Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has compared newly released images of two captives in Gaza to Nazi starvation of Jews in the Holocaust. But Netanyahu is himself accused of committing war crimes by starving Gaza’s population. Warning: This video contains distressing images.
Published On 4 Aug 20254 Aug 2025
On July 17, I was in a market in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza looking for any affordable food item to buy when I saw a crowd of people gather in front of some shops. The people were angry about the exorbitant prices that the shop owners were charging for goods that had clearly been looted from aid convoys.
Two weeks later, I was at the same market and witnessed another angry protest. People were chanting, “You thieves!” and cursing the merchants.
Having no fear of God, shop owners are exploiting the famine without mercy, selling aid as if it were rare luxury items when in fact it is supposed to be distributed for free. The greed and exploitation have gone too far, and the people are taking things into their own hands. Across Gaza, there are protests against price speculation. In some places, shops are being forcibly closed.
Indeed, the prices of essential goods have soared to unimaginable levels, beyond anything dictated by the forces of supply and demand. People cannot understand why goods cost so much despite their minimal purchasing power. The prices I saw while walking at the market were insane: a kilo (2.2lb) of flour – 40 shekels ($12), a kilo of rice – 60 shekels ($18), a kilo of lentils – 40 shekels ($12), a kilo of sugar – 250 shekels ($73), a litre (1 quart) of cooking oil – 200 shekels ($58).
Since Israel imposed a full blockade on Gaza in March, the normal aid distribution through the United Nations – something that has to happen unabated in any warzone – has ceased.
To stave off global criticism, Israel set up humanitarian hubs to supposedly distribute aid. But they have been nothing more than death traps. Many of those who come to collect aid are shot at, and thousands have been killed or wounded.
In parallel, the Israeli government started allowing in a very small quantity of aid trucks, but a large portion of those are looted once they enter Gaza. The goods are then resold at outrageous prices.
Those who control this supply of looted food are powerful merchants and brokers, often protected by local influential actors or benefitting from indirect coordination with Israel. These actions are not spontaneous. They take place within a deliberately created atmosphere of chaos. With the collapse of state institutions and absence of legal accountability, exploitation has become the rule, not the exception.
It is clear to the Palestinians that the occupation doesn’t merely aim to show that Gaza is weak. It actively seeks to prove that it is ungovernable. To achieve this, closing the borders isn’t enough. The people of Gaza must be pushed into a state of constant chaos and friction.
Starvation is a key instrument here. Hunger doesn’t only kill. It also changes human nature. A starving person, stripped of the bare minimum needed to survive and subjected to daily humiliation, slowly loses the ability to think clearly, to judge or to restrain themselves from turning against those they perceive – rightly or wrongly – as contributing to their suffering.
There are black markets and war profiteers in every conflict. But in this one, the occupying power is encouraging these criminal activities, not because it is earning money from them, but because it serves its overall goal. The Palestinians who choose to participate in this form of extortion are motivated by greed, blackmail or survival.
This slow unravelling is exactly what the occupation has aimed for. It wants chaos in the streets of Gaza so Israeli and international media can be quick to point a finger at the Palestinians and declare: “Look, the Palestinian people are imploding. They can’t govern themselves. They don’t deserve a state.” But the truth is, this is not a sign of a failed nation. It is evidence of the occupation’s success in dragging it to the brink.
It is not the people who have lost control. Control has been forcibly stripped from them – through starvation, the systematic destruction of healthcare and sanitary infrastructure, the dismantling of state institutions and the empowerment of criminals.
Yet Gaza will not break. People may grow angry and desperate, cry out and protest, but they still retain a moral compass. This collective outcry is not infighting. It is a clear warning that society will no longer tolerate betrayal. Those who raise prices mercilessly in times of siege are traitors, and they will be held accountable before institutions of justice when Gaza rebuilds.
The occupation may be revelling now in the unfolding collapse, but it would be wrong to think it has defeated the Palestinians. Every crisis breeds new awareness. Every betrayal gives birth to new resistance. The vast majority of Palestinians refuse to become tools in the hands of their torturers. They refuse subjugation and erasure. They refuse to exploit and harm their fellow citizens.
Palestinian national solidarity is still alive.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
The warning comes as the Gaza Strip’s Health Ministry registers more cases of paralysis due to malnutrition caused by Israeli blockade.
The United Nations has warned that all children of Gaza under the age of five are at risk of life-threatening malnourishment, amid growing reports of starvation-related deaths as Israel continues to block aid from entering the besieged Gaza Strip.
The UN’s World Food Programme said children in this age bracket – around 320,000 in number – have been affected by the collapse of nutrition services and are lacking access to safe water, breast milk substitutes and therapeutic feeding.
Paediatrician Seema Jilani told Al Jazeera that malnutrition “affects their entire body”, putting children at risk of multi-organ failure. She also said that starvation in Gaza is traumatic for children and that “developmental milestones will be missed”.
Hospitals in Gaza on Monday recorded six new deaths from famine and malnutrition in the past 24 hours, including one child, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The total number of people who died from hunger-related causes since the start of the war now stands at 181, including 94 children.
The ministry also sounded the alarm over a “serious escalation” in cases of acute soft paralysis among children as a result of “infections and acute malnutrition”.
In a statement, it said it has so far recorded three deaths from Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare condition that causes sudden numbness and muscle weakness in most of the body.
Gaza’s government said Israel was deliberately blocking more than 22,000 humanitarian aid trucks from entering the territory as part of a systematic campaign of “starvation, siege and chaos”. The Palestinian territory has been under total Israeli blockade since March 2, shortly before Israel ended a two-month ceasefire and resumed attacks.
Mosab al-Dibs, 14, has been at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City for about two months after suffering a severe head injury when an Israeli air raid struck his family’s tent in May.
The boy is largely paralysed and severely malnourished because the facility no longer has supplies to feed him. “Mosab now suffers from severe malnutrition,” his mother, Shahinaz al-Dibs, said. “He suffers convulsions as a result of a hit that affected his brain. Even his nerves are stiff.”
The situation in Gaza was nothing short of catastrophic.
by Ahmad Alhendawi, Middle East director of Save the Children International
At a school-turned-shelter for displaced Palestinians in northern Gaza, Samah Matar said her sons – six-year-old Yousef and four-year-old Amir – have cerebral palsy and need a special diet.
Youssef weighed 14kg (31lb) before the war. Now, he weighs 9kg (20lb). Amir, who weighed 9kg (20lb), is now less than 6kg (13lb). “Before the war, their health was excellent,” she said. “Now, there is no baby formula or diapers, and I can hardly find flour for them. Sugar, the main ingredient in their meals, is unavailable.”
Ahmad Alhendawi, Middle East director of Save the Children International, told Al Jazeera that the situation in Gaza was “nothing short of catastrophic.”
“This is about almost four months of this blockade, of starvation that has built over weeks and months, and to come back from that point of extreme malnutrition and starvation requires a sustained supply of food and medical equipment and also food supplements for children in need,” he said.
“It’s possible to reverse some [of the damage done to children by hunger], but I’m afraid that some of this damage would be irreversible at this stage.”
Right-wing Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir sparked outrage from nations across the Middle East when he led a Jewish prayer at the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound. His actions broke a 1967 agreement that only Muslims are allowed to pray at the site.
Published On 4 Aug 20254 Aug 2025
More than 60 Palestinian women are staging a hunger strike to demand the release of the body of Palestinian activist and English teacher Awdah Hathaleen, who was shot dead last week in the village of Umm al-Kheir, south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank.
Two women have received medical treatment as a result of the collective action, which started on Thursday.
The group is demanding the unconditional release of the body of the 31-year-old community leader who co-directed No Other Land, a documentary film that won an Oscar award this year. Israeli police set several conditions, including holding a quick and quiet burial at night outside the village, with no more than 15 people in attendance.
The protesters are also demanding the release of seven Umm al-Kheir residents arrested by Israeli forces who remain in administrative detention – a quasi-judicial process under which Palestinians are held without charge or trial.
Umm al-Kheir is part of Masafer Yatta, a string of Palestinian hamlets located on the hills south of Hebron, where residents have fought for decades to remain in their homes after Israel declared the area an Israeli military “firing” or training zone.
Iman Hathaleen, Awdah’s cousin, said women aged 13 to 70 were taking part in the hunger strike. “Now, as I’m talking, I am starving and I am breastfeeding,” she told Al Jazeera. “We will continue this until they release the body, so that we can honour him with the right Islamic tradition. We have to grieve him as our religion told us to.”
Awdah was taken by an ambulance to Soroka hospital in Beer Sheva on July 28, where he was pronounced dead after having been shot by an Israeli settler. The police transferred his body to the Abu Kabir National Institute of Forensic Medicine in Jaffa for an autopsy, which was completed on Wednesday. They then refused to return the body unless the family agreed to restrictive conditions on the funeral and burial.
Fathi Nimer, a researcher at the Al-Shabaka think tank, said Israel’s policy of withholding the body of a Palestinian was common practice. “This is not an isolated incident; there are hundreds of Palestinians whose bodies are used as bargaining chips so that their families stop any kind of activism or resistance or to break the spirit of resistance,” Nimer told Al Jazeera.
“Awdah was very loved in the village, so this is a tactic to break their spirit,” he added.
Meanwhile, Yinon Levi, the Israeli settler accused of firing the deadly shots, was released after spending a few days on house arrest. A video of the incident filmed by local activists shows Levi opening fire on Awdah, who died from a gunshot wound to his chest.
An Israeli settler just shot Odeh Hadalin in the lungs, a remarkable activist who helped us film No Other Land in Masafer Yatta. Residents identified Yinon Levi, sanctioned by the EU and US, as the shooter. This is him in the video firing like crazy. pic.twitter.com/xH1Uo6L1wN
— Yuval Abraham יובל אברהם (@yuval_abraham) July 28, 2025
Residents in Umm al-Kheir on Monday documented Levi’s return to the area. Pictures shared on social media groups depicted him overseeing bulldozing work alongside army officers at the nearby Carmel settlement.
Levi is among several Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank who were previously sanctioned under the former administration of United States President Joe Biden for perpetrating violence against Palestinians.
US President Donald Trump reversed those sanctions in an executive order shortly after taking office for a second term in January. The United Kingdom and the European Union, however, maintain sanctions against Levi.
Nimer said sanctions against individuals do little to stop settler violence and the expansion of Israel’s illegal outposts. “It’s not just individuals – there needs to be real international action to sanction Israel and to stop any of this kind of behaviour,” he said.
Iman, Awdah’s cousin, said Levi’s return makes her worried about her family’s safety. “Today, we are afraid that he’s back and can do this again, maybe he will shoot someone else,” she told Al Jazeera. Her father, Suleiman Hathaleen, was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in 2022.
Oneg Ben Dror, a Jaffa-based activist and friend of the Hathaleen family, said the hunger strike was a desperate gesture for a community that has lost all hope of obtaining justice via legal means.
“The women feel that it’s their way to protest, it’s a last resort to bring back the body,” she said. “The community needs the possibility to mourn and… start the recovery from this horrible murder.”
She added that the presence of Levi and other settlers on the ground in Umm al-Kheir was a “continuous trauma and a nightmare for the community and for his wife”, who has been widowed while caring for three young children.
Dozens of left-wing Israeli and international activists on Sunday took part in a march in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv to echo the demands voiced by the hunger strikers. Four activists were arrested during the demonstrations.
The United Nations office has reported 757 settler attacks on Palestinians since January, up 13 percent from 2024, as deaths since January near 1,000.
The Israeli army has also intensified raids across the occupied West Bank and the demolition of hundreds of homes. On Monday, two Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin. The Israeli municipality also issued a demolition order targeting the home of Palestinian residents in Silwan, in occupied East Jerusalem.
Palestinian authorities say 198 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank since the beginning of the year, while 538 were killed in 2024. At least 188 bodies are still being withheld by Israeli authorities.
The vast majority of Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced multiple times, and many are dying from Israeli-induced starvation. An unprecedented water crisis is also unfolding across the enclave, heaping further misery on its residents.
Gaza was already suffering a water crisis before nearly 22 months of Israeli bombardment and ground operations damaged more than 80 percent of the territory’s water infrastructure.
“Sometimes, I feel as though my body is drying from the inside. Thirst is stealing all my energy and that of my children,” said Um Nidal Abu Nahl, a mother of four living in Gaza City.
Water trucks occasionally reach residents, and NGOs install taps in camps for a fortunate few, but it is far from sufficient.
Israel reconnected some water mains in northern Gaza to the Israeli water company Mekorot after cutting off supplies early in the war, but residents said water still is not flowing.
Local authorities said this is due to war damage to Gaza’s water distribution network with many main pipes destroyed.
Gaza City spokesman Asem Alnabih said the municipality’s section of the network supplied by Mekorot has not functioned for nearly two weeks.
Wells that provided water for some needs before the war have also been damaged, and some are contaminated by sewage that is going untreated because of the conflict.
Many wells in Gaza are simply inaccessible because they are located within combat zones, too close to Israeli military installations or in areas subject to forced evacuation.
Wells usually run on electric pumps, and energy has been scarce since Israel cut Gaza’s power.
Generators could power the pumps, but hospitals are prioritised for the limited fuel deliveries.
Gaza’s desalination plants are out of operation except for a single site that reopened last week after Israel restored its electricity supply.
Alnabih said the situation with infrastructure was bleak.
More than 75 percent of wells are out of service, 85 percent of public works equipment has been destroyed, 100,000 metres (62 miles) of water mains have been damaged and 200,000 metres (124 miles) of sewage lines are unusable.
Pumping stations are out of action, and 250,000 tonnes of rubbish are clogging the streets.
To find water, hundreds of thousands of people are still trying to extract groundwater directly from wells.
However, coastal Gaza’s aquifer is naturally brackish and far exceeds salinity standards for potable water.
In 2021, UNICEF warned that nearly 100 percent of Gaza’s groundwater was unfit for consumption.
With clean water almost impossible to find, some Palestinians mistakenly believe brackish water to be free of bacteria.
Aid workers in Gaza have had to warn repeatedly that even if residents can become accustomed to the taste, their kidneys will inevitably suffer.
Although Gaza’s water crisis has received less media attention than the ongoing hunger crisis, its effects are just as deadly.
“Just like food, water should never be used for political ends,” UNICEF spokeswoman Rosalia Bollen said. While it is very difficult to quantify the water shortage, she said, “there is a severe lack of drinking water.”
“It is extremely hot, diseases are spreading, and water is truly the issue we are not talking about enough,” she added.
Hamas has said it is open to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delivering aid to Israeli captives in Gaza after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he requested the Geneva-based international organisation to step in.
The statements from Hamas and Netanyahu came after Palestinian groups last week released videos showing two emaciated Israeli captives held in Gaza, where some 2 million Palestinians are struggling to survive the Israeli-induced starvation crisis.
Netanyahu said on Sunday he had spoken to Julian Larson, the head of the ICRC delegation to Israel, requesting the group’s “immediate involvement” in providing food and medical treatment to captives still held in Gaza.
In a post on X, Netanyahu wrote in Hebrew that he told Larson that Hamas was propagating a “lie of starvation” in the enclave, but the reality was that “systematic starvation is being carried out against our hostages”.
Later on Sunday, the spokesman for the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, said in a statement that Israeli captives held in Gaza “eat what our fighters and all our people eat”.
“They will not receive any special privilege amid the crime of starvation and siege,” the spokesman, known as Abu Obeida, said.
But, he added, the group is “ready to act positively and respond to any request from the Red Cross to deliver food and medicine to enemy prisoners”.
In order for requests to aid captives to be accepted, “humanitarian corridors must be opened in a normal and permanent manner for the passage of food and medicine to all our people in all areas of the Gaza Strip”, Abu Obeida said.
Israeli attacks “of all forms must cease during the receipt of packages for the prisoners”, he added.
The ICRC said in a statement on Sunday that it was “appalled by the harrowing videos” of the captives held in Gaza and reiterated its call to be “granted access to the hostages.”
“These videos are stark evidence of the life-threatening conditions in which the hostages are being held,” the ICRC said in the statement shared on X.
“We know families watching these videos are horrified and heartbroken by the conditions they see their loved ones held in,” the ICRC added.
On its website, the ICRC says that “securing access requires the cooperation of all parties involved”. The ICRC also says on its website that it “has not been able to visit any Palestinian detainees held in Israeli places of detention since 7 October 2023.”
In a separate statement on Sunday, the ICRC said it was also “appalled” that a Palestine Red Crescent Society staff member had been killed in a “clearly marked Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) building” in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.
The PRCS had earlier said the attack was perpetrated by Israeli forces, but the ICRC statement did not refer to who was responsible.
Meanwhile, the families of Israeli captives held in Gaza said on Sunday that Netanyahu’s continued insistence that a “military resolution” was the only solution was “a direct danger to the lives of our sons, who live in the hell of tunnels and are threatened by starvation and immediate death”.
“For 22 months, the public has been sold the illusion that military pressure will bring back the hostages, and today, even before reaching a comprehensive draft agreement, it is said that an agreement is futile,” the families said in a statement.
There are about 50 captives still in Gaza. Fewer than half are believed to be still alive.
The latest developments come as the Government Media Office in Gaza said that Israeli authorities allowed just 36 aid trucks to enter the Gaza Strip on Saturday, while 22,000 aid trucks continue to sit outside the Strip waiting to bring much-needed food to Palestinians there.
The United Nations office in Geneva on Sunday also warned that 1 million women and girls in Gaza are now starving.
In a post on X, the UN said: “One million. That’s how many women and girls are starving in Gaza. This horrific situation is unacceptable and must end.
We continue to demand the delivery of lifesaving aid for all women and girls, an immediate ceasefire, and the release of all hostages.”
At least 175 people, including 93 children, have now been confirmed dead from forced starvation, according to the territory’s Ministry of Health, including 17-year-old Atef Abu Khater, whose weight had dropped to just 25kg (55lbs) before he died on Saturday.
A Palestinian teenager, shot in the eye by Israeli forces while desperately seeking food for his family near a United States and Israeli-backed GHF site in Gaza, is unlikely to regain sight in his left eye, doctors treating him have said, as the population of the besieged and bombarded enclave suffers from forced starvation.
Fifteen-year-old Abdul Rahman Abu Jazar told Al Jazeera that Israeli soldiers kept shooting at him even after he was struck by a bullet, making him think “this was the end” and “death was near”.
Relaying the harrowing chain of events from a hospital bed with a white bandage covering one eye, Abu Jazar said he went to the site around 2am (23:00 GMT).
“It was my first time going to the distribution point,” he said. “I went there because my siblings and I had no food. We couldn’t find anything to eat.”
He says he moved forward with the crowd until he reached al-Muntazah Park in the Gaza City environs about five hours later.
“We were running when they began shooting at us. I was with three others; three of them were hit. As soon as we started running, they opened fire. Then I felt something like electricity shoot through my body. I collapsed to the ground. I felt as though I had been electrocuted … I didn’t know where I was, I just blacked out. When I woke up, I asked people ‘Where am I?’”
Others near Abu Jazar told him he had been shot in the head. “They were still firing. I got scared and started reciting prayers.”
A doctor at the hospital held a phone light near the boy’s wounded eye and asked him if he could see any light. He could not. The doctor diagnosed a perforating eye injury caused by a gunshot wound.
Abu Jazar underwent surgery and said, “I hope my eyesight will return, God willing.”
Gaza’s Health Ministry reported on Sunday that 119 bodies, including 15 recovered from under the rubble of destroyed buildings or other places, and 866 wounded Palestinians have arrived at the enclave’s hospitals over the past 24-hour reporting period.
At least 65 Palestinians were killed while seeking aid, and 511 more were wounded.
Israeli forces have routinely fired on Palestinians trying to get food at GHF-run distribution sites in Gaza, and the United Nations reported this week that more than 1,300 aid seekers have been killed since the group began operating in May.
Gaza’s famine and malnutrition crisis has been worsening by the day, with at least 175 people, including 93 children, now confirmed dead from the man-made starvation of Israel’s punishing blockade, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.
More than 6,000 Palestinian children are being treated for malnutrition resulting from the blockade, according to the Global Nutrition Cluster, which includes the UN health and food agencies.
Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah, says, “There’s a very, very small amount of trucks coming into Gaza – about maybe 80 to 100 trucks every single day – despite the fact that this “humanitarian pause” was for more aid to enter the Gaza Strip.
“Palestinians are struggling to get a bag of wheat flour. They’re struggling to find a food parcel. And this shows the fact that this pause and all the Israeli claims are not true because on the ground, Palestinians are starving, ” she added.
Khoudary noted that the entire population had been relyiant on UN agencies and other partners to distribute food.
“More Palestinians die every single day due to the forced starvation and malnutrition … Since the blockade started, those distribution points have not been operating, and now nothing’s back to normal. Palestinians are still struggling, and not only that, they’re being killed now for the fact that they’re approaching trucks, the GHF, because they want to eat,” she said.
On June 25, Mutawakil al-Mohamad and his family woke up to the sound of Israeli soldiers pounding on their door with their rifles.
It would be the last time they woke up in their family home in occupied East Jerusalem.
The Israeli forces arrived at 7am in military convoys with two heavy bulldozers, and al-Mohamad was terrified the soldiers would raid his house and arrest him or his loved ones.
Instead, the soldiers told the family their home was in a designated “military zone” and ordered them to vacate immediately so they could bulldoze it to the ground.
“When I opened the door, I told the soldiers: ‘My young children are scared.’ I asked them to give me 10 minutes, then we will all be out of the house,” al-Mohamed said. The soldiers obliged, he recalled from Ramallah, the administrative capital of the occupied West Bank, where he now lives.
Israel is demolishing more Palestinian homes across the occupied West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, at a higher rate in 2025 than any previous year since the occupation began in 1967.
Israeli authorities have already destroyed 783 structures – a figure that does not include the large-scale destruction in refugee camps – leading to the forced displacement of 1,119 people, according to the United Nations.
In the Palestinian refugee camps, Israel has destroyed about 600 structures in the Jenin camp and a combined 300 structures in the Tulkarem and Nur Shams camps as part of military raids it launched at the start of this year, according to figures that Al Jazeera obtained from the Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq.
Human rights groups, civilians and analysts said the real aim of Israel’s tactics – systematic home demolitions and forced displacement – is to make life unbearable for Palestinians so more will consider leaving if they can.
“Israel’s goal in the West Bank is the same as its goal in Gaza. … It wants to target all Palestinians,” said Murad Jadallah, a human rights researcher with Al-Haq.
Jadallah argued that Israel’s war in Gaza, which many experts have called a genocide, has shocked the world and distracted many from its unprecedented destruction in the West Bank.
“Israel is benefiting from the images of destruction it has created in Gaza in order to push its agenda in the West Bank,” he told Al Jazeera.
Since the start of this year, about 40,000 Palestinians have fled Israeli military operations in West Bank refugee camps.
Many have struggled to find affordable replacement accommodations, renting instead in whatever villages where they find room, staying with relatives in overcrowded homes or languishing in public buildings converted into shelters for displaced people, Jadallah said.
Ahmed Gaeem, 60, recalled Israeli soldiers evicting him, his wife, five children, grandchildren, siblings, nieces and nephews from their building in the Tulkarem refugee camp in March.
The family was also told by Israeli soldiers that Tulkarem had been designated a “military zone” and they would not be allowed to return for some time.
“We left with the clothes on our backs and nothing else. We didn’t have time to pack anything,” Gaeem told Al Jazeera.
A few weeks into Israel’s military campaign, one of Gaeem’s sons managed to return briefly to assess the damage to their home from a distance.
Their home – like countless others – was destroyed. Its windows were shattered, the door hinges blown off and walls caved in.
Gaeem’s family is currently renting three homes in Iktaba village, a few kilometres from Tulkarem city, for a combined rent of about $1,300 – a fortune for a family surviving on meagre savings.
Gaeem noted that while his salary as a Palestinian Authority (PA) civil servant is $500 a month, he hasn’t been paid in months because of the PA’s ongoing economic crisis.
Over the past several years, the PA has cut salaries and struggled to pay its staff as a result of dwindling donor support and Israel’s refusal to hand over tax revenue it collects on the PA’s behalf, an arrangement laid out in the Oslo Accords.
The PA itself was born out of the Oslo peace agreements of 1993 and 1995, which were signed by the Israeli and Palestinian leaders. The accords ostensibly aimed to bring about a Palestinian state in the years that followed.
The Oslo Accords split the West Bank into three zones.
The PA was tasked with overseeing security and executive functions in Area A and executive functions in Area B while Israel remained in total control of Area C.
This control allowed Israel to quietly and gradually expand illegal settlements – after encircling and then demolishing Palestinian homes and communities – in Area C, a largely agricultural region that makes up about 60 percent of the West Bank.
In July, the Israeli army issued two orders that gave it an additional legal pretext to demolish homes in Area B – a power previously held only by the PA under the Oslo Accords. The orders enabled Israel to assume control over building and planning laws and laws pertaining to agricultural sites.
Before these measures, most demolitions in Areas A and B were carried out during military operations or as reprisals against Palestinians who resisted the occupation. Israel now has an additional legal basis to destroy Palestinian homes by claiming the owners do not have building permits.
Israel systematically denies building permits to Palestinians as part of a broader policy of confiscating Palestinian homes and land, according to human rights groups.
Among the record number of demolitions carried out across the West Bank this year, the UN documented the destruction of 49 structures in Areas A and B.
Under international law, Israel is prohibited from destroying private property anywhere in occupied Palestinian territory and from establishing settlements or outposts.
“The extension of demolitions in Area A and B and the way Israel is changing the legal status in Area B are unprecedented,” said Tahani Mustafa, an expert on the West Bank with the International Crisis Group think tank.
She added that Israel appears to be trying to confine Palestinians to ever smaller pockets of land in Area A. Israel’s ultimate plan, she fears, is to make life increasingly unbearable for Palestinians in urban centres, likely by imposing more checkpoints and barriers to restrict movement and carrying out more raids
Israel’s intensifying assault on Palestinians across the West Bank already has people like al-Mohamed fearing that his family could be evicted again.
He said most Palestinians predict that Israel will turn its attention to the West Bank’s cities after it finishes its military raids in the nearby camps.
“It’s hard for us to go anywhere else other than the West Bank,” he told Al Jazeera.
“This is our land. It’s where we want to live and where we want to die.”
Western nations discuss Palestinian statehood, but Israel’s policy to starve the Palestinians in Gaza remains intact.
Despite some pushback from his party to deal with the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza – especially Israel’s starvation policy – the US governing Republican Party remains unmoved.
Republicans overwhelmingly support Israel’s tactics against the Palestinians, as support for Israel plummets among Independent and Democratic voters.
Trump says he wants more food to reach Gaza via the militarised distribution mechanism, the GHF. But he criticised Western countries that spoke of diplomatic moves, such as recognising Palestinian statehood.
Host Steve Clemons speaks with Republican analyst Mark Pfeifle and Democratic analyst David Bolger on Trump’s political calculations on Middle East policy.
US envoy Steve Witkoff met with Israeli families, as outrage grew over a new video of an emaciated captive held by Hamas. Relatives demanded Netanyahu’s government agree to a ceasefire, which would also bring relief to starving Palestinians in Gaza.
Published On 3 Aug 20253 Aug 2025
A roundup of major events last week.
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Dozens killed on Saturday include 38 Palestinians seeking aid at controversial distribution sites, according to sources.
Sixty-two Palestinians, most of them aid seekers, have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza since dawn on Saturday, hospital sources in the besieged enclave have told Al Jazeera.
The death toll includes 38 Palestinians seeking aid at distribution sites operated by the controversial United States and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
The deaths are the latest killings reported near GHF-operated sites, despite Israel’s announcement last week that it would begin implementing “tactical pauses” in fighting in some areas to allow Palestinians greater access to humanitarian aid.
Israel announced the start of the daily pauses in military operations on July 27. However, 105 Palestinians were killed while seeking food on Wednesday and Thursday alone, the United Nations Human Rights Office in the occupied Palestinian territory said on Friday.
As of Friday, at least 1,373 Palestinians have been killed while trying to access aid, according to the human rights office.
Another 169 Palestinians, including 93 children, have died of starvation or malnutrition since the start of Israel’s war in October 2023, according to figures from Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
Palestinians in the enclave have reported numerous cases of Israeli soldiers and American security contractors hired by the GHF deliberately firing on aid seekers in the vicinity of the distribution sites.
Facing growing international condemnation over the conditions in Gaza, Israel has in recent days allowed airdrops of aid into the enclave by countries including Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Spain, Germany and France.
But humanitarian groups, including the UN aid agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, have warned that the airdrops are insufficient and called on Israel to facilitate the free flow of assistance via land.
Gaza’s Government Media Office said that just 36 aid trucks entered the enclave on Saturday, far short of the 600 trucks it said were needed to meet the humanitarian needs of the population.
In Khan Younis, a Palestine Red Crescent Society staffer was killed and three others wounded by an Israeli attack on its headquarters, according to the aid group.
“One Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) staff member was killed and three others injured after Israeli forces targeted the Society’s headquarters in Khan Younis, igniting a fire on the building’s first floor,” the PRCS said in a post on X on Saturday.
Reporting from central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah earlier on Saturday, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said that Palestinians have not seen any improvement in their situation despite the recent deliveries of aid.
“In the markets, you barely find food. Whatever is available is very, very expensive, and Palestinians are still forced to risk their lives to get whatever they can get,” Khoudary said.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, on Saturday said Gaza was experiencing a famine that had been “largely shaped” by the attempts to replace the UN-led aid system with the “politically motivated” GHF.
“Sidelining & weakening UNRWA has nothing to do with claims of aid diversion to armed groups. It is a deliberate measure to collectively pressure & punish Palestinians for living in Gaza,” Lazzarini said in a post on X.
UNICEF has warned that malnutrition in Gaza has exceeded the threshold for famine, with 320,000 young children among those at risk of acute malnutrition.
“We are at a crossroads, and the choices made now will determine whether tens of thousands of children live or die,” Ted Chaiban, UNICEF’s deputy executive director for humanitarian action and supply operations, said in a statement on Friday after a recent visit to Israel, Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Palestinian group rejects reported comments by US special envoy Steve Witkoff that it is ‘prepared to be demilitarised’.
Hamas has denied claims it expressed a willingness to disarm during Gaza ceasefire negotiations with Israel, stressing that it has “national and legal” rights to confront the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.
In a statement on Saturday, the Palestinian group rejected recent remarks purportedly made by United States President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, during a meeting with relatives of Israeli captives held in Gaza.
Citing a recording of the talks, Israeli news outlet Haaretz reported that the US envoy told the families that Hamas said it was “prepared to be demilitarised”.
But Hamas said in its statement that the group’s right to resistance “cannot be relinquished until our full national rights are restored, foremost among them the establishment of a fully sovereign, independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital”.
Witkoff met the Israeli captives’ families in Tel Aviv on Saturday, one day after he visited a US and Israeli-backed aid distribution site run by the controversial GHF in Gaza.
More than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed trying to get food at GHF-run sites since the group began operating in the bombarded Palestinian enclave in May, the United Nations said earlier this week.
Hamas had earlier slammed Witkoff’s visit as a “staged show” aimed at misleading the public about the situation in Gaza, where Israel’s blockade has spurred a starvation crisis and fuelled global condemnation.
But the Trump administration has stood firmly behind GHF despite the killings and growing global criticism of the group’s operations in Gaza. In June, Washington announced that it approved $30m to support GHF.
Witkoff’s comments on disarmament come amid a widening international push to recognise a Palestinian state amid the scenes of starvation in Gaza.
The United Kingdom announced at a two-day United Nations conference in New York this week that it may follow France in recognising a Palestinian state in September.
Echoing an earlier statement by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said London would proceed with recognition if Israel did not meet certain conditions, including implementing a ceasefire in Gaza.
The UN meeting also saw 17 countries, plus the European Union and the Arab League, back a seven-page text on reviving a two-state solution to the conflict.
The text called on Hamas to “end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority, with international engagement and support, in line with the objective of a sovereign and independent Palestinian State”.
On July 27, the Palestinian Ministry of Education released the results of the secondary education certificate exams, also known as tawjihi. Like every year, families sat together, eyes fixed on phone screens, hearts pounding, everyone hoping to be the first to access the ministry’s website and break the news with a jubilant shout. There were joyful tears and celebrations.
Thousands of students, who had endured months of pressure, sleepless nights and fragile hope, had the exam results in their hands that would determine whether and where they could continue their education.
But thousands of others – those in Gaza – were sitting in their tents and ruined homes in despair. I am one of them. This is the second year I, along with 31,000 other Palestinians born in 2006, was unable to take the tawjihi. For another year, we have been stripped of our right to continue our education and of the hope to build a future beyond the ruins. Now, we are joined by almost 40,000 students born in 2007, who are also stuck in this dreadful limbo.
Last year, when the tawjihi results were announced, I was huddled in front of a crackling fire near a tattered tent, far too small to hold my big dreams. The deep frustration I felt didn’t fade – it settled in my mind and stayed. All I could think about was how all my sacrifices, tears, and relentless effort during a full year of studying under difficult circumstances had been for nothing.
This year, it feels even worse. Not only are my dreams of education crushed, now I struggle to keep myself and my family alive, as Gaza is starving to death.
In these two years, I have watched our education system destroyed, classroom by classroom. My school, Shohada al-Nusierat, once a place of learning and dreams, first became a shelter housing displaced families and then a target for Israeli bombing. My schoolbag – once filled with notebooks and study materials – now carries essential documents and a change of clothes, always packed and ready in case we are forced to flee our home again. The academic calendar, with all its important dates, has been replaced by a grim schedule of air strikes, displacement, and loss of friends and loved ones.
Amid this devastation, the Education Ministry has struggled to keep an educational process going. Wanting to give Gaza’s children and youth hope, it has undertaken various initiatives to try to keep students motivated. Makeshift schools have been organised wherever possible, while some university students have been able to continue their education online.
For us, the tawjihi students, efforts were repeatedly made to set up our exams. Last year, the ministry announced it would conduct the exams in February. I kept studying, despite the harsh reality and the collapse of everything around me, believing this was my chance to move forward.
February passed, and nothing happened. The ministry then announced that the exams would be held in April. But once again, they were postponed due to the unsafe conditions. Then, in June, the ministry scheduled an online exam for July for students born in 2005 who had either failed their tawjihi or missed some of its exams; they were supposed to have done this exam in December 2023. Some 1,500 students were able to take the tests online.
This gave me a bit of hope that my turn would also come, but that quickly faded. The Ministry of Education hasn’t given us any updates on the process, and it feels like we’ve been completely forgotten in the shadow of war and starvation.
Some readers may ask themselves, why amid a genocide are Palestinians so preoccupied with an exam?
You have to understand, tawjihi is a milestone in every Palestinian’s life – a decisive moment that shapes future paths for at least the next five years. It determines whether we can pursue our education in the field we desire and gain admission to top universities.
But beyond academics, tawjihi carries a much deeper cultural and emotional weight. It is not just an educational phase – it is part of our identity, a symbol of perseverance. In a place where the occupation closes nearly every door, education is able to keep a few doors still open.
That’s why we celebrate it like a national holiday; the day tawjihi results are released feels like a third Eid for Palestinians. It gives families hope, brings pride to entire neighbourhoods, and keeps alive the dream of a better future.
Over the many months I waited for the tawjihi, I held on to my dream to study medicine at a prestigious university abroad. I kept applying for scholarships and sending emails to universities across the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe, hoping for special consideration as a student affected by war. I pleaded with university administrators to waive the tawjihi certificate requirement.
But the responses were painfully consistent: “Unfortunately, we cannot consider your application unless you provide your final diploma.”
Today, despair and helplessness are not the only unwanted visitors I have. Hunger is another one. The starvation has destroyed not only my body but also my mental health.
Most days, we manage to have one meal. We survive mostly on canned beans, dry bread, or rice without any vegetables or protein. Our bodies are weak, our faces pale, and our energy almost nonexistent. The effects go beyond the physical. Hunger fogs the brain, dulls memory and crushes motivation. It becomes nearly impossible to focus, let alone study for a life-changing exam like the tawjihi. How can I prepare for the most important exam of my life when my stomach is empty and my mind clouded by fatigue and worry?
It feels as though my youth has been stolen before my eyes, and I can do nothing but watch. While my peers around the world are building their futures, I remain stuck in a place of overwhelming pain and loss.
As a tawjihi student trapped in a warzone, I urgently call on educational authorities and international institutions to step in and implement immediate solutions to ensure our right to education is not buried under the rubble of war.
We are not asking for much. Giving us a chance to finish our secondary education in Gaza is not just a matter of logistics, but a matter of justice and future survival.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
Gaza faces a grave risk of famine, with one in three people going days without food, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned.
UNICEF on Friday urged the international community to act swiftly as conditions continue to deteriorate due to Israel’s genocidal war.
“Today, more than 320,000 young children are at risk of acute malnutrition,” Ted Chaiban, UNICEF’s deputy executive director for humanitarian action and supply operations, said in a statement on Friday following a recent trip to Israel, Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
He said the malnutrition indicator in Gaza has “exceeded the famine threshold”.
“Today, I want to keep the focus on Gaza, because it’s in Gaza where the suffering is most acute and where children are dying at an unprecedented rate,” he said.
“We are at a crossroads, and the choices made now will determine whether tens of thousands of children live or die.”
On Saturday, Atef Abu Khater, a 17-year-old Palestinian, died of malnutrition, a medical source at al-Shifa Hospital told Al Jazeera.
Earlier this week, Khater, who had been in good health before the war in Gaza, was hospitalised in intensive care, according to media reports, which quoted his father as saying he was no longer responding to treatment.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 60,000 Palestinians, more than 18,000 of them children. Many more remain buried under the rubble, most presumed dead.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, the number of deaths from starvation in the territory stands at 162, including 92 children.
Ahmed al-Najjar, a journalist and resident of Gaza who is sheltering in Khan Younis, says Palestinians in the besieged territory are faced with “tragedy and torment” amid Israeli bombardment, forced starvation and a complete feeling of insecurity.
“With the cats away, the mice will play – except that it’s not just a mouse, but an engineered Israeli genocidal chaos,” he told Al Jazeera, stressing that safety is “nowhere to be found” in Gaza.
“We are not just referring to the fact of constant fear of the Israeli bombs being dropped on our heads, but the fact that there is a total security and power vacuum that leaves us here unsure and uncertain of our own safety,” al-Najjar said.
He described that even walking in the street and going to buy a bag of flour or some other basic necessity makes people feel uncertain whether they will be able to return home safely.
“There is not any sort of presence of police or security forces in the streets; we’ve been seeing the continuous and systematic targeting of the police forces inside these ‘safe zones’ here.”
In March, Israel blocked food aid from entering Gaza. It eased the blockade in late May, after which the controversial Israel- and United States-backed GHF took over aid distribution in Gaza.
But GHF has been accused of grave rights violations and the targeting of civilians. The UN says more than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed trying to get food from the GHF’s aid hubs.
Many have been purposefully shot by Israeli soldiers or US security contractors hired by GHF, according to testimonies from whistleblowers published in the media.
With starvation across the Strip spreading, international outcry over images of emaciated children and increasing reports of hunger-related deaths pressured Israel to let more aid into the Gaza Strip earlier this week.
The Israeli military last week began a daily “tactical pause” of its military operations in parts of Gaza and established new aid corridors.
US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, also travelled to Gaza on Friday to inspect the GHF aid distribution site, together with Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel.
The diplomats “spent over five hours inside Gaza”, Witkoff said in a post on X, accompanied by a photo of himself wearing a protective vest and meeting staff at a distribution site.
He added that the purpose of the trip was to “help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza”.
Meanwhile, several Western and Arab governments began carrying out aid airdrops in Gaza earlier this week, to feed more than two million inhabitants. But aid agencies have said they are deeply sceptical that airdrops could deliver enough food safely to tackle a deepening hunger crisis in Gaza.
“Look, at this stage, every modality needs to be used, every gate, every route, every modality, but airdrops cannot replace the volume and the scale that convoys by road can achieve,” Chaiban said, adding that allowing about 500 humanitarian and commercial aid trucks into Gaza is important.
He also noted that what is happening on the ground is “inhumane” and stressed that “what children in Gaza need from all communities is a sustained ceasefire and a political way forward.”
After they were forcibly displaced multiple times during Israel’s war on Gaza, the Sobh family has taken refuge in a coastal camp west of Gaza City.
Street vendor Fadi Sobh, 30, describes his tent as “unbearably hot during summer”. His 29-year-old wife, Abeer, collects seawater because clean water is in short supply.
The children bathe in turns, standing in a metal basin as their mother pours saltwater over them. Nine-month-old Hala cries when the salt irritates her eyes, while her siblings bear the discomfort without complaint.
Abeer feeds Hala water from a baby bottle. On good days, she has lentils to grind into powder and mix with the water. “One day feels like one hundred days, because of the summer heat, hunger and the distress,” she says.
Fadi travels to a nearby soup kitchen, sometimes with one of his children. “But food is rarely available there,” he said.
The kitchen operates roughly once a week, never meeting demand. Often, he waits an entire day only to return home with nothing “and the kids sleep hungry, without eating”.
Abeer sometimes goes to aid trucks near the Zikim crossing alone or with Youssef, one of her children. The crowds are mostly men – stronger and faster than she is. “Sometimes I manage to get food, and in many cases, I return empty-handed,” she said.
When unsuccessful, she begs those who secured supplies. “You survived death thanks to God, please give me anything,” she pleads. Many respond kindly, offering her a small bag of flour to bake for the children.
During the hottest hours of the day, the six children stay in or near the tent. Their parents encourage them to sleep through the heat, preventing them from using energy and becoming hungry and thirsty.
As temperatures drop, the children go outside. Some days, Abeer sends them to ask the neighbours for food. Other times, they search through Gaza’s ruined streets, sifting through rubble and rubbish for anything to fuel their makeshift stove.
After spending the day seeking life’s essentials – food, water, and cooking fuel – the family occasionally gathers enough for Abeer to prepare a meal, usually a thin lentil soup. More often, they have nothing and go to bed hungry.
Abeer says she is growing weaker, frequently feeling dizzy while searching for food. “I am tired. I am no longer able,” she said. “If the war goes on, I am thinking of taking my life. I no longer have any strength or power.”
Hundreds of mourners attended the funeral for 40-year-old Khamis Ayyad, who died from smoke inhalation after an Israeli settler arson attack in the occupied West Bank. His death follows a surge in settler violence this year.
Published On 1 Aug 20251 Aug 2025
The family of a United States citizen who was killed in a settler attack in the occupied West Bank is calling on the administration of President Donald Trump to open its own investigation into the incident.
Relatives of Khamis Ayyad, 40, who died in the town of Silwad, north of Ramallah, on Thursday, confirmed on Friday that he was an American citizen and called for justice in the case.
Ayyad — a father of five and a former Chicago resident — was the second US citizen to be killed in the West Bank in July. Earlier that month, Israeli settlers beat 20-year-old Sayfollah Musallet to death in Sinjil, a town that neighbours Silwad.
Standing alongside Ayyad’s relatives, William Asfour, the operations coordinator for the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), described the killing as “murder”.
“We demand a full investigation from the Department of Justice,” Asfour said. “An American citizen was killed. Where’s the accountability?”
According to Mahmoud Issa, the slain 40-year-old’s cousin, settlers torched cars outside Ayyad’s home around dawn on Thursday.
Ayyad woke up to put out the fire, but then the Israeli army showed up at the scene and started firing tear gas in his direction.
The family believes that Ayyad died from inhaling tear gas and smoke from the burning vehicles.
Settler attacks against Palestinian communities in the West Bank, which US officials have described as “terrorism”, have been escalating for months, particularly since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023.
The Israeli residents of illegal settlements have descended on Palestinian communities, ransacked neighbourhoods and set cars and homes ablaze.
The settlers, protected by the Israeli military, are often armed and fire at will against Palestinians who try to stop them.
The Israeli military has also been intensifying its deadly raids, home demolitions and displacement campaigns in the West Bank.
Just this past month, Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, approved a non-binding motion to annex the West Bank.
And on Thursday, two top Israeli ministers, Yariv Levin and Israel Katz, called the present circumstances “a moment of opportunity” to assert “Israeli sovereignty” over the area.
Meanwhile, Israel continues to carry out a brutal assault in Gaza, which rights groups have said amounts to a genocide.
CAIR-Chicago’s Asfour stressed on Friday that Ayyad’s killing is not an isolated incident.
“Another American was killed in the West Bank just weeks ago,” he said, referring to Musallet.
“How many more before the US takes action to protect its citizens abroad? Settlers burn homes, soldiers back them up, and our government sends billions to fund all of this.”
The US Department of State did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment by the time of publication.
Last month, Musallet’s family also urged a US investigation into his killing.
But Washington has resisted calls to probe Israel’s abuses against American citizens, arguing that Israeli authorities are best equipped to investigate their own military forces and settlers.
Mike Huckabee, US ambassador to Israel, called on Israel to “aggressively investigate the murder” of Musallet in July.
“There must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act,” he wrote in a social media post.
But more than 21 days after the incident, there has been no arrest in the case. Since 2022, Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed at least 10 US citizens. None of the cases have resulted in criminal charges.
Ayyad was killed as Israeli forces continue to detain US teenager Mohammed Ibrahim without trial or access to his family.
Mohammed, 16, has been jailed since February, and his family says it has received reports that he is drastically losing weight and suffering from a skin infection.
On Friday, Illinois State Representative Abdelnasser Rashid called Ayyad’s death part of an “ugly pattern of settler colonial violence” in Palestine.
He called for repealing an Illinois state law that penalises boycotts of Israeli firms.
“We need action. Here in Illinois, we have a law that punishes companies that choose to do the right thing by boycotting Israel,” Rashid told reporters.
“This shameful state law helps shield Israel’s violence and brutality from consequences.”
Israel is “engineering chaos and massacres” in the Gaza Strip by continuing to block aid deliveries and opening fire on starving Palestinians seeking desperately needed food supplies, a humanitarian official has warned.
Caroline Willemen, Gaza project coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, told Al Jazeera on Friday that food remains “critically scarce” in the besieged enclave despite the increased entry of aid in recent days.
“There is little indication that sufficient aid will arrive consistently,” Willemen said. “As a result, every day, people risk their lives in a desperate search for food.”
The Gaza Health Ministry said on Friday that three more people, including two children, died of hunger and malnutrition in the previous 24 hours.
That pushed the total number of starvation-related deaths to 162, including 92 children, since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023.
More than 80 Palestinians were also killed in Israeli strikes across the Strip on Friday, medical sources told Al Jazeera. Of those, 49 people were killed and more than 270 others were wounded while seeking aid, the sources said.
Condemnation of Israel’s starvation policy in Gaza has grown this week, with a global hunger monitoring system warning on Tuesday that the “worst-case scenario of famine” was unfolding.
While Israel has authorised a series of aid airdrops in recent days, top United Nations officials have denounced the scheme as expensive and dangerous while urging Israel to allow unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza.
“If there is political will to allow airdrops – which are highly costly, insufficient & inefficient, there should be similar political will to open the road crossings,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), wrote on X.
“As the people of #Gaza are starving to death, the only way to respond to the famine is to flood Gaza with assistance.”
Olga Cherevko, an official with the UN’s humanitarian office (OCHA), also told Al Jazeera from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza that while there has been a slight increase in aid being allowed in, it is still grossly insufficient.
“The slight increase in what is coming in is not nearly enough to even scratch the surface,” she said. “The needs on the ground are overwhelming.”
Meanwhile, Palestinians in Gaza continue to risk their lives by seeking aid at notorious sites run by the United States- and Israeli-backed GHF.
Ibrahim Mekki, a Palestinian man from Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, said he waited at least six hours and risked being shot by Israeli forces just to end up with a few bags of pasta.
“It’s a trap, a game,” he told Al Jazeera. “Letting you move a little, then opening fire.”
The UN’s human rights office reported that at least 1,373 aid seekers have been killed in Gaza since May, when the GHF began operating in the enclave.
Of those, 859 people were killed near GHF-run aid sites and 514 were killed while waiting along food convoy routes, the office said. “Most of these killings were committed by the Israeli military,” it added.
MSF’s Willemen also recounted a harrowing incident from earlier this week, when Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians attempting to reach aid trucks near the Zikim crossing in northern Gaza.
“People were wounded in the gunfire and in the crush as crowds panicked and ran,” she said.
“These deadly incidents have become a daily reality in Gaza for too long now. The current methods of distribution are engineering chaos and massacres.”
Still, Israel and its top ally, the US, have continued to support GHF despite the killings and growing global criticism of the group’s operations in Gaza.
US President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, also visited the enclave on Friday alongside US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee to “assess conditions” and engage with GHF.
Witkoff said the trip aimed to help “craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza”.
The Trump administration announced last month that it approved $30m to support GHF’s operations.
The US provides billions of dollars in military aid to Israel annually, as well as diplomatic backing at the UN – assistance that has increased significantly since the start of the war on Gaza.