Gaza

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is warning that an Israel-Palestinian two-state solution is “farther than ever”. Speaking at a high-level UN conference to promote a two-state solution, he said the destruction of Gaza and the illegal annexation of the West Bank must come to an end.

Israeli-Palestinian human rights group B’Tselem has declared Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide in its latest report, titled Our Genocide.

The report, released on Monday, carries strong condemnation of Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed at least 59,733 people and wounded 144,477.

“An examination of Israel’s policy in the Gaza Strip and its horrific outcomes, together with statements by senior Israeli politicians and military commanders about the goals of the attack, leads to the unequivocal conclusion that Israel is taking coordinated action to intentionally destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip,” the report reads.

“In other words: Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”

An estimated 1,139 people died during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, and some 200 were taken captive.

‘Our Genocide’

The report delves into Israeli violations against Palestinians, going back to the 1948 foundation of the Israeli state, which “had a clear objective from the outset: to cement the supremacy of the Jewish group across the entire territory under Israeli control”.

As such, the state of Israel exhibits “settler-colonial patterns, including widespread settlement involving displacement and dispossession, demographic engineering, ethnic cleansing and the imposition of military rule on Palestinians”, the report continues.

And while it looks back at Israel’s efforts to “uphold Jewish supremacy, relying on a false pretense of the rule of law while, in reality, the rights of the Palestinian subjects are left unprotected”, the report notes that this was accelerated after October 7.

The “broad, coordinated onslaught against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip” that the report points to has “enjoyed support, legitimization, and normalization from the majority of Jewish-Israelis, as well as from the Israeli legal system”.

The report also speaks about the intensified efforts since October 2024 to displace Palestinians in Gaza.

“Israel’s actions in northern Gaza were described by many experts … as an attempt to carry out ethnic cleansing. In practice, by November 2024, some 100,000 people who had lived in northern Gaza had been displaced from their homes,” the document reads.

The report goes beyond Gaza to say that Israel has intensified its violent operations in the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem since October 7, “on a scale not seen since Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967”.

B’Tselem first used the word “apartheid” in 2021 to describe the two-tier reality for Israelis and Palestinians in historic Palestine.

Genocide in words and actions

B’tselem’s report follows an op-ed in the New York Times by Holocaust scholar Amos Goldberg, where he described Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide, as well as growing demonstrations by protesters in Israel calling for an end to the war.

However, opposition to Israel’s war on Gaza is still widely controversial in Israeli society. Only around 16 percent of Jewish Israelis believe peaceful coexistence with Palestinians is possible, according to a June poll by the Pew Research Center.

Meanwhile, 64 percent of Jewish Israelis believe Israel should temporarily occupy the Gaza Strip, according to a survey by the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA).

Critics of stereotypical Israeli views include Israeli political commentator Ori Goldberg, a former university professor and national security consultant, who called these views “vile” on the social media platform X.

I was overcome yesterday. The vileness pouring out of Israeli society shut my mouth for 24 hours. It was an immediate reaction, not anger or sadness. I couldn’t speak. I broke out in hives for the first time since I was diagnosed. I think I tried to reject reality. I’m back.…

— Ori Goldberg (@ori_goldberg) July 27, 2025

“I can only conclude that the pressures from within Israeli society are truly as great as Ori Goldberg recently noted,” Elia Ayoub, a writer, researcher, and the founder of the podcast The Fire These Times, told Al Jazeera.

“Israeli society has normalised a genocide for nearly two years, and this speaks to a deep moral rot at the core of their political culture,” he continued.

Meanwhile, Israeli government officials have continued their violent calls against the people of Gaza.

“The government is rushing to erase Gaza, and thank God we are erasing this evil. All of Gaza will be Jewish,” Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu said on Israeli radio last week.

Welcomed news, even if late

B’Tselem’s report runs 79 pages and documents interviews with numerous Palestinians in Gaza who have lived through the last 22 months of attacks.

That one of Israel’s most prominent human rights organisations described Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide is bound to draw criticism of the group in Israeli society. Many Israeli critics of their own country’s actions in Gaza have faced brutal denunciations from their compatriots.

That makes B’Tselem using the weight of the word “genocide” all the more powerful, even if some believe it could have been done sooner.

“I welcome this news even though it comes very late into the genocide,” Ayoub said.

In December 2023, South Africa brought a case that Israel was committing genocide against Gaza to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Several other countries, including Brazil, Spain, Turkiye and the Republic of Ireland, have joined South Africa in its ICJ case.

Hours after declaring “humanitarian pauses,” Israeli forces killed 43 Palestinians 9 of them were waiting for aid. UN aid chief Tom Fletcher says access has slightly improved but warns famine is worsening, with just 73 aid trucks entering Gaza, far below what’s needed.

Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened on Monday to unleash “the gates of hell” on the Gaza Strip if the Palestinian group Hamas fails to release Israeli hostages, Anadolu reports.

“If Hamas does not release the hostages, the gates of hell will open in Gaza,” Katz said in a ceremony marking the demolitions of buildings damaged in Israeli missile strikes last month in the city of Holon near Tel Aviv.

“This is a complex war, it goes beyond what was done in the past. We are approaching stages where decisions need to be made. This is leadership and we are responsible, not the prosecutor and not anyone else.”

Hamas has repeatedly offered to release all Israeli captives in exchange for ending the war, Israeli troop withdrawal, and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has resisted such terms, instead calling for the disarmament of the Palestinian resistance factions and signaling plans to reoccupy Gaza.

READ: Israeli defence minister threatens to assassinate Iran’s supreme leader, attacks Tehran

Israel estimates that 58 hostages remain in Gaza, including 20 believed to be alive. Meanwhile, over 10,100 Palestinians are held in Israeli prisons under harsh conditions, including reports of torture, starvation, and medical neglect, according to Palestinian and Israeli rights groups.

The Israeli opposition and hostages’ families have accused Netanyahu of prolonging the war to appease his far-right coalition partners and maintain power.

Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, killing nearly 60,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children. The relentless bombardment has destroyed the enclave and led to food shortages.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

READ: Hamas official says Israel’s truce “claim” aims to deceive international public

Rula Shadid, an expert on refugee law and co-director of the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy (@rabetbypipd), joins Centre Stage to discuss the global perception of Palestine and the complicity of Western nations in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. She highlights how international silence enables Israel’s atrocities and sustains its illegal occupation of Palestinian territories.

How do we remember war, and who gets remembered? In this episode of Talk to Al Jazeera, Step Vaessen speaks to Sabina Tanovic, a Sarajevo-born expert in memorial architecture. From the genocide in Srebrenica to the destruction in Gaza, Tanovic explores how monuments shape justice, history, and collective healing.

Israeli forces have killed at least 63 people across Gaza, hours after the military announced it would begin “pausing” attacks for 10 hours daily in some areas to allow humanitarian aid to pass through.

On Sunday, the Israeli army said it would temporarily halt military activity each day from 10am to 8pm (07:00-17:00 GMT) in parts of central and northern Gaza, including al-Mawasi, Deir el-Balah and Gaza City. It also pledged to open designated aid corridors for food and medical convoys between 6am and 11pm.

But hours into the first day of the “humanitarian pauses”, Israeli air raids resumed.

“There was an air strike on Gaza City, and this is one of the areas that was designated as a safe area, and where the Israeli forces are going to halt their military operations,” Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary reported from Deir el-Balah.

“According to Palestinians in that area, a bakery was targeted.”

The bombardment comes as global outcry grows over the worsening humanitarian disaster in Gaza inflicted by Israel.

Famine deaths rise

Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported that six more Palestinians, including two children, died from hunger-related causes in the past 24 hours, pushing the number of starvation deaths to 133 since October 2023.

Among the dead was five-month-old Zainab Abu Haleeb, who succumbed to malnutrition at Nasser Hospital.

“Three months inside the hospital, and this is what I get in return, that she is dead,” said her mother, Israa Abu Haleeb, as the child’s father cradled her small body wrapped in a white shroud.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said on Sunday that one in three Gaza residents has gone days without eating, and nearly 500,000 people are suffering from “famine-like conditions”. The World Health Organization also warned last week that more than 20 percent of pregnant and breastfeeding women are malnourished.

Falestine Ahmed, a mother in Gaza, told Al Jazeera she lost one-third of her body weight.

“I used to weigh 57kg [126 pounds], now I weigh 42kg [93 pounds], and both my son and I have been diagnosed with severe malnutrition,” she said. “We barely have any food at home, and even when it’s available, it’s far too expensive for us to afford.”

Israel has authorised new corridors for aid, while the United Arab Emirates and Jordan have airdropped supplies into the territory. However, deliveries have been fraught with danger and are far too few.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reported that one aid drop injured nearly a dozen people. “Eleven people were reported with injuries as one of these pallets fell directly on tents in that displacement site near al-Rasheed Road.”

Despite the mounting evidence of extreme hunger, Israel continues to deny that famine exists in Gaza. The Israeli military insists it is working to improve humanitarian access.

But scenes of desperation contradict official claims. “I’ve come all this way, risking my life for my children. They haven’t eaten for a week,” said Smoud Wahdan, a mother searching for flour, speaking to Al Jazeera. “At the very least, I’ve been looking for a piece of bread for my children.”

Another displaced mother, Tahani, said that her cancer-stricken child was among those suffering. “I came to get flour, to look for food to feed my children. I wish God’s followers would wake up and see all these people. They are dying.”

Aid groups overwhelmed

Liz Allcock, the head of protection for Medical Aid for Palestinians, told Al Jazeera that she has never seen Gaza in such a state. “The scale of starvation and the number of people you see walking around who are literally skin and bones [is shocking]… Money really has no value here when there is nothing to buy,” she said.

“All of Gazan society – no matter who they are – is suffering from critical food shortages,” she added, warning that one-quarter of the population is at risk of acute malnutrition.

The United Nations says aid deliveries can only succeed if Israel approves the rapid movement of convoys through its checkpoints.

UN aid chief Tom Fletcher noted that while some restrictions appeared to have eased, the scale of the crisis required far more action.

“This is progress, but vast amounts of aid are needed to stave off famine and a catastrophic health crisis,” he said.

Diplomatic pressure builds

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday that he discussed the Gaza situation with his Turkish and Egyptian counterparts and plans to co-host a conference in New York City next week focused on securing a two-state solution.

“We cannot accept that people, including large numbers of children, die of hunger,” he said.

Macron confirmed that France would soon recognise Palestinian statehood, joining more than 140 UN member states.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in an interview that Israel’s blockade of aid amounts to a violation of “humanity and morality”.

“Quite clearly, it is a breach of international law to stop food being delivered, which was a decision that Israel made in March,” he told ABC News. However, he added that Australia was not ready to recognise Palestinian statehood “imminently”.

In the United States, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that ceasefire talks led by President Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, are making “a lot of progress”.

“We’re optimistic and hopeful that any day now, we will have a ceasefire agreement,” Rubio told Fox News, suggesting that half of the remaining Israeli captives may be released soon.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said that 88 Palestinians were killed and 374 wounded in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours alone.

Since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October, at least 59,821 Palestinians have been killed and more than 144,000 injured.

Despite talk of pauses and diplomacy, the violence continues to escalate.

Israeli soldiers have raided the Freedom Flotilla ship, Handala, carrying aid for Gaza in international waters. The husband of onboard activist Huwaida Arraf, who urged Israeli forces to stand down, spoke to Al Jazeera while the ship was being seized. He explained their goal, motivated by the lessons of the Holocaust, is to alleviate the starvation of civilians.

Months after stopping all supplies from entering Gaza, Israel has airdropped a few aid cartons and allowed some trucks to enter the Strip, following immense international pressure. Israel says it’s also begun 10-hour pauses in fighting in three locations ‘for humanitarian purposes’, but continuing attacks killed more than 50 Palestinians on Sunday.

The hunger that has been building among Gaza’s more than two million Palestinians has passed a tipping point and is accelerating deaths, aid workers and health staff say.

Not only Palestinian children – usually the most vulnerable – are falling victim to Israel’s blockade since March, but also adults.

The United Nations’ World Food Programme says nearly 100,000 women and children urgently need treatment for malnutrition, and almost a third of people in Gaza are “not eating for days”. Medical workers say they have run out of many key treatments and medicines.

The World Health Organization reports a sharp rise in malnutrition and disease, with a large proportion of Gaza’s residents now starving.

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, says a quarter of all young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women screened at its clinics in Gaza last week were malnourished, blaming Israel’s “deliberate use of starvation as a weapon”.

July 26 (UPI) — Israel Defense Forces are taking new steps to improve the delivery of aid to Gazans, who the IDF says are not subject to famine despite contrary reports.

Aerial aid drops will resume and include seven pallets of flour, sugar and canned food, while pauses in fighting will enable the safe movement of U.N. convoys that contain food and medical supplies, the IDF announced Saturday in a post on X.

Israel also reconnected a power line from Israel to a desalination plant in Gaza that will increase daily water output to nearly 22,000 cubic yards.

“The IDF emphasizes that there is no starvation in Gaza,” the IDF post says. “This is a false campaign promoted by Hamas.”

The U.N. and international aid organizations are responsible for food distribution in Gaza and for ensuring Hamas does not receive any, which the IDF says commonly steals humanitarian aid for personal use and profit.

Hamas accused of attacking aid distribution sites

Hamas has targeted GHF aid distribution sites with deadly violence, including a July 16 incident that killed 19 Gazans at a Khan Younis site and a July 5 grenade attack that injured two U.S. aid workers, according to the non-partisan Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Such attacks occurred as Hamas struggles to raise funds and is incapable of rebuilding its collapsed tunnels or paying its fighters, former Israel Defense Forces intelligence officer Oded Ailam told The Washington Post on Monday.

Hamas did not prepare for more than a year of war when it attacked Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023, and is struggling to provide basic services for Gazans, Gazan analyst Ibrahim Madhoun said.

Hamas previously depended on revenues from taxing commercial shipments and seizing humanitarian goods for funding by deploying plainclothes Hamas personnel to take inventory at crossings into Gaza and warehouses and markets, The Washington Post reported.

U.N. and European Commission officials and others from international organizations say there is no evidence of Hamas stealing aid.

Officials with the U.S. Agency for International Development said they found no evidence of Hamas stealing aid for Gazans, ABC News reported on Saturday.

USAID investigated 150 reported incidents of stolen aid from October 2024 until May and said the perpetrators could not be identified in most cases in which aid was seized.

An unnamed Gazan contractor, though, told The Washington Post that over the past two years he witnessed Hamas charge local merchants about $6,000 each to receive aid or lose their trucks and threatened to kill or condemn those who did not cooperate.

The contractor claims he knew at least two aid truck drivers who Hamas killed for refusing to pay the designated foreign terrorist organization to deliver aid intended for Gazans.

U.N. aid trucks halted inside Gaza

While claims of Hamas intercepting aid deliveries to raise funds are disputed, the United Nations says it has thousands of tons of aid sitting idle.

The United Nations recently halted 950 trucks inside Gaza that holding a combined total of 2,500 tons of food near the Kerem Shalom crossing, Johnnie More, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation executive chairman, opined in The Wall Street Journal on Friday.

“Since we began our operations in May, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has repeatedly called for the U.N. and its affiliate agencies to combine efforts with us to feed the people of Gaza,” Moore said.

“As of Friday morning, hundreds of trucks loaded with food from the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations were sitting idle inside Gaza,” he wrote.

“The food is there, the people are starving, and yet it isn’t moving to them fast enough to meet the need.”

Moore said video footage shows many of the trucks have been looted or abandoned, and their drivers are walking away.

Officials with the U.N. Relief and Works Agency blame the GHF for what UNRWA calls a “constructed and deliberate mass starvation.”

The GHF is incapable of addressing the “humanitarian crisis” in Gaza and called air drops the “most expensive and inefficient way to deliver aid” to Gazans, according to UNRWA.

The agency says it has the equivalent of 6,000 trucks of food and medical supplies “Stuck” in Egypt and Jordan.

The United Kingdom says it is working with Jordan on “forward plans” to airdrop aid into besieged Gaza and evacuate children needing medical care as Israel’s forced starvation and bombardment of Palestinians fuel global outrage.

Two infants on Saturday became the latest Palestinian children to die from malnutrition. Hospitals in Gaza have now recorded five new deaths due to famine and malnutrition in the past 24 hours. The total number of starvation deaths in the territory has risen to 127, including 85 children.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer confirmed the proposal on Saturday in an emergency call with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

In a readout of the call, the UK government said the leaders had
agreed “it would be vital to ensure robust plans are in place to turn an urgently needed ceasefire into lasting peace,” according to Britain’s Press Association.

“The prime minister set out how the UK will also be taking forward plans to work with partners such as Jordan to airdrop aid and evacuate children requiring medical assistance,” the readout said.

Starmer’s Labour government has been roundly accused at home of doing too little too late to alleviate the intense suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.

Hundreds of thousands of people in the UK have been protesting weekly against Israel’s genocidal war since October 2023, making it clear they feel their voices aren’t being heard.

Public anger has been further stoked as police in the UK arrested more than 100 people at peaceful protests across the country last weekend that called for a ban on the campaign group Palestine Action to be reversed.

Demonstrations took place on Saturday in Manchester, Edinburgh, Bristol, Truro and London as part of a campaign coordinated by Defend Our Juries.

Starmer is also facing mounting pressure to recognise a Palestinian state as France has said it will do at the United Nations General Assembly meeting in September. More than 200 British parliamentarians urged the prime minister to take this course of action this week.

There has been further controversy over accusations the UK government has continued with arms sales to Israel despite stating it had scaled back weapons sales.

A report in May found that UK firms have continued to export military items to Israel despite a government suspension in September amid allegations that the UK Parliament has been deliberately “misled”.

The report by the Palestinian Youth Movement, Progressive International and Workers for a Free Palestine revealed that the UK sent “8,630 separate munitions since the suspensions took effect, all in the category ‘Bombs, Grenades, Torpedoes, Mines, Missiles And Similar Munitions Of War And Parts Thereof-Other’.

‘Waiting for the green light to get into Gaza’

In the meantime, Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), said proposed airdrops of aid would be an expensive, inefficient “distraction” that could kill starving Palestinians.

Israel said on Friday that it will allow airdrops of food and supplies from foreign countries into Gaza in the coming days in response to critical food shortages caused by its punishing months-long blockade.

But in a social media post, Lazzarini said the airdrops would “not reverse the deepening starvation” and called instead for Israel to “lift the siege, open the gates [and] guarantee safe movements [and] dignified access to people in need.”

Airdrops, he said, are “expensive, inefficient [and] can even kill starving civilians”. “A manmade hunger can only be addressed by political will,” he said, calling on Israel to allow the UN and its partners to operate at scale in Gaza “without bureaucratic or political hurdles”.

He said UNRWA has the equivalent of 6,000 trucks in Jordan and Egypt “waiting for the green light to get into Gaza”. “Driving aid through is much easier, more effective, faster, cheaper and safer” than airdrops, he said, adding that it is also more dignified for the people of Gaza.

More than 100 aid and human rights groups this week called on governments to take urgent action as a hunger crisis engulfs Gaza, including by demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire and the lifting of all restrictions on humanitarian aid.

In a statement signed and released on Wednesday by 109 organisations, including Mercy Corps, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Doctors Without Borders (also known as MSF), the groups warned that deepening starvation of the population was spreading across the besieged enclave.

The Israeli blockade of aid has caused a hunger crisis in Gaza and is condemning a growing number of its people to death by starvation. Nonetheless, Palestinian journalists are risking their lives to expose what Western media often softens or obscures: the use of starvation as a tool of genocide.

Contributors:
Diana Buttu – human rights lawyer
Alice Rothchild – Health Advisory Council, Jewish Voice for Peace
Anas al-Sharif – correspondent, Al Jazeera
Alex de Waal – author, Mass Starvation

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Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are pleading for help as more people have starved to death under Israel’s unrelenting blockade of the coastal enclave.

The Gaza Health Ministry said in a statement on Friday that local hospitals recorded nine new malnutrition deaths in the previous 24 hours.

That brings the total number of such deaths to 122 since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023, including at least 83 children.

“We urgently demand an immediate end to the famine, the opening of all crossings, and the entry of infant formula now, along with 500 aid trucks and 50 fuel trucks daily,” the Health Ministry said.

“We hold the Israeli occupation, the US administration, and other states complicit in this genocide—such as the UK, Germany, and France—as well as the international community at large, fully responsible for this historic crime.”

Sources at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, told Al Jazeera early on Saturday that a six-month-old infant also succumbed to starvation-related medical complications.

Starvation deaths have steadily increased in Gaza this week as Israel continues to maintain a strict blockade on the territory, preventing a steady flow of food, water, medicine and other supplies from reaching Palestinians.

The United Nations has warned that children are especially vulnerable as the crisis worsens.

Noor al-Shana, an independent journalist in central Gaza’s Nuseirat, told Al Jazeera that extreme hunger is affecting all aspects of life in the Strip.

She said she now struggles to find enough for one meal per day, while four of her relatives were killed while seeking food at aid distribution points run by the notorious Israel- and United States-backed GHF.

“The world is just saying ‘Free Palestine’ … We don’t want words, we want solutions,” she said.

“Enough, we are tired,” al-Shana added, fighting back tears. “We are suffocating. We are dying here.”

‘Deliberate mass starvation’

Separately, sources at hospitals in Gaza told Al Jazeera that at least 38 people were killed by Israeli attacks across the enclave since the early hours of Friday morning.

Of that, at least six Palestinians were killed while trying to collect food at aid distribution sites.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), on Friday reiterated criticism of the GHF, calling it a “cruel” politically driven effort that “takes more lives than it saves”.

Lazzarini called for the UN agency’s aid stockpiles to be let into Gaza, warning that the enclave is suffering from “deliberate mass starvation”.

“Today, more children died, their bodies emaciated by hunger,” he said in a post on X. “The unfolding famine can only be reversed by a political will.”

The Israeli military has blamed international organisations for the crisis, claiming that aid trucks are inside Gaza but that the UN has refused to distribute the assistance.

UN officials have rejected that, saying repeatedly that they have not received the necessary approvals from the Israeli authorities to distribute the aid.

The UN and other humanitarian groups have also refused to work with the GHF aid distribution scheme, which they say does not adhere to humanitarian principles such as impartiality and independence.

As the crisis continues to spiral, United States President Donald Trump on Friday solely blamed Hamas for the apparent collapse of Gaza ceasefire talks, saying the group is going to be “hunted down”.

“Hamas didn’t really want to make a deal. I think they want to die, and it’s very, very bad,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

The US president’s comments came a day after his Middle East envoy said US negotiators had withdrawn from ceasefire talks in Qatar.

Hamas responded to the US’s announcement with surprise, saying on Thursday that it had submitted a positive and constructive response to the latest proposal it was offered.

Despite Hamas’s insistence that it is ready to work towards a deal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel and the US are weighing ways to secure the release of captives in Gaza that do not depend on a negotiated agreement with the Palestinian group.

“Together with our US allies, we are now considering alternative options to bring our hostages home, end Hamas’s terror rule, and secure lasting peace for Israel and our region,” Netanyahu said.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 59,676 Palestinians and wounded 143,965 others. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks and more than 200 were taken captive.

More than 200 lawmakers in the United Kingdom have called on the British government to recognise a Palestinian state, as pressure mounts on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to take concrete action amid Israel’s war on Gaza.

Some 221 MPs from across the political spectrum signed an open letter on Friday calling on Starmer’s Labour government to recognise a Palestinian state in advance of a United Nations conference on Palestine next week.

“We are expectant that the outcome of the conference will be the UK Government outlining when and how it will act on its long-standing commitment on a two-state solution; as well as how it will work with international partners to make this a reality,” the letter reads.

“Whilst we appreciate the UK does not have it in its power to bring about a free and independent Palestine, UK recognition would have a significant impact due to our historic connections and our membership on the UN Security Council, so we urge you to take this step.”

Parliamentarians from nine political parties were among the signatories, Labour MP Sarah Champion said, including Labour, the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, SNP, and the Greens.

The letter comes as public anger is growing in the UK and around the world over Israel’s continued bombardment and blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has spurred a deadly starvation crisis.

221 MPs, from 9 parties, have sent a joint letter to the Prime Minister & Foreign Secretary urging them to recognise Palestine as a state now pic.twitter.com/b2hbX2XCGR

— Sarah Champion (@SarahChampionMP) July 25, 2025

It also comes a day after French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would recognise the State of Palestine at the UN in September.

“Consistent with its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognise the State of Palestine,” Macron said in a social media post on Thursday.

“I will make this solemn announcement before the United Nations General Assembly this coming September. The urgent priority today is to end the war in Gaza and to bring relief to the civilian population.”

Macron’s announcement drew the ire of Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said the move “rewards terror”.

But Netanyahu has faced widespread condemnation for Israel’s continuing assault on Gaza, which has killed more than 59,000 Palestinians since it began in October 2023.

Israel’s blockade of the enclave has caused a deepening humanitarian crisis, with the United Nations and top human rights groups reporting that many Palestinian children are now suffering from severe malnutrition and at risk of death.

In a statement on Friday, Starmer said “the appalling scenes in Gaza are unrelenting”.

“The continued captivity of hostages, the starvation and denial of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people, the increasing violence from extremist settler groups, and Israel’s disproportionate military escalation in Gaza are all indefensible,” he said.

But Starmer stopped short of announcing plans to recognise a Palestinian state, instead saying he was working “on a pathway to peace in the region”.

“That pathway will set out the concrete steps needed to turn the ceasefire so desperately needed, into a lasting peace,” he said.

“Recognition of a Palestinian state has to be one of those steps. I am unequivocal about that. But it must be part of a wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis.”

Reporting from a protest outside Starmer’s residence in London on Friday afternoon, Al Jazeera’s Milena Veselinovic said demonstrators expressed “outrage” at the British government’s stance amid the dire situation in Gaza.

“Many of them feel powerless, so one of the only things they can do is gather here, make as much noise as they can, and hope that it will be noticed by the people in power,” she said.

“They want Keir Starmer to do more with the power that he has, and with the influence that he has, to put an end to this.”

In addition to recognising a Palestinian state, the British government has faced growing calls to sanction Israel and impose an arms embargo against the country.

Veselinovic said Starmer is in “a difficult diplomatic situation” as he prepares to meet United States President Donald Trump, who was travelling to Scotland on Friday.

She explained that Macron’s announcement added pressure on the UK, which is a close ally of both France and the US, to also recognise a Palestinian state, but noted that Trump has criticised the French president’s move.

“It does seem like a gulf is emerging here over what the European stance is overall, which is much more aligned with what UN aid agencies are saying is going on on the ground in Gaza, and the American position, which seems to nearly 100 percent back whatever is the Israeli government’s version of events is,” she said.

“And in the middle of that is Keir Starmer, who wants to maintain good relations with both sides.”

US protest group Code Pink is targeting key politicians they say are involved in Israel’s starvation campaign in Gaza. The group has previously targeted former President Joe Biden and Senator Lindsey Graham over their support for Israel’s war.