Israeli air strikes on a UN-operated school sheltering war-displaced Palestinians in central Gaza killed at least 33 people, including 12 women and children. Israel’s army says Hamas fighters were also in the shelter.

      “Dozens of people, including children, were slaughtered while they slept” at a UN school attacked by Israeli forces, Oxfam International says.

      Egyptian and Qatari mediators reportedly say they expect Hamas will submit its formal response to the latest ceasefire proposal in the coming days as pressure continues to mount on both sides to get a deal done to halt the devastating war.

      Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah is a “sinking ship” – overwhelmed with wounded and dead – after days of unrelenting strikes by Israeli forces on central Gaza, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says, describing it as “a scene of devastation”.

      At least 36,654 people have been killed and 83,309 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from Hamas’s attacks stands at 1,139, with dozens of people still held captive in Gaza.

      Columbia Law Review website restored after shut-down over article critical of Israel

      The website of the Columbia Law Review, one of the most prestigious student-run law journals in the United States, has been restored after earlier being taken offline over the publication of an article critical of Israel.

      The journal’s board on Monday shut down the website after the journal’s editors refused to halt publication of an academic article by a Palestinian human rights lawyer that was critical of Israel.

      The website was restored on Thursday with the article, titled Toward Nakba As a Legal Concept, as well as a link at the bottom of the homepage directing readers to a statement from the board about the article.

      In the statement, the board said it had “received multiple credible reports that a secretive process was used to edit Toward Nakba As a Legal Concept” and that “some individuals reporting exclusion expressed concerns with the process and the denial of their opportunity to provide input”.

      The Intercept reported that the restoration of the website came after students on Wednesday voted to reject an offer from the board to reinstate the website with a note attached to the article disclaiming the alleged deviation from the journal’s usual processes.

      UK Labour candidate says possible use of British weapons in Gaza war crimes a ‘disgrace’

      A Labour Party candidate in the UK’s upcoming general election has condemned the potential use of British-made weapons in war crimes in Gaza after an Israeli air strike on a UN-run school killed dozens of people.

      “It is a disgrace that British-made weapons could be being used to commit crimes like this,” Zarah Sultana, who is running to retain her seat of Coventry South on July 4, said in a post on X.

      Labour leader Keir Starmer, who is widely tipped to be the next prime minister, has come under growing pressure to halt arms sales to Israel.

      Last month, senior Labour MP Jonathan Ashworth said he did not want to see British weapons being used in Israel’s assault on the city of Rafah.

      Labour has not committed to halting arms sales to Israel if it wins the election but has pledged to review the exports and make a decision based on the most up-to-date legal advice.

      More dead, injured as Israel continues attacks on central Gaza refugee camps

      As well as the attacks that were reported earlier on the Nuseirat refugee camp that killed five people, and the four people killed and six injured in the Maghazi refugee camp, Israeli forces have also carried out air, land and sea attacks on northern, central and southern Gaza.

      According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, and Al Jazeera Arabic, the overnight attacks include:

•       Israeli strikes hit the Oreiba neighbourhood in the north of Rafah.
•       Artillery fire targeted the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.
•       Air strikes have pounded the coastal areas of the al-Mawasi region, located to the northeast of Rafah.
•       Shelling from Israeli artillery has hit the Tal as-Sultan and Saudi neighbourhoods of Rafah.
•       Strikes by Israeli naval ships and attack helicopters have also been reported in Rafah, the southern city that Israeli ground forces invaded last month despite international warning not to do so due to the humanitarian catastrophe such a campaign would spark.

      UN chief Antonio Guterres pays tribute to UNRWA employees killed in Gaza

      UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has paid tribute to the 188 staff who died in the line of duty last year, including 135 employees of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

      “That is by far the highest number of our personnel killed in a single conflict or natural disaster since the creation of the United Nations – a reality we can never accept,” Guterres said in remarks to the UN’s annual memorial service for fallen staff on Thursday.

      “Some were killed with their families by bombardment of their homes; others were at work, both in offices and shelters,” he said.

      Guterres said there needed to be a “full accounting” for every death.

      “We owe this to their family members and friends, to their colleagues and to the world. Our UNRWA personnel lived and died as representatives of the international community in Gaza, and that community deserves an explanation.”

      NAACP president says US must ‘bring parties to the table’ for Gaza peace talks

      Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP – one of the largest Black civil rights organisations in the US – said that his organisation had a “responsibility to speak out in the face of injustice” as it called on the US president to suspend arms sales to Israel.

      “We are beginning to see the impact of the [Gaza] conflict here domestically,” Johnson told Al Jazeera in an interview.

      “In the NAACP, we really are concerned with the quality of this democracy, to ensure that we are a leading democracy, and wherever possible, we can advocate for peaceful agreements when conflicts are having a domestic impact,” Johnson said.

      “Our concern is, in this moment, we have so many civilians who have been impacted. And we want to see the deaths of young children to no longer be the case. The hostages must be released. We have to bring the parties to the table to begin to talk about a way forward that’s peaceful,” he said.

      “It is unfortunate what we have seen. None of this should have taken place. But now we can have a solution and that solution is forcing the parties to the table to come up with a peaceful solution.”

      US pundit Briahna Joy Gray fired after interview with sister of Israeli captive

      A talk show host in the United States has been fired after a backlash over her interview with the sister of an Israeli captive.

      Briahna Joy Gray said on Thursday that The Hill had terminated her employment as a co-host of the online talk show, Rising.

      Gray said in a post on that X that her firing reflected a “clear pattern of suppressing speech – particularly when it’s critical of the state of Israel”.

      During an interview with Yarden Gonen, the sister of Hamas captive Romi Gonen, on Tuesday, Gray sighed and rolled her eyes after Gonen said the host should believe women who say they were victimised by Hamas.

      “I really hope that you, specifically, will believe women when they say that they got hurt,” Gonen said.

      Gray has previously questioned claims that Hamas carried out rapes during the group’s October 7 attacks on Israel.

      Gray, who served as the press secretary for Bernie Sanders during his 2020 presidential campaign, last month attracted criticism when she said during a panel discussion that Hamas’s calls for the elimination of Israel did not mean it was calling for the killing of all Jews in the country.