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‘People in Gaza are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses,’ says UnrwaThe Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency has said his workers are fainting at work from hunger.Philippe Lazzarini wrote on ‘X’: “‘People in Gaza are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses’: a colleague in #Gaza told me this morning.“This deepening crisis is affecting everyone, including those trying to save lives in the war-torn enclave. Unrwa frontline health workers, are surviving on one small meal a day, often just lentils, if at all.“They are increasingly fainting from hunger while at work. When caretakers cannot find enough to eat, the entire humanitarian system is collapsing.”“People in Gaza are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses”: a colleague in #Gaza told me this morning. Meanwhile, according to @UNRWA latest findings: one in every five children is malnourished in Gaza City as cases increase every day. When child malnutrition…— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) July 24, 2025ShareUpdated at 13.30 BSTKey eventsShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureIsrael has confirmed that its troops killed two Palestinian teens overnight in the occupied West Bank, but said its forces targeted people throwing firebombs.Ahmad Ali Asaad Ashira al-Salah, 15, and Mohammad Khaled Aliyan Issa, 17, were shot dead on Wednesday night, in the town of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem.The Israeli army confirmed the report to AFP, saying its forces had killed two people from a group of “several terrorists”.“During an (Israeli army) operation adjacent to the area of Al-Khader… soldiers identified several terrorists hurling Molotov cocktails toward a central highway in the area,” it added. “The soldiers responded with fire toward the terrorists, eliminating two of them.”ShareA series of explosions killed at least 12 people and wounded more than 100 at a weapons depot in northwestern Syria on Thursday, a monitor said.“Multiple blasts at a weapons and ammunition warehouse belonging to the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) killed at least 12 people and wounded more than 100 in Maaret Misrin, in northern Idlib province,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.Those killed included a woman and a child, said the Britain-based monitor, which relies on a network of sources on the ground.The TIP is a jihadist group active in the Idlib region made up of Uighur fighters who joined the Syrian civil war to fight against former president Bashar al-Assad.A Syrian Civil Defense worker checks the explosion scene in Maarat Misrin village, in Idlib province, north Syria, Thursday, July, 24, 2025. Photograph: APShareIn Gaza on Thursday, the distribution of food to desperate Palestinians was a picture of chaos.Women going to fetch aid for their families said US contractors organising distribution asked them to come to pick up goods and then fired tear gas and pepper spray at them.“The Americans said “go, go”, and then said no, get back. They sprayed us with pepper spray so we went away. Five minutes later they shot tear gas at us … is this American humanitarian aid?” said Mervat al-Sakani.The US contractors are part of an effort the US and Israel have backed to take the lead on aid distribution from the United Nations, through a group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.Palestinians seek aid from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, near RafahPalestinians seeking aid supplies from the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation travel in an animal-drawn cart, near Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2025. Photograph: Ramadan Abed/ReutersShareThe Hostages Families Forum, which represents the family members of those being held in Gaza, expressed “concern” that the Israeli mediation team had been recalled to Israel after Hamas delivered a new response to a proposal for a truce and hostages deal. They urged Israeli and American leaders to act quickly.“Each day that passes endangers the hostages chances of recovery and risks losing the ability to locate the fallen or gain vital intelligence about them,” the statement said.A senior Hamas source told Reuters on Thursday that the group’s response said no negotiation sessions had yet been held on a prisoner exchange, which it described as a top priority, and that it had submitted a new framework on the matter to mediators.A senior Israeli official was quoted by local media as saying the new text was something Israel could work with. However, Israel’s Channel 12 said a rapid deal was not within reach, with gaps remaining between the two sides, including over where the Israeli military should withdraw to during any truce.ShareIran condemned on Thursday a symbolic vote by Israeli lawmakers endorsing the annexation of the occupied West Bank, which Tehran’s foreign ministry said proved Israel’s “expansionist” motives.The non-binding vote on Wednesday was “another sign of the expansionist… character of this regime, and we condemn it”, said a foreign ministry statement.Israeli soldiers look at Palestinians standing in a street during an army operation in the West Bank city of Nablus, 23 July 2025. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, at least three Palestinians were wounded during the operation. Photograph: Alaa Badarneh/EPAShareYotam Ottolenghi, the Jerusalem-born British chef and bestselling author, said the level of hunger in Gaza is “shocking beyond belief.”In a post on social media, he said he’s adding his voice to global calls for Israel to halt its attacks on Gaza and let aid flow without restriction.“The sequence of events leading to this moment – with victims on both sides – cannot justify withholding food from a whole population,” he said. “This goes against any value I was raised on.”Ottolenghi wrote a book with Palestinian Sami Tamimi called “Jerusalem,” covering Arab and Jewish cooking in the holy city.Displaced Palestinian mother Samah Matar holds her malnourished son Youssef, who suffers from cerebral palsy, at a school where they shelter amid a hunger crisis, in Gaza City, July 24, 2025. Photograph: Mahmoud Issa/ReutersShareProminent religious Jewish leaders in the United States are calling on Israel to investigate a surge of settler violence against Palestinians and the recent killing of an American citizen by Israeli settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.In a statement released Wednesday, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Union for Reform Judaism and the American Conference of Cantors said Israel must undertake a “full investigation” into the death of Sayfollah Musallet, a Palestinian-American from Tampa, Florida, who Palestinian authorities say was beaten to death by Israeli settlers while visiting family in the West Bank.Hesam Musallet, uncle to Sayfollah Musallet, reacts, after he speaks to reporters about his nephew during a press conference at the CAIR-Florida Tampa Office on Monday, July 14, 2025, in Tampa. Photograph: Jefferee Woo/Tampa Bay Times/ZUMA Press Wire/ShutterstockShareA terminally ill 73-year-old Israeli woman has been charged with plotting to assassinate prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a rocket launcher, prosecutors said on Thursday.According to the indictment, the woman, an anti-government activist from Tel Aviv whose identity has not been released, decided to kill Netanyahu after she learned of her diagnosis.She consequently decided to “sacrifice” her life in order to “save” the state of Israel from the current government, the prosecutor quoted her saying.She reportedly shared her plan with another activist and asked him to help her purchase a rocket-propelled grenade to carry out the assassination.Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference, in Jerusalem, 21 May 2025. Photograph: Ronen Zvulun/ReutersShareUpdated at 15.45 BSTIsrael brought its delegation home from Gaza ceasefire talks for consultations on Thursday after Hamas delivered a new response to a proposal for a truce and hostages deal.The Israeli prime minister’s office thanked mediators for their efforts and said the negotiators were returning home for “further consultations”. Earlier it said Israel was reviewing the response from Hamas.Two sources familiar with the negotiations in Qatar said Israel’s decision to bring its delegation back home did not necessarily indicate a crisis in the talks.A senior Hamas source told Reuters that there was still a chance of reaching a Gaza ceasefire agreement but it would take a few days because of what he called Israeli stalling.The source said Hamas’ response included requesting a clause that would prevent Israel from resuming the war if an agreement was not reached within the 60-day truce period.ShareIran ready to engage in talks on nuclear program with US but only if Washington ‘takes meaningful steps to rebuild trust’, says Iranian ministerIran is ready to engage in talks on its nuclear program with the United States, but only if Washington takes meaningful steps to rebuild trust, deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi said Thursday.Iran is set to meet Britain, France and Germany, known as the E3 nations, and the European Union’s deputy foreign policy commissioner on Friday in Istanbul. They will be the first talks since Iran’s 12-day war with Israel in June, which involved US B-52 bombers striking nuclear-related facilities in Iran.Gharibabadi said in a social media post on Thursday that to enter negotiations, Iran sought “several key principles” to be upheld, reported Associated Press.He said these included “rebuilding Iran’s trust – as Iran has absolutely no trust in the United States – avoiding the use of talks as a platform for hidden agendas such as military action, though Iran remains fully prepared for any scenario; respecting and recognizing Iran’s rights under the non-proliferation treaty, including enrichment in line with its legitimate needs; and the lifting of sanctions.”Friday’s talks will be held at the deputy ministerial level, with Iran sending deputy foreign minister Majid Takht-e Ravanchi. A similar meeting was held in Istanbul in May.ShareUpdated at 15.22 BST
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