Live: 54 Palestinians killed, 831 wounded in 24 hours

At least 51 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza since dawn,  including 11 aid seekers, according to medical sources in the enclave speaking to Al Jazeera Arabic.

Earlier today, Al-Awda Hospital said that eight Palestinians were killed and 30 others wounded by Israeli army fire near the Netzarim. 

A global hunger watchdog has warned that famine is already unfolding across the Gaza Strip, as conditions deteriorate and international pressure mounts on Israel to allow more humanitarian aid in.

“The worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip,” said the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) in an alert released on Tuesday, Reuters reported. “Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths.”

While the IPC has not formally declared a famine, it confirmed it would begin an immediate assessment.

The organisation, made up of UN agencies, humanitarian bodies and aid groups, defines famine based on extreme hunger indicators, including at least 20 percent of the population facing critical food shortages, acute malnutrition in one-third of children, and two deaths per 10,000 people per day from hunger or related illnesses.

According to the IPC, recent data shows that food consumption thresholds consistent with famine have already been breached across most of Gaza. Acute malnutrition rates have also spiked, particularly in Gaza City.

“Immediate action must be taken to end the hostilities and allow unimpeded, large-scale, life-saving humanitarian response,” the IPC warned. “This is the only path to stopping further deaths and catastrophic human suffering.”

David Miliband, president of the International Rescue Committee, said in a separate statement that waiting for an official famine declaration risks repeating past tragedies. “By the time that famine was declared in Somalia in 2011, 250,000 people, half of them children under five, had already died,” he said. “By the time famine is declared [in Gaza], it will already be too late.”

At least 43 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza since dawn, according to medical sources in the enclave speaking to Al Jazeera Arabic.

Health officials say the dead include six people who were trying to access humanitarian aid when they were struck. The latest round of strikes has targeted several areas, pushing hospitals already under strain to their limits.

Casualty figures are expected to rise as rescue teams continue to search through the rubble left by ongoing Israeli strikes.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) has said that Israeli forces violently assaulted US labour organiser Chris Smalls while he was in custody.

In a statement posted online, the group said: “Seven uniformed individuals … choked him and kicked him in the legs, leaving visible signs of violence on his neck and back.”

The FFC added that when Smalls’ lawyer visited him, he was surrounded by six members of Israel’s special police unit. “This level of force was not used against other abducted activists,” the coalition said, describing the incident as “discriminatory treatment” and demanding accountability.

Smalls, the former head of the Amazon Labor Union, was among 21 international journalists and campaigners aboard the Handala when Israeli forces intercepted the aid vessel in international waters near Gaza as they were attempting to deliver humanitarian supplies to the besieged enclave.

Awdah Hathleen, a Palestinian activist who was part of the crew on the Academy Award-winning documentary No Other Land, was shot dead by an Israeli settler on Monday, the film's co-directors say. 

Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, one half of the filmmaking duo, shared a video on X late on Monday evening, local time, in the occupied West Bank, showing an infamous Israeli settler brandishing a gun and shooting at Palestinians behind the camera. 

It was unclear exactly who shot the video, but several Palestinians were in the vicinity.

The events appear to have transpired earlier that day in Masafer Yatta, the very village in which No Other Land is set. 

The settler in the video posted by Abraham was identified as Yinon Levi, who was sanctioned by the US and European Union in 2024 for his violent attacks on Palestinians and their property.

Read more: Palestinian activist who worked on Oscar-winning film 'No Other Land' killed in occupied West Bank

At least 30 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike that struck residential homes in the northern part of al-Nuseirat refugee camp overnight, according to medical sources speaking to Al Jazeera Arabic.

Al-Awda Hospital confirmed the casualties early on Tuesday, saying the attack targeted houses in the "new camp" area in central Gaza.

Health workers and first responders said they worked through the night to pull bodies from the rubble. The victims include women and children, although exact details of the casualties are still emerging.

The Dutch government has barred two of Israel’s far-right ministers from entering the country, citing their role in inciting violence and promoting ethnic cleansing.

“Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich are no longer welcome here,” Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp announced late on Monday. “They will be registered as persona non grata in the Schengen system.”

Veldkamp accused the two ministers of openly encouraging attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians, pushing for the expansion of illegal settlements, and advocating the forced removal of Gaza’s population.

“These actions and statements are beyond justification,” he said. “The cabinet has decided to take this step because their conduct undermines the prospects for peace and violates the principles of international law.”

The foreign minister also said Israel’s ambassador to the Netherlands would be summoned for urgent talks.

“We will ask him to urge Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government to reconsider its current course,” Veldkamp added. “The situation as it stands is intolerable and morally bankrupt.”

The Trump administration is attempting to reshape the Middle East after launching strikes on Iran last month, adopting a strategy characterised by "peace through strength" and "commerce, not chaos".

While this approach is presented as pragmatic, it risks destabilising the region in favour of maximising US and Israeli military and economic advantage.

President Donald Trump considers himself an "expert dealmaker", believing that calculated military strikes create leverage for diplomatic gains - particularly by pressuring Iran back to the negotiating table.

His strategy emphasises overwhelming, short-term military force to achieve defined goals, avoiding prolonged entanglements or "forever wars". It also marks a rejection of nation-building, shifting the burden of regional stability onto local partners.

Though the strategic value of Middle Eastern energy resources has declined for the US, the region remains crucial - perhaps even more so under the current administration. As Med This Week reports, three primary factors shape recent US actions.

Read more: Trump's strategy for Middle East 'peace' is built on Israeli dominance. It will fail

Good morning, Middle East Eye readers,

Here are some of the latest developments from Israel's war on Gaza:
 

• Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza reports at least 14 starvation-related deaths in 24 hours – Hospitals in Gaza confirmed fatalities due to severe malnutrition amid food shortages resulting from the ongoing Israeli blockade.

• Germany threatens pressure on Israel over war on Gaza – Government spokesperson Stefan Cornelius stated Berlin is "ready" to act to push for better humanitarian conditions.

• Christian-majority West Bank village attacked overnight by Israeli settlers – Unidentified assailants burned cars and damaged homes in Taybeh, a Christian-majority Palestinian community near Ramallah, the second such attack in as many weeks by Israeli settlers.

• Israeli university leaders urge Netanyahu to address Gaza hunger – Five university presidents demanded the military intensify efforts to "solve the horrible hunger issue in Gaza".

• UN reports slight easing of Gaza aid restrictions – Aid chief Tom Fletcher noted Israel’s decision to "support a one-week scale-up of aid," with over 100 trucks prepared for delivery.

• Houthis warn of new ship attacks – Yemen’s Houthi group vowed to strike vessels linked to companies trading with Israeli ports.

More than 100 doctors and medical staff lobbied outside the Boston Medical Complex on Friday for the largest medical organisation in the US to oppose the “genocide” unfolding in Gaza.

Healthcare Workers for Palestine and the Committee of Interns and Residents’ (CIR) local union chapter were among those campaigning for the American Medical Association (AMA) - which has a governmental lobbying arm - to acknowledge the horrific humanitarian situation under way in Gaza.

Karameh Kuemmerle, a physician and co-founder of Doctors Against Genocide, told the crowd that had gathered: “The AMA is the sixth-largest lobbying organisation in the US. It’s bigger than Boeing. It’s bigger than Lockheed Martin. It’s bigger than the National Rifle Association. AMA have a tremendous amount of domestic and international influence. History is taking note of your position. Call for an end to the genocide!”

Brett Lewis, a psychiatry resident and regional vice-president of the Service Employees International Union's CIR, added: “We know the AMA has been silent. We know our professional organisations turn a blind eye and we know that politicians refuse speak to up. If you cannot stand up to genocide, what will you stand up to?

“This may be our last chance. The money is there. The aid is there. Open the gates.”

Others speaking at the protest said there was a direct link between people dying from poverty in the US and those dying from starvation in Gaza.

At least 92 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since dawn by Israeli, despite a so-called pause in fighting to deliver humanitarian aid, Al Jazeera reported on Monday. 

At least 41 of those who were killed were seeking aid at the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Fund's armed distribution sites.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to propose a plan to annexe land in the Gaza Strip in an attempt to keep right-wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in his government, Haaretz reported on Monday.

The plan proposes giving Hamas a few days to agree to a ceasefire, and if it does not comply with conditions, Israel will begin annexing land in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians in the West Bank, who were evicted during Israel's conflict with Iran, returned to find their homes partially destroyed or vandalised, according to a report by B'Tselem, Haaretz and the United Nations on Monday. 

The Israeli military seized around 250 homes - housing 1,350 people - across the West Bank to use as military outposts while Israeli soldiers carried out raids on nearby homes.

Some of the families were evicted at night. Families who returned home found doors ripped off, cisterns broken, cupboards broken, mattresses and soft furnishings soiled, with faeces found in everything from cooking pots to blankets. 

At least eight Palestinian civilians were killed and several others injured on Monday in two separate Israeli air strikes on Gaza City and the Nuseirat refugee camp, Wafa news agency reported.

Israeli drones targeted a group of civilians on al-Rasheed Street in Gaza City, leading to the death of five people and injuring several others.

Three more civilians were killed in another Israeli air strike on a tent in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

The official death toll in the Gaza Strip has reached almost 60,000 people. 

A UN conference in New York looking at a two-state solution between Palestine and Israel was harshly criticised by the US on Monday.

State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce dismissed the initiative as "unproductive and ill-timed" and decried it as a "publicity stunt".

“This is a publicity stunt that comes in the middle of delicate diplomatic efforts to end the conflict,” Bruce said in a statement. Her comments came after the US pulled out of ceasefire negotiations last week.

“Far from promoting peace, the conference will prolong the war, embolden Hamas, and reward its obstruction and undermine real-world efforts to achieve peace," she added.

The US, along with Israel, is boycotting the conference.