GAZA CONDITIONS WORSEN AS CEASEFIRE TALKS FALTE
U.S. President Donald Trump often echoes Israeli talking points concerning Gaza, much to the frustration of European nations, which are becoming increasingly disillusioned with Israel’s war against Hamas. But on Monday, Trump appeared to break that pattern by publicly disputing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that mass starvation in Gaza is being overstated.
“We have to get the kids fed,” Trump said while meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Scotland on Monday, adding that based on images of starving Palestinians seen on TV, “those children look very hungry.”
Since the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023, more than 130 Palestinians have died from malnutrition, the majority being children and a significant portion of whom died within the last month, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. More than 1,000 others have also been killed by Israeli forces in recent weeks while trying to access food. “It’s a humanitarian crisis. It’s an absolute catastrophe,” Starmer said on Monday. “I think people in Britain are revolted at what they’re seeing on their screens.”
On Sunday, Israel announced 10-hour, temporary halts to military operations across parts of Gaza to allow Jordan and the United Arab Emirates to drop food and other humanitarian supplies into the territory. But rights groups have argued that aerial aid drops are no substitute for land crossings, which Israel is still largely blockading. And foreign powers have demanded that the United States take on a larger role to help address reports of mass hunger, which some former Israeli officials and Israel-based nonprofits have now suggested point to evidence of Israel committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Dozens of foreign ministers convened at the United Nations on Monday for a conference to discuss supporting a two-state solution and working toward the establishment of a Palestinian state. In his opening remarks, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres implored participants not to let the meeting be “another exercise in well-meaning rhetoric,” saying it “can and must serve as a decisive turning point—one that catalyzes irreversible progress towards ending the occupation.” Already, France has vowed to recognize a Palestinian state beginning in September.
But with Israel and the United States boycotting Monday’s event—which was postponed in June after Israel launched attacks on Iran—experts worry that tangible progress still appears far off. Instead, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot stressed that Monday’s discussion was aimed at providing a “political horizon” for future peace talks, with attendees acknowledging that a two-state solution likely won’t occur amid an ongoing war in Gaza and under Israel’s current leadership, which rejects the creation of an independent Palestine.
Although the Israel-Hamas war proved to be the top agenda item during Trump-Starmer talks on Monday, the two leaders also hashed out some trade concerns. Namely, Trump and Starmer expressed interest in resuming negotiations to address U.S. tariffs on British steel and aluminum, which remain at 25 percent despite the U.S.-U.K. trade framework agreed to in May. Trump on Monday warned that he will impose a new tariff between 15 to 20 percent, starting Friday, on countries that have not yet struck a deal with Washington; he did not say which nations this will affect, instead describing the tariffs as “for the world.”
Trump and Starmer also expressed frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of being the impetus for a lack of cease-fire progress with Ukraine. In an effort to force Putin to the negotiating table, Trump on Monday shortened his 50-day deadline for Moscow, saying Russia now has 10 or 12 days instead of until early September to make peace with Kyiv or face a new round of sanctions.
The “worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out” in Gaza, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) global hunger monitor said today, citing “mounting evidence” showing that “widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths.” The alert, which does not constitute a formal famine declaration, warns of “widespread death” if immediate action is not taken. Michelle Nichols and Olivia Le Poidevin report for Reuters; Sam Mednick and Cara Anna report for AP News.
All 55 U.N. aid trucks that entered Gaza on Sunday were unloaded by crowds before reaching their destination, a spokesperson for the U.N. World Food Programme told AP News. Another U.N. official stated that nothing on the ground had changed, and no alternative routes were opened. Wafaa Shurafa and Samy Magdy report.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
Two leading Israeli rights organisations, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, yesterday released two reports accusing Israel of “committing genocide against the Palestinians” in Gaza. “An examination of Israel’s policy in the Gaza Strip and its horrific outcomes … leads to the unequivocal conclusion that Israel is taking coordinated, deliberate action to destroy Palestinian society,” the groups’ joint statement reads. The reports are the first time any Israeli group has used the term to describe Israel’s actions. An Israeli government spokesman “strongly rejected” the reports’ findings, with the Israeli military calling the allegations “entirely unfounded.” Ivana Kottasová and Abeer Salman report for CNN; Emir Nader reports for BBC News.
Israeli fire killed at least 78 Palestinians across Gaza yesterday, including at least 25 people seeking food and a pregnant woman whose baby was delivered after her death but also died, according to local health officials and witnesses. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Wafaa Shurafa and Samy Magdy report for AP News.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR — U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
There is “real starvation” in Gaza, President Trump said yesterday, adding that civilians “have to get food and safety right now” and that the United States would work with its European allies to distribute more aid to Gaza, including by setting up “food centers” without barriers. Trump’s statement breaks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence that there is no starvation in the territory. Amy B Wang reports for the Washington Post; Barak Ravid reports for Axios.
The United Kingdom government is now more actively weighing the recognition of a Palestinian state, prompted by public revulsion at the images of starving children in Gaza and intense cross-party pressure from lawmakers on Prime Minister Keir Starmer, according to two senior government officials. Mark Landler reports for the New York Times.
Germany will immediately launch an airlift to deliver aid into Gaza and “closely coordinate with France and the UK, who are also willing to provide such an airlift for food and medical supplies,” Chancellor Friedrich Merz said yesterday. Sarah Marsh reports for Reuters.
The Dutch government yesterday announced it had imposed travel bans on far-right Israeli cabinet ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich and would summon Israel’s ambassador to denounce the “unbearable and indefensible” situation in Gaza. Reuters reports.
The EU Commission yesterday recommended curbing Israel’s access to the EU’s flagship Horizon Europe research funding programme after calls from EU countries to increase pressure on Israel to alleviate the aid crisis in Gaza. Lili Bayer reports for Reuters.
The ongoing humanitarian crisis in the Gaza strip takes today’s focus as dozens of ministers gathered at the United Nations this week to discuss the rapidly worsening conditions in the Palestinian enclave.
International attention to the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza has intensified in recent weeks, with U.N. agencies saying the territory is running out of food.
As the death toll from two years of war nears 60,000, a growing number of people are dying from starvation and malnutrition, Gaza health authorities say, with images of starving childrenshocking the world and fuelling international criticism of Israel over sharply worsening conditions.
Israel is also facing its own national criticism as two Israeli human rights organizations, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, said that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza – the first major voices in Israeli society to level the strongest possible accusation against the state, which it vehemently denies.
Israeli citizens like Carmella, a 48-year-old teacher whose grandparents survived the Holocaust, said she was distressed over the suffering an hour’s drive away, inside Gaza.
“It feels difficult to me as an Israeli, as a Jew, to watch those images and feel anything but tremendous compassion and horror, to be honest. I feel horror.
“Widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease’
| Multiple European Union countries said last week that Israel was not living up to its commitments under an agreement with the EU on increasing aid supplies to Gaza and asked the European Commission to put concrete options on the table.
France intends to recognize a Palestinian state in September at the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly, President Emmanuel Macron said last week. The Dutch government will summon Israel’s ambassador to the Netherlands to denounce the “unbearable and indefensible” situation in Gaza and has imposed travel bans on two far-right Israeli cabinet ministers, it said in a letter published on Monday. Israeli government ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich will no longer be allowed to enter the Netherlands, which accuses them of repeatedly inciting violence against Palestinians and calling for an “ethnic cleansing” of the Gaza strip. The Dutch decision follows similar moves last month by Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway. Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, called those moves “outrageous”. Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer recalled his cabinet from their summer break to discuss the need for a ceasefire in Gaza and what he called the “revolting” humanitarian crisis. Although the United States and Israel boycotted a U.N. conference on a possible two-state solution this week, U.S. President Donald Trump said the number one priority in Gaza was getting people fed, because “you have a lot of starving people”, adding that he was not going to take a position on Palestinian statehood at the moment. |
The “worst-case scenario of famine” is unfolding in the Gaza Strip under Israel’s assault, the world’s leading body on hunger said Tuesday, as the total number of Palestinians killed since Israel launched its offensive passed 60,000, according to the health ministry in the enclave.
“Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths,” the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, said in its alert. The IPC emphasized that its warning constituted an alert and was not a formal “famine classification.”
The alert comes as deaths from starvation in the enclave continue to rise amid a spiraling hunger crisis spurred by Israel’s military offensive and crippling aid restrictions.
President Donald Trump on Monday echoed mounting global alarm at the situation, which he said amounted to “real starvation” — a break with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
With international fury reaching a crescendo, the Israeli militarybegan limited pauses in fighting over the weekend to allow more supplies into the enclave — but aid organizations warned the trickle allowed in was not enough to stave off famine. Israel had allowed only a basic amount of aid into the territory for weeks after lifting acrippling blockade in May that barred the entry of food and other vital supplies.
‘Extreme hunger’
While the IPC considers itself the “primary mechanism” used by the international community to conclude whether a famine is happening or projected, it typically doesn’t make such a designation itself. But it said Tuesday that with new information made available, a new IPC analysis was to be conducted “without delay.”
The report marked the body’s most dire warning yet.“Immediate action must be taken to end the hostilities and allow for unimpeded, large-scale, life-saving humanitarian response,” the IPC said. “This is the only path to stopping further deaths and catastrophic human suffering.”
Netanyahu’s office said in a statement Tuesday that Israel would “continue to work with international agencies as well as the U.S. and European nations to ensure that large amounts of humanitarian aid flows into the Gaza Strip,” noting the measures implemented over the weekend.
It said the situation in Gaza was “difficult” but claimed Hamas had benefited from “attempting to fuel the perception of a humanitarian crisis