Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
Israeli forces killed at least 60 Palestinians in Gaza on Monday, including at least 31 aid seekers. In total, Israel has killed at least 1,996 aid seekers since May 27, 2025 (learn about aid seekers here).
Among the dead was a journalist, Islam al-Kumi.
The total known number of Palestinians who have died from malnutrition stands at 266, including 112 children.
For detail on Israeli attacks in Gaza on Monday, go here.
GAZA NEWS:
(For some basic info on the Palestine-Israel conflict, go here. For a bit more critical context, skim this, this, and this.To read about a remarkable but underreported, 20-month-long peaceful protest in Gaza against Israel, go here.)
Amnesty: New testimonies indicate that Israel’s starvation of Gazans is a deliberate policy
Israel is carrying out a deliberate campaign of starvation in the occupied Gaza Strip, systematically destroying the health, well-being and social fabric of Palestinian life, Amnesty International said today as it published chilling new testimonies of starved displaced civilians.
Their accounts underscore the organization’s repeated findings that the deadly combination of hunger and disease is not an unfortunate byproduct of Israel’s military operations. It is the intended outcome of plans and policies that Israel has designed and implemented, over the past 22 months, to deliberately inflict on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction – which is part and parcel of Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza (read the report here).
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Eyewitness reports devastation in Gaza City
Tharwa Jawad, a 37-year-old father of three, told MEE that “all of Gaza is now exposed to bombardment”.
He said robots roaming the neighborhood are “destroying everything around them” alongside the intense shelling, and that civilians – young and old – are being targeted without reason.
Jawad also cited the use of booby traps and the apparent testing of new weaponry in the neighborhood, describing a deafening mix of bombing, robot explosions, booby-traps and building detonations.
Jawad said he and his family spend hours watching the news, adding: “We now feel hopeless, depressed, and exhausted because we don’t know where to get bad news from.
“I don’t have a message for the world because we in Gaza have spoken a lot and many pictures have come out that the whole world has seen. We are alone.”
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ALL CHILDREN <5 IN GAZA AT RISK OF ACUTE MALNUTRITION: The UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned that as of July 2025, more than 320,000 children – the entire population under the age of five in Gaza – are at risk of acute malnutrition. Families are surviving on the bare minimum of basic foods, with almost no dietary diversity, WFP said. The agency called for an immediate ceasefire to allow large-scale delivery of humanitarian aid.
AIR-DROPPED AID BOX KILLS ELDERLY MAN IN GAZA: An elderly man has died of injuries sustained when an aid box fell on a tent for displaced people in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, Nasser Hospital has reported. Several people have been killed or injured by air-dropped aid pallets in Gaza in recent weeks. Aid agencies have said that air drops are dangerous and ineffective when Gaza’s entire population of more than two million people is facing famine.
GAZA COMMUNITY KITCHENS PROVIDE JUST ONE THIRD OF THE MEALS THEY USED TO: UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters that partners on the ground reported that day last week more than 80 community kitchens were able to produce some 380,000 meals each. “Back in April, the daily tally of community kitchens was more than a million meals each day,” he noted.
Hamas accepts Gaza truce proposal as Israel signals will continue war
Hamas has informed mediators that it has approved the latest Gaza ceasefire proposal, put forward by Qatari and Egyptian mediators, and is ready to resume negotiations to discuss ending Israel’s war on Gaza, which has now killed more than 62,000 Palestinians and threatens further mass displacement amid manmade starvation.
But judging by the failed trajectory of past talks, the announcement does not necessarily mean an end to the war is imminent (continue reading here).
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Inside Gaza’s Only Catholic Church, One Month After Israel’s Attack
Since the beginning of the genocide in Gaza, Israel has repeatedly attacked religious sites, including mosques and churches. In October 2023, only days after the brutal attacks began, the Israeli military struck the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius, the oldest church in Gaza, resulting in the deaths of at least 18 people.
On July 17, 2025, in what survivors describe as a blatant violation of human and religious values, an Israeli fighter jet bombed the Holy Family Church, the only Catholic church in Gaza, without any prior warning. The strike killed three people and injured at least nine others, three of them critically.
One month after the attack on the church, I spoke to some of the survivors about what they experienced that day — and how they are continuing to survive, and worship, within the walls of Holy Family, which remain standing despite the damage (continue reading here).
NOTABLE QUOTE: “Journalists in Gaza have been colossally failed by the western media”
Nesrine Malik, Guardian columnist, on Gaza’s top-notch journalists:
Israel [relies] on western media to treat its claims as somehow plausible, despite the fact that time and time again, it has made claims that turn out not to be true.
The truth is that journalists in Gaza have been colossally failed by many of their colleagues in the western media – not just in terms of how their killings are reported, but in how the entire conflict is described.
Figures of the dead and starving in Gaza are often described as coming from “Hamas-run” ministries, but you don’t see the statements coming from Israeli authorities caveated as serially unreliable, or the phrase “wanted by the international criminal court” attached to the name Benjamin Netanyahu.
Meanwhile, the word of Palestinian journalists is never quite enough – not until foreign media (who are not allowed into Gaza) can give the final gold-standard judgment. They are cast out of the body of journalism, their truth buried along with them.
RELATED READING:
Israel’s army formed special intel unit to ‘justify killing’ of hundreds of Gaza journalists
Headlines That Hedge: How Western Media Framed the Killing of Palestinian Journalist Anas Al Sharif
OCCUPIED WEST BANK/EAST JERUSALEM HEADLINES:
(For background on the West Bank, read this and this. For information on the significance of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, read this and this.)
Huckabee says Israel’s settlement plan in occupied West Bank ‘not a violation* of int’l law’: Report
Israeli Army Radio is reporting that the US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has said he does not oppose the Israeli government’s plan to illegally build thousands of homes in a highly controversial development in the occupied West Bank.
The plans for the E1 area settlement project that would connect occupied East Jerusalem with the existing illegal Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, located several kilometers (miles) to the east, “is a decision for the government of Israel to make”, Huckabee said. “We would not try to evaluate the good and the bad of that, but simply just say that, as a general rule, it is not a violation of international law.”
“It’s also, I think, incumbent on all of us to recognize that Israelis have a right to live in Israel,” he added.
The new settlement project will forcibly displace around 7,000 Palestinian residents in the occupied West Bank.
*NOTE: Ambassador Huckabee could not be more wrong: Israeli settlements built on Palestinian land constitute a war crime – a serious violation of international law. In fact, Israel has illegally built around 280 settlements on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are home to more than 700,000 illegal settlers. Some settler groups have a history of violence against Palestinians, often with the assistance of Israeli military forces (a phenomenon that has grown significantly worse since October 7th, 2023).
In a landmark advisory opinion on July 19, 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land “illegal” and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Read more about Mike Huckabee’s radical Christian Zionist beliefs and statements here.
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7,000 Palestinians Face Displacement in Occupied Jerusalem
The Jerusalem Governorate announced Monday that approximately 7,000 Palestinians living in 22 communities across the Jerusalem wilderness are at imminent risk of forced displacement due to the expansion of Israel’s colonial E1 project and the construction of the so-called “Sovereignty Road.”
Just days ago, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich approved the construction of thousands of colonialist units within the E1 zone, located east of occupied Jerusalem. The construction will establish uninterrupted urban continuity between the Ma’ale Adumim settlement and Jerusalem.
The move is widely condemned as a strategic blow to any viable Palestinian state, undermining territorial contiguity and entrenching the geographic and demographic fragmentation of the West Bank into disconnected enclaves.
Read more about Israeli settlements and their impact on Palestinians here and here.
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Christian leaders warn of Israel’s attempt to “eradicate Christian presence” in Palestine
The Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine warns that Israel is practicing “a systematic policy aimed at eradicating Christian presence in Palestine and stripping the land of its historic religious institutions.”
In a letter addressed to Christian leaders worldwide, the Committee points to Israel’s August 6, 2025 decision to freeze all bank accounts of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem and impose new taxes on its properties — moves that have blocked salaries for clergy, teachers, and staff.
The Committee described the move as “an unprecedented assault on the churches of the Holy Land, [and] a direct attack on the Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem.” Committee head Ramzi Khouri says these measures “severely threaten the Church’s ability to provide spiritual, humanitarian, and community services,” calling them a violation of the historic Status Quo and international law.
The committee also cites Israeli settlement expansion on Orthodox lands near the Monastery of Saint Gerasimus (Deir Hijleh) outside Jericho, warning it is part of a broader plan to “erase Palestine’s Christian and historical identity.”
MORE WEST BANK HEADLINES:
NYT: With Arson and Land Grabs, Israeli Settler Attacks in West Bank Hit Record High
Israeli Army Abducts Twenty Palestinians In West Bank
Israeli Army Abducts 33 Palestinian Workers Near Jerusalem
Soldiers, Colonizers Injure Palestinians in Hebron and Bethlehem
ISRAEL NEWS & HEADLINES:
(Get a glimpse inside Israel and the turmoil within its government. Often, our news items and headlines are taken from Israeli media.)
Israel dangles aid for South Sudan, as it withholds relief* from Gaza
Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced on 18 August that it plans to provide “urgent” humanitarian assistance to South Sudan, following recent reports that Tel Aviv was engaged in efforts to expel Palestinians from Gaza to the east African nation.
Israel’s Agency for International Development Coordination “will provide urgent humanitarian assistance to vulnerable populations in the country” due to “the severe humanitarian crisis in South Sudan,” the Foreign Ministry said.
The aid will include medical supplies, water purification supplies, gloves and face masks, special hygiene kits, and food packages.
This comes as a cholera outbreak is plaguing the country, which “suffers from a severe shortage of resources,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry added (continue reading here).
*NOTE: Gaza is also facing outbreaks of disease in the midst of Israel’s near-total blockade on medical supplies, as well as food and shelter supplies and fuel. Israel is obligated under international law to provide for the needs of the Gaza population – 100% of which is vulnerable.. The apparent generosity with which Israel is offering aid to South Sudan may be related to the fact that Israel has been trying to convince South Sudan to take in a quantity of displaced Gazans.
Forced population transfer is a crime against humanity, and a form of ethnic cleansing. If world leaders truly want to offer Gazans a good life outside Gaza the just solution would be to return them to their homes in historic Palestine.
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ISRAELI ARMY CONSIDERS RECRUITING FROM ABROAD AMID SOLIDER SHORTAGE: Israel’s military is weighing a plan to enlist young Jewish people from abroad to offset what officials describe as a severe shortage of soldiers, Army Radio has reported. According to the Army Radio, the military intends to target major Jewish communities abroad for recruitment, particularly in the United States and France, with the aim of adding about 700 recruits each year.
RELATED: Israel offers one-time amnesty to thousands of draft dodgers, citing manpower shortage
OTHER NEWS:
Trump says Israeli captives to be released ‘only after Hamas’s defeat’
US President Donald Trump said on 18 August that Israeli captives will only be released once Hamas is “destroyed,” openly backing Israel’s plan to occupy Gaza City.
His comments come despite widespread internal concern in Israel over the fate of the captives and the threat posed to them by Tel Aviv’s upcoming assault.
“We will only see the return of the remaining hostages when Hamas is confronted and destroyed!!! The sooner this takes place, the better the chances of success will be,” the president said on his Truth Social platform.
“Remember, I was the one who negotiated and got hundreds of hostages freed and released into Israel (and America!),” Trump added, inflating the numbers of a previous exchange deal which saw 30 captives released.
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MORE HEADLINES:
AIPAC stands by Katherine Clark as she walks back ‘genocide’ comment
The Trump administration’s halt on medical evacuations from Gaza is a death sentence for Palestinian children
United Methodist Church divests from Israel bonds
Iranian army says war with Israel could ‘resume at any moment’
ICYMI (IN CASE YOU MISSED IT) – A SELECTION OF YESTERDAY’S HEADLINES:
US Judge Rules Burning Israeli Flag as “Racial Hate,” Making It the Only National Flag Americans Can Not Burn
Hamas is a Political Movement, Not a Band of Murderers, Says UN’s Albanese
US to ‘re-evaluate’ visa process for Gazan children amid ‘pause’: Rubio
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – AUGUST 18, 2025*:
- At least 63,096 Palestinians killed, 165,803 injured – including:
- at least 62,064 killed in Gaza (~18,500 children)
- at least 1,032 killed in the West Bank (~210 children)
- at least 156,573 injured in Gaza
- at least 9,230 injured in the West Bank
- at least 266 have died from malnutrition in Gaza, including 112 children
According to Palestinian authorities, during the ceasefire Jan. 19 – March 18 2025, Israeli attacks killed at least 170 Gazans, and Israel committed at least 962 ceasefire violations.
At least 1,996 Palestinians have been killed while trying to access aid parcels from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which started operating on May 26, 2025.
Since the Israeli army resumed its assaults on Gaza on March 18, 2025 it has killed at least 10,518 people. 50 Israeli soldiers (most recent July 26) have been killed during the same time period.
*NOTE: Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 14,000 more are still buried under rubble. Additionally, the numbers of injured and starved are very conservative estimates.
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – August 18, 2025: ~1,629 – including ~1,139 on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 454 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza, 46 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel. (72 soldiers have reportedly died due to “operational incidents.”)
By one count, Israeli attacks have killed approximately 234 Palestinian journalists and media workers; Palestinians have killed 4 Israeli journalists (other groups have tallied between 192 and 304 Palestinian journalists killed – depending on the criteria used).
NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.
- Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
- Israeli government official arrested in Nevada in internet crimes against children sting
- The Israeli flag just became the only national flag illegal to burn in the United States. Yeah. I’m dead serious.
- North Carolina Democrat spurns AIPAC, in latest sign of party’s growing distance from Israel
- Palestine sounds alarm about ‘unprecedented’ Israeli assault on churches
- Why children are starving so much faster than adults in Gaza
- Second Most Powerful House Democrat Calls Israel’s Genocide a ‘Genocide’
- ‘Thousands More Will Die in Gaza, Not From Bombs or Bullets, but From Bureaucratic Decisions’
- Washington DC Really Is Israeli-Occupied Territory
- Inside the New Group Giving Antisemitism Trainings at Harvard
- Meet the Israeli fanatic running Ted Cruz’s office
- On grief and being the only survivor in your family in Gaza
- 100+ NGOs’ joint statement: Israel must end weaponization of aid to Gaza
- Comparing Israeli society today with German society under the Nazis (video)
- In This Palestinian Christian Village, the Hypocrisy of Christian Zionism Is Unmistakable
- More than 80 Organizations Call on Congress to Uphold US Law and Suspend Security Assistance to Israel
- 100+ Doctors Who Worked in Gaza Demand Global Action as ‘Colleagues Are Starved and Shot by Israel’
- Israel Hasn’t Prosecuted a Single Suspect for the Oct. 7 Attack
- Hundreds of Former Israeli Spies Are Working in Big Tech, Database Shows
