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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.”
Updated
Below is a video published by the Guardian of individuals at the al-Shati camp in Gaza after the encampment was shelled overnight.
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.
The Guardian has published an article 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
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.
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.
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.
Here are some of the latest photos of Gaza coming to us through the wires:
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.
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
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.
Updated
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.
The Israeli-backed logistics group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), has responded to earlier claims made by the UN Palestinian Refugee Agency (Unrwa) about the emergency messages it claimed to be receiving from its staff on the conditions in Gaza, Reuters reports.
The GHF told Reuters in a statement:
UN has enough aid sitting in Gaza that they refuse to deliver and that could help end the desperation and help reduce or eliminate the violence around all aid distribution efforts if they would collaborate with us
Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), told reporters on Tuesday that claims that the UN has stopped working are “manifestly incorrect”.
The GHF also claimed that the “deadliest attacks” on aid distribution in Gaza have been linked to UN convoys.
Updated
All options are on the table if Israel does not deliver on its pledges to facilitate humanitarian aid in Gaza, the European Union’s top diplomat said on Tuesday.
“The killing of civilians seeking aid in Gaza is indefensible,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas wrote in a post on X, adding that she spoke with Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar “to recall our understanding on aid flow and made clear that IDF must stop killing people at distribution points.”
Earlier this month, Kallas said Israel had agreed to expand humanitarian access to Gaza, including increasing the number of aid trucks, crossing points and routes to distribution hubs.
“All options remain on the table if Israel doesn’t deliver on its pledges,” Kallas said.
Israeli strikes killed at least 20 people in Gaza, Palestinian health officials said on Tuesday, as Israel pushed on with a new incursion in an area that 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, AP reported.
The latest round of talks has dragged on for weeks with no signs of breakthrough, though negotiators have expressed optimism. With Israel expanding its control over large chunks of Gaza, an expected pullback of troops is a major point of contention in the talks.
Updated
Israeli displacement orders, followed by intensive attacks, on Deir al-Balah in Gaza will lead to further civilian deaths, the head of the UN human rights office said on Tuesday.
“It seemed the nightmare couldn’t possibly get worse. And yet it does... Given the concentration of civilians in the area, and the means and methods of warfare employed by Israel until now, the risks of unlawful killings and other serious violations of international humanitarian law are extremely high,” Volker Turk, the head of the UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights said on Tuesday in a statement.
Updated
GHF branded 'sadistic death trap' by UN, claiming snipers fire as if given a 'licence to kill'
Further to earlier reports, the UN Palestinian Refugee Agency (Unrwa) said on Tuesday said it had received dozens of emergency messages from its staff describing grave conditions and exhaustion in Gaza, Reuters reports.
Unrwa commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement:
No one is spared: caretakers in Gaza are also in need of care. Doctors, nurses, journalists and humanitarians are hungry.
Many are now fainting due to hunger and exhaustion while performing their duties: reporting atrocities or alleviating some of the suffering.
Lazzarini also criticised a Israeli-backed logistics group run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation that has been supplying aid since late May, when Israel, which controls supplies into Gaza, lifted an 11-week blockade.
Lazzarini said:
The so called ‘GHF’ distribution scheme is a sadistic death trap. Snipers open fire randomly on crowds as if they are given a licence to kill.
The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies and largely bypasses a UN-led system, that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the allegation.
More than 1,000 people have been reported killed while trying to receive food aid since the end of May, according to Unrwa estimates, Lazzarini said.
The UN said on 15 July it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza run by the GHF and convoys run by other relief groups. The majority of those killed were in the vicinity of GHF sites, while the remaining 201 were killed on the routes of other aid convoys.
The Israeli foreign ministry, GHF and Cogat, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, were not immediately available for comment. GHF has previously told Reuters that such incidents have not occurred on its sites and accused the UN of misinformation, which it denies.
Updated
The intelligence service of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has warned Iranian citizens of an increase in recruitment attempts by enemy intelligence agencies, state media reported on Tuesday, Reuters reports.
Entangled in a decades-long shadow war with Israel, which was able to assassinate numerous military commanders and nuclear scientists in its 12-day air war on Iran last month, Iran is ever more concerned about infiltration by the Israeli Mossad spy agency.
Iran said on Tuesday that 27 inmates were still at large after an Israeli airstrike last month targeted Evin prison in the north of the capital, Tehran, local media reported, according to the Associated Press (AP).
The airstrikes were part of Israel’s 12-day bombardment of Iran that killed about 1,100 people, while 28 were left dead in Israel in Iranian retaliatory strikes.
Judiciary’s news website, Mizanonline, quoted spokesperson Asghar Jahangir as saying 75 prisoners had escaped after the strike, of which 48 were either recaptured or voluntarily returned. He said authorities will detain the others if they don’t hand themselves over.
Jahangir said the escapers were prisoners doing time for minor offences.
Updated
Amnesty International calls for war crimes investigation into Israeli strike on Iranian prison
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.
It also destroyed part of the administrative building in Evin, a large, heavily fortified complex in the north of Tehran, which rights groups say holds political prisoners and foreign nationals.
Amnesty International, an international non-governmental organisation that campaigns to protect human rights, said in a statement that the Israeli attack “deliberate” and “a serious violation of international humanitarian law”.
The airstrikes should therefore be “criminally investigated as war crimes”, it said.
Amnesty said:
The Israeli military carried out multiple air strikes on Evin prison, killing and injuring scores of civilians and causing extensive damage and destruction in at least six locations across the prison complex.
The organisation based its assessment on what it said were verified video footage, satellite images and witness statements.
There was nothing to suggest that Evin prison could justifiably be seen as a “legal military objective”, it said.
The victims of the 23 June attack on the prison included administrative staff, guards, prisoners and visiting relatives, as well as people living nearby.
Between 1,500 and 2,000 prisoners were being held at the time in the prison.
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), Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
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 heatwave comes amid a sharp drop in rainfall – the worst in 60 years in the capital, according to Tehran’s provincial water supply company.
The drought has seen the water levels of dams supplying Tehran drop to “their lowest level in a century”, the company said, advising people to use a tank and pump to cope with ongoing water disruptions.
Many residents across Tehran reported water outages lasting several hours in the past few days.
“The water crisis is more serious than what is being talked about,” president Masoud Pezeshkian warned on Sunday, adding that the country would “face a situation in the future for which no solution can be found” if current trends continue.
He said:
Measures such as transferring water from other places to Tehran will not solve the problem fundamentally
Gaza is 'hell on earth' with doctors fainting from hunger, UN warns, as 1,000 estimated to have been killed seeking food
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, Reuters reports.
Unrwa commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement, shared by his spokesperson at a press briefing in Geneva:
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.
Lazzarini described the situation in Gaza as “hell on earth”, adding that nowhere was safe.
The Unrwa estimates that 1,000 starving people have been reported killed while seeking food aid since the end of May.
After talks to extend a six-week ceasefire broke down, Israel imposed a full blockade on Gaza on 2 March, allowing nothing in until trucks were again permitted at a trickle in late May.
In a post on X on Monday, Unrwa said that shortages in the Palestinian territory had caused food prices to increase by 40 times, while the aid stockpiled in its warehouses outside Gaza could feed “the entire population for over three months.”
Updated
The Roman Catholic church’s most senior cleric in the Holy Land said on Tuesday that the humanitarian situation in Gaza was “morally unacceptable”, after visiting the war-torn Palestinian territory, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa told a news conference:
We have seen men holding out in the sun for hours in the hope of a simple meal.
It’s morally unacceptable and unjustified.
Prof Nick Maynard is a consultant surgeon at Oxford university hospital who has been travelling regularly to Gaza for 15 years. He is currently volunteering with Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) at Nasser hospital in Gaza.
I’m writing this from Nasser hospital in southern Gaza, where I’ve just finished operating on another severely malnourished young teenager. A seven-month-old baby lies in our paediatric intensive care unit, so tiny and malnourished that I initially mistook her for a newborn. The phrase “skin and bones” doesn’t do justice to the way her body has been ravaged. She is literally wasting away before our eyes and, despite our best efforts, we are powerless to save her. We are witnessing deliberate starvation in Gaza right now.
This is my third time in Gaza since December 2023 as a volunteer surgeon with Medical Aid for Palestinians. I experienced mass casualty events and raised the alarm about malnutrition back in January 2024. But nothing has prepared me for the sheer horror I’m witnessing now: the weaponisation of starvation against an entire population.
The malnutrition crisis has become catastrophic since my last visit. Every day I watch patients deteriorate and die, not from their injuries, but because they are too malnourished to survive surgery. The surgical repairs that we carry out fall to pieces, patients get terrible infections, then they die. It is happening repeatedly, and it is heartbreaking to watch. Four babies have died in the last few weeks in this hospital – not from bombs or bullets, but from starvation.
Families and staff do their best to try to bring in what they can, but there simply isn’t enough food available in Gaza. For infants, we have virtually no baby formula. Children are being given 10% dextrose (sugar water), which has no nutritional value, and often their mothers are too malnourished to breastfeed. When an international colleague tried to bring baby formula into Gaza, Israeli authorities confiscated it.
You can read more of Nick Maynard’s piece here: I’m witnessing the deliberate starvation of Gaza’s children – why is the world letting it happen?
Updated
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, Reuters reports.
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.
Referring to Friday’s meeting in Istanbul, Gharibabadi said:
We will express our position regarding the E3’s comments on the snapback mechanism, which we think lacks any legal ground.
Nonetheless, our effort will be to see if we can find common solutions to manage the situation.
The three European countries, along with China and Russia, are the remaining parties to the 2015 nuclear deal – from which the US withdrew in 2018.
Gharibabadi added:
It has been seven years that the nuclear deal is not being implemented by the Europeans following the U.S. departure from it. How can they argue that Iran is not following the deal when they themselves have not done so?
Tehran denies seeking a nuclear weapon and says its nuclear programme is solely meant for civilian purposes.
A severe heatwave sweeping Iran has disrupted water and electricity supplies in much of the country, with reservoir levels dropping to their lowest point in a century, state media said on Tuesday, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
At least 18 of the country’s 31 provinces, including Tehran, have been affected by the extreme temperatures, which began on Friday and expected to ease gradually by Thursday, according to meteorological authorities cited by state television.
15 people killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza, defence agency says
Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed 15 people in the Palestinian territory on Tuesday, as the military expanded ground operations to the central city of Deir al-Balah, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
Agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP that Israeli strikes on the al-Shati camp west of Gaza City killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 50.
Most of Gaza’s population has been displaced at least once during 21 months of conflict and the al-Shati camp, on the Mediterranean coast, hosts thousands of people displaced from the north in tents and makeshift shelters.
Bassal said two more people were killed in Deir al-Balah, where the Israeli army said it would expand its ground operations, having ordered the evacuation of much of the area.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) estimated that between 50,000 and 80,000 people were living in the area, which until now had been considered relatively safe. About 30,000 were living in displacement sites.
AFP footage from central Gaza showed a large plume of smoke rising over Deir al-Balah on Tuesday while a surveillance drone was heard buzzing overhead.
Ocha said nearly 88% of the entire Gaza Strip was now either under evacuation orders or within Israeli militarised zones, forcing the population of 2.4 million into an ever-shrinking space.
Updated
French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Tuesday urged Israel to allow foreign press into the besieged Palestinian territory of Gaza, as warnings of famine mount after 21 months of war, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
He told France Inter radio in an interview from eastern Ukraine:
I ask that the free and independent press be allowed to access Gaza to show what is happening there and to bear witness.
He spoke after the AFP news agency warned that the lives of Palestinian freelance journalists it was working with in Gaza were in danger and urged Israel to allow them and their families to leave the occupied coastal territory.
Asked if France would help evacuate these stringers, Barrot said France was “addressing the issue”.
He said:
We hope to be able to evacuate some collaborators of journalists in the coming weeks.
Barrot urged an “immediate ceasefire” after Israel on Monday expanded military operations to the central city of Deir al-Balah.
He said:
There is no longer any justification for the Israeli army’s military operations in Gaza.
This is an offensive that will exacerbate an already catastrophic situation and cause new forced displacements of populations, which we condemn in the strongest terms.
Updated
Death toll in Iran from 12-day war rises to 1,062, government says
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.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels launched two attacks targeting Israel’s main airport, the latest on Tuesday, with the Israeli army intercepting both, a day after striking the rebel-held Yemeni port of Hodeida, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
Israel has repeatedly struck Houthi-held parts of Yemen after the Iran-backed rebels began targeting the country with missile and drone attacks, claiming solidarity with Palestinians over the Gaza war.
The Houthis targeted Ben Gurion International airport “using a ‘Palestine 2’ hypersonic ballistic missile”, according to military spokesperson Yarya Saree, who had hours earlier claimed a similar attack on the airport.
On Monday, Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said “Yemen’s fate will be the same as Tehran’s” after hitting Houthi targets in Hodeida port in an attack aimed to prevent any attempt to restore infrastructure previously hit.
A Houthi security official, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, told AFP that “the bombing destroyed the port’s dock, which had been rebuilt after previous strikes.”
The Houthis recently resumed deadly attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, targeting ships they accuse of having links to Israel, to put pressure on Israel to end the Gaza war.
Reimposing international sanctions will only make the situation over Iran’s nuclear issue more complex, Iranian deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on Tuesday, according to state media, ahead of a meeting on Friday with three European states, Reuters reports.
The so-called E3 – Britain, France and Germany – have warned they will invoke the UN snapback mechanism to reimpose international sanctions on Iran if no progress is reached by end of August over the country’s nuclear programme.
WHO says Israeli forces attacked staff residence and main warehouse in Gaza
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.
On Monday, Israeli tanks for the first time pushed into southern and eastern districts of Deir al-Balah, an area where Israeli sources said the military believes hostages may be held. Tank shelling in the area hit houses and mosques, killing at least three Palestinians and wounding several others, local medics said.
The WHO said:
Israeli military entered the premises, forcing women and children to evacuate on foot toward al-Mawasi amid active conflict. Male staff and family members were handcuffed, stripped, interrogated on the spot, and screened at gunpoint.
Two WHO staff and two family members were detained, it said in a post on X. It said three were later released, while one staff member remained in detention. Its director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “WHO demands the immediate release of the detained staff and protection of all its staff.”
Deir al-Balah is packed with Palestinians displaced during more than 21 months of war in Gaza, hundreds of whom fled west or south after Israel issued an evacuation order, saying it sought to destroy infrastructure and the capabilities of the militant group Hamas.
But the area is also the main hub for humanitarian efforts in the devastated territory and Gaza health officials have warned of potential “mass deaths” in coming days from hunger.
Israeli tank shelling killed at least 12 Palestinians and wounded dozens others in a tent encampment in western Gaza City north of the territory, local health authorities said early on Tuesday.
Medics said the tanks stationed north of Shati camp fired two shells at tents, housing displaced families, killing at least 12 people.
There has been no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the incident.
Updated
Opening summary
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s coverage of the Middle East.
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.
On Monday, Israeli tanks for the first time pushed into southern and eastern districts of Deir al-Balah, an area where Israeli sources said the military believes hostages may be held. Tank shelling in the area hit houses and mosques, killing at least three Palestinians and wounding several others, local medics said.
“Israeli military entered the premises, forcing women and children to evacuate on foot toward al-Mawasi amid active conflict. Male staff and family members were handcuffed, stripped, interrogated on the spot, and screened at gunpoint,” the WHO said.
Two WHO staff and two family members were detained, it said in a post on X. It said three were later released, while one staff member remained in detention. Its director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “WHO demands the immediate release of the detained staff and protection of all its staff.”
Israel on Monday rejected the joint statement published by over 20 countries calling for an end to the war in Gaza, “as it is disconnected from reality and sends the wrong message to Hamas”, the foreign ministry said.
The international statement – signed by Australia, the UK, France, Canada, New Zealand and Japan among others – warned “the suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths”.
Israeli tank shelling killed at least 12 Palestinians and wounded dozens others in a tent encampment in western Gaza City north of the territory, local health authorities said early on Tuesday.
Medics said the tanks stationed north of Shati camp fired two shells at tents, housing displaced families, killing at least 12 people.
There has been no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the incident.
In other developments:
In its daily update, Gaza’s health ministry said on Monday at least 130 Palestinians had been killed and more than 1,000 wounded by Israeli gunfire and military strikes across the territory in the past 24 hours, one of the highest such totals in recent weeks.
An Israeli army strike on the only Catholic church in Gaza last week has pushed the Vatican to change its tone on Israel and blame it more directly in the dragging war. The strike killed three people in the Holy Family Church in the centre of Gaza City, prompting condemnation by politicians and by religious leaders of various denominations. Pope Leo XIV on Sunday slammed the “barbarity” of the war and the blind “use of force”, denouncing “the attack by the Israeli army”.
An Israeli undercover force detained Marwan Al-Hams, a senior Gaza Health Ministry official, outside the field hospital of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday, the ministry said. It said that Hams, in charge of field hospitals in the territory, was on his way to visit the ICRC hospital in the city of Rafah when an Israeli force “abducted” him after opening fire, killing one person and wounding another civilian nearby.
Belgian authorities said on Monday that they had briefly held and questioned two Israeli citizens who attended an electronic music festival, after pro-Palestinian groups accused them of war crimes. Prosecutors said they received legal complaints alleging that two Israeli soldiers responsible for “serious violations of international humanitarian law” in Gaza were spotted at the Tomorrowland festival near the northern city of Antwerp last week.
Syrian authorities evacuated Bedouin families from the Druze-majority city of Sweida on Monday, after a ceasefire in the southern province halted a week of sectarian bloodshed that a monitor said killed more than 1,260 people. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said the ceasefire was largely holding despite isolated gunfire in areas north of Sweida city, with no new reports of casualties.
US president Donald Trump was “caught off guard” by Israeli strikes in Syria last week, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said on Monday, adding that he discussed the issue with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel had launched strikes on the capital Damascus and the southern Druze-majority city of Sweida, saying it aimed to put pressure on the Syrian government to withdraw its troops from the region amid ongoing clashes there.
Iran has no plans to abandon its nuclear programme including uranium enrichment despite the “severe” damage caused by US strikes to its facilities, the country’s foreign minister said ahead of renewed talks with European powers. Iran is scheduled to meet Britain, France and Germany in Istanbul on Friday, to discuss its nuclear programme, with Tehran accusing European powers of scuppering a landmark 2015 nuclear deal. The meeting will be the first since Iran’s 12-day war with Israel last month, during which the United States carried out strikes against Tehran’s nuclear facilities.
Visiting US envoy Tom Barrack said Monday that disarming Hezbollah was a domestic issue, even as Washington presses the new authorities for action after the group was weakened by war with Israel. Lebanese leaders who took office in the aftermath of more than a year of hostilities, including two months of open war between Israel and Hezbollah, have vowed a state monopoly on bearing arms, while demanding Israel comply with a November ceasefire.
The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen toward Israel that triggered sirens across several areas in the country. The launch from Yemen follows an Israeli military attack on Houthi targets in Yemen’s Hodeidah port on Monday in its latest assault on the Iran-backed militants, who have been striking ships bound for Israel and launching missiles against it.
Iranian authorities have asked people to limit water consumption amid severe heatwaves and a water crisis across the country. Iran is experiencing its hottest week of the year, according to the national meteorological service, with temperatures exceeding 50C in some areas. On top of the extreme heat, the country is in a serious water crisis.
