Airdrops, humanitarian pauses ‘not going to save those who are dying’

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud says that witnesses reported seeing cargo planes flying at low levels over the shore of northern Gaza, where the Israeli airdrop of aid took place not long ago.

“But it’s an area that’s restricted in terms of movement. It’s in the line of fire of the Israeli military, very close to the Zikim crossing in the northern part of the Strip. Hundreds of tanks are stationed in that area. It will be very difficult for people to verify or get their hands on any of the aid dropped in that area,” he reported from Gaza City.

Mahmoud also explained that the airdrop, which Israel said earlier would include seven pallets, will have no concrete effect on the starvation gripping the enclave.

“We’re talking about only seven pallets of aid filled with flour and other basic necessities. That’s almost the load of one truck, or half a truck, coming from the crossings into the Gaza Strip. Again, we’re looking at an example of performative acts here, similar to what happened at the sites of the notorious GHF,” he said.

Equally, Israel’s plan to allow for so-called “humanitarian pauses” in Gaza starting on Sunday will also have no effect on the starvation crisis, Mahmoud said.

“Again, this is not a solution when we talk about passing the tipping point of this enforced starvation, and according to medical sources we spoke to earlier today, they confirmed that at this point, we’re going to see mass-scale starvation mortality.

“Airdropping food or opening humanitarian corridors is a little too late now to save lives. Two million people are hungry, haven’t had any proper access to food for the past 140 days, or a little over that. Whatever is done now is not going to save those who are dying inside the hospitals.”

Israel’s Ben-Gvir slams planned Gaza aid increase, calls for total siege

Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has lambasted the government’s announced plans to increase aid to Gaza, saying it amounts to “surrendering to Hamas’s false campaign”.

“The only way to win the war and return the hostages is to completely stop ‘humanitarian’ aid, occupy the entire strip and encourage voluntary migration,” Ben-Gvir wrote in a post on X.

Ben-Gvir, who has repeatedly called for cutting off all aid to Gaza during the war, said Netanyahu excluded him from a high-level security meeting where the decision to allow more aid was made.

Handala crew member says Israeli forces have reached the aid ship

Emma Fourreau, a French member of the European Parliament and part of the Gaza-bound Handala crew, says Israeli forces have approached the vessel.

“The Israeli army is here,” she wrote in a post on X, adding that she and other activists aboard would throw their phones into the sea.

Her remarks come as Al Jazeera Arabic reports that three Israeli naval vessels have neared the ship, hours after its crew said an Israeli drone had been circling overhead.

L’armée israélienne est là. Nous jetons nos téléphones à la mer.

À très vite. Stop génocide. 🇵🇸

— Emma Fourreau (@emma_frr) July 26, 2025

Israeli soldiers have boarded Gaza-bound Handala

A livestream shared by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition shows at least half a dozen Israeli soldiers have boarded the aid vessel.

The activists aboard are sitting together, wearing life jackets and with their arms raised.



IDF boards at 1h13 in the stream.

Flotilla activists making statement that ‘world not going to sit by’ as Gaza starves

They were trying to break Israel’s blockade and deliver humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people. This is the second flotilla of its kind. Previously, just around 40 days ago, there was a similar boat, the Madleen, that was also seized by the Israeli army.

Within the last hour, Israeli media reported that the Israeli navy was heading towards the ship, that there were two vessels that had surrounded the Handala boat, and that there was an Israeli drone flying overhead before the Israeli navy boarded the ship to intercept it.

The last boat that was seized by Israeli forces was redirected to the port of Ashdod, which is just north of the Gaza Strip. Everyone on board was then detained, followed by [being] deported back to whatever country that they have citizenship in.

The point that the activists are trying to make is that even though they know that getting seized and intercepted by Israeli forces is a threat, they’re trying to make a statement internationally both to their governments … and also to the Israeli government that the world is not going to sit by and watch while Israel starves the people of Gaza and sends them into a humanitarian disaster, that there are people that are willing to do things to try and break the siege.

Handala crew were ‘prepared’, ‘determined’

Adam Shapiro, husband of activist Huwaida Arraf, who is on board the Gaza-bound Handala, spoke to Al Jazeera following Israel’s seizure of the vessel.

Shapiro said he spoke with his wife hours earlier, as Israeli naval ships approached from a distance. “She had to get off the line very quickly to start making the preparations,” he said.

Shapiro then said he watched a live feed from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition showing Arraf using a radio to inform Israeli forces that the ship was unarmed and carrying humanitarian aid. “The last I saw, as the rest of you, was the soldiers come on board”, he said.

Shapiro said that the Handala crew had anticipated the possibility and were “prepared” and “determined”.

“These are people who are undertaking this action not just to send a message… but to try to use public outrage to force our governments to act,” he said.

Flotilla ‘symbol of international outrage at what Israel is doing’

Ann Wright, a member of the Freedom Flotilla Steering Committee, says the activists’ home countries must take action to protect them after the Handala was intercepted.

They must also put pressure on Israel to end its genocide against Palestinians and break its siege on Gaza, Wright told Al Jazeera.

“Protect innocent international people who are merely accompanying a small amount of aid – medical and food – as a symbol of the international outrage at what Israel is doing,” she said.

Sadly the size of the Flotilla is also a symbol of the international 'outrage'... The international silence is far louder...

US ‘will forever be stained by its complicity’ in Gaza: CAIR

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has condemned the Trump administration for its unwavering support for Israel as starvation kills more and more Palestinians in Gaza.

“It is beyond the understanding of any moral individual how Trump administration officials can see the images of starving children and slaughtered aid seekers in Gaza without demanding an end to this man-made horror,” the US Muslim group said in a statement.

“Our nation will forever be stained by its complicity with the Israeli apartheid government’s genocide. The genocide must end and all those who carried it out or were complicit must be held accountable.”

The US provides Israel with at least $3.8bn in military assistance annually, and it has given billions more since the Gaza war began. The Trump administration also continues to shield Israel from condemnation and accountability at the UN and other international bodies.

I'm done with the US. Nice people (mostly), beautiful scenery, but now forever tainted by the monsters the people 'voted' into power. I had hopes it would get better and actually thought it was getting better with Obama (after Bush's rampage) but he didn't really deliver and then Trump, Biden, Trump. USA is done.

Main events on July 26th

• Israeli forces have killed at least 71 Palestinians in Gaza on Saturday, including 42 starving people who were seeking food aid.
• Health authorities in Gaza say five more Palestinians have died of starvation in the past day, bringing the total death toll from hunger since Israel’s war began to 127, including 85 children.
• The Israeli government says it will allow “humanitarian pauses” in certain parts of Gaza on Sunday to facilitate aid deliveries, but experts say the plan will not address the starvation crisis gripping the territory.
• Israel’s military has also air dropped a small quantity of food aid into northern Gaza, as officials from the UN and humanitarian groups slam the scheme as inefficient, costly and dangerous.
• Israeli forces have stormed the Gaza-bound Handala ship, which was carrying aid to starving Palestinians. The fate of the 19 international activists and two Al Jazeera journalists are not known.

Gaza’s manuscripts face uncertain future

With all the destruction across Gaza, there’s growing concern that the history of Palestinians is also in danger of being erased. The archives in Gaza’s Department of Manuscripts are just one rich source of knowledge facing an uncertain future, with its archivist forced to flee to France.

Check out our report from Aix-en-Provence below:

Here's some history, from before Zionism invaded

Palestine 1896

First film footage taken in Palestine (Lumier Bros.) Extracted from "Palestine: Story of a Land", by Simone Bitton

Israel air drops aid into Gaza, injuring at least 11 people

We were able to look at some of the still photos from the site where the airdrop took place. It’s near the space inside the northern part of the Gaza Strip, near Beit Lahiya, along the coastal road.

Eleven people were reported with injuries, as one of these pallets fell directly on tents in that displacement site near al-Rasheed road from the northern part of the Strip.

But people were able to get some of the boxes and the food parcels on that pallet. So it did happen. And the Israeli military said it dropped seven pallets.

But according to what we hear from local sources, about five of the pallets were dropped, and people were able to get to at least three of them. The other two are in an area that is a bit far from the displacement sites in northern Gaza, and an area that is very close to where the Israeli military is stationed.

It confirms what we’ve reported in the past – that Gaza has turned into a testing lab and the Israeli military is experimenting with every attack, every policy. Similar to the failure of the notorious Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, we’ve seen air drops happening in the past.

They were not effective, they did not reach enough people, let alone the chaos and violence they’ve caused.

Israel continues to deny starvation in Gaza

The Israeli military says they’re going to be carrying out a series of actions aimed at what they say is improving the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip, despite their continuous denial of starvation among the Palestinian people.

Among these moves, the army says they’re going to be conducting airdrops in the Palestinian territory. They’re also going to allow humanitarian pauses; it’s still unclear exactly how it’s going to work. And the coordinator for government activities in the territory, a sect of the Israeli army, is going to allow the UN to have safe passage of aid trucks going through Gaza.

Now, the Israeli military, in their statement, still says that they emphasise that there is “no starvation in Gaza”, and that they’re trying to refute these claims, even though they are now going to enact a new series of measures aimed at improving the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

This comes after the Israeli political echelon directed the military to do so after a call within the Israeli prime minister’s security cabinet. The military says they’re also going to be opening up new humanitarian corridors.

Israel has largely accused the UN of not distributing the aid trucks, while the UN has said that Israel has not allowed them to do so. But despite all of these efforts that Israel says they are now going to implement, they are still denying starvation in the Gaza Strip.

My children haven’t eaten for a week’

The search for food is getting increasingly desperate in Gaza.

A bag of flour could cost Palestinian aid seekers their life, but they say there is no other option. “I’ve come all this way, risking my life for my children. They haven’t eaten for a week,” said Smoud Wahdan, carrying her infant in her arms. “I’ve been suffering from a lack of food, moving from place to place looking for something to eat. At the very least, I’ve been looking for a piece of bread for my children.”

Tahani, another displaced woman in Gaza City, pleaded for help. “I came to get flour, to look for food to feed my children. I have a child who has cancer,” she said. “I wish God’s followers would wake up and see all these people. They are dying.”

Italy boycotts Israeli products and companies choose sides in Israel-Hamas war • FRANCE 24 English

Whilst the war in Gaza continues to shock the world, in Italy, calls for boycotting Israeli products are growing to an unprecedented extent - rekindling controversy. Brands are picking sides and products are disappearing from the shelves with partisan alternatives emerging. Report by FRANCE 24 correspondent in Italy, Natalia Mendoza - with Tommaso Marro and Charlotte Davan Wetton.

Juliet Stevenson, Khalid Abdalla Join London Protest Over Gaza Starvation

Several thousand protesters rallied outside Downing Street on July 25, banging pots and pans to condemn the deepening hunger crisis in Gaza. With powerful testimonies and emotional scenes, the protest brought traffic to a halt — even trapping a tourist bus — and drew support from actors Juliet Stevenson and Khalid Abdalla.

Handala crew ‘abducted’ from international waters, FFC says

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the organisers of the attempt to deliver aid to Gaza via the Handala, says the vessel was “violently intercepted by the Israeli military in international waters about forty nautical miles [74km] from Gaza”.

In a statement, the group said it had lost all communications with the Handala after Israeli forces cut the cameras on board the ship at 11:43pm local time (20:43 GMT).

“The unarmed boat was carrying life-saving supplies when it was boarded by Israeli forces, its passengers abducted, and its cargo seized. The interception occurred in international waters outside Palestinian territorial waters off Gaza, in violation of international maritime law,” it said.

There were 21 activists from 12 countries on board the Handala.

The ship was carrying humanitarian supplies for starving Palestinians in Gaza, including baby formula, diapers, food and medicine.

Fixed Camera Footage of HANDALA GAZA FLOTILLA SHIP Being INTERCEPTED by the IDF & BOARDED

Israeli forces kill 5 Palestinians in southern Gaza

An Israeli drone attack has killed five people sheltering in a tent in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, according to a source at Nasser Hospital.

Four Palestinians killed in Israeli attack on central Gaza

An Israeli drone attack has killed four Palestinians sheltering in a tent in Deir el-Balah, according to a source at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

GHF’s women-only aid effort ends in attacks, intimidation

We are getting reports that the GHF launched an aid distribution event exclusively for women in Gaza, but the aid seekers were hit by pepper spray, tear gas and stun grenades when they arrived.

The event took place in southern Rafah on Friday.

“I came here at 6am without even having breakfast, hoping to get something for my children,” Abeer Dabboos, a displaced Palestinian woman, says in a video clip from the site.

“My husband has been imprisoned for a year and a half. I have been supporting seven people, and my children are suffering from malnutrition. I was hoping to get even just a kilo of lentils or flour. It was extremely crowded, and they sprayed us with pepper spray. This is humiliation. It’s a disgrace,” she said.

Nada al-Mujaida, another displaced woman, said that Israeli forces there threw tear gas and stun grenades at them. “We were choking. The organisers pushed us out and told us to leave. They stopped the aid distribution and fired at us. We had to flee,” she said.