Updates: Israel, Gaza ceasefire possible ‘within next week’, Trump claims

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Read a letter from Gaza by Al Jazeera’s Maram Humaid.

What’s behind the EU’s lack of action against Israel over Gaza? Find out more here.

And check out all of our coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza here.

Here are the major developments of the day:

• Israeli officers and soldiers have told the Haaretz newspaper they were instructed to shoot at unarmed Palestinians seeking aid at designated distribution zones in Gaza, despite the crowds posing no threat.
• Gaza’s Government Media Office has expressed its “deep concern and condemnation” over the discovery of “narcotic pills of the type ‘Oxycodone’” inside flour bags distributed by the US and Israeli-backed aid centres in the enclave.
• Iran has rejected a “meaningless” request by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi to visit facilities bombed by Israel and the US.
• Israel has killed more than 30 senior security officials and 11 senior nuclear scientists during its 12-day war with Iran, according to a senior Israeli military official.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has issued a sharp warning to US President Donald Trump, calling on him to “put aside the disrespectful and unacceptable tone” towards Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Araghchi accused Trump of insulting “millions of heartfelt followers” of Iran’s leadership, and warned that if threats continue, Iran will not hesitate to “unveil its real capabilities”.

“If Illusions lead to worse mistakes, Iran will not hesitate to unveil its Real Capabilities, which will certainly END any Delusion about the Power of Iran.”

Referencing Israel’s recent military posture, he wrote: “The Israeli regime had NO CHOICE but to RUN to ‘Daddy’,” echoing a nickname recently used by NATO chief Mark Rutte to refer to Trump.

The United States has told the United Nations Security Council that its strikes on Iran last weekend were intended to “destroy Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and stop the threat that this rogue regime obtains and uses a nuclear weapon”, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

In the message addressed to the 15-member council, acting US Ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea said Washington “remains committed to pursuing a deal with the Iranian government”.

The US invoked Article 51 of the UN Charter to justify the attacks, describing them as acts of collective self-defence.

Under the charter, member states are required to promptly inform the Security Council of any military action taken in response to an armed attack.

Al Jazeera is reporting from Amman, Jordan, because it has been banned in Israel and the occupied West Bank.

There are no ceasefire negotiations, at least that we know of. We know that a Hamas delegation was in Cairo. Israel hasn’t sent a delegation of negotiators to Cairo for indirect talks, but ever since the ceasefire with Iran has been announced, there’s been a lot of chatter.

Certainly, the families of Israeli captives on the Israeli side, the opposition, has been pushing for that, and it seems that there’s openness for Israel to engage in such talks, not about ending the war, perhaps, but certainly about 60 days of ceasefire that would allow the release of captives.

Incidentally, of course, Netanyahu’s chief negotiator, Ron Dermer, will be in Washington on Monday to discuss Gaza and other things on the agenda between Israel and Washington.

Hamas, meanwhile, wants an end to the war just as all the Palestinians do. They want an end to the slaughter, but in terms of negotiation, what Hamas is talking about for the ceasefire, even in the 60 days, is that Israel needs to withdraw their forces to where they were when a ceasefire was in place.

Israeli troops are in nearly 80 percent of the Gaza Strip, squeezing nearly 2 million people in about 20 percent of that small enclave. So, the situation in terms of the humanitarian condition is untenable. It is catastrophic by all measures.

Hamas is also looking for US guarantees that Israel wouldn’t do this time what it did last time in March, which is to break the ceasefire when it sees fit, and that the US would commit to continued negotiations on ending the war, even if those negotiations go past the 60-day mark.

Al Jazeera political analyst Marwan Bishara has said Israeli leaders are prolonging the war in Gaza despite having multiple opportunities to end it.

“They could have ended the war weeks, even months ago – they didn’t,” Bishara said. “There was no ceasefire because they wanted to continue the war, not because there were compelling reasons not to.”

His remarks come as harrowing new details emerge from Gaza. Bishara described the Israeli campaign as “especially evil” in recent weeks, with the army targeting “starving refugees, displaced mourning families”, and children trying to bring food to their relatives.

Meanwhile, following a Haaretz newspaper report cited unnamed soldiers saying they were told to shoot into crowds, Bishara added that “we’ve seen the war on children, on hospitals, on doctors, on journalists”.

“Now, it’s clear they’ve actually taken orders to do this,” he said.

Saudi Arabia has strongly condemned a recent wave of Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

In a post on X, its foreign ministry expressed “the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s condemnation and denunciation of the continued violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers, under the protection of the occupation forces, against Palestinian civilians, including the attacks in the village of Kafr Malik, east of Ramallah”.

The statement went on to criticise Israeli military actions in Gaza, adding, “The Kingdom reiterates its condemnation of the continued Israeli violence against unarmed civilians in Gaza, including the targeting of civilian sites housing displaced persons.”

An EU summit in Brussels calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, but not for sanctions against Israel.

Germany has led member states in blocking action throughout the war, as others express anger.

What is behind the EU’s position on Israel and Gaza?

Watch the episode of Inside Story below:

Here is a recap of the latest developments:

• Israeli officers and soldiers have told the Haaretz newspaper they were instructed to shoot at unarmed Palestinians seeking aid at designated distribution zones in Gaza, despite the crowds posing no threat.
• Iran has rejected a “meaningless” request by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi to visit facilities bombed by Israel and the US. Donald Trump has said Iran must open its nuclear facilities to international inspection.
• Gaza’s Government Media Office has expressed its “deep concern and condemnation” over the discovery of “narcotic pills of the type ‘Oxycodone’” inside flour bags distributed by the US and Israeli-backed aid centres in the enclave.
• Six people were reportedly killed in southern Gaza near one of the aid distribution sites operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), with Gaza’s civil defence saying at least 62 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since dawn.
• The Israeli military says it has shot down a projectile fired from Gaza, following sirens that sounded in communities near the border.

Four people have been injured in an Israeli drone strike on the southern Lebanese town of Chaqra, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, marking another breach of the ceasefire agreement signed last November.

The ministry’s Public Health Emergency Operations Center confirmed the casualties, which occurred in the district of Bint Jbeil, a frequent target of Israeli air raids in recent months.

Despite the truce, Israeli forces have carried out near-daily attacks on southern Lebanon, saying they are aimed at Hezbollah targets.

Lebanese authorities have documented nearly 3,000 violations of the ceasefire, with at least 215 people killed and more than 500 wounded since the deal was signed.

US President Donald Trump has claimed he personally stopped a final Israeli air strike targeting Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, accusing Tehran’s leadership of lying about the outcome of the war.

Posting on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “Why would the so-called ‘Supreme Leader,’ Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, of the war-torn country of Iran, say so blatantly and foolishly that he won the war with Israel, when he knows his statement is a lie?”

Trump said that during the final days of the 12-day conflict, he “demanded that Israel bring back a very large group of planes, which were heading directly to Tehran… the biggest attack of the war, by far”.

He claimed Khamenei had been sheltered and that he “saved him from a very ugly and ignominious death”.

Trump added he had been preparing sanction relief for Iran, but dropped it after Khamenei’s post-war comments, saying Iran faced “a burned out, blown up country, with no future”.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz have rejected a report that Israeli commanders instructed soldiers to fire at Palestinians approaching food aid distribution sites in Gaza.

The Haaretz newspaper report cited unnamed soldiers saying they were told to shoot into crowds even when no immediate threat was posed.

In a joint statement, Netanyahu and Katz denounced the report as “contemptible blood libels” and “malicious falsehoods”.

Since late May, nearly 550 Palestinians have been killed near aid distribution points, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, amid a controversial US and Israeli-backed distribution scheme that has been widely criticised by human rights groups.

Israel and Iran fought for 12 days, firing bombs, drones and missiles at each other, with the United States even joining in the bombing. Then, earlier this week, it stopped.

Last month, India and Pakistan attacked each other, and the world feared the outbreak of an all-out war between the two nuclear powers. But then, after four days, it stopped.

In Gaza, we haven’t been so lucky. The word “ceasefire” doesn’t apply to us – even after 20 months of slaughter, death, and starvation.

Instead, as wars erupt and end elsewhere, Gaza is neglected, slipping down the news agenda, and disconnected from the internet for days.

World leaders that can end wars decisively can’t deliver medicine to Gaza, can’t bring in food aid without daily bloodshed.

Read more here.

Iran has rejected a “meaningless” request by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi to visit facilities bombed by Israel and the US.

“Grossi’s insistence on visiting the bombed sites under the pretext of safeguards is meaningless and possibly even malign in intent,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on X.

“Iran reserves the right to take any steps in defence of its interests, its people and its sovereignty.”

A source at al-Shifa Hospital has told our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic that the death toll in an attack on the Holy Family school west of Gaza City has risen to 11.

#عاجل | اللحظات الأولى بعد قصف الاحتلال قرب مدرسة العائلة المقدسة في مدينة غزة، حيث ارتقى عدد من الشهداء وما زال آخرون في عداد المفقودين تحت الأنقاض. pic.twitter.com/7pDWWR5iZL

— أنس الشريف Anas Al-Sharif (@AnasAlSharif0) June 27, 2025

Translation: #Urgent | The first moments after the occupation forces bombed the Holy Family School in Gaza City, where a number of martyrs were killed and others are still missing under the rubble.