UN: It is safe to say that famine has arrived – War on Gaza Day 602
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
- Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
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- Israeli education minister announces plan to make Jewish, Zionist studies core curriculum
- Germany threatens steps against Israel as tone shifts over Gaza
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- Israeli use of human shields in Gaza was systematic, soldiers and former detainees tell the AP
- ‘Another layer of cruelty’: Israeli forces bomb Prosthetic Limbs hospital in north Gaza
- Israel Partisan Makes Chilling Threat After Israeli Embassy Staff Killed
- Zionist-on-Zionist war crimes
- What did you do during the genocide in Gaza?
- Undaunted by Attacks, Online Educator Ms. Rachel Elevates Stories of Gaza’s Children
- Hunger Games: As Far as Netanyahu Is Concerned, Gaza’s Humanitarian Crisis Is a PR Problem
- Over 80 percent of Israelis endorse ‘forced expulsion’ of Gaza’s population: Poll
- Microsoft Bans the Word “Palestine” in Internal Emails
- Sign the “Free Palestine Anti-Genocide Pledge” – and Share!
- WATCH: Murder of 2 people compared to the murder of 50,000 people
- Lobby pushes for criminalization of Israel’s critics
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