Updates: Israel waging ‘war on children’ in Gaza, UNICEF says

For a look at the latest deadly violence at a US- and Israeli-backed aid distribution site in Gaza, check out our video here.

Or if you’re interested in the challenges Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces to overcome opposition both at home and abroad, see our explainer here.

We will soon be closing this live page. Here’s a look at the day’s major events:

• Israeli forces killed dozens of Palestinians and injured hundreds more as they sought aid at a contentious US- and Israel-backed distribution centre in Gaza.
• A UNICEF spokesperson says Israel is carrying out a “war on children” as the Israeli army’s bombardment and blockade of Gaza have created a hunger crisis and left health workers reeling from a lack of supplies.
• The Israeli military says it has recovered the bodies of two captives after an operation in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis area.
• Calls continue to grow for the release of international activists detained in Israel after their Gaza-bound aid ship was intercepted by Israeli forces.

Argentine President Javier Milei has reaffirmed his commitment to relocating Argentina’s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a move aimed at strengthening the country’s already close ties with Israel, while drawing sharp criticism internationally.

Speaking during a special session at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, Milei stated, “In 2026, we will make effective the move of our embassy to the city of West Jerusalem.”

This marks the first time Milei has confirmed a timeline for the controversial decision, which he initially announced during his first presidential visit to Israel in February 2024.

Despite cutting his corruption trial short after claiming to feel ill earlier in the day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed Milei to the Knesset. “Javier, you are a true friend. With this visit, we are bringing our relations to new heights,” Netanyahu said.

Milei, a staunch pro-Israel advocate, has previously pledged his “unwavering” support for the Israeli government amid its ongoing onslaught against the Palestinian people.

A senior United Nations official has warned that only a full reopening of Gaza’s border crossings and unrestricted humanitarian access can prevent further deterioration of the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in the territory.

“The only way to address the situation on the ground is by reopening additional crossings,” said Olga Cherevko, speaking from Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on behalf of the UN’s humanitarian affairs office (OCHA).

She stressed that aid deliveries must not only include food but also “an unlimited and unfettered supply of aid” such as shelter materials, fuel, cooking gas, and “other necessary elements to sustain life in Gaza”.

Cherevko also called on Israeli authorities to do more to facilitate the delivery of aid. That includes “providing a safe and enabling environment”, reducing long delays for humanitarian missions, and ensuring aid workers can reach people in need.

According to OCHA, only 6,000 tonnes of wheat flour have entered Gaza since Israel partially resumed aid flows last month.

In a statement, it said: “We reiterate in the strongest terms possible that no one should be forced to risk their lives to receive aid – as people across Gaza are at risk of famine.”

The seizure of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in international waters has not deterred other aid convoys from heading towards Gaza.

Palestinian-American writer Ahmad Ibsais explains how humanitarian aid has become a politically charged weapon of war, in our video below.

A Quinnipiac University poll has found that 37 percent of US voters say their sympathies lie more with Israelis than with Palestinians, compared with 32 percent who say the opposite.

“This is an all-time low for the Israelis and an all-time high for the Palestinians since the Quinnipiac University Poll began asking this question of registered voters in December 2001,” the university said.

The difference in responses was stark when looked at along partisan lines, with 64 percent of Republican voters saying their sympathies lie with Israelis compared with 7 percent who chose Palestinians.

Among Democrats, only 12 percent said their sympathies lie with Israelis, while 60 percent said they lie with Palestinians.

For the most part, Israel enjoys staunch bipartisan support among US lawmakers despite growing public anger over the Israeli war on Gaza and calls to end US military support for the country.

Gaza’s Health Ministry has just issued an urgent appeal, warning of a decline in blood donations as the humanitarian crisis deepens under relentless Israeli bombardment.

In a statement, the ministry said there is a “continuous increase in the number of wounded and injured”, while the ability of citizens to donate blood has sharply declined due to widespread malnutrition and the collapse of basic services.

“The hospitals in the sector face an acute and serious shortage of blood units,” the ministry said, attributing the crisis to “the intense Israeli siege that prevents the entry of medical supplies”.

The statement called on global humanitarian bodies, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), to take urgent action.

“We appeal to the necessity of immediate intervention,” the ministry said, urging pressure on Israeli authorities “to immediately allow the importation of sufficient quantities of blood units and their medical supplies”.

The Health Ministry called on the international community and human rights groups “to take their moral and humanitarian responsibility, and act urgently to save the lives of hundreds of sick and injured”.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is asking US President Donald Trump to clarify his position on the creation of a Palestinian state after the US envoy to Israel, Mike Huckabee, said that was no longer a goal.

Asked in an interview with Bloomberg News published on Tuesday whether a Palestinian state remains a goal of US policy, Huckabee answered: “I don’t think so.”

The US ambassador is a staunch supporter of Israel who has said there is “no such thing” as illegal Israeli settlements or the West Bank.

In a statement, CAIR’s National Executive Director Nihad Awad said the Trump administration must clarify whether Huckabee’s recent comments on a Palestinian state “are his personal views or the new stance of the administration”.

“Is it now our nation’s policy that Palestinians are the only people on earth who do not deserve to live in a sovereign state with full rights and human dignity?” Awad asked. “Our government’s complicity with Israel’s genocide is currently denying life and freedom to Palestinians. Will it also deny them these rights in perpetuity?”

The session lasted about an hour before being adjourned. A doctor was called to examine the prime minister, and proceedings were suspended by agreement between the judges and lawyers.

Testimony began on Tuesday morning and is being held behind closed doors due to the sensitive nature of the information involved.

Benjamin Netanyahu is currently on trial in Case 1000, one of several corruption cases in which he faces charges. This particular case focuses on his relationship with two billionaires, Australian businessman James Packer and Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan.

Prosecutors allege that Netanyahu received lavish gifts from the pair, including champagne, cigars, and jewellery, in exchange for political favours. The trial is expected to resume next week.

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) says it has notified the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) that it could be held liable for “complicity in Israel’s war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide against Palestinians” in Gaza.

As we’ve been reporting, at least 224 Palestinians have been killed trying to get food and other supplies at GHF-run distribution centres, where Israeli forces have routinely opened fire on crowds of desperate aid seekers over the past weeks.

CCR said the US- and Israeli-backed foundation could face a civil lawsuit, as well as possible criminal prosecution in other countries and legal action at international bodies.

“As Palestinians now face mass starvation, Israel has teamed up with GHF to make accessing food not only dangerous and potentially deadly but also a tool of forced displacement,” Katherine Gallagher, a senior staff lawyer at CCR, said in a statement.

“If GHF continues its militarised aid operations, it must be prepared to face the legal consequences, whether in the United States or beyond.”

Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur in the occupied Palestinian territories, has urged the Egyptian authorities to “facilitate the speedy passage of those human beings who have left everything behind trying to break” Israel’s siege on Gaza.

As we reported earlier, Israel’s defence minister called on Egypt to block a land convoy seeking to bring humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing.

Israel Katz said he expected Egypt to “prevent them from reaching the Egypt-Israel border and not allow them to carry out provocations and try to enter Gaza”.

Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement earlier today that all requests to reach the border area with Gaza must adhere to established procedures, including submitting an official request to the ministry.

The statement did not say explicitly whether Cairo would block the activists from reaching Gaza.

Former UNRWA spokesperson Chris Gunness spoke to our colleagues at AJ+ about why he thinks the Israeli prime minister is sowing disorder – and what global leaders need to do to stop him.

Check it out in the video below.

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A post shared by AJ+ (@ajplus)

We have an update from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), which organised the ship that Israeli forces intercepted while trying to bring humanitarian supplies to Gaza.

The group said Rima Hassan, one of the detained flotilla activists and a member of the European Parliament, has been removed from solitary confinement and returned to Givon prison.

“Her detention and the punitive measures taken against her remain a direct attack on a democratically elected official who has consistently advocated for justice, liberation, and an end to the illegal blockade of Gaza,” the FFC said.

Meanwhile, Brazilian activist Thiago Avila, who is also among the detained flotilla participants, remains in solitary confinement in a “small, dark, airless, and contactless cell, where Israeli authorities have threatened to detain him for seven days”, the group said.

“This is yet another attempt to punish and silence a voice exposing the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people,” Avila’s wife, Lara, said in the FFC statement.

Lara, speaking from Brazil, has had no contact with her husband, Thiago Ávila, since he was abducted and detained illegally by Israeli forces from the 'Madleen'.

Since then, @thiagoavilabr has been placed in solitary confinement, denied communication with his family.… pic.twitter.com/S19ZAIowK3

— Freedom Flotilla Coalition (@GazaFFlotilla) June 11, 2025

The UN’s humanitarian office (OCHA) says only approximately 5,600 tonnes of wheat flour has been allowed into Gaza between May 19 and this morning.

“Most of this assistance was offloaded by hungry people, and in some cases by armed criminals, before reaching warehouses or designated distribution points,” the agency said in an update on the situation.

Between 8,000 and 10,000 tonnes are required to provide at least one page of wheat flour to every household in Gaza, the agency added.

Here’s more from OCHA’s latest update:

• As of June 9, 258,000 meals were prepared and delivered through 62 kitchens, a 76 percent drop compared with the number of meals delivered at the end of April.
• A lack of consistent food deliveries has seen wheat flour prices soar to “unprecedented levels”.
• More than 70 percent of Gaza’s fishing infrastructure has been destroyed or damaged, “but some fishers have continued to work within less than one nautical mile [1.85km] from the shore using non-motorised boats”.
• In May, 5,149 Palestinian children were diagnosed with acute malnutrition in the territory.

Let’s bring you up to speed on the latest developments:

• Israel’s Foreign Ministry has described the Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid system as a “dramatic success” despite killings, chaos, and widespread international criticism.
• The former humanitarian chief of the United Nations tells Al Jazeera the GHF scheme is deeply flawed and “wrong”, warning that it has turned food into “an opportunity for killing” Palestinians.
• France’s foreign minister says Israel will by the end of the week expel four French activists held after security forces intercepted their Gaza-bound aid boat.
• Lawyers for the detained Freedom Flotilla Coalition activists say two of them have been placed in solitary confinement in Israeli prisons, sparking renewed calls for their release.
• Lebanon’s Health Ministry says at least one person has been killed and three others injured in an Israeli drone strike on a vehicle in the town of Beit Lif, in the country’s south.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has expressed “serious concern” over the United States’ decision to impose sanctions on four judges from the International Criminal Court (ICC), following its investigation into alleged war crimes by Israel.

“The secretary-general expresses serious concern about the designation of four judges of the International Criminal Court to be sanctioned under the executive order by the United States,” UN spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters at a press briefing on Wednesday.

Haq stressed that the UN and ICC are “separate institutions with separate and distinct mandates”, but added: “The United Nations considers the ICC a key pillar of international criminal justice.”

“The secretary-general respects its work and emphasises the importance of the basic principle of judicial independence,” he said.

The US announced the sanctions last week, targeting four ICC judges. In a statement, the US State Department defended the move, saying: “It reflects the seriousness of the threat we face from the ICC’s politicisation and abuse of power.”

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has ordered the army to block a North African aid convoy heading for Gaza, labelling the activists involved as “jihadist protesters”.

In a statement on Wednesday, Katz said he had instructed Israeli forces “to prevent their entry into Gaza from Egypt”.

“I expect the Egyptian authorities to prevent them from reaching the Egypt-Israel border and not allow them to carry out provocations and try to enter Gaza,” he added.

The convoy, made up of more than 1,000 activists travelling in 12 buses and about 100 private vehicles, began its journey from Tunisia on Monday. It is expected to arrive in Egypt on Thursday and make its way towards the Rafah border crossing.

Earlier, we reported that the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday that while it welcomes the global outpouring of support for Palestinian rights, it also emphasised that all requests must adhere to established regulatory procedures.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the World Health Organization (WHO) hopes the more than 10,000 other patients in Gaza “who are still in need of urgent specialised care will be allowed to evacuate swiftly via all possible routes”.

That includes through the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, the WHO chief said in a post on X.

“WHO will continue to support medical evacuations to save lives,” he added.

As we reported earlier, 17 injured Palestinians have been transported to Italy to receive treatment. Among them is Adam al-Najjar, 11, whose father and nine siblings were killed in an Israeli attack on their home last month.

With support from @WHO, 17 child patients and 52 companions from #Gaza are on a flight to #Italy, where the patients will receive medical treatment. We are deeply grateful to the Italian government and health workers for their support and service.

We hope that over 10,000… pic.twitter.com/zkJIlHeszm

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) June 11, 2025