Children among 20 people reported killed overnight by Israeli strikes on Gaza – Middle East crisis live
Date: 2025-07-09T07:11:28.000Z
Title: Opening summary
Content: Hello and welcome to the Guardian's continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.
Gaza civil defence has said 20 people, including at least six children, have been killed in Israeli airstrikes overnight.
Agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP the first hit a tent housing displaced people in Khan Younis in the south shortly after midnight local time (9pm GMT Tuesday) and the second struck a camp in the north soon afterwards.
Elsewhere, medical officials, humanitarian workers and doctors in Gaza say they have been overwhelmed by almost daily 'mass casualty incidents' as they struggle to deal with those wounded by Israeli fire on Palestinians seeking aid.
As reported by the Guardian's Jason Burke, doctors describe many of the casualties they are treating describe being shot as they try to reach distribution sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a secretive US- and Israel-backed organisation that began handing out food in late May.
'The scenes are truly shocking – they resemble the horrors of judgment day. Sometimes within just half an hour we receive over 100 to 150 cases, ranging from severe injuries to deaths … About 95% of these injuries and deaths come from food distribution centres – what are referred to as the 'American food distribution centres',' said Dr Mohammed Saqr, director of nursing at Gaza's Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis.
In other developments:
AP News reports that an Israeli report released Tuesday accuses Hamas of using sexual violence as a weapon of war during its Oct. 7, 2023 attacks. The findings are based on survivor and witness testimonies, first responder accounts, and forensic evidence.
The report says that many victims may have been killed, silencing them and complicating investigations. It asks for new legal approaches to prosecuting sexual violence in conflict, suggesting evidence beyond victim testimony and holding all attackers jointly responsible. Hamas denies the allegations.
This comes as Israel and Hamas are negotiating a ceasefire. Reporters were told that the anticipated agreement would involve a 60-day ceasefire, with the release of ten live hostages and nine deceased individuals.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with US president Donald Trump to discuss any potential ceasefire deal options.
Netanyahu said the meeting was focused around freeing hostages held in Gaza, and stressed his determination to 'eliminate' the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
42 minutes ago
- Reuters
Gaza facing man-made 'mass starvation', says WHO's Tedros
July 23 (Reuters) - Gaza is suffering man-made mass starvation caused by a blockade on aid into the Palestinian enclave, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday. He spoke following an appeal by more than 100 aid agencies warning of hunger in Gaza while tons of food, clean water and medical supplies sit untouched just outside the territory. "I don't know what you would call it other than mass starvation, and it's man-made, and that's very clear," Tedros told a virtual press conference live-streamed from Geneva. "This is because of (the) blockade." Gaza's food stocks have run out since Israel, at war with Palestinian militant group Hamas since October 2023, cut off all supplies to the territory in March and then lifted that blockade in May - but with restrictions that it says are needed to prevent aid from being diverted to militant groups. As a result, international aid agencies say that only a trickle of what is needed is currently reaching people in Gaza. Israel says it is committed to allowing in aid but must control it to prevent it from being diverted by militants. It says it has let enough food into Gaza during the war and blames Hamas for the suffering of Gaza's 2.2 million people. Ten more Palestinians died overnight from starvation, the Gaza health ministry said, bringing the total number of people who have starved to death to 111, most of them in recent weeks as a wave of hunger crashes on the Palestinian enclave. The WHO said the deadly surge in malnutrition has caused the deaths of at least 21 children reported to the agency in 2025, but stressed those figures are likely the tip of the iceberg. Centres for treating malnutrition are full without sufficient supplies for emergency feeding, the WHO added, as the hunger crisis has been compounded by the collapse of aid pipelines and restrictions on access. Tedros also said the U.N. and its humanitarian partners were unable to deliver any food for nearly 80 days between March and May, and the resumption of deliveries was still insufficient. The situation is dire, he and other WHO officials said, with around 10% of people screened experiencing either severe or moderate malnutrition, and up to 20% of pregnant women. In July alone, 5,100 children have been admitted to malnutrition programmes, including 800 who were severely emaciated, said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO's representative for the occupied Palestinian territories.
Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
WHO sees 'deadly' surge in malnutrition in Gaza; 21 children under five killed in 2025
July 23 (Reuters) - The World Health Organization said on Wednesday it was seeing a deadly surge in malnutrition in Gaza that has led to the deaths of 21 children under five so far in 2025. Malnutrition centers are full without sufficient supplies for emergency feeding, the health agency said, as the hunger crisis gets accelerated by the collapse of aid pipelines and restrictions on access. Gaza has seen its food stocks run out since Israel cut off all supplies to the territory in March and then lifted that blockade in May, but with conditions that it says are needed to prevent aid from being diverted to militant groups. However, aid agencies say that only a trickle of what is needed is currently reaching people in Gaza. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the health agency was unable to deliver any food for nearly 80 days between March and May, adding that the resumption of deliveries was still far below what is needed. "The 2.1 million people up in the war zone that is Gaza are facing yet another killer on top of bombs and bullets, starvation; we're now witnessing a deadly surge in malnutrition related disease," Ghebreyesus said.
The National
3 hours ago
- The National
Humza Yousaf's family-in-law 'starving in Gaza'
The former first minister shared a video on social media on Tuesday, where the pair said the stories they were hearing from El-Nakla's side of the family in Gaza were "sickening" and "gut-wrenching". They added that while governments "might stay silent" and refuse to act, "we won't". READ MORE: British Jewish body calls for broadcaster James O'Brien to be 'taken off air' It comes as more than 100 aid organisations warned of 'mass starvation' in Gaza with more than two million people facing shortages of food and other essentials after 21 months of brutal bombardment by Israel. The UN said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had killed more than 1000 Palestinians trying to get food aid since the US-and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operations in late May – in effect side-lining the existing UN-led system. In the video, El-Nakla says: "My cousin Sally, her husband and four children are starving. My aunt Hanan, her children and grandchildren, including a seven-month-old baby, are being starved." Nadia's cousin Sally, and her four children are being starved by Israel. Millions in Gaza are being deliberately starved while Israel withholds food mere kilometres away. Words are not enough. Governments must act and force Israel to open the borders and allow aid to flow in. — Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) July 23, 2025 Yousaf adds: "Sally is one of millions in Gaza. Her husband goes out all day searching for food, often to come home with nothing – and when I say home, I mean a tent in almost 40 degree heat." El-Nakla then says: "Yesterday my family's town, Deir Al Balah, was hit hard and starving people were being forced to run while being shot and bombed." "In Gaza, doctors are becoming too weak to treat patients, journalists too weak to report the silent killer of forced starvation," Yousaf adds. El-Nakla goes on: "This is a deliberate starvation of the Palestinian people. Food and water are mere kilometres away. READ MORE: Labour panned for foreign aid cuts as women and children to be hit hardest "This form of warfare is sickening and the stories and images from my family and millions of others in Gaza are absolutely gut-wrenching. "Can you imagine not being able to feed your children, yet knowing the food you so desperately need is only a few miles away?" Yousaf continues: "Fathers like me, parents like us, children like ours, being starved, displaced, bombed, all while the world watches. "Governments might stay silent. They may refuse to act, but we won't." El-Nakla concludes: "Sally's life matters. Palestinian lives matter. And I am begging those who have the power to open the borders to do so now and let the people of Gaza live." Pressure is continuing to ramp up on the UK Government to take action over Israel's starvation of [[Gaza]] – including from voices which have, until now, remained largely silent. The National reported earlier on Wednesday on a harrowing front page by the right-wing Daily Express, which featured an image of a starving one-year old child in Gaza accompanied by the headline 'for pity's sake stop this now'. A sub-heading detailed how the child Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq was 'clinging on to life' and how his suffering 'shames us all'.
