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A group of people, gathered at Habima Square in Tel Aviv, Israel, stage a demonstration demanding the return of Israeli hostages in Gaza on August 2, 2025. [Saeed Qaq – Anadolu Agency]
Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said on Sunday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is attempting to “end the issue of the captives held in Gaza by starving them to death after failing to locate and kill them through bombing.”
In a statement published on Telegram, al-Rishq expressed regret that “hunger has reached the Israeli captives,” but held “Netanyahu and his Nazi-like government fully responsible,” accusing them of launching “a starvation and thirst war against our people, the effects of which have now reached their captives.”
On Friday, al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, released footage of Israeli captive Evyatar David, who appeared severely underweight due to what was described as Israel’s ongoing starvation policy in Gaza.
Similarly, on Thursday, al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, released a video it said was the last footage of captive Rom Braslavski before contact was lost with the group holding him. In the video, Braslavski appeared to be in an extremely frail physical condition, allegedly due to the starvation imposed by Israel on Gaza.
Commenting on this, al-Rishq said, “Our resistance fighters treat their captives according to our religious teachings and human values. They feed them from what they eat and give them water from what they drink, just as all our people do.”
Smoke rises amid destroyed buildings following an Israeli shelling in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, August 1, 2025
HAMAS branded US President Donald Trump’s special envoy visit to Gaza a “publicity stunt“ today.
Steve Witkoff’s visit comes as the humanitarian crisis in the enclave rapidly deteriorates and killings continue.
Medical sources in Gaza reported that at least 38 people were killed by the Israelis today, including 12 aid seekers, with more than 80 people wounded.
The US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) denied anyone was killed at their sites today and said most recent incidents had taken place near United Nations aid convoys.
Mr Witkoff visited the south of the strip today as international outrage continues to grow over starvation, shortages and deadly chaos near aid distribution sites.
…
All four of GHF’s sites have become flashpoints during their months of operation, with starving people scrambling for scarce aid.
Hundreds have been killed by Israeli gunfire.
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Hamas said today that the visit by Mr Wikoff to Gaza “is nothing more than a publicity stunt aimed at containing the growing outrage over US-Israeli complicity in starving our people in the strip.
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Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in El Alamein, Egypt on August 05, 2024 [Murat Gök/Anadolu Agency]
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on Friday reiterated his country’s strong opposition to any attempts to forcibly displace Palestinians from their land during his talks with Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, Anadolu reports.
The two leaders spoke by phone about bilateral relations and the deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip, according to the Egyptian presidency.
Sisi emphasized the importance of strengthening cooperation between Egypt and the Netherlands.
Sisi also highlighted Egypt’s ongoing efforts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza and ensure the urgent and sufficient delivery of humanitarian aid to the besieged enclave, according to the presidency’s statement. He stressed the need for progress in negotiations to release prisoners on both sides.
Israel currently claims that 50 of its hostages remain in Gaza, including 20 who are still alive. Meanwhile, over 10,800 Palestinians are imprisoned in Israeli jails under conditions widely condemned by rights groups as involving torture, starvation, and medical neglect, practices that have led to numerous deaths.
Negotiations between Israel and Hamas mediated by Qatar and Egypt and backed by the US recently collapsed in Doha after Israel hardened its position on issues including full military withdrawal from Gaza, ending the war, prisoner exchange terms, and aid distribution mechanisms.
While Hamas has signaled readiness to release all Israeli hostages in a single exchange, conditional on a permanent ceasefire and Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has continued to impose new demands.
In his call with Schoof, Sisi also reaffirmed Egypt’s commitment to restarting the political process based on a two-state solution.
He further stressed the urgency of launching Gaza’s reconstruction as soon as a ceasefire is achieved.
“Egypt remains firmly opposed to any plans to forcibly displace Palestinians,” the presidency said, reaffirming Cairo’s longstanding position.
In March, Egypt proposed a five-year, $53 billion reconstruction plan for Gaza, adopted at an emergency Arab League summit.
The plan explicitly ruled out any displacement of Palestinians. However, both Israel and the US have rejected the initiative and instead backed an alternative plan promoted by US President Donald Trump that would relocate Palestinians to neighboring countries like Egypt and Jordan.
Both nations have rejected such proposals, alongside other Arab states and international organizations.
Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 60,300 Palestinians, most of them women and children. The relentless bombardment has destroyed the enclave and led to food shortages.
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.
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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.
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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz holds a press conference in Berlin, Germany on July 18, 2025. [Halil Sağırkaya – Anadolu Agency]
More than 200 prominent German celebrities and journalists on Thursday urged Chancellor Friedrich Merz to stop arms deliveries to Israel and to impose further sanctions on Tel Aviv over its deadly military campaign in Gaza, Anadolu reports.
In an open letter, the group pointed to the suffering of children in the Gaza Strip and stressed: “We, too, condemn the horrific crimes of Hamas in the strongest possible terms. But no crime legitimizes the collective punishment of millions of innocent people in the most brutal way.”
The letter added that in the Gaza Strip, children who are not part of the war yet bear its burden are starving and dying.
“More than 17,000 have already been killed. Hundreds of thousands are injured, traumatized, displaced, and starving.
The signatories – including actors Liv Lisa Fries (Babylon Berlin), Katharina Thalbach (Miss Merkel), and Benno Furmann (North Face) – acknowledged Merz’s criticism of the Israeli government in recent days. However, they urged the chancellor to take further steps, including halting all German arms exports to Israel, supporting the suspension of the EU Association Agreement with Israel, and demanding an immediate ceasefire and unhindered access for humanitarian aid.
“These steps are deeply aligned with European values and would make it unmistakably clear to the Israeli government that even its closest allies can no longer tolerate the suffering and that words are no longer enough,” the open letter said.
On Monday, Merz said his government is considering stepping up pressure on Israel over the dire humanitarian situation in the enclave.
The German government “reserves the right” to take concrete measures to increase pressure on Israel to improve “the catastrophic situation” in the Gaza Strip, he said.
He added that the Security Cabinet had not yet made any decisions on the matter but had discussed options.
“We reserve the right, however, to take such steps,” he stressed.
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Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a statement during a visit to the site of the Weizmann Institute of Science, which was hit by an Iranian missile barrage, in the central city of Rehovot on June 20, 2025. [Jack GUEZ / POOL / AFP/ Getty Images]
Former Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday of seeking to prolong the Gaza war until elections, Anadolu reports.
Lieberman, leader of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu Party, said internal pressure will be directed at Netanyahu after the hostages taken by Hamas in October 2023 are returned and the war ends.
“Netanyahu wants to prolong the war until the elections,” Lieberman told Israel’s public broadcaster KAN.
The former minister did not specify whether he meant elections after Netanyahu’s term ends in December 2026 or early polls that might take place at the end of 2025 or the beginning of 2026.
“It is not possible to eliminate Hamas without first returning all the hostages (in Gaza) at once,” he added.
Indirect negotiations started on July 6 in the Qatari capital, Doha, to reach an agreement that includes a ceasefire and a prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel.
A source close to Hamas told Anadolu that the group received updated maps from mediators showing areas across Gaza still under Israeli control and began internal consultations to evaluate the maps.
The Israeli army has killed nearly 59,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since October 2023, most of them women and children. The relentless bombardment has destroyed the enclave, making it uninhabitable.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for 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.
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.
Smoke rises amid destroyed buildings following an Israeli shelling in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, August 1, 2025
