Here is a summary of today's events so far:
The Irish deputy prime minister Simon Harris has described the latest reports of mass starvation in Gaza as “an affront to our collective humanity”.
Brazil will intervene in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel’s actions in Gaza at the International Court of Justice, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.
Israel’s president Isaac Herzog visited the Gaza Strip on Wednesday and told soldiers that there were “intensive negotiations” about returning the hostages in Gaza, adding that he hopes that they will soon “hear good news”, a statement from the president’s spokesperson reported.
France has said the risk of famine in Gaza is a “result of” Israel’s blockade, in a statement.
An official familiar with ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas said a top adviser to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ron Dermer, was travelling to Rome to meet US special envoy Steve Witkoff on Thursday to discuss the state of the talks.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed 59,219 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the war, resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Updated
Iran has agreed to allow a technical team from the UN nuclear watchdog to visit in the coming weeks to discuss “a new modality” on relations between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Tehran, Iran’s deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on Wednesday.
“The delegation will come to Iran to discuss the modality, not to go to the (nuclear) sites,” he told reporters during a visit to New York.
Updated
In the wake of the Israeli cruise ship being turned away from the Syros, pro-Palestinian protesters in Greece say they are stepping up action. Calling Tuesday’s quayside demonstration “a very big victory”, Stop the War activists told the Guardian similar protests will follow in Athens and the western city of Kalamata in the coming days.
Speaking ahead of a solidarity rally this evening outside the British embassy in protest over Palestine Action, the campaign group banned by the British government under anti-terrorism laws, Yiannis Sifakakis, the movement’s chief coordinator, said: “What we saw in Syros was a very big victory and we have to repeat it. Zionists are not welcome in Greece and the people on that ship were not welcome because they are Zionists who believe in genocide, in the starvation policies in Gaza, and they support the Israeli state. They responded by shouting patriotic slogans, calling us ‘bloody Arabs’ and raising the Israeli flag.
“We are not against Jewish people, of course, and there are people in Israel who are bravely standing up against the government and even a small minority who are refusing to join the IDF. But those who openly support the Zionist government are not welcome here which is why these demonstrations will continue.”
Updated
Israel’s president Isaac Herzog visited the Gaza Strip on Wednesday and told soldiers that there were “intensive negotiations” about returning the hostages in Gaza, adding that he hopes that they will soon “hear good news”, a statement from the president’s spokesperson reported.
Updated
Brazil will intervene in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel’s actions in Gaza at the International Court of Justice, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.
The European Commission has said Israel is not doing enough to implement an agreement to increase aid to Gaza, as concerns mount about the deepening humanitarian catastrophe in the territory.
In a private meeting EU officials told member state diplomats on Wednesday that supplies entering Gaza were falling short of the agreement announced by the EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas nearly two weeks ago, three EU sources told the Guardian.
Several EU member states urged the commission to present options to sanction Israel, following inconclusive discussions earlier this month. France, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Ireland and Slovenia were among the most critical member states.
EU officials reported on Wednesday that between 17-21 July 132 trucks and 80-120,000 litres of fuel entered the strip, which, they said, was nowhere near enough. Before Israel imposed a blockade on all humanitarian supplies in March, 500-600 aid trucks entered Gaza a day.
Even EU diplomats have been left in the dark about the precise terms of the agreement with Israel, including possible details on the number of trucks per day.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is no longer neutral and Israel will only grant one month visas to its international staff, Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon told the Security Council on Wednesday.
The World Health Organization’s chief warned Wednesday of widespread starvation in Gaza, with food deliveries into the war-ravaged Palestinian territory “far below what is needed for the survival of the population”.
“A large proportion of the population of Gaza is starving. I don’t know what you would call it other than mass-starvation - and it’s man-made,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.
Israel and Ukraine said on Wednesday they had agreed to start talks on countering the “threat” posed by Iran, in a sign of deepening ties between the two countries.
Both see Iran, a close ally of Russia, as a malign actor on the world stage.
Israel has long accused Iran of developing nuclear weapons, an allegation it denies, while Ukraine is regularly attacked from Russia by Iranian-designed drones.
Ukrainian foreign minister Andriy Sybiga described Iran as an “existential threat” to global security during a joint press conference in Kyiv with Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar – the most senior Israeli official to visit Ukraine since 2023.
I was pleased to host Israel’s Foreign Minister @gidonsaar in Kyiv on his first official visit to Ukraine. We see it as a sign of willingness to develop our bilateral relations.
— Andrii Sybiha 🇺🇦 (@andrii_sybiha) July 23, 2025
Today, we had substantive talks on common security challenges, humanitarian and economic cooperation,… pic.twitter.com/c2PS0vqNw0
Updated
Irish deputy PM calls Gaza starvation 'an affront to our collective humanity'
The Irish deputy prime minister Simon Harris has described the latest reports of mass starvation in Gaza as “an affront to our collective humanity”.
“The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths of despair and misery”, he said in a statement.
“Mass starvation is now spreading across the population. People are dying every day from lack of food and medicines. Children are starving before our eyes. Hundreds have been killed while trying to collect what little food is available. This is an affront to our collective humanity,” he said.
He added that Israel must lift its blockade and Hamas must release all hostages and allow a permanent ceasefire.
Updated
Below is a video showing the moment a cruise liner carrying Israeli tourists was forced to reroute to Cyprus after being turned away from the Greek island of Syros due to safety concerns.
More than 300 people were at the island’s port to protest against the war in Gaza when the liner arrived, preventing about 1,600 Israeli passengers on board the Crown Iris from disembarking.
Some passengers aboard the vessel reacted by raising Israeli flags and chanting patriotic slogans, witnesses said
Israeli government says it is not responsible for 'famine' in Gaza
The Israeli government on Wednesday said it was not responsible for a chronic shortage of food in Gaza, instead accusing Palestinian militants Hamas of deliberately creating a crisis, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
The comments come after 115 aid organisations warned on Wednesday that “mass starvation“ was spreading in Gaza.
The groups called for an immediate negotiated ceasefire, the opening of all land crossings and the free flow of aid through UN-led mechanisms.
Responding to the statement from the aid organisations, Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer told reporters:
In Gaza today there is no famine caused by Israel.
There is a man-made shortage engineered by Hamas.
Mencer accused the militants of preventing food from being distributed and looting aid for themselves.
France’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday malnutrition and the “risk of famine” in war-torn Gaza was the “result of the blockade imposed by Israel” on the Palestinian territory.
Israel’s ramping up of military operations in Gaza this week “is accelerating the deterioration of the humanitarian situation, marked by malnutrition and the risk of famine. This situation is the result of the blockade imposed by Israel,” a spokesperson said.
Iranian forces confronted a US destroyer in the Gulf of Oman on Wednesday, warning it to stay out of waters claimed by Tehran, state television reported Thursday – a month after US strikes on the Islamic republic, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
An Iranian army helicopter flew over the USS Fitzgerald at about 10.00am (06.30am UK time) after the vessel “attempted to approach the waters under the supervision” of Iran, the broadcaster said.
The destroyer issued threats of its own, state TV said, adding however that “the Iranian pilot firmly continued the mission and reiterated the warning to stay away from Iranian waters”.
Iranian forces then urged the US ship to “alter its course southward”, forcing it to “give in” and turn away.
There was no immediate comment from the US Navy.
Iranian forces have a history of confronting US forces in the Gulf.
The latest confrontation comes after US strikes on 22 June targeted Iran’s nuclear sites during a 12-day war with Israel.
Here are some of the latest photos of Gaza coming to us through the wires:
Tunisian president Kais Saied presented US counterpart Donald Trump’s senior Africa adviser with photographs of starving children in Gaza, an official video of their meeting posted late Tuesday showed, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
Saied told US envoy Massad Boulos, who is also the father-in-law of Trump’s daughter Tiffany, that “it is time for all of humanity to wake up and put an end to these crimes against the Palestinian people”.
“I believe you know these images well,” Saied was seen telling the envoy as he showed a photograph of what he described as “a child crying, eating sand in occupied Palestine”.
Saied showed Boulos several more images, saying that Palestinians in Gaza were subjected to crimes against humanity.
“It is absolutely unacceptable,” Saied was heard saying as Boulos stood silently, occasionally nodding. “It is a crime against all of humanity.”
After his visit to Tunisia, Boulos flew on to the Libyan capital Tripoli on Wednesday, Tunisian media reported.
France says Gaza famine 'result of' Israel blockade
France has said the risk of famine in Gaza is a “result of” Israel’s blockade, in a statement.
“France strongly condemns the extension of the Israeli offensive to the centre of Gaza, where evacuation orders have led to the displacement of tens of thousands of people in Deir el-Balah and are hampering the work of numerous United Nations agencies and international NGOs,” the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“France condemns in the strongest possible terms the Israeli shootings targeting Palestinians in Gaza attempting to obtain humanitarian aid, which have killed more than 1,000 people in the past two months, according to the UN,” it said.
Updated
An Iranian satellite will be launched into space on Friday on a Russia Soyuz rocket from the Vostochny cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East, semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday.
An official familiar with ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas said a top adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ron Dermer, was travelling to Rome to meet US special envoy Steve Witkoff on Thursday to discuss the state of the talks.
The official spoke to AP on Wednesday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive negotiations.
US officials said Witkoff planned to head to Europe this week. The State Department spokesperson said he was headed to the Middle East in a sign that momentum may be building toward a deal.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed 59,219 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the war, resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Summary of the day so far
More than 100 aid organisations warned on Wednesday that “mass starvation“ was spreading in Gaza. A statement with 115 signatories, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Save the Children and Oxfam, warned that “our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away”. The groups called for an immediate negotiated ceasefire, the opening of all land crossings and the free flow of aid through UN-led mechanisms.
Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least 21 people late Tuesday and early Wednesday. More than half of those killed were women and children, health authorities said. Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed 17 people in the Palestinian territory on Wednesday alone.
Hospitals in Gaza have recorded 10 new deaths on Wednesday due to famine and malnutrition in the past 24 hours, according to the territory’s health ministry. It said in a statement on Telegram that the total number of deaths due to famine and malnutrition in Gaza had now risen to 111.
The US said on Tuesday that a top envoy will travel to Europe for talks on a ceasefire and finalising an aid “corridor” for war-ravaged Gaza, where authorities said people are dying of starvation. Steve Witkoff, president Donald Trump’s globe-trotting negotiator, will head this week to a European destination for talks on Gaza, according to US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday condemned Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels for deadly attacks that sank two commercial vessels this month, calling them violations of the laws of war. The Houthis struck the Magic Seas and Eternity C cargo ships in the Red Sea, part of a campaign against maritime traffic they accuse of having links to Israel, launched over the Gaza war.
News agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) has called on Israel to allow the immediate evacuation of its freelance contributors and their families from the Gaza Strip, a day after they warned that they were struggling to work due to starvation. In a statement, the French news agency said its freelancers faced an “appalling situation” in Gaza. A 21-month war with Israel has devastated the territory, a conflict triggered by Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel in October 2023.
In case you missed it, the Guardian published an article yesterday on the journey Palestinians face when attempting to receive aid in Gaza.
Hundreds of people have died while seeking food since delivery was taken over by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in May. But Palestinians facing extreme hunger have no choice but to take the risk.
You can read the full article here: Eleven-minute race for food: how aid points in Gaza became ‘death traps’ – a visual story
Civil defence agency says 17 killed from Israeli strikes
Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed 17 people in the Palestinian territory on Wednesday, as Israel’s military said it was pressing on with its operations against Hamas militants, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
Agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP that eight people, including a pregnant woman, were killed in a single strike at 2.00am (11.00pm UK time on Tuesday) in Gaza City’s Tel Al-Hawa neighbourhood.
Two others died in separate strikes in the city, three in the southern town of Bani Suheila, and four near a food distribution centre in central Gaza, he added.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency and other parties.
The Associated Press (AP) reported earlier that 21 people had been killed by strikes across late Tuesday and early Wednesday. The agency said more than half of those killed were women and children, according to health authorities.
Updated
A former worker of the Israeli-backed logistics group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), has told Israel’s Channel 12 outlet that the group’s aid centres put the Gaza population “in danger”, Al Jazeera reports.
The US security guard said in an interview on Tuesday that the GHF system “has to be put an end to”.
He described incidents during which GHF staff pepper sprayed and threw stun grenades at Palestinians, despite them appearing to pose no threat.
He said:
While the Palestinians were finishing collecting the aid that was at the site, the American security guards began shooting at them … shooting at their feet, shooting at the earthen embankments, to make them leave.
In all my military service, I have never seen such use of force against unarmed civilians. I will not take part in it now.
My colleagues Annie Kelly and Hoda Osman have written the below piece on how the lack of aid in Gaza is affecting medical staff.
Doctors and medical staff in Gaza say their increasing hunger and the lack of available food is beginning to leave them too weak to provide urgent medical care to patients inside hospitals full of malnourished and injured civilians.
Almost a dozen medical staff across the territory have told the Guardian and the Arabic Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) of their increasingly desperate search for food and declining physical health due to hunger.
“They are in a state of extreme exhaustion. Some have fainted in the operating rooms,” said Dr Mohammed Abu Selmia, the director of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, who said that like the people of Gaza, staff had not received any aid or had any meals in the past 48 hours.
“Medical services will be affected because our staff will not be able to hold out any longer in the face of this famine,” he added.
Many of the doctors and medical practitioners who sent messages to the Guardian did not want to be named as they feared being targeted by the Israeli military.
“Today I have been on a 24-hour shift,” said one physician at al-Shifa hospital. “At [the hospital] they are supposed to give us some rice for each shift, but today they told us there was none. My colleague and I [treated] 60 neurosurgery patients and right now I can’t even stand.”
You can read the full piece here: Gaza doctors ‘becoming too weak to treat patients’ as hunger crisis deepens
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday condemned Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels for deadly attacks that sank two commercial vessels this month, calling them violations of the laws of war, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
The Houthis struck the Magic Seas and Eternity C cargo ships in the Red Sea, part of a campaign against maritime traffic they accuse of having links to Israel, launched over the Gaza war.
15 people – including four confirmed dead – remain missing after the 7 July attack on the Eternity C.
The Yemeni rebels claimed to have “rescued” an unspecified number of crew, whose whereabouts are still unknown.
The attacks were “violations of the laws of war amounting to war crimes”, HRW said in a statement, adding it found “no evidence that the ships were military targets”.
“They deliberately attacked commercial vessels that could clearly be identified as civilian,” the New York-based group said, adding that “detaining rescued crew members is also prohibited”.
Rebel leader Abdel Malek al-Huthi justified the attacks, saying both ships belonged to companies serving Israeli ports.
But HRW said the ships had no connection to Israel and were not heading there.
Niku Jafarnia, HRW’s Yemen and Bahrain researcher, said:
The Huthis have sought to justify unlawful attacks by pointing to Israeli violations against Palestinians.
The Huthis should end all attacks on ships not taking part in the conflict and immediately release the crew members in their custody.
Health ministry records 10 new deaths from malnutrition in Gaza
Hospitals in Gaza have recorded 10 new deaths on Wednesday due to famine and malnutrition in the past 24 hours, according to the territory’s health ministry.
It said in a statement on Telegram that the total number of deaths due to famine and malnutrition in Gaza had now risen to 111.
In the letter issued on Wednesday by more than 100 human rights and charity groups, they warned of a dire situation pushing more people toward starvation.
The groups said they were watching their own colleagues, as well as the Palestinians they serve, “waste away.”
The letter slammed Israel for what it said were restrictions on aid into the war-ravaged territory.
It lamented “massacres” at food distribution points, which have seen chaos and violence in recent weeks as desperation has risen.
The letter said:
The government of Israel’s restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death.
The letter called for aid to be scaled up as well as for a ceasefire.
Updated
Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists in the Gaza Strip said on Tuesday that chronic food shortages are affecting their ability to cover Israel’s conflict with Hamas militants.
Bashar Taleb, 35, is an AFP photographer who lives in the bombed-out ruins of his home in Jabalia al-Nazla, in northern Gaza.
He said:
I’ve had to stop working multiple times just to search for food for my family and loved ones.
I feel for the first time utterly defeated emotionally.
I’ve tried so much, knocked on many doors to save my family from starvation, constant displacement and persistent fear but so far to no avail.
Another photographer, Omar al-Qattaa, 35, is staying in the remains of his wife’s family’s home after his own apartment was destroyed.
He said:
I’m exhausted from carrying heavy cameras on my shoulders and walking long distances.
We can’t even reach coverage sites because we have no energy left due to hunger and lack of food.
Qattaa relies on painkillers for a back complaint, but said basic medicines were not available in pharmacies, and the lack of vitamins and nutritious food have added to his difficulties.
Marwan al-Hams, acting director of Gaza’s field hospitals and the health ministry’s spokesperson, was detained by Israeli troops earlier this week in the Palestinian territory, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
Alaa al-Sakafi, head of Addameer, a Palestinian rights group, told the AP on Wednesday that lawyers have not been allowed to see al-Hams. His detention in a southern Israel prison was extended until the end of the month, al-Sakafi said.
He said al-Hams suffered from a gunshot wound in his leg, which he sustained during his detention in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah on Monday.
Israel has not commented on al-Hams’ detention.
Israel has denied blocking of supplies to Gaza, announcing that 950 trucks’ worth of aid were in the territory and waiting for international agencies to collect and distribute it.
An unnamed senior Israeli security official was quoted as saying by the Times of Israel:
We have not identified starvation at this current point in time but we understand that action is required to stabilise the humanitarian situation.
Al Jazeera reports Hamas has called on “all the people of the free world” to organise demonstrations from 25 July until “the siege is broken and the famine ends” in Gaza.
The outlet quoted the group as saying in a statement published on Telegram:
People are dying of hunger and malnutrition, and famine is making its deadly presence felt in the faces of children, mothers, and the elderly, amidst a suspicious global silence, and the absence of any action that rises to the scale of the catastrophe.
Let the coming days be a resounding cry in the face of the occupation, and a disgrace to the silent ones.
Updated
Here are some of the latest photos of Gaza coming to us through the wires:
After more than two weeks of back and forth, efforts by mediators Qatar, Egypt and the US for talks between Israeli and Hamas negotiators are at a standstill, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
The proposal on the table involves a 60-day ceasefire and the release of 10 living hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
Hamas insists any agreement must include guarantees for a lasting end to the war.
Israel rejects any such guarantees, insisting that Hamas must give up its capacity to fight or govern as a prerequisite for peace.
Karim Bitar, a lecturer in Middle Eastern studies at Paris’s Sciences Po university, said:
The cold hard truth is that for domestic political considerations neither (Israeli Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu nor Hamas leaders in Gaza have an interest in seeing a swift outcome and a comprehensive ceasefire.
Both would have to answer serious questions from their own constituencies.
Irish premier Micheál Martin on Tuesday 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 post on X, 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.
The Israeli military said in a statement on Wednesday that forces were operating in Gaza City, as well as in northern Gaza, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
It said without elaborating that in Jabaliya, an area hard-hit in multiple rounds of fighting, an airstrike killed “a number of” Hamas militants.
Troops struck roughly 120 targets throughout Gaza over the past day, including militant cells, tunnels and booby-trapped structures, among others, the military said.
Israeli strikes kill at least 21 people in Gaza, health authorities say
Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least 21 people late Tuesday and early Wednesday, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
More than half of those killed were women and children, health authorities said.
One Israeli strike hit a house on Tuesday in the north-western side of Gaza City, killing at least 12 people, according to the Shifa hospital, which received the casualties.
The dead included six children and two women, according to the Gaza health ministry’s casualty list.
Another strike hit an apartment in the Tal al-Hawa area in northern Gaza, killing at least six people. Among the dead were three children and two women, including one who was pregnant. Eight others were wounded, the ministry said.
A third strike hit a tent in the Naser neighbourhood in Gaza City late Tuesday and killed three children, Shifa hospital said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strikes. It blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the militants operate from populated areas.
Palestine Red Crescent says the situation in Gaza is “only getting worse”, with spokesperson Nebal Farsakh calling it an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe”.
Farsakh said in a video posted to X on Tuesday that there has been no food, clean water or medicine entering the Gaza Strip for more than four months.
This has resulted in a catastrophe where people are literally starving to death.
More people are being admitted to hospitals with malnutrition especially among children, pregnant women and the elderly.
Up to this moment, almost 101 people died because of starvation, and including 80 children. The situation is only getting worse.
Keir Starmer is under pressure from cabinet ministers for the UK to immediately recognise Palestine as a state, as global outcry grows over Israel’s killing of starving civilians in Gaza.
The prime minister is understood to have been urged by a number of senior ministers in different cabinet meetings over recent months that the UK should take a leading role in issuing recognition.
The UK plans to formally acknowledge Palestine as part of a peace process, but only in conjunction with other western countries and “at the point of maximum impact” – without saying what that would be.
However, there has been a growing sense of desperation and horror inside the Labour cabinet in recent weeks over Israel’s killing of starving Palestinian civilians in Gaza and its attacks on humanitarian agencies.
“We say that recognising Palestinian statehood is a really important symbol that you can only do once. But if not now, then when?” one cabinet minister said.
Earlier this month, nearly 60 Labour MPs demanded that the UK immediately recognise Palestine as a state, after Israel’s defence minister announced plans to force all residents of Gaza into a camp on the ruins of Rafah.
The US said on Tuesday that a top envoy will travel to Europe for talks on a ceasefire and finalising an aid “corridor” for war-ravaged Gaza, where authorities said people are dying of starvation, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
Steve Witkoff, president Donald Trump’s globe-trotting negotiator, will head this week to a European destination for talks on Gaza, according to US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Clarifying an earlier statement, officials said Witkoff may travel after Europe to the Middle East to continue diplomacy.
Witkoff comes with “a strong hope that we will come forward with another ceasefire as well as a humanitarian corridor for aid to flow, that both sides have in fact agreed to,” state department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters.
Bruce declined to give further details on the corridor.
She did not say how the diplomacy would relate to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a logistics group backed by Israel and the US that has seen chaotic scenes of troops firing on hungry Palestinians racing for food.
The UN on Tuesday said Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid since the GHF began its operations in late May, with most near the foundation’s sites.
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”.
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.
Guterres said:
Malnourishment is soaring and starvation is knocking on every door in Gaza.
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.
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.
Sally Weale is the Guardian’s education correspondent.
Pressure is mounting on ministers to intervene on behalf of 40 students in Gaza who have been offered full scholarships to study at UK universities, but are unable to take up their places this September because of government red tape.
A high-level meeting is understood to have taken place at the Home Office on Tuesday after MPs and campaigners highlighted the students’ plight, calling on ministers to take action to help secure their safe passage to the UK. Some students are reported to have been killed while waiting, while others are said to be in constant danger.
Campaigners say students are unable to travel and begin their studies because of a Home Office requirement for biometric data for a visa application. The UK-authorised biometrics registration centre in Gaza closed in October 2023 and it has been impossible for them to travel to other centres in neighbouring countries.
They are calling on the government to grant the students a biometrics deferral, and to help them find a safe route to a third country where they can complete their visa application and travel on to the UK.
Dr Nora Parr, a researcher at Birmingham University who is supporting the students in Gaza, said Ireland, France, Belgium, Germany and Italy had already helped evacuate students with university places in their countries.
The students who studied, took TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) tests, wrote admissions essays and did virtual campus interviews under the most horrendous conditions imaginable – many from tent homes and makeshift wifi hubs – now must wait for a government decision.
To not act is to decide to leave them without these hard-earned educational opportunities.
You can read more of Sally Weale’s piece here: Ministers urged to help students trapped in Gaza with places at UK universities
More than 100 aid organisations warn of 'mass starvation' in Gaza
More than 100 aid organisations warned on Wednesday that “mass starvation“ was spreading in Gaza, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
Israel is facing mounting international pressure over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory, where more than 2 million people face severe shortages of food and other essentials after 21 months of conflict, triggered by Hamas’s attack on Israel.
The UN said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid since the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operations in late May – in effect sidelining the existing UN-led system.
A statement with 111 signatories, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Save the Children and Oxfam, warned that “our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away”.
The groups called for an immediate negotiated ceasefire, the opening of all land crossings and the free flow of aid through UN-led mechanisms.
Israel says humanitarian aid is being allowed into Gaza and accuses Hamas of exploiting civilian suffering, including by stealing food handouts to sell at inflated prices or shooting at those awaiting aid.
In their statement, the humanitarian organisations said that warehouses with tonnes of supplies were sitting untouched just outside the territory, and even inside, as they were blocked from accessing or delivering the goods.
The signatories said:
Palestinians are trapped in a cycle of hope and heartbreak, waiting for assistance and ceasefires, only to wake up to worsening conditions.
It is not just physical torment, but psychological. Survival is dangled like a mirage.
The humanitarian system cannot run on false promises. Humanitarians cannot operate on shifting timelines or wait for political commitments that fail to deliver access.
Updated
Opening summary
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s coverage of the Middle East.
More than 100 aid organisations warned on Wednesday that “mass starvation” was spreading in Gaza ahead of the US top envoy’s visit to Europe for talks on a possible ceasefire and an aid corridor.
Israel is facing mounting international pressure over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory, where more than 2 million people face severe shortages of food and other essentials after 21 months of conflict, triggered by Hamas’s attack on Israel.
The UN said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid since the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operations in late May – in effect sidelining the existing UN-led system.
A statement with 111 signatories, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Save the Children and Oxfam, warned that “our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away”.
The groups called for an immediate negotiated ceasefire, the opening of all land crossings and the free flow of aid through UN-led mechanisms.
It came a day after the US said its envoy Steve Witkoff will head to Europe this week for talks on Gaza and may then visit the Middle East.
Witkoff comes with “a strong hope that we will come forward with another ceasefire as well as a humanitarian corridor for aid to flow, that both sides have in fact agreed to,” state department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters.
In other developments:
The head of Gaza’s largest hospital on Tuesday said 21 children have died due to malnutrition and starvation in the Palestinian territory in the past three days, while Israel pressed a devastating assault. Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people is facing severe shortages of food and other essentials, with residents frequently killed as they try to collect humanitarian aid at a handful of distribution points.
News agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) has called on Israel to allow the immediate evacuation of its freelance contributors and their families from the Gaza Strip, a day after they warned that they were struggling to work due to starvation. In a statement, the French news agency said its freelancers faced an “appalling situation” in Gaza. A 21-month war with Israel has devastated the territory, a conflict triggered by Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel in October 2023.
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”. 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.
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.
The Palestinian health ministry said on Tuesday at least 72 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes in the past 24 hours, including 16 people living in tents in Gaza City. The Israeli military said it wasn’t aware of any incident or artillery in the area at that time.
A cruise liner carrying Israeli tourists has been forced to reroute to Cyprus after being turned away from the Greek island of Syros after a quayside protest over the Gaza war. About 1,600 Israeli passengers on board the Crown Iris were prevented from disembarking amid safety concerns when more than 300 demonstrators on the Cycladic isle made clear they were unwelcome over Israel’s conduct of the war and treatment of Palestinians in Gaza. A large banner emblazoned with the words Stop the Genocide was held aloft alongside Palestinian flags.
Columbia University said on Tuesday it has issued various punishments, including expulsions and degree revocations, against various students involved in pro-Palestine protests on campus. The sanctions, which a student group said targeted nearly 80 people, come as the New York institution negotiates with President Donald Trump’s administration to restore $400m in cut federal funding.
Some Israeli far-right leaders held a public meeting on Tuesday to discuss redeveloping the Gaza Strip into a tourist-friendly “riviera”, as Palestinians face a worsening humanitarian crisis in the devastated territory. The meeting, titled “The Riviera in Gaza: From Vision to Reality”, was held in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, under the auspices of some of its most hardline members.
Syria said on Tuesday that it had launched investigations into reported extrajudicial killings in the country’s Druze heartland, promising to punish perpetrators including any government-affiliated personnel after a week of sectarian bloodshed. The violence, which began on 13 July and ended with a weekend ceasefire, started with clashes between Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouin tribes but soon escalated, killing more than 1,300 people, mostly Druze, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.
The US state department on Tuesday confirmed the death of a US citizen last week in the predominantly Druze region of Sweida, where hundreds of people have been reported killed in clashes. State department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Hosam Saraya, adding that the US was providing consular assistance to the family.
Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday there is a possibility of a renewed campaign against Iran, according to a statement from his office. He stressed the necessity of formulating an effective enforcement plan for the future to ensure that Iran does not restore its nuclear programme.
This blog post was amended on 23 July 2025; an earlier version said that students at Columbia University were involved in anti-Israel protests.
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