{"id":299848,"date":"2025-07-28T12:00:48","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T11:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=299848"},"modified":"2025-07-24T14:36:46","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T13:36:46","slug":"global-outcry-grows-over-israels-killing-of-starving-civilians-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/07\/global-outcry-grows-over-israels-killing-of-starving-civilians-in-gaza\/","title":{"rendered":"Global Outcry Grows over Israel\u2019s Killing of Starving Civilians in Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Illumination flares launched by the Israeli army are seen over Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.\u00a0 Photograph: Abdel Kareem Hana\/AP<\/p><\/div>\n

UN secretary general warns \u2018last lifelines\u2019 may soon collapse after Israeli forces attack WHO facilities in Deir al-Balah.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

22 Jul 2025\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0Israel is facing intensifying international condemnation for its killing of starving Palestinian civilians<\/a> in Gaza, and its attacks on humanitarian efforts, as the UN secretary general, Ant\u00f3nio Guterres, said the \u201clast lifelines keeping people alive [in the strip] are collapsing\u201d.<\/p>\n

An angry chorus of senior figures, among them the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy<\/a>, and a senior Catholic cleric, expressed on Tuesday a growing sense of global horror over Israel\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spoke again with [the Israeli foreign minister] Gideon Saar to recall our understanding on aid flow and made clear that IDF [Israel Defense Forces] must stop killing people at distribution points,\u201d the EU\u2019s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, wrote on X. \u201cThe killing of civilians seeking aid in Gaza is indefensible.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said \u201call options were on the table\u201d if Israel does not deliver on aid pledges, but did not say what those options included.<\/p>\n

According to UN officials on Tuesday, more than 1,000 desperate Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the end of May trying to reach food distributions run by the controversial US- and Israel-backed Gaza<\/a> Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) amid widening conditions of starvation in the Palestinian territory.<\/p>\n

The comments came as Israeli forces attacked warehousing and staff accommodation in Deir al-Balah \u2013 Gaza\u2019s main aid hub \u2013 belonging to the World Health Organization<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Israeli strikes on WHO facilities came as Israel cancelled the work visa of Jonathan Whittall, the head of the UN\u2019s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) inside Gaza and the most senior UN aid official in the coastal strip.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the UN security council on Tuesday, Guterres described the situation in Gaza as a \u201chorror show\u201d condemning the Israeli attacks on UN offices.<\/p>\n

\u201cMalnourishment is soaring and starvation is knocking on every door in Gaza,\u201dGuterres said. \u201cAnd now we are seeing the last gasp of a humanitarian system built on humanitarian principles. That system is being denied the conditions to function. Denied the space to deliver. Denied the safety to save lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guterres\u2019 comments came hours after a hard-hitting joint statement<\/a> on Monday by 27 western countries including the UK, France, Australia and Canada harshly criticising Israel\u2019s restrictions on humanitarian aid and calling for an immediate end to the war.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Smoke<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
The aftermath of an Israeli military operation in Deir al-Balah.<\/span> Photograph: Hatem Khaled\/Reuters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Guterres said he \u201cdeplored the growing reports of children and adults suffering from malnutrition\u201d as health officials in Gaza reported a further 33 deaths, including 12 children, in the past 48 hours.<\/p>\n

Lammy amplified that message in an interview with the BBC on Tuesday, describing himself as \u201cappalled [and] sickened\u201d<\/a> by what was happening in Gaza.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are not words that are usually used by a foreign secretary who is attempting to be diplomatic,\u201d Lammy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when you see innocent children holding out their hand for food, and you see them shot and killed in the way that we have seen in the last few days, of course Britain must call it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thameen Al-Kheetan, a UN human rights office spokesperson, said: \u201cOver 1,000 Palestinians have now been killed by the Israeli military while trying to get food in Gaza since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operating.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs of 21 July, we have recorded 1,054 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food; 766 of them were killed in the vicinity of GHF sites and 288 near UN and other humanitarian organisations\u2019 aid convoys.\u201d<\/p>\n

The head of the UN\u2019s main agency for Palestinians, Unrwa, on Tuesday described Gaza as a \u201chell on earth\u201d.<\/p>\n

Philippe Lazzarini said Unrwa\u2019s own staff, as well as doctors and humanitarian workers, were fainting on duty owing to hunger and exhaustion as Israel limited access to life-saving humanitarian aid, and that many were surviving on a single small meal a day.<\/p>\n

\u201cCaretakers, including Unrwa colleagues in Gaza, are also in need of care now \u2013 doctors, nurses, journalists, humanitarians, among them Unrwa staff, are hungry. Many are now fainting due to hunger and exhaustion while performing their duties,\u201d he said in a statement at a media briefing in Geneva.<\/p>\n

The UN World Food Programme on Monday said its assessments showed a quarter of the population of Gaza was facing \u201cfamine-like\u201d conditions<\/a> and almost 100,000 women and children were suffering from severe acute malnutrition.<\/p>\n

The most recent assessment of hunger in Gaza by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a group that includes the World Food Programme and the WHO, said about 10% of the territory\u2019s population \u2013 244,000 people \u2013 were facing catastrophic levels of hunger and 93% were experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity.<\/p>\n

\n
\"People<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
Displaced Palestinians inspect shelters damaged during the Israeli military operation.<\/span> Photograph: Hatem Khaled\/Reuters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Separately, the Roman Catholic church\u2019s most senior cleric in the Holy Land said the humanitarian situation in Gaza was \u201cmorally unacceptable\u201d, after visiting the wartorn Palestinian territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have seen men holding out in the sun for hours in the hope of a simple meal,\u201d Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, told a news conference. \u201cIt\u2019s morally unacceptable and unjustified.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irish premier Miche\u00e1l Martin also called for the war in Gaza to end, describing the images of starving children as \u201chorrific\u201d. Mr Martin called for a surge in humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza.<\/p>\n

In a social media post, he said: \u201cThe situation in Gaza is horrific. The suffering of civilians and the death of innocent children is intolerable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI echo the call by foreign ministers of 28 countries for all hostages to be released, and for a surge in humanitarian aid. This war must end and it must end now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the high-profile criticism in recent days, aid agencies have criticised the lack of meaningful action by the governments who signed the joint statement, including the UK, against Israel.<\/p>\n

Kristyan Benedict, of Amnesty International UK, said the British government\u2019s \u201cfailure to take robust measures to prevent genocide is no accident\u201d, adding that \u201cas a state party to the genocide convention, the UK has a legal duty to prevent and punish genocide \u2013 a duty it is failing miserably to uphold\u201d.<\/p>\n

The growing international furore came as Israeli troops pushed into the city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, where a number of international aid organisations are based, in what appeared to be the latest effort to carve up the Palestinian territory with military corridors.<\/p>\n

Deir al-Balah is the only city in the Gaza Strip that has not experienced major ground operations or suffered widespread devastation in 21 months of war, leading to speculation that the Hamas militant group holds large numbers of hostages there.<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Peter Beaumont is a senior international reporter who has reported extensively from conflict zones including Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East and Ukraine. The former Jerusalem correspondent of the <\/em>Guardian, he has won several awards, including the Orwell Prize for his work in Iraq, and is the author of <\/em>The Secret Life of War: Journeys Through Modern Conflict<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Go to Original – theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

22 Jul 2025\u00a0–\u00a0UN secretary general warns \u2018last lifelines\u2019 may soon collapse after Israeli forces attack WHO facilities in Deir al-Balah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":299849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[3287,1559,1854,101,100,1199,2242,87,865,1029,1966,1644,88,2416,771,427,2897,880,99,70,965,1025],"class_list":["post-299848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide","tag-anti-zionism","tag-collective-punishment","tag-crimes-against-humanity","tag-cultural-violence","tag-direct-violence","tag-ethnic-cleansing","tag-famine","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-hamas","tag-hunger","tag-international-court-of-justice-icj","tag-israel","tag-israeli-occupation","tag-nakba","tag-palestine","tag-sociocide","tag-state-terrorism","tag-structural-violence","tag-usa","tag-war-crimes","tag-west-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299848"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":299850,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299848\/revisions\/299850"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}