54 killed in fresh Israeli air and hunger strikes

A malnourished Palestinian child gets a check up at a medical point run by a local NGO affiliated with the primary health care of the Palestinian health ministry in al-Mawasi, in the southern Gaza Strip district of Khan Yunis, on August 13, 2025. — AFP

At least 54 Palestinians, including 22 aid seekers, have been killed and 831 injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza in 24 hours, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.

Four bodies were also recovered from the rubble of previous Israeli attacks, the ministry said on Telegram.

In a latest update, a source at al-Ahli Arab Hospital told Al Jazeera that Israeli military fighter jets have bombed a home in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City, killing at least eight people, quoting Gaza’s Health Ministry.

[Anadolu]

The ministry has also recorded four more hunger-related deaths over the past 24 hours, bringing the total count of hunger-related deaths to 239, including 106 children. The total number of aid seekers killed since May 27, when Israel introduced a new aid distribution mechanism through the US-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), has reached 1,881, with more than 13,863 injured, the statement said.

Read: Weaponised aid

Natasha Davies, a nursing activity manager with Doctors Without Borders (MSF), told Al Jazeera there is aid sitting all around the boundary between Israel and Gaza that is not being allowed in.

“We’ve had a couple of trucks in [to Gaza], but really, it’s just a drop in the ocean … We run primarily a trauma surgical hospital, so every single patient has a wound of some sort that needs fixing with supplies that we are intermittently receiving,” Davies said by videolink from Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis.

“It’s just a humanitarian catastrophe. There are these GHF sites, which are slaughter masquerading as aid, which create mass casualty incidents, which create more injuries for us to treat with limited resources,” she said.

“The aid drops, which are not only ineffective but dangerous, just create chaos. They … cause more injuries. It’s just a never-ending cycle of trauma and injuries for the Palestinian people, which could easily be changed if Israel would facilitate the movement of our trucks inside. We have roads. We have trucks. Everything is ready,” she said.

Palestinians scramble to collect aid supplies from trucks in Khan Younis [Reuters]

The aid blockade has led to a devastating reality; in the past few weeks, people literally started to faint in the streets, medical staff collapsed while operating on patients, and blood donors were deemed unfit to donate blood due to malnutrition.

The claim by Israel and the Israeli military that there is no limit to humanitarian aid is absolutely baseless and largely contradicted on the ground. For five months, the delivery of life-saving supplies has been deliberately strangled by the Israeli military.

The result has left warehouses empty, hospitals without medicine, and families without any food.

The UN agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) has said that temperatures reached above 40°C in Gaza, “making an already desperate situation far worse.”

In a post on X, UNRWA said: “Bombardments and forced displacement continue. With limited electricity and fuel, there is no relief from the extreme heat.”

New Israeli settlement plan would cut off West Bank from East Jerusalem

Al Jazeera correspondent Hamdah Salhut says Israeli plans to greenlight the construction of more than 3,000 homes in the E1 area settlement of the occupied West Bank are in line with its goal of blocking the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has announced his intention to approve the construction of thousands of housing units in the E1 area, which connects Jerusalem with the existing illegal Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, located several kilometres to the east.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich walks to visit the Damascus Gate to Jerusalem’s Old City, as Israelis mark Jerusalem Day, in Jerusalem on May 26, 2025. — Reuters

“The main problem here, with this E1 plan, is that it would completely cut off the occupied West Bank from occupied East Jerusalem, essentially… destroying all territorial continuity that would [be needed for] a future Palestinian state,” said Salhut.

“What this government has said is that they want to do everything in their power to block the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

Smotrich himself has said the expansion of the E1 settlement “buries the idea of a Palestinian state”.

Palestinians in Gaza City have spoken of their fears of further displacement, following an Israeli forced evacuation order to areas further south, ahead of a proposed occupation of the city.

One woman, Walaa Sobh, said she had already been displaced during the war from the northern city of Beit Lahiya to Gaza City, and was unable to move again.

Relatives and loved ones of Palestinians who lost their lives after Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd arrived at an aid distribution point to mourn, at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City [Anadolu]

“We’re afraid to move anywhere else, because we have nowhere to go, no income – and I am a widow,” she told Al Jazeera. “If they want to force us out, then at least find us a place, give us tents, especially for the widows, the children, and the sick. You’re not only displacing one or two people, you’re displacing millions who have nowhere to stay.”

Another woman, Umm Sajed Hamdan, said she would refuse to follow the order.

“I am a mother of five and the wife of a detainee. I cannot escape with my children from one place to another,” she said. “I would rather face death here in Gaza City than go to al-Mawasi.”

Even, Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has condemned remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the so-called “Greater Israel vision”, terming them an extension of Israel’s “arrogant” approach that fuels crises, violates state sovereignty and breaches international law, Al Jazeera reported.

In a statement, the ministry warned the comments risk sparking more violence and chaos in the region, and stressed they would not undermine the legitimate rights of Arab nations and peoples. It called for global unity to confront such “provocations” and reaffirmed its support for a just, comprehensive and lasting peace.

UN urges ‘unimpeded humanitarian access’ in Gaza

The United Nations has urged “unimpeded humanitarian access” across Gaza amid Israel’s blockade of aid in the famine-stricken territory.

In a post on X, it said: “Palestinians are enduring a humanitarian catastrophe of horrific proportions. Children in Gaza are dying from starvation and bombardments.”

Read More: Pakistan seeks Chapter VII action against Israel

Israel’s war in Gaza

The war, now in its 21st month, has killed more than 61,776 Palestinians and wounded 154,906, according to Gazan health authorities. Most of the victims are reported to be women and children.

Last November, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over war crimes and crimes against humanity. Israel is also facing a genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over its conduct in Gaza.