Josh Paul resigned over Gaza. What comes next?
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Al Jazeera
3 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Israel intensifies Gaza City attacks, forcing starving Palestinians to flee
Israel's military has stepped up attacks on Gaza City as part of its expanded operations aimed at seizing the last major population centre in the enclave, forcing tens of thousands of starving Palestinians to flee again. The Gaza City neighbourhoods of Zeitoun, Sabra, Remal and Tuffah have particularly borne the brunt of the Israeli bombardments in recent days as a spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Israel's plans to forcibly displace Palestinians to southern Gaza would increase their suffering. Thousands of families have fled Zeitoun, where days of continuous strikes have left the neighbourhood devastated. At least seven people were killed on Sunday when an Israeli air strike hit al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City. Also on Sunday, the Israeli military said tents and equipment to erect shelters will be provided to the Palestinians who have been displaced multiple times in 22 months of war, which has been called an act of genocide by multiple rights organisations. Al Jazeera's Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said artillery fire and air raids have forced many from their homes. 'The Zeitoun neighbourhood is a very densely populated area, home to many families, including those who have been sheltering there. Residents were surprised when the artillery shelling and the intensive air raids started. Some people stayed. Others started moving. As the violence escalated, many were forced to evacuate – hungry, devastated and displaced yet again, leaving behind everything they had,' Khoudary said. 'New wave of genocide' Israel last week announced plans to push deeper into Gaza City and remove its residents to the south, a move that has drawn international condemnation. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, said civilians would be moved to 'safe zones' even though these areas have also been repeatedly bombed. Nearly 90 percent of the 2.4 million Palestinians in Gaza remain displaced, and an overwhelming number of them are now facing starvation. At least seven more Palestinians died of starvation in Gaza in 24 hours, Gaza's Ministry of Health said on Sunday, raising the war's hunger-related death toll to 258, including 110 children, as a result of Israel's ongoing siege of the enclave. On Sunday, Israel killed nearly 40 Palestinians, half of them aid seekers, taking the total number of Palestinians killed since the war began in October 2023 to 61,827. Hamas denounced Israel's plan to set up tents in the south as a cover for mass displacement. The group said in a statement that the measure amounted to a 'new wave of genocide and displacement' and described it as a 'blatant deception intended to cover up a brutal crime that the occupation forces prepare to execute'. There was an atmosphere of despair in Gaza after Israel's latest forced displacement order, Maram Humaid, Al Jazeera's online correspondent from Gaza, posted on X. 'There are no words to describe how people in Gaza feel right now. Fear, helplessness, and pain fill everyone as they face a new wave of displacement and an Israeli ground operation,' she posted. 'Family and friends' WhatsApp groups are full of silent screams and sorrow. God knows people have suffered enough. Our minds are almost paralysed from thinking.' Displaced and desperate Palestinians are scrambling for scraps of food as they face more bombardment from Israeli forces. The UN says one in five children in Gaza is malnourished as tens of thousands rely on charity kitchens, whose small portions of food can be their only meal of the day. 'I came at 6am to the charity kitchen to get food for my children, and if I don't get any now, I have to come back in the evening for another chance,' said Zeinab Nabahan, displaced from the Jabalia refugee camp, told Al Jazeera. 'My children are starving on small amounts of lentils or rice. My children haven't had bread or any breakfast. They've been waiting for me to leave with whatever I can get from the charity kitchen.' Another resident, Tayseer Naim, told Al Jazeera that 'had it not been for God and charity kitchens', he would not have survived. 'We come here at 8am and suffer to get lentils or rice. We suffer a lot, and we leave at midday and walk for about a kilometre.' 'Man-made famine' On Sunday, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned that Gaza is facing a 'man-made famine' and urged a return to a UN-led distribution system. 'We are very, very close to losing our collective humanity,' Juliette Touma, the agency's communications director, said in a post on X. She said the crisis had been fuelled by 'deliberate attempts to replace the UN-coordinated humanitarian system through the politically motivated 'GHF'.' She warned the alternative system promoted by Israel and the United States 'brings dehumanisation, chaos, and death' and stressed: 'We must return to a unified, UN-led coordination and distribution system based on international humanitarian law. The abomination must end.' The Government Media Office in Gaza said Israel was deliberately starving Palestinians by blocking essential goods, including baby formula, nutritional supplements, meat, fish, dairy products, and frozen fruits and vegetables. In a statement on Telegram, it said Israel was carrying out 'a systematic policy of engineered starvation and slow killing against more than 2.4 million people in Gaza, including more than 1.2 million Palestinian children, in a complete crime of genocide'. It warned that more than 40,000 infants face severe malnutrition while at least 100,000 other children and patients are in a similar condition. Amjad Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGOs Network in Gaza City, told Al Jazeera that aid workers were struggling to respond as resources collapse. 'We are trying to do our best. We are … part of this social fabric. We are linked to the people here, and we are staying with them while Israel threatens to apply its plans to forcibly evacuate Gaza City and destroy the rest of Gaza. There are 1.1 million people here, most of them elderly, women, children and people with disabilities,' Shawa said. He said workers continued to provide limited meals, medical care and education but warned that 'the humanitarian system is collapsing' as Israel strikes aid facilities and restricts supplies.
Al Jazeera
4 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
US cancels visas for medical evacuation patients from Gaza
US cancels visas for medical evacuation patients from Gaza NewsFeed The US State Department has stopped all visitor visas for Palestinians arriving for urgent medical treatment from Gaza while it 'reviews' how approvals are handled. Aid groups have slammed the decision saying it blocks critically ill children from receiving life-saving treatment in the US. Video Duration 01 minutes 09 seconds 01:09 Video Duration 01 minutes 08 seconds 01:08 Video Duration 02 minutes 21 seconds 02:21 Video Duration 02 minutes 16 seconds 02:16 Video Duration 00 minutes 33 seconds 00:33 Video Duration 02 minutes 25 seconds 02:25 Video Duration 01 minutes 21 seconds 01:21
Al Jazeera
4 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
European leaders to shore up Ukraine's Zelenskyy for DC talks with Trump
European leaders will join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his visit to Washington, DC, seeking an end to the Russia-Ukraine war, after United States President Donald Trump dropped both his push for a ceasefire and the threat of punitive actions against Russia following his Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Securing a ceasefire in Ukraine, more than three years after Russia's invasion, had been one of Trump's core demands before Friday's Alaska summit, to which Ukraine and its European allies were not invited. Special US envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that Putin agreed at the summit with Trump to allow the US and European allies to offer Ukraine a security guarantee resembling NATO's collective defence mandate as part of an eventual deal to end the 3 1/2-year war. 'We were able to win the following concession: That the United States could offer Article 5-like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in NATO,' he said on the CNN news programme State of the Union. Witkoff said it was the first time he had heard Putin agree to that. Ukraine's Zelenskyy, speaking in Brussels on Sunday after meeting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, said the current front lines of the war should be the basis for peace talks. 'We need real negotiations, which means we can start where the front line is now,' Zelenskyy said, adding that European leaders support this and reiterating his long-held position that it was necessary to establish a ceasefire in order to then negotiate a final deal. But after the summit on Friday with Putin yielded no clear breakthrough, Trump ruled out an immediate ceasefire – a move that aligns with Putin, who has long argued for negotiations on a final peace deal. According to a New York Times report, after his meeting with Putin, the US president also told European leaders that he had offered to support a plan to end the war that involved Ukraine giving up parts of its territory to Russia. Ukraine and its European allies have criticised Putin's stance as a way to buy time and press Russia's battlefield advances, and they have expressed unease over Trump's land swap proposal from the outset. In an effort to try show a firm, united front to the US president in White House talks on Monday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Finland's President Alexander Stubb, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and von der Leyen will accompany Zelenskyy to Washington, DC. 'The talks will address, among other things, security guarantees, territorial issues, and continued support for Ukraine in its defence against Russian aggression,' the German government said in a statement about the trip to the US capital. 'This includes maintaining pressure on sanctions.' Ahead of the visit, von der Leyen said on X that she would welcome Zelenskyy for a meeting in Brussels on Sunday, which other European leaders would join by video, before accompanying the Ukrainian leader on his US trip at his 'request' and with 'other European leaders'. This afternoon, I will welcome @ZelenskyyUa in Brussels. Together, we will participate in the Coalition of Willing VTC. At the request of President Zelenskyy, I will join the meeting with President Trump and other European leaders in the White House tomorrow. — Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) August 17, 2025 Strength and safety in numbers appear to be factors in the group visit, with memories still fresh about the hostile reception Zelenskyy received in February from Trump and US Vice-President JD Vance in a public White House dressing-down, castigating the Ukrainian leader as being ungrateful and 'disrespectful'. No land swaps While Zelenskyy has welcomed Trump's efforts to end the war, in a post on social media on Saturday, he warned that 'it may take a lot of effort to get Russia to have the will to implement far greater – peaceful coexistence with its neighbors for decades'. The Ukrainian president has also repeatedly reiterated that Kyiv will not swap any of its land to attain a ceasefire. Ukraine's constitution forbids the ceding of territory. According to Zelenskyy, Putin has asked that Russia be handed over all of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, a third of which Kyiv still holds. In exchange, Russian forces would halt their offensive in the Black Sea port region of Kherson and Zaporizhia in southern Ukraine, where the main cities are still under Ukrainian control. Earlier this month, the Ukrainian president said that 'Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier' and pointed out that he doesn't have the authority to sign off on land swaps. He said that changing Ukraine's 1991 borders runs counter to the country's constitution. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and has been gradually advancing for months. In his statement after the Alaska summit, Putin signalled no movement in Russia's long-held demands, which also include a veto on Kyiv's desired membership in the NATO alliance. He also warned Ukraine and its European allies not to 'create any obstacles' and 'that they will not attempt to disrupt the emerging progress through provocation or behind-the-scenes intrigue'. Trilateral summit in the works? The diplomatic focus now switches to Zelenskyy's talks at the White House on Monday with the European leaders in tow. In an interview with broadcaster Fox News after his sit-down with Putin, Trump had suggested that the onus was now on Zelenskyy to secure a peace deal as they work towards an eventual trilateral summit with Putin. 'It's really up to President Zelenskyy to get it done,' Trump said. European powers, however, want to help set up a trilateral meeting between Trump, Putin and Zelenskyy to make sure Ukraine has a seat at the table to shape its future. They also want security guarantees for Ukraine with US involvement, and the ability to crank up pressure on Moscow if needed. 'They will spell out what they consider essential in terms of security guarantees: what they can do themselves, what falls to the coalition of volunteers, and also what they expect from the United States,' a European government official told the Reuters news agency. 'Indeed, they expect a very robust commitment.'
