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Here is where things stand on Sunday 25 May 2025:
- Four-year-old Mohammed Yassine dies from a lack of food as the World Food Programme warns that more than 70,000 children in Gaza face acute levels of malnutrition.
- Israel’s military says it is “reviewing” an attack that killed nine of Dr Alaa al-Najjar’s 10 children in Khan Younis as Gaza officials say killing innocent children has “become a pastime” for Israeli soldiers.
- Israel has only allowed 100 trucks carrying aid into Gaza since Wednesday, officials say, an amount that is nowhere near what’s needed to help the enclave’s two million people.
- Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 53,901 Palestinians and wounded 122,593, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The Government Media Office updated the death toll to more than 61,700, saying thousands of people missing under the rubble are presumed dead.
- An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, and more than 200 taken captive.
Outrage, horror after Israeli attack kills nine children of Gaza doctor
We’ve been reporting on an Israeli attack that killed nine of Dr Alaa al-Najjar’s 10 children.
The oldest child killed was 12, and the youngest was just a few months old.
Gaza Media’s Office says the attack amounts to a war crime.
Spain to host Madrid Group meeting on Gaza war
Foreign ministers from European and Middle Eastern nations are set to meet in the Spanish capital, Madrid, later today as part of efforts to step up pressure on Israel to end its war on Gaza.
The talks – which will bring together diplomats from Spain, Norway, Slovenia, Ireland, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkiye, Egypt, Qatar and Bahrain – will be the fifth meeting of the Arab-Islamic Contact Group or the Madrid Group.
“We want to mobilise the voices of the EU but also those outside the European Union in Arab and Islamic countries,” Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told the El País newspaper last week.
“We all want the same thing: to end this war, prevent Gaza from becoming a mass graveyard, and break the Israeli blockade on humanitarian aid,” he said.
The talks will also include discussions on an upcoming international conference on the two-state solution, which is set to take place at UN headquarters in New York in June. That conference will be co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France.
Photos: Aftermath of the Israeli strike that killed a Gaza doctor’s 9 children
If you’re just joining us
Here’s what you need to know:
- Israeli forces continue pounding Gaza, killing at least nine people since the early hours of this morning.
- The victims include seven Palestinians who were killed in an attack on a home in Jabalia an-Nazla in northern Gaza.
- A doctor in Gaza says famine in the enclave has entered a “new phase of mortality”, affecting children who are otherwise healthy and have no pre-existing illnesses.
- French and Palestinian rights groups have launched a legal bid to stop eight Israeli weapons companies from participating in the Paris Air Show.
- Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan calls on ASEAN to speak up for Palestinians ahead of the regional bloc’s annual summit.
Famine in Gaza enters a ‘new phase of mortality’
Izzedin Shaheen, a doctor in Gaza, says famine in Gaza is now affecting children who are otherwise healthy.
In a post on X, he wrote:
“Famine has entered a new phase of mortality, which may have once been limited to children with chronic illnesses or special needs, but is now affecting children who were otherwise healthy and had no pre-existing illnesses other than malnutrition.”
The comment comes after health authorities in Gaza announced the death of a four-year-old boy from starvation. Mohammed Yassine’s death has taken the number of Palestinians who have died of hunger since Israel’s blockade to 58.
Several Palestinians wounded in Israeli settler attack in West Bank
The Palestinian Red Crescent is reporting that seven Palestinians have been wounded in an attack by Israeli settlers on the village of al-Maniya, near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.
Another group of Israeli settlers also attacked Palestinian vehicles near the Kedumim settlement, between the Nablus and Qalqilya governorates, and Palestinian homes in the town of Bruqin, west of Salfit.
The settler attacks came as Israeli soldiers continued raids in the occupied West Bank, including in the town of Yabad, southwest of the city of Jenin.
Death toll in Gaza rises
We are getting reports that at least nine Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since the early hours of this morning.
Josh Paul resigned over Gaza. What comes next?
Josh Paul, the first US official to resign over Israel’s war on Gaza, joins The Take to explain why he stepped down, his new efforts lobbying in Washington, DC, and why he believes that US support for Israel’s war fuels conflict abroad and makes Americans less safe at home.
Death toll in Jabalia rises to 7We’ve been reporting on an Israeli attack on a house in Jabalia an-Nazla in northern Gaza.We are getting reports that the death toll there has now risen to seven.
Malaysia urges ASEAN to speak up for Palestine
Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan has condemned Israel’s “atrocities” in Gaza and called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to speak up for Palestinians.
His comments come ahead of the regional bloc’s summit in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.
“The atrocities committed against the Palestinian people continue to reflect indifference and double standards,” Mohamad told his ASEAN counterparts.
“They are a direct result of the erosion of the sanctity of international law,” he said.
“ASEAN cannot remain silent,” he added.
The 10-member regional bloc had previously asserted its “longstanding support” for Palestinian rights in February.
Cooking in Gaza is now a toxic affair
We used to know well the tiny click of a gas stove burner starting – that small spark at the start of a day that meant a hot meal or a cup of tea was coming.
Now, that sound is gone, replaced by the hollow clang of emptiness.
We used our last drop of cooking gas in the middle of Ramadan. Like all other families in Gaza, we turned to firewood. I remember my mother saying, “From today, we cannot even make a cup of tea for suhoor.”
Families who have no trees to chop have turned to burning plastic, rubber and trash – anything that will catch fire. But burning these materials releases toxic fumes, poisoning the air they breathe and seeping into the food they cook. The taste of plastic clings to every bite, turning each meal into a health risk.
You can read more here.
What’s happened in Gaza since Israel abandoned truce deal?
- March 2: Israel blocks the entry of all aid into Gaza after Hamas rejects its effort to change the terms of the ceasefire deal agreed to in January.
- March 18: Israel abandons the ceasefire and bombards Gaza, killing more than 400 Palestinians, many of them children, in a single day.
- April 25: The World Food Programme (WFP) shuts down all of its bakeries and says its food stocks in Gaza are completely depleted.
- May 5: Netanyahu announces the expansion of the Gaza war and says that “there will be a movement of the population to protect” the operation.
- May 12: Hamas frees US-Israeli captive Edan Alexander after direct talks with the US, while the world’s leading hunger monitor warns that the entire population of Gaza is at a critical risk of famine.
- May 16: Israel begins its expanded operation, dubbed “Gideon’s Chariots”, killing dozens of Palestinians.
- May 20: The UK pauses free trade talks with Israel, while the EU says it will review a pact governing its political and economic ties with Israel due to the “catastrophic” situation in Gaza.
- May 22: Israel lets in 100 trucks carrying flour, baby food and medical equipment into Gaza, but aid groups say the amount is nowhere enough to make up for shortages caused by the 11-week blockade.
Rights groups seek ban on Israeli firms at Paris weapons expo
Palestinian and French rights organisations say they are taking legal action to prevent eight Israeli weapons companies from participating in the Paris Air Show next month.
The rights groups, including the Palestinian organisation Al-Haq, have asked the Bobigny judicial court to compel the organisers of the event to take all possible measures to stop a “manifestly unlawful disturbance”.
“There should be no doubt that these companies are supporting Israel’s ongoing military onslaught in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), given the information available on their official websites and networks,” the groups said in a statement.
“Some even go so far as to promote their weapons as having been ‘tested in combat’ in Gaza,” the statement added.
Last year, the French government banned representatives of Israeli companies from taking part in the Eurosatory weapons expo, but the decision was overturned by a court at the last minute.
What’s the latest on talks for a ceasefire?
Family members of Israeli captives have once again taken to the streets of Tel Aviv, in an area that has become known as hostage square, as well as other parts of the country, to try to send a message to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that they want a deal.
It’s been nearly 600 days since Israel’s war on Gaza began, and the Israeli delegation that was negotiating for a ceasefire deal in the Qatari capital, Doha, has returned with those talks still at a stalemate.
That’s because Netanyahu said he has new conditions for ending the war on Gaza. It’s not just disarming Hamas, it’s not just releasing the captives, and it’s not just the exile of political and military leaders. He says he wants to integrate Trump’s plan for Gaza into his conditions.
This is the plan that has been widely condemned internationally, with many saying it amounts to ethnic cleansing. But the Israeli leader says he will not end the war until all of his military objectives have been met and until there’s absolute victory.
Family members of Israeli captives say he’s prolonging the war for his own political and personal gain.
Freed captive says Israeli air strikes put her ‘in the most danger’
Naama Levy, an Israeli soldier who was released in January, has described surviving an Israeli air attack during her time in captivity in Gaza.
“I was convinced every single time that this was my end, and it’s also what put me in the most danger,” she said at a protest, according to The Times of Israel.
“One of the bombardments collapsed part of the house I was in,” she said. “The wall I was leaning on didn’t collapse, and that’s what saved me.
“They come by surprise. First, you hear a whistle, pray it doesn’t fall on you, and then the booms, a noise loud enough to paralyse you. The earth shakes.
“That was my reality, and now it’s their reality,” she added, referring to the 58 captives who remain in Gaza, including some who died in captivity.
“At this very moment, there are hostages who hear those same whistles and booms, shaking with fear. They have nowhere to run, just pray and cling to the wall in a horrible feeling of powerlessness,” she said.
Palestinian analyst rubbishes US envoy’s claim of Hamas diverting aid
Muhammad Shehada, a visiting fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations, has described US-Israeli claims that the famine in Gaza is being caused by Hamas stealing aid as “genocide deniers’ dumbest talking point”.
The Palestinian analyst made the comment in a post on X, which referred to a statement by the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, on May 9.
“Israel subjects Gaza to the world’s most meticulous surveillance in history, yet they NEVER presented a single piece of evidence showing Hamas looting aid,” Shehada wrote.
“Non-stop drone and satellite surveillance of every inch of Gaza, eavesdropping on every phone call and message, yet nothing!” he added.
Shehada also noted that humanitarian experts say that the best way to prevent looting is to “flood” Gaza with aid. “Then there would be no value in looting food when it’s abundant & available to all.”
‘Gaza will be entirely destroyed’
The images coming out of Gaza are apocalyptic, depicting the latest – and perhaps final – chapter in a genocide.
Under an operation called Gideon’s Chariots, the Israeli military is forcing Palestinians into tiny corners of the besieged enclave.
Its next phase is another full-scale invasion to take complete control of the territory.
Death toll in Gaza on Saturday rises to 52
The Wafa news agency is reporting that Israeli attacks across Gaza have killed at least 52 Palestinians, on Saturday.
Photos: Children queue for food, water in northern Gaza
