This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Residents are seen fleeing the area with their belongings on horse carts, on foot, or in vehicles, heading toward areas they believe to be safer as Palestinians begin to evacuate following warnings from the Israeli army for an immediate mandatory evacuation of Khan Yunis in preparation for a potential Israeli attacks in Khan Yunis, Gaza on June 03, 2025. [Abdallah F.s. Alattar – Anadolu Agency]
The UN on Thursday said Israeli military displacement orders have forced more than 640,000 Palestinians to flee in the Gaza Strip since March, warning that nearly one-third of the population is under repeated evacuation orders, Anadolu reports.
Citing the Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said, “Yesterday, Israeli authorities issued another displacement order.”
“This time covering 54 neighborhoods across three governors — North Gaza, Gaza and Deir el Bala. This is the second order issued for the same area representing one-third of the Gaza Strip,” he said.
Saying that “since the renewed escalation of hostilities in March, the Israeli military issued 35 displacement orders,” Dujarric indicated that the Israeli orders forced “more than 640,000 people to flee again.
“That’s almost every third Palestinian in Gaza,” he added.
Dujarric raised the alarm about the worsening humanitarian situation, citing Israeli restrictions on aid access.
“Yesterday, Israeli authorities continued to deny humanitarian movements that required coordination,” he said, adding that “out of the 16 attempted attempts to coordinate such movements, five were rejected, including trucking water, retrieval of nutrition supplies and relocating fuel stocks.”
Six additional missions were not completed “either because of impediments or because organizers had to cancel them,” while only five were successfully carried out.
He added that the limited missions allowed aid workers “to screen children for malnutrition, provide medical services and carry out assessments,” but noted that “none of them involve the delivery of supplies, which are so desperately needed.”
Warning that “supplies continue to dwindle,” Dujarric reported that half of Gaza’s community kitchens are now closed because of displacement or shortages, and emphasized that what is currently entering Gaza “is merely a trickle.”
The Israeli army resumed its assaults on the enclave on March 18 and has since killed 4,402 victims and injured nearly 13,490, shattering a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement that took hold in January.
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.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAUK 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.
Protesters form a Red Line for Palestine around the U.K. Parliament on June 4, 2025 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo: Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images)
“U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer admitted this week that the situation in Gaza is ‘getting worse by the day’ but has yet to match these words with concrete actions.”
Thousands of people formed a “Red Line for Palestine” encircling the U.K. Parliament in Westminster on Wednesday to demand an arms embargo and sanctions on Israel for its ongoing genocidal violence against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The protesters are also calling for the reinstatement of U.K. aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the government’s support for International Criminal Court investigations, and an immediate and permanent cease-fire in Gaza, according to a statement from organizers.
The red line protest during Parliament’s “question time” was organized by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Muslim Association of Britain, Palestinian Forum in Britain, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and Stop the War Coalition.
Extraordinary scenes here today with thousands and thousands of people surrounding Parliament during #PMQs in protest that our government is still arming Israel.@ChrisNineham on today’s Red Line for Palestine 🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/EGT6VWllMV
“The U.S.-backed aid distribution in Gaza has shut down operations today, citing ‘security risks,'” organizers noted. “This follows widespread criticism over its ties to Israel and alleged downplaying of civilian casualties. Meanwhile, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer admitted this week that the situation in Gaza is ‘getting worse by the day’ but has yet to match these words with concrete actions.”
While people in the streets took aim at Starmer and U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who are both part of the Labour Party, some members of Parliament joined the protest.
Scottish MP Brian Leishman, a member of Labour’s Socialist Campaign Group, said on social media that he was “proud to stand with fellow MPs and the thousands of people that joined the Red Line for Palestine protest outside Parliament today calling for an end to genocide and for countries to stop arming Israel.”
Children in Gaza wish they were dead.
Keir Starmer, David Lammy: read that line again.
The depths of human suffering felt by children in Gaza are immeasurable. No child should experience even a second of these horrors, let alone 20 months.
— Save the Children UK (@savechildrenuk) June 4, 2025
MP Colum Eastwood, former leader of Northern Ireland’s Social Democratic and Labour Party, similarly said that he was “proud” to join the protest, while MP Zack Polansky, a candidate to lead the Green Party, said he was “proud to stand with so many fellow Jewish people against the genocide.”
Party MP Ellie Chowns described her experience participating in the demonstration as “incredibly moving and powerful,” while Independent MP Shockat Adam declared: “Starving children is a red line. Genocide is a red line. When humanity is on the line, silence cannot be the response.”
Independent MP Adnan Hussain said he was “honored to have joined” the action and shared footage in which he appeared with MP Jeremy Corbyn, a fellow Independent who used to be Labour’s leader. In the Sky News clip, Corbyn talked about the bill he’s introducing to demand an independent public inquiry into the U.K.’s “complicity with active genocide” in Gaza.
Jeremy Corbyn, protesting outside Parliament, says he’s introducing a private member’s bill calling for an independent public inquiry into UK arms policy and its role in Gaza.https://t.co/E8zaRLYMxJ
“Many of us remain disgusted by the continued supply of components for the F-35 fighter jet program,” Corbyn told The New Arab. “I am shocked the government openly admits to making ‘exceptions’ to its partial suspension. Does this breach its legal obligations to prevent genocide? One thing is clear: This government still supplies weapons to a state whose leader is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.”
The Hague-based tribunal in November issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and a Hamas leader who has since been declared dead. Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice over its annihilation of Gaza.
Polling shows Israel’s destruction of Gaza is unpopular with the British public. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign not only was an organizer of Wednesday’s protest but also commissioned a poll from Opinium Research and released the results on Wednesday. The survey, conducted from May 30 to June 2, found that 57% of Brits believe the U.K. should impose a full arms embargo.
The survey also found that 54% support sanctioning Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, 53% think Israel should be expelled from the U.N., and 50% support boycotting Israeli products in supermarkets. Middle East Eyereported that “the new poll comes after a similar survey showed public support for Israel in European countries had fallen to its lowest recorded level.”
The polling also comes as the official casualty counts in Gaza—which experts warn are likely significant underestimates—climbed to 54,607 Palestinians killed and 125,341 wounded, with most of the enclave’s more than 2 million struggling to access food, water, shelter, and healthcare in the face of Israel’s bombings and blockade of humanitarian aid.
Today we’re forming a red line around Parliament to demand our government sanction Israel for its crimes against the Palestinian people. @Keir_Starmer is the red line if it’s not starving children and committing genocide.#StopArmingIsraelpic.twitter.com/eHLD3QpZ51
— Palestine Solidarity Campaign (@PSCupdates) June 4, 2025
U.K. organizers plan to follow Wednesday’s red line action with a National March for Palestine on Saturday, June 21.
“Israel’s attacks on Gaza and the West Bank are intensifying. Their starvation policy continues,” says the march’s webpage. “The U.K. government has at last accepted that Israel’s actions are unconscionable. Now they must act—words are not enough.”
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAUK 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.UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspeding 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.
Francesca Albanese, United Nations special rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, speaks during a press conference at Buswells Hotel in Dublin, Ireland on March 20, 2025. (Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Images via Getty Images)
“To end it, we must first be willing to see it.”
United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese pushed back Tuesday against Israel and its defenders, who for years have attempted to gaslight and malign the Italian legal scholar for tirelessly condemning what an increasing number of international experts—including many Israelis and diaspora Jews—agree is a genocide in Gaza.
“I call it genocide because IT IS a genocide,” Albanese wrote on the social media site X on Tuesday, amplifying a video she recorded last week in which she said that “Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.”
“It’s not an opinion, it’s a fact,” the 48-year-old Georgetown University scholar asserted. “Top international experts, including Israelis, agree upon that.”
I call it genocide because IT IS genocide. Defined by intent, not by method or means. Visible without magnification—if we look with context, at the victims: what they share is being part of a group, as such. Because of it, they get killed, tortured, maimed, starved, raped,… https://t.co/137BWEN5vG
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) June 3, 2025
Under Article II of the Genocide Convention, the crime of genocide is defined as killing, “causing serious bodily or mental harm” to a group of people, “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,” “imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group,” or “forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”
Israel is currently facing a genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) brought by South Africa and supported by dozens of nations, either individually or via regional blocs. The ICJ has issued three provisional orders for Israel to take steps including avoiding genocidal acts and ending weaponized starvation in Gaza. Critics say Israel has violated all three orders.
The International Criminal Court has also issued warrants for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza including extermination and forced starvation.
“In Gaza, Israel has killed nearly 60,000 people with bombs bullets, and drones, including 16,000 children,” Albanese said in the video. “It has flattened homes, schools, churches, hospitals, water networks, farms, even cemeteries. The death toll from hunger, disease, untreated wounds, an[d] deprivation could reach 300,000.”
“Prisoners, including medics and journalists, have been tortured. Many have been raped, using dogs and sticks; some have died in Israeli prisons,” she continued. “Forced displacement continues in the West Bank, and over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in 20 months, and 1 in 5 is a child.”
“Beware of those who use Hamas’ crimes or the fate of the hostages to justify this massacre,” she said. “Civilians are never legitimate targets. Israel has masked everything with legal words: ‘evacuations,’ ‘safe zones,’ ‘human shields’—it’s fiction.”
Israel and its leaders deny they are committing genocide and say those who make such allegations—including Jews—are antisemitic. Albanese has been a prominent target of such smears, in which the Biden and Trump administrations as well as members of U.S. Congress, both Democratic and Republican, have taken part while supporting tens of billions of dollars in U.S. armed aid for Israel.
Albanese has called the U.S. and other Western nations that support Israel an “axis of genocide.”
“And what about us? We are failing the test of our humanity.”
Gaza officials say Israeli bombs, bullets, and blockades have left at least 193,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing and millions more forcibly displaced, sickened, or starved— sometimes to death. Israeli forces are currently carrying out a plan by Netanyahu’s far-right government to conquer, indefinitely occupy, ethnically cleanse, and possibly recolonize Gaza, which U.S. President Donald Trumpsaid he wants to make into the “Riviera of the Middle East”—presumably devoid of Palestinians.
“And what about us?” asked Albanese in the video. “We are failing the test of our humanity. Too many media, governments, companies, universities, too many guilty consciences and dirty hands. This genocide bears our fingerprints. It’s under our eyes. Denying it today means being ignorant, or complicit. Stopping it is the only way to remain human.”
“Genocide is a process, not a single act,” Albanese added. “A collective act. A criminal venture. To end it, we must first be willing to see it.”
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.
“Having bombed people in their homes or tents as they sleep; shelled hospitals where people are being treated or schools where they seek shelter, the Israeli defence forces are now wreaking untold carnage, gunning hungry Palestinians down as they try to collect food aid they’ve been denied for weeks.
“Two weeks ago, we heard lots of bluster from the Labour government about how awful and unacceptable the situation in Gaza was, but the concrete action pledged by Keir Starmer hasn’t materialised. It’s time for action, not more words – Israel has crossed too many red lines.
“The government must call for an immediate ceasefire and denounce Israel’s atrocities for what they are – genocide. They must now end all arms sales to the country, impose a wide range of sanctions and call for the arrest and trial of all those guilty of war crimes – including prime minister Netanyahu.”
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAUK 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.
Injured Palestinians are being brought to the Nasser Hospital for their treatment process after Israeli soldiers opened fire at Palestinians trying to reach the points where U.S. aid is distributed west of Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip, in Khan Yunis, Gaza on June 01, 2025. It was reported that at least 31 people were killed and 170 people were wounded by the gunfire of Israeli soldiers. (Photo by Hani Alshaer/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“The new U.S.-Israeli genocide strategy: starve the population, lure them with promises of aid, then kill them.”
Fresh international outrage erupted on Sunday after Israeli forces opened fire on hundreds of starving Palestinians in Gaza gathered at a food distribution point where they had been directed by Israeli officials, resulting in a massacre described by witnesses as the largest since a new U.S.-backed humanitarian plan run by Israel was put in place last month.
Health officials in Gaza and multiple witnesses at the site near the southern city of Rafah reported that “Israeli forces fired on crowds around a kilometer (1,000 yards) away from an aid site run by an Israeli-backed foundation,” according to the Associated Press.
“The international community must act immediately and decisively to compel Israel to end its inhumane aid distribution mechanism in Gaza, following today’s massacre near a U.S.-backed aid centre south of Rafah, where Israeli forces killed or injured over 220 starving civilians,” said the Switzerland-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor (Euro-Med), in a Sunday morning statement, which had personnel on the ground near the aid station.
“Let them stop these massacres, stop this genocide. They are killing us.”According to the group:
Euro-Med Monitor’s field team documented Israeli forces opening fire on thousands of civilians gathered at dawn today, Sunday, 1 June 2025, in Tel al-Sultan, Rafah, near an aid distribution centre established by the Israeli army. Preliminary data indicate that the attack killed at least 31 civilians, including two women, and injured more than 200 others. Several remain missing.
The death toll is expected to rise due to the high number of critical injuries and the severe collapse of the healthcare system caused by the blockade and Israeli targeting of medical facilities.
In early May, as Common Dreams reported, United Nations aid officials and other humanitarian relief experts warned against the plan put forward by Israel and backed by the Trump administration that would allow a private and newly created Israeli foundation, euphemistically named the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, to administer the delivery of aid across Gaza with security provided by the IDF and U.S. mercenary soldiers.
“There is no reason to put in place a system that is at odds with the DNA of any principled humanitarian organization,” said Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), on May 9.a
The controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has been marred by controversy since its creation last month and denounced as operating as cover for Israel’s ongoing atrocities against the Palestinian people in Gaza, said in a statement reviewed by the AP that it distributed 16 truckloads of aid early Sunday “without incident,” and dismissed what it referred to as “false reporting about deaths, mass injuries and chaos.”
Footage and testimony from witnesses at the scene posted online, however, made those claims look like lies:
Around 200 civilians were killed and injured after Israeli forces opened fire and shelled civilians with tanks while they were trying to reach one of the so-called “aid delivery” points run by the U.S.-Israeli Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.#WitkoffMassacrepic.twitter.com/JI7E8rpBmM
Dr. Ramy Abdul, a professor of law and Euro-Med chair, however, shared footage of the scene where the killings and chaos took place and said: “The new U.S.-Israeli genocide strategy: starve the population, lure them with promises of aid, then kill them.”
As did others, Abdul dubbed the horrific event the “Witkoff Massacre,” a reference to President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, now in charge of brokering a U.S.-sponsored cease-fire deal between Hamas and the Israeli government.
Thousands of people headed toward the distribution site hours before dawn. As they headed toward the site, Israeli forces ordered them to disperse and come back later, witnesses said. When the crowds reached the Flag Roundabout, around 1 kilometer (1,000 yards) away, at around 3 a.m., Israeli forces opened fire, the witnesses said.
“There was fire from all directions, from naval warships, from tanks and drones,” said Amr Abu Teiba, who was in the crowd.
He said he saw at least 10 bodies with gunshot wounds and several other wounded people, including women. People used carts to ferry the dead and wounded to the field hospital. “The scene was horrible,” he said.
Most of the casualties were shot “in the upper part of their bodies, including the head, neck and chest,” said Dr. Marwan al-Hams, a health ministry official at Nasser Hospital, where many of the wounded were transferred after being initially brought to a field hospital run by the Red Cross.
In a point-by-point breakdown on Friday, Drop Site News‘ Jeremy Scahill detailed that Witkoff, through his negotiations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is trying to “strong-arm Hamas into a deal that does not end the genocide” that continues apace in Gaza.
After Israel last week rejected tentative language amenable to both the U.S. and Hamas negotiators, Witkoff responded on Saturday to an updated draft submitted by Hamas with a rejection of his own, calling it “totally unacceptable.”
Meanwhile, the threat of famine for the entire population of Gaza continues—all with firm U.S. backing and complicity, infuriating humanitarians worldwide as the death and suffering mounts.
Reda Abu Jazar toldAl-Jazeera on Sunday that her brother was among those killed as he attempted to retrieve food at the distribution site in Rafah.
“Let them stop these massacres, stop this genocide. They are killing us,” she said.
Multiple deadly incidents over recent weeks at the aid delivery sites set up by the Israelis led Euro-Med on Sunday, following the latest massacre, to say “these incidents should not be dismissed as procedural issues fixable through operational adjustments.”
“They must be understood within the broader context of the grave consequences of the Israeli military’s control over humanitarian aid” in Gaza, the group continued. “It is inconceivable that the same entity accused of committing genocide for nearly 20 months can be entrusted with improving the humanitarian conditions of the very population it targets.”
Euro-Med called for an “immediate end to the Israeli aid distribution mechanism in the Gaza Strip… as it has become a site of field executions and fails to meet even the most basic humanitarian standards.”
The group called for the reinstatement of UN-led relief operations “to ensure the safe and effective delivery of aid to Gaza’s population.”
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.Genocide denying UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
