Mass starvation spreading across Gaza, aid agencies warn, as pressure on Israel grows – Middle East crisis live | Middle East and north Africa

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More than 100 aid organisations warned on Wednesday that “mass starvation” was spreading in Gaza ahead of the US top envoy’s visit to Europe for talks on a possible ceasefire and an aid corridor.

Israel is facing mounting international pressure over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory, where more than 2 million people face severe shortages of food and other essentials after 21 months of conflict, triggered by Hamas’s attack on Israel.

The UN said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid since the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operations in late May – in effect sidelining the existing UN-led system.

A statement with 111 signatories, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Save the Children and Oxfam, warned that “our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away”.

The groups called for an immediate negotiated ceasefire, the opening of all land crossings and the free flow of aid through UN-led mechanisms.

It came a day after the US said its envoy Steve Witkoff will head to Europe this week for talks on Gaza and may then visit the Middle East.

Witkoff comes with “a strong hope that we will come forward with another ceasefire as well as a humanitarian corridor for aid to flow, that both sides have in fact agreed to,” state department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters.

In other developments:

• The head of Gaza’s largest hospital on Tuesday said 21 children have died due to malnutrition and starvation in the Palestinian territory in the past three days, while Israel pressed a devastating assault. Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people is facing severe shortages of food and other essentials, with residents frequently killed as they try to collect humanitarian aid at a handful of distribution points.

• News agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) has called on Israel to allow the immediate evacuation of its freelance contributors and their families from the Gaza Strip, a day after they warned that they were struggling to work due to starvation. In a statement, the French news agency said its freelancers faced an “appalling situation” in Gaza. A 21-month war with Israel has devastated the territory, a conflict triggered by Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel in October 2023.

• The head of the UN Palestinian Refugee Agency (Unrwa) said on Tuesday that its staff members as well as doctors and humanitarian workers are fainting on duty due to hunger and exhaustion, describing the situation in Gaza as “hell on earth”. Unrwa commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini also called the Israeli-backed logistics group run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation a “sadistic death trap”. He said snipers opened fire randomly on crowds at aid sites as if they are given a “licence to kill”. The GHF responded by claiming the UN was “refusing” to deliver aid in Gaza that could help end the desperation in the region.

• Israel’s government is pursuing an “unacceptable and morally unjustifiable” policy in Gaza, the Catholic Latin patriarch of Jerusalem has said after visiting a church in the territory that was attacked by Israeli forces last week and meeting survivors. Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa said he had witnessed extreme hunger on the brief trip, his first into Gaza this year, and described Israeli blocks on food and medical shipments as a “sentence” for starving Palestinians.

• The Palestinian health ministry said on Tuesday at least 72 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes in the past 24 hours, including 16 people living in tents in Gaza City. The Israeli military said it wasn’t aware of any incident or artillery in the area at that time.

• A cruise liner carrying Israeli tourists has been forced to reroute to Cyprus after being turned away from the Greek island of Syros after a quayside protest over the Gaza war. About 1,600 Israeli passengers on board the Crown Iris were prevented from disembarking amid safety concerns when more than 300 demonstrators on the Cycladic isle made clear they were unwelcome over Israel’s conduct of the war and treatment of Palestinians in Gaza. A large banner emblazoned with the words Stop the Genocide was held aloft alongside Palestinian flags.

• Columbia University said on Tuesday it has issued various punishments, including expulsions and degree revocations, against various students involved in anti-Israel protests on campus. The sanctions, which a student group said targeted nearly 80 people, come as the New York institution negotiates with President Donald Trump’s administration to restore $400m in cut federal funding.

• Some Israeli far-right leaders held a public meeting on Tuesday to discuss redeveloping the Gaza Strip into a tourist-friendly “riviera”, as Palestinians face a worsening humanitarian crisis in the devastated territory. The meeting, titled “The Riviera in Gaza: From Vision to Reality”, was held in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, under the auspices of some of its most hardline members.

• Syria said on Tuesday that it had launched investigations into reported extrajudicial killings in the country’s Druze heartland, promising to punish perpetrators including any government-affiliated personnel after a week of sectarian bloodshed. The violence, which began on 13 July and ended with a weekend ceasefire, started with clashes between Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouin tribes but soon escalated, killing more than 1,300 people, mostly Druze, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.

• The US state department on Tuesday confirmed the death of a US citizen last week in the predominantly Druze region of Sweida, where hundreds of people have been reported killed in clashes. State department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Hosam Saraya, adding that the US was providing consular assistance to the family.

• Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday there is a possibility of a renewed campaign against Iran, according to a statement from his office. He stressed the necessity of formulating an effective enforcement plan for the future to ensure that Iran does not restore its nuclear programme.