This week, the war in Gaza appeared to get closer to a 60-day truce. The past seven days also saw a corruption trial facing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu postponed by an Israeli court. The move came hours after US President Donald Trump took to social media, claiming the case was a witch hunt and would interfere with the Israeli prime minister's urgent diplomacy to negotiate a deal for Gaza.  

While diplomats talked up a chance for a ceasefire, Israeli fighter jets significantly increased their missile fire across the strip. 

Since Saturday, at least 300 Palestinians have died, according to the Hamas-run health authorities, with a beachside cafe that’s been seen as a rare place for respite destroyed, killing dozens of people. Israel says Hamas militants were the target. 

Meanwhile, the UN's special rapporteur for the occupied territories Francesca Albanese delivered one of the most damning assessments of Israeli actions in the conflict so far, repeating her stance that a genocide is taking place, which Israel vehemently denies. Going further, Albanese – an independent expert appointed by the UN to investigate human rights issues – labelled the global companies who deal with Israel as complicit, and called the sole provider of aid, the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, nothing but a death trap. The US government is calling for Albanese to be dismissed, calling her anti-Semitic. 

Stateside on Independence Day, Trump signed his self-titled "One Big Beautiful Bill", with critics calling him a reverse Robin Hood.

We also take a look at what's behind the sentencing of French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal in Algiers. His five-year jail term was upheld on appeal this week.

Produced by Gavin Lee, Charles Wente, Henri-Pierre Mafulu, Aurore Laborie and Laura Burloux.