At least 111 Palestinians, including 91 seeking aid, killed in Gaza in past 24 hours, Hamas-run health ministry says
At least 111 Palestinians, including 91 aid seekers, have been killed and 820 injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 24 hours, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed 60,249 Palestinians and injured 147,089 since 7 October, 2023, the ministry said on Telegram.
The total number of aid seekers killed since 27 May, when Israel introduced a new aid distribution mechanism, has reached 1,330, with more than 8,818 injured, the statement said.
Key events
British prime minister Keir Starmer has said that he “particularly” listens to hostages who were held captive by Hamas after a British-Israeli woman held hostage by Hamas criticised his pledge to recognise a Palestinian state.
Asked about criticism over the decision and a warning from peers that it could breach international law, Starmer said that “we do need to do everything we can to alleviate the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza”.
Speaking to ITV West Country while on a visit to Swindon, the prime minister said:
I particularly listen to the hostages, Emily Damari, who I have spoken to, – I’ve met her mother a number of times, and they’ve been through the most awful, awful experience for Emily and for her mother.
And that’s why I’ve been absolutely clear and steadfast that we must have the remaining hostages released. That’s been our position throughout and I absolutely understand the unimaginable horror that Emily went through.
Alongside that, we do need to do everything we can to alleviate the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, where we are seeing the children and babies starving for want of aid which could be delivered.
That is why I’ve said unless things materially change on the ground, we’ll have to assess this in September, we will recognise Palestine before the United Nations General Assembly in September.
Aid packages, dropped from an airplane, descend over Gaza earlier today, as seen from the central Gaza Strip.
France’s foreign minister on Thursday said a US and Israel-backed aid distribution system in Gaza had generated a “bloodbath” and had to cease activity.
“I want to call for the cessation of the activities of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the militarised distribution of humanitarian aid that has generated a bloodbath in distribution lines in Gaza, which is a scandal, which is shameful, and has to stop,” Foreign and European Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told reporters after meeting his Cyprus counterpart in Nicosia.
The UK government will not get into a “to and fro” with Hamas over its plans to recognise a Palestinian state, business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said, adding: “We don’t negotiate with terrorists.”
Speaking to reporters in Swindon, he said: “Look, our requests that all hostages must be released and that Hamas can play no future role in the governance of Gaza or a Palestinian state are long-standing.
“We don’t negotiate with terrorists, Hamas are terrorists, and that’s why we don’t get into a to and fro with them as to what we want them to do. That’s absolute in terms of our request.
“What we are seeking to do is use the moment of recognition of a Palestinian state in a way that allows us to genuinely try and move this conflict forward, end it – not just in the short-term, but for the long term as well.
“Of course, get aid into Gaza, which is absolutely key, but use this moment to try and genuinely say what we have witnessed is so appalling, so horrific, there’s suffering on both sides, but we have to try surely and move this on for good, and that requires a two-state solution.
“That is why recognition of the Palestinian state is so important.”
Summary
Here is a recap of events so far today.
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US special envoy Steve Witkoff has arrived in Israel in a bid to salvage ceasefire talks and tackle a humanitarian crisis in Gaza where a global hunger monitor has warned that famine was unfolding. Israeli media reported that Witkoff will visit US-Israeli-backed GHF aid sites in Gaza during his trip to Israel.
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Donald Trump has said in a post on his Truth Social that the “fastest way to end humanitarian crises in Gaza” is for “Hamas to surrender and release hostages”.
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Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson urged the European Union to suspend the trade component of the bloc’s association agreement with Israel. In a post on social media, he said: “The situation in Gaza is utterly deplorable, and Israel is not fulfilling its most basic obligations and agreed-upon commitments regarding humanitarian aid.”
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Germany’s foreign minister Johann Wadephul said on Thursday that talks on a two-state solution “must begin now”, warning Berlin would respond to “unilateral steps”, Reuters reports. In a statement before heading to Israel AFP reports he said that the recent UN conference on a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – boycotted by the US and Israel – showed that “Israel is finding itself increasingly in the minority”.
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At least 111 Palestinians, including 91 aid seekers, have been killed and 820 injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 24 hours, the Hamas-run Health Ministry says.
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The BBC has shown footage of humanitarian aid being airdropped into Gaza.
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Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun said on Thursday that Lebanese political parties need to seize the opportunity and hand over their weapons sooner rather than later. He said his country was determined to disarm Hezbollah, a day after the group’s chief said those demanding its disarmament were serving Israeli goals.
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Syrian foreign minister Asaad al-Shaibani said his country wants Russia “by our side” and called for “mutual respect” between the two nations following the overthrow of Syria’s previous Moscow-backed government last year, AFP reports.
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Iran on Thursday described as “malicious” fresh US sanctions targeting a shipping empire controlled by the son of a top political advisor to Iran’s supreme leader, AFP reports.
Here is an image coming to us over the wires of humanitarian aid being airdropped on Gaza by the Egyptian Air Force.
The BBC has been showing footage of airdrops from Jordan and UAE taking place in Gaza.
At least 111 Palestinians, including 91 seeking aid, killed in Gaza in past 24 hours, Hamas-run health ministry says
At least 111 Palestinians, including 91 aid seekers, have been killed and 820 injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 24 hours, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed 60,249 Palestinians and injured 147,089 since 7 October, 2023, the ministry said on Telegram.
The total number of aid seekers killed since 27 May, when Israel introduced a new aid distribution mechanism, has reached 1,330, with more than 8,818 injured, the statement said.
Trump says ‘fastest way to end humanitarian crises in Gaza’ is for Hamas ‘to surrender and release hostages’
Donald Trump has posted on his Truth Social on the Gaza humanitarian crisis:
The fastest way to end the Humanitarian Crises in Gaza is for Hamas to SURRENDER AND RELEASE THE HOSTAGES!!!
Here are some images coming to us over the wires.
Talks on two-state solution ‘must begin now’, German foreign minister says
Germany’s foreign minister Johann Wadephul said on Thursday talks on a two-state solution “must begin now”, warning Berlin would respond to “unilateral steps”, Reuters reports.
“A negotiated two-state solution remains the only path that can offer people on both sides a life in peace, security, and dignity,” he said in a statement issued shortly before his trip on Thursday to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
“For Germany, the recognition of a Palestinian state comes more at the end of that process. But such a process must begin now.”
AFP reports that Wadephul said that the recent UN conference on a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – boycotted by the US and Israel – showed that “Israel is finding itself increasingly in the minority”.
Reuters has reported on the desperate situation in Gaza.
In a makeshift tent on a Gazan beach, three-month-old Muntaha’s grandmother grinds up chickpeas into the tiniest granules she can to form a paste to feed the infant, knowing it will cause her to cry in pain, in a desperate race to keep the baby from starving.
“If the baby could speak, she would scream at us, asking what we are putting into her stomach,” her aunt, Abir Hamouda said.
Muntaha grimaced and squirmed as her grandmother fed her the paste with a syringe.
Muntaha’s family is one of many in Gaza facing dire choices to try to feed babies, especially those below the age of six months who cannot process solid food.
Infant formula is scarce after a plummet in aid access to Gaza. Many women cannot breastfeed due to malnourishment, while other babies are separated from their mothers due to displacement, injury or, in Muntaha’s case, death.
Her family says the baby’s mother was hit by a bullet while pregnant, gave birth prematurely while unconscious in intensive care, and died a few weeks later. The director of the Shifa Hospital described such a case in a Facebook post on April 27, four days after Muntaha was born.
“I am terrified about the fate of the baby,” said her grandmother, Nemah Hamouda. “We named her after her mother…hoping she can survive and live long, but we are so afraid, we hear children and adults die every day of hunger.”
Muntaha now weighs about 3.5 kilograms, her family said, barely more than half of what a full-term baby her age would normally weigh. She suffers stomach problems like vomiting and diarrhoea after feeding.
Health officials, aid workers and Gazan families told Reuters many families are feeding infants herbs and tea boiled in water, or grinding up bread or sesame.
Humanitarian agencies also reported cases of parents boiling leaves in water, eating animal feed and grinding sand into flour.