UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will convene an emergency cabinet meeting later to discuss a peace plan and aid for Gaza, as pressure mounts on him to recognise Palestinian statehood.
Humanitarian groups warned this week is critical to prevent mass starvation in Gaza, saying Israel’s aid supplies fall short.
“In the coming days, thousands of Gaza’s children will either be rescued or allowed to die,” the president of the International Rescue Committee said.
It comes after Donald Trump acknowledged “real starvation” in Gaza and pledged the US would set up food centres “with no fences”.
He dismissed Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that there was no starvation in Gaza and urged him to ensure aid reaches Palestinians.
Local health officials confirmed at least 14 more Palestinians, including two children, had died from hunger and malnutrition, bring the toll from starvation and malnutrition to 147, including 88 children.
Israeli human rights groups B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel have labelled the war on Gaza, which has killed over 59,000 people so far, as “genocide”.
Israeli forces continued their deadly attacks across the territory on Monday, killing at least 78 people, according to local health officials.
Gangs and merchants sell food aid in Gaza, where Israel’s offensive has shattered security
Since Israel’s offensive led to a security breakdown in Gaza that has made it nearly impossible to safely deliver food to starving Palestinians, much of the limited aid entering is being hoarded by gangs and merchants and sold at exorbitant prices.
A kilogram (2.2 pounds) of flour has run as high as $60 in recent days, a kilogram of lentils up to $35.
That is beyond the means of most residents in the territory, which experts say is at risk of famine and where people are largely reliant on savings 21 months into the Israel-Hamas war.
Bags of flour in markets often bear U.N. logos, while other packaging has markings indicating it came from the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — all originally handed out for free.
It’s impossible to know how much is being diverted, but neither group is able to track who receives its aid.
Can airdrops solve the Gaza crisis? Aid agencies are sceptical
Following pressure from the international community, Israel has announced brief “humanitarian pauses” between 10am and 8pm each day to allow more aid to be delivered to starving Palestinians, as US president Donald Trump said on Monday: “They have to get food and safety right now.”
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UK cabinet recalled from summer break for Gaza meeting
Keir Starmer is holding an emergency UK cabinet meeting today to discuss a European-led peace plan and aid efforts for Gaza.
He presented the plan to Trump in Scotland yesterday and details will be released after the meeting which is being held at 14:00 BST today.
The plan will also be shared with allies, including Arab states, over the next few days, a spokesperson for Starmer said.
In an article over the weekend, the prime minister compared the plans to the proposed “coalition of the willing” to support a potential deal to end the Ukraine war.
Two Israeli rights groups say their country is committing genocide in Gaza
Two prominent Israeli rights groups on Monday said their country is committing genocide in Gaza. This marks the first time that local Jewish-led organizations have made such accusations against Israel during nearly 22 months of war.
The claims by B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel add to an explosive debate over whether Israel’s military offensive in Gaza — launched in response to Hamas’ deadly October 7 2023, attack — amounts to genocide.
But in Israel itself, founded in the wake of the Holocaust, even the government’s strongest critics have largely refrained from making these accusations.
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Trump gives Starmer green light to recognise Palestinian state
The president, seen as one of Israel’s strongest supporters, signalled the United States would not object to such a move – giving Sir Keir the green light as pressure mounts on him politically to follow Emmanuel Macron, who last week announced France would do so.
In an apparent shift in US backing for Israel, the president also expressed his concern at images and reports of children starving in Gaza, as a ground blockade means only very limited aid is getting through.
And he joined calls for Benjamin Netanyahu to soften his tactics in Gaza, saying the Israeli PM “may have to do it a different way”.
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AIPAC drops support for GOP lawmaker after call to ‘starve away’ Gaza until hostages freed
AIPAC appears to have dropped its endorsement of Republican Congressman Randy Fine after he tweeted: “Release the hostages. Until then, starve away.”
“(This is all a lie anyway. It amazes me that the media continues to regurgitate Muslim terror propaganda.),” Fine added in the July 22 post.
AIPAC had backed Fine in his House race earlier this year, but by Monday evening, his name no longer appeared in the pro-Israel lobby’s list of endorsed candidates, according to The Times of Israel.
Fellow Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted: “A Jewish US Representative calling for the continued starvation of innocent people and children is disgraceful. It’s the most truthful and easiest thing to say that Oct 7th in Israel was horrific and all hostages must be returned, but so is the genocide, humanitarian crisis, and starvation happening in Gaza.”
Two-state solution further off than ever – UN chief
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict is “further than ever before”.
Mr Guterres said actions “that would forever undermine the two-state solution” must stop, and he urged a two-day UN conference to be a “decisive turning point” rather than mere rhetoric.
French and Saudi foreign ministers on Monday opened the conference on a two-state solution to the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Palestinian activist fatally shot by an Israeli settler in West Bank
Palestinian activist and teacher Odeh Muhammad Hadalin, known for his work on the Oscar-winning film No Other Land, was shot and killed by an Israeli settler in the West Bank village of Umm al-Khair.
The alleged shooter, identified by residents as Yinon Levi, sanctioned by the EU and US, was arrested, though Israeli police also detained four Palestinians and two tourists, Al Jazeera reported.
Human rights group B’Tselem has accused Israel of genocide, citing a spike in settler attacks carried out with impunity.
Over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 2023.
Toll of Gazans killed by Israeli military ‘rises to 78’
Monday’s death toll of Palestinians in Gaza from Israeli strikes or gunfire has risen to 78, according to local health officials.
The dead included a newborn who was delivered in complex surgery after his mother was killed in a strike, according to the Nasser Hospital.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment about the latest strikes, which occurred outside the time frame for the suspension of military operations that Israel declared would be between 10am and 8pm local time.
Starmer calls humanitarian situation in Gaza ‘absolutely intolerable’
Kier Starmer told the media on Monday that “people in Britain are revolted at seeing what they are seeing on their screens”, referring to the images of starving children in Gaza.
He called the humanitarian situation in Gaza “absolutely intolerable”.
“We need to galvanize other countries in support of getting that aid in, and, yes, that does involve putting pressure on Israel, because it absolutely is a humanitarian catastrophe,” he said.
