The charity said ‘Keir Starmer witnessed 73,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces’. Photograph: Mohammed Saber/EPA
Government – which provides significant portion of charity’s funding – is understood to have demanded an explanation
The charity Save the Children has angered the government with a social media post marking Keir Starmer’s impending exit from Downing Street.
The organisation suggested on X that the outgoing prime minister was complicit in the deaths of thousands of civilians in the Israel-Gaza war.
On Tuesday, it posted a mocked up picture of a commemorative blue plaque, which read: “History will not forget complicity. Keir Starmer witnessed 73,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces, including 21,000 children, and kept supplying arms to Israel.”
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Save the Children is part of a coalition of 17 humanitarian organisations who issued a joint statement on Wednesday calling on the incoming prime minister, Andy Burnham, to take “decisive action on Gaza and the occupied West Bank” when he takes office next week.
Among its central demands is the complete suspension of arms sales to Israel and the imposition of trade sanctions until alleged breaches of international law are brought to an end.
The group, which includes ActionAid and Amnesty International, also wants the government to publish its response to the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion on aid provision in Gaza and set out a “clear timetable for implementing its recommendations”.
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.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.Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Displaced Palestinians, including many children, wait in long queues to receive hot meals distributed by a charitable organization in Gaza City, Gaza, Palestine on June 7, 2026. (Photo by Moiz Salhi/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“Aid is not a political tool and should not be weaponized in this way,” said an advocate at Save the Children. “The survival and needs of children in Gaza should not have to answer to airstrikes elsewhere.”
In an act described as “collective punishment” against two million Palestinians, Israel announced that it would close off the main entry points for humanitarian aid into Gaza indefinitely in retaliation for strikes launched this weekend by Iran.
Iran launched missiles at Israel on Sunday in response to Israel’s bombing of a densely populated Beirut suburb, which killed civilians and violated a June 1 agreement not to bomb Lebanon’s capital.
In addition to retaliating with new strikes on Iran, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said on Sunday that “a number of necessary security measures have been implemented” following the missile fire, “including the closure of the crossings into the Gaza Strip, among them the Kerem Shalom Crossing and the Rafah Crossing, until further notice.”
COGAT claimed that closing the crossings “will not affect the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip” because “the substantial quantities of food that have entered the strip since the beginning of the ceasefire significantly exceed the nutritional needs of the population, according to [United Nations] methodologies.”
Contrary to this statement from COGAT, the UN report at this link https://t.co/2VNcUn8cBA shows clearly that the supply of food and water is precarious indeed.#Israel is responding to being restrained from killing Iranians by killing more civilians in #Gaza. https://t.co/ncjG2DR4bP
That is not what actual UN reports say. The World Food Program (WFP) estimated in June that about 1.6 million people living in Gaza, more than three-quarters of the population, were “facing high levels of acute food insecurity” despite the entry of food parcels and other aid since the October 2025 “ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas.
In the first half of May, UN workersidentified more than 2,000 cases of acute malnutrition among young children, according to a June report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
That same OCHA report said about 678,000 hot meals were delivered in May, down from 1.5 million per day in mid-March as a result of underfunding and due to Israel’s closures and restrictions at certain entry points. The number of people receiving food parcels in May also dropped to about 820,000, down from 1.1 million in March. The rations that were distributed in May covered only about 75% of the average person’s minimum daily caloric needs, while those distributed in March covered about 50%.
While the amount of aid entering the strip has increased since the ceasefire went into effect, UN data has never suggested that the amount entering “exceeds” the needs of Palestinians. Since the truce began, reports haveconsistentlysaid the amount of aid entering the strip was only reaching part of the population, and that aid packages only contained part of the needed nutritional value, which did not meet the terms of the agreement.
Israel, which has been accused of using starvation as a “weapon of war” against Gaza by UN bodies and major human rights groups, previously closed all crossings into the strip at the start of its military assault against Iran in late February.
This not only halted the entry of food and medical aid but also blocked medical evacuations for sick and injured Palestinians, which were desperately needed due to Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s medical system. Even as entry points reopened in the following weeks, aid entry never returned to previous levels.
COGAT said on Monday that “the crossings will be reopened gradually, subject to an ongoing operational assessment and under security restrictions designed to ensure the safety of all personnel present at the crossings on both sides,” though it provided no clear timeframe or indication of how much aid would be allowed in.
“Aid is not a political tool and should not be weaponized in this way. The survival and needs of children in Gaza should not have to answer to airstrikes elsewhere,” said Ahmad Alhendawi, Save the Children’s regional director for the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe in a statement on Monday.
“For nearly three years, Gaza has been pummelled so hard by Israeli airstrikes that nothing can grow there and people have been reliant on the already small amount of aid crossing the border—aid that was never enough and is now totally out of reach,” he added. “Children in Gaza have already been starved by design. They should not now be denied water, medicine, shelter, and the other essentials needed to survive. The Israeli authorities must re-open these crossings immediately, lift the siege, and facilitate the safe delivery of humanitarian aid at scale.”
BREAKING: Israel has closed all crossings into Gaza and halted the entry of humanitarian aid following the Iranian missile strikes on Israel.
Why do Palestinians in Gaza have to pay the price for Iranian missiles?
With Israeli leaders openly stating their goal in recent weeks to expand the nation’s occupation of Gaza despite the ceasefire, international observers have suggested that Israel was using the escalation of hostilities with Iran as an excuse to ramp up its brutal treatment of Palestinians, nearly 1,000 of whom have been killed in the strip since the ceasefire went into effect.
The US-brokered ceasefire agreement signed by Israel and Hamas in October required the “full entry of humanitarian aid and relief” into the strip.
“The guarantors of the ceasefire must step in and force Israel to reopen the crossings, resume and triple the aid amounts, and totally stop any attacks on Gaza now,” said Palestinian journalist Abubaker Abed. “This is their job. And they must uphold the ceasefire agreement.”
Article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/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.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
First responders and residents gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s Tallet al-Khayyat neighborhood on April 8, 2026. (Photo by Fadel Itani/AFP via Getty Images)
“Until there is an end to all hostilities, across the entire region, no one will feel truly safe.”
Humanitarian aid organizations warned Wednesday that the Iran ceasefire touted by US President Donald Trump as a monumental step toward peace is at risk of collapsing entirely if it doesn’t halt Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon, which reached its most intense phase yet in the hours after the two-week truce was announced.
David Miliband, president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, said the ceasefire announcement late Tuesday was a “welcome step” but warned it was “partial, fragile, and incomplete,” pointing to Trump and Israel’s claim that Lebanon was not included in the deal’s terms. Pakistan, the key mediator of the truce, has said Lebanon was part of the agreed-upon ceasefire, and a halt to Israeli attacks on the country was included in a widely circulated 10-point Iranian plan that Trump characterized as “a workable basis on which to negotiate.”
Miliband said Wednesday that leaving “one front of the conflict burning risks prolonging the crisis, not resolving it.”
Ahmad Alhendawi, Save the Children’s regional director for the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe, similarly warned that the current ceasefire deal, as implemented, “is not enough.”
“We’re urgently calling for a definitive ceasefire for the wider region, which includes Lebanon, to protect children from further harm,” said Alhendawi. “A whole generation of children bears the brunt of this conflict. A definitive ceasefire for the entire regional conflict, including Lebanon, is the only way to truly protect children’s lives and futures and end the suffering. The violence must end before more children suffer irreparable harm.”
Iranian officials have responded with outrage to Israel’s intensified assault on Lebanon, which has killed hundreds of people on Wednesday alone and wounded many more. Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said the Trump administration “must choose—ceasefire or continued war via Israel.”
“It cannot have both,” he added. “The world sees the massacres in Lebanon. The ball is in the US court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments.”
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Iran has informed regional mediators that its participation in planned in-person talks in Pakistan’s capital “is conditional on a ceasefire in Lebanon” as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “continue to strike” the country.
“Sounds like somebody needs to rein in Israel ASAP,” Brian Finucane, senior adviser to the US Program at the International Crisis Group, wrote on social media.
“The American people want this war to end and bombing downtown Beirut is not a path to peace.”
Trump insisted to a PBS reporter on Wednesday that Lebanon was “not included in the deal,” claiming the Israeli assault on the country is “a separate skirmish.”
But top Iranian officials, aid organizations, and US lawmakers who support a lasting peace agreement view the conflicts across the region as interconnected.
“Aggression towards Lebanon is aggression towards Iran,” Gen. Seyed Majid Mousavi, aerospace commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Wednesday.
US Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) urged the Trump administration “must immediately make clear to Israel that the ceasefire agreement is not and cannot be functional without a ceasefire in Lebanon.”
“The American people want this war to end,” Beyer added, “and bombing downtown Beirut is not a path to peace.”
Amitabh Behar, executive director of Oxfam International, said in a statement that “until there is an end to all hostilities, across the entire region, no one will feel truly safe.”
“Israel’s ongoing invasion in Lebanon, its destructive occupation of Palestinian territory, ground incursion and airstrikes in Syria, its continued attacks in Gaza, and violent attacks and territorial expansion in the West Bank are still continuing despite the provisional cessation of violence with Iran,” said Behar. “This deadly toll across the Middle East is intolerable and must stop.”
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Straight of Hormuz despite saying on 7 March 2026 that they don’t need people to join wars after they’ve already won. He’s challenged with the claim that he lies as much as the IDF.Orcas discuss rotting brain. Front Orca says “Wish someone would lock him up”.
Mourners react following the death of Palestinians killed by an Israeli strike at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, on February 4, 2026. (Photo by Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
It comes as nearly 20,000 Palestinians are being denied the ability to leave Gaza for medical treatment, in what activist Muhammad Shehada called “a slow-motion massacre.”
Israeli bombings across Gaza have killed at least 23 Palestinians since dawn on Wednesday, including at least two infants, according to hospital officials and other health authorities.
“Where is the ceasefire? Where are the mediators?” asked Dr. Mohamed Abu Salmiya, director of Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, which received the bodies of 11 people—mostly from the same family—who were killed after Israeli soldiers fired upon a building in northern Gaza.
Israel said the attack was in retaliation after Hamas militants fired at an Israeli soldier, badly wounding him. The Associated Press reports that among the Palestinians killed were “two parents, their 10-day-old girl Wateen Khabbaz, her 5-month-old cousin, Mira Khabbaz, and the children’s grandmother.”
Another attack on a tent in the southern city of Khan Younis killed three more people: Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies, said they included a 12-year-old boy. Another strike killed five more people, including a paramedic named Hussein Hassan Hussein al-Semieri, who was on duty at the time.
A total of 38 Palestinians were wounded in the series of attacks, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Since a “ceasefire” agreement went into effect on October 10 last year, the Gaza Government Media Office says Israel has committed at least 1,520 violations, killing at least 556 people—including 288 children, women, and elderly people—and wounding 1,500 others.
In comments to Al Jazeera, the Palestinian human rights advocate Muhammad Shehada said a ceasefire that is violated so consistently “is no ceasefire at all”.
“At most, [the deal] can be just described as some sort of mild diplomatic restraint,” Shehada said. “Whenever the world’s attention is elsewhere, Israel escalates dramatically.”
Since its genocidal war in Gaza began in October 2023, nearly 72,000 Palestinians have been killed and 171,000 injured, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, whose figures the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) recently conceded are accurate after more than two years of denial. Independent estimates suggest the true death toll is much higher.
7-year-old Anwar al-Ashi reportedly died of kidney failure in Gaza after months of waiting for Israel to approve his medical evacuation. pic.twitter.com/XQBZcM9tdc
Wednesday’s onslaught came as Israel began to slowly open the Rafah crossing—the main point of entry and exit from the strip—for those in severe need of medical attention to leave.
Gaza’s hospitals have been rendered largely inoperable by two years of relentless bombing and a lengthy blockade on medical supplies entering the strip, which has left more than half the population without medical treatment.
The World Health Organizationsaid last week that 18,500 Palestinians are in need of medical treatment abroad, including hundreds in need of immediate treatment.
According to Egyptian officials, 50 patients were expected to enter through the crossing each day. However, on Monday, just five Palestinians were allowed to leave Gaza for treatment, followed by 16 on Tuesday, according to Al Jazeera reporters on the ground.
Around 4,000 of those awaiting treatment are children. According to health officials, one of them, 7-year-old Anwar al-Ashi, died of kidney failure on Wednesday while on a waitlist.
Meanwhile, those attempting to cross have been met with treatment described as “humiliating” by reporters who witnessed it. Israeli troops have subjected patients to strip searches and interrogations—some were blindfolded and had their hands tied.
What “ceasefire”? The Israeli occupation forces continues to shell & bomb Gaza killing 20 Palestinians, mainly women & children, & wounding scores of others within the past 12 hours, at the pretext that one Israeli soldier was wounded. Since the beginning of the “ceasefire” more…
“The Rafah crossing continues to be a cruel and severely restricted ‘passage’ of pain and humiliation,” said the Palestinian politician and activist Hana Ashrawi. “This continues to be a multifaceted war of aggression, based on the deliberate manipulation of the pain of a captive people.”
Salmiya said that at the rate Israel is allowing them to leave, “it will take about five years on average for all patients to be discharged.” He referred to Israel’s actions as “crisis management, not a solution to the crisis.”
On Tuesday, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called for “the facilitation of rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief at scale—including through the Rafah crossing.”
He added that Israel’s recent suspension of dozens of aid organizations—including Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, and Save the Children—defies humanitarian principles, undermines fragile progress, and worsens the suffering of civilians.“
Shehada, who said he and his family were eagerly awaiting the end of travel restrictions, told Al Jazeera that “Israel hollowed [it] out of any substance or meaning.” Instead, he said, “it’s basically a slow-motion massacre.”
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/O74hZCKKdpAKeir 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.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Palestinians are seen on street following the Israeli attack on ez-Zeytun neighborhood in Gaza City, Gaza on August 8, 2025. (Photo: Mahmoud Issa/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“People are being starved, children are being killed, families have lost everything,” said the United Nations agency for Palestinian Refugees.
The Gaza Health Ministry announced on Monday that more than 100 children in Gaza have died of severe hunger during Israel’s siege of the territory.
As Al Jazeerareported, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said that a total of 222 Palestinians have died from hunger during the siege, including 101 children. The vast majority of these deaths have come in just the last three weeks when the hunger crisis in Gaza started to garner international media attention, the ministry said.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East on Monday emphasized the direness of the situation in a statement calling for a cease-fire to allow more aid into Gaza.
“People are being starved, children are being killed,” the agency said. “Families have lost everything. Political will and leadership can stop an escalation and end the war. Every heartbeat counts.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that there is no starvation crisis in Gaza and has said such reports are part of a “fake” propaganda campaign waged by Israel’s enemies.
However, it isn’t just the Gaza Health Ministry warning of a hunger crisis in the region, as international charity Save the Children last week said that 43% of pregnant and breastfeeding women who showed up to its clinics in Gaza last month were malnourished, which represented a threefold increase since March, when the Israeli military imposed a total siege on the area.
The latest numbers about starvation in Gaza come as the Israeli government is pushing forward with a plan to fully invade and occupy Gaza, which experts have warned will only exacerbate the humanitarian crisis among its people.
“If these plans are implemented, they will likely trigger another calamity in Gaza, reverberating across the region and causing further forced displacement, killings, and destruction,” said Miroslav Jenca, the United Nations assistant secretary general, over the weekend.
