IsraelPalestine

My brother recently sent me a copy of an Israeli military order that was found by farmers on our land and nearby plots in the occupied West Bank. The document, accompanied by a map, states that the land is being seized for military purposes.

It does not specify how long the land will be held and offers the landowners and users only seven days from an upcoming field visit – coordinated between the Israelis and the Palestinian Authority (PA) liaison office – to file an objection with the Israeli army’s legal adviser. This field visit typically serves to demarcate the boundaries of the confiscated land.

From our family’s past experience, confiscation under the guise of “security reasons” often precedes the establishment of a colonial settlement. This happened in 1973 when our family received a similar military order for land along the Jerusalem-Hebron Road. Within a week, a military post was established. Months later, a civilian settlement, Elazar, was erected in the same location.

What’s shocking this time is that this new order has barely made headlines despite the size of the land being slated for confiscation. According to the military order, it amounts to 5,758 dunums, or more than 5.7sq km (2.2sq miles). The confiscation is not arbitrary. At the centre of this particular area is the outpost of Sde Boaz, which was illegally established on private Palestinian land in 2002. The residents – about 50 families – are not fringe extremists. They’re middle-class professionals, including doctors, engineers and accountants.

This confiscation is one of many that have taken place in the past 21 months. Under the shadow of the genocidal war in Gaza, Israel has accelerated its annexation drive in the West Bank. The objective is to formally annex parts of what the Oslo Peace Accords designated as Area B, which is 21 percent of the West Bank, and the whole of Area C, which constitutes 60 percent of the West Bank and includes the whole of the Jordan Valley and Jerusalem countryside as well as other areas.

Most Palestinian farmland and pastures fall within this area as do a large number of Israel’s illegal settlements. My town, al-Khader (St George), owns more than 22,000 dunums (22sq km/8.5sq miles) of land, of which more than 20,500 (20.5sq km/7.9sq miles) are classified as Area C, 500 (half a square kilometre/0.2sq miles) as Area B, and less than 1,000 dunums (1sq km/0.4sq miles) as Area A.

Israeli settlers play an active role in advancing this annexation plan. This is not limited to seizing strategic hilltops but also includes systematic violence against Palestinians. The settler attacks on Palestinian property, the torture and killings of Palestinians are all part of an organised campaign intended to uproot Palestinians from Areas B and C to facilitate annexation. This strategy aligns with what Israeli policymakers refer to as “voluntary transfer”, a euphemism for ethnically cleansing Palestinians from their homeland.

All of this is illegal, according to international law, and goes against repeated resolutions by the United Nations and a 2024 ruling of the International Court of Justice. So who will stop Israel?

The PA, which nominally administers Area A in the occupied West Bank, will certainly not. Since its establishment as part of the Oslo peace process, the PA has not only failed to resist Israeli moves towards annexation, but it has also arguably facilitated them by working with Israel to stem out armed and even peaceful resistance that does not support its political agenda.

The international community is also unlikely to take decisive action. For decades, Western governments, in particular, have offered rhetorical condemnations while simultaneously providing security and economic support to Israel. These same actors who have failed to stop the ongoing genocide in Gaza are unlikely to object if Israel formalises its de facto annexation.

This was most recently evident during a diplomatic visit to Taybeh, a Palestinian village located northeast of Jerusalem and Ramallah. The visit, which included more than 20 diplomats from around the world, including European and American representatives, came in response to repeated attacks by Jewish settlers, who burned parts of the village’s land, including property belonging to the local church. That was all these countries were willing to do – send representatives to the area for a couple of hours to utter a few words of condemnation. Beyond that, it is business as usual in their relations with Israel.

What remains then is the resilience and agency of the Palestinian people and their principled political movements. In the current context, the mere presence of Palestinians on their land is an act of resistance.

To sustain this presence and strengthen their struggle, Palestinians must continue to mobilise global progressive and freedom-oriented movements to support their cause – not only in solidarity but also as part of a broader global fight against the far-right, racist, anti-justice forces that support Israel and simultaneously threaten civil rights and social justice in their own countries.

Solidarity activities at the global level should be strategic and impactful. They should focus on disrupting all components of the supply chain that benefit the Israeli occupation in general and settler colonialism in particular. This means citizens around the world in different sectors of society can contribute to the struggle for Palestine as both producers and consumers by heeding the call to boycott and divest from Israel.

Direct actions from the working class are crucial. Workers can integrate the Palestinian cause into their demands for better working conditions. For instance, public strikes in solidarity with Palestine, such as those organised by rail workers in European countries, might pressure governments to reconsider their support for Israel.

Similarly, port workers could strike to disrupt shipping linked to Israel, pushing governments to reassess their positions. Employees in high-tech industries can play a critical role in supporting Palestinians by demanding their companies align products, services and partnerships with international law, refusing to support technologies complicit in the Israeli occupation or settler violence. If companies refuse, workers can escalate to protest action, such as disrupting supply chains and whistleblowing.

In addition to expanding and strengthening Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) activities, there are other solidarity actions that could be carried out. In Palestine, individuals and groups can organise to accompany Palestinian farmers to their lands, serving as witnesses to settler and soldier attacks while helping to protect communities.

They can also help Palestinian farmers and other communities by assisting them in selling their products. This challenges the dominant business model that exploits small-scale producers. I can attest to the importance of such initiatives as I have begun facilitating the connection of local Palestinian producers with the European market through the Palestine General Cooperatives Union and Cooperatives UK.

With governments abrogating their legal obligations to stop genocide and colonisation, grassroots mobilisation for impactful actions is the only way to disrupt Israeli colonial activities. An active global movement can force Israeli citizens to confront and relinquish the racist, apartheid, and colonialist foundations of their society, prompting them to seek real change.

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

Deir el-Balah, Gaza – “There is no voice louder than hunger,” the Arabic proverb goes.

Now it has become a painful truth surrounding us, drawing closer with each passing day.

I never imagined that hunger could be more terrifying than the bombs and killing. This weapon caught us off-guard, something we never thought would be more brutal than anything else we’ve faced in this endless war.

It’s been four months without a single full meal for my family, nothing that meets even the basic needs on Maslow’s hierarchy.

My days revolve around hunger. One sister calls to ask about flour, and the other sends a message saying all they have is lentils.

My brother returns empty-handed from his long search for food for his two kids.

We woke up one day to the sound of our neighbour screaming in frustration.

“I’m going mad. What’s happening? I have money, but there’s nothing to buy,” she said when I came out to calm her down.

My phone doesn’t stop ringing. The calls are from crying women I met during fieldwork in displacement camps: “Ms Maram? Can you help with anything? A kilo of flour or something? … We haven’t eaten in days.”

This sentence echoes in my ears: “We haven’t eaten in days.” It is no longer shocking.

Famine is marching forwards in broad daylight, shamelessly in a world so proud of its “humanity”.

A second birthday amid scarcity

Iyas has woken up asking for a cup of milk today, his birthday.

He has turned two in the middle of a war. I wrote him a piece on his birthday last year, but now I look back and think: “At least there was food!”

A simple request from a child for some milk spins me into a whirlwind.

I’d already held a quiet funeral inside me weeks ago for the last of the milk, then rice, sugar, bulgur, beans – the list goes on.

Only four bags of pasta, five of lentils and 10 precious kilos (22lb) of flour remain – enough for two weeks if I ration tightly, and even that makes me luckier than most in Gaza.

Flour means bread – white gold people are dying for every single day.

Every cup I add to the dough feels heavy. I whisper to myself: “Just two cups”. Then I add a little more, then a bit more, hoping to somehow stretch these little bits into enough bread to last the day.

But I know I’m fooling myself. My mind knows this won’t be enough to quell hunger; it keeps warning me how little flour we have left.

I don’t know what I’m writing any more. But this is just what I’m living, what I wake up and fall asleep to.

What horrors remain?

I now think back on the morning bread-making routine I used to resent.

As a working mother, I once hated that long process imposed by war, which made me miss being able to buy bread from the bakery.

But now, that routine is sacred. Thousands of people across Gaza wish they could knead bread without end. I am one of them.

Now I handle flour with reverence, knead gently, cut the loaves carefully, roll them out and send them off to bake in the public clay oven with my husband, who lovingly balances the tray on his head.

A full hour under the sun at the oven just to get a warm loaf of bread, and we’re among the “lucky” ones. We are kings, the wealthy.

These “miserable” daily routines have become unattainable dreams for hundreds of thousands in Gaza.

Everyone is starving. Is it possible that this war still has more horrors in store?

We complained about displacement. Then our homes were bombed. We never returned.

We complained about the burdens of cooking over a fire, making bread, handwashing clothes and hauling water.

Now those “burdens” feel like luxuries. There’s no water. No soap. No supplies.

Iyas’s latest challenge

Two weeks ago, while being consumed by thoughts of how to stretch out the last handfuls of flour, another challenge appeared: potty training Iyas.

We ran out of diapers. My husband searched everywhere, returning empty-handed.

“No diapers, no baby formula, nothing at all.”

Just like that.

My God, how strange and harsh this child’s early years have been. War has imposed so many changes that we could not protect him from.

His first year was an endless hunt for baby formula, clean water and diapers.

Then came famine, and he grew up without eggs, fresh milk, vegetables, fruit or any of the basic nutrients a toddler needs.

I fought on, sacrificing what little health I had to continue breastfeeding until now.

It was difficult, especially while undernourished myself and trying to keep working, but what else could I do? The thought of raising a child with no nutrients at this critical stage is unbearable.

And so my little hero woke up one morning to the challenge of ditching diapers. I pitied him, staring in fear at the toilet seat, which looked to him like a deep tunnel or cave he might fall into. It took us two whole days to find a child’s seat for the toilet.

Every day was filled with training accidents, signs he wasn’t ready.

The hours I spent sitting by the toilet, encouraging him, were exhausting and frustrating. Potty training is a natural phase that should come when the child is ready.

Why am I and so many other mothers here forced to go through it like this, under mental strain, with a child who I haven’t had a chance to prepare?

So I fall asleep thinking about how much food we have left and wake up to rush my child to the toilet.

Rage and anxiety build up as I try to manage our precious water supply as soiled clothes pile up from the daily accidents.

Then came the expulsion orders in Deir el-Balah.

A fresh slap. The danger is growing as Israeli tanks creep closer.

And here I am: hungry, out of diapers, raising my voice at a child who can’t understand while the shelling booms around us.

Why must we live like this, spirits disintegrating every day as we wait for the next disaster?

Many have resorted to begging. Some have chosen death for a piece of bread or a handful of flour.

Others stay home, waiting for the tanks to arrive.

Many, like me, are simply waiting their turn to join the ranks of the starving without knowing what the end will look like.

They used to say time in Gaza is made of blood. But now, it’s blood, tears and hunger.

The famine we’re seeing in Gaza now is the most horrific stage of Israel’s starvation campaign, a UN expert on food has told Al Jazeera. He’s calling on countries to stop Israel starving Palestinians to death.

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.

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.

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.

Israel has bombed Gaza’s only Catholic church – the latest religious site hit in the war.

Hundreds of mosques were also damaged or destroyed, and cemeteries were obliterated, too.

In the occupied West Bank, attacks on Christians and Muslims are increasing.

Why is this happening?

Presenter: James Bays

Guests:

Reverend Mitri Raheb – Lutheran pastor and president of Dar al-Kalima University

Moataz El Fegiery – Vice president of EuroMed Rights

Michael Lynk – Professor emeritus in the Faculty of Law at Western University

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.

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.

Haaretz report says Israel plans to fly 16 social media influencers who support Trump’s MAGA and America First campaigns.

The Israeli foreign ministry will fund a tour of the country by right-wing social media influencers from the United States, says a report.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Sunday reported that the planned tour will feature 16 influencers, all under the age of 30, who support US President Donald Trump’s MAGA (Make America Great Again) and America First campaigns.

The influencers each have hundreds of thousands to millions of followers. They will be flown in to counter what the Israeli government sees as declining support for Israel among young Americans, the report said, without citing any date.

“With the rise of the America First movement and MAGA in American politics, it’s essential for Israel that the movement adopt a pro-Israel position,” Yacov Livne, senior deputy director of the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s Department of Public Diplomacy, was quoted as saying in the report.

The Israeli foreign ministry aims to bring 550 influencer delegations to Israel by the end of the year through such tours, it said.

“[While] older Republicans and American conservatives still hold pro-Israel views, positive perspectives towards Israel are falling across all younger age groups,” it said, according to the report.

The influencers will be pushed to share messaging that aligns with Israeli policy regarding the Palestinians. “We are working with influencers, sometimes with delegations of influencers,” an unnamed source from the ministry told Haaretz.

“Their networks have huge followings and their messages are more effective than if they came directly from the ministry.”

The tour will be carried out through an organisation called Israel365, which is in a “unique position to convey a pro-Israel stance that aligns entirely with the MAGA and America First agenda”, Haaretz quoted the foreign ministry as saying.

Israel365 promotes support for Israel, specifically among Christians, based on biblical principles. Its website says the group “stands unapologetically for the Jewish people’s God-given right to the entire Land of Israel”.

The organisation also rejects a two‑state solution as a “delusion” and describes its mission as defending “Western civilization against threats from both Progressive Left extremism and global jihad”.

The ministry said it has struck a 290,000-shekel ($86,000) deal to carry out the tour, Haaretz reported.

Since the war on Gaza began in October 2023, Israel365 “deepened ties with MAGA and America First movements, appearing at their major events and helping recruit prominent conservative figures to visit Israel”, the report added.

In the last two years, as well as its war on Gaza and increasingly violent occupation of the West Bank, Israel has launched attacks on Iran, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen.

The most recent attacks on Syria were launched this week, going so far as to hit the country’s Ministry of Defence.

Of course, the Israelis point to their justifications for the attacks on Syria – principally, in Israel’s telling, to defend the Syrian Druze minority. A US-brokered ceasefire has taken effect, but whether it holds remains to be seen.

In Lebanon, Israel claimed it wanted to stop the threat posed by Hezbollah.

The attacks on Iran, it said, were to end that country’s attempt to build a nuclear bomb.

And in Yemen, Israel’s bombing was a response to attacks from the country’s Houthi rebels.

Explanations aside, the question becomes whether the Israelis can continue to act in a manner that has many around the world, and particularly in the Middle East, seeing them as the aggressor.

Impunity over relationship-building

The Israeli argument is that all these conflicts – and the more than 58,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza – are necessary because Israel faces an existential battle that it has no choice but to win.

The Israeli government, in its current far-right makeup, at least, does not seem to care if its neighbours do not like it. Rather, it seems to care that they fear it.

And as the most powerful military force in the region, with the backing of the most powerful military force in the world, the Israelis feel that they can largely do what they want.

Israel is taking advantage of a weakening international order and a moment of flux in the way the world is run, particularly with the United States under President Donald Trump openly moving towards a more transactional foreign policy.

Western countries had previously attempted to maintain the idea of a liberal international order, where institutions such as the United Nations ensure that international law is followed.

But Israel’s actions, over decades, have made it increasingly hard to maintain the pretence.

The world has been unable to stop Israel from continuing its occupation of Palestinian land, even though it is illegal under international law.

Settlements continue to be built and expanded in the West Bank, and settlers continue to kill unarmed Palestinians.

Human rights organisations and international bodies have found that Israel has repeatedly violated the rules of war in its conduct in Gaza, and have accused the country of committing genocide, but can do little more.

Taking advantage

No other power wants, or feels strong enough, to take on the mantle the US is arguably vacating.

And until the rules get rewritten, it increasingly feels like might equals right. Israel, the only nuclear power in the region, is taking advantage.

Supporters of Israel’s actions in the past two years would also argue that those predicting negative consequences for its attacks have been proven wrong.

The main perceived threat to Israel was the Iranian-led Axis of Resistance, and the argument was that these countries and groups would strike Israel severely if the latter went too far in its attacks.

Israel did escalate, and the reaction from Iran and its allies was, in many cases, to choose to stand down rather than risk the total devastation of their countries or organisations.

Iran did attack Israel in a way that the country had not experienced before, with Tel Aviv being directly hit on numerous occasions.

But some of the worst-case scenario predictions did not take place, and ultimately, the direct conflict between Israel and Iran lasted 12 days, without the outbreak of a wider regional war.

In Lebanon, Israel can be even happier with the result.

After an intensified bombing campaign and invasion last year, Hezbollah lost its iconic leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and much of its military capacity, as well as some of its power in Lebanon. It is now, at least in the short term, no longer much of a threat to Israel.

Israeli hubris?

Israel seems to believe weak neighbours are good for it.

Much as in the case of Gaza and the occupied West Bank, the perception is that there is no real need to provide an endgame or next-day scenario.

Instead, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demonstrated, Israel can maintain chaos as far away as possible from its borders, as long as it maintains security inside.

But the current situation in Syria is an interesting example of what can go wrong, and when Israeli hubris may go too far.

Netanyahu has maintained that Syria south of Damascus must remain demilitarised.

His first argument was that this would ensure the safety of the Druze minority, thousands of whom also live in Israel and demanded that Israel protect their brethren following violence involving Bedouin fighters and government forces.

The second argument was that the new authorities in Syria cannot be trusted because of the new leadership’s past ties to groups such as al-Qaeda.

After Israel’s bombing and some US prodding, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa agreed to withdraw government security forces from the Druze-majority province of Suwayda on Thursday, warning that while Israel “may be capable of starting a war”, it would “not be easy to control its consequences”.

By Friday, it had become clear that thousands of Bedouin – and other tribal forces – were headed to support the Bedouins in Suwayda after reports of massacres against them.

Al-Sharaa, presumably with the acquiescence of Israel, announced that Syrian government forces would deploy in Suwayda to end the ongoing clashes there, and a new ceasefire was declared on Saturday.

As it happens, the presence of a strong state with control over its territory may be more effective than allowing anarchy to reign.

Blowback

If anything, Israel’s actions in Syria will increase its regional isolation and raise eyebrows among countries that could have been seen as potential allies.

Saudi Arabia has emphasised its support for the new Syrian government, and Israel’s behaviour will add to Riyadh’s feeling, post-Gaza, that any “Abraham Accords” normalising ties cannot happen in the short term.

For many countries in the Middle East, particularly in the Gulf, Israeli hegemony, especially with the rise of messianic far-right forces in its government, leads to war, expansionism, chaos, and security risks.

And Israel’s short-term military gains run the risk of blowback elsewhere.

Iran’s military capabilities may have been heavily damaged in its war with Israel, but Tehran will likely seek to shift tactics to undermine Israel in other ways in the years to come, while improving its defences and potentially focusing on achieving a nuclear weapon.

As mentioned, the opinions of regional countries may not be the highest priority to the current crop of Israeli leaders, as long as they continue to have US support.

But that does not mean that – in the long term – Israel will not increasingly face blowback for its actions, both diplomatically and in terms of its security.

Domestically, constant wars, even if beyond Israel’s borders, do not provide a sense of long-term security for any populace.

The percentage of military reservists answering call-ups has already reportedly been decreasing. In a country where the majority of the military personnel are reservists who have jobs, businesses and families to take care of, it is difficult to maintain a permanent military footing indefinitely.

That has contributed to an increasing divide in Israel between a dominant ultranationalist camp that wants to fight first and ask questions later, annex Palestinian land, and force regional acceptance through brute force, and a more centrist camp that – while perhaps not prioritising alleviating Palestinian suffering – is more sensitive to international isolation and sanctions, while attempting to hold on to a “liberal Zionist” image of Israel.

Should current trends continue, and the ultranationalist camp retain its dominance, Israel can continue to use its military power and US backing to yield short-term successes.

But by sowing chaos around its borders and flouting international norms, it is breeding resentment among its neighbours and losing support among its traditional allies – even in the US, where public support is slipping.

A more isolated Israel can do what it wants today, but without a long-term strategy for peace, stability and mutual respect with its neighbours – including the Palestinians – it may not be able to escape the consequences tomorrow.

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.

I have a big Palestinian family. I grew up in a household full of children: We are eight brothers and sisters. As my older siblings started getting married and having children, our family grew even bigger. Every weekend, our family home would fill up with children’s laughter.

I used to wait impatiently for Thursday to come, the day my married sisters would come to visit us with their children. My father would be out shopping, my mother – busy cooking her daughters’ favourite dishes, and I would be playing with the kids. I have nine nieces and nephews in total, and I have beautiful memories playing with and cuddling each one of them. They are the treasure of my family because a home without children is like a tree without leaves.

Despite the difficult life of occupation and siege in Gaza, my sisters and brothers did their best to provide for their children and give them the best opportunity to study and pursue their dreams.

Then the genocide started. The relentless bombing, the constant displacement, the starvation.

I do not have children of my own, but I feel the excruciating pain of my sisters when they face the cries of their hungry children.

“I no longer have the strength to endure. I am tired of thinking about how to fill my children’s empty stomachs. What can I prepare for them?” my sister Samah shared recently.

She has seven children: Abdulaziz, 20, Sondos, 17, Raghad, 15, Ali, 11, twins Mahmoud and Lana, 8, and Tasneem, 3. Like most other Palestinian families, they have been displaced so many times that they have lost most of their possessions. The last time they saw their home in Shujayea neighbourhood, its walls were blown off, but its roof was still standing on the pillars. The plot of land in front of their house, which was planted with olive and lemon trees, had been bulldozed.

Samah’s family has relied on canned food since the beginning of the war. Since Israel blocked aid in early March and aid distribution stopped, they have struggled to find cans of beans or chickpeas. Now, they are lucky if they manage to find a bowl of lentil soup or a loaf of bread.

Day after day, Samah has had to watch her children suffer, losing weight and falling sick.

Lana is suffering the most. She is 110cm (3 feet 7 inches), but weighs just 13kg (28.7 pounds). Her parents took her to a clinic where she was examined and confirmed to have severe malnutrition. She was registered in a programme for the distribution of nutritional supplements, but she has not received anything yet. There are none available.

Lana’s yellow body is so weak that she is unable to stand for long periods or walk in the event that they are suddenly forced to flee. All she wants is to sleep and sit without being able to play with her brother. I cannot believe what has become of her: she used to be a red-cheeked girl full of energy, who used to play with her siblings all the time.

We regularly hear news about children dying from malnutrition, and this is Samah’s worst fear: that she could lose her daughter.

Despite struggling to feed her family, Samah refuses to allow her husband, Mohammed, to go to one of the aid distribution points of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. She knows this is a death trap. She would not have him risk his life for a parcel of food he may not even be able to obtain.

Amid the starvation, my other sister, Asma, gave birth to her second child, Wateen. She is now two months old, and because of a lack of nutrition, she is suffering from jaundice. I have only seen Wateen in photos. She weighed two and a half kilograms (5.5 pounds) when she was born. She looked yellow and sleepy in all her photos.

The doctors said her mother, who is breastfeeding, cannot provide her with the nutrients she needs because she herself is undernourished. Wateen needs to be fed with highly saturated formula milk, which is not available because Israel has been blocking the delivery of all baby formula into Gaza.

Asmaa is now worried that Wateen may develop malnutrition because she is unable to provide her with nutritious milk. “I’m melting like a candle! When will this suffering end?” she told me recently.

My heart is tearing apart when I talk with my sisters and hear about their pain and the hunger that is ravaging their children.

The Israeli occupation forces have already killed more than 18,000 children since it embarked on the genocide. Some 1.1 million are still surviving. Israel wants to make sure they have no future.

This is not an unfortunate consequence of war; it is a war strategy.

Malnutrition is not just a severe loss of weight. It is a devastating condition that damages the body’s vital internal organs, such as the liver, kidneys, and stomach. It affects the growth and development of children and results in higher predisposition to disease, learning difficulties, cognitive impairment and psychological issues.

By starving Palestinian children, depriving them of education and health care, the occupier aims to achieve one goal: creating a fragile generation, weak in mind and constitution, unable to think, and with no horizon other than searching for food, drink, and shelter. This means a generation that is unable to defend the right to its land and stand up to the occupier. A generation that does not understand the existential struggle of its people.

The war plan is clear, and the goal has been stated publicly by Israeli officials. The question now is, will the world let Israel destroy Gaza’s children?

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

Israeli forces have shot and killed a Palestinian child in the occupied West Bank amid more violent raids by soldiers and settlers, and as Israeli authorities position to confiscate more land.

Local Palestinian sources reported on Friday that 13-year-old Amr Ali Qabha was hit with live ammunition in a street in Yabad, located south of Jenin, and was denied medical treatment as soldiers prevented ambulances from reaching him.

Qabha’s father also tried to reach him, but was severely beaten and detained by Israeli soldiers, according to the Wafa news agency, which said the child was pronounced dead at the hospital after an ambulance was finally able to get him there.

More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed across the occupied West Bank since Israel’s war on Gaza began on October 7, 2023. Of that figure, at least 204 were children.

The United Nations humanitarian office (OCHA) said on Friday that at least 14 Palestinian deaths and 355 injuries were recorded in the West Bank last month, while there were at least 129 Israeli settler attacks resulting in Palestinian casualties or property damage.

According to OCHA figures, between the beginning of 2024 and the end of June 2025, more than 2,200 Israeli settler attacks were reported, resulting in more than 5,200 Palestinian injuries.

In that same period, nearly 36,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced across the West Bank due to Israeli military operations, settler violence or home demolitions carried out by the Israeli government.

Ongoing raids and harassment

The deadly incident on Friday came as Israeli soldiers continued their raids across the occupied territory that were accompanied by arrests, and assisted settlers in their attacks aimed at driving Palestinians from their lands.

In Jenin’s village of Raba, Israeli forces fired tear gas at Palestinians, including children, who were protesting against the confiscation of their land and property.

In the town of Dura, located south of Hebron, five Palestinians were detained after a raid that included the ransacking of several homes.

Six more were arrested in Qalqiliya’s village of Kafr Laqif, with another two taken from the village of Sir in the same district.

A Palestinian man was arrested in Bethlehem after being summoned by Israeli intelligence to the Gush Etzion settlement. Two people were taken during a raid on Nablus, with one shot and wounded before his arrest. Another arrest was reported in the Askar refugee camp.

In the village of Umm Safa near Ramallah, Israeli soldiers destroyed a main water pipeline, which left about 1,000 residents without water.

In the neighbourhood of Beit Hanina in occupied East Jerusalem, families living in a residential building were forced to leave in preparation for the demolition of their homes. The Palestinian families were among those forced to demolish the buildings themselves after an order by Israeli authorities, because the municipality would fine them more if it demolishes the building.

Armed Israeli settlers launched a violent attack earlier on Friday in the village of al-Malih in the northern Jordan Valley, located northeast of the occupied territory. They killed at least 117 sheep belonging to Palestinians, stole more livestock and vandalised tents and other property, according to Wafa.

Israel’s plan to divide future Palestinian state

Israeli authorities are planning to illegally confiscate more Palestinian land as well, despite international criticism.

The United Kingdom on Friday opposed Israel’s announcement of its intention to renew plans for construction in the E1 area in the occupied West Bank, a move that would split the Palestinian territory.

“The UK strongly opposes the announcement by the central planning bureau of Israel’s Civil Administration to reintroduce the E1 settlement plan, frozen since 2021,” said a Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson.

The plan would include the construction of more than 3,000 houses to the east of Jerusalem, dividing a future Palestinian state in two, read the statement, and “marking a flagrant breach of international law”.

US Democratic Senators Bernie Sanders, Peter Welch, Jeff Merkley and Chris Van Hollen issued a joint statement on Friday condemning Israel’s longstanding plan to destroy and force out Palestinian communities in Masafer Yatta, in the South Hebron Hills.

Amid frequent attacks by settlers and troops in the area, Israeli authorities are advancing with plans to turn the Masafer Yatta area into an “open fire” zone for their military.

At least 26 Palestinians have been killed since dawn across Gaza in Israeli attacks, medical sources have told Al Jazeera, as the besieged and bombarded enclave’s decimated health system, overwhelmed by a daily flow of wounded, is forcing doctors to make decisions on who to treat first.

In the latest killings on Friday, three people died in an Israeli attack on the Tuffah neighbourhood of eastern Gaza City. Five people were also killed in an Israeli air attack in Jabalia an-Nazla, in northern Gaza.

Earlier, an Israeli attack hit tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in al-Mawasi, southern Gaza – previously designated a so-called “safe zone” – igniting a major fire and killing at least five people, including infants. Al-Mawasi has come under repeated, deadly Israeli fire.

The death toll also includes includes six people who were desperately seeking aid.

Al Jazeera’s correspondent Hani Mahmoud said the injured, including children, were transferred to Nasser Hospital. Some showed wounds compatible with drone attacks.

“Drone missiles are packed with nails, metals and shrapnel that explodes at high speed, causing internal bleeding,” Mahmoud said. “These attacks are on the rise and target people in large crowds, in markets or while queueing for water.

“While Israel claims to be using sophisticated weapons, when we look on the ground, we see the number of casualties contradicting what Israel is [saying],” he added.

‘What should we do? Die at home?’

Israel’s ongoing, punishing blockade of Gaza is forcing doctors in crammed medical facilities to make difficult decisions about who to treat.

Patients with chronic illnesses are often the first to miss out because emergency departments are overwhelmed by people wounded in Israeli attacks.

“Before the war, I used to receive dialysis three times a week, with each session lasting four hours. At that time, the situation was stable, the treatment was effective, and we would return home feeling well and rested,” Omda Dagmash, a dialysis patient, told Al Jazeera at the barely functioning al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

“Now we can barely make the journey to the hospital, particularly since we are not eating well.”

At al-Shifa, the dialysis schedule has been scaled down to shorter and less frequent sessions. For some, it is a matter of life and death.

“The journey here is long and costly,” said Rowaida Minyawi, an elderly patient. “After all this exhaustion, we sometimes can’t find treatment. I have heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. Even the medicine we get is not good. What should we do? Die at home?”

Besides prioritising patients, healthcare workers say they have to scale back operations to the minimum, as no fuel means no power – and no way to save lives.

“Only a few departments are working. We had to cut electricity to the rest,” said Ziad Abu Humaidan, from the hospital’s engineering department.

“The hospital’s yards turned into graveyards rather than a place of care and healing. Without electricity, there is no lighting, no functioning medical equipment, and no support for other essential services.”

Waning support in Israel for war

According to a public opinion survey conducted by the Israeli news outlet Maariv, about 44 percent of the Israeli public said the continued war in Gaza will not achieve the country’s goals.

A total of 42 percent of those surveyed said they believe the fighting will lead to achieving the goals, while 11 percent of the respondents said they are undecided.

Maariv also noted that of those who support the current coalition government, 73 percent think the military will achieve its goals, while 70 percent of opposition supporters think otherwise.

In the meantime, Israel faced a rare backlash on Thursday after it bombed Gaza’s only Catholic church, killing three people and wounding at least 10.

United States President Donald Trump contacted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after having “not a positive reaction” to the strike, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

After the call, Netanyahu attributed the strike to “stray ammunition” and added that Israel was investigating the incident.

Hamas slammed the attack as “a new crime committed against places of worship and innocent displaced persons” that comes in the context of a “war of extermination against the Palestinian people”.

Khan Younis, Gaza Strip – Eighteen-year-old Hani Hammad never imagined that his daily search for flour would end with him suffocating and being trampled.

On Wednesday morning, he left his tent in the al-Mawasi area of southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, where he’s been displaced from Rafah along with his seven siblings, heading to a food distribution point run by the much-criticised, United States-backed GHF.

“We left at dawn and stood among the thousands gathered. About 5am [02:00 GMT], they [US staff and Israeli army] signalled to open the gate, and people rushed forward,” Hani told Al Jazeera.

“The gate was open, but people were packed into a very narrow corridor leading to it – only about seven metres wide,” he said, struggling to catch his breath after arriving at Nasser Hospital gasping and barely conscious.

“I got in with the crowd with difficulty. Suddenly, American guards started spraying pepper spray and firing gas bombs, and people began stampeding through the corridor,” he added.

‘I collapsed. They trampled my face.’

“I felt like I was dying. I couldn’t move forward or backwards. I collapsed. My face and side were trampled. No one could pull me out. But God gave me a second chance,” Hani said.

He was rushed unconscious to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on a tuk-tuk and initially placed beside the bodies of others who had died, some from suffocation, others from bullet wounds.

“I was unconscious, couldn’t see or hear. I drifted in and out. They put me beside the dead. I thought I was one of them.”

Early Wednesday, 21 Palestinians were killed, including 15 by suffocation, while trying to collect food aid.

The incident occurred near a gate managed by the GHF in western Khan Younis. Dozens more were reportedly injured, with some still in intensive care.

Hani is the oldest of eight siblings who live next to their uncle’s tent – their parents remain in Jordan, where they travelled for medical treatment just a month before the war began.

“I feel like I carry a huge burden. We’ve endured the pressures of displacement and war without our parents and without any help from them,” he said.

Though he acknowledges that lining up for aid from the GHF is a major daily risk, he adds: “Our intense hunger pushes me to go every day.”

“There’s no other choice. I have no money to buy the overpriced goods available in the markets. My only option is to try my luck with aid distributions,” says the young man.

“Each time is a near-death experience. There’s gunfire, tanks, drones and attacks. What kind of aid distribution is this? We are exhausted, truly exhausted.”

“We’re shot at like animals”

Mohammed Abedin, 24, now lies in a hospital bed with a leg wound after heading to the same aid centre in Khan Younis early Wednesday.

For the first time, he says, he chose to turn back after sensing the danger of the crowd surge.

The young man, a first-year accounting student, arrived about 3am (00:00 GMT) at the distribution site, but he noticed that things looked different. The same site had been closed for two days before reopening.

“Before, we used to enter from several access points, and the entryway was wide. But this time, we were funnelled through one long, narrow corridor, fenced in with metal,” he says.

“When the gates opened, everyone rushed forward, and people began falling underfoot.”

Mohammed described a terrifying scene of people crushed against the metal barriers, screaming and gasping for help, as pepper spray and gas bombs were fired by American guards and quadcopters above.

“I was standing close to my cousin, watching. We decided not to go in because of the overwhelming numbers. I saw kids screaming, choking, men and youth trapped. No one could move forward or back.”

“The fenced corridor, with gas bombs raining down and people being pushed through, became a death trap,” he says.

Mohammed and his cousin tried to leave, but just as he thought he had made a wise choice, a quadcoptor shot him in the leg. His cousin was also injured.

“There’s always random gunfire from quadcaptors, tanks, or soldiers in the area. This time, I was the unlucky one,” he said. “But thank God, I survived.”

Mohammed reflects on the tragic situation faced by Palestinians, caught between starvation and death, forced to risk their lives for food. He supports his displaced family of nine, originally from Rafah and now sheltering in al-Mawasi.

“We dream daily of eating bread. I go for aid almost every day and usually return empty-handed. But the days I brought home just a few kilos of flour felt like ‘an eid’ [a celebration] for my family.”

Flour is the top priority for Mohammed, especially with Gaza being under siege for four months, the borders sealed, and humanitarian and commercial goods blocked by Israel.

“Bread is what drives me to risk death. There’s no alternative,” he said, awaiting surgery at Nasser Hospital to remove a bullet from his leg. “Has the world failed to provide a safe channel for aid delivery?”

“There’s no system, no organised relief, no police or UN intervention. We’re shot at like animals. If we don’t die of hunger, we die in the chaos and stampedes.”

In late May 2025, the GHF launched its aid distribution efforts in Gaza following an Israeli-imposed near-total blockade, which is still in effect and has prevented the entry of humanitarian supplies.

According to United Nations figures, at least 798 Palestinians have been killed since then while trying to reach or receive aid from the organisation’s distribution points.

Widespread criticism has emerged from UN agencies and rights organisations that argue the operation is politicised and endangers civilians. The UN has stated that the GHF’s operations violate humanitarian neutrality and are inherently unsafe, highlighted by the hundreds of deaths at their sites.

“Either we return with flour, or we don’t return at all”

Ziad Masad Mansour, 43, displaced with his wife and six children from central Gaza to al-Mawasi in Khan Younis after their home was destroyed in the war, is another frequent visitor to the aid lines.

“I head there at 10 at night and sleep on the sand like thousands of others. We endure the dust and humiliation,” said Mansour, who was wounded in the head on Wednesday.

“Sometimes I manage to get flour, sometimes a few cans. Other times, I return empty-handed. I even help others carry their bags in exchange for some food.”

“Yesterday, there was horrific crowding: gas bombs, bullets, and we were packed tightly in the narrow corridor. I was trying to escape the crush when I got shot in the head and lost consciousness.”

Mansour is now recovering at Nasser Hospital. “More than 20 people died today – for a bag of flour. What more is there to say?”

Washington, DC – The family of Sayfollah Musallet, the United States citizen who was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank last week, is calling for justice.

Musallet’s relatives want Washington to launch its own investigation into the incident to ensure accountability.

The Florida-born 20-year-old is the ninth US citizen to be killed by Israeli settlers or soldiers since 2022. None of the previous cases have led to criminal charges or US sanctions against the perpetrators.

That lack of response is what advocates call a “pattern of impunity”, wherein Washington demands a probe without placing any significant pressure on Israel to produce results.

In Musallet’s case, the administration of President Donald Trump urged Israel to “aggressively” investigate the killing.

“There must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act,” Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, said in a statement on Tuesday.

It is not clear if the US has taken any further actions to seek justice in the aftermath of the fatal beating.

Critics say the “pattern of impunity” stems in part from the historically close bonds between the US and Israel. Successive presidential administrations in the US have affirmed their “unwavering” support for Israel, and the US provides Israel with billions of dollars in military aid annually.

Here, Al Jazeera looks at who the eight other victims were, how the US has responded to their killing and where their cases stand.

Omar Assad

Assad, a 78-year-old Palestinian American, was driving home in the occupied West Bank after visiting friends on January 12, 2022, when Israeli soldiers stopped him at a checkpoint.

According to the autopsy report and his family’s account, the troops dragged Assad out of his car and then handcuffed, gagged and blindfolded him, leaving him to die at a cold construction site.

The administration of then-President Joe Biden called on Israel to launch a criminal investigation into the incident.

But Assad’s relatives and lawmakers from his home state of Milwaukee wanted Washington to conduct its own probe – a demand that never materialised.

As is often the case, Israel’s investigation into its own soldiers’ conduct did not lead to any criminal charges.

In 2023, the Israeli army said that it found no “causal link” between the way its soldiers treated Assad and his death.

The Biden administration also declined to apply sanctions under US law to the Israeli unit that killed Assad: the Netzah Yehuda, a battalion notorious for its abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Last year, the US Department of State announced that the battalion will still be eligible for US aid under the Leahy Law, which prohibits military assistance for security units involved in human rights violations.

Shireen Abu Akleh

Abu Akleh, a veteran Al Jazeera reporter, was fatally shot by Israeli forces during a raid in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on May 11, 2022.

Owing to her status as one of the most celebrated journalists in the Middle East, her killing sparked international outrage from rights groups and press freedom advocates.

Despite the global attention, Israeli forces attacked her funeral in Jerusalem, beating the pallbearers carrying her coffin with batons.

Israel initially denied killing Abu Akleh, 51, falsely claiming that the reporter was shot by armed Palestinians.

Months later, after multiple visual investigations showed that Israeli soldiers targeted Abu Akleh, Israel acknowledged that its forces likely killed the reporter, dismissing the incident as an accident.

The Biden administration faced waves of pleas by legislators and rights groups to launch its own investigation into the killing, but it resisted the calls, arguing that Israel is capable of investigating itself.

In November 2022, Israeli media reports claimed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was investigating the shooting of Abu Akleh, but the US Department of Justice never confirmed the probe.

More than three years after Abu Akleh’s killing, her family and supporters say justice in her case has not been served.

Tawfiq Ajaq

Born in Louisiana, Ajaq was 17 when he visited the occupied West Bank to see his relatives last year.

On January 19, 2024, he was driving a pick-up truck with his friends when Israelis sprayed the vehicle with bullets and killed him.

Mohammed Salameh, who witnessed and survived the attack, said the shooting was unprovoked.

While it is not clear which individual shot Ajaq, Israel said the incident involved “an off-duty law enforcement officer, a soldier and a civilian” and was sparked by “rock-throwing activities” – a claim that Salameh has denied.

The US State Department called for an “urgent investigation to determine the circumstance” of the incident.

But more than 19 months after the shooting, Israel has not publicly released any findings or charged any suspect in the shooting.

“We feel abandoned by our government,” Ajaq’s uncle, Mohammad Abdeljabbar, told Al Jazeera last year.

Mohammad Khdour

Khdour was also 17 when he was killed under almost identical circumstances to Ajaq just weeks later.

According to his cousin Malek Mansour, who witnessed the attack, an unidentified assailant opened fire at their car in the occupied West Bank from a vehicle with an Israeli number plate.

Mansour said the attack was unprovoked. Khdour died on February 10, 2024.

The two had been eating cookies and taking selfies moments before the shooting.

Once again, Washington called for a probe.

“There needs to be an investigation. We need to get the facts. And if appropriate, there needs to be accountability,” then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters at that time.

But advocates say that, while normally Israel launches sham investigations into such incidents, Israeli authorities have not acknowledged Khdour’s killing at all.

The Israeli military and police told the publication Haaretz last year that they are not familiar with the case.

Jacob Flickinger

An Israeli air strike targeted a World Central Kitchen (WCK) vehicle in Gaza on April 1, 2024, killing seven aid workers, sparking anger and condemnation across the world.

Among the victims was Flickinger, a 33-year-old US-Canadian dual citizen.

Biden called for a “swift” Israeli investigation into the attack, which he said “must bring accountability”.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the blast a “tragic accident”.

The Israeli military said the commander who ordered the strike had “mistakenly assumed” that gunmen in the area were in the aid vehicle.

It added that the commander did not identify the car as associated with World Central Kitchen, a well-known hunger relief initiative founded by celebrity chef Jose Andres.

A World Central Kitchen logo was displayed prominently on the top of the vehicle before the attack.

Israel said it dismissed two commanders over the incident, but there were no criminal charges.

Since then, Israel has killed hundreds of aid workers in Gaza, including Palestinian staff members from World Central Kitchen.

Last year, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza as well as other alleged war crimes.

Aysenur Ezgi Eygi

Eygi, born in Washington state, was participating in a protest against an illegal settler outpost in the West Bank on September 6, 2024, when an Israeli soldier shot her in the head.

She was 26.

While there were reports of a scuffle during a crackdown on the demonstration by Israeli forces, several witnesses have said that Eygi was shot during a calm period after the chaos had ended.

The State Department called on Israel to “quickly and robustly” investigate Eygi’s killing, but it ruled out conducting its own probe.

Biden dismissed her death as an “accident”, but Blinken condemned it as “unprovoked and unjustified”.

On the same day that Eygi was fatally shot by Israel, the US Justice Department ​filed charges against Hamas leaders after the killing of US-Israeli captive Hersh Goldberg-Polin in Gaza.

The Israeli military said its soldiers likely killed Eygi “indirectly and unintentionally” – a conclusion that her family called offensive, stressing that she was targeted by a sniper.

“The disregard shown for human life in the inquiry is appalling,” the family said in a statement.

Trump ally Randy Fine, now a Congress member, celebrated the killing of Eygi. “One less #MuslimTerrorist,” he wrote in a social media post, referring to the shooting.

Kamel Jawad

When Jawad, a celebrated leader in the Lebanese American community in Michigan, was killed by an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon on October 1 of last year, the Biden administration initially denied he was a US citizen.

Washington later acknowledged that Jawad was American, expressing “alarm” over his killing.

“As we have noted repeatedly, it is a moral and strategic imperative that Israel take all feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm. Any loss of civilian life is a tragedy,” the US State Department said at that time.

Israel has not commented publicly on the strike that killed Jawad.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) slammed the Biden administration’s handling of the case, including the US government’s initial “smug” response.

“It’s as if they’re intentionally trying to see our people killed, intentionally downplaying us and dehumanising us,” ADC executive director Abed Ayoub told Al Jazeera last year.

Amer Rabee

On April 6, Israeli forces in the West Bank fatally shot 14-year-old Rabee, a New Jersey native, and called him a “terrorist”. Two of his friends were also injured in the attack.

While the Israeli military accused Rabee and his friends of throwing rocks at Israeli vehicles, the slain teenager’s family insisted that he was picking almonds on the side of the road.

The Trump administration failed to pursue accountability in the case or even publicly press for further details about the incident.

Instead, the State Department cited the Israeli account about the 14-year-old’s killing.

“We offer our sincerest condolences to the family on their loss,” the State Department said at that time. “We acknowledge the [Israeli military’s] initial statement that expressed that this incident occurred during a counter-terrorism operation.”