Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
Israeli forces killed at least 70 Palestinians in Gaza on Saturday, including at least 31 aid seekers. In total, Israel has killed at least 2,416 aid seekers since May 27, 2025 (learn about aid seekers here).
The total known number of Palestinians who have died from malnutrition stands at 387, including 138 children.
For detail on Israeli attacks in Gaza on Saturday, go here.
GAZA NEWS:
(For some basic info on the Palestine-Israel conflict, go here. For 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.)
Gaza: 20,000 children killed in 23 months of war – more than one child killed every hour
At least one Palestinian child has been killed every hour on average by Israeli forces in Gaza over nearly 23 months of war, with the number of children killed now surpassing 20,000, Save the Children said.
The latest data released by the Government Media Office in Gaza stated that this is equal to about 2% of Gaza’s child population.
At least 1,009 of the children killed were under age one, with nearly half (450) of these babies born and killed during the war. At least 42,011 children have been injured, according to the Ministry of Health, with the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities reporting at least 21,000 children left permanently disabled. Thousands more are missing or presumed buried under rubble (continue reading here).
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WATCH: Israel strikes Gaza city high-rise
The Israeli military has bombed another residential high-rise in Gaza City. It’s part of a large-scale offensive to seize the biggest urban centre in the Strip.
The assault is rendering it almost uninhabitable.
Al Jazeera’s Ferdia Carr reports:
Israel’s war has destroyed ‘90% of Gaza’s infrastructure’
Gaza’s Government Media Office has issued a statement on the 700th day of Israel’s “war of genocide, forced displacement, and ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip, amid shameful international complicity and silence”.
“This war resulted in the near-total destruction of 90 percent of the infrastructure and initial losses exceeding $68bn, with the occupation controlling more than 80 percent of the Gaza Strip through military force and forced displacement,” the statement read.
During its war, Israel “committed bloody massacres” that resulted in the deaths and disappearances of 73,731 people, including more than 20,000 children and 12,500 women, according to the statement, as well as 1,670 medical personnel, 248 journalists, 139 civil defense personnel, and 173 municipal employees.
“The occupation also wiped out 2,700 families from the civil registry. More than 162,000 people were injured, including thousands of amputations, paralysis, and blindness,” it said.
The office also cited the destruction of 38 hospitals, 833 mosques, and 163 educational institutions, alongside widespread damage to thousands of other public facilities.
“What we have built in 50 years was flattened in five days,” Gaza City resident Aqeel Kishko told Al Jazeera. “Nothing remains standing: Buildings, roads and infrastructure. We are walking not only on ruins but also on dead bodies of our loved ones.”
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More than 7,000 under-fives in Gaza put in malnutrition recovery in two-week period
More than 7,000 children under the age of five were put on recovery programs for acute malnutrition at UNICEF clinics in Gaza in just two weeks last month, figures reveal.
The overall total for August is being compiled by UNICEF but is expected to exceed 15,000 new patients, more than seven times the total in February.
A famine was declared in Gaza City, in the north of the devastated territory, last month, but other towns farther south are “fast catching up”, officials from the agency said.
“On the ground, it is crystal clear that people are starving, that there is a famine unfolding in Gaza City, and Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis [two southern cities in Gaza] are not far behind,” said Tess Ingram, a spokesperson with UNICEF who has spent recent days in Gaza City (continue reading here).
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‘Wherever we go, death pursues us’
“Some say we should evacuate, others say we should stay,” said Abdel Nasser Mushtaha, 48, a resident of the city’s Zeitoun neighborhood now sheltering in a tent in the Remal area.
“But everywhere in Gaza, there are bombings and deaths. For the past year-and-a-half, the worst bombings that caused massacres of civilians have been in al-Mawasi, this so-called humanitarian zone.”
“It no longer makes any difference to us,” said his daughter Samia Mushtaha, 20. “Wherever we go, death pursues us, whether by bombing or hunger.”
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.)
26 injured as Israeli army, illegal settlers launch parallel assaults in occupied West Bank
Dozens of settlers ‘armed with sticks and knives’ rampage through West Bank village
Army Abducts 16 Palestinians in Anata, Jerusalem
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 says Palestinians in Gaza City are not cooperating with their ethnic cleansing operation – an operation that puts Israeli hostages at risk
Israel intensified over the weekend offensive maneuvers meant to signal an imminent ground operation in Gaza City. Families of hostages, especially of live captives who are being held within the city, have received disturbing warnings from the Israel Defense Forces telling them that it will be difficult to avoid causing harm to these hostages
On Friday morning the IDF bombed a high-rise building in Gaza City, shortly after warning its residents to evacuate. Another strike took place Saturday. Both took aim at what the military calls “super targets,” multistory buildings whose destruction is visible from afar and mainly intended to cause panic among the Palestinian population. The IDF General Staff is concerned that not enough residents are fleeing the city ahead of the imminent operation. According to preliminary estimates, less than 10 percent of Greater Gaza City’s population of one million are thought to have left.
The more that residents insist on staying in their homes, the more the military is liable to intensify its attacks, causing more civilian casualties. The IDF announced the opening of a supposedly safe “humanitarian zone” in Khan Yunis, to which Gaza City residents will be urged to go.
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Inside the IDF’s Massive Preparations to Take Over Gaza City
About 60,000 IDF reservists were mobilized last week at an estimated cost of about $800 million monthly, as the Israeli military ramps up preparations for a potential Gaza City offensive.
The Israeli Defense Ministry has ordered extensive logistical measures, infrastructure projects, and specialized training, all of which add substantially to the financial burden.
A sample of the projects and purchases: eight structures for urban warfare training, with another 11 under construction; hundreds of new accommodation complexes to house reservists; hundreds of new Humvees at a cost of about $150 million, 5,000 new drones for $30 million.
The Israeli government’s inability to reach a deal with Hamas to end the war and secure the hostages comes at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars every month. If the government is using this as a tactic to pressure Hamas, it is one of the most expensive psychological operations ever carried out by the defense establishment.
NOTE: As of mid-January 2025, the war had already cost Israel $42 billion, an average of nearly $84 million per day. The daily cost now, with all the demolition and especially construction underway (and tens of thousands of additional personnel) must be substantially higher.
The US has been openly providing massive funding for Israel (about $63 million a day) and conducting billions in weapons sales, often without proper congressional approval – that is to say, American tax dollars are largely funding this genocide of the Palestinian people.
Israel deploys new prison weapons in systematic abuse of Palestinian detainees
Israel is using Palestinian prisoners as “testing grounds” for new weapons, the head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club warned on Saturday, describing the move as part of a systematic policy to escalate violence inside jails.
Abdullah al-Zaghari said in a statement that Israel’s prison authorities had recently announced the introduction of new weapons to suppress detainees, including electric stun devices and new types of rubber bullets used in raids.
He said these measures expose prisoners to both fast and slow deaths, in violation of international humanitarian law and basic human rights standards.
Al-Zaghari added that this escalation reflected Israel’s declared policies aimed at dehumanizing detainees, saying that the latest steps are unprecedented in scope and intensity.
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New Israeli body to address arms embargo threats
Israel will establish a new body – the “Munitions Directorate – to address arms embargo threats, which have increased significantly during the nearly two-year war against Hamas in Gaza. Another aim is to reduce dependency on the United States for weapons supplies.
The committee’s responsibilities will include identifying armament gaps, preparing for future threats, managing agreements with other countries, monitoring of a national stockpile of critical armaments, and developing emergency production capabilities and rapid output in times of war or escalation.
ISRAEL HEADLINES:
US CENTCOM chief reaffirms ‘ironclad commitment’ to Israel’s security on 1st official visit
HEADLINES FROM ISRAELI NEWSPAPERS (A GLIMPSE INSIDE ISRAELI SOCIETY):
‘Traitor’: Mass Jerusalem crowd pans Netanyahu as hostage’s mom calls him worst foe of Jewish nation
Bennett says government full of ‘stupid ministers,’ plans to form united centrist party
Analysis of footage from Nasser Hospital strike calls Israel’s account into question
FLOTILLA NEWS & HEADLINES:
(Read about the Gaza Freedom Flotilla 2025 missions here and here; learn about the deadly mission in 2010 here; and find out about the global flotilla here. Get live updates on the Global Flotilla from Al Jazeera here.)
Aid flotilla bound for Gaza delays departure from Tunisia to Wednesday
A fleet of Gaza-bound boats postponed its scheduled departure to the blockaded Palestinian enclave from Sunday to Wednesday, organizers said, citing technical and logistical reasons for the delayed departure.
“The voyage was postponed for several reasons, including the delayed arrival of the flotilla from Spain, weather and sea conditions, in addition to logistical reasons related to the state of the ships,” according to a statement on X (continue reading here).
RELATED: Tunisian donates rare boat to Gaza-bound flotilla to defy Israeli siege
PROTEST, BOYCOTT, & OTHER NEWS:
Gaza war film The Voice of Hind Rajab wins 2nd prize at Venice festival
A harrowing docudrama about Israel’s killing of a five-year-old Palestinian girl during its ongoing war on Gaza has won the Silver Lion prize at the Venice Film Festival.
The Voice of Hind Rajab, by French-Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania, came in second on Saturday to the movie Father Mother Sister Brother by United States indie director Jim Jarmusch.
The film was the most talked-about movie on the Venice Lido and tipped by many as the likely winner after a 23-minute standing ovation at its premiere on Wednesday.
Ben Hania, accepting her award, said Rajab’s story was not just that of the young girl, but tragically that of “an entire people enduring genocide”.
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US CENTCOM chief reaffirms ‘ironclad commitment’ to Israel’s security on 1st official visit
US Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Brad Cooper said in an official statement said on Saturday, “The United States maintains an ironclad commitment to Israel’s security.”
Cooper visited Israel this week for the first time since he assumed his post on Aug. 8, where he met with Israeli Army Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, where they discussed “regional security and the strong US-Israel military alliance.”
Cooper also reportedly met with other Israeli officials to discuss the possibility of launching a new offensive against Iran in the coming months.
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