Updates: UN slams man-made famine in Gaza, Israel pounds Gaza City

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See how the world reacted after a UN-backed global hunger monitor confirmed that famine has gripped parts of Gaza here.

Read more about the deadly Israeli strikes across Gaza today and the suffering of Palestinians in the enclave here.

And you can always find our multimedia coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza here.

This live page will close soon. But, before we go, here’s a recap of the latest developments:

• Top UN officials, a number of states and international organisations condemned Israel after a globally accepted UN monitor officially declared famine in Gaza as a result of Israel’s policy of starvation, something that could amount to war crimes.
• The Israeli army killed dozens more Palestinians across Gaza as it keeps pushing civilians, doctors and journalists out of Gaza City in the north, blowing up its neighbourhoods.
• Yemen’s Houthis said they launched a ballistic missile and two drones towards Tel Aviv and Ashkelon, disrupting operations at Ben Gurion airport, with Israel saying one drone was intercepted and missile fragments fell over Tel Aviv after the projectile disintegrated.
• Israeli soldiers initiated raids across the occupied West Bank, including in Jenin and the al-Mughayyir village northeast of Ramallah, while settlers launched more armed attacks on Palestinians.
• Protesters blocked off routes in Tel Aviv and demonstrated in Jerusalem to demand a deal to bring back all captives held in Gaza from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
• Dutch acting Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp resigned after he was opposed by ministers and lawmakers in trying to push for more sanctions against Israel.

A large number of Yemenis protested for another week in the capital, Sanaa, against Israel and the genocide in Gaza, pledging to stand with Palestinians. The Houthi-run rallies have been held regularly as the group launches projectiles at Israel in opposition to the war.

طوفان بشري مليوني من مسيرات "ثابتون مع غزة.. لا نخشى التهديدات ولا ترهبنا المؤامرات" بالعاصمة صنعاء – 28 صفر 1447هـ | 22 أغسطس 2025م pic.twitter.com/IZN1QQ5wmo

— الإعلام الحربي اليمني (@MMY1444) August 22, 2025

Translation: A million-strong human flood in marches “Standing with Gaza… We do not fear threats nor are we intimidated by conspiracies” in the capital Sanaa.

Videos released by local media in Morocco, which have been verified by Al Jazeera, show protests against Israel’s war on Gaza taking place in several cities.

The Moroccan Association for Supporting the Nation’s Causes organised rallies and vigils, during which Palestinian flags were raised and protesters condemned Israel’s starvation of the enclave.

The families of Israeli captives held in Gaza have released a statement directed at Donald Trump after the US president made unclear comments about the fate of the captives.

At the White House, Trump said in reference to the living captives held by Hamas, “So now they have 20, but the 20 is actually probably not 20 because a couple of them are not around any longer”.

“Mr President, 50 hostages remain in the hands of Hamas in Gaza. For us, each and every one of them is an entire world,” the families said in a statement released in English.

They said if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer knew otherwise, the families should have been the first to be informed.

“Our sacred duty is to prevent the sacrifice of these 50 hostages and to bring them all home immediately,” they wrote. Israeli media reported that a Hebrew version of the statement also included an accusation against Dermer that he “only speaks with the Americans”.

Gal Hirsch, the Israeli government’s point man on the captives, told the families that there was no change in information about the status of the captives. Israel believes 20 are alive, there are “grave concerns” for the lives of two, and 28 are believed to be dead, he said.

Amnesty International has warned that “with every hour that passes without decisive international action, more Palestinian lives are lost, and Gaza City edges closer to complete annihilation”.

Erika Guevara Rosas, the group’s senior director for research, advocacy, policy and campaigns, said in a statement that today’s famine declaration is “a scathing indictment of the failure of states to press Israel into ending its genocide in the occupied Gaza Strip”.

“This famine is the direct consequence of Israel’s deliberate campaign of starvation in Gaza,” she said.

“The deliberate obstruction of humanitarian aid, the destruction of life-sustaining infrastructure, and the direct killings of civilians are a clear manifestation of how Israel is inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza as part of its ongoing genocide.”

She added: “History will never forgive us for standing by as emaciated children die, while food remains just miles away, yet blocked by Israel.”

US journalist and author Jeremy Scahill says if Israel rejects the latest offer to pause its war on Gaza, that’s a sign that it “doesn’t want any deal”.

Scahill, the co-founder of Drop Site News, explains that Hamas has offered major concessions on sticking points such as the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released, Israeli withdrawal from the border with Egypt, and the so-called GHF.

But with carte blanche from the US to continue its war, the question remains: Will Israel decide to sign a temporary deal or pursue war?

See the discussion below, on the latest episode of Al Jazeera’s The Bottom Line with Steve Clemons:

After a two-day, very heated debate in the Dutch Parliament, Caspar Veldkamp – the acting foreign minister – decided to resign.

He was increasingly getting frustrated by the fact that he wanted to push for more sanctions against Israel … but the other ministers, his colleagues, were against it. He also came under increasing pressure from lawmakers, especially from the opposition in Parliament, who have been really requesting stricter sanctions against Israel.

The minister announced a few weeks ago travel bans for two Israeli ministers. But he said that now, with the attacks on Gaza City and the increasing aggression from Israel, the Dutch government should be doing more.

He has also been pushing for the suspension of the trade agreement that the EU has with Israel, and also, increasingly, he became frustrated because Germany was blocking that.

Local Palestinian outlets, including Wafa news agency, have reported a series of attacks by Israeli soldiers and settlers across the occupied West Bank in recent hours:

• Israeli authorities issued a military order to uproot hundreds of trees from the Palestinian lands of the al-Mughayyir village, northeast of Ramallah.
• Soldiers stormed the city of el-Bireh, deploying military vehicles to several neighbourhoods and firing live ammunition and tear gas around the municipality building.
• Another incursion took place in the town of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem.
• Settlers once again stormed the village of Shallalat al-Auja, north of Jericho, trying to intimidate the Bedouin community there into leaving their lands.
• In Atara, located northwest of Ramallah, settlers gathered near the entrance to the town and set up tents with the aim of growing an illegal outpost.

مشهد من المواجهات في مدينة البيرة، وإطلاق قوات الاحتلال الرصاص وقنابل الغاز. pic.twitter.com/8f6pFHAIj8

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) August 22, 2025

Translation: A scene from the clashes in the city of el-Bireh, with the [Israeli military] firing bullets and tear gas canisters.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reports that two Israeli missiles targeted an “empty” structure near the cemetery of the town of Deir Kifa in the southern part of the country’s Tyre district. No injuries were reported.

The Israeli military confirmed being behind the strike, saying it “attacked a weapons depot of the Hezbollah terrorist organisation” that constituted a “violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon”.

Videos circulating from Lebanese and Palestinian media showed at least one missile moving in the night sky before hitting the structure. NNA reported hours earlier from Nabatieh in southern Lebanon that Israeli drones were flying over the towns of Hadatha, Haris, Kfar Yatar, al-Tayri, Kunin, Beit Yahoun, Aita al-Jabal, Tebnine, al-Zrarieh, Ansar, Aba, Breiqa and al-Qasiba.

Breaking | Israeli occupation forces launch a surface-to-surface missile from northern occupied Palestine, targeting the town of Deir Kifa, South Lebanon. pic.twitter.com/M2r239lC7j

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) August 22, 2025

Defense for Children International-Palestine has shared the story of Sabreen S, a Palestinian mother in Gaza, and her daily struggle to try to feed her 20-month-old daughter, Mayar.

“I can’t provide anything for her – no flour, no vegetables,” Sabreen said. “We’re even suffering from a water shortage and even preparing a simple meal has become impossible.”

Sabreen explained that she also struggles to buy diapers for Mayar, with each one now costing $5 (17 Israeli shekels). “I simply don’t have the money. If I were to buy them, I would be unable to afford food.”

"The situation is dire: no food, no water, nothing to offer my hungry baby," said Sabreen, the mother of 20-month-old Mayar, who hasn't been able to have a glass of milk for more than seven months due to the famine Israel has imposed on Palestinians in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/tpy6Oybmwn

— Defense for Children (@DCIPalestine) August 22, 2025

The military spokesperson of the Houthis in Yemen has confirmed launching three projectiles at two Israeli cities, pledging to keep up attacks in opposition to the war on Gaza.

Yahya Saree said in a televised statement that a Palestine-2 “hypersonic” ballistic missile was launched toward Tel Aviv, “bypassing interception systems” of the Israeli military. He said two drones were launched toward military and other targets in Tel Aviv and Ashkelon, as well.

Saree said the launches were successful because they led to “great confusion among the ranks of the Israeli enemy, causing millions of usurping Zionists to flee to shelters, and suspending operations” at the Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv.

Flight Radar navigation data showed that several aircraft faced difficulties in landing at the airport after sirens sounded, and Israel’s Channel 12 confirmed it temporarily suspended operations.

Iran’s Health Minister Mohammad Reza Zafarghandi has strongly condemned the expulsion of doctors and medical personnel from northern Gaza by Israel, calling for an immediate response from the World Health Organization and other international stakeholders.

“One cannot be a physician, bound by duty and responsibility to the sanctity of human life, and remain indifferent to what is taking place in Gaza – a place which for nearly two years, before the eyes of the world and under the silence of international institutions and so-called human rights organisations, has been turned into a scene of genocide and a slaughterhouse for the defenseless people of Gaza.”

In a statement released by state media, Zafarghandi said Israel’s decision announced on Thursday will, in effect, deprive one million Palestinians of their right to healthcare and access to medical facilities.

“These are human beings who have long been grappling with famine, with physical and psychological suffering caused by war and occupation,” he said, adding that continued international silence and inaction would amount to “complicity in the perpetration of such inhumane acts”.

Israel’s intensified assault on Gaza City has forced Palestinians once again to flee in search of safety while causing destruction and “carnage” across the city, Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, is warning.

Amande Bazerolle, the head of MSF’s emergency response in Gaza, said the group’s clinics in the area have seen large numbers of patients as people leave bombarded neighbourhoods, including Zeitoun.

“All this is happening while famine in Gaza City has been declared by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). You couldn’t imagine something more cynical: people being starved as the Israeli forces invade and destroy any life that remains,” Bazerolle said in a statement.

“This will lead to a complete and utter humanitarian disaster. As the Israeli forces accelerate their campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing by expanding their military ground invasion into Gaza City, Palestinians trapped there face starvation, disease, and death.”

The armed wing of Hamas says its fighters have reported severely wounding an Israeli soldier in the besieged Zeitoun neighbourhood of south Gaza City.

The Qassam Brigades said in a short statement on Telegram that the incident took place on Monday, and that the soldier was hit with machinegun fire after exiting from a Merkava tank. The group reported observing a helicopter arriving to take away the soldier for urgent medical treatment.

Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, has also reported an attack on invading Israeli forces that took place on Thursday.

The group said its fighters used mortar shells to target Israeli military vehicles in the northern part of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Al Jazeera is reporting from Jordan because it has been banned in Israel and the occupied West Bank.

There certainly is pressure building on Netanyahu both domestically and internationally, but he and his coalition of right-wing lawmakers don’t actually seem to care. Since the beginning of this week, the protests [in Israel] have increased in both size and scale.

There was a strike that took place earlier in the week on Sunday, followed by a massive demonstration of nearly half a million people, right in the heart of Tel Aviv. But the Israeli prime minister fired back at demonstrators, saying that strikes and demonstrations serve no one.

But the family members of [captives] have said that Netanyahu is not only lying to them but he’s deceiving the public, and that he has been the main obstacle for why there hasn’t been a [captive release] deal.

Of course, these protest movements are not about ending the Palestinian suffering in the Gaza Strip. They’re about returning the remaining 50 captives, which is something that a majority of people within Israel want to see.

Nonetheless, the Israeli government is adamant about moving forward with continuous military operations.

Gaza’s Government Media Office says the IPC report and comments from UN officials and even Donald Trump confirm that famine in Gaza is now “a proven fact” that may amount to war crimes.

The reality in Gaza is even more grave and catastrophic than depicted in the UN-backed report, the office said in a statement, calling on the international community to intervene.

It said Israel’s own data on allowing several dozen trucks of aid into Gaza on average during the past weeks show that the volume of aid going in is much lower than needed by the famine-stricken population in the enclave. The figures “incriminate, not exonerate” Israeli authorities, the office added.

The statement said the technical terms used in the IPC report indicate that famine is now “a fact that cannot be manipulated” by Israel or its allies, and that “any state or organisation that turns a blind eye to this crime becomes complicit in its continuation and falls under the scope of international law”.

An investigation into leaked classified Israeli military data reveals five out of six Palestinians killed in Gaza were civilians, not fighters.

It’s one of the highest death rates recorded in modern wars.

But what more do these figures tell us?

Al Jazeera’s Inside Story discusses with Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, UN expert Francesca Albanese, and Human Rights Watch’s Omar Shakir, watch below:

Kuwait has denounced the “policy of starvation, oppression, and displacement” pursued by Israel against civilians in Gaza.

The country’s foreign ministry said in a statement that Israel’s policy is “in blatant violation of international law and international humanitarian law”, as well as UN Security Council resolutions and in disregard of relevant international legitimacy resolutions.

Kuwait called on the international community and the Security Council to take action “to allow the urgent entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, to halt the genocide being perpetrated against the brotherly Palestinian people, and to hold the occupying power accountable for the crimes it commits against humanity”.