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'A Cruel and Transparent Farce': Israeli Attacks Kill 62 in Gaza Amid 'Tactical Pause'
"There is nothing humane or tactical about letting a trickle of aid in after a man-made famine has started while continuing to bomb starving men, women, and children, even in so-called safe zones," one advocate said.
Jul 27, 2025
The Israeli military began instituting tactical pauses in its assault on certain sections of Gaza on Sunday, as part of a plan to allow what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as "minimal humanitarian supplies" to enter the besieged enclave.
Several humanitarian organizations and political leaders described the Israeli approach as vastly insufficient at best and a dangerous distraction at worst, as Palestinians in Gaza continue to die of starvation that experts say has been deliberately imposed on them by the U.S.-backed Israeli military.
"Deadly airdrops and a trickle of trucks won't undo months of engineered starvation in Gaza," Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam policy lead for the Occupied Palestinian territory, said in a statement on Sunday. "What's needed is the immediate opening of all crossings for full, unhindered, and safe aid delivery across all of Gaza and a permanent cease-fire. Anything less risks being little more than a tactical gesture."
Israel announced a plan to institute a daily 10-hour "tactical pause" in fighting from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm local time in the populated Gaza localities of Gaza City, Deir al-Balah, and Muwasi, as The Associated Press explained.
"These actions are not pauses—they are part of an ongoing genocide that the world must act to stop."
However, on Sunday—the first day of the supposed pause—Israeli attacks killed a total of 62 people, Al Jazeera reported, including 34 who were seeking humanitarian relief. Another six people died of hunger, bringing the total death toll from starvation and malnutrition to 133, including 87 children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
"The Israeli government's so-called 'tactical pauses' are a cruel and transparent farce," said Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) national deputy director Edward Ahmed Mitchell in a statement on Sunday. "There is nothing humane or tactical about letting a trickle of aid in after a man-made famine has started while continuing to bomb starving men, women, and children, even in so-called safe zones. These actions are not pauses—they are part of an ongoing genocide that the world must act to stop."
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, meanwhile, called the pause "essential, but long overdue."
"This announcement alone cannot alleviate the needs of those desperately suffering in Gaza," Lammy said, as The Guardian reported. "We need a cease-fire that can end the war, for hostages to be released, and aid to enter Gaza by land unhindered."
The United Nations' World Food Program posted on social media that it welcomed the news of the pause, as well as the creation of more humanitarian corridors for aid, and that it had enough food supplies either in or en route to the area to feed the entire population of Gaza for nearly three months.
"A man-made hunger can only be addressed by political will."
Since the border crossings opened on May 27 following nearly three months of total siege, WFP has only been able to bring in 22,000 tons of food aid, about a third of the over 62,000 tons of food aid needed to feed the population of Gaza each month.
While it welcomed the pause, WFP did add that "an agreed cease-fire is the only way for humanitarian assistance to reach the entire civilian population in Gaza with critical food supplies in a consistent, predictable, orderly, and safe manner—wherever they are across the Gaza Strip."
Joe English, emergency communications specialist for UNICEF, emphasized that the limited pauses proposed by Israel were not the ideal conditions for treating serious malnutrition.
"This is a short turnaround in terms of the notice that we have, and so we cannot work miracles," English told CNN.
English explained that, while UNICEF can treat malnutrition, children who are malnourished require a course of treatments over an extended period of time in order to fully recover, something only truly possible with a cease-fire, which would allow the U.N. to reestablish the 400 aid distribution points it had set up across Gaza before the last cease-fire ended in March.
"We have to be able to reach people and also to reach people where they are," he said. "We can't be expecting people to continue to traverse many miles, often on foot, through militarized areas, to get access to aid."
In addition to bringing in food aid through trucks, Israel, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates all began air-dropping aid over the weekend. However, this method has been widely criticized by humanitarian experts as ineffective and even dangerous.
"The planes are insulting for us. We are a people who deserve dignity."
"Airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation. They are expensive, inefficient, and can even kill starving civilians. It is a distraction and screensmoke," U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini wrote on social media on Saturday.
"A man-made hunger can only be addressed by political will. Lift the siege, open the gates, and guarantee safe movements and dignified access to people in need," Lazzarini wrote.
Palestinians in Gaza also complained about the air drops.
"From 6:00 am until now we didn't eat or drink. We didn't get aid from the trucks. After that, they said that planes will airdrop aid, so we waited for that as well," Massad Ghaban told Reuters. "The planes are insulting for us. We are a people who deserve dignity."
In a reminder of what is at stake in effectively delivering aid to Gaza, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Sunday that "malnutrition is on a dangerous trajectory in the Gaza Strip, marked by a spike in deaths in July."
WHO continued:
Of 74 malnutrition-related deaths in 2025, 63 occurred in July—including 24 children under 5, a child over 5, and 38 adults. Most of these people were declared dead on arrival at health facilities or died shortly after, their bodies showing clear signs of severe wasting. The crisis remains entirely preventable. Deliberate blocking and delay of large-scale food, health, and humanitarian aid has cost many lives.
WHO said that the search for lifesaving aid was itself deadly: "Families are being forced to risk their lives for a handful of food, often under dangerous and chaotic conditions. Since 27 May, more than 1,060 people have been killed and 7,200 injured while trying to access food."
Israeli solders have reported that they had been ordered to fire on Palestinian civilians seeking aid.
In the face of Israel's atrocities, CAIR's Mitchell called for decisive action: "No more statements. Our government, Western nations, and Arab Muslim nations must act immediately to end the genocide, allow unfettered humanitarian aid into Gaza, secure the release of all captives and political prisoners, and hold Israeli leaders accountable for war crimes. Every moment of inaction contributes to the unimaginable suffering of everyone in Gaza."
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Imperiling Lives Worldwide, White House Asks Congress to Claw Back Global Health Funding
"These cuts would condemn countless vulnerable women, children, and families to preventable suffering and death," warned one humanitarian aid alliance.
Jun 04, 2025
The Trump White House on Tuesday formally asked Congress to rescind over $9 billion in approved spending, taking aim at lifesaving foreign aid programs as well as funding for U.S. public broadcasting outlets targeted by the president.
The $9.4 billion rescission request, expected to be the first of several, is laid out in a memo authored by Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, who wrote that the clawback "would eliminate programs that are antithetical to American interests, such as funding the World Health Organization, LGBTQI+ activities, 'equity' programs, radical Green New Deal-type policies, and color revolutions in hostile places around the world."
The White House request specifically urges Congress to rescind hundreds of millions of dollars from U.S. contributions to United Nations peacekeeping; $500 million from U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) global health programs that fund "activities related to child and maternal health, HIV/AIDS, and infectious diseases"; $800 million from Migration and Refugee Assistance; and $125 million from the Clean Technology Fund.
The request would also eliminate U.S. contributions to the U.N. Children's Fund.
If enacted, the rescissions would compound the damage already done by the Trump administration's lawless assault on USAID, an attack that has had devastating impacts around the world.
Abby Maxman, president and CEO of Oxfam America, said Tuesday that "this attempt to claw back billions of dollars of federal funding already approved by Congress, including lifesaving foreign aid, is yet another deadly setback for communities now left without food, clean water, healthcare, and more."
"The global aid system is already overstretched as need continues to rise," said Maxman. "We are already seeing the life and death impacts of foreign assistance cuts—championed by a handful of the world’s richest people—on women, children, and communities already enduring poverty, hunger, conflict, and disaster."
"We call on Congress to vote 'no' on this reckless rescissions package and uphold longstanding bipartisan commitment to these programs that save untold lives and make the world a better place for us all," Maxman added.
The humanitarian alliance InterAction warned that "these cuts would condemn countless vulnerable women, children, and families to preventable suffering and death—and already have."
"The closing of clinics in South Sudan caused at least five children with cholera to die while trying to access treatment," the alliance said. "In the Democratic Republic of Congo, entire communities were cut off from water, food, and healthcare. Stories like these continue to emerge from across the globe."
"Trump's cuts will save no more than a rounding error, but cost America its credibility, and hundreds of thousands of people their very lives."
The White House package also demands that Congress rescind all $535 million appropriated for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which would cement President Donald Trump's broadside against NPR and PBS. Both outlets are suing the president over his attempt to cut off their federal funding.
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the new request "is just the beginning," warning that "next time, it might be funding for cancer research or to help working families afford their energy bills this summer."
"After linking arms with Elon Musk to take a chainsaw to key programs the American people count on, President Trump is now asking Republicans in Congress to rubberstamp his DOGE cuts and codify them into law," said Murray. "In asking Congress to rescind some of the funding he has been illegally blocking for months, Trump is conceding what we've known all along: that Congress—not the president—must approve the rescission or withholding of investments that were signed into law."
Because the rescission process is not subject to the 60-vote Senate filibuster, congressional Republicans can approve the White House's demands without any Democratic support. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) pledged to "bring the package to the floor as quickly as possible."
Peter Maybarduk, Access to Medicines director at Public Citizen, said in a statement Tuesday that the White House proposal marks "a low moment for our country."
"This president, having unconstitutionally obliterated foreign aid, is now asking members of Congress to bless the power he illegally took from them and the destruction he has wrought with it," said Maybarduk. "Trump's cuts will save no more than a rounding error, but cost America its credibility, and hundreds of thousands of people their very lives."
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Civil Society Groups Call for Diplomatic Convoy to Get Aid Into Gaza as 2 Million Face Starvation
"The risk of famine in Gaza is increasing with the deliberate withholding of humanitarian aid," said the head of the World Health Organization.
May 19, 2025
As Israeli leaders were split over a plan to allow a "minimal" amount of aid into Gaza on Monday, Palestinian and global civil society groups issued a call for an international humanitarian mission that would go much further in fighting the looming famine across the enclave.
With the World Food Program and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East having "exhausted their reserves," more than 750 international groups joined "Unified Call to Confront Famine" and ensure the blockade stopping more than 3,000 food aid trucks and 116,000 metric tons of food are allowed into the enclave.
"We are witnessing, in real time, the deliberate starvation of a civilian population as a method of warfare," said Human Rights Watch (HRW), which also joined the call, in a statement. "Over 2 million Palestinians in Gaza are living in famine."
The group echoed an address by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), at the World Health Assembly on Monday in Geneva.
"The risk of famine in Gaza is increasing with the deliberate withholding of humanitarian aid," said Tedros. "The WHO has said around a quarter of the 2.1 million population in Gaza are facing 'a catastrophic situation of hunger, acute malnutrition, starvation, illness, and death' due to the Israeli blockade."
With aid that is "ready and waiting to enter Gaza" entirely blockaded by Israel since March 2, just before the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) broke a temporary cease-fire, civil society groups said states should join a "Diplomatic Humanitarian Convoy to Gaza through the Rafah Crossing."
In the convoy, official diplomatic missions would accompany thousands of aid trucks into Gaza, coordinating with the United Nations and the government of Egypt.
"Inaction will lead to mass death by starvation, enable further grave illegalities, and undermine the international legal system."
Supporting groups noted that governments that are "complicit in the ongoing atrocities," such as the U.S., the top international IDF funder, and called on "individual diplomats, parliamentarians, and ministers from those countries to join the convoy in their personal capacities." They also called on international media outlets to join—"to bear witness, to document the famine, and to expose the blockade starving Gaza."
"This is a human imperative," said HRW. "A Diplomatic Humanitarian Convoy would mark a historic step to break the siege, end the starvation, and affirm the world's rejection of hunger as a weapon of war."
The call came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the government's "greatest friends in the world" had made clear that they "cannot accept images of hunger, mass hunger."
Images of Palestinians in Gaza suffering from a lack of food, medicine, water, and other aid have been widely available since long before the current blockade, but Netanyahu's comments suggested that allies like the U.S. government have applied pressure to allow aid into the enclave.
On his trip to the Middle East last week, U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. would have the looming famine in Gaza "taken care of."
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a United Nations-backed food insecurity initiative, said last week that at least 244,000 people in Gaza are facing Phase 5-level hunger, defined as "extreme deprivation of food."
"Starvation, death, destitution, and extremely critical levels of acute malnutrition are or will likely be evident," said the IPC.
The entire enclave is in Phase 4, which is characterized by "large food consumption gaps... very high acute malnutrition and excess mortality."
Aid and medical workers are struggling to treat thousands of children who have been diagnosed with acute malnutrition.
"We currently are lacking nutrition rehabilitation supplies and equipment, including pharmaceuticals," said Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the occupied Palestinian territories. "Because of the blockades, supplies are dwindling rapidly."
Nutritionist Rana Soboh told The Associated Press Monday that she treated a mother who had fainted while breastfeeding her newborn after having gone days without eating.
The next day Soboh met a mother of a malnourished 1-year-old boy who weighed just 11 pounds, having lived his entire life during Israel's bombardment of Gaza and the near-total blockade that began in October 2023 in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack.
"He hadn't grown any teeth," the AP reported. "He was too weak to cry. The mother was also malnourished, 'a skeleton, covered in skin.' When the mother asked for food, Soboh started crying uncontrollably."
A U.N. official said Monday that under Netanyahu's plan to provide "minimal" aid, 20 aid trucks carrying food was expected to enter Gaza; before Israel began its assault on Gaza, about 500 trucks entered the enclave per day.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has objected to the tiny amount of food that may soon enter Gaza, saying it will "fuel Hamas and give it oxygen."
Netanyahu said the plan would be a "bridge" to a new aid system in which a private foundation and U.S. security contractors would distribute humanitarian assistance. The U.N. has rejected the proposal, saying it is "at odds with the DNA of any principled humanitarian organization."
HRW said the call for all humanitarian aid to enter Gaza in diplomatic convoy was grounded in "international law, shared morality, the Genocide Convention, the International Court of Justice's provisional measures, [and] the U.N. Charter."
"Inaction," said the group, "will lead to mass death by starvation, enable further grave illegalities, and undermine the international legal system."
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