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Here’s where things stand on Saturday 26 July 2025:
- Gaza’s Health Ministry said hospitals have recorded nine new deaths due to starvation and malnutrition over the past 24 hours, as the total number of starvation deaths in the territory rises to 122, including 83 children.
- At least 52 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since dawn on Friday, Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent in the territory reports, and casualties continue to mount.
- A former US soldier who worked for the notorious GHF in Gaza tells BBC that he had “without question … witnessed war crimes” in the killing of civilians seeking food aid.
- Leaders of Germany, France, and the United Kingdom called on Israel to immediately lift its blockade on aid supplies entering the famished Palestinian territory.
- Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 59,676 people and wounded 143,965. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks, and more than 200 were taken captive.
Jewish scholars call for immediate delivery of humanitarian aid amid starvation in Gaza
A New York-based international association of Conservative Jewish scholars has called for an “urgent action” in Gaza “to alleviate civilian suffering and ensure aid delivery” amid reports of deadly starvation.
“Even as we believe Hamas could end this suffering immediately through the release of the hostages and care for its civilian population, the Israeli government must do everything in its power to ensure humanitarian aid reaches those in need,” the Rabbinical Assembly said in a statement posted on its Facebook page and its website.
“The Jewish tradition calls upon us to ensure the provision of food, water, and medical supplies as a top priority,” the group said.
“Aid agencies, the United Nations, and the Israeli government must act swiftly to distribute supplies currently stalled at the border so they reach the civilians who so desperately need them.”
Campaign group says Israeli military drones seen over aid ship approaching Gaza
We have previously reported on the Handala ship, which is carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza as part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s (FFC) mission to break Israel’s blockade.
The International Committee to Break the Siege of Gaza, a Palestinian campaign group, has now reported that 16 Israeli military drones were spotted near the vessel over a 45-minute period overnight.
It is the latest FFC vessel attempting to break Israel’s Gaza blockade, after the Israeli military intercepted the Madleen ship and arrested the activists on board on June 9.
The Handala departed from the port of Syracuse in Italy on July 13, carrying activists and medics. As of 9am Gaza time (06:00 GMT), the Handala’s live location showed the ship is off the coast of Egypt in international waters and approaching the spot in which the Madleen was intercepted
Israeli jets raid Jabalia, northern Gaza
Israeli jets are carrying out raids on the city of Jabalia in northern Gaza, our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting, quoting local sources.
The attacks are occurring in the southeastern areas of the city, the sources said.
WHO chief urges Israel to immediately release staff member working in Gaza
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called on Israel to release a WHO staff member in Gaza who has been detained since Monday.
“It has been four days. Our colleague remains in detention. We again call for his immediate release,” Ghebreyesus said in a statement posted on X.
On Monday, WHO reported that its staff residence in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, was hit by projectiles and damaged by fire while its personnel and their families were inside. It also said staff members were detained, stripped to their underwear, handcuffed, blindfolded and interrogated at gunpoint.
Former US soldier alleges war crimes committed by Israeli army, US contractors in Gaza
A former US soldier who worked for the notorious Israeli- and US-backed GHF has told the BBC that he had “without question … witnessed war crimes” in the killing of civilians seeking food aid.
Anthony Aguilar told the BBC that he saw Israeli soldiers and US contractors use live ammunition, artillery, mortar rounds, and tank fire on civilians at food distribution sites.
“In my entire career, I have never witnessed the level of brutality and use of indiscriminate and unnecessary force against a civilian population until I was in Gaza at the hands of the [Israeli army] and US contractors,” he was quoted by the BBC as saying.
Al Jazeera had previously reported similar incidents, quoting Palestinian witnesses who were among those seeking food aid from the GHF.
UK’s Starmer faces mounting pressure to recognise Palestinian state
More than 200 lawmakers in the United Kingdom have called on the British government to recognise a Palestinian state, as pressure mounts on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to take concrete action amid Israel’s war on Gaza.
Some 221 MPs from across the political spectrum signed an open letter on Friday calling on Starmer’s Labour government to recognise a Palestinian state before a United Nations conference on Palestine next week.
On Thursday, President Emmanuel Macron of France had declared that his country would recognise Palestine as a state, and that he would formalise the decision at the UN General Assembly in September.
Deaths, injuries reported in Israeli air strike in Gaza City
At least four people were killed and an undetermined number of others injured after Israeli forces struck a residential building in Gaza City, medical sources from al-Shifa Hospital told Al Jazeera.
The latest Israeli bombardment hit the building in the Remal neighbourhood in central Gaza City.
We are also getting reports of heavy bombardment in the Shujayea neighbourhood of Gaza City. There are no immediate reports on casualties.
We will keep you updated on these latest developments as soon as we get more details.
A recap of recent developments
- Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent in Gaza reports that at least 52 people have been killed by Israeli attacks since the early hours of Friday morning.
- Sources at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis told Al Jazeera that a six-month-old infant has succumbed to medical complications that arose from starvation. At least nine Palestinians starved to death in Gaza in the past 24 hours, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.
- Israel’s public broadcaster reports that the Israeli military has destroyed and buried tens of thousands of humanitarian aid items – including food and medical supplies – that spoiled while being blocked by the military from entering Gaza.
- Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed a hypersonic missile attack on Israel, saying it was aimed at Beersheba in the south of the country. Israel said it intercepted the missile.
- The UN’s World Food Programme said that it has distributed 22,000 metric tonnes of food aid to starving Palestinians in Gaza since May 21, and dispatched 349 trucks carrying about 4,200 tonnes of food in the last week alone, but that this is a “tiny fraction” of what is needed to keep the Strip’s population alive.
Welcome to our coverage
Hello, and welcome to our live coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza.
Stay with us for the latest news, reactions and analyses.
You can find all our updates from Friday, July 25, here.
