Live: 54 Palestinians killed, 831 wounded in 24 hours

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is under fire after Berlin declined to back a joint statement by 29 Western nations condemning Israel’s war on Gaza, Reuters reported.

The declaration, signed earlier this week by countries including Britain and France, called the killing of Palestinians “inhumane” and slammed the “drip feeding of aid” into the besieged enclave. Over 1000 civilians have reportedly died while trying to reach food aid.

Reem Alabali-Radovan, Germany’s development minister and member of the SPD coalition partner, criticised the move.

“The demands in the letter from the 29 partners to the Israeli government are understandable to me. I would have wished for Germany to join the signal sent by the 29 partners,” she said.

Merz defended Germany’s position, saying the European Council had already adopted a statement in June that “practically” mirrored the contents of the new letter.

The earlier declaration, while deploring the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, stopped short of condemning Israel's proposed plan to relocate Palestinians to what it calls a “humanitarian city.” It also lacked the stronger language found in Monday’s joint appeal.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said that Iran is ready for any war that Israel may wage against it, Al Jazeera reported.

“We are fully prepared for any new Israeli military move, and our armed forces are ready to strike deep inside Israel again,” the Iranian leader said.

Pezeshkian also said that Iran is not optimistic about the ceasefire. "That is why we have prepared ourselves for any possible scenario and any potential response. Israel has harmed us, and we have also harmed it,” he added.

He rejected US President Donald Trump's claim that the Iran's nuclear programme was over and said that the country's nuclear capabilities are in the minds of its scientists and not in the facilities.

“Trump says that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon and we accept this because we reject nuclear weapons and this is our political, religious, humanitarian and strategic position. We believe in diplomacy, so any future negotiations must be according to a win-win logic, and we will not accept threats and dictates,” he said. 

The Government Media Office in Gaza says the number of journalists killed since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza has reached 231, following the deaths of Tamer al-Za'anin and Walaa al-Jabari.

The office condemned what said was as the "systematic targeting and killing of Palestinian journalists by the [Israeli] occupation".

Medical officials say at least nine Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air raids targeting the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood, southwest of Gaza City, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Among the dead is Palestinian journalist Walaa al-Jaabari, who was killed alongside her husband, Amjad al-Shaer, and their five children when Israeli forces bombed the family’s home.

Reports say the intensity of the strike reportedly forced the unborn child from her womb.

The last message al-Jaabari posted on Facebook read: “I am not afraid of dying of hunger. I am afraid of heartbreak if this crazy war does not stop.”

Her death brings the number of journalists killed in Gaza this year to 34, according to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate. In its mid-year report, the group documented the killing of 41 relatives of journalists, the destruction of 32 of their homes, and injuries to 66 media workers – mostly from shrapnel and live fire.

Medical teams in Gaza say three Palestinians have been killed and dozens wounded following Israeli strikes in the southern and central parts of the enclave, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.

Two were killed and at least 40 wounded after Israeli forces opened fire near an aid distribution site north of Rafah, in southern Gaza. Another person was killed in a separate air raid on Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, with several others wounded.

The US has announced that it will leave the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) on 31 December 2026 over its inclusion of Palestine as a member state.

The State Department announced on Tuesday that Washington viewed Palestine's inclusion as "highly problematic", and a decision which had in turn led to the "proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric".

The US was angered in 2011 when Unesco members granted Palestine full membership in the body, despite opposition from its ally Israel.

Washington opposes any move by UN bodies to recognise Palestine as a state, believing that this must wait until a negotiated Middle East peace deal.

"Unesco works to advance divisive social and cultural causes and maintains an outsized focus on the UN's sustainable development goals, a globalist, ideological agenda for international development at odds with our America First foreign policy," the State Department's spokesperson, Tammy Bruce, said.

Read more: US to pull out of Unesco over inclusion of Palestine and alleged anti-Israel bias

At least 17 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip since early Wednesday, according to medical sources speaking to Al Jazeera Arabic.

At least three Iranian officials, including a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, believe Israel is behind a wave of explosions and fires that have hit Iran over the past fortnight, according to The New York Times.

The incidents include a deadly blaze at a major oil refinery in Abadan, where one person was killed and several injured, and another fire near Mashhad International Airport.

Officials suggested the attacks could be part of an Israeli strategy to stir unrest, pointing to similar tactics used in previous operations targeting Iranian scientists and judicial figures

Nebal Farsakh, spokesperson for the Palestine Red Crescent Society, has warned that Gaza is in the grip of an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe”.

In a video shared online, she said the blockade on all border crossings for over four months has prevented the entry of food, clean water and medical supplies.

“This has led to a disaster where people are literally starving to death,” Farsakh said.

She added that hospitals are seeing a surge in patients suffering from malnutrition — particularly children, the elderly, and pregnant women.

A Palestinian has been killed and several others wounded following Israeli shelling in the Al-Tuffah neighbourhood, east of Gaza City, according to a source at the Baptist Hospital speaking to Al Jazeera Arabic.

The strike hit a residential area in central Gaza, adding to the growing number of casualties in ongoing Israeli attacks across the besieged enclave.

Seven Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike targeting a home in Gaza City’s Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.

The early morning attack also left several others wounded.

Hospitals in Gaza remain overwhelmed, with local outlets reporting scenes of starvation and collapse. Medical staff say patients are fainting from hunger, with many too weak to stand — a result of Israel’s ongoing blockade and months of relentless bombardment.

More than 100 humanitarian and rights groups are urging governments to act as famine tightens its grip on Gaza.

In a joint statement, 111 organisations - including Mercy Corps, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and Refugees International - called for an immediate ceasefire and for Israel to lift all restrictions on aid access.

"With food and supplies blocked at Gaza’s gates, our staff are starving alongside those they’re trying to help," the groups said.

They condemned Israel’s siege, accusing it of fuelling "chaos, starvation, and death" through bureaucratic delays and access restrictions.

The statement demanded the opening of all land crossings, unrestricted humanitarian access across Gaza, and a rejection of military-run aid distribution in favour of a UN-led response.

"States must take concrete steps to end the siege, including halting the flow of weapons and ammunition," the organisations added.

Agrim and powerful act of protest has taken place in Gaza.

In the midst of the Israeli-US-imposed blockade on food and humanitarian aid - a policy that has already caused many Palestinians to die - a significant public figure has himself gone on hunger strike.

On Sunday, 20 July, Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza and long persecuted by the Israeli occupation for documenting conditions on the ground, announced a hunger strike.

"I am Mahmoud Basal, a Palestinian citizen, a free human being," he declared. "For days now, I have been living on scraps of food, like more than two million citizens. Due to the lack of basic food in the Gaza Strip, I declare a full hunger strike in protest against the catastrophic famine striking Gaza, and in solidarity with more than two million people who have been left to face death by starvation amid shameful global silence."

While Israel has long used food as a weapon - measuring out the bare minimum number of calories required to keep Gaza's population on the brink of malnutrition - we are now witnessing the radical consequences of restrictions and blockades that have been normalised over decades.

Read more:  Israel's starvation of Gaza is a cruel display of the impunity of power

Israeli settlers have set up a new outpost northwest of Ramallah, in a further escalation of land grabs across the occupied West Bank.

According to Palestinian media, settlers arrived at dawn and placed mobile homes on land belonging to the village of Umm Safa, in the Jabal al-Ras area.

The move is part of a growing trend where settlers establish outposts without official authorisation, often with tacit support from Israeli forces. Rights groups warn these encroachments fuel violence and displacement of Palestinian communities

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates on the Israeli war on Gaza:

• The UN human rights office stated on Tuesday that Israeli forces have killed over 1,000 Palestinians since May as they attempted to access food aid in Gaza.

• Gaza hospitals recorded 15 deaths from starvation and malnutrition in 24 hours, including four children, amid the ongoing blockade.

• Israeli strikes killed 72 Palestinians and injured 376 in the past day, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

• The New York Post reported that Donald Trump will pull the U.S. out of UNESCO within two years of rejoining, accusing the agency of anti-U.S. and anti-Israel bias.