Updates: Israeli army targets Gaza City with heavy strikes, killing 39

If you’d like to know more about Trump’s Gaza ceasefire proposal and its chances of success, read this.

Find out more about the attack on a ship off the coast of Yemen by reading our story here.

And, you can follow all our coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza here.

Here’s a recap of today’s developments:

• The Israeli military killed dozens more Palestinians, including aid seekers, in attacks across the Gaza Strip that have intensified as prospects of a 60-day ceasefire grow stronger.
• Israeli warplanes also bombed areas across Yemen and Lebanon, with the army saying it targeted ports and a power plant run by the Houthis, as well as Hezbollah infrastructure.
• Several small boats and sea drones attacked a Liberian-flagged and Greek-owned bulk carrier off the coast of Yemen, causing extensive damage and forcing the crew to abandon ship.
• At least two Palestinians were killed and others were wounded after a series of raids by Israeli soldiers and settlers into areas across the occupied West Bank.
• BRICS member states called for an immediate and “unconditional” ceasefire in Gaza, as well as full withdrawal of the Israeli military from Gaza and other occupied Palestinian territory.
• The Freedom Flotilla Coalition is preparing to set sail again towards Gaza, weeks after intercepting a previous ship taking humanitarian aid to the enclave and illegally seizing it.
• The Israeli military plans to send recruitment summons to 54,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews after a law exempting them from service expired.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Information Office has said that the number of Palestinians held without charge in Israeli prisons has reached “the highest number ever recorded”.

It said the number had risen above 3,600, a figure it described as “dangerous”.

The majority of Palestinian prisoners are arrested under a quasi-judicial process known as administrative detention, under which they are initially jailed for six months. Their detentions can then be repeatedly extended for an indefinite period without charge or trial.

Houthi spokesman Ameen Hayyan Yemeni has said the group’s air defences responded to Israel’s air strikes, forcing “a large portion” of Israel’s warplanes to retreat.

Locally-manufactured surface-to-air missiles were used to respond, “causing great confusion among enemy pilots and operations rooms”, he wrote in a statement on X.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Office reports that it has registered a “dangerous increase” in the number of those held under administrative detention in Israeli military prisons.

The latest figure of administrative detainees as of the beginning of July stands at 3,629 people, which the monitor said is the highest number recorded since this type of detention began being used on a wide scale.

Palestinian detainees are stripped of any legal rights under this type of detention, which can be extended for months or even years by Israeli authorities, without providing any sort of strong evidence or access to adequate legal representation.

US President Donald Trump has said there was a good chance a Gaza ceasefire deal could be reached with Hamas this week, as negotiations resumed in Doha, Qatar’s capital.

Trump told reporters before departing for Washington to meet Israel’s prime minister that such a deal meant “quite a few hostages” could be released.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam earlier today made a visit to the eastern region of Bekaa, which was bombed by the Israeli military tonight.

“I have repeatedly stated that there is no stability in the country without Israel’s complete withdrawal from Lebanon and the cessation of its aggressive actions,” he wrote in a post on X, adding that weapons must be confined to the state alone for Lebanese people to feel safe.

Salam said the country also needs safety nets to protect its citizens and “balanced development across the homeland”.

This comes as the prime minister, along with President Joseph Aoun and parliament speaker Nabih Berri, are expected to meet with US envoy Tom Barrack in Beirut to discuss the future of Lebanon.

Hamas has welcomed the final joint statement of the 10-member BRICS after the end of the bloc’s summit in Rio de Janeiro, which called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the enclave and all occupied Palestinian territory.

“We call on the BRICS countries, and all countries of the world, to exert pressure on the terrorist occupation government [of Israel] to comply with international law, end its aggression and genocidal war against innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip, and lift the criminal siege imposed on two-and-a-quarter million people,” the Palestinian group said in a statement.

The Israeli military has issued a statement saying the strikes on Yemen’s ports of Hodeidah, Ras Isa and as-Salif were carried out in light of repeated attacks by the Houthis against Israel, including the launch of unmanned aerial vehicles and surface-to-surface missiles.

It also blamed the Houthis for disrupting maritime trade by attacking transiting vessels. Earlier, a commercial vessel in the Red Sea came under attack after small boats fired rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons towards the ship.

The army said the strike on the port of Ras Isa had among its targets the merchant ship “GALAXY LEADER”, which it claimed was carrying a radar system to track vessels in international maritime space.

The Ras Qantib power plant was also attacked, which the military claimed was supplying electricity for military activities.

United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reports that all crew members of the ship that was attacked and significantly damaged near the coast of Yemen have been evacuated.

A passing merchant vessel rescued the crew, all of whom are safe, the organisation said, advising “extreme caution” to any vessels passing in the area.

As we reported earlier, the Liberian-flagged and Greek-owned bulk carrier Magic Seas is taking on water and has fought off a fire onboard after men on small boats and unmanned surface vehicles attacked it. The incident took place some 51 nautical miles (94.5km) southwest of Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah, which the Israeli military struck within the past hour.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition has said it is preparing to set sail again towards Gaza, weeks after the Israeli navy intercepted and illegally seized the Madleen aid vessel in international waters when it was about 185km (100 nautical miles) from the Strip.

Twelve activists, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, were detained and repatriated.

The group said another boat, the Handala, would depart from the Italian port of Siracusa on July 13 for another attempt at breaking Israel’s siege of the Strip.

“The mission is for the children of Gaza,” it said on X. The name of the vessel is a reference to a cartoon character of a 10-year-old boy who has become a prominent Palestinian symbol.

A rocket fall was detected inside Nirim after sweeping operations conducted by the Israeli army, according to the Eshkol Settlements Council, which is located near the separation barrier with Gaza.

Israel’s Channel 12 cited the local authority as saying the rocket caused minor damage to several buildings, with no casualties recorded. Israeli media published photos, verified for their recentness by Al Jazeera’s Sanad agency, claiming they document the damage to buildings in the kibbutz.

Michal Oziah, the head of the Eshkol Settlements Council, said local authorities expect an investigation into the failure that prevented the activation of the interception system.

Sources at Gaza’s hospitals have told Al Jazeera Arabic that 10 Palestinians were killed by Israeli army fire near aid distribution centres operated by the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) since this morning.

Five of them were killed near the Netzarim Corridor, which is located just south of Gaza City and splits the Strip down the middle.

The Palestinian Health Ministry says Israeli forces killed at least 743 Palestinians in attacks at sites run by GHF since late May.

Israeli forces say they have carried out military strikes on several Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon as well as the eastern Bekaa region.

In a statement, the military said the strikes were directed at infrastructure used for “storing and producing strategic weapons” and a “rocket launch site”.

Since a November 27 ceasefire formally ended more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah, Israel has continued sporadic strikes on Lebanon. It says the group’s activities run counter to the agreement, but does not provide evidence to back its claims.

Israeli military forces have wounded several more Palestinians during their latest raids across the occupied West Bank.

Three teenage boys were injured with live bullets during a raid into the Askar al-Jadid refugee camp in the eastern area of Nablus. The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said a 16-year-old was shot in the abdomen and hand, another the same age took a bullet to his hand, and a 15-year-old was shot in the thigh.

Two more Palestinians were injured as a result of a direct attack by Israeli forces on citizens at the Anab military checkpoint, east of Tulkarem city, PRCS told the Wafa news agency.

We reported earlier that two Palestinians were killed during earlier raids on Nablus.

Translation: Occupation forces storm the eastern area of Nablus.

The Hamas government’s Media Office in Gaza has firmly rejected the claim by the US State Department that resistance fighters threw grenades at US workers of the aid group the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), injuring them.

“These misleading allegations are nothing but a blatant attempt to justify the continued killing and starvation of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and represent a dangerously full alignment with the Israeli military narrative that, since the start of the war, has sought to legitimise the crimes committed against Gaza’s civilian population by fabricating security narratives to justify the excessive use of force against civilians,” it said in a statement.

It called the GHF an “intelligence-security front” that “oversees the death traps in the Gaza Strip” and pointed out that the controversial organisation has been disavowed by more than 165 international aid groups that have been sidelined from delivering aid to the enclave by Israel.

The office said at least 751 Palestinians have been killed, 4,931 others injured, and 39 disappeared while trying to get food from GHF sites.

Palestinian news agency Wafa is reporting that Israeli settlers set up tents and raised the Israeli flag in the Wadi Abbas area west of the town of Deir Istiya, northwest of Salfit, in the occupied West Bank.

The tents were placed near a well used by farmers to irrigate their crops to stop the farmers from accessing it. Settlers also bulldozed private agricultural land in the Wadi al-Qibli area, adjacent to the Revava settlement.

In a separate incident, the head of the al-Minya Village Council, Zayed Kawazbeh, told Wafa that a group of settlers attacked Palestinian shepherds in the Khalayel al-Qusur area and forced them at gunpoint to leave the area.

Since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023, settlers have ramped up violent raids on the West Bank. Most countries consider Israeli settlements illegal and a violation of the Geneva Conventions, which ban settling civilians on occupied land.