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

Germany is open about its uninhibited support for Israel's war of extermination and genocide in Palestine, and wants to make sure the entire world sees it.

Recognition for its Zionist zeal enables Germany to rehabilitate its exceptionalism, or Sonderweg, with catastrophic consequences for Palestinians and international law.

Germany is not uniquely evil among liberal democracies in offering Israel unconditional support in killing starving Palestinians. Chancellor Friedrich Merz is no more morally bereft than British Prime Minister Keir Starmer or French President Emmanuel Macron. But Germany exalts Zionist radical evil to assert its uniqueness.

Germany remains as hungry for national identity as it has ever been, and nothing can stand in its way - least of all Palestinians, who appear in the German consciousness only when establishment forces fail to erase their existence.

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Malnutrition in children causes lifelong developmental issues, Oxfam's humanitarian response adviser for the Gaza Strip told Irish public broadcaster RTE on Friday. 

Chris McIntosh told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, "Malnutrition in children is a severe problem because it can cause developmental issues".

"Unlike adults, they don't have the ability to spring back from a period of undernutrition and this affects brain development and a host of other health issues that will be with them for the rest of their lives".

"To smell food being cooked is also a total novelty these days," McIntosh added.

McIntosh also said seeing people eating food was rare, and children were reduced to searching for food in bins.

Oxfam was one of more than 100 NGOs that signed a letter saying that new Israeli legislation regulating aid groups is being used to refuse their requests to bring supplies into Gaza.

McIntosh added that Israel's claim that aid trucks waiting to enter Gaza do not meet security standards is false.

The Israeli military launched attacks on two hospitals in Gaza on Friday, Al Jazeera reported.

In one incident, a drone fired at the outpatient clinic of Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, damaging the rooftop, killing at least two Palestinians, and narrowly missing an Al Jazeera reporter, Tareq Abu Azzoum, who was 20 metres away.

Al Jazeera reports that the hospital has been hit more than 12 times since the war started. 

In another incident, the Israeli army targeted Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, in northern Gaza, killing one Palestinian and wounding another.

Al Jazeera reported that Israel has killed 126 people in multiple strikes on the hospital since the war in Gaza began.

France's foreign ministry has condemned Israel’s demolition of a school that was financeed and built by the French Development Agency (AFD) in partnership with the European Union, Al Jazeera reported on Friday.

The school in the village of Aqaba near Tubas in the West Bank, was demolished on 5 August. It was supposed to enrol around 100 local Palestinian children

“The continuation of the colonial policy constitutes a serious violation of international law and threatens the possibility of a two-state solution,” the ministry said in a statement.

The AFD also added the school was the second educational facility it had financed by to be demolished by the Israeli army in the West Bank.

AFD says on its website it works to implement France’s policies of development and international solidarity.

The Israeli army has been shooting at emergency vehicles that have been trying to rescue wounded and dead people in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood, Al Jazeera reported on Thursday.

Israel has been carpet bombing the neighbourhood all week, destroying hundreds of homes, as part of its offensive to take over Gaza City.

Gaza Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal told Al Jazeera that the Israeli army's fire has hit residential buildings, resulting in many casualties. 

Basal called on the international community to intervene.

Israeli settlers razed several olive trees in the village of Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah, on Friday, Wafa news agency reported, according to local sources.

Israeli settlers often target olive trees belonging to Palestinians as a way to impact their livelihood. Olive trees typically take five to eight years to bear fruit, and are a staple part of Palestinian culture and cuisine.

Settler attacks have increased since the war on Gaza began, and Palestinians say they are ignored by Israeli police when asking for help or even assist settlers by not intervening when such attacks occur.

Ramallah is the area that has faced the most settler violence in the West Bank in July, according to Wafa news agency.

Israeli settlers raided the village of Shallalat al-Auja, north of Jericho in the West Bank on Friday, Wafa news agency reported, citing local sources.

Settlers were said to have roamed among residents’ homes in an intimidating way.

Setllers are known to repeatedly raid and attack an area as a means of displacing Palestinians from their homes. They depend on the area’s water resources and agriculture.

Singapore became the latest country to airdrop aid over Gaza on Thursday. 

It joins other countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Germany, Belgium, France, and Italy, in doing so. 

The United Nations has said that airdropping aid over Gaza is both dangerous and ineffective, and that it is better to transport humanitarian aid over land crossings. Israel has been blocking and restricting aid entry from NGOs into Gaza since 2 March. 

Israeli forces have killed at least 49 Palestinians and wounded 369 others across Gaza in the last 24 hours, the Palestinian health ministry has said. 

The number includes at least 17 aid seekers, the ministry said in a statement on Telegram.

At least 1,760 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid in Gaza since late May, the UN human rights office said on Friday. The health ministry places the toll at 1,898, and said that more than 14,113 aid seekers have also been wounded. 

Israeli forces have killed 61,827 Palestinians and wounded 155,275 others since October 2023.

The health ministry also reported that another child had starved to death due to the Israeli-imposed aid blockade. The latest casualty brings the death toll from hunger to 240, including 107 children. 

Israel has enforced a near-total blockade of aid on Gaza, leading to severe shortages of food and essential medical supplies. 

Israeli forces have bombed al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, Al Jazeera has reported. The attack has killed at least one person and wounded another.

The Israeli army also fired at emergency vehicles trying to reach the wounded in Gaza City’s Zeitoun area, Gaza civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal has said. 

Israeli forces have used drones and fighter jets in recent days. Palestinians in the Zeitoun neighbourhood have been trapped as civil defence members are barred from reaching the area. 

Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians on Friday, wounding at least five people, setting fire to at least three cars and a house and destroying agricultural land across the occupied West Bank.

In the town of al-Mazraa al-Sharqiya, east of Ramallah, a group of settlers launched an assault that led to confrontations.

Three Palestinians were wounded by Israeli live fire and transferred to the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah for treatment.

Meanwhile, in the Masafer Yatta area, south of Hebron, a man and his wife were injured during separate settler attacks. The couple were taken to Yatta Governmental Hospital.

In the town of Atara, northwest of Ramallah, settlers carried out arson attacks and sprayed racist graffiti in the early hours of Friday, reportedly under the protection of Israeli forces.

As troops stormed the area, settlers set vehicles and a house ablaze, while defacing walls with offensive slogans.

The violence followed the re-establishment of an illegal settler outpost on Thursday in the same town, where tents were erected at the site of Jabal Khirbat Tarfirn, near the town's entrance.

Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law.

Settlers have long been shielded by the Israeli military during attacks on Palestinians and rarely face prosecution, even in cases of premeditated violence or murder.

Read more: Israeli settlers shoot Palestinians and torch cars in latest West Bank assaults

Arrest warrant applications against two prominent Israeli ministers on charges of apartheid are ready and with two deputy prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC), Middle East Eye can reveal.

If the warrants for National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich are issued, it will be the first time that the crime of apartheid is charged at an international court.

ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan had prepared cases against Ben Gvir and Smotrich before he went on leave in May, according to numerous sources in the court with knowledge of the matter.

"Those applications for the arrest warrants are completely done," an ICC source told MEE.

"The only thing that didn't happen was submitting them to the court," the source said on condition of anonymity.

MEE can reveal that the deputy prosecutors have the power to submit them to pre-trial judges for examination, but some within the ICC believe the applications will be quietly shelved as the court faces unprecedented external pressure.

The newly elected US administration under Donald Trump sanctioned Khan in February, and he went on leave in May amid a UN investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against him, which he has denied. 

Read more: ICC arrest warrant applications ready for Israel's Ben Gvir and Smotrich on apartheid charges

At least 1,760 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid in Gaza since late May, the UN human rights office said on Friday.

AFP reported that this marks a rise of several hundred since the last published figure at the beginning of August.

"Since 27 May, and as of 13 August, we have recorded that at least 1,760 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid; 994 in the vicinity of GHF [Gaza Humanitarian Foundation] sites and 766 along the routes of supply convoys. Most of these killings were committed by the Israeli military," the agency's office for Palestinian territories said in a statement.

Israeli forces have killed 61,827 Palestinians and wounded 155,275 others since October 2023, the Palestinian health ministry has said. 

The ministry also reported the death of a child due to the Israeli-imposed aid blockade. The latest casualty brings the death toll from starvation to 240, including 107 children. 

Israel has enforced a near-total blockade of aid on Gaza, leading to severe shortages of food and essential medical supplies. 

As temperatures in the Gaza Strip surpass 40 degrees celsius, health authorities and rights organisations have sounded the alarm over increasing dehydration cases and the spread of diseases.

The United Nation's agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) warned in a post on X that the scorching heat is "making an already desperate situation far worse".

The agency noted the limited water supply across the besieged enclave, as Israel continues its months-long blockade on the territory. 

"Bombardments and forced displacement continue. With limited electricity and fuel, there is no relief from the extreme heat," it said. "There must be a ceasefire."

Gaza is facing severe water shortages due to months of Israeli attacks targeting water and sanitation infrastructure, including desalination plants and sewage systems. 

The blockaded enclave - which was already suffering from a water crisis before the nearly 700-day genocide - now has less than four percent of the fresh water in needs, with surrounding sea water polluted by sewage.

The Gaza government press office has previously said that such Israeli attacks are aimed at "turning water into a tool of genocide and a weapon of slow killing".

Moreover, expulsion orders issued in recent weeks have left displaced Palestinians vulnerable to dehydration.

The spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned in late July that these displacement orders target sources of clean water, as they have concerned zones hosting vital water infrastructure. 

Read more: Agonising heat wave hits Gaza amid widescale dehydration and famine

Israeli forces have killed 61,827 Palestinians and wounded 155,275 others since October 2023, Gaza's Health Ministry has said. 

The ministry also reported the death of a child due to the Israeli-imposed aid blockade. The latest casualty brings the death toll from starvation to 240, including 107 children. 

Israel has enforced a near-total blockade of aid on Gaza, leading to severe shortages of food and essential medical supplies. 

Israeli forces have also shot dead more than 1,300 Palestinian aid seekers, mostly at the US and Israel-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution sites. 

Since 27 May, at least 1,373 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food; 859 in the vicinity of the GHF sites and 514 along the routes of food convoys, United Nations has said.