Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
Israeli forces killed at least 47 Palestinians in Gaza in the last 24 hours, including at least 14 aid seekers. In total, Israel has killed at least 1,938 aid seekers since May 27, 2025 (learn about aid seekers here).
The total known number of Palestinians who have died from malnutrition stands at 258, including 110 children.
For detail on Israeli attacks in Gaza on Saturday, go here.
GAZA NEWS:
(For some basic info on the Palestine-Israel conflict, go here. For a bit more critical context, skim this, this, and this.To read about a remarkable but underreported, 20-month-long peaceful protest in Gaza against Israel, go here.)
Israeli Forces Continue Assault on Gazan Population
On Saturday, August 16th, 2025, day 680 of the ongoing Israeli slaughter of the Palestinian civilian population of 2.3 million people in the Gaza Strip, as well as the wholesale destruction of homes, schools, hospitals, shopping malls, restaurants, grocery stores, markets and every other aspect of life, Israeli forces continued their systematic demolition of the al-Zaytoun neighborhood for the sixth straight day.
Reports indicate that many people were hit in the attack, but the number of wounded and killed is still to be determined, as rescue services are struggling to reach the neighborhood due to the ongoing offensive.
The spokesperson for the Civil Defense rescue service in Gaza warned of a “destruction operation” in the neighborhood. “The residents of Gaza are now living in a reality in which there is no way to survive,” he said. “Tens of thousands of residents are still stuck in the neighborhood, with no shelter, food or water – we are seeing an unprecedented humanitarian disaster.”
Israel’s destruction of the Zeitoun neighborhood “not justified by any military necessity”
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said that for six days now, the Israeli occupation forces have been razing the Al-Zeitoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City, to the ground, destroying some 400 homes.
This is part of a large-scale military offensive aimed at destroying the Gaza Strip, similar to what happened in the governorates of Rafah, Khan Younis, and the northern Gaza Strip. The offensive aims to eliminate their residents and forcibly displace those who survive, as part of the genocide committed against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor explained that the destruction of approximately half of the homes in the Zeitoun neighborhood was not justified by any military necessity, as no armed clashes had been recorded in the area recently.
Meanwhile, automatic explosive devices and booby-trapped robots were widely and systematically used after the homes had been evacuated of their residents, confirming that the operation was not intended to achieve a legitimate military objective, but rather to target the very foundations of Palestinian life and push the population toward forced displacement, and is part of a systematic Israeli policy aimed at completing the crime of genocide and erasing Palestinian cities through the wholesale destruction of homes and infrastructure and the removal of basic necessities of life (continue reading here).
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Israel weaponizes shelter in pursuit of ethnic cleansing
As part of the preparations for the city takeover, the Israeli army says it will allow the entry of tents and shelter equipment into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing starting Sunday. According to Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the move is intended to facilitate the “relocation of the population” southward. International organizations are expected to distribute the supplies delivered via Kerem Shalom to the southern Gaza’s Al-Mawasi area.
‘Until the last child is fed’: Gazans go on hunger strike in the midst of famine
In late July, the spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defense, Mahmoud Basal, declared a hunger strike.
“I’m looking at the children who starved to death due to the lack of food and malnutrition, and I look to the world for signs of humanity, but it does not exist,” Basal tells Mondoweiss, explaining that this global indifference is what led him to start his hunger strike.
As a Gazan native, Basal suffers from the same shortages as everyone around him. “There is no food in Gaza except scraps,” Basal says. “The food that comes in is exclusive to some people. Thieves who are working with the Israeli army coordinate the looting of aid, and most people are not able to obtain it.”
Israel’s “engineering of chaos” in Gaza has ensured that aid does not reach the people who need it most, choosing which aid convoys are targeted by looters, which reach their destination, which are beset by crowds of starving civilians, and which are shot at by the army when civilians try to grab food off of them (continue reading here).
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According to Brown University’s Watson Institute, more journalists have been killed in Gaza over the past two years than in the U.S. Civil War, World Wars I and II, and the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and Ukraine combined.
The deliberate targeting and killing of journalists are blatant war crimes. Like all civilians, they must be protected. Journalists play an integral role in covering potential violations of international humanitarian law like we’ve seen in Gaza (continue reading here).
OCCUPIED WEST BANK/EAST JERUSALEM HEADLINES:
(For background on the West Bank, read this and this. For information on the significance of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, read this and this.)
Israeli Forces Kill a Palestinian Near Ramallah
Israeli forces killed a Palestinian young man, on Saturday, in the village of Al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah in the central West Bank, in addition to shooting a child with live ammunition near occupied Jerusalem.
The Palestinian Health Ministry announced that 18-year-old Hamdan Mousa Mohammad Abu Alia was killed by occupation forces in the village of Al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah.
Israeli forces shot the young man in the back with live rounds and proceeded to assault him; he was transported to hospital for treatment where he was later pronounced dead as a result of his injuries.
Escalating Colonizers’ Attacks in the Occupied West Bank
MORE WEST BANK HEADLINES (a quick skim of headlines can be very informative!):
Pregnant Woman Injured During Israeli Invasion Near Nablus
Israeli Colonizers Release Livestock Into Palestinian Farmlands In Jericho
ISRAEL HEADLINES:
(Get a glimpse inside Israel and the turmoil within its government. Most of the below news items and headlines are taken from Israeli media.)
OTHER NEWS & HEADLINES:
US state department stops issuing visas for Gaza’s children to get medical care
The US state department announced on Saturday that it would stop issuing visas to children from Gaza in desperate need of medical care after an online pressure campaign from Laura Loomer, a far-right influencer close to Donald Trump who has described herself as “a proud Islamophobe”.
“All visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped while we conduct a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days,” the state department said on X, which Loomer was banned from before it was purchased by Elon Musk.
In a pair of posts on the social network on Friday, Loomer had shared video of badly injured Palestinian children and their family members arriving in Houston and San Francisco this month, along with false claims that their shouts of joy were “jihadi chants” and that they were “doing the HAMAS terror whistle” (continue reading here).
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MORE HEADLINES (a quick skim of headlines can be very informative!):
ICYMI (IN CASE YOU MISSED IT) – A SELECTION OF YESTERDAY’S HEADLINES:
Agonizing heat wave hits Gaza amid widespread dehydration and famine
Former IDF General Calls Palestinian Death Toll in Gaza ‘Necessary’
Second Most Powerful House Democrat Calls Israel’s Genocide a ‘Genocide’
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – AUGUST 16, 2025*:
- At least 62,976 Palestinians killed, 165,116 injured – including:
- at least 61,944 killed in Gaza (~18,500 children)
- at least 1,032 killed in the West Bank (~210 children)
- at least 155,886 injured in Gaza
- at least 9,230 injured in the West Bank
- at least 258 have died from malnutrition in Gaza, including 110 children
According to Palestinian authorities, during the ceasefire Jan. 19 – March 18 2025, Israeli attacks killed at least 170 Gazans, and Israel committed at least 962 ceasefire violations.
At least 1,938 Palestinians have been killed while trying to access aid parcels from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which started operating on May 26, 2025.
Since the Israeli army resumed its assaults on Gaza on March 18, 2025 it has killed at least 10,362 people. 50 Israeli soldiers (most recent July 26) have been killed during the same time period.
*NOTE: Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 14,000 more are still buried under rubble. Additionally, the numbers of injured and starved are very conservative estimates.
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – August 16, 2025: ~1,629 – including ~1,139 on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 454 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza, 46 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel. (72 soldiers have reportedly died due to “operational incidents.”)
By one count, Israeli attacks have killed approximately 234 Palestinian journalists and media workers; Palestinians have killed 4 Israeli journalists (other groups have tallied between 192 and 304 Palestinian journalists killed – depending on the criteria used).
NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.
- Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
- Washington DC Really Is Israeli-Occupied Territory
- Inside the New Group Giving Antisemitism Trainings at Harvard
- Meet the Israeli fanatic running Ted Cruz’s office
- On grief and being the only survivor in your family in Gaza
- 100+ NGOs’ joint statement: Israel must end weaponization of aid to Gaza
- Comparing Israeli society today with German society under the Nazis (video)
- In This Palestinian Christian Village, the Hypocrisy of Christian Zionism Is Unmistakable
- More than 80 Organizations Call on Congress to Uphold US Law and Suspend Security Assistance to Israel
- 100+ Doctors Who Worked in Gaza Demand Global Action as ‘Colleagues Are Starved and Shot by Israel’
- Israel Hasn’t Prosecuted a Single Suspect for the Oct. 7 Attack
- Hundreds of Former Israeli Spies Are Working in Big Tech, Database Shows
- ‘Millions of dollars’ of Gaza aid stranded in warehouses as Israel rejects NGO requests for entry
- Israel Is Not an Ally—It’s a Liability
- Pax Christi priest denied entry to Israel
- Palestinian child seeking aid tortured in Israeli military detention camp
- Israel is in talks to possibly resettle Palestinians from Gaza to South Sudan
- The Next Israel-Iran War Is Coming
- Israel’s Targeting of Palestinian Reporters in Gaza Isn’t Collateral Damage. It’s Strategy
