On Friday, Day 658 of the ongoing genocide, at least 90 Palestinians were killed and injured, including those awaiting humanitarian aid, and civilians sheltering at the Cairo Girls School. The Israeli army continued the bombing and shelling of various parts of the devastated, starved and besieged Gaza Strip.
At least 90 Palestinians were killed over the past 24 hours, according to the ministry of health. This follows 89 killed on Thursday, 113 on Wednesday, 77 on Tuesday, 134 on Monday. Many of those killed have been shot by US mercenaries and Israeli soldiers at the four so-called ‘aid sites’ established by the US-based Christian Zionist company GHF.
At around 11 pm Friday, Israel committed a massacre against starving civilians, leaving many Palestinians killed near a U.S- Israeli backed death trap in southern Gaza and near Zikim in the north. Initial reports of at least 12 Palestinians killed and 100 others injured.
An Israeli airstrike on a school in Gaza City sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinians on Friday killed at least 5 people and wounded 22, including several children. The attack came as Israel is under increasing international scrutiny and criticism for the outright famine it has pushed Gaza into, with scores of adults and children dying of hunger and malnutrition in the past few days alone.
Israel attacked the Cairo Elementary School for Girls in central Gaza City just as people had gathered in the school yard for Friday prayers, according to multiple eyewitnesses. Many of the displaced in the school are from areas in northern Beit Hanoun, which has been nearly completely destroyed and emptied by the Israeli military. So far, Israel has not published even a perfunctory justification for the strike and the Israeli military did not immediately respond to questions submitted by Drop Site about the attack.
“During Friday prayers, they bombed the school with the worshipers inside,” Ibrahim Abu Amsh, an eyewitness told Drop Site at the scene. “Most of the injured were children—defenseless, hungry children. All of them were in a state of exhaustion, unable even to stand—they probably hadn’t slept all night due to hunger.”
Dead bodies lay in the hallways, some ripped apart and limbs torn off. People fled the building in panic carrying children and few belongings. Blood covered the walls and floors. People lifted the dead and wounded, some badly burnt, to ambulances outside using blankets. At least one baby was among the dead, with the left side of its body blown off and flesh torn apart, being carried outside by emergency medical worker Omar Abu Mohsen.
“The school is full of displaced people—full of children, of women, of men, and of the elderly. The enemy is merciless,” Abu Mohsen said. “This is an enemy that seeks the extermination of the Palestinian people.”
Remnants of the munition photographed at the scene were identified as the rocket motor portion of a U.S.-manufactured Hellfire missile, according to a weapons expert who reviewed the footage.
“The lot number indicates it was made by Lockheed Martin in 2012,” Trevor Ball, a munitions researcher and a former U.S. army explosive ordnance disposal specialist, told Drop Site, who added that the specific designation was AGM-114K-2. “It is a precision weapon so it would hit where aimed unless there was a malfunction of some kind,” Ball said. “This specific variant features a fragmentation sleeve which increases the fragmentation generated by the munition to more effectively kill or injure people in its area of effect.”
Meanwhile, reporter Sami Abu Salem (Wafa news) reports from Gaza in a piece titled ‘A normal day in Gaza’: “Many citizens find themselves embarrassed by the camera lens. They’re not used to having their spirits broken and finding themselves begging for a loaf of bread or a bag of flour. But the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, has forced a harsher life on them than they expected.
“We met two residents with dusty faces and clothes covered in dirt and flour, each carrying a bag on his shoulder. One of them was displaced from Beit Hanoun and simply said his name was Naim. ‘For the third day I’ve been trying to pick up a bag of flour, and today I succeeded.’
“Naim walked 14 kilometers each way for a bag of flour to support 14 members of his family: himself, his brothers, their children, and his sister, whose husband and children were killed by Israeli bombs.
“Naim pointed out that he and his brothers spread out to more than one point to collect flour, so that if the shooting starts, not all of them will be injured or killed. And if one of them fails to collect the flour, another might succeed.
“But Naim is not afraid of dying at aid centers. He smiles and says, ‘Killing me while I’m trying to bring a bag of flour is better than dying of hunger. My family hasn’t eaten for three days.'”
Photo of Naim:
Also on Friday, the US-based Wall Street Journal provided a platform for Yaser Abu-Shabab to publish an opinion piece, despite his role as the head of an Israel-backed criminal gang. Yaser Abu Shabab has been accused of leading systematic looting of humanitarian aid, including the theft of 98 UN trucks near Kerem Shalom in November 2024.
His group operates in eastern Rafah under Israeli protection, extorting and attacking aid convoys, and receiving weapons allegedly from Israeli forces, according to the Washington Post and The Guardian. UN officials confirmed that gangs like his are the primary cause of aid theft, while Israeli soldiers often stand by without intervening according to The Guardian.
Despite repeated claims by Israel and the U.S., a recent USAID review found no evidence that Hamas stole humanitarian aid in Gaza.
Instead, dozens of aid losses were linked to Israeli military actions. Yet, the “looting” narrative continues to justify delays and deadly attacks on starving civilians.
Quds News reports that Israel’s army has destroyed massive amounts of humanitarian aid meant for Gaza, including food, medical supplies, and bottled water, according to a report by Israel’s public broadcaster Kan.
The spoiled aid, left rotting at the Kerem Shalom crossing for weeks, was buried or burned. “We buried everything in the ground, even burned some of it,” said an Israeli army source. “Even today, there are thousands of packages waiting in the sun. If they are not transferred into Gaza, we will be forced to destroy them too.”
The aid totaled over 1,000 truckloads, the source added.
Military officials blamed the destruction on what they called a failed aid distribution mechanism, referring to the Israeli-US Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). “The mechanism simply doesn’t work,” one officer said. “The trucks are stuck. There is no functioning coordination. The roads are damaged. Nothing is moving.”
Thousands of packages continue to sit at the crossing point, rotting in the heat.
Officials said that even during previous ceasefire deals, large quantities of aid never reached Palestinian civilians. “During the prisoner exchange deal, 4,500 trucks allegedly entered daily. Much of it never left the crossing area,” the army source said.
Ryan Grim with DropSite News reports that Israel is trying to blame the United Nations for the famine in Gaza, when the reality is that Israeli forces have prevented UN staff from working at the borders, which are all controlled by the Israeli military. Hundreds of aid trucks are sitting at the border crossings, but Israeli forces will not allow them to enter Gaza – at least 600 trucks daily are needed to begin to reverse the famine, which began with the full Israeli closure of the borders on March 2nd, 2025.
According to Grim, “Last Sunday morning, a UN aid delivery was made by the World Food Programme (WFP). Head of the WFP Cindy McCain, widow of Sen. John McCain, condemned what happened next.
“‘Shortly after passing the final checkpoint beyond the Zikim crossing point into Gaza, the convoy encountered large crowds of civilians anxiously waiting to access desperately needed food supplies,’ she said. ‘As the convoy approached, the surrounding crowd came under fire from Israeli tanks, snipers and other gunfire. We are deeply concerned and saddened by this tragic incident resulting in the loss of countless lives.’
“The Israeli military had assured her they would not fire on aid seekers, McCain claimed, yet they did so almost immediately. ‘Today’s violent incident comes despite assurances from Israeli authorities that humanitarian operational conditions would improve; including that armed forces will not be present nor engage at any stage along humanitarian convoy routes,’ she said. ‘There should never, ever, be armed groups near or on our aid convoys, as reiterated on many occasions to all parties to the conflict.’
“’Without these fundamental conditions in place, we cannot continue providing life-saving support across the Gaza strip,’ she said. Over 81 Palestinians were killed and hundreds wounded near the Zikim crossing that day. The incident left hundreds of trucks with aid still to be delivered, with Israel immediately beginning to roll out its campaign to deflect blame to the UN.
“UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric called the Israeli accusation ‘the theater of the absurd.’ He added, ‘I think we have seen what happens when Israeli soldiers are near a UN convoy. Right? We saw it. We saw what happened on Sunday in North Gaza. We saw the victims, and we saw the death.… ‘
“Israel continues to reject UN requests by staff to move around Gaza, and raided the office of the World Health Organization in Deir-al-Balah this week while pressuring other UN and related organizations to evacuate. ‘Despite our repeated requests, Israel has not allowed the UN to be present at the crossings, which are militarized areas,’ Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told the AFP news agency. ‘We therefore cannot verify the amount of supplies currently at the crossing.’
“The same day as the Sunday massacre, Israel moved to expel the head of OCHA, Jonathan Whittal, from the country, and announced it would grant only one month visas to OCHA officials.”
The Israeli military has made it impossible for the United Nations to operate its long-standing aid distribution network in Gaza, and since March has allowed only the shadowy US company ‘GHF’ to operate in Gaza — replacing 400 aid sites with just four ‘Hunger Games’ style gladiator arenas where Palestinians must arrive at a certain time, wait in the hot sun for hours, and face being shot to death if they fail to comply with orders given in English and Hebrew (often contradictory) by the US mercenaries and the Israeli military.
UPDATED FROM
1:17 pm report:
Al-Jazeera reported that at least eleven Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip, including four who were seeking humanitarian aid, amid worsening humanitarian crises that continue to claim the lives of Palestinians.
In Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, at least one Palestinian was killed and others injured when the army bombarded a tent, housing displaced Palestinians in the Al-Maslakh area, in the western part of the city.
In Gaza city, two Palestinians were killed and many injured when the army bombarded a tent, housing displaced Palestinians in a school in the Rimal neighborhood, west of Gaza city.
At least one Palestinian was also killed, and others injured, in an Israeli bombing in the Tuffah neighborhood, east of Gaza City.
The Israeli army and the navy also fired many shells and missiles at Gaza city shore, in addition to the eastern areas of Zeitoun, Tuffah and Shuja’iyya neighborhood, east of Gaza city.
Medical sources said at least two Palestinians were killed, and several others injured, by Israeli shells near Salahuddin Mosque in the Zeitoun neighborhood.
In the Sudaniyya area, northwest of Gaza, the Israeli army fired several shelling, killing at least three Palestinians and causing many injuries.
In addition, medical sources in Gaza confirmed on Friday the death of Palestinian child Abdul-Qader Al-Fayyoumi due to starvation and severe malnutrition, raising the official death toll from famine-related causes in the besieged enclave to 114.
“He took the beatings for us.”
🚨HEARTBREAKING: 14 year old Palestinian boy freed from Israeli captivity says: “He was our older brother in prison… they tortured him for us. F*ck your aid!”
He was one of 10 children kidnapped by Israeli forces while trying to get food in… pic.twitter.com/8vKTxoYxyE
— Gaza Notifications (@gazanotice) July 24, 2025
Staff at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City reported that the child succumbed to hunger-related complications, underscoring the worsening humanitarian catastrophe.
Hospitals across Gaza continue to receive a steady influx of children suffering from acute malnutrition, with approximately 900,000 children facing hunger—70,000 of whom have entered critical stages of nutritional deficiency.
The director of Gaza’s Medical Relief Society has issued a stark warning about the escalating public health crisis in the Strip, where hunger and chronic malnutrition are giving rise to new and increasingly severe illnesses.
He emphasized that the region’s deteriorating conditions are no longer confined to shortages alone but are now manifesting in widespread medical complications.
One of the most pressing concerns involves diabetic patients, who are suffering from serious health setbacks due to the lack of proper nutrition. Without access to balanced meals and essential supplies, many are facing life-threatening complications that could have been prevented under normal conditions.
🚨Heartfelt words from American doctor Elidalis Burgos, currently in Gaza on a volunteer medical mission, with child Mohammad Abu Asi the sole survivor of an Israeli airstrike that killed his entire family. pic.twitter.com/FRU2dtLp0n
— Gaza Notifications (@gazanotice) July 25, 2025
Beyond individual cases, the director pointed to a broader collapse in healthcare and humanitarian standards. The spread of malnutrition-related diseases is accelerating, especially among vulnerable populations including children, the elderly, and those with pre-existing conditions.
He called on the international community to take swift and decisive action, stressing that the situation demands immediate humanitarian intervention to safeguard lives and preserve human dignity.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has reported a sharp rise in malnutrition among vulnerable groups in Gaza, citing what it describes as a deliberate policy of deprivation enforced by Israeli authorities.
According to MSF, screenings conducted last week at its medical centers revealed that one in four children aged six months to five years, as well as pregnant and breastfeeding women, were suffering from malnutrition. The organization also noted a troubling surge in severe cases, stating that the rate of acute malnutrition in children under five has tripled within just two weeks.
MSF emphasized that these findings reflect a deepening humanitarian crisis, exacerbated by restricted access to food, medical supplies, and essential services. Let me know if you’d like this adapted for publication or expanded with additional context on Gaza’s health infrastructure.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has warned that malnutrition among children under five has doubled between March and June, attributing the surge to the ongoing Israeli blockade that has severely restricted access to food, medicine, and humanitarian aid.
UNRWA’s medical teams conducted nearly 74,000 nutritional screenings during this period, identifying over 5,500 cases of severe acute malnutrition, signaling a collapse in food security and public health infrastructure.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued an urgent appeal to end the war in Gaza and to immediately reopen all border crossings to allow humanitarian aid to reach the besieged population.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, the WHO’s regional director, Dr. Hanan Balkhy described the situation as catastrophic, warning that 20% of pregnant women in Gaza are facing starvation.
She emphasized that only a minimal amount of aid has entered the Strip and expressed grave concern over the rising death toll linked to famine.
No hospital in Gaza is currently operating at full capacity, and the lives of medical teams are increasingly at risk due to the worsening food crisis. The WHO reiterated that all its aid is directed exclusively to primary healthcare centers.
Children in Gaza are suffering acutely from hunger, and hospitals urgently require fuel to continue functioning. The director also revealed that four WHO staff members were abducted in Gaza; three have been released, while one remains missing.
She concluded with a renewed call for sustained international efforts to end the war and reopen the crossings without delay, stressing that the humanitarian situation has reached a breaking point, with nearly 2.1 million residents now facing famine.
Gaza is expected to run out of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF)—a vital treatment for children suffering from severe malnutrition—by mid-August, according to UNICEF and other humanitarian groups.
Current supplies can only support 3,000 children, despite 5,000 having received treatment in the first half of July alone. Since April, more than 20,000 children have been admitted with acute malnutrition, including over 3,200 in critical condition. Aid agencies warn that without immediate replenishment, thousands of vulnerable children may face irreversible harm or death.
On Thursday, the Israeli army killed more than 89 Palestinians, including 19 while trying to reach desperately needed humanitarian aid, and injured 453, across the Gaza Strip.
Israel has now killed at least 59,587 killed and injured more than 143,498, largely children, women and elderly, in several parts of the Gaza Strip, since October 7, 2023.
