Updates: Gaza hunger ‘catastrophic’, says UN; four die from Israel’s famine

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For an explainer on how various Israeli officials view plans by the cabinet to escalate the deadly war on Gaza, read this.

Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Gaza’s fate will define the future of humanity and urges the world to act now. For more, read this opinion piece.

And, you can follow all our coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza here.

We will be closing this live page soon. Here is a recap of today’s main events:

• At least 32 people were killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip since dawn on Thursday, including 13 aid seekers, according to hospitals in the enclave.
• Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, announced his intention to approve the construction of more than 3,000 homes in the E1 area settlement of the occupied West Bank.
• Several countries and bodies, including the UN, have called on Israel to backtrack on its plans, which would allow it to completely encircle Jerusalem, bisecting land that would be used for a future Palestinian state.
• More than 100 aid groups have accused Israel of obstructing life-saving aid from entering Gaza, resulting in vast quantities of relief supplies remaining stranded in warehouses across Jordan and Egypt.
• Health officials in Gaza have warned Israel is starving to death “all sorts of people”, saying “frightening figures” of malnutrition-related deaths continue to mount.
• An Israeli drone strike targeted a motorcycle in the southern Lebanese town of Aitaroun, wounding at least one person.

Palestinian National Council (PNC) Chairman Ruhi Fattouh has issued a statement condemning what he called physical and psychological attacks on jailed leader Marwan Barghouti, after Israel’s Ben-Gvir was filmed threatening him in his cell.

In a statement cited by the Wafa news agency, Fattouh said he holds Israel fully responsible for the life of Barghouti, who he said had been subjected to inhumane conditions while in solitary confinement, causing his apparent state of “weakness and emaciation”.

“These violations come within the bloody comprehensive war targeting our Palestinian people and its leadership, led by the prisoner Marwan Barghouti, and the aggression of ethnic cleansing launched by the right-wing terrorist government on the Palestinian territories,” he said, calling on the Red Cross and other rights groups to intervene immediately to ensure the safety of Barghouti and other Palestinian prisoners.

Germany is the latest country to denounce the Israeli government’s plan to expand the E1 settlement project in the occupied West Bank.

In a statement, Germany’s Foreign Ministry said it “strongly rejects” the plan announced by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

Earlier, as we reported, the UN and the EU also spoke out against the illegal settlement project.

The armed wing of Hamas says its fighters hit an Israeli Merkava tank with a Yassin 105 shell in southern Zeitoun, Gaza City’s largest neighbourhood – where Israeli forces have also stepped up deadly attacks.

The group said its fighters also targeted two houses where Israeli soldiers had taken cover during their withdrawal from an ambush site, claiming to have inflicted both deaths and injuries among the troops, without providing more details.

Hamas has condemned reported remarks by Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian Shahin calling for the disarmament of Palestinian resistance groups, saying such statements “do not serve our people or national interests”.

In a statement, the group said resistance and its weapons are a “national right” as long as Israel’s occupation continues, and can only be relinquished with the full restoration of Palestinian rights and the establishment of an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.

Hamas said it was “astonished” these comments came as Israel wages a “brutal genocide” in Gaza and advances illegal settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.

The group urged Palestinian Authority leadership to retract such statements and stand with the Palestinian people and groups in resisting Israeli plans “aimed at erasing our people and seizing our land”.

Let’s bring you up to speed:

• Israeli attacks have destroyed the septic lines under Nasser Hospital, flooding the facility with sewage. Hospital officials say the Israeli military is blocking crews from making repairs.
• Global criticism is mounting over Israel’s E1 settlement expansion plan in the occupied West Bank, which would fragment the territory. “It would put an end to prospects of a two-state solution,” said UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
• The UN’s World Food Programme says that the food insecurity situation in the Gaza Strip is “catastrophic”, and that at least 40,000 babies in Gaza are suffering from malnutrition.
• UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini says the organisation has been barred from delivering aid to Gaza for over five months, leaving the equivalent of 6,000 truckloads of aid stuck in Egypt and Jordan.
• Aid group Oxfam says bureaucratic obstacles are also blocking NGOs. “Most major international NGOs since the second of March have been virtually unable to deliver a single truck of life-saving supplies,” said Bushra Khalidi, the group’s policy lead in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry says it condemns Israel’s ongoing policy of settlement expansion on Palestinian lands, noting that it is illegal under international law.

As we’ve been reporting all day, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said this morning he will approve thousands of housing units in a highly controversial and long-delayed illegal settlement project in the occupied West Bank, saying the move “buries the idea of a Palestinian state”.

In a statement, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has slammed Israeli authorities’ E1 settlement plan as a “breach of international law” that would further undermine a potential two-state solution.

“If implemented, settlement construction in this area will permanently cut the geographical and territorial contiguity between occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank and sever the connection between the northern and southern West Bank,” said Kallas.

“The EU urges Israel to desist from taking this decision forward, noting its far-reaching implications.”

Israel’s decision to further advance settlements in the West Bank is a breach of international law and will damage the viability of the two-state solution.

My statement here: https://t.co/ggWjIMnHEH

— Kaja Kallas (@kajakallas) August 14, 2025

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has paid a visit to the most prominent Palestinian detainee, Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, footage shared on social media shows.

In the footage, Ben-Gvir is seen telling Barghouti, who has been in prison since 2002, including years in solitary confinement, “You won’t win. Whoever messes with the nation of Israel, whoever murders our children and women – we will wipe them out. You should know this, [this happened] throughout history.”

Relatives of 66-year-old Barghouti who viewed the footage told Al Jazeera Arabic there is a “shocking” change in his features, apparently from “exhaustion and hunger”, and expressed fear that he will be killed in custody.

Back in October, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society accused Israeli prison staff of “brutally assaulting” and injuring Barghouti while he was being held in solitary confinement.

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, says Gaza’s health system has been “strangled” by nearly two years of war and blockade, leaving it barely functional. Half of the enclave’s hospitals are out of service, while the remaining facilities face critical shortages of medicines, surgical tools and basic supplies.

The group says the ongoing, near-total siege in place since March has also left medical staff undernourished, with many working long hours despite the lack of resources. Patient numbers have surged to their highest since October 2023, with some emergency rooms forced to turn people away or close early due to overcrowding.

It warns that people with otherwise treatable injuries are dying, and called for an immediate ceasefire and full, unhindered access for humanitarian aid to prevent further avoidable deaths.

Asked whether he would push for foreign journalists to gain access to Gaza to see aid operations, Trump said, “I’d like to see that happen. Sure.”

“I would be very fine with journalists going. And it’s a very dangerous position to be in, as you know, if you’re a journalist, but I would like to see it.”

Israel has not allowed foreign reporters to enter Gaza since the start of its war in October 2023, unless they are under Israeli military escort.

Gaza’s journalists have tirelessly documented Israel’s unrelenting assault for the duration of this conflict, at great personal risk to themselves and their families.

The latest of the nearly 270 journalists and media workers to have been killed in Israeli attacks were four Al Jazeera journalists and two freelancers, slain in a targeted strike on their tent in Gaza City on Sunday.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has decried Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s announcement that he intends to approve tenders to build more than 3,000 homes in the E1 area settlement project that would connect Jerusalem and the existing illegal Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim.

The intergovernmental organisation said Israeli occupation and settlement expansion are illegal under international law, United Nations resolutions, and the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, and must end immediately.

It warned that Israel’s ongoing policies of aggression, settlement building, destruction, displacement and blockade amount to systematic crimes that violate Palestinian rights, undermine the two-state solution and entrench annexation plans.

The OIC urged the international community to take responsibility, hold Israel accountable, and impose sanctions in line with international law and relevant UN resolutions

The United Arab Emirates has condemned statements by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the so-called “Greater Israel vision”, which included Israel taking territory outside of its current borders, calling them a blatant violation of international law and the UN Charter.

In a statement, the UAE Foreign Ministry reiterated its rejection of any threat to the sovereignty of Arab states, and urged members of Israel’s government to stop making provocative statements.

The ministry also called for an end to all illegal settlement and expansion plans, warning they threaten regional stability and undermine prospects for peace.

Hamas has delivered a letter of thanks to Yemen’s Houthis for their “steadfast positions” in support of Gaza, according to a statement from the group.

The letter from Hamas political chief Khalil al-Hayya was handed to Houthi Foreign Minister Jamal Amer. It expressed the group’s pride in Yemen’s leadership and people for their backing of Palestine and Gaza, and for holding firm to the central cause of the nation, the statement by Hamas read.

For his part, Yemen’s foreign minister reaffirmed his country’s united stance with Hamas, calling it a symbol of the nation’s dignity. He stressed Yemen’s continued support for the Palestinian people and their resistance despite Israeli aggression, the statement added.

The Houthis continue to wage a military campaign against Israel, periodically firing missiles and drones at its territory.

Australia is joining a growing list of countries saying they will recognise Palestine as a state – a move Palestinians and their advocates warn is symbolic at best, and dangerous at worst – even as those same countries continue supplying arms to Israel.

“I think it goes to the heart of why so many people aren’t just cynical but furious,” said Antony Loewenstein, author of The Palestine Laboratory.

Those states, he said, are trying “fool the public” by saying, “‘We’re doing something for the Palestinians. We hear you… Well, we’re still going to send weapons parts and weapons to Israel to facilitate the violence that caused the problem in the first place'”.

“Who is buying that?” said Loewenstein.

Watch the full episode of The Take here:

A Lebanese man was injured after an Israeli drone targeted a motorcycle in the southern town of Aitaroun, the National News Agency (NNA) says.

NNA said the drone fired at least two missiles at the motorcycle.

It added that Israeli aircraft were also flying over Nabatieh and other surrounding areas.

Israeli forces have continued to strike various parts of Lebanon despite a ceasefire with Hezbollah in place since November.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) says ongoing bombardment, the collapse of basic services, and severe restrictions on the delivery and distribution of humanitarian aid have created “catastrophic” food security conditions for hundreds of thousands of people across Gaza.

The agency reiterated its call for an immediate ceasefire.

Its warning comes as the Health Ministry in Gaza announced that 40,000 children under age one were suffering from malnutrition, 250,000 children under five face life-threatening food shortages, and 1.2 million children under 18 are living in severe food insecurity.