Politicians sign letter urging Starmer to end UK arms sales to Israel

Leaders of political parties in the north of Ireland, Scotland and Wales have urged British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to recall Parliament and impose sanctions on Israel over the war in Gaza.

In a joint letter, the politicians called on Starmer to “act now” to pressure Israel to end its military campaign.

“The humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza is both man-made and avoidable,” the letter said. It called on the UK to use its “diplomatic influence to press for the unimpeded delivery of food, water, medicine, and humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza”.

The signatories also demanded “an immediate end to all arms sales to Israel” and support for “independent, international investigations into alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide in Gaza”.

“We urge you to act decisively by standing against the man-made famine, the mass killing of children, and the broader assault on civilian life. History will remember whether we chose to remain silent or to stand on the side of humanity,” the letter said.

US envoy says Israel’s turn to ‘comply’ as Lebanon moves to disarm Hezbollah

US envoy Tom Barrack has called on Israel to honour commitments under a ceasefire that ended its war with Hezbollah, after the Lebanese government launched a process to disarm the group.

“There’s always a step-by-step approach but I think the Lebanese government has done their part. They’ve taken the first step. Now what we need is Israel to comply,” Barrack said following a meeting in Beirut with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun.

Under the terms of the November truce, Hezbollah was to withdraw its fighters from the Israeli border, with all weapons brought under the control of the Lebanese state.

Israel was meant to fully withdraw its troops from the country, although it has kept forces at five border points it deems strategic.

Asked by reporters whether he expected to see Israel fully withdraw from Lebanese territory and stop its violations, Barrack said “that’s exactly the next step” needed.

“We need participation on the part of Israel, and we need an economic plan for prosperity, restoration and renovation,” the US diplomat added, referring to the need for urgent economic improvement in Lebanon, weighed down by a series of crises in recent years.

Israel attacking Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City with ‘massive’ number of air raids

The number of Israeli air raids on Zeitoun is massive; there is also artillery fire and explosive-laden robots that are destroying buildings and residential houses in that area. The bombardment has been taking place for the past couple of days without stopping.

Many Palestinians, especially those who have children and babies, have decided to leave due to the intensification of the air attacks.

Those who have fled did so under attack from quadcopters and live fire, and they went to the western parts of Gaza City. But the cost of moving from one place to another in Gaza is very expensive, and the risk is very, very high.

Still, some people are refusing to leave.

There are no rescue teams that can reach that area. There’s no medical staff or paramedics available to go to these areas. Palestinians are trying to rescue their neighbours, their relatives, whoever is left in that area underneath the rubble, by themselves.

_{A Palestinian man walks over debris and rubble carrying wood salvaged to be used as firewood in Gaza City}

‘How am I supposed to reach the south?’: People in Gaza City reject Israeli demands to flee

Israel is making it increasingly difficult for Palestinians to live in Gaza City as its military prepares a plan to seize the Strip’s largest city, home to nearly one million people, and forcibly displace its inhabitants to the south of Gaza.

The city was the main target of air attacks on Sunday that killed nearly 60 people, and Israel is also targeting the few remaining healthcare centres there.

But while many Palestinians who remain in the devastated city are forced to survive in the ruins of buildings, makeshift shelters, or tents, some people have told Al Jazeera that it would be impossible for them to leave.

“How am I supposed to even get there? How can I go? I need nearly 900 dollars to move – I don’t even have a dollar. How am I supposed to reach the south?” displaced Palestinian man Bilal Abu Sitta said.

“I’d have to walk there with my children, my wife, my elderly father and mother to get to Rafah or Khan Younis. And even then, there’s no space there.”

Others do not trust Israeli promises of aid and shelter. “We don’t want Israel to give us anything,” Noaman Hamad said. “We want them to [allow] us back to the homes we fled – we don’t need more than that.”

Gaza City residents to be ‘evacuated’ within two months, Israeli army chief says: Report

Israel’s army chief has said plans are in place to “evacuate” Gaza City residents within two months, before an expanded military operation, according to an Israeli media report.

Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said in closed discussions in recent days that “the expected evacuation process of residents from Gaza City will take less than two months, and we are preparing for the complexities in relocating residents – so we are preparing a set of tools to encourage them to leave the city towards humanitarian areas.”

Zamir also said that once that stage is complete, “the stages of surrounding Gaza City, entering it, and occupying it will be carried out.” He added that the military would seek to “minimise the use of reserve forces as much as possible”.

The remarks come as the Israeli government is holding talks with at least five countries – Indonesia, Somaliland, Uganda, South Sudan and Libya – about taking in displaced Palestinians from Gaza, Channel 12 previously reported. The Associated Press also earlier reported that Israel had discussed transferring Palestinians to South Sudan.

Rights groups have said the Israeli plans amount to forcible displacement.

Air-dropped aid box kills elderly man in Gaza

An elderly man has died of injuries sustained when an aid box fell on a tent for displaced people in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, Nasser Hospital has reported.

Several people have been killed or injured by air-dropped aid pallets in Gaza in recent weeks.

Aid agencies have said that air drops are dangerous and ineffective when Gaza’s entire population of more than two million people is facing famine, and have repeatedly called on Israel to allow the unfettered distribution of aid in Gaza through land crossings.

Killings at aid sites in Gaza behind surge in deaths, MSF says

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, says its staff in Gaza are witnessing a surge in mass casualties linked to Israel’s ongoing siege and its distribution of aid.

“The indiscriminate killings, and the counts of mass casualties we still [see] on a daily basis right now, hasn’t stopped, but only increased in its scale,” said Nour Alsaqqa of MSF.

She said one MSF facility in Rafah, located near an aid distribution centre, has been overwhelmed with wounded Palestinians, including children.

“We are receiving baby injuries and killings from the distribution sites. People who are coming with gunshots, with different injuries, related to the distribution sites and they go only seeking food,” she said.

“They go out of desperation and they risk their lives to access aid, which is still inaccessible due to Israel’s siege.”

Since the establishment of the GHF aid sites at the end of May, nearly 2,000 people have been killed while trying to access aid, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Medical cases surge in shelters amid worsening conditions: Gaza Civil Defence

Gaza’s Civil Defence says medical emergencies inside shelters and displacement camps have surged in recent days amid worsening conditions.

In a statement, the General Directorate of Civil Defence said its crews treated 132 medical cases across the Gaza Strip during August, including 112 elderly people and children, who were transferred to hospitals.

It attributed the increase to Israel’s reduction of what it calls the “humanitarian zone” in Gaza, saying this has led to deteriorating living conditions marked by extreme heat, water and soil pollution, and the spread of insects.

“We call on the United Nations and the World Health Organization to intervene urgently and pressure the occupation to prevent the expansion of the disaster and the resulting deaths among the displaced,” the statement said.

Huckabee says Israel’s settlement plan in occupied West Bank ‘not a violation of international law’: Report

Israeli Army Radio is reporting that the US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has said he does not oppose the Israeli government’s plan to illegally build thousands of homes in a highly controversial development in the occupied West Bank.

The plans for the E1 area settlement project that would connect occupied East Jerusalem with the existing illegal Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, located several kilometres (miles) to the east, “is a decision for the government of Israel to make”, Huckabee said.

“We would not try to evaluate the good and the bad of that, but simply just say that, as a general rule, it is not a violation of international law,” he is reported as saying.

The ICJ has ruled it is, but Mike Huckabee knows better.

Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemns Netanyahu’s ‘provocative’ West Bank visit

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has condemned what it describes as a “provocative colonial incursion” by Netanyahu into the illegal Ofra settlement in the occupied West Bank.

In a statement, the ministry said the Israeli prime minister’s remarks in Ofra about “clinging to the land” and rejecting a Palestinian state represented “a deliberate reinforcement of the colonial, racist, and displacement-oriented occupation as part of a series of genocide, displacement, and annexation crimes”.

It warned that such actions and rhetoric provide “cover and encouragement for settler terrorist elements to commit further attacks against Palestinian citizens, their land, and their property, while dismissing international reactions to the settlements and settlers’ crimes”.

The ministry called on the international community to “mobilise more recognitions of the State of Palestine” and enable it to gain full membership in the United Nations.

 
Israeli settlers bulldoze land in West Bank’s Masafer Yatta

Videos verified by Al Jazeera show Israeli settlers using bulldozers and heavy machinery to carve new roads in the Huwara area of Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, under the protection of Israeli forces.

Local Palestinian platforms first broadcast the footage, which documents preparation for a new settlement outpost.

The development comes after we reported in July that the Israeli government submitted a letter to the High Court of Justice requesting approval for the army to demolish at least 12 villages in Masafer Yatta and forcibly expel their residents.

The Israeli army says the land should be cleared to create a military “firing” or training zone, according to Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups.

NGOs say the demolitions form part of a systematic Israeli policy to displace Palestinian communities.

Israel is largest obstacle to US envoy’s vision for Lebanon: Analyst

Hezbollah will insist on not agreeing to hand over its arms unless Israel stops launching attacks and withdraws from occupied Lebanese territories, says Ali Rizk, a security affairs analyst.

“I think if the Israelis do that, there’s good reason to believe that Hezbollah will be willing to discuss a national defence strategy. That means how to merge Hezbollah’s weapons into the state,” Rizk told Al Jazeera from Beirut.

He said the bigger obstacle to realising US envoy Tom Barrack’s vision is Israel, and that is evident in the latest visit by Israeli army chief Eyal Zamir to occupied Lebanese territory and statements by far-right Israeli ministers who say they intend to stay in Lebanon.

“Ever since October 7, we’ve become accustomed to the fact that the Israelis don’t listen to what the Americans have to say, even when the Americans somewhat escalate their tone.”

Rizk said he would be surprised if the Israeli army withdraws from the five points it occupies in Lebanon, even after the Lebanese government publicly committed to disarming Hezbollah by the end of the year.

He stressed that a dialogue needs to take place inside Lebanon because the Lebanese government does not have the ability to fully strip Hezbollah of its arms, and the army is reluctant to take on the Lebanese group.

Israel bombs southern Lebanon, wounding four Syrians

At least four Syrian workers were injured after an Israeli drone dropped a bomb in Wadi al-Asafir, near stone factories in Khiam, Lebanon’s Health Ministry says.

Daily Israeli attacks in south Lebanon in violation of last year’s ceasefire agreement have not relented as the Lebanese government pushes to disarm Hezbollah.

Scale of destruction in Gaza City ‘extremely overwhelming’

Israeli attacks are still ongoing, unabated, in the eastern part of Gaza City. The scale of attacks illustrates how Israel’s current strategy is shaping the geography and demography of Gaza.

We can see how Israel is using heavy artillery, fighter jets and drones, in order to destroy what’s left of residential homes there. The scale of destruction is extremely overwhelming.

This current military tactic ensures that Israel will enable its forces to operate on the ground and will also ensure residential areas turn into zones of rubble.

People there say Israeli attacks are happening day and night.


_{Smoke rises after an explosion in Gaza caused by Israeli bombs}

Gaza’s healthcare sector is in disastrous state, official warns

Munir al-Bursh, director general of Gaza’s Health Ministry, says the health system in the enclave has collapsed under Israel’s ongoing assault.

He reported a 70 percent shortage in medicines, with only 15 of 38 hospitals still functioning.

Al-Bursh added that 1,590 medical staff have been killed and 1,360 others detained since Israel’s assault began, further crippling the health sector’s ability to provide essential care to Gaza’s population.


_{Beds sit in a flooded field hospital after sewage water inundated the emergency department of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, August 14}

All children under five in Gaza at risk of acute malnutrition, WFP warns

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned that as of July 2025, more than 320,000 children – the entire population under the age of five in Gaza – are at risk of acute malnutrition.

Families are surviving on the bare minimum of basic foods, with almost no dietary diversity, WFP said. The agency called for an immediate ceasefire to allow large-scale delivery of humanitarian aid.