Israel kills 25 Palestinians, including 13 aid-seekers, since dawn
\nGaza City
\nAt least 25 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces across Gaza since dawn on Saturday, including 13 people seeking aid, hospital sources in the enclave told Al Jazeera.
\nSeparately, two infants have died from malnutrition, raising the total number of starvation-related deaths in Gaza to more than 120, according to health officials. More than 80 of those who have died from starvation are children, amid ongoing Israeli military operations and a blockade that has severely limited access to food and humanitarian aid.
\nThe president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Mirjana Spoljaric, said there is \u201cno excuse for what is happening in Gaza,\u201d citing extreme levels of human suffering and the erosion of human dignity.
\n\u201cThe scale of human suffering and the stripping of human dignity have long exceeded every acceptable standard \u2014 both legal and moral,\u201d Spoljaric said. She added that more than 350 ICRC staff remain in Gaza, many of whom are struggling to access sufficient food and clean water.
\nCeasefire talks
\nIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump appeared on Friday to abandon Gaza ceasefire negotiations with Hamas, both saying it had become clear that the Hamas did not want a deal.
\nNetanyahu said Israel was now mulling \u201calternative\u201d options to achieve its goals of bringing its hostages home from Gaza and ending Hamas rule in the enclave, where starvation is spreading and most of the population is homeless amid widespread ruin.
\nTrump said he believed Hamas leaders would now be \u201chunted down\u201d, telling reporters: \u201cHamas really didn\u2019t want to make a deal. I think they want to die. And it\u2019s very bad. And it got to be to a point where you\u2019re going to have to finish the job.\u201d
\nThe remarks appeared to leave little to no room, at least in the short term, to resume negotiations for a break in the fighting, at a time when international concern is mounting over worsening hunger in war-shattered Gaza.
\nIsrael and the United States withdrew their delegations on Thursday from the ceasefire talks in Qatar, hours after Hamas submitted its response to a truce proposal.
\nSources initially said on Thursday that the Israeli withdrawal was only for consultations and did not necessarily mean the talks had reached a crisis. But Netanyahu\u2019s remarks suggested Israel\u2019s position had hardened overnight.
\nThe proposed ceasefire would suspend fighting for 60 days, allow more aid into Gaza, and free some of the 50 remaining hostages held by militants in return for Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel.
\nIt has been held up by disagreement over how far Israel should withdraw its troops and the future beyond the 60 days if no permanent agreement is reached.
\nItamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right national security minister in Netanyahu\u2019s coalition, welcomed Netanyahu\u2019s step, calling for a total halt of aid to Gaza and complete conquest of the enclave, adding in a post on X: \u201cTotal annihilation of Hamas, encourage emigration, (Jewish) settlement.\u201d
\nMass hunger
\nInternational aid organisations say mass hunger has now arrived among Gaza\u2019s 2.2 million people, with stocks running out after Israel cut off all supplies to the territory in March, then reopened it in May but with new restrictions.
\nThe Israeli military said on Friday it had agreed to let countries airdrop aid into Gaza. Hamas dismissed this as a stunt.
\n\u201cThe Gaza Strip does not need flying aerobatics, it needs an open humanitarian corridor and a steady daily flow of aid trucks to save what remains of the lives of besieged, starving civilians,\u201d Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, told Reuters.
\nGaza medical authorities said nine more Palestinians had died over the past 24 hours from malnutrition or starvation. Dozens have died in the past few weeks as hunger worsens.
\nIsrael says it has let enough food into Gaza and accuses the United Nations of failing to distribute it, in what the Israeli foreign ministry called on Friday \u201ca deliberate ploy to defame Israel\u201d. The United Nations says it is operating as effectively as possible under Israeli restrictions.
\nUnited Nations agencies said on Friday that supplies were running out in Gaza of specialised therapeutic food to save the lives of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
\nUnited Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher also has demanded that Israel provide evidence for its accusations that staff with the UN. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs were affiliated with Hamas, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
\nThe ceasefire talks have been accompanied by continuing Israeli offensives. Palestinian health officials said Israeli airstrikes and gunfire had killed at least 21 people across the enclave on Friday, including five killed in a strike on a school sheltering displaced families in Gaza City.
\nIn the city, residents carried the body of journalist Adam Abu Harbid through the streets wrapped in a white shroud, his blue flak jacket marked PRESS draped across his body. He was killed overnight in a strike on tents housing displaced people.
\nMahmoud Awadia, another journalist attending the funeral, said the Israelis were deliberately trying to kill reporters. Israel denies intentionally targeting journalists.
\nIsrael\u2019s war on Gaza
\nThe Israeli army has launched a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing at least 58,667 Palestinians, including 17,400 children. More than 139,974 people have been injured, and over 14,222 are missing and presumed dead.
\nLast November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
\nIsrael also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Israel kills 25 Palestinians, including 13 aid-seekers, since dawn Gaza City At least 25 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces across Gaza since dawn on Saturday, including 13 people seeking aid, hospital sources in the enclave told Al Jazeera. Separately, two infants have died from malnutrition, raising the total number of starvation-related deaths in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492884,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-492876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n