Israel is preparing for potential military action if Iran revives its nuclear program, per Axios.

RIO DE JANEIRO, July 6. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has arrived in Rio de Janeiro for a #BRICS summit, according to a TASS reporter.

The minister will lead the Russian delegation at the event from July 6-7. Russian President Vladimir Putin will participate via video link.

On the sidelines of the summit, Lavrov is scheduled to participate in multilateral meetings, where the heads of delegations will talk about BRICS work in three main areas: politics and security; economy and finance; and cultural and humanitarian issues.

The minister will also hold a series of bilateral meetings.

BRICS plans to hold a summit under Brazil’s presidency from July 6-7 in Rio de Janeiro. The main topics of discussion will include health care, trade, investment, finance, climate change, artificial intelligence management, peace and security.

BRICS was founded in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India, and China, with South Africa joining it in 2011. On January 1, 2024, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates also became members, and so did Indonesia on January 6, 2025.

A boy with a brain injury fights for his life in Gaza’s decimated health system.

Now the boy is lying in a hospital bed, unable to speak, unable to move, losing weight, while doctors don’t have the supplies to treat his brain damage or help in his rehabilitation after a weekslong blockade and constant bombardment.

Recently out of intensive care, Amr’s frail body twists in visible pain. His wide eyes dart around the room. His aunt is convinced he’s looking for his mother. He can’t speak, but she believes he is trying to say “mom.”

“I am trying as much as I can. It is difficult,” said his aunt Nour al-Hams, his main caregiver, sitting next to him on the bed in Khan Younis’ Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza. “What he is living through is not easy.”

To reassure him, his aunt sometimes says his mother will be back soon. Other times, she tries to distract him, handing him a small ball.
The war has decimated the health system

The war began Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel and killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 people captive. Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which says women and children make up most of the dead but does not specify how many were fighters or civilians.

Nearly 21 months into the conflict that displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, it is nearly impossible for the critically wounded to get the care they need, doctors and aid workers say.

The health care sector has been decimated: Nearly half of the territory’s 36 hospitals have been put out of service. Daily bombings and strikes overwhelm the remaining facilities, which are operating only partially. They struggle with shortages of anything from fuel, gauze and sutures to respirators or scanners that have broken down and can’t be replaced.

Israeli forces have raided and besieged medical facilities, claiming Hamas militants have used them as command centers. Doctors have been killed or were displaced, unable to reach hospitals because of continued military operations.

For more than 2 1/2 months, Israel blocked all food, medicine and other supplies from entering Gaza, accusing Hamas of siphoning off aid to fund its military activities, though the UN said there was no systematic diversion. The population was pushed toward famine.

Since mid-May, Israel has allowed in a trickle of aid, including medical supplies.

Gaza’s Health Ministry estimates that 33,000 children have been injured during the war, including 5,000 requiring long-term rehabilitation and critical care. Over 1,000 children, like Amr, are suffering from brain or spinal injuries or amputated limbs.

“Gaza will be dealing with future generations of kids living with all sorts of disabilities, not just brain, but limb disabilities that are consequences of amputation that could have been prevented if the health system was not under the pressures it is under, wasn’t systematically targeted and destroyed as it was,” said Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care specialist who has volunteered multiple times in Gaza with international medical organizations.
A fateful journey north

In April, one week before her due date, Amr’s mother, Inas, persuaded her husband to visit her parents in northern Gaza. They trekked from the tent they lived in on Gaza’s southern coast to the tent where her parents live.

They were having an evening meal when the strike hit. Amr’s mother and her unborn baby, his grandfather and his brother and sister were killed.

Amr was rushed to the ICU at Indonesian Hospital, the largest in northern Gaza. A scan confirmed shrapnel in his brain and reduced brain function. A breathing tube was inserted into his throat.

“He is three. Why should he bear the weight of a rocket?” his aunt asked.

His father, Mohammed, was too stunned to even visit the ICU. His wife had been the love of his life since childhood, the aunt said. He barely spoke.

Doctors said Amr needed advanced rehabilitation. But while he was at the hospital, Israeli forces attacked the facility — encircling its premises and causing damage to its communication towers, water supplies and one of its wards. Evacuation orders were issued for the area, and patients were transferred to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
Another treacherous journey

But Shifa was overwhelmed with mass casualties, and staff asked the family to take Amr south, even though no ambulances or oxygen tanks could be spared.

The father and aunt had to take Amr, fresh out of ICU with the tube in his throat, in a motorized rickshaw for the 25-kilometre (15-mile) drive to Nasser Hospital.

Amr was in pain, his oxygen levels dropped. He was in and out of consciousness. “We were reading the Quran all along the road,” said his aunt, praying they would survive the bombings and Amr the bumpy trip without medical care.

About halfway, an ambulance arrived. Amr made it to Nasser Hospital with oxygen blood levels so low he was again admitted to ICU.
Unable to get the care he needs

Still, Nasser Hospital could not provide Amr with everything he needed. Intravenous nutrients are not available, Nasser’s head of pediatrics, Dr. Ahmed al-Farra, said. The fortified milk Amr needed disappeared from the market and the hospital after weeks of Israel’s blockade. He has lost about half his weight.

When he came out of the ICU, Nour shared his bed with him at night and administered his medication. She grinds rice or lentils into a paste to feed him through a syringe connected to his stomach.

“We have starvation in Gaza. There is nothing to eat,” said his aunt, who is a trained nurse. “There is nothing left.”

The care Amr has missed is likely to have long-term effects. Immediate care for brain injuries is critical, Haj-Hassan said, as is follow-up physical and speech therapy.

Since the Israeli blockade on Gaza began in March, 317 patients, including 216 children, have left the territory for medical treatment alongside nearly 500 of their companions, according to the World Health Organization.

Over 10,000 people, including 2,500 children, await evacuation.

Amr is one of them.

COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of civilian affairs in Gaza, coordinates medical evacuations after receiving requests from countries that will take the patients and security screenings. In recent weeks, over 2,000 patients and their companions have left for treatment, COGAT said, without specifying the time period.

Tess Ingram, spokesperson for the UN children’s agency, said the only hope for many critically injured who remain in Gaza is to get out. Countries need to “open their hearts, open their doors and open their hospitals to children who survived the unimaginable and are now languishing in pain,” she said.

Amr’s aunt reads his every move. He is unhappy with his diapers, she said. He outgrew them long ago. He was a smart kid, now he cries “feeling sorry for himself,” said Nour. He gets seizures and needs tranquilizers to sleep.

“His brain is still developing. What can they do for him? Will he be able to walk again?” Nour asked. “So long as he is in Gaza, there is no recovery for him.”

Sarah El Deeb, The Associated Press

#Israeli airstrikes kill 38 Palestinians in Gaza.

— Israeli airstrikes killed at least 38 Palestinians in Gaza, hospital officials said on Sunday, as Israel was sending a ceasefire negotiating team to Qatar ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ‘s White House visit for talks toward a deal.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who will meet with Netanyahu on Monday, has floated a plan for an initial 60-day ceasefire that would include a partial release of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for an increase in humanitarian supplies allowed into Gaza. The proposed truce calls for talks on ending the 21-month war altogether.

Separately, an Israeli official said the security Cabinet late Saturday approved sending aid into northern Gaza, where civilians suffer from acute food shortages. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the decision with the media, declined to give more details.

Northern Gaza has seen just a trickle of aid enter since Israel ended the latest ceasefire in March. The Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation ‘s closest aid distribution site is near the Netzarim corridor south of Gaza City that separates the territory’s north and south.

In Yemen, a spokesperson for the Iran-backed Houthi rebels announced in a prerecorded message that the group had launched ballistic missiles targeting Israel’s Ben Gurion airport overnight. Israel’s military said they were intercepted.
Israel hits 130 targets across Gaza

Israeli strikes hit two houses in Gaza City, killing 20 Palestinians and wounding 25 others, according to Mohammed Abu Selmia, director of Shifa Hospital, which serves the area.

In southern Gaza, Israeli strikes killed 18 Palestinians in Muwasi, an area on the Mediterranean coast where thousands of displaced people live in tents, officials at Nasser Hospital in the nearby city of Khan Younis told The Associated Press. It said two families were among the dead.

“My brother, his wife, his four children, my cousin’s son and his daughter. ... Eight people are gone,” said Saqer Abu Al-Kheir as people gathered on the sand for prayers and burials.

Israel’s military had no immediate comment on the individual strikes but said it struck 130 targets across Gaza in the past 24 hours. It claimed its strikes targeted Hamas command and control structures, storage facilities, weapons and launchers, and that they killed a number of militants in northern Gaza.
Rift over ending the war

Ahead of the indirect talks with Hamas in Qatar, Netanyahu’s office asserted that the militant group was seeking “unacceptable” changes to the ceasefire proposal.

Hamas, which gave a “positive” response late Friday to the latest U.S. proposal, has sought guarantees that the initial truce would lead to a total end to the war and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. Previous negotiations have stalled over Hamas demands of guarantees that further negotiations would lead to the war’s end, while Netanyahu has insisted Israel would resume fighting to ensure the group’s destruction.

The war began when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage. Israel responded with an offensive that has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The ministry, which is under Gaza’s Hamas government, does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. The UN and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.

Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Associated Press reporter Tia Goldenberg contributed from Tel Aviv.

Wafaa Shurafa And Kareem Chehayeb, The Associated Press

US President Donald Trump believes that the situation around Ukraine is very complicated.

"We talked about different things. We had a very good call, I think a very strategic one," the US leader told reporters, commenting on his July 4 telephone conversation with Vladimir Zelensky. "It's a pretty tough situation," he told the White House press pool.

Trump also noted that he was "very unhappy" with his July 3 telephone conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. "He wants to go all the way," the US leader head of state said, expressing doubt about Moscow's willingness to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. "[That’s] not good," he emphasized.

On July 2, The New York Times reported, citing sources, that Washington would suspend the supply of several weapons to Kiev, including Patriot air defense missiles, GMLRS precision-guided munitions, Hellfire guided missiles, and Stinger portable anti-aircraft missile systems. At the same time, Trump said on July 3 that Washington continues to provide military assistance to Kiev, but at the same time assumes that Washington itself needs weapons.

In a telephone conversation with Trump on July 3, Putin said that Moscow continues to await the dates for a new round of negotiations with the Kiev regime. According to Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov, the issue of Washington's cessation of arms supplies to Kiev was not raised in the conversation between the leaders of Russia and the US.

American entrepreneur Elon Musk announced the creation of a new political party America, following the results of the vote held on his page in the social network X.

"By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!" he said in a post on X. He noted that when the country is being bankrupted by [excessive] spending and bribery, its citizens live in a one-party system, not a democracy.

"Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom," he wrote on X.

More than 1.2 million users of the social network took part in the vote. 65.4% voted for the creation of the new party.

A #Gaza ceasefire is the closest it has been in months. Here’s what we know.

U.S. President Donald Trump says he’s “optimistic” a ceasefire deal in Gaza could be agreed next week after Hamas announced that it had “submitted a positive response” to a proposal for a 60-day truce with Israel.

“We have to get it over with,” Trump said Friday. “We have to do something about Gaza.”

Israel and Hamas have long had conflicting demands that negotiators have been unable to bridge, but with both now agreeing the revised proposal, for the first time in months an agreement seems within reach.

The renewed efforts gathered steam following a truce between Iran and Israel but also reflect U.S. pressure and a shift in Israel’s war goals. Here’s what to know.
Why now?

Since the Israel-Iran ceasefire on June 24, mediators Qatar and Egypt – as well as the United States – have redoubled their calls for a new Gaza truce. A Qatari foreign ministry spokesman told CNN the Israel-Iran agreement had created “momentum” for the latest talks between Israel and Hamas.

Netanyahu’s government has faced mounting international criticism for the suffering its war is inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel imposed a total blockade on humanitarian deliveries to the enclave in March. It somewhat eased the blockade in May, after a chorus of global experts warned that hundreds of thousands of people could soon starve.

Hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israeli strikes in recent days. And aid distribution has been marred by violence, with hundreds killed on their way to try to obtain food from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the controversial U.S.-backed aid initiative that began operating at the end of May.

Pressure is also growing on Netanyahu from within Israel.

His government is propped up by far-right figures who want to escalate the fighting in Gaza, but opposition leader Yair Lapid said Wednesday that he would join the coalition government to make a hostage deal possible. Polls have repeatedly shown that a majority of the country wants a deal to bring the hostages home, even if it means an end to the war.
What are Israel’s demands?

In addition to the aim of bringing the hostages home, Netanyahu has not wavered from his more maximalist aims: disarmament of Gaza and the destruction of Hamas’ military capabilities and governance abilities.

But last weekend, the prime minister made a rhetorical shift in laying out Israel’s goals – for the first time prioritizing the return of hostages ahead of what he once called the “supreme objective” of defeating Hamas.

Netanyahu said “many opportunities have opened up” following Israel’s military operations in Iran, including the possibility of bringing home everyone still held captive by Hamas. “Firstly, to rescue the hostages,” he said. “Of course, we will also need to solve the Gaza issue, defeat Hamas, but I believe we will accomplish both missions.”

The comments were welcomed by families of hostages held in Gaza, who have criticized him for not clearly placing releasing their Ioved ones as Israel’s primary goal. Only a small number of hostages have been rescued in military operations rather than freed under truces.

The Israeli military this week recommended pursuing a diplomatic path in Gaza after nearly two years of fighting and the elimination of much of Hamas’ senior leadership.

On Tuesday, a military official told CNN that Israel has not fully achieved all of its war goals, but as Hamas’ forces have shrunk and gone into hiding, it has become more difficult to effectively target what remains of the militant group. “It’s harder now to achieve tactical goals,” the official said.
What about Hamas?

Hamas announced on Friday that it “submitted a positive response to the mediators, and the movement is fully prepared to immediately enter into a round of negotiations regarding the mechanism for implementing this framework.”

The militant group has three main demands: a permanent end to the fighting, for humanitarian assistance to be carried out by the United Nations, and for Israel to retreat to the positions it held on March 2 this year, before it renewed its offensive and occupied the northern part of the Strip.

A senior Hamas official told CNN in late May that the group is “ready to return the hostages in one day – just we want a guarantee that war will not come again after that.” The hostages are Hamas’ key leverage in negotiations, and the militant group has refused to agree to a release without a path to end the conflict.

In response to the earlier Trump administration-backed ceasefire proposal in May, Hamas requested U.S. assurances that permanent ceasefire negotiations will continue and that fighting will not resume after the 60-day pause.

Whether the ceasefire will be temporary or a pathway to a permanent truce is the biggest sticking point between the warring parties.

While Israel wants to eradicate Hamas following the Oct. 7 attacks, the group has shown little willingness to relinquish its political and military power in Gaza.

Officials in the group have given contradictory statements as to Hamas’ role in a post-war Gaza. The group’s spokesperson, Hazem Qassem, has said that the group is not “clinging to power” and does not have to be part of arrangements “in the next phase.”
What’s in the proposed deal?

While the fine detail of the proposal is yet to be released it is clear that the revised plan is an attempt to bridge some of the differences between Israel and Hamas.

A source familiar with the negotiations said that the timeline of the latest proposal calls for the release of 10 living Israeli hostages and 18 deceased hostages spread out over the full 60-day period.

Of the 50 hostages still in Gaza, at least 20 of them are believed to be alive, according to the Israeli government.

Similiar to previous ceasefires, on the first day of the truce, Hamas would release eight living hostages. In exchange, Israel would release an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, and withdraw its forces from pre-agreed locations in northern Gaza.

Israel and Hamas would also immediately enter into negotiations for a permanent ceasefire once the initial truce goes into effect, the source said.

Under the deal, hostages will be released without ceremonies or fanfare at Israel’s request – unlike during the last truce, when Hamas staged public propaganda events around hostage transfers that sparked outrage in Israel.

Humanitarian aid will immediately begin to flow into Gaza at the start of the ceasefire, including from the United Nations and from other aid organizations, similar to the previous ceasefire which began on January 19.

This leaves the fate of the U.S.-backed GHF and its role in Gaza unclear.

The U.S. and the mediators have provided stronger assurances about reaching a settlement to end the war in Gaza as part of the updated proposal, an Israeli official told CNN, something that in principle should address one of Hamas’ key concerns. The official did not provide the specific language in the document, but said the wording is stronger than previous assurances.

Although both sides have accepted the proposal more talks must take place before a ceasefire begins.

In these proximity talks, likely to take place in Doha or Cairo, negotiators shuttle back and forth between the two sides to hammer out the final details of the agreement.

One of the key issues to resolve during proximity talks will be the timeline and location of the withdrawal of Israeli forces in Gaza during the 60-day ceasefire, according to the source.
When were the previous ceasefires?

In the 21 months of war between Israel and Hamas, ceasefires have been in place for a total of only nine weeks.

More than 57,000 people, of which more than 17,000 are children, have been killed in Gaza during the fighting, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

The first ceasefire came into effect in November 2023, but lasted only a week. In that time, 105 hostages were released from Gaza, in exchange for scores of Palestinian prisoners.

A second ceasefire was not struck until January 2025, shortly before Trump’s return to the White House. In just over eight weeks – the first “phase” of the ceasefire – Hamas freed 33 hostages, with Israel releasing around 50 Palestinian prisoners for every Israeli freed.

Under the planned second stage, Israel was supposed to agree to a permanent ceasefire. But Israel resumed its offensive on March 18, shattering the ceasefire and derailing the talks, saying it did so to put pressure on Hamas to release the remaining hostages.

CNN’s Jeremy Diamond, Kristen Holmes, Kylie Atwood, Dana Karni, Michael Schwartz and Oren Liebermann contributed to this report.

Christian Edwards and Lauren Kent, CNN

#Iran’s supreme leader makes first public appearance since Iran-Israel war started. TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’ s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday made his first public appearance since the 12-day war between Israel and Iran began, attending a mourning ceremony on the eve of Ashoura.

Khamenei’s absence during the war suggested heavy security for the Iranian leader, who has final say on all state matters. State TV in Iran showed him waving and nodding to the chanting crowd, which rose to its feet as he entered and sat at a mosque next to his office and residence in the capital, Tehran.

There was no immediate report on any public statement made. Iranian officials such as the Parliament speaker were present. Such events are always held under heavy security.

The 86-year-old Khamenei had spent the war in a bunker as threats to his life escalated.

After the U.S. inserted itself into the war by bombing three key nuclear sites in Iran, U.S. President Donald Trump sent warnings via social media to Khamenei that the U.S. knew where he was but had no plans to kill him, “at least for now.”

On June 26, shortly after a ceasefire began, Khamenei made his first public statement in days, saying in a prerecorded statement that Tehran had delivered a “slap to America’s face” by striking a U.S. air base in Qatar, and warning against further attacks by the U.S. or Israel on Iran.

Trump replied, in remarks to reporters and on social media: “Look, you’re a man of great faith. A man who’s highly respected in his country. You have to tell the truth. You got beat to hell.”

Iran has acknowledged the deaths of more than 900 people in the war, as well as thousands of injured. It also has confirmed serious damage to its nuclear facilities, and has denied access to them for inspectors with the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

Iran’s president on Wednesday ordered the country to suspend its cooperation with the watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, further limiting inspectors’ ability to track a program that had been enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels. Israel launched the war fearing that Iran was trying to develop atomic weapons.

It remains unclear just how badly damaged the nuclear facilities are, whether any enriched uranium or centrifuges had been moved before the attacks, and whether Tehran still would be willing to continue negotiations with the United States over its nuclear program.

Israel also targeted defense systems, high-ranking military officials and atomic scientists. In retaliation, Iran fired more than 550 ballistic missiles at Israel, most of them intercepted, killing 28 people and causing damage in many areas.
Ceremony commemorates a death that caused rift in Islam

The ceremony that Khamenei hosted Saturday was a remembrance of the 7th century martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Hussein.

Shiites represent over 10% of the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims, and they view Hussein as the rightful successor to the Prophet Muhammad. Hussein’s death in battle at the hands of Sunnis at Karbala, south of Baghdad, created a rift in Islam and continues to play a key role in shaping Shiite identity.

In predominantly Shiite Iran, red flags represented Hussein’s blood and black funeral tents and clothes represented mourning. Processions of chest-beating and self-flagellating men demonstrated fervor. Some sprayed water over the mourners in the intense heat.
Reports of problems accessing the internet

NetBlocks, a global internet monitor, reported late Saturday on X that there was a “major disruption to internet connectivity” in Iran. It said the disruption corroborated widespread user reports of problems accessing the internet. The development comes just weeks after authorities shut down telecoms during the war.

CAIRO/TEL AVIV- Hamas said it had responded on Friday in “a positive spirit” to a U.S.-brokered Gaza ceasefire proposal and was prepared to enter into talks on implementing the deal which envisages a release of hostages and negotiations on ending the conflict.

U.S. President Donald Trump earlier announced a “final proposal” for a 60-day ceasefire in the nearly 21-month-old war between Israel and Hamas, stating he anticipated a reply from the parties in coming hours.

Hamas wrote on its official website: “The Hamas movement has completed its internal consultations as well as discussions with Palestinian factions and forces regarding the latest proposal by the mediators to halt the aggression against our people in Gaza.

“The movement has delivered its response to the brotherly mediators, which was characterized by a positive spirit. Hamas is fully prepared, with all seriousness, to immediately enter a new round of negotiations on the mechanism for implementing this framework,” the statement said.

In a sign of potential challenges still facing the sides, a Palestinian official of a militant group allied with Hamas said concerns remain over humanitarian aid, passage through the Rafah crossing to Egypt and clarity over a timetable of Israeli troop withdrawals.

Trump said on Tuesday that Israel had agreed “to the necessary conditions to finalize” a 60-day ceasefire, during which efforts would be made to end the U.S. ally’s war in the Palestinian enclave.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to comment on Trump’s announcement and in their public statements, the two sides remain far apart. Netanyahu has repeatedly said Hamas must be disarmed, a position the militant group, which is thought to be holding 20 living hostages, has so far refused to discuss.

Netanyahu is due to meet Trump in Washington on Monday.

Trump has said he would be “very firm” with Netanyahu on the need for a speedy Gaza ceasefire, while noting that the Israeli leader wants one as well.

“We hope it’s going to happen. And we’re looking forward to it happening sometime next week,” he told reporters earlier this week. “We want to get the hostages out.”
Attacks overnight

Israeli attacks have killed at least 138 Palestinians in Gaza over the past 24 hours, local health officials said.

Health officials at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, said the Israeli military had carried out an airstrike on a tent encampment west of the city around 2 a.m., killing 15 Palestinians displaced by nearly two years of war.

The Israeli military said troops operating in the Khan Younis area had eliminated militants, confiscated weapons and dismantled Hamas outposts in the last 24 hours, while striking 100 targets across Gaza, including military structures, weapons storage facilities and launchers.

Later on Friday, Palestinians gathered to perform funeral prayers before burying those killed overnight.

“There should have been a ceasefire long ago before I lost my brother,” said 13-year-old Mayar Al Farr as she wept. Her brother, Mahmoud, was shot dead in another incident, she said.

“He went to get aid, so he can get a bag of flour for us to eat. He got a bullet in his neck,” she said.
‘Make the deal’

In Tel Aviv, families and friends of hostages held in Gaza were among demonstrators who gathered outside a U.S. Embassy building on U.S. Independence Day, calling on Trump to secure a deal for all of the captives.

Demonstrators set up a symbolic Sabbath dinner table, placing 50 empty chairs to represent those who are still held in Gaza. Banners hung nearby displaying a post by Trump from his Truth Social platform that read, “MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!!”

“Only you can make the deal. We want one beautiful deal. One beautiful hostage deal,” said Gideon Rosenberg, 48, from Tel Aviv.

Rosenberg was wearing a shirt with the image of hostage Avinatan Or, one of his employees who was abducted by Palestinian militants from the Nova musical festival on October 7, 2023. He is among the 20 hostages who are believed to be alive after more than 600 days of captivity.

An official familiar with the negotiations said on Thursday that the proposal envisages the return of 10 of the hostages during the 60 days, along with the bodies of 18 others who had been held hostage.

Ruby Chen, 55, the father of 19-year-old American-Israeli Itay, who is believed to have been killed after being taken captive, urged Netanyahu to return from meeting with Trump with a deal that brings back all hostages.

Itay Chen, also a German national, was serving as an Israeli soldier when Hamas carried out its surprise attack on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking another 251 hostage.

Israel’s retaliatory war against Hamas has devastated Gaza, which the militant group has ruled for almost two decades but now only controls in parts, displacing most of the population of more than 2 million and triggering widespread hunger.

More than 57,000 Palestinians have been killed in nearly two years of fighting, most of them civilians, according to local health officials.

(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell in Tel Aviv, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo, Hatem Khaled in Gaza and Howard Goller in New York; Editing by Alex Richardson, Philippa Fletcher and Rosalba O’Brien)

Academics call on Ottawa to speed up Palestinian student visas, Ayman Oweida, chair of the Palestinian Students and Scholars at Risk Network, said the two students, twin sisters, were killed in an airstrike in Gaza in December.

The Palestinian Students and Scholars at Risk Network is a volunteer group of Canadian academics that helps connect Palestinian students at the graduate level and above to research projects in Canada.

But its work was set back by Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip. The Canadian government has no diplomatic presence there — which means students in the enclave have no way to register biometric data with the government in order to complete their visa applications.

The network says it has placed about 70 students in universities across the country, several with full scholarships.

“In addition to the two students that were killed, 15 students in Gaza who we’ve accepted have lost family members … direct family members, brothers, sisters, parents, and so on,” Oweida said.

Oweida, who researches cancer treatment at the University of Sherbrooke, said one student who was supposed to work with him on a project has been stuck in Gaza for a year.

He said the Canadian side of the network has reached out to MPs to try to resolve the issue, without success.

“I think the Canadian government has really an amazing opportunity here to step up its game and do something … to resolve this issue and bring these students home, home meaning Canada,” he said.

One of the Canada-bound students still stranded in Gaza is Meera Falyouna, who is living near the Rafah border crossing.

The 25-year-old masters student said she applied to the University of Regina while living in a tent with her family in December 2023. She was accepted to the industrial engineering program in April 2024 and submitted her Canadian student visa application in July 2024.

Falyouna said she was supposed to start her studies last September. Because she’s unable to provide the necessary biometric data for her visa application, she said, her file remains stuck in limbo even as she watches friends move on to study in places like France, Ireland and Italy.

“I don’t want to be among the dead people. I want to be counted as dreamers, as future engineers, professors, doctors,” Falyouna told The Canadian Press.

“I want to be a person who has impact to Canada and also one day to return back to my country and help to rebuild the Palestinian academic system.”

Matthew Krupovich, a spokesman for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, said that biometrics can only be completed once someone leaves Gaza.

He added that countries in the region, including Egypt and Israel, control their own entry and exit requirements at their borders.

People coming to Canada from Gaza also have to undergo an additional security screening since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

“As security screening is conducted by agencies outside IRCC, we are unable to provide average processing times. Each application is different and as a result, the time it takes to process may vary,” Krupovich said in an email response.

“All study permit applications from around the world are assessed equally and against the same criteria, regardless of the country of origin. Security screening is one, but not the only, factor that can result in higher processing times.”

The Rafah border crossing into Egypt has been closed since May 2024. Falyouna said the rest of her family got to Egypt just five days before the border closed.

Falyouna said she fears she and her fellow Palestinian students could lose their placements entirely.

“I’m receiving now a support from my professor. She pushed to accept my defer letter every time, but I’m still in risk to not be accepted next time because I already asked for a defer for my admission three times before,” she said.

Aaron Shafer, an associate professor specializing in genomics at Trent University in Peterborough, Ont., said that a Palestinian student who was going to work with him has been trapped in Gaza for eight months.

Shafer said he thinks the student has lost weight in the last eight months due to a dire shortage of food in Gaza.

“He probably weighed — just looking at photos, we’ve never met — 60 kilograms, but he’s a small guy. And last week he said, ‘We’re happy because people are getting food. We haven’t received any yet, but we’re happy,’” Shafer said.

Shafer said that about a third of the students who have been accepted by universities in Canada are already in Egypt but are still waiting for their visa applications to be processed.

“It’s literally 70 students. And so that’s what we’re asking for, is to process the visas of 70 students that have positions in Canadian labs,” he said.

For now, all Falyouna and the other students can do is wait and try to survive.

“I want to say to the Canadian government that we want to be treated as other students who came from at-risk situations from countries of the world like Ukraine and like Syria,” she said.