Israeli forces kill over 20 aid-seekers in Gaza as Israeli minister prays at flashpoint holy site

[David__77]

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli forces killed at least 23 Palestinians seeking food on Sunday in Gaza, according to hospital officials and witnesses, who described facing gunfire as hungry crowds surged around aid sites, as the malnutrition-related death toll also rose.

…

Three Palestinian eyewitnesses, seeking food in Teina and Morag, told The Associated Press shootings occurred on the routes to distribution points, which are in military zones secured by Israeli forces. They said they saw soldiers open fire on hungry crowds advancing toward troops.

Further north in central Gaza, hospital officials described a similar episode, with Israeli troops opening fire Sunday morning toward crowds of Palestinians trying to reach GHF’s fourth and northernmost distribution point.

…

Meanwhile, the Gaza health ministry said six more Palestinian adults died of malnutrition-related causes over the past 24 hours. It said Sunday’s casualties brought the death toll among Palestinian adults to 82 over the five weeks since the ministry started counting deaths among adults in late June. Malnutrition-related deaths are not included in the ministry’s count of war casualties.

…

https://apnews.com/article/mideast-wars-gaza-israel-aid-famine-f1653318afd36b1b11090a4402233705

[Orrex]

1. Thus continues Netanyahu's years-long campaign of deliberate civilian murder.

[malaise]

2. Genocide with Western complicity

Rec

[Lonestarblue]

3. The NYT has an interesting article today on a secret agreement between France and Great Britain.

It is about the secret 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement about each country’s colonial interests. Both countries are now planning to recognize Palestine as a state. The Palestinian Territories have suffered almost continual violence for over 75 years, caused by the arrogance of the British ignoring the rights of the native people to create a state for European Jews in the middle of an Arab world. A two-state solution with fairly drawn borders and an end to Israel’s determination to take all the land of Palestine might offer a solution to another 75 years of violence and death.

“Neither man [Macron and David Lammy] mentioned the Sykes-Picot Agreement, the secret treaty between Britain and France in 1916, under which the European colonial powers carved up the Levantine territories of the crumbling Ottoman Empire into spheres of British and French control. And why would they?

Sykes-Picot is cited by historians as an enduring example of Western imperial arrogance — a cynical exercise in drawing borders that cut across religious, ethnic and tribal communities in what is today Israel, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian territories. To many Arabs, who view it as a great betrayal, it seeded a legacy of strife and bloodshed in the Middle East.”


https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/world/middleeast/britan-france-palestine-sykes-picot-agreement.html?unlocked_article_code=1.bU8.KCzM.6AWygwmwbz5s&smid=url-share

[David__77]

4. Colonialism has done so much damage to humanity.

[Nanjeanne]

5. And . . . Israeli Settlers Defy Court Ruling, Drive Out Palestinians Returning to West Bank Village

Archive link to Haaretz article https://archive.is/loqmI#selection-297.0-297.89] for full article

Bedouin villagers from Mu'arrajat, north of Jericho, who tried to return to their village on Thursday, were forced to flee a second time after settlers torched a building, despite an Israeli court ruling ordering their return.

The villagers were expelled initially in early July following assaults by settlers. Still, they began returning last week after the High Court of Justice issued a temporary injunction in an appeal in the case, ordering the army to coordinate their return to the village.

On Thursday, 50 villagers and leftist activists went to the village, accompanied by the IDF, to restore buildings destroyed by settlers. At night, the soldiers left the village, after confiscating a car with building equipment from the Palestinians, at which point settlers arrived, set fire to one building and tried to set another alight.

"The settlers came and torched a building," says Suleiman, a villager. "We want [the IDF] to protect us. The settlers destroyed our homes, the court's decision is worthless. We fled from there."

Leaving with no comment by me because I have no words left.

[David__77]

6. The best thing progressive Israelis can do is armed defense of Palestinians against these settler lynch mobs.

Unfortunately there is very little of this.

[Nanjeanne]

7. It's sad but true. Some of my younger family in Israel volunteer with The Olive Harvest to protect Palestinians during

the harvest in the fall in Israel. They, and other members of my family, have gone with Standing Together through their Humanitarian Guard to the border a few times to try to assist with humanitarian aid coming into Gaza but that was before the bogus aid org has now taken over. And they have volunteered with the late Vivian Silver's organizations, Road to Recovery which drives Palestinian patients from West Bank and Gaza for medical treatment in Israel (pre-Gaza war naturally). Unfortunately given the heightened escalation of the violence it's becoming harder and harder for pro peace Israelis to help - they are still working with peace organizations, demonstrations, etc. But the IDF, violence of settlers, government arrests are making it extremely difficult for even those who want to act as protection to do so.

[electric_blue68]

8. Thanks to them! Thanks to you for sharing their efforts!

[electric_blue68]

9. Adding from Google AI- a group that helps

"Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR):
This organization sends Israeli volunteers, including rabbis, to accompany Palestinian farmers during the harvest and provide protection."

(I use AI sparingly usually for quick info, response)