Middle East

US special envoy Steve Witkoff accuses Palestinian group of showing ‘a lack of desire’ to reach a ceasefire in Gaza.

United States special envoy Steve Witkoff has said he is cutting short talks aimed at reaching a truce in Israel’s war on Gaza, after the latest proposal from Hamas showed “a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire”.

Witkoff made the announcement in a statement on Thursday, just hours after the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had also recalled its negotiating team from Qatar amid the latest diplomatic flurry.

There was no immediate comment from Hamas. The group has repeatedly accused Israel of blocking a ceasefire agreement.

Earlier in the day, Hamas had submitted its latest response to a ceasefire framework floated by mediators Qatar, Egypt and the US. Netanyahu’s office confirmed receipt of the response, and said it was under review. Neither side disclosed the contents.

Both Israel and Hamas are facing growing international pressure to reach an agreement as the humanitarian and hunger crisis in the territory continues to deteriorate sharply amid Israel’s severe restrictions on the entry of aid.

At least 115 people have died from malnutrition since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023, mostly in recent weeks, as the United Nations and aid agencies have warned that Gaza’s residents were facing mass starvation.

“While the mediators have made a great effort, Hamas does not appear to be coordinated or acting in good faith,” Witkoff said in a statement.

“We will now consider alternative options to bring the hostages home and try to create a more stable environment for the people of Gaza,” Witkoff said, without elaborating.

Witkoff, a businessman with no formal diplomatic experience prior to his appointment, said the US remains “resolute” in seeking an end to the war in Gaza, adding it was “a shame that Hamas has acted in this selfish way”.

The current proposal under discussion has been reported to include a 60-day ceasefire in which Hamas would release 10 living captives and the remains of 18 others. In turn, Palestinians imprisoned by Israel would be released and aid supplies would be ramped up as the two sides held negotiations on a lasting truce.

Details of the current sticking point were not immediately clear, but officials from both sides have previously pointed to a dispute over what would happen in the wake of any new ceasefire.

Israel has repeatedly said it plans to deploy the military long term in Gaza, seeking a complete defeat of Hamas, despite warnings that such a goal is unrealistic.

Earlier this month, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz reportedly laid out a plan for the forced transfer of Palestinians to a “humanitarian city” within Gaza, a maximalist approach that critics say would violate international law.

Israel’s government has also faced domestic pressure over the plan, amid fears it would foreclose ceasefire negotiations and block the release of captives still held in Gaza.

Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi said it remained unclear whether the US withdrawal from the talks was a “negotiating tactic”.

“It’s a very sternly worded tweet, talking about ‘alternative options for a more stable environment for the people of Gaza,’” he said.

“We know that Trump simply hasn’t ruled out ethnic cleansing, so-called ‘self deportation’, in his words, of Palestinians.”

“Right now, we simply don’t know whether it’s a negotiating position or the end of the negotiations,” Rattansi said.

Israel’s war in Gaza has killed at least 59,587 Palestinians since it began in the wake of the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed at least 1,139 people.

This week, more than 100 aid groups blamed Israel’s restrictions on aid for “mass starvation” in the enclave.

Washington, DC – Josephine Guilbeau’s voice remained steady as it rose with anger and frustration outside the United States Capitol while she described the Israeli-imposed hunger crisis in Gaza.

“The level of evil that it takes to make a decision to starve a baby as a means of war, as a weapon of war – what have we come to as a humanity? What have we come to as a country?” the 17-year US Army veteran said on Thursday.

Guilbeau had joined several fellow veterans, doctors, former officials and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib in calling on the lawmakers and President Donald Trump to listen to the US public and end unconditional support for Israel.

The advocates banged on empty pots outside the Capitol to draw attention to the starvation in Gaza, where many have not eaten in days and more than 100 have died of hunger due to the Israeli blockade, according to United Nations agencies and local health officials.

Holding photos of famished Palestinian children, doctors and veterans stressed the US role in enabling Israel’s conduct through military aid, weapons provision and diplomatic support.

Tlaib called on her colleagues in Congress to join their constituents in opposing Israeli atrocities.

Recent public opinion polls have shown growing US public discontent with Israel over its treatment of Palestinians, but Congress remains staunchly supportive of Israel on a bipartisan basis.

“Americans serving in Congress, wake up because the American people are telling you over and over again: We’re not in support of this,” Tlaib told reporters outside the US Capitol.

“So maybe for once, would you listen to your constituency? Poll them like you like you poll everything else. They will tell you they do not want one goddamn freaking dime going to starve a whole people.”

‘Stop enabling the genocide’

Tlaib appeared to criticise a vote by her progressive ally Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez against a measure to stop $500m in missile defence aid to Israel.

Only six lawmakers voted in favour of the amendment, introduced by Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, last week.

Ocasio-Cortez, who was one of 422 legislators to vote against the proposal, argued that cutting off “defensive” aid to Israel does not help end the bombardment of Palestinians.

Tlaib, however, suggested on Thursday that she is not convinced by that justification.

“No matter what weapons – I don’t care if it’s offensive or defensive, whatever you call it – let’s stop enabling the genocide,” the Palestinian American congresswoman said.

Although Ocasio-Cortez has described Israel’s war on Gaza as genocide and supported measures to restrict arms to Israel, her vote last week stirred a backlash from left-wing activists who said any weapons to Israel would enable its bombardment campaign against Palestinians.

Washington provides Israel with billions of dollars in military assistance annually despite allegations of rights violations that would make the country ineligible for security aid under US law.

UN experts and leading rights groups have accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.

Stacy Gilbert, who resigned from the US Department of State last year after a 20-year career in protest to a government report denying that Israel is blocking aid to Palestinians, said on Thursday that the starvation in Gaza is the result of a “deliberate” decision by Israel.

“I am calling on Trump to make a break with this policy that started under Joe Biden, this disastrous policy of unconditional military support for Israel,” Gilbert told reporters.

Doctor says Trump ‘failed’ supporters

Nidal Jboor, a Michigan-based physician with the advocacy group Doctors Against Genocide, also warned Trump against following the same policies as his predecessor, stressing that the US president has the power and leverage to end the war.

“If you don’t stop it today, then you are as sleepy as Joe was. It’s your call,” Jboor said, invoking Trump’s moniker for Biden, “Sleepy Joe”.

“This is not who we are. Americans are better than this. What we are supporting in Gaza does not make America great again. Shut down the killing zone. Flood Gaza with aid. End the genocide. History will remember at this point and this moment what we did and what we failed to do.”

During the election race last year, Trump courted the sizable Arab and Muslim communities in Michigan with promises of bringing peace to the region.

The US president initially took credit for a truce that came into effect in January. But shortly after taking office earlier this year, he proposed removing all Palestinians from Gaza – a plan that rights advocates say would amount to ethnic cleansing, a crime against humanity.

Moreover, he has continued to arm Israel, and his administration has backed Israel’s resumption of the war in March, the siege on Gaza and the upending of the aid system in the territory.

Jboor said Trump “failed” his Arab and Muslim supporters.

“People were voting for him because he promised peace, and now he’s breaking his promises,” the doctor told Al Jazeera.

US touts GHF

In May, the US and Israel launched an initiative to monopolise aid distribution through a private entity, dubbed GHF.

But Palestinians and rights groups have described GHF aid distribution sites, concentrated in the south of Gaza, deep inside areas under Israeli army control, as death traps.

Israeli troops have been opening fire daily at aid seekers, killing hundreds of people.

While the US proudly proclaims that GHF has distributed 90 million meals since May, the tally amounts to a fraction of the food needed to feed the territory’s two million people.

In recent weeks, Israel has allowed some aid convoys to enter the north of Gaza, but the assistance trucks have also come under Israeli firing and shelling there, as well.

Despite the bloodshed, the US has been touting the GHF operation as a success, reiterating false claims that Hamas steals aid distributed through the UN and its partner organisations.

Asked about the hunger spreading in Gaza, State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott told reporters on Thursday that the US is “aware” of the humanitarian situation in the territory and wants to see an end to the devastation.

“That’s why we have seen this commitment to get aid to the people who need it, in a way where it is not weaponised by Hamas,” Pigott added, referring to GHF.

Shortly before Pigott expressed continuing support for GHF, Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu appeared to confirm that his country is purposely starving Gaza, saying that “there is no nation that feeds its enemies.”

“The government is racing ahead for Gaza to be wiped out,” Eliyahu said in a radio interview, according to The Times of Israel.

Back on Capitol Hill, the advocates appeared confident that their voices could make a difference, even after 22 months of war that have seen the crisis deepen and the death toll mount daily.

“Every single voice is so powerful to move the needle; we have to change the minds of our leaders and make them understand that if they do not stop funding Israel, we will vote them out,” Guilbeau, the US Army veteran, told Al Jazeera.

Columbia University will pay $221m to settle accusations by the Trump administration that it failed to police anti-Semitism on campus. Critics say the deal threatens academic freedom and sets a dangerous precedent.

Health Ministry says four killed, 116 others wounded after explosion in Maarat Misrin in the northern Idlib countryside.

At least four people have been killed and more than 100 others were wounded in an explosion in Idlib province, northwestern Syria, state news agency SANA reported.

In a statement on Thursday, carried by SANA, Syria’s Ministry of Health said that the explosion occurred in the town of Maarat Misrin in the northern Idlib countryside.

It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion.

The ministry said that “four people were killed and 116 others were wounded,” according to a preliminary death toll.

The Syria Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, said at least six people were killed in the blast.

“This is the death toll only of those recovered by Syria Civil Defence teams, who continue to search for those trapped under the rubble,” the White Helmets said in a statement.

Raed Al-Saleh, Syria’s minister of emergency and disaster management, said in a post on X that the country’s Civil Defence teams rushed to the scene of the blast and were working in dangerous and complex conditions.

He said the teams were carrying out evacuation and rescue operations amid ongoing secondary blasts.

Saleh urged residents to avoid the site for their own safety.

The blast was the third in the region this month. Earlier in July, two explosions rocked the Kafriya and al-Fu’ah regions.

The Director-General of the World Health Organisation has warned more than two million people in Gaza are facing starvation, as deaths from malnutrition surge. His comments come as Israel continues to prevent aid supplies, including baby formula, from reaching the enclave.

Two Palestinian teenage boys have been killed by Israeli forces in the town of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, according to the Wafa news agency, in the latest deadly violence in the territory continuing in tandem with Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

The bodies of 15-year-old Ahmad Ali Asaad Ashira al-Salah and 17-year-old Muhammad Khaled Alian Issa, who were killed at dawn, were withheld by the Israeli army, the report said, adding that two more children were also injured in the gunfire.

The deadly incident came as Israeli forces arrested at least 25 Palestinians in multiple raids across the occupied West Bank, according to Wafa.

The arrests include 10 Palestinians in the town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron; two in the town of Idhna, west of Hebron; three in the town of Dura al-Qari, north of Ramallah; one in the city of Ramallah; five in the village of al-Mazraa ash-Sharqiya, east of Ramallah; and four in the city of Nablus.

‘Making Palestinian lives impossible’

Since the start of the war on Gaza, Israeli violence in the occupied West Bank has escalated dramatically, with near-daily reports of mass arrests, killings and Israeli settler attacks, often supported by Israeli soldiers. Settlers have been rampaging with impunity, attacking and killing Palestinian civilians and burning their properties and olive groves.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), at least 948 Palestinians have been killed in the territory by Israeli soldiers since October 7, 2023. Of that figure, at least 204 are children.

Meanwhile, from the beginning of 2024 until the end of June 2025, more than 2,200 Israeli settler attacks were reported, resulting in more than 5,200 Palestinian injuries, according to OCHA figures. In that same period, nearly 36,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced across the occupied West Bank due to Israeli military operations, settler violence or home demolitions carried out by the Israeli government.

The Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank is part of the Israeli government’s strategy for preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state, according to Amjad Abu El Ezz, a lecturer of international relations at the Arab American University.

The increased number of killings, and the destruction of Palestinian homes and vehicles by Israeli settlers in coordination with the Israeli army, aim to encourage Palestinians to leave their land, Abu El Ezz told Al Jazeera from Ramallah.

Israel is weakening the governing Palestinian Authority, “making Palestinian lives impossible”, while at the same time “building Israeli facts on the ground” to prevent the Palestinians from building their own state, he added.

“We are talking about more than 700,000 Israeli settlers. They have weapons, they are acting as an army in parallel to the Israeli army,” Abu El Ezz said.

On Wednesday, Israel’s parliament approved a symbolic measure calling for the annexation of the occupied West Bank.

Knesset lawmakers voted 71-13 in favour of the motion on Wednesday, a non-binding vote which calls for “applying Israeli sovereignty to Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley” – the Israeli terms for the area.

The motion, advanced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, is declarative and has no direct legal implications, though it could place the issue of annexation on the agenda of future debates in the parliament.

The Palestinian Mujahideen Movement has called the Israeli parliament’s non-binding vote on the annexation of the occupied West Bank a “dangerous escalation”.

In a statement on Telegram, the group said the move was a “clear disregard for the international community” and a way for Israel to implement “its criminal plans targeting the land of Palestine and its people”.

The West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, has been under Israeli occupation since 1967. Since then, Israeli settlements have expanded exponentially, despite being illegal under international law and, in the case of settlement outposts, Israeli law.

Before this catastrophe began, I was living the happiest days of my life, surrounded by the warmth of my family, the affection of my friends, and dreams that felt within reach. I spent most of 2023 preparing for my graduation and getting ready to move from lecture halls to practical training fields, rotating between the laboratories of the Islamic University in Gaza and the eye hospitals spread across the Gaza Strip.

On the evening of October 6, I was organising my books, tools and white coat, getting ready for a long training day at Al-Nasr Eye Hospital in Gaza. My feelings were a mix of excitement and nervousness, but I had no idea that night would mark the end of my peaceful life. At 6am the next morning, October 7, it wasn’t the sound of my alarm that woke me, but the sound of rockets. I opened my eyes, wondering, “Is this a dream or a nightmare?” But the truth was impossible to deny. A war had begun, turning our once-bright lives into a never-ending nightmare.

On October 8, I received the devastating news that my university had been destroyed – its laboratories, its classrooms and every place where I had learned how to help patients. Even the graduation hall, where I had pictured myself celebrating at the end of the year, had turned to rubble. I felt a sharp pain in my chest, as if a part of my soul had collapsed. Everything fell apart so suddenly. Overnight, all that I had dreamed of was reduced to ashes.

On December 27, 2023, the bombing in our neighbourhood intensified, and we were forced to leave our home and flee to the so-called humanitarian zones in Rafah. There, we took shelter in one of the hundreds of tents that had become the only refuge for survivors.

There was one thing I still held on to: my knowledge and modest experience in the field of eye care. I began to notice children and women suffering from persistent eye infections, caused by inhaling smoke and dust and constant exposure to dirt. Even I developed an infection in my own eyes. I looked at them, then at myself, and I knew I couldn’t just stand by and watch. I wanted to be a reason someone healed, a reason the light returned to their eyes.

In December 2024, I volunteered at Al-Razi Health Center, working in the eye clinic under the supervision of a remarkably compassionate doctor. At first, I was afraid and hesitant. The war had taken a toll on my memory and shaken my confidence. But the doctor told me words I will never forget: “You are hardworking. You’ll remember everything. And you will become a tool for healing others.”

Patients started arriving from everywhere: north, central and southern Gaza. The clinic wasn’t equipped for such numbers, but we did everything we could. I witnessed cases I had never seen before:

A four-year-old girl lost her vision completely due to severe corneal burns caused by an explosion near her home. She screamed in pain. She was far too young to endure such suffering. Despite the lack of resources, she underwent surgery to remove her damaged eye and replace it with an artificial one.

A man in his late 30s was struck by shrapnel in the face and suffered skull fractures. He had a torn upper eyelid and a deep corneal injury. He needed delicate surgery, but it was postponed multiple times because it required repeated general anaesthesia, which was impossible under the current conditions.

A young woman in her 20s had taken a direct hit that caused an orbital fracture and muscle tears around the eye, leading to hypotropia and facial asymmetry. She broke down emotionally at every visit. As a young woman like her, I felt her wound as if it were my own.

There was also an elderly man suffering from eye cancer. The disease was eating away at his eye, and there was a strong possibility it would spread to the other one. But we couldn’t help him. Resources were unavailable, and he couldn’t travel for treatment due to the closure of the borders. At every visit, I did my best to lift his spirits, hoping that maybe, just maybe, I could ease his pain, even if only a little.

Most children were suffering from chronic conjunctivitis and the appearance of chalazion (fatty cysts on the eyelid), due to dust, touching their eyes with their hands, and a lack of hygiene in the camps.

The elderly, most of whom suffered from cataracts, a condition that leads to gradual loss of vision, needed lens removal surgery and intraocular lens implantation, but all such operations were postponed due to the disruption of communication with northern Gaza, the only place in the Strip where the necessary equipment was available.

During those months, the operating rooms turned into real teaching labs for me after the occupation destroyed the university’s lab. I accompanied the doctor to every surgery, performing them by the light of hope and the sounds of bombing. One time, a rocket hit a house next to the centre while we were inside the operating room. Despite the panic, we held ourselves together. We didn’t break down. Instead, we completed the operation successfully.

In the few moments of spare time, there wasn’t only room to talk about medicine. We spoke about the pain, about our lost homes, about our missing relatives, about postponed dreams. The war spoke from every corner of the clinic.

We faced severe difficulties due to the shortage of medicines. We had to prescribe alternatives whose side effects we didn’t fully know, but what else could we do? There was no other choice. The crossings were closed, and the medicines were unavailable.

One day, during a surgery, I felt dizzy and had severe chest pain. I couldn’t bear it, and fainted from extreme exhaustion, malnutrition and psychological pressure. I was just a person trying to hold on. But I didn’t give up. I returned the same day to continue my work at the clinic.

In January 2025, with the announcement of a temporary ceasefire, the university resumed sessions at the European Hospital. I went only four times. The road was long, and the place was desolate, filled with the remnants of war. Just one kilometre (two-thirds of a mile) from the clinic’s window, tanks were stationed. I wondered: Should I flee or stay? The ceasefire was no guarantee. Indeed, days didn’t pass before the war returned and the sessions were cancelled, after the occupation took control of the area.

We returned to square one.

I am still here, moving between health centres, healing, listening and trying to bring light back into people’s lives, literally. My purpose is not forgotten. My spirit is not broken. I was made to help. And I will continue, even through smoke and rubble, with steady hands and an unshakable heart, until the light returns for all of us.

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

This is not a warning.

Famine has already arrived in Gaza. It is not a metaphor, nor is it a prediction. It is daily.

It is the child who wakes up asking for biscuits that no longer exist. The student who studies for exams while faint from hunger.

It is the mother who cannot explain to her son why there is no bread.

And it is the silence of the world that makes this horror possible.

Children of the famine

Noor, my eldest sister Tasneem’s daughter, is three; she was born on May 11, 2021. My sister’s son, Ezz Aldin, was born on December 25, 2023 – in the early months of the war.

One morning, Tasneem walked into our space carrying them in her arms. I looked at her and asked the question that wouldn’t leave my mind: “Tasneem, do Noor and Ezz Aldin understand hunger? Do they know we’re in a famine?”

“Yes,” she said immediately. “Even Ezz, who’s only known war and ruins, understands. He’s never seen real food in his life. He doesn’t know what ‘options’ are. The only thing he ever asks for is bread.”

She imitated his baby voice: “Obz! Obza! Obza!” – his way of saying “khobza” (a piece of bread).

She had to tell him, “There’s no flour, darling. Your dad went out to look for some.”

Ezz Aldin doesn’t know about ceasefires, borders, or politics. He doesn’t care about military operations or diplomatic statements.

He just wants one small piece of bread. And the world gives him nothing.

Noor has learned to count and recite the alphabet from her mother. Before the war, she loved chocolate, biscuits. She was the first grandchild in our family, showered with toys, snacks, and little dresses.

Now, every morning, she wakes up and turns to her mother with wide, excited eyes. “Go buy me 15 chocolates and biscuits,” she says.

She says 15 because it’s the biggest number she knows. It sounds like enough; enough to fill her stomach, enough to bring back the world she knew. But there’s nothing to buy. There’s nothing left.

Where is your humanity? Look at her. Then tell me what justice looks like.

Killed after five days of hunger

I watched a video that broke my heart. A man mourned over the shrouded bodies of seven of his family. In despair, he cried, “We’re hungry.”

They had been starving for days, then an Israeli surveillance drone struck their tent near al-Tabin School in Daraj, northern Gaza.

“This is the young man I was raising,” the man in the video wept.  “Look what became of them,” as he touched their heads one last time.

Some people still don’t understand. This isn’t about whether we have money. It’s about the total absence of food. Even if you’re a millionaire in Gaza right now, you won’t find bread. You won’t find a bag of rice or a can of milk. Markets are empty. Shops are destroyed. Malls have been flattened. The shelves are not bare – they are gone.

We used to grow our own food. Gaza once exported fruits and vegetables; we sent strawberries to Europe. Our prices were the cheapest in the region.

A kilo (2.2 pounds) of grapes or apples? Three shekels ($0.90). A kilo of chicken from Gaza’s farms? Nine shekels ($2.70). Now, we can’t find a single egg.

Before: A massive watermelon from Khan Younis weighed 21 kilos (46 pounds) and cost 18 shekels ($5). Today: The same watermelon would cost $250 – if you can find it.

Avocados, once considered a luxury fruit, were grown by the tonne in al-Mawasi, Khan Younis and Rafah. They used to cost a dollar a kilo. We had self-sufficiency in dairy, too – cheeses and yoghurts made in Shujayea by local hands.

Our children were not spoiled – they just had basic rights. Breakfast meant milk. A sandwich with cheese. A boiled egg. Now, everything is cut off.

And no matter how I explain it to the children, they cannot grasp the words “famine” or “price hike”. They just know their bellies are empty.

Even seafood – once a staple of Gaza’s diet – has disappeared. Despite strict fishing restrictions, we used to send fish to the West Bank. Now, even our sea is silent.

And with all due respect to Turkish coffee, you haven’t tasted coffee until you’ve tried Mazaj Coffee from Gaza.

It had a strength you could feel in your bones.

This is not a forecast. Famine is now. Most of us are displaced. Unemployed. Mourning.

If we manage one meal a day, we eat it at night. It’s not a feast. It’s rice. Pasta. Maybe soup. Canned beans.

Things you keep as backup in your pantries. Here, they are luxury.

Most days, we drink water and nothing more. When hunger becomes too much, we scroll through old photos, pictures of meals from the past, just to remember what life once tasted like.

Starving while taking exams

As always, our university exams are online, because the campus is rubble.

We are living a genocide. And yet, we are trying to study.

I’m a second-year student.

We just finished our final exams for the first semester. We studied surrounded by hunger, by drones, by constant fear. This isn’t what people think university is.

We took exams on empty stomachs, under the scream of warplanes.  We tried to remember dates while forgetting the last time we tasted bread.

Every day, I talk with my friends – Huda, Mariam, and Esraa – on WhatsApp. We check on each other, asking the same questions over and over:

“What did you eat today?”

“Can you even concentrate?”

These are our conversations – not about lectures or assignments, but about hunger, headaches, dizziness, and how we’re still standing. One says, “My stomach hurts too much to think.” Another says, “I nearly collapsed when I stood up.”

And still, we keep going. Our last exam was on July 15. We held on, not because we were strong, but because we had no choice. We didn’t want to lose a semester. But even saying that feels so small compared to the truth.

Studying while starving chips away at your soul.

One day, during exams, an air strike hit our neighbours. The explosion shook the walls.

A moment before, I was thinking about how hungry I felt. A moment after, I felt nothing.

I didn’t run.

I stayed at my desk and kept studying. Not because I was OK, but because there is no other choice.

They starve us, then blame us

Let me be clear: The people of Gaza are being starved on purpose. We are not unlucky – we are victims of war crimes.

Open the crossings. Let aid enter. Let food enter. Let medicine enter.

Gaza doesn’t need sympathy. We can rebuild. We can recover. But first, stop starving us.

Killing, starving, and besieging are not just conditions – they are actions forced upon us. Language reveals those who try to hide who is responsible.

So we will keep saying: We were killed by the Israeli occupation. We were starved by the Israeli occupation. We were besieged by the Israeli occupation.

Iranian state media describe the confrontation as ‘tense’, while US military says the encounter was ‘professional’.

Iran has said it warned a United States Navy destroyer to change course as it approached Iranian territorial waters in the Gulf of Oman, but the US has claimed the confrontation was “professional” and had “no impact” on its naval mission.

Iranian state media published video and images of Wednesday’s incident – the first direct encounter reported between Iranian and US forces since the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June – taken from a helicopter dispatched to confront the USS Fitzgerald guided missile destroyer.

“US destroyer ‘Fitzgerald’ attempted to approach waters under Iran’s monitoring, in a provocative move”, Iranian state television said.

In video footage of the reported encounter, a helicopter is seen flying in close proximity to the warship and an Iranian crew member can be heard issuing what appeared to be a radio warning in English to the warship, ordering it to change course as it was approaching Iran’s territorial waters at about 10am local time (06:00 GMT).

Iranian state media have described the encounter as a tense exchange.

IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News on Wednesday released footage it claimed showed an Iranian navy helicopter forcing the USS Fitzgerald, a US guided missile destroyer, to alter its course. The report said the warship had approached waters under Iran’s supervision in the Sea of Oman. pic.twitter.com/gcfMQ23K6f

— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) July 23, 2025

The US destroyer reportedly responded by threatening to target the Iranian aircraft if it did not leave. The vessel eventually departed the area upon continued warnings from the Iranian military.

US Central Command disputed the Iranian account of tension, calling the incident a “safe and professional interaction”.

Asked about the encounter, a US defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity with the Reuters news agency, also downplayed its seriousness.

“This interaction had no impact to USS Fitzgerald’s mission, and any reports claiming otherwise are falsehoods and attempts by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to spread misinformation,” the official said.

The official, who said the interaction took place entirely in international waters, identified the aircraft as an Iranian SH-3 “Sea King” helicopter.

The US military inserted itself into Israel’s war against Iran last month when it bombed Iranian nuclear sites. US President Donald Trump hailed the strikes as a “spectacular” success that “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear programme.

But media reports in the US, citing intelligence assessments, suggest the campaign was only partially successful, with just one of the three Iranian nuclear sites – the Fordow facility – reportedly destroyed.

In an interview broadcast on Wednesday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran was committed to continuing its nuclear programme for peaceful purposes, and that his country is prepared for any future war that Israel might wage against it.

He added that he was not optimistic about the ceasefire between the countries.

At least 10 more Palestinians have starved to death in the besieged Gaza Strip, health officials say, as a wave of hunger crashes over the enclave.

The latest starvation deaths bring the death toll from malnutrition since Israel’s war began in October 2023 to 111, most of them in recent weeks.

At least 100 other Palestinians, including 34 aid seekers, were killed in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said on Wednesday.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said that 21 children under the age of five were among those who died of malnutrition so far this year. It said it had been unable to deliver any food for nearly 80 days, between March and May, and that a resumption of food deliveries was still far below what is needed.

In a statement, 111 organisations, including Mercy Corps, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Refugees International, said that “mass starvation” was spreading even as tonnes of food, clean water and medical supplies sit untouched just outside Gaza, where aid groups are blocked from accessing them.

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said that “hunger has become as deadly as the bombs. Families are no longer asking for enough, they are asking for anything”.

He said that Gaza residents have described “a slow, painful death playing out in real time, an engineered famine that the Israeli military has orchestrated”.

Israel cut off all goods from entering the territory in March, but has allowed in a trickle of aid starting in May, mostly distributed by the controversial United States-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

The United Nations and aid groups trying to deliver food to Gaza say Israel, which controls everything that comes in and out, is choking delivery, while Israeli troops have shot dead hundreds of Palestinians close to aid distribution points since May.

“We have a minimum set of requirements to be able to operate inside Gaza,” Ross Smith, the director of emergencies at the UN World Food Programme, said. “One of the most important things I want to emphasise is that we need to have no armed actors near our distribution points, near our convoys.”

Recurring attacks on aid seekers have turned the few remaining hospitals in Gaza “into massive trauma wards”, Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO’s representative for the occupied Palestinian territory, said.

The food scarcity is so extreme that people cannot do their work, including journalists, teachers and even their own staff, Peeperkorn added.

Nour Sharaf, an American doctor from al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, also warned that people “haven’t eaten anything for days and are dying of hunger”.

“Doctors sometimes don’t get food, but they still do their jobs,” she told Al Jazeera, adding that medical workers often work long hours.

Two more journalists killed

Israeli strikes have continued to pound various parts of the enclave, including Gaza City, where the Israeli army said it was “intensifying operations”.

The area has come under intense bombardment in recent days.

Gaza’s Government Media Office also announced the Israeli killing of two Palestinian journalists, Tamer al-Za’anin and Walaa al-Jabari, raising the number of media workers killed in the enclave since October 2023 to 231.

The statement said that al-Za’anin was a photojournalist with various media organisations, while al-Jabari worked as a newspaper editor with several media outlets.

Meanwhile, US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is heading to Europe for “very sensitive negotiations” over a Gaza ceasefire and captive release deal, the White House said.

During the visit, Witkoff “will meet with key leaders from the Middle East to discuss the ongoing ceasefire proposal to end this conflict in Gaza and to release the hostages”, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

Talks on a proposal for a 60-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which would include the release of more of the 50 captives still being held in Gaza, are being mediated by Qatar and Egypt, with Washington’s backing.

A Palestinian official close to the Gaza ceasefire talks and the mediation efforts said that Hamas had handed its response on the ceasefire proposal to mediators, declining to elaborate further.

Successive rounds of negotiations have achieved no breakthrough since Israel broke a ceasefire in March.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog told soldiers during a visit to Gaza that “intensive negotiations” about returning the captives held there were under way and that he hoped that they would soon “hear good news”, according to a statement.

A senior Palestinian official earlier said that Hamas might give mediators a response to the latest proposals in Doha later on Wednesday, on the condition that amendments be made to two major sticking points: details on an Israeli military withdrawal and how to distribute aid during a truce.

Local media report that 24 firefighters and rescuers were trapped by the wildfire, and that victims were ‘burned alive’.

At least 10 firefighters and rescue workers were killed and 14 others injured while battling a wildfire in Turkiye’s northwestern Eskisehir province, authorities said, as several fires rage in central and western areas of the country where temperatures are soaring.

Turkish Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Ibrahim Yumakli said on Wednesday that five forestry workers and five rescuers trying to tackle the blaze were killed when 24 firefighters became trapped in the wildfire earlier in the day.

Winds whipped up by the flames suddenly changed direction, and the fire engulfed the group of firefighters, who were swiftly transported to hospital, where 10 of them died.

Fourteen others are still receiving medical treatment, the minister said.

“Unfortunately, we have lost five forest workers and five [rescuers],” Yumakli told Turkish television broadcasters.

Turkish news website BirGun reported that the group were trapped by the fire and “burned alive”.

Local lawmaker Nebi Hatipoglu wrote on X that there are “no words to describe our grief”.

Turkiye has been sweltering since Sunday under high temperatures and strong winds that have fanned wildfires between Istanbul and the capital, Ankara, with the spreading blazes threatening homes and forcing the evacuation of several villages.

Minister Yumakli said extreme heat and volatile wind conditions were also expected on Thursday.

“Starting tomorrow, we are facing extraordinary temperatures and extreme wind shifts. Once again, I call on all 86 million citizens to be vigilant and exercise extra caution,” he said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan praised the victims who fought “to protect our forests at cost of their lives”.

“I pray for God’s mercy on our brothers and sisters who fought at the cost of their lives to protect our forests, and I offer my condolences to their families and our nation,” Erdogan said in a message posted on social media.

Two prosecutors have been assigned to investigate the incident, the country’s justice minister said.

The deaths on Wednesday bring the number of deaths in wildfires so far in the country to 13 this year.

An elderly man and two forestry workers were killed in a wildfire that raged near the town of Odemis, in the Izmir province, earlier this month.

Knesset lawmakers vote 71-13 in favour of annexation, raising questions about the future of a Palestinian state.

Israel’s parliament has approved a symbolic measure calling for the annexation of the occupied West Bank.

Knesset lawmakers voted 71-13 in favour of the motion on Wednesday, a non-binding vote which calls for “applying Israeli sovereignty to Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley” – the Israeli terms for the area.

It said that annexing the West Bank “will strengthen the state of Israel, its security and prevent any questioning of the fundamental right of the Jewish people to peace and security in their homeland”.

The motion, advanced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition is declarative and has no direct legal implications, though it could place the issue of annexation on the agenda of future debates in the parliament.

The idea was initially brought forward last year by Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who himself lives in an illegal Israeli settlement and holds a position within Israel’s Ministry of Defence, where he oversees the administration of the West Bank and its settlements.

The West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, has been under Israeli occupation since 1967. Since then, Israeli settlements have expanded, despite being illegal under international law and, in the case of settlement outposts, Israeli law.

Palestinian leaders want all three territories for a future state. Some 3 million Palestinians and more than 500,000 Israeli settlers currently reside in the West Bank.

Annexation of the West Bank could make it impossible to create a viable Palestinian state, which is seen internationally as the most realistic way to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Last year, the Israeli parliament approved a similar symbolic motion declaring opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Hussein al-Sheikh, deputy to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said the motion was “a direct assault on the rights of the Palestinian people”, which “undermines the prospects for peace, stability and the two-state solution”.

“These unilateral Israeli actions blatantly violate international law and the ongoing international consensus regarding the status of the Palestinian territories, including the West Bank,” he wrote in a post on X.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said in a statement that it strongly rejects any motion for annexation.

The ministry stressed that the “colonial measures” reinforce a system of apartheid in the West Bank and reflect a “blatant disregard” for many United Nations resolutions and the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which was issued in July 2024.

The statement, carried by the official Palestinian Wafa news agency, also warned that such actions deliberately undermine the prospects of implementing a two-state solution.

The ministry added that while settlement expansion continues, de facto annexation is already occurring on a daily basis.

Following Israel’s deadly war on Gaza, Israeli forces have intensified attacks on Palestinian towns and villages in the occupied West Bank, displacing thousands of Palestinians and killing hundreds. Settlers, often backed by Israeli soldiers, have also escalated assaults on Palestinians, their land, and property.

Scotland’s former First Minister Humza Yousaf and his wife say their relatives in Gaza, including a baby, are being deliberately starved. In an Instagram video, the couple plead for borders to open and aid to reach Palestinians.

A confrontation unfolded between ultra-Orthodox Jewish men and Israeli police in West Jerusalem on Wednesday. The ultra-Orthodox demonstrators were protesting the recent arrests of several men from their group for refusing military conscription orders.

A former security guard who worked at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation ‘aid distribution sites’ described to Israeli media abuses he witnessed firsthand, including the potentially lethal use of pepper spray and tear gas.

Three Israeli strikes hit homes and a tent in Gaza City on Tuesday, killing at least 21 people, mostly women and children. The attacks come as the besieged territory faces extreme hunger and ongoing bombardment.

Sayfollah Musallet, a Palestinian American, was killed by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank on July 11, just days before his 21st birthday. His death is one of nearly 1,000 killings involving settlers this year, and his US citizenship has helped draw rare calls for a US investigation. Could this case shift how Washington responds to settler violence in the occupied West Bank?

Host nation Morocco will face Nigeria in the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations after beating Ghana on penalties.

Goalkeeper Khadija Er-Rmichi blocked Comfort Yeboah’s attempt, and the hosts, Morocco, advanced to the championship of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) on a penalty shootout after a 1-1 draw with Ghana.

Morocco, which prevailed 4-2 on penalties on Tuesday, will face Nigeria in the final on Saturday. The Super Falcons defeated defending champions South Africa 2-1 in the earlier semifinal on Tuesday in Casablanca.

Ghana took a first-half lead. Er-Rmichi got a hand on Josephine Bonsu’s header, but it bounced off the post and skittered across the goal for Stella Nyamekye to push it into the net in the 26th minute.

Morocco equalised in the 55th when Sakina Ouzraoui bounced a pass from her chest to her feet and scored from underneath diving Ghana goalkeeper Cynthia Konlan.

Scoreless for the rest of regulation, the match went to extra time at Rabat’s Olympic Stadium.

Morocco has seen its national team rise in recent years. The team reached the WAFCON final in 2022 but fell to South Africa. Morocco also went to the Women’s World Cup for the first time in 2023 and advanced to the round of 16.

Morocco advanced to the semifinals with a 3-1 victory over Mali, while Ghana downed Algeria 4-2 on penalties after a scoreless draw.

Nigeria beat South Africa in first WAFCON semi

Michelle Alozie’s long ball bounced into the goal in stoppage time to give Nigeria a 2-1 victory over South Africa earlier on Tuesday, and send the Super Falcons into the final at the WAFCON.

The Super Falcons have won nine WAFCON titles. Disappointed by their fourth-place finish in the 2022 tournament, the Super Falcons dubbed their goal to win this event as “Mission X”.

Alozie, who plays in the National Women’s Soccer League for the Houston Dash, sent the ball forward from distance four minutes into stoppage time. Although two teammates were in front of South Africa’s net, neither of them touched the ball as it bounced into the goal.

Rasheedat Ajibade, who plays for Atlético Madrid, converted a penalty just before half-time to put Nigeria ahead 1-0. The Super Falcons were awarded the penalty because of a handball in the box.

South Africa, the defending WAFCON champions, pulled even on Linda Motlhalo’s penalty in the 60th minute.

Nigeria, which had not previously conceded a goal in the tournament, routed Zambia 5-0 in the quarterfinals to advance. South Africa, led by coach Desiree Ellis, advanced on penalties after a scoreless draw with Senegal.

There was a scary moment in the 84th minute when South Africa midfielder Gabriela Salgado went down with an injury, and players from both teams frantically gestured for help.

Salgado was stretchered off with her left leg heavily wrapped as her teammates sobbed. The crowd at Stade Larbi Zaouli chanted her name.

Israel’s blockade has plunged Gaza into an increasingly dire malnutrition crisis. As hunger spreads across the Strip, children are dying from malnutrition, aid workers are collapsing, and hospitals are overwhelmed.