This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin, Germany, on July 22, 2025. [Halil Sağırkaya – Anadolu Agency]
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Friday called the humanitarian situation in Gaza “unacceptable,” according to media reports. Anadolu reports.
“One thing is clear to us: The situation there is unacceptable. It must end as quickly as possible. As long as it (this conflict) continues, at least a minimum of aid, medical assistance, and food aid must be guaranteed for the population. And Israel, of course, bears a considerable degree of responsibility for this,” Merz told journalists in the southwestern city of Saarbruecken.
Despite the dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, Germany has been one of the EU states to reject sanctions against Israel.
This was one of the reasons why EU governments were unable to agree on a proposal from the European Commission. The Commission proposed temporarily suspending Israel’s participation in the Horizon Europe research funding program.
According to Merz, his government will soon decide on the next steps in the Gaza conflict. He expects a report from Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul once he returns from his visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories on Saturday.
“We will await this report and make all further decisions,” the chancellor said when asked whether the German government could imagine participating in sanctions against Israel.
The government had already discussed in the Security Cabinet last Monday “how we might proceed together with our European partners,” he added.
Germany’s center-right government is under mounting pressure to adopt a tougher stance on Israel over what international human rights organizations say is a genocide in Gaza.
The Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, killing over 60,200 Palestinians. The relentless bombardment has devastated the enclave and led to food shortages.
On Monday, Israeli rights groups B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, citing the systematic destruction of Palestinian society and the deliberate dismantling of the territory’s health care system.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.Vote Labour for Genocide.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Fourteen-month-old Nur El Sarsak, one of hundreds of children diagnosed with malnutrition, fights for her life in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, where she lives with her family, on July 19, 2025. [Ashraf Amra – Anadolu Agency]
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) on Saturday called for the immediate lifting of restrictions preventing life-saving aid from reaching Gaza, saying it has food stockpiled to support the territory’s entire population for more than three months, Anadolu reports.
“UNRWA has enough food for the entire population of Gaza for over three months stockpiled in warehouses–including this one in Al Arish, Egypt–awaiting entry,” the agency said on X.
Despite having both supplies and logistical systems in place, the agency said access remains blocked.
It concluded with a direct appeal: “Open the gates, lift the siege, allow UNRWA to do its work and help people in need among them 1 million children.”
Israel has killed nearly 59,000 Palestinians so far, most of them women and children. It imposed a full humanitarian blockade of Gaza on March 2, cutting off food, medical supplies and other aid to the more than 2 million Palestinians in the territory.
After growing international pressure, it began allowing a trickle of aid in late May. The UN agencies have been bypassed and the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is operating distribution sites, leading to hundreds of deaths since then.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Thousands of Palestinians struggling with hunger gather in the Zakim area in northern Gaza to receive humanitarian aid in Gaza City, Gaza, on June 22, 2025. [Khames Alrefi – Anadolu Agency]
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees on Friday issued a scathing condemnation of the new aid distribution system operating in Gaza, warning it has turned into a “killing field” where over 400 desperate people have died in the past month, Anadolu reports.
“The new aid distribution system has become a killing field,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini wrote in a post on X. “Over 400 starving people reported killed since it started operating just a month ago. They were shot at while trying to access food for themselves and their families.”
He was referring to the Israeli attacks that happened near points of its new aid distribution mechanism, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation— a new Israeli plan to coordinate aid distribution in Gaza, which was broadly criticized by UN agencies and humanitarian actors.
Lazzarini said testimonies emerging from the ground indicate that soldiers opened fire “indiscriminately” as crowds gathered for food. “In the chaos, children were separated from their families: disoriented and traumatized,” he added.
Blasting the system as incompatible with humanitarian principles, the UNRWA chief said it was “not designed to address hunger and is often justified using the pretext of aid diversion that is yet to be substantiated let alone proven.”
“Instead of ‘orderly food distribution,’ this system brings dehumanization, chaos and death,” he said. “This cannot become the new norm.”
Calling the current setup an “abomination,” Lazzarini urged a return to UN-led humanitarian deliveries, including through UNRWA, and called for an immediate ceasefire and the lifting of the siege to restore the flow of basic supplies such as food, medicine, soap, and fuel.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Keir “I support Zionism without Qualification” Starmer supporting genocide.UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Charity organizations distribute food to Palestinians at Nusierat Refugee Camp in Gaza City, Gaza on June 26, 2025. [Hassan Jedi – Anadolu Agency]
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered a halt to aid deliveries to northern Gaza after far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich threatened to quit the coalition, citing unverified claims that Hamas was looting humanitarian supplies.
Smotrich reportedly made the ultimatum during a cabinet meeting, referencing a widely circulated video on social media showing armed men atop aid trucks. Although the footage was quickly seized upon by pro-government figures including former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Israel’s own military has been unable to confirm that the gunmen were affiliated with Hamas.
Haaretz cited media outlets in the Gaza Strip who reported that the gunmen are not Hamas operatives, but security guards sent by tribal leaders to protect aid truck convoys from looting. The aid documented in the video reached its destination – the UN warehouses in the Gaza Strip – and was distributed to residents
Despite this, Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant ordered the army to submit a “plan of action” within 48 hours to prevent what they described as Hamas “taking control of the humanitarian aid entering northern Gaza and stealing it from civilians.”
Israel has continually blamed Hamas for the looting of aid and used it as a justification to bypass UN aid distribution mechanisms to install the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Observers have stressed that the worsening aid crisis has been driven not by Hamas but by criminal gangs—some empowered by Israel itself. Among them is the militia led by Yasser Abu Shabab, a figure named in UN documents for systematically looting aid. His group has been armed and supported by Israel in an apparent effort to establish a post-Hamas order in the Gaza Strip.
An Israeli security source, quoted in Yedioth Ahronoth, warned that the plan is failing. Abu Shabab’s group, active near Rafah, has struggled to assert control or fulfil Israel’s expectations, and internal divisions have complicated their operations.
In a public statement, the Abu Shabab militia paradoxically demanded an “immediate solution” to the problem of aid theft—despite being implicated in it. The group offered vague promises about a new distribution mechanism but gave no details.
Israel’s reliance on criminal gangs and tribal militias to manage aid distribution has failed to bring order. Although the US-funded GHF remains the main agency overseeing aid deliveries, the presence of armed groups has contributed to worsening insecurity.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, over 500 Palestinians have been killed in the past month during Israeli shooting at food distribution centres, as crowds gathered in desperation.
On Wednesday, 74 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, 33 of them while waiting for food. The total Palestinian death toll since October 7 now exceeds 56,000.
Aid agencies have repeatedly warned that the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is deepening, with mass starvation looming. In June alone, over 1,600 children were hospitalised for severe malnutrition.
Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg speaks surrounded by other participants in the latest Freedom Flotilla Coalition effort to deliver shipborne aid to Gaza, during a June 1, 2025 press conference in Catania, Italy. (Photo: Fabrizio Villa/Getty Images)
“No matter how dangerous this mission is, it’s nowhere near as dangerous as the silence of the entire world in the face of the live-streamed genocide,” said climate activist Greta Thunberg, who is aboard the Madleen.
A dozen Palestine defenders including climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and a French lawmaker set sail from Sicily on Sunday aboard a boat carrying humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza, many of whom are starving amid Israel’s ongoing U.S.-backed genocidal assault and siege and decadeslong naval blockade of the coastal enclave.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) said it launched the sailboat Madleen—named after Gaza’s first and only known fisherwoman—from Catania, Italy at 4:00 pm local time Sunday “in direct defiance of Israel’s illegal and genocidal blockade.”
“Madleen symbolizes the unyielding spirit of Palestinian resilience and the growing global resistance to Israel’s use of collective punishment and deliberate starvation policies,” FFC said in a statement Sunday. “The ship is carrying urgently needed supplies for the people of Gaza, including baby formula, flour, rice, diapers, women’s sanitary products, water desalination kits, medical supplies, crutches, and children’s prosthetics.”
The international volunteers aboard Madleen include Thunberg, French Member of European Parliament Rima Hassan, German refugee advocate and FFC steering committee member Yasemin Acar, Brazilian FFC steering committee member Thiago Ávila, Al Jazeera reporter Omar Fayad, French doctor Baptiste Andre, French journalist Yanis M’Hamdi, Turkish engineer Şuayb Ordu, and crew members Mark Van Rennes, Reva Seifert Viard, Pascal Maurieras, and Sergio Toribio.
“I am aboard Madleen because silence is not neutrality—it is complicity,” said Hassan, who is banned from entering Israel due to her outspoken support for Palestinian rights. “The Palestinian people in Gaza are being starved and slaughtered, and the world watches. This ship is not just carrying aid, it is carrying a demand: End the blockade. End the genocide.”
Thunberg said that “we are seeing a systematic starvation of 2 million people. The world cannot be silent bystanders, Every single one of us has a moral obligation to do everything we can to fight for a free Palestine.”
The Madleen‘s launch came a month after the Conscience, another FCC aid vessel traveling in international waters off Malta, was attacked twice, presumably by Israeli forces. No one was harmed in what FFC said was a drone strike on the ship. However, the activists were forced to abort their humanitarian mission. Israel has not commented on the incident.
Madleen also set sail nearly 15 years to the day after Israeli forces raided a Gaza Freedom Flotilla convoy carrying humanitarian aid to the besieged people of Gaza. The attack—which also came in international waters—left nine people including Turkish-American teenager Furkan Doğan dead.
FFC said Sunday that the “unarmed and nonviolent” mission “poses no threat” and “sails in full accordance with international law. Any attack or interference will be a deliberate, unlawful assault on civilians.”
Those aboard the Madleen said they were aware of the dangers they faced. Israel has killed numerous Western activists and journalists who document its human rights violations over the years, and just last month Israeli troops opened fire on a group of international diplomats visiting the illegally occupied West Bank two days after three involved countries issued an ultimatum to stop annihilating Gaza.
“We are doing this because, no matter what odds we are against, we have to keep trying,” a tearful Thunberg said during a Sunday press conference. “Because the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity.”
“And no matter how dangerous this mission is, it’s nowhere near as dangerous as the silence of the entire world in the face of the live-streamed genocide,” she added.
Activist Greta Thunberg says silence is more dangerous than sailing to Gaza, as she boarded a vessel that will try to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
The Gaza Freedom Flotilla had to abandon its last attempt on May 2 when it was bombed. pic.twitter.com/ieecZ8ps0E
Some Israelis and their supporters took to social media to wish harm upon the activists. In the United States, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) alluded to past Israeli attacks on Gaza aid flotillas in a social media post saying, “Hope Greta and her friends can swim!”
Israel strongly refutes allegations that it is committing genocide in Gaza. South Africa has filed, and dozens of nations support, a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
The International Criminal Court, also located in the Dutch city, has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, including extermination and starvation as a weapon of war, in Gaza.
Officials in Gaza say that more than 192,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured since Israel launched its assault and siege following the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, a figure that includes at least 14,000 people who are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath rubble and hundreds of mostly children who have died from acute malnutrition and lack of medical care.
Around 2 million Gazans have also been forcibly displaced, often multiple times, amid Israel’s campaign to starve, conquer, indefinitely occupy, ethnically cleanse, and possibly recolonize the coastal strip.
Each side accuses the other of thwarting cease-fire efforts. On Saturday, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff rejected what he called Hamas’ “totally unacceptable” proposal for a truce in which 10 living and 18 dead Israeli hostages would be exchanged for an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy toldDemocracy Now! on Monday that a cease-fire proposal mediated by Witkoff is “a bad deal for the Palestinians that will allow Israel to continue its ethnic cleansing of Gaza” and “walks back the commitment for a permanent cease-fire, Israeli withdrawal, and allowing in of humanitarian aid.”
