20 h. ago Nearly 800 killed at Gaza food hubs and aid convoy routes since end of May, UN says

UN human rights office says 615 of the deaths were in vicinity of sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian FoundationMiddle East crisis – live updatesAt least 798 people have been killed while seeking food at distribution points operated by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and other humanitarian convoys since the end of May, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) said on Friday.The GHF, proposed by Israel as an alternative to the UN aid system in Gaza, has been almost universally condemned by rights groups for its violation of principles of humanitarian impartiality and what they have said could be complicity in war crimes. Continue reading...

Events

46 h. ago EU strikes deal with Israel to increase aid shipments to Gaza

Influx of food and other essentials will be co-ordinated via UN rather than controversial new aid scheme, says EU official

Politics

4 d. ago Gaza health system overwhelmed by casualties at aid distributions, says Red Cross – Israel

The ICRC said ‘the scale and frequency of these incidents are without precedent’The IDF has issued a new evacuation order for the Khan Younis area in Gaza, instructing Palestinian who live there to head west as the no-go zone expands.Col Avichay Adraee, the military’s Arabic-language spokesperson, wrote on X: “Due to terror activities in the area, the IDF with its maneuvering troops and intensive firepower is expanding actions in your area.”Physiotherapists support nurses, cleaning and dressing wounds and taking vitals. Cleaners now serve as orderlies, carrying stretchers wherever they are needed. Midwives have stepped into palliative care. Continue reading...

Politics

7 d. ago ‘They’re skin and bones’: doctors in Gaza warn babies at risk of death from lack of formula

Doctors say Israel is blocking deliveries of formula urgently needed as mothers are either dead or too malnourished to feed their babiesDoctors in Gaza have warned that hundreds of babies are at risk of death amid a critical shortage of baby milk, as Israel continues to restrict the humanitarian aid that can enter the beleaguered strip.Dr Ahmad al-Farra, the head of paediatrics at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, said his ward had only about a week’s worth of infant formula remaining. The doctor has already run out of specialised formula meant for premature babies and is forced to use regular formula, rationing it between the infants under his care. Continue reading...

Events

8 d. ago Airstrikes and shootings kill 94 Palestinians in Gaza including dozens trying to get aid, officials say

Israel is facing ongoing criticism of its handling of food aid in the war-torn enclave, as efforts to forge a ceasefire continue

Events

9 d. ago Amnesty International says Israel and aid system use starvation to commit Gaza genocide

Amnesty International has issued a report saying a controversial system to distribute aid in Gaza uses starvation tactics against Palestinians to continue to commit genocide in the Gaza Strip during Israel’s war with Hamas

Politics

1 week ago Starvation crisis caused by Israeli war and aid blockade kills at least 66 children in Gaza

Doctors say newborns wasting away for lack of formula and medical nutrition while families scavenge for any type of milk

Events

1 week ago At least 72 killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, health staff say

Palestinians were pictured praying over the bodies of those brought to Al-Shifa hospital

Events

1 week ago At least 60 killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, health staff say

Palestinians were pictured praying over the bodies of those brought to Al-Shifa hospital

Events

2 w. ago Israel closes the most direct route for aid to Palestinians in Gaza

Blockade will increase diplomatic pressure on Israel as Spain PM Pedro Sánchez describes situation as ‘genocide’Israel has closed crossings into northern Gaza, cutting the most direct route for aid to reach hundreds of thousands of people at risk of famine, as airstrikes and shelling killed dozens more people in the devastated Palestinian territory.The move to close the crossings on Thursday will increase diplomatic pressure on Israel as attention shifts from its brief conflict with Iran, back to the violence and grave humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Ben Jennings on the Palestinians killed while waiting for aid – cartoon

Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Israel 'kills at least 25 people waiting for aid' in Gaza as 'tanks and drones spark massacre'

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers and drones opened fire toward hundreds of people waiting for aid trucks in central Gaza, killing at least 25 people, Palestinian witnesses and hospitals said

Events

3 w. ago Unicef warns children could die of thirst in Gaza amid collapse of water systems

Fears grow of drought as well as hunger as medics report more killings by Israeli forces of Palestinians seeking aidMiddle East crisis – live updatesThe collapse of water systems in Gaza is threatening the territory with devastating drought as well as hunger, Unicef has warned, as medics reported that Israel had killed more desperate Palestinians seeking aid.On Friday at least 24 people waiting for aid were killed by Israeli fire in central Gaza, according to local health authorities, in addition to other deaths by airstrikes. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Israel, we’re begging you: please let aid organisations do our jobs in Gaza | James Elder

Four hundred distribution points have dwindled to four under this private and militarised ‘aid’ system. This is not how to avert a famineJames Elder is Unicef’s global spokespersonAbed Al Rahman, just a boy, carried the weight of his family’s hunger as he stepped into the streets of Gaza in search of bread. He had his father’s money, but when he saw the tide of people pushing towards a food distribution site in Rafah, hunger pulled him into their flow.Almost immediately, the site descended into chaos. Gunfire. Drones. Then in a flash, shrapnel from a tank shell ripped through his little body. When I met him at a hospital in Khan Younis – where painkillers, like food, are scarce – the 13-year-old was in agony. “I have shrapnel inside my body that they couldn’t remove,” he told me. “I am in real pain; since 6am I have been asking for a painkiller.” As he recounted the chaos, his father’s composure shattered, and tears rolled down his face. Was he going to lose his son simply because A...

Politics

3 w. ago Israel, please let aid organisations do our jobs in Gaza | James Elder

Four hundred distribution points have dwindled to four under this private and militarised ‘aid’ system. This is not how to avert a famineJames Elder is Unicef’s global spokespersonAbed Al Rahman, just a boy, carried the weight of his family’s hunger as he stepped into the streets of Gaza in search of bread. He had his father’s money, but when he saw the tide of people pushing towards a food distribution site in Rafah, hunger pulled him into their flow.Almost immediately, the site descended into chaos. Gunfire. Drones. Then in a flash, shrapnel from a tank shell ripped through his little body. When I met him at a hospital in Khan Younis – where painkillers, like food, are scarce – the 13-year-old was in agony. “I have shrapnel inside my body that they couldn’t remove,” he told me. “I am in real pain; since 6am I have been asking for a painkiller.” As he recounted the chaos, his father’s composure shattered, and tears rolled down his face. Was he going to lose his son simply because A...

Politics

3 w. ago ‘My son went to get flour. He came back in a coffin’: As the world focuses on Iran Palestinians are being shot dead seeking aid

While the world has its attention fixed on a regional war, desperate Palestinians are being killed by the dozen as they seek food at controversial American-run aid sites in Gaza, write Bel Trew and Richard Hall

Events

3 w. ago Israeli attacks kill dozens in Gaza in 24 hours as world focus shifts to Iran

‘Starving people being killed or injured while seeking life-saving assistance is completely unacceptable’ says World Food Programme

Events

3 w. ago Aid minister says situation in Gaza is so dire that she ‘would loot too’

The international aid minister has said the situation in Gaza is so dire that she “would loot too” if she was there.

Politics

3 w. ago Israeli forces kill dozens of Palestinians waiting for UN food aid in Gaza, health officials say

At least 59 Palestinians killed as Israeli tanks accused of shelling crowd gathered at aid delivery site

Politics

3 w. ago The Guardian view on Gaza’s engineered famine: stop arming the slaughter – or lose the rule of law | Editorial

As Palestinians starve amid the rubble, western governments defend Israel, fund armed aid and dismantle the very rules they claim to upholdGaza’s cries have been drowned out by Israel’s strikes on Iran, and the diplomatic pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu over the suffering has ebbed. Yet as the industrialised world urges de-escalation in the Middle East, the devastation continues. On Tuesday morning, witnesses described Israeli forces firing towards a crowd waiting for trucks loaded with flour, leaving more than 50 dead. These are not stray bullets in wartime chaos, they are the outcome of a system that makes relief deadly.As Médecins Sans Frontières declared this week, what is unfolding in Gaza is “the calculated evisceration of the very systems that sustain life”. That includes homes, markets, water networks and hospitals – with healthcare continually under attack. Last week, a UN commission found that more than 90% of the Gaza Strip’s schools and universities have be...

Politics