The UN: "In Gaza, hunger kills like bombs." Hamas responds to the truce proposal.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office confirmed that the delegation in Doha received Hamas's response from the mediators. "The mediators have handed Hamas's response to the Israeli negotiating team and are currently reviewing it," the statement, which was reported by Israeli newspapers, read.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will conduct a drill in the maritime areas of Nahariya, Acre, and Rosh Hanikra this morning. The IDF spokesperson announced the move, specifying that "during the exercise, there will be an increase in the movement of vessels and security forces, and no security incidents are expected."

Flights at Ben Gurion Airport have been temporarily suspended due to fears of a missile launch from Yemen, according to the Israeli website Ynet News , which specifies that the measure affects both takeoffs and landings. Among other things, two flights to Israel from the Greek island of Crete were delayed.

In Israel, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) says 70 trucks of humanitarian aid, mostly containing food, were transferred to the Gaza Strip yesterday.

Some trucks were transferred to southern Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing and others to the northern Strip through the Zikim crossing. The aid was delivered after thorough security inspections, according to COGAT, which told The Times of Israel that, contrary to criticism from the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations, there has been no interruption in the distribution of aid to the Strip in recent days, which has continued, albeit in limited quantities.

Humanitarian organizations have expressed growing concern in recent days about food shortages in Gaza, complaining about the inability to collect aid trucks at the border. COGAT says it has already coordinated the collection of over 150 trucks on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings, but that over 800 trucks are still waiting to be collected at the crossings.

An Israeli official told the Times of Israel that Hamas's statement announcing that it had provided mediators with its response to the ceasefire proposal in Gaza refers to an updated response.

Hamas had submitted an earlier response on Tuesday, which was quickly rejected by Arab mediators, who refused to share it with the United States and Israel and called on the terror group to present something more reasonable.

Hamas accepted the request, and the Israeli official confirmed that the latest response does not include some of the demands contained in the proposal presented by the terrorist group on Tuesday.

Hamas confirmed that it has presented negotiators with its response to Israel's proposal for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza.

Hamas's response includes proposed amendments to the humanitarian aid entry clauses, maps of the areas from which the Israeli army should withdraw, and guarantees of a permanent end to the war, a Palestinian source familiar with the ongoing talks in Doha told AFP.

Negotiators are trying to reach an agreement on a truce that would allow the release of ten Israeli hostages in exchange for an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners. But talks have dragged on for weeks, with each side criticizing the other for refusing to budge. For Israel, the dismantling of Hamas's military and governance capabilities is non-negotiable, while the Palestinian movement demands solid guarantees for a lasting truce, the withdrawal of Israeli troops, and the unimpeded flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said that "severe food shortages, a destroyed health system and immense psychological stress are leading to catastrophic outcomes for pregnant women and newborns" in the Gaza Strip.

"From January to June this year," a UN spokesperson said, "births dropped dramatically and 220 mothers died, more than twenty times the total number of maternal deaths recorded in 2022." "At least twenty newborns," he added, "died within twenty-four hours of birth, and a third of babies were born prematurely, with low birth weight, or required admission to neonatal intensive care units, where such facilities were available."

The meeting between White House envoy Steve Witkoff, Israeli Foreign Minister Ron Dermer, and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani to try to expedite an agreement between Israel and Hamas on the Gaza truce and hostage situation will take place today in Sardinia, Axios journalist Barak Ravid writes in X.

The American website had previously reported that the talks would take place in Rome. The White House has so far confirmed Witkoff's trip "to Europe."

From Gaza, "parents tell us their children cry themselves to sleep because they're hungry." This is the dramatic testimony of World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a passage from his remarks at the periodic press briefing.

"The 2.1 million people trapped in the war zone" of the Strip, he explained, "are facing another deadly threat, in addition to bombs and bullets: hunger." A hunger that kills: "We are witnessing a deadly surge in malnutrition-related deaths. Since July 17, severe acute malnutrition centers have been full, without sufficient supplies for emergency feeding. In 2025, WHO documented 21 malnutrition-related deaths among children under 5. Global acute malnutrition rates exceed 10%, and over 20% of screened pregnant and breastfeeding women are malnourished, often severely."

"The food crisis," the WHO head continued, "is being accelerated by the collapse of aid distribution facilities and restrictions on access. 95% of Gazan families are facing severe water shortages, with daily access well below the minimum necessary for drinking, cooking, and hygiene. The United Nations and humanitarian partners were unable to deliver food to the Gaza Strip for nearly 80 consecutive days, from early March to mid-May 2025, due to the total blockade of humanitarian and commercial access. Food deliveries have resumed intermittently since then, but remain far below what is needed for the population's survival."

"Food distribution sites have become sites of violence," Tedros added: "From May 27 to July 21, health authorities report that 1,026 people were killed in Gaza while trying to obtain food from these sites," he remarked, recalling that "almost 90 percent of Gaza is now under evacuation orders or within Israeli-militarized zones."

The Israeli Parliament (Knesset) approved a non-binding motion to extend sovereignty to the West Bank and the Jordan Valley by 71 votes to 13. "The Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel," Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana declared after the vote, adding that "Jews cannot be the occupiers" of their ancestral homeland.

231 media workers have been killed since the conflict began in the Gaza Strip, following the killing of two more journalists in the past two days, the Gaza Ministry of Health reported.

Tamer al-Zaanin, a photojournalist who worked for several media outlets, was killed on July 21 by gunfire fired by an Israeli special forces unit who kidnapped Dr. Marwan Al-Hams, head of Gaza's field hospitals, while he was visiting the Red Cross hospital in the southern Strip. Another journalist, Ibrahim Abu Sh'aiba, was injured in the attack. Walaa al-Jabari, an editor who worked for several media outlets, was killed in an Israeli attack on her apartment in Gaza City. The pregnant woman died along with her husband and five children.

Israeli attacks on Gaza in the last 24 hours have killed 113 Palestinians and injured 534, according to the Hamas-led Ministry of Health, which noted that 34 were awaiting humanitarian aid. Since the beginning of the war, following the October 7 attack, the total death toll in the Strip has risen to 59,219.

US President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, will meet today in Rome with Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and a senior Qatari envoy. The meeting is part of US efforts to promote a ceasefire agreement and the release of hostages in the Gaza Strip.

Over a hundred humanitarian organizations issued an alarm on Wednesday, warning of a rapidly spreading "mass famine" in the Gaza Strip, already severely affected by the conflict. "As mass famine spreads across the Gaza Strip, our colleagues and the people we serve are disappearing," the NGOs said in a joint statement. Signatories include Doctors Without Borders, several branches of Doctors of the World, Caritas, Amnesty International, and Oxfam International.

Humanitarian organizations are calling for an immediate ceasefire, the opening of all land crossings, and the guarantee of the unimpeded flow of humanitarian aid. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has accused the Israeli army of killing more than 1,000 people in Gaza since the end of May while they were trying to access humanitarian aid. Most of the victims were near centers run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an organization supported by the United States and Israel through funding whose transparency is questionable.

Israeli authorities regularly claim to be allowing the entry of large amounts of aid, but NGOs report the persistence of numerous restrictions. "Just outside Gaza, in warehouses—and even inside—tons of food, drinking water, medical supplies, shelter materials, and fuel remain unused, with aid organizations unable to access or deliver them," humanitarian organizations complain. A Gaza hospital reported on Tuesday that 21 children had died from malnutrition or starvation in a 72-hour period.

"We refuse to see them die." With these words, Agence France-Presse (AFP) is launching an urgent appeal for its journalists in the Gaza Strip, who are now exposed to the real risk of starvation. This is an unprecedented situation in the history of the agency, founded in 1944: in past conflicts, reporters have been killed, wounded, or imprisoned, but never before has there been a need to fear death from starvation.

In Gaza, AFP currently operates with a small team of local collaborators: one freelance journalist, three photographers, and six videographers. They provide one of the few remaining voices within the Strip, from which foreign media have been barred for months. The agency's permanent staff left the area in early 2024, and since then, coverage has relied entirely on the work of freelancers, who live in the same extreme conditions as civilians.

Among them is Bashar, a 30-year-old photographer. In a Facebook post, he wrote: "I can no longer work in the media. My body is too thin and I can no longer walk." Bashar lives constantly on the run in refugee camps, suffers from intestinal problems related to unhygienic conditions, and has been in a state of severe deprivation for over a year. On Sunday, July 20, he reported that his older brother had died of starvation.

According to the news agency, a growing number of journalists are no longer able to work due to malnutrition. Local health authorities are now openly speaking of a famine caused by Israel. The director of the Al-Mawasi field hospital, Dr. Suhaib Al-Hams, has warned of an "imminent wave of deaths" linked to organ failure among the displaced. Cases of exhaustion, memory loss, and extreme debilitation are increasing: typical symptoms of prolonged hunger. In addition to bombs—the Israeli army has killed more than 300 journalists in Gaza since October 7, 2023—hunger is now killing those who witness the genocide live.

Thirty-three people have died from malnutrition in the Gaza Strip in the past 48 hours, including 12 children. Fifteen deaths were reported yesterday alone, a figure described as "unprecedented." The estimate was released by Gaza's Ministry of Health, which blames Israel's decision to seal Gaza's borders starting March 2, leaving over 2 million residents without food, drinking water, electricity, and adequate medical care.

The UN estimates that 69 children have died of starvation since October 7, 2023, about fifty of them since March. Currently, only food parcels distributed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) are entering Gaza. This distribution, in place of UN agencies, takes place at four points throughout the Strip. According to the United Nations, over a thousand people have been killed near these distribution points since May 27.

In an interview with CNN, Cindy McCain, executive director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), confirmed that yesterday "we witnessed one of the worst tragedies we've ever seen." She continued: "As thousands of starving people were reaching WFP convoys, the Israeli army began opening fire on the crowd." According to McCain, "WFP staff were also put in grave danger. Now humanitarian operations have been suspended," clarifying that the UN agency "does not work with the WFP. The United Nations has its own methods, we know nothing about them." The United Nations, supported by dozens of NGOs operating in Gaza, accuses Israel of "privatizing and militarizing" humanitarian aid and denounces "a deliberately created humanitarian crisis."

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the "horror" in the Gaza Strip , where death and destruction have reached a level "unprecedented in recent history. Just look at the horror unfolding in Gaza, with a level of death and destruction unprecedented in recent history. Malnutrition is exploding. Famine is knocking on every door," he declared during a Security Council meeting.

Gaza's population of over 2 million is facing severe shortages of food and other essential goods, with the Civil Protection Agency and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) reporting a spike in malnutrition cases in recent days. In a post on X, UNRWA said that food shortages in the Palestinian territory have caused food prices to increase 40-fold, while aid stored in its warehouses outside Gaza could feed "the entire population for over three months." "The suffering in Gaza is man-made and must be stopped," it wrote. "Lift the siege and ensure the safe and large-scale delivery of aid," UNRWA added. On Sunday, the Civil Defense Agency reported at least three infant deaths from "severe hunger and malnutrition" over the past week. The Health Ministry said 18 people died of starvation in the 24 hours between Saturday and Sunday. "Infants under one year of age suffer from milk shortages, which lead to significant weight loss and a reduction in their immune defenses, making them vulnerable to disease," said Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of Gaza's al-Shifa hospital. Israel said today that "there is no ban or restriction on the entry of powdered milk or baby food into Gaza."

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) estimates that " 1,000 starving people have been killed in Gaza while seeking food aid " since the end of May. The Strip is a "hell on earth," with doctors fainting from hunger and exhaustion , UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini warned, cited by international media.