Gaza

On Monday, 28 countries, including the United Kingdom, Japan, and numerous European nations, issued a joint statement calling on Israel that the war on Gaza “must end now”, marking the latest example of intensifying criticism from Israel’s allies.

The joint statement, signed by the foreign ministers of these countries, condemned “the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food”.

The statement comes as global pressure mounts on Israel over civilian casualties at aid sites, obstruction of humanitarian aid, and violations of international humanitarian law – as the occupied Palestinian territory simmers with starvation.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 59,000 people and wounded 140,000 since the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas, in which 1,139 people were killed and more than 200 were taken captive.

So, what does the joint statement say? Who are these countries? And how have Israel and its closest ally, the United States, reacted?

What did the statement say?

The joint statement said the countries are coming together “with a simple, urgent message: The war in Gaza must end now.”

The statement underlined that the suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached “new depths” and that the Israeli government’s aid delivery model is “dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity”.

They called on the Israeli government to “comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law” and immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid.

The group of countries also noted that the captives “cruelly held” by Hamas continue to “suffer terribly” and called for their immediate and unconditional release.

They said in the statement that a negotiated ceasefire offers “the best hope of bringing [the captives] home and ending the agony of their families”.

Demographic change, settler violence: What else did the countries say?

The countries criticised Israel’s plan to establish a concentration zone – Israel’s vision of relocating the entire Palestinian population into a fenced, heavily controlled zone built on the ruins of Rafah – as “completely unacceptable”.

“Permanent forced displacement is a violation of international humanitarian law,” the joint statement said.

The group of countries also marked its opposition to “any steps towards territorial or demographic change in the Occupied Palestinian Territories” and noted that the E1 settlement plan announced would divide a Palestinian state in two, “marking a flagrant breach of international law and critically [undermining] the two-state solution”.

They also called out that the “settlement building across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has accelerated while settler violence against Palestinians has soared. This must stop.”

Which countries signed the joint statement?

The joint statement was signed by the foreign ministers of a total of 28 countries:

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.

These governments, many of them allies of Israel, issued some of their strongest language yet, condemning the obstruction of aid in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Which of those countries recognise Palestine?

Out of these 28 countries from the joint statement, nine recognise the State of Palestine as a sovereign state.

Cyprus, Malta, and Poland recognised Palestine shortly after the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988.

Iceland followed in 2011, and Sweden in 2014. Ireland, Norway, Slovenia, and Spain recognised Palestine in 2024.

How did Israel respond?

Oren Marmorstein, a spokesperson for the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, wrote on X that Israel rejects the joint statement published by the group of countries, “as it is disconnected from reality and sends the wrong message to Hamas”.

Israel further claimed that instead of agreeing to a ceasefire, “Hamas is busy running a campaign to spread lies about Israel” and deliberately acting to increase friction and harm to civilians who come to receive humanitarian aid.

The statement further said there is a “concrete proposal for a ceasefire deal” and Hamas “stubbornly refuses to accept it”.

What does Hamas say about the ceasefire?

The spokesperson of the military wing of Hamas said Israel was the one that rejected a ceasefire agreement to release all captives held in Gaza.

Qassam Brigades spokesperson Abu Obeida said in a prerecorded video, released on Friday, that the group had in recent months offered a “comprehensive deal” that would release all captives at once – but it was rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right ministers.

“It has become clear to us that the government of the criminal Netanyahu has no real interest in the captives because they are soldiers,” he said, adding that Hamas favours a deal that guarantees an end to the war, a withdrawal of Israeli forces, and entry of humanitarian aid for besieged Palestinians.

Hamas is still holding 50 people in Gaza, about 20 of whom are believed to be alive.

What is Israel blocking from entering Gaza, claiming that Hamas can use it?

Israel continues to block the entry of essential humanitarian supplies into Gaza, claiming that Hamas could divert or repurpose them for military use.

Among the items withheld are: Baby formula, food, water filters, and medicines.

Medicine and medical supplies face blocks as part of Israel’s “dual-use” restrictions, where items like painkillers and dialysis equipment are held back, ostensibly for possible Hamas exploitation in military contexts.

Other medical equipment, such as oxygen cylinders, anaesthetics, and cancer medications, has been restricted.

Israeli authorities argue that some items, like certain chemicals or electronics, could have dual-use potential.

Aid groups report that the blanket denial of crucial medical items is pushing Gaza’s health system towards total collapse, and say that these restrictions are collective punishment and violations of international humanitarian law.

The countries also denounced Israel’s aid delivery model in Gaza, saying it ‘deprives Palestinians of human dignity’.

More than two dozen countries have called for an immediate end to the war on Gaza, saying that suffering there had “reached new depths” in the latest sign of allies’ sharpening language as Israel’s international isolation deepens.

The statement on Monday came after more than 21 months of fighting that have triggered catastrophic humanitarian conditions for Gaza’s more than two million residents.

Israeli allies the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Canada and 21 other countries, plus the European Union, said in a joint statement that the war “must end now”.

“The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths,” the signatories added, urging a negotiated ceasefire, the release of captives held by Palestinian fighters and the free flow of much-needed aid.

They condemned “the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food”.

The UN and the Gaza Health Ministry have recorded 875 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food since late May, when Israel began easing a more than two-month total blockade.

“The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity,” the countries said. “The Israeli government’s denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable. Israel must comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law.”

Al Jazeera’s Sonia Gallego, reporting from London, said that the statement was a significant escalation from Israel’s allies over its war on Gaza.

“This also reflects a broader consensus beyond Europe,” she said.

“European nations have condemned the situation in Gaza, and now you have foreign ministries – such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Japan – that put their names in this statement,” our correspondent said.

The new joint statement called for an immediate ceasefire, saying countries are prepared to take action to support a political pathway to peace in the region.

Israel and Hamas have been engaged in ceasefire talks, but there appears to be no breakthrough, and it is not clear whether any truce would bring the war to a lasting halt. Netanyahu has repeatedly asserted that expanding Israel’s military operations in Gaza will pressure Hamas in negotiations.

Speaking to Parliament, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy thanked the United States, Qatar and Egypt for their diplomatic efforts to try to end the war.

“There is no military solution,” Lammy said. “The next ceasefire must be the last ceasefire.”

Israel launched the war on Gaza after Hamas led an attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing at least 1,129 people and taking 251 others captive. Fifty captives remain in Gaza, but fewer than half are thought to be alive.

Israel’s military offensive has killed more than 59,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, mostly women and children.

Houthis promise more attacks unless Israel ends its offensive on Gaza and lifts the siege.

Israel’s military has launched new air raids on Yemen’s Hodeidah port, targeting what it described as Houthi-linked sites used to stage drone and missile attacks against Israel and its allies.

Minister of Defence Israel Katz on Monday said the military was “forcefully countering any attempt to restore the terror infrastructure previously attacked”.

The Israeli military claimed that the “port serves as a channel for weapons used by the Houthis to carry out terrorist operations against Israel and its allies”.

The Houthi movement, which controls large parts of northern Yemen, later claimed responsibility for drone and missile attacks on locations in Israel, including Ben Gurion airport, Ashdod and Jaffa.

In a statement, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the strikes were a direct response to the attacks on Hodeidah and Israel’s continued bombardment of Gaza.

“The drone attack successfully achieved its objectives,” he said, adding that operations would continue until Israel ends its offensive on Gaza and lifts the siege.

Since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis have carried out several attacks on shipping lanes in the Red Sea, saying they were acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Israel has responded with repeated strikes on Houthi targets, particularly in Hodeidah, a key entry point for goods and aid into Yemen.

“The Houthis will pay a heavy price for launching missiles toward the State of Israel,” Katz said.

Earlier this month, the Houthis claimed responsibility for an attack on the Greek-owned vessel Eternity C, which maritime officials said had killed four people.

In May, the United States brokered a deal with the Houthis to halt their bombing campaign in exchange for reduced attacks on international shipping. However, the Houthis clarified that the agreement did not extend to operations involving Israel.

A group of over two dozen mostly European foreign ministers denounced Israeli attacks on Palestinian aid seekers in a joint statement condemning the “drip feeding” of aid and saying “the war in Gaza must end now.”

Belgian authorities have interrogated two members of the Israeli military following allegations of serious breaches of international humanitarian law committed in Gaza, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Brussels said.

The two people were questioned after legal complaints were filed by the Hind Rajab Foundation and the Global Legal Action Network. The complaints were submitted on Friday and Saturday as the soldiers attended the Tomorrowland music festival in Belgium.

“In light of this potential jurisdiction, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office requested the police to locate and interrogate the two individuals named in the complaint,” said the prosecutor’s office in a written statement on Monday. “Following these interrogations, they were released.”

The questioning was carried out under a new provision in Belgium’s Code of Criminal Procedure, which came into effect last year. It allows Belgian courts to investigate alleged violations abroad if the acts fall under international treaties ratified by Belgium – including the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the 1984 UN Convention Against Torture.

The prosecutor’s office said it would not release further information at this stage of the investigation.

The Hind Rajab Foundation, based in Belgium, has been campaigning for legal action against Israeli soldiers over alleged war crimes in Gaza. It is named after a six-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed by Israeli fire while fleeing Gaza City with her family early in Israel’s war on Gaza.

Since its formation last year, the foundation has filed dozens of complaints in more than 10 countries, targeting both low- and high-ranking Israeli military personnel.

The group hailed Monday’s developments as “a turning point in the global pursuit of accountability”.

“We will continue to support the ongoing proceedings and call on Belgian authorities to pursue the investigation fully and independently,” the foundation said in a statement. “Justice must not stop here – and we are committed to seeing it through.”

“At a time when far too many governments remain silent, this action sends a clear message: credible evidence of international crimes must be met with legal response – not political indifference,” the statement added.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the incident, saying that one Israeli citizen and one soldier were interrogated and later released. “Israeli authorities dealt with this issue and are in touch with the two,” the ministry said in a statement cited by The Associated Press news agency.

The incident comes amid growing international outrage over Israel’s conduct in its war on Gaza. More than two dozen Western countries called for an immediate end to the war in Gaza on Monday, saying that suffering there had “reached new depths”.

After more than 21 months of fighting that have triggered catastrophic humanitarian conditions for Gaza’s more than two million people, Israeli allies Britain, France, Australia, Canada and 21 other countries, plus the European Union, said in a joint statement that the war “must end now”.

“The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths,” the signatories added, urging a negotiated ceasefire, the release of captives held by Palestinian armed groups and the free flow of much-needed aid.

On Sunday, the World Food Programme accused Israel of using tanks, snipers and other weapons to fire on a crowd of Palestinians seeking food aid.

It said that shortly after crossing through the northern Zikim crossing into Gaza, its 25-truck convoy encountered large crowds of civilians waiting for food supplies, who were attacked.

“As the convoy approached, the surrounding crowd came under fire from Israeli tanks, snipers and other gunfire,” it said on X, adding that the incident resulted in the loss of “countless lives” with many more suffering critical injuries.

“These people were simply trying to access food to feed themselves and their families on the brink of starvation. This terrible incident underscores the increasingly dangerous conditions under which humanitarian operations are forced to be conducted in Gaza.”

Gaza’s Health Ministry described the Israeli attack, which killed at least 92 people, as one of the war’s deadliest days for civilians seeking humanitarian assistance.

More than 59,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its war on Gaza in October 2023, according to local health officials. Much of the territory lies in ruins, with severe shortages of food, medicine and other essentials due to Israel’s ongoing blockade.

At least 49 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza, medical sources say, as the Israeli military has sent tanks into areas of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza for the first time since Israel began its assault on the besieged territory in October 2023.

Israel on Monday launched the ground offensive on southern and eastern areas of the city that is packed with displaced Palestinians, a day after its military issued a forced displacement order for residents in the areas, forcing thousands of people to flee west towards the Mediterranean coast and south to Khan Younis.

Tank shelling in the area hit houses and mosques, killing at least three Palestinians and wounding several, the Reuters news agency reported, quoting local medics.

Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said gunfire was audible as Israeli tanks rolled into the area on Monday morning.

“We can see that the entire city is under Israeli attack,” he said. “We did not manage to sleep last night.”

“There has been an ongoing Israeli bombardment. Israeli jets, tanks and naval gunboats continue to strike multiple residential areas. Three more squares were destroyed in the city, and then residential houses were flattened.”

He said many Deir el-Balah residents fled using donkey carts and other modes of transport.

Israel intensifies attacks

In Khan Younis in southern Gaza, an Israeli air strike killed at least five people, including a husband and wife and their two children, in a tent, medics said.

Among those reported killed since dawn on Monday were four aid seekers waiting for food near a distribution centre operated by the United States- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Five other Palestinians were killed in a separate Israeli bombardment in Jabalia al-Balad in the north.

Earlier, the Palestine Red Crescent Society reported that its teams had recovered the body of one person and evacuated three wounded after an Israeli artillery strike on the nearby Jabalia al-Nazla area.

Drone strikes were reported in Gaza City, resulting in casualties, a source at al-Shifa Hospital told Al Jazeera Arabic.

The previous day, at least 134 people were killed and 1,155 injured by Israeli forces, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. At least 59,029 people in Gaza have been killed since the war began.

On Sunday, Gaza health authorities reported at least 19 people had starved to death in one day, highlighting the desperate situation under the Israeli aid blockade.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, the World Food Programme’s Palestine representative, Antoine Renard, said the United Nations agency has warned for “weeks” that Palestinians in Gaza are facing starvation.

“You have a level of despair that people are ready to risk their lives just to reach any of the assistance actually coming into Gaza,” Renard said from occupied East Jerusalem.

“[There’s a] soaring number of people facing malnutrition, and we can really see that the situation is really getting to levels that we’ve never seen ever before.”

UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said it is receiving “desperate messages of starvation” from inside Gaza, including from its staff, as humanitarian conditions continue to deteriorate.

“The suffering in Gaza is manmade and must be stopped. Lift the siege and let aid in safely and at scale,” UNRWA said in a statement posted on X.

Amjad Shawa, head of the Palestinian NGO Network, told Al Jazeera on Monday that 900,000 children are experiencing varying degrees of malnutrition in Gaza.

Twenty-five countries, including the United Kingdom, France and other European nations, issued a joint statement saying the war in Gaza “must end now” and Israel must comply with international law.

The foreign ministers of the 25 countries, including Australia, Canada and Japan, said “the suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths”, and they condemned “the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food”.

“The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity,” the statement said.

“The Israeli government’s denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable. Israel must comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law,” it said.

Gaza’s health ministry says 18 people have starved to death in the last 72-hours, including four children. Experts say the famine is predictable and planned. This is how some people are trying to stay alive.

On July 9, 2024, no fewer than 11 experts mandated by the United Nations Human Rights Council issued a mayday call about famine in Gaza.

“We declare that Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people is a form of genocidal violence and has resulted in famine across all of Gaza. We call upon the international community to prioritise the delivery of humanitarian aid by land by any means necessary, end Israel’s siege, and establish a ceasefire,” their statement read.

Among the experts were Michael Fakhri, special rapporteur on the right to food, Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, special rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, and Francesca Albanese, special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967. In their opinion, the death of children from starvation despite attempts to provide them with medical treatment in central Gaza left no room for equivocation.

While “famine” is generally understood as an acute lack of nutrition which would lead to starvation and death of a group of people or an entire population, there is no universally accepted definition of the concept in international law.

However, in 2004, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) developed the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a five-stage quantitative humanitarian scale to map the food insecurity of a population.

The aim of this evaluation instrument is to spur collective action when food insecurity is identified and prevent such situations from reaching Level 5 on the IPC scale when famine is confirmed and declared. It has been used by FAO, the World Food Programme (WFP) and their partners as a scientific, data-driven tool for the past 20 years.

The IPC quantifiable criteria for declaring famine are gruesomely straightforward: 20 percent or more of households in an area face extreme food shortages with a limited ability to cope; acute malnutrition in children exceeds 30 percent; and the death rate exceeds two people per 10,000 per day. When these three benchmarks are met, “famine” needs to be declared. Although it does not trigger legal or treaty obligations, it is nevertheless an important political signal to compel an international humanitarian action.

If the aforementioned experts could conclude, in unison and over a year ago, that famine was present in the besieged Gaza Strip, it is hard to understand why the competent UN entities and executive heads have not yet reached the conclusion that Level 5 has been reached by July of this year, after over four months of a medieval siege.

In the era of real-time information transmitted to smartphones the world over, the reality of fatal levels of food insecurity is glaring and unconscionable. Images of emaciated bodies reminiscent of those taken in Nazi concentration camps tell the macabre tale of the reality in Gaza, blockaded by the uncompromising Israeli occupation forces.

And yet, even against the backdrop of UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warnings issued on July 20 that one million children in Gaza are facing the risk of starvation, “famine” is not yet declared.

On the surface, the explanation for not declaring “famine” in Gaza is that the necessary data used under the IPC scheme is not available. This may well be the case since Israel prevents access to the Gaza Strip to journalists and some humanitarian workers. IPC analysts, therefore, do not have primary data collection capabilities, which they have for the other 30 or so situations they monitor. But when the physical evidence is plain to see, when some reliable data is available, humanitarian considerations ought to override technical requirements.

However, in today’s UN system culture transfixed by a US administration gone amok against it, political considerations override the sense of duty and professional imperatives. Those at the helm know what is right (or one hopes so) — and what could be fatal to their persona and careers.

The US government’s ad hominem attacks against and sanctions imposed on Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Karim Khan and UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese are a vivid reminder that those jobs are not without risks. In the case of Albanese, her mandate is not even a “job” as she is carrying it out pro bono, which makes her steadfastness and courage all the more exemplary.

Admittedly, UN executive heads such as Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have more complex calculations to contend with, punitive actions by some powers on the organisation they lead being the principal one. As the saying goes, “money talks” and the US is the single largest contributor to the UN system.

But now that the US Congress has passed an unprecedented bill defunding the UN system, not doing what is right to shield the concerned UN organisations from Washington’s retaliatory wrath is no longer an acceptable cop-out, if it ever was.

It is important here to remember that the Statute of the ICC provides that starvation of civilians constitutes a war crime when committed in international armed conflicts. The full siege of Gaza since March 2, which is resulting in the starvation of civilians, first and foremost infants and children, falls squarely within the purview of Article 8 of the Statute, all the more so as it is the result of a deliberate and declaratory policy denying humanitarian assistance for months.

In this man-made famine, Palestinians are starving to death amid the deafening silence of the world, while tonnes of food are going to waste on the Egyptian side of the border while awaiting permission to enter Gaza. Israeli troops and foreign mercenaries hired by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation have killed more than 900 Palestinians seeking aid at so-called humanitarian distribution sites. Some 90,000 children and women are in need of urgent treatment for malnutrition, according to the WFP; 19 people died of starvation in a single day on July 20, the Gaza Ministry of Health reported. And worse is yet to come.

Michael Fakhri, Pedro Arrojo-Agudo and Francesca Albanese said it a year ago — it is high time for the UN to officially declare that “famine” is in Gaza.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

July 21 (UPI) — At least three people were killed Monday as Israel launched a fresh air and ground offensive in Gaza, attacking the central area of the enclave for the first time, where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have been sheltering.

The casualties came after Israeli forces shelled Deir al-Balah and the Bureij refugee camp. They were among 17 people killed across the strip, including in the Al Mawasi area west of Khan Younis and Jabalia in the north.

With aircraft and artillery providing covering fire, tanks, armored vehicles and infantry advanced into Deir al-Balah from the Kisufim checkpoint on the Gaza-Israel boundary early Monday.

Giving warning of the offensive on an area it said it had not previously targeted, the Israel Defense Forces earlier ordered Palestinians to “immediately evacuate south toward Al Mawasi “for your safety.”

“To all those present in the southwestern area of Deir al-Balah, in blocks 130, 132-134, 136-139, 2351, including those inside the tents located in the area, The Defense Army continues to operate with great force to destroy the enemy’s capabilities and terrorist infrastructure in the area, as it expands its activities in this region to operate in an area it has not operated in before,” IDF spokesman Adraee Avichay wrote in a post on X.

While most of Gaza is in complete ruins, Deir al-Balah has seen a massive influx of displaced people, drawn by the relative safety and still functioning infrastructure and services, which in turn has made it a hub of operations for the U.N. and other agencies.

The IDF, for its part, has until now avoided attacks of any significance for fear of harming hostages who are believed to be held by Hamas in the area.

The United Nations’ humanitarian affairs office condemned the order for at least 50,000 Palestinians to move again, warning it would have a devastating impact on efforts to stop people from dying.

“OCHA warns that today’s mass displacement order issued by the Israeli military has dealt yet another devastating blow to the already fragile lifelines keeping people alive across the Gaza Strip. Today’s order covers more than two square miles of Deir al Balah, spanning four neighbourhoods,” it said in a news release.

“Initial estimates indicate that between 50,000 and 80,000 people were in the area at the time the order was issued, including some 30,000 people sheltering in 57 displacement sites. At least 1,000 families have fled the area in recent hours.”

The U.N. added that the order split Deir al-Balah in two, saying it would further fragment and hamper the ability of the U.N. and other NGOs to move safely and effectively within Gaza, cutting off humanitarian access at a time when it was badly needed.

The agency vowed that its staff would remain in place across multiple U.N. sites in Deir al-Balah and, having shared their coordinates with relevant bodies, called for the locations to be protected along with the civilian sites.

Monday’s offensive came a day after the Hamas-run health ministry said at least 67 people were killed as they were waiting for aid from the United Nations in northern Gaza.

The U.N. World Food Program said its 25-truck convoy “encountered massive crowds of hungry civilians, which came under gunfire” after the trucks had cleared checkpoints.

They were among 94 people killed on Sunday, according to the Gaza civil defense agency.

The Gaza Health Ministry said another 19 died of starvation.

Israeli forces killed at least 115 Palestinians across Gaza on Sunday, most as they waited for desperately needed food aid in one of the deadliest single incidents involving aid seekers since May.

Dozens more Palestinians have been wounded, according to health officials.

In northern Gaza, at least 67 people were killed near the Zikim crossing when an Israeli strike hit crowds gathering for aid. Another six people were killed near a separate distribution site in the south. The day before, 36 Palestinians were killed in similar circumstances.

The death toll brings the total number of people killed while trying to access food relief to more than 900 since May.

Ahmed Hassouna, who attempted to collect food from an aid site of the United States-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), described the moment Israeli forces opened fire.

“There was a young man with me, and they started firing gas at us. They killed us with the gas. We barely made it out to catch a breath,” he told Al Jazeera.

Another man, Rizeq Betaar, carried a wounded elderly man away from the gunfire.

“We were the ones who carried him on the bicycle… There are no ambulances, no food, no life, no way to live any more. We’re barely hanging on. May God relieve us,” he said.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said a convoy of 25 trucks carrying aid came under gunfire shortly after entering Gaza.

“WFP reiterates that any violence involving civilians seeking humanitarian aid is completely unacceptable,” the agency said in a statement.

Israel’s military said its forces fired “warning shots” at what it called “an immediate threat”, but denied deliberately targeting aid convoys.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned on Sunday the situation in Gaza has reached “catastrophic” levels, with children “wasting away” and some dying before aid reaches them.

“People are risking their lives just to find food,” OCHA said, calling the conditions “unconscionable”.

The US-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) also denounced Israel’s continuous attacks on aid seekers.

“The escalating massacres of starving Palestinian women, children and men murdered with US-supplied weapons and with the complicity of our government as they desperately search for food to feed their families is not only a human tragedy, it is also an indictment of a Western political order that has enabled this genocide through inaction and indifference,” said Nihad Awad, CAIR’s national executive director, in a statement.

“Western governments cannot claim ignorance. They are watching in real time as innocent civilians are intentionally starved, forcibly displaced, and slaughtered – and are choosing to do nothing. History will long remember the Western world’s indifference to the forced starvation, ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza.”

Man-made starvation

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said staff in Gaza are sending desperate messages about the lack of food.

“All man-made, in total impunity. Food is available only a few kilometres away,” he wrote on X, adding that UNRWA has enough supplies at the border to feed Gaza for three months. But Israel has been blocking aid since March 2.

Dr Mohammed Abu Afash, the director of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society in Gaza, told Al Jazeera women and children are collapsing from hunger.

“We are heading into the unknown. Malnutrition among children has reached its highest levels,” he said, warning of a looming disaster if aid is not allowed in immediately.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health echoed that warning, saying hundreds of Palestinians suffering from malnutrition and dehydration could soon die.

“We warn that hundreds of people whose bodies have wasted away are at risk of imminent death due to hunger,” a spokesperson said.

Palestinian families say basic staples such as flour are impossible to find. The ministry said at least 71 children have died of malnutrition since the war began in 2023, while 60,000 others show signs of severe undernourishment.

On Sunday alone, it reported 18 deaths linked to hunger.

Food prices have soared beyond the reach of most people in Gaza, where 2.3 million are struggling to survive under siege conditions implemented by Israel.

Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from central Gaza, said a 35-day-old baby in Gaza City and a four-month-old child in Deir el-Balah had died of malnutrition at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

“The mother was touching her body, saying, ‘I am sorry I could not feed you,’” Khoudary said.

“Parents go to the GHF distribution sites to risk getting killed or leave their children starving. We met a mother who is giving her children water just to fill their stomachs. She can’t afford flour – and when she could, she couldn’t find it.”

More forced evacuations

Meanwhile, more Palestinians are being forced to flee. After Israel dropped leaflets containing evacuation threats over neighbourhoods in Deir el-Balah, residents reported air attacks on three homes in the area, prompting families to leave with what little they could carry.

Israel’s military said it had not yet entered those districts but promised to continue targeting what it called “terrorist infrastructure”.

Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said: “We are face to face with another misleading evacuation order. People are told to move to al-Mawasi, a so-called safe zone, but since day one, Palestinians have been killed there.

“This is not a safe zone. There is no safe zone in a war zone. Palestinians know that walking into al-Mawasi is like walking into a death trap – they’ll be killed in days, hours, or even minutes.”

Thousands of leaflets dropped over Deir el-Balah, ordering Palestinians to move to a ‘safe zone’ Israel has repeatedly bombed.

The Israeli military has issued a new forced evacuation warning for the Palestinians in central Gaza, ordering them to move south to al-Mawasi, an area Israel has regularly attacked despite declaring it a “safe zone”.

Thousands of leaflets were dropped over Deir el-Balah on Sunday, telling displaced families living in tents in several densely populated parts of the city to leave immediately.

The Israeli military warned of imminent action against Hamas fighters in the area as it continued its deadly attacks on unarmed and starving civilians desperately looking for food, killing dozens of Palestinians on Sunday, at least 73 of them aid seekers in northern Gaza.

In a post on X, the military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said residents and displaced Palestinians sheltering in the Deir el-Balah area should leave immediately.

Israel was “expanding its activities” around Deir el-Balah, including “in an area where it has not operated before”, Adraee said, telling Palestinians to “move south towards the al-Mawasi area” on the Mediterranean coast “for your safety”.

A video verified by Al Jazeera showed the Israeli army dropping vast amounts of leaflets over residential areas in Deir el-Balah, notifying Palestinians of the order.

‘Nowhere else to go’

Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said the area targeted by Israel is densely populated and it would be “impossible” for the affected residents to leave on short notice.

“Palestinians here are refusing to leave and say they are going to stay in their houses because even the areas designated as safe by the Israeli army have been targeted,” she said.

“Palestinians say they have nowhere else to go, and there is no space because most western areas or even al-Mawasi are full of people and tents with no more extra space for expansion. They are left with zero options.”

The Israeli military issued the warning as Israel and Hamas held indirect ceasefire talks in Qatar, but international mediators said there have been no breakthroughs.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly stressed that expanding Israeli military operations in Gaza will pressure Hamas to negotiate, but negotiations have been stalled for months.

This month, the Israeli military said it controlled more than 65 percent of the Gaza Strip.

Most of Gaza’s population of more than two million people has been displaced at least once during the war, which is now in its 22nd month. Israel has repeatedly ordered Palestinians to leave or face attacks in large parts of the coastal enclave.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in January that more than 80 percent of the Gaza Strip was under unrevoked Israeli evacuation threats and many of their residents were living with starvation.

A 35-day-old baby in Gaza City and a four-month-old child in Deir el-Balah died of malnutrition at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital this weekend.

On Saturday, at least 116 Palestinians were killed, many of them aid seekers trying to get food from distribution sites run by the Israeli- and United States-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

At least 900 Palestinians desperate to find food have been killed at the sites since the GHF began operating them in late May as an Israeli blockade has prevented food and other necessities from the UN and other aid groups from coming into Gaza.

The genocide has prompted Pope Leo XIV to denounce the “barbarity” of the war as he urged against the “indiscriminate use of force”.

“I once again ask for an immediate end to the barbarity of the war and for a peaceful resolution to the conflict,” Leo said during a prayer meeting near Rome on Sunday.

Today is Sunday, July 20. It is day 653 of the war in Gaza, where at least 58,765 Palestinians have been killed.

It is day 653 of the war in Gaza, where at least 58,765 Palestinians have been killed.

In this episode:

Mohammed Vall (@Md_Vall) Al Jazeera Correspondent

Nour Odeh, (@nour_odeh) Al Jazeera  Correspondent

Tareq Abu Azzoum, (@TareqAzzom) Al Jazeera Correspondent

The hashtag gains global popularity as Israel continues to kill Palestinians seeking food and children die of malnutrition.

Hashtag #GazaIsStarving is trending across social media as Palestinians face a worsening hunger crisis caused by Israel’s relentless bombardment of the enclave and allowing limited aid.

On Sunday, the Arabic version of the hashtag had appeared in more than 227,000 posts on X, where it recently topped the platform’s trending list. On Instagram, the hashtag has been used in more than 5,000 posts.

Most posts are attributing to a post from October 31, 2023, quoting Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu Sittah’s warning: “People have started going hungry.”

Nearly two years later, the phrase has become a global rallying cry as Israeli forces kill dozens of starving Palestinians every day.

The social media trend also came amid warnings from the United Nations and other aid agencies that Israel is starving Palestinian civilians, including more than a million children, by blocking food and medicines from entering the enclave.

Since May, nearly 900 Palestinians have been killed near aid sites run by GHF, a notorious aid agency backed by Israel and the United States.

Under the hashtag #GazaIsStarving, social media platforms have been flooded with images and videos showing the extent of the humanitarian crisis, which many countries and rights groups have called a genocide.

The following X post shows Palestinian children visibly suffering from malnutrition during medical examinations at a UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) clinic in Gaza City. Israel has banned UNRWA from distributing aid in Gaza.

#صور | أطفال يعانون من سوء التغذية خلال فحصهم في أحد النقاط الطبية التابعة للأونروا بمدينة غزة#غزه_تموت_جوعاً#GazaIsStarving#FamineInGaza#غزة_تقتل_جوعاً#StarvingGaza#FreePalestine#OpenRafahNow#GazaStarvingToDeath pic.twitter.com/VN4GitxrH2

— حسين الفضلي (@Huseinalfdl) July 19, 2025

The following July 10, 2025 video, released on Saturday and verified by Al Jazeera, shows Israeli security forces using pepper spray on Palestinians seeking food at a GHF aid distribution hub in Shakoush area of southern Rafah.

The scene below illustrates the severity of Gaza’s food crisis and the level of desperation for aid, with children clashing over rations and scraping the bottoms of pots for food in the north of Gaza.

The following video, filmed on July 19 near a GHF distribution site in Rafah, captures civilians fleeing the scene as Israeli tanks and bulldozers are seen moving through the area.

The following verified photos taken on July 19 show Yazan Abu Foul, a two-year-old child suffering from severe malnutrition, amid restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid and essential supplies in Shati refugee camp to the west of Gaza City.

WASHINGTON — When President Trump returned to the White House in January, he promised to deliver big foreign policy wins in record time.

He said he would halt Russia’s war against Ukraine in 24 hours or less, end Israel’s war in Gaza nearly as quickly and force Iran to end to its nuclear program. He said he’d persuade Canada to become the 51st state, take Greenland from Denmark and negotiate 90 trade deals in 90 days.

“The president believes that his force of personality … can bend people to do things,” his special envoy-for-everything, Steve Witkoff, explained in May in a Breitbart interview.

Six months later, none of those ambitious goals have been reached.

Ukraine and Gaza are still at war. Israel and the United States bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities, but it’s not clear whether they ended the country’s atomic program once and for all. Canada and Denmark haven’t surrendered any territory. And instead of trade deals, Trump is mostly slapping tariffs on other countries, to the distress of U.S. stock markets.

It turned out that force of personality couldn’t solve every problem.

“He overestimated his power and underestimated the ability of others to push back,” said Kori Schake, director of foreign policy at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “He often acts as if we’re the only people with leverage, strength or the ability to take action. We’re not.”

The president has notched important achievements. He won a commitment from other members of NATO to increase their defense spending to 5% of gross domestic product. The attack on Iran appears to have set Tehran’s nuclear project back for years, even if it didn’t end it. And Trump — or more precisely, his aides — helped broker ceasefires between India and Pakistan and between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

But none of those measured up to the goals Trump initially set for himself — much less qualified for the Nobel Peace Prize he has publicly yearned for. “I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for this,” he grumbled when the Rwanda-Congo agreement was signed.

The most striking example of unfulfilled expectations has come in Ukraine, the grinding conflict Trump claimed he could end even before his inauguration.

For months, Trump sounded certain that his warm relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin would produce a deal that would stop the fighting, award Russia most of the territory its troops have seized and end U.S. economic sanctions on Moscow.

“I believe he wants peace,” Trump said of Putin in February. “I trust him on this subject.”

But to Trump’s surprise, Putin wasn’t satisfied with his proposal. The Russian leader continued bombing Ukrainian cities even after Trump publicly implored him to halt via social media (“Vladimir, STOP!”).

Critics charged that Putin was playing Trump for a fool. The president bristled: “Nobody’s playing me.”

But as early as April, he admitted to doubts about Putin’s good faith. “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along,” he said.

“I speak to him a lot about getting this thing done, and I always hang up and say, ‘Well, that was a nice phone call,’ and then missiles are launched into Kyiv or some other city,” Trump complained last week. “After that happens three or four times, you say the talk doesn’t mean anything.”

The president also came under pressure from Republican hawks in Congress who warned privately that if Ukraine collapsed, Trump would be blamed the way his predecessor, President Biden, was blamed for the fall of Afghanistan in 2022.

So last week, Trump changed course and announced that he will resume supplying U.S.-made missiles to Ukraine — but by selling them to European countries instead of giving them to Kyiv as Biden had.

Trump also gave Putin 50 days to accept a ceasefire and threatened to impose “secondary tariffs” on countries that buy oil from Russia if he does not comply.

He said he still hopes Putin will come around. “I’m not done with him, but I’m disappointed in him,” he said in a BBC interview.

It still isn’t clear how many missiles Ukraine will get and whether they will include long-range weapons that can strike targets deep inside Russia. A White House official said those details are still being worked out.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov sounded unimpressed by the U.S. actions. “I have no doubt that we will cope,” he said.

Foreign policy experts warned that the secondary tariffs Trump proposed could prove impractical. Russia’s two biggest oil customers are China and India; Trump is trying to negotiate major trade agreements with both.

Meanwhile, Trump has dispatched Witkoff back to the Middle East to try to arrange a ceasefire in Gaza and reopen nuclear talks with Iran — the goals he began with six months ago.

Despite his mercurial style, Trump’s approach to all these foreign crises reflects basic premises that have remained constant for a decade, foreign policy experts said.

“There is a Trump Doctrine, and it has three basic principles,” Schake said. “Alliances are a burden. Trade exports American jobs. Immigrants steal American jobs.”

Robert Kagan, a former Republican aide now at the Brookings Institution, added one more guiding principle: “He favors autocrats over democrats.” Trump has a soft spot for foreign strongmen like Putin and China’s Xi Jinping, and has abandoned the long-standing U.S. policy of fostering democracy abroad, Kagan noted.

The problem, Schake said, is that those principles “impede Trump’s ability to get things done around the world, and he doesn’t seem to realize it.

“The international order we built after World War II made American power stronger and more effective,” she said. “Trump and his administration seem bent on presiding over the destruction of that international order.”

Moreover, Kagan argued, Trump’s frenetic imposition of punitive tariffs on other countries comes with serious costs.

“Tariffs are a form of economic warfare,” he said. “Trump is creating enemies for the United States all over the world. … I don’t think you can have a successful foreign policy if everyone in the world mistrusts you.”

Not surprisingly, Trump and his aides don’t agree.

“It cannot be overstated how successful the first six months of this administration have been,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week. “With President Trump as commander in chief, the world is a much safer place.”

That claim will take years to test.

Dozens of Palestinians have been killed while trying to get food from aid sites run by the notorious US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. As Israel starves Palestinians, the Arabic hashtag ‘Gaza is dying of hunger’ is trending, with thousands trying to raise awareness of their plight.

Men, women and children seen running in all directions away from Israeli soldiers attacking the desperate aid seekers.

Israeli military personnel have pepper-sprayed desperate and starving Palestinian aid seekers at one of the distribution points of the controversial aid agency GHF in Gaza, a video shows.

In the 20-second video verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency Sanad, Israeli troops were seen scattering a crowd with pepper spray at Shakoush in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah.

The mobile phone video, recorded on July 10 and released on social media late on Saturday, shows three armed soldiers using the pepper spray against the Palestinians at the Israeli and United States-backed GHF aid point.

The GHF security personnel fired pepper spray at Palestinians who went to receive aid in Al Shakoush area in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. 10/7/2025 pic.twitter.com/uZbhyoMgdM

— Eye on Palestine (@EyeonPalestine) July 19, 2025

Men, women and children could be seen running in all directions away from the soldiers – some covering their mouths with their clothes, others frantically rushing to leave the scene with bags of flour hoisted on their backs.

Since the GHF started operating in Gaza in late May, at least 891 people have been killed while trying to get food, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Saturday.

A July 15 report by the United Nations found that at least 674 of those people were killed “in the vicinity of GHF sites”.

The highly criticised aid operation has effectively sidelined Gaza’s vast UN-led aid delivery network after Israel eased a more than two-month total blockade on the enclave.

The video of Palestinians being pepper-sprayed came as Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza saw at least 54 more Palestinians killed on Sunday, 51 of them aid seekers, until 10:30 GMT on Sunday.

On Saturday, 116 Palestinians were killed across the enclave, including at least 38 aid seekers.

Mahmoud Mokeimar, a Palestinian in Gaza, said he was walking with a crowd of people, mostly young men, towards the GHF hub when Israeli troops fired warning shots and soon opened fire.

“The occupation opened fire at us indiscriminately,” he told The Associated Press news agency.

Mokeimar said he saw at least three motionless bodies on the ground and many wounded people fleeing.

“Unless Israel allows more food into Gaza, Palestinians have no choice but to risk their lives just for something to eat,” said Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah in Gaza.

“Parents go to the GHF distribution sites to risk getting killed or leave their children starving. There is no option in the market. Everything is very expensive.”

Meanwhile, Palestinians, including infants and toddlers, continue to die from starvation across Gaza.

Four-year-old Razan Abu Zaher died of complications from malnutrition and hunger, a source at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Gaza City told Al Jazeera on Sunday.

On Saturday, the director of al-Shifa Hospital said two Palestinians had died of starvation, including a 35-day-old infant.

On Friday, the Health Ministry said starving Palestinians are arriving in hospital emergency departments across Gaza in “unprecedented numbers”, as Israel continues to severely restrict access to food in Gaza and shoot people seeking aid.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 58,765 people and wounded 140,485 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.

A Palestinian baby has died of starvation in Gaza as Israel maintains its blockade on aid supplies and fires on people forced to seek food at controversial United States-backed aid sites described as “death traps”.

The 35-day-old infant died of malnutrition at Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital, director Muhammad Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera. The unnamed infant was one of two people who succumbed to starvation in the facility on Saturday.

The deaths occurred as Gaza’s Ministry of Health warned that hospital emergency wards were overwhelmed by unprecedented numbers of starving people, with officials saying that 17,000 children in Gaza are suffering from severe malnutrition.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military continued to pound the Strip, with medical sources reporting that at least 116 people were killed across the enclave since dawn, including 38 who were shot dead while seeking food from aid sites run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the deaths happened near a site southwest of Khan Yunis and another centre northwest of Rafah, both in southern Gaza, attributing the fatalities to “Israeli gunfire”.

The Health Ministry says almost 900 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and private military contractors near dangerous GHF sites since the foundation began distributing aid in late May, opening four points that replaced about 400 centres run by United Nations agencies and charities.

Witness Mohammed al-Khalidi told Al Jazeera the shots fired at aid seekers on Saturday were “meant to kill”.

“Suddenly, we saw the jeeps coming from one side and the tanks from the other, and they started shooting at us,” he said.

Another witness, Mohammed al-Barbary, whose cousin died in the shootings, said the GHF sites are “death traps”.

“Anyone can get killed. My cousin was innocent. He went to get food. He wanted to live. We want to live like everyone else,” said al-Barbary.

Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said families hoping for something to eat are instead burying their loved ones.

The GHF denied that Saturday’s killings happened at its site, claiming they occurred “several kilometres away” and “hours before our sites opened”.

The Israeli military said it was reviewing the incident.

‘Open the gates’

Jagan Chapagain, the secretary-general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, warned that Palestinians in Gaza face “an acute risk of famine”.

“No one should have to risk their life to get basic humanitarian assistance,” he said.

Basic supplies are not available in markets or distribution points, while the cost of essentials such as flour skyrocketed, making it impossible for the population of 2.3 million to meet their daily nutritional needs.

No one should have to risk their life to get basic humanitarian assistance.

Recent weeks have seen desperate people risking their lives just to receive basic aid in Gaza.

The population is facing an acute risk of famine, with continuously worsening conditions. Basic food…

— Jagan Chapagain (@jagan_chapagain) July 19, 2025

Jan Egeland, the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), rejected assertions made earlier in the week by European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, who noted “some good signs” regarding aid distribution in Gaza.

“For NRC and many others no relief has entered for 142 days. Not one truck. Not one delivery,” Egeland wrote on X. He noted that 85 percent of aid trucks never reach their destination because of looting or other issues fuelled by the Gaza starvation crisis.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which Israel has banned from operating in the Palestinian territory, including in occupied East Jerusalem, said it had “enough food for the entire population of Gaza” waiting at the border crossing in Egypt.

“Open the gates, lift the siege and allow UNRWA to do its work,” the organisation said on X.

Wave of attacks

At least 116 Palestinians were killed in Gaza on Saturday as Israel continued its ruthless onslaught, bombing tents for the displaced and homes across the enclave.

Four bodies were recovered from the site of Israeli strikes on Bani Suheila near southern Khan Younis, sources at Nasser Hospital told Al Jazeera.

At least one person was killed by an Israeli drone attack on a tent housing displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis.

Further north, Israel struck a residential home in the town of az-Zawayda in central Gaza, killing the director of the Nuseirat police, Colonel Omar Saeed Aql, along with 11 of his family members, according to the Interior Ministry.

In Gaza City, three people were killed in two Israeli air attacks on the Zeitoun neighbourhood, according to a source at al-Ahli Hospital.

Also in the city, five people were killed in an Israeli air attack on the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Medical sources said two people were killed in Israeli shelling in the Jabalia an-Nazla neighbourhood, in northern Gaza.

Israeli forces also opened fire on and arrested three Palestinian fishermen off the Gaza coast, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office.

The Israeli military has maintained a naval blockade on Gaza since 2007, when Hamas took over the enclave, which has been tightened since the start of the war in October 2023.