LIVE: Israel kills 92 in Gaza in one day as death toll nears 60,000
An Israeli settler has shot dead Palestinian activist and teacher Odeh Muhammad Hadalin in Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank.
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Al Jazeera
3 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
The airdrops on Gaza are a PR stunt, not a humanitarian operation
Last week, I saw aid dropping from the sky near my central Gaza neighbourhood of az-Zawayda. Neither I nor any of my neighbours had the courage to chase after it because we knew that the moment it hit the ground, a battle would erupt. If the aid survived the air, it wouldn't survive the looters. It is almost always the same scene. Gunfire breaks out the second the plane drops the boxes. Armed gangs are already waiting on the ground, ready to take the goods by force. Whoever gets there first, whoever shoots first, also walks away with the food. It is never those who need it the most. Later, we would see those same 'aid boxes' in the market in Deir el-Balah, their contents up for sale at exorbitant prices. Recently, my little brother was craving a biscuit. I saw biscuits from an aid package at the market and asked for the price. It was 20 shekels ($5) for a biscuit, something we could not afford. The aid dropped from the sky not only fails to feed the hungry, but it also kills them. On Monday, an airdropped pallet hit a tent for the displaced and killed Uday al-Quraan, a medic working at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. A week ago, 11 people were injured when another airdropped pallet hit tents in northern Gaza. Last year, in other failed airdrops, people also died. Five were killed in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City when the parachute of a pallet did not open; 12 drowned trying to reach boxes that dropped into the sea; six were killed in a stampede after a crowd of people rushed to an airdrop location. The idea for these latest airdrops came from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called on the world to help with the process. Many governments welcomed the idea and some joined the effort, including Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and European countries. But Netanyahu knows very well that the airdrops will not stop the starvation of Palestinians, which is why he called for them instead of opening the land crossings into Gaza and allowing United Nations agencies to distribute aid in a fair and orderly fashion, just like they have always done. While, the global public may be deceived that something is being done about the hunger, inside Gaza, these airdrops aren't seen as a real solution or a humanitarian gesture. We see them as nothing more than a PR show – a way to cover up a crime that hasn't stopped: starving an entire population under tight siege by preventing thousands of trucks from entering while a few boxes fall from the sky for the cameras. It's all part of a strategy to extend the starvation and ease international pressure on Israel. And so the famine proceeds at full speed. According to Gaza's Ministry of Health, more than 180 people have died from hunger, including 92 children. It is not just in Gaza that airdrops are seen as inefficient and dangerous. In Afghanistan in 2001, airdropped aid was packaged in the same way as cluster bombs. The latter would get mistaken for food boxes by children who would get killed running after them. In Syria, aid airdropped into a besieged area did not reach the starving civilians because it was either damaged or fell into ISIL (ISIS)-held territory. It is well known that airdrops do not work and when other options are available, there is no reason to use them. The UN has repeatedly said this method is ineffective and ground delivery is safer and far better. A truck can carry four to 10 times more aid than a parachute. It is also much cheaper. Thousands of trucks are waiting on the Egyptian side of the border, enough to feed people and prevent more deaths from starvation. And yet, we see this futile spectacle once again in Gaza. Here we know not to look to the sky with hope. The same sky that drops bombs can't be trusted to drop food. This 'humanity with parachutes' is a fig leaf deployed to try to cover the world's shame and its decision to silently watch starvation. Gaza is not only under siege by bombs but also by lies, by complicity, by soft language covering bloody massacres. Everyone who stays silent, who justifies, who treats the killer and victim as equal is a partner in this crime. And we, the Palestinians, are not just victims – we are witnesses. We see the world refuse to act, we see countries continue to arm Israel, to trade with it, to give it diplomatic cover. We see governments think of pitiful excuses not to impose embargoes – as they are obliged to do under international law – on a nation committing genocide. And tomorrow, when history is written, it won't be in the language of diplomacy with euphemisms and excuses. It will be in the language of facts with the names of those complicit in the mass killing and starvation of Palestinians written in clear letters. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
Al Jazeera
6 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Israeli settler seen shooting OWB activist freed from house arrest
NewsFeed Israeli settler seen shooting OWB activist freed from house arrest Israeli settler Yinon Levi, who shot and killed Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen in the occupied West Bank, was released just days after the attack. Meanwhile, Israel continues to hold Awdah's body, prompting 60 women from his village to go on hunger strike.
Al Jazeera
6 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
‘A graveyard': Average 28 children being killed daily in Gaza
Approximately 28 children are being killed daily in Gaza due to the ongoing Israeli bombardment and its restrictions on the delivery of direly needed humanitarian assistance, according to the United Nations. 'Death by bombardments. Death by malnutrition and starvation. Death by lack of aid and vital services,' the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said in a post on X on Tuesday. 'In Gaza, an average of 28 children a day – the size of a classroom – have been killed.' The agency stressed that children in Gaza are in urgent need of food, clean water, medicine and protection, adding: 'More than anything, they need a ceasefire, NOW.' Death by by malnutrition and by lack of aid and vital Gaza, an average of 28 children a day – the size of a classroom – have been killed. Gaza's children need food, water, medicine and protection. More than anything, they need a… — UNICEF (@UNICEF) August 4, 2025 Israel has killed more than 18,000 children – one child every hour – since the start of its genocidal war on Gaza. At least 60,933 Palestinians have been killed and 150,027 others wounded since October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked southern Israel. In the last 24 hours, at least eight Palestinians, including one child, have starved to death in Gaza. A total of 188 people, including 94 starving children, have died as Israel continues to block aid and kill aid seekers. 'For those who survive, childhood has been replaced by a daily struggle for the basics of life,' said Al Jazeera's Aksel Zaimovic. Kadim Khufu Basim, a displaced Palestinian child, said he is forced to support a family of six people because his father is injured and receiving treatment in Egypt. 'I love playing football. But now I sell cookies. My childhood is gone. Since the war began, we have no childhood left,' Basim told Al Jazeera. Under international law, children like Basim are supposed to be spared the effects of war. 'But in Gaza, these children have suffered the most under Israel's military campaign. Schools deliberately targeted, water facilities destroyed, food supplies systematically blocked. And the fundamental rights of childhood … education, play, proper nutrition … have been weaponised against an entire generation,' said Zaimovic. 'A graveyard for children' Israel's war on Gaza is also leaving its psychological scars on children. The hair and skin of Lana, a 10-year-old displaced child, turned white almost overnight after a bombing near her shelter triggered what doctors call trauma-induced depigmentation. Lana has become withdrawn, often only talking to her doll, as other children bully her for her appearance. 'She talks to her doll and says, 'Do you want to play with me, or will you be like the other kids?' Her mental health is severely damaged,' Mai Jalal al-Sharif, Lana's mother, told Al Jazeera. 'Gaza is a graveyard for children today and for their dreams,' Ahmad Alhendawi, regional director of the NGO Save the Children, told Al Jazeera. 'This is an inescapable living nightmare for every child in Gaza … This is a generation that is growing up thinking that the world has abandoned them, that the world has turned its back on them.' Israel has closed Gaza's crossings since March 2, only allowing 86 trucks of aid into the besieged enclave daily, a figure equal to just 14 percent of the minimum 600 trucks needed each day to meet the basic needs of the population, according to data from Gaza's Government Media Office. The lack of aid has led to an unprecedented famine in Gaza. At least eight Palestinians, including a child, have died due to Israeli-induced starvation over the past 24-hour reporting period, Gaza's Ministry of Health said on Tuesday. This brings the total number of victims of famine and malnutrition in the Gaza Strip since Israel's war began to 188, including 94 children. UN experts and more than 150 humanitarian organisations have called for a permanent ceasefire, to allow for aid deliveries and the psychological recovery of what they've dubbed a 'lost generation'.
