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Phone call on Gaza
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held a telephone conversation with Khalil al-Hayya, a member of Hamas’s Leadership Council, on Thursday afternoon to discuss the latest developments in the region, including the Gaza Strip amid “continued aggression and occupation by the Israeli regime” and its “obstruction of the implementation of the ceasefire agreement.”
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During the call, al-Hayya “once again extended his condolences over the martyrdom of the Supreme Leader” and “a number of Iranian commanders and officials,” and he congratulated Iran on its “major victory in the Ramadan War.”
Al-Hayya also praised the stance of Iran’s negotiating team for emphasizing “a simultaneous cessation of war across all fronts in the region,” while Araghchi renewed his condolences to al-Hayya over “the martyrdom of al-Hayya’s son and a number of resistance commanders in Gaza.”
The call framed both sides’ positions around ending “the aggression and occupation” and maintaining “the steadfast position of the Palestinian resistance groups and the Palestinian people” until Palestinian national objectives are realized, according to the Iranian Foreign Ministry statement.
Numbers and strike tolls
A separate report tied the Gaza discussion to figures from the Gaza Media Office, saying that “the Israeli army has killed 932 Palestinians and injured 2,859 in almost daily attacks” despite a ceasefire that took effect “last October.”
The same account also cited Palestinian figures for the broader war, stating that “Israel's two-year genocidal war on Gaza, starting in October 2023, killed nearly 73,000 Palestinians and injured more than 173,000.”
On the Lebanon front, the report said “Lebanon and Israel agreed Wednesday to renew their fragile ceasefire and establish ‘pilot zones’,” with the Lebanese army in “exclusive territorial control” and “all non-state actors excluded.”
It further described the scale of the Lebanon fighting by saying Israeli strikes on Lebanon have killed “nearly 3,500 people since March 2,” despite a ceasefire that took effect “April 17” and was later extended to early July.
Aid, casualties, and diplomacy
In Gaza, the Health Ministry in the Strip announced that “11 martyrs and 32 injured have arrived at the territory's hospitals” due to ongoing Israeli attacks in the past hours, while “a number of victims remain under rubble and in the streets.”
“Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi and Khalil al-Hayya, a member of the Leadership Council of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), held a telephone conversation on Thursday afternoon to discuss the latest developments in the region”
The same report said ambulance and civil defense crews were “unable to reach them due to field obstacles,” and it added that “since the ceasefire was announced on October 11” the total number of martyrs had risen to “947” with injuries reaching “2,935.”
It also placed the Araghchi–al-Hayya call within wider diplomatic efforts, stating that the call came “amid regional and international efforts to reach de-escalation arrangements across more than one arena,” alongside “ongoing indirect negotiations between the United States and Iran on ending the conflict and cementing a ceasefire.”
The report further stated that on the cumulative total since the start of the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip on “October 7, 2023,” the total number of martyrs rose to “72,956” and cumulative injuries reached “173,043,” with “recovery of 781 cases from under the rubble.”
