6 hours ago
At least eight more Palestinians die of starvation as famine spreads across Gaza
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza has said at least 61 people were killed and 308 injured in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours.
The ministry said a number of victims remained under rubble and on the streets, with ambulance and civil defence crews unable to reach them.
According to its daily update, the cumulative death toll in Gaza has risen to 62,622, with 157,673 injured since 7 October 2023.
From when Israel ended the ceasefire on March 18, the ministry said 10,778 people have been killed and 45,632 injured.
It noted that 298 fatalities had been added to the tally after confirmation by a judicial committee handling missing persons cases.
The ministry reported that at least 16 people were killed and 111 injured while attempting to collect aid in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of what the ministry describes as “aid victims” to 2,076 killed, and more than 15,308 injured since the war began.
Hospitals also recorded eight new deaths due to starvation and malnutrition, including two children, bringing the total to 281 deaths from hunger, of whom 114 were children.
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Israeli strikes killed at least 14 people in the southern Gaza Strip early Saturday, according to morgue records and health officials at Nasser hospital, reports the Associated Press (AP).
The officials said the strikes targeted tents sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis, which became home to hundreds of thousands who had fled from elsewhere in Gaza. More than half of the dead were women and children, reported the AP.
Awad Abu Agala, uncle of two children who died, told the AP no place in Gaza is now safe. “The entire Gaza Strip is being bombed … In the south. In the north. Everywhere,” Abu Agala said, explaining that the children were targeted overnight while in their tents.
In northern Gaza, Israeli gunfire killed at least five aid-seekers on Saturday near the Zikim crossing with Israel, where UN and other agencies’ convoys enter the territory, health officials at the Sheikh Radwan field hospital told the AP.
Six people were killed in other attacks on Gaza elsewhere Saturday, according to hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to questions from the AP about the deaths.
Summary of the day so far
It is 2.49pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here is a summary of today’s blog so far:
The Palestinian ministry of health in Gaza has said at least 61 people were killed and 308 injured in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours. The ministry said a number of victims remained under rubble and on the streets, with ambulance and civil defence crews unable to reach them. The Wafa news agency reported that at least nine Palestinian civilians had been killed in a series of Israeli attacks across Gaza on Saturday.
The ministry reported that at least 16 people were killed and 111 injured while attempting to collect aid in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of what the ministry describes as “aid victims” to 2,076 killed, and more than 15,308 injured since the war began.
Hospitals in Gaza also recorded eight new deaths due to starvation and malnutrition, including two children, bringing the total to 281 deaths from hunger, of whom 114 were children.
Israel has dismantled the proven and internationally backed civilian model of aid distribution in Gaza, according to a joint report from Forensic Architecture (FA) and the World Peace Foundation (WPF), which said the move has furthered both Israel’s military objectives and starvation in the territory.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has called for an urgent scale-up of evacuations from Gaza, warning that more than 15,600 patients remain in need of specialised care, including 3,800 children. In a post on X, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus thanked the UAE for supporting the latest evacuation of critically injured and sick patients but stressed that far more action is needed.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), Philippe Lazzarini, has called on Israel to allow aid into Gaza at scale, saying famine in the territory is worsening by the hour. He also shared comments from undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, Tom Fletcher, who said the famine confirmed by the IPC report should be read “in sorrow and in anger”.
Unrwa says it has warehouses full of food, medicines and hygiene supplies in Jordan and Egypt but is being blocked from bringing them into Gaza. “While famine is confirmed in Gaza City, we have warehouses full of food waiting to be allowed in,” the agency said in a post on X.
Israeli forces have continued their large-scale assault on the village of al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, carrying out raids and widespread destruction of property, according to a local official cited by the Wafa news agency. Marzouq Abu Naim, the deputy head of the village council, told Wafa that since dawn troops had stormed more than 30 homes, issuing threats, destroying property, and smashing or seizing dozens of vehicles.
Protesters backing a deal for the release of hostages in Gaza confronted Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and his son in central Israel, the Times of Israel reports. Crowds chanted “shame” and held up posters of hostages still held in Gaza. Ben-Gvir – who was barred from serving in the army as a teenager due to extremist activities – was heard telling his son, Shoval: “These are draft dodgers.” One protester shouted back, calling Ben-Gvir himself a “draft dodger”.
Action Against Hunger has warned of “extreme vulnerability under the mothers and their children that are undernourished” as famine spreads across Gaza. The group’s nutrition teams recorded more than 400 cases of malnourished children in July and August alone, 20% of them severe. According to UN and INGO data, thousands of new cases are being registered each month.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has said spoken by phone with his French, German and British counterparts in a bid to prevent a vote on UN sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear programme, just days ahead of a European deadline. The call came as the three European powers threatened to trigger the “snapback” provision of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which allows any party to reimpose sanctions if they believe Iran is not complying with commitments such as international monitoring of its nuclear activities.
Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp has stepped down after failing to secure cabinet approval for additional sanctions on Israel over its war in Gaza. Veldkamp, a member of the centre-right New Social Contract party, said he was unable to achieve any agreement, while citing “geopolitical tensions”.
Turning our attention to the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces have continued their large-scale assault on the village of al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah, carrying out raids and widespread destruction of property, according to a local official cited by the Wafa news agency.
Marzouq Abu Naim, the deputy head of the village council, told Wafa that since dawn troops had stormed more than 30 homes, issuing threats, destroying property, and smashing or seizing dozens of vehicles.
He added that bulldozers were continuing work on a new road through the village, destroying thousands of dunums of olive groves.
The escalation comes after Israel on Wednesday announced its approval of a major new settlement block in the West Bank, which far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich suggsted was designed to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.
On Thursday, UK foreign secretary David Lammy joined 20 other foreign ministers in condemning the settlement plan. The Foreign Office said it had also summoned the Israeli ambassador in London to make Britain’s position clear.
The ICJ regards both Israeli occupation and settlement building in the West Bank as illegal under international law.
At least eight more Palestinians die of starvation as famine spreads across Gaza
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza has said at least 61 people were killed and 308 injured in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours.
The ministry said a number of victims remained under rubble and on the streets, with ambulance and civil defence crews unable to reach them.
According to its daily update, the cumulative death toll in Gaza has risen to 62,622, with 157,673 injured since 7 October 2023.
From when Israel ended the ceasefire on March 18, the ministry said 10,778 people have been killed and 45,632 injured.
It noted that 298 fatalities had been added to the tally after confirmation by a judicial committee handling missing persons cases.
The ministry reported that at least 16 people were killed and 111 injured while attempting to collect aid in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of what the ministry describes as “aid victims” to 2,076 killed, and more than 15,308 injured since the war began.
Hospitals also recorded eight new deaths due to starvation and malnutrition, including two children, bringing the total to 281 deaths from hunger, of whom 114 were children.
Karim is a trained nurse in his early 20s from Gaza City. He has been displaced by the war 12 times and survived an Israeli strike in Rafah. He now lives in the ruins of his former home with his parents and four brothers. He kept a diary for the Guardian over the course of a week.
3 August 2025
Today, I have to do something a bit “exciting”. I’m going to a food distribution point for the first time, what I call the death lottery. I’m leaving in about 30 minutes. I’ve said goodbye to my family and hugged them all. You never know.
4 August 2025
Do you know the series Squid Game? I swear, they’re playing with us just like that. I lay on the ground at the aid point in Zikim for almost three hours without moving. If anyone moved – like one old man apparently did, they shot him. He got a bullet straight in the neck.
6 August 2025
I usually avoid the news. I can’t stand watching it – too much pain, too much politics. I scroll through Instagram a little, and sometimes I search for scholarships, hoping to find a way out of here. I’m desperate to escape with my family.
Read the rest of Karim’s account here: My life in Gaza: ‘Do you know the series Squid Game?’
UNRWA chief urges Israel to ‘stop denying the famine it has created’ in Gaza
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has called on Israel to allow aid into Gaza at scale, saying famine in the territory is worsening by the hour.
In a post on X, Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA commissioner-general, said:
It’s time for the Government of Israel to stop denying the famine it has created in Gaza. All of those who have influence must use it with determination and a sense of moral duty. Every hour counts.
He also shared comments from Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, who said the famine confirmed by the IPC report should be read “in sorrow and in anger”.
Fletcher wrote that the crisis was “a famine we could have prevented” but food was being blocked by “systematic obstruction by Israel”.
In his closing appeal, Fletcher said: “My plea, my demand to Prime Minister Netanyahu: Enough. Ceasefire. Open the crossings, north and south … It is too late for far too many. But not for everyone in Gaza. Enough. For humanity’s sake, let us in.”
It comes after the Israeli prime minister claimed yesterday the IPC report was “an absolute lie” and “a modern blood libel”.
Palestinians endure daily struggle to access humanitarian aid
WHO calls for more medical evacuations from Gaza
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has called for an urgent scale-up of evacuations from Gaza, warning that more than 15,600 patients remain in need of specialised care.
In a post on X, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus thanked the UAE for supporting the latest evacuation of critically injured and sick patients but stressed that far more action is needed.
However, he added that “more than 15 600 patients are in need of specialised care, including 3800 children”.
“We call for increased access to help scale up evacuations from Gaza and more countries to step up and offer lifesaving care. Ceasefire!”
Other countries have announced similar evacuation measures, with the first patients from Palestine expected to arrive in the coming weeks, according a UK government press statement released yesterday.
In contrast, last week, the US State Department has halted the issuing of visitor visas for Palestinians arriving for urgent treatment from Gaza while it “reviews its approval process”.
Aid groups have sharply criticised the decision, warning it blocks critically ill children from accessing life-saving care.
Protesters backing a deal for the release of hostages in Gaza confronted Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and his son in central Israel, the Times of Israel reports.
Crowds chanted “shame” and held up posters of hostages still held in Gaza. Ben-Gvir – who was barred from serving in the army as a teenager due to extremist activities – was heard telling his son, Shoval: “These are draft dodgers.”
One protester shouted back, calling Ben-Gvir himself a “draft dodger”.
Another directed her appeal at Shoval, saying: “I know very well, he is with you in your unit, he is with you in your unit. You serve with him, and your father is leaving the hostages to die. Look at their faces. If you were kidnapped, your father would leave you to die.”
Ben-Gvir, who is currently under UK sanctions for inciting violence against Palestinians, has long opposed any deals to secure hostage releases, and for a ceasefire in Gaza.
In the overcrowded, rubble strewn streets of Gaza City, there was little surprise at the announcement that UN-backed experts believed the scenes of desperation could now be formally described as a famine.
“This is something we have been saying for months now, and we have witnessed this and we have been living this and suffering this. We feel very powerless and very sick and very tired,” said Amjad Shawa, the director of the Palestinian NGO Network, who has been in Gaza City throughout the 22-month war.
On Friday, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a globally recognised organisation that classifies the severity of food insecurity and malnutrition, found that three key thresholds for a declaration of famine had been met in the once bustling commercial and administrative hub.
“This famine is entirely man-made, it can be halted and reversed,” the report said. It warned of an exponential increase in deaths if “a ceasefire is not implemented … and essential food supplies and basic … services are not restored immediately”.
Read the full piece here: ‘Very sick and very tired’: the reality of famine for Gaza’s most vulnerable
Action Against Hunger has warned of “extreme vulnerability under the mothers and their children that are undernourished” as famine spreads across Gaza.
Vincent Stehli, the organisation’s head of operations, said:
As a result of nearly two years of continued forcible transfer, airstrikes, and continuous disrupted and little access to food and water, Gaza’s entire population has been compelled to rely on humanitarian food aid as a primary source of sustenance, with an increasing number of extreme vulnerability under the mothers and their children that are undernourished.
The group’s nutrition teams recorded more than 400 cases of malnourished children in July and August alone, 20% of them severe. According to UN and INGO data, thousands of new cases are being registered each month.
An Action Against Hunger staff member in Gaza added:
It is important to note that many families do not have the resources to arrive at humanitarian nutrition sites to receive treatment. Also, there is a lack of nutrition supplies, hindering the capacity to treat such cases in a timely manner. We also noted that many breastfeeding and pregnant mothers suffer from malnutrition themselves.
In May, Action Against Hunger said 5,119 children under five were admitted for acute malnutrition – a 148% rise since February.
Admissions rose further to 6,500 in June, the highest since October 2023, with over 5,000 more in just the first two weeks of July.
The Famine Review Committee (FRC) projects that by June 2026, 132,000 children under five will be at risk of death, including more than 41,000 severe cases.
Iran says it held call with European ministers to avoid UN sanctions
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has said spoken by phone with his French, German and British counterparts in a bid to prevent a vote on UN sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear programme, just days ahead of a European deadline.
The call came as the three European powers threatened to trigger the “snapback” provision of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which allows any party to reimpose sanctions if they believe Iran is not complying with commitments such as international monitoring of its nuclear activities.
Iran’s parliament voted to suspend all cooperation with the Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after Israeli and US airstrikes on its nuclear facilities in June, despite ongoing negotiations over the nuclear programme, according to Iranian media.
After the call, a statement released on Araghchi’s behalf via Telegram criticised the three countries’ “legal and moral qualifications” to threaten sanctions but insisted that talks would continue.
The statement said:
The Islamic Republic of Iran, just as it acts authoritatively in self-defence, has never abandoned the path of diplomacy and is ready for any diplomatic solution that guarantees the rights and interests of the Iranian people.
French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot confirmed on X that the discussions had taken place and said another round of talks would happen next week.
We have just made an important call to our Iranian counterpart regarding the nuclear programme and the sanctions against Iran that we are preparing to reapply… time is running out.
That view was echoed by UK foreign secretary David Lammy and the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas, while Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said:
Iran needs to engage substantively in order to avoid the activation of snapback. We have been clear that we will not let the snapback of sanctions expire unless there is a verifiable and durable deal.
Any renewed sanctions effort could face pushback from China and Russia, with both countries having a veto as permanent members of the UN Security Council.
At least nine Palestinian civilians have been killed in a series of Israeli attacks across Gaza on Saturday, according to Wafa news agency.
Local sources told Wafa that an Israeli drone strike hit a house in the al-Sabra neighbourhood south of Gaza City, killing one civilian and injuring others.
Another drone attack targeted a tent sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis, killing two women and injuring 14 others.
Emergency services said six people were killed and others wounded after Israeli forces opened fire on civilians waiting for aid in the north of the enclave.
Medical sources cited by Wafa said a total of 34 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since dawn today.
Israeli airstrike on Deir al-Balah, a city in central Gaza.
Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp has stepped down after failing to secure cabinet approval for additional sanctions on Israel over its war in Gaza.
Veldkamp, a member of the centre-right New Social Contract party, said he was unable to achieve any agreement, while citing “geopolitical tensions”.
Late on Friday, he said in a post on X:
Tonight I announced my decision to step down as Minister of Foreign Affairs. It has been a true honour to represent the Netherlands on the international stage.
We are living in a time of unprecedented geopolitical tension, where diplomacy matters more than ever. I am deeply grateful for the cooperation with my colleagues in the Netherlands, in the European Union, and with international partners worldwide.
I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the dedicated staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who work tirelessly every day to safeguard and promote the interests of the Netherlands.
During his tenure, Veldkamp had imposed entry bans on far-right Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, accusing them of inciting settler violence against Palestinians.
He also revoked three export licences for Israeli navy ship components.
UNRWA says famine in Gaza City can be stopped if aid is allowed in
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) says it has warehouses full of food, medicines and hygiene supplies in Jordan and Egypt but is being blocked from bringing them into Gaza.
“While famine is confirmed in Gaza City, we have warehouses full of food waiting to be allowed in,” the agency said in a post on X.
Famine in Gaza City can be stopped. Reverse the ongoing catastrophe – flood Gaza with a massive scale up of aid through the United Nations including UNRWA. … There is enough food, medicines and hygiene supplies ready to fill 6,000 trucks. The State of Israel must let us bring aid into Gaza.
It comes after the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) confirmed an “entirely man-made” famine in Gaza City and its surrounding areas, warning of an exponential increase in deaths if conditions continue to deteriorate.
Welcome and opening summary
Hello, and welcome to our live coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza and wider regional diplomacy.
Israel has dismantled the proven and internationally backed civilian model of aid distribution in Gaza, according to a joint report from Forensic Architecture (FA) and the World Peace Foundation (WPF), which said the move has furthered both Israel’s military objectives and starvation in the territory.
The UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) confirmed famine in Gaza this week. UK foreign secretary David Lammy described the situation as a “catastrophic humanitarian crisis” and condemned Israel’s refusal to allow sufficient aid into the enclave. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the famine assessment, saying it ignored what he described as recent humanitarian steps by his government.
Plan UK, a children’s charity, said the famine was “an entirely man-made hunger catastrophe” that is killing children daily. The group warned that 130,000 Palestinian children are threatened by malnutrition.
Meanwhile, foreign ministers from European countries, Australia and the UK condemned Israel’s plans to construct a settlement in the E1 area east of Jerusalem, calling the move “unacceptable” and a violation of international law.
Figures from a classified Israeli military intelligence database, seen in a joint investigation by the Guardian, +972 Magazine and Local Call, suggest that five out of six Palestinians killed in Gaza are civilians. By May, Israeli officials had listed 8,900 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters as dead or “probably dead”.
The Red Cross has joined international voices condemning Israel’s plan to expand its military operations and seize Gaza City, calling the proposal “intolerable.”
Relatives of Israeli hostages held in Gaza urged Netanyahu’s government to accept a proposed ceasefire, warning that rejection would be “a death sentence for the living hostages and a sentence of disappearance for the deceased ones.”
In regional diplomacy, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi and his French, British and German counterparts agreed to resume talks next week on nuclear and sanctions issues. European powers have warned they could trigger a UN “snapback” mechanism to reimpose sanctions if Iran does not return to negotiations over its uranium enrichment programme.
We will be following today’s developments. Stay with us.
