Israel war on Gaza updates: 25 killed, 50 wounded in attack on al-Mawasi

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To read up on Iran’s response to rising Hezbollah-Israel tensions, click here.

To get a better understanding of the UN’s take on the situation on the Israel-Lebanon frontier, go here.

And to follow all of our coverage of Israel’s war in Gaza, read more here.

Here’s a quick look at the latest news:

• Dozens of Columbia University students who were arrested for occupying a campus building as part of a pro-Palestine protest will have their criminal charges dropped, prosecutors said.
• The International Committee of the Red Cross in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory says “heavy-calibre projectiles” landed just metres from its office and residences in Gaza.
• Israel’s army said two more of its soldiers were killed in central Gaza fighting.
• It is Israel’s responsibility – as the occupying power in the Gaza Strip – to restore public order and safety in the Palestinian territory so that humanitarian aid can be delivered, the UN’s spokesperson Farhan Haq has said.
• Iran’s mission to the UN says Hezbollah in Lebanon has the capability to defend itself and the country against Israel.
• The world must stand with Israel in the war against Iran and “extremist Islam”, said Israel Katz, the Israeli foreign minister.

Representative Jamaal Bowman, one of the newest members of the progressive “squad” in the US Congress, is facing a fight for his political life.

On Tuesday, he defends his seat in the House of Representatives by competing in the Democratic primary for New York’s 16th congressional district. But while incumbents are rarely challenged, Bowman is facing one of the most costly contests in the history of House primaries.

Progressive groups and politicos say the battle is a direct result of Bowman’s vocal criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza, as groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) are spending big to unseat him.

Bowman is part of a small but growing number of voices in Congress questioning the US’s commitment to Israel, its “ironclad” ally. That, experts say, puts a bulls-eye on his back.

“I’m not so sure that there would be a primary if it wasn’t for the war in Gaza and the oversized influence AIPAC and outside forces have had in this race, trying to press this issue and trying to get rid of Congressman Bowman,” Doug Gordon, a Democratic consultant and co-CEO of UpShift Strategies, told Al Jazeera.

Read more on this story here.

The Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry has called on its citizens to refrain from heading to Lebanon, while calling on those in the country to leave as soon as possible.

Hezbollah has fired rockets and drones into Israel since it launched the war on Gaza last October with the Israelis responding with deadly air strikes and heavy artillery fire.

Hundreds have been killed and tens of thousands displaced along the border.

The international community has expressed increasing concern over the escalating war of words and deadly border clashes between Israel’s military and Lebanon’s Hezbollah fighters.

Translation: Statement from the #MinistryofForeignAffairs regarding its call on all honourable citizens to refrain from heading to the Lebanese Republic at the present time in view of the successive security developments that the region is going through.

Officials under Israel’s far-right settler minister, Bezalel Smotrich, have just been given more powers over the occupied West Bank and its Palestinian population.

Watch our video below:

Dozens of Columbia University students who were arrested for occupying a campus building as part of a pro-Palestine protest will have their criminal charges dropped, prosecutors have said.

At a court hearing Thursday, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said it would not pursue criminal charges for 31 of the 46 people initially arrested on trespassing charges inside the administration building.

Students and their allies seized the building, known as Hamilton Hall, on April 30, barricading themselves inside with furniture and padlocks in a major escalation of campus protests against the war in Gaza.

At the request of university leaders, hundreds of officers with the New York Police Department stormed the campus the following night, gaining access to the building through a second-storey window and making dozens of arrests.

At Thursday’s hearing, prosecutors said they were dismissing charges against most of those arrested inside the building due in part to a lack of evidence tying them to specific acts of property damage and the fact that none of the students had criminal histories.

Stephen Millan, an assistant district attorney, noted that the protesters wore masks and blocked surveillance cameras in the building, making it difficult to “prove that they participated in damaging any Columbia University property or causing harm to anyone”.

All of those students are still facing disciplinary hearings and possible expulsion from the university.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed increasing concern over the escalating war of words and deadly border clashes between Israel’s military and Lebanon’s Hezbollah fighters.

UN peacekeepers are working to calm the situation and prevent “miscalculation” after both sides heightened their rhetoric and raised the possibility of full-scale conflict, the secretary-general said on Friday.

“One rash move – one miscalculation – could trigger a catastrophe that goes far beyond the border and, frankly, beyond imagination,” Guterres told reporters. “Let’s be clear: The people of the region and the people of the world cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza.”

Read more here.

The International Committee of the Red Cross in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory says “heavy-calibre projectiles” landed just metres from its office and residences in Gaza.

“The strike damaged the structure of the ICRC office, which is surrounded by hundreds of displaced civilians living in tents, including many of our Palestinian colleagues,” it said in a post on X.

“Firing so dangerously close to humanitarian structures, of whose locations the parties to the conflict are aware and which are clearly marked with the Red Cross emblem, puts the lives of civilians and Red Cross staff at risk.”

Iran says Hezbollah is capable of defending itself and Lebanon, warning Israel that it would be the “ultimate loser” in an all-out war with the Lebanese armed group.

Tehran’s statement on Friday came as fears of a major Israeli offensive in Lebanon continue to mount.

“Any imprudent decision by the occupying Israeli regime to save itself could plunge the region into a new war, the consequence of which would be the destruction of Lebanon’s infrastructure as well as that of the 1948 occupied territories,” Iran’s mission to the United Nations said in a social media post.

“Undoubtedly, this war will have one ultimate loser, which is the Zionist regime. The Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah, has the capability to defend itself and Lebanon – perhaps the time for the self-annihilation of this illegitimate regime has come.”

Read more here.

UN agencies are warning that over one million Palestinians in Gaza could face severe starvation by mid-July.

Watch our video to learn more:

No information was given about the circumstances of the deaths of the two, both of whom were men in their 20s.

Three other soldiers were severely injured, the army said.

The news comes as public anger grows in Israel over the trajectory of the eight-month conflict and exemptions from military service for young ultra-Orthodox men.

Last week, an explosion in southern Gaza killed eight Israeli soldiers. In January, 21 Israeli troops were killed in a single attack by Palestinian fighters in Gaza.

It is Israel’s responsibility – as the occupying power in the Gaza Strip – to restore public order and safety in Gaza so aid can be delivered, the UN’s spokesperson Farhan Haq has said.

“As the occupying power, it is incumbent upon the Israeli authorities to restore public order and safety as far as possible and facilitate safe humanitarian access so that assistance reaches civilians in need,” Haq said.

The risk of crime has “effectively prevented humanitarian access” to critical areas, including Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom), he also said.

Haq’s position was in response to the Israeli military announcing on Sunday that there would be a daily daytime pause in its attacks along a key road in southern Gaza that the UN and aid groups use to access the Kerem Abu Salem crossing from Israel.

We’re reporting on the reactions of survivors of the Israeli attack on al-Mawasi earlier today, which as of now has killed at least 25 people and wounded 50 others.

Here is another testimony from the ground:

“We had just eaten and were about to sleep and take some rest, and the next we knew was the sound of resounding explosions destroying our places! We find ourselves alone not knowing what to do. We still can’t process what happened!” a survivor told Al Jazeera.

“Oh Lord, look at us, oh world, see our condition. There are a lot of injured still inside. We are no longer able to do anything. What is happening to us? The fire is consuming us from every direction.”

Al-Aqsa Hospital is not only a shelter or refuge, it is also a hospital for a million Palestinians in the central area.

The hospital is overwhelmed. The hospital is constantly receiving patients with chronic disease, injuries from different parts of Gaza.

The doctors are drained as air raids on the central area continue. All the injuries are transferred to Al-Aqsa Hospital.

Doctors are saying they are trying their best to save the lives of Palestinians, but unfortunately, they’re very low on resources.

More than 10,000 Palestinians in Gaza need medical attention, including for cancer and heart-related conditions, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says in a post on X.

Since the closure of the Rafah crossing on May 7, no patients have been evacuated from the Strip,” the WHO chief added.

“Medical evacuations must be facilitated through all possible crossings.”

Margaret Harris, spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO), has spoken to Al Jazeera about the healthcare situation in Gaza. Here is a summary of what she said:

• The health situation in Gaza is very difficult and medical teams are helpless due to lack of capabilities.
• Israel continues to kill children, women and doctors in Gaza.
• The war machine raging in Gaza must be stopped, and we have demanded this from day one.

A survivor of the Israeli attack on Gaza’s al-Mawasi area, which as of now has killed at least 25 people and wounded 50 others, told Al Jazeera witnessed rocket attacks a day earlier, but was not harmed by them.

Today, however, the situation was different.

“Today, before the afternoon, a bomb was thrown near the Red Cross. My husband went out after hearing the sound of the explosion. The second bomb was near the Red Cross building. All the young men went there because some people were injured,” the survivor said.

“My husband went, and I looked for him but couldn’t find him. Everyone was forced to flee in their clothes without taking their belongings. Some people took us with them in their car. We don’t know what happened after that.”