Blame for aid failure lies ‘squarely with Israel’: Former UNRWA spokesman

Former UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness has rejected Israeli claims that the UN is to blame for inadequate aid deliveries in Gaza, saying it is a “complete false narrative … to try and detract from what’s been going on”.

As evidence, Gunness said he had seen documentation showing that from July 16 to 22, the Israeli government either denied, delayed or heavily restricted 79 percent of the UN’s aid convoy requests – even as reports of starvation in Gaza intensified.

“So let’s be clear: The blame lies fairly and squarely with the Israelis,” he told Al Jazeera.

Gunness added that the recent plans for aid airdrops – typically a last-ditch effort to reach starving populations – highlight the failure of the Israeli-backed GHF to deliver food effectively.

Airdrops are only happening, he said, “because the Israelis know full well that we’re seeing starving babies on television sets and that Israel’s allies have seen enough”.

Protesters drive convoy of cars through Chile’s capital in huge pro-Palestinian demonstration

Hundreds of carloads of protesters filled the streets of Chile’s capital Santiago on Friday, in a demonstration calling for urgent action over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Reporting from Santiago, Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman said the caravan of vehicles drove through the Chilean capital, from the city’s Palestinian Club to the Presidential Palace and back.

“The point of this … is to denounce what people here are calling genocide by starvation,” she said, adding that many vehicles sounded their horns in solidarity as the protesters passed.

One of the protesters, Abdalah al-Rifai, said Israel’s government had created “a new method of killing Palestinians, starvation”.

“What kind of world do we live in?” he asked.

Chile’s Palestinian community is the largest outside the Middle East, giving it an influential voice in the country, but the demonstration drew support from a wide cross-section of Chileans, said Newman.

“What we’re hearing from people on the streets is that this has got to stop,” she said.


_{Protesters in a caravan of vehicles display Palestinian flags during a huge demonstration calling for an end to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza}

Translation: A demonstration took place in the Libyan city of Misrata to denounce the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza and to show support for the resilience of its people.

Pro-Palestinian protesters disrupt opening of Austrian cultural festival

A protest by pro-Palestinian activists has disrupted the official opening of the Salzburg Festival 2025, a major music and drama festival in the Austrian city.

The protesters unfurled banners reading “Stop the genocide” and yelled “blood on your hands”, interrupting a speech by Austrian Vice-Chancellor Andreas Babler, the dpa news agency reported.

Babler responded by offering the protesters an “open discussion” as they were removed from the packed hall by security, dpa reported.

Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen was among those present at the ceremony.

One killed in Israeli drone attack in southern Lebanon

One person has been confirmed killed after an Israeli drone attack hit the Tyre district in southern Lebanon. The country’s National News Agency said the target was a vehicle travelling on a road between two towns in the area.

The Israeli army has not commented on the attack yet, but it has been assassinating people in southern Lebanon who it claims are members of Hezbollah and are trying to reestablish a military presence.

Israeli settlers and soldiers launch attacks in West Bank’s Bethlehem, Jericho

Israeli settlers have again stormed the village of Shallal al-Auja north of Jericho in the occupied West Bank and grazed their livestock inside Palestinian land and property.

A local Bedouin rights official told the Wafa news agency that settlers have continued their incursions from an illegal outpost nearby, and are trying to exploit Palestinian water sources, as well.

Meanwhile, in Beit Fajjar, south of Bethlehem, Israeli soldiers launched a new raid today after killing a 31-year-old Palestinian man in the area, whose body is still being held by the Israeli authorities.

Another raid was reported in the town of Burqin, west of Jenin, where several Palestinian homes were ransacked by Israeli forces.

Israeli forces storm occupied West Bank’s Qalqilya

Footage released by local Palestinian platforms, which has been verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency, shows Israeli forces storming the city of Qalqilya in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli soldiers and armoured vehicles were seen spreading in the city’s streets and throwing gas grenades. No injuries have been reported so far.

According to the Wafa news agency, Israeli soldiers also entered the Bardala village in the northern Jordan Valley and seized an agricultural tractor while it was being worked on by a Palestinian on his land.

In ad-Dhahiriya town, south of Hebron, Palestinians declared a general strike to mourn a man who was shot dead by Israeli soldiers a day earlier.

Campaign group says Israeli military drones seen over aid ship approaching Gaza

We have previously reported on the Handala ship, which is carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza as part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s (FFC) mission to break Israel’s blockade.

The International Committee to Break the Siege of Gaza, a Palestinian campaign group, has now reported that 16 Israeli military drones were spotted near the vessel over a 45-minute period overnight.

It is the latest FFC vessel attempting to break Israel’s Gaza blockade, after the Israeli military intercepted the Madleen ship and arrested the activists on board on June 9.

The Handala departed from the port of Syracuse in Italy on July 13, carrying activists and medics. As of 9am Gaza time (06:00 GMT), the Handala’s live location showed the ship is off the coast of Egypt in international waters and approaching the spot in which the Madleen was intercepted.

Yellow Alert : pic.twitter.com/LF1A3rUWEZ

— ICBSG | اللجنة الدولية لكسر الحصار عن غزة (@ICBSOFGAZA) July 25, 2025

‘Starvation is the intent,’ head of humanitarian group says

Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International and a former US aid agency official, says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is using starvation as a weapon of war”.

Citing a New York Times report that said the Israeli military has never found proof that aid is being diverted by Hamas in Gaza, Konyndyk noted that “humanitarian groups have long denied that their aid is being diverted at any significant scale” in the enclave.

“Netanyahu has used aid diversion claims as pretext for massive obstruction of aid to Gaza. Now we learn the [Israeli army] had briefed his team that these claims were false (as aid groups have long argued),” Konyndyk wrote on X.

“The diversion claims were diametrically false, and Bibi’s team knew it,” he said, using a common nickname for the Israeli prime minister.

“So then why suppress a UN-led aid operation that was effectively feeding people with negligible diversion, and replace it with a militarized GHF operation that delivers little aid but produces daily massacres of aid-seekers? This only makes sense if starvation is the intent.”

Starved baby in Gaza weighed less at death than birth

The five-month-old girl who died of malnutrition in Gaza today, Zainab Abu Haleeb, weighed just two kilogrammes (4.4 pounds) at the time of her death – smaller than her birth weight of more than three kilos (6.6 pounds), and less than a third the average weight of an infant her age.

Dr. Ahmed al-Farah, head of the paediatric department at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where she was examined, said Zainab had suffered from vomiting and diarrhoea without access to the specialised baby formula she needed. As her immune system collapsed, she developed a bacterial infection and sepsis, causing her to rapidly lose weight, he said, according to The AP news agency.

Zainab’s mother fears that her daughter could be just one of many babies to die due to malnutrition. “Their names are on a list that no one looks at. They are just names and numbers. We are just numbers,” she said.


_{Palestinian mother Israa Abu Haleeb holds her five-month-old daughter, Zainab, at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, July 15}


Gaza death toll rises again

At least 71 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across since dawn today, hospital sources tell Al Jazeera.

That figure includes 42 people who were killed while seeking desperately needed aid.

US congressman suggests Israel’s starvation of Gaza is genocidal

Congressman John Garamendi has suggested Israel’s “dangerous and willful failure to enable humanitarian aid” in Gaza amounts to genocide.

Only a handful of Democratic, progressive US lawmakers have accused Israel of genocide in Gaza – saying they are trying to destroy the Palestinian people.

However, leading rights groups and UN experts have concluded over the past year that the Israeli military campaign is genocidal.

“Israel has the ability and the means to deliver adequate food to the Palestinians,” Garamendi, of California, said in a statement. “They also have the obligation under international law to deliver it; its the choice of Prime Minister Netanyahu not to feed Gaza.”

Macron pushed UK, Canada to recognise Palestinian state but they balked: Report

Reuters is reporting that French President Emmanuel Macron had been pushing to have France and its G7 allies, the UK and Canada, recognise Palestinian statehood.

But the news agency, which cited three diplomats, said London and Canada “did not want to face the wrath of the United States”, which left France to unilaterally announce plans for recognition.

Macron said this week that he would formally make the announcement at the UN General Assembly in September, a move that has been condemned by Israeli leaders, as well as the Trump administration.

“It became increasingly apparent that we could not wait to get partners on board,” a French diplomat told Reuters.

Starmer and Carney are complicit.



https://www.cjpme.org/drop_marco_mendicino
https://nupge.ca/2025/canada-must-act-to-end-the-genocide-in-gaza/

July 25 2025

We are witnessing unimaginable suffering in Gaza, as Israel uses starvation as a weapon of war through its blockade and militarized aid system.

...

As the crisis deepens, NUPGE once again calls urgently for an immediate and lasting ceasefire, the unimpeded flow of aid and basic necessities of life into Gaza, and an end to Israel’s occupation.

Canada has legal obligations to prevent a genocide and to ensure it is not complicit in violations of international law. We also have a moral obligation to act in the face of such horror.

As NUPGE wrote to Prime Minister Carney after he was elected, Canada must use its voice and position to mobilize international pressure on Israel and take steps to end the devastation. While we welcome the recent joint statement from foreign ministers, including Canada’s, the time for statements alone has passed. We urge Canada to deliver on its promise to take concrete action.

NUPGE renews its call on the Canadian government to impose a two-way arms embargo on Israel to end Canada’s complicity. We further call on the Canadian government to impose targeted sanctions on Israeli leadership and military personnel responsible for war crimes.

No more empty words. The time for decisive action is now.

UAE starting Gaza aid airdrops ‘immediately’, says foreign minister

Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan has announced the UAE will begin airdropping aid into Gaza “immediately”, saying the humanitarian crisis there “has reached a critical and unprecedented level”.

“We will ensure essential aid reaches those most in need, whether through land, air or sea. Air drops are resuming once more, immediately,” said al-Nahyan in a post on X. “Our commitment to alleviating suffering and providing support is resolute and unwavering.”

Plans for airdrops – typically a last resort in crisis zones – have drawn criticism from aid officials urging Israel to allow more trucks in instead.

Earlier, as we reported, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini called airdrops an expensive, inefficient “distraction” that would “not reverse the deepening starvation”. He called for Israel to “lift the siege, open the gates [and] guarantee safe movements [and] dignified access to people in need”.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza has reached a critical and unprecedented level. The United Arab Emirates remains at the forefront of efforts to deliver life-saving assistance to the Palestinian people. We will ensure essential aid reaches those most in need, whether through…

— عبدالله بن زايد (@ABZayed) July 26, 2025

Gaza aid airdrops to begin tonight: Israeli military

An Israeli army spokesperson has said the airdrop will include seven aid parcels containing flour, sugar, and food preserves provided by international organisations.

“In addition, it was decided that humanitarian corridors will be defined that will allow safe movement of UN convoys and aid organisations to bring food and medicine to the population,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

The military also said it was “prepared for humanitarian pauses in areas where there are population concentrations” in Gaza.

As we’ve been reporting, UN officials and top humanitarian groups have said airdrops will not meet the needs of Palestinians in Gaza who are suffering under the Israeli-imposed blockade and policy of starvation.

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) also said earlier today that airdrops will not reverse starvation in Gaza. “They are expensive, inefficient & can even kill starving civilians. It is a distraction,” Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X.

Enough with the gaslighting, ceasefire now and unlimited access for the UN to do their job. 

Israel to apply ‘humanitarian pause’ tomorrow, Foreign Ministry says

In a brief statement shared on social media, the Israeli Foreign Ministry says the pause will take place in “civilian centers and in humanitarian corridors to enable the distribution of aid supply” in Gaza.

It did not specify which specific civilian centres would be subjected to the pause.

The ministry again blamed the UN for failing to distribute assistance in Gaza. UN officials have rejected that Israeli talking point as false, stressing that they have not received the necessary permits to safely distribute aid in the besieged enclave.

‘Ineffective sideshow’: What have experts said about Gaza airdrops?

As we’ve been reporting, Israel has announced that airdrops of aid are beginning in Gaza tonight. But UN officials, rights advocates and other experts have slammed the scheme as dangerous and impractical. Here’s a quick roundup of what some of them have said:

Children so malnourished that ‘feeding no longer helps’

Caroline Willemen, project coordinator at an MSF clinic in Gaza City, says a quarter of the children screened there are malnourished, with 25 new cases admitted for urgent care each day.

The malnourished children are given fortified peanut paste – a nutrient-rich, low-cost emergency food – to help them “gain some strength”, Willemen told Al Jazeera. But in severe cases, “just feeding them is not enough.”

“Their body will have shut down to such an extent that normal feeding no longer helps, so they need specialised care that at the moment we are not equipped to give, unfortunately,” she explained. “It’s extremely difficult to help, especially the small children who have already gotten to that point.”

“I never could have considered when I arrived a month ago [to Gaza] that a situation that was already apocalyptic … would get even worse,” Willemen said.

‘Every one of my colleagues is hungry’, says humanitarian in Gaza

Caroline Willemen, a Gaza City-based project coordinator with MSF, says the hunger crisis in the enclave extends even to her own colleagues.

“Every single one of my colleagues is hungry,” she told Al Jazeera. “Last week, there were a few days where there was absolutely nothing in the market. Many of them [my colleagues] came to work not having eaten for 24 or 48 hours.”

“Even [for people who have a salary], when there is nothing in the market, there is nothing you can do,” she said.

While a community kitchen her colleagues can access has begun offering a small portion of rice in recent days, Willemen said they are likely to give most of that food to their hungry children. “I know for a fact that many of my colleagues will not eat that rice because they have hungry children at home, so they will take that rice and feed their children instead,” she said.