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

Israel said it had informed medical and aid groups in northern Gaza to make plans to leave prior to a military campaign to take control of the area.

Military officials said, in a statement, that they had informed "medical officials and international organizations in the northern Gaza Strip...to prepare for the evacuation of the population to the southern Gaza Strip."

The Israeli prime minister's office said on Thursday that Israeli citizen Saleh Abu-Hussein, who was detained in Lebanon for about a year, returned to Israel following negotiations with the help of the Red Cross.

The office said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the citizen's return.

"This is a positive step and a sign of things to come," it wrote on social media platform X.

Reporting by Reuters.

The head of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency (Unrwa) has warned that children in Gaza face death from malnutrition unless emergency aid is allowed in during Israel’s assault on Gaza City.

Unrwa chief, Philippe Lazzarini, said the number of malnourished children in Gaza City has risen six-fold since March.

“We have a population that is extremely weak that will be confronted with a new major military operation,” he told reporters in Geneva. “Many will simply not have the strength to undergo a new displacement. Many of them will not survive.”

Lazzarini described the crisis as a “manufactured and fabricated famine,” accusing Israel of using food as a weapon of war.

In May, global monitors warned that more than half a million people in Gaza were on the brink of starvation, though they stopped short of declaring a famine.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza says Israeli attacks have killed at least 62,192 people since October 7, 2023.

Hospitals across the enclave reported receiving 70 bodies and 356 wounded in the past 24 hours alone.

The ministry added that the total number of injured has now reached 157,114, underscoring the devastating scale of Israel’s ongoing bombardment.

Medical officials in Gaza said at least 20 people have been killed by Israeli strikes across the enclave since dawn. 

Medical officials in Gaza say at least 20 people have been killed by Israeli strikes across the enclave since dawn.

Emergency crews reported that four people were killed and others wounded after Israeli forces bombed Jabalia al-Balad, in the north of Gaza.

Hospitals confirmed that among the dead were eight Palestinians who had gathered in hopes of receiving desperately needed aid.

Local authorities accused Israel of deliberately targeting civilians already enduring hunger and siege conditions, calling the attacks yet another crime against a population trapped under blockade.

Gaza’s Government Media Office has said Israel is deliberately strangling aid flows into the besieged enclave, warning that famine conditions are deepening.

In a statement on Telegram, it said only 250 aid trucks had entered Gaza over the past three days, a fraction of the 1,800 expected, with many of them looted before reaching those in need.

The office said Israel’s restrictions have blocked “vital food items”, including eggs, red meat, fish, dairy, vegetables and nutritional supplements.

It added that it holds Israel and its backers “fully responsible for the humanitarian catastrophe” and called on “the United Nations, Arab and Islamic countries and the international community to take serious action to open the crossings and ensure the flow of aid, especially food, baby formula and life-saving medicines, and to hold the occupation accountable for its crimes against civilians”.

Gaza hospitals have reported that Israeli forces have killed at least 20 Palestinians since dawn across multiple areas of the besieged enclave.

Emergency services said four people were killed and others wounded in Israeli shelling of Jabalia al-Balad in the northern Gaza Strip.

Among the dead are eight civilians who were waiting for aid, highlighting the growing toll on those seeking basic necessities.

Rights groups have condemned Israel for targeting civilians and humanitarian sites, describing the strikes as part of a wider campaign that continues to devastate Gaza’s population.

Crowds waiting for food, empty pots in hand. Children missing an arm, a leg, sometimes both. Emergency workers killed and buried in a mass grave beside their crushed ambulances.

Palestinians gunned down at aid distribution sites. Families facing mass displacement from Gaza City. Journalists like Anas al-Sharif assassinated for bearing witness.

As many have pointed out, these are not scenes of death. They are scenes of elimination - the systematic destruction of life through relentless bombing, starvation, thirst, life-altering injury, untreated illness, trauma, exhaustion, and the deprivation of shelter from cold, floods, and heat.

In the occupied West Bank, Palestinians have also faced deadly Israeli raids and settler attacks, with hundreds killed since the Gaza war began.

Such genocidal killing is made possible by decades of western dehumanisation of Palestinians, reducing them to "terrorists" and "human animals".

Read more: Why the Gaza genocide risks becoming a model for targeting Muslims worldwide

Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, imam and preacher of Al-Aqsa Mosque, has accused Israel of working to tighten its grip over the holy site which is occupied by Tel Aviv.

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Thursday, he said: “The occupation authorities seek to impose sovereignty over Al-Aqsa. The aim of the settlers' incursions is to strip the Waqf of its authority over Al-Aqsa.”

He warned that the frequency and nature of Israeli raids have intensified in recent weeks, with “ministers” now among those participating.

The comments reflect growing anger among Palestinians who see Israel’s actions at the compound as part of a wider attempt to undermine Muslim custodianship of the site and cement control over occupied East Jerusalem.

Gaza’s Health Ministry reported that two more Palestinians have died from famine and malnutrition in the past 24 hours as a result from Israel's ongoing siege of the Strip.

The ministry said the deaths bring the total number of hunger-related fatalities during Israel’s war on Gaza to 271, including 112 children.

Gaza’s emergency services said Israeli forces opened fire near an aid centre north of Rafah, killing one Palestinian and injuring 15 others.

The latest attack targeted people gathered for assistance in the southern Gaza Strip, underscoring how civilians seeking food and aid remain under fire from Israel. 

More than 700 UK business leaders, founders and professionals have signed a letter urging the government to prevent further acts of genocide by Israel in Gaza.

The open letter, which was launched in June by Business Leaders for Peace, urges the full and unrestricted entry of aid into Gaza, a complete arms embargo on Israel and targeted sanctions against individuals and entities "credibly accused of violating international law".

Labour mega-donor Dale Vince, the owner of green energy company Ecotricity who gave the party £5m ($6.75m) ahead of last year's general election, said: "While most businesses and their leaders will shy away from anything considered controversial, I see that as an abdication of responsibility. Never more so than when we see the genocidal actions of Israel."

Vince added: "Our government needs to grasp the same reality and do that which is within its power uniquely, end arm sales to Israel and impose crippling trade sanctions, as called for from within Israel recently."

Vince recently made headlines for flying a 30ft Palestine flag outside the Ecotricity HQ in Stroud. 

Read more: Over 700 business figures urge UK to 'prevent genocide in Gaza'

Gaza’s Nasser Medical Complex has reported that five Palestinian farmers were killed by Israeli drone strikes in northwest of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera Arabic reported. 

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) has renewed its call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, warning that children are entering a third year without education as Israel’s assault continues to devastate the enclave.

“Instead of learning, children spend their time searching for water and food,” the agency said in a post on X. “Children urgently need a Ceasefire Now so they can go back to learning and reconnect with whatever is left of their childhood.”

Unrwa said that almost 88 percent of Gaza’s schools have been directly struck since Israel’s war began in October 2023. The destruction has left classrooms in ruins and forced hundreds of thousands of children into survival mode.

While Israel maintains Western backing despite the scale of devastation, critics say Washington’s unconditional support enables genocide and has turned Gaza’s schools into Israeli targets. 

The Netanyahu government’s decision to move ahead with the E1 project, which aims to connect settlements in the Maale Adumim bloc in the occupied West Bank with East Jerusalem, is a targeted assassination of peace. It is a sniper’s bullet to the heart of future coexistence. 

This comes as a thuggish response to the growing list of nations that have decided to recognise the state of Palestine. In the minds of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies, developing E1 will deal a death blow to the idea of a Palestinian state.

E1 is one of the few areas on Jerusalem’s eastern periphery that is not covered in Jewish settlements. It is home to a towering Israeli police headquarters, along with a few humble Bedouin communities. Its development would drive a wedge through the heart of the occupied West Bank, separating north from south, while closing off the last relatively open route for Palestinians there to access East Jerusalem’s holy sites, tourism revenues, hospitals and transport systems.

International law, which recognises the 1967 Green Line as the border around Palestinian territory, would be ignored by Israel, as ever. 

Read more: E1 settlement plan will doom Palestine. It must be stopped