As Israel flattens cities, 650,000 children await famine – War on Gaza Day 645

, , , , ,
As Israel flattens cities, 650,000 children await famine – War on Gaza Day 645
(L) Aerial photo of Beit Hanoun posted on social media by Israel's defense minister, Israel Katz; (R) Palestinian baby is being treated at Al-Awda Hospital in Jabaliya, Gaza on June 30, 2025, as children and adults struggle with malnutrition. (Moiz Salhi – Anadolu Agency)

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

Israeli forces killed at least 112 Palestinians in Gaza on Saturday, including at least 34 aid-seekers.

For detail on Israeli attacks in Gaza on Saturday, go here.

GAZA NEWS & HEADLINES:

(To understand what’s going on right now between Gaza and Israel, go here. For a bit more critical background, skim this, this, and this. To read about a remarkable but underreported, 20-month-long peaceful protest in Gaza against Israel, go here.)

650,000 CHILDREN AT RISK OF FAMINE IN GAZA: As the Strip marks 103 days of Israeli total blockade, government officials said hundreds of thousands of people, including 650,000 children, are facing famine “amid shameful international silence,” a government statement said. “Over the past three days, we have recorded dozens of deaths due to shortages of food and essential medical supplies, in an extremely cruel humanitarian situation.” The statement said 67 children have died of famine so far, and approximately 1.25 million people in Gaza are experiencing “catastrophic hunger”.

RELATED: Gaza’s Nasser Hospital will turn into ‘silent graveyard’ if siege and fuel shortage persist, doctors say

Human rights org calls for prosecution of Trump and immediate shutdown of GHF over massacres at aid points

From Euro Med Human Rights Monitor: The international community and complicit governments bear responsibility for the ongoing horrific crimes against starving civilians at aid distribution points operated by the Israeli-American Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in central and southern Gaza Strip.

The organization’s operations must be halted immediately, and an independent international investigation must be launched to ensure its officials are prosecuted before international and national courts for their involvement in systematic mass killings at distribution sites. These sites are run by a criminal entity forcibly imposed by the Israeli military as a replacement for the UN mechanism that had operated in the Strip for nearly a year and a half.

International and national judicial bodies must move to hold US President Donald Trump criminally accountable for his complicity in the genocide in the Gaza Strip (continue reading here).

RELATED: Gazan aid-seekers ‘sniped in the head’ at GHF distribution center, witnesses say

The bodies of Doctor Naji Hafaje and his three sons, who were killed in Israeli attacks in Khan Younis, are brought to Nasser Hospital
The bodies of Doctor Naji Hafaje and his three sons, who were killed in Israeli attacks in Khan Younis, are brought to Nasser Hospital (Abdallah FS Alattar/Anadolu)

Israel kills world’s youngest freed prisoner in Gaza airstrike

A 17-year-old Palestinian boy named Youssef al-Zuq, once known as the world’s youngest freed prisoner, was killed Saturday in an Israeli airstrike on central Gaza, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office.

Zuq was born in 2008 inside an Israeli prison after his mother, Fatima al-Zuq, was arrested a year earlier while pregnant. She had been leaving Gaza for medical treatment when she was detained by Israeli forces.

Fatima later discovered her pregnancy while in detention and gave birth behind bars. She raised Youssef for nearly two years in harsh prison conditions, facing medical neglect, poor nutrition, and lack of proper care for her newborn, according to past rights group reports.

The two were released in 2009 as part of a deal in which Israel freed 19 Palestinian women in exchange for a videotape proving Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was alive in Hamas custody (continue reading here).

86% OF GAZA OFF LIMITS: The latest report by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) says 86.1 percent of the Gaza Strip now falls within Israeli militarized zones or forced evacuation orders. Four displacement orders were issued by the Israeli army between July 2 and July 8; the UN estimates that more than 725,000 people have been displaced yet again since Israel violated the ceasefire agreement with Hamas in mid-March. Most have been displaced several times, some more than 10 times.

RELATED: Beit Hanoun’s Fury: How Gaza’s Obliterated Northern Town Defies Israeli Victory

Defense Minister Israel Katz posted this aerial photo on X, commenting, "After Rafah and Beit Hanoun ... there is no refuge for terrorism.”
Defense Minister Israel Katz posted this aerial photo on X, commenting, “After Rafah and Beit Hanoun … there is no refuge for terrorism.” (NOTE: The use of the word “terrorist” for a group that resists occupation and oppression is a political, not fact-based choice. In reality, international law supports the efforts of resistance groups against an occupying power, the UN extending that right to the point of armed resistance.) (social media)

ISRAEL KILLS 31 PALESTINIAN PRISONERS RELEASED IN 2011: At least 31 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank who had been released to Gaza as part of a 2011 prisoner exchange have been killed since Israel launched its attacks on Gaza in October 2023. Several of them were killed in targeted assassinations, and we see a pattern emerge. This also sends a message to negotiators and Palestinian detainees that even if they are released in a future ceasefire deal, their safety is not guaranteed.

WATCH US SECURITY CONTRACTOR WORKING FOR GHF FIRES TEAR GAS AT CROWD: A US security contractor deployed with the GHF has been filmed firing tear gas directly at starving Palestinians gathered west of Rafah, at what Washington presents as an aid distribution point in the southern Gaza Strip — one of several sites that have effectively become death traps, with well over 800 Palestinians killed so far.
 

CEASEFIRE NEWS:

(To get an idea about past ceasefires between Gaza and Israel and how they ended, check out this and this.)

Gaza talks at risk after Israel refuses to withdraw from Rafah

Hamas negotiators are increasingly skeptical that a Gaza ceasefire agreement with Israel could be reached in the current round of talks in Doha, Middle East Eye has learned. 

Sources close to Palestinian negotiators said talks remain deadlocked over at least two of four key issues.

The first is the extent of the proposed Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip during the 60-day truce. The second is the method of aid distribution.

The United States has reportedly proposed postponing discussions on these two points and instead focusing on the names of Palestinian prisoners to be released by Israel in exchange for the remaining Israeli captives.

However, Palestinian negotiators believe this approach is a trap. “It’s designed to put the blame for the collapse of these talks on Hamas,” one source told Middle East Eye (continue reading here).

RELATED: Netanyahu Says Israel Eyes 60-Day Deal to Secure Return of Half of Captives

WEST BANK/EAST JERUSALEM NEWS AND HEADLINES:

(For background on the West Bank, read this and this.)

Family of American citizen killed by Israeli settlers demands US probe

Israel seeks to build 2,339 illegal housing units in West Bank: PLO

Israel Confiscates Palestinian Lands In Hebron

Saturday Israeli Violations Across Occupied West Bank

Israeli Army Continues Demolition Of Homes in Tulkarem

Israeli Soldiers Injure Two Palestinians In Tulkarem

OTHER NEWS AND HEADLINES:

Yes, Israel’s plan for Rafah would be a crime – but international law has never protected Gaza

I have tried hard to understand the incomprehensible suffering endured by Palestinians in Gaza and how it is that most Israelis do not acknowledge their humanity. How are they able to show no remorse for what their army is carrying out in their name?

I believe the seed of our dehumanization was planted during the Arab-Israeli war in 1948. Palestinians were violently deprived of land, property and belongings in what we would come to call the Nakba (Arabic for “the catastrophe”), on the grounds that the land was God-given to the Jewish people. From that time, Israelis have been able to use Arab homes, lands and orchards without any feeling of guilt.

The 7 October attacks were the starting point of the war, but Israel has been systematically degrading and dispossessing the Palestinian people for decades.

The truth is that international law, though used as a measuring stick and point of reference by human rights organizations, has never been Palestine’s salvation. Ever since the failure to implement the 1948 UN resolution 194, which gave Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes in what became Israel, we have been disappointed again and again (continue reading here).

Nearly 60 Labour MPs call for UK to immediately recognize Palestinian state

Thousands of Palestinian families have been forced by Israeli evacuation orders to flee to the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis due to the months-long Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, July 6, 2025.
Thousands of Palestinian families have been forced by Israeli evacuation orders to flee to the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis due to the months-long Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, July 6, 2025. (Abed Rahim Khatib – Anadolu Agency)

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – JULY 12, 2025:

  • At least 59,039 Palestinians killed, 147,750 injured – including:
  • at least 58,026 killed in Gaza (~16,500 children) 
  • at least 1,013 killed in the West Bank (~203 children)
  • at least 138,520 injured in Gaza
  • at least 9,230 injured in the West Bank

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.

Since the Israeli army resumed its assaults on Gaza on March 18, it has killed at least 7,450 people. 45 Israeli soldiers (most recent July 8) have been killed during the same time period.

At least 833 Palestinians have been killed while trying to access aid parcels from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which started operating on May 26, 2025.

Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 14,000 more are still buried under rubble.

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – July 12, 2025: ~1,627 – including ~1,139 on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 446 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 224 Palestinian journalists and media workers; Palestinians have killed 4 Israeli journalists (other groups have tallied between 186 and 291 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.

Hover over each bar for exact numbers. Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org

Enter your email address below to receive our latest articles right in your inbox.

You might also like: