The Palestinian Prisoners' Club said on Sunday that the Israeli occupation forces arrested 118 high school students in the occupied West Bank.

The club explained in a statement that "the Israeli army arrested 118 high school students (Tawjihi) before and during their final exams, based on statistics from the Ministry of Education."

This coincided with the Palestinian Ministry of Education's announcement of the high school results, according to the same statement.

The Prisoners' Club added, "Since the start of the war of extermination on Gaza, the occupation has deprived hundreds of prisoners and detainees from completing their education inside prisons."

The club (non-governmental) noted that "the occupation sought, with all the tools at its disposal, to undermine the role of the student movement, which constituted one of the most prominent pillars of the Palestinian struggle."

Earlier on Sunday, the Palestinian Ministry of Education announced the results of the first round of high school exams in the West Bank and Gaza Strip for the 2024-2025 academic year.

Minister of Education and Higher Education Amjad Barham said during a press conference in the central city of Ramallah, "This season came amid unprecedented Israeli targeting of the education system in the Gaza Strip, where 27 schools were completely destroyed, and more than 16,000 students and approximately 750 teachers were martyred."

Barham added that the students "took their exams despite the difficult conditions in Gaza, the repeated invasions of the Jenin and Tulkarm governorates (northern West Bank), and the presence of tanks and displacement."

The Palestinian minister announced that "the number of students applying for the exam reached 52,000, including 2,000 students abroad in 37 countries."

Israel holds approximately 10,800 Palestinians in its prisons, including approximately 450 children, 50 female prisoners, and 3,629 administrative detainees, according to official Palestinian data. This data does not include the thousands of cases of "enforced disappearance" of detainees from the Gaza Strip.

Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli army and settlers have escalated their attacks in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, killing at least 1,008 Palestinians and wounding nearly 7,000 others, according to Palestinian data.

This coincides with a genocidal war waged by Israel in Gaza since October 7, 2023, which has left more than 204,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 9,000 missing, in addition to hundreds of thousands of displaced persons, and a famine that has claimed the lives of many.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir continued his incitement against the "entry" of aid into the Gaza Strip, attacking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following statements in which he claimed that he was allowing "the entry of a minimum level of aid" despite the crimes of famine and genocide he is waging in the Strip.

Netanyahu's allegations came hours after the Israeli military announced it had "permitted" the airdropping of limited quantities of aid to Gaza, and the initiation of what it called a "local tactical suspension of military activities" in specific areas of the Gaza Strip to allow aid to pass through. International organizations and bodies have deemed this move a sham attempt to promote the illusion of relief while the Israeli machine continues to use hunger as a weapon against civilians.

Ben-Gvir continued his incitement against the entry of aid into Gaza, claiming, "While we still have hostages in Gaza, our prime minister is transferring humanitarian aid there. This is moral bankruptcy," according to Yedioth Ahronoth.

He continued his provocative statements, saying: "At this stage, what should have been transferred to Gaza is one thing: bombs and shelling, occupation, encouraging immigration, and achieving victory in the war."

The extremist minister, Ben-Gvir, has repeatedly urged the continuation of the war of extermination and starvation in the Gaza Strip. He has also long called for preventing the entry of aid into Gaza, occupying the entire Strip, establishing settlements there, and displacing its Palestinian population.

Ben-Gvir previously claimed that "there is no real hunger in the Gaza Strip," contradicting the positions of dozens of countries and humanitarian and international organizations.

Ben-Gvir's statements contradict the positions of dozens of countries and humanitarian and international organizations that have warned against Israel's starvation policy in the Gaza Strip.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) criticized the Israeli airdrop of aid to Gaza, stressing that it "will not end" the worsening famine, according to a statement by Juliette Touma, the agency's director of media and communications, in an interview with The New York Times, published on UNRWA's Twitter page on Sunday.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said on Sunday that the resumption of airdrops of aid, after months of mass starvation, promotes the illusion of relief, while the Israeli machine continues to use hunger as a weapon against civilians.

In early March, Israel reneged on a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement with Hamas, which began on January 19, and resumed its genocide. Since then, it has rejected all international and UN initiatives and calls for a ceasefire.

Gaza is experiencing the worst humanitarian crisis in its history, with a severe famine intertwined with a genocidal war waged by Israel, with US support, since October 7, 2023.

Despite international, UN, and Palestinian warnings of the looming famine in Gaza, Israel has continued to completely close the Strip's crossings to humanitarian, relief, and medical aid since March 2, escalating its starvation policy since the start of the war.

According to the latest figures from the Ministry of Health in Gaza, released Sunday morning, the death toll from famine and malnutrition since October 7, 2023, has risen to 133 Palestinians, including 87 children.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been waging a war of genocide in Gaza, including killing, starvation, destruction, and forced displacement, ignoring all international calls and orders from the International Court of Justice to halt it.

The genocide, backed by the United States, left more than 204,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 9,000 missing. Hundreds of thousands were displaced, and a famine claimed the lives of many, including dozens of children.

Khalil al-Hayya, head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, said that the Israeli Chief of Staff is covering up his army's failure to carry out genocide in Gaza. He pointed out that the Israeli withdrawal from the negotiations is a transparent move aimed at wasting time and further genocide in Gaza.

Al-Hayya said the movement had engaged in arduous negotiations and offered all possible flexibility that did not conflict with our people's principles, stressing that the movement had responded to mediators at every stage with regard to the proposals they were offered.

He pointed out that in the last round of negotiations, they achieved clear progress and largely agreed with what the mediators had offered on the issues of withdrawal, detainees, and aid.

Al-Hayya added that they were surprised by the occupation's withdrawal from the negotiations, pointing to its alignment with US envoy Steve Witkoff.

US President Donald Trump avoided discussing the US assistance during a joint press conference with European Union President Ursula von der Leyen in Scotland on Sunday, preferring to discuss the US assistance provided "without anyone thanking us."

When Trump was asked about the images of starving children coming from Gaza, he told reporters: "It's terrible."

But he then changed course to say, "They are stealing food, money, and weapons," without specifying who he was talking about, likely alluding to Hamas, an accusation that experts say is false.

Trump also expressed regret that the United States donated $60 million to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and received no thanks, while no other country contributed anything.

On Friday, the US president claimed that the United States had provided $60 billion. The actual figure is $30 million. The United States is not the only country providing humanitarian aid, nor is it even the largest donor.

Commenting on the state of war after the US and Israel withdrew from Doha amid anger over Hamas's recent response, Trump said, "Israel has a decision to make."

"I know what I would have done, but I don't think it's appropriate to say it," he said.

He reiterated that he expected the talks to collapse, saying that Hamas would not want to release the last hostages because it would lose its last bargaining chip.

The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission revealed that the occupation authorities have approved three large plans for the Ma'ale Adumim settlement, built on private Palestinian land east of occupied Jerusalem.

The head of the authority, Minister Mu'ayyad Shaaban, said that the recently approved large-scale plans aim to create geographical contiguity between the settlement and the Mishor Adumim industrial zone, further isolating the two colonial sites.

Shaaban added that these plans were submitted for approval in late 2024, and are now being approved, reflecting a clear intent within the framework of a race against time to impose facts on the ground, particularly around Jerusalem, which will further isolate and besiege it through numerous colonial measures targeting it.

Shaaban explained that upon reviewing the maps and documents attached to these plans, it became clear that the three plans outlined in red on the attached map combine in an integrated manner to create a geographical connection between the Ma'ale Adumim settlement and the "Mishor Adumim" industrial zone to the east of the settlement, which is indicated in yellow on the map.

He added that the three plans are as follows: First: The master plan bearing the number יוש/1/59/7/1/420 for the Ma'ale Adumim settlement, aims to build a total of 1,113 new settlement units on an area estimated at 1,307 dunams of citizens' land, while the second plan bearing the number יוש/2/59/7/1/420 aims to build 944 settlement units on an area estimated at 680 dunams, and is combined with the first plan, while the third plan bearing the number aims to build 1,108 new settlement units on an area estimated at 486 dunams, and is combined with the previous two plans with the aim of creating a geographical connection between the settlements of "Ma'ale Adumim" and "Mishor Adumim", which are built on citizens' lands between the governorates of Jerusalem, Jericho and the Jordan Valley.

He explained that the aforementioned plans include the construction of a new colonial neighborhood, in addition to a new road network that strengthens the grip on the main street, thus isolating the Bir al-Maskub, Sneisel, and other communities from the communities located to the west of the colony and from the street completely, as shown in the map.

Shaaban added that the occupation submitted 21 master plans for settlements outside the Jerusalem municipal boundaries in 2024, while in the first half of 2025, it submitted a total of 28 master plans for the same geographical area, as part of the massive, intensive, and unprecedented targeting of this region.

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that Israel must decide on its next steps in Gaza, adding that he does not know what will happen after Israel withdraws from ceasefire negotiations and releases hostages with the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

According to Reuters, Trump stressed the importance of releasing the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, saying they had suddenly demonstrated a "tough" stance on the issue.

"They don't want to take them back, so Israel will have to make a decision," Trump told reporters at the start of a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at his Turnberry, Scotland, golf resort.

The Israeli occupation issued a decision to keep its forces in the Tulkarm camps until October 31, 2025, denying all reports that it might withdraw from the camps early next month.

The decision also includes renewing the occupation of the Nur Shams and Tulkarm camps, in addition to a new decision prohibiting Palestinian presence in the Nur Shams forests, an area not affiliated with the camp.

With this decision, the suffering of approximately 30,000 displaced residents of the two camps will continue for at least another three months, reflecting the continuing harsh and difficult situation facing the population in the area.

In his column in Haaretz, Israeli journalist Gideon Levy compared the denial of the Holocaust during World War II by the Nazis to Israel's continued denial of the starvation of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, arguing that the denial in both cases stems from a common root: disavowal of the crime and contempt for the victim.

Levy spoke about the Holocaust, pointing out that its deniers either claimed that it never happened, or that it happened but the number of victims was small, or that there were no gas chambers at all.

He believes that the organized attempts taking place today to deny the famine in Gaza are not merely a denial of a globally documented fact, but rather a normalization of a propaganda discourse based on lies, skepticism, and institutional impudence.

From newspapers to television stations, from academics to newsagents, there is a full-fledged Israeli chorus insisting that the comical images of the children are staged, and that their deaths are not from "deliberate starvation," but rather "a problem that Hamas bears," according to the article.

moral blindness

Levy pointed out that while scenes of starvation in the Gaza Strip are broadcast on television screens around the world, Israel persists in its moral blindness, claiming that 80 trucks enter Gaza daily and that there is a video showing "Hamas terrorists eating bananas in tunnels."

The writer hinted that the photos in question were taken six months ago, but the Israeli army spokesman, whom he describes as a "master peddler of lies," is now republishing them.

He said that such denial has become legitimate in Israel, and is even consistent with the local political tact that claims that hunger does not exist, and that no one will be convicted or punished for causing it.

dominant pattern

He added that this denial has become a prevalent pattern in all aspects of life inside Israel, with descriptions of the deliberate starvation of Gaza now being labeled an "anti-Semitic conspiracy," and "If there is hunger? Ask Hamas."

He explained that there are 50 faces of Israeli denial, all of them equally contemptible, ranging from turning a blind eye, to raising eyebrows, to camouflage, concealment, and self-deception.

Gideon Levy: Images of famine flood screens and newspapers around the world, yet Israelis deny it.

denial

Levy went on to say that for years he had been convinced that even if the Israelis were presented with all the horrific evidence, they would reject it. "And now here is the proof: Images of starvation flood screens and newspapers around the world, yet the Israelis deny it."

Levy warns that the most dangerous aspect of this denial is not only the lying, but also the cruel mockery of living victims and the denial of pain at the moment of its occurrence.

He continued that this approach is not new, but rather extends from the narrative of the Nakba, which "did not happen" according to the official narrative, to the decades of occupation and the apartheid system to which Israel claims it is not a party.

The Israeli Broadcasting Authority reported on Sunday that a military court sentenced three soldiers from the 931st Battalion of the Nahal Brigade to prison for refusing to fight in Gaza, despite having served in several previous tours since the outbreak of the war of extermination in the Strip.

According to the report by the Broadcasting Authority, three soldiers were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one week to 12 days, while the case of a fourth soldier in the same case has not yet been decided. All four were excluded from any future combat missions.

The report stated that the four soldiers fought inside Gaza for months, and during their service, they lost several comrades and were exposed to "harsh scenes and tragic experiences," according to the mother of one of them, who said, "These things will remain deeply etched in their hearts."

On May 29, an Israeli military court also sentenced two other soldiers from the Nahal Brigade to prison for refusing to participate in the war on Gaza.

The Israeli Broadcasting Authority also reported at the same time that dozens of reserve soldiers in the medical corps signed a petition declaring that they would not be prepared to return to combat in the Gaza Strip.

She said that reserve soldiers with the rank of lieutenant colonel and below, including doctors, paramedics, and combat medics, indicated that their refusal to serve was motivated by calls to seize Palestinian land in Gaza and settle it.

They considered this a violation of international law, and this was the main factor behind their refusal, in addition to the lack of progress towards a prisoner exchange deal with the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

The signatories of the petition explained that they refused to continue volunteering in the reserve forces because of the length of the war, which they said had gone beyond all logic, and because of the damage it was causing to civilians on both sides and to the Israeli social fabric.

The signatories added that continuous exposure to extremely traumatic events and life-threatening situations causes post-traumatic damage, in addition to degrading the human image.

100,000 disabled people

Separately, Yedioth Ahronoth reported that data from the Defense Ministry's Rehabilitation Division revealed that 100,000 disabled soldiers, including those with mental illnesses, have been injured in all of Israel's wars. Most of these have been injured since October 7, 2023, and officials say the worst is yet to come.

The newspaper quoted sources as saying that the number of soldiers suffering from psychological crises has increased significantly in recent months.

The army said that more than 10,000 soldiers have suffered psychological crises since the October 7 attack and are receiving treatment.

He added that last year saw a peak in psychological injuries, with more than 9,000. The data also revealed that the majority of soldiers suffering from psychological crises last year were under the age of 30.

The army expects this year to witness an increase in the number of soldiers suffering from psychological crises, requiring state support.

It should be noted that since October 7, 2023, Israel, with US support, has been committing genocide in Gaza, including killing, starvation, destruction, and forced displacement, ignoring all international appeals and orders from the International Court of Justice to halt it.

In addition to the martyrs and wounded, most of whom were children and women, the genocide left more than 9,000 missing, hundreds of thousands displaced, and a famine that claimed the lives of many, including dozens of children.

While Palestinians starve and world opinion hardens (against deliberate starvation), the International Court of Justice (ICJ) may not issue a ruling until 2027 or later, The Guardian reported on Sunday.

The newspaper explains that while increasing numbers of Palestinians in Gaza are dying daily from starvation, and a growing number of legal scholars, aid officials, and politicians are beginning to describe Israel's actions as genocide, a final ruling on the matter from the world's highest court will take a long time.

Experts at the International Court of Justice said a ruling on whether Israel is committing genocide in Gaza is unlikely before the end of 2027 at the earliest, amid warnings that the international community should not use the court's slow process as an excuse to delay action to stop the killing.

It should be noted that Israel was originally scheduled to submit its response to South Africa's genocide charge on Monday, but the court granted its lawyers a six-month extension. The 17-judge panel accepted Israel's argument that it needed more than the allotted nine months to prepare its case, claiming that "evidential issues" in South Africa's submission meant that "the scope of the case remains unclear."

The South African legal team responded that none of the arguments presented by the Israeli lawyers constituted a legitimate reason for the delay, and that prolonging the case was unjustified in light of the humanitarian emergency in Gaza. The court sided with Israel, which now has until next January to present its case.

"I think the [ICJ] is being very cautious here because of the political climate," Juliet McIntyre, a senior lecturer in law at the University of South Australia, was quoted as saying by the newspaper. "They don't want to be accused of ignoring Israel's procedural rights and finding that it committed genocide without giving them a full opportunity to respond."

Since its founding in 1945, the International Court of Justice has always prioritized caution over speed in its role as a final arbiter between states. "The ICJ is known for its slow deliberations," said Eva Vukošić, assistant professor of international history at Utrecht University. "It's 80 years old and wants to operate in a certain way."

It should be noted that after Israel presents its defense next January, each side is usually given sufficient time to prepare another round of arguments to counter the other side's points and new developments.

“The second round typically takes about six months for each side, which is another year, and then we get to January 2027,” said Michael Baker, who served as a legal officer at the International Court of Justice from 2010 to 2014 and is now an assistant professor of international human rights law at Trinity College Dublin.

"If things go smoothly and there are no further incidents or interruptions in the proceedings, a hearing will take place sometime in 2027, perhaps early enough in the year that a ruling can be issued by the end of the year," he told the newspaper.

However, a number of factors could delay the case until 2028, including requests from other states to intervene. The International Court of Justice has a tool to address the disparity between the pace of its proceedings and the need to address catastrophic situations like Gaza. In 2024, the court issued three sets of "provisional measures," in the form of instructions to Israel, in response to South Africa's requests.

In January of last year, the International Court of Justice ruled that the genocide claim was "plausible" and acknowledged that "the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is at serious risk of deteriorating before the Court renders its final judgment."

Israel has completely ignored the interim measures, rejecting the genocide accusation as "outrageous and false." South Africa has not requested any further measures, despite periods of a comprehensive blockade imposed by Israel on Gaza this year. According to a source close to its legal team, intense pressure from Washington has had an effect.

Last February, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order halting aid to South Africa, criticizing its stance before the International Court of Justice and claiming, without evidence, that the country's white Afrikaners were "victims of unjust apartheid." However, the South African government insisted it had no intention of dropping the Gaza case.

Despite the ICJ's deliberately slow pace, the standard of proof required to reach a ruling on genocide is extremely high. On the first page, the 1948 Genocide Convention does not set a high standard, defining genocide as the intentional destruction "in whole or in part" of a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, according to the court's experts.

However, in its interpretation of the Convention, the International Court of Justice required "absolutely conclusive" evidence that the accused state had genocidal intent in committing mass killings, and that there were no other possible competing motives, such as counterinsurgency or territorial seizure. Under this standard, the court has yet to rule against any state for genocide.

Whatever the outcome, many international humanitarian law experts fear that focusing on the genocide ruling could be a dangerous distraction, delaying decisive action by the international community pending the ICJ ruling while allowing provable crimes against humanity to continue.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the United Nations should stop blaming his government for the humanitarian situation in Gaza, after the Israeli military announced the opening of safe routes for aid to enter the besieged enclave. "The UN is making up excuses, saying there are no safe routes," Netanyahu said during a visit to an airbase on Sunday. "That's not true. There are safe routes. They've always existed, but now they're official. There will be no more excuses."

In this context, he continued, "We must allow the entry of the minimum amount of humanitarian aid required into the Gaza Strip to determine the course of the negotiations." He added, "We are fighting in the Gaza Strip, and unfortunately, we have dead and wounded there."

A limited number of trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered the besieged Gaza Strip on Sunday from the Zikim area in the northwest of the Strip and Kerem Shalom in the south, coinciding with the airdrop of aid to the northwestern areas, coordinated with the Israeli occupation. Sources told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the occupation authorities approved requests from Arab and international organizations to bring in aid via Egypt and Jordan, on the condition that it be delivered to international bodies in Gaza, away from the hands of the responsible authorities in the Gaza government.

Reuters quoted an official Jordanian source as saying that Jordan and the United Arab Emirates dropped a total of 25 tons of aid to the Gaza Strip on Sunday, in their first airdrop in months. The official added that the airdrop is not an alternative to delivering aid by land. Early Sunday morning, the Israeli Foreign Ministry announced that it would implement a "humanitarian truce" to allow the distribution of aid, as it claims, in the Gaza Strip, starting Sunday morning. In a statement published on the X platform, it added that the truce would apply to "civilian centers and humanitarian corridors" in the stricken Strip. This comes in light of the occupation's continued war of extermination on Gaza, which has been ongoing since October 7, 2023, and in light of the escalation of popular movements and initiatives in various parts of the world aimed at pressuring the Israeli occupation to lift the siege on the Strip, open land crossings, and allow aid into the stricken Strip.

Live updates

The War of Extermination on Gaza | Limited Aid Entry and an Israeli Delegation in Cairo

Meanwhile, an informed Egyptian source told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that an Israeli delegation arrived in Cairo on Sunday to discuss coordinating the entry of humanitarian aid through the Rafah border crossing. According to the source, the Israeli delegation, which is of a technical nature, includes a number of security and military officials. The aim is to determine the mechanisms for transporting trucks loaded with humanitarian aid inside the Gaza Strip. The source confirmed during his conversation that the Israeli delegation discussed with Egyptian officials determining the routes of the trucks inside the Strip, in line with the dates set by the Israeli occupation army to halt military operations.

While it appeared as though the exchange deal was on its way to being signed, negotiations reached a dead end due to the occupation's insistence on its position on the points of contention and its government's unwillingness to show any flexibility on the matter. This was reflected in its decision to withdraw the negotiating delegation from Doha, a move echoed by the United States.

However, the Ynet website noted, in a lengthy report published on Sunday, that many reasons indicate that the current stalemate cannot remain in place. The first of these reasons is international pressure on Israel due to the worsening humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip, the positions and pledges of US President Donald Trump, as well as domestic Israeli pressure. This was reflected in the occupation army's initiation of parachute drops of aid and the announcement of humanitarian truces in a number of locations in the Gaza Strip for the first time in more than a year.

The World Food Programme (WFP) affirmed that the agreed-upon ceasefire is the only way to ensure that humanitarian aid, including essential food supplies, reaches all parts of the Gaza Strip in a consistent, regular, and safe manner.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomed in a statement "the news of Israel's willingness to implement humanitarian ceasefires and establish dedicated humanitarian corridors to facilitate the safe movement of UN convoys delivering emergency food supplies and other aid to the people of Gaza."

He said he had enough food in the area, or on its way, to feed all of Gaza's residents for about three months.

The statement continued, saying that its teams "delivered 350 trucks loaded with food aid to Gaza last week."

He explained that this happened "under extremely difficult circumstances, exposing civilians and aid workers to grave danger."

He stressed that this number of trucks "represents slightly more than half of the number of convoys that the World Food Programme requested permission to send."

"Since the partial reopening of the border crossings on May 21, the World Food Programme has delivered 22,000 tons of food aid to Gaza," the statement said.

The program added: "However, more than 62,000 tons of food aid are needed monthly to cover the needs" of Palestinians in Gaza.

He stressed that "food aid is the only way to secure food for most of Gaza's population. A third of the population has been without food for days."

He continued, "About 470,000 Palestinians are suffering from famine-like conditions, and 90,000 women and children need urgent nutritional treatment. People are dying due to a lack of humanitarian aid."

Israeli occupation forces stormed the village of Al-Lubban Al-Sharqiya, south of Nablus, on Sunday.

According to local sources, a number of Israeli military vehicles stormed the village and took up positions in its center, where Israeli soldiers deployed and threw sound bombs at residents and their vehicles.

It's worth noting that the village of Al-Lubban Al-Sharqiya has been subjected to the closure of its main entrance for several months, and to daily raids, including the firing of tear gas and sound bombs at residents, the assault and abuse of young men, the conversion of residents' homes into military barracks, and the seizure of several vehicles. The occupation forces seized four vehicles during raids on the village this July.

The director of the Children's Hospital at Nasser Medical Complex, Dr. Ahmed Al-Farra, warned that the number of starvation deaths in the Gaza Strip will rise, particularly among children, unless food and baby formula are brought in as quickly as possible.

He said that nearly one million children are threatened by hunger and malnutrition, noting that the bodies of children in the nutrition department at Nasser Medical Complex have been reduced to bones covered with skin, having lost muscle and subcutaneous fatty tissue.

He stressed that there are one million citizens in the Khan Yunis Governorate in the southern Gaza Strip, most of whom suffer from varying degrees of malnutrition, but the most serious cases are among children due to the lack of milk.

Dr. Al-Farra said in an interview with Al Jazeera that mothers were using sweeteners and water, and some were feeding infants as young as two and three months old lentil soup in their bottles. This is inconsistent with global nutrition protocols.

Dr. Al-Farra explained that children are more affected by malnutrition than adults, who can tolerate prolonged fasting. Children are a fragile group, with small livers and limited energy stores, and they also have limited muscle and adipose tissue.

The main source of energy for children is milk, whether breastfed or bottle-fed. Once a child loses this daily food intake within 24 hours, their metabolism stops by 35%.

When the body exhausts all its energy sources, it enters a phase in which all vital and metabolic processes in the body are on the verge of stopping. This is evident in a severe drop in blood pressure, heart rate, respiration rate, and temperature, and even the kidneys begin to function at their lowest levels.

At this stage, according to Dr. Al-Farra, blood salts become imbalanced and there is a stagnation throughout the body, culminating in the child falling into a coma, a stage just prior to death. He said these stages take a long time in adults.

Gaza Strip hospitals documented the deaths of six Palestinians, including two children, over the past 24 hours due to starvation and a shortage of medicine.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has criticized Israel's use of airdrops of aid in the Gaza Strip, saying the aid delivery mechanism "will not end" the worsening famine.

This came in statements made by Juliette Touma, the agency's director of media and communications, to the New York Times, and published on UNRWA's official X page on Sunday.

Touma's statements come as Tel Aviv promotes its permission for limited airdrops of aid to the Palestinian enclave, which is suffering from a raging famine. Trucks carrying aid and relief supplies are piling up at land crossings that Israel has closed since March 2.

The UN official questioned the feasibility of airdropping aid, saying, "Why use airdrops when we can transport hundreds of trucks across the border?"

She stressed that bringing in aid through land crossings is "much easier, more effective, faster, and less costly."

She stressed that airdrops of aid "will not end the worsening famine in Gaza," noting that 6,000 UNRWA trucks are backed up at land crossings "waiting for the green light" from Israel to enter the besieged enclave.

Addressing Tel Aviv, Touma continued: "Lift the siege, open the crossings, and guarantee safe movement (for aid convoys) and dignified access for those in need (in Gaza)."

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini previously considered the proposal to airdrop aid to the Gaza Strip "merely a distraction and smokescreen to cover up the reality of the humanitarian catastrophe in the Strip."

This comes as the Israeli military announced on Saturday that it had "permitted" the airdropping of limited quantities of aid into Gaza, and that it had begun what it called a "local tactical suspension of military activities" in specific areas of the Gaza Strip to allow the passage of humanitarian aid.

This Israeli move coincides with mounting regional and international pressure as a result of the worsening famine in the Gaza Strip and warnings of the threat of mass death threatening more than 100,000 children there.

The Gaza Strip is experiencing one of the worst humanitarian crises in its history, with a severe famine intertwined with a genocidal war waged by Israel since October 7, 2023.

The Israeli genocide, with American support, left more than 204,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 9,000 missing, in addition to hundreds of thousands of displaced persons and a famine that claimed the lives of many.

The Palestinian Commission of Prisoners' Affairs has documented testimonies from inside Israeli prisons indicating that prison guards deliberately transmit diseases to prisoners and refuse to treat them.

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)-affiliated body said in a statement on Sunday that "the Israeli prison administration continues to commit crimes against prisoners, with the fate of more than 10,000 prisoners, including women and children, at risk."

Among the testimonies documented by the Commission through its legal team is the case of prisoner Hassan Imad Abu Hassan from the town of Yamoun, west of Jenin, in the northern occupied West Bank.

She explained that Abu Hassan "has been suffering from scabies for more than three months, because the jailers forced him, on the first day of his detention, to sleep on a bed belonging to a prisoner with scabies."

"Prisoner Alaa Al-Adam, from the town of Beit Ula, west of Hebron, also suffers from a skin allergy in the thigh area and severe itching as a result of skin diseases that he has not received the necessary treatment for his condition."

The Commission also documented the case of prisoner Bilal Amro from the town of Dura, south of Hebron (south), in Ofer Prison, west of Ramallah (center).

She reported that Amr "suffers severe pain in his back and foot due to the presence of platinum" used to stabilize broken bones.

"Amr repeatedly asked the prison administration to provide the necessary painkillers to relieve his pain, but to no avail. He also suffers from severe visual impairment," the statement said.

On Thursday, the Palestinian Prisoners' Affairs Authority and the Palestinian Prisoners' Club (PPC) released a joint statement revealing testimonies from prisoners revealing that they were subjected to physical and psychological torture, including forced drinking and pouring hot water over their bodies.

Since Tel Aviv began its war of extermination in the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, numerous Palestinian prisoners have been killed in Israeli prisons as a result of torture, starvation, and medical neglect, according to Palestinian and Israeli human rights and media reports.

More than 10,800 Palestinians are languishing in Israeli prisons, including approximately 450 children, 50 female prisoners, and 3,629 administrative detainees without charge, according to official Palestinian data that does not include the thousands of cases of "enforced disappearance" of prisoners from Gaza.

This comes as Israel has been waging a genocidal war in Gaza since October 7, 2023, including killing, starvation, destruction, and forced displacement, ignoring all international calls and orders from the International Court of Justice to halt the offensive.

The genocide, backed by the United States, left more than 204,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 9,000 missing. Hundreds of thousands were displaced, and a famine claimed the lives of many, including dozens of children.

In parallel with the annihilation of Gaza, the Israeli army and settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, killed at least 1,008 Palestinians, injured nearly 7,000, and arrested more than 18,000, according to Palestinian data.

For decades, Israel has occupied Palestine and territories in Syria and Lebanon, and refuses to withdraw from these territories and establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, along the pre-1967 borders.

The Israeli military claimed, in a statement issued by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), that "based on directives from the political echelon, the military approved several weeks ago an Emirati initiative to extend a water pipeline from a desalination plant in Egypt to the Mawasi area along the coast, with the aim of supplying some 600,000 residents of the area with water, independently of the water pipelines coming from Israel."

The statement added that "UAE representatives began bringing in project equipment from Egypt today, under strict security supervision and inspection, via the Kerem Shalom crossing, which is affiliated with the Land Crossings Authority of the Ministry of Defense." The statement noted that work on implementing the water pipeline "will begin in the coming days and will take several weeks."

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In the Gaza Strip, hunger has become the defining feature of daily life, as residents live under the brunt of a famine whose details are escalating at an alarming and unprecedented rate. Streets once bustling with life have turned into long queues outside the remaining food distribution centers, while bakeries are closing one after another due to a lack of flour and fuel. Bread has become a distant dream for many families who have been without food for weeks.

With the ongoing Israeli blockade and the destruction of infrastructure, aid trucks have stopped entering, food supplies have almost completely disappeared, and the prices of basic commodities have skyrocketed. A bag of flour, once sold for a few dollars, now sells for more than $300 in some areas, and perhaps even more in the northern Gaza Strip, where commodities are almost completely scarce. Rice, sometimes the only available alternative, has also disappeared from the markets or its price has soared beyond the purchasing power of the majority of the population, who have been living without income for months after their salaries were suspended, their bank accounts frozen, and most sectors came to a complete standstill.

The deteriorating economic situation has been accompanied by a complete lack of oversight and state agencies, opening the door to the black market and thuggish traders who exploit the humanitarian situation to make exorbitant profits at the expense of people's hunger and pain. With electricity outages and gas shortages, residents are no longer even able to cook the meager provisions they have left, exacerbating their daily suffering and forcing them to subsist on meager meals consisting of little more than water and salt, or soup made from leftovers distributed in some areas by volunteers and local humanitarian teams that are barely able to survive.

At the heart of this catastrophe, children are the most affected. They are beginning to show signs of severe malnutrition, including pale faces, swollen stomachs, and muscle atrophy—all indicators that they are entering a state of famine, which could be fatal without immediate and urgent intervention. Reliable reports from international organizations, including the World Food Program and the World Health Organization, indicate that tens of thousands of children and pregnant women are living in emergency food conditions, some suffering from extreme hunger, while others are in advanced stages of malnutrition.

The shortages of basic food items are not limited to flour and rice, but also include oil, sugar, legumes, and even clean drinking water. This has forced some families to grind fodder or the remains of old, inedible grains to provide enough to sustain themselves, while others have been forced to eat expired food or search through landfills.

In these difficult times, the need for immediate and effective international action to halt this escalating catastrophe is growing. The situation in Gaza is no longer merely a humanitarian crisis; it has transformed into a slow-motion genocide carried out through starvation and blockade, amidst a deplorable and questionable international silence. The continuation of the situation without intervention to open the crossings and allow the entry of food and medicine means that Gaza could face a catastrophe unprecedented in modern history. Death from bombing will not be the only threat; hunger is now also an official killer of children, women, and the elderly.

As the people of Gaza cry out to the world for help, a question remains in the conscience of humanity: How many more children must starve to death before this world, which claims to defend human rights, takes action?

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The Israeli military decided to punish four soldiers from the 931st Battalion of the Nahal Brigade after they informed their commanders of their refusal to participate in a new round of fighting inside the Gaza Strip, despite having served in several previous rounds since the outbreak of Israel's war of extermination in the Strip.

According to a report published by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (Kan 11) on Sunday, three of the soldiers were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one week to 12 days, while the case of the fourth soldier has not yet been decided. All four were also excluded from any future combat missions.

The report stated that the four soldiers fought inside Gaza for months, and during their service, they lost several comrades and were exposed to "harsh scenes and tragic experiences," according to the mother of one of them, who said, "These things will remain deeply etched in their hearts."

According to the report, the soldiers informed their commanders that they were unable to return to the Strip "not out of fear, but as a result of a deep internal crisis," as they described it. They noted that "instead of receiving psychological support, they were sent directly to prison," they said.

The report stated that the discussion about their decision took place directly between the soldiers and their commanders, and that the soldiers were aware of the consequences of refusal, including prison sentences, and expressed their willingness to bear them.

In response, the Israeli army said: "Three regular soldiers from the Nahal Brigade refused to enter combat in the Gaza Strip, despite having undergone a psychological evaluation by a mental health officer who deemed them fit to participate in combat."

The Israeli army added: "After disciplinary action, the soldiers persisted in their refusal, so they were punished by imprisonment in a military prison."

The army stressed that "the situation was handled sensitively and in accordance with orders. However, the army views the behavior of refusing orders, especially during combat, as extremely serious, and will continue to uphold discipline and command values."

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The death toll from the Israeli occupation's aggression on the Gaza Strip has risen to 59,821 dead and 144,851 wounded since October 7, 2023.

Medical sources reported on Sunday that the death toll includes 8,657 dead and 32,810 wounded since March 18, when the occupation resumed its aggression on the Gaza Strip following the ceasefire agreement.

It noted that 11 dead and more than 36 wounded from the "aid" martyrs arrived at hospitals over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of "livelihood" dead to 1,132, and more than 7,521 wounded.

Gaza hospitals also recorded six new deaths in the past 24 hours due to famine and malnutrition, bringing the total number of deaths from famine and malnutrition to 133, including 87 children.

It indicated that 88 dead (including 12 dead whose bodies were recovered) and 374 injured people arrived at hospitals during the past 24 hours.

Sources in Gaza hospitals also announced that 53 citizens have been killed by Israeli army fire since dawn today, including 32 people waiting for aid.

Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat confirmed that 12 martyrs, including four children and a woman, and 107 wounded arrived at the hospital as a result of the Israeli occupation targeting citizens at the aid point on Salah al-Din Street, south of the Wadi Gaza area in the central Gaza Strip.

Four citizens were killed when the occupation forces bombed a group of citizens near the clinic in the Al-Zeitoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City.

Five others, including a woman and her child, were killed and others injured when the occupation forces bombed an apartment in Al-Waleed Tower near the Tayaran Junction, west of Gaza City.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the decisions regarding the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip on Saturday in a "panicked and hasty manner," more than four months after violating the ceasefire with Hamas and resuming the war. "Israel was forced to admit that it had put itself in a dead end," Amos Harel, a military analyst for Haaretz, reported Sunday.

He noted that the ceasefire and prisoner exchange negotiations "completely faltered. Hamas realized it had the upper hand due to global outrage against Israel," due to the mounting Palestinian death toll and scenes of famine in Gaza, which led Hamas to "insist on its positions in the negotiations."

Harel added that after Israel and the United States announced the suspension of negotiations in Doha and pledged to explore other ways to advance the negotiations, "they did not lead to anything practical. The international community is now preoccupied with finding quick ways to alleviate the suffering in Gaza and pressure Israel to stop the war. Perhaps the Netanyahu government has come to realize that this is not the right time for a military attack."

He pointed out that Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Netanyahu's mouthpieces in the media "ignored warnings about the inability of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to achieve its ambitious goals, given that it has only a few distribution centers (of aid) in the southern Gaza Strip. They knew that the road to these centers is dangerous and that there is terrible chaos on the ground, much of it caused by Israeli military operations, but they focused on the dream of complete Israeli control over the Strip and the aid, which would ultimately lead to the 'voluntary migration' of Palestinians from Gaza via Sinai."

Harel emphasized that Netanyahu is "centrally responsible. He knows that there is no military way to rescue the kidnapped soldiers alive, that Hamas is not concerned or responsible for the fate of the civilians, and that the current Israeli operations are merely prolonging the war without any purpose or benefit."

"Since the beginning of this year, Netanyahu has ignored the chances of ending the war because the fate of his coalition was more important. Now the prime minister is concocting solutions under mounting international pressure. It may be too late. Hamas will entrench itself even more deeply in its positions, thanks to international support for the Palestinians, and the Israeli government will face a dilemma between a futile escalation of military operations and surrendering to the dictates of a ceasefire imposed on it without succeeding in returning the 20 kidnapped alive and the 30 killed by Hamas," he added.

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The Israeli occupation recently imposed strict restrictions on the entry of civilian bodies and international media correspondents into the Gaza Strip, subjecting them to military censorship, according to documents submitted by the Ministry of Defense and the Israeli army following a petition by the Movement for Freedom of Information.

These documents were created with the aim of ensuring that any civilian activity in the Gaza Strip is subject to strict oversight and coordination with Israeli security agencies, under the pretext of "maintaining maximum state security and thwarting attempts to misuse humanitarian permits," according to the Walla website on Sunday.

The restrictions stipulate that the entry of professionals, relief organizations, or international delegations into the Gaza Strip requires strict registration and authorization procedures, including the submission of lists of the names of all participants in the activities, details of their purpose, the technological means they carry, details of communications and equipment, and the name of the accompanying entity responsible for the activity.

These restrictions are enforced by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the IDF Southern Command, and the Shin Bet. Any permit is subject to a thorough security review, including the possibility of revocation at any stage if the restrictions are violated.

The documents prohibit the transfer of any "suspicious equipment, leakage of sensitive information, or fear of unauthorized activity to local entities." They also require entities seeking entry to the Gaza Strip to inform Israeli security authorities in advance of any activity, including providing detailed reports on the activity, and to commit to operating with full transparency. Israel threatens to revoke entry permits to the Gaza Strip on the grounds of non-compliance with the imposed restrictions.

These restrictions aim to prevent exposure of the catastrophic situation and Israel's crimes in the Gaza Strip. Attorney Yaara Finkler, of the Movement for Freedom of Information, was quoted by Walla as saying, "The lack of transparency in the Israeli army regarding the procedures for the entry of civilians into Gaza and Lebanon is criminal negligence. The fact that the procedures are not made public to the public and soldiers has caused death and endangered human lives."

She added, "Transparency and oversight of the entry and exit of journalists, including their subordination to the IDF Spokesperson's Office, must be clear to all. The public must know if a journalist is subject to the IDF Spokesperson's instructions."

International media outlets, including the German magazine Der Spiegel, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and the BBC, are publishing testimonies from journalists in Gaza about the food shortages. Meanwhile, news agencies Reuters, the Associated Press, and the BBC issued a joint statement expressing concern for journalists in the Strip.

Walla stressed that Israel has been preventing Israeli and international media from covering events in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war, despite international criticism.

Last week, the Knesset's National Security Committee approved a bill to shut down foreign media outlets without court approval, which it will vote on in its first reading. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court rejected several petitions demanding that journalists be allowed into the Gaza Strip.

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The Commission of Prisoners' Affairs and Ex-Prisoners has documented testimonies from inside Israeli prisons confirming the ongoing systematic crimes against prisoners, including beatings and abuse, in addition to starvation and medical neglect.

The Commission stated in a report published Sunday that the Israeli prison administration continues to commit crimes against prisoners, with the fate of more than 10,000 prisoners, including women and children, increasingly at risk.

Among the testimonies documented by the Commission through its legal team at Ofer Prison is the case of prisoner Bilal Amro from the town of Dura, south of Hebron, who suffers from severe back and foot pain due to the presence of platinum. He has repeatedly asked the prison administration to provide the necessary painkillers to alleviate his pain, but to no avail. He also suffers from severe visual impairment.

Regarding the case of prisoner Alaa Al-Adam from the town of Beit Ula, west of Hebron, the Commission stated that he suffers from a skin allergy in the thigh area and severe itching due to a skin disease that has not been treated properly.

In the Negev prison, the Commission's lawyer visited prisoner Hassan Imad Abu Hassan from the town of Yamoun, west of Jenin, who has been suffering from scabies for more than three months. On the first day of his detention in Megiddo prison, the prison guards forced him to sleep on a bed belonging to a prisoner suffering from scabies. As his health deteriorated, ointment was brought to him and he began to improve. However, when the repression units stormed the room, they seized the ointment and severely beat him for no apparent reason.

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Today, Sunday, the Israeli occupation forces summoned the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, the preacher of Al-Aqsa Mosque, for investigation and served him with a one-week ban from entering the mosque, subject to renewal.

Mufti Mohammed Hussein told WAFA that the occupation summoned him this morning for investigation by its intelligence service at a center in the Old City. This came after he delivered the Friday sermon in which he denounced the occupation's starvation policy against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. The order banning him from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque for a week, subject to renewal, was handed to him.

The Mufti pointed out that the occupation forces asked him to sign the deportation order, but he refused.

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Gershon Baskin

July 26, 2025

 President Trump is now telling Netanyahu to finish off Hamas – to get the job done.   What does that mean? Before Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, Trump was telling the media and Netanyahu to finish the war, but that was prior to Netanyahu apparently convincing Trump to allow Israel to continue the war (the tail wagging the dog). The US-supported negotiations in Doha for a ceasefire failed primarily because Israel wants to continue the war while Hamas wants to end the war. The goals of the two sides are diametrically opposed and therefore, the Hamas parameters of the proposed ceasefire are unacceptable to Israel.  Hamas is blamed because they want Israel out of Gaza. Hamas is blamed because they want aid to flow into Gaza uninhibited.  Of course, Israel says that Hamas wants all of that to retake control over Gaza, to rebuild their army, and to refinance themselves by stealing the aid and selling it. All of that might true because both the Palestinian Authority who have primary responsibility to determine the governance of Gaza instead of Hamas is not doing what it needs to do, and Israel does not want any other legitimate Palestinian form of governance in Gaza so that Israel can continue to do what it is doing – fighting a war and totally destroying Gaza, which has no legitimacy.  

Out of the frustration from the failure of the negotiations, Trump now comes up with a page from the play book of the likes of Ben Gvir and Smootrich – finish off Hamas! Israel has already wiped-out Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia, Rafah, Khan Yunis, most of Gaza city and Jabalia, and more, and now they are wiping out Deir el Balah and Nusseirat. Almost nothing of Gaza is left – creating an uninhabitable land for more than 2.2 million people. Is this the materialization of the Trump-Israeli settlers-Evangelical Christian-Netanyahu-Ben Gvir-Smootrich vision of the Gaza Riviera? This Israeli vision of Gaza without Palestinians who will be forced to leave Gaza because it is impossible to live there is a war crime and then resettled by Jews. This is a war crime that is piled on the war crimes and crimes against humanity that Israel has been committing for many months now. 

It is beyond my ability as a Jew not to feel physical pain when having to call out Israel for acts of genocide. The “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide” was written in 1948 in the very dark shadows of the Holocaust. Many Jews were involved in the drafting of that Convention. What Israel is doing in Gaza is not the Holocaust – there are many differences, but what Israel is doing in Gaza is genocide. Two of the most important and respected Israeli Holocaust scholars have come out in public calling it genocide (Prof. Alex Goldberg and Prof. Omer Bartov). Israeli leaders – the Prime Minister, the ministers of the government, almost all Members of Knesset and most Israelis reject the accusation of genocide. They also claim that the real starvation in Gaza is fake news and Ai generated pictures of starving children are all over the social media. People like me who call it out for what it really is are being accused of treason, as mouth pieces for Hamas and/or as self-hating Jews.   They can call me all the names that they want, I will not be intimidated and I will not stop speaking the truth. It is unfortunate that we need to wait for history to judge us before we take responsibly for the crimes that we are committing.  The rest of the world is not waiting. And while there is antisemitism among those who lay criticism at Israel, most of the critics and criticism is right and justified and it is too bad that it has so little impact on the Israeli government and on the people of Israel.  With all of this said, I do not want to for even one minute excuse Hamas for the war crimes and crimes against humanity and against their own people that they are responsible for. I agree with President Trump that Hamas needs to be finished – but the difference is that I believe it is the responsibility of the Palestinian people to finish off Hamas which can best be done in the ballot box. 

The Commission of Prisoners' Affairs and Ex-Prisoners stated that "repression forces in the Negev prison stormed rooms 11 and 16 in Section 22 five days ago, for trivial and unjustified reasons."

The Commission explained, in a brief statement, that the raid came after the prisoners requested plastic food containers. The security forces then brutally beat all the prisoners with rubber bullets, injuring all of them and leaving them without medical treatment.

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Amjad Shawa, head of the NGO Network in the Gaza Strip, said that the Israeli army's declaration of a "humanitarian truce" in the Gaza Strip is a partial truce lasting several hours to ensure the entry of aid.

He explained in a phone call with the official WAFA news agency that this only applies to several locations identified by the occupation army, namely densely populated areas hosting thousands of displaced persons, most notably Al-Mawasi and Deir al-Balah.

He pointed out that the 2.2 million residents of the Gaza Strip live on an area of no more than 46 square kilometers, representing no more than 12% of the total area of the Strip.

Al-Shawa explained that the number of trucks loaded with aid expected to enter the Gaza Strip in the coming hours ranges between 150 and 200, allowing it to mitigate the scale of the humanitarian disaster in the Strip, where the daily need is estimated at 1,000 trucks.

He stated that the trucks expected to enter will carry essential relief supplies, such as flour, food, medical supplies, hygiene materials, and water purification supplies, through the United Nations and international organizations such as the World Food Programme, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization, in addition to the Egyptian side and the Jordanian Hashemite Commission.

The head of the Gaza Strip's NGO Network noted that the occupation's announcement that aid distribution is the responsibility of UN agencies represents an Israeli admission of the failure of the effort to remove the UN and humanitarian organizations from the scene, and their replacement by an attempt to promote the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has established centers of daily death, killing, and humiliation for the people of the Gaza Strip.

He added, "The presence of international organizations is of utmost importance, especially since they operate within the principles of humanitarian action, ensuring the safety and dignity of citizens."

He added that aid distribution will be conducted according to a mechanism overseen by international organizations and Palestinian civil society organizations in partnership with the United Nations. This will be done within databases that ensure everyone receives aid, and according to top priorities that take into account female-headed households, people with disabilities, the elderly, the sick, and the wounded. This will be done through hundreds of distribution centers operating on the ground to facilitate citizens' access to aid.

Al-Shawa appealed to the people of the Gaza Strip not to obstruct or stop the trucks, and to ensure their safe passage to warehouses and distribution centers so that distribution operations can begin immediately, despite the extent of the suffering they have endured over the past period.

He called on citizens not to put their lives in danger by heading to areas where the Israeli occupation has forced them to flee, especially since the occupation has not announced its withdrawal from any of the areas. Any return would be a life-threatening situation, especially given the limited humanitarian truce of several hours to ensure the entry of aid.

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The lawyer of the Commission of Prisoners' Affairs and Ex-Prisoners reported, after her last visit to Al-Damon Prison, that the occupation forces arrested the young woman, Tasneem Barakat Odeh (22 years old), from the city of Jerusalem, on 12/12/2024, while she was working transporting students in her private car. She is a student in her final year at the Faculty of Law at Abu Dis University.

The lawyer explained in a statement issued by the committee that the occupation forces took the young woman, Awda, from in front of the school without immediately clarifying the reasons for the arrest, after individuals in civilian clothes stormed her car and seized her phone and iPad. She was then transferred to the Moscobiyya interrogation center for 14 days, under the pretext of old posts on Facebook dating back to 2022 in which she mourned her father. During this time, the prisoner was subjected to harsh daily interrogations that lasted from 6 to 7 hours, interspersed with repeated insults and curses.

She noted that after the investigation was completed, she was transferred to Sharon Prison, where she spent one night in extremely poor conditions, including a full strip search and denial of heating. She was then transferred to Damon Prison.

Tasneem added, "During one of the court sessions at the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court, she was beaten on the head and face by a guard. She was also detained in the bus for more than two hours with the air conditioning and engine off, which led to suffocation and nearly caused her to lose consciousness."

The prisoner pointed out that prison forces recently stormed the section using police dogs and tear gas, searched the rooms, and subjected the female prisoners to collective punishment for simple and illogical reasons, such as the presence of old graffiti on the walls. Among the punishments was a ban on going out for a break for 7 days. In addition to the above, the cells in Al-Damon Prison are completely closed and lack ventilation, despite the overcrowding and high temperatures, where 43 female prisoners are held.

Medical sources at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat announced this morning, Sunday, the death of 10-year-old Nour Abu Sala'a due to starvation and malnutrition, bringing the death toll among children in Gaza to 86.

According to medical sources, the number of starvation deaths in the Gaza Strip has risen to 128.

It's worth noting that cases of malnutrition and famine are arriving at hospitals in Gaza at any given moment. Some 900,000 children in Gaza are suffering from hunger, 70,000 of whom have entered the malnutrition stage.

It is noteworthy that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) had warned that malnutrition among children under the age of five had doubled between March and June, as a result of the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.

After months of starvation and denial, Israel is changing its rhetoric under international pressure... but have its actions changed? Israel is not afraid of the international community because it feels guilty, but because it has become afraid of having its name called out in The Hague.

I have long written that the Israeli government pursues a cynical policy of avoiding formally recognizing the occupation of the Gaza Strip. In reality, however, it practices occupation in all its dimensions: controlling the crossings, besieging the population, bombing from the air day and night, and denying access to food, medicine, and water. It calls this an "operation," not an occupation, because legal recognition of the occupation imposes clear obligations under international law, chief among them providing food, healthcare, and infrastructure for the population. These are responsibilities that Israel refuses to assume.

The Israeli military's announcement of daily "humanitarian pauses" in Gaza, beginning July 27, does not reflect any moral shift; rather, it reveals a growing state of political confusion. These pauses, which extend for ten hours in areas where Israeli forces are not active, coincide with mounting international pressure and increasing reports accusing Israel of committing a systematic starvation crime amounting to genocide.

Informed sources told Yedioth Ahronoth that the Israeli government has been in a state of hysteria over the past few days due to international pressure, and has ordered the preparation of a plan to "allow everything" into Gaza "without restrictions," explaining that the issue of aid reaching Hamas "no longer concerns it at this time." At the same time, Kan Channel reported that the political echelon has so far refused to explain the reasons for declaring a humanitarian ceasefire, leaving the responsibility solely to the military.

The starvation plaguing the Gaza Strip, particularly in the north, is not the result of an organizational flaw or a logistical failure, but rather a deliberate policy. The plan was to besiege and strangle the north until the population was forced to flee, and then "victory" would be declared. But hundreds of thousands returned after the ceasefire, as if nothing had happened.

The central Gaza Strip, which was claimed to be a "safe zone," was subjected to heavy shelling, including relentless attacks on the tents of displaced people. Today, no one controls Gaza except the Israeli army: it occupies it, moves within it, bombs it, and besieges it. Yet it does not acknowledge its responsibility.

The scene brings to mind Japan's experience in China, when Tokyo refused to formally declare war to avoid legal obligations toward its prisoners and instead chose to kill them. Israel is doing the same: occupying Gaza without recognition, leaving its population to starve to death.

As for what Israel calls "aid distribution centers," they are nothing more than death traps. These centers were established with government support and operated by private security companies of mercenaries, for a purely political purpose: a false humanitarian marketing campaign that satisfies the far right and silences the West.

International relief organizations refused to cooperate with it, realizing that the lack of local organization leads to chaos and killing, and deprives the most needy of access to food.

The model used to distribute food parcels is adapted from UN programs in Sudan and Yemen, but it is not suitable for Gaza, where residents are forcibly displaced every week without a fixed home.

The plan was completely devoid of medical nutrients, infant formula, and malnutrition medications, as if the goal was not relief, but hunger management.

Israel can no longer market its old rhetoric about "Hamas stealing aid."

The New York Times quoted four Israeli sources, including officers, as saying there was no evidence of aid theft by the movement. An internal report by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) confirmed the same. The UN distribution system, according to these testimonies, was efficient and secure.

Faced with this exposure, Israel has resorted to demonstrative measures: "humanitarian pauses," airdrops of aid, "safe" corridors, and even the restoration of electricity to the desalination plant, which serves some 900,000 people. All of these measures aim to deny the most serious accusation: deliberate starvation.

But these steps came too late, after the crime had occurred. The Ministry of Health in Gaza confirmed that 127 people have died of starvation since the start of the war, including 85 children. Hundreds more suffer from life-threatening malnutrition, especially among the elderly, infants, and pregnant women. Worse still: more than 1,100 civilians have been killed while waiting for aid.

These numbers are not just a tragedy, they are a complete indictment.

Israel fears the international community not for moral reasons, but for pragmatic ones. What it fears is the loss of its political and symbolic legitimacy, and the transformation of its leaders from partners of the West into defendants in The Hague.

That's why Israel is acting today under pressure from investigations, cameras, and reports. What it's doing isn't rescuing the Palestinians, but rather a desperate attempt to salvage its image. It's withholding limited aid and claiming to be "cooperating" with the United Nations, which it accused a few days ago of failure. Ironically, these contradictions, instead of improving its image, expose it further.

Humanitarian actions are not a rescue gesture, but rather a preemptive attempt to ward off accountability and whitewash an unjustifiable crime.