Updates: 63 killed in Gaza as Israel’s ‘tactical pause’ comes to and end

If you’d like to read more about Israel’s new “tactical pauses” and whether they will have a real impact on mass starvation in Gaza, you can read our story here.

You can also find a photo compilation of Gaza’s worsening starvation crisis under the Israeli siege here.

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

We will be closing the live page soon. Here’s a quick overview of what’s been happening in the last few hours:

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had been “forced” to allow some aid into Gaza amid growing international pressure over the spread of starvation in the Strip due to Israel’s near-total blockade on assistance. Humanitarian groups welcomed steps to ease restrictions but said aid entering Gaza remains a tiny portion of what is needed.
• At least 63 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza, including 34 who were killed while waiting for aid.
• Israel continues to detain 11 of the 21 foreign activists on board the Freedom Flotilla’s Handala ship, seizing it yesterday as the vessel attempted to break the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) warned that nearly one in five children under the age of five in Gaza City is now suffering from acute malnutrition, a figure that has tripled since June.

A spokesperson for Keir Starmer says that the British leader will speak with US counterpart Donald Trump about the need to end the “unspeakable suffering” in Gaza when they meet on Monday.

“He will discuss further with him what more can be done to secure the ceasefire urgently, bring an end to the unspeakable suffering and starvation in Gaza and free the hostages who have been held so cruelly for so long,” a spokesperson for Downing Street said.

The UK government has continued to send arms to Israel despite calls by activists to cut off weapons supplies amid widespread Israeli abuses in Gaza.

The Yemeni group says it will target any ships belonging to companies that do business with Israeli ports, regardless of their nationalities, as part of what they call the fourth phase of their military operations against Israel.

The Houthis have been carrying out attacks on commercial and military ships, as well as on Israel itself, which they say are in sympathy with Palestinians enduring Israel’s assault in Gaza.

In a televised statement, the group’s military spokesperson warned that ships would be attacked if companies ignored their warnings, regardless of their destination.

In a video statement posted on X, the Israeli prime minister has said that Israel will achieve its goal of “destroying Hamas”.

“In order to achieve the goal of defeating Hamas and returning our kidnapped soldiers, we are advancing the fighting and conducting negotiations,” he said.

“Whatever path we choose, we will be forced to allow the entry of essential humanitarian aid.”

The statement comes as Israel eases restrictions on the entry of food into the enclave in the face of global outcry over its forced starvation policy, under which dozens of people have already died of hunger.

Tom Fletcher, the UN’s undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, has said that children in Gaza are “wasting away” amid widespread starvation.

“As the world is witnessing, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is devastating. One in three people in Gaza hasn’t eaten for days. People are being shot just trying to get food to feed their families. Children are wasting away. This is what we face on the ground right now,” Fletcher said.

“Some movement restrictions appear to have been eased today, with initial reports indicating that over 100 truckloads were collected,” he added.

“This is progress, but vast amounts of aid are needed to stave off famine and a catastrophic health crisis. Across the UN agencies and humanitarian community, we are mobilized to save as many lives as we can.”

Musicians across Europe are boycotting festivals owned by private equity firm KKR due to its investments in Israel’s defence industry and illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The protest has spread from major events in Spain and the United Kingdom to the Netherlands, where popular bands and DJs are now pulling out of performances.

Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen reports from IJzendijke, the Netherlands:

A group of 20 US senators have penned a letter to State Secretary Marco Rubio expressing “grave concern” over US support for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in the Strip, where Israeli forces and contractors have been systematically attacking Palestinians waiting for aid.

“Blurring the lines between delivery of aid and security operations shatters well-established norms that have governed distribution of humanitarian aid since the ratification of the Geneva Conventions in 1949,” the letter states.

“We urge you to immediately cease all US funding for GHF and resume support for existing UN-led aid coordination mechanisms and enhanced oversight to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches civilians in need.”

In a statement, Gaza’s Government Media Office says that only 73 aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip today, far short of the 600 trucks that major international humanitarian organisations say are needed, at minimum, to stem the mass starvation already taking place.

The media office also said that the meagre aid airdropped by Israel into Gaza landed in dangerous combat zones, and was watched over by Israeli forces.

“We witnessed three airdrops, which combined did not equal the load of two truckloads of aid,” the statement says.

“What is happening is a farce in which the international community is complicit through false promises or misleading information.”

Israeli forces have killed 63 people in Gaza since Sunday morning, according to sources from hospitals in Gaza.

Israeli artillery and air strikes have been reported in the areas of Tuffah and the Shujayea neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has said that it is ready to distribute aid throughout Gaza, where starvation deaths continue to rise.

“Our teams are ready: UNRWA has over 10,000 staff in Gaza. When aid gets in, they will give it directly and with dignity and safety to the communities we serve. We have the reach, network, know-how and the trust of those communities,” UNRWA said in a social media post.

“Meanwhile, we call once again for a long-term ceasefire as part of an agreement that would bring respite to starving people, an uninterrupted flow of basic supplies as well as the release of all hostages.”

The Israeli Broadcasting Authority reports that the crew members of the Handala have been interrogated by Israeli authorities and will be transferred to the police. Israeli forces detained the crew members around midnight last night.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry previously stated that efforts to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip — which has caused widespread starvation in Gaza — are dangerous, illegal, and undermine humanitarian relief efforts.

Human rights defender Huwaida Arraf said she was released by Israeli authorities after refusing to sign a pledge not to return again, and called for continued focus on lifting the siege on Gaza.

Israeli authorities continue to detain 11 other activists who were aboard the ship, who have reportedly gone on a hunger strike.

Jagan Chapagain, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, says on X that the Egyptian Red Crescent is dispatching a convoy of more than 100 trucks loaded with nearly 1,300 tonnes of food.

The convoy is headed towards the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) border crossing between Gaza and Israel, he said.

“I am hopeful that these pauses will provide a safe window for humanitarian workers to deliver much-needed assistance to all in need and bring some respite to the human suffering”, he continued, adding that a “more sustained” solution to Gaza’s humanitarian crisis must be found.

The announcement of a series of ‘humanitarian pauses’, in some specific areas of Gaza, to facilitate the delivery of aid is a step in the right direction.

The @PalestineRCS continues to be on the ground doing its best to deliver services in extremely difficult conditions.

The…

— Jagan Chapagain (@jagan_chapagain) July 27, 2025

Tzvika Fogel, the chairman of the Israeli parliament’s National Security Committee, tells a local radio station that Palestinians in Gaza “should not be given anything”, as Israel began today to deliver marginally more aid to the starving population.

“The only humanitarian thing I would give them is voluntary migration”, he continued. “The moment we do that, we get closer to victory.”

Reports indicate that Israel is making contacts with nations around the world, trying to find one that will accept a mass population transfer from Gaza.

Let’s get you up to speed:

• Israeli attacks across Gaza have killed at least 62 Palestinians since dawn, including 34 who were killed while waiting for aid, despite Israel’s declaration of a “tactical pause” to allow limited humanitarian assistance into the Gaza Strip.
• Amid growing international scrutiny over the spread of starvation in Gaza — a direct result of Israel’s months-long blockade on food aid entering the Strip — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel will continue to fight until it has destroyed Hamas, a goal critics have said is vague enough to allow for a near-indefinite Israeli campaign in Gaza.
• Aid groups continue to push for more significant steps to allow assistance into Gaza, with World Food Programme director Cindy McCain saying that it is “the time for action” and Oxfam International warning that a “trickle of trucks” will not undo months of “engineered starvation”. UK Foreign Minister David Lammy said aid access must be “urgently accelerated” in Gaza.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) warned that nearly one in five children under the age of five in Gaza City is now suffering from acute malnutrition, a figure that has tripled since June, and called for “urgent, sustained efforts” to bring an influx of aid into the Strip.

The leader of Hamas in Gaza, Khalil al-Hayya, has said that Israel’s decision to withdraw from recent ceasefire talks was aimed at “wasting time” while the genocide in Gaza continues.

“We achieved clear progress in the last round of negotiations and largely agreed with what the mediators offered us, especially on the issue of withdrawal, prisoners and the entry of aid,” said al-Hayya, adding that the group had offered “every possible flexibility”.

“The occupation’s withdrawal from the last round of negotiations and the US envoy’s acquiescence are a blatant move aimed at wasting time and committing further genocide against our people,” he said.

Last week, Israel announced it was recalling its negotiators from Doha or “further consultations”, after Hamas issued what it said was a positive response to the latest proposal presented to it.

The Israeli news outlet Ynet has reported that the head of the French embassy was reprimanded by Israeli Foreign Ministry Director General Eden Bar Tal, after French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France will recognise a Palestinian state in the coming months.

“The Director General said in the meeting that France chose to harm Israel at its most difficult time,” the Foreign Ministry said.

“In doing so, France directly harmed the negotiations for the return of the kidnapped and a ceasefire, as well as any political negotiations that will take place in the future.”

Several groups of professors in the United States are suing the Trump administration over its policy of arresting, detaining, cancelling the visas of, and deporting students who participate in pro-Palestinian advocacy.

The crackdown on free speech is creating a chilling effect across US academia, argues Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, which is one of the organisations that brought the lawsuit.

Jaffer tells host Steve Clemons that the issue is much wider than the rights of non-citizens in the country.

The government’s actions have the effect of “stifling a political viewpoint that the government doesn’t like”.

Al Jazeera’s The Bottom Line speaks to Jaffer on the Trump administration’s stance on free speech.

Watch the discussion below:

The aid group Oxfam International has said that small Israeli concessions on humanitarian assistance will not be enough to reverse the damage of months of near-total restrictions.

“Deadly airdrops and a trickle of trucks won’t undo months of engineered starvation in Gaza,” Bushra Khalidi, an Oxfam official for Israel-Palestine, said in a statement.

“What’s needed is the immediate opening of all crossings for full, unhindered, and safe aid delivery across all of Gaza and a permanent ceasefire. Anything less risks being little more than a tactical gesture.”