Updates: Israeli army intercepts Gaza-bound ship Handala, attacks kill 71

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For more on why Palestinians in Gaza are starving, see our explainer.

We also have a breakdown of how US lawmakers have reacted to the images of emaciated children coming out of Gaza, here.

And to see the moment Israeli forces intercepted the Gaza-bound Handala aid vessel, see our video report here.

We will soon be closing this live page. Here’s a recap of today’s main developments:

• Israeli forces have killed at least 71 Palestinians in Gaza on Saturday, including 42 starving people who were seeking food aid.
• Health authorities in Gaza say five more Palestinians have died of starvation in the past day, bringing the total death toll from hunger since Israel’s war began to 127, including 85 children.
• The Israeli government says it will allow “humanitarian pauses” in certain parts of Gaza on Sunday to facilitate aid deliveries, but experts say the plan will not address the starvation crisis gripping the territory.
• Israel’s military has also air dropped a small quantity of food aid into northern Gaza, as officials from the UN and humanitarian groups slam the scheme as inefficient, costly and dangerous.
• Israeli forces have stormed the Gaza-bound Handala ship, which was carrying aid to starving Palestinians. The fate of the 19 international activists and two Al Jazeera journalists are not known.

With all the destruction across Gaza, there’s growing concern that the history of Palestinians is also in danger of being erased.

The archives in Gaza’s Department of Manuscripts are just one rich source of knowledge facing an uncertain future, with its archivist forced to flee to France.

Check out our report from Aix-en-Provence below:

Amnesty International has projected the words, “Stop genocide in Gaza”, on a hot air balloon flying above Paris this evening.

The balloon carried the cauldron of the Paris 2024 non-Olympic flame on the first anniversary of the Games.

“Amnesty reminds France that there is a genocide in Gaza, that words or promises from the French authorities are not enough,” Amnesty chief Agnes Callamard wrote on X.

“We need action – quick and efficient action to put an end to the famine created by Israel, action to put an end to the genocide in Gaza, action to put an end to Israel’s impunity.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has condemned the Trump administration for its unwavering support for Israel as starvation kills more and more Palestinians in Gaza.

“It is beyond the understanding of any moral individual how Trump administration officials can see the images of starving children and slaughtered aid seekers in Gaza without demanding an end to this man-made horror,” the US Muslim group said in a statement.

“Our nation will forever be stained by its complicity with the Israeli apartheid government’s genocide. The genocide must end and all those who carried it out or were complicit must be held accountable.”

The US provides Israel with at least $3.8bn in military assistance annually, and it has given billions more since the Gaza war began. The Trump administration also continues to shield Israel from condemnation and accountability at the UN and other international bodies.

Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has lambasted the government’s announced plans to increase aid to Gaza, saying it amounts to “surrendering to Hamas’s false campaign”.

“The only way to win the war and return the hostages is to completely stop ‘humanitarian’ aid, occupy the entire strip and encourage voluntary migration,” Ben-Gvir wrote in a post on X.

Ben-Gvir, who has repeatedly called for cutting off all aid to Gaza during the war, said Netanyahu excluded him from a high-level security meeting where the decision to allow more aid was made.

In a statement, Israel’s Foreign Ministry says the Israeli navy has intercepted the Gaza-bound Handala aid ship, and it is now heading towards Israel.

“The Israeli navy has stopped the vessel Navarn from illegally entering the maritime zone of the coast of Gaza,” said the statement, using the ship’s original name.

“The vessel is safely making its way to the shores of Israel,” it added. “All passengers are safe.”

The Gaza Government Media Office has condemned “in the strongest terms” Israel’s storming of the Handala aid vessel, calling it an act of “maritime piracy”.

“This blatant aggression represents a flagrant violation of international law and maritime navigation rules,” the office said in a statement.

“It reaffirms once again that the occupation acts as a thuggish force outside the law, targeting every humanitarian initiative seeking to rescue more than 2.4 million besieged and starving Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”

The office also called on the international community, including the UN and rights groups, “to take an urgent and firm stance against this aggression and to work to secure international protection for the convoys”.

On board the ship, which has now been boarded by Israeli forces, are 19 activists from 10 countries, as well as two journalists, according to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.

The crew members are:

• Emma Fourreau, French-Swedish member of the European Parliament
• Gabrielle Cathala, French National Assembly member
• Huwaida Arraf, Palestinian-American human rights lawyer
• Jacob Berge, Jewish-American activist
• Hatem Aouini, Tunisian trade unionist
• Vigdis Bjorvand, 70-year-old Norwegian activist
• Frank Romano, French-American lawyer and actor
• Robert Martin, Australian rights activist
• Tania “Tan” Safi, Australian journalist and organiser, born to Lebanese refugees
• Christian Smalls, US labour activist
• Bob Suberi, American veteran
• Antonio Mazzeo, Italian researcher and journalist
• Santiago Gonzalez Vallejo, Spanish rights activist
• Sergio Toribio, Spanish environmental activist
• Justine Kempf, French nurse with NGO Medecins du Monde
• Ange Sahuquet, French rights activist
• Antonio La Picirella, Italian climate activist
• Braedon Peluso, US sailor and activist
• Chloe Fiona Ludden, former UN staff member

The journalists on board, both with Al Jazeera, are Mohamed El Bakkali, from Morocco, and Iraqi-American cameraman Waad Aal Musa.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud says that witnesses reported seeing cargo planes flying at low levels over the shore of northern Gaza, where the Israeli airdrop of aid took place not long ago.

“But it’s an area that’s restricted in terms of movement. It’s in the line of fire of the Israeli military, very close to the Zikim crossing in the northern part of the Strip. Hundreds of tanks are stationed in that area. It will be very difficult for people to verify or get their hands on any of the aid dropped in that area,” he reported from Gaza City.

Mahmoud also explained that the airdrop, which Israel said earlier would include seven pallets, will have no concrete effect on the starvation gripping the enclave.

“We’re talking about only seven pallets of aid filled with flour and other basic necessities. That’s almost the load of one truck, or half a truck, coming from the crossings into the Gaza Strip. Again, we’re looking at an example of performative acts here, similar to what happened at the sites of the notorious GHF,” he said.

Equally, Israel’s plan to allow for so-called “humanitarian pauses” in Gaza starting on Sunday will also have no effect on the starvation crisis, Mahmoud said.

“Again, this is not a solution when we talk about passing the tipping point of this enforced starvation, and according to medical sources we spoke to earlier today, they confirmed that at this point, we’re going to see mass-scale starvation mortality.

“Airdropping food or opening humanitarian corridors is a little too late now to save lives. Two million people are hungry, haven’t had any proper access to food for the past 140 days, or a little over that. Whatever is done now is not going to save those who are dying inside the hospitals.”

Ann Wright, a member of the Freedom Flotilla Steering Committee, says the activists’ home countries must take action to protect them after the Handala was intercepted.

They must also put pressure on Israel to end its genocide against Palestinians and break its siege on Gaza, Wright told Al Jazeera.

“Protect innocent international people who are merely accompanying a small amount of aid – medical and food – as a symbol of the international outrage at what Israel is doing,” she said.

We have obtained a video clip of Huwaida Arraf, a Palestinian American activist and lawyer who was on board the Handala, shortly before the boat was intercepted by Israeli forces.

Here is what she told the Israeli Navy:

“Israeli Navy, this is a civilian vessel, Handala. Let me give you a lesson in international law.

“Any blockade that deliberately starves a civilian population is a violation of international law. It is not only that – it is a war crime. You have no legal authority to enforce an unlawful blockade. And as such, you have no authority to use force to enforce an unlawful blockade.

“Therefore, we demand that you stand down. You are responsible for the wellbeing of every civilian on board this vessel. As an occupying power in Gaza, you are responsible for the health and wellbeing of the civilian population there.

“Not only have you disregarded that obligation, but you are actively exterminating the people. You have engineered a famine. You are deliberately starving civilians and children before the eyes of the world.

“Our vessel does not constitute any threat to you. We carry only humanitarian aid, and therefore, you have no authority to intercept or otherwise attack our vessel. We demand again that you stand down.”

Adam Shapiro, husband of activist Huwaida Arraf, who is on board the Gaza-bound Handala, spoke to Al Jazeera following Israel’s seizure of the vessel.

Shapiro said he spoke with his wife hours earlier, as Israeli naval ships approached from a distance. “She had to get off the line very quickly to start making the preparations,” he said.

Shapiro then said he watched a live feed from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition showing Arraf using a radio to inform Israeli forces that the ship was unarmed and carrying humanitarian aid. “The last I saw, as the rest of you, was the soldiers come on board”, he said.

Shapiro said that the Handala crew had anticipated the possibility and were “prepared” and “determined”.

“These are people who are undertaking this action not just to send a message… but to try to use public outrage to force our governments to act,” he said.

In a brief statement shared on social media, the Israeli Foreign Ministry says the pause will take place in “civilian centers and in humanitarian corridors to enable the distribution of aid supply” in Gaza.

It did not specify which specific civilian centres would be subjected to the pause.

The ministry again blamed the UN for failing to distribute assistance in Gaza.

UN officials have rejected that Israeli talking point as false, stressing that they have not received the necessary permits to safely distribute aid in the besieged enclave.