Israel-Hamas war: 30 killed, 300 injured waiting for aid in Gaza
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff has arrived in Israel to discuss ways to end the crisis in Gaza as international support grows for Palestine.
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US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff has arrived in Israel to discuss ways to end the crisis in Gaza, where nearly 22 months of grinding war and dire shortages of food have drawn mounting international criticism.
With talks for a ceasefire and hostage release deal at an impasse, Mr Witkoff met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss humanitarian aid and the “next steps” on Gaza.
He may also visit a US-backed humanitarian group distributing food in Gaza, according to Israeli reports.
× ×¤×’×© כעת ×¢× ×©×œ×™×—×• המיוחד של × ×©×™× ×רה״ב למזרח התיכון, סטיב וויטקוף. pic.twitter.com/mJIJHF4PLk
— Benjamin Netanyahu - ×‘× ×™×ž×™×Ÿ × ×ª× ×™×”×• (@netanyahu) July 31, 2025
Footage released by Mr Netanyahu’s office showed the Israeli leader smiling warmly and greeting a cheery Mr Witkoff in his office.
Mr Witkoff has been the top US representative in the indirect Israel-Hamas talks.
Israel is under mounting international pressure to agree a ceasefire and allow the world to flood a hungry Gaza with food, with Canada the latest Western country to announce plans to recognise a Palestinian state.
Mr Trump criticised Canada’s decision and, in a post on his Truth Social network, placed the blame for the ongoing conflict squarely on Hamas.
“The fastest way to end the Humanitarian Crises in Gaza is for Hamas to SURRENDER AND RELEASE THE HOSTAGES!!!” he declared.
UN-backed experts, meanwhile, have reported “famine is now unfolding” in Gaza, with images of sick and emaciated children drawing outrage and powers like France, Britain and now Canada lining up to support Palestinian statehood.
Israel is also under pressure to resolve the crisis from other traditional supporters.
Germany’s top diplomat Johann Wadephul is expected in Jerusalem for talks with Netanyahu and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar.
There is no starvation in Gaza, no policy of starvation in Gaza, and I assure you that we have a commitment to achieve our war goals.
— Benjamin Netanyahu - ×‘× ×™×ž×™×Ÿ × ×ª× ×™×”×• (@netanyahu) July 28, 2025
We will continue to fight till we achieve the release of our hostages and the destruction of Hamas' military and governing capabilities. They… pic.twitter.com/cND0ZoejgJ
“Israel is finding itself increasingly in the minority,” Mr Wadephul warned before setting off, noting that Germany’s European allies increasingly favour recognising Palestinian statehood.
In Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney warned that the worsening suffering of civilians in Gaza left “no room for delay in coordinated international action to support peace”.
Israel blasted Canada’s announcement as part of a “distorted campaign of international pressure”, while Mr Trump warned that trade negotiations with Ottawa could be hurt by what Washington regards as a premature bid to back Palestine.
The fighting in Gaza has lasted for almost 22 months, triggered by Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which left 1,219 people dead, according to a tally based on official figures.
Of the 251 Israelis kidnapped that day, 49 are still held in Gaza, 27 of them declared dead by the Israeli military.
The Israeli campaign has since killed 60,249 Palestinians, according to a tally from the Hamas government’s health ministry, and this week UN aid agencies warned that deaths from starvation had begun.
FOLLOW UPDATES BELOW:
PLAN TO ANNEX GAZA
Israel could announce a plan to annex parts of the Gaza Strip to pressure Hamas to accept a cease-fire deal, according to a cabinet minister.
Security cabinet member Zeev Elkin accused Hamas of trying to drag out the peace talks to gain leverage over Israel, with the official claiming an ultimatum was necessary to threaten the terror group into taking the negotiations seriously.
“The most painful thing for our enemy is losing lands,” he told the local KAN public broadcaster, The New York Post reports.
He said that the plan is a “significant pressure tool” to tell Hamas that, “the moment they play games with us they will lose land that they will never get back.”
NEW YORK TIMES OFFICE VANDALISED AFTER ERROR
Vandals have spray-painted the New York Times building in New York City with a message that read: “NYT LIES, GAZA DIES.”
The red paint and slogans came after the newspaper admitted it had published a misleading picture of an emaciated baby in Gaza.
After the NY Times apologize and retracted from the Gaza starving Hoax, the pro Hamas crowd was angry and vandalized their building pic.twitter.com/w7Y4cP0NHN
— Mossad Commentary (@MOSSADil) July 30, 2025
30 KILLED, 300 INJURED WAITING FOR AID IN GAZA
Israeli forces killed at least 30 people when they opened fire on a crowd waiting for humanitarian aid in the north of the Palestinian territory, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency.
The Israeli military said it had no knowledge of casualties in the incident north of Gaza City, as the United Nations said that pauses in Israel’s offensive against Hamas were not enough to help the population through a deepening hunger crisis.
The UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, said that four days into Israel’s “tactical pauses”, people were still dying from hunger and malnutrition, alongside casualties among those seeking aid.
An AFP correspondent saw the bullet-riddled corpses of Palestinians in Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital.
Jameel Ashour, who lost a relative in the shooting, told AFP at the overflowing morgue that Israeli troops opened fire after a crowd surged towards the convoy.
“When people saw thieves stealing and dropping food, the hungry crowd rushed in hopes of getting some,” he said.
Gaza civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that “at least 30 martyrs were killed” and 300 wounded when Israeli forces opened fire on people waiting for aid north of Gaza City on Wednesday.
Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, said his facility had received 35 bodies from the shooting, which reportedly struck about 3km southwest of the Zikim crossing point for aid trucks entering Gaza.
The Israeli army said that dozens of Gazan's were seen “gathering around aid trucks in northern Gaza, and in proximity to IDF (army) troops operating in the area.
“The troops fired warning shots in the area, not directed at the gathering, in response to the threat posed to them. According to an initial inquiry, the IDF is not aware of any casualties as a result of IDF fire. The details of the incident are still being examined.”
Hours earlier, 14 Palestinians were killed in four other incidents, three near aid distribution sites, the civil defence agency said.
Gaza’s civil defence agency reported dozens of Palestinians killed when Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd attempting to block an aid convoy - the latest in a spate of near-daily incidents of desperate aid seekers being shot.
EU, UK SEND AID TO GAZA AS DEATH TOLL TOPS 60,000
France and Germany are set to air-drop aid into Gaza in the coming days as UN-backed experts warned the Israeli-blockaded Palestinian territory is slipping into a “worst case scenario of famine”.
Concern has escalated in the past week about hunger in the Gaza Strip after more than 21 months of war, with The World Food Programme, UNICEF and the Food and Agriculture Organisation warning time was running out and that Gaza was “on the brink of a full-scale famine”.
“We need to flood Gaza with large-scale food aid, immediately and without obstruction, and keep it flowing each and every day to prevent mass starvation,” WFP executive director Cindy McCain said in a joint statement from the agencies.
France will air-drop 40 tonnes of aid into Gaza from Friday, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said.
Aid groups have warned that “mass starvation” is spreading among the territory’s more than two million residents.
Israel has in recent days allowed more aid trucks into the Gaza Strip but aid agencies said Israeli authorities could still do more to speed security checks and open more border posts.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also said Germany would work with Jordan to air lift humanitarian aid to Gaza, co-ordinating this “very closely with France and the United Kingdom”.
“This work may only make a small contribution to humanitarian aid, but it sends an important signal: We are here, we are in the region,” Merz said.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative (IPC) – a grouping of NGOs and institutions that serves as the world’s main monitor for gauging malnutrition – said famine in Gaza had reached the “worst-case scenario”.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office said “the first air drops of British aid” were landing Tuesday (local time) “containing around half a million pounds worth of lifesaving supplies”.
“The Palestinian people have endured terrible suffering now in Gaza because of a catastrophic failure of aid, we see starving babies, children too weak to stand,” Starmer said in a televised address, adding “the suffering must end”.
NYT ISSUES CLARIFICATION OVER VIRAL PHOTO
The New York Times has issued a clarification over a photo of a child in Gaza the newspaper claimed was suffering “severe malnutrition” after it emerged the boy had a pre-existing condition.
The heartbreaking photo of Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, also published by other outlets including NBC News, The Guardian, and BBC, was put up as evidence of starvation in Gaza as a result of Israel’s war against Hamas.
But pro-Israel journalist David Collier said little Muhammad has “cerebral palsy, hypoxaemia, and was born with a serious genetic disorder,” citing a May 2025 medical report from Gaza.
In a post on X, The New York Times said the newspaper had added an Editors’ Note to its story.
See the statement below.
We have appended an Editors' Note to a story about Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq, a child in Gaza who was diagnosed with severe malnutrition. After publication, The Times learned that he also had pre-existing health problems. Read more below. pic.twitter.com/KGxP3b3Q2B
— NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) July 29, 2025
GAZA CIVIL DEFENCE SAYS ISRAEL STRIKES KILL 30
Gaza’s civil defence agency said that Israeli air strikes killed at least 30 Palestinians, including women and children, in the central Nuseirat district.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the strikes were carried out overnight and into the morning and “targeted a number of citizens’ homes” in Nuseirat refugee camp.
The camp’s Al-Awda Hospital said it had received “the bodies of 30 martyrs, including 14 women and 12 children”.
The Israeli military said it had “struck several terror targets in the central Gaza Strip”, but that the number of reported casualties “does not align with the information held by the (military)”.
– with AFP
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Originally published as Israel-Hamas war: 30 killed, 300 injured waiting for aid in Gaza
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