How many hostages are left in Gaza?

How many hostages are left in Gaza?
Camp for displaced Palestinians among the ruins of buildings in west of Gaza City. (AP)
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Updated 22 June 2025
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How many hostages are left in Gaza?

How many hostages are left in Gaza?
  • 50 hostages remain in captivity
  • PM Netanyahu said Israel is committed to returning the remaining hostages even as it wages a new military campaign against Iran

Israel said Sunday that it has recovered the bodies of three more hostages taken in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that ignited the ongoing 20-month war in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military identified them as Yonatan Samerano, 21; Ofra Keidar, 70; and Shay Levinson, 19. All three were killed during the initial attack and their bodies were taken into Gaza. Kobi Samerano said in a Facebook post that his son’s remains were returned on what would have been Yonatan’s 23rd birthday.
The military did not provide details about the operation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is committed to returning the remaining hostages even as it wages a new military campaign against Iran.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages in the Oct. 7 attack. More than 55,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, have been killed in the ensuing conflict, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Here are details on the hostages:
Total hostages captured on Oct. 7, 2023: 251
Hostages taken before the Oct. 7 attack: 4, including 2 who entered Gaza in 2014 and 2015 and the bodies of 2 soldiers killed in the 2014 war
Hostages released in exchanges or other deals: 148, of whom 8 were dead
Bodies of hostages retrieved by Israeli forces: 49
Hostages rescued alive: 8
Hostages still in captivity: 50, of whom Israel believes 27 are dead. Netanyahu has said there are “doubts” about the fate of several more.
The hostages in captivity include four non-Israelis: 2 Thais and 1 Tanzanian who have been confirmed dead, and a Nepalese captive.


NGOs urge end to US-backed Gaza aid distribution system

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NGOs urge end to US-backed Gaza aid distribution system

NGOs urge end to US-backed Gaza aid distribution system
JERUSALEM: A group of 169 aid organizations called for an end to a US- and Israeli-backed aid distribution scheme in Gaza after repeated reports of people being killed while seeking rations.
The NGOs urged a return to the UN-led aid mechanism that existed in the war-torn territory until March, when Israel imposed a full blockade on humanitarian assistance entering Gaza during an impasse in truce talks with Palestinian militant group Hamas.
“NGOs call for immediate action to end the deadly Israeli distribution scheme (including the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation) in Gaza,” the organizations wrote in a joint statement Monday.
They urged action to “revert to the existing UN-led coordination mechanisms, and lift the Israeli government’s blockade on aid and commercial supplies.”
The US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has been tasked with distributing aid in the Palestinian territory since late May, when the two-month blockade was partially eased after mounting international condemnation and warnings of imminent famine.
GHF operations have since been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on those waiting to collect rations in the territory, where the Israeli military is seeking to destroy Hamas.
The signatories to Monday’s statement included NGOs from Europe, the United States and Israel working in medical assistance, hunger relief, development and human rights.
They said more than 500 Palestinians were killed and almost 4,000 injured while trying to access or distribute food in less than four weeks. The Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry has given similar figures.
“Under the Israeli government’s new scheme, starved and weakened civilians are being forced to trek for hours through dangerous terrain and active conflict zones, only to face a violent, chaotic race to reach fenced, militarized distribution sites,” the statement read.
Aid distribution in Gaza was traditionally coordinated through various NGOs and UN agencies, notably the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, which had 13,000 staff in the coastal enclave before the war.
Israel said it tasked GHF with distribution in Gaza to keep Hamas from controlling the flow of aid.
The Israeli military last week denied a newspaper report that cited Israeli soldiers as saying they had been ordered to fire at civilians near aid centers.
It said in a statement that it was “operating to allow and facilitate the distribution of humanitarian aid” by GHF, “and to secure the routes leading to the distribution centers, in order to allow the aid to reach the civilians rather than Hamas.”
It added that it was examining “reports of incidents of harm to the civilians approaching the distribution centers.”

Israeli officials to hold ceasefire talks in Washington amid military escalation in Gaza

Israeli officials to hold ceasefire talks in Washington amid military escalation in Gaza
Updated 01 July 2025
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Israeli officials to hold ceasefire talks in Washington amid military escalation in Gaza

Israeli officials to hold ceasefire talks in Washington amid military escalation in Gaza
  • Palestinian and Egyptian sources with knowledge of the latest ceasefire efforts said that mediators Qatar and Egypt had stepped up their contacts with the two warring sides

CAIRO: Israeli planes and tanks struck heavily in north and south Gaza on Tuesday, destroying clusters of homes, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s confidant was in Washington, expected to discuss a possible ceasefire.

Thousands of residents again took flight as Israel issued new orders to evacuate, while its tanks pushed into eastern areas in Gaza City in the north and into Khan Younis and Rafah in the south, residents said.

Local health authorities said strikes had killed at least 20 people, with clusters of houses reported destroyed in Gaza City’s Shejaia and Zeitoun districts, east of Khan Younis and in Rafah. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Ismail, a resident of the Sheikh Radwan suburb of Gaza City, told Reuters that freshly displaced families were setting up tents in the road, after fleeing from areas north and east of the city and finding no other ground available.

“We don’t sleep because of the sounds of explosions from tanks and planes. The occupation is destroying homes east of Gaza, in Jabalia and other places around us,” he said via a text message, asking that his surname be withheld for his security.

Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, a confidant of Netanyahu, is in Washington this week to meet with officials at the White House, Trump’s spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a press briefing on Monday.

Dermer would be exploring possibilities of regional diplomatic deals in the wake of Israel’s 12-day war with Iran last month, as well as ending the Gaza war, according to an Israeli official.

Netanyahu is due to travel to Washington next week and meet Trump on July 7, a US official said. The two leaders are expected to discuss Iran, Gaza, Syria and other regional challenges, an Israeli official in Washington said.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said pressure by Trump on Israel would be key to any breakthrough in stalled ceasefire efforts.

“We call upon the US administration to atone for its sin toward Gaza by declaring an end to the war,” he said.

After a six-week ceasefire at the start of this year, talks on extending the truce have been stalled.

Palestinian and Egyptian sources with knowledge of the latest ceasefire efforts said that mediators Qatar and Egypt had stepped up their contacts with the two warring sides, but that no date had been set yet for a new round of truce talks.

Hamas says it is willing to release all remaining hostages only as part of a deal that would end the war. Israel says the hostages must go free, and the war can end only when Hamas is disarmed and no longer ruling Gaza.

The war began when Hamas fighters stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took 251 hostages back to Gaza in a surprise attack.

Israel’s subsequent military assault has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry, displaced almost the entire 2.3 million population and plunged the enclave into a humanitarian crisis.


Dubai aims to beat the traffic with 2026 Joby air taxi liftoff

Dubai aims to beat the traffic with 2026 Joby air taxi liftoff
Updated 01 July 2025
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Dubai aims to beat the traffic with 2026 Joby air taxi liftoff

Dubai aims to beat the traffic with 2026 Joby air taxi liftoff
  • Joby hopes its air taxis will ease pressure on existing ground transportation and offer travelers a faster alternative as Dubai faces increasing congestion

DUBAI: Dubai commuters may soon have a new way to skip traffic: air taxis.
Joby Aviation conducted the first test flight of its fully-electric air taxi in the emirate this week, a major milestone in the city’s efforts to integrate airborne transport into existing mobility networks as early as next year.
Joby hopes its air-taxis will ease pressure on existing ground transportation and offer travelers a faster alternative as Dubai faces increasing congestion.
“We want to change the way people commute,” Anthony Khoury, Joby’s UAE General Manager, said.
A journey from Dubai’s main airport DXB to Palm Jumeirah aboard the Joby Aerial Taxi will take roughly twelve minutes, the company predicts, as opposed to 45 minutes by car.
While Joby’s long-term ambition is to make its aerial taxis “affordable for everybody to use,” Khoury says, they acknowledge early pricing will likely target higher-income travelers. “As with any novel technology, early days might be a bit more premium.”
The demonstration flight was held on Monday at an isolated desert site southeast of Dubai’s downtown and was designed to emulate a typical aerial taxi journey, according to Joby Aviation officials.
In a ceremony attended by senior government officials, transport executives and company representatives, the experimental aircraft executed a vertical takeoff, flew for several miles, and then returned for a vertical landing.
The Joby Aerial Taxi, the flagship electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft developed by the California-based company, can fly distances of up to 160 kilometers (100 miles) at speeds reaching 320km/hr (200mph).
Fully electric, with zero operating emissions, Joby’s air-taxi is designed to be both eco-friendly and quiet enough for commercial use in dense urban areas.
“It will be flying in the city, next to residential areas, and hopefully people will barely notice it,” Khoury said. While eVTOLs such as Joby’s have been hailed as the future of urban air the industry still faces major hurdles — including securing regulatory approval and developing sufficient vertiport infrastructure.
Morgan Stanley downgraded Joby’s stock price target from $10 to $7 in April, flagging near-term execution risks and broader aerospace industry concerns, including tariffs and supply-chain issues. Joby is currently trading at $10.55.
In early 2024, Joby signed a contract with Dubai’s Roads and Transit Authority that awarded the company exclusive rights to operate aerial taxis in the city for the next six years.
The company plans to inaugurate the emirate’s commercial air-taxi service in 2026, with four initial vertiports located at Dubai International Airport (DXB), Palm Jumeirah, Dubai Downtown and Dubai Marina.
“In aviation, you don’t see transformations like this,” said Didier Papadopoulos, Joby’s President of Original Equipment Manufacturing.
“Every once in a while, you have this propulsive move into the future. What you’re witnessing here is really exciting, and I’m excited for you to be riding this one point in the future.”


Former Israeli defense minister expresses regret for civilian deaths in Iran, Gaza

Former Israeli defense minister expresses regret for civilian deaths in Iran, Gaza
Updated 01 July 2025
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Former Israeli defense minister expresses regret for civilian deaths in Iran, Gaza

Former Israeli defense minister expresses regret for civilian deaths in Iran, Gaza

DUBAI: Former Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz expressed regret over civilian casualties in recent conflicts, saying he mourns the loss of life on all sides, Al Arabiya English reported. 

"I'm very sorry for every Iranian civilian that was killed, just as I'm very sorry for every citizen in Gaza who is being killed," Gantz said.

His comments come amid continued violence in Gaza and following a tense standoff between Israel and Iran. Gantz is one of the few senior Israeli officials to publicly acknowledge the suffering of civilians on both sides of the conflict.

 


Turkiye arrests 120 in opposition bastion Izmir

Turkiye arrests 120 in opposition bastion Izmir
Updated 01 July 2025
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Turkiye arrests 120 in opposition bastion Izmir

Turkiye arrests 120 in opposition bastion Izmir

ISTANBUL: Turkish police have arrested 120 city hall members in the opposition bastion of Izmir, local media and the CHP opposition party said on Tuesday.

A former mayor and numerous "senior officials" were among those detained, Murat Bakan, the vice president of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), which has run the country's third-largest city for years, wrote on X. The arrests came three months after a similar operation in opposition-run Istanbul.