[🇧🇩] Israel and Hamas war in Gaza-----Can Bangladesh be a peace broker?

[Saif]

https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/world/who-says-israeli-military-attacked-staff-residence-in-gaza

WHO says Israeli military attacked staff residence in Gaza

REUTERS
Published :
Jul 22, 2025 12:57
Updated :
Jul 22, 2025 12:57

Smoke rises during Israeli strikes amid the Israeli military operation in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip on July 21, 2025 — Reuters photo

The World Health Organization said the Israeli military attacked its staff residence and main warehouse in the Gazan city of Deir al-Balah on Monday, compromising its operations in Gaza.

The United Nations agency said the WHO staff residence was attacked three times, with airstrikes causing a fire and extensive damage, and endangering staff and their families, including children.

Israeli tanks pushed into southern and eastern districts of Deir al-Balah for the first time on Monday, an area where Israeli sources said the military believes hostages may be held. Tank shelling in the area hit houses and mosques, killing at least three Palestinians and wounding several others, local medics said.

"Israeli military entered the premises, forcing women and children to evacuate on foot toward Al-Mawasi amid active conflict. Male staff and family members were handcuffed, stripped, interrogated on the spot, and screened at gunpoint," WHO said.

Two WHO staff and two family members were detained, it said in a post on X, adding that three were later released, while one staff member remained in detention.

"WHO demands the immediate release of the detained staff and protection of all its staff," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

Deir al-Balah is packed with Palestinians displaced during more than 21 months of war in Gaza, hundreds of whom fled west or south after Israel issued an evacuation order, saying it sought to destroy infrastructure and capabilities of the militant group Hamas.

WHO said its main warehouse, located within an evacuation zone, was damaged on Sunday due to an attack that triggered explosions and a fire inside.

WHO stated it will remain in Deir al-Balah and expand its operations despite the attacks.

Britain and more than 20 other countries called on Monday for an immediate end to the war in Gaza and criticised the Israeli government's aid delivery model after hundreds of Palestinians were killed near sites distributing food.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

The Israeli military campaign against Hamas in Gaza has since killed over 59,000 Palestinians, according to health officials, displaced almost the entire population, and caused a humanitarian crisis.

The World Health Organization describes the health sector in Gaza as being "on its knees", with shortages of fuel, medical supplies and frequent mass casualty influxes.​

 

[Saif]

Making concentration camp Gaza

THE odious idea of a camp within a camp. The Gaza Strip, with an even greater concentration of Palestinian civilian life within an ever-shrinking stretch of territory. These are the proposals ventured by the Israeli government even as the official Palestinian death toll marches upwards to...

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Making concentration camp Gaza
Binoy Kampmark 23 July, 2025, 00:00

CounterPunch/Ashraf Amra

THE odious idea of a camp within a camp. The Gaza Strip, with an even greater concentration of Palestinian civilian life within an ever-shrinking stretch of territory. These are the proposals ventured by the Israeli government even as the official Palestinian death toll marches upwards to 60,000. They envisage the placement of some 600,000 displaced and houseless beings currently living in tents in the area of al-Mawasi along Gaza’s southern coast in a creepily termed ‘humanitarian city’. This would be the prelude for an ultimate relocation of the strip’s entire population of over two million in an area that will become an even smaller prison than the Strip already is.

The preparation for such a forced removal — yet another among so many Israel has inflicted upon the Palestinians — is in full swing. The analysis of satellite imagery from the United Nations Satellite Centre by Al Jazeera’s Sanad investigations unit found that approximately 12,800 buildings were demolished in Rafah between early April and early July alone. In the Knesset on May 11 this year, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave words to those deeds: ‘We are demolishing more and more [of their] homes, they have nowhere to return to. The only obvious result will be the desire of the Gazans to emigrate outside the Strip.’

Camps of concentrated human life — concentration camps, in other words — are often given a different dressing to what they are meant to be. Authoritarian states enjoy using them to re-educate and reform the inmates even as they gradually kill them. Indeed, the proposals from the Israel’s defence department carry with them plans for a ‘Humanitarian Transit Area’ where Gazans would ‘temporarily reside, deradicalize, re-integrate, and prepare to relocate if they wish to do so’.

The emetic candy floss of ‘humanitarian’ in the context of a camp is a self-negating nonsense similar to other experiments in cruelty: the relocation of Boer civilians during the colonial wars waged by Britain to camps which saw dysentery and starvation; the movement of Vietnamese villagers into fortified hamlets to prevent their infiltration by the Vietcong in the 1960s; the creation of Pacific concentration camps to detain refugees seeking Australia by boat in what came to be called the ‘Pacific Solution’.

Those in the business of doing humanitarian deeds were understandably appalled by Israel’s latest plans. Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, stated that this would ‘de facto create massive concentration camps at the border with Egypt for the Palestinians, displaced over and over across generations’. It would certainly ‘deprive Palestinians of any prospects of a better future in their homeland.’ Self-evidently and sadly, that would be one of the main aims.

A few of Israeli’s former prime ministers have ditched the coloured goggles in considering the plans for such a mislabelled city. Yair Lapid, who spent a mere six months in office in 2022, told Israeli Army Radio that it was ‘a bad idea from every possible perspective — security, political, economic, logistical’. While preferring not to use the term ‘concentration camp’ with regards such a construction, incarcerating individuals by effectively preventing their exit would make such a term appropriate.

Ehud Olmert’s words to The Guardian were even less inclined to varnish the matter. ‘If they [the Palestinians] will be deported into the new “humanitarian city”, then you can say that this is part of an ethnic cleansing’. To create a camp that would effectively ‘clean’ more than half of Gaza of its population could hardly be understood as a plan to save Palestinians. ‘It is to deport them, to push and to throw them away. There is no other understanding that I have at least.’

Israeli political commentator Ori Goldberg was also full of candour in expressing the view that the plan was ‘for all facts and purposes a concentration camp’ for Gaza’s Palestinians, ‘an overt crime against humanity under international humanitarian law’. This would also add the burgeoning grounds of illegality already being alleged in this month’s petition by three Israeli reserve soldiers of Israel’s Supreme Court questioning the legality of Operation Gideon’s Chariots. Instancing abundant examples of forced transfer and expulsions of the Palestinian population during its various phases, commentators such as former chief of staff of the IDF, Moshe ‘Bogy’ Ya’alon, are unreserved about how such programs fare before international law. ‘Evacuating an entire population? Call it ethnic cleansing, call it transfer, call it deportation, it’s a war crime,’ he told journalist Lucy Aharish. Israel’s soldiers had been sent in ‘to commit war crimes.’

There is also some resistance from within the IDF, less on humanitarian grounds than practical ones. To even prepare such a plan in the midst of negotiations for a lasting ceasefire and finally resolving the hostage situation was the first telling problem. The other was how the IDF could feasibly undertake what would be a grand jailing experiment while preventing the infiltration of Hamas.

This ghastly push by the Netanyahu government involves an enormous amount of wishful thinking. Ideally, the Palestinians will simply leave. If not, they will live in even more carceral conditions than they faced before October 2023. But to assume that this cartoon strip humanitarianism, papered over a ghoulish program of inflicted suffering, will add to the emptying well of Israeli security, is testament to how utterly desperate, and delusionary, the Israeli PM and his cabinet members have become.

CounterPunch.org, July 21. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne.​

 

[Saif]

100 NGOs warn ‘mass starvation’ spreading across Gaza

More than 100 aid organisations and human rights groups warned on Wednesday that ‘mass starvation’ was spreading in Gaza, as the United States said its top envoy was heading to Europe for talks on a possible ceasefire and aid corridor...

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100 NGOs warn ‘mass starvation’ spreading across Gaza
Agence France-Presse . Jerusalem 24 July, 2025, 00:01

Yazan, a malnourished 2-year-old Palestinian boy, sit with his brothers at their family’s damaged home in the Al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, on Wednesday. | AFP photo

More than 100 aid organisations and human rights groups warned on Wednesday that ‘mass starvation’ was spreading in Gaza, as the United States said its top envoy was heading to Europe for talks on a possible ceasefire and aid corridor.

Israel is facing mounting international pressure over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza, where more than two million people are facing severe shortages of food and other essentials after 21 months of conflict.

But it denied blocking supplies, saying that 950 trucks’ worth of aid were in Gaza waiting for international agencies to collect and distribute.

‘We have not identified starvation at this current point in time but we understand that action is required to stabilise the humanitarian situation,’ an unnamed senior Israeli security official was quoted as saying by the Times of Israel.

On the ground, the Israeli military said it was operating in Gaza City and the north, and had hit dozens of ‘terror targets’ across the Palestinian territory.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said that Israeli strikes killed 17 people overnight, including a pregnant woman in Gaza City.

The United Nations said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food since the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operations in late May — effectively side-lining the longstanding UN-led system.

A statement with 111 signatories, including Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children and Oxfam, warned that ‘our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away’.

The groups called for an immediate negotiated ceasefire, the opening of all land crossings and the free flow of aid through UN-led mechanisms.

The United States said its envoy Steve Witkoff will head to Europe this week for talks on Gaza and may then visit the Middle East.

Witkoff comes with ‘a strong hope that we will come forward with another ceasefire as well as a humanitarian corridor for aid to flow, that both sides have in fact agreed to,’ State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters.

Even after Israel began easing a more than two-month aid blockade in late May, Gaza’s population is still suffering extreme scarcities.

Israel says humanitarian aid is being allowed into Gaza and accuses Hamas of exploiting civilian suffering, including by stealing food handouts to sell at inflated prices or shooting at those awaiting aid.

GHF said the United Nations, which refuses to work with it, ‘has a capacity and operational problem’ and called for ‘more collaboration’ to deliver life-saving aid.

COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body that oversees civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said nearly 4,500 trucks entered Gaza recently, with flour, baby food and high-calorie food for children.

But it said there had been ‘a significant decline in the collection of humanitarian aid’ by international organisations in the past month.

‘This collection bottleneck remains the main obstacle to maintaining a consistent flow of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip,’ it added.

Aid agencies, though, said permissions from Israel were still limited and coordination to move trucks to where they are needed — and safely — was a major challenge.

The humanitarian organisations said warehouses with tonnes of supplies were sitting untouched just outside the territory, and even inside, as they were blocked from delivering the goods.

‘Palestinians are trapped in a cycle of hope and heartbreak, waiting for assistance and ceasefires, only to wake up to worsening conditions,’ the signatories said.

‘It is not just physical torment, but psychological. Survival is dangled like a mirage,’ they added.

‘The humanitarian system cannot run on false promises. Humanitarians cannot operate on shifting timelines or wait for political commitments that fail to deliver access.’

The head of Gaza’s largest hospital said Tuesday that 21 children had died due to malnutrition and starvation in the Palestinian territory over the previous three days.

Mediators have been shuttling between Israeli and Hamas negotiators in Doha since July 6 in search of an elusive truce, with expectations that Witkoff would join the talks as they entered their final stages.

More than two dozen Western governments called on Monday for an immediate end to the war, saying suffering in Gaza had ‘reached new depths’.

Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed 59,219 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the war, resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.​

 

[Saif]

Senior Hamas source says Gaza truce deal possible despite Israeli stalling

A senior Hamas source told Reuters on Thursday that there was still a chance of reaching a Gaza ceasefire agreement but it would take a few days because of what he called Israeli stalling. The source said Hamas' response to the latest ceasefire proposal included requesting a clause that would prev

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Senior Hamas source says Gaza truce deal possible despite Israeli stalling

REUTERS
Published :
Jul 24, 2025 22:41
Updated :
Jul 24, 2025 22:41

Palestinians seeking aid supplies from the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation travel in an animal-drawn cart, near Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Ramadan Abed

A senior Hamas source told Reuters on Thursday that there was still a chance of reaching a Gaza ceasefire agreement but it would take a few days because of what he called Israeli stalling.

The source said Hamas' response to the latest ceasefire proposal included requesting a clause that would prevent Israel from resuming the war if an agreement was not reached within the 60-day truce period.​

 

[Saif]

Brazil to join South Africa's 'genocide' case against Israel

Brazil on Wednesday announced its intention to join a South African-led case before the ICJ in which Israel stands accused of committing 'genocide'

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Brazil to join South Africa's 'genocide' case against Israel
AFP Brasília, Brazil
Published: 24 Jul 2025, 12: 26

A Palestinian boy walks past debris after an Israeli strike on the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on 23 July, 2025 AFP

Brazil on Wednesday announced its intention to join a South African-led case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in which Israel stands accused of committing "genocide" in Gaza.

The foreign ministry in Brasilia said the country was "in the final phase of presenting a formal intervention" in the case already formally joined by states including Colombia, Libya and Mexico, and supported by many others.

In December 2023, South Africa brought a case to the United Nations' highest court in The Hague, alleging Israel's Gaza offensive breached the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Israel denies the accusation.

In rulings in January, March and May 2024, the ICJ told Israel to do everything possible to "prevent" acts of genocide during its military operations in Gaza, including by providing urgently needed humanitarian aid to prevent famine.

A statement from Brazil's foreign ministry denounced what it described as "indiscriminate violence" against civilians and the "blatant use of hunger as a weapon of war."

"The international community cannot remain inert in the face of ongoing atrocities," it read.

Israel is facing growing international pressure to end the war in Gaza that was triggered by a murderous attack on its soil by Palestinian group Hamas on 7 October, 2023.

Israel hit back on Wednesday at accusations it was behind chronic food shortages in Gaza.

More than 100 aid and human rights groups have warned that "mass starvation" was spreading in the war-ravaged territory.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has repeatedly denounced an Israeli "genocide" in Gaza.

The UN Genocide Convention defines the term as any of five "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group."​

 

[Saif]

Netanyahu, Trump appear to abandon Gaza ceasefire negotiations with Hamas

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump appeared on Friday to abandon Gaza ceasefire negotiations with Hamas, both saying it had become clear that the Palestinian militants did not want a deal. Netanyahu said Israel was now mulling "alternative" options to achieve i

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Netanyahu, Trump appear to abandon Gaza ceasefire negotiations with Hamas

REUTERS
Published :
Jul 25, 2025 23:11
Updated :
Jul 25, 2025 23:11

A Palestinian holds a cat as he inspects houses destroyed during an Israeli military operation, in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, July 23, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/Files

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump appeared on Friday to abandon Gaza ceasefire negotiations with Hamas, both saying it had become clear that the Palestinian militants did not want a deal.

Netanyahu said Israel was now mulling "alternative" options to achieve its goals of bringing its hostages home from Gaza and ending Hamas rule in the enclave, where starvation is spreading and most of the population is homeless amid widespread ruin.

Trump said he believed Hamas leaders would now be "hunted down", telling reporters at the White House: "Hamas really didn't want to make a deal. I think they want to die. And it's very bad. And it got to be to a point where you're going to have to finish the job."

The remarks appeared to leave little to no room, at least in the short term, to resume negotiations to pause the fighting, at a time when international concern is mounting over worsening hunger in war-shattered Gaza.

French President Emmanuel Macron, responding to the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, announced overnight that Paris would become the first major Western power to recognise an independent Palestinian state.

Britain and Germany said they were not yet ready to do so but later joined France in calling for an immediate ceasefire.

Trump dismissed Macron's move. "What he says doesn't matter," he told reporters at the White House. "He's a very good guy. I like him, but that statement doesn't carry weight."

Israel and the United States withdrew their delegations on Thursday from the ceasefire talks in Qatar, hours after Hamas submitted its response to a truce proposal.

Sources initially said on Thursday that the Israeli withdrawal was only for consultations and did not necessarily mean the talks had reached a crisis. But Netanyahu's remarks suggested Israel's position had hardened overnight.

U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said overnight Hamas was to blame for the impasse, and Netanyahu said Witkoff had got it right.

Senior Hamas official Basem Naim said on Facebook that the talks had been constructive, and criticised Witkoff's remarks as aimed at exerting pressure on Israel's behalf.

"What we have presented - with full awareness and understanding of the complexity of the situation - we believe could lead to a deal if the enemy had the will to reach one," he said.

Mediators Qatar and Egypt said there had been some progress in the latest round of talks. They said suspensions were a normal part of the process and they were committed to continuing to try to reach a ceasefire in partnership with the U.S.

The proposed ceasefire would suspend fighting for 60 days, allow more aid into Gaza, and free some of the 50 remaining hostages held by militants in return for Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel.

It has been held up by disagreement over how far Israel should withdraw its troops and the future beyond the 60 days if no permanent agreement is reached.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right national security minister in Netanyahu's coalition, welcomed Netanyahu's step, calling for a total halt of aid to Gaza and complete conquest of the enclave, adding in a post on X: "Total annihilation of Hamas, encourage emigration, (Jewish) settlement."

MASS HUNGER

International aid organisations say mass hunger has now arrived among Gaza's 2.2 million people, with stocks running out after Israel cut off all supplies to the territory in March, then reopened it in May but with new restrictions.

The Israeli military said on Friday it had agreed to let countries airdrop aid into Gaza. Hamas dismissed this as a stunt.

“The Gaza Strip does not need flying aerobatics, it needs an open humanitarian corridor and a steady daily flow of aid trucks to save what remains of the lives of besieged, starving civilians,” Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, told Reuters.

Gaza medical authorities said nine more Palestinians had died over the past 24 hours from malnutrition or starvation. Dozens have died in the past few weeks as hunger worsens.

Israel says it has let enough food into Gaza and accuses the United Nations of failing to distribute it, in what the Israeli foreign ministry called on Friday "a deliberate ploy to defame Israel". The United Nations says it is operating as effectively as possible under Israeli restrictions.

United Nations agencies said on Friday that supplies were running out in Gaza of specialised therapeutic food to save the lives of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

The ceasefire talks have been accompanied by continuing Israeli offensives on the ground. Palestinian health officials said Israeli airstrikes and gunfire had killed at least 21 people across the enclave on Friday, including five killed in a strike on a school sheltering displaced families in Gaza City.

In the city, residents carried the body of journalist Adam Abu Harbid through the streets wrapped in a white shroud, his blue flak jacket marked PRESS draped across his body. He was killed overnight in a strike on tents housing displaced people.

Mahmoud Awadia, another journalist attending the funeral, said the Israelis were deliberately trying to kill reporters. Israel denies intentionally targeting journalists.

Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas-led fighters stormed Israeli towns near the border, killing some 1,200 people and capturing 251 hostages on October 7, 2023. Since then, Israeli forces have killed nearly 60,000 people in Gaza, health officials there say, and reduced much of the enclave to ruins.​

 

[Saif]

Aid groups warn of starving children in Gaza

Aid groups warned of surging numbers of malnourished children in war-ravaged Gaza as a trio of European powers prepared to hold an ‘emergency call’ Friday on the deepening humanitarian crisis.

www.newagebd.net

Aid groups warn of starving children in Gaza
Agence France-Presse . Palestinian Territories 26 July, 2025, 01:06

Displaced Palestinians receive lentil soup at a food distribution point in Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday. | AFP photo

Aid groups warned of surging numbers of malnourished children in war-ravaged Gaza as a trio of European powers prepared to hold an ‘emergency call’ Friday on the deepening humanitarian crisis.

Doctors Without Borders said that a quarter of the young children and pregnant or breastfeeding mothers it had screened at its clinics last week were malnourished, a day after the United Nations said one in five children in Gaza City were suffering from malnutrition.

With fears of mass starvation growing, Britain, France and Germany were set to hold an emergency call to push for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and discuss steps towards Palestinian statehood.

‘I will hold an emergency call with E3 partners tomorrow, where we will discuss what we can do urgently to stop the killing and get people the food they desperately need while pulling together all the steps necessary to build a lasting peace,’ British prime minister Keir Starmer said.

The call comes after hopes of a new ceasefire in Gaza faded on Thursday when Israel and the United States quit indirect negotiations with Hamas in Qatar.

US envoy Steve Witkoff accused the Palestinian militant group of not ‘acting in good faith’.

President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that France would formally recognise a Palestinian state in September, drawing a furious rebuke from Israel.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Friday welcomed the announcement, calling it a ‘victory for the Palestinian cause’.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long opposed a Palestinian state, calling it a security risk and a potential haven for ‘terrorists’.

On Wednesday, a large majority in Israel’s parliament passed a symbolic motion backing annexation of the occupied West Bank, the core of any future Palestinian state.

More than 100 aid and human rights groups warned this week that ‘mass starvation’ was spreading in Gaza.

Israel has rejected accusations it is responsible for the deepening crisis, which the World Health Organisation has called ‘man-made’.

Israel placed the Gaza Strip under an aid blockade in March, which it only partially eased two months later.

The trickle of aid since then has been controlled by the Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, replacing the longstanding UN-led distribution system.

Aid groups have refused to work with the GHF, accusing it of aiding Israeli military goals.

The GHF system, in which Gazans have to travel long distances and join huge queues to reach one of four sites, has often proved deadly, with the UN saying that more than 750 Palestinian aid-seekers have been killed by Israeli forces near GHF centres since late May.

An AFP photographer saw bloodied patients, wounded while attempting to get humanitarian aid, being treated on the floor of Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis on Thursday.

Israel has refused to return to the UN-led system, saying that it allowed Hamas to hijack aid for its own benefit.

Accusing Israel of the ‘weaponisation of food’, MSF said that: ‘Across screenings of children aged six months to five years old and pregnant and breastfeeding women, at MSF facilities last week, 25 per cent were malnourished.’

It said malnutrition cases had quadrupled since May 18 at its Gaza City clinic and that the facility was enrolling 25 new malnourished patients every day.

On Thursday, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said that one in five children in Gaza City were malnourished.

Agency chief Philippe Lazzarini said: ‘Most children our teams are seeing are emaciated, weak and at high risk of dying if they don’t get the treatment they urgently need.’

He also warned that ‘UNRWA frontline health workers, are surviving on one small meal a day, often just lentils, if at all’.

Lazzarini said that the agency had ‘the equivalent of 6,000 loaded trucks of food and medical supplies’ ready to send into Gaza if Israel allowed ‘unrestricted and uninterrupted’ access to the territory.

Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed 59,587 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Hamas’s October 2023 attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Of the 251 hostages taken during the attack, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.​

 

[Saif]

UK, France, Germany say Gaza 'humanitarian catastrophe must end now'

The leaders of Britain, France and Germany said Friday the "humanitarian catastrophe" in the Gaza Strip "must end now", as the war-ravaged Palestinian territory faces a deepening crisis.

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UK, France, Germany say Gaza 'humanitarian catastrophe must end now'

AFP Berlin
Published: 26 Jul 2025, 09: 57

A displaced Palestinian girl reacts as she receives lentil soup at a food distribution point in Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip on 25 July, 2025. Aid groups warned of surging numbers of malnourished children in war-ravaged Gaza as a trio of European powers prepared to hold an "emergency call" on 25 July on the deepening humanitarian crisis. AFP

The leaders of Britain, France and Germany said Friday the "humanitarian catastrophe" in the Gaza Strip "must end now", as the war-ravaged Palestinian territory faces a deepening crisis.

"We call on the Israeli government to immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid and urgently allow the UN and humanitarian NGOs to carry out their work in order to take action against starvation," they said in a joint statement released by Berlin.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that "the most basic needs of the civilian population, including access to water and food, must be met without any further delay".

"Withholding essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable," they said.

"Israel must uphold its obligations under international humanitarian law."

More than 100 aid and human rights groups warned this week that "mass starvation" was spreading in Gaza after more than 21 months of war.

Israel has rejected accusations it is responsible for the deepening crisis in Gaza, which the World Health Organization has called "man-made".

Israel placed the Gaza Strip under an aid blockade in March, which it only partially eased two months later while sidelining the longstanding UN-led distribution system.

The European leaders also stressed that "the time has come to end the war in Gaza.

"We urge all parties to bring an end to the conflict by reaching an immediate ceasefire."

"We stand ready to take further action to support an immediate ceasefire and a political process that leads to lasting security and peace for Israelis, Palestinians and the entire region," they said.

Starmer had earlier said he would hold an "emergency call" on Gaza Friday with Macron and Merz.

Palestinian militant group Hamas triggered the conflict with its 7 October, 2023 attack in Israel.

The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel's military campaign in Gaza has so far killed 59,676 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Of the 251 hostages taken during the attack, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli fire kills 25 in Gaza

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli fire killed 25 people on Saturday in the Palestinian territory devastated by more than 21 months of war.

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Israeli fire kills 25 in Gaza
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 26 July, 2025, 23:59

AFP file photo

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli fire killed 25 people on Saturday in the Palestinian territory devastated by more than 21 months of war.

Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP the dead included nine people killed in three separate air strikes in Gaza City.

Eleven people were killed in four separate strikes near the southern city of Khan Yunis, while two were killed in a drone strike in Nuseirat refugee camp, he added.

Bassal said three people were killed by Israeli gunfire while waiting for aid in three separate incidents in northern, central and southern Gaza.

One of the three was killed ‘after Israeli forces opened fire on people waiting for humanitarian aid’ northwest of Gaza City, the agency said.

Witnesses told AFP that several thousand people had gathered in the area.

The Israeli military told AFP that its troops fired ‘warning shots to distance the crowd’ after identifying an ‘immediate threat’.

The civil defence agency said another man was killed by a drone strike near Khan Yunis, while one was killed by artillery fire in the Al-Bureij camp in central Gaza.

The Israeli military said it was continuing its operations in Gaza, adding that it killed members of a ‘terrorist cell’ which it accused of planting an explosive device.

It said the air force had ‘struck over 100 terror targets’ across Gaza over the previous 24 hours.

Bassal said civil defence teams also recovered the bodies of 12 people following Israeli bombardment north of Rafah the previous night.

The recovery operation was conducted in coordination with the UN humanitarian office, he said, adding that the bodies were taken to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis.

Meanwhile, Hamas officials expressed surprise on Saturday at US president Donald Trump’s accusation that the group ‘didn’t really want’ a ceasefire and hostage release deal for Gaza.

Trump made the allegation of Friday a day after Israel and the United States quit indirect negotiations with Hamas in Qatar that had lasted nearly three weeks.

‘Trump’s remarks are particularly surprising, especially as they come at a time when progress had been made on some of the negotiation files,’ Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP.

‘So far, we have not been informed of any issues regarding the files under discussion in the indirect ceasefire negotiations’, he added

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said that planned airdrops of aid into the Gaza Strip would not solve severe food shortages caused by months of restrictions on the entry of supplies.

‘Airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation. They are expensive, inefficient & can even kill starving civilians,’ UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X, calling the wave of hunger affecting Gaza ‘manmade’.​

 

[Saif]

Trump says Israel will have to 'make a decision' on next steps in Gaza

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday Israel would have to make a decision on next steps in Gaza, adding that he did not know what would happen after moves by Israel to pull out of ceasefire and hostage-release negotiations with the Hamas militant group. Trump underscored the importance of secu

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Trump says Israel will have to 'make a decision' on next steps in Gaza

REUTERS
Published :
Jul 27, 2025 22:47
Updated :
Jul 27, 2025 22:47

The son of displaced Palestinian woman Iman Suleiman, from Beit Lahiya, carries a box of aid the family received, distributed by the Emirates Red Crescent, in Gaza City, June 26, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Khamis Al-Rifi/Files

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday Israel would have to make a decision on next steps in Gaza, adding that he did not know what would happen after moves by Israel to pull out of ceasefire and hostage-release negotiations with the Hamas militant group.

Trump underscored the importance of securing the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, saying they had suddenly "hardened" up on the issue.

"They don't want to give them back, and so Israel is going to have to make a decision," Trump told reporters at the start of a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at his golf property in Turnberry, Scotland.​

 

[Saif]

Stopping real-life sinister madness in Gaza

French president Emmanuel Macron, in a post on X last Thursday (on July 24) announced he would recognize Palestine as a state in September at the UN Nations General Assembly. Before him Ireland, Norway and Spain did also decide to recognize a Palestinian state. Giving formal recognition of s

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Stopping real-life sinister madness in Gaza

SYED FATTAHUL ALIM
Published :
Jul 28, 2025 00:09
Updated :
Jul 28, 2025 00:09

French president Emmanuel Macron, in a post on X last Thursday (on July 24) announced he would recognize Palestine as a state in September at the UN Nations General Assembly.

Before him Ireland, Norway and Spain did also decide to recognize a Palestinian state. Giving formal recognition of statehood for Palestinians is no doubt important, but what is more urgent at this moment is to keep them alive so they can enjoy the fruits of any freedom and statehood later. Shouldn't President Macron, who is now leading the movement for this Palestinian cause in Europe, and other governments there be convinced to create pressure on Israel to withdraw the food blockade and stop murdering the helpless Palestinians by forced starvation? In fact, it is a delayed response after a lot of prevarications, play of words and twists of facts to ignore the truth, to have reached a positive decision by at least some European leaders. It is hoped they would now also take forceful steps to allow the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza unhindered supply of food, water and medicine as those are being denied to them by Israel. As if that was not enough, soldiers of the Israel Defence Force (IDF) are pounding the hungry Palestinians trying to approach food distribution points with mortar and tank shells and bombs and bullets from aircraft. It is a kind of cruelty quite unheard of in the modern civilized world. But it is not happening in secrecy, the savagery is being brazenly live streamed for the whole world to watch. So, numberless Palestinian men, women and children, are dying every day. There is no point here counting the exact numbers, because they are being deliberately and systematically murdered by using the weapons such as hunger and bullet at the same time to show the world that the perpetrators can commit such crimes against humanity with impunity in defiance of all international laws and morality.

However, indiscriminate killing of Gazans by Israeli forces has been ongoing during the last 21 months and a week since the Gaza war started. Food carrying vehicles on land and by the sea dispatched by international agencies, sympathetic countries and organisations for the famished Palestinians have never been safe as those were constantly under Israeli attacks. But corralling the Palestinians like animals into a confined space and then shelling and bombing them when they are in desperate search of food is indeed a new dimension added to the Israeli atrocities and being done so with declaration since March last. A graphic description of the barbarity being committed was given to the BBC by a former US Army Special Forces officer who resigned from his role at the Israel and US-backed so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GH). He witnessed 'the shelling of aid-seeking civilians. In an interview with the BBC last Friday (July 25), Lieutenant-colonel Anthony Aguilar said he had never seen such "brutality and use of indiscriminate and unnecessary force against a civilian, an unarmed, starving population". "I have never witnessed that in all the places I've been deployed to war, until I was in Gaza at the hands of the [Israeli forces] and US contractors". "Without question, I witnessed war crimes by the Israeli Defense Forces, without a doubt. Using artillery rounds, firing tank rounds into unarmed civilians is a war crime". He recalled one instance in which a Markava tank fired at civilians, destroying a car as it drove away from the aid site. He also saw mortar rounds being launched into crowds "to keep them controlled". But despite these presentations of a glaring truth by a US army veteran, Israel continues to deny what the rest of the world says a man-made starvation being forced on Gaza. In this way, since May, the Israeli military and private contractors, basically American, have killed more than a thousand people trying to reach food at the distribution centre operated by GHF.

Clearly, it is a mockery of food distribution being enacted by the so-called food delivery centres.

The Western nations so vocal about any violation of human rights elsewhere in the world look quite muted when it comes to the case of Israel, and war crimes are committed against unarmed Gaza civilians. If this is not double standard, then what is?

Even so, one would like to appreciate President Macron for his noble effort at this desperate moment. One would also like to hope that the British prime minister Kier Starmer, despite his unhinged support to whatever Israel does, could finally be convinced (by Macron) to take some steps to prevail on Israel and stop the deadly game being played in Gaza in the name of food distribution to starving human beings.

The only Western world leader who, perhaps, can do something in this regard is the US president Donald Trump. But so far whatever occasional efforts he has made to enforce a ceasefire in Gaza ultimately fell through. But no further move is being made from his side in this regard. The Zionist lobby in his administration appears to have had a stronger influence on him so he may not make any further move in this direction.

But then why is this total dependence on the West, which was actually instrumental in creating Israel and offering blind support to whatever it did and has been doing till now?

What are the next door neighbours of the Gaza enclave and the West Bank like Egypt with its powerful military or those living in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan doing to help their blood brothers in Gaza and other Palestinians in the West Bank being massacred day in, day out by the Israeli forces as well as the Jewish settlers? What even other Arabs in the region doing to save the Palestinians being thus forced to die painful deaths by creating an artificial famine and through the cruel sport of food distribution to the victims of this unspeakable brutality? How can those in the nearby rich Arab countries even eat their sumptuous meals every day when their hapless, starving Palestinian brothers are being denied even a morsel of bread by the occupying Israeli forces engaged in a mission to carry out ethnic cleansing of Palestinian by every means imaginable?

It is the moral courage that is required at the moment to say no to this morbid and gory scenes being enacted in real life in world leaders' plain sight. Will they have that courage?​

 

[Saif]

Israel opening routes into Gaza to increase food aid

Israel military also said it had begun air-dropping food into the Palestinian territory and dismissed allegations of using starvation as a weapon against civilians.

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Israel opening routes into Gaza to increase food aid

AFP Gaza City, Palestinian Territories
Published: 27 Jul 2025, 17: 34

Palestinians return to the Nuseirat refugee camp from a US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution point near the Netsarim corridor in the central Gaza Strip, some carrying food parcels and others wooden pallets for burning, on 27 July 2025. AFP

Israel declared a "tactical pause" in fighting in parts of Gaza on Sunday and said it would allow the UN and aid agencies to open secure land routes to tackle a deepening hunger crisis.

The military also said it had begun air-dropping food into the Palestinian territory and dismissed allegations of using starvation as a weapon against civilians.

It said it had coordinated with the UN and international agencies to "increase the scale of humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip".

UN emergency relief coordinator Tom Fletcher welcomed the pauses, saying on social media he was in "contact with our teams on the ground who will do all we can to reach as many starving people as we can in this window".

The charity Oxfam's regional policy chief Bushra Khalidi called the move a "welcome first step" but warned it could prove insufficient.

"Starvation won't be solved by a few trucks or airdrops," she said. "What's needed is a real humanitarian response: ceasefire, full access, all crossings open, and a steady, large-scale flow of aid into Gaza.

"We need a permanent ceasefire, a complete lifting of the siege."

'Life's wish'

In Gaza City's Tel al-Hawa district, 30-year-old Suad Ishtaywi said her "life's wish" was to simply feed her children.

She spoke of her husband returning empty-handed from aid points daily.

"We hope the aid comes in today, because hunger is killing us day by day," said 44-year-old Mohammed al-Daduh, also in Gaza City. "Egypt said it would send aid, but we don't know if Israel will allow it in."

AFP journalists saw Egyptian trucks crossing from Rafah, with cargo routed through Israel's Kerem Shalom checkpoint for inspection before entering Gaza.

The daily pause -- from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm -- will be limited to areas where Israel says its troops are not currently operating -- Al-Mawasi, Deir el-Balah and Gaza City.

Israel said "designated secure routes" would also open across Gaza for aid convoys carrying food and medicine.

The military said these operations, alongside its campaign against Palestinian armed groups, should disprove "the false claim of deliberate starvation".

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant, citing "reasonable grounds" to suspect war crimes including starvation -- charges Israel vehemently denies.

Since Israel imposed a total blockade on March 2, the situation inside Gaza has deteriorated sharply. More than 100 NGOs warned this week of "mass starvation".

Though aid has trickled in since late May, UN and humanitarian agencies say Israeli restrictions remain excessive and road access inside Gaza is tightly controlled.

Before Israel's airdrop of seven food pallets, the United Arab Emirates said it would resume aid flights, and Britain said it would partner with Jordan and others to assist.

'Immediate' airdrops

On Saturday alone, the Palestinian civil defence agency said over 50 more Palestinians had been killed in Israeli strikes and shootings, some as they waited near aid distribution centres.

In a social media post, the military announced it "carried out an airdrop of humanitarian aid as part of the ongoing efforts to allow and facilitate the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip".

Humanitarian chiefs are deeply sceptical airdrops can deliver enough food safely to tackle the hunger crisis facing Gaza's more than two million inhabitants.

A number of Western and Arab governments carried out airdrops in Gaza in 2024, when aid deliveries by land also faced Israeli restrictions, but many in the humanitarian community consider them ineffective.

"Airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation," said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. "They are expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians."

Separately, the Israeli navy brought an activist boat, the Handala operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, into the part of Ashdod, after intercepting and boarding it late Saturday to prevent it attempting to breach a maritime blockade of Gaza.

The legal rights centre Adalah told AFP its lawyers were in Ashdod but had been refused access to the detained crew, 21 activists and journalists from 10 countries.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency and other parties.

Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza after Hamas's October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

The Israeli campaign has killed 59,733 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.​

 

[Saif]

UN aid chief welcomes 'humanitarian pauses' in Gaz

"Welcome announcement of humanitarian pauses in Gaza to allow our aid through," UN emergency relief coordinator Tom Fletcher said on X.

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UN aid chief welcomes 'humanitarian pauses' in Gaz

AFP Geneva
Published: 27 Jul 2025, 17: 49

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher looks on during an interview with AFP in Nawabad village in Chahardara district of Kunduz Province on 30 April 2025. AFP

The United Nations' aid chief welcomed Israel's announcement Sunday of secure land routes into Gaza for humanitarian convoys, and said the UN would try to reach as many starving people as possible.

"Welcome announcement of humanitarian pauses in Gaza to allow our aid through," UN emergency relief coordinator Tom Fletcher said on X.

"In contact with our teams on the ground who will do all we can to reach as many starving people as we can in this window."

Fletcher's UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ( OCHA) warned Friday that conditions on the ground in Gaza were "already catastrophic and deteriorating fast".

"The starvation crisis is deepening," it said, warning that hunger and malnutrition increase the risk of illnesses, and adding that the consequences can quickly "turn deadly".

It said that "the trickle of supplies that are making it into the Strip are nowhere near adequate to address the immense needs".

OCHA said UN teams were in place to ramp up deliveries into the Palestinian territory "as soon as they are allowed to do so".

"If Israel opens the crossings, lets fuel and equipment in, and allows humanitarian staff to operate safely, the UN will accelerate the delivery of food aid, health services, clean water and waste management, nutrition supplies, and shelter materials," it said.

OCHA said constraints imposed by the Israeli authorities had hampered humanitarians' ability to respond.

It said that on Thursday, for example, out of 15 attempts to coordinate humanitarian movements inside Gaza, four were "outright denied", with another three impeded.

One was postponed, and two others had to be cancelled, meaning only five missions went ahead.

On Friday OCHA issued an aid delivery plan in the event of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.​

 

[Saif]

Trump and Starmer to meet in Scotland with trade and Gaza on agenda

US President Donald Trump will host British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at his golf resort in western Scotland on Monday for talks ranging from their recent bilateral trade deal to the worsening hunger crisis in Gaza, the two governments said. Trump, riding high after announcing a huge trade agree

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Trump and Starmer to meet in Scotland with trade and Gaza on agenda

REUTERS
Published :
Jul 28, 2025 18:07
Updated :
Jul 28, 2025 18:07

US President Donald Trump is greeted by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, on the day of a bilateral meeting at Trump Turnberry resort in Turnberry, Scotland, Britain, July 28, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

US President Donald Trump will host British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at his golf resort in western Scotland on Monday for talks ranging from their recent bilateral trade deal to the worsening hunger crisis in Gaza, the two governments said.

Trump, riding high after announcing a huge trade agreement with the European Union late on Sunday, said he expected Starmer would also be pleased.

"The prime minister of the UK, while he's not involved in this, will be very happy because you know, there's a certain unity that's been brought there, too," Trump said. "He's going to be very happy to see what we did."

UK WANTS TO DISCUSS STEEL TARIFFS

Starmer had hoped to negotiate a drop in US steel and aluminium tariffs as part of the talks, but Trump on Sunday ruled out any changes in the 50 per cent steel and aluminium duties for the EU, and has said the trade deal with Britain is "concluded"

British business and trade minister Jonathan Reynolds told the BBC the talks with Trump offered Britain a good chance to advance its arguments, but he did not expect announcements on the issue on Monday.

Trump and Starmer were expected to meet at noon (0700 ET) at Trump's luxury golf resort in Turnberry, on Scotland's west coast, before travelling on together later to a second sprawling estate owned by Trump in the east, near Aberdeen.

Hundreds of police officers were guarding the perimeter of the Turnberry course and the beach that flanks it, with a helicopter hovering overhead, although there was no sign of protesters outside the course.

Starmer was arriving from Switzerland, where England on Sunday won the women's European soccer championship final.

Casting a shadow over their visit has been the deepening crisis in the war-torn Gaza enclave, where images of starving Palestinians have alarmed the world.

BRITISH CABINET RECALLED

Starmer has recalled his ministers from their summer recess for a cabinet meeting, a government source said on Sunday, most likely to discuss the situation in Gaza as pressure grows at home and abroad to recognise a Palestinian state.

On Friday, he said Britain would recognise a Palestinian state only as part of a negotiated peace deal, disappointing many in his Labour Party who want him to follow France in taking swifter action.

Trump on Friday dismissed French President Emmanuel Macron's plan to recognize a Palestinian state, an intention that also drew strong condemnation from Israel, after similar moves from Spain, Norway and Ireland last year.

Trump said that while the US would increase its aid to Gaza, it wanted others to join the effort. Ukraine was also on the agenda for talks with Starmer.

Dozens of Gazans have died of malnutrition in recent weeks, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run enclave, with aid groups warning of mass hunger.

The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led fighters stormed southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, Israel's offensive has killed nearly 60,000 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to Gaza health officials. It has reduced much of the enclave to ruins and displaced nearly the entire population of over 2 million.​

 

[Saif]

More aid needed to tackle famine-like conditions in Gaza, says WFP

A long-term steady supply of aid is needed to counter the worsening hunger crisis in Gaza, U.N. agencies said on Monday after mounting pressure prompted Israel to ease restrictions in the Palestinian enclave. Israel carried out an air drop and announced a series of measures over the weekend, inclu

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

More aid needed to tackle famine-like conditions in Gaza, says WFP

REUTERS
Published :
Jul 28, 2025 18:09
Updated :
Jul 28, 2025 18:09

Displaced Palestinians who have not received humanitarian aid gather as they survive on leftover food, amid a hunger crisis, in Gaza, July 28, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

A long-term steady supply of aid is needed to counter the worsening hunger crisis in Gaza, U.N. agencies said on Monday after mounting pressure prompted Israel to ease restrictions in the Palestinian enclave.

Israel carried out an air drop and announced a series of measures over the weekend, including daily humanitarian pauses in three areas of Gaza and new safe corridors for aid convoys, after images of starving children alarmed the world.

On Monday, the Gaza health ministry said at least 14 people had died in the past 24 hours of starvation and malnutrition, bringing the war's death toll from hunger to 147, including 89 children, most in just the last few weeks.

The World Food Programme said 60 trucks of aid had been dispatched but that this amount fell short of Gaza's needs.

"Sixty is definitely not enough. So our target at the moment, every day is to get 100 trucks into Gaza," WFP Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe, Samer AbdelJaber, told Reuters.

The WFP said that almost 470,000 people in Gaza are enduring famine-like conditions, with 90,000 women and children in need of specialist nutrition treatments.

"I cannot say that in a week we will be able to really avert the risks. It has to be something continuous and scalable," AbdelJaber said.

LOOTING

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said aid supply would be kept up whether Israel was negotiating a ceasefire or fighting in Gaza.

The WFP said it has 170,000 metric tons of food in the region, outside Gaza, which would be enough to feed the whole population for the next three months if it gets the clearance to bring into the enclave.

COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, said that over 120 trucks were distributed in Gaza on Sunday by the U.N. and international organizations.

But some of those trucks that made it into Gaza were seized by desperate Palestinians, and some by armed looters, witnesses said.

"Currently aid comes for the strong who can race ahead, who can push others and grab a box or a sack of flour. That chaos must be stopped and protection for those trucks must be allowed," said Emad, 58, who used to own a wood factory in Gaza City.

More aid was expected to flow in on Monday. Qatar said in a statement it had sent 49 trucks that arrived in Egypt en route for Gaza. Jordan and the United Arab Emirates airdropped supplies into Gaza.

Israel cut off aid to Gaza from the start of March in what it said was a means to pressure Hamas into giving up dozens of hostages it still holds, and reopened aid with new restrictions in May.

Israel says it abides by international law but must prevent aid from being diverted by militants, and blames Hamas for the suffering of Gaza's people.

"Israel is presented as though we are applying a campaign of starvation in Gaza. What a bald-faced lie. There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza," Netanyahu said on Sunday.

He added that with the newly announced measures, it was up to the U.N. to deliver the aid.

United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher said on Sunday that some movement restrictions appeared to have been eased by Israel.

A senior WFP official said on Sunday that the agency needs quick approvals by Israel for its trucks to move into Gaza if it is to take advantage of the humanitarian pauses in fighting.

The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led fighters stormed southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, Israel's offensive has killed nearly 60,000 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to Gaza health officials, reduced much of the enclave to ruins, and displaced nearly the entire population of more than two million.

Indirect ceasefire talks in Doha between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas have broken off with no deal in sight.​

 

[Saif]

WHO says malnutrition reaching 'alarming levels' in Gaza

Malnutrition rates are reaching "alarming levels" in the Gaza Strip, the World Health Organization warned Sunday, saying the "deliberate blocking" of aid was entirely preventable and had cost many lives.

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WHO says malnutrition reaching 'alarming levels' in Gaza

AFP Geneva
Published: 28 Jul 2025, 10: 27

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Palestinians crowd at a lentil soup distribution point in Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip on 27 July, 2025. AFP

Malnutrition rates are reaching "alarming levels" in the Gaza Strip, the World Health Organization warned Sunday, saying the "deliberate blocking" of aid was entirely preventable and had cost many lives.

"Malnutrition is on a dangerous trajectory in the Gaza Strip, marked by a spike in deaths in July," the WHO said in a statement.

Of the 74 recorded malnutrition-related deaths in 2025, 63 had occurred in July -- including 24 children under five, one child aged over five, and 38 adults, it added.

"Most of these people were declared dead on arrival at health facilities or died shortly after, their bodies showing clear signs of severe wasting," the UN health agency said.


"The crisis remains entirely preventable. Deliberate blocking and delay of large-scale food, health, and humanitarian aid has cost many lives."

Israel on Sunday began a limited "tactical pause" in military operations to allow the UN and aid agencies to tackle a deepening hunger crisis.

But the WHO called for sustained efforts to "flood" the Gaza Strip with diverse, nutritious food, and for the expedited delivery of therapeutic supplies for children and vulnerable groups, plus essential medicines and supplies.

"This flow must remain consistent and unhindered to support recovery and prevent further deterioration", the Geneva-based agency said.

On Wednesday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the situation "mass starvation -- and it's man-made".

'Dangerous cycle' of death

Najah (L), a 35-year-old Palestinian mother, carries her malnourished 11-months-old daughter Sila as they await treatment at the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on 24 July, 2025. AFP

Nearly one in five children under five in Gaza City is now acutely malnourished, the WHO said Sunday, citing its Nutrition Cluster partners.

It said the percentage of children aged six to 59 months suffering from acute malnutrition had tripled in the city since June, making it the worst-hit area in the Palestinian territory.

"These figures are likely an underestimation due to the severe access and security constraints preventing many families from reaching health facilities," the WHO said.

The WHO said that in the first two weeks of July, more than 5,000 children under five had been admitted for outpatient treatment of malnutrition -- 18 per cent of them with the most life-threatening form, severe acute malnutrition (SAM).

The 6,500 children admitted for malnutrition treatment in June was the highest number since the war began in October 2023.

A further 73 children with SAM and medical complications have been hospitalised in July, up from 39 in June.

"This surge in cases is overwhelming the only four specialised malnutrition treatment centres," the WHO said.

Furthermore, the organisation said the breakdown of water and sanitation services was "driving a dangerous cycle of illness and death".

As for pregnant and breastfeeding women, Nutrition Cluster screening data showed that more than 40 per cent were severely malnourished, the WHO said.

"It is not only hunger that is killing people, but also the desperate search for food," the UN health agency said.

"Families are being forced to risk their lives for a handful of food, often under dangerous and chaotic conditions," it added.

The UN rights office says Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid in Gaza since the Israel- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operations in late May.

Nearly three-quarters of them died near GHF sites.​

 

[Saif]

Major Israeli rights groups brand Gaza campaign ‘genocide’

Rights groups B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel said on Monday that they had concluded the war in Gaza amounts to a ‘genocide’ against Palestinians, a first for Israeli NGOs.

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Major Israeli rights groups brand Gaza campaign ‘genocide’
Agence France-Presse . Jerusalem 28 July, 2025, 23:02

A woman and a boy sit by debris and destroyed tents following overnight Israeli bombardment at a camp sheltering the displaced in the Japanese neighbourhood in the northwest of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday. | AFP photo

Rights groups B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel said on Monday that they had concluded the war in Gaza amounts to a ‘genocide’ against Palestinians, a first for Israeli NGOs.

Both organisations are frequent critics of Israeli government policies, but the language in their reports issued on Monday was their most stark yet.

‘Nothing prepares you for the realisation that you are part of a society committing genocide. This is a deeply painful moment for us,’ B’Tselem executive director Yuli Novak told a news conference unveiling the two reports.

‘As Israelis and Palestinians who live here and witness the reality every day, we have a duty to speak the truth as clearly as possible,’ she said.

‘Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians.’

A spokesman from the Israeli prime minister’s office, David Mencer, denounced the allegation.

‘We have free speech here in Israel but we strongly reject the accusation,’ he said.

‘Our defence forces target terrorists and never civilians. Hamas is responsible for the suffering in Gaza.’

Israel’s war in Gaza for the past 21 months began in response to an unprecedented attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023.

The Israeli assault has left much of the Gaza Strip, home to more than two million Palestinians, in ruins, and according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry has killed at least 59,921 people, most of them civilians.

All Gazans have been driven from their homes at least once since the start of the war, and UN agencies warn that residents face a growing threat of famine and malnutrition.

The International Court of Justice, in an interim ruling in early 2024 in a case lodged by South Africa, found it ‘plausible’ that the Israeli offensive had violated the UN Genocide Convention.

The Israeli government, backed by the United States, fiercely denies the charge and says it is fighting to defeat Hamas and to bring back Israeli hostages still held in Gaza.

The reports from B’Tselem — one of Israel’s best-known rights groups — and Physicians for Human Rights Israel argue that the war’s objectives go further.

B’Tselem’s report cites statements from senior politicians to illustrate that Israel ‘is taking coordinated action to intentionally destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip’.

Physicians for Human Rights Israel’s report documents what the group says is ‘the deliberate and systematic destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system’.​