Under Israel’s blockade, even newborn babies are starving – War on Gaza Day 622

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Under Israel’s blockade, even newborn babies are starving – War on Gaza Day 622
Palestinian children try to get food at a charity kitchen in central Gaza in May 2025 (Moiz Salhi/Anadolu)

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

At least 92 people were killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza on Thursday, Palestinian health officials say, including at least 16 aid-seekers.

In the West Bank, Mohammad Ahmad Mahmoud Al-Hour, 48, was fatally shot by Israeli settlers with live rounds in the town of Surif.

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

GAZA

Hospitals in desperate need of formula for newborns, preemies

Dr. Muneer Alboursh, Gaza’s Director General of Health, tweeted:

Only 48 hours separate us from a humanitarian disaster!

Hundreds of premature and newborn babies in hospital incubators are at imminent risk of death due to a complete shortage of their essential medical milk.

The milk is unavailable in hospitals, markets, and aid institutions.

These babies cannot wait… And have no voice to cry for help.

The Ministry of Health urgently appeals to the world: Save their lives before it’s too late.

Every minute of delay could cost an innocent life.

Children Are Starving in Gaza, as Soldiers Kill People Looking for Food

Doctors trying to save starving children and parents trying to feed their families spoke with The Intercept:

IRAN-ISRAEL-US NEWS SNAPSHOTS:

In Iran, 639 people have been killed and more than 1,300 wounded in the Israeli assault, according to Iranian media reports.

Israeli authorities said at least 25 people have been killed and hundreds injured since then in Iranian missile attacks.

The Israeli army is “running low” on interceptors for the Arrow missile defense system, a US official told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on 18 June. The issue is “raising concern” about Israel’s ability to intercept Iranian ballistic missiles. “The US has been aware of the capacity problems for months,” the US official said. “Washington has been augmenting Israel’s defenses with systems on the ground, at sea, and in the air. Since the conflict escalated in June, the Pentagon has sent more missile defense assets into the region, and now there is concern about the US burning through interceptors as well.”

Fourteen military cargo planes from the US and Germany, loaded with equipment and supplies to support the army, arrived in Israel amid its conflict with Iran, the Israeli defense ministry said Thursday. The ministry added that the shipment is to support the army’s “operational readiness,” noting that the batch is in addition to more than 800 military cargo planes that have arrived since the start of the genocidal war on the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023.

Iranian media reported that an Iranian Khorramshahr missile was launched at Israel, carrying a warhead weighing 1.5 tonnes.

The Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has told US officials that in order to destroy Iran’s Fordow nuclear plant, which is buried deep underground, the US may need to drop a nuclear weapon. The officials were told that in order to destroy Fordow completely, the US would likely need to first soften the ground with conventional bombs and then ultimately drop a tactical nuclear weapon from a B2 bomber.

“A man like [Khamenei] has always aimed at destroying Israel through his agents. This man, who is willing to attack us, must not stay alive. This matter, the matter of stopping this man, eliminating him, is part of the campaign, and we now understand his role because before, he was talking about the destruction of Israel.”

Benjamin Netanyahu suggested on Thursday that the time had come for the Jews to repay their ancient debt to Cyrus the Great and bring liberation to Iran: “I want to tell you that 2,500 years ago, Cyrus the Great, the king of Persia, liberated the Jews. And today, a Jewish state is creating the means to liberate the Persian people,” he said.

Israel’s Channel 12 has reported that the latest wave of Iranian missiles was intercepted by American air defense systems. Over the past two days, several Israeli defense systems failed to activate, and some interceptor missiles landed in various areas inside Israel.

Donald Trump has denied a report in the Wall Street Journal that he has approved US plans to attack Iran, saying that the news outlet has “no idea” what his thinking is concerning the Israel-Iran conflict. He also confirmed, later on Thursday, via his press secretary, that he’d be making a decision within the “next two weeks”.

RELATED: Alarm as White House Says Trump Has Not Ruled Out Dropping Nuclear Weapon on Iran

An arrangement of Iran daily newspapers show the results of missile attacks between Israel and Iran on June 16, 2025 in Tehran, Iran.
An arrangement of Iran daily newspapers show the results of missile attacks between Israel and Iran on June 16, 2025 in Tehran, Iran. (Fatemeh Bahrami – Anadolu Agency)

MORE ON IRAN-ISRAEL-US: 

How Mossad’s network of agents helped Israel strike inside Iran

According to Iranian military expert Morteza al-Moussawi, who spoke to The New Arab‘s Arabic edition, the Israeli assault against Iran since last Friday was being carried out in two ways.

First, through “Mossad operational cells on the ground” and second, through aerial bombardment using F-15, F-16, and F-35 fighter jets, which have violated Iranian airspace via Iraq.

He explained that the first method was more significant, with around 70 percent of Israel’s attacks in Iran so far attributable to covert Mossad cells.

Meanwhile, reports in Israeli media have outlined how Mossad had taken significant steps to smuggle large quantities of weapons into Iran long before launching the current attack (continue reading here).

RELATED: Iran foils ‘major Israeli plot’ to assassinate FM Araghchi before crunch EU talks

Many aircraft dispersed from US military base in Qatar

The Al Udeid Air Base outside Doha, Qatar – a major US military base in the Middle East – has seen many of the aircraft typically on its tarmac dispersed, The Associated Press reports.

In a satellite photo taken on Wednesday by Planet Labs PBC and analysed by AP, the airbase’s tarmac had emptied. Typically, the air base is filled with multiple transport planes, fighter jets and drones.

The US military has not acknowledged the change. However, it comes after ships at the US navy’s 5th Fleet base in Bahrain also dispersed. The moves are typically a military strategy to ensure ships and planes aren’t destroyed in case of attack.

Bombing hospitals is a red line – unless Israel is doing it

On Thursday morning, Iranian missiles struck Soroka hospital in Beersheba, triggering expressions of outrage from Israeli officials. 

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir likened the Iranian regime to “Nazis who fire missiles at hospitals, the elderly and children”. President Isaac Herzog evoked imagery of a baby in intensive care and a doctor rushing between beds. 

Culture Minister Miki Zohar declared on social media that “only the scum of the earth fires missiles at hospitalized children and elderly people in their sick beds”. The chair of Israel’s medical association, Zion Hagay, decried the strike as a war crime and urged the international medical community to condemn it.

This swift and unified condemnation by Israeli political and medical leadership underscores a striking contradiction: these same actors not only ignored but openly justified the destruction of Gaza’s hospitals over the past two years (continue reading here).

RELATED: At This Point, a Nuclear Iran Is Probably the Least Bad Option

IRAN-ISRAEL-US HEADLINES:

What is the War Powers Act, and can it stop Trump from attacking Iran?

How Democratic Party Leaders Quietly Support Trump’s March to War With Iran

Netanyahu is using Muslim women’s ‘rights’ to justify his war. What hideous, hollow hypocrisy

Tulsi Gabbard ‘sidelined’ by Trump for opposing Iran war: Report

The Whitewashing of an Unjust and Unnecessary War

WEST BANK HEADLINES:

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

Israeli Settlers Kill a Palestinian, Injure Others, Near Hebron

Israeli Forces Shoot Two, Injure Others, Near Nablus

Palestinian Homes Demolished in Jerusalem and Nablus

Palestinians inspect the scale of destruction after Israeli army demolishes a Palestinian house during a raid in Tammun town in Tubas, West Bank on May 15, 2025.
Palestinians inspect the scale of destruction after Israeli army demolishes a Palestinian house during a raid in Tammun town in Tubas, West Bank on May 15, 2025. (Nedal Eshtayah – Anadolu Agency)

PROTEST NEWS:

Trump resumes visa applications for international students, but with increased vetting

MORE HEADLINES:

Taming of medical journal undermines academic freedom

Colonial Logic, not Jewish Wisdom Guides Israel’s Wars

Netanyahu stuns Israelis by describing ‘personal cost’ of Iran war – postponing son’s wedding

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – JUNE 19, 2025:

  • At least 56,698 Palestinians killed, 138,886 injured – including:
  • at least 55,706 killed in Gaza (~16,500 children) 
  • at least 992 killed in the West Bank (~199 children)
  • at least 130,101 injured in Gaza
  • at least 8,785 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 5,401 people. 23 Israeli soldiers (most recent June 18) have been killed during the same time period.

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 – June 19, 2025: ~1,613 – including ~1,139 on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 428 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza, 46 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel.

By one count, Israeli attacks have killed approximately 221 Palestinian journalists and media workers; Palestinians have killed 4 Israeli journalists (other groups have tallied between 184 and 281 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

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