World
Twenty-eight nations call for an end to the war. Ceasefire talks. Fragile truce in Syria. By Jonathan Pearlman.
Israel urged to support UN aid to end ‘mass starvation’
Hunger in Gaza
Israel expanded its ground offensive in Gaza this week amid concerns about a worsening food shortage in the enclave as a new distribution system continued to pose deadly risks to those seeking aid.
Health authorities in Gaza said this week 33 people had died of starvation and 600,000 of the enclave’s 2.1 million residents had malnutrition symptoms.
Khalil al-Deqran, a spokesperson for the Hamas-run health ministry, told Reuters: “Hospitals can’t provide much more help for hunger-related symptoms because of food and medicine shortages.”
The Israeli agency responsible for aid, Cogat, denied there was starvation in Gaza, accusing Hamas of spreading propaganda to pressure Israel during ceasefire negotiations.
But a group of 109 aid organisations said this week “mass starvation” was spreading in Gaza and urged Israel to support a United Nations-led aid system.
Israel blocked aid entering Gaza for more than two months until late May, saying it did not want supplies being intercepted or controlled by Hamas. Since then, aid has been overseen by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a group backed by Israel and the United States that has distributed aid from four sites.
More than 800 people seeking aid have been killed while trying to reach the sites, mostly by Israeli forces, according to local officials. Israel says it has fired warning shots near crowds to avoid threats to soldiers but disputed the casualty numbers.
Officials from Israel, Egypt and the UN held talks in Cairo this week on a new aid distribution plan that would reduce the role of the GHF.
This week, Israel said 950 trucks of aid that had been allowed into Gaza were yet to be collected by aid organisations. The UN said aid had not been collected due to the ongoing fighting and Israeli restrictions on movements within Gaza.
Mohammed Mahmoud, a father of four who lives in Gaza, told BBC News on Wednesday that his family had eaten only lentils for two days.
“We mix a little table salt into a glass of water and drink it, just to get some electrolytes,” he said.
On Monday, Israeli troops pressed deeper into Gaza, operating in Deir al-Balah, one of few areas that the military had not yet entered. Israel reportedly believes Hamas is holding hostages there.
Rabiha Salman, a 58-year-old Gazan who had taken refuge in Deir al-Balah with her family of nine, told The Washington Post they had been forced to flee for the fifth time since the war began.
“Our whole life has become displacement and suffering, for almost two years,” she said.
Australia joins aid plea
On Friday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese used his strongest language yet to deplore the situation in Gaza, saying it “has gone beyond the world’s worst fears”.
“The position of the Australian Government is clear: every innocent life matters. Every Israeli. Every Palestinian. This conflict has stolen far too many innocent lives. Tens of thousands of civilians are dead, children are starving.
“Gaza is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe. Israel’s denial of aid and the killing of civilians, including children, seeking access to water and food cannot be defended or ignored. We call on Israel to comply immediately with its obligations under international law.”
His words follow the announcement from France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, that the country will officially recognise Palestine as a state at the UN General Assembly in September, drawing criticism from both the US and Israel.
The pressure mounted this week with a joint statement from 28 countries – comprising 24 European countries, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Japan – calling for an end to the war and urging Israel to lift restrictions on the flow of aid.
The statement, released on Monday, condemned the Israeli-backed aid delivery system, saying it was “dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity”.
“We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food,” it said.
Israel’s foreign affairs ministry rejected the statement, saying it was “disconnected from reality and sends the wrong message to Hamas”.
The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, described the statement as disgusting, saying it “put pressure on Israel instead of savages of Hamas”.
Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, told Sky News on Tuesday the decision to join the statement reflected the “distress” in Australia about the deaths of Gazans seeking aid. Asked about Huckabee’s comments, she said Donald Trump was a strong advocate of a ceasefire and hostage deal.
“I think President Trump has the greatest chance of any political leader of brokering a ceasefire,” she said.
Ceasefire setback
Steve Witkoff, the White House’s Middle East envoy, has announced a US withdrawal from talks for a truce in Gaza. In a statement on Thursday, Witkoff said. “We have decided to bring our team home from Doha for consultations after the latest response from Hamas, which clearly shows a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire in Gaza.”
Israel has also recalled its negotiators, though the Times of Israel reported a senior Israeli official saying there had been “no collapse” in the talks.
Hamas expressed surprise at the halt, saying, “The movement affirms its keenness to continue negotiations and engage in them in a manner that helps overcome obstacles and leads to a permanent ceasefire agreement.”
Negotiations between Israel and Hamas in Qatar had focused on plans for a 60-day ceasefire that would reportedly include the release of 10 hostages and the bodies of 18 dead hostages, the withdrawal of Israeli troops to agreed lines, the release of Palestinian detainees and a boost to the flow of aid.
According to CBS News, Israel presented a map this week showing new withdrawal lines – an issue that has been the main point of contention. Hamas had submitted its response to the ceasefire framework early Thurday.
The ceasefire would have enabled talks on ending the war, which began after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1200 people and taking 251 hostages. Israel’s attacks on Gaza have killed more than 59,000 people, according to local officials. Israel says it has killed at least 20,000 Hamas fighters.
Fragile truce in Syria
Meanwhile, in Syria, a fragile ceasefire appeared to be holding this week after nine days of clashes between Druze groups and Bedouin clans that are believed to have left more than 1300 people dead and prompted 130,000 to flee.
The fighting, which occurred in Suweida, a southern province, led to the deployment of forces by the interim Syrian government, which was accused of siding with the Bedouins. Israel then attacked government forces in Suweida as well as the defence ministry in Damascus, saying it wanted to protect the Druze community.
The US, Turkey and Jordan helped to mediate a ceasefire on July 19, which has largely held despite some limited clashes between the Druze and Bedouins.
The violence in Suweida involved some of the heaviest sectarian fighting since former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad was ousted last December.
According to the United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the fighting left 1311 people dead, including 196 people who were executed by government-linked militias.
Bedouin, Druze and government forces were accused of atrocities, including targeting civilians and sexual violence. Staff at the main hospital in Suweida told a BBC News reporter this week that government forces conducted a massacre there of as many as 300 Druze patients.
Syria’s defence ministry said on Tuesday it was aware of reports of “shocking violations” by people wearing military fatigues in Suweida. It said it will launch an investigation.
This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on July 26, 2025 as "Israel urged to support UN aid to end ‘mass starvation’".
For almost a decade, The Saturday Paper has published Australia’s leading writers and thinkers. We have pursued stories that are ignored elsewhere, covering them with sensitivity and depth. We have done this on refugee policy, on government integrity, on robo-debt, on aged care, on climate change, on the pandemic.
All our journalism is fiercely independent. It relies on the support of readers. By subscribing to The Saturday Paper, you are ensuring that we can continue to produce essential, issue-defining coverage, to dig out stories that take time, to doggedly hold to account politicians and the political class.
There are very few titles that have the freedom and the space to produce journalism like this. In a country with a concentration of media ownership unlike anything else in the world, it is vitally important. Your subscription helps make it possible.
Subscriber exclusive
Send this article to a friend for free.
Share this subscriber exclusive article with a friend or family member using share credits.
