and denounced Russian attacks on civilians.
For what is believed to be the first time, a group of IDF soldiers at a ceremony at the Birkenau concentration camp in Poland has been barred by police from bringing an Israeli flag into the camp, according to the Hebrew daily Ynet.
A delegation of 180 Israeli officers and security officials taking part in the “Witnesses in Uniform” Holocaust commemoration program was halted Thursday at the entrance to the concentration camp when a local police officer refused to let them enter with their flags, Ynet reports.
Israeli officers and local agents were unable to reach an agreement with the police, and the soldiers had to enter without their flags.
Soldiers say the incident was tense and humiliating, and charge that the decision was driven by antisemitic beliefs.
“No ceremony has ever been stopped mid-way — never in Treblinka, Warsaw, or Majdanek,” one participant tells Ynet. “This shows that we are still fighting against antisemitism in Europe, and there are still those who are trying to change the Zionist narrative and the sanctity of this place for us.”
The UN human rights office says that 1,373 Palestinians have been killed while waiting for aid in the shortage-stricken Gaza Strip since late May, most of them by the Israeli military.
“In total, since 27 May, at least 1,373 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food; 859 in the vicinity of (US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation) sites and 514 along the routes of food convoys,” the UN agency’s office for the Palestinian territories says in a statement.
“Most of these killings were committed by the Israeli military,” it adds.
The IDF has repeatedly said that it has fired warning shots at crowds approaching troops, but that claims of casualties are inflated, without providing its own figures.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul met this morning with the families of seven German-Israeli hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, according to the German Embassy in Tel Aviv, where the meeting took place.
“The terrorist organization Hamas is still holding hostages and is unwilling to release them – despite all efforts at negotiations,” the embassy writes in a post on social media.
“We are thinking of Rom Braslavski, Tamir Adar, Gali and Ziv Berman, Itay Chen, Tamir Nimrodi, and Alon Ohel, who have been held captive in Gaza for 665 days,” the statement adds.
According to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, Wadephul expressed “Germany’s commitment to the release of all the hostages,” regardless of the Palestinian state issue.
Wadephul has not yet commented on the meeting, which comes a day after he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar to discuss the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the growing number of countries announcing their intent to recognize a Palestinian state.
Wadephul is expected to hold meetings in the West Bank later today before returning to Germany.
Hostage families with German citizenship met with the German Foreign Minister @AussenMinDE at the German Embassy.
Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul stated Germany’s commitment to the release of all hostages, decoupled and a pre requisite from the Palestinian state issue.
Photo… pic.twitter.com/bQwBSOTpCX
— Bring Them Home Now (@bringhomenow) August 1, 2025
Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency says 11 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and airstrikes today, including two who were waiting near an aid distribution site inside the Palestinian territory.
Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal tells AFP that five people were killed in a strike near the southern city of Khan Younis, and four more in a separate strike on a vehicle in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah.
The Israeli army tells AFP it could not confirm the strikes without specific coordinates.
Two other people were killed and more than 70 injured by Israeli fire while waiting for aid near a food distribution centre run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation between Khan Younis and the nearby city of Rafah, the civil defense says.
The army does not immediately respond to the report.
Aircraft from Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and, for the first time in over a year, Spain, Germany, and France are airdropping humanitarian aid packages over the Gaza Strip.
Footage from the Strip shows the airdrop over central Gaza.
The IDF has not yet commented on today’s airdrops, but has previously said they are part of a “series of actions aimed at improving the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip.”
#عاجل | إسقاط جوي لمساعدات إماراتية غرب النصيرات وسط القطاع. pic.twitter.com/ilozl38F2s
— قناة القدس (@livequds) August 1, 2025
A zoo worker who was mauled by a leopard earlier today at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo has died from his wounds.
The victim, a 26-year-old man, was rushed to Hadassah Hospital in Ein Kerem in critical condition after paramedics found him unconscious, with severe injuries to his neck and upper body as a result of the attack.
According to the zoo, the leopard managed to exit the enclosure and reach the inner courtyard.
Police are currently investigating whether a technical malfunction in the door to the leopard house allowed the leopard to escape, Ynet reports.
Human Rights Watch accuses Israeli forces operating outside US-backed aid centres in war-torn Gaza of routinely killing Palestinian civilians seeking food, as well as using starvation as a weapon of war.
“US-backed Israeli forces and private contractors have put in place a flawed, militarised aid distribution system that has turned aid distributions into regular bloodbaths,” says Belkis Wille, associate crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch.
GHF launched its operations in late May, sidelining the longstanding UN-led humanitarian system just as Israel was beginning to ease a more than two-month aid blockade that led to dire shortages of food and other essentials.
Since then, witnesses, the Hamas-run civil defence agency, and AFP correspondents inside Gaza have reported frequent incidents in which Israeli troops have opened fire on crowds of desperate Palestinian civilians approaching GHF centres seeking food.
At least 859 Palestinians were killed while attempting to obtain aid at GHF sites between May 27 and July 31 — most by the Israeli military — according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, although Israel says the toll is exaggerated.
“Israeli forces are not only deliberately starving Palestinian civilians, but they are now gunning them down almost every day as they desperately seek food for their families,” HRW’s Wille says in a statement.
The military did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment on the HRW report.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syria has pledged to investigate clashes in the southern province of Sweida, which killed hundreds of people last month — the second major episode of sectarian violence since the ouster of longtime Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
In a decree dated July 31, Syrian Justice Minister Muzher al-Wais says a committee of seven people — including judges, lawyers, and a military official — will look into the circumstances that led to the “events in Sweida” and report back within three months.
The committee will investigate reported attacks and abuses against civilians and refer anyone proven to have participated in such attacks to the judiciary.
The violence in Sweida began on July 13 between tribal fighters and Druze factions. Government forces were sent to quell the fighting, but the bloodshed worsened, and Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops in the name of the Druze.
The Israel Defense Forces says sirens that sounded near the border with Gaza a short while ago were a false alarm.
The IDF says it fired an interceptor missile after falsely identifying a rocket launch from Gaza.
An employee at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo was attacked by a leopard this morning, paramedics say.
The employee, a 26-year-old man, was badly injured in the attack. He was found unconscious by medics with wounds in his neck and is being taken to Hadassah Hospital in Ein Kerem for further treatment.
Incoming rocket sirens are activated in Sderot, Kibbutz Nir Am, and Ibim, near the Gaza border.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff has arrived in Gaza to inspect an aid distribution center in Rafah, Channel 12 reports.
Witkoff and US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee are visiting the center along with additional sites run by the Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as Washington prepares to roll out a new plan for delivering aid into the Strip.
According to the White House, the two senior US officials will “inspect the current distribution sites [to] secure a plan to deliver more food and meet with local Gazans to hear firsthand about this dire situation on the ground.”
Following the visit, Witkoff and Huckabee will brief US President Donald Trump on the situation before the new plan is approved.
Steve Witkoff at the food distribution center in Rafah pic.twitter.com/CITxdj8WwT
— Amit Segal (@AmitSegal) August 1, 2025
PARIS, France — French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot says that France is sending four flights carrying 10 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Gaza from Jordan.
“This is emergency aid but still not sufficient” in the face of this “revolting” situation, Barrot tells broadcaster franceinfo.
The Finance Ministry says in a statement that the 15 percent tariff imposed on Israel by the United States is comparatively low to those placed on other countries, owing to “the positive dialogue and discourse between Israel and the [Trump] administration.”
“Negotiations with our American counterparts continue with the goal of reaching a full and improved agreement,” the statement reads.
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran rejects accusations by the US and more than a dozen of its allies that Tehran has attempted to kill or kidnap dissidents, journalists, and officials in Western countries.
In a statement, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei describes the claims as “baseless,” calling them “an attempt to divert public attention from the most pressing issue of the day, the genocide in occupied Palestine.”
US President Donald Trump tells NBC he hopes Israel will manage aid in a way that would prevent Hamas from stealing aid intended for hungry Gaza civilians.
Trump calls Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “a competent person,” while stressing: “We want to make sure people get fed.”
Trump says “good management” will prevent the theft of aid.
“Hopefully, the Israelis will provide that,” he says.
A car belonging to a foreign activist staying in the Palestinian village of Susiya in the southern West Bank was set on fire overnight, along with water tanks belonging to a Palestinian family in the village.
According to some Palestinian reports, the fire also spread to a nearby structure.
No injuries were reported.
Palestinian media outlets reported that settlers were behind the incident.
Police have yet to issue a response.
המתנחלים הגיעו לפתח ביתה של המשפחה, דפקו בחוזקה על הדלת ואז ריססו לתוך הבית גז פלפל. לאחר מכן הציתו את הרכב של פעילות הסולידריות, ומבנה בבית המשפחה. נכון לעכשיו צוות כיבוי השתלט על האש שפרצה מהרכב, ושרפה יחד איתו גם את מיכלי המים של המשפחה. המבנה שהוצת עדין בוער. https://t.co/w9GJkg7c9F pic.twitter.com/O75UU6C5sB
— מחוץ לעדר (@masafering) July 31, 2025
The White House announces that a 15 percent tariff will be imposed on goods from Israel as part of the Trump administration’s new trade policy that has seen rates raised on countries across the globe.
The decision is part of an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump imposing higher tariffs on dozens of countries in his latest bid to reshape global trade in favor of US businesses.
The order sets out tariffs on imports that ranged as high as 41% on Syria and also included 30% on South Africa. Separately, the White House announces that Canadian imports will face tariffs of 35%, not the current 25%.
New tariffs announced by Trump
???????? Laos: 40%
???????? Myanmar: 40%
???????? Switzerland: 39%
???????? Canada: 35%
???????? South Africa: 30%
???????? Taiwan: 20%
???????? Sri Lanka: 20%
???????? Vietnam: 20%
???????? Cambodia: 19%
???????? Indonesia: 19%
???????? Malaysia: 19%
???????? New Zealand: 15%
???????? Turkey: 15%
???????? South Korea: 15%
????????…— The Spectator Index (@spectatorindex) July 31, 2025
The Haaretz daily quotes several soldiers currently serving in Gaza who share how burnt out they are after serving several hundred days of reserve duty.
“Don’t forget to talk about the reservists and active duty soldiers and how exhausted we are,” one of them tells the paper during a press tour of the northern Gaza city of Beit Hanoun organized by the IDF.
“I’ve already [informed the army] that I’m not going back to Gaza after this tour. I’m done with Gaza. People don’t understand what burnout is. They think it’s just a matter of giving us a few more hours of sleep, but it’s much more than that. People here are exhausted,” he says.
“There are not enough forces to carry out the missions. Tell the public what we are going through and shed light on the difficult conditions,” another soldier says.
Toward the end of the tour, two officers could be heard giving an order to troops over the radio to open fire so that the videographers could have some footage of “fighting.”
Shortly thereafter, extended machine gun fire could be heard in the background. When asked whether the shooting was a show for the media, the officers leading the tour had a hard time containing their smiles.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio praises Qatar’s role in the currently stalled hostage negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
“I know that Qatar is a source of controversy among some. When it comes to this negotiation, they’ve been very helpful. They’ve put a lot of time and energy into this, and frankly, they’ve expressed their own frustrations with Hamas,” Rubio says during an interview with Fox Radio.
“I think the moment of truth has to arrive, however, where there have to be consequences if Hamas continues to disagree,” he adds, without elaborating.
Rubio laments an “anti-Israel narrative building internationally” that is “emboldening Hamas.”
He briefly nods at the Arab countries that signed onto a declaration organized by France this week that called for Hamas to disarm and give up its control of the Strip — something the US and Israel have repeatedly called for.
US President Donald Trump is asked by reporters whether he agrees with Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s characterization of Israel’s war in Gaza as a genocide.
“It’s terrible what’s occurring there. It’s a terrible thing. People are very hungry,” Trump responds.
He reiterates his claim that the US has given $60 million to the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, when it has only given $30 million thus far.
“The United States gave $60 million for food, and it’s a shame because I don’t see the results of it. We gave it to people who, in theory, are watching over it fairly closely. We wanted Israel to watch over it. Part of the problem is that Hamas is taking the money and they’re taking the food,” he says again.
A 36-year-old man was shot dead in the central Arab city of Kafr Qara tonight.
Paramedics found the victim lying unconscious on the ground with several bullet wounds and pronounced him dead at the scene. His name is Ahmad Said Atamneh, according to the Arabic-language outlet Arab48.
Police are investigating the incident and have erected ad hoc checkpoints in the town in their search for suspects, law enforcement says, adding that three suspects have been arrested.
Earlier this evening, an elderly woman was shot dead in the northern city of Arraba. The assailant apparently fired at the victim, 88-year-old Latifa Naif Naamneh Shahin, by accident, and had been aiming at parked cars in the vicinity of her home, Ynet reported earlier.
Since the start of 2025, 152 Arab Israelis have been killed in violent incidents, according to a statement from the Abraham Initiatives, which tracks Arab murder victims, following tonight’s shooting.
At this time of year in 2024, the number of Arab murder victims stood at 133, marking a 13% increase in an already soaring murder rate.
The number of Arab murder victims doubled in 2023, coinciding with the beginning of Itamar Ben Gvir’s term as national security minister. Local Arab politicians have often placed much blame on police for failing to solve Arab sector murders, contributing to a lack of deterrence against violent crime.
