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Amnesty International has condemned Israel for deliberately using starvation as a weapon fo war in Gaza, with the controversial Israel-US backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) serving as a tool to deepen the humanitarian catastrophe and sustain the ongoing genocide.
In a report released on Thursday, the UK-based rights organisation said Israel is systematically inflicting starvation and disease on Palestinians by manipulating humanitarian relief efforts.
The GHF, an organisation imposed on Gaza by Washington and Tel Aviv, has not only been used to sidestep the United Nations but has also, according to Amnesty, played a central role in militarising aid.
Read more: Israel using starvation and aid to inflict genocide in Gaza: Amnesty
At least 118 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in the last 24 hours, according to hospital data collected by Gaza’s health ministry.
The ministry reported that at least 12 were killed while seeking aid. These killings coincide with the Israeli military’s ongoing strikes over Gaza.
On the evening of Friday, 6 October 2023, my aunt Doaa, a kindergarten teacher in Gaza, had just finished preparing new activities for her students. She was excited to see their reactions the next morning.
Tragically, the next day, 7 October, marked the end of any semblance of normal life and the beginning of a war that shattered everything.
Since then, Israeli air strikes have pounded every corner of Gaza - homes, hospitals, schools, and even kindergartens have not been spared.
Doaa's house was reduced to a heap of rubble, burying her teaching materials and the toys she had bought for her students - children who deserved to live.
Read more: In Gaza, children are learning the alphabet through grief and hunger
Former Vice President of the European Commission Josep Borrell has decried the killing of “550 starving Palestinians” by “US mercenaries” at aid points operated by the US-Israeli Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
In a statement on X on Thursday, the Spanish minister slammed the EU for remaining “unwilling to take any action against these crimes”.
In May, Borell, who served as the EU’s foreign policy chief from 2019 to 2024, made headlines for stating that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, describing the Israeli government’s actions as “the largest ethnic-cleansing operation since the end of the Second World War”.
Borell’s latest comments come amid growing international outrage over the controversial GHF aid distribution sites, which have been described as “death traps” by officials from the UN and Save the Children, among others. Over 600 Palestinians have been killed while queuing at GHF sites as of May, according to UN data.
Read more: Top diplomat slams EU for inaction against 'US mercenaries' killing starving Palestinians
Thirty families were displaced from the Al Malihat community, northwest of Jericho, due to escalating Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, Wafa news agency reported this morning.
Friday’s wave of displacement comes after twenty families from the same community were forced to leave their homes as a result of attacks from armed settlers protected by Israeli forces, the same report revealed.
Local minister Muayyad Shaaban described the displacements as “part of a broader colonial plan implemented by the Israeli occupation government” according to Wafa.
The United Nations human rights office said on Friday that it had recorded at least 613 killings both at aid points run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and near humanitarian convoys.
"We have recorded 613 killings, both at GHF points and near humanitarian convoys - this is a figure as of June 27. Since then... there have been further incidents," Ravina Shamdasani, the spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in Geneva.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud said on Friday when asked about the possibility of normalising ties with Israel that the kingdom's current priority is reaching a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
He was speaking during a visit to Moscow.
Nasser Hospital in Gaza is operating as "one massive trauma ward" due to an influx of patients injured while trying to receive aid at the US-Israeli distribution sites, the World Health Organization said on Friday.
"They've seen already for weeks, daily injuries ... and (the) majority coming from the so-called safe non-UN food distribution sites. The hospital is now operating as one massive trauma ward," Rik Peeperkorn told reporters in Geneva.
A new report published by the Associated Press on Thursday showed a leaked video of American contractors guarding aid distribution sites using live ammunition, stun grenades, and pepper spray against starving Palestinians seeking food. The video of US contractors cheering after firing at Gaza civilians has sparked fierce criticism online.
The Israeli military is preparing an enforcement plan to "ensure that Iran cannot return to threaten Israel", Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz told senior military officials.
He said the military must be prepared, both in intelligence and operations, to ensure Israel has air superiority and to prevent Tehran from reestablishing its previous capabilities.
He made his remarks following a 12-day air war between the longtime enemies in June, after Israel launched an air strike campaign on Iran, and Tehran retaliated with missiles and drones.
Israel and Iran agreed to a US-brokered ceasefire that ended hostilities on 24 June.
Israeli attacks killed 935 people in Iran, Tehran said, while Iran's attacks killed 28 people in Israel.
Last week, just days after Israeli forces killed three men while intervening to protect settlers violently storming the Palestinian village of Kafr Malik in the occupied West Bank, an unusual wave of condemnation swept through Israeli politics and media.
But the outrage was not directed at the killing of Palestinians. It came only after settlers turned on Israeli soldiers.
On Friday night, settlers, commonly referred to in Israel as the “Hilltop Youth”, attacked soldiers stationed at an outpost near Kafr Malik, northeast of Ramallah. The following day, the same group stormed a nearby military base.
For a military long accustomed to escorting settlers during raids on Palestinian communities, the aggression from their usual allies was both unexpected and unsettling.
The term “Hilltop Youth” may no longer accurately describe this group. Their structure, tactics, and growing confidence suggest they now function more as a paramilitary organisation than as an informal collection of radicalised young settlers.
Read more: The rise of paramilitary settler groups in Israel's West Bank strategy
Around 20 Palestinian families were forcibly displaced on Wednesday night from the Arab al-Mleihat community, northwest of Jericho in the eastern occupied West Bank, after Israeli settlers established a new outpost nearby and intensified harassment, the Wafa news agency reported.
The families, part of a larger Bedouin community of about 500 people, began dismantling their tents and leaving the area amid what local advocates described as mounting pressure from both settlers and Israeli forces.
Hassan Mleihat, general supervisor of the Al-Baidar Organisation for the Defence of Bedouin Rights, said settlers had positioned themselves around the community's perimeter and were escalating efforts to force residents out.
In a statement on Thursday, Al-Baidar warned that the displacement could erase the Arab al-Mleihat community’s cultural and historical presence.
According to Wafa, settlers on Wednesday brought livestock, erected tents and set up animal pens just 150 metres from Palestinian homes in the newly established outpost.
Israeli settlers have set up tents for the third time in the occupied West Bank village of Susya in Masafer Yatta, southern Hebron, the Quds News Network reported.
Israeli settlers regularly carry out attacks targeting communities in Masafer Yatta, a Palestinian community featured in the 2024 documentary No Other Land that won an Oscar in 2025 for Best Documentary.
Israeli settlers set up tents for the third time in Susya village in Masafer Yatta, southern Hebron in the occupied West Bank in continuous attempts of taking over indigenous Palestinian land. pic.twitter.com/P6oJaYt3Yb
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) July 4, 2025
Hamas officials have expressed a willingness to consider disarmament, which Israel has demanded as a condition for a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, Saudi outlet Asharq News has reported, citing Hamas officials familiar with the matter.
The officials also said that the group could agree to temporarily exile a symbolic number of its officials in Gaza, if it leads to an end to Israel's war on Gaza.
Former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell condemned “US mercenaries” for killing 550 “starving Palestinians” in one month as they attempted to reach the US-Israeli distribution points to collect aid.
In 1 month 550 starving Palestinians have been killed by US mercenaries while trying to get food at the points indicated by the so called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. This is horrendous but @EU_Commission and @EUCouncil remain unwilling to take any action against these crimes
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) July 3, 2025
US President Donald Trump said on Friday it would probably be known in 24 hours how the Palestinian group Hamas would respond to a proposal for a ceasefire with Israel in Gaza.
