LIVE: Israel bombs Syria as latest strikes on Gaza kill at least 93
At least three people were killed and dozens wounded as Israel carried out a wave of attacks on Syria, including bombing the Defence Ministry and areas near the presidential palace in the capital Damascus.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Jazeera
16 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Death toll from starvation in Gaza rises to 115 as Israeli attacks continue
At least 62 people have been killed, including 19 who were seeking aid, in Israeli attacks across Gaza, hospital sources told Al Jazeera, and two people died from malnutrition amid growing international outrage over Israel's conduct in the war. Gaza's Health Ministry said on Thursday that at least 115 Palestinians have starved to death in the enclave since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023. Most of the deaths, which include many children, have been in recent weeks. Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza in March and has only allowed a trickle of aid into the territory since late May, triggering a dire humanitarian crisis and warnings of mass starvation. In a statement on Thursday, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned that 'families are breaking down' amid the hunger crisis. 'Parents are too hungry to care for their children,' agency head Philippe Lazzarini said in a post on X. 'Those who reach UNRWA clinics don't have the energy, food or means to follow medical advice'. The UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, added that Israel has been preventing it from verifying aid waiting at distribution centres. Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud said the situation was deteriorating, with Palestinians clamouring for any aid they can find. 'Enforced starvation, enforced dehydration, and hunger are gripping the Gaza Strip, with more people reported with malnutrition and a severe, acute shortage of food supplies and other basic necessities,' he said. 'According to what we hear from health sources, people's immune systems are falling apart. They're unable to fight the many diseases that are spreading because their bodies are unable to fight,' he said. With dire conditions on the ground largely unchanged, international condemnation has continued to grow. On Thursday, more than 60 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) demanded an emergency meeting to push actions against Israel in a letter sent to European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas. Speaking to Al Jazeera, Lynn Boylan, an Irish member of the European Parliament, accused EU leaders of a double standard when it comes to Palestinian lives. 'Clearly, Palestinian lives are not seen by the elite in the EU as equivalent to, for example, Ukrainian lives,' Boylan told Al Jazeera. 'There's a chilling effect, that if you dare to speak up against Israel, if you dare to call out the war crimes that you're witnessing, there is immediately a backlash and an attack,' she said. Outrage among European leaders has also soared in recent days, with 28 countries earlier this week condemning the aid blockade, while calling for an immediate end to the fighting. On Thursday, the United Kingdom's government announced Prime Minister Keir Starmer would hold a call with his German and French counterparts, to 'discuss what we can do urgently to stop the killing and get people the food they desperately need'. Breakdown in talks As the humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to spiral, negotiations to end the war again broke down, with US envoy Steve Witkoff announcing that his team was leaving negotiations in Qatar early. That came shortly after Israel announced it was withdrawing its delegation from the talks. In a statement, Witkoff accused Hamas of showing 'a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire'. 'We will now consider alternative options to bring the hostages home and try to create a more stable environment for the people of Gaza,' Witkoff said, without elaborating. Hamas, which has repeatedly accused Israel of blocking a ceasefire agreement, said it was surprised by Witkoff's remarks. 'The movement affirms its keenness to continue negotiations and engage in them in a manner that helps overcome obstacles and leads to a permanent ceasefire agreement,' said Hamas in a statement released late on Thursday. US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has continued to push for a deal, while simultaneously supporting the displacement of Palestinians from the enclave to nearby countries, in what would potentially constitute ethnic cleansing. France to recognise Palestine Late on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced he would officially recognise the State of Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly in September. Macron said the decision was 'in keeping with [France's] historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East'. The move will make France the largest and arguably most influential country in Europe to recognise a Palestinian state. The move was hailed by the deputy of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who said it showed France's 'commitment to international law and its support for the Palestinian people's rights to self-determination and the establishment of our independent state'. Israeli officials swiftly condemned the move, with Defence Minister Israel Katz calling it a 'disgrace and a surrender to terrorism'. 'We will not allow the establishment of a Palestinian entity that would harm our security, endanger our existence, and undermine our historical right to the Land of Israel,' he said.
Qatar Tribune
18 hours ago
- Qatar Tribune
Hunger crisis deepens in Gaza as 10 more starvation deaths reported
At least 10 more Palestinians have starved to death in the besieged Gaza Strip, health officials say, as a wave of hunger crashes over the enclave. The latest starvation deaths bring the death toll from malnutrition since Israel's war began in October 2023 to 111, most of them in recent weeks. At least 100 other Palestinians, including 34 aid seekers, were killed in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours, Gaza's Ministry of Health said on Wednesday. The World Health Organization (WHO) said that 21 children under the age of five were among those who died of malnutrition so far this year. It said it had been unable to deliver any food for nearly 80 days, between March and May, and that a resumption of food deliveries was still far below what is needed. In a statement, 111 organisations, including Mercy Corps, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Refugees International, said that 'mass starvation' was spreading even as tonnes of food, clean water and medical supplies sit untouched just outside Gaza, where aid groups are blocked from accessing them. Al Jazeera's Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said that 'hunger has become as deadly as the bombs. Families are no longer asking for enough, they are asking for anything'. (Agencies)
Al Jazeera
a day ago
- Al Jazeera
How Israel pushed Gaza to breaking point, ‘starving, alone, and hunted'
Through its unrelenting war on Gaza, Israel has killed over 59,000 Palestinians, injured 143,000 others, and pushed hundreds of thousands into forced starvation caused by its blockade on the enclave and its militarised distribution system. More than 100 Palestinians have starved to death as a result in recent weeks, 80 of them children. Whatever its ultimate intention, according to analysts, Israel has pushed the people of Gaza to the breaking point. 'Israeli policy has left Gaza uninhabitable,' said Derek Summerfield, a United Kingdom-based psychiatrist who has written on the effects of war and atrocity. 'It's destroyed the idea of a society and every institution that might serve it, from universities to hospitals to mosques. It's become a sociocidal war,' he added, describing a conflict intended to destroy a society's entire structures and sense of identity. 'People have been left with nothing, and are feeling they can't go on.' The constant spectre of death and the complete devastation of Gaza have driven many Palestinians there to desperation. Some are trying to leave – even temporarily – due to the horrors they have experienced and in a conflict that may continue for months or years to come. Others continue to cling to their homes in defiance of escalating Israeli aggression. The mass starvation that aid agencies have warned about has become a reality for Palestinians in Gaza, as aid workers and journalists join the ranks of the hungry and the malnourished. On Wednesday, more than 100 aid agencies issued an open letter urging the Israeli government to work with the United Nations and allow aid into Gaza. Al Jazeera has called for action to protect all journalists trapped in Gaza, many of whom are no longer able to report due to their own acute hunger and deteriorating health. AFP agency made a similar call. 'Famine isn't just physical, it's mental,' said Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University, who has written extensively on famine. 'It dehumanises and degrades the sufferer … It's the experience of – and then the memory of – having searched through garbage for food and everything you have done to survive.' 'You need to remember, starvation is an act, and as often as not a criminal one,' he continued. 'It's also one that takes time. It's not like dropping a bomb… Starvation can take 60 to 80 days. Semi-starvation, such as we're seeing in Gaza, can take longer. 'Israel has had ample and stark warnings that its actions are leading to mass starvation. This should surprise no one.' 'This isn't just about starving kids. It's about dismantling a society and reducing its people to desperate, starving victims,' de Waal added. 'It also encourages the abuser to think of the sufferer as dehumanised, so it becomes self-justifying.' Through its 21-month war, Israel's leaders have repeatedly claimed their war on Gaza was to 'defeat Hamas' and rescue the captives held in the territory. However, with every new offensive, its critics around the world have accused it of either turning a blind eye to the humanitarian consequences of its actions or actively seeking to punish Palestinians and force starvation upon them. 'I don't know if you can call this a strategy,' said Yossi Mekelberg, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House. 'I don't know how much is planned, how much is tactical, cynical, opportunistic or just incompetence. It all depends where you look.' Mekelberg broke down the factions competing for final say in Israeli policy, from the messianic ambitions of ultranationalist government ministers, such as Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, who would like to see the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank expelled, to a security establishment that Mekelberg described as divided over whether it should continue or end the war. 'Lastly, you have the cynical and the opportunistic,' he continued, 'which is essentially Benjamin Netanyahu and his adherents. To them, this is all about politics and surviving for another day,' Mekelberg said of the prime minister, who is on trial on multiple corruption charges. The consequences of Israel's actions in Gaza will last generations, analysts said. Those who survive Israel's current war will carry its scars, as will their descendants, while those who leave are unlikely to be allowed to return. 'Israel has adopted a formula in the last few weeks where it is making conditions in Gaza intolerable and unable to support human life,' said Mouin Rabbani, co-editor of Jadaliyya. 'If it can reduce life to such a level and at the same time increase the level of chaos and anarchy [across Gaza], the thinking is that people will leave.' Once they have been forced from their homeland, either through the conditions that Israel has imposed, or via the one-way entrance into what Israeli government ministers call a 'humanitarian city', while many critics call it a concentration camp, it intends to construct along the border with Egypt, they won't be allowed back, Rabbani said. Hardly a day has gone by since Israel's assault upon Gaza began in October 2023 that its war has not dominated headlines. In recent weeks, as starvation and the extent of the near-total destruction that Israel has visited upon the enclave have grown, so too has the disquiet among the international community. However, in the face of the protests, and with ceasefire negotiations supposedly ongoing, Israel's war has shown few signs of slowing. That has left Gaza's population, in the words of Summerfield, left to 'wander Gaza; starving, alone and hunted'.
