Saturday, 31 May 2025

UN: It is safe to say that famine has arrived – War on Gaza Day 602

contact@ifamericansknew.org May 31, 2025 carbon footprint, famine in gaza, forced transfer, genocide, humanitarian aid in gaza, palestinian state

Palestinians flock to the aid distribution point in the Netzarim Corridor in the central Gaza Strip on May 29, 2025. (Moiz Salhi – Anadolu Agency)

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

In the last 24 hours, the bodies of 72 slain Palestinians and 278 casualties were admitted to hospitals in the Strip. These numbers exclude the fatalities and casualties in the northern Strip due to inaccessibility.

More than 50,000 Palestinian children have been killed or wounded since the war on Gaza began in October 2023, according to the United Nations children’s agency, which warned that the scale of suffering is worsening by the day.

UNICEF said children are paying the highest price in Israel’s assault, with one child killed or injured every 20 minutes on average.

“Grave violations. Blocked aid. Starvation. Homes, schools, hospitals – destroyed. This is the destruction of childhood. Of life itself. These are children. Not numbers. No child should live through this. Not one more,” said UNICEF.

For more detail on fatal Israeli attacks in Gaza on Thursday, read:

Friday Update: Dozens Killed in Ongoing Israeli Bombings in Gaza

UN special rapporteur says there is famine in Gaza: Report

Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, told Al Jazeera that it was “safe to say” there is famine in Gaza, noting that it’s impossible to reach a formal conclusion because Israel has totally besieged the enclave, with experts unable to access the population.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) sounded the alarm on Friday over the continued obstruction of humanitarian aid to Gaza as essential supplies remain stockpiled in nearby Jordan.

“In the UNRWA warehouse in (Jordanian capital) Amman, just a three-hour drive from Gaza, we have enough supplies to sustain over 200,000 people for an entire month,” the agency said.

“Flour, food parcels, hygiene kits, blankets, and medical supplies are ready to be delivered. Gaza needs aid at scale,” said UNRWA, stressing that “an unhindered, uninterrupted flow of supplies must be allowed in.”

Palestinian scholar and theorist Abdaljawad Omar stated,

It is one thing to have a famine, which at least means equality in hunger.
It’s quite another to trickle in just enough resources to create an internal struggle that results in the cannibalization of social relations, hitting harder than any massacre.

RELATED: The ‘chaos’ of aid distribution in Gaza is not a system failure. The system is designed to fail.

Children wait for hot meals from charitable organizations in Gaza City, Gaza, on May 27, 2025. (Saeed Jaras – Anadolu Agency)

Doctors Without Borders says US-Israeli effort for Gaza aid feigns compliance with international law

Doctors Without Borders has slammed the US-Israeli Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as “a cynical ploy to feign compliance with international humanitarian law” by giving some aid to starving Palestinians.

“Through this dangerous and reckless approach, food is not being distributed where it’s needed most but is instead directed only to areas where Israeli forces choose to amass civilians,” Doctors Without Borders secretary general Christopher Lockyear said in a statement.

“This means the most vulnerable – especially the elderly and people with disabilities – have virtually no chance of accessing the food they desperately need,” he added.

CEASEFIRE NEWS: For a point-by-point breakdown of how the U.S. and Israel changed the ceasefire deal Hamas said it made with Trump’s envoys, read:

How Israel and Witkoff Are Trying to Strong-Arm Hamas Into a Deal That Does Not End the Genocide

Israel forcibly displaces 250,000 Palestinians from northern Gaza’s Jabaliya: Report

The Israeli army has forcibly displaced more than 250,000 Palestinians from the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip to so-called “humanitarian zones,” according to a report Friday by the Hebrew news site, Walla.

While Walla did not specify the “humanitarian zone” locations, Israel previously designated coastal areas between Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah as those places, despite carrying out deadly strikes there that killed hundreds of displaced civilians in recent months.

The report suggested the army’s operation could last months, with plans for the “complete evacuation of Gaza’s population from combat zones to southern areas” while maintaining permanent military occupation of captured territories.

FACT: Forced transfer of a people group is a crime against humanity.

Search and rescue teams rescue a Palestinian girl from under the rubble after an Israeli attack at the Jabalia Refugee Camp in Gaza Strip on May 18, 2025. (Abdalhkem Abu Riash – Anadolu Agency)

Israeli forces attack aid seekers, killing one and injuring many others

One Palestinian civilian was killed and at least 20 others were injured Friday morning when Israeli occupation forces opened fire at people seeking food aid near US-run distribution points in the Gaza Strip.

According to local sources, tens of thousands of citizens started at dawn to head for the distribution point, which was established by the Israeli army in the Tel As-Sultan area in western Rafah, only to be surprised that the US company had placed just one aid box inside the center.

As a result, all the citizens started to leave the area without receiving aid, but suddenly Israeli occupation forces opened fire at them for no reason, killing one.

Twenty civilians were injured as they were trying to receive aid from another distribution point in southern Gaza.

Eyewitnesses said some citizens disappeared after occupation forces attacked aid seekers near the US-Israeli distribution points.

Palestinians flock to the aid distribution point in the Netzarim Corridor in the central Gaza Strip on May 29, 2025. (Moiz Salhi – Anadolu Agency)

Israeli civilian killed in Gaza praised for destroying homes

The Israeli army announced on that David Libi, a 19-year-old Israeli heavy equipment operator, was killed in an explosion during a military operation in the northern Gaza Strip. Libi was employed by the Israeli army to demolish homes in Gaza

Zvi Sukkot, a member of the Israeli parliament from the Religious Zionist Party, paid tribute to Libi, calling him a “friend” and praising his role in the destruction of Palestinian homes.

“He fell bravely today fighting against the Nazis in Gaza at the age of 19,” Succot wrote on X, adding: “With God’s help, the State of Israel will avenge his blood.”

WEST BANK HEADLINES:

(For background on the West Bank, read this and this)

Israeli Forces Shoot a Child, Assault One, Near Ramallah

Soldiers Shoot a Young Man Near Ramallah

France signals ‘hardened stance’ against Israel if Gaza blockade persists

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday signaled it would take a tougher stance against Israel if its humanitarian blockade persists in Gaza, and calling the recognition of a Palestinian state a “moral duty.”

“Providing water, food, and medicine and allowing the wounded to be evacuated is a priority. Therefore, if a response that matches the scale of the humanitarian situation is not provided in the coming hours and days, then obviously the collective stance will have to be hardened,” Macron said during a joint news briefing with Singapore’s premier.

Macron described the situation in Gaza as “unbearable” and stressed that it cannot be allowed to continue, raising the possibility of sanctions against Israel.

Israeli war chief responds to Macron with vow to build ‘Jewish state’ in West Bank

“Do not threaten Israel with sanctions” as it will continue to build a “Jewish state” on the ground, Defense Minister Israel Katz warned on Friday, defying international law and rebuffing a call by French President Emmanuel Macron for establishing a Palestinian state.

In a direct message, Defense Minister Israel Katz targets French President Macron and European allies, saying: “They will recognize a Palestinian state on paper, while we will build the Jewish Israeli state on the ground,” adding, “Don’t threaten us with sanctions. You will not make us bow. The State of Israel will not kneel before threats.”

In a landmark advisory opinion on July 19, 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land “illegal” and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Countries that recognize Palestine as a sovereign state, as of April 2025. (Al Jazeera)

US NEWS ON PROTESTS, ETC:

(For background on the student protest movement, read this)

Students achieve Israeli divestment victories on US college campuses

Carbon footprint of Israel’s war on Gaza exceeds that of many entire countries

The carbon footprint of the first 15 months of Israel’s war on Gaza will be greater than the annual planet-warming emissions of a hundred individual countries, exacerbating the global climate emergency on top of the huge civilian death toll, new research reveals.

A study shared exclusively with the Guardian found the long-term climate cost of destroying, clearing and rebuilding Gaza could top 31m tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e). This is more than the combined 2023 annual greenhouse gases emitted by Costa Rica and Estonia, yet there is no obligation for states to report military emissions to the UN climate body.

Israel’s relentless bombardment, blockade and refusal to comply with international court rulings has underscored the asymmetry of each side’s war machine, as well as almost unconditional military, energy and diplomatic support Israel enjoys from allies including the US and UK.

Hamas bunker fuel and rockets account for about 3,000 tonnes of CO2e, the equivalent of just 0.2% of the total direct conflict emission (continue reading here).

In the first four months of the attacks, Israel dropped 70,000 tons of bombs on the region, including phosphorus bombs, which are prohibited under the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), the government in Gaza announced. (Anadolu Agency)

MORE NEWS:

The Palestine Exception, Right-Wing Elite Capture, and New Student Visa Rules

Marco Rubio Is Attacking American Education. International Students Are His Pawns.

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – MAY 30, 2025:

At least 55,230 Palestinians killed, 132,839 injured – including:
at least 55,362 killed in Gaza (~16,500 children)
at least 981 killed in the West Bank (~199 children)
at least 124,054 injured in Gaza
at least 8,785 injured in the West Bank

According to Palestinian authorities, during the ceasefire Jan. 19 – March 18 2025, Israeli attacks killed at least 170 Gazans, and Israel committed at least 962 ceasefire violations.

Since the Israeli army resumed its assaults on Gaza on March 18, it has killed at least 4,117 people. 11 Israeli soldiers have been killed during the same time period.

Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 14,000 more are still buried under rubble.

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – May 30, 2025: ~1,601 – including ~1,139 on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 416 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza, 46 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel.

By one count, Israeli attacks have killed approximately 215 Palestinian journalists and media workers; Palestinians have killed 4 Israeli journalists (other groups have tallied between 180 and 274 Palestinian journalists killed – depending on the criteria used).

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

Hover over each bar for exact numbers. Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org

Friday, 30 May 2025

Gaza is ‘Hungriest Region on Earth,’ UN Office Says – War on Gaza Day 601

contact@ifamericansknew.org May 30, 2025 arms embargo, ethnic cleansing, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, humanitarian aid in gaza, internationally banned weapons, Israeli settlements, Mahmoud Khalil

Palestinian boy holds a bowl of food distributed by aid organizations as people struggle to access basic necessities amid ongoing Israeli attacks and a worsening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip on May 23, 2025. (Abdalhkem Abu Riash – Anadolu Agency)

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

At least 70 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Thursday.

Among the dead were 24 people who lost their lives in a single strike on a family home in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

Ten per cent of Gaza’s Palestinian population has been killed, injured, disappeared, or detained as a result of the genocide committed in the Strip by Israel since 7 October 2023, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor reported.

Nine police officers killed in Israeli strike in Gaza City

Gaza’s Interior Ministry revealed: “Israeli occupation aircraft targeted a number of police officers at the Saraya Junction in central Gaza City this afternoon, while they were carrying out their duty to confront a group of thieves.

“This resulted in the deaths of several police officers and passersby in a new massacre perpetrated by the occupation.”

The ministry added that the thieves and Israeli forces work hand in hand to “create chaos and spread fear among citizens”.

Blasts reported near GHF site as Gaza aid seekers targeted by Israeli army

The sounds of explosions were heard near the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution site in central Gaza on 28 May, coinciding with continued chaos, violence against aid seekers, and the failure of the US-Israeli mechanism to meet the desperate needs of starving Palestinians.

Around the same time, local media outlets reported that US military contractors operating the distribution site fired stun grenades at Palestinians seeking aid.

Video footage showed Palestinians running as stun grenades and what looked like tear gas popped behind them.

RELATED: What’s inside the boxes of aid being distributed in Gaza?

Third US, Israeli aid center begins operating Thursday: Israeli Army Radio

The third US and Israel-backed aid center opened in central Gaza, south of the Netzarim Corridor, Israel’s Army Radio has reported.

The new distribution center, like the two that have already opened, will be able to provide food and humanitarian aid to 300,000 Palestinians every week, the army-operated station stated.

The location of the new center is intended to push people from Gaza City and the northern part of the Strip to evacuate south, it added.

ISIS, CIA and the GHF: Israel’s New Frontier of Control through Hunger

The Israeli-backed Gaza aid distribution plan, now being implemented in the besieged coastal territory, is a sinister plot. It not only privatizes humanitarian assistance during a genocide, but the more that emerges about the shady Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the more horrifying its prospects appear.

What has been revealed as the brainchild of the Israeli military, which began developing following October 7, 2023, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is a recipe for utter disaster.

It was also reported that unnamed firms linked to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation have direct ties to Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer. Even worse for the project’s PR is the fact that Israeli Knesset member, Avigdor Lieberman, claimed that the dark money funding the GHF was coming from the Israeli government (continue reading here).

RELATED: Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is an illegitimate and inhumane aid scheme that risks violating international law

‘Critical lifeline’ al-Awda Hospital now out of service, WHO says

The director-general of the World Health Organization has announced that al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza is now out of service after an Israeli order was issued to evacuate the building.

There are still 97 people, including 13 patients inside the building, and the UN is planning a mission tomorrow to transfer patients to another facility, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement on X, adding that the hospital’s medical equipment cannot be relocated due to impassable roads.

“With al-Awda’s closure, there is no remaining functional hospital in North Gaza – severing a critical lifeline for the people there,” he said.

Israel used internationally banned weapons in Bureij camp attack: Hospital spokesperson

Israeli forces used internationally prohibited weapons to bomb the Bureij refugee camp, says the spokesperson of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, the facility where victims and the wounded were taken to after the attack.

Bodies arrived to the hospital charred, the spokesperson told Al Jazeera.

Three houses were consecutively targeted without any prior warning; at least 19 Palestinians were killed in the attack.

Relatives mourn as the bodies of 14 members of the same family, including 8 children, are brought to Nasser Medical Complex following an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on May 23, 2025 (Hani Alshaer – Anadolu Agency)

Israel blocking UN from retrieving aid to deliver it to Gaza: Spokesperson

Stephane Dujarric, the UN chief’s spokesperson, says there are 600 aid trucks on the Gaza side of the Karem Abu Salem crossing (also known as Kerem Shalom), but Israel has blocked the world body from retrieving the supplies for the past three days.

“We need [Israeli] clearance to go get the material. We need their clearance to go back, and we also need to accept that the route that they’ve … given us a green light for is not one where we feel it is unsafe for the cargo and our colleagues to travel on,” Dujarric told reporters.

“The problems are that the insecurity continues, and frankly, they are not making it easy for us to deliver humanitarian goods,” Dujarric said.

No aid trucks have reached northern Gaza yet.

Israel Aid Blockage Making Gaza ‘Hungriest Region on Earth,’ UN Office Says

Israel is blocking all but a trickle of humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said, with almost no ready-to-eat food entering what its spokesperson described as “the hungriest place on earth.

Spokesperson Jens Laerke said only 600 of 900 aid trucks had been authorized to get to Israel’s border with Gaza, and from there a mixture of bureaucratic and security obstacles made it all but impossible to safely carry aid into the region.

“What we’ve been able to bring in is flour,” he told a regular news conference on Friday. “That’s not ready to eat, right? It needs to be cooked… 100 percent of the population of Gaza is at risk of famine.”

Palestinians flock to the aid distribution in the Morag Corridor on the third day towards the Northwest of Rafah, Gaza on May 29, 2025. (Doaa Albaz – Anadolu Agency)

Contractor for Israeli military killed in northern Gaza

An employee of a contracting company carrying out “engineering work” for the Israeli military on behalf of the Ministry of Defense has been killed in the northern Gaza Strip, the army said in a statement.

It did not provide additional details on the identity of the person or company or details of the task.

Hamas debating U.S. proposal for Gaza ceasefire, officials say

The White House is awaiting Hamas’ response to the new Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal proposal President Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff presented on Wednesday night, but U.S. officials are sounding less optimistic about an imminent breakthrough than 24 hours earlier.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Israel signed off on the proposal before Witkoff submitted it to Hamas. But some in the militant group believe that rather than meeting in the middle, Witkoff’s offer included new concessions to Israel.

Hamas said in a statement that it was still studying the proposal. But members of the group have expressed serious concerns about the lack of clear guarantees that Israel won’t again unilaterally end the ceasefire, as it did in March, according to two sources with direct knowledge (continue reading here).

Israel confirms plans to create 22 new settlements in occupied West Bank

Israel has said it will establish 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, including the legalization of outposts already built without government authorization, after a security cabinet vote held in secret last week.

Far-right defense minister Israel Katz said the settlement decision “strengthens our hold on Judea and Samaria”, using the biblical term for the West Bank, “anchors our historical right in the Land of Israel, and constitutes a crushing response to Palestinian terrorism”.

He added it was also “a strategic move that prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel” (continue reading here).

The Israeli government’s approval of 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank is a “deliberate obstacle” to Palestinian statehood, UK minister for the Middle East and North Africa, Hamish Falconer, said on Thursday.

Hamas has reacted to reports of Israel approving 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, saying the move is a “blatant challenge to international will and a grave violation of UN resolutions”.

NOTE: Israel has illegally built around 280 settlements on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are home to more than 700,000 illegal settlers. Israeli settlements and settlers on Palestinian land are aviolation of international law, and considered by many Palestinians to be the main barrier to any lasting peace agreement.

Some analysts have described this placement of Israeli civilians on what may be considered hostile territory (i.e. non-Israeli land) amounts to making settlers human shields.

Some settler groups have a history of violenceagainst Palestinians, often with the assistance of Israeli military forces.

Amnesty Int’l says settlers displacing dozens of West Bank Palestinian herding communities

Dozens of Palestinian herding communities in the occupied West Bank are being displaced due to Israeli-supported settler violence, Amnesty International has said.

“This forcible transfer is a war crime,” Amnesty wrote on X. “States must act now and live up to their obligations to cooperate to bring Israel’s unlawful occupation to an end and to dismantle its system of apartheid against Palestinians.”

MORE WEST BANK HEADLINES:

(For background on the West Bank, read this and this)

Israel blows up 2 Palestinian homes in Nablus

Divide and conquer: Israel attempts to court Palestinian clans in occupied West Bank to join the Abraham Accords

Israeli Forces Shoot Three, Assault One, in Jerusalem

Israeli Forces Demolish a Citizen’s Home in Jerusalem

Israeli Army Bulldozes Lands, Water Lines, Near Nablus

Israeli Soldiers Abduct Many Palestinians, Assault One, in the West Bank

What’s happening in the occupied West Bank?

Israeli foreign minister says arms embargoes will lead to ‘second Holocaust’ and end of Israel

Israel’s foreign minister has said that an arms embargo on his country would lead to the elimination of the Israeli state and “a second Holocaust”.

Gideon Saar was speaking on Tuesday at an international conference on antisemitism in Jerusalem.

“If, God forbid, the calls and actions of countries and politicians for an arms embargo on Israel succeed, the result will be the destruction of Israel and a second Holocaust,” he said.

NOTE: This statement by Gideon Saar is not grounded in facts. Israel’s adversaries – Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iran – are demanding an end to the persecution of Palestinians and a reinstatement of their rights under international law. Human rights bodies around the world are calling for justice as the only way to peace and security.

Israeli Foreign Ministry publishes, deletes misleading video about alleged Hamas aid warehouse

The Israeli Foreign Ministry account used misleading video clips to suggest that Hamas owned an aid and food warehouse in Gaza, Al Jazeera’s verification unit Sanad has found.

The ministry relied on a post on X published by an account named “ihab hassan” that was later deleted. It stated: “This is Hamas’s warehouse in central Gaza, filled with food supplies, out of civilians’ reach,” a phrase that the ministry spokesperson also shared on his official account.

An archive site shows the clip was edited to remove the claim that the warehouse belonged to Hamas, before being deleted entirely. A review of the source of the video showed that the post originated in Washington, DC.

NOTE: Israeli officials have insisted, without evidence, that Hamas has been stealing aid. On the contrary, Israeli news outlets have reported that theIsraeli military itself is behind the looting of aid trucks, and is working with gangs, not Hamas, to extort the Gazan people.

Israeli NGOs sound alarm on controversial 80 percent tax bill

Israel’s parliament is debating a bill that would levy an 80 percent tax on funds sent by foreign governments to Israeli nongovernment organizations deemed “political”.

“This means groups that advocate for Palestinian rights, document occupation-related abuses, or promote peace and equality will be taxed into collapse,” the Israeli-Palestinian organization Combatants for Peace said in a statement.

On the contrary, NGOs that receive funding from the Israeli government will be fully exempt if they receive foreign state funding.

The group said the bill was “a deliberate and targeted attack on human rights and peace organizations” and “an attempt to silence dissent”.

Mahmoud Khalil demands answers on Trump admin’s ties to anti-Palestinian groups

Lawyers for Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request Thursday for communication between the Trump administration and several anti-Palestinian groups they allege played a role in their client’s arrest and detention.

“For years, these anti-Palestinian doxxing groups have served as agents of repression, weaponizing inflammatory rhetoric and conflating criticism of Israel with hate speech in order to chill activism for Palestinian rights,” Ayla Kadah, an attorney and Justice Fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) said in a statement.

“Now, evidence seems to point to the Trump administration colluding with them,” she said. “Mahmoud deserves answers, and so does the public (continue reading here).

RELATED: Mahmoud Khalil Alleges the Trump Admin and Pro-Israel Groups Coordinated to Target Him

MORE US NEWS ON PROTESTS, ETC:

(For background on the student protest movement, read this)

MIT class president calls out university’s ties with Israeli military

Docs expose Israeli influence on UK anti-genocide protest prosecutions

Students achieve Israeli divestment victories on US college campuses

MORE NEWS:

Have you looked at satellite images of Gaza? You should

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – MAY 29, 2025:

At least 55,230 Palestinians killed, 132,277 injured – including:
at least 54,249 killed in Gaza (~16,500 children)
at least 981 killed in the West Bank (~199 children)
at least 123,492 injured in Gaza
at least 8,785 injured in the West Bank

According to Palestinian authorities, during the ceasefire Jan. 19 – March 18 2025, Israeli attacks killed at least 170 Gazans, and Israel committed at least 962 ceasefire violations.

Since the Israeli army resumed its assaults on Gaza on March 18, it has killed at least 3,986 people. 11 Israeli soldiers have been killed during the same time period.

Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 14,000 more are still buried under rubble.

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – May 29, 2025: ~1,601 – including ~1,139 on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 416 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza, 46 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel.

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

Hover over each bar for exact numbers. Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org