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Here’s where things stand on Friday 1 August 2025:
- At least two people were killed and more than 70 injured while waiting for food supplies near the Morag Corridor south of Khan Younis on Friday morning, our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report.
- US envoy Steve Witkoff and US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, have visited aid distribution sites in Gaza as deaths from starvation continue to mount in the Palestinian territory.
- Medics in Gaza report that two more babies and a young man have died of hunger under Israeli-imposed restrictions on humanitarian aid. Hunger-related deaths in Gaza now stand at 154, including 89 children.
- Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 60,249 people and wounded 147,089 others. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack, and more than 200 were taken captive.
Iran dismisses accusation of overseas plots as attempt to distract from genocide
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei has dismissed claims that Tehran is orchestrating assassination, kidnapping and harassment plots in the West.
On Thursday, 14 Western allies – including Britain, the US, France, Germany, and Canada – issued a joint statement saying they were united in their “opposition to the attempts of Iranian intelligence services to kill, kidnap, and harass people in Europe and North America”.
In response, Baghaei labelled the accusation “an attempt to divert public attention from the most pressing issue of the day, the genocide in occupied Palestine”.
Two killed by drone strike in northern Gaza
An Israeli drone attack has killed two people in northern Gaza’s Jabalia, report our colleagues on the ground, citing al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
The casualties add to at least 15 people killed in earlier attacks today, the team reported.
Six Palestinians arrested by Israeli forces near West Bank’s Hebron, Nablus: Report
Israeli forces have carried out numerous arrests during raids around Hebron and Nablus in the occupied West Bank, reports the Wafa news agency.
They apprehended two people in the city of Hebron after searching their homes and damaging property, as well as two people in the nearby town of Yatta, according to Wafa.
Israeli forces also arrested one man from Balata refugee camp in Nablus, and another man in the nearby town of Huwara – both of whose homes they raided and searched, said Wafa.
US envoy’s planned aid site visit likely to be ‘choreographed’
As we reported earlier, US envoy Steve Witkoff and US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee are planning to visit GHF-run aid distribution sites in Gaza today.
Martin Griffiths, the UN’s former under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, says while the visit is “likely to be choreographed”, it’s still an “important form of witness”.
“I’m glad that they’re going,” Griffiths, now the director of Mediation Group International, told Al Jazeera. “Maybe they will see things that are unexpected. I can’t imagine because we’ve seen so much. But I don’t see it leading to a major change.”
“If I was one of the two million Gazans starving to death, this is a day I would like to go to an aid distribution point,” Griffiths added. “There’s slightly less risk probably than any other day.”
Bloodshed at GHF-run aid sites ‘a great sin’: Ex-UN official
Martin Griffiths, director of Mediation Group International and the former Under Secretary General of the UN Humanitarian Affairs Office, says the US and Israel-backed GHF’s aid distribution system has turned into a “catastrophe”, as the number of aid seekers killed continues to climb beyond 1,000.
“I think when many of us saw the first plans of the GHF to launch this operation in Gaza, we were immediately appalled by the way they were proposing to manage it,” Griffiths told Al Jazeera.
“It was clearly militarised. They’d have their own security contractors. They’d have [Israeli military] camps placed right beside them. We know now that they are, in fact, under instructions by [the Israeli military]. All of this is a crime. All of this is a deep betrayal of humanitarian values.”
“But what I at least did not sufficiently anticipate was the killing and was the absolutely critical result of this operation, this sole humanitarian operation allowed by Israel in Gaza,” Griffiths added.
“The 1,000 killed are an incredible statistic. I had no idea it would go that high and it’s going on daily. It’s not stopping.”
“I think it’s a catastrophe more than a disappointment,” he said. “I think it’s a great sin. I think it’s a great crime.”
Gaza residents recount suffering from food crisis due to Israeli blockade
“I am going to get food for my siblings. My father was martyred. If I didn’t go to bring it, my siblings would die from hunger. What can I do?” a child has told Al Jazeera near the GHF aid distribution site that has seen hundreds of starving Palestinians shot dead.
Separately, a mother of eight children told Al Jazeera that her five-month-old daughter is malnourished because she was not getting enough food during pregnancy.
She said that she has already lost her fourth child to malnutrition.
“My fourth kid died. The reason for his death was malnutrition. He was severely malnourished. We couldn’t provide food for him or provide anything for the child to eat,” she said. “He died in my arms as I was taking him to the hospital.”
Israel seems to be demolishing ‘every single home in Gaza’
A very sleepless night across the Gaza Strip, with particular focus here on Gaza City, especially the Western part, where a mix of drone attacks and fighter jets hovered at a very low level across the city. It looked like they were targeting something in the area.
Many people are concentrated here in displacement sites, so the attacks caused mayhem, chaos and a state of panic among the displaced population. Many people started packing some of their stuff in case an attack happened, seeking shelter somewhere else.
Attacks went on from Gaza City all the way to Deir el-Balah and the city of Khan Younis, where tents housing displaced Palestinians were killed.
This has been the pattern for the past three months on a daily basis as if the Israeli military is on a mission to demolish every single structure, every single home in Gaza.
Those who manage to get close to the area, from the local residents who check on their homes to international organisations around Salah al-Din Street, would describe a scene of vast fields of rubble that once was an overly crowded residential neighbourhood.
Give international media access to Gaza: UNRWA
International news organisations must be allowed to report independently on Gaza, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said.
In a post on social media, UNRWA said atrocities against civilians in the enclave have continued for more than 660 days and blocking international media from Gaza “fuels disinformation and deepens the dehumanisation of the Palestinian people”.
Israel’s “ban must be lifted”, the agency said.
Death toll near Khan Younis aid site rises to seven
At least seven-aid seekers have now been confirmed killed near a distribution point south of Khan Younis, report our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic, citing Nasser Hospital.
US’s Witkoff, Huckabee visit GHF aid site: Report
US envoy Steve Witkoff and US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee have now visited a GHF-run aid distribution point in Gaza, reports Israel’s Ynet News site.
The two officials will report on the site’s conditions to US President Trump, who recently expressed concerns about the worsening humanitarian situation in the enclave.
France sending aid to Gaza to address ‘revolting’ food crisis: Top diplomat
France is sending four flights, each carrying 10 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Gaza, according to French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot.
Speaking to Franceinfo, Barrot said the “emergency aid” is “still not sufficient” to address the “revolting” crisis unfolding in Gaza.
As we reported earlier, at least two more babies and one young man have died of hunger in Gaza, bringing the total number of hunger-related deaths there since the start of the war to 154.
Trump imposes 15% trade tariff on Israel
The While House imposed a 15-percent tariff on Israeli imports as part of US President Donald Trump’s global trade policy. The new restrictions will take effect on August 7 and involve dozens of other countries.
According to Israeli media, the country’s Finance Ministry said the levies are lower compared with other countries thanks to “the positive dialogue and discourse between Israel and the [Trump] administration”.
“Negotiations with our American counterparts continue with the goal of reaching a full and improved agreement,” it added.
Israeli army fired interceptor at false target
The Israeli army just published a follow-up after saying that sirens were activated near the Gaza fence.
Now, it says one interceptor was launched towards a “false target”.
Army says alerts activated in southern Israel
The Israeli military has said warning sirens have been activated in Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip.
“Details are being examined,” it added.
‘People started fighting each other over milk’: Gaza witness
Al Jazeera has spoken with several Palestinians who said they saw Israeli forces open fire on aid seekers amid chaotic scenes as people scrambled for flour and milk.
One of the men, Rakan Jneid, said people rushed towards aid trucks as they headed towards a distribution point, with some being run over.
“Today, milk came in and people started fighting each other to take the milk,” Jneid said. “The Israelis opened fire to take advantage of the situation.”
Another Palestinian, Muhannad Abu Jarad, also described seeing the Israeli army “shooting at us”.
Israeli rights group warns of wide-scale ethnic cleansing of Palestinians
Israeli officials have repeatedly claimed that forced evacuation orders in Gaza are a military necessity.
The government’s plans to force Palestinians out of the Strip, or transfer them to a concentration zone in the south, have been described as ethnic cleansing.
Israeli rights group B’Tselem is warning that the forced displacement is a threat to Palestinians not only in Gaza, but also the occupied West Bank, and Israel.
Israeli killings of aid seekers in Gaza amount to war crimes: HRW
Human Rights Watch says that Israeli troops at the sites of the US and Israeli-backed GHF have killed Palestinian aid seekers in acts that amount to war crimes.
“The dire humanitarian situation is a direct result of Israel’s use of starvation of civilians as a weapon of war – a war crime – as well as Israel’s continued intentional deprivation of aid and basic services, ongoing actions that amount to the crime against humanity of extermination, and acts of genocide,” read the report released today.
Mass-casualty incidents have taken place on a near-daily basis at or near GHF sites in Gaza. According to the UN, more than 850 Palestinians have been killed while trying to get food there since late May, most by the Israeli army.
“Israeli forces are not only deliberately starving Palestinian civilians, but they are now gunning them down almost every day as they desperately seek food for their families,” said Belkis Wille, associate crisis and conflict director at HRW.
“US-backed Israeli forces and private contractors have put in place a flawed, militarized aid distribution system that has turned aid distributions into regular bloodbaths.”
Israel sharpens UAE travel warning for citizens, cites ‘terrorist’ threat
Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) has sharpened its travel warnings for Israelis visiting and staying in the United Arab Emirates, citing a heightened risk of “terrorist organisations” carrying out attacks in the Gulf state.
In a statement published on Thursday, the NSC cited a growing threat from “terrorist organisations (The Iranians, Hamas, Hezbollah and Global Jihad)” attacking Israeli targets, motivated by Israel’s military operations in the Middle East.
“They are driven by heightened motivation to exact revenge following Operation Rising Lion, in addition to the anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian incitement which has intensified since the start of Operation Iron Swords, and even more so in response to Hamas’ starvation campaign,” it said, using the names for its military assaults on Iran and Gaza.
Israel is facing mounting international pressure over Gaza’s ongoing starvation crisis, caused by the Israeli military’s months-long blockade on aid entering the Palestinian enclave.
Read more here.
Steve Witkoff to visit Gaza
At least 159 people have now died from hunger in Gaza in what’s being described as Israel’s campaign of using starvation as a weapon of war.
Dozens of Palestinians were also killed on Thursday at food distribution sites run by the notorious US and Israeli-backed GHF in Gaza ahead of a planned visit to the famished Palestinian territory by US special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Witkoff is expected to visit GHF aid distribution sites that have been described as “killing zones” for starving Palestinians.
New poll shows 47% of Israelis deny famine is occurring in Gaza
Nearly half of Israelis – 47 percent – surveyed in a new poll said they do not believe Gaza is suffering famine, dismissing such claims as Hamas propaganda.
In the poll, carried out by the Lazar Research Institute and published by Maariv newspaper, 41 percent of respondents agreed that a humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Gaza.
Of those who agreed, 56 percent said they care about the issue of famine in Gaza, while 44 percent said they do not, according to Maariv.
At least 10 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza
We have been reporting on the Israeli military’s attacks across Gaza over recent hours, including an assault on aid seekers near the Morag Corridor south of Khan Younis, which killed at least two people and injured more than 70.
Our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues, quoting sources at hospitals in Gaza, now report that Israeli attacks carried out since the early hours of Friday morning have killed at least 10 people so far.
We will bring you further updates when we have them.