Starvation-related deaths in Gaza

A limited number of trucks carrying aid has started to enter Gaza, 11 weeks into Israel’s total blockade of the Strip.

Aid agencies are warning that most of those minimal supplies have not reached soup kitchens, markets or hospitals, and at least 29 people, including children, have now died of starvation-related causes in Gaza in recent days.

And this only covers people that make it to one of the remaining hospitals to be counted... At least is a vast understatement.

Some bakeries resume operations, WFP chief says

A number of bakeries supported by the World Food Programme (WFP) are up and running again in Gaza, says the UN organisation’s chief, Cindy McCain.

“But we need more wheat flour, more fuel, more safe access – so more ovens can fire back up to feed families desperately in need,” McCain said in a post on X.

This is what hope looks like in Gaza.

A handful of @WFP-supported bakeries are back in operation.

But we need more wheat flour, more fuel, more safe access—so more ovens can fire back up to feed families desperately in need. pic.twitter.com/FvfkBO6kb2

— Cindy McCain (@WFPChief) May 22, 2025

UN’s Albanese backs ‘diplomatic humanitarian convoy’ to break Gaza blockade

Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, has said she supports a call for a “diplomatic humanitarian convoy” to break the “genocidal siege” Israel has placed on Gaza.

“I implore member states, especially the authorities concerned with the passage of the convoy, to respond positively and act swiftly,” she wrote in a post on X.

The convoy, as outlined by nonprofit group Law for Palestine, would see humanitarian aid trucks escorted into Gaza through the Rafah crossing as part of “high-level state missions”.

I fully support the urgent call for a diplomatic humanitarian convoy to break the genocidal siege on Gaza.
I implore member states, especially the authorities concerned with the passage of the convoy, to respond positively and act swiftly. https://t.co/PHuZK6PbwV

— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) May 23, 2025

Gaza hospitals running out of ‘basically everything’

Dr Victoria Rose, a consultant plastic surgeon, explains how the situation in Gaza’s hospitals has worsened over the last year, especially since aid was blocked by Israel in early March.

Dr Victoria Rose, a consultant plastic surgeon, explains how the situation in Gaza's hospitals has worsened over the last year, especially since aid was blocked by Israel in early March. pic.twitter.com/eFwGqREBTT

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) May 19, 2025

WHO says 94 percent of hospitals in Gaza damaged, destroyed

According to the World Health Organization:

At least 50 killed or missing after Israeli strike on residential building

More than 50 Palestinians were killed or remain missing after an Israeli air raid on a residential building in the Jabalia al-Balad area of northern Gaza, the Civil Defence said on Friday.

Civil Defence crews described the scene as a “horrific massacre”, reporting that they recovered the bodies of four victims and rescued six others from the rubble. However, more than 50 people are still believed to be trapped under the debris of the four-storey building.

Rescue operations have been completely halted due to a lack of heavy machinery.

_{Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip}

UN rights office says Israeli attacks killed hundreds in houses and tents

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) says 629 Palestinians have been killed in the last week in Gaza.

At least 358 of those were killed in attacks on houses and tents for displaced people, with children and women comprising at least 148 of the victims, it added.

“The high number of strikes on shelters, in the context of the existing destruction of infrastructure in Gaza, raises grave concerns that not all strikes were targeting military objectives,” OHCHR said.

Nine Palestinian journalists were also killed last week, making it one of the deadliest for the profession since the conflict began in October 2023, the agency added.

Although journalists have a deep sense of duty to their work, “they, too, are displaced, tired and hungry like the rest of the population of Gaza.”

‘Israeli military killing civilians for fun’

The Israeli army has continued its attacks on northern Gaza. In the latest attack, the victims were the Dardouna family in Jabalia. Israeli warplanes levelled their home, which housed more than 50 people.

Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif talked to people and a paramedic at the scene. “This residential building was made up of five levels. Last night, it was flattened to the ground by the Israeli fighter jets,” the paramedic said. “The air strikes caused all 50 people inside to be killed or buried alive. We managed to recover only a few.”

A relative of victims said his son’s firstborn was killed in the attack. “He was named after his uncle, Mohammed, who was also killed with his other child on October 23,” the Gaza resident added.

“We were raising his surviving son, but now he has joined his father and brother in heaven. Before them, his mother, sister, uncles, aunts and grandmother were all killed. The Israeli military is killing civilians for fun.”

Seven children among eight people killed in southern Gaza

Eight people, including seven children, were killed in an Israeli bombing of a house in Qizan an-Najjar, south of Khan Younis, Gaza’s civil defence is reporting. Several others were wounded.

Israeli army says 107 aid trucks entered Gaza on Thursday

A total of 107 aid trucks belonging to the UN and other aid groups carrying flour, food, medical equipment and pharmaceutical drugs entered the Gaza Strip yesterday, the Israeli army says.

Israel has allowed limited deliveries of humanitarian assistance into Gaza amid a wave of international condemnation of its 11-week total blockade on the territory, which spurred warnings of mass famine.

‘Disaster’ looms in Gaza if aid blockade continues

The lack of aid in Gaza is a “disaster” that will only worsen, warns Dr Ahmed al-Farrah, Nasser Hospital’s paediatrics and obstetrics department head.

“This disaster will be dire if there is a continuation in the blocking of food supplies,” al-Farrah told Al Jazeera. “I predict there will be many victims because of food insecurity. Most people now live off food scraps of what they had in stock.”

Aid trucks into Gaza ‘too little, too late, too slow’

The number of aid trucks that Israel has allowed into Gaza is insufficient and must be expanded, a spokesperson for the German government has said

“This is far too little, too late and too slow,” the spokesperson said. “Now it’s a matter of increasing it significantly … and ensuring that these aid supplies reach the people so that the suffering in the Gaza Strip comes to an end.”


Collapsed security situation threatens aid delivery

Despite the latest Israeli announcement to allow for a basic amount of aid into Gaza, the process faces severe challenges. One of the main challenges is the collapsed security here in Gaza. Many convoys are at high risk of being looted.

Israel has been systematically attacking police members securing aid delivery, creating a very unstable security environment and allowing armed gangs to take advantage of the situation.

Yesterday, eight trucks made the journey into the Strip. The Israeli army attacked a group of police members with Hamas’s Ministry of Interior while they were securing the delivery of those trucks.

As far as we know, six Palestinian officers were killed in the attack, with dozens of injuries among passersby.

Gaza’s needs are immense: Red Cross officer

Tommaso Della Longa of the International Federation of the Red Cross says the situation is “simply a nightmare” for people in Gaza.

“The news of aid entering the Strip is good news, but it is less than a drop in the ocean,” he said. Longa said even if some aid trucks recently entered the enclave, it did not mean aid was delivered to people.

“Until now, people did not get anything, and we need to have a humanitarian operation that scales [with people’s needs]. “If before the conflict started, we needed 500 to 600 trucks a day in Gaza, that means that number is now doubled as the needs are immense.”

‘Hunger, desperation, anxiety’ see 15 WFP aid trucks looted

Fifteen World Food Programme (WFP) trucks, carrying food supplies, were looted late last night in southern Gaza, while en route to WFP-supported bakeries, the organisation said in a statement.

“Hunger, desperation and anxiety over whether more food aid is coming, is contributing to rising insecurity,” the organisation said.

“We need support from the Israeli authorities to get far greater volumes of food assistance into Gaza faster, more consistently, and transported along safer routes, as was done during the ceasefire.”

WFP said the need for distributing food parcels directly to families is the “most effective way to prevent widespread starvation”.

‘People have been starved’: UNRWA chief says no surprise to see looting

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), says the aid trickling in to Gaza is “a needle in a haystack” amid dire conditions.

“The people of #Gaza have been starved + deprived of the basics including water & medicines for more than 11 weeks. Mothers and fathers have run out of food for their children. Older people died because of lack of medicines,” he wrote in a post on X.

“A meaningful & uninterrupted flow of aid is the only way to prevent the current disaster from spiraling further,” Lazzarini added.

As we’ve been reporting, the WFP said 15 of its trucks carrying food supplies were looted last night in southern Gaza. “Hunger, desperation and anxiety over whether more food aid is coming, is contributing to rising insecurity,” the UN agency said.

No one should be surprised let alone shocked at scenes of precious aid looted, stolen or “lost”.

The people of #Gaza have been starved + deprived of the basics including water & medicines for more than 11 weeks.
Mothers and fathers have run out of food for their children.…

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) May 23, 2025

Israeli attacks kill 66 people in Gaza since dawn

Israeli army prepares to demolish homes of Palestinians allegedly implicated in attack

The Israeli military has said it is preparing to demolish the occupied West Bank homes of two Palestinian men it has accused of assisting in the killing of an Israeli settler earlier this month.

“Engineering forces and fighters from the Ephraim Brigade operated in the village of [Burqin] to map the homes of terrorists Maher Samara and Jamil Samara, who helped terrorist Nael Samara carry out the shooting attack … in which the late Tzeela Gez was murdered and another Israeli citizen was injured,” it said in a post on X.

Tzeela Gez, a pregnant Israeli settler, was fatally wounded on May 14 when shots were fired at her vehicle as she travelled to hospital to give birth.

As we previously reported, Israeli settlers also attacked Burqin on Thursday night, setting fire to several houses and vehicles and wounding several people.

In pictures: Last night, Israeli settler militias attacked the town of Bruqin in the central occupied West Bank, setting several parked vehicles on fire.

The attack came only a few hours after the Israeli army withdraw from the town after a week-long offensive and curfew. pic.twitter.com/qJiSCDv2Dt

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) May 23, 2025

Israeli operation has killed 91 Palestinians in besieged West Bank refugee camps: Al-Haq

Israel has been carrying out a vicious, large-scale military assault on governorates in the north of the occupied West Bank over the past 120 days, according to a report by Al-Haq, a Ramallah-based rights group.

The military operation has involved “snipers, the recourse to air strikes through reconnaissance drones and Apache helicopters, and an array of military vehicles, including D9 and D10 bulldozers, tanks and Eitan armoured personnel carriers”, the Al-Haq report states.

The rights group also said between January 21 and May 16, 2025, the Israeli army besieged refugee camps in the occupied West Bank, killing 91 Palestinians, including 13 children and three women, and extensively destroyed infrastructure and homes, in Jenin, Tulkarem, Tubas and Nablus.

In Jenin alone, the military killed 40 Palestinians, including seven children and one woman, and destroyed at least 430 structures, according to Al-Haq.

About 16,600 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced from their homes in the Jenin refugee camp alone due to Israeli attacks, with many of their houses and the camp’s infrastructure destroyed, it added.

_{Israeli military vehicles operate during an Israeli raid in the Jenin refugee camp, in the occupied West Bank, in March 2025}

Palestinians injured as settlers rampage through the West Bank

Israeli settlers have attacked a community of Bruqin in the occupied West Bank, setting fire to cars and houses. Several Palestinians suffered burns. Watch below for scenes from the ground:

Palestinian BABIES are the ENEMY - Israeli politician

What ACTUAL Genocide Experts Say about Gaza

“Genocide experts are almost all in agreement that what's happening is a genocide. Per the legal definition, under the Genocide Convention, acts committed with the intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.”

Mehdi Hasan breaks down the definition of genocide and what real experts - including Israeli ones - have to say about Gaza, despite the gaslighting from Israel apologists.

Western journalists surprisingly call out Netanyahu’s Gaza propaganda, isolation

Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempt to link the development in Washington DC to the criticism made by the UK, France and Canada has backfired with more and more western journalists calling out the propaganda. Rifat Jawaid looks at this extraordinary change as even Piers Morgan gives grief to an IDF spokesperson for not allowing journalists into Gaza.

Bolded: 3 weeks ago I would have agreed with you that Germany would be the last ones to sanction Israel. But it seems like the new government in Germany has significantly upped the tone towards Israel. Keep in mind the reneguing of the trade agreement between Europe and Israel had to be approved by Germany beforehand, and they wouldn't have done so under Scholz.

I hope so.

Germany last year did reverse the massive increase of its arms trade with Israel:

In 2023, German arms exports to Israel were valued at $326.5 million, a tenfold increase from 2022. This included various military equipment and war weapons


_{https://content.forensic-architecture.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Forensis-Report-German-Arms-Exports-to-Israel-2003-2023.pdf}


Germany doubles arms exports to Ukraine, halves them to Israel in 2024

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/germany-doubles-arms-exports-ukraine-halves-them-israel-2024-2024-12-18/

Export approvals for Israel have dropped to 161 million euros, coinciding with a legal challenge by human rights groups concerned about the potential use of weapons in the Gaza war.

Last year, Germany approved arms exports to Israel worth 326.5 million euros, including military equipment and war weapons, a 10-fold increase from 2022, according to data from the economy ministry, which approves export licences.

Public pressure is working, but 50% less last year is still a 5x increase over 2022.

No need for EU approval, Germany can halt their arms trade with Israel all by themselves. I hope it happens.

Vast majority of Israelis support Palestinian displacement: Israeli poll

A new poll from highly regarded Israeli newspaper Haaretz says that no less than 82 percent of Israelis identifying as Jewish support the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza. Among those secular Israelis polled, 69 percent support the forced displacement.

Fifty-six percent of those Haaretz polled support the expulsion of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, the newspaper said.

The majority is for ethnic cleansing, sick society.

Israeli forces storm home of Hebron family as it mourns loved one killed in Gaza

The Wafa news agency reports that Israeli troops have raided a home in the occupied West Bank city during mourning services for Mu’ayyad Suleiman al-Qawasmi.

Al-Qawasmi was freed from Israeli prison in 2011 and deported to the Gaza Strip as part of a previous prisoner exchange deal. He was killed yesterday in an Israeli air attack.

Wafa says soldiers raided the home, wreaking havoc and destroying its contents, while confiscating banners and chairs and expelling all mourners present.

Sick, depraved, criminal society.

Still there are some incredibly brave people to stand up to this horror inside the lions den.

‘No soldiers, no occupation’: Israel’s antiwar protests small, but growing

“One of the guards came up to me and asked if I was there to save Gaza’s children, then he punched me in the stomach,” Alon-Lee Green said, recounting his experience in an Israeli prison this week.

Green and eight others were arrested on Sunday for protesting with about 600 others along Israel’s border with Gaza, spending two nights and almost three days in prison before being placed under house arrest. Together, they represent part of a small but increasingly visible groundswell of resistance in Israel to a war that, for a variety of reasons, many Israelis are turning their backs on.

“Some people are protesting because they see it as a political war,” Green, who also serves as national co-director of the activist group Standing Together, said of the growing sense in Israel that the war on Gaza only serves to sustain Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition.

“Some are tired of fighting, some want the hostages [to be released from Gaza] , and some [are protesting against] what we’re doing to Palestinians. All are welcome,” he continued. “You want to resist the government? You’re welcome. You don’t want to enlist? You’re welcome. You supported the war until just recently? You’re welcome.”

Sadly it's too small to have any effect.

Palestinian cause gaining traction due to Israel’s abuses, starvation policy

Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, has explained that the Israeli government’s attacks against countries that have voiced condemnation of its Gaza war don’t hold water.

This week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the leaders of France, the UK and Canada of “emboldening” Hamas after they released a statement warning they would take action against Israel if it didn’t stop its bombing and blockade of Gaza.

“It is the policies, it is the genocide that unravels every day on TV screens that is causing such animosity towards Israel,” Bishara said.

“The Palestinian cause is gaining traction around the world not because of Hamas, but because of Israel’s violations of international law, Israel’s violation of human rights in Gaza, Israel’s starvation policy,” he added.

“People are getting sick and tired after 19 months of genocide by this Israeli government. Public opinion is boiling and governments are trying to catch up – except in Washington.”

Israel ‘kicking genocide into overdrive while world watches’: CAIR

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has called on US President Donald Trump’s administration to act as Israel continues to pummel Gaza with unrelenting attacks.

“Every day, Palestinian civilians are being massacred and even the few standing residential buildings are being destroyed with families inside,” the advocacy group said in a statement.

“The Israeli government has openly announced its genocidal intent. The Trump administration must realize that Benjamin Netanyahu and his government of racist mass murderers are not interested in peace and must be stopped immediately.”

The US provides Israel with at least $3.8bn in military aid annually, and it has given its ally billions more since the Israeli military began its war on Gaza.

Canada’s opposition NDP urges PM to sanction Netanyahu

The left-wing New Democratic Party is also calling on Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to immediately suspend a free trade agreement with Israel over its abuses against Palestinians.

“The current humanitarian blockade and forced starvation of Palestinians in Gaza violates every moral code and relevant international legal norms. Bombings, shootings, starvation, dehumanization – Netanyahu and his cabinet are war criminals who must be brought to justice,” NDP MP Heather McPherson said in a statement.

Canada joined France and the UK this week in condemning Israel’s blockade on Gaza and settlement expansion in the West Bank. The countries warned they “will not hesitate to take further action, including targeted sanctions”, against Israel.

But McPherson said such threats “ring hollow as thousands more Palestinians are slaughtered indiscriminately and thousands more risk starving to death”.

“The EU and the UK are now revisiting their trade relationships with Israel. Canada must do the same and suspend the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement,” she said.

https://armsembargonow.ca/actnow/