Middle East

Dozens killed on Saturday include 38 Palestinians seeking aid at controversial distribution sites, according to sources.

Sixty-two Palestinians, most of them aid seekers, have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza since dawn on Saturday, hospital sources in the besieged enclave have told Al Jazeera.

The death toll includes 38 Palestinians seeking aid at distribution sites operated by the controversial United States and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

The deaths are the latest killings reported near GHF-operated sites, despite Israel’s announcement last week that it would begin implementing “tactical pauses” in fighting in some areas to allow Palestinians greater access to humanitarian aid.

Israel announced the start of the daily pauses in military operations on July 27. However, 105 Palestinians were killed while seeking food on Wednesday and Thursday alone, the United Nations Human Rights Office in the occupied Palestinian territory said on Friday.

As of Friday, at least 1,373 Palestinians have been killed while trying to access aid, according to the human rights office.

Another 169 Palestinians, including 93 children, have died of starvation or malnutrition since the start of Israel’s war in October 2023, according to figures from Gaza’s Ministry of Health.

Palestinians in the enclave have reported numerous cases of Israeli soldiers and American security contractors hired by the GHF deliberately firing on aid seekers in the vicinity of the distribution sites.

Facing growing international condemnation over the conditions in Gaza, Israel has in recent days allowed airdrops of aid into the enclave by countries including Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Spain, Germany and France.

But humanitarian groups, including the UN aid agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, have warned that the airdrops are insufficient and called on Israel to facilitate the free flow of assistance via land.

Gaza’s Government Media Office said that just 36 aid trucks entered the enclave on Saturday, far short of the 600 trucks it said were needed to meet the humanitarian needs of the population.

In Khan Younis, a Palestine Red Crescent Society staffer was killed and three others wounded by an Israeli attack on its headquarters, according to the aid group.

“One Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) staff member was killed and three others injured after Israeli forces targeted the Society’s headquarters in Khan Younis, igniting a fire on the building’s first floor,” the PRCS said in a post on X on Saturday.

Reporting from central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah earlier on Saturday, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said that Palestinians have not seen any improvement in their situation despite the recent deliveries of aid.

“In the markets, you barely find food. Whatever is available is very, very expensive, and Palestinians are still forced to risk their lives to get whatever they can get,” Khoudary said.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, on Saturday said Gaza was experiencing a famine that had been “largely shaped” by the attempts to replace the UN-led aid system with the “politically motivated” GHF.

“Sidelining & weakening UNRWA has nothing to do with claims of aid diversion to armed groups. It is a deliberate measure to collectively pressure & punish Palestinians for living in Gaza,” Lazzarini said in a post on X.

UNICEF has warned that malnutrition in Gaza has exceeded the threshold for famine, with 320,000 young children among those at risk of acute malnutrition.

“We are at a crossroads, and the choices made now will determine whether tens of thousands of children live or die,” Ted Chaiban, UNICEF’s deputy executive director for humanitarian action and supply operations, said in a statement on Friday after a recent visit to Israel, Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Defence Ministry accuses Kurdish-led SDF of injuring four army personnel and three civilians in rocket attack near Manbij.

Syria’s Ministry of Defence has accused the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) of carrying out a rocket attack on a military position in northern Syria, injuring four army personnel and three civilians.

In a statement carried by Syria’s official SANA news agency, the ministry said the military was able to repel the attack in the countryside of the city of Manbij.

“The army forces are working to deal with the sources of fire that targeted the civilian villages near the deployment lines,” the ministry said, adding in a later statement that the military was carrying out “precise strikes”.

But the United States-backed SDF said in a statement that it was responding to “an unprovoked artillery assault targeting civilian-populated areas with more than ten shells” from factions operating within Syrian government ranks.

The statement made no mention of casualties.

The incident comes after the SDF signed a deal in March with Syria’s new interim government to integrate into state institutions.

The SDF has controlled a semi-autonomous region in the northeastern part of the country since 2015, and the deal, if implemented, would bring that territory under the full control of Syria’s central government, led by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Al-Sharaa led the lightning rebel offensive that toppled longtime Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December last year.

Discussions over the integration of the SDF into the Syrian state had been ongoing since the fall of al-Assad, but were hampered by divides fostered over years of civil war.

The deal reached in March did not specify how the SDF would be merged with the Syrian armed forces.

The SDF has previously said its forces must join as a bloc, while Damascus wants them to join as individuals.

“While we reaffirm our commitment to respecting the current de-escalation arrangements, we call on the relevant authorities in the Syrian government to take responsibility and bring the undisciplined factions under their control,” the SDF said in its statement.

Palestinian group rejects reported comments by US special envoy Steve Witkoff that it is ‘prepared to be demilitarised’.

Hamas has denied claims it expressed a willingness to disarm during Gaza ceasefire negotiations with Israel, stressing that it has “national and legal” rights to confront the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.

In a statement on Saturday, the Palestinian group rejected recent remarks purportedly made by United States President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, during a meeting with relatives of Israeli captives held in Gaza.

Citing a recording of the talks, Israeli news outlet Haaretz reported that the US envoy told the families that Hamas said it was “prepared to be demilitarised”.

But Hamas said in its statement that the group’s right to resistance “cannot be relinquished until our full national rights are restored, foremost among them the establishment of a fully sovereign, independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital”.

Witkoff met the Israeli captives’ families in Tel Aviv on Saturday, one day after he visited a US and Israeli-backed aid distribution site run by the controversial GHF in Gaza.

More than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed trying to get food at GHF-run sites since the group began operating in the bombarded Palestinian enclave in May, the United Nations said earlier this week.

Hamas had earlier slammed Witkoff’s visit as a “staged show” aimed at misleading the public about the situation in Gaza, where Israel’s blockade has spurred a starvation crisis and fuelled global condemnation.

But the Trump administration has stood firmly behind GHF despite the killings and growing global criticism of the group’s operations in Gaza. In June, Washington announced that it approved $30m to support GHF.

Witkoff’s comments on disarmament come amid a widening international push to recognise a Palestinian state amid the scenes of starvation in Gaza.

The United Kingdom announced at a two-day United Nations conference in New York this week that it may follow France in recognising a Palestinian state in September.

Echoing an earlier statement by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said London would proceed with recognition if Israel did not meet certain conditions, including implementing a ceasefire in Gaza.

The UN meeting also saw 17 countries, plus the European Union and the Arab League, back a seven-page text on reviving a two-state solution to the conflict.

The text called on Hamas to “end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority, with international engagement and support, in line with the objective of a sovereign and independent Palestinian State”.

On July 27, the Palestinian Ministry of Education released the results of the secondary education certificate exams, also known as tawjihi. Like every year, families sat together, eyes fixed on phone screens, hearts pounding, everyone hoping to be the first to access the ministry’s website and break the news with a jubilant shout. There were joyful tears and celebrations.

Thousands of students, who had endured months of pressure, sleepless nights and fragile hope, had the exam results in their hands that would determine whether and where they could continue their education.

But thousands of others – those in Gaza – were sitting in their tents and ruined homes in despair. I am one of them. This is the second year I, along with 31,000 other Palestinians born in 2006, was unable to take the tawjihi. For another year, we have been stripped of our right to continue our education and of the hope to build a future beyond the ruins. Now, we are joined by almost 40,000 students born in 2007, who are also stuck in this dreadful limbo.

Last year, when the tawjihi results were announced, I was huddled in front of a crackling fire near a tattered tent, far too small to hold my big dreams. The deep frustration I felt didn’t fade – it settled in my mind and stayed. All I could think about was how all my sacrifices, tears, and relentless effort during a full year of studying under difficult circumstances had been for nothing.

This year, it feels even worse. Not only are my dreams of education crushed, now I struggle to keep myself and my family alive, as Gaza is starving to death.

In these two years, I have watched our education system destroyed, classroom by classroom. My school, Shohada al-Nusierat, once a place of learning and dreams, first became a shelter housing displaced families and then a target for Israeli bombing. My schoolbag – once filled with notebooks and study materials – now carries essential documents and a change of clothes, always packed and ready in case we are forced to flee our home again. The academic calendar, with all its important dates, has been replaced by a grim schedule of air strikes, displacement, and loss of friends and loved ones.

Amid this devastation, the Education Ministry has struggled to keep an educational process going. Wanting to give Gaza’s children and youth hope, it has undertaken various initiatives to try to keep students motivated. Makeshift schools have been organised wherever possible, while some university students have been able to continue their education online.

For us, the tawjihi students, efforts were repeatedly made to set up our exams. Last year, the ministry announced it would conduct the exams in February. I kept studying, despite the harsh reality and the collapse of everything around me, believing this was my chance to move forward.

February passed, and nothing happened. The ministry then announced that the exams would be held in April. But once again, they were postponed due to the unsafe conditions. Then, in June, the ministry scheduled an online exam for July for students born in 2005 who had either failed their tawjihi or missed some of its exams; they were supposed to have done this exam in December 2023. Some 1,500 students were able to take the tests online.

This gave me a bit of hope that my turn would also come, but that quickly faded. The Ministry of Education hasn’t given us any updates on the process, and it feels like we’ve been completely forgotten in the shadow of war and starvation.

Some readers may ask themselves, why amid a genocide are Palestinians so preoccupied with an exam?

You have to understand, tawjihi is a milestone in every Palestinian’s life – a decisive moment that shapes future paths for at least the next five years. It determines whether we can pursue our education in the field we desire and gain admission to top universities.

But beyond academics, tawjihi carries a much deeper cultural and emotional weight. It is not just an educational phase – it is part of our identity, a symbol of perseverance. In a place where the occupation closes nearly every door, education is able to keep a few doors still open.

That’s why we celebrate it like a national holiday; the day tawjihi results are released feels like a third Eid for Palestinians. It gives families hope, brings pride to entire neighbourhoods, and keeps alive the dream of a better future.

Over the many months I waited for the tawjihi, I held on to my dream to study medicine at a prestigious university abroad. I kept applying for scholarships and sending emails to universities across the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe, hoping for special consideration as a student affected by war. I pleaded with university administrators to waive the tawjihi certificate requirement.

But the responses were painfully consistent: “Unfortunately, we cannot consider your application unless you provide your final diploma.”

Today, despair and helplessness are not the only unwanted visitors I have. Hunger is another one. The starvation has destroyed not only my body but also my mental health.

Most days, we manage to have one meal. We survive mostly on canned beans, dry bread, or rice without any vegetables or protein. Our bodies are weak, our faces pale, and our energy almost nonexistent. The effects go beyond the physical. Hunger fogs the brain, dulls memory and crushes motivation. It becomes nearly impossible to focus, let alone study for a life-changing exam like the tawjihi. How can I prepare for the most important exam of my life when my stomach is empty and my mind clouded by fatigue and worry?

It feels as though my youth has been stolen before my eyes, and I can do nothing but watch. While my peers around the world are building their futures, I remain stuck in a place of overwhelming pain and loss.

As a tawjihi student trapped in a warzone, I urgently call on educational authorities and international institutions to step in and implement immediate solutions to ensure our right to education is not buried under the rubble of war.

We are not asking for much. Giving us a chance to finish our secondary education in Gaza is not just a matter of logistics, but a matter of justice and future survival.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

Gaza faces a grave risk of famine, with one in three people going days without food, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned.

UNICEF on Friday urged the international community to act swiftly as conditions continue to deteriorate due to Israel’s genocidal war.

“Today, more than 320,000 young children are at risk of acute malnutrition,” Ted Chaiban, UNICEF’s deputy executive director for humanitarian action and supply operations, said in a statement on Friday following a recent trip to Israel, Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

He said the malnutrition indicator in Gaza has “exceeded the famine threshold”.

“Today, I want to keep the focus on Gaza, because it’s in Gaza where the suffering is most acute and where children are dying at an unprecedented rate,” he said.

“We are at a crossroads, and the choices made now will determine whether tens of thousands of children live or die.”

On Saturday, Atef Abu Khater, a 17-year-old Palestinian, died of malnutrition, a medical source at al-Shifa Hospital told Al Jazeera.

Earlier this week, Khater, who had been in good health before the war in Gaza, was hospitalised in intensive care, according to media reports, which quoted his father as saying he was no longer responding to treatment.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 60,000 Palestinians, more than 18,000 of them children. Many more remain buried under the rubble, most presumed dead.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, the number of deaths from starvation in the territory stands at 162, including 92 children.

‘Engineered Israeli genocidal chaos’

Ahmed al-Najjar, a journalist and resident of Gaza who is sheltering in Khan Younis, says Palestinians in the besieged territory are faced with “tragedy and torment” amid Israeli bombardment, forced starvation and a complete feeling of insecurity.

“With the cats away, the mice will play – except that it’s not just a mouse, but an engineered Israeli genocidal chaos,” he told Al Jazeera, stressing that safety is “nowhere to be found” in Gaza.

“We are not just referring to the fact of constant fear of the Israeli bombs being dropped on our heads, but the fact that there is a total security and power vacuum that leaves us here unsure and uncertain of our own safety,” al-Najjar said.

He described that even walking in the street and going to buy a bag of flour or some other basic necessity makes people feel uncertain whether they will be able to return home safely.

“There is not any sort of presence of police or security forces in the streets; we’ve been seeing the continuous and systematic targeting of the police forces inside these ‘safe zones’ here.”

In March, Israel blocked food aid from entering Gaza. It eased the blockade in late May, after which the controversial Israel- and United States-backed GHF took over aid distribution in Gaza.

But GHF has been accused of grave rights violations and the targeting of civilians. The UN says more than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed trying to get food from the GHF’s aid hubs.

Many have been purposefully shot by Israeli soldiers or US security contractors hired by GHF, according to testimonies from whistleblowers published in the media.

With starvation across the Strip spreading, international outcry over images of emaciated children and increasing reports of hunger-related deaths pressured Israel to let more aid into the Gaza Strip earlier this week.

The Israeli military last week began a daily “tactical pause” of its military operations in parts of Gaza and established new aid corridors.

US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, also travelled to Gaza on Friday to inspect the GHF aid distribution site, together with Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel.

The diplomats “spent over five hours inside Gaza”, Witkoff said in a post on X, accompanied by a photo of himself wearing a protective vest and meeting staff at a distribution site.

He added that the purpose of the trip was to “help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza”.

Meanwhile, several Western and Arab governments began carrying out aid airdrops in Gaza earlier this week, to feed more than two million inhabitants. But aid agencies have said they are deeply sceptical that airdrops could deliver enough food safely to tackle a deepening hunger crisis in Gaza.

“Look, at this stage, every modality needs to be used, every gate, every route, every modality, but airdrops cannot replace the volume and the scale that convoys by road can achieve,” Chaiban said, adding that allowing about 500 humanitarian and commercial aid trucks into Gaza is important.

He also noted that what is happening on the ground is “inhumane” and stressed that “what children in Gaza need from all communities is a sustained ceasefire and a political way forward.”

After they were forcibly displaced multiple times during Israel’s war on Gaza, the Sobh family has taken refuge in a coastal camp west of Gaza City.

Street vendor Fadi Sobh, 30, describes his tent as “unbearably hot during summer”. His 29-year-old wife, Abeer, collects seawater because clean water is in short supply.

The children bathe in turns, standing in a metal basin as their mother pours saltwater over them. Nine-month-old Hala cries when the salt irritates her eyes, while her siblings bear the discomfort without complaint.

Abeer feeds Hala water from a baby bottle. On good days, she has lentils to grind into powder and mix with the water. “One day feels like one hundred days, because of the summer heat, hunger and the distress,” she says.

Fadi travels to a nearby soup kitchen, sometimes with one of his children. “But food is rarely available there,” he said.

The kitchen operates roughly once a week, never meeting demand. Often, he waits an entire day only to return home with nothing “and the kids sleep hungry, without eating”.

Abeer sometimes goes to aid trucks near the Zikim crossing alone or with Youssef, one of her children. The crowds are mostly men – stronger and faster than she is. “Sometimes I manage to get food, and in many cases, I return empty-handed,” she said.

When unsuccessful, she begs those who secured supplies. “You survived death thanks to God, please give me anything,” she pleads. Many respond kindly, offering her a small bag of flour to bake for the children.

During the hottest hours of the day, the six children stay in or near the tent. Their parents encourage them to sleep through the heat, preventing them from using energy and becoming hungry and thirsty.

As temperatures drop, the children go outside. Some days, Abeer sends them to ask the neighbours for food. Other times, they search through Gaza’s ruined streets, sifting through rubble and rubbish for anything to fuel their makeshift stove.

After spending the day seeking life’s essentials – food, water, and cooking fuel – the family occasionally gathers enough for Abeer to prepare a meal, usually a thin lentil soup. More often, they have nothing and go to bed hungry.

Abeer says she is growing weaker, frequently feeling dizzy while searching for food. “I am tired. I am no longer able,” she said. “If the war goes on, I am thinking of taking my life. I no longer have any strength or power.”

Hundreds of mourners attended the funeral for 40-year-old Khamis Ayyad, who died from smoke inhalation after an Israeli settler arson attack in the occupied West Bank. His death follows a surge in settler violence this year.

The family of a United States citizen who was killed in a settler attack in the occupied West Bank is calling on the administration of President Donald Trump to open its own investigation into the incident.

Relatives of Khamis Ayyad, 40, who died in the town of Silwad, north of Ramallah, on Thursday, confirmed on Friday that he was an American citizen and called for justice in the case.

Ayyad — a father of five and a former Chicago resident — was the second US citizen to be killed in the West Bank in July. Earlier that month, Israeli settlers beat 20-year-old Sayfollah Musallet to death in Sinjil, a town that neighbours Silwad.

Standing alongside Ayyad’s relatives, William Asfour, the operations coordinator for the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), described the killing as “murder”.

“We demand a full investigation from the Department of Justice,” Asfour said. “An American citizen was killed. Where’s the accountability?”

According to Mahmoud Issa, the slain 40-year-old’s cousin, settlers torched cars outside Ayyad’s home around dawn on Thursday.

Ayyad woke up to put out the fire, but then the Israeli army showed up at the scene and started firing tear gas in his direction.

The family believes that Ayyad died from inhaling tear gas and smoke from the burning vehicles.

‘How many more?’

Settler attacks against Palestinian communities in the West Bank, which US officials have described as “terrorism”, have been escalating for months, particularly since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023.

The Israeli residents of illegal settlements have descended on Palestinian communities, ransacked neighbourhoods and set cars and homes ablaze.

The settlers, protected by the Israeli military, are often armed and fire at will against Palestinians who try to stop them.

The Israeli military has also been intensifying its deadly raids, home demolitions and displacement campaigns in the West Bank.

Just this past month, Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, approved a non-binding motion to annex the West Bank.

And on Thursday, two top Israeli ministers, Yariv Levin and Israel Katz, called the present circumstances “a moment of opportunity” to assert “Israeli sovereignty” over the area.

Meanwhile, Israel continues to carry out a brutal assault in Gaza, which rights groups have said amounts to a genocide.

CAIR-Chicago’s Asfour stressed on Friday that Ayyad’s killing is not an isolated incident.

“Another American was killed in the West Bank just weeks ago,” he said, referring to Musallet.

“How many more before the US takes action to protect its citizens abroad? Settlers burn homes, soldiers back them up, and our government sends billions to fund all of this.”

The US Department of State did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment by the time of publication.

No arrests in Musallet’s case

Last month, Musallet’s family also urged a US investigation into his killing.

But Washington has resisted calls to probe Israel’s abuses against American citizens, arguing that Israeli authorities are best equipped to investigate their own military forces and settlers.

Mike Huckabee, US ambassador to Israel, called on Israel to “aggressively investigate the murder” of Musallet in July.

“There must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act,” he wrote in a social media post.

But more than 21 days after the incident, there has been no arrest in the case. Since 2022, Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed at least 10 US citizens. None of the cases have resulted in criminal charges.

Ayyad was killed as Israeli forces continue to detain US teenager Mohammed Ibrahim without trial or access to his family.

Mohammed, 16, has been jailed since February, and his family says it has received reports that he is drastically losing weight and suffering from a skin infection.

On Friday, Illinois State Representative Abdelnasser Rashid called Ayyad’s death part of an “ugly pattern of settler colonial violence” in Palestine.

He called for repealing an Illinois state law that penalises boycotts of Israeli firms.

“We need action. Here in Illinois, we have a law that punishes companies that choose to do the right thing by boycotting Israel,” Rashid told reporters.

“This shameful state law helps shield Israel’s violence and brutality from consequences.”

Israel is “engineering chaos and massacres” in the Gaza Strip by continuing to block aid deliveries and opening fire on starving Palestinians seeking desperately needed food supplies, a humanitarian official has warned.

Caroline Willemen, Gaza project coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, told Al Jazeera on Friday that food remains “critically scarce” in the besieged enclave despite the increased entry of aid in recent days.

“There is little indication that sufficient aid will arrive consistently,” Willemen said. “As a result, every day, people risk their lives in a desperate search for food.”

The Gaza Health Ministry said on Friday that three more people, including two children, died of hunger and malnutrition in the previous 24 hours.

That pushed the total number of starvation-related deaths to 162, including 92 children, since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023.

More than 80 Palestinians were also killed in Israeli strikes across the Strip on Friday, medical sources told Al Jazeera. Of those, 49 people were killed and more than 270 others were wounded while seeking aid, the sources said.

Condemnation of Israel’s starvation policy in Gaza has grown this week, with a global hunger monitoring system warning on Tuesday that the “worst-case scenario of famine” was unfolding.

While Israel has authorised a series of aid airdrops in recent days, top United Nations officials have denounced the scheme as expensive and dangerous while urging Israel to allow unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza.

“If there is political will to allow airdrops – which are highly costly, insufficient & inefficient, there should be similar political will to open the road crossings,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), wrote on X.

“As the people of #Gaza are starving to death, the only way to respond to the famine is to flood Gaza with assistance.”

Olga Cherevko, an official with the UN’s humanitarian office (OCHA), also told Al Jazeera from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza that while there has been a slight increase in aid being allowed in, it is still grossly insufficient.

“The slight increase in what is coming in is not nearly enough to even scratch the surface,” she said. “The needs on the ground are overwhelming.”

‘Deadly incidents a daily reality’

Meanwhile, Palestinians in Gaza continue to risk their lives by seeking aid at notorious sites run by the United States- and Israeli-backed GHF.

Ibrahim Mekki, a Palestinian man from Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, said he waited at least six hours and risked being shot by Israeli forces just to end up with a few bags of pasta.

“It’s a trap, a game,” he told Al Jazeera. “Letting you move a little, then opening fire.”

The UN’s human rights office reported that at least 1,373 aid seekers have been killed in Gaza since May, when the GHF began operating in the enclave.

Of those, 859 people were killed near GHF-run aid sites and 514 were killed while waiting along food convoy routes, the office said. “Most of these killings were committed by the Israeli military,” it added.

MSF’s Willemen also recounted a harrowing incident from earlier this week, when Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians attempting to reach aid trucks near the Zikim crossing in northern Gaza.

“People were wounded in the gunfire and in the crush as crowds panicked and ran,” she said.

“These deadly incidents have become a daily reality in Gaza for too long now. The current methods of distribution are engineering chaos and massacres.”

Still, Israel and its top ally, the US, have continued to support GHF despite the killings and growing global criticism of the group’s operations in Gaza.

US President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, also visited the enclave on Friday alongside US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee to “assess conditions” and engage with GHF.

Witkoff said the trip aimed to help “craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza”.

The Trump administration announced last month that it approved $30m to support GHF’s operations.

The US provides billions of dollars in military aid to Israel annually, as well as diplomatic backing at the UN – assistance that has increased significantly since the start of the war on Gaza.

“I call that a war crime.” Anthony Aguilar told Al Jazeera about what he says were deadly and unprofessional practices he witnessed firsthand at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid distribution sites in Gaza.

The US special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, has visited aid distribution sites in Gaza amid mounting global outrage over deepening famine in the Strip. The aid sites, run by the controversial US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, have been linked to over 1,000 deaths since May. Witkoff said his visit aims to help President Donald Trump shape a plan “deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza”.

The Trump administration has sanctioned members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA), accusing them of undermining peace efforts.

The move comes as more Western governments are openly criticising Israel, calling on the country to end the war on Gaza and move towards a two-state solution.

More countries have also announced their intention to recognise Palestinian statehood under certain conditions, including the disarmament of Hamas and PA reform.

So what’s behind the US sanctions?

Are they a bargaining chip to further peace talks, or a sign of more hurdles ahead?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests:

Xavier Abu Eid – Former adviser to the Palestine Liberation Organization

Eli Clifton – Senior adviser at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft

Firas El Echi – Journalist and host of the Here’s Why podcast

Palestinians take Al Jazeera on journey showing how hard it is to get food at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s distribution hubs. Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 people at GHF sites since May. Observers say Israel’s aid management is cruel and farcical.

Artificial intelligence is being used to diagnose rare diseases and provide vital support for people dealing with anxiety and depression, taking on roles traditionally held by healthcare professionals.

But this growing reliance raises important questions: can we fully trust AI in critical health decisions? Who is accountable if mistakes are made? And how will its integration shape the future of healthcare?

Presenter: Stefanie Dekker

Guests:
Andreas Michaelides – Psychologist and health tech expert

Dr Chintan Dave – ICU doctor

Xiao Zeng – Technologist and AI educator

Israel said ‘terrorist organisations’ were motivated to exact revenge on it due to its recent military campaigns against Iran and in Gaza.

Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) has sharpened its travel warnings for Israelis visiting and staying in the United Arab Emirates, citing a heightened risk of “terrorist organisations” carrying out attacks in the Gulf State.

In a statement published on Thursday, the NSC cited a growing threat from “terrorist organisations (The Iranians, Hamas, Hezbollah and Global Jihad)” attacking Israeli targets, motivated by Israel’s military operations in the Middle East.

“They are driven by heightened motivation to exact revenge following Operation Rising Lion, in addition to the anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian incitement which has intensified since the start of Operation Iron Swords, and even more so in response to Hamas’ starvation campaign,” it said, using the names for its military assaults on Iran and Gaza.

Israel is facing mounting international pressure over Gaza’s ongoing starvation crisis, caused by the Israeli military’s months-long blockade on aid entering the Palestinian enclave.

In 2020, the UAE became the most prominent Arab state in 30 years to establish formal ties with Israel under a United States-brokered agreement dubbed the Abraham Accords. The country’s Israeli and Jewish community has grown larger and more visible in the years since the accords were signed.

But the NSC statement said “past experience” has taught Israel that “terrorist organisations often focus their efforts in neighbouring countries”.

“In light of this, the NSC is reiterating the possibility that they will try to carry out attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets in the UAE, especially on Jewish holidays and Shabbat,” it added.

The NSC’s travel alert for the UAE – which remains unchanged at level 3 – strongly advises against non-essential travel and urges Israeli citizens to “seriously reconsider” visiting the Gulf state.

While the UAE is viewed as one of the safest places in the Middle East, three people were sentenced to death there in March for the murder of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi.

The Abu Dhabi Federal Appeal Court ruled that the November killing of 28-year-old Zvi Kogan – a representative of Orthodox Jewish organisation Chabad in the UAE – was committed by the defendants in pursuance of a “terrorist purpose”.

US envoy Steve Witkoff to visit aid distribution sites in Gaza to assess ‘dire situation on the ground’: White House

United States President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, will travel to Gaza to inspect aid distribution as pressure mounts on Israel over its starvation policy in the war-torn Palestinian territory.

Witkoff will travel to Gaza on Friday with US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, to inspect aid distribution as condemnation of Israel grows over famine in Gaza and reports that more than 1,000 desperately hungry Palestinians have been killed since May at food distribution sites operated by the notorious US- and Israeli-backed GHF.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday that Witkoff would visit “distribution sites and secure a plan to deliver more food and meet with local Gazans to hear firsthand about this dire situation on the ground”.

“The special envoy and the ambassador will brief the president immediately after their visit to approve a final plan for food and aid distribution into the region,” Leavitt said.

The visit by the top US envoy comes a day after more than 50 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across the territory and health officials reported the deaths of two more children from starvation, adding to the Gaza Health Ministry’s confirmed death toll of 154 people who have died from “famine and malnutrition” – including 89 children – in recent weeks.

Witkoff met with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly after his arrival in the country on Thursday, the Israeli leader’s office said.

Earlier this week, President Trump contradicted Netanyahu’s insistence that reports of hunger in Gaza were untrue, with the US leader saying the enclave was experiencing “real starvation”.

The United Nations and independent experts had warned for months that starvation was taking hold in Gaza due to the Israeli military blockade on humanitarian relief, and this week, they said that “famine is now unfolding”.

Angered by Israel’s denial of aid and ongoing attacks on Gaza’s population, the United Kingdom, Canada and Portugal this week became the latest Western governments to announce plans to recognise a Palestinian state.

Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron said that France will recognise Palestine at the UN General Assembly in September, following Spain, Norway and Ireland’s lead.

Some 142 countries out of the 193 members of the UN currently recognise or plan to recognise a Palestinian state.

Following a meeting with Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Thursday, Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said “the humanitarian disaster in Gaza is beyond imagination”.

“Here, the Israeli government must act quickly, safely and effectively to provide humanitarian and medical aid to prevent mass starvation from becoming a reality,” he said.

“I have the impression that this has been understood today.”

Once a vibrant centre of Palestinian life, much of Gaza has been pulverised by Israeli bombardments and more than 60,000 Palestinians killed, and almost 150,000 wounded, since October 2023, after the Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed an estimated 1,139 people.

The Hind Rajab Foundation is using Israeli soldiers’ own social media footage as evidence for war crimes investigations. Al Jazeera’s Hind Touissate spoke to its founder to explain how dozens of complaints have been filed in more than 10 countries, targeting Israeli military personnel.