Closing summary
This blog will be closing soon. Here is a summary of today’s developments:
At least 32 people were killed by Israeli fire while they were on their way to an aid distribution site in Gaza at dawn on Saturday, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and Nasser hospital in Khan Younis. The Israeli military said it had fired warning shots at suspects who approached its troops after they did not heed calls to stop, about a kilometre away from an aid distribution site that was not active at the time.
US president Donald Trump said on Friday that another 10 hostages will be released from Gaza shortly, without providing additional details. Trump made the comment during a dinner with lawmakers at the White House, lauding the efforts of his special envoy Steve Witkoff. Israeli and Hamas negotiators have been taking part in the latest round of ceasefire talks in Doha since 6 July, discussing a US-backed proposal for a 60-day ceasefire.
The death toll from violence in Sweida province, heartland of Syria’s Druze minority, has risen to 940 since last weekend, a war monitor said, despite the announcement of a ceasefire, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the dead included 326 Druze fighters and 262 Druze civilians, 182 of whom were “summarily executed by defence and interior ministry personnel”.
Syria’s Islamist-led government said its internal security forces began deploying in Sweida on Saturday as the presidency called on all parties to respect a ceasefire following bloodshed in the predominantly Druze area that has left hundreds dead. In a statement, the Syrian presidency announced an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire and urged all parties to commit to it and end hostilities in all areas immediately.
Dr Omar Obeid, who heads the Sweida division at Syria’s Order of Physicians, said Sweida’s only government hospital has received “more than 400 bodies since Monday morning”, including women, children and elderly people. He said: “It’s not a hospital any more, it’s a mass grave,”
Iraq has detained six local officials and suspended other public employees following a fire that killed 61 people at a shopping mall earlier this week, authorities said on Saturday, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports. The blaze, which broke out late on Wednesday in a newly opened shopping mall in the eastern city of Kut, is the latest fatal disaster in a country where safety regulations are often ignored.
The number of people killed when a coach overturned in southern Iran on Saturday has risen to 21, with 34 having been injured, state media reported. The accident, the cause of which remains unclear, occurred near Kavar, a town about 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) from the capital, Tehran.
The number of people injured in a bus crash in the south of Iran has increased to 34, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
Masoud Abed, the head of Fars province’s emergency organisation, said that 34 other people were injured in the accident to the south of Shiraz, the province’s capital.
Abed said that rescue operations are ongoing and that additional information and final figures will be announced after the operation is complete and detailed investigations have been carried out.
He added that the incident occurred at 11.05am, and rescue forces were immediately present at the scene.
The cause of the incident is under investigation.
