Live: Six more Palestinians die of famine as Israel blocks Gaza aid

Carrying a bag of aid, Ibrahim al-Genedy, a displaced Palestinian from northern Gaza, told The Associated Press he has been desperately searching for food and water for his children.

“Unfortunately, the price we pay is human beings who die for nothing, martyred one after another, injured one after another. There are no hospitals to treat us. Why a 30-year-old like me runs after a kilo of lentils, a kilo of flour?” he said.

Mohamed Saada, who was forced to flee Beit Hanoon, said he has been unable to find food for his children because of the overwhelming demand for aid and “the difficulty of the situation between the shootings and the trucks running over people”.

He said “people are all over each other” when a small number of aid trucks are allowed to enter the besieged enclave.

“We were displaced 12 times. Now we returned to our homes that were reduced to rubble, living in camps, but we are terrified of the displacement word because we don’t have any ability, whether financial or physical, and we don’t have any more belongings to build tents or houses. We are very tired, and what you are watching now is a death train. They [Israel] are killing us in every way.”
 

The Government Media Office in Gaza says the number of journalists killed by Israeli forces has risen to 240, following the death of reporter Khaled Mohammed al-Madhoun.

The office accused Israel of “systematically targeting, killing and assassinating” Palestinian journalists as part of its ongoing assault on the besieged territory.

While sleeping in her home in Gaza City, MF was jolted awake at dawn by an unusual sight: an Israeli armed quadcopter hovering in her room.

Panicked, the 26-year-old Palestinian shut her eyes and forced herself back to sleep.

The next morning, she got up and went to work, wondering whether what she had seen was just a bad dream - a product of the ongoing attacks that had already triggered a psychological breakdown.

But when she returned home, MF, who asked to be identified only by her initials, overheard her father saying he had seen a quadcopter leaving their home earlier that morning.

It was then she realised that what she had witnessed was, in fact, real.

Read more: ‘Bizarre and terrifying’: Israeli quadcopters harass and attack Gaza City residents

A child has been killed in an Israeli attack on Gaza City’s Sabra neighbourhood, a source at Baptist Hospital told Al Jazeera Arabic.

Civil defence teams in Gaza said three people were also injured when Israeli forces bombed tents sheltering displaced families in al Mawasi, west of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate says journalist Khaled al Madhoun has been killed by Israeli forces in northern Gaza. His death adds to the growing toll of media workers targeted during Israel’s ongoing genocide on the Strip.

An aggregation of data from multiple sources, including from the CPJ and the IFJ, which listed the names of all journalists hitherto reported to have been killed by Israel concluded that, by 11 August 2025, Israel had killed up to 274 journalists since October 2023.

Hospitals in Gaza say at least 51 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since dawn, with victims reported across several areas of the besieged Strip.

Among the dead are 16 people who were seeking humanitarian aid when they were targeted, according to medical staff.

Israel’s Channel 13 investigative programme HaMoker has reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has obstructed seven ceasefire agreements with Hamas since the war on Gaza began in October 2023.

Senior American and Israeli officials interviewed by HaMoker, said that Netanyahu was chiefly responsible, often bowing to pressure from far-right ministers, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

Matthew Miller, spokesperson for the US State Department under President Joe Biden, said that at the start of the war in October 2023, Hamas was ready to release "some hostages".

"We have been trying to get through to the government of Israel to tell them that," Miller said, but added that Washington could not "get anyone in there to take us seriously", referring to the Israeli leadership.

Sources close to the prime minister told a member of the Israeli negotiating team, who spoke to Channel 13, that “there will be no deal here, these are ISIS terrorists, and their end is death".

Yoav Gallant, Israel's defence minister at the time, told HaMakor that he had instructed his subordinates: "No one is talking to Hamas", adding that he wanted the group to "come to us" after the Israeli army "put their heads under the water" so "they won't be able to breathe".

Gadi Eisenkot, who served on the War Cabinet, said the government initially made no effort to secure the captives' release, noting that "in the war's goals, there is not a single word about the captives and their return". He added that the first ceasefire in November 2023 came after Netanyahu and Gallant piled up obstacles.

READ MORE: Netanyahu thwarted seven Gaza ceasefire deals, Israeli report finds

Turkish First Lady Emine Erdogan has called on US First Lady Melania Trump to write to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urging him to take action regarding the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

In a letter addressed to Trump, Erdogan referred to a previous message the US First Lady had sent to Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which she highlighted the need to protect children in times of conflict. Erdogan said that appeal reflected “shared feelings of humanity” and expressed her appreciation.

Quoting from Trump’s earlier message, Erdogan wrote: “As you stated in your letter, every child’s right to grow up in a loving and safe environment is universal and indisputable. This right does not belong to any particular geography, race, ethnicity, religious group or ideology.”

Erdogan drew a comparison between the situation in Ukraine and Gaza, citing figures of more than 62,000 people, including 18,000 children, reported killed in Gaza over the past two years. She urged Trump to send a letter to Netanyahu containing “a strong call to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza”, describing such a step as a "historic responsibility".

She concluded by stating that children in both Ukraine and Palestine deserve the same rights to safety, joy and a secure future.

Israel has killed at least 62,622 Palestinians and injured 157,673 in Gaza, since October 2023, according to Palestinian health officials.

 In the past 24 hours alone, hospitals in the besieged enclave received the bodies of 61 people and treated 308 wounded Palestinians.

Among them were 16 killed and 111 injured while trying to obtain aid, officials said.

These deaths bring the total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire while seeking food through Israel and the US-backed GHF distribution system established at the end of May, to 2,076, with more than 15,308 wounded.

Israeli protesters confronted Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, accusing him of blocking efforts to secure the release of captives in Gaza. 

The Times of Israel reported that protesters chanted "shame" while holding pictures of captives held in Gaza as Ben Gvir walked with his son, Shoval. 

One of the protesters appealed to Shoval, telling him that he serves with a friend's son in the army: "I know very well, he is with you in your unit, he is with you in your unit. You serve with him, and your father is leaving the hostages to die."

Ben Gvir has opposed any agreements with Hamas for the release of hostages, boasting that he has repeatedly blocked such proposals in the past.

The right-wing minister quit the government during the January–March ceasefire and hostage-release deal, returning only once military operations in Gaza resumed.

The Palestinian health ministry is reporting that eight people, including two children, have died from malnutrition in the last 24 hours. 

Ministry figures show that at least 281 people, including 114 children, have died in Gaza from starvation caused by Israel.

Good morning MEE readers,

Here are the latest updates coming out of the Gaza Strip, as Israeli forces continue to ramp up their military operations inside the besieged territory.

• Israeli forces have killed 34 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip since dawn on Saturday, including eight aid seekers.
• Hamas said Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz's statement calling for the destruction of the Gaza Strip was "a confession of committing a crime that amounts to ethnic cleansing".
• Israeli forces have conducted raids across the occupied West Bank, including Jenin, Nablus and Tulkarem.
• Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp has resigned after failing to secure cabinet support for additional sanctions against Israel over its war on Gaza.

Good evening Middle East Eye readers,

The death toll since the start of Israel's genocide in Gaza 22 months ago soared to at least 62,263 Palestinians on Friday, according to the health ministry in Gaza. On Friday alone, at least 71 Palestinians were killed. 

Here is what else you need to know:

• Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry on Friday sharply criticised Israel after the UN officially declared that a famine is taking place in Gaza
• US President Donald Trump on Friday appeared to give his backing for Israel's assault on Gaza City, claiming that it would be "safer" for the captives if Israel attacked the urban centre home to 1 million Palestinians
• Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp on Friday resigned after his government failed to agree on sanctions against Israel
• Israel is preparing to launch its ground assault on Gaza City in mid-September, according to hebrew media reports
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that he planned to be fighting in Gaza for decades, when he was warned about not crafting a so-called day after plan for governance of Gaza, according to a former US official 

At least 71 Palestinians have been killed since dawn on Friday by Israel's genocide, according to Palestinian health officials.

The death toll from Israel's genocide in Gaza has soared as the Israeli military prepares to assault Gaza City. 

At least two Palestinians were killed and several injured by an Israeli strike targeting a house in the Maghazi camp in central Gaza, according to Al Jazeera. 

At least 62,263 Palestinians have been killed since Israel's genocide in Gaza started after 7 October 2023, according to the health ministry in Gaza. 

The majority of those killed has been women and children, while the number injured in Israel's genocide has risen to 157, 365. 

At least 2,060 Palestinians have been killed trying to retrieve aid since the widely discredited US and Israeli run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been established.