Gaza, medical sources: 23 dead since dawn. Kallas: 'I don't see enough aid coming in'

In particular, at least 12 Palestinians were killed (including six children) and dozens of others were injured after Israeli military planes bombed a crowded market in central Gaza City, according to medical sources. This was reported by the Palestinian news agency Wafa. A surgeon from Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital was also among the victims. The attack targeted a popular market near Ramzon al-Samer, in the Al-Daraj district, one of the most densely populated areas of the city. Among the wounded were seven children, some in critical condition.

 The latest attack brings to 50 the number of Palestinians killed in Israeli raids on the enclave since the early morning hours, according to medical sources .

An attack also hit a house near the refugee camp of Nuseirat, in the centre of the Strip, causing - again according to Civil Defence sources - "ten casualties and several wounded". There was also a serious toll from a raid that hit a drinking water distribution point in an area used to welcome displaced people west of the Nuseirat camp: six victims, also in this case among the civilian population, in addition to several wounded. Finally, in the south of the Strip, three Palestinians were killed by a raid that hit a tent of displaced people in the coastal area of Al-Mawasi.

The IDF said that today's deadly attack near a water distribution site in central Gaza, which left six children dead, was caused by a 'technical malfunction' during an attack on an operative of the Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Jihad. This was reported in the Times of Israel.'An attack was carried out this morning against a terrorist operative of Islamic Jihad in the central Gaza Strip. Due to a technical malfunction of the projectile, it hit tens of metres away from the intended target,' the IDF says. "The incident is under investigation," it added.

Medicine Without Borders (Msf) teams are witnessing a rapid and unprecedented increase in acute malnutrition among the population of Gaza. In Msf clinics in Al-Mawasi, in the south of the Strip, and Gaza City, in the north, the teams are recording the highest number of cases of malnutrition ever observed by Msf in the Strip. More than 700 pregnant and lactating women and nearly 500 children suffering from severe and moderate malnutrition are currently being treated in the outpatient therapeutic feeding centres in both clinics. In the Gaza City clinic alone, cases have almost quadrupled in less than two months: from 293 in May to 983 at the beginning of July. Of these, 326 are children aged between 6 and 23 months. ''This is the first time we have seen such a high number of cases of malnutrition in Gaza. The starvation the population is forced into is intentional: it could end tomorrow if only the Israeli authorities would allow food to enter on a large scale'', says Mohammed Abu Mughaisib, Msf's deputy medical coordinator in Gaza. The presence of malnutrition cases in Gaza is the result of deliberate and calculated choices on the part of the Israeli authorities, including: limiting the entry of food to the minimum necessary for survival, controlling and militarising the distribution of aid, all after hindering and effectively making impossible any local food production activity. People risk their lives to obtain insufficient quantities of food, while all around them the situation precipitates towards a general collapse: sewage contamination is aggravated by the continuous destruction of infrastructure, there is a lack of fuel for the production of drinking water, living conditions in the now overcrowded camps are inhuman, for 20 months the health conditions of Palestinians have been compromised with a completely damaged health system.

A new 'Freedom Flotilla' ship, carrying pro-Palestinian activists and humanitarian aid, has left Syracuse for Gaza, AFP reported, just over a month after an earlier vessel was intercepted by Israel.

The Handala, a ship belonging to the international non-violent movement in support of the Palestinians, left the port of Syracuse shortly after 12 noon with some fifteen activists on board. It will attempt to reach the Palestinian enclave.

Several dozen people, some with Palestinian flags or keffiyehs, gathered at the harbour to celebrate the ship's departure, chanting 'Free Palestine' slogans. The former Norwegian fishing boat, loaded with medical supplies, food, baby items and medicines, will sail for about a week in the Mediterranean Sea, covering about 1,800 km to the Gaza coast. The expedition, financed by donation campaigns, aims to "bring human and international solidarity to the Palestinian population of Gaza", said Claude Léostic, coordinator of the "Freedom Flotilla" in France. The boat will stop in Gallipoli, south-eastern Italy, where two representatives of La France Insoumise (LFI), Gabrielle Cathala and Emma Fourreau, are scheduled to depart on 18 July.

"What does Hamas want? It wants to stay in Gaza. It wants us to leave, so it can rearm, so it can attack us again and again. I won't accept it," says Israeli PM Benyamin Netanyahu, in a video on X, picked up by Israeli media, adding that he will do "everything to return our hostages". The premier, who calls the polls supporting the deal 'manipulated', says Israel 'accepted the deal but Hamas rejected it'. "We must insist on the release of the hostages and the destruction of Hamas and the guarantee that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel. I am not giving up on any of these goals."

For Netanyahu, the wording of the poll questions does not reflect the real cost: "They are also in favour of an agreement, but they do not tell you (in the questionnaire) the other side of the coin. I mean, these are manipulated polls, they always mislead public opinion. They don't ask: do you want a deal for the release of the hostages, leaving Hamas in place? So that it can repeat its crimes of rape, murder, kidnapping and invasion? No. Otherwise, the results would be the exact opposite." In response to Netanyahu's statements, Channel 12, whose poll on Friday showed that 74 per cent of Israelis, including 60 per cent of Netanyahu's coalition voters, support a deal, clarified that the question asked respondents whether they favoured the release of all hostages at once "in exchange for an end to the Gaza war".

The Iranian President, Masoud Pezeshkian, was slightly injured in the leg during one of the raids Israel conducted on the Islamic Republic last month. This was reported by officials quoted by the Iranian news agency Fars, believed to be close to the Guardians of the Revolution.

According to sources, on 16 June - four days after the start of the Israeli campaign - fighter jets bombed a building in western Iran where a meeting of the Supreme National Security Council was in progress. Present at the meeting, in addition to Pezeshkian, were the Speaker of Parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the head of the Judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i, and other high-ranking officials. According to Fars, six bombs or missiles hit the entrance and other access points of the building, apparently in an attempt to prevent those inside from leaving. The electricity to the building was cut off, but officials managed to escape through an emergency door. According to the news agency, Pezeshkian and other officials sustained leg injuries in the escape. Last week Pezeshkian accused Israel of trying to kill him. "I was in the meeting and they tried to bomb the area where it was being held," Pezeshkian said in an interview with Tucker Carlson. Fars noted that the information Israel had on the planning and execution of the attack prompted the Iranian authorities to investigate whether they had inside sources.

Moscow has branded as a 'politicised smear campaign' the article published yesterday by the US website Axios, according to which Russian President Vladimir Putin called on Iran to accept a nuclear deal with the US that excludes uranium enrichment. "The Western media continue to clearly show their true nature: that of tools in the hands of political elites, intelligence services and the so-called Deep State, which does not disdain any method, including direct provocations and the generation of fake news," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a note today. "One can only guess who ordered the publication, but one of the latest articles titled "Scoop: Putin calls on Iran to reach a zero-enrichment nuclear deal with the US" is apparently yet another politicised smear campaign aimed at increasing tensions around Iran's nuclear programme," the ministry added in the note reported by Russian news agencies.