Live: 54 Palestinians killed, 831 wounded in 24 hours
Live Updates
The president of the European Council, Antonio Costa, has condemned the Israeli cabinet's decision to take over Gaza City.
"I strongly urge the Israeli government to reconsider," the Portguese lawyer and politician said in a staement posted on X.
"Such a decision must have consequences for EU-Israel relations," he added.
Costa's statement matched European Commision President Ursula von der Leyen's earlier response to the Israeli decision, which similarly urged Israel to "reconsider".
Echoing standard EU policy, Costa added: "the two-state solution remains the only sustainable, long-term solution for peace and security in Israel and the region."
I strongly urge the Israeli government to reconsider its decision to take over Gaza City. Such an operation — together with the continued illegal expansion of settlements in the West Bank, the massive destruction in Gaza, the blockade of humanitarian aid, and the spread of famine…
— António Costa (@eucopresident) August 8, 2025
After more than five months of a near-total closure of Gaza’s borders, leading to the deaths of dozens of Palestinians from starvation or malnutrition, Israel has finally allowed a small number of merchants to bring limited goods into Gaza.
This week, we awoke to find food items on market shelves that had been absent for five months.
The scenes were surreal. People stood before crates of sugar, pressed dates and feta cheese as if seeing them for the first time in their lives. Some reached out cautiously to touch them and inquire about prices, while others simply stared, uncertain whether this was real or some cruel illusion.
These were not luxuries. They were the most basic of staples, but after months of crushing starvation and relentless deprivation, they might as well have been treasures.
In the first phase of starvation, when vegetables, beans and rice disappeared, many families relied on “tea fattah” - pieces of bread soaked in tea and eaten as the main meal of the day.
fter more than five months of a near-total closure of Gaza’s borders, leading to the deaths of dozens of Palestinians from starvation or malnutrition, Israel has finally allowed a small number of merchants to bring limited goods into Gaza.
This week, we awoke to find food items on market shelves that had been absent for five months.
The scenes were surreal. People stood before crates of sugar, pressed dates and feta cheese as if seeing them for the first time in their lives. Some reached out cautiously to touch them and inquire about prices, while others simply stared, uncertain whether this was real or some cruel illusion.
These were not luxuries. They were the most basic of staples, but after months of crushing starvation and relentless deprivation, they might as well have been treasures.
In the first phase of starvation, when vegetables, beans and rice disappeared, many families relied on “tea fattah” - pieces of bread soaked in tea and eaten as the main meal of the day.
Read more: After months of deprivation, sugar reminds me why I'm fighting to be here
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy has told reporters that he is "concerned" by the Israeli cabinet's decision on Friday to occupy Gaza City via a ground offensive.
Speaking in a joint-press conferance with US Vice-President JD Vance, Lammy's words on the controversial Israeli plan were noticably softer than those of many Western leaders.
Earlier today, Germany suspended its military exports to Israel in response to the plan.
No similar move was mentioned by Lammy.
Vance did not mention the Israeli cabinet decision during the conference.
Vice President JD Vance has reiterated that the US has "no plans to recognise the Palestinian state" in a joint press conference with UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy during an official visit.
Vance added that the US has "two goals" regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict.
"Number one, we want to make it so [sic] Hamas cannot attack innocent Israeli civilians ever again, and we think that has to come throught the eradication of Hamas.
"Second, the president has been very moved by these terrible images of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, so we want to make sure that we solve that problem."
In July, France, the UK and Canada announced their intentions to recognise Palestine at the upcoming UN General Assembly in September, leaving the US among a slim minority of countries still refusing to offer Palestine diplomatic recognition.
The US, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, vetoed a Palestinian application for full UN membership in April 2024, during the final months of the Biden administration.
After nearly two years of genocide, the UK government is gearing up to accept a contingent of critically ill and injured children from Gaza. But much more is needed, says Dr Omar Abdel-Mannan
am a British Egyptian paediatrician who has worked in the National Health Service (NHS) for more than 15 years. During annual trips to Gaza, I have worked alongside local doctors and witnessed first-hand the impact of Israel’s blockade and bombardment on children’s health.
I know what it means to see children die of preventable causes. But never in my life have I witnessed this level of calculated cruelty, nor such cold complicity from those who claim to care about international law and children’s rights.
On 30 July, I flew with a 15-year-old Palestinian boy from Gaza named Majd Alshagnobi, his mother and two siblings from Cairo to London for specialist treatment at the Great Ormond Street children’s hospital. Two of his other siblings and their father remain trapped in northern Gaza.
I joined the flight as a friend and supporter of Project Pure Hope, working alongside Kinder Relief, both of which played a vital role in arranging Majd’s care in Egypt and helping secure his transfer to the UK. Their work is a testament to what small networks of determined people can achieve when governments fail to act.
Majd’s mandible had been shattered by a bomb blast. An obvious scar across his neck marks the site of a tracheostomy performed in a hospital in Gaza under siege. His survival is a testament not just to urgent evacuation, but to the relentless efforts of Gaza’s doctors and his family, who fought to keep him alive under impossible conditions.
It should never take a teenager with a broken face and a scarred airway to remind Britain that Palestinian children are human beings. But that is where we are.
Read more: Is Britain finally realising that Palestinian children are human?
Four more deaths from malnutrition have been recorded in Gaza over the past 24 hours, according to the Wafa news agency.
Two of the victims were children.
The deaths take the total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli-imposed famine in Gaza to 201, including 98 children.
On 29 July, over 100 international aid organisations warned of imminent mass starvation in Gaza amid repeated denials from Israeli officials.
An Israeli strike killed one person in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese health ministry has said.
The strike follows yesterday's Israeli attack in the eastern Beqaa Valley, in which seven people were killed. Victims included two members of the secular leftist militant group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Israel has repreatedly violated the terms of its November ceasefire deal with Hezbollah by continuing to bomb Lebanon.
Israeli attacks have killed over 4,000 people in Lebanon since 8 October 2023.
Israeli bombing killed five Palestinians and injured dozens of others in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, on Friday afternoon, according to hospital sources cited by Wafa news agency.
Israel re-launched its air and ground offensive on Deir al-Balah on 21 July amid urgent starvation warnings from NGOs operating across the strip.
Deir al-Balah is the main hub for humanitarian efforts in the besieged enclave.
A day after the offensive recommenced, the World Health Organisation said its aid facilities had been bombed and a member of staff had been detained by Israeli troops.
The Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is "a system of institutionalised starvation and dehumanisation," Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has said.
In a report published on Thursday titled "This is not aid. This is orchestrated killing", MSF said that the GHF lacks experience in conducting safe relief deliveries and that the mechanism has resulted in extreme violence and killings.
Due to the pattern of violence reported at these aid distribution sites, MSF teams began monitoring the GHF's social media for announcements about site openings to ensure medical teams were stationed in those areas.
The GHF-run distribution sites have been largely condemned by international organisations and rights activist as "death traps".
At least 1,700 people have been killed while seeking aid since 27 May, most of whom were killed near GHF sites, the Palestinian health ministry reported.
Though the GHF has said it only uses pepper spray or fires warning shots to control crowds, testimonies presented by MSF show that attacks on civilians have been both "indiscriminate and targeted".
Read more: War on Gaza: GHF aid scheme is 'orchestrated killing,' says MSF
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has condemned Israel’s plan to take control of Gaza City.
"The Israeli government's decision to further extend its military operation in Gaza must be reconsidered," she wrote on X.
Von der Leyen was joined by other senior European officials in expressing concern about the plan, which was announced earlier on Friday by Israeli media.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen also condemned the plan in an interview with Denmark's TV2 on Friday.
The Danish government has faced strong criticism for its tepid diplomatic response to Israel's war on Gaza, which various human rights groups have called a genocide.
The Israeli government’s decision to further extend its military operation in Gaza must be reconsidered.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) August 8, 2025
At the same time, there must be the release of all hostages, who are being held in inhumane conditions.
And humanitarian aid must be given immediate and unhindered access to…
Norway's $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund will next week announce changes to how it handles its Israeli investments, Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday, ruling out any blanket withdrawal over Israel's war on Gaza.
The government on Tuesday said that it had launched an urgent review of the fund's investments over ethical concerns linked to the war on Gaza and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.
"I see several measures over time, but what can be addressed quickly, must be done quickly," Stoltenberg told a press conference after holding his second meeting with fund officials in three days.
He did not specify what the measures might involve, but said there would not be a wholesale divestment from all Israeli companies. "If we did that, it would mean we are divesting from them because they are Israeli," he said.
The review followed local news reports that the fund had built a stake in Israeli jet engine manufacturer Bet Shemesh Engines Ltd (BSEL), which provides services to Israel's armed forces, including the maintenance of fighter jets. The revelation has sparked political debate in the Nordic country ahead of elections on 8 September.
Six people, most of them children, were injured in Gaza City when a balcony collapsed after being struck by an airdropped aid package, The Times of Israel reported, citing local media.
The balcony fell onto people in the street below, the reports said.
A man died earlier this week after an aid package dropped from the air struck him on the head, according to Gaza health officials.
Pro-Palestine student activist Haya Adam has been expelled by the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas) after a disciplinary panel determined that she had breached the university’s code of conduct.
Adam, 21, is the president of the Soas Palestine Society, and was one of the most visible participants in a 15-month-long student encampment protesting the institution’s alleged complicity in Israel’s war on Gaza.
The panel decision on Wednesday found that Adam breached the university’s code of conduct over her appearance in a video posted on 16 January to the student encampment’s Instagram page.
In the video, which remains on Instagram, Adam criticises a Soas student union co-president, stating that her tenure had “only served institutional oppression”, and calling her a “careerist”.
The university disciplinary panel ruled that the Instagram video constituted harassment, despite the student union officer in question herself refusing to call the post harassment in a recorded panel discussion.
Read more: Soas expels Palestine Society president Haya Adam after months of suspension
Germany is halting further military exports to Israel that can be used in the Gaza Strip in response to Israel’s plan to fully occupy the Palestinian enclave.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Friday that the exports were frozen “until further notice” and expressed concern for the plight of Gaza’s Palestinians, who are suffering under Israeli-imposed starvation.
This is a developing story…
Two Palestinians were killed while trying to collect aid from a distribution site run by the Israeli and US-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, near the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza, Al Jazeera reported.
