Gaza's health ministry says 1,924 aid seekers killed since late May

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Gaza's civil defence agency raised the death toll from Israeli attacks to at least 36 people on Saturday, warning that intensifying strikes on Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood in Gaza City were placing its remaining residents in mortal danger.

The Iraqi Joint Operations Command announced on Saturday that the Iraqi army killed terrorists in airstrikes after targeting their hideouts in the Salah al-Din and Kirkuk provinces.

The strikes, carried out by F-16 jets on August 12 and 14, were based on precise intelligence and destroyed key Islamic State group positions.

The first strike hit a hideout in Wadi al-Shay, killing several militants. Details of the second strike in Kirkuk will be released later, the command said.

Gaza's health ministry said Saturday that 61,897 people have been killed and more than 155,660 injured in the enclave since the start of the war on 7 October 2023.

The ministry said hospitals in Gaza had received 70 bodies and 385 injuries in the past 24 hours.

The death toll includes 1,924 Palestinians since late May who were waiting to receive aid.

Families of captives held in Gaza called for a "nationwide day of stoppage" in Israel to express growing frustration over 22 months of war.

Families fear a coming Israeli offensive, which seeks to occupy the entire territory, further endangers the 50 captives remaining in Gaza, just 20 of them thought to remain alive.

A group representing the families has urged Israelis into the streets on Sunday. "Across the country, hundreds of citizen-led initiatives will pause daily life and join the most just and moral struggle: the struggle to bring all 50 hostages home," it said in a statement.

An Israeli airstrike in Gaza killed a baby girl and her parents on Saturday, Nasser hospital officials and witnesses said.

The baby's body, wrapped in blue, was placed on those of her parents as Palestinians prayed over them. Motasem al-Batta, his wife and the girl were killed in their tent in the crowded Al-Muwasi area.

"Two and a half months, what has she done?" neighbor Fathi Shubeir asked, sweating as temperatures in the shattered territory soared above 32 degrees Celsius. "They are civilians in an area designated safe."

France's foreign ministry Saturday called on Israel to drop a plan to build thousands of new settlement housing units in the occupied West Bank, calling the project "a serious violation of international law".

A ministry spokesman said that France "condemns with the utmost firmness" the Israeli decision to build 3,400 homes in a particularly contentious area of the West Bank.

Several countries have said that project, called E1, undermines hopes for a contiguous future Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The Israeli army has used explosive robots to destroy 400 homes in Gaza City's Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood over the past six days, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has said.

Explosive robots have been used to bring down residential blocks, alongside hundreds of airstrikes and artillery shells, said Euro-Med, as it warned that "the escalation of genocide to cement control over Gaza Governorate risks unprecedented civilian massacres."

تفجيرات مرعبة ومتتالية..

الاحتلال ينسف بالمتفجرات عددًا كبيرًا من المنازل في حي الزيتون، جنوب شرق مدينة غزة. pic.twitter.com/ejupLYMg09

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) August 16, 2025

A young Palestinian woman with severe wasting who was flown from Gaza to Italy this week for treatment has died, the hospital said on Saturday.

The 20-year-old, named by Italian media as Marah Abu Zuhri, arrived in Pisa on an Italian government humanitarian flight overnight Wednesday-Thursday.

She had a "very complex clinical picture" and was "in a profound state of organic wasting", the University Hospital of Pisa said in a statement.

On Friday, after undergoing tests and starting treatment, she had a sudden respiratory crisis and cardiac arrest, and died.

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli attacks killed at least 22 people on Saturday, warning that intensifying strikes on a Gaza City neighbourhood were placing its remaining residents in mortal danger.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said conditions in the Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood were rapidly deteriorating with residents having little to no access to food and water amid heavy Israeli bombardment.

He said that about 50,000 people are estimated to be in that area of Gaza City, "the majority of whom are without food or water" and lacking "the basic necessities of life".

"يابا، اتصاوبت.. اتصاوبت"..
لحظة إصابة طفل بشظايا صاروخ جراء قصف إسرائيلي استهدف حي الزيتون جنوب مدينة غزة. pic.twitter.com/REuUiXf3Ap

— أنس الشريف Anas Al-Sharif (@AnasAlSharif0) August 15, 2025

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa will visit Egypt on Sunday to hold talks on reaching a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, Egyptian media said.

"Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelaty will receive the Palestinian premier on Sunday at the Cabinet headquarters in the new city of Alamein (in the north)," Al-Akhbar newspaper wrote Saturday, without specifying the duration of the visit.

Abdelaty will meet with Mustafa "to discuss the catastrophic humanitarian and health situation in the Gaza Strip, as well as Egypt’s efforts to reach a ceasefire (between Israel and Hamas) and ensure the entry of humanitarian aid into the Strip," Al-Akhbar added.

Seven Palestinian factions, including Hamas, confirmed after a meeting held in Cairo on Thursday their willingness to engage with all initiatives and proposals aimed at ending the war.

The factions emphasised that their top priorities at this stage are "to stop the Israeli genocide, lift the blockade, and ensure the entry of humanitarian aid."

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Gaza said 54 of its members have been killed in the territory since the war began in October 2023, after another volunteer was killed on Friday.

"Yesterday, volunteer Saleem Sobhi Al-Sawarka (28 years old) from central #Gaza was killed after Israeli occupation forces targeted a group of civilians while he was visiting his relatives in northern Gaza. This brings the number of PRCS members killed in the Gaza Strip to 54 so far," it said in a post on X.

🚨Yesterday, volunteer Saleem Sobhi Al-Sawarka (28 years old) from central #Gaza was killed after Israeli occupation forces targeted a group of civilians while he was visiting his relatives in northern Gaza. This brings the number of PRCS members killed in the Gaza Strip to 54 so…

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) August 16, 2025

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Saturday that one million women and girls are facing mass starvation, violence, and abuse in the Gaza Strip.

"Women and girls are forced to adopt increasingly dangerous survival strategies like venturing out in search of food and water at the extreme risk of being killed," UNRWA said.

Hunger is spreading fast in #Gaza.

According to @‌UN_Women:

🚨 One million women and girls are facing mass starvation, violence, and abuse

🚨 Women and girls are forced to adopt increasingly dangerous survival strategies like venturing out in search of food and water at the… pic.twitter.com/AzMTy9XQqZ

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) August 16, 2025

The ongoing Israeli assault on Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City, has displaced hundreds of families, the head of the Government Media Office in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Al-Thawabta, said on Saturday.

He stated that the assault, which has gone on for six days, is part of the Israeli government's plan to occupy what remains of the Gaza Strip.

In a statement to Anadolu Agency, Al-Thawabta explained that the Israeli attack on Al-Zaytoun included heavy and random shelling, as well as the deliberate demolition of dozens of homes and residential buildings, resulting in deaths, injuries, and the displacement of hundreds of families.

An Israeli military reconnaissance drone crashed on Saturday in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, according to both Israeli and Palestinian media.

The Times of Israel cited the army as saying that a "SkyLark 3" drone was on a reconnaissance mission when it "made an emergency landing" in northern Gaza due to a technical malfunction.

The military added that there is no concern over information being leaked from the drone.

عاجل | سقوط طائرة استطلاع لجيش الاحتلال في حي الرمال بمدينة غزة. pic.twitter.com/AB2HCGpjzc

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) August 16, 2025

The Gaza Strip's health ministry announced on Saturday that the death toll from ongoing Israeli-induced starvation since 7 October 2023 has risen to 251 Palestinians, including 108 children.

In a statement, the ministry’s Director General, Munir Al-Bursh, said that 11 people died in the past 24 hours due to malnutrition.

A 17-year-old Palestinian boy was shot in the legs by Israeli forces on Saturday morning near the separation wall in Sheikh Saad, southeast of Jerusalem, and was taken to the hospital.

Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank town of Beit Ummar, a Palestinian woman was injured after being attacked by Israeli settlers while on her farmland with her family.

Israeli forces also carried out raids in several areas of the West Bank, including Bethlehem and Nablus. In Nablus, homes were raided and searched, and two Palestinians were arrested.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Saturday that Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu has become a "problem", adding she would try to put pressure on Israel over the Gaza war as her country currently holds the EU presidency.

"Netanyahu is now a problem in himself," Frederiksen said in an interview with the Jyllands-Posten daily, adding that the Israeli government was going "too far."

The centre right leader slammed the "absolutely appalling and catastrophic" humanitarian situation in Gaza and new settlement project in the occupied West Bank.

"We are one of the countries that wants to increase pressure on Israel, but we have not yet obtained the support of EU members," she said.

Frederiksen added that she wanted to consider "political pressure, sanctions, whether against settlers, ministers, or even Israel as a whole," referring to trade or research sanctions.

"We are not ruling anything out in advance. Just as with Russia, we are designing the sanctions to target where we believe they will have the greatest effect," added Frederiksen, whose country is not among those who have said they will recognise the Palestinian state.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Friday slammed what he described as Hezbollah "threats" of civil war after the group's leader vowed to fight against government efforts to disarm it.

Publishing on X an excerpt from an interview he gave to a Saudi newspaper, Salam said the remarks by Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem "constitute an implicit threat of civil war", calling "any threat or intimidation related to such a war is totally unacceptable".

من حديثي اليوم لجريدة "الشرق الأوسط":
كلام أمين عام حزب الله الشيخ نعيم قاسم يحمل تهديدا مُبطنا بالحرب الأهلية، ولا يوجد أحد في لبنان اليوم يريد الحرب الأهلية، والتهديد والتلويح بها مرفوض تماماً.
الحديث عن أن الحكومة اللبنانية تنفذ مشروعا أميركيا إسرائيليا هو حديث مردود ...…

— Nawaf Salam نواف سلام (@nawafsalam) August 15, 2025

Gunmen in Iran's volatile southeast killed a police officer and wounded another in a shootout with security forces, news agencies reported Saturday.

The clash occurred in Sistan-Baluchistan province, one of the country's poorest regions and the scene of frequent violence between the security forces and Baluch minority rebels, Sunni extremist groups and drug traffickers.

"In an exchange of fire... between Iranshahr police and armed men, one officer was wounded and another killed," the Fars news agency said, citing the police.

Fars said the assailants were wounded in the firefight, fled the scene and were being pursued by police.

Foreign fighters and others who joined Syria's civil war from abroad have petitioned the new Islamist-led government for citizenship, arguing they have earned it after sweeping to power with rebels who ousted former leader Bashar al-Assad.

Many of the fighters and their families, and others including aid workers and journalists who joined the rebels, have no valid documentation. Some have been stripped of their original citizenship, and fear lengthy prison sentences or even death in their countries of origin.

A petition submitted to Syria's interior ministry on Thursday, seen by Reuters, argues the foreigners should be granted citizenship so they can settle down, own land and even travel.

Germany on Friday called on the Israeli government to stop settlement construction in the West Bank after Israel's far right finance minister said work would start on a plan for thousands of home that would divide the Palestinian territory.

Germany "firmly rejects the Israeli government's announcements regarding the approval of thousands of new housing units in Israeli settlements in the West Bank," said a foreign ministry spokesperson in a statement.

Germany has repeatedly warned the Israeli government to stop settlement construction in the West Bank, which violates international law and U.N. Security Council resolutions.