Israeli media ‘completely ignored’ Gaza starvation – is that finally changing?

A growing focus on hunger in Gaza in the global media has led some Israeli outlets to report on it for the first time

Images of Palestinian children in Gaza, emaciated by hunger under the blockade imposed by Israel, and of families grieving the more than 61,000 people killed in the territory have stirred outrage among foreign governments and much of the global public. Inside Israel, however, the reaction has been markedly different.

In a poll conducted in late July by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), more than three-quarters of Jewish Israelis – 79% – said they were either “not very troubled” or “not troubled at all” by reports of famine and suffering among Gaza’s Palestinian population.

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Israeli unit tasked with smearing Gaza journalists as Hamas fighters – report

Israeli-Palestinian magazine says IDF ‘legitimisation cell’ set up to blunt global outrage over killing of media staff

A special unit in Israel’s military was tasked with identifying reporters it could smear as undercover Hamas fighters, to target them and to blunt international outrage over the killing of media workers, the Israeli-Palestinian outlet +972 Magazine reports.

The “legitimisation cell” was set up after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack to gather information that could bolster Israel’s image and shore up diplomatic and military support from key allies, the report said, citing three intelligence sources.

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‘Hellish’: heatwave brings hottest nights on record to the Middle East

Temperatures did not drop below 36C in Sedom, Israel on Tuesday night, while several parts of Jordan stayed above 35C on Monday

Jordan and Israel have suffered through their hottest nights on record, with nocturnal temperatures in the Levant well above levels that scientists consider “hellish”.

Temperatures on Monday night did not go below 35C (95F) in Ghor es-Safi and Aqaba in Jordan, while in the capital, Amman, they stayed above 31.8C.

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Far-right Israeli minister taunts jailed Palestinian leader in prison visit

Itamar Ben-Gvir posts video footage showing him making threatening remarks to a gaunt Marwan Barghouti

Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has posted video footage in which he is seen taunting the imprisoned Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti in jail, prompting strong condemnation from Barghouti’s family and Palestinian leaders.

The 13-second clip shows Ben-Gvir, a far-right politician on whom the UK and several other countries imposed sanctions this year for incitement to violence against Palestinians, making threatening remarks to Barghouti while Israel’s prisons minister, Kobi Yaakobi, an ally of Ben-Gvir stands nearby.

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Israeli minister posts video online confronting Palestinian detainee in his prison cell – as it happened

Far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir posts video showing him confronting Marwan Barghouti, who has spent more than 20 years in Israeli custody

At least 16 Palestinian people, including five aid seekers, have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since dawn, Al Jazeera is reporting, citing medical sources.

Here are some of the latest images being sent to us over the newswires from Gaza:

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Israeli minister says Sydney Harbour Bridge protesters ‘useful idiots’ who fell for terrorist propaganda

Sharren Haskel accuses demonstrators of ‘marching with terrorist organisations’ but organisers reject her claims and say people are ‘outraged’

An Israeli government minister has said the thousands of Australians who marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to protest against the killing in Gaza were “naive” and “useful idiots” for Hamas.

Sharren Haskel, Israel’s deputy foreign affairs minister, also claimed during Friday’s interview on ABC radio that there was not a “real famine” in Gaza.

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Israel appears set to approve highly controversial 3,400-home West Bank settlement

Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich has said he believes E1 plan will ‘bury the idea of a Palestinian state’

Israel appears set to give formal planning approval to a highly controversial settlement project for more than 3,400 new homes that has been frozen for decades and which critics say would split the occupied West Bank in half.

Strongly opposed by the international community, the so-called E1 plan would extend the existing Jewish settlement of Ma’ale Adumim towards Jerusalem, further cutting occupied east Jerusalem from the West Bank, and further separating the north and south of the territory.

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Aid groups say Israel’s new registration rules are ‘weaponising aid’

Lifesaving goods for starved people in Gaza blocked by vague rules on anti-Israeli activity, say humanitarian bodies

More than 100 aid organisations working in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have accused Israel of dangerously “weaponising aid” in its application of new rules for registering groups involved in delivering humanitarian assistance.

The letter represents the latest broadside from the international aid community against Israel after the EU, Britain and Japan on Tuesday called for urgent action to stop “famine” spreading in the Gaza Strip.

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‘Censorship’: over 115 scholars condemn cancellation of Harvard journal issue on Palestine

In an open letter, writers denounced abrupt scrapping of a Harvard Educational Review issue dedicated to Palestine

More than 115 education scholars have condemned the cancellation of an entire issue of an academic journal dedicated to Palestine by a Harvard University publisher as “censorship”.

In an open letter published on Thursday, the scholars denounced the abrupt scrapping of a special issue of the Harvard Educational Review – which was first revealed by the Guardian in July – as an “attempt to silence the academic examination of the genocide, starvation and dehumanisation of Palestinian people by the state of Israel and its allies.”

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Israeli airstrikes on Tehran killed inmates in ‘apparent war crime’ – report

Human Rights Watch also finds that Iran abused survivors of June attack, which killed 80 people

Israeli airstrikes on Tehran’s Evin prison in June killed scores of detainees, visitors and staff in what Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called an “apparent war crime”. Iranian authorities have since subjected survivors to abuse, enforced disappearances and inhumane detention conditions, the rights group said.

HRW’s investigation, based on satellite imagery, videos and witness accounts, found the 23 June Israeli airstrikes destroyed visitation halls, prison wards, the central kitchen, the medical clinic and administrative offices. No evident military targets were identified in the facility, which held more than 1,500 prisoners at the time, many of whom had been jailed for peaceful activism.

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Recognising Palestinian state must not distract from ending Gaza mass deaths, UN expert says

Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur for the occupied territories, calls for practical actions and warns against distracting ‘attention from where it should be: the genocide’

The United Nations special rapporteur for the occupied territories has warned that moves to recognise a Palestinian state should not distract member states from stopping mass death and starvation in Gaza.

“Of course it’s important to recognize the state of Palestine,” Francesca Albanese told the Guardian after several more countries responded to the mounting starvation in Gaza by announcing plans to recognize an independent Palestine. “It’s incoherent that they’ve not done it already.”

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‘It’s a horrible picture’: Gaza faces new threat from antibiotic-resistant disease

Fatal infections more likely due to malnutrition, injuries and lack of medical facilities under Israel’s blockade

Gaza is facing a new threat as diseases resistant to antibiotics spread across the devastated territory, research has revealed.

Medical supplies are desperately scarce and tens of thousands of people have been injured in the 22-month war, while many others have been weakened by malnutrition, so the high levels of drug-resistant bacteria will mean longer and more serious illnesses, a more rapid transmission of infectious diseases and more deaths, experts said.

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Palestinian reporters killed, international reporters banned – Israel’s other Gaza war is over narrative

Members of press and influencers covering devastation are being silenced despite protection under international law

Israel is running two Gaza campaigns: one for military control of the strip; another for narrative control of how the world understands what happens there.

In theory, Palestinian journalists and social media influencers documenting starvation, mass killing and other Israeli war crimes in Gaza are protected civilians under international law.

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Palestinian activist killed by settler filmed his shooting, footage shows

B’Tselem publishes film showing killing of Awdah Hathaleen after suspect released by court over ‘weakened’ evidence

Awdah Hathaleen, the prominent Palestinian activist who was killed late last month by an extremist Jewish settler in the West Bank, filmed the moment he was shot, newly released video footage reveals.

Hathaleen, who worked on the filming of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, which examined settler violence against the Palestinian community of Masafer Yatta, was killed by Yinon Levi, a settler who was already under sanctions in the UK and EU for violent acts against Palestinians.

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Mourners gather amid outrage over Israeli troops’ killing of journalists in Gaza – live updates

UN condemns killing of Anas al-Sharif and colleagues, calling it a ‘grave breach of international humanitarian law’

Anas al-Sharif among five journalists killed in Israeli airstrike

Reporters Without Borders has condemned the “acknowledged murder by the Israeli army” of Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif in Gaza, who the armed forces admitted they had targeted, along with several of his colleagues.

The press freedom campaign group told news agency AFP it “strongly and angrily condemns the acknowledged murder by the Israeli army” of al-Sharif and other journalists.

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Monday briefing: ​What a new investigation tells us about the shooting of Palestinians at Gaza aid sites

In today’s newsletter: A Guardian investigation uncovers chilling evidence that civilians in Gaza appear to have been targeted by coordinated ​gunfire during food distributions

Good morning. In May 2025, Israel dismantled the United Nations-led humanitarian aid distribution system in Gaza. In its place came a distribution scheme run by the secretive Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) that came under immediate scrutiny for its “militarised model” and close ties to Israeli authorities, which rights groups warned “undermines the core humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence”.

In the months since, humanitarians’ worst fears about the aid sites have been realised. International observers have expressed concern as daily reports emerged of civilians being shot, shelled or crushed while attempting to access aid. Almost 1,400 Palestinians have reportedly been killed while seeking food, primarily near GHF distribution sites.

Israel-Gaza war | Benjamin Netanyahu has defended his plan to take control of Gaza City, even as senior UN officials warned the move risked unleashing “another calamity” on the territory. On Sunday, Anas al-Sharif, a prominent Al Jazeera journalist, was killed in an Israeli airstrike. Israel admitted a deliberate attack on the journalist.

Ukraine | Europe’s leaders have raised the pressure on Donald Trump to involve Ukraine in a planned summit with Vladimir Putin, as Germany warned the White House against any deal hatched “over the heads of Europeans and Ukrainians”.

Housing | Lower-income householders, minority ethnic people and those with young children are more likely to live in homes at risk from dangerous overheating, research has found.

UK news | Half of the people arrested during the protest in relation to Palestine Action in London on Saturday were aged 60 or above, according to police figures. A total of 532 people were arrested at the largest demonstration relating to the group – all but 10 under section 13 of the Terrorism Act for displaying supportive placards or signs.

Crime | Foreign criminals from 15 more countries face deportation before they have a chance to appeal, in an expansion of the UK government’s “deport first, appeal later” scheme.

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Anas al-Sharif, prominent Al Jazeera correspondent, among five journalists killed in Israeli airstrike on Gaza

Israel admits deliberate attack on the journalist, known for frontline coverage, in a strike on a tent outside al-Shifa hospital

A prominent Al Jazeera journalist who had previously been threatened by Israel has been killed along with four colleagues in an Israeli airstrike.

Anas al-Sharif, who was one of Al Jazeera’s most recognisable faces in Gaza, was killed while inside a tent for journalists outside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Sunday night. His funeral was held on Monday morning.

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Netanyahu defends Gaza City plan as UN warns of ‘calamity’ and starvation

Israeli PM says taking over city is ‘best way’ to end war, despite condemnation from within Israel and around world

Benjamin Netanyahu has defended his plan to take control of Gaza City in the face of widespread international outrage, even as senior UN officials warned that the move risked unleashing “another calamity” on a territory already experiencing “starvation, pure and simple”.

In a rare press conference with foreign journalists in Jerusalem, the Israeli prime minister said the plan, signed off last week by the security cabinet to criticism both at home and abroad, was “the best way to end the war and the best way to end it speedily.”

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UK’s chief rabbi criticises Labour’s Palestine pledge at march for hostages

Sir Ephraim Mirvis joins relatives of hostages in calling for their release before any recognition of a Palestinian state

The chief rabbi has criticised Labour’s pledge to recognise a Palestinian state at a “national march for the hostages” in central London organised by a number of Jewish groups.

Family members of Israeli hostages taken on 7 October also joined the march on Downing Street to urge the release of those being held by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

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Thousands in Tel Aviv protest against Netanyahu’s plan to escalate Gaza war

Organisers say more than 100,000 people joined demonstration demanding end to military campaign

Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday night to oppose Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to escalate the Gaza war.

A day earlier, the Israeli prime minister’s office said the security cabinet had decided to seize Gaza City, expanding military operations in the devastated Palestinian territory despite widespread public opposition and warnings from the military the move could endanger the hostages.

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