核心价值观 百场讲坛第六十六期

The director of al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, has spoken to Al Jazeera about the situation in the besieged enclave.

“Hospitals in Gaza are operating at minimal capacity due to a lack of medicine. Hundreds of wounded people are waiting for urgent operations and we cannot help them,” he said.

“Israel seeks to destroy the health system in Gaza through siege and bombing. Our medical staff are exhausted and starving, just like the rest of our people in Gaza,” he added. “The final and most dangerous stage of famine has been reached.”

The family of an Israeli captive held in Gaza for almost 22 months accused Hamas on Saturday of tormenting him with hunger as part of a propaganda campaign, AFP reports.

The David family was reacting after Hamas’s armed wing released a video of 24-year-old Evyatar David, looking emaciated and weak in a narrow concrete tunnel, for the second night in a row.

“Hamas is using our son as a live experiment in a vile hunger campaign. The deliberate starvation of our son as part of a propaganda campaign is one of the most horrifying acts the world has seen,” the family said in a statement.

Hamas has said that it will not lay down arms unless an independent Palestinian state is established, Reuters reports.

In a statement, the group said its “armed resistance … cannot be relinquished except through the full restoration of our national rights, foremost among them the establishment of an independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital”.

Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz has shared a video that he claims captures Hamas members surrendering to Israeli forces in Beit Hanoon in northern Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.

In the footage, apparently shot from the air, three people emerge from a rubble-strewn area, kneel and raise their arms in the air. A separate photo shared alongside the video on X shows a group of three unarmed men wearing only undergarments.

“They emerge from the tunnels into the destroyed city … [the Israeli military] is destroying both above- and below-ground targets,” Katz wrote in the post.

His claim comes as Israeli forces continue a slew of attacks across the Strip.

The Israeli army’s chief of staff has said that fighting in Gaza will continue if negotiations fail to secure the release of captives still held in the besieged enclave, Al Jazeera reports.

“I estimate that in the coming days we will know whether we can reach an agreement for the release of our hostages,” said Eyal Zamir, according to an Israeli army statement. “If not, the combat will continue without rest.”

The Israeli army says 49 captives remain in Gaza, of which only 22 are believed to be alive.

US envoy Steve Witkoff has met the families of Israeli captives held in Gaza, according to the main association representing those still in captivity almost 22 months after being captured during Hamas’s October 2023 attacks, AFP reports.

Cellphone video posted online showed the Washington negotiator arriving in a square in Tel Aviv that has become known for protests by supporters of the hostages’ families and being greeted with applause and pleas for help.

Six Palestinians have been killed and several others wounded by Israeli occupation forces opening fire on aid seekers near Wadi Gaza and along the Netzarim Corridor, both in central Gaza, according to the Wafa news agency.

The victims had gathered in the area in search of food aid, local sources reported.

Wafa added that earlier, 12 more Palestinians were killed by Israeli occupation forces under similar circumstances near the same corridor, bringing the total number of people killed while waiting for aid since dawn to 18.

Fares Afanah, head of emergency and ambulance services in northern Gaza, has spoken to Al Jazeera about the challenges medics face in responding to emergencies and treating the wounded.

Afaneh said Israeli attacks have destroyed 80 per cent of his department’s vehicles during the fighting and that Israeli forces routinely block ambulances from reaching victims.

Many of those wounded while seeking aid arrive at the hospital with head and limb wounds, he said, adding that overwhelmed doctors frequently struggle to prioritise care.

Not only are aid trucks entering in a small number, but a power vacuum has enabled looters and armed gangs to step in, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reports from Gaza City.

“They take over many of these trucks coming in and hoard the aid. They then resell it at a very high price — double or triple the standard black-market price,” Mahmoud says. “It’s beyond anyone’s financial capacity.”

Gaza’s government media office says only 73 aid trucks entered Gaza yesterday, far below the 500 to 600 the UN estimates are needed to meet residents’ daily needs, Al Jazeera reports.

In addition, most of the trucks were looted before their contents could be distributed, it added, blaming Israel for “systematically and deliberately” enforcing the “security chaos”.

“We strongly condemn the continued crime of starvation, the closure of the crossings, and the prevention of humanitarian aid from entering,” the office said in a statement.

Sources at al-Awda Hospital have said that two Palestinians have been killed and 26 were wounded by Israeli army fire while waiting for aid near the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza, according to Al Jazeera.

Families of Israeli captives held in Gaza have yet again called for an agreement that will result in their return from Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.

According to Israeli media outlet Maariv, the families said: “The danger to our children’s lives is great and we call on Israel and Washington to consider our situation.

“The risk of the disappearance of the bodies of the prisoners killed in Gaza is increasing. It is time to reach a comprehensive agreement and stop the war. No kidnapped person must remain in Gaza, the madness must stop, and our sons must be returned.”

US President Donald Trump has said Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff “had a great meeting with a lot of people, and the primary meeting was on food” during his visit to GHF sites in Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.

Speaking to reporters about the purpose of the trip, Trump said: “He also had some other conversations that I’ll tell you about later, but he had a meeting on getting people fed, and that’s what we want.”

Atef Abu Khater, a 17-year-old Palestinian, has died of malnutrition, according to a medical source at al-Shifa Hospital quoted by Al Jazeera staffers on the ground.

Earlier this week, Abu Khater, who had been in good health prior to the Gaza conflict, was hospitalised in intensive care, according to media reports, which quoted his father as saying he was no longer responding to treatment.

The Israeli military has stormed the occupied West Bank town of Beit Duqqu, northwest of occupied East Jerusalem, and shot a Palestinian man, Al Jazeera Arabic reports.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it was treating a 21-year-old with bullet wounds in both legs.

Israeli forces have also stormed the town of Deir Jarir, east of Ramallah, where they’ve shot another Palestinian man.

The condition of the two victims is not currently known.

The Israeli military has also carried out early morning raids on Qalqilya and Nablus, arresting a man in each city.

Chris Smalls, a New York labour advocate and American citizen, has returned home after a harrowing journey following his detention by the Israeli forces as they intercepted the “Handala” aid ship bound for Gaza on July 27, according to CBS News.

Smalls told CBS News only that he was exhausted and had been on a hunger strike, but did not discuss his treatment while in Israeli custody.

Smalls was greeted by his family and hundreds of supporters at John F. Kennedy International Airport. “Free Gaza. Free the people of Palestine. That’s all it’s about,” Smalls said.

“We’re happy that it’s over. He’s safe, so that’s all that matters,” Smalls’ mom said.

The Israeli forces referred CBS to the Israeli foreign ministry for comment, which has not responded so far.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has hailed a US Senate vote on blocking arms sales to Israel, Al Jazeera reports.

The vote on the legislation, which has been regularly introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders throughout Israel’s offensive in Gaza, failed to pass in the 100-member chamber on Wednesday.

Still, it accrued more votes than ever before, with 27 out of the 47 Democrats in the chamber voting in favour, in a sign of mounting outrage.

“Although last night’s Senate vote should have been 100–0 in favor of these resolutions, the fact that a majority of Senate Democrats voted yes is a historic moment and a sign that sentiments in Congress are gradually catching up to the American people, most of whom now oppose the Israeli government’s genocide in Gaza and support restricting military aid to Israel,” the group said.

US President Donald Trump appears to be toning down his threats against Canada over its plan to recognise a Palestinian state, according to Al Jazeera.

Trump, who has launched a trade war with the northern neighbour since taking office, had said on Wednesday that Canada’s move would make it “very hard for us to make a trade deal with them”.

Trump softened that position, telling reporters that he did not like Canada’s move, but it was not a “deal breaker”.

US President Donald Trump’s administration is actively discussing with Azerbaijan the possibility of bringing that nation and some Central Asian allies into the Abraham Accords, hoping to deepen their existing ties with Israel, Reuters reports, citing five sources with knowledge of the matter.

Azerbaijan and every country in Central Asia, by contrast, already have longstanding relations with Israel, meaning that an expansion of the accords to include them would largely be symbolic, focusing on strengthening ties in areas like trade and military cooperation, said the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Another key sticking point is Azerbaijan’s conflict with its neighbour Armenia, since the Trump administration considers a peace deal between the two Caucasus nations as a precondition to join the Abraham Accords, three sources said.

While Trump officials have publicly floated several potential entrants into the accords, the talks centred on Azerbaijan are among the most structured and serious, the sources said. Two of the sources argued a deal could be reached within months or even weeks.

It is not clear which other countries in Central Asia — which includes Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan — were contacted.

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The Gaza media office has reported that 104 aid trucks entered Gaza, saying the “majority” were subjected to looting, according to Al Jazeera.

It further accused Israel of “deliberately perpetuating” security chaos, adding it affirmed the UN’s position that 600 trucks are needed a day to adequately provide for the population.

Earlier today, we reported that a UN spokesperson said that aid trucks had been restricted to only one crossing into Gaza and were subject to “ad hoc” security checks by the Israeli military.

He said this has led to delays and increased dangers for both those making the deliveries and those seeking aid.

Italy has said it would begin air drops over Gaza, which UN-backed experts say is slipping into famine, the latest European countries to do so, AFP reports.

“I have given the green light to a mission involving Army and Air Force assets for the transport and airdrop of basic necessities to civilians in Gaza, who have been severely affected by the ongoing conflict,” Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said in a statement.

Italy’s air force will work with Jordan’s military to air drop special containers containing essential goods, he said. The first drops could come on August 9, he said.

Spain on Friday said it had air-dropped 12 tonnes of food into Gaza, joining Britain and France, which have partnered with Middle Eastern nations to deliver sorely needed humanitarian supplies by air to the Palestinian enclave.