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Here’s where things stand on Tuesday 5 August 2025:
- An Israeli military ground campaign accompanied by “very heavy fire from its air force and also from Israeli artillery units” is under way in various parts of Gaza, according to our team on the ground.
- Eight more Palestinians, including a child, have died due to Israeli-induced starvation over the past 24-hour reporting period, health officials in besieged Gaza say.
- Israel allowed just 95 trucks of aid into Gaza on Monday, a figure equal to just 15 percent of the minimum 600 trucks needed each day to meet the basic needs of the population, according to data from Gaza’s Government Media Office.
- Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 61,020 people and wounded 150,671. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7, 2023, attacks, and more than 200 were taken captive.
‘Civil disobedience necessary to challenge genocidal policies’: CAGE International
Senior Director at CAGE International Moazzam Begg has warned that the UK’s anti-terror legislation is being weaponised to silence dissent, describing a planned day of civil disobedience “a defence of basic freedoms”.
His comments follow the UK government’s decision to designate Palestine Action as a “terrorist” organisation, after the group sprayed red paint on two military aircraft – an act intended to draw attention to Britain’s support for Israel’s assault on Gaza.
Since the ban came into effect, hundreds of people have been arrested for holding placards referencing Palestine Action – or Palestine more broadly – in what rights groups say amounts to a dangerous suppression of free expression.
In response, Defend Our Juries and partner organisations are calling on at least 500 people to join a coordinated protest on August 9.
“This action is not about Palestine Action, but wider issues of how anti-terror legislation curtails basic freedoms and undermines the rule of law … There can be no doubt that such laws have been, and continue to be abused and exploited, to suppress free speech,” Begg said.
“How can it be a crime to call for an end to apartheid and genocide? The planned action on 9 August is motivated by the highest moral principles that have underpinned our society and made it the envy of the world.”
Gaza reporters starved and killed
Almost two years in, the war in Gaza is the deadliest conflict for journalists ever.
With no foreign journalists allowed in, Palestinian reporters on the ground are the only ones who can tell the story to the world.
But they face death threats, attacks, and now, even starvation.
In this episode of The Take, Al Jazeera journalist Hind Khoudary talks about how reporters in Gaza are doing their jobs amid such challenges.
Just 95 aid trucks entered Gaza on Monday: Media Office
Gaza’s Government Media Office has warned of an intensifying humanitarian catastrophe, accusing Israel of deliberately restricting aid and fuelling instability in the besieged territory.
Only 95 aid trucks entered Gaza on Monday, the office said in a statement, far below the minimum 600 trucks per day needed to meet basic humanitarian needs, according to UNRWA.
The statement said most of the limited aid was looted due to “security chaos being sowed by the Israeli occupation as part of a systematic policy of engineering chaos and starvation”.
“We condemn the continued systematic starvation, closure of crossings, and denial of aid entry, and hold the occupation and its allies fully responsible for the worsening humanitarian disaster affecting more than 2.4 million people,” the office said.
It also called on the international community to act urgently to reopen crossings and ensure the safe, sustained delivery of food, medicine, and baby formula to civilians in Gaza.
Ex-Israeli security officials turn to Trump out of ‘frustration’ with Netanyahu, analyst says
As we’ve reported, more than 600 former Israeli security chiefs have sent a letter to US President Donald Trump urging him to bring an end to Israel’s war on Gaza and secure the release of the captives.
According to Yossi Mekelberg, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House, Israel’s most senior former security officials were pushed to bypass their own government and appeal directly to Trump by a feeling of despair as furore grows over videos showing two emaciated Israeli captives held in besieged Gaza, where about two million Palestinians are struggling to survive amid a forced starvation crisis.
“It’s both frustration, hopelessness – helplessness from this government,” Mekelberg told Al Jazeera.
“We are talking here about 600 of the most senior, former security officials … former chief of staff, former defence minister – people that understand a thing or two about security,” he told Al Jazeera.
“Interestingly, they don’t even write this letter to the Israeli government, because they gave up on this government,” Mekelberg said. “They know that Netanyahu and this government have no interest.”
Signatories to the letter arguing the war is damaging Israel’s credibility include former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, former Shin Bet head Ami Ayalon, and former deputy army chief Matan Vilnai.
‘We are witnessing what is a tragic ongoing genocide’
We’ve spoken to Laila Baker, the regional director for Arab states at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), about the situation Palestinians are finding themselves in after 22 months of war, in addition to decades of systematic population abuse under Israeli occupation.
Here’s what she said:
“We are witnessing what is a tragic ongoing genocide that continues to devastate the lives of Palestinians in Gaza, but also elsewhere in the region, including the West Bank.
“This is not a failure of capacity; it is essentially a failure of will, access and accountability of the international community in allowing the United Nations to do its job, to be able to provide for the people on humanitarian assistance.
“And more importantly, that the Israeli government as an occupying force including since 1967 in Gaza has the primary responsibility for protecting and providing for the people who are under its occupation.
“To say that there’s been a gross failure of and a breach of that covenant is to underestimate the situation on the ground.
“At UNFPA, we are exceedingly worried about the entire community of two million Palestinians who have been trapped, assaulted, displaced and starved under the Israeli assault since October of 2023.”
‘Since the war began, we have no childhood left’
Since the war on Gaza started, Israeli forces have killed more than 18,000 children – that’s one child every hour. For those who survive, childhood has been replaced by a daily struggle for the basics of life.
Ten-year-old Lana’s hair turned white almost overnight, while white patches also spread across her skin after a bombing near her shelter triggered what doctors call trauma-induced depigmentation.
“I wish I could get treated so I could be pretty like before … I want the white spots to go away,” she told Al Jazeera.
Lana turns to drawing to express her pain and to her doll because other children bully her for her appearance.
“She talks to her doll and says, ‘Do you want to play with me, or will you be like the other kids?’ I took her to a psychologist who said her mental health is severely damaged,” her mother, Mai Jalal al-Sharif, said.
Kadim Khudur Basim, a displaced child in Gaza, told Al Jazeera that he supports a family of six as his father is wounded and receiving treatment in Egypt.
“I love playing football, but now I sell cookies. My childhood is gone. Since the war began, we have no childhood left”.
Gaza death toll rises
At least 87 Palestinians, including 52 aid seekers, have been killed and 644 injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 24 hours, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.
The count includes eight people – one child and seven adults – who starved to death in the past 24 hours, it said, raising the hunger-related death toll to 188, including 94 children.
Eight bodies were also recovered from the rubble of previous Israeli attacks, the ministry statement said on Telegram.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed a total of 61,020 Palestinians and injured 150,671 since October 7, 2023, the ministry added.
The total number of aid seekers killed since May 27, when Israel introduced a new aid distribution mechanism through the controversial GHF, has reached 1,568, with more than 11,230 injured, the statement said.
Photos: Aftermath of Israeli attacks on tents for displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis
