GAZA CITY—The Israeli military bombarded Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Monday with airstrikes and artillery, killing at least 80 since dawn.

In northern Gaza, at least four schools that shelter hundreds of families were bombed, in addition to homes and other civilian areas. In Deir al-Balah, the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital complex was also struck.

One of the worst attacks came when Israeli warplanes bombed al-Baqa, a seafront cafe, reportedly killing more than 30. Perched on the water and popular for its internet access, the cafe was frequented by families as well as journalists. Among those killed was Al Jazeera Mubasher correspondent Ismail Abu Hatab. Another journalist, Bayan Abu Sultan, was injured.

Video by Abdel Qader Sabbah. June 30, 2025.

Maher Banat was an eyewitness who arrived on the scene soon after the strike. “I was nearby, and I heard the bombing. We thought maybe they hit a tent or something else. We were shocked to find a calamity, a massacre,” he told Drop Site. “This place, Baqa cafe, is known for entertainment only, it’s on the sea. People come and sit and talk….someone wants to come and relax. It’s not a place for any military operations or the resistance, as you can see. This was a criminal act.”

The outdoor cafe became a scene of carnage: all broken concrete and shredded wood, bodies strewn on the ground, plastic chairs torn apart, and blood soaked on the floor. A large crater in the ground in the cafe showed the missile impact. At al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, fresh corpses in body bags were lined up outside.

Video by Abdel Qader Sabbah. June 30, 2025.

“The bombing was like an earthquake,” said Abu Ali al-Joujou, standing amid the wreckage. He was nearby at the time of the strike and rushed over. “I arrived and there was blood everywhere. I saw men martyred, I saw women and girls blown apart. This is a rest area, this is a cafe. People come here to have a cup of tea to get away from the troubles of the world, from all the pain we see in eastern Gaza; they come here to breathe. Look at the destruction here, it’s indescribable. The blood you see around you says everything.”

Also on Monday, at least 21 Palestinians were killed while trying to get food aid amid the now daily aid massacres. Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said it received the bodies of 11 people shot while returning from an “aid distribution hub” operated by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund in southern Gaza. Ten others were killed at a UN aid warehouse in northern Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Israeli forces have killed nearly 600 Palestinians in these “aid massacres” since last month

The intense attacks come as President Donald Trump has launched a public messaging campaign claiming he wants a Gaza deal. The messaging began immediately after the Iran ceasefire was announced, with similar stories appearing in Israeli media outlets predicting a new round of negotiations and Prime Minister Netanyahu claiming that “opportunities have opened up” to free the Israeli captives held in Gaza. Early Sunday morning, Trump posted on his TruthSocial site, “MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!!”

Meanwhile, the Israeli military continues to issue displacement orders across Gaza—the latest coming on Sunday and Monday—with orders for Palestinians in areas of Gaza City and Jabaliya to flee to al-Mawasi in the south, saying the military “is operating with extreme force in these areas, and these military operations will escalate, intensify, and extend westward to the city center.” Al-Mawasi is called a “humanitarian zone” that Israel has, nonetheless, repeatedly targeted. The Israeli military also announced that its forces have taken over parts of Salah-al-Din road in Gaza City, a main thoroughfare running across the length of Gaza. Now, people must use the al-Rashid coastal road when moving south. Over 82% of Gaza is now under displacement orders or in an Israeli-militarized zone.

Genocide Under Negotiations

On Monday, Netanyahu’s top emissary Ron Dermer met with Trump administration officials to discuss the terms of a potential Gaza deal. There are reports that a planned visit by Netanyahu to the White House in late July may be moved up. Throughout the past week, Hamas has consistently cautioned that there have been no substantive new proposals submitted. While talks with mediators have continued, the group’s understanding is that Israel remains entrenched in its longstanding position that it will only agree to a short-term deal that would permit Israel to resume its genocidal attacks on Gaza after 60 days.

“We’ve been hearing talk, like everyone else—statements and rumors here and there. But, in reality, nothing has changed,” Mahmoud Mardawi, a senior Hamas official, told Al Jazeera Mubasher Sunday, “What we’re seeing in the media appears to be talks happening between the U.S. administration and the Zionist side. But none of it has reached us in any real, practical form.”

Palestinian sources close to the negotiations have told Drop Site that Hamas will not agree to any deal that does not include a complete Israeli military withdrawal and a written guarantee from the U.S. that Israel will not resume its mass killing operations in Gaza after an initial, short-term truce and exchange of captives. There are believed to be 20 living Israelis still held in Gaza. In previous ceasefire proposals, which were obtained by Drop Site, Hamas had agreed to release half of them in an initial phase of a deal.

“This bloodshed cannot be allowed to continue. We will not agree to any deal that simply gives Israel a break, allowing it to regroup and return to killing our children and women. That will not happen,” Mardawi said on Al Jazeera Mubasher. “The agreement must be publicly backed by regional actors and by the United States, with clear terms for enforcement. Implementation must happen in parallel. We won’t accept a structure where Israel gets everything it wants upfront, and our people’s demands are delayed or ignored.”

Over the past several weeks, Hamas officials, and other sources involved with the negotiations, have told Drop Site that regional mediators relayed messages from Trump Special Envoy Steve Witkoff suggesting that Trump would make sure that Israel does not resume the war after an initial truce. The U.S., however, has refused to put this in writing. The last time Hamas agreed to U.S. verbal commitments was in May when the group released dual U.S.-Israeli citizen and IDF soldier Edan Alexander. Hamas said that Witkoff had pledged that in return Trump would compel Israel to lift its full spectrum blockade of Gaza and to call for an immediate ceasefire. Neither of those happened.

Trump’s deception campaign against Iran—where the U.S. claimed to be engaged in good faith negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear program only to then unleash a joint Israeli-U.S. war against Iran—has only strengthened Hamas’s conviction that any deal offered by the U.S. must be in writing.

After weeks of Qatar taking the lead, Egyptian mediators are currently playing a central role in the discussions with Hamas, Palestinian sources also told Drop Site. A new point has surfaced in the negotiations: Israel’s military presence within the Philadelphi corridor, which runs along Gaza’s border with Egypt.

Hamas has maintained that Israel must completely withdraw from all of Gaza as part of any ceasefire or prisoner exchange deal. The sources said that Hamas may be open to alternative solutions on the timeline for withdrawal from Philadelphi, as one part of an effort to secure higher priority objectives, such as a long-term ceasefire deal guaranteed by the U.S. The official Hamas position, however, remains a demand for a total and swift withdrawal of all occupation forces, including from the Philadelphi corridor.

Palestinian sources have emphasized that the current public discourse being fed by the Trump and Netanyahu camps is aimed at portraying Hamas as the obstacle to an agreement. As speculation about a potential breakthrough has intensified so, too, have Israel’s attacks on Gaza and its threats to raze the little remaining urban infrastructure in the enclave.

“The brutal attack witnessed in Gaza City and the Zionist army's escalation of its massacres against innocent civilians are blatant war crimes and systematic ethnic cleansing operations, which the occupation government is intent on carrying out in full view of the world,” Hamas said in a statement Monday. “The world must act immediately to rein in the war criminal Netanyahu, who is behaving like a desperate madman, violating all international laws and humanitarian norms, and attempting to cover up his failure, over the past twenty months of brutal genocide, to subjugate our people and break their will.”

Throughout the course of the nearly 21-month genocidal war against Gaza, the U.S. and Israel have repeatedly coordinated their propaganda efforts that aim to lay blame on Hamas for rejecting deals. The pattern is clear: terms are presented to Hamas; the U.S. suggests Israel will agree to these terms; but then Israel issues sweeping new demands—right as the U.S. and Israel denounce Hamas’s refusal to capitulate.

In the last round of negotiations in May, Hamas made clear its willingness to relinquish governance of the Gaza Strip as part of any deal, as long as an independent technocratic committee of Palestinians was put in charge and not a foreign force. The movement also proposed a multi-year truce with Israel in return for the immediate release of all remaining Israeli captives living and dead. Israel rejected those offers and submitted a counter-proposal that deleted Hamas’s offer to relinquish power and reinserted language allowing Israel to continue the genocide after a short term truce.

The Trump administration and Netanyahu know the precise terms necessary to achieve a ceasefire and the release of all Israeli captives. Hamas officials have said repeatedly that a deal will only happen if Trump forces Netanyahu to accept it. On Saturday, Trump posted a call on TruthSocial for Israeli prosecutors to cancel Netanyahu’s corruption trial, calling it a "political witch hunt.” Trump claimed Netanyahu “is right now in the process of negotiating a Deal with Hamas, which will include getting the Hostages back” and said “it is INSANITY doing what the out-of-control prosecutors are doing to Bibi.” Trump portrayed his demand as justified because of U.S. aid to Israel. “The United States of America spends Billions of Dollar a year, far more than on any other Nation, protecting and supporting Israel,” he wrote. “We are not going to stand for this.”

In recent days, Israeli military officials have told local media outlets that the military assault on Gaza had nearly achieved its military objective. According to YNet, the army presented its findings to a security cabinet meeting on Sunday night, claiming it had entirely destroyed multiple divisions of Hamas’s Al Qassam Brigades and was intensely targeting the remaining resistance forces in Khan Younis and Gaza City. While such claims may feed into a “victory” narrative, should Netanyahu be forced into a ceasefire agreement by Trump, the fact is that Israeli forces continue to suffer heavy losses, including seven soldiers killed in a complex ambush last week by a Qassam fighter in Khan Younis. It was the single largest death toll inflicted on Israeli troops since the resumption of the genocidal assault on March 18.

Outlining a potentially ominous move, Hebrew media is reporting the Israeli military is planning to deploy an additional division to Gaza in what could be a further expansion of ground operations.

The Israeli Knesset is scheduled to go into recess on July 27 and will not resume again until October. Some analysts have speculated that this window would allow Netanyahu to accept a deal without his government collapsing, even if far-right members of his cabinet Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir quit.

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