Top US diplomat says Gaza’s starvation crisis should not overshadow Israeli captives’ plight

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that while the Trump administration wants to “do everything [it] can to be helpful on the humanitarian problem” in Gaza, the starvation crisis there should not overshadow the plight of the Israeli captives.

“Not enough attention [is] being paid to the fact that 20 people [who] had nothing to do with this are being held hostage in tunnels on the verge of death, and no real talk about how Hamas needs to be disarmed and disbanded,” he told US broadcaster Fox News.

“As long as Hamas exists as an armed group in Gaza, there will not be peace, there will not be a peaceful future – because it’s going to happen again. And this can never happen again,” Rubio added.

Gaza war appears to meet definition of genocide: EU official

The European Commission’s second-most senior official has said Israel’s war in Gaza looks “very much like genocide”, marking the first time an executive of the body has used that term.

“If it is not genocide, it looks very much like the definition used to express its meaning,” European Commission Vice President Teresa Ribera told the Politico magazine. “What we are seeing is a concrete population being targeted, killed and condemned to starve to death.”

While the European Commission has previously accused Israel of human rights abuses in Gaza, it has so far stopped short of labelling its actions genocide.

Last week, the commission proposed curbing Israeli access to its flagship research funding programme after calls from EU countries to boost pressure on Israel to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in the enclave.

GHF Whistleblower X Tucker EXPOSE Secret Funding Behind Gaza Starvation

Israel's Plans to "Empty Out" Gaza and Annex West Bank

srael's security cabinet is considering plans to expand Israel's assault on Gaza toward a full military takeover, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly pushing for a monthslong offensive on Gaza City and central Gaza refugee camps. The cabinet meeting comes as Israel's forced starvation of Gaza claimed at least four new victims over the past 24 hours, according to health officials.

AIPAC slams Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Greene over Gaza genocide remark

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has accused Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of betraying “American values” by saying that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

In a fundraising email to supporters on Thursday, AIPAC – one of the most influential foreign policy lobby groups in the United States – likened Greene, a far-right legislator, to left-wing opponents of Israel.

“You expect anti-Israel smears from Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar,” the group said, referring to Muslim-American Democratic congressmembers.

“But now, Marjorie Taylor Greene has joined their ranks – spouting the same vile rhetoric and voting against the US-Israel alliance.”

Last week, Greene, an ally of US President Donald Trump, echoed the growing consensus of rights groups, academics and United Nations experts that Israel is carrying out a genocide in Gaza.

Well I guess genocide is an original American Value :/

Right-wing US lawmaker responds to attacks from AIPAC

The far-right US Representative Marjorie Taylor-Greene has said she will not back down after the pro-Israel lobbying organisation AIPAC attacked her for calling Israel’s war in Gaza a genocide, a view held by a growing number of US voters, along with scholars and rights groups.

While the Republican Party remains a bastion of support for Israel, a small section of the US right has stepped up criticism in recent months.

“I’m one of the only members of Congress that doesn’t take money from AIPAC, who donates way more money to Republicans than Democrats,” she said.

“The truth is AIPAC needs to register as a foreign lobbyist by U.S. law because they are representing the secular government of nuclear armed Israel 100 percent!!!”

US has sent Israel more than $4bn in weapons since October 7: Report

A new report from the Center for International Policy, a US-based think tank, has found that the US sent Israel nearly $4.2bn in weapons between October 7, 2023, and May 2025.

The report states that the figure is a “partial snapshot” of US support for Israel that does not include transfers that have been authorised, but have yet to be delivered. It notes that the US has paid for “much of the munitions and small arms used to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip”.

Israel’s complete closure of Gaza to humanitarian assistance and creation of famine have not slowed the flow of US arms, with May 2025 representing the second-largest quantity of arms transfers since the war began.

US ‘taxpayer dollars being used to starve children’: Bernie Sanders

US Senator Bernie Sanders has once again questioned continued United States military aid to Israel as starvation grips the Gaza Strip.

Sanders wrote on X that “18,500 children have been killed by the Israeli military in Gaza”, and noted that “despite these war crimes, the US has provided more than $22 BILLION for the war”.

“Our taxpayer dollars are being used to starve children, bomb schools & gun down hungry people as they wait for aid,” he said.

18,500 children have been killed by the Israeli military in Gaza.

Despite these war crimes, the US has provided more than $22 BILLION for the war.

Our taxpayer dollars are being used to starve children, bomb schools & gun down hungry people as they wait for aid. pic.twitter.com/bKh9Tvb0LG

— Sen. Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) August 7, 2025

US poll finds growing number believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza

The progressive pollster Data for Progress has found that US voters are now more likely to say Israel is committing genocide in Gaza than not, a result in line with other recent polls on the subject.

Data for Progress says that 47 percent of likely voters say Israel is committing genocide, up from 39 percent in April 2024. A recent YouGov poll found that 43 percent of people in the US believe Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, the highest number since the pollster first started asking the question in January 2024, when the figure was 35 percent.

The Data for Progress poll also found that 52 percent of likely voters strongly oppose Israel’s blockage of food and medical supplies to Gaza, while 54 percent believe the US should prioritise humanitarian assistance in Gaza over aid and weapons for Israel.

‘Canadians do not support arming a state committing genocide’

A new poll from the Angus Reid Institute shows 52 percent of Canadians believe Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Fifty-four percent of respondents also said they want the Canadian government to do more to ensure that it’s not sending lethal military equipment to Israel.

Canadian rights groups have accused the government of deceiving the public by continuing to allow weapons to be sent to Israel, despite a pledge to curtail such transfers amid the country’s war on Gaza.

While Ottawa says it stopped issuing new arms export permits in early January 2024, the government’s own data shows that nearly $14m worth of weapons were sent to Israel last year under existing permits.

Michael Bueckert, acting president of the group Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME), said the poll’s findings show that “most Canadians support greater action on Palestinian rights”.

But “Canadian foreign policy continues to act as if the reverse were true”, Bueckert said in a statement. “Canadians have spoken: they do not support arming a state that they know is committing genocide.”

A majority of CDNs say that Israel is committing genocide. "What will it take for @MarkJCarney's words and actions to reflect the reality that everyone else can see — that Canada’s ‘friend and ally’ is committing a genocide in Gaza?" https://t.co/qrU6kf4ozf

— Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (@CJPME) August 7, 2025

Press freedom group says world ‘must act’ to stop starvation in Gaza

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said that outside journalists must be granted access to the Gaza Strip and that action is needed to end starvation caused by Israel’s blockade, which has largely continued despite a handful of mostly symbolic changes.

“The world must act now,” CPJ’s regional director, Sara Qudah, said.

Israel has not allowed foreign journalists into Gaza, and has killed dozens of Palestinian reporters working to document conditions there, including members of Al Jazeera’s team.

US envoy praises ‘historic’ decision by Lebanon

US Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack has praised Lebanon’s move to disarm Hezbollah by the end of the year, calling it a “historic” decision.

“Congratulations to Lebanese President Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, and the Council of Ministers for making the historic, bold, and correct decision this week to begin fully implementing the November 2024 Cessation of Hostilities agreement, UN Security Council resolution 1701, and the Taif Agreement,” Barrack said in a social media post.

“This week’s Cabinet resolutions finally put into motion the ‘One Nation, One Army’ solution for Lebanon. We stand behind the Lebanese people.”

Hezbollah official says group’s weapons ‘legal and legitimate’

The deputy chief of Hezbollah’s political council, Mahmoud Komati, has called the Lebanese government’s decision to disarm Hezbollah a “march in humiliation” and surrender to Israel and the US.

“There is no state or government in the world that would confront the resistance in its own territory while the enemy is still there occupying the land and carrying out aggressions against Lebanon daily,” Komati told Al Jazeera Mubasher.

He said Hezbollah will hold on to its right to resist Israel under the UN Charter, which asserts an “inherent right of individual or collective self-defence”.

“Our presence is legal and legitimate and ethical and humane, and so are our weapons as a resistance [movement],” Komati said.

Childhood acute malnutrition reaches ‘highest levels to date’: UN spokesperson

Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, has been briefing reporters in New York.

Here are some of the top takeaways from the news conference:

Main events on August 7th

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would ‘take control of all Gaza,’ in a television interview, adding that Israel did not want to oversee governing responsibilities and would hand them over to an unspecified third party.
• The number of Palestinians who have starved to death due to Israel’s brutal siege on Gaza rose to 197 people, including 96 children. The WHO says that about 12,000 children in Gaza under the age of five were acutely malnourished at the end of July, the highest number on record.
• The Lebanese government approved a US-backed proposal to disarm the paramilitary group Hezbollah by the end of the year. Hezbollah officials said it would not disarm before Israeli forces, still occupying Lebanese territory in defiance of a truce agreement, left the country.
• The rights watchdog Human Rights Watch released a report stating that Israel has carried out hundreds of attacks on schools sheltering displaced people in Gaza since the beginning of the war, including “unlawfully indiscriminate” strikes with US-provided munitions.

Netanyahu appears ‘lost’ despite series of victories

He’s lost. Netanyahu has been used to winning battles and having superior military force. He’s been able to maintain a coalition government during war, divide the opposition, control the various wings of the government, maintain US support and win wars in a dozen days throughout the region.

But when it comes to Gaza, despite the fact that he’s killed anywhere between 60,000 and 120,000 people, displaced some 2 million people, destroyed more than 90 percent of the Strip, he’s still not able to declare victory, he’s still not able to impose a ceasefire, and he still doesn’t have an exit strategy.

What does he do? If he pulls out now, he’s going to be seen as the man who destroyed Gaza but was not able to bring security because Hamas still survived, is still functioning, and will take control of Gaza the next day. If he stays, he’s going to have the wrath of his generals who have been warning him ever since the withdrawal of troops in 2005 that the Israeli military does not want to get involved in an occupation on the ground in Gaza.

_{Israelis rally in Tel Aviv to demand captive release}

Inside Israel: a fractured state amidst genocide in Gaza

Netanyahu’s Gaza occupation announcement unmasks Trump amidst Iran reference

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted by the International Criminal Court has announced his intention to occupy Gaza for the first time amidst claims that his decision has the approval from Donald Trump. The US president today asked Arab countries to normalise relations with Israel stating that he had obliterated the Iranian nuclear sites. Rifat Jawaid says that this clearly establishes Trump’s complicity on what’s going on in Gaza.

Toxic Individualism Enabling Genocide (w/ Maura Finkelstein)

Dr. Maura Finkelstein discusses the overwhelming fear professors at universities feel to not speak their true beliefs regarding Palestine, and how nothing will change if more of us do not learn to sacrifice in pursuit of our political objectives.

Exclusive: Ms. Rachel reacts to children watching her in Gaza: ‘It moves me beyond words’

YouTube star and children’s educator Rachel Accurso known as Ms. Rachel tells CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview that the backlash over her speaking out in support of children in Gaza was “painful,” but says “I know who I am and I know what's right.”

Mainstream news doing reaction videos now... following behind the real news. Couple seconds of Gaza footage on CNN.

Netanyahu’s plan to fully occupy Gaza is both cynical and stupid

Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara says Prime Minister Netanyahu is facing an unprecedented struggle in Gaza.

Despite massive destruction and displacement, he has failed to declare victory, enforce a ceasefire, or offer an exit plan.

Bishara suggests that Netanyahu is cornered – if he withdraws, Hamas could quickly return to power; if he stays, he faces growing dissent from Israeli military leaders opposed to a prolonged occupation of the Palestinian territory.

Occupation of Gaza City seen as Israel’s ‘institutionalisation of domination’ over population

Many Palestinians, in fact, in the early hours of this morning, said the Israeli decision to occupy Gaza City is not seen as a strategic or tactical manoeuvre, but is seen as the institutionalisation of domination … that people have been enduring more than 22 months of displacement, fear and relentless bombardment.

Now their misery is about to be complicated further by Israel’s potential step to expand its ground operations to focus primarily on Gaza City, which right now holds hundreds of thousands of people who are living in makeshift tents and partially destroyed buildings and schools, UN-run clinics and shelters.

Many of those who were given the chance to return to northern Gaza did so after the former ceasefire agreement that was brokered between Hamas and Israel.

Now they are facing the same threat, which is to be forcibly displaced from their homes and towns to other parts of the Strip under the pretext of fighting Hamas and armed factions in these areas.

People say that this has been the fear … and right now it has become a looming reality that Israel will control Gaza City.

Israel military has experience that occupation of Gaza ‘almost impossible to do’

Former US intelligence officer Glenn Carle spoke to Al Jazeera earlier about Israel’s plan to occupy Gaza City and how the Israeli military should know “better than anybody” what happened during their previous occupation of Gaza.

“It was a terrible dilemma and almost impossible to do, so I think that’s what the military is confronted with now,” Carle said, adding that some Israeli military officials have reportedly assessed that it could take up to five years to completely defeat Hamas in Gaza.

While Carle said he was surprised at such a timeline, he said that Israel’s military occupation could face an “infinite number of problems”.

“Humanitarian, civil, political, and military. Because there will be probably endless disaffected young men who – whether organised or not – will lash out,” he said.


Israel’s security cabinet adopts ‘five principles’ for ending war

As we have been reporting, Israel’s security cabinet backed Prime Minister Netanyahu’s plan to militarily occupy Gaza City and impose a siege on Hamas fighters there.

As part of the hours-long meeting on Thursday night, the cabinet also agreed in a majority vote upon “five principles” for ending its deadly assault on Gaza, according to a statement from Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office.

More like 5 principles for not ending the genocide.

1. not gonna happen until either everyone is dead or peace has been achieved.
2. not gonna happen until the fighting ends and the IDF withdraws. (although could get the all back by killing everyone)
3. not gonna happen as long as occupation and threat of raids continues.
4. not gonna happen as Israel simply doesn't have the man power to patrol Gaza and 2 million people.
5. That's what the Palestinians want but probably not the kind Israel has in mind...