The Times of Israel is liveblogging Friday’s events as they unfold.
Blasting Israeli ‘aid denial,’ Australian PM says every effort should be made to end Gaza starvation
Every effort must be made to safeguard innocent life and end the suffering and starvation of the people of Gaza, the Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says in a statement, describing the situation as a “humanitarian catastrophe.”
“Israel’s denial of aid and the killing of civilians, including children, seeking access to water and food cannot be defended or ignored,” Albanese says in the statement.
Footage shows right-wing activists blocking aid trucks en route to Gaza
Palestinian media is airing footage of right-wing Israeli activists blocking a road being used by several trucks carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza.
Proponents of such actions claim Hamas steals the aid entering Gaza and that the aid should be blocked to pressure the terror group to free the 50 hostages it is still holding, while critics say blocking aid further exacerbates the humanitarian crisis in the Strip.
مستوطنون يغلقون الطريق لمنع عبور شاحنات المساعدات المتجهة إلى قطاع غزة pic.twitter.com/z93IcYZmZS
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) July 25, 2025
Rubio: Macron’s Palestine recognition serves Hamas, is slap in the face to Oct. 7 victims
The US “strongly rejects” French President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September, Secretary of State Marco Rubio tweets.
“This reckless decision only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace. It is a slap in the face to the victims of October 7th,” Rubio adds.
Israeli envoy reportedly angers Emiratis over ‘undignified’ conduct at Abu Dhabi bar
Israel’s Ambassador to the UAE Yossi Shelley has reportedly upset his Emirati hosts over inappropriate conduct during an incident at a bar several months ago.
Shelley was out on a Friday night in Abu Dhabi with several friends and acted in an “undignified” manner, Channel 12 reports, citing three sources familiar with the incident, who said the Israeli envoy “crossed the boundaries of personal space”
Shelley’s personal security guards even reported the incident to their superiors.
The Emirati government got wind of the incident and is unhappy about it, but has refrained from lodging a formal complaint to Jerusalem, Channel 12 says.
An Emirati source tells the network that the government would have ordered Shelley to leave the country had it not been for his position.
Responding to the Channel 12 report, Shelley says in a statement that he was made aware of conduct that the Emiratis interpreted as disrespectful. He stresses that it took place at a private event and was not related to his work as ambassador. In light of the concern raised, he says he has taken the matter into consideration.
Settlers said to disconnect water supply for 30 Palestinian villages in order to fill up pool
Settlers have taken over a spring that is used to supply water for 30 Palestinian villages in the Ramallah area, Haaretz reports.
The settlers dismantled the flow of the Ein Samia spring’s water to neighboring villages and instead connected it to a nearby pool, according to the report.
Ein Samia includes five wells that belong to the Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem Water Authority. The wells were vandalized four times in the past month.
Nonetheless, the ID has not deployed troops to secure the spring, and no suspects have been arrested.
Settlers have damaged security cameras at Ein Samia and vandalized water infrastructure in what has caused prolonged water outages to the neighboring villages.
The pool that the settlers are using Ein Samia to fill is called “Shepherds Spring,” and is named after two Israelis who were killed in a 2023 terror attack.
In a video urging the public to donate to the pool, settlers say it has pumped water to the Ramallah area since 1965. “But we did not give up, and after significant efforts, Shepherds Spring is coming back to life,” says Micha Sudai, the owner of an illegal farm outpost nearby.
Responding to the Haaretz report, the IDF says that in recent days, troops received several reports of Israeli civilians damaging water infrastructure in the Ein Samia area. However, by the time troops arrived at the scene, the suspects had fled.
The army says it takes the issue seriously and has allowed PA municipal workers to conduct repairs at Ein Samia.
Arrests in incidents of settler violence are highly rare and convictions are even less likely in what has led a growing number of Western countries to impose sanctions against violent settlers.
Canada condemns Israeli government over ‘humanitarian disaster’ in Gaza
Canada condemns the Israeli government for failing to prevent what Prime Minister Mark Carney calls a humanitarian disaster in Gaza.
Carney also accuses Israel of violating international law over the blocking of Canadian-funded aid delivery to civilians in the war-torn enclave.
“Canada calls on all sides to negotiate an immediate ceasefire in good faith. We reiterate our calls for Hamas to immediately release all the hostages, and for the Israeli government to respect the territorial integrity of the West Bank and Gaza,” Carney says on X.
Democratic senators demand probe of Palestinian-American killed by Israeli settlers
More than half of the Democrats in the US Senate have called on US President Donald Trump’s administration to conduct an independent investigation into the death of Saif Musallet, an American citizen allegedly beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
Their request is unlikely to be met, though, as even the Democratic Biden administration refused to launch independent probes into the killings of Palestinian-Americans by Israelis in the West Bank, instead relying on Israeli authorities to investigate.
Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland leads other Democrats in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Attorney General Pam Bondi seeking an investigation, adding to pressure from Washington for accountability in Musallet’s death.
The senators also note what they called the repeated lack of accountability in the deaths of other Americans killed in the West Bank since January 2022, and asked for updates on the status of investigations into those killings.
Musallet, 20, was allegedly severely beaten this month when he was visiting family in Sinjil. His family, who are from Florida, said medics failed to reach him for hours and he died before reaching the hospital.
Unchecked settler attacks on Palestinians and Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the West Bank have risen since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023, though violence has long simmered in the territory.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said on July 15 that he had asked Israel to “aggressively investigate” Musallet’s death, describing it as a “criminal and terrorist act.”
The comments by Huckabee, a staunch supporter of Israeli settlement construction, marked a rare and pointed public intervention by the US following the death of a Palestinian-American in the West Bank
IDF: We intercepted drone from Yemen; Sderot siren was false alarm
The IDF says it intercepted a UAV from Yemen, adding that no sirens were triggered, as there was no threat posed to civilians.
In a separate statement, the IDF says that sirens triggered after midnight Thursday-Friday in the Gaza border towns of Sderot and Ibim were false alarms.
Siding with Israel in aid row, Huckabee accuses UN of being ‘a tool of Hamas’
Amid the ongoing trading of blame for the Gaza humanitarian crisis, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee takes Jerusalem’s side and accuses the UN of being “a tool of Hamas.”
Huckabee points to the large amount of aid that has been amassing on the Gaza side of the border.
The UN says Israel repeatedly denies requests for aid workers to pick up the assistance, while creating conditions that have made it unsafe for that aid to be transported.
“US-based GHF is actually delivering food FOR FREE and SAFELY. UN food is either looted by Hamas or rots in the sun!” Huckabee tweets.
UN food is also distributed for free, but has indeed endured more looting as it is being distributed beyond the militarized zones from which GHF operates.
Moreover, hundreds of Gazans have reportedly still been killed trying to reach the GHF sites over the past two months, as they have been forced to walk long distances, while crossing IDF lines in order to pick up boxes of food.
Here are photos of UN trucks & enough food to feed all of Gaza but it sits rotting! UN is a tool of Hamas! US based GHF is actually delivering food FOR FREE and SAFELY. UN food is either looted by Hamas or rots in the sun! Photos from yesterday. pic.twitter.com/syvtbhxYHJ
— Ambassador Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) July 24, 2025
Top Abbas aide thanks Macron for plan to recognize Palestinian state
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s deputy Hussein al-Sheikh thanks French President Emmanuel Macron after the latter announced that he would recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September.
“This position reflects France’s commitment to international law and its support for the Palestinian people’s rights to self-determination and the establishment of our independent state,” Sheikh tweets.
Sheikh also thanks Saudi Arabia, which has been advancing the effort behind the scenes.