Israel’s war on Gaza updates: Death toll passes 37,000 in Gaza

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To read more about Benny Gantz’s resignation, click here.
To read the experience of our Gaza reporter Maram Humaid following Israel’s raid of Nuseirat refugee camp, read this.
And follow along with all our coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza here.

Here’s a quick look at the latest news:

• The Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, says three captives were killed, including a US citizen, in the Israeli raid in which four captives were freed.
• Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner denied the claim as “Hamas propaganda”.
• At least four people were killed following an attack on northern Gaza City.
• Israeli minister Benny Gantz announced his resignation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s emergency government.
• Several countries and international organisations have condemned the Israeli killing of at least 274 Palestinians during the raid on Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp to free four Israeli captives.

US-made weapons have been used in Israel’s deadly attack on a Gaza school run by the United Nations.

Al Jazeera obtained exclusive evidence from the scene tracing part of the weapon to Honeywell – a high-profile company based in the United States.

US-made weapons have been used in Israel’s latest deadly attack on a Gaza school run by UNRWA.

Our digital investigations team @AJSanad has obtained exclusive evidence from the scene tracing part of the weapon to Honeywell – a high-profile company based in the US. pic.twitter.com/3Wrz8sCQYR

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) June 6, 2024

It’s a US-announced ceasefire plan that’s stirred heated debate in Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was warned by his far-right allies that their coalition will collapse if he accepted. Hamas said it’s positive, but work still needs to be done.

So, could US President Joe Biden’s proposal end the war on Gaza?

“A short time ago, interceptors were launched at a suspicious aerial target that crossed into the country from Lebanon, the event is over,” it said in a post on X.

“Alerts for rocket and missile fire were activated in the Acre and Kiryat Bialik areas for fear of falling interceptor fragments.”

The violence comes as both Hezbollah and Israel increased cross-border fighting that has persisted since October of last year, with the Lebanon-based group saying it seeks to draw Israeli resources away from the war in Gaza.

Israeli officials have ratcheted up rhetoric in recent days, raising the prospect of a more destructive escalation along its northern border.

Four captives were brought back from Gaza and hundreds of Palestinians were killed during the Israeli military’s operation.

On the streets of Israel, many are celebrating – but also demanding that all remaining captives be freed under a deal. It is one the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is coming to Israel to push for this week.

But can he succeed where previous negotiations have failed?

Soon after the Israeli raid started at about 11am (08:00 GMT) in Nuseirat’s busy market area, bombs rained down and turned the neighbourhood into “smoke and flames”, said Muhannad Thabet, 35, a resident.

“People were screaming – young and old, women and men. Everyone wanted to flee the place, but the bombing was intense and anyone who moved was at risk of being killed because of the heavy bombardment and gunfire.

“Houses were destroyed with their occupants inside. There were also large numbers of displaced people and shops, stalls and cars were on fire because of the bombing.”

Israel sent in a special forces team of troops and Shin Bet operatives who simultaneously raided two buildings to extract the captives – Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41.

A column of tanks moved into two new districts in an apparent effort to complete the encirclement of the entire eastern side of Rafah, touching off clashes with dug-in Palestinian fighters, according to residents trapped in their homes.

Palestinian medics said an Israeli air strike on a house in Tal as-Sultan in western Rafah killed two people.

The Israeli military said troops of its 162nd division were raiding some districts of Rafah where they located “numerous additional terror tunnel shafts, mortars, and [other] weapons” belonging to Palestinian armed groups.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 37,084 Palestinians, the Health Ministry said, and thousands more dead are believed buried under the debris.

More than two weeks have passed since the graduates’ commencement ceremony for 2024 at Harvard University, but Asmer Asrar Safi is still waiting to receive the degree for which he spent four years studying.

Besides Safi, another 12 students find themselves in the same situation: They are all graduating students at one of the most prestigious educational institutions in the world but will not be awarded their degrees for at least one year.

Read the full story here.

The Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, says three captives were killed, including a US citizen, in the Israeli raid in which four captives were freed.

It didn’t release the names of those killed, but a video released showed what appeared to be three bodies with censor bars over their faces. “Your captives will not be released unless our prisoners are freed,” it said.

The Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Obeida wrote on the Telegram channel: “By committing horrific massacres, the enemy was able to free some of his prisoners. But at the same time, it killed some of them. The operation will pose a great danger [for] the enemy’s prisoners and will have a negative impact on their conditions.”

Obeida described the Israeli raid as a “complex war crime”.

Israel rescued four captives held by Hamas in the bloody operation in central Gaza’s Nuseirat camp on Saturday.

Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner denied that three Israeli captives were killed during the bloody raid on Saturday that freed four captives.

The comments come after the armed wing of Hamas said the three were killed during the incursion, including one US citizen.

“This is just Hamas propaganda, their attempt to try and create concern in Israel,” Lerner told the UK’s Sky News. “When we listen to what Hamas is saying, I say take it with a pinch of salt. Everything they say.”

The Saturday raid killed more than 274 Palestinians and wounded hundreds in the Nuseirat refugee camp, including more than 140 women, children and elderly.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken returns to the Middle East this week seeking a breakthrough in ceasefire efforts. US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan says mediators Egypt and Qatar have not received official word from Hamas on the proposed deal.

In Israel, Blinken will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials. In Jordan, he will participate in an emergency international conference on aid to Gaza, and in Qatar, he will meet with officials attempting to mediate the ceasefire deal.

Blinken may have trouble selling the proposal – or at least its implementation – to Netanyahu. Although the deal has been described as an Israeli initiative, some members of Netanyahu’s far-right coalition government are strongly opposed to it.

International pressure is mounting on Israel to limit civilian bloodshed in its war in Gaza. Palestinians also face widespread hunger because fighting and Israeli restrictions have largely cut off the flow of aid.

Israeli minister Benny Gantz announced his resignation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s emergency government, withdrawing the only centrist power in the embattled leader’s far-right coalition.

Gantz last month threatened to leave the emergency government – formed last year to oversee the war on Gaza – if Netanyahu failed to present a post-war plan.

Gantz is seen as Netanyahu’s main political rival in Israel. He was a leading figure in the opposition before joining the war cabinet.

Read the full story here.

The fighter jets were above Lebanon when the anti-aircraft missiles were launched.

But the Israeli jets were never under any serious threat from the attack, the army said.

The military added that “minutes later”, an Israeli jet “struck and eliminated the terrorist cell that carried out the launches [near the coastal city of] Tyre”.

The Israeli government is under more pressure to secure the release of all captives in Gaza after four were freed on Saturday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition is also under threat of collapse. So, how will all this affect talks to reach a deal on captives and a ceasefire?

The International Atomic Energy Agency must send monitors into Gaza to check whether Israel’s military has fired depleted uranium munitions during its war on the territory, says Palestine’s Ambassador to Austria Salah Abdel Shafi.

While depleted uranium ammunition is not considered a nuclear weapon, its emission of low levels of radiation has led the IAEA to warn of possible dangers of exposure.

#IAEA needs to send inspectors into Gaza
to check whether #Israel used #DU (depleted uranium) in the ammunition in their aggression; to
do thorough investigation on the soil, air; all this is the responsibility of @iaeaorg

Palestinian ambassador @SalahAbdelShafi tells @AJEnglish https://t.co/R9jG7RWtc5 pic.twitter.com/3DVC24abHP

— Osama Bin Javaid (@osamabinjavaid) June 9, 2024

Witnesses say the deadly Israeli raids and retreat at the Nuseirat camp were covered by heavy air strikes as well as drone and tank fire. Much of the neighbourhood remains covered in debris and dust that coated the streets in grey.

Watching from his roof, Mohammed Moussa, 29, said he was terrified when he caught a glimpse of an Israeli tank on the street below with artillery fire crashing down. “I should be dead,” he said.

Alaa al-Khatib, a displaced woman living in the Nuserait camp, said she was walking to a market when she saw people climbing out of a refrigeration truck and exiting a small white car. They then took out a ladder and began climbing into an upper floor of a nearby building.

“Moments later, I heard gunfire and explosions from the houses, neighbourhoods and streets of the camp,” she said.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir demanded Benny Gantz’s now vacant seat at the war cabinet soon after his resignation was announced.

“I have issued a demand to the prime minister … to join the war cabinet,” Ben-Gvir said in a letter posted on X.

Ultra-nationalist Jewish Power, headed by Ben-Gvir, holds six seats in parliament.