At least eight more Palestinians die of starvation as famine spreads across Gaza
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza has said at least 61 people were killed and 308 injured in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours.
The ministry said a number of victims remained under rubble and on the streets, with ambulance and civil defence crews unable to reach them.
According to its daily update, the cumulative death toll in Gaza has risen to 62,622, with 157,673 injured since 7 October 2023.
From when Israel ended the ceasefire on March 18, the ministry said 10,778 people have been killed and 45,632 injured.
It noted that 298 fatalities had been added to the tally after confirmation by a judicial committee handling missing persons cases.
The ministry reported that at least 16 people were killed and 111 injured while attempting to collect aid in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of what the ministry describes as “aid victims” to 2,076 killed, and more than 15,308 injured since the war began.
Hospitals also recorded eight new deaths due to starvation and malnutrition, including two children, bringing the total to 281 deaths from hunger, of whom 114 were children.
Key events
Closing summary
It’s nearly 5pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s the latest:
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The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said at least 61 people were killed and 308 injured in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours. It said victims remained under rubble and in the streets, with crews unable to reach them.
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The Wafa news agency reported that at least nine civilians were killed in separate Israeli strikes across Gaza on Saturday.
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At least 16 people were killed and 111 injured while attempting to collect aid in the past 24 hours, the ministry said, bringing the total number of what it describes as “aid victims” to 2,076 killed and more than 15,308 injured since the war began.
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Eight people, including two children, died of starvation in Gaza hospitals in the past day, according to health officials. That brings the total number of recorded deaths from hunger to 281, of whom 114 were children.
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Strikes also targeted tents sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis, home to hundreds of thousands who had fled elsewhere in Gaza. More than half the victims were women and children, the AP reported.
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In northern Gaza, Israeli gunfire killed at least five people waiting for aid near the Zikim crossing, where UN and other agencies’ convoys enter the strip, health officials at Sheikh Radwan field hospital told AP.
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Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organisation, urged more medical evacuations, warning that 15,600 patients, including 3,800 children, need specialised care.
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Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, said famine in Gaza is worsening “by the hour” and urged Israel to let aid in at scale. UNRWA said it has warehouses full of food, medicines and hygiene supplies in Jordan and Egypt but has been blocked from bringing them into Gaza.
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In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces continued a large-scale assault on the village of al-Mughayyir near Ramallah. Marzouq Abu Naim, deputy head of the village council, told Wafa that troops had stormed more than 30 homes, destroyed property, and smashed or seized dozens of vehicles.
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Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said its clinics around Gaza City are treating large numbers of people as bombardments force further displacement. “Strikes are forcing people, including MSF staff, to flee their homes once again, and we are seeing displacement across Gaza City,” the group said.
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Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said he spoke by phone with his French, German and British counterparts to prevent a vote on UN sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear programme, ahead of a European deadline.
A senior health official in Gaza has warned of severe overcrowding in a children’s malnutrition clinic as famine in the enclave reaches what he described as a “critical phase”.
Ahmed al-Farra, director of the Tahrir hospital for children and maternity at the Nasser medical complex in Khan Younis, appeared in a video released by the health ministry showing crowded scenes inside the clinic.
In a translation carried by Anadolu news agency, al-Farra said the clinic, which operates only two days a week, is now receiving “three to four times” the expected number of patients.
“Each day the clinic is open, no fewer than 52 new cases are diagnosed,” he said.
Al-Farra highlighted the case of 18-month-old Shahd Mohammed Zaarab, who weighs just 5.8kg compared to the normal 11–12kg for her age. He said the child was suffering from acute malnutrition, having lost both fat and muscle mass.
“Her condition is like a skeleton covered with skin,” he said.
Earlier we reported that eight people died of starvation in Gaza in the past 24 hours, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
The commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has warned that Israel would face a “more crushing response” if it carried out further attacks against the country, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).
Major General Mohammad Pakpour made the comments on Saturday during a meeting with Ahmadreza Pourkhaghan, head of the judiciary organisation of the armed forces.
Referring to the IRGC’s combat readiness, Pakpour said:
If the Zionist regime repeats its aggression against the country, it will receive a more regret-inducing and crushing response than the 12-day war in June.
He added that ensuring the safety and security of IRGC personnel would remain a priority “as in the past”.
Arif Husain, chief economist at the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), has explained what qualifies as a famine after the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) formally declared one in parts of Gaza.
In a video posted to X, Husain said:
Famine is a technical term. We say there is a famine when three conditions come together in a specific geographic area. First, at least 20 percent of the population, in that particular place must be facing extreme levels of hunger.
Second, 30 percent of the children in the same place must be wasted, they are too tall for their weight, so they’re very skinny basically.
And the third condition is that the mortality rate must double from the average of, for adults, one person per 10,000 per day, to two people per 10,000 per day. When these three conditions come together, we say it’s a famine.
On Friday, the IPC said an estimated 514,000 people in Gaza – about a quarter of the enclave’s population – are experiencing famine, a figure expected to rise to 641,000 by the end of September.
Israel has denied that a famine is taking place, while the United States appeared to dismiss the findings as part of what it called a “false narrative of deliberate mass starvation” promoted by Hamas.
Earlier today, we reported that eight people had starved to death in Gaza in the past 24 hours, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Gaza’s civil defence service, made up of local emergency crews, say they carried out 39 missions in the past 24 hours as Israeli strikes hit tents sheltering displaced people in the enclave.
Crews reported operations in the Beach Camp in the north, and in Rafah to the south, where tents for displaced people were struck by Israeli forces.
Patients were taken from attacks near schools, mosques and hospitals, including al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat and tents in the Asdaa area of Rafah, where ten people were rushed to treatment.
Civil defence also reported transporting victims from strikes in Khan Younis and Gaza City, including fires in the Rimal neighbourhood.
One of the dead was transported from al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat, others were injured by gunfire, the civil defence said.
The service said the scale of operations underlined the pressure on emergency crews who continue to recover the wounded, and the dead, from across Gaza.
With ground troops already active in strategic areas, the widescale operation in Gaza City could start within days, reports the Associated Press (AP).
Aid group Doctors without Borders, or Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), said on Saturday its clinics around Gaza City are seeing high numbers of patients as people flee recent bombardments. The group said in a statement that “strikes are forcing people, including MSF staff, to flee their homes once again, and we are seeing displacement across Gaza City″.
According to the AP, the Israeli military has said troops are operating on the outskirts of Gaza City and in the city’s Zeitoun neighbourhood.
Israeli strikes killed at least 14 people in the southern Gaza Strip early on Saturday, according to morgue records and health officials at Nasser hospital, reports the Associated Press (AP).
The officials said the strikes targeted tents sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis, which became home to hundreds of thousands who had fled from elsewhere in Gaza. More than half of the dead were women and children, reported the AP.
Awad Abu Agala, uncle of two children who died, told the AP no place in Gaza is now safe. “The entire Gaza Strip is being bombed … In the south. In the north. Everywhere,” Abu Agala said, explaining that the children were targeted overnight while in their tents.
In northern Gaza, Israeli gunfire killed at least five aid-seekers on Saturday near the Zikim crossing with Israel, where UN and other agencies’ convoys enter the territory, health officials at the Sheikh Radwan field hospital told the AP.
Six people were killed in other attacks on Gaza elsewhere Saturday, according to hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to questions from the AP about the deaths.
Summary of the day so far
It is 2.49pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here is a summary of today’s blog so far:
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The Palestinian ministry of health in Gaza has said at least 61 people were killed and 308 injured in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours. The ministry said a number of victims remained under rubble and on the streets, with ambulance and civil defence crews unable to reach them. The Wafa news agency reported that at least nine Palestinian civilians had been killed in a series of Israeli attacks across Gaza on Saturday.
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The ministry reported that at least 16 people were killed and 111 injured while attempting to collect aid in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of what the ministry describes as “aid victims” to 2,076 killed, and more than 15,308 injured since the war began.
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Hospitals in Gaza also recorded eight new deaths due to starvation and malnutrition, including two children, bringing the total to 281 deaths from hunger, of whom 114 were children.
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Israel has dismantled the proven and internationally backed civilian model of aid distribution in Gaza, according to a joint report from Forensic Architecture (FA) and the World Peace Foundation (WPF), which said the move has furthered both Israel’s military objectives and starvation in the territory.
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The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has called for an urgent scale-up of evacuations from Gaza, warning that more than 15,600 patients remain in need of specialised care, including 3,800 children. In a post on X, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus thanked the UAE for supporting the latest evacuation of critically injured and sick patients but stressed that far more action is needed.
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The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), Philippe Lazzarini, has called on Israel to allow aid into Gaza at scale, saying famine in the territory is worsening by the hour. He also shared comments from undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, Tom Fletcher, who said the famine confirmed by the IPC report should be read “in sorrow and in anger”.
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Unrwa says it has warehouses full of food, medicines and hygiene supplies in Jordan and Egypt but is being blocked from bringing them into Gaza. “While famine is confirmed in Gaza City, we have warehouses full of food waiting to be allowed in,” the agency said in a post on X.
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Israeli forces have continued their large-scale assault on the village of al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, carrying out raids and widespread destruction of property, according to a local official cited by the Wafa news agency. Marzouq Abu Naim, the deputy head of the village council, told Wafa that since dawn troops had stormed more than 30 homes, issuing threats, destroying property, and smashing or seizing dozens of vehicles.
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Protesters backing a deal for the release of hostages in Gaza confronted Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and his son in central Israel, the Times of Israel reports. Crowds chanted “shame” and held up posters of hostages still held in Gaza. Ben-Gvir – who was barred from serving in the army as a teenager due to extremist activities – was heard telling his son, Shoval: “These are draft dodgers.” One protester shouted back, calling Ben-Gvir himself a “draft dodger”.
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Action Against Hunger has warned of “extreme vulnerability under the mothers and their children that are undernourished” as famine spreads across Gaza. The group’s nutrition teams recorded more than 400 cases of malnourished children in July and August alone, 20% of them severe. According to UN and INGO data, thousands of new cases are being registered each month.
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Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has said spoken by phone with his French, German and British counterparts in a bid to prevent a vote on UN sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear programme, just days ahead of a European deadline. The call came as the three European powers threatened to trigger the “snapback” provision of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which allows any party to reimpose sanctions if they believe Iran is not complying with commitments such as international monitoring of its nuclear activities.
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Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp has stepped down after failing to secure cabinet approval for additional sanctions on Israel over its war in Gaza. Veldkamp, a member of the centre-right New Social Contract party, said he was unable to achieve any agreement, while citing “geopolitical tensions”.
Turning our attention to the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces have continued their large-scale assault on the village of al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah, carrying out raids and widespread destruction of property, according to a local official cited by the Wafa news agency.
Marzouq Abu Naim, the deputy head of the village council, told Wafa that since dawn troops had stormed more than 30 homes, issuing threats, destroying property, and smashing or seizing dozens of vehicles.
He added that bulldozers were continuing work on a new road through the village, destroying thousands of dunums of olive groves.
The escalation comes after Israel on Wednesday announced its approval of a major new settlement block in the West Bank, which far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich suggsted was designed to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.
On Thursday, UK foreign secretary David Lammy joined 20 other foreign ministers in condemning the settlement plan. The Foreign Office said it had also summoned the Israeli ambassador in London to make Britain’s position clear.
The ICJ regards both Israeli occupation and settlement building in the West Bank as illegal under international law.
At least eight more Palestinians die of starvation as famine spreads across Gaza
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza has said at least 61 people were killed and 308 injured in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours.
The ministry said a number of victims remained under rubble and on the streets, with ambulance and civil defence crews unable to reach them.
According to its daily update, the cumulative death toll in Gaza has risen to 62,622, with 157,673 injured since 7 October 2023.
From when Israel ended the ceasefire on March 18, the ministry said 10,778 people have been killed and 45,632 injured.
It noted that 298 fatalities had been added to the tally after confirmation by a judicial committee handling missing persons cases.
The ministry reported that at least 16 people were killed and 111 injured while attempting to collect aid in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of what the ministry describes as “aid victims” to 2,076 killed, and more than 15,308 injured since the war began.
Hospitals also recorded eight new deaths due to starvation and malnutrition, including two children, bringing the total to 281 deaths from hunger, of whom 114 were children.
Karim is a trained nurse in his early 20s from Gaza City. He has been displaced by the war 12 times and survived an Israeli strike in Rafah. He now lives in the ruins of his former home with his parents and four brothers. He kept a diary for the Guardian over the course of a week.
3 August 2025
Today, I have to do something a bit “exciting”. I’m going to a food distribution point for the first time, what I call the death lottery. I’m leaving in about 30 minutes. I’ve said goodbye to my family and hugged them all. You never know.
4 August 2025
Do you know the series Squid Game? I swear, they’re playing with us just like that. I lay on the ground at the aid point in Zikim for almost three hours without moving. If anyone moved – like one old man apparently did, they shot him. He got a bullet straight in the neck.
6 August 2025
I usually avoid the news. I can’t stand watching it – too much pain, too much politics. I scroll through Instagram a little, and sometimes I search for scholarships, hoping to find a way out of here. I’m desperate to escape with my family.
Read the rest of Karim’s account here: My life in Gaza: ‘Do you know the series Squid Game?’
UNRWA chief urges Israel to ‘stop denying the famine it has created’ in Gaza
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has called on Israel to allow aid into Gaza at scale, saying famine in the territory is worsening by the hour.
In a post on X, Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA commissioner-general, said:
It’s time for the Government of Israel to stop denying the famine it has created in Gaza. All of those who have influence must use it with determination and a sense of moral duty. Every hour counts.
He also shared comments from Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, who said the famine confirmed by the IPC report should be read “in sorrow and in anger”.
Fletcher wrote that the crisis was “a famine we could have prevented” but food was being blocked by “systematic obstruction by Israel”.
In his closing appeal, Fletcher said: “My plea, my demand to Prime Minister Netanyahu: Enough. Ceasefire. Open the crossings, north and south … It is too late for far too many. But not for everyone in Gaza. Enough. For humanity’s sake, let us in.”
It comes after the Israeli prime minister claimed yesterday the IPC report was “an absolute lie” and “a modern blood libel”.
Palestinians endure daily struggle to access humanitarian aid