Israeli forces kill at least 85 Palestinians seeking aid, health ministry says
At least 85 people have been killed by the Israeli military while waiting for aid at sites across Gaza on Sunday, making it the deadliest day for aid seekers in more than 21 months of war, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
A fresh alarm was raised after Israel's military ordered evacuations in parts of central Gaza — an area it has rarely entered with ground troops and where many international aid groups are based. Israel has not yet commented.
The largest toll was in northern Gaza, where at least 79 Palestinians were killed while attempting to access aid entering northern Gaza through the Zikim crossing with Israel, according to the Health Ministry and local hospitals.
The UN World Food Programme said 25 aid trucks entered for 'starving communities' but were met by huge crowds. Palestinians react after carrying the bodies of those killed while trying to reach aid trucks. / Credit: AP
A UN official, speaking anonymously because they were not authorised to speak publicly, said Israeli forces opened fire on crowds trying to take food from the convoy.
More than 150 people were wounded, some critically, hospitals said.
'Suddenly, tanks surrounded us, trapping us as gunfire and strikes rained down. We were trapped for around two hours,' said Ehab Al-Zei, who had been waiting for flour and hadn't eaten bread in 15 days.
Speaking amid the chaos of people carrying the dead and wounded, he added: 'I will never go back again. Let us die of hunger, it's better.'
Nafiz Al-Najjar, who was injured, said tanks and drones targeted people 'randomly,' and he saw his cousin and others shot dead.
Israel's military said soldiers fired at a crowd of thousands of Palestinians in northern Gaza who posed a threat and acknowledged some casualties.
However, it said Gaza officials' casualty figures were much higher than its own initial findings and accused Hamas militants of causing the chaos.
Witnesses and health workers report that several hundred people have been killed by Israeli fire while trying to reach the group's aid distribution points.
Separately, seven Palestinians, including a five-year-old boy, were killed while sheltering in tents in Khan Younis, the Kuwait Specialised Field Hospital said.
The warnings come as Israel and Hamas have been holding ceasefire talks in Qatar, but international mediators say there have been no breakthroughs.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly stressed that expanding Israeli military operations in Gaza will pressure Hamas to negotiate, despite widespread protests.
Military spokesman Avichay Adraee warned that the military will attack 'with intensity' against militants. He called for residents, including those sheltering in tents, to head to the Muwasi area, a desolate tent camp on Gaza's southern shore that the Israeli military has designated a humanitarian zone.
In recent weeks, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid.
The United Nations human rights office recently confirmed that at least 875 Palestinians have been killed whilst seeking food since May, with 674 of those in the vicinity of GHF distribution points.
On Saturday, at least 32 people were killed after Israeli troops opened fire towards a crowd of Palestinians waiting for aid at a distribution hub, according to witnesses and hospital officials. Relatives of Palestinians killed at an aid distribution center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. / Credit: AP
The deaths occurred in two incidents near hubs operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US and Israel-backed group.
Separately, two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, health officials said.
The Israeli military said it had struck some 90 targets throughout Gaza on Saturday, and that it had killed militants and targeted 'terror infrastructure' in northern Gaza and Gaza City.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the violence near the aid sites, nor did the GHF.
Gaza's population of more than 2 million Palestinians are facing a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.
The 21-month war was triggered when Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage. Fifty hostages remain, but fewer than half are thought to be alive.
Israel's military offensive that followed has killed more than 58,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, which says that more than half of those killed have been women and children. Although the ministry is part of the Hamas government, the UN and other international organisations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties. People take part in a protest demanding the end of the war and immediate release of hostages held by Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel. / Credit: AP
Gaza's population of more than 2 million Palestinians are facing a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.
Hamas triggered the 21-month war when militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage. Fifty remain, but fewer than half are thought to be alive.
Israel's military offensive that followed has killed more than 58,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn't say how many militants are among the dead but says more than half of the dead have been women and children.
The Hostages Family Forum, which represents many of the families of Israeli hostages, condemned the evacuation announcement and demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli military explain what they hope to accomplish in the area of central Gaza, accusing Israel of operating without a clear war plan.
'Enough! The Israeli people overwhelmingly want an end to the fighting and a comprehensive agreement that will return all of the hostages,' the forum said. On Saturday night, during the weekly protest, tens of thousands of protesters marched in Tel Aviv, demonstrating for an end to the war.
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Sky News
3 hours ago
- Sky News
Israel-Hamas war: 'Vast amounts of aid needed to stave off catastrophic health crisis in Gaza,' UN warns
Israel has agreed to support a "one-week scale-up of aid" in Gaza - but the United Nations has warned more action is needed to "stave off famine and a catastrophic health crisis". UN aid chief Tom Fletcher made the remarks as Israel began limited pauses in fighting across three areas of Gaza for 10 hours a day to address the worsening humanitarian situation. Israel cut off all supplies to Gaza's population from the start of March. It then reopened aid centres with new restrictions in May, but said the supply had to be controlled to prevent it from being stolen by Hamas militants. On Saturday, reports referencing US government data said there was no evidence Hamas had stolen aid from UN agencies. Images of emaciated Palestinian children have led to widespread criticism of Israel's actions in Gaza, including by allies who are calling for an end to the war. Mr Fletcher said one in three people in Gaza "hasn't eaten for days" and "children are wasting away". He added: "We welcome Israel's decision to support a one-week scale-up of aid, including lifting customs barriers on food, medicine and fuel from Egypt and the reported designation of secure routes for UN humanitarian convoys. "Some movement restrictions appear to have been eased today, with initial reports indicating that over 100 truckloads were collected. "This is progress, but vast amounts of aid are needed to stave off famine and a catastrophic health crisis. Across the UN agencies and humanitarian community, we are mobilised to save as many lives as we can." The Israel Defence Forces said yesterday that it is halting military operations in Muwasi, Deir al Balah and Gaza City daily from 10am to 8pm local time (8am to 6pm UK time) until further notice. Combat operations have continued outside of this 10-hour window. Health officials in Gaza said Israeli strikes killed at least 41 Palestinians overnight into Sunday morning, including 26 seeking aid. In a statement, the IDF said it would also establish secure routes to help the UN and aid agencies deliver food and other supplies. Israel's announcement of what it calls a "tactical pause" in fighting comes after it resumed airdrops of aid into Gaza. While the IDF reiterated claims there is "no starvation" in the territory, it said the airdrops would include "seven pallets of aid containing flour, sugar and canned food to be provided by international organisations". Palestinian sources confirmed that aid had begun dropping in northern parts of the territory. Sabreen Hasson, a Palestinian mother who travelled to an aid point near the Zikim crossing to collect supplies, said: "I came to get flour for my children because they have not tasted flour for more than a week, and thank God, God provided me with a kilo of rice with difficulty." But Samira Yahda, who was in Zawaida in central Gaza, said: "We saw the planes, but we didn't see what they dropped... they said trucks would pass, but we didn't see the trucks." Another Palestinian told the AP news agency that some people feared going out and having a box of aid fall on their children. 1:19 Gaza is expected to be a focus during talks Sir Keir Starmer and Donald Trump in Scotland today. Downing Street said Sir Keir will raise "what more can be done to secure the ceasefire [in the Middle East] urgently", during the meeting at the US president's Turnberry golf course in Ayrshire. Reports also suggest the prime minister is planning to interrupt the summer recess and recall his cabinet to discuss the crisis on Tuesday. Talks in Qatar over a ceasefire ended on Thursday after the US and Israel withdrew their negotiating teams. 2:02 Mr Trump blamed Hamas for the collapse of negotiations as he left the US for Scotland, saying the militant group "didn't want to make a deal... they want to die". Meanwhile the exiled head of Hamas in Gaza, Khalil al Hayya, has warned ceasefire negotiations with Israel were "meaningless under continued blockade and starvation". In a recorded speech, he added: "The immediate and dignified delivery of food and medicine to our people is the only serious and genuine indication of whether continuing the negotiations is worthwhile." 0:51 During a meeting with the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen yesterday, Mr Trump emphasised the importance of securing the release of hostages held by Palestinian militants in Gaza. He said: "They don't want to give them back, and so Israel is going to have to make a decision. 1:17 "I know what I'd do, but I don't think it's appropriate that I say it. But Israel is going to have to make a decision," he said. Mr Trump also repeated claims, without evidence, that Hamas was stealing food coming into Gaza and selling it.
ITV News
8 hours ago
- ITV News
More aid is good news, but only a ceasefire will really make a difference in Gaza
The aid that has gone into Gaza today is too little, too late and largely symbolic. Whether delivered by land or from the air, those supplies are also an indication of global horror at what is unfolding. The images of children dying from a lack of food in a region of plenty have caused enough outcry against Israel that, after 21 months of war and four months of an almost complete blockade of food and aid, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been forced into easing some of his government's draconian policies. The World Health Organisation says Gaza saw 63 malnutrition-related deaths in July, including 24 children under five. Medics on the ground say those figures are likely to be much lower than the reality. The humanitarian pause in attacks in parts of Gaza might also allow some of the 14,000 most seriously sick and injured Palestinians to leave the Strip for care elsewhere. At the Specialty Hospital in Jordan they are preparing for an evacuation mission, readying their beds to receive some of the most seriously ill patients should they be able to get out. Over the past months, they have treated just over 100 patients; now the significant change in their conditions points to the desperate consequences of being starved of food and aid. After the continued restrictions of food, aid and medical supplies by Israel, many of the patients are not just injured by bombs but dying because of a lack of food and medicine. The head of the Specialty Hospital told me today he believes most of the children in Gaza are now malnourished. As the Executive Chairman of the Gaza Health Initiative, Dr Fawzi Al-Hammouri, is also responsible for sending medical teams into Gaza. Even those doctors are so short of food they are losing significant amounts of weight in four-week missions. 'Since early March, there is almost complete blockade of the borders, so there is no humanitarian or medical aid getting into Gaza,' he told me. 'Now we notice that all the children that we receive, and their companions, have malnutrition. When we do blood tests we discover they have anaemia, low iron, low vitamin D, because even if they find something to eat, it's only flour or rice. There is no protein, so there is no meat, no chicken, no fish, no vegetables, no fruits. So this is why I believe that most of the children, now in Gaza, are malnourished.' Jordan has sent 50 medical missions into Gaza since the start of the war, part of an international humanitarian response to the war and destruction of Gaza's healthcare system. Now, even their medical teams are struggling to feed themselves and their patients. 'We have noticed that even our doctors who go there and stay for two to four weeks, when they come back, most of them, if not all of them, lose between 5 and 10 kilograms,' Dr Fawzi said. 'They don't find something to eat, and now there is difficulty finding food for their patients inside the hospitals. If those patients have surgery and aren't fed well after they will not recover.' Jordan's King Abdullah has agreed to take in 2000 of the most seriously ill children. For the medical teams who will receive them, there is now the challenge of also treating the effects of malnutrition. Simply providing food is not enough in many cases. In many of the most acute cases, the organs have been so damaged that they will not repair. Israel still controls what goes into Gaza and who comes out, and as such maintains the power to determine life and death. They may be allowing more in and more out at the moment, but in reality, only a ceasefire has the power to really ease the humanitarian crisis within Gaza's borders.
Leader Live
10 hours ago
- Leader Live
Military pause not enough to ease Gaza suffering, Lammy warns
The Foreign Secretary welcomed the resumption of humanitarian corridors in the enclave but called for access to supplies to be 'urgently' widened over the coming hours and days. He said Israel's announcement that it would suspend fighting in three populated areas of Gaza for 10 hours a day and open secure routes for aid delivery to desperate Palestinians was 'essential but long overdue.' 'This announcement alone cannot alleviate the needs of those desperately suffering in Gaza,' the Foreign Secretary said in a statement on Sunday. 'We need a ceasefire that can end the war, for hostages to be released and aid to enter Gaza by land unhindered. 'Whilst airdrops will help to alleviate the worst of the suffering, land routes serve as the only viable and sustainable means of providing aid into Gaza. 'These measures must be fully implemented and further barriers on aid removed. The world is watching.' Britain is working with Jordan to airdrop aid into Gaza and evacuate children needing medical assistance, with military planners deployed for further support. However, the head of the UN's Palestinian refugee agency has warned that such efforts are 'a distraction' that will fail to properly address deepening starvation in the strip, and could in some cases harm civilians. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said: 'A manmade hunger can only be addressed by political will. 'Lift the siege, open the gates and guarantee safe movements and dignified access to people in need.' On Sunday, Israel announced military pauses to enable the 'safe movement' of food and medicine to Gaza via designated UN convoys amid mounting international alarm at humanitarian conditions in the strip. Images emerging from Gaza in recent days of emaciated children have seen the country's government criticised for its conduct during the 21-month war. Food experts have warned for months of the risk of famine as Israel continued to restrict aid, which it says is because Hamas siphons off goods. Ceasefire talks between the two sides ground to a standstill this week after the US and Israel withdrew negotiating teams from Qatar, with White House special envoy Steve Witkoff accusing Hamas of a 'lack of desire' to reach an agreement. Sir Keir Starmer is expected to press Donald Trump on the revival of talks as he meets the US President during his visit to Scotland on Monday. The deal under discussion was expected to include a 60-day ceasefire, and aid supplies would be ramped up as conditions for a lasting truce were brokered. Sir Keir will raise Washington's work with partners in Qatar and Egypt during his talks with Mr Trump and seek to discuss what more can be done to urgently bring about a ceasefire, it is understood. Speaking to journalists at his Turnberry golf resort in Ayrshire on Sunday, Mr Trump said that the UK was 'very much involved in terms of wanting something to happen.' Asked about the prospect of restarting peace talks, he said: 'We're meeting about a lot of things… I think we're going to be discussing a lot about Israel. 'They're very much involved in terms of wanting something to happen. '(The Prime Minister) is doing a very good job, by the way.' Later in the week he will chair a Cabinet meeting, with further updates on the UK's next steps expected in the coming days as Mr Lammy prepares to attend a UN conference on a two-state solution in New York. Speaking to broadcasters on Sunday, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury James Murray acknowledged that airdrops come with 'real limits and drawbacks' but that the situation was 'desperate and urgent.' 'Until the restrictions are lifted, until aid is able to get in at the scale and quantity that is needed, we need to be doing everything we possibly can to help,' he told Sky News' Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips show. It comes after the Prime Minister held crisis talks with French and German counterparts on Saturday, during which Number 10 said they agreed 'it would be vital to ensure robust plans are in place to turn an urgently-needed ceasefire into lasting peace'. A Downing Street readout of the call made no mention of Palestinian statehood, which Sir Keir has faced calls to immediately recognise after French President Emmanuel Macron announced his country would do so in September. Some 221 MPs from Labour, the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, SNP, Greens, Plaid Cymru, SDLP and independents have signed a letter pressuring the Government to follow suit at a UN meeting next week. The majority of those who have signed, 131, are Labour MPs. #Gaza: airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation. They are expensive, inefficient & can even kill starving is a distraction & screensmoke. A manmade hunger can only be addressed by political will. Lift the siege, open the gates & guarantee safe movements… — Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) July 26, 2025 The Government says it is a question of 'when, not if' statehood is recognised but that its immediate focus should be on getting aid into the territory. Mr Murray said on Sunday: 'As a Government, we're committed to the recognition of Palestine, but we need to work with international partners and we need to use that moment to galvanise change. 'It needs to be part of a pathway to peace.' He added: '140 countries have already recognised Palestine. 'The suffering is still continuing.' Sir Keir and Mr Trump, who is in South Ayrshire on a private visit to his Turnberry golf course, are expected to meet on Monday.
