Updates: Israel told to ‘end barbarity’ in Gaza as more starve to death

You can read our story on the impact of the starvation crisis on Gaza’s children here.

Watch our video on genocide and colonialism in Palestine here.

And you see more about the UN chief calling for an independent and viable Palestinian state, here.

This live page will be closing soon. Here are the day’s top developments:

• At least 92 people have been killed across Gaza by Israeli fire, including 41 aid seekers, despite “pauses” in fighting to deliver essential humanitarian aid.
• US President Trump and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer discussed the “appalling scenes” in Gaza and agreed that “urgent action” is needed to end the humanitarian disaster.
• Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa told the UN conference on a two-state solution that Hamas must end its governance of Gaza and relinquish its weapons to the Palestinian Authority.
• The United States rejected the UN conference on the two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians as a “publicity stunt”.
• Prominent Israeli human rights groups B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights released reports saying Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to “genocide“.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning to present a plan to his cabinet to annex areas of Gaza, a news report says.
• The head of the opposition in Israel’s parliament, Yair Lapid, said that the government needs to immediately end the war in Gaza, calling it “not a complete victory but a complete disaster”.

The UN secretary-general has called on the international community to take “urgent, concrete, irreversible steps” towards a two-state solution, warning the situation in Gaza is driving Palestinians deeper into despair.

“Let’s be clear: statehood for the Palestinians is a right, not a reward, and the denial of statehood would be a gift to extremists everywhere,” Antonio Guterres said at the opening of a UN conference on peaceful settlement.

“Time is running out. With every passing day, trust is slipping, institutions are weakened, and hopes are dashed.”

Guterres condemned the deepening crisis in Gaza, saying it “has descended into a cascade of catastrophes”.

“I welcome recent steps to reduce restrictions to lifesaving humanitarian aid – but this is far from the solution to end this nightmare. We need an immediate, permanent ceasefire, the immediate, unconditional release of all hostages, full and unfettered humanitarian access. These are not preconditions for peace. They are the foundation of it.”

Benjamin Netanyahu has alleged that Hamas is attempting to “fuel the perception of a humanitarian crisis” in Gaza as images of emaciated children continue to be exposed.

“We already allow significant amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza every single day, including food, water and medicine,” Netanyahu said.

“Hamas benefits from attempting to fuel the perception of a humanitarian crisis. As such, they have been releasing unverified numbers to the news media while circulating images that are carefully staged or manipulated by Hamas.”

Netanyahu reiterated that Israel will continue to seek the return of the captives and the “defeat” of Hamas.

“That is the only way to secure peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike,” he said.

A choice between starvation and being shot: That’s the decision many Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to make. More than 900 people have been killed at the GHF’s aid distribution sites.

Al Jazeera’s The Take unpacks the situation at the aid sites and what is being done to make it stop.

Listen to the discussion below:

Guest:

Diana Buttu (@dianabuttu), human rights lawyer and analyst

Israel has deliberately engineered famine and chaos in Gaza, the Government Media Office says.

Most of the 87 aid trucks that entered Gaza today were looted in what it called “systematic disorder fostered by the Israeli occupation”.

In a statement, the office said that one airdrop operation delivered the equivalent of only half a truck’s worth of aid. It fell near Tuffah and Jabalia – areas under Israeli military control and inaccessible to civilians.

Israel committed a “deliberate massacre” earlier by initially blocking the entry of aid trucks, then targeting family-based aid protection teams, killing 11 guards.

The statement said Israel then allowed the trucks to proceed, and they were subsequently looted by criminal gangs operating under Israeli drone and gunfire cover.

“What is happening in Gaza is a clear and deliberate model of how the Israeli occupation is consciously fostering chaos and engineering starvation,” the media office said, adding that aid is being intentionally prevented from reaching warehouses or intended recipients.

Iran has warned that it will respond to the United States and Israel in a “more decisive manner” should they attack again.

The comments appear to be in response to remarks by US President Donald Trump, who threatened earlier in the day to “wipe out” Iran’s nuclear programme if it resumed after US strikes last month.

“If aggression is repeated we will not hesitate to react in a more decisive manner and in a way that will be impossible to cover up,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a post on X.

“If there are concerns about the possible diversion of our nuclear program into non-peaceful purposes, the ‘military option’ proved incapable – but a negotiated solution may work.”

It remains unclear how much damage was caused by the US strikes on Tehran’s nuclear facilities, which came after Israel launched a surprise bombing campaign.

At least 92 people have been killed across Gaza by Israeli fire, despite “pauses” in fighting to deliver essential humanitarian aid, medical sources say.

Among the dead, 41 were aid seekers.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa told the UN conference on a two-state solution that countries must “act to reunify Gaza with the West Bank, including East Jerusalem”.

Mustafa said he envisions a place “where Palestine and Israel live side by side in peace and security, leading to shared peace, shared security and shared prosperity in our region”.

But he also said that this plan requires support for the Palestinian government to assume its “sole governance and security responsibilities” in the occupied territory.

“Hamas must end its rule of Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority,” he said.

Mustafa also called on all member-states to take every action possible to end the occupation and the war on Gaza.

As the death toll from two years of war in Gaza nears 60,000, a growing number of people are dying from malnutrition, with images of starving children shocking the world and fuelling international criticism of Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that “there is no starvation in Gaza”.

However, on Monday, he described the situation in Gaza as “difficult”, saying that Israel is working to ensure aid deliveries.

“Israel will continue to work with international agencies as well as the US and European nations to ensure that large amounts of humanitarian aid flows into the Gaza Strip,” Netanyahu said.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has condemned the use of airdrops to deliver aid to Gaza, calling the approach “futile” and “cynical” amid the worsening humanitarian crisis.

Jean Guy Vataux, MSF’s emergency coordinator in Gaza, said on X that airdrops are not only inefficient but also dangerous.

“Using airdrops for the delivery of humanitarian aid is a futile initiative that smacks of cynicism,” he said.

“The roads are there, the trucks are there, the food and medicine are there… All that is needed is for Israeli authorities to decide to facilitate its arrival.”

Vataux said proper coordination and expedited clearance procedures at land crossings could enable the safe and large-scale delivery of aid – something airdrops cannot achieve.

“They carry far less supply than the 20 tonnes you can get on a truck.”

Israeli forces raided the village of Khirbet Ibziq, north of Tubas, in the occupied West Bank.

According to human rights activists, soldiers searched residents’ houses and objected to the presence of foreign solidarity activists in the area.

The village and the northern Jordan Valley have experienced an increase in incursions and violations by Israeli forces and illegal settlers.

According to the Israeli news outlet Haaretz, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning to present a plan to his cabinet to annex areas of Gaza.

The move is an attempt to keep far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich from leaving the coalition government.

Haaretz reported the plan will grant Hamas a deadline of several days to agree to a ceasefire, but in the event it is not secured, Israel will begin annexation.

The plan has received a “green light from the Trump administration”, the news report said.

However, threats to annex Gaza may put Israel at further odds with the international community and see more countries follow France in recognising a Palestinian state or applying sanctions, it noted.

We earlier reported an Israeli drone bombed a motorcycle in the Baraka area of Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon.

Lebanon’s National News Agency now reports one person was killed and four others were wounded in the attack.

Despite a ceasefire agreement reached with Hezbollah last November, Israeli forces have continued to strike areas across Lebanon, killing and wounding civilians including Syrian refugees living in the country.

Mohammad Samer Suleiman al-Jamal, 27, was killed after being shot by Israeli forces at the northern entrance to Hebron in the occupied West Bank.

Al-Jamal was struck by live fire at the Ras al-Joura checkpoint, where Israeli troops opened fire directly at him and prevented medics from reaching the scene, Wafa news agency said, citing the Health Ministry.

He was left to bleed out before his death was confirmed, and his body is currently being held by Israeli forces.

Rula Shadid, an expert on refugee law and co-director of the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy, spoke to Al Jazeera’s Centre Stage to discuss the global perception of Palestine and complicity of Western nations in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Watch the discussion below:

The head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) says his staff on the ground have described people enduring the starvation crisis as “neither dead nor alive – walking corpses”.

Speaking at the UN conference on a two-state solution, Philippe Lazzarini said words of “outrage and condemnation are no longer adequate for what is unfolding”.

“There must be immediate action to impose a long-overdue ceasefire, to reverse deepening starvation, and to release every hostage … Once a ceasefire is in place, a massive scale-up of humanitarian assistance can be enabled by UNRWA’s large workforce,” Lazzarini said.

In the occupied West Bank, the UNRWA chief warned the situation has “deteriorated alarmingly”.

“Compounding the decimation of Gaza, the annexation of the occupied West Bank is now a declared political objective – as is the dismantling of UNRWA. In the West Bank, we are already witnessing the human cost of efforts to end UNRWA’s operations.”

The United States on Monday rejected as a “publicity stunt” a United Nations conference that brought dozens of ministers together to work towards a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.

“This is a publicity stunt that comes in the middle of delicate diplomatic efforts to end the conflict,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement.

“Far from promoting peace, the conference will prolong the war, embolden Hamas, and reward its obstruction and undermine real-world efforts to achieve peace.”

The European Commission has proposed suspending Israel’s access to EU funding for tech startups as pressure grows among the bloc to take a stronger stance over the catastrophic situation in Gaza.

The suggestion to partially suspend Israel’s involvement in the Horizon research programme, which can be reversed, will be discussed by the EU’s 27 countries on Tuesday and will need the majority of member states to approve it to go into force.

The proposal comes as a reaction to a review of Israel’s compliance with the human rights clause of an agreement governing its relations with the EU.

Israel condemned the recommendation, calling it “mistaken, regrettable, and unjustified”.

“At a time when Israel is fighting Hamas’s jihadist terrorism, any such decision only serves to strengthen Hamas and therefore undermines the chances of reaching a ceasefire and a framework for the release of hostages,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry said.