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Here’s where things stand on Sunday 3 August 2025:
- Six more Palestinians have died of forced starvation and malnutrition in besieged Gaza, the Health Ministry says, bringing the total number to 175 people, including 93 children.
- Israeli attacks across Gaza have killed at least 44 people so far today, including 22 aid seekers, medical sources tell Al Jazeera. And in occupied East Jerusalem, the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque compound by far-right Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir draws condemnation from Palestinians and Jordan, which administers the holy site.
Belgium begins Gaza aid airdrops
Belgium’s military has carried out its first airdrop of humanitarian aid into Gaza, its Defence Ministry says.
The delivery is part of a broader effort to get food and medical supplies into the besieged territory via Jordan.
UNRWA has been critical of aid airdrops, which it said are at least 100 times more costly than trucks.
Meanwhile, Belgium is facing legal pressure at home for allegedly failing to act against Israeli violations during the war. On July 7, the Belgian state was formally summoned to appear before the French-speaking Court of First Instance in Brussels.
Gaza’s death toll rises as hospitals receive bodies of more aid seekers
Gaza’s Health Ministry reports that 119 bodies, including 15 recovered from under the rubble or other places, and 866 injured Palestinians arrived at the enclave’s hospitals over the past 24 hours.
At least 65 Palestinians were killed while seeking aid, and 511 more were wounded.
This brings the toll of the Israeli attacks to 60,839 people killed and 149,588 wounded since October 7, 2023. Since March 18, when Israel violated the ceasefire agreement with Hamas, at least 9,350 people have been killed and 37,547 injured.
The ministry noted that it added 290 people to the overall death toll after data gathering was completed and approved by a judicial committee that was following up on reports and missing persons.
Ben-Gvir’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound incursion aimed at increasing tensions
Itamar Ben-Gvir made an incursion into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem, along with a large number of settlers, many from the hardline Temple Mount group – and the aim appears to be to ratchet up tensions.
Reports say there were at least 2,000, if not 3,000, Jews who entered the compound early this morning. It was during the visitation hours agreed upon in the status quo agreement, but that agreement does not allow Jews to pray there.
But after Ben-Gvir became Israel’s minister of national security, he actually ordered the Israeli police to allow Jews to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
Today, for Jews, coincides with what they consider an anniversary of the destruction of the so-called Temple Mount, which is the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
So he had this show of defiance, and, from there, he called for the full occupation of Gaza, extending Israel’s sovereignty onto it and promoting the emigration of Palestinians out of the Strip.
Bodies of 5 people recovered after Israeli attack on Gaza City
Palestinian rescue crews have recovered the bodies of five people killed in an Israeli air attack on the Shujayea neighbourhood of Gaza City, the Wafa news agency reports.
Medical sources told Al Jazeera Israeli attacks across Gaza have killed more than 40 people so far today, including 22 aid seekers.
Israel detains 18,500 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since October 2023: Report
Israeli forces have detained about 18,500 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem, since it launched its war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, according to a new report.
At least 570 Palestinian women and at least 1,500 children are among the detained, a joint report by the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association said.
This is the highest number of detentions since the second Intifada in 2000.
More than 194 journalists have also been detained, 49 of whom are still behind bars.
“The arrest campaigns have been accompanied by severe violations and acts of violence, including physical assaults, torture, threats against detainees and their families, the looting and destruction of property, and widespread damage to civilian homes and infrastructure. Vehicles, personal funds, and gold have also been confiscated,” the report found.
“In parallel with these campaigns, Israeli forces have conducted extrajudicial executions, including targeting relatives of detainees,” it said.
The report added that since the start of the war, at least 75 detainees have died in Israeli custody, 46 of whom were from Gaza.
Photos: Protest in West Bank in solidarity with Gaza and Palestinians jailed by Israel
Israeli police arrest 3 Al-Aqsa guards after settler incursion into holy site
Israeli police have arrested three Al-Aqsa Mosque guards after Ben-Gvir, accompanied by more than 1,000 Israelis, stormed the compound, the Ministry of Islamic Endowments reports.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office, the three guards were Muhammad Teena, Muhammad Badran and Ahmad Abu Aliya.
Saudi Arabia condemns Israeli ‘provocative practices’ at Al-Aqsa Mosque
We have a statement from the Saudi Foreign Ministry following the incursion of Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, warning that such actions risk destabilising the region.
The ministry expressed Saudi Arabia’s condemnation “in the strongest terms of the repeated provocative practices by officials of the Israeli occupation authorities against Al-Aqsa Mosque”.
It added that the kingdom “affirms that such practices fuel the conflict in the region”.
The statement also called on the international community “to put an end to the actions of the Israeli occupation officials, which violate international laws and norms and undermine peace efforts in the region”.
As we’ve been reporting, Ben-Gvir’s actions have also prompted condemnation from Palestinian officials, Hamas and Jordan, among others.
Katz says hold over Jerusalem will be ‘strengthened’ after Ben-Gvir’s Al-Aqsa visit
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz says his country will strengthen its “hold and sovereignty” over Jerusalem, the Western Wall and Temple Mount, referring to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound – Islam’s third holiest site.
Katz’s post on X comes after Ben-Gvir stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, where the far-right national security minister prayed, in a violation of the status quo, which maintains that the compound is under the exclusive control of Muslims, who are the only group allowed to pray there.
“On Tisha B’Av, two thousand years after the destruction of the Second Temple, the Western Wall and the Temple Mount are once again under the sovereignty of the State of Israel,” Katz wrote, calling the Al-Aqsa compound the Temple Mount.
“Israel’s enemies around the world will continue to make decisions against us and demonstrate, and we will strengthen our hold and sovereignty over Jerusalem, the Western Wall, and the Temple Mount forever and ever,” he added.
Photos: Palestinians seek aid amid deepening starvation crisis
UN says one million women and girls starving in Gaza
The United Nations office in Geneva has warned that one million women and girls in Gaza are now starving, as the territory’s humanitarian crisis continues to worsen.
In a post on X, the UN said: “One million. That’s how many women and girls are starving in Gaza. This horrific situation is unacceptable and must end.
“We continue to demand the delivery of lifesaving aid for all women and girls, an immediate ceasefire, and the release of all hostages.”
As we’ve been reporting, Gaza’s hunger crisis is accelerating, with at least 175 people, including 93 children, confirmed dead from forced starvation, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.
Human rights groups have accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war, citing ongoing restrictions on aid and repeated attacks on Palestinians at distribution points.
Today’s Gaza death toll rises to 44, including 22 aid seekers
Israeli attacks across Gaza have killed at least 44 people so far today, medical sources say.
The figure includes 22 people who were killed while waiting for aid during the Israeli-induced starvation crisis, the sources told Al Jazeera.
Why Ben-Gvir’s march to Al-Aqsa Mosque violated ‘status quo’
As we’ve been reporting, far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stormed Al Aqsa Mosque in the occupied West Bank under police protection.
Ben-Gvir announced that he had prayed at the site, a move that is not allowed under a decades-old “status quo” arrangement, which outlines that Muslims have exclusive control of Al-Aqsa Mosque and are the only ones allowed to pray there.
Non-Muslims are, however, allowed to visit the compound – Islam’s third-holiest site.
Ben-Gvir led Israeli settlers to the mosque compound – known to Jews as the Temple Mount – in violation of the status quo.
While Israel’s official position on the religious site accepts the rule restricting non-Muslim prayer, Ben-Gvir has repeatedly called for Jewish prayer to be allowed at the compound.
According to the Waqf, the foundation that administers the complex, Ben-Gvir was among 1,250 who went to the site and prayed, shouted and danced.
Palestinians fear their sovereignty over the compound is being eroded as powerful ministers such as Ben-Gvir have backed the call for Jewish prayers at the holy site.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that Israel’s policy of maintaining the status quo at the compound “has not changed and will not change”.
Unpacking Israel’s ‘tactic to dismember Gaza’s systems and make it unliveable’
Raja Khalidi, the director general of the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute, says Israel has succeeded in creating a “desperate” situation in Gaza that extends beyond the killing of Palestinians to also eliminating community relations, markets and societies.
“It’s no longer about Gaza’s traditional resilience and innovativeness, which we all know through 15 years of blockade, and what Gaza was and compared to now what has become and what Israel has reduced it to,” he told Al Jazeera from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
Khalidi said if Israel has not succeeded in its other declared aims, it seems to be succeeding in its effort to completely dismember Gaza’s financial and social systems.
“And this is what’s worrying because traditionally the social fabric of Gaza is known to be sound, solid and very protective,” he added, noting that the chaos that’s being witnessed currently “is not just a terrible consequence of war”.
“This is part of Israel’s tactic to dismember Gaza, dismantle it, make it unliveable; we’ve said it from the very first days – and in every phase of this war, we learn more what it means to make Gaza unliveable.”
If you are joining us
Here’s what you need to know:
- Six more Palestinians have died from starvation, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, bringing the total number of deaths from malnutrition to 175, including 93 children.
- At least 22 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks across Gaza, including 16 people seeking aid, medical sources have told Al Jazeera.
- The Palestinian Red Crescent Society says Israeli forces struck its headquarters in Khan Younis, sparking a fire that killed one staff member and injured three.
- 88 percent of Israeli military investigations into alleged war crimes since October 2023 have led to no findings, according to a new report from Action on Armed Violence.
- Israeli far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has again called for Israel to declare sovereignty over Gaza and promote the “voluntary migration” of Palestinians.
- His visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound drew sharp condemnation from Jordan, the Palestinian presidency, and Hamas, which called it an “escalation of aggression”.
- In Sydney, Australian lawmakers have called for sanctions on Israel during a major pro-Palestine protest.
‘Heartbroken’: Palestine Red Crescent slams Israel for ‘deliberate attack’ on its HQ
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says one of its staff members, Omar Isleem, was killed early on Sunday in what it described as a deliberate Israeli strike.
Earlier we reported that Israeli forces attacked the PRCS headquarters in Khan Younis, causing a fire that killed one staff member and injured three.
In a statement, the humanitarian group said: “We are heartbroken to share that our colleague Omar Isleem was killed early this morning in an attack on our headquarters in Khan Younis. Two other colleagues were also injured in the strike.”
The PRCS said the location of its headquarters was well known to Israeli forces and “clearly marked with the protective red emblem”, adding, “this was not a mistake.
“This deliberate attack on a protected Red Crescent facility is a grave violation of international humanitarian law – it is a war crime,” the statement said.
Israeli military says it seized weapons in southern Syria
The Israeli army says its forces have carried out a raid on four sites in southern Syria and confiscated weapons.
According to a statement posted on social media, Israeli forces “completed an operation to interrogate several suspects involved in arms trafficking in the Khader area of southern Syria”.
The statement added that soldiers “raided four areas simultaneously and located numerous weapons in which the suspects were trading”.
The Syrian government has not yet responded to the incursion into the country’s territory.
Gaza hunger crisis deepens as aid blockade continues
Gaza’s hunger crisis is accelerating, with at least 175 people, including 93 children, confirmed dead from starvation, according to the Health Ministry in the besieged territory.
The situation has worsened since Israel blocked all aid to Gaza on March 2, halting trucks from entering the enclave with much-needed supplies.
The rollout of the controversial US- and Israeli-backed GHF group in late May has come under heavy criticism. Since then, Israeli forces have routinely fired on Palestinians trying to get food at GHF-run distribution sites in Gaza, with some 1,400 Palestinians killed while attempting to access aid at its four distribution sites.
UN and other humanitarian officials say Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid deliveries, though partially lifted in recent days, have left Palestinians starving and struggling to find enough food to feed their families.
Amid growing international condemnation of the crisis, Israel has said it is increasing aid deliveries to Palestinians, including via airdrops.
But humanitarian groups say airdrops are dangerous and inefficient, and they have called on Israel to open up all the crossings into Gaza to allow assistance to flow freely to Palestinians in need.
Human rights groups and UN officials accuse Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war, while a global hunger monitor has warned that the “worst-case scenario of famine” is currently unfolding in Gaza.
Expert likens Israeli-run Gaza aid sites to Squid Game
Neve Gordon, from London-based Queen Mary University, says the Israeli-run GHF “is not a humanitarian organisation; this is a famine profiteering organisation”.
“The UN has 400 sites through which it distributes food. This organisation put up four sites. It put them within zones that are in the midst of the conflict. And what we have been witnessing is a kind of Squid Game or Hunger Game, where people that are starving are approaching the food and are being shot down like prey,” he told Al Jazeera from London.
“This is clearly not about providing humanitarian aid but about providing camouflage for Israel so it can continue its onslaught on Gaza.”
Gordon added that civil society in the United States and Europe is seeing through television and Al Jazeera’s reporting what’s going on in Gaza and is outraged.
“But it’s our leaders who talk the talk but have double standards and are unwilling to sanction Israel, put pressure on Israel. And instead continue to arm Israel as it carried out this genocide,” he said.
“We need to start thinking how our leaders here in London, throughout Europe and the United States are actually complicit with this genocide and starvation. And bring them to court, if not the ICC [International Criminal Court], then through universal jurisdiction in local courts.”
Jordan slams Israeli minister’s march to Al-Aqsa Mosque as ‘blatant violation’
Jordan condemns in the “strongest terms” the march to Al-Aqsa Mosque led by Israel’s far-right national security minister as a “flagrant violation of international law”.
In a statement on X, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Jordan, as custodian of Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites, considers the repeated incursions by Ben-Gvir and Israeli settlers under the protection of the police as a “blatant violation of the historical and legal status quo” of the mosque.
Spokesperson Sufian al-Qudah “warned of the consequences of the continuation of these provocative and illegitimate violations of Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, demanding that Israel, as the occupying power, halt all provocative practices by the extremist minister Ben-Gvir”, the statement read.
These actions “constitute a continuation of the extremist Israeli government’s policy aimed at pursuing dangerous escalation and unilateral actions in the occupied West Bank and violating the sanctity of Islamic and Christian holy sites in occupied Jerusalem,” it added.
Israeli far-right minister’s Al-Aqsa visit an ‘escalation of aggression’: Hamas
Hamas has condemned a visit by far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, calling it a “threat” to regional peace.
In a statement, the group described the visit, led by Ben-Gvir and Knesset member Amit Halevi, as “an escalation of aggression against our Palestinian people” and “a provocation of the feelings of Muslims everywhere”.
Hamas warned that such actions “directly threaten regional and international peace and security” and urged the international community and the United Nations to “hold [Israel’s] extremist government accountable”.
The group also called on the world to take “urgent steps” to stop what it described as “systematic violations against Al-Aqsa Mosque”, and urged Palestinians to continue resisting Israeli actions in Jerusalem.
Palestinian presidency condemns Israeli far-right minister’s Al-Aqsa Mosque march
A spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has criticised Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, saying it “crossed all red lines”.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh called for immediate international intervention to stop what he described as escalating Israeli provocations and settler violence.
“The international community, specifically the US administration, is required to intervene immediately to put an end to the crimes of the settlers and the provocations of the extreme right-wing government in Al-Aqsa Mosque, stop the war on the Gaza Strip and bring in humanitarian aid,” he said in a statement.
Earlier, we reported that Ben-Gvir led a march of Israeli settlers through occupied East Jerusalem from late Saturday into early Sunday. In a post on X, he later called on the Israeli government to “conquer” all of Gaza and “declare sovereignty” over the territory.
EU’s Kallas slams video of emaciated Gaza captive amid forced starvation crisis
As we reported yesterday, Hamas’s military wing has released a video of Israeli captive Evyatar David appearing emaciated amid the Israeli-induced starvation crisis in Gaza.
In the four-minute video, subtitled in Arabic and English, he describes severe deprivation, saying, “I don’t know what I’m going to eat today … I haven’t eaten in days … I’ve barely got drinking water.”
The European Union’s foreign affairs chief, Kaja Kallas, has condemned the video, describing the images as “appalling”, and arguing that they “expose the barbarity” of the group.
“All hostages must be released immediately and unconditionally. Hamas must disarm and end its rule in Gaza. At the same time, large-scale humanitarian aid must be allowed to reach those in need,” Kallas added.
At least 175 Palestinians, including 93 children, have died of starvation and malnutrition across the territory since Israel’s war began in October 2023, according to the latest Gaza Health Ministry figures.
UN and other humanitarian officials say Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid deliveries, though partially lifted in recent days, have left everyone suffering from a lack of food, with starved people struggling to find enough food to feed their families.
Earlier, Gaza’s Government Media Office reported that only 36 aid trucks entered the territory on Saturday, significantly lower than the 500 to 600 aid trucks the UN estimated were needed daily to meet the needs of the population.
Australian protesters ‘outraged’ over Israel’s war on Gaza, government’s ‘complicity’
As we’ve been reporting, there’s been a huge protest against Israel’s war on Gaza in Sydney, Australia, with crowds marching across Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Antony Loewenstein, author of The Palestine Laboratory, a book on the Israeli arms and surveillance industry, and who spoke at the rally, said he had “never seen a turnout like this” in the Australian city.
“The exact figures are unclear, but I would guess it was at least 100,000 people – as far as the eye could see,” he told Al Jazeera.
“What was so interesting and revealing about this kind of protest, which was similar to what I’m seeing in the US and Europe now, is that the people who are protesting the genocide in Gaza are not the people who normally protest,” Loewenstein said.
He added that participants are “outraged” not just about what Israel is doing in Gaza but also the Australian government’s “complicity”, explaining that Australia has been for many years – including since the start of the war – part of the global supply chain for the F-35 fighter jet that Israel has been using in attacking the besieged territory.
“A lot of Australians are aware of this; we are deeply complicit and people are angry that their government is doing little more than talk at this point.”
Israeli far-right minister renews calls to ‘occupy’ Gaza
Itamar Ben-Gvir, the minister of national security, has renewed calls for Israel to declare sovereignty over Gaza and for Palestinians to leave the enclave.
He wrote in a post on X that a “message must be sent: to ensure that we conquer all of the Gaza Strip, declare sovereignty over the entire Gaza Strip, take down every Hamas member, and encourage voluntary migration”.
“Only in this way will we bring back the hostages and win the war,” he added.
The Israeli minister’s comments came after he led a march of settlers through occupied East Jerusalem from late Saturday into early Sunday, the Wafa news agency reported.
Scottish First Minister says ‘clear’ there is a ‘genocide in Palestine’
Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney has told reporters “it’s quite clear that there is a genocide in Palestine – it can’t be disputed.
“I have seen reports of terrible atrocities which have the character of being genocide,” Swinney added, Scotland’s The National newspaper reported.
“I’ve expressed that and obviously it’s not reached all those individuals, but that’s my feeling,” Swinney added, in remarks he made after pro-Palestinian protesters repeatedly interrupted an event where he was speaking, at the Stand Comedy Club in Edinburgh.
Asked about Scotland’s government funding apprenticeships at companies building weapons to send to Israel, he said the government was applying “due diligence checks … unreservedly”.
Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney
Australian lawmakers call for sanctions on Israel during Sydney protest
Mehreen Faruqi, the New South Wales senator for the Greens party, has told protesters gathered at central Sydney’s Lang Park that the march would “make history”.
She called for the “harshest sanctions on Israel” while accusing its military of “massacring” Palestinians in Gaza, and criticised New South Wales Premier Chris Minns for saying the protest should not go ahead.
Earlier, we reported that Australia’s iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge was closed before the major pro-Palestine march.
It comes as the march was given the go-ahead with legal protection after its organisers won a Supreme Court challenge.
Chris Minns had said the government could not support a protest of 50,000 people across Sydney’s Harbour Bridge, claiming he could not “allow Sydney to descend into chaos”.
Australian Labor backbench MP Ed Husic also attended the march and called for his governing party, led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, to recognise Palestinian statehood.
Photos: Thousands march for Gaza across Sydney Harbour Bridge
