Creating chaos in Gaza ‘part of Israel’s day-after plan’

Rob Geist Pinfold, an international security lecturer at King’s College London, says Israel appears to be intentionally sowing chaos in Gaza to make the territory “unlivable”.

“It used to look like this chaos in Gaza was the product of Israel not having a day-after plan,” he told Al Jazeera. “But I think it is now evident that this chaos is … part of the day-after plan, which is a grander strategy to make Gaza unlivable in the long term.”

To accomplish this, Israel is arming criminal gangs that “thrive off chaos” and funnelling the little aid coming in through the dysfunctional and violence-ridden GHF system.

From Israel’s perspective, “I actually think this is working very well”, he said, “because its undeclared aims are to create chaos and ensure Gaza becomes unlivable”.

“Unfortunately, so far, that is proving to be a very successful strategy.”


Israel backing ‘gangs, not clans’ in Gaza

While the Israeli government claims it is backing clans in Gaza to counter Hamas, the groups it supports more closely resemble criminal gangs, argues Rob Geist Pinfold, international security lecturer at King’s College London.

“These are criminal gangs. Many were in prison before October 7 for drug offences, not for being political dissidents,” he told Al Jazeera. “They rob Palestinians on the streets. They feed off and contribute to the chaos and disorder.

“Many of these people, like Yasser Abu Shabab, are outcast from their clans. Israel has basically chosen the least popular people in Gaza to arm and equip. It’s not trying to create a viable political alternative to Hamas, it’s identifying people who thrive off chaos and encouraging them to further that chaos.”

Six aid seekers killed in central Gaza: Report

Six people waiting to get aid near Wadi Gaza in the central part of the Strip have been shot dead by Israeli forces, reports the Wafa news agency.

Earlier, as we reported, Israeli forces shot and killed 12 aid seekers near the Netzarim Corridor, also in central Gaza.

Since the US- and Israel-backed GHF took over limited food distribution in late May, Israeli forces have regularly opened fire on Palestinian crowds at or near aid sites to disperse them. Nearly 1,400 people have been killed in these shootings, according to the UN.

Palestinian teen who died of malnutrition used to be sports champion

Seventeen-year-old Atef Abu Khater, who died of malnutrition, was very healthy prior to the war.

We hear from his family members and others who knew him that he used to be a local sports champion. He ended up losing a lot of weight, becoming acutely malnourished, and ultimately dying.

He was one of thousands of severe malnutrition cases throughout Gaza.

Many older people – in their 50s and 60s – are also suffering from malnutrition.

Food aid being stolen, resold at unaffordable prices

Not only are aid trucks entering in a small number, but a power vacuum has enabled looters and armed gangs to step in.

They take over many of these trucks coming in and hoard the aid. They then resell it at a very high price – double or triple the standard black-market price. It’s beyond anyone’s financial capacity.

Eighty percent of northern Gaza’s ambulances destroyed

Fares Afanah, head of emergency and ambulance services in northern Gaza, has spoken to Al Jazeera about the challenges medics face in responding to emergencies and treating the wounded.

Afaneh said Israeli attacks have destroyed 80 percent of his department’s vehicles during the war, and that Israeli forces routinely block ambulances from reaching victims.

Many of those wounded while seeking aid arrive at the hospital with head and limb wounds, and overwhelmed doctors frequently struggle to prioritise care, he added.

Seven deaths in Gaza due to malnutrition in 24 hours

The director of Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital said that hospitals in Gaza have documented seven deaths, including a child, as a result of starvation and malnutrition over the past 24 hours.

This brings the total of Palestinians who have died due to malnutrition and starvation since Israel began its war on the Palestinian enclave to 169, including 93 children.

Medical sources also said that 30 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since this morning, including 13 aid seekers.

‘Never witnessed this level of destruction, dehumanisation,’ says GHF whistleblower

As we’ve reported, former GHF guard Anthony Aguilar has spoken to Al Jazeera about the “abhorrent” and “unnecessary” deadly tactics he witnessed firsthand at the aid sites run by the controversial US- and Israel-backed contractor.

He explained that the Israeli military controls the crowd “using automatic machinegun fire, artillery rounds, mortar rounds, and at times, tank fire from the Merkava tank against unarmed, starving civilians, women, children, the disabled”.

When the aid seekers are allowed to enter the site, they’re “released in one giant, massive wave, unorganised, chaotic stampeding”, while the Israeli military shoots at their feet, over their heads and sometimes into the crowd to control them.

He also described how the Israeli military would then fire so-called “warning shots” at Palestinians using machineguns.

“Never in my military career, 25 years of service in multiple combat locations around the world, have I seen anyone use a ‘warning shot’ from a belt-fed machinegun,” Aguilar said.

“I have never witnessed something to this level of destruction, this level of dehumanisation of a population, and the abhorrent, unnecessary escalation of force and unnecessary force used against an unarmed population.”

‘We’re like dogs chasing after a bone’

The air drops taking place over Gaza are supposed to be a welcome relief but often, the pallets of air-dropped aid are damaged when they crash on landing.

People are forced to sift through sand for bits of food and scrape whatever they can off the ground. Palestinians say they feel completely humiliated by the process.

“We’re like dogs chasing after a bone. Why do they throw things like that? We don’t want them to help us in that way?” Rana Attia, a displaced Palestinian in Gaza, told Al Jazeera.

Eslam al-Telbany, also displaced by Israel’s war, said she ran after the aid dropped from the sky.

“I went and my children prayed that I returned with food. They haven’t eaten or drunk anything for two days. “This breaks my heart that they’re waiting for me to feed them”, she said as she broke down in tears.

_{Palestinians in the grip of a starvation crisis clamber to get some food}

Gaza death toll rises

The Palestinian Health Ministry is reporting that at least 98 people were killed and 1,079 wounded by Israeli attacks in the last 24 hours. The figure includes 39 people killed while waiting for food aid.

With that, the death toll from the attacks since October 2023 has gone up to 60,430, with 148,722 wounded.

Palestinians in Gaza trawl through rubbish dumps in search of food

_{Due to Israel’s ongoing attacks and its policy of starvation in Gaza, many Palestinians are forced to turn to rubbish dumps to find food}

Israeli military shoots, arrests Palestinians in West Bank raids

The Israeli military has stormed the occupied West Bank town of Beit Duqqu, northwest of occupied East Jerusalem, and shot a Palestinian man, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it was treating a 21-year-old with bullet wounds in both legs. Israeli forces have also stormed the town of Deir Jarir, east of Ramallah, where they’ve shot another Palestinian man. The condition of the two victims is not currently known.

The Israeli military has also carried out early morning raids on Qalqilya and Nablus, arresting a man in each city, according to Al Jazeera.

Arrests in Qalqilya, Nablus

Israeli forces have carried out several raids and arrests in the occupied West Bank, according to the Wafa news agency. They apprehended one young man in Qalqilya city after storming and searching his house. Another young man was detained in Nablus city.

Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, Israeli forces have carried out near-daily raids in the West Bank, making at least 18,000 arrests.

Three wounded after being hit by Israeli army vehicle in West Bank

Two women and a four-year-old child were wounded after they were hit by an Israeli army vehicle in Jenin. The Wafa news agency reported that all three were taken to hospital, with the child sustaining facial injuries.

During the raid in Jenin – a known hub of Palestinian resistance in the occupied West Bank – Israeli forces also entered several homes and arrested a young man.

Families of captives lead protest in Tel Aviv

The Times of Israel is reporting that hundreds of people in Tel Aviv are taking part in a protest to force the government to agree to a deal that returns the captives.

The report said family members of captives have set up a barbed wire camp to draw attention to the plight of their relatives after Hamas released videos in recent days of two captives, Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski.

“We saw the difficult videos of Rom and Evyatar from captivity,” the media outlet quoted Einav Zangauker, mother of captive Matan Zangauker, as saying.

“Jews are becoming skin and bones because of political survival,” she said, with the report adding that she was referring to accusations that Netanyahu is prolonging the war on Gaza to secure his position of power.

“If we don’t free everyone now, they will not survive for much longer,” Zangauker said.

Qassam Brigades releases extended footage of Israeli captive Evyatar David

Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, has released a longer video of Israeli captive Evyatar David, following a 40-second clip shared yesterday.

David, who was taken from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, appears emaciated in a narrow tunnel. In the four-minute video, subtitled in Arabic and English, he describes severe deprivation, saying, “I don’t know what I’m going to eat today … I haven’t eaten in days … I’ve barely got drinking water.” He gives the date as July 27.

At one point, David shows a calendar that he says tracks his July food intake – marking some days with lentils or beans and others with nothing.

Near the end, he holds a shovel and says: “What I’m doing now is digging my own grave … This is the grave where I think I’m going to be buried.”

The video concludes with text over the screen: “Only a ceasefire agreement brings them back alive.”

David’s family had slammed the earlier footage released by Hamas as a “disgusting hunger campaign”.

Witkoff attends Tel Aviv rally calling for captives’ return

US special envoy Steve Witkoff has paid a visit to a protest in Tel Aviv where relatives of Israeli captives held in Gaza are urging the government to strike a deal to bring their loved ones home.

Footage verified by Al Jazeera shows Witkoff arriving at the rally as demonstrators chant “bring them home,” in reference to the Israeli captives.

While meeting with captives’ families, Witkoff said, “I hear your frustration”, but gave no update on a potential deal, according to Israeli media.

“I wish that I had news for you. But the situation is complicated. There are many reasons [for this] that I cannot detail,” he said in comments carried by The Times of Israel.

The US envoy on Friday toured a GHF site in Gaza amid criticism over US and Israeli coordination in the Strip, particularly over the distribution model of the controversial group.

סטיב וויטקוף הגיע לככר החטופים
צילום - החזית הורודה @SteveWitkoff #BringThemHomeNow pic.twitter.com/QBma1Az3uO

— צדיק בסדום (@SdomsRighteous) August 2, 2025

Captives’ families call for return as Witkoff visits Tel Aviv

Families of Israeli captives have used the loaded term “holocaust” to describe what their loved ones are going through in Gaza without a ceasefire deal.

That is in reference to the picture of the emaciated soldier that was released from Gaza a couple of days ago. A picture that is very similar to the footage that we have been seeing coming out of Gaza that shows starvation among Palestinian children and adults.

But the families are specifically talking about the captives that are still held by Hamas and not referring at all to the Palestinians who are living exactly the same hardships, if not more, because they are also subjected to daily bombings.

US envoy Steve Witkoff had a busy day in Tel Aviv, heading to Hostage Square where he met some of the families. We heard through them that he told them negotiating with Hamas has become “extremely exhausting”, and that he understood why these families have lost faith in their own government, but they still have the backing of Donald Trump.

Witkoff’s visit to GHF site a ‘staged show’, says Hamas

US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff’s visit to one of the aid distribution sites run by the notorious US- and Israeli-backed GHF yesterday was nothing more than “a premeditated staged show” designed to mislead public opinion and “polish the image” of the Israeli military, Hamas has said in a statement.

The armed group said the visit was also designed to provide “political cover” for Israel’s “starvation campaign and continued systematic killing of defenceless children and civilians in the Gaza Strip”.

“Witkoff’s misleading statements, coupled with the dissemination of targeted propaganda images that attempted to portray the peaceful distribution of aid, are belied by the facts on the ground, where more than 1,300 innocent starving people have been killed by the bullets of the occupation army and employees of the inhumane GHF,” it said.

Hamas says won’t disarm until Palestinian state established

In a short statement issued via Telegram, the Palestinian group says that its weapons and its “resistance” activities are “national and legal entitlements as long as the [Israeli] occupation persists”.

“They cannot be relinquished except by fully restoring our national rights, foremost of which is the establishment of the independent Palestinian state with full sovereignty and its capital Jerusalem”, the statement concludes.

Hamas said that this statement was in response to comments by US envoy Steve Witkoff saying that Hamas had discussed a willingness to disarm during negotiations for a ceasefire.

Israel has no legal right to obstruct aid in Gaza: International law expert

In international law, Israel’s presence in Gaza and the occupied West Bank is in and of itself illegal, according to Ralph Wilde, professor of international law at University College London.

He told Al Jazeera from Montevideo that it is a violation of self-determination and law on use of force, so it is an “aggression”.

“In consequence, Israel has no legal right even to be there in the first place, and no legal right to operate any restrictions preventing others, whether the UN states or aid organisations, from entering Gaza and providing aid.”

Wilde said Israel has an international law obligation to ensure that the Palestinian people of Gaza do not starve.

The only way it can discharge that legal obligation is to either withdraw completely as it is legally required to do, or to provide the necessary aid or allow others to do so.

“Israel is doing neither of those things,” he said, adding that it has been working with the US on the “sham operation” that is GHF to provide limited aid “through this sadistic Hunger Games-style process where people risk being killed or at least maimed by the very actors from whom they must obtain food”.

All states have legal obligations to stop Israel’s war crimes in Gaza: Professor

We have more from international law professor Ralph Wilde on the situation created by Israel in Gaza.

He said it meets the legal test in international law for what is referred to as “intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival”.

“This is a serious violation of the laws of war on the parts of Israel and the US and everyone involved including the mercenaries working for the GHF and the Israeli soldiers, and the leaders of Israel and the US,” he told Al Jazeera.

The professor, who also served as senior council on behalf of the Arab League at the International Court of Justice, said “it is not only a war crime, it is also a crime against humanity and it is part of genocide”.

“All states have positive obligations in international law to take action to bring the violations to an end, and they must take every mechanism available to them as a matter of obligation, not discretion,” Wilde said, adding that this requires sanctions against Israel.

Amount of aid reaching Gaza ‘very insufficient’

Germany said the aid flow into Gaza – despite limited improvements – remains “very insufficient”.

Government spokesman Stefan Kornelius said in a statement that Germany “notes limited initial progress in the delivery of humanitarian aid to the population of the Gaza Strip, which, however, remains very insufficient to alleviate the emergency situation”.

“Israel remains obligated to ensure the full delivery of aid,” Kornelius added.

Despite being one of Israel’s top allies in Europe, Germany has grown increasingly vocal about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where it airdropped aid for the first time yesterday.

Still no actions, it's a Trump deadline, always pushed further ahead.

Five countries complete 90 aid airdrops aid over Gaza, far less than what’s needed

France, Germany, Jordan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have dropped another 90 aid packages over Gaza from aircraft after coordinating with the Israeli military.

As the UN and international aid organisations continue to be sidelined from delivering aid to Palestinians by Israel, the Israeli army claimed in a short statement that the air drops are part of its “series of actions to improve the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip”.

The UN, major international humanitarian NGOs and Palestinians themselves say that aid airdrops are ineffective, dangerous and humiliating for starving people.

Several people have been injured by aid parcels falling from the sky already since this new round of airdrops began, and, earlier this week, we brought you testimony from a Palestinian journalist who said that people were forced to pick through rice mixed with sand after it was airdropped on the ground.