Israel: "A 24-hour humanitarian truce and the resumption of aid to Gaza"

According to the Palestinian Civil Defense Agency, over 50 people have been killed in recent hours by Israeli shelling and shooting, some while waiting for aid distribution. Six people were killed and more than 160 were injured in two separate incidents in northern Gaza while queuing for food. The IDF claims to have fired only "warning shots" near the trucks, declaring it was unaware of the reported casualties. A severely malnourished five-month-old Palestinian baby died in his mother's arms on Friday, becoming one of the latest symbols of the famine.

Doctors, already overwhelmed by the number of malnourished patients, have once again denounced the lack of resources to treat them. The United Kingdom has announced it will collaborate with Jordan to carry out airlifts, while the United Arab Emirates has declared its immediate resumption of its own. "The humanitarian situation in Gaza has reached a critical and unprecedented level," said Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan .

Many humanitarian organizations consider airdrops an ineffective, expensive, and dangerous solution. Philippe Lazzarini , director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), warned that "airdrops will not reverse the worsening situation and famine. They are expensive, inefficient, and can even kill starving civilians." The organizations also accuse Israel of imposing excessive restrictions on ground distribution, despite the IDF's assertion that there is no limit on the number of trucks allowed to enter. The management of the aid remains a focus of criticism from NGOs, who point their finger at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, established with US and Israeli support to replace some of UNRWA's services.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the families of Israeli hostages that the United States "must change its strategy in Gaza," Axios' Washington correspondent Barak Ravid said, citing sources who attended the meeting.

The Israeli military announced it has airdropped humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, where thousands of Palestinians are threatened by famine. "In line with the directives of the Executive Branch, the IDF recently conducted an airdrop of humanitarian aid, as part of ongoing efforts to enable and facilitate the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip," the Israeli military said in a Telegram post. According to the military, the airdrop included seven packages containing flour, sugar, and canned goods.

The Israeli army will implement a humanitarian ceasefire starting tomorrow morning and lasting until the evening in several population centers in Gaza, including the northern Strip.

The public notice on page X of the Ministry reads: "Tomorrow morning, Israel will apply a “humanitarian truce” in civilian centers and humanitarian corridors to allow the distribution of aid . Israel has continued to facilitate the entry of aid trucks into the Gaza Strip. Unfortunately, so far the UN has failed to collect and distribute the large amount of humanitarian aid stored in designated areas inside the Gaza Strip.

The UN is now expected to collect and distribute the vast amounts of aid, without further delay or excuses.

Israel rejects the false accusations of "hunger" propaganda made by Hamas, which manipulates images of terminally ill children. This is shameful.

Israeli soldiers raided the Freedom Flotilla ship Handala , which was attempting to break the blockade off the Gaza Strip to deliver aid to the starving Palestinian population. Haaretz reports that those on board offered no resistance. Shortly after the military raid, live video from the ship was interrupted: the last image broadcast shows a soldier seizing a camera.

Anti-government demonstration calling for an end to the war and measures to secure the release of Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip. Some people hold signs and photos of Israeli hostages.

Or Levy, a captivity survivor: "Mr. President (Donald Trump), your leadership has already given me my freedom, but time is running out. The situation is becoming more desperate every day, and only you have the power to break this cruel and dangerous stalemate. I urge you: please use every tool, every means of influence, to bring all of them home: my friends, my brothers, every soul still trapped in the darkness. A comprehensive agreement is the only way forward, and you, and only you, can make it happen." Relatives of the Israeli hostages and their supporters gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday for the weekly demonstration, before marching to the U.S. Embassy for the second consecutive week. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that his government is exploring "alternative options" to ceasefire negotiations. A Hamas official, however, said that negotiations should resume next week and described the withdrawal of the Israeli and US delegations as a pressure tactic. Egypt and Qatar, which are mediating the talks together with the United States, called the pause temporary and said the talks would resume. They did not specify when.

Israel announces the resumption of humanitarian aid airdrops into the Gaza Strip. In a statement, the IDF announced that the army will conduct a humanitarian airdrop into Gaza this evening , as part of a " series of actions " aimed at improving the humanitarian situation in the Strip.

The Israeli military announced that it will establish " humanitarian corridors" to allow UN convoys to travel safely to Gaza, and that it will resume airdrops of humanitarian aid into the territory, following an assessment of the situation and in accordance with the political leadership's directives. Haaretz reports.

The resumption of humanitarian aid airdrops , which "will include seven pallets of aid containing flour, sugar and canned food provided by international organizations," was decided "in accordance with the directives of the political leadership and following an assessment of the situation carried out this evening" and is aimed at improving the humanitarian situation in Gaza and "refuting the false claim that the population of the Gaza Strip is being deliberately starved." This is what the IDF said in a statement.

At least 42 Palestinians have lost their lives since Friday evening in the Gaza Strip—the last 10 died today not far from the Zikim crossing with Israel, while waiting to receive food supplies—hit by airstrikes or by fire from IDF soldiers on the ground, according to Palestinian medical and civil defense sources cited by Haaretz. Regarding the Zikim incident, the military claims it fired "warning shots" and is not aware of any deaths or injuries.

Palestinians queuing for aid at centers run by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation , supported by the US and Israel, are being shot at even on a day designated " women only ." It happened on Thursday, according to the BBC, which interviewed a Palestinian woman present. "Tomorrow, during the morning distribution at our headquarters, only women are welcome to receive a box of food," the GHF's Facebook post read. "Men should avoid the area during the distribution." Mary Sheikh al-Eid wanted to feed her seven children after her husband was killed at the start of the war, and she and her sister Khawla set out early in the morning to reach the distribution point in southern Rafah. When they arrived, the scene was already chaos . "There was a huge crowd of women and the situation seemed out of control; they couldn't unload and distribute the aid," Khawla said. "They started pepper-spraying the women," she said, "then they brought stun grenades and started throwing them at us to force us to retreat." The sisters split up in the confusion, but later, when they searched for their sister, Khawla, they learned that she had been shot in the head and had died at the Red Cross field hospital.

"When we talk about hungry staff and colleagues in Gaza , we're talking about people who have been eating only water, salt, and tea in recent days, skipping many meals. They're also witnessing children starving. Our medical advisor has reported several cases of malnourished children ," Anton Asfar, secretary general of Caritas Jerusalem , told Vatican Radio. "We have teams receiving around 300 patients in need of basic healthcare every day. What we need now is for the President of the United States, President Trump, to order a halt to this war and immediately allow aid into Gaza. Aid," he continued, "is only arriving through the GHF's nerve centers , but it's an unregulated way of providing food to the community in four centers. We had around 400 distribution points across Gaza, and they were working well and effectively."

An Israeli navy vessel, the Shayetet 13 , recently left the Israeli port of Haifa with orders to "take control of the Freedom Flotilla's boat Handala and detain the people on board ," a member of the NGO Freedom Flotilla Coalition wrote on Instagram, citing "affiliated websites." Tony La Piccirella, one of the two activists on board, told ANSA by phone that, after passing the point where the previous vessel was seized in June, about seventy nautical miles from Gaza's territorial waters , they saw a drone flying over the Handala. Regarding why this Freedom Flotilla mission, the 37th since the blockade began in 2007, has gone unnoticed by Israeli authorities compared to the previous one, that of the sailing boat Madleen with Greta Thunberg aboard, La Piccirella says: "This mission is not only humanitarian, it has a strong symbolic political value. It therefore makes sense to remain silent. It is understandable and also intelligent from a media point of view for them to keep everything quiet," says the Bari activist on board, who adds that she expects all communication to be interrupted at any moment with the activation of electronic 'jammers' by the Israelis, blocking communications, preceding the interception and seizure of the boat: operations, she added, which "usually take place at night, in the dark, so as not to be seen on cameras."

The United Kingdom, France, and Germany have once again denounced the situation of the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip as "appalling," against the backdrop of Israeli raids and restrictions on essential supplies. They have announced a joint plan for the airlift of aid—reauthorized yesterday by Israel in response to growing international pressure—in partnership with countries such as Jordan. This was stated in a statement released today by Downing Street, following a new three-way phone call between Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, and Friedrich Merz.

The United Kingdom intends to work with partners to organize airdrops of humanitarian aid to Gaza, Keir Starmer's office announced after a telephone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

"The Prime Minister explained that the UK will implement plans to work with partners such as Jordan to deliver aid by air and relocate children in need of care," a Downing Street spokesman said in a statement.

In Gaza, 100,000 children under the age of 2, including 40,000 newborns, are at risk of dying within days due to the "total lack of formula and food supplements, the continued closure of crossings, and the impossibility of even bringing in basic necessities."

This is the alarm raised by the Gaza Strip government, which speaks of an "unprecedented and imminent humanitarian disaster" caused by Israel. Al-Jazeera reports.

"We are witnessing a slow and deliberate mass killing of newborns, whose mothers have been forced to feed them water instead of formula for days, due to the Israeli occupation's policy of starvation and extermination," accuses the Gaza government.

A seven-day-old baby girl died of malnutrition at Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, a medical source told Al Jazeera.

"The cause of death was lack of milk," the source said, denouncing the dramatic shortage of baby food in the Strip.

Hamas has rejected US President Donald Trump's accusation that it never wanted peace. "We are surprised by the statements of US President Trump and, before him, US Special Envoy Witkoff, which contradict the mediators' assessment of the movement's position and are inconsistent with the course of the negotiation process, which was making real progress," said Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas's political bureau. Al-Rishq reiterated the Palestinian group's willingness, "demonstrated since the beginning of negotiations," to reach "a comprehensive agreement to end the aggression in Gaza." The accusations should be directed at the other side, he emphasized. "The US statements overlook the real obstacle to all agreements: the Netanyahu government, which is evading its commitments," he said. In the statement, the Hamas official noted that the latest response to the US-sponsored text for a 60-day ceasefire was "positive and flexible to all comments." He only asks that "its clauses be strengthened," particularly on the humanitarian front, "to ensure a massive flow of aid and its distribution through the United Nations and its authorized agencies, without Israeli interference," he emphasized. "We were interested in reducing the size of the buffer zones where the occupation will remain for the 60 days and in avoiding densely populated areas to ensure the return of most of our people to their homes," he further explained.

"As someone who is very much in favor of a Palestinian state, I am not in favor of recognizing it prior to a process leading to its creation," Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni stated in a statement published by "la Repubblica."

"I have said it several times, including in Parliament," just as "I have said it to the Palestinian Authority itself, and I have also said it to Macron: I believe that recognizing the State of Palestine, without there being a State of Palestine, could actually be counterproductive to the objective. If something that doesn't exist is recognized on paper, the problem risks appearing solved when it isn't." Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni stated this in a statement to "Repubblica."

Nearly one in three people in the Gaza Strip goes days without food, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned, adding that "malnutrition is on the rise, with 90,000 women and children in urgent need of treatment." Despite the efforts made so far, the agency's website states, the amount of food aid delivered "still represents a fraction of what a population of over two million people needs to survive." The WFP emphasizes that "access to essential fresh and nutritious products such as fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, and dairy products requires the restoration of commercial shipments to Gaza." As of yesterday, the statement continues, approximately 3,500 tons of aid (equivalent to 300 truckloads) were ready to be removed from storage areas and brought to Gaza for distribution. The agency also states that only two border crossings have been approved for use by its trucks and emphasizes that "more reliable and safe routes for convoys inside Gaza are needed," as well as more drivers than the mere 60 approved to date by authorities to transport vital food assistance into the Strip.

The Israeli military destroyed tens of thousands of humanitarian aid items, including a large quantity of food intended for residents of the Gaza Strip. Due to the Israeli blockade, the aid had been left on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing for several weeks and had deteriorated, Kan News reports.

The destroyed material, estimated at over a thousand trucks, included food, medical equipment, and bottled water. "We buried everything in the ground and burned some of the material," an army source reported. "Even today, there are thousands of packages waiting in the sun, and if they aren't transferred to the Strip, we'll be forced to destroy those too."

With France's move, the number of UN member states officially recognizing Palestine will rise to 148 out of 193. Which countries are there and how many? To learn more, read here.

France's decision to recognize a Palestinian state will have no impact on the Middle East conflict, says US President Donald Trump. He says French President Macron "is a good guy, but what he says doesn't matter."

A "humanitarian catastrophe" is unfolding in the Gaza Strip that "must end immediately," the United Kingdom, France, and Germany said at the conclusion of a call between leaders Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, and Friedrich Merz. The appeal appears to be an indirect response to the Israeli government's claims that there is no famine in Gaza, despite denunciations by the UN and hundreds of international organizations.

Israel says it will allow foreign countries to airdrop food into Gaza, but insists that "there is no famine," Haaretz reports. The Israeli coordinator of government activities in the territories believes that the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip "continues to be difficult and challenging," but "there is no widespread famine."

"Italy supports the two-people, two-state solution, but recognition of the new Palestinian state must occur simultaneously with Italy's recognition of the State of Israel. We are interested in peace, not the victory of one over the other, and we are the country in the world that has welcomed the largest number of refugees from Gaza," said Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, opening the National Council of Forza Italia. "We can no longer accept carnage and famine," he said. "The time has come for an immediate ceasefire. We are friends of Israel, but we have told Israel that."