JNOUB, Lebanon, Aug 15 2025 (IPS)* ––“Special, targeted operations in southern Lebanon,” a phrase that has echoed repeatedly over the past two years in Israeli Defence Force (IDF) statements.
.
But behind these clinical military terms lies a human cost that statistics cannot capture.
Morning after an Israeli attack in Tyre, Lebanon. Credit: Nour
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
The residents of southern Lebanon—mothers, fathers, children, and elders—are the ones who face the daily reality of displacement, loss, and uncertainty.
Their homes become coordinates on military maps; their neighborhoods, theaters of “operations.”
FREIBURG, Germany, Aug 15 2025 (IPS)** –– The EU likes to think of itself as a normative power — a community of values, committed to upholding international law, promoting peace, protecting civilians and building a rules-based global order.
These are not just lofty ideals; they are enshrined in EU treaties, declarations and Council conclusions.
Credit: alliance/Anadolu/Moiz Salhi
But when it comes to the brutal, drawn-out destruction of Gaza and the continued illegal occupation of Palestine, these principles seem to have become hollow rhetoric.
Worse, they are being actively undermined by the craven inaction of the EU’s institutions and the blockage of governments like Germany, Italy, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
The European Commission has been shamefully absent as well.
(UN News)* — At least 100 children in Gaza have died from malnutrition and hunger, prompting humanitarians to underscore the need to speed up medical evacuations from the enclave while also allowing more food to enter.
These young deaths are “the latest in the war on children and childhood in Gaza,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of UN Palestine refugee agency UNRWA, said in a tweet on Wednesday [].
The toll also includes some 40,000 boys and girls reported killed or injured due to bombardment and airstrikes, at least 17,000 unaccompanied and separated children, and one million deeply traumatised youngsters who are not getting an education.
The sheer, unrelenting horror unfolding in Gaza is not unique in its scale of human suffering. Sudan has endured catastrophic famine for over a year, reaching the same “fifth stage of starvation” Gaza now tragically enters.
Every second of august, under the GENOCOST celebration , the Congolese community and its allies around the world come together to honor the memory of the victims of the Congolese genocide.
(UN News)* — UN Secretary-General António Guterres has condemned the killing of six Palestinian journalists in Gaza this past weekend, his Spokesman said on Monday [].
The reporters – five of whom worked for the Al Jazeera media network – were killed in a targeted Israeli strike in Gaza City the previous day.
“These latest killings highlight the extreme risks journalists continue to face when covering the ongoing war,” UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said during his regular media briefing from New York.
“The Secretary-General calls for an independent and impartial investigation into these latest killings.”
(UN News)* — UN Secretary-General António Guterres has expressed grave concern over Israel’s decision to “take control of Gaza City”, his Spokesperson said in a statement on Friday [].
The announcement following an Israeli cabinet meeting “marks a dangerous escalation and risks deepening the already catastrophic consequences for millions of Palestinians, and could further endanger more lives, including of the remaining hostages,” it said.
The statement noted that Palestinians in Gaza continue to endure a humanitarian catastrophe of horrific proportions.
JERUSALEM, 7 August 2025–An analysis of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical data, patients’ testimonies, and first-hand medical witnessing at two MSF clinics in Gaza, Palestine, point to both targeted and indiscriminate violence by Israeli forces and private American contractors against starved Palestinians at food distribution sites run by the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
The GHF-run food distributions in Gaza, Palestine, have become sites of “orchestrated killing and dehumanisation”, not humanitarian aid.
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Aug 7 2025 (IPS)* –– On August the first, the Italian daily La Repubblica published an interview with David Grossman, Israel’s most renown author and supporter of a “two-state solution”, as well as an outspoken critic of Israel’s violence against Palestinian civilians.
Grossman’s interview received international attention and was quoted by respected newspapers like The Guardian, Le Figaro and Haaretz.
Israeli presence on the West Bank. The orange and red patches are what remains of Palestinian controlled areas.
An invitation for the reader to analyze and decide which countries, peoples, and/or cultures can be considered civilized in the 21st century—more specifically, in 2025.
A civilization or culture is defined as a set of customs, traditions, ethics, values, language, music, dance, gastronomy, clothing, religion, and social and political organization of a people, ethnic group, tribe, or nation.
British scholars of the 19th century classified the peoples and races as Civilized, Barbarians and Savages, based on their respective “evolutions.” Such classification was based primarily on three factors:
Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution;
the Industrial Revolution in the beginning of industrial capitalism; and
the Reformation of the Catholic Church, the schism from which Protestantism arose.
(UN News)* —UN data published on Wednesday [] underscores the tiny amount of cultivable land that remains in the Gaza Strip, contributing to the famine-like conditions now being endured by more than two million people there.
A new report from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the UN Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) reveals that just 8.6 percent of cropland in Gaza is still accessible, while only 1.5 per cent of cropland is both accessible and undamaged, as of 28 July.
.
More than 86 per cent of cropland is damaged, while 12.4 per cent is undamaged but out of reach, as fighting between Israeli forces and militants from Hamas and other armed groups continues.
.
This report comes as Israel’s offensive inside Gaza continues to restrict aid distribution – and starvation-related deaths rise.