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As the conflict ignited by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel reaches its 600th day, Prime Minister Netanyahu marks the milestone with a defiant message amid ongoing hostilities and international scrutiny.
On Wednesday, May 28, 2025, Israel announced that its military had killed Mohammed Sinwar, the suspected leader of Hamas in Gaza and brother of Yahya Sinwar, the deceased architect of the October 2023 attacks that ignited the Gaza war.
Israeli media reported that Sinwar was targeted in Israeli airstrikes in southern Gaza earlier this month. His brother was killed in October 2024.
On Wednesday, May 28, 2025, the United Nations condemned a U.S.- and Israeli-supported aid operation in Gaza, following chaotic scenes at a food distribution site where dozens of people were injured.
Israel’s military has denied accusations that its troops opened fire on the crowds.
The aid crisis has drawn renewed attention as hunger deepens across the region and criticism intensifies against the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) — a secretive organization that has sidestepped the traditional UN-led aid distribution system in the territory.
At least 47 people were injured and one person killed during chaotic scenes on Tuesday, May 27, 2025, when thousands of desperate Palestinians surged into a GHF aid distribution site, according to the United Nations and a Palestinian medical source.
Ajith Sunghay, the head of the U.N. Human Rights Office in the Palestinian territories, stated that the majority of injuries were caused by Israeli gunfire.
However, the Israeli military disputed this claim. Spokesman Colonel Olivier Rafowicz said that soldiers had only “fired warning shots into the air, in the area outside” the Rafah aid distribution center, and “never directly at the people. GHF denied that crowds were fired upon while waiting for aid.
The organization stated that its operations are ongoing, noting it had opened a new distribution site “without incident” and plans to establish additional locations across Gaza in the coming weeks.
The organization reported that with two of its four existing sites fully operational, its staff distributed eight trucks of aid and over 840,000 meals on Wednesday, May 28, 2025.
The U.N. envoy for the Middle East, Sigrid Kaag, told the Security Council on Wednesday, May 28, 2025, that Palestinians living in Gaza “deserve more than just survival.”
Since the fighting resumed in Gaza, the lives of civilians, already marked by unimaginable hardship, have deteriorated even further,” she stated. “This suffering is caused by human actions… Death has become their constant companion. This is not life, nor is it hope. The people of Gaza deserve more than mere survival — they deserve a future.”
As the conflict ignited by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel reached its 600th day, Mr. Netanyahu celebrated the milestone.
In 600 days of the ‘War of Revival,’ we have truly transformed the landscape of the Middle East,” he declared to parliament.
“We expelled the terrorists from our land, launched a powerful offensive into the Gaza Strip, and eliminated tens of thousands of militants, including Mohammed Sinwar.”
Meanwhile, many Gazans expressed a deep sense of despair, seeing little cause for optimism about the future.
Six hundred days have gone by, and nothing has changed. Death still looms, and Israeli bombings show no sign of stopping,” said Bassam Daloul, 40.
“Even the hope for a ceasefire feels both like a distant dream and a harsh nightmare.”
In Israel, families of those taken hostage in Gaza since the October 7 attack gathered in Tel Aviv, yearning for their loved ones’ safe return.
When Israel cancels deals, it is the hostages who suffer the consequences,” Arbel Yehud, who was released from captivity in Gaza in January, told reporters in Tel Aviv. “Their conditions quickly deteriorate, food supplies shrink, pressure mounts, and military actions and bombings don’t protect them—they put their lives at greater risk.
The U.N. has consistently criticized the GHF, accusing it of falling short of fundamental humanitarian principles.
“I believe it wastes resources and diverts attention from real atrocities,” stated Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
Since dawn on Wednesday, May 28, 2025, Israeli strikes have killed 16 people, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency.
Heba Jabr, 29, who lives in a tent in southern Gaza with her husband and their two children, is struggling to find food.
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“Being killed by bombs is better than dying from the humiliation of hunger and the pain of not being able to give my children bread and water,” she said.
Earlier this month, Israel intensified its military offensive in Gaza, even as mediators continue to work toward a still elusive ceasefire.
Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv, hundreds of people gathered to demand an end to the fighting.
In Tel Aviv, hundreds of people gathered to demand a ceasefire.
Protesters filled the streets and the main highway running through the coastal city at exactly 6:29 a.m., marking the precise time the unprecedented October 7 attack began.
Most Israeli media headlines highlighted “600 days,” emphasizing the ongoing struggle of hostage families fighting to bring their loved ones home.
According to an AFP tally based on official data, around 1,218 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza reported on Wednesday that at least 3,924 people have died in the territory since Israel ended a ceasefire on March 18. This brings the total death toll of the conflict to 54,084, with the majority being civilians.
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