Updates: Israeli troops fire on starving Palestinians seeking food in Gaza

For more on the chaos that ensued at the Israel-backed aid distribution in Gaza, read this.

Israel is applying many of the tactics used in its war on Gaza to seize and control territory across the occupied West Bank. Find out more here.

Check out this story on Israeli forces raiding money exchanges across the West Bank.

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

We’ll be closing this live page soon. Here’s a recap of the day’s major developments:

• Large crowds gathered in southern Rafah as the US-and-Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) opened its first aid distribution point, with thousands of Palestinians storming past barricades in desperation for food after a three-month blockade.
• Israeli forces opened fire in a bid to disperse the crowd during the chaos, with Gaza’s Government Media Office saying Israel’s military killed three people and wounded 46 others.
• The United Nations and other aid groups have roundly criticised the GHF’s aid distribution model, saying it doesn’t abide by humanitarian principles and could displace people farther from their homes.
• Israeli bombardment across Gaza continued, with at least 26 Palestinians killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
• Yemen’s Houthis claimed responsibility for two missile attacks on Israel, saying they came in response to the storming of occupied East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound a day earlier by Israeli settlers.

A veteran humanitarian aid worker says Israel should provide evidence that Hamas is stealing humanitarian relief – the reason Israel claims the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation must take over crucial food distribution for starving Palestinians.

Hardin Lang from Refugees International questioned the reasoning of the need for a new aid group.

“This is not set up to meet the needs of people. It very much feels like it’s been designed to locate people into the south of Gaza – into an area that’s been designated by the Israelis as ‘a humanitarian zone’, as opposed to trying to meet the needs of a very desperate population,” he said.

“If the entire public narrative of this plan is because there’s been strategic aid diversion by Hamas, it would be very helpful to have some evidence of that,” said Lang.

Hamas denies it is looting aid and Lang said even if it is true, the best way around it is to “flood the zone with humanitarian aid”.

“That lowers prices on the black market and turns aid into a non-commodity from the perspective of controlling the community,” he said.

Lang also noted that with so many wounded and malnourished Palestinians, it’s impossible for most to walk long distances and carry back 20kg (44lb) boxes of aid to their families after waiting in long queues in the hot sun.

The Israeli Security Cabinet has “secretly” approved the construction of 22 new illegal settlements on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth has reported.

According to the newspaper, the cabinet “secretly approved two weeks ago the establishment of 22 settlements in [the occupied West Bank]”.

The report added that the proposal was submitted by Defence Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

The Palestinian presidency said that the approval of the new illegal settlements constitutes “a dangerous escalation that drags the region into a cycle of violence and instability”.

With flies buzzing all around them, a woman and her daughter picked through the pile of rubbish bags for scraps of food at the foot of a destroyed building in Gaza City. They find a small pile of cooked rice, a few scraps of bread and a box with some smears of white cheese still inside.

Islam Abu Taeima picks off soggy bits from a piece of bread and puts the dry part in her sack. She will take what she found back to the school where she and hundreds of other families live, boil it, and serve it to her five children, she says.

“We’re dying of hunger. If we don’t eat, we’ll die.”

Abu Taeima says her family can’t afford anything in the market, where prices have skyrocketed for the little food that remains on sale. She says she has tried going to charity kitchens, but every time, they run out of food before she gets any.

“People are struggling, and no one is going to be generous with you. So collecting from the trash is better.”

The incident is a new sign of the depths of desperation being reached in Gaza, where the population of some 2.3 million has been pushed towards famine by Israel’s nearly three-month blockade.

Israel is applying many of the tactics used in its war on Gaza to seize and control territory across the occupied West Bank, during its Operation Iron Wall campaign, a new report says.

Israel launched the operation in January. Defending what the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) termed “by far the longest and most destructive operation in the occupied West Bank since the second intifada in the 2000s”, the Israeli military claimed that its intention was to preserve its “freedom of action” within the Palestinian territory as it continued to rip up roads and destroy buildings, infrastructure, and water and electricity lines.

The report by the British research group Forensic Architecture suggested that Israel has imposed what researchers call a system of “spatial control”, essentially a series of mechanisms that allow it to deploy military units across Palestinian territory at will.

The report focused on Israeli action in the refugee camps of Jenin and Far’a in the northern West Bank as well as Nur Shams and Tulkarem in the northwestern West Bank. Researchers interviewed and analysed witness statements, satellite imagery and hundreds of videos to demonstrate a systematic plan of coordinated Israeli action intended to impose a network of military control in refugee camps across the West Bank similar to that imposed upon Gaza.

Read more here.

An Israel-US-backed “aid” site in Gaza collapsed in a day as thousands of starving Palestinians tried to get food after nearly three months of Israeli-imposed starvation.

The group running the distribution sites is the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is using United States security contractors to secure the sites.

The United Nations and aid agencies have refused to work with the group, calling the Israeli-American aid plan an attempt to weaponise hunger and use starvation to forcibly displace Palestinians.

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Palestinian children and youths detained in Israel’s Megiddo prison endure brutal conditions, including beatings, starvation and a denial of medical care, the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs has said.

The Palestinian Authority agency detailed ongoing abuses, citing retaliatory measures by prison authorities, intensified crackdowns, poor food quality and a lack of humanitarian provisions.

The commission highlighted the case of Jihad Maher Hajjaj, a 15-year-old boy from al-Mazraa ash-Sharqiya in eastern Ramallah, who suffered severe chest pain and a suspected rib fracture after a prison guard beat him about a month ago.

“The blow was so hard it felt like my bone dislodged, and I’ve received no treatment or clarity on whether the fracture healed,” Hajjaj, detained since February 2024, reportedly told the commission’s lawyer.

Aws Mohammed Taher Dheib, 19, from Silwad, also in eastern Ramallah, lost more than 30kg (66 pounds) because of prison starvation policies since his detention on September 30, 2024. He contracted scabies but received no medical care, the commission said.

Ali Dhiab, 18, from Kafr Aqab in northern Jerusalem, told the commission’s lawyer that food is scarce and insufficient, forcing prisoners to skip meals and combine rations to eat once a day.

“All prisoners have lost dozens of pounds,” Dhiab told the commission.

Ahmed Abu Taha, who was among the thousands of people seeking food in Rafa, said that a crowd stormed into the distribution centre by breaking fences.

He heard gunfire and saw Israeli military aircraft overhead. “It was chaos. People were panicked.”

Another Palestinian, Saleh Abu Najjar, said he heard a tank firing from a distance. “The situation was very dangerous and people were frightened,” he said.

In a statement, Israel’s aid distributor, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, said that because of the large number of Palestinians seeking aid, staff at the hub followed safety protocols and “fell back”.

The foundation uses armed private contractors to guard the sites and the transportation of supplies. Shortly before the aid effort began this week, its chairman, Jake Woods, a US military veteran, resigned, citing a risk to humanitarian principles.

Al Jazeera is reporting from Amman, Jordan, because it has been banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank.

When you look at the statements from the Israeli military and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, they say that everything went according to plan today.

They say they were able to distribute meals, and that the chaos that happened in the southern Gaza city of Rafah was just Palestinians in a large number who came to get food parcels, and that the American food contractors simply backed away. So they essentially downplayed everything that happened.

They say that Palestinians can still go to these four distribution points to pick up more food during certain hours. But they are not really acknowledging the fact that this chaos ensued in the southern part of the Palestinian territory where three out of the four distribution points are. So it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

It’s worth remembering that the UN and other organisations, like the World Central Kitchen, who have been instrumental in providing aid to the Palestinian people throughout this war, have slammed the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

They are refusing to work with it and say it’s unethical, that there are a lot of unanswered questions, and that they are not doing a correct job with distributing this much-needed aid.

Hundreds of active and reserve Israeli army officers have prepared an open letter urging the Israeli government and military leadership to halt the war in Gaza, labelling it a political conflict that “doesn’t serve Israel’s national security and is therefore immoral”, according to a report by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

The letter, which has garnered approximately 1,200 signatures from reservists and active-duty officers across various military units, demands an immediate cessation of hostilities and the safe return of all captives.

“We, former and current reserve [army] officers and commanders, demand the government and chief of staff [Eyal Zamir] stop the political war in Gaza and immediately return all the hostages,” the letter states, as reported by Haaretz.

“Continuing the war goes against the will of an overwhelming majority of the public, will result in the deaths of hostages, [Israeli army] soldiers and innocent civilians, and may even lead to the commission of war crimes.”

Thousands of Palestinians gathered earlier at a controversial aid distribution site in southern Gaza, braving intense heat and bombardment in a desperate bid to secure food and essentials following more than 80 days of a total Israeli aid blockade.

The site, operated under a contested new coordination mechanism, has drawn criticism from aid groups and United Nations officials over safety and fairness concerns.

Here are some photos showing long lines, children waiting, and chaotic scenes as hunger deepens across the besieged enclave. For more, check this photo essay.

The government of the Republic of Ireland has approved the drafting of a bill to ban the import of goods from illegal Israeli settlements – an unprecedented move for a European Union member.

The move comes after the International Court of Justice last year said Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip is illegal under international law in an advisory opinion that the Irish government said guided its decision.

“The government has agreed to advance legislation prohibiting trade in goods with illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory,” Ireland’s Foreign Ministry said. “It is the government’s view that this is an obligation under international law.”

The settlements include residential, agricultural and business interests that lie outside Israel’s internationally recognised borders.

Before the cabinet decision, Foreign Minister Simon Harris told reporters that he hoped other EU countries would follow Ireland’s lead.

“What I hope today is when this small country in Europe makes the decision and becomes one of the first countries, and probably the first country, in the Western world to consider legislation in this space, I do hope it inspires other European countries to join us.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has denounced Israel’s devastating war on Gaza after the official death toll surpassed 54,000 – the majority of victims children, women, and the elderly.

“The Israeli government’s mass murder on an industrial scale must be stopped. The world can no longer sit back and watch the brutal extirpation of a population and the erasure of their legacy,” said Nihad Awad, CAIR’s national executive director, in a statement.

“The Israeli government is not interested in peace. It is time for the United States and the rest of the nations of the world to force them to stop these atrocities.”

It is widely believed that the death toll in Gaza is far higher than the official count. Awad noted the medical journal The Lancet estimated about 186,000 may have died since Israel’s invasion of Gaza in October 2023.

The Israeli military’s agency for the coordination of goods into Gaza, COGAT, has accused the United Nations of failing to fulfil its role and not collecting humanitarian aid from the Gaza side of the Karem Abu Salem crossing, known as Kerem Shalom to the Israelis.

“With the renewed entry of Humanitarian Aid to the Gaza Strip, we have reached out to all humanitarian aid organizations and the international community – and called for them to take part in the distribution of aid to Gazan civilians,” COGAT said in a statement.

“However, in the past few days, the UN has avoided fulfilling its role and instead continues to spread false and incorrect information regarding civilian distress.”

The comments come after the Israeli-backed foundation, tasked with bringing aid into Gaza, had one of its facilities swarmed by Palestinians desperate for food after nearly three months of a total blockade.

We’ve been reporting on the pandemonium that erupted as hungry Palestinians stormed a food distribution centre operated by an Israel-US-backed foundation in southern Gaza.

According to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, normal operations have now resumed following the disturbing incident.

“I was standing in the line at an aid distribution point in Rafah with hundreds of citizens, and suddenly a large number of people started pushing and entering randomly,” said war-displaced Palestinian Ayman Abu Zaid.

“It was because of the lack of aid and the delay in distribution, so they tried to get in to take whatever they could.”

At one point, gunfire rang out, he said. “The sound was very frightening and people began to scatter, but some still kept trying to take the aid despite the danger.”