"Stop This Genocide": Gaza Aid Worker Warns of Imminent Starvation, Urges Israel to Lift Blockade

We speak with Eyad Amawi, an aid coordinator in Gaza, who tells Democracy Now! about the "rapid deterioration" inside the besieged territory as Israel's blockade causes mass starvation. Health officials in Gaza say at least 14 Palestinians have starved to death over the past day, bringing the total to at least 147, including 88 children.

Israel has allowed some additional aid into the territory, including by airdrops, but the United Nations says it's still just a "drop in the ocean" of what is needed. Israel also said it would pause attacks for periods of the day in parts of Gaza, but the death toll has kept rising, with Israeli forces continuing to fire on unarmed civilians seeking aid.

Two leading Israeli human rights groups, B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, issued reports on Monday accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, joining a growing international consensus.

"We have no time to wait," says Amawi, who calls Israel's restrictions on food, water, medicine and other essentials "collective punishment."

Palestinian Scholar DESTROYS Genocide Deniers - w/. Nimer Sultany

The Dark Truth About Israel Finally Comes Out

Brave BBC reporter exposes Netanyahu, West’s complicity with powerful Gaza video

Veteran BBC journalist Jeremy Bowen has single-handed destroyed the western propaganda on the apocalyptic situation in Gaza.

Rifat Jawaid explains the significance of this video amidst continued support for Benjamin Netanyahu by politicians such as Donald Trump and Keir Starmer. Both Trump and Starmer met in Scotland today but failed to come up with any tangible plans to deal with the humanitarian crisis faced by up to two million people in Gaza.

Israeli settler kills West Bank activist who worked on Oscar-winning film

An Israeli settler has shot and killed Palestinian activist and teacher Awdah Hathaleen in the village of Umm al-Khair, in Masafer Yatta, in the occupied West Bank, local officials and journalists said.

Hathaleen was well known for his activism, including helping the creators of the Oscar-winning film No Other Land, which documents Israeli settler and soldier attacks on the Palestinian community of Masafer Yatta.

“My dear friend Awdah was slaughtered this evening,” said Basel Adra, the co-director of No Other Land. “He was standing in front of the community centre in his village when a settler fired a bullet that pierced his chest and took his life,” Adra said.

“This is how Israel erases us – one life at a time.”


_{A Palestinian presents documents to Israeli forces during a protest against illegal Israeli settlements in Masafer Yatta near Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, on January 20, 2023}

Smotrich says rebuilding Gush Katif settlement in Gaza now ‘closer than ever’

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said Israel is “closer than ever” to rebuilding the illegal settlement of Gush Katif in southern Gaza that had been dismantled in 2005.

The Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper quoted Smotrich as also saying at a conference in the Yad Binyamin settlement in central Israel that where “there are no settlements, there is no army, and where there is no army, there is no security”.

“Gaza is an integral part of the land of Israel,” claimed Smotrich, who lives in an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank. “I do not want to return to Gush Katif as it was – it was very small, very crowded, it should be much larger, much wider,” he added.

Netherlands declares two Israeli ministers ‘persona non grata’

The Netherlands has declared two far-right Israeli ministers, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, persona non grata for inciting settler violence and calling for ethnic cleansing in Gaza, Dutch media AD reports, citing a statement from Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp.

The move comes as Dutch authorities are pushing for the EU to take tougher measures against Israel, the report said.

“Agreements with the EU need to be honoured, or measures will have to follow,” said a separate statement published by Veldkamp on X, in reference to the EU-Israel Association Agreement.

Where is that arms embargo...

https://www.jurist.org/news/2025/06/netherlands-dispatch-proposed-dutch-embargo-on-israel-raises-concerns-over-conditional-human-rights-framework/

Denied...

Freedom Flotilla says US activist Chris Smalls assaulted in Israeli custody

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) says US labour activist Chris Smalls has been physically assaulted in Israeli custody.

“Seven uniformed individuals … choked him and kicked him in the legs, leaving visible signs of violence on his neck and back,” the FFC said in a post on social media.

“When his lawyer met with him, Christian was surrounded by six members of Israel’s special police unit. This level of force was not used against other abducted activists,” the group said.

FFC condemned the “discriminatory treatment” towards Smalls and called for accountability.

Smalls, the former president of Amazon Labor Union, was one of the 21 activists and journalists from 10 countries on board the Handala when it was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters as it approached Gaza.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DMrNsBiMTOj

_{Christian Smalls is an American labor organizer known for his role in leading Amazon worker organization in Staten Island, a borough in New York City. He is a co-founder and the former president of the Amazon Labor Union.}

Doctor warns that risks from malnutrition persist even as food becomes available

Tanya Haj Hassan, a doctor with MSF, explains the severe effect of malnutrition on the body, which means that serious health risks remain even after food becomes available again.

“The reality is the problem doesn’t end when the food arrives … malnutrition impacts all aspects of the body’s function,” Hassan told Al Jazeera.

“All of the cells in your body are altered by this. In the intestines, the cells die. That results in issues with absorption, with bacteria. Your pancreas struggles; absorbing fats is difficult.

“Your heart cells become weak and thinned. The connections are impacted, the heart rate slows. These children often die of heart failure, even when they’re being re-fed,” he added.

“They also have life-threatening shifts in salts; these can also lead to fatal heart rhythms. They’re more prone to sepsis and shock,” the doctor said, in reference to oral rehydration salt solutions, which are usually administered to people suffering from malnutrition.

“[Patients can face] low blood pressure, skin lesions, hypothermia, fluid overload, infection, vitamin deficiencies that can affect vision and bone.”


_{Newborns in the neonatal units at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis are experiencing skin rashes and irritation as a result of excessive heat and inadequate climate control, as they struggle to survive due to Israel’s ongoing attacks and restrictions of essential supplies}

Amount of aid entering Gaza ‘symbolic’ as humanitarian crisis continues to deteriorate

The humanitarian situation is taking a devastating turn on the ground, despite the latest Israeli declaration that they are carrying out a humanitarian process to allow for more aid to move into the territory and to allow airdrops of food.

The amount of airdrops and trucks are just seen as a trickle in the flood of need in Gaza. According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, only 87 humanitarian trucks entered Gaza yesterday, and they were looted by desperate crowds.

All the humanitarian reports coming out from NGOs in Gaza say that without protected humanitarian corridors, logistical infrastructure and a ceasefire, the humanitarian crisis will continue to escalate.

The airdrops over the last 48 hours amount to about three trucks’ worth of aid – that’s not enough for even one neighbourhood in Gaza for less than a day. So this amount of aid trickling into the Strip remains very symbolic and does little to alleviate the current humanitarian crisis.

Israeli attack kills at least 30 overnight in Gaza

Medical sources at the al-Awda Hospital have told Al Jazeera that at least 30 Palestinians were killed in Israel’s bombing of homes north of Nuseirat in central Gaza.

‘One of bloodiest nights in recent weeks’ in Gaza prompts fears of expanded Israeli operation

A night of intense Israeli bombardment has left dozens dead in the central areas of Gaza, in what residents describe as one of the bloodiest nights in recent weeks.

Thirty Palestinians were killed in Nuseirat refugee camp after Israeli forces struck a number of residential houses. Among the victims are 12 children and 14 women, and witnesses say most the of the victims arrived at al-Awda Hospital torn to pieces due to the sheer force of explosions.

Local accounts indicate that Israel used booby-trapped robots, as well as tanks and drones during this attack. This is a sign of a possible imminent Israeli ground manoeuvre, although Israel has not yet confirmed the objectives of the attack.

But elsewhere in Gaza we also see a relative surge in air attacks, including in the designated “safe zone” of al-Mawasi in southern Gaza, where a father and his three children were killed in an Israeli attack on a makeshift tent.

The scale and coordination of these attacks are prompting further fears and point to a serious escalation that signals that nowhere in Gaza is truly safe.

Israeli forces kill 8 aid seekers near Netzarim

We just reported that 15 Palestinians have been injured by Israeli army gunfire while waiting for aid near the Netzarim Corridor in the central Gaza Strip, according to al-Awda Hospital in Gaza.

Israeli forces kill 62 people across Gaza since dawn

At least 62 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces across Gaza since dawn today, including 19 aid seekers, sources in Gaza hospitals tell Al Jazeera.

_{The aftermath of an Israeli attack on Nuseirat}

Israel’s war on Gaza has now killed more than 60,000: Health Ministry

The confirmed number of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks since the start of the war on Gaza has risen to at least 60,034, according to the Health Ministry in the besieged and bombarded territory.

In its latest daily update, the ministry said the bodies of 113 Palestinians, including one killed in an earlier attack, had been brought to hospitals across Gaza in the latest 24-hour reporting period.

A total of 637 injuries were also recorded, bringing the overall number of people wounded by Israeli forces during the war to 145,870, it added.

‘Worst-case scenario of famine’ now unfolding in Gaza: Global hunger monitoring system

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global hunger monitoring system, has warned that the “worst-case scenario of famine” is now unfolding in Gaza.

“Latest data indicates that famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City,” it said in a new report.

“Amid relentless conflict, mass displacement, severely restricted humanitarian access, and the collapse of essential services, including healthcare, the crisis has reached an alarming and deadly turning point.”

Food consumption has sharply deteriorated, with one in three individuals going without food for days at a time, it said.

Malnutrition rose rapidly in the first half of July, with more than 20,000 children being admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition between April and mid-July. More than 3,000 are severely malnourished.

The IPC alert comes against the backdrop of its latest analysis released in May 2025, which projected that by September 2025, the entire population of Gaza would face high levels of acute food insecurity, with more than 500,000 people expected to be in a state of extreme food deprivation, starvation, and destitution.

Malnutrition leaves six-month-old baby as ‘nothing but bones’

Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim Khalili visited al-Rantisi Hospital in Gaza City, where Judi al-Arour, a six-month-old baby, is struggling to survive.

At six months old, she is supposed to weigh at least 6kg (13.2lb), but born into starvation in Gaza, to a mother severely malnourished during pregnancy, her life hangs in the balance, at only 2kg (4.4lb).

Dr Mayada Jundiyeh, head of the neonatal unit at al-Rantisi Hospital, told Khalili that “the next stage of harm, after weight loss and electrolyte imbalance, can lead to permanent brain damage.

“Even if nutritional supplements and proper food are later introduced to the children, they could already be in an irreparable state, meaning their brain and cognitive function would already have been affected,” Jundiyeh said.

Al-Arour’s grandmother, Um Ashraf al-Arour, says the family has done everything to care for her, but because Israel has blocked the entry of baby formula and food, her granddaughter has been left “extremely fragile” and “nothing but bones”.


_{Hospitals in Gaza, facing crucial shortages of baby formula and medicine, are trying to keep the babies and infants alive under extremely difficult conditions}

Greeks protest against arrival of Israeli cruise ship in Crete

People have gathered at the port of Agios Nikolaos in Crete to protest against the arrival of an Israeli cruise ship carrying some 1,500 passengers from Israel, the latest such protest to take place in recent days on a Greek island.

Footage from the scene showed protesters waving Palestinian flags and carrying banners calling for “an end to the genocide”.

Greek media reported that police used tear gas against the demonstrators and carried out a number of detentions as tensions flared up.

Similar pro-Palestinian protests have occurred in recent days on other islands, including Syros and Rhodes.

‘When a society is destroyed so systematically, simply distributing rations’ is not the answer

The Israeli government denies there is starvation in Gaza – but under international pressure, it announced new measures to allow aid into the Strip.

Israel’s notoriously random restrictions, bureaucratic delays, visa cancellations and targeting of aid convoys have caused tonnes of food aid to spoil at the border.

“When a society is destroyed so systematically over such a sustained period, it gets to a place where the harms are so deep, so complex and so intertwined that the death rate escalates and bringing it back is not simply a question of distributing rations,” Alex de Waal, author of Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine, told Al Jazeera.

Aid organisations need to bring in at least 500-600 aid trucks into Gaza every day – carrying food, medicine, hygiene products, fuel and other critically needed supplies.

The number allowed under the new measures is a fifth of that.

“They’re not enough,” Sam Rose, acting director of UNRWA in Gaza, told Al Jazeera. “They need to be expanded and they need to be sustained and they need to be accompanied by a ceasefire, because that is the only thing that is going to stabilise conditions for hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of desperate people in Gaza.”

Small amount of aid allowed into Gaza is purely for optics

This is the third day since Israel announced the opening of the “humanitarian corridor”, and what we’re seeing so far is it is designed largely to be theatrical.

It is not effective at all because we’re not seeing the direct impact on the ground.

It has marginalised more people, more of the hungry population, pushing them aside because the 22 months of constant bombardment created a power vacuum and conditions for looters and armed gang members to take over aid trucks coming from the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

Only 50 trucks have been allowed in over the past three days. This is not nearly enough to address the deepening humanitarian crisis. What has been let inside so far has either been looted or destroyed. What has made its way to the market is either expired or incredibly expensive.

Starvation is on the rise, and we’ve passed the tipping point.


_{Palestinians carrying pots and containers gather as a charity distributes food in Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza, where access to food remains difficult due to Israel’s ongoing blockade and attacks}

Time running out for desperate Palestinians as limited trucks enter amid starvation crisis

Palestinians here still do not have any other options other than going to the GHF points in Netzarim. There’s a crowd of people here who have been injured and shot at as they were trying to get food from that area.

We do not see any aid trucks – whatever trucks are coming are not making it halfway to the Gaza Strip. There are a lot of desperate Palestinians who are jumping on these trucks, and they’re also taking whatever they can take.

When we ask Palestinians what is driving them to do that, they say they do not have time; their children are starving and they do not have time to wait for the process of distribution points and all of these processes.

But again, if a big number of trucks entered every single day, this would not be the case. At least 73 trucks entered yesterday, but these are definitely not enough – Palestinians need at least 600 trucks every single day.