Israeli strikes killed more than two dozen Palestinians in Gaza and violated Lebanese airspace in weekend raids on August 3-4, even as Qatar said progress was made toward US-Iran talks connected to the broader regional conflict; a Board of Peace envoy met Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu after a day of deadly strikes and issued a statement that made no mention of Israel's territorial withdrawal

Uganda's parliament voted on August 6 to authorise deploying troops to the International Stabilisation Force for Gaza, the first formal sub-Saharan African commitment to the US-backed peacekeeping mission; Morocco has also pledged troops; the 20,000-strong force proposed under US President Donald Trump's ceasefire framework would be led by a US general and deploy only after a phased Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, but no timeline for that withdrawal exists

Trump's 'Board of Peace' formally announced on July 31 that Hamas agreed to disarm and Israel would withdraw from Gaza in 'carefully structured phases'; Euronews confirmed Hamas accepted the deal; Israeli far-right security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir rejected the agreement, saying 'Israel must win'; Al Jazeera reported Palestinians remained sceptical; the deal follows 'rare progress' in Cairo mediation talks on July 30 and Trump's late-night declaration the same day that his Board of Peace had reached an agreement

Hamas said on July 28 its negotiating team would travel to Egypt to continue talks on implementing the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement; on the same day Israel released 60 Palestinian detainees in the single largest such release since prisoner exchanges in October, facilitated by the Red Cross at the Kerem Shalom crossing; the Jerusalem Post reported the IDF simultaneously killed a Hamas commander and the head of Hamas's internal security service in concurrent strikes

Israel's security cabinet cleared the legal path on July 26 for a multinational International Stabilisation Force (ISF) to enter Gaza as part of US President Donald Trump's ceasefire plan; forces would come from 'friendly countries' and operate in areas outside Israel's military control while Israeli forces remain present elsewhere in the territory; a peace envoy welcomed the move but The National noted Israel continues to carry out regular strikes

Hamas's political bureau elected Khalil al-Hayya as its new chairman on July 20, 2026, beating former leader Khaled Meshaal in a run-off by one vote; al-Hayya, a Gaza-based veteran negotiator and one of a five-member interim leadership council since 2024, succeeds Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza

An Israeli strike on a funeral in the Gaza Strip on July 17 killed at least seven people and wounded 22, hours after Israeli attacks on July 16 killed at least five Palestinians; Al Jazeera reported more than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed since a ceasefire agreement was reached in October

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas issued a presidential decree on July 9 setting November 28, 2026, as the date for legislative elections under proportional representation, the first since 2006; Hamas has not yet responded, Israel has not said whether it will allow voting in East Jerusalem, and Gaza's governance status remains unresolved

A new NPR analysis finds that Israel's military has expanded its territorial control within the Gaza Strip from roughly 50% at the time of the ceasefire to nearly 70% nine months later, as Israeli forces have pushed deeper into areas that were nominally covered by the truce, with Palestinians paying a deadly price in the expanded zones

Israeli human rights group B'Tselem published 'Unshielded Childhood' on June 29, documenting that Israeli forces killed 54 Palestinian children and teenagers in the West Bank in 2025 alone, with nearly one in four of all Palestinians killed since October 2023 being minors; the group says an expanded open-fire policy is driving the toll and no one has been indicted

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced June 29 that the Defense Ministry Settlement Administration has completed groundwork for three settlements in northern Gaza and called on Netanyahu to authorize them immediately; he also called for Israel to 'complete the conquest of all of Gaza,' with Israel controlling roughly 70 percent of the territory

The Israeli PM told combat officers that Israeli forces will remain in all three theatres "as long as required," a statement that undercut US-mediated Lebanon-ceasefire talks the same day

Israel's longest-serving Prime Minister, Netanyahu leads a wartime coalition while facing a domestic corruption trial and an ICC arrest warrant issued November 2024.

Eight simultaneous large-scale wars across Ukraine, the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia are driving displacement, energy shocks, and geopolitical realignment.

Inquiry chair Muralidhar says evidence shows deliberate killing; roughly 30% of Gaza's dead were children; violations continue after the October 2025 ceasefire

73,001 killed, famine confirmed, $17B pledged but 1% disbursed; Hamas offered a heavy-weapons inventory on June 12 and was told no by June 16

UN counts ~36% of allotted trucks entered since October; 77% still face acute food insecurity as Israel logs no further withdrawals and thousands of ceasefire breaches