Israeli forces kill 26 people in Gaza since dawn

At least 26 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza since dawn today, Gaza’s Ministry of Health says.

What goes up, must come down...

"Even at terminal velocity, a falling bullet can still cause serious injury or death, especially if it hits someone in the head or chest.The National Institutes of Health (NIH) points out that a bullet traveling at 60.0 m/s (200 ft/s) can penetrate the skull."


Gaza media office denies aid obstruction, says GHF spreading false claims

Gaza’s Government Media Office has rejected allegations by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) that Palestinian fighters blocked public access to its aid sites. In a lengthy statement, it called the claims “a blatant fabrication” and the GHF’s efforts “a dangerous deviation from humanitarian neutrality”.

It blamed the chaos and delays in aid distribution on the new foundation’s mismanagement. The distribution sites are actually “segregated buffer zones” serving Israel’s military agenda, it added.

“GHF … has lost any pretense of credibility or neutrality by parroting and adopting the occupation’s narrative,” the statement said. “It thus bears moral and legal responsibility for covering up the ongoing crime of genocide being committed against over 2.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip through the complete blockade of food, medicine, water, and fuel.”

The media office also accused the foundation of seizing aid trucks from a humanitarian organisation and diverting them – with Israeli army protection – to its own distribution sites in buffer zones.

US downplays Gaza aid chaos and blames Hamas for issues

US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce has downplayed the chaos earlier today at an Israeli-US food distribution initiative, blaming Hamas for the situation in Gaza.

“All of this could have stopped if [Hamas] had released the hostages and laid down its weapons, but they’ve refused to do so. They’ve also rejected ceasefires,” she said at a news conference.

“Hamas has been opposed to this [aid] dynamic, they have attempted to stop the aid movement through Gaza to this distribution centres, but they have failed … In that kind of environment it’s not surprising that there might be a few issues involved. But the good news is that those seeking to get aid to the people of Gaza, which is not Hamas, have succeeded.”

Journalists at the news conference challenged these claims, saying that there was no evidence that Hamas had attempted to obstruct the aid.

Bruce responded by saying the aid delivery will improve over time and needs to expand, and that while she says she doesn’t speak for the initiative, it’s “clear that the goal was to reach as many people as possible”.

“The real story is that aid and food is moving into Gaza in a massive scale, we’re looking at 8,000 boxes [today],” she said. “Was this going to be like going to the mall or a drive-thru? No it wasn’t. This is a complicated environment and the story is the fact that it’s working.”



8,000 boxes at 40 pounds each (maybe, they don't look heavy at all), that's 8 trucks at most. And a lot wasted on packaging, not comparable to 20kg bags of flower and rice, or bakeries making bread at mass scale etc. GHF massive scale, load of bollocks. 500-600 trucks are needed daily.

Bruce’s UN criticism rings hollow amid Israel’s blockade on Gaza

Then other significant point that Tammy Bruce, the state department spokesperson, raised in her news conference was essentially dismissing all the criticism from the UN and UN-related humanitarian offices that have been providing humanitarian aid inside Gaza for decades.

The criticism from Tammy Bruce is essentially that they are not involved, they couldn’t find a way to deliver the aid without it falling into the hands of Hamas or other “bad actors”, and they are now upset that they’ve been left on the sidelines while people are being helped.

It is important to point out however that a humanitarian blockade was imposed by Israel back on March 2, we’re nearly entering the fourth month of that ongoing blockade along with the return to warfare by the Israeli military on the people of Gaza.

So without the Israeli government allowing humanitarian organisations to get into Gaza, you now have a situation that we’ve seen in the videos where you’ve got people basically rushing through a very small checkpoint trying to get their hands on food and medicines and other supplies that they so desperately need, and doing so because they are watching their relatives get sick and die every single day.

Witness describes ‘frightening’ chaos at Gaza aid facility

We’ve been reporting on the pandemonium that erupted as hungry Palestinians stormed a food distribution centre operated by an Israel-US-backed foundation in southern Gaza. According to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, normal operations have now resumed following the disturbing incident.

“I was standing in the line at an aid distribution point in Rafah with hundreds of citizens, and suddenly a large number of people started pushing and entering randomly,” said war-displaced person Ayman Abu Zaid.

“It was because of the lack of aid and the delay in distribution so they tried to get in to take whatever they could.”

At one point gunfire rang out. “The sound was very frightening and people began to scatter, but some still kept trying to take the aid despite the danger.”

‘Only the word genocide can describe what’s happening in Gaza,’ Belgian FM says

Belgium’s Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot has said that “only the word genocide” can describe what Israel is doing in Gaza.

“As the foreign minister, it is not up to me to make such statements. But my personal opinion is that this is very close to genocide. I don’t know what other horrors have yet to occur before that word can be used,” Prevot in said in an interview with Humo magazine.

He said he felt “very angry” seeing images of death, destruction, and hunger coming out of Gaza.

“I have been saying since April that the humanitarian blockade is an absolute disgrace. Deliberately starving a population is a war crime,” he said.

About sanctions on Israel, Prevot said that both the Belgian government and the European government should intensify pressure on Israel.

“I am in favour of sanctions against the military and political leaders on both sides and against the Jewish settlers who are forcibly evicting the Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank,” he said.

“It is no longer enough for the Belgian government to condemn the situation; actions are needed to make Israel move.”

Actions speak louder than words. Baby steps. At the pace other countries are going from words to the tiniest of actions....

Gaza hunger crisis: Desperate crowds storm US aid distribution site in Rafah as operation collapses

Chaotic scenes unfolded in Rafah, southern Gaza, as Palestinians rushed a US aid distribution site in Tal as-Sultan, prompting American security personnel to fire warning shots. Israeli forces reportedly intervened remotely to disperse crowds. Israeli Army radio cited security sources distancing Israel from the incident while confirming US contractors regained control.

Crumbs from the master's table - The Grayzone live

Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate discuss the disastrous role of the Trump administration's negotiators on Gaza, where Israel has been able to wage its final solution assault while imposing a new humanitarian aid system that has already compounded starvation and agony in the besieged enclave. Max will also report back from his visit to Iran, where he covered ongoing negotiations between Tehran and Washington, and gathered special insight into the prospects for a deal through access to diplomats and politically significant sites.

Trump Backs Israel LIES On New Failed Ceasefire

Krystal and Emma discuss Trump backing Israel's lies on a Gaza ceasefire.

Israel ‘very generously’ using high-tech US weaponry in Gaza

The US government should question Israel on the use of its munitions after a US-made “smart bomb” was dropped by Israel in an grisly attack on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City, a military analyst says.

The air strike killed 36 displaced Palestinians, including 18 children and six women.

The Israeli military has been “very generously using these bombs against civilians”, Elijah Magnier told Al Jazeera.

Monday’s strike on the school was “really deliberate”, he added.

“There is no accountability and Israel can exert pressure on the Palestinians, starting with the civilians, to say ‘nowhere is safe’ and to say ‘you have to turn against Hamas or we will continue to kill more of you’,” Magnier said.

The United States should “question” Israel about the use of these high-tech weapons on the Palestinian people, he added.

Israel’s ‘mass murder on industrial scale’ must be halted: US group

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has denounced Israel’s devastating war on Gaza after the official death toll surpassed 54,000 – the majority of victims children, women, and the elderly.

“The Israeli government’s mass murder on an industrial scale must be stopped. The world can no longer sit back and watch the brutal extirpation of a population and the erasure of their legacy,” said Nihad Awad, CAIR’s national executive director, in a statement.

“The Israeli government is not interested in peace. It is time for the United States and the rest of the nations of the world to force them to stop these atrocities.”

It is widely believed that the death toll in Gaza is far higher than the official count. Awad noted the medical journal The Lancet estimated about 186,000 may have died since Israel’s invasion of Gaza in October 2023.

Hundreds of Israeli army officers sign letter demanding end to ‘immoral’ war: Report

Hundreds of active and reserve Israeli army officers have prepared an open letter urging the Israeli government and military leadership to halt the war in Gaza, labelling it a political conflict that “doesn’t serve Israel’s national security and is therefore immoral”, according to a report by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

The letter, which has garnered approximately 1,200 signatures from reservists and active-duty officers across various military units, demands an immediate cessation of hostilities and the safe return of all captives.

“We, former and current reserve [army] officers and commanders, demand the government and chief of staff [Eyal Zamir] stop the political war in Gaza and immediately return all the hostages,” the letter states, as reported by Haaretz.

“Continuing the war goes against the will of an overwhelming majority of the public, will result in the deaths of hostages, [Israeli army] soldiers and innocent civilians, and may even lead to the commission of war crimes."

Ireland moves to ban trade with Israeli-occupied areas in Palestine

The government of the Republic of Ireland has approved the drafting of a bill to ban the import of goods from illegal Israeli settlements – an unprecedented move for a European Union member.

The move comes after the International Court of Justice last year said Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip is illegal under international law in an advisory opinion that the Irish government said guided its decision.

“The government has agreed to advance legislation prohibiting trade in goods with illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory,” Ireland’s Foreign Ministry said. “It is the government’s view that this is an obligation under international law.”

The settlements include residential, agricultural and business interests that lie outside Israel’s internationally recognised borders.

Before the cabinet decision, Foreign Minister Simon Harris told reporters that he hoped other EU countries would follow Ireland’s lead.

“What I hope today is when this small country in Europe makes the decision and becomes one of the first countries, and probably the first country, in the Western world to consider legislation in this space, I do hope it inspires other European countries to join us.”

It's a start, one with far too many loopholes of course. Just ban Israeli imports altogether. This is like imposing sanctions on only Russian goods from Crimea.

A report from Amnesty in 2019 cites hundreds of millions in international trade with illegal Israeli settlements. While "Total trade in goods between the EU and Israel in 2024 amounted to €42.6 billion in 2024. EU imports from Israel were worth €15.9 billion, the EU’s exports to Israel amounted to €26.7 billion." And Israel's total trade amounts to 143 billion. So at most the settlements account for 0.2% of Israel's trade.

It is more effective than targeting individual settlers, but still a drop in the ocean, mostly virtue signalling. Ireland imported $3.2bn worth of goods last year from Israel, but no clue how much of that was from settlements.

Anyway it's a start, far too late and too little, but it's a significant start considering what the rest of Europe is not doing.

Days after UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy told parliament that he was suspending trade talks with the Netanyahu government over the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza, Lord Starmer’s trade envoy Lord Ian Austin was visiting Israel to promote trade. Rifat Jawaid asks if the UK government had misled the parliament.

Israel’s longstanding policy of ‘diversion, delusion, distraction and lies’ no longer working

Israel’s programme to drive out Palestinians has always been based on a “rolling process of diversion, delusion, distraction and lies”, but it’s not working anymore, Rami Khouri, a distinguished fellow at the American University of Beirut, has told Al Jazeera.

“If you see the reaction out of Europe over the last 10 days [to what’s been happening in Gaza], it’s been phenomenal how quickly the flaccid Europeans, who for the past year and a half or so – most of them, with a few exceptions – have said nothing,” he said.

Young Palestinians endure beatings and starvation in Israeli prisons: Report

Palestinian children and youths detained in Israel’s Megiddo prison endure brutal conditions, including beatings, starvation and a denial of medical care, the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs has said.

The Palestinian Authority agency detailed ongoing abuses, citing retaliatory measures by prison authorities, intensified crackdowns, poor food quality and a lack of humanitarian provisions.

The commission highlighted the case of Jihad Maher Hajjaj, a 15-year-old boy from al-Mazraa ash-Sharqiya in eastern Ramallah, who suffered severe chest pain and a suspected rib fracture after a prison guard beat him about a month ago.

“The blow was so hard it felt like my bone dislodged, and I’ve received no treatment or clarity on whether the fracture healed,” Hajjaj, detained since February 2024, reportedly told the commission’s lawyer.

Aws Mohammed Taher Dheib, 19, from Silwad, also in eastern Ramallah, lost more than 30kg (66 pounds) because of prison starvation policies since his detention on September 30, 2024. He contracted scabies but received no medical care, the commission said.

Ali Dhiab, 18, from Kafr Aqab in northern Jerusalem, told the commission’s lawyer that food is scarce and insufficient, forcing prisoners to skip meals and combine rations to eat once a day.

“All prisoners have lost dozens of pounds,” Dhiab told the commission.

Mapping Israel’s military campaign in the occupied West Bank

Israel is applying many of the tactics used in its war on Gaza to seize and control territory across the occupied West Bank, during its Operation Iron Wall campaign, a new report says.

Israel launched the operation in January. Defending what the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) termed “by far the longest and most destructive operation in the occupied West Bank since the second intifada in the 2000s”, the Israeli military claimed that its intention was to preserve its “freedom of action” within the Palestinian territory as it continued to rip up roads and destroy buildings, infrastructure, and water and electricity lines.

The report by the British research group Forensic Architecture suggested that Israel has imposed what researchers call a system of “spatial control”, essentially a series of mechanisms that allow it to deploy military units across Palestinian territory at will.

The report focused on Israeli action in the refugee camps of Jenin and Far’a in the northern West Bank as well as Nur Shams and Tulkarem in the northwestern West Bank. Researchers interviewed and analysed witness statements, satellite imagery and hundreds of videos to demonstrate a systematic plan of coordinated Israeli action intended to impose a network of military control in refugee camps across the West Bank similar to that imposed upon Gaza.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/27/mapping-israels-military-campaign-in-the-occupied-west-bank

Israeli cabinet ‘secretly’ approves 22 new illegal settlements in occupied West Bank: Report

The Israeli Security Cabinet has “secretly” approved the construction of 22 new illegal settlements on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth has reported.

According to the newspaper, the cabinet “secretly approved two weeks ago the establishment of 22 settlements in [the occupied West Bank]”.

The report added that the proposal was submitted by Defence Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

The Palestinian presidency said that the approval of the new illegal settlements constitutes “a dangerous escalation that drags the region into a cycle of violence and instability”.

Israeli army blames UN for ‘avoiding’ aid role in Gaza

The Israeli military’s agency for the coordination of goods into Gaza, COGAT, has accused the United Nations of failing to fulfil its role and not collecting humanitarian aid from the Gaza side of the Karem Abu Salem crossing, known as Kerem Shalom to the Israelis.

“With the renewed entry of Humanitarian Aid to the Gaza Strip, we have reached out to all humanitarian aid organizations and the international community – and called for them to take part in the distribution of aid to Gazan civilians,” COGAT said in a statement.

“However, in the past few days, the UN has avoided fulfilling its role and instead continues to spread false and incorrect information regarding civilian distress.”

The comments come after the Israeli-backed foundation, tasked with bringing aid into Gaza, had one of its facilities swarmed by Palestinians desperate for food after nearly three months of a total blockade.

Blame Hamas, Blame the UN, Blame the world, never admit your own failures.


Despite chaos in Gaza, Israel and GHF claim food distribution went to plan

When you look at the statements from the Israeli military and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, they say that everything went according to plan today.

They say they were able to distribute meals, and that the chaos that happened in the southern Gaza city of Rafah was just Palestinians in a large number who came to get food parcels, and that the American food contractors simply backed away. So they essentially downplayed everything that happened.

They say that Palestinians can still go to these four distribution points to pick up more food during certain hours. But they are not really acknowledging the fact that this chaos ensued in the southern part of the Palestinian territory where three out of the four distribution points are. So it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

It’s worth remembering that the UN and other organisations, like the World Central Kitchen, who have been instrumental in providing aid to the Palestinian people throughout this war, have slammed the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. They are refusing to work with it and say it’s unethical, that there are a lot of unanswered questions, and that they are not doing a correct job with distributing this much-needed aid.

Israel’s army accused of ‘deliberate massacre’ during aid site chaos

Gaza’s Government Media Office says Israel’s military killed three Palestinians and wounded 46 others at a food distribution site in southern Rafah earlier. Seven other people are missing.

“The occupation forces, positioned in or around those areas, opened live fire on starving civilians who were lured to these locations under the pretense of receiving aid,” the press office said in a statement.

“What happened today in Rafah is a deliberate massacre and a full-fledged war crime, committed in cold blood against civilians weakened by over 90 days of siege-induced starvation.”

The office added: “This incident provides undeniable evidence of the Israeli occupation’s total failure in managing the humanitarian catastrophe it has deliberately created.”

Woman and daughter dig through rubbish for bits of food in desperate Gaza

With flies buzzing all around them, a woman and her daughter picked through the pile of rubbish bags for scraps of food at the foot of a destroyed building in Gaza City. They find a small pile of cooked rice, a few scraps of bread and a box with some smears of white cheese still inside.

Islam Abu Taeima picks off soggy bits from a piece of bread and puts the dry part in her sack. She will take what she found back to the school where she and hundreds of other families live, boil it, and serve it to her five children, she says.

“We’re dying of hunger. If we don’t eat, we’ll die.”

Abu Taeima says her family can’t afford anything in the market, where prices have skyrocketed for the little food that remains on sale. She says she has tried going to charity kitchens, but every time, they run out of food before she gets any.

“People are struggling, and no one is going to be generous with you. So collecting from the trash is better.”

The incident is a new sign of the depths of desperation being reached in Gaza, where the population of some 2.3 million has been pushed towards famine by Israel’s nearly three-month blockade.

Where’s the evidence of Hamas stealing Gaza aid?

A veteran humanitarian aid worker says Israel should provide evidence that Hamas is stealing humanitarian relief – the reason Israel claims the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation must take over crucial food distribution for starving Palestinians.

Hardin Lang from Refugees International questioned the reasoning of the need for a new aid group.

“This is not set up to meet the needs of people. It very much feels like it’s been designed to locate people into the south of Gaza – into an area that’s been designated by the Israelis as ‘a humanitarian zone’, as opposed to trying to meet the needs of a very desperate population,” he said.

“If the entire public narrative of this plan is because there’s been strategic aid diversion by Hamas, it would be very helpful to have some evidence of that,” said Lang.

Hamas denies it is looting aid and Lang said even if it is true, the best way around it is to “flood the zone with humanitarian aid”.

“That lowers prices on the black market and turns aid into a non-commodity from the perspective of controlling the community,” he said.

Lang also noted that with so many wounded and malnourished Palestinians, it’s impossible for most to walk long distances and carry back 20kg (44lb) boxes of aid to their families after waiting in long queues in the hot sun.

Main events on May 27th

• Large crowds gathered in southern Rafah as the US-and-Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) opened its first aid distribution point, with thousands of Palestinians storming past barricades in desperation for food after a three-month blockade.
• Israeli forces opened fire in a bid to disperse the crowd during the chaos, with Gaza’s Government Media Office saying Israel’s military killed three people and wounded 46 others.
• The United Nations and other aid groups have roundly criticised the GHF’s aid distribution model, saying it doesn’t abide by humanitarian principles and could displace people farther from their homes.
• Israeli bombardment across Gaza continued, with at least 26 Palestinians killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
• Yemen’s Houthis claimed responsibility for two missile attacks on Israel, saying they came in response to the storming of occupied East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound a day earlier by Israeli settlers.

Palestinians describe Gaza aid centre pandemonium

Ahmed Abu Taha, who was among the thousands of people seeking food in Rafa, said that a crowd stormed into the distribution centre by breaking fences.

He heard gunfire and saw Israeli military aircraft overhead. “It was chaos. People were panicked.”

Another Palestinian, Saleh Abu Najjar, said he heard a tank firing from a distance. “The situation was very dangerous and people were frightened,” he said.

In a statement, Israel’s aid distributor, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, said that because of the large number of Palestinians seeking aid, staff at the hub followed safety protocols and “fell back”.

The foundation uses armed private contractors to guard the sites and the transportation of supplies. Shortly before the aid effort began this week, its chairman, Jake Woods, a US military veteran, resigned, citing a risk to humanitarian principles.

_{Palestinians carry boxes containing food in Rafah, southern Gaza, on Tuesday}

"Palestinians Are Starving To Death, This Doesn't Have Anything To Do With Hamas"