Israel’s government is pursuing an “unacceptable and morally unjustifiable” policy in Gaza, the Catholic Latin patriarch of Jerusalem has said after visiting a church in the territory that was attacked by Israeli forces last week and meeting survivors.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa said he had witnessed extreme hunger on the brief trip, his first into Gaza this year, and described Israeli blocks on food and medical shipments as a “sentence” for starving Palestinians.

“Humanitarian aid is not only necessary, it is a matter of life and death,” he told journalists in Jerusalem after the visit. “Every hour without food, water, medicine and shelter causes deep harm.”

Pizzaballa travelled to Gaza with the Greek Orthodox patriarch Theophilos III, in a show of cross-denominational solidarity after the attack on the Holy Family church that killed three people and injured nine others including the priest, Gabriel Romanelli, who used to receive daily calls from the late Pope Francis.

The cardinal accused Israel’s government of pursuing a war without justification, and warned against plans to force Palestinians to leave the territory, which are backed by much of the Israeli cabinet.

“We need to say with frankness and clarity that this policy of the Israeli government in Gaza is unacceptable and morally we cannot justify it,” he said. “There can be no future based on captivity, displacement of Palestinians or revenge.”

After international pressure over the attack on the church, including from Donald Trump, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, called the pope to express “regret” for the attack, which he said was caused by “stray ammunition”.

Some Catholic leaders have questioned that explanation, and the Vatican’s top diplomat, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said in an interview with Italy’s state broadcaster that it “can legitimately be doubted”.

Asked whether he thought Israeli forces had targeted the church, Pizzaballa said he did not have the military expertise to assess the damage, but that regardless of intention, Christians had repeatedly been attacked and killed by Israeli forces.

“Gaza is almost totally destroyed, and nobody is exempted,” he said. “This is not the first time it happened. There was also [attacks on] the Holy Family and St Porphyrius in the first weeks of the war. And every time it was a mistake.”

Israel has issued evacuation orders for the areas surrounding the two compounds where Gaza’s Christians have taken shelter during the war, but the community of about 560 people do not intend to leave.

“They know very well that we are determined to remain,” Pizzaballa said when asked whether the Christians would follow the evacuation orders.

In the months since his last visit, at the end of last year, destruction of whole neighbourhoods had left parts of Gaza City unrecognisable, Pizzaballa said. Neighbourhoods around the Christian-run al-Ahli hospital, which the clerics visited, were “totally erased”, he said, reduced to rubble.

Inside the hospital wards the delegation met doctors and nurses who described patients too malnourished to heal, and met victims of other attacks.

Pizzaballa sounded emotional as he described speaking to a father keeping watch at the bedside of his blind, badly injured son, the only survivor of his six children. “It was difficult to bear,” he said of the meeting.

Hunger was everywhere, Pizzaballa said, describing long queues of people waiting hours in the sun in hope of something to eat as “a humiliation that is hard to bear when you see it with your own eyes”.

Israel authorised church authorities to take 500 tonnes of aid into Gaza after the attack on the Holy Family. The complex logistics meant the food could not cross the border with the delegation, but people are so hungry that news of the planned delivery brought crowds to the church and even members of the congregation had to be shown proof their leaders had come empty-handed.

The community is surviving on small rations of mostly bread and rice, and told Pizzaballa that they had not eaten meat, fruit or vegetables since February.

He called for an end to the war and said the Christian community saw it as “our moral duty to be part of reconciliation” when peace comes.

“After almost two years of war I think everyone starts thinking and arrives at the conclusion that it is about time to stop it.”

From 8h ago 14.36 BST At least 72 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire and strikes in past 24 hours, health ministry says Gaza’s health ministry said on Tuesday at least 72 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes in the past 24 hours, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports. A six-week-old infant was among 15 people who have died of starvation in Gaza in the past 24 hours, local health officials said, with malnutrition now killing Palestinians faster than at any point in the 21-month war. The infant died at a hospital ward in northern Gaza, the health officials said, naming him as Yousef al-Safadi. Three of the others were also children, including 13-year-old Abdulhamid al-Ghalban, who died in a hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis. The other two children were not named. Palestinian health officials say at least 101 people have died of hunger during the conflict, including 80 children, with most of them in recent weeks. Israel controls all aid supplies into the war-ravaged settlement, where most of the population has been displaced multiple times and faces acute shortages of basic necessities. There has been international condemnation of mass killings of civilians and dire shortages of aid in Gaza, but no action that has yet stopped the conflict, or significantly increased supplies. Israel’s military said that it “views the transfer of humanitarian aid into Gaza as a matter of utmost importance”, and works to facilitate its entry in coordination with the international community. It has denied accusations it is preventing aid from reaching Gaza and has accused Palestinian militant group Hamas of stealing food, an allegation Hamas denies. Tank shelling killed another 16 people living in tents in Gaza City on Tuesday, as Israeli troops launched attacks across the strip, health officials said. The Israeli military said it wasn’t aware of any incident, or artillery in the area at that time. Share

4h ago 17.44 BST Closing summary Gaza’s health ministry said on Tuesday at least 72 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes in the past 24 hours, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports. A six-week-old infant was among 15 people who have died of starvation in Gaza in the past 24 hours, local health officials said, with malnutrition now killing Palestinians faster than at any point in the 21-month war.

The head of the UN Palestinian Refugee Agency (Unrwa) said on Tuesday that its staff members as well as doctors and humanitarian workers are fainting on duty due to hunger and exhaustion, describing the situation in Gaza as “hell on earth”. The Unrwa estimates that 1,000 starving people have been reported killed while seeking food aid since the end of May.

Unrwa commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini also called the Israeli-backed logistics group run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation a “sadistic death trap”. He said snipers opened fire randomly on crowds at aid sites as if they are given a “licence to kill”. The GHF responded by claiming the UN was “refusing” to deliver aid in Gaza that could help end the desperation in the region.

Malnourishment is soaring and starvation is knocking on every door in Gaza, United Nations secretary-general António Guterres said on Tuesday, describing the situation in the Palestinian territory as a “horror show”. “And now we are seeing the last gasp of a humanitarian system built on humanitarian principles,” Guterres told the UN security council.

Israeli strikes killed at least 20 people in Gaza, Palestinian health officials said on Tuesday, as Israel pushed on with a new incursion in Deir al-Balah, which had largely been spared heavy fighting during the 21-month war. The expansion of Israel’s ground invasion comes as Israel and Hamas have been considering terms for a ceasefire for Gaza that would pause the fighting and free at least some hostages.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said the Israeli military attacked its staff residence and main warehouse in Deir al-Balah on Monday, compromising its operations in Gaza. The WHO said its staff residence was attacked three times, with airstrikes causing a fire and extensive damage, and endangering staff and their families, including children.

Amnesty International on Tuesday called for a war crimes investigation into Israel’s deadly air attack on Tehran’s Evin prison during last month’s 12-day war. The strike, confirmed by Israel, killed 79 people, according to a provisional tally by Iranian authorities.

At least 1,062 people died in Iran in its 12-day war with Israel last month, government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said on Tuesday, Reuters reports. There were 102 women and 38 children among the dead. The previous official death toll was 935.

Iran said on Tuesday that 27 inmates are still at large after an Israeli airstrike last month targeted Evin prison in the north of the capital, Tehran, local media reported.

The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on what it said was a Houthi-linked petroleum smuggling and sanctions evasion network across Yemen and the United Arab Emirates in fresh action targeting the Iran-backed militant group. The US Treasury Department in a statement said the two individuals and five entities sanctioned on Tuesday were among the most significant importers of petroleum products and money launderers that benefit the Houthis.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Jerusalem’s Latin Patriarch, said on Tuesday he and church leaders had returned from a visit to Gaza with “broken hearts”, calling the spiralling humanitarian crisis there “morally unacceptable”, Reuters reports. Pizzaballa and Theophilos III, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, on Friday visited the Holy Family Church compound in Gaza City, where an Israeli strike last week killed three people and injured several more including the parish priest.

Regarding the possibility of reimposing international sanctions on Iran, state media quoted the country’s deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi as saying on Tuesday that the Iranian government feels the “snapback” mechanism lacks any legal ground. He was speaking ahead of a meeting on Friday with three European states known as the E3 – Britain, France and Germany. The E3 have said that if no progress is reached by the end of August over Iran’s nuclear programme, they will invoke a “snapback” mechanism – a process that would reimpose UN sanctions on Tehran that were lifted under a 2015 deal in return for restrictions on Iran’s nuclear programme.

Government offices in at least 10 Iranian provinces, including the capital, have been ordered to close on Wednesday in a bid to conserve water and electricity, as temperatures in parts of southern and south-western Iran soared above 50C (122F). At least 10 provincial capitals recorded temperatures above 40C on Monday, including Tehran, which reached 40C for the first time this year, the meteorological agency said.

The Norwegian Refugee Council told Reuters on Tuesday its aid stocks are completely depleted in Gaza, with some of its staff now starving, and accused Israel of paralysing its work. “Our last tent, our last food parcel, our last relief items have been distributed. There is nothing left,” Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the council told Reuters in an interview via video link from Oslo.

A cruise ship carrying Israeli tourists left the Greek island of Syros Tuesday without its passengers disembarking, after more than 150 protesters demonstrated at the island’s port, unfurling Palestinian flags and calling for an end to the war in Gaza. Carrying banners that read: “Stop the Genocide” and “No a/c in hell” — a reference to the conditions Palestinians face in the Gaza Strip — the protesters chanted slogans on the dock near where the cruise ship, the Crown Iris, was docked on Tuesday, local media said. There were no reports of any violence. Share

5h ago 17.02 BST A cruise ship carrying Israeli tourists left the Greek island of Syros Tuesday without its passengers disembarking, after more than 150 protesters demonstrated at the island’s port, unfurling Palestinian flags and calling for an end to the war in Gaza. Carrying banners that read: “Stop the Genocide” and “No a/c in hell” — a reference to the conditions Palestinians face in the Gaza Strip — the protesters chanted slogans on the dock near where the cruise ship, the Crown Iris, was docked on Tuesday, local media said. There were no reports of any violence. The ship is operated by an Israeli company, Mano Cruise, which said about 1,700 passengers were on board and it is sailing to Cyprus, AP reported. Greece’s coastguard said the ship set sail at around 3 p.m., earlier than originally scheduled, but did not immediately have any further details. Share

5h ago 16.44 BST More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed since May while trying to get food in the Gaza Strip, mostly in the vicinity of aid sites run by an Israeli-backed American contractor, the United Nations human rights office said Tuesday. Israeli strikes killed 25 people across Gaza, according to local health officials, AP reported. Desperation is mounting in the territory of more than 2 million, which experts say is at risk of famine because of Israel’s blockade and ongoing 21-month offensive. A breakdown of law and order has led to widespread looting and contributed to chaos and violence around aid deliveries. Gaza’s health ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals, said Tuesday that 101 people, including 80 children, have died in recent days from starvation. It did not provide precise diagnoses, but people in hunger crises often die from a combination of malnutrition, illness and deprivation. Share

6h ago 16.20 BST The Norwegian Refugee Council told Reuters on Tuesday its aid stocks are completely depleted in Gaza, with some of its staff now starving, and accused Israel of paralysing its work. “Our last tent, our last food parcel, our last relief items have been distributed. There is nothing left,” Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the council told Reuters in an interview via video link from Oslo. The council’s comments echo those made earlier on Tuesday by the head of the Palestinian refugee agency, who said UNRWA’s staff were fainting on the job from hunger and exhaustion. The NRC says that for the last 145 days it has not been able to get its hundreds of truckloads containing tents, water, sanitation, food and education materials into Gaza. Share

6h ago 15.58 BST The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on what it said was a Houthi-linked petroleum smuggling and sanctions evasion network across Yemen and the United Arab Emirates in fresh action targeting the Iran-backed militant group. The US Treasury Department in a statement said the two individuals and five entities sanctioned on Tuesday were among the most significant importers of petroleum products and money launderers that benefit the Houthis. “The Houthis collaborate with opportunistic businessmen to reap enormous profits from the importation of petroleum products and to enable the group’s access to the international financial system,” said deputy secretary of the Treasury Michael Faulkender. “These networks of shady businesses underpin the Houthis’ terrorist machine, and Treasury will use all tools at its disposal to disrupt these schemes.” Share

7h ago 15.37 BST Malnourishment is soaring and starvation is knocking on every door in Gaza, United Nations secretary-general António Guterres said on Tuesday, describing the situation in the Palestinian territory as a “horror show”. “And now we are seeing the last gasp of a humanitarian system built on humanitarian principles,” Guterres told the UN security council. “That system is being denied the conditions to function. Denied the space to deliver. Denied the safety to save lives.” Share Updated at 15.39 BST

7h ago 15.18 BST Below is a video published by the Guardian of individuals at the al-Shati camp in Gaza after the encampment was shelled overnight. 0:33 Palestinians killed at Gaza refugee camp after shelling by Israeli tank – video Gaza’s civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that Israeli strikes on the al-Shati camp west of Gaza City killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 50. Medics said the tanks were stationed north of al-Shati camp and fired two shells at tents sheltering displaced families. There has been no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the incident. Share

7h ago 14.48 BST Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Jerusalem’s Latin Patriarch, said on Tuesday he and church leaders had returned from a visit to Gaza with “broken hearts”, calling the spiralling humanitarian crisis there “morally unacceptable”, Reuters reports. Pizzaballa and Theophilos III, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, on Friday visited the Holy Family Church compound in Gaza City, where an Israeli strike last week killed three people and injured several more including the parish priest. “It is time to end this nonsense and the war,” the cardinal, who is the most senior Catholic authority in the region, told a press conference in Jerusalem. He called for more humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip, calling it “a matter of life or death.” He added: Every hour without food, water, medicine and shelter causes deep harm. It is morally unacceptable and unjustifiable. It is extremely rare for foreign officials to be allowed entry into Gaza as Israel has essentially sealed its borders since launching its war against Hamas after the Palestinian militant group’s cross-border attack on 7 October 2023. View image in fullscreen Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa speaks during a joint press conference with the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III, not pictured, after their visit to the Gaza Strip, in Jerusalem, on Tuesday, 22 July 2025. Photograph: Mahmoud illean/AP Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday blamed “stray ammunition” for the strike on the church and said Israel was “investigating the incident and remains committed to protecting civilians and holy sites.” Pizzaballa and a Vatican official have questioned Israeli explanations for the incident. When asked about his stance after his visit to the damaged church, Pizzaballa said on Tuesday that it was not clear what happened and they could not “prove anything.” Netanyahu called Pope Leo on Friday and in their exchange the pontiff renewed appeals for an end to the war, protection of civilians and places of worship while voicing concern for “the dramatic humanitarian situation” in Gaza, the Vatican said. Share

8h ago 14.36 BST At least 72 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire and strikes in past 24 hours, health ministry says Gaza’s health ministry said on Tuesday at least 72 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes in the past 24 hours, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports. A six-week-old infant was among 15 people who have died of starvation in Gaza in the past 24 hours, local health officials said, with malnutrition now killing Palestinians faster than at any point in the 21-month war. The infant died at a hospital ward in northern Gaza, the health officials said, naming him as Yousef al-Safadi. Three of the others were also children, including 13-year-old Abdulhamid al-Ghalban, who died in a hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis. The other two children were not named. Palestinian health officials say at least 101 people have died of hunger during the conflict, including 80 children, with most of them in recent weeks. Israel controls all aid supplies into the war-ravaged settlement, where most of the population has been displaced multiple times and faces acute shortages of basic necessities. There has been international condemnation of mass killings of civilians and dire shortages of aid in Gaza, but no action that has yet stopped the conflict, or significantly increased supplies. Israel’s military said that it “views the transfer of humanitarian aid into Gaza as a matter of utmost importance”, and works to facilitate its entry in coordination with the international community. It has denied accusations it is preventing aid from reaching Gaza and has accused Palestinian militant group Hamas of stealing food, an allegation Hamas denies. Tank shelling killed another 16 people living in tents in Gaza City on Tuesday, as Israeli troops launched attacks across the strip, health officials said. The Israeli military said it wasn’t aware of any incident, or artillery in the area at that time. Share

8h ago 14.21 BST Here are some of the latest photos of Gaza coming to us through the wires: View image in fullscreen Displaced Palestinians inspect shelters damaged during an Israeli military operation in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on Tuesday, 22 July 2025. Photograph: Hatem Khaled/Reuters View image in fullscreen Displaced Palestinians receive donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, on Tuesday. Photograph: Jehad Alshrafi/AP View image in fullscreen Palestinians hold on to an aid truck returning to Gaza City from the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday. Photograph: Jehad Alshrafi/AP View image in fullscreen Displaced Palestinians wait for donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, on Tuesday. Photograph: Jehad Alshrafi/AP Share

8h ago 14.06 BST European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday that the images of civilians being killed in Gaza during humanitarian aid distributions are “unbearable” and reiterated the EU’s call for the safe and swift slow of humanitarian aid and respect for international law. She said in a post on X: Civilians cannot be targets. Never. The images from Gaza are unbearable. The EU reiterates its call for the free, safe and swift flow of humanitarian aid. And for the full respect of international and humanitarian law. Civilians in Gaza have suffered too much, for too long. It must stop now. Israel must deliver on its pledges. Share

8h ago 13.51 BST Haroon Siddique Haroon Siddique is the Guardian’s legal affairs correspondent. An intelligence assessment before Palestine Action was banned under anti-terrorism laws found that the vast majority of its activities were lawful, a court has heard. Raza Husain KC, appearing for Huda Ammori, a co-founder of the group, said Yvette Cooper’s decision to proscribe the group on 5 July was “repugnant” and an “authoritarian and blatant abuse of power”. In written submissions for Monday’s high court hearing, Husain and Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh KC said: “On ‘nature and scale’, the home secretary accepts that only three of Palestine Action’s at least 385 actions would meet the statutory definition of terrorism (… itself a dubious assessment).” Husain said it was for the court to consider “whether that’s sufficient or whether it’s de minimis (too small to be meaningful) for a group that’s been going for five years”. He added that the vast majority of the group’s actions were assessed by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre to be lawful. You can read more of Haroon Siddique’s piece here: UK ban on Palestine Action is an abuse of power, high court told UK ban on Palestine Action is an abuse of power, high court told Read more Share

9h ago 13.36 BST The head of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City said on Tuesday that 21 children had died across the Palestinian territory in the past three days “due to malnutrition and starvation”, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, head of the hospital, told reporters: These deaths were recorded at hospitals in Gaza, including Al-Shifa in Gaza City, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah and Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis… over the past 72 hours. UN secretary general António Guterres warned on Monday evening that “the last lifelines keeping people alive are collapsing” in Gaza, and that there were growing reports of children and adults with malnutrition. Abu Salmiya told reporters that new cases of malnutrition and starvation were arriving at Gaza’s remaining functioning hospitals “every moment”. He added: We are heading towards alarming numbers of deaths due to the starvation inflicted on the people of Gaza. After talks to extend a six-week ceasefire broke down, Israel imposed a full blockade on Gaza on 2 March this year, allowing nothing in until trucks were again permitted at a trickle in late May. But stocks accumulated during the ceasefire gradually depleted, leaving the territory’s more than 2 million inhabitants experiencing the worst shortages since the start of the war in October 2023. World Food Programme director Carl Skau, who visited Gaza City in early July, called the situation “the worst” that he had ever seen. Last Sunday, Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that at least three infants died from “severe hunger and malnutrition” in the past week. Share Updated at 13.48 BST

9h ago 13.23 BST Summary of the day so far The head of the UN Palestinian Refugee Agency (Unrwa) said on Tuesday that its staff members as well as doctors and humanitarian workers are fainting on duty due to hunger and exhaustion, describing the situation in Gaza as “hell on earth”. The Unrwa estimates that 1,000 starving people have been reported killed while seeking food aid since the end of May.

Unrwa commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini also called the Israeli-backed logistics group run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation a “sadistic death trap”. He said snipers opened fire randomly on crowds at aid sites as if they are given a “licence to kill”. The GHF responded by claiming the UN was “refusing” to deliver aid in Gaza that could help end the desperation in the region.

Israeli strikes killed at least 20 people in Gaza, Palestinian health officials said on Tuesday, as Israel pushed on with a new incursion in Deir al-Balah, which had largely been spared heavy fighting during the 21-month war. The expansion of Israel’s ground invasion comes as Israel and Hamas have been considering terms for a ceasefire for Gaza that would pause the fighting and free at least some hostages.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said the Israeli military attacked its staff residence and main warehouse in Deir al-Balah on Monday, compromising its operations in Gaza. The WHO said its staff residence was attacked three times, with airstrikes causing a fire and extensive damage, and endangering staff and their families, including children.

Amnesty International on Tuesday called for a war crimes investigation into Israel’s deadly air attack on Tehran’s Evin prison during last month’s 12-day war. The strike, confirmed by Israel, killed 79 people, according to a provisional tally by Iranian authorities.

At least 1,062 people died in Iran in its 12-day war with Israel last month, government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said on Tuesday, Reuters reports. There were 102 women and 38 children among the dead. The previous official death toll was 935.

Iran said on Tuesday that 27 inmates are still at large after an Israeli airstrike last month targeted Evin prison in the north of the capital, Tehran, local media reported.

Regarding the possibility of reimposing international sanctions on Iran, state media quoted the country’s deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi as saying on Tuesday that the Iranian government feels the “snapback” mechanism lacks any legal ground. He was speaking ahead of a meeting on Friday with three European states known as the E3 – Britain, France and Germany. The E3 have said that if no progress is reached by the end of August over Iran’s nuclear programme, they will invoke a “snapback” mechanism – a process that would reimpose UN sanctions on Tehran that were lifted under a 2015 deal in return for restrictions on Iran’s nuclear programme.

Government offices in at least 10 Iranian provinces, including the capital, have been ordered to close on Wednesday in a bid to conserve water and electricity, as temperatures in parts of southern and south-western Iran soared above 50C (122F). At least 10 provincial capitals recorded temperatures above 40C on Monday, including Tehran, which reached 40C for the first time this year, the meteorological agency said. Share

A boy crouches as Palestinians gather to collect what remains of relief supplies from the distribution center of the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 5, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer

GAZA/CAIRO – When university professor Nizam Salama made his way to a southern Gaza aid point last week, he came under fire twice, was crushed in a desperate crowd of hungry people and finally left empty handed.

Shooting first started shortly after he left his family’s tent at 3 a.m. on June 3 to join crowds on the coast road heading towards the aid site in the city of Rafah run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a new U.S.-based organization working with private military contractors to deliver aid in Gaza.

The second time Salama came under fire was at Alam Roundabout close to the aid delivery site, where he saw six dead bodies.

Twenty-seven people were killed that day by Israeli fire on aid seekers , opens new tab , Palestinian health authorities said. Israel said its forces had shot at a group of people they viewed as a threat and the military is investigating the incident.

At the aid delivery site, known as SDS 1, queues snaked through narrow cage-like fences before gates were opened to an area surrounded by sand barriers where packages of supplies were left on tables and in boxes on the ground, according to undated CCTV video distributed by GHF, reviewed by Reuters.

Crowds run towards boxes of aid after gates open at the SDS 1 site in Gaza, in a screengrab from undated CCTV footage released by GHF, published by Reuters on June 1

People packed into the same Gaza site to gather boxes of aid, in a screengrab from the footage released by GHF, published by Reuters on June 1

Salama said the rush of thousands of people once the gates opened was a “death trap.”

“Survival is for the stronger: people who are fitter and can make it earlier and can push harder to win the package,” he said. “I felt my ribs going into each other. My chest was going into itself. My breath…I couldn’t breathe. People were shouting; they couldn’t breathe at all.”

Reuters could not independently verify all the details of Salama’s account. It matched the testimonies of two other aid seekers interviewed by Reuters, who spoke of crawling and ducking as bullets rattled overhead on their way to or from the aid distribution sites.

Mourners pray during the funeral of Palestinians killed, in what the Gaza health ministry say was Israeli fire near a distribution site in Rafah, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 3, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled

All three witnesses said they saw dead bodies on their journeys to and from the Rafah sites.

A statement from a nearby Red Cross field hospital confirmed the number of dead from the attack near the aid site on June 3.

Asked about the high number of deaths since it began operations on May 26, GHF said there had been no casualties at or in the close vicinity of its site.

The Israeli military didn’t respond to detailed requests for comment. Israeli military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin told reporters on Sunday that Hamas was “doing its best” to provoke troops, who “shoot to stop the threat” in what he called a war zone in the vicinity of the aid sites. He said military investigations were underway “to see where we were wrong.”

A few will be rewarded and the many will only risk their lives for nothing. Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council

Salama, 52, had heard enough about the new system to know it would be difficult to get aid, he said, but his five children – including two adults, two teenagers and a nine-year-old – needed food. They have been eating only lentils or pasta for months, he said, often only a single meal a day.

“I was completely against going to the aid site of the American company (GHF) because I knew and I had heard how humiliating it is to do so, but I had no choice because of the bad need to feed my family,” said the professor of education administration.

Gaza University professor Nizam Salama sits inside the tent where he and his family have taken refuge, in Mawasi, Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, June 5, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled

In total, 127 Palestinians have been killed trying to get aid from GHF sites in almost daily shootings since distribution under the new system began two weeks ago, Gaza’s health authority said on Monday.

The system appears to violate core principles of humanitarian aid, said Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, a major humanitarian organisation. He compared it to the Hunger Games, the dystopian novels that set people to run and fight to the death.

“A few will be rewarded and the many will only risk their lives for nothing,” Egeland said.

“International humanitarian law has prescribed that aid in war zones should be provided by neutral intermediaries that can make sure that the most vulnerable will get the relief according to needs alone and not as part of a political or military strategy,” he said.

GHF did not directly respond to a question about its neutrality, replying that it had securely delivered enough aid for more than 11 million meals in two weeks. Gaza’s population is around 2.1 million people.

What Palestinians go through to get aid from GHF

FAMINE RISK

Israel allowed limited U.N.-led aid operations to resume on May 19 after an 11-week blockade in the enclave, where experts a week earlier warned a famine looms , opens new tab . The U.N. has described the aid allowed into Gaza as “drop in the ocean.”

A Palestinian man, next to a child, displays the aid supplies he received from the U.S.-supported Gaza Relief Organization, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, June 5, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled

An Israeli defence official involved in humanitarian matters told Reuters GHF’s distribution centres were sufficient for around 1.2 million people.

GHF coordinates with the Israeli army for access, the foundation said in reply to Reuters questions, adding that it was looking to open more distribution points. It has paused then resumed deliveries several times after the shooting incidents, including on Monday.

Last week, it urged the Israeli army to improve civilian safety beyond the perimeter of its operations. GHF said the U.N. was failing to deliver aid, pointing to a spate of recent lootings.

Israel says the U.N.’s aid deliveries have previously been hijacked by Hamas to feed their own militants. Hamas has denied stealing aid and the U.N. denies its aid operations help Hamas.

The U.N., which has handled previous aid deliveries into Gaza, says it has over 400 distribution points for aid in the territory. On Monday it described an increasingly anarchic situation of looting and has called on Israel to allow more of its trucks to move safely.

Palestinians seeking aid walk between wire fences at a distribution site run by GHF at Netzarim Corridor, May 29, 2025. OCHA

SHOOTING STARTS

Salama and four neighbours set out from Mawasi, in the Khan Younis area of the southern Gaza Strip, at 3 a.m. on Tuesday for the aid site, taking two hours to reach Rafah, which is several miles away near the Egyptian border.

Shooting started early in their journey. Some fire was coming from the sea, he said, consistent with other accounts of the incidents. Israel’s military controls the sea around Gaza.

His small group decided to press on. In the dark, the way was uneven and he repeatedly fell, he said.

“I saw people carrying wounded persons and heading back with them towards Khan Younis,” he said.

By the time they reached Alam Roundabout in Rafah, about a kilometre from the site, there was a vast crowd. There was more shooting and he saw bullets hitting nearby.

“You must duck and stay on the ground,” he said, describing casualties with wounds to the head, chest and legs.

He saw bodies nearby, including a woman, along with “many” injured people, he said.

An injured man arriving at a hospital in Rafah after Israeli fire near a GHF aid distribution site, June 3, video obtained by Reuters.

A casualty is brought by cart into a hospital in Rafah after Israeli fire near a GHF aid distribution site, June 3, video obtained by Reuters.

Another aid seeker interviewed by Reuters, who also walked to Rafah on June 3 in the early morning, described repeated gunfire during the journey.

At one point, he and everyone around him crawled for a stretch of several hundred meters, fearing being shot. He saw a body with a wound to the head about 100 meters from the aid site, he said.

The Red Cross Field Hospital in Rafah received a mass casualty influx of 184 patients on June 3, the majority of them injured by gunshots, the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement, calling it the highest number of weapon-wounded patients the hospital had ever received in a single incident. There were 27 fatalities.

“All responsive patients said they were trying to reach an assistance distribution site,” the statement said.

Palestinians gather to collect what remains of relief supplies from the distribution center of the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 5, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer

When Salama finally arrived at the aid point on June 3, there was nothing left.

“Everyone was standing pulling cardboard boxes from the floor that were empty,” he said. “Unfortunately I found nothing: a very, very, very big zero.”

Although the aid was gone, ever more people were arriving.

“The flood of people pushes you to the front while I was trying to go back,” he said.

As he was pushed further towards where GHF guards were located, he saw them using pepper spray on the crowd, he said.

GHF said it was not aware of the pepper spray incident but said its workers used non-lethal measures to protect civilians.

“I started shouting at the top of my lungs, brothers I don’t want anything, I just want to leave, I just want to leave the place,” Salama said.

“I left empty-handed… I went back home depressed, sad and angry and hungry too,” he said.

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Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo and Hatem Khaled in Gaza. Additional reporting by Emma Farge and Olivia Le Poidevin in Geneva and Tom Perry in Beirut. Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel

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Israel is facing intensifying international condemnation for its killing of starving Palestinian civilians in Gaza, and its attacks on humanitarian efforts, as the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said the “last lifelines keeping people alive [in the strip] are collapsing”.

An angry chorus of senior figures, among them the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, and a senior Catholic cleric, expressed on Tuesday a growing sense of global horror over Israel’s actions.

“I spoke again with [the Israeli foreign minister] Gideon Saar to recall our understanding on aid flow and made clear that IDF [Israel Defense Forces] must stop killing people at distribution points,” the EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, wrote on X. “The killing of civilians seeking aid in Gaza is indefensible.”

She said “all options were on the table” if Israel does not deliver on aid pledges, but did not say what those options included.

According to UN officials on Tuesday, more than 1,000 desperate Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the end of May trying to reach food distributions run by the controversial US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) amid widening conditions of starvation in the Palestinian territory.

The comments came as Israeli forces attacked warehousing and staff accommodation in Deir al-Balah – Gaza’s main aid hub – belonging to the World Health Organization.

The Israeli strikes on WHO facilities came as Israel cancelled the work visa of Jonathan Whittall, the head of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) inside Gaza and the most senior UN aid official in the coastal strip.

Speaking to the UN security council on Tuesday, Guterres described the situation in Gaza as a “horror show” condemning the Israeli attacks on UN offices.

“Malnourishment is soaring and starvation is knocking on every door in Gaza,”Guterres said. “And now we are seeing the last gasp of a humanitarian system built on humanitarian principles. That system is being denied the conditions to function. Denied the space to deliver. Denied the safety to save lives.”

Guterres’ comments came hours after a hard-hitting joint statement on Monday by 27 western countries including the UK, France, Australia and Canada harshly criticising Israel’s restrictions on humanitarian aid and calling for an immediate end to the war.

View image in fullscreen The aftermath of an Israeli military operation in Deir al-Balah. Photograph: Hatem Khaled/Reuters

Guterres said he “deplored the growing reports of children and adults suffering from malnutrition” as health officials in Gaza reported a further 33 deaths, including 12 children, in the past 48 hours.

Lammy amplified that message in an interview with the BBC on Tuesday, describing himself as “appalled [and] sickened” by what was happening in Gaza.

“These are not words that are usually used by a foreign secretary who is attempting to be diplomatic,” Lammy said.

“But when you see innocent children holding out their hand for food, and you see them shot and killed in the way that we have seen in the last few days, of course Britain must call it out.”

Thameen Al-Kheetan, a UN human rights office spokesperson, said: “Over 1,000 Palestinians have now been killed by the Israeli military while trying to get food in Gaza since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operating.

“As of 21 July, we have recorded 1,054 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food; 766 of them were killed in the vicinity of GHF sites and 288 near UN and other humanitarian organisations’ aid convoys.”

The head of the UN’s main agency for Palestinians, Unrwa, on Tuesday described Gaza as a “hell on earth”.

Philippe Lazzarini said Unrwa’s own staff, as well as doctors and humanitarian workers, were fainting on duty owing to hunger and exhaustion as Israel limited access to life-saving humanitarian aid, and that many were surviving on a single small meal a day.

“Caretakers, including Unrwa colleagues in Gaza, are also in need of care now – doctors, nurses, journalists, humanitarians, among them Unrwa staff, are hungry. Many are now fainting due to hunger and exhaustion while performing their duties,” he said in a statement at a media briefing in Geneva.

The UN World Food Programme on Monday said its assessments showed a quarter of the population of Gaza was facing “famine-like” conditions and almost 100,000 women and children were suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

The most recent assessment of hunger in Gaza by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a group that includes the World Food Programme and the WHO, said about 10% of the territory’s population – 244,000 people – were facing catastrophic levels of hunger and 93% were experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity.

View image in fullscreen Displaced Palestinians inspect shelters damaged during the Israeli military operation. Photograph: Hatem Khaled/Reuters

Separately, the Roman Catholic church’s most senior cleric in the Holy Land said the humanitarian situation in Gaza was “morally unacceptable”, after visiting the wartorn Palestinian territory.

“We have seen men holding out in the sun for hours in the hope of a simple meal,” Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, told a news conference. “It’s morally unacceptable and unjustified.”

Irish premier Micheál Martin also called for the war in Gaza to end, describing the images of starving children as “horrific”. Mr Martin called for a surge in humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza.

In a social media post, he said: “The situation in Gaza is horrific. The suffering of civilians and the death of innocent children is intolerable.

“I echo the call by foreign ministers of 28 countries for all hostages to be released, and for a surge in humanitarian aid. This war must end and it must end now.”

Despite the high-profile criticism in recent days, aid agencies have criticised the lack of meaningful action by the governments who signed the joint statement, including the UK, against Israel.

Kristyan Benedict, of Amnesty International UK, said the British government’s “failure to take robust measures to prevent genocide is no accident”, adding that “as a state party to the genocide convention, the UK has a legal duty to prevent and punish genocide – a duty it is failing miserably to uphold”.

The growing international furore came as Israeli troops pushed into the city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, where a number of international aid organisations are based, in what appeared to be the latest effort to carve up the Palestinian territory with military corridors.

Deir al-Balah is the only city in the Gaza Strip that has not experienced major ground operations or suffered widespread devastation in 21 months of war, leading to speculation that the Hamas militant group holds large numbers of hostages there.

Raed Jamal sends the message shortly after he returns, empty-handed, from an aid distribution point to his tent in the al-Mawasi displacement camp in south-west Gaza. “The tanks came and started firing. Three boys near me were martyred,” says the 36-year-old, who has four children. “I didn’t even get anything, just two empty boxes.”

Jamal’s journey involved a long walk to and from a former residential neighbourhood bulldozed by Israeli forces and turned into one of four militarised aid distribution centres run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is based in Delaware in the US.

Video sent by Raed Jamal An extract from a video sent by Raed Jamal.

The GHF sites – Tal al-Sultan, Saudi neighbourhood, Khan Younis and Wadi Gaza – are located in evacuation zones, which means civilians seeking food have to enter areas they have been ordered to leave. According to GHF’s Facebook page, the sites remain open for as little as eight minutes at a time, and in June the average for the Saudi site was 11 minutes. These factors have led to accusations from NGOs that the system is dangerous by design. The Unrwa chief, Philippe Lazzarini, has said “the so-called mechanism … is a death trap costing more lives than it saves.”

The system favours the strongest, so it is mostly men who travel along the designated routes. Then they wait – often for hours – for a centre to open. Finally, there is a dash into the centre of the zones and a scramble to grab a box.

At every stage, those seeking aid pass Israeli tanks and troops, as quadcopters fly above. In another clip shared by Jamal he ducks as bullets pass overhead.

“We have purged our hearts of fear,” Jamal says of his near daily walks to the site. “I need to bring food for my children so they don’t die of hunger.”

A new system, and near daily deaths

GHF, a startup organisation with no experience of distributing food in complex conflict zones, employs US mercenaries at the sites, which opened in May. They replaced 400 non-militarised aid points run under a UN system that Israel claimed had to be shut down because Hamas was diverting aid from it. No evidence for this has been provided.

Since May, more than 1,000 people have died while seeking food from the centres and other humanitarian convoys, according to the UN.

The sites’ opening times are usually announced in posts on a Facebook account and, more recently, messages sent through a Telegram channel. A WhatsApp channel was also set up in the first weeks. People have been warned not to approach the centres until they open.

As the chart below shows, for the site Jamal visited, the amount of time between the site’s opening time being announced and the opening itself decreased dramatically in June.

Mahmoud Alareer, a 27-year-old living in a tent in western Gaza City, says the opening time announcements for the aid site he uses – Wadi Gaza – have become useless, because of the distance from where he is living. Instead, he travels to the edges of the site in the middle of the night and gambles on it opening at 2am, as it has on every visit so far.

First he climbs on to the back of a truck for the long ride south from Gaza City through the militarised Netzarim corridor. Then he waits in the dark until Israeli forces allow him to enter. “You get there and you slowly, slowly advance,” he says. “You always know that it could be you who gets shot, or it might be someone next to you.”

Alareer says chaos always ensues when the aid point opens, as people start running towards the packages, which are left in the middle of the distribution zone. People trip over craters and tangled wires.

View image in fullscreen Palestinians carry parcels at night as they walk back from a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution point in central Gaza. Photograph: Eyad Baba/AFP/Getty Images

GHF has faced severe criticism from the humanitarian community due to the dangers posed to Palestinians both at the sites and on the roads around them. In early July, more than 170 NGOs called for GHF to be shut down, accusing it of violating the principles of humanitarian aid, and calling for the resumption of non-militarised aid in Gaza.

Médecins Sans Frontières’ (MSF) emergency coordinator in Gaza, Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa, says night-time distributions are particularly dangerous because so many roads in southern Gaza have been made unrecognisable by Israeli bombing, making it hard for Palestinians to stick to routes designated by GHF.

Zabalgogeazkoa is scathing about the GHF system. “This is not humanitarian aid,” he says. “We can only think that it was designed to cause damage to the people seeking aid.”

A GHF spokesperson denied that their system was unsafe, claiming that the danger was outside their distribution zones. They also accused the UN of using “exaggerated” casualty figures.

The IDF have been contacted for comment.

GHF has previously defended its operations and accused its critics of engaging in a “turf war” over humanitarian supplies. It says it bears no responsibility for deaths outside the perimeters of its sites.

The Israeli military has previously acknowledged firing warning shots at Palestinians who it says have approached its forces in a suspicious manner. It has also disputed some of the death tolls provided by the Palestinian authorities.

Palestinians’ unmet aid needs

GHF runs only four sites to feed 2 million people, in a territory where extreme hunger is widespread and food security experts have warned of looming famine. According to figures released by Gaza’s health ministry 33 people have died due to starvation and malnutrition since Sunday.

It says it has delivered more than 85 million meals “via roughly 1,422,712 boxes” since its operations began. According to these figures, each box would provide a family with about 60 meals. The organisation has posted photos of GHF-marked boxes that have items such as flour, potatoes, beans and oil. However, Palestinians in Gaza have shared pictures showing open boxes at GHF sites containing a smaller range of items.

View image in fullscreen Left: an IDF handout showing the contents of a GHF food parcel. Right: the contents of a GHF parcel posted on TikTok by someone in Gaza. Composite: IDF, TikTok user @mohamed.nedal98

Olga Cherevko, a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, says she could not comment on the specific logistics of GHF, but that aid should go beyond food and should include water, cooking gas or other cooking facilities. “If you look at Gaza now … people have been deprived of everything that sustains life: shelter materials, fuel, cooking gas, hygiene materials, everything that one needs to feel dignified, to have some sort of semblance of normality,” she says.

According to the World Food Programme (WFP), nearly a third of Gaza’s population is going several days without food, and 470,000 people are expected to face the most severe levels of hunger between May and September this year.

The WFP has also warned that dietary diversity declined sharply in May and continued to worsen in June.

Damage to farmland over the course of the war has only increased Palestinians’ reliance on aid. A study published this year using satellite imagery to assess damage to farmland found up to 70% of tree crops had been damaged.

A Unosat assessment from April found that 71.2% of Gaza’s greenhouses had been damaged. This sequence shows damage to greenhouses and orchards in Beit Lahiya.

In late March, dozens of bakeries supported by the WFP halted production due to the Israeli blockade. A handful briefly resumed bread production in May when some trucks were allowed into the territory, as this timeline shows.

Jamal reiterates that he has no choice but to return to his nearest GHF site, despite the dangers. “I have gone four days in a row and not brought anything back, not even flour – nothing,” he says. “Sometimes you just can’t beat the others. But what else can we do, our life is a struggle.”