Russia and Belarus on Friday launched a long-planned joint military exercise involving thousands of troops that has raised concern in the West.
The exercises, dubbed “Zapad 2025,” or “West 2025,” are held in Belarus and Russia and will last through Tuesday. They are intended to showcase close defense ties between Moscow and Minsk, as well as Russia’s military might as it fights its 3½-year-old war in neighboring Ukraine.
The maneuvers follow an incursion of Russian drones into Polish airspace earlier this week which fueled longstanding fears that the hostilities in Ukraine could trigger a wider conflict. The Russian military said it wasn’t targeting Poland, and Belarus suggested drones veered off course. But European leaders described it as a deliberate provocation, forcing NATO allies to confront a potential threat in its airspace for the first time.
The Russia-Belarus exercises also have drawn worries in Kyiv and its Western allies of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, which border Belarus. When Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops rolling into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, many of them crossed from Belarus following joint drills days before the attack.
Belarusian defense officials initially said about 13,000 troops would participate in the exercise that was to take place near its western border. In May, however, its Defense Ministry said the number would be cut nearly in half, and that the main maneuvers would take place deeper inside the country.
In Moscow, the Defense Ministry said Friday that parts of the exercise will be held on Russian territory and on the Baltic and the Barents seas.
Last month, Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin said most of the drills will happen around the city of Barysaw, about 74 kilometers (46 miles) northeast of Minsk, although some “small units will carry out practical tasks to repel a hypothetical enemy” in areas close to the border with Poland and Lithuania.
Khrenin noted that the troops will practice “planning the use of” Russian nuclear weapons and the new nuclear-capable Oreshnik intermediate range missiles that Moscow has promised to station in Belarus.
In December, Russia and Belarus signed a pact giving Moscow’s security guarantees to its ally, including the possible use of Russian nuclear weapons to help repel any aggression.
Putin has said that Oreshnik missiles could be deployed to Belarus in the second half of 2025. He said they will remain under Russian control but that Moscow will allow Minsk to select targets.
Belarus sent formal invitations to all member states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and nine countries with NATO military attaches in Minsk to monitor the drills.
Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus with an iron hand for over 30 years, recently signaled willingness to mend his relationship with the West, which has been severely strained for years over his brutal crackdown on dissent and his support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The past year has seen regular releases of political prisoners and public calls for a rapprochement with the West. Last month, Lukashenko spoke by phone with Trump, who called him a “highly respected President” in a social media post, a stark contrast from other Western leaders, who have largely shunned the Belarusian leader.
On Thursday, Belarus freed 52 political prisoners as part of a deal brokered by the United States, which lifted some sanctions on the country’s national airline.
Russia and Belarus on Friday launched a long-planned joint military exercise involving thousands of troops that has raised concern in the West.
The exercises, dubbed “Zapad 2025,” or “West 2025,” are held in Belarus and Russia and will last through Tuesday. They are intended to showcase close defense ties between Moscow and Minsk, as well as Russia’s military might as it fights its 3½-year-old war in neighboring Ukraine.
The maneuvers follow an incursion of Russian drones into Polish airspace earlier this week which fueled longstanding fears that the hostilities in Ukraine could trigger a wider conflict. The Russian military said it wasn’t targeting Poland, and Belarus suggested drones veered off course. But European leaders described it as a deliberate provocation, forcing NATO allies to confront a potential threat in its airspace for the first time.
The Russia-Belarus exercises also have drawn worries in Kyiv and its Western allies of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, which border Belarus. When Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops rolling into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, many of them crossed from Belarus following joint drills days before the attack.
Belarusian defense officials initially said about 13,000 troops would participate in the exercise that was to take place near its western border. In May, however, its Defense Ministry said the number would be cut nearly in half, and that the main maneuvers would take place deeper inside the country.
In Moscow, the Defense Ministry said Friday that parts of the exercise will be held on Russian territory and on the Baltic and the Barents seas.
Last month, Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin said most of the drills will happen around the city of Barysaw, about 74 kilometers (46 miles) northeast of Minsk, although some “small units will carry out practical tasks to repel a hypothetical enemy” in areas close to the border with Poland and Lithuania.
Khrenin noted that the troops will practice “planning the use of” Russian nuclear weapons and the new nuclear-capable Oreshnik intermediate range missiles that Moscow has promised to station in Belarus.
In December, Russia and Belarus signed a pact giving Moscow’s security guarantees to its ally, including the possible use of Russian nuclear weapons to help repel any aggression.
Putin has said that Oreshnik missiles could be deployed to Belarus in the second half of 2025. He said they will remain under Russian control but that Moscow will allow Minsk to select targets.
Belarus sent formal invitations to all member states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and nine countries with NATO military attaches in Minsk to monitor the drills.
Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus with an iron hand for over 30 years, recently signaled willingness to mend his relationship with the West, which has been severely strained for years over his brutal crackdown on dissent and his support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The past year has seen regular releases of political prisoners and public calls for a rapprochement with the West. Last month, Lukashenko spoke by phone with Trump, who called him a “highly respected President” in a social media post, a stark contrast from other Western leaders, who have largely shunned the Belarusian leader.
On Thursday, Belarus freed 52 political prisoners as part of a deal brokered by the United States, which lifted some sanctions on the country’s national airline.
Russia and Belarus on Friday launched a long-planned joint military exercise involving thousands of troops that has raised concern in the West.
The exercises, dubbed “Zapad 2025,” or “West 2025,” are held in Belarus and Russia and will last through Tuesday. They are intended to showcase close defense ties between Moscow and Minsk, as well as Russia’s military might as it fights its 3½-year-old war in neighboring Ukraine.
The maneuvers follow an incursion of Russian drones into Polish airspace earlier this week which fueled longstanding fears that the hostilities in Ukraine could trigger a wider conflict. The Russian military said it wasn’t targeting Poland, and Belarus suggested drones veered off course. But European leaders described it as a deliberate provocation, forcing NATO allies to confront a potential threat in its airspace for the first time.
The Russia-Belarus exercises also have drawn worries in Kyiv and its Western allies of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, which border Belarus. When Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops rolling into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, many of them crossed from Belarus following joint drills days before the attack.
Belarusian defense officials initially said about 13,000 troops would participate in the exercise that was to take place near its western border. In May, however, its Defense Ministry said the number would be cut nearly in half, and that the main maneuvers would take place deeper inside the country.
In Moscow, the Defense Ministry said Friday that parts of the exercise will be held on Russian territory and on the Baltic and the Barents seas.
Last month, Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin said most of the drills will happen around the city of Barysaw, about 74 kilometers (46 miles) northeast of Minsk, although some “small units will carry out practical tasks to repel a hypothetical enemy” in areas close to the border with Poland and Lithuania.
Khrenin noted that the troops will practice “planning the use of” Russian nuclear weapons and the new nuclear-capable Oreshnik intermediate range missiles that Moscow has promised to station in Belarus.
In December, Russia and Belarus signed a pact giving Moscow’s security guarantees to its ally, including the possible use of Russian nuclear weapons to help repel any aggression.
Putin has said that Oreshnik missiles could be deployed to Belarus in the second half of 2025. He said they will remain under Russian control but that Moscow will allow Minsk to select targets.
Belarus sent formal invitations to all member states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and nine countries with NATO military attaches in Minsk to monitor the drills.
Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus with an iron hand for over 30 years, recently signaled willingness to mend his relationship with the West, which has been severely strained for years over his brutal crackdown on dissent and his support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The past year has seen regular releases of political prisoners and public calls for a rapprochement with the West. Last month, Lukashenko spoke by phone with Trump, who called him a “highly respected President” in a social media post, a stark contrast from other Western leaders, who have largely shunned the Belarusian leader.
On Thursday, Belarus freed 52 political prisoners as part of a deal brokered by the United States, which lifted some sanctions on the country’s national airline.
Russia and Belarus on Friday launched a long-planned joint military exercise involving thousands of troops that has raised concern in the West.
The exercises, dubbed “Zapad 2025,” or “West 2025,” are held in Belarus and Russia and will last through Tuesday. They are intended to showcase close defense ties between Moscow and Minsk, as well as Russia’s military might as it fights its 3½-year-old war in neighboring Ukraine.
The maneuvers follow an incursion of Russian drones into Polish airspace earlier this week which fueled longstanding fears that the hostilities in Ukraine could trigger a wider conflict. The Russian military said it wasn’t targeting Poland, and Belarus suggested drones veered off course. But European leaders described it as a deliberate provocation, forcing NATO allies to confront a potential threat in its airspace for the first time.
The Russia-Belarus exercises also have drawn worries in Kyiv and its Western allies of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, which border Belarus. When Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops rolling into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, many of them crossed from Belarus following joint drills days before the attack.
Belarusian defense officials initially said about 13,000 troops would participate in the exercise that was to take place near its western border. In May, however, its Defense Ministry said the number would be cut nearly in half, and that the main maneuvers would take place deeper inside the country.
In Moscow, the Defense Ministry said Friday that parts of the exercise will be held on Russian territory and on the Baltic and the Barents seas.
Last month, Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin said most of the drills will happen around the city of Barysaw, about 74 kilometers (46 miles) northeast of Minsk, although some “small units will carry out practical tasks to repel a hypothetical enemy” in areas close to the border with Poland and Lithuania.
Khrenin noted that the troops will practice “planning the use of” Russian nuclear weapons and the new nuclear-capable Oreshnik intermediate range missiles that Moscow has promised to station in Belarus.
In December, Russia and Belarus signed a pact giving Moscow’s security guarantees to its ally, including the possible use of Russian nuclear weapons to help repel any aggression.
Putin has said that Oreshnik missiles could be deployed to Belarus in the second half of 2025. He said they will remain under Russian control but that Moscow will allow Minsk to select targets.
Belarus sent formal invitations to all member states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and nine countries with NATO military attaches in Minsk to monitor the drills.
Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus with an iron hand for over 30 years, recently signaled willingness to mend his relationship with the West, which has been severely strained for years over his brutal crackdown on dissent and his support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The past year has seen regular releases of political prisoners and public calls for a rapprochement with the West. Last month, Lukashenko spoke by phone with Trump, who called him a “highly respected President” in a social media post, a stark contrast from other Western leaders, who have largely shunned the Belarusian leader.
On Thursday, Belarus freed 52 political prisoners as part of a deal brokered by the United States, which lifted some sanctions on the country’s national airline.
Russia and Belarus on Friday launched a long-planned joint military exercise involving thousands of troops that has raised concern in the West.
The exercises, dubbed “Zapad 2025,” or “West 2025,” are held in Belarus and Russia and will last through Tuesday. They are intended to showcase close defense ties between Moscow and Minsk, as well as Russia’s military might as it fights its 3½-year-old war in neighboring Ukraine.
The maneuvers follow an incursion of Russian drones into Polish airspace earlier this week which fueled longstanding fears that the hostilities in Ukraine could trigger a wider conflict. The Russian military said it wasn’t targeting Poland, and Belarus suggested drones veered off course. But European leaders described it as a deliberate provocation, forcing NATO allies to confront a potential threat in its airspace for the first time.
The Russia-Belarus exercises also have drawn worries in Kyiv and its Western allies of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, which border Belarus. When Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops rolling into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, many of them crossed from Belarus following joint drills days before the attack.
Belarusian defense officials initially said about 13,000 troops would participate in the exercise that was to take place near its western border. In May, however, its Defense Ministry said the number would be cut nearly in half, and that the main maneuvers would take place deeper inside the country.
In Moscow, the Defense Ministry said Friday that parts of the exercise will be held on Russian territory and on the Baltic and the Barents seas.
Last month, Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin said most of the drills will happen around the city of Barysaw, about 74 kilometers (46 miles) northeast of Minsk, although some “small units will carry out practical tasks to repel a hypothetical enemy” in areas close to the border with Poland and Lithuania.
Khrenin noted that the troops will practice “planning the use of” Russian nuclear weapons and the new nuclear-capable Oreshnik intermediate range missiles that Moscow has promised to station in Belarus.
In December, Russia and Belarus signed a pact giving Moscow’s security guarantees to its ally, including the possible use of Russian nuclear weapons to help repel any aggression.
Putin has said that Oreshnik missiles could be deployed to Belarus in the second half of 2025. He said they will remain under Russian control but that Moscow will allow Minsk to select targets.
Belarus sent formal invitations to all member states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and nine countries with NATO military attaches in Minsk to monitor the drills.
Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus with an iron hand for over 30 years, recently signaled willingness to mend his relationship with the West, which has been severely strained for years over his brutal crackdown on dissent and his support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The past year has seen regular releases of political prisoners and public calls for a rapprochement with the West. Last month, Lukashenko spoke by phone with Trump, who called him a “highly respected President” in a social media post, a stark contrast from other Western leaders, who have largely shunned the Belarusian leader.
On Thursday, Belarus freed 52 political prisoners as part of a deal brokered by the United States, which lifted some sanctions on the country’s national airline.
Russia and Belarus on Friday launched a long-planned joint military exercise involving thousands of troops that has raised concern in the West.
The exercises, dubbed “Zapad 2025,” or “West 2025,” are held in Belarus and Russia and will last through Tuesday. They are intended to showcase close defense ties between Moscow and Minsk, as well as Russia’s military might as it fights its 3½-year-old war in neighboring Ukraine.
The maneuvers follow an incursion of Russian drones into Polish airspace earlier this week which fueled longstanding fears that the hostilities in Ukraine could trigger a wider conflict. The Russian military said it wasn’t targeting Poland, and Belarus suggested drones veered off course. But European leaders described it as a deliberate provocation, forcing NATO allies to confront a potential threat in its airspace for the first time.
The Russia-Belarus exercises also have drawn worries in Kyiv and its Western allies of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, which border Belarus. When Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops rolling into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, many of them crossed from Belarus following joint drills days before the attack.
Belarusian defense officials initially said about 13,000 troops would participate in the exercise that was to take place near its western border. In May, however, its Defense Ministry said the number would be cut nearly in half, and that the main maneuvers would take place deeper inside the country.
In Moscow, the Defense Ministry said Friday that parts of the exercise will be held on Russian territory and on the Baltic and the Barents seas.
Last month, Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin said most of the drills will happen around the city of Barysaw, about 74 kilometers (46 miles) northeast of Minsk, although some “small units will carry out practical tasks to repel a hypothetical enemy” in areas close to the border with Poland and Lithuania.
Khrenin noted that the troops will practice “planning the use of” Russian nuclear weapons and the new nuclear-capable Oreshnik intermediate range missiles that Moscow has promised to station in Belarus.
In December, Russia and Belarus signed a pact giving Moscow’s security guarantees to its ally, including the possible use of Russian nuclear weapons to help repel any aggression.
Putin has said that Oreshnik missiles could be deployed to Belarus in the second half of 2025. He said they will remain under Russian control but that Moscow will allow Minsk to select targets.
Belarus sent formal invitations to all member states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and nine countries with NATO military attaches in Minsk to monitor the drills.
Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus with an iron hand for over 30 years, recently signaled willingness to mend his relationship with the West, which has been severely strained for years over his brutal crackdown on dissent and his support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The past year has seen regular releases of political prisoners and public calls for a rapprochement with the West. Last month, Lukashenko spoke by phone with Trump, who called him a “highly respected President” in a social media post, a stark contrast from other Western leaders, who have largely shunned the Belarusian leader.
On Thursday, Belarus freed 52 political prisoners as part of a deal brokered by the United States, which lifted some sanctions on the country’s national airline.
Ma’ale Adumim was in a festive mood on Thursday. The city was decorated with flags and posters everywhere announcing the “signing of the Ma’ale Adumim umbrella agreement.”
This agreement, which involves all government ministries and relevant companies, is indeed a historic event. After decades in which Israeli governments refrained from touching the E1 area that connects Ma’ale Adumim to Jerusalem, the agreement fixes construction in this incendiary zone, which will house 20,000 Israelis within 10–15 years, thereby cutting the West Bank into two parts and preventing Palestinian territorial contiguity from north to south.
“There will be no Palestinian state,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared at the Thursday ceremony in Ma’ale Adumim. In 2009, he had promised a Palestinian state in his famous Bar-Ilan speech, and in 2020, he had conditionally agreed to such a state as part of US President Donald Trump’s “Deal of the Century.” But government ministers who attended the ceremony on Thursday are confident that this time, there will be no turning back.
This reporter has for decades been covering the story of construction in the vast East-1 area that stretches over 12,000 dunams (3,000 acres) between Ma’ale Adumim and Jerusalem, south of the Ma’ale Adumim road.
Dozens of annexation plans and construction initiatives have come and gone since the era of prime minister Yitzhak Shamir’s government in the late 1980s. I attended at least two ceremonies where the new neighborhood “Mevaseret Adumim” was inaugurated, with great fanfare, on E1 lands.
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None of these plans were realized, and not even outposts were established in the area due to the extreme sensitivity and international focus. Nowadays, only the Judea and Samaria District police station stands there, defined as an essential public building that does not indicate political annexation.
View of the area of the planned E1 project between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim, seen August 21, 2025. (Jamal Awad/Flash90)
The bitter dispute has always been between right-wing factions who seek to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state through the elongated neighborhood to be built in E1, and left-wing elements convinced that a Palestinian state is the only solution to the conflict and that whoever blocks this option condemns the region to eternal war.
Zeev Hever (Zambish), one of the leaders of the settlement enterprise in the West Bank, who was present at the event on Thursday, expects the new agreement to lead ultimately to Jerusalem connecting to Ma’ale Adumim, while the new neighborhood would encircle the village of Az-Za’ayyem and turn it into a Palestinian island inside Jerusalem. If so, Israel would be taking a Palestinian village currently under Palestinian Authority control, annexing it, and bringing thousands of Palestinians into Israel’s sovereign territory.
Netanyahu, who until recent years had been anxious about demographics and refrained from applying sovereignty in the West Bank, scoffed in Ma’ale Adumim at those who still call Judea and Samaria “the occupied territories.”
“The territories are indeed occupied. Joshua bin Nun conquered them,” Netanyahu said, referring to Moses’s successor as leader of the biblical Israelites. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who sat next to him on the stage, beamed with delight.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a ceremony in Ma’ale Adumim, in the West Bank, September 11, 2025, as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich looks on. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Things are advancing at breakneck speed. What was delayed for 35 years is now happening as if there were no tomorrow. It was only three weeks ago that the government approved construction plans in the E1 area. Those plans provided for 3,400 housing units, but those present at the event were already talking about 3,527 units.
A day after the plan was approved, 21 countries signed a joint declaration against the decision, from Australia and Japan to France and Denmark. The United States did not condemn the project; a State Department spokesman announced that construction in E1 was not a top priority for the administration.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has indicated that the US is unlikely to intervene. “The US has never asked Israel to not apply sovereignty,” Huckabee said earlier this month. “I have repeatedly stated that the US respects Israel as a sovereign nation and will not tell Israel what to do. This is also what Secretary Rubio has said as recently as this week.”
“The ambassador did not understand why we are not building in our homeland,” said Ma’ale Adumim Mayor Guy Yifrah on Thursday.
Construction in E1 is the last nail in the coffin of the two-state solution. To paraphrase Theodor Herzl, at Ma’ale Adumim, Netanyahu buried the two-state solution. Four former prime ministers – Yitzhak Rabin, Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert and Netanyahu himself – wanted to promote construction in the area but recoiled due to international reaction, and they pledged to the Americans to freeze such plans.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends a press conference announcing his plans to approve more than 3,000 housing units in the E1 West Bank settlement project between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim on August 14, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The government’s E1 plan, as noted, would connect the city of Ma’ale Adumim – with its own sizeable territory and surrounding settlements – to Jerusalem, and split the West Bank in two. It was also revealed at the ceremony on Thursday that Ma’ale Adumim is also about to expand eastward and southward with two more large neighborhoods, “Tzipor Midbar” and “Mitzpe Nevo Mizrah.”
“Within five years, there will be 70,000 people in Ma’ale Adumim,” the prime minister said. These new neighborhoods will rise after 20 years during which the city was not expanded.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waves at a signing ceremony for the E1 West Bank settlement project, in Ma’ale Adumim on September 11, 2025. (Maayan Toaf/GPO)
Netanyahu arrived in Ma’ale Adumim an hour and a half late. The many government ministers present idled away the time; some of them sat on stage swinging their legs. Netanyahu compensated them with compliments, seeming to lavish special attention on two – Regional Cooperation Minister David Amsalem, a resident of Ma’ale Adumim, and Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi. Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs, a resident of the Neve Daniel settlement, was also present.
I was surprised, though, by Ma’ale Adumim Mayor Guy Yifrah, a 43-year-old who understands the challenging reality of the West Bank and is among the few people present who recognize that Israel cannot afford to entirely stifle the political aspirations of the Palestinians.
Ma’ale Adumim Mayor Guy Yifrach speaks during a press conference announcing his plans to approve more than 3,000 housing units in the E1 settlement project between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim, August 14, 2025 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Yifrah opposes a Palestinian state, but he initiated the new “fabric-of-life” road that will allow Palestinians safe passage from north to south through “Mevaseret Adumim.” This helped him convince American officials who inquired about the E1 plan to set aside their objections, mild though they were anyway.
There are still those who remain skeptical about the entire plan, however, especially after the dozens of approvals and cancellations over the years. I asked David de Mercado, a Ma’ale Adumim resident, if he was going to buy an apartment in the new neighborhood.
“Are you crazy?” he replied, “In a year’s time, there could be a new government in Israel that will cancel this whole thing.”
Translated and edited from the original on ToI’s Hebrew sister site Zman Yisrael.
Spain responds to Netanyahyu on Sanchez nuclear pressure | The Jerusalem Post
Sanchez earlier said Spain lacked nuclear bombs, aircraft carriers or large oil reserves to exert pressure on Israel to stop what he qualified as “genocide”.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez looks on during a meeting inside 10 Downing Street, in London, Britain, September 3, 2025(photo credit: REUTERS/TOBY MELVILLE/POOL)ByREUTERSSEPTEMBER 12, 2025 16:34
A UN-backed body has warned that more than half a million people across Gaza are facing “catastrophic” conditions characterised by “starvation, destitution and death”
Residents of the Gaza Strip have described to the BBC the effects of severe hunger on their bodies, after a UN-backed report confirmed famine in the territory for the first time.
Reem Tawfiq Khader, 41, a mother of five from Gaza City, said: “The declaration of famine came too late, but it is still important.
“We haven’t eaten any protein for five months. My youngest child is four years old – he doesn’t know what fruit and vegetables look or taste like.”
The UN says Israel has heavily restricted the amount of aid entering Gaza, which Israel denies.
Israel also denies there is starvation in the territory, in direct contradiction to what more than 100 humanitarian groups, witnesses on the ground, and multiple UN bodies say.
On Friday, the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said there was an “entirely man-made” famine in Gaza City and its surrounding areas.
It warned that more than half a million people across the Gaza Strip were facing “catastrophic” conditions characterised by “starvation, destitution and death”.
Rajaa Talbeh, 47, a mother of six, said she had lost 25kg (55lbs) in weight. She fled her home in Gaza City’s Zeitoun district a month ago and now lives in a makeshift tent near the beach.
She suffers from gluten intolerance and said she could no longer find food she could eat.
Getty Images
Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed while at or near aid distribution sites run by the Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF)
“Before the war, a charity used to help me get gluten-free products, which I could never afford myself,” she said.
“Since the war began, I can’t find what I need in the market, and even when I do, I can’t afford it. Isn’t it enough to face daily bombardment, displacement and living in a tent that shields us neither from the heat of summer nor the cold of winter – and now famine on top of it?”
Rida Hijeh, 29, said her five-year-old daughter Lamia’s weight had dropped from 19kg (42lbs) to 10.5kg (23lbs).
She said Lamia was healthy before the war began and had no prior illnesses.
“This all happened only because of the famine,” she said.
“There is simply nothing for the child to eat. There are no vegetables, no fruits.”
Now, Lamia suffers from swelling in her legs, thinning hair, and nerve problems, she said.
“She cannot walk. I went to many clinics, doctors, and hospitals. They all told me my daughter is suffering from malnutrition. But none of them gave me anything, not treatment, not any support.”
Getty Images
The Israeli military has facilitated aid drops into Gaza – but aid groups have said these are a “grotesque distraction” and that Israel should allow more aid in through the normal routes
Mandy Blackman, a British nurse working for the charity UK-Med in Gaza, said 70% of mothers attending their maternal health, ante-natal and post-natal clinics had clinical malnutrition.
“Babies are delivered smaller and more vulnerable as a result,” she said.
More than 62,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its military campaign, in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
Since the start of the war, at least 271 people, including 112 children, have died of “famine and malnutrition”, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Another woman, Aseel, who lives in Gaza City, said: “Five months ago, I weighed 56kg (123lbs). Today, I weigh only 46kg (101lbs).”
She said she hadn’t eaten a single piece of fruit or meat in months and had spent nearly her entire savings on basic ingredients to survive.
Aseel’s sister-in-law – who she lives with – has a one-month-old baby.
“She’s been desperately searching for baby formula at a reasonable price,” Aseel said.
She said that when they can find it, it costs as much as 180 shekels (£39) per can.
“I have no food stockpile, not even enough to last a week or two,” she added.
A UN-backed body has warned that more than half a million people across Gaza are facing “catastrophic” conditions characterised by “starvation, destitution and death”
Residents of the Gaza Strip have described to the BBC the effects of severe hunger on their bodies, after a UN-backed report confirmed famine in the territory for the first time.
Reem Tawfiq Khader, 41, a mother of five from Gaza City, said: “The declaration of famine came too late, but it is still important.
“We haven’t eaten any protein for five months. My youngest child is four years old – he doesn’t know what fruit and vegetables look or taste like.”
The UN says Israel has heavily restricted the amount of aid entering Gaza, which Israel denies.
Israel also denies there is starvation in the territory, in direct contradiction to what more than 100 humanitarian groups, witnesses on the ground, and multiple UN bodies say.
On Friday, the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said there was an “entirely man-made” famine in Gaza City and its surrounding areas.
It warned that more than half a million people across the Gaza Strip were facing “catastrophic” conditions characterised by “starvation, destitution and death”.
Rajaa Talbeh, 47, a mother of six, said she had lost 25kg (55lbs) in weight. She fled her home in Gaza City’s Zeitoun district a month ago and now lives in a makeshift tent near the beach.
She suffers from gluten intolerance and said she could no longer find food she could eat.
Getty Images
Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed while at or near aid distribution sites run by the Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF)
“Before the war, a charity used to help me get gluten-free products, which I could never afford myself,” she said.
“Since the war began, I can’t find what I need in the market, and even when I do, I can’t afford it. Isn’t it enough to face daily bombardment, displacement and living in a tent that shields us neither from the heat of summer nor the cold of winter – and now famine on top of it?”
Rida Hijeh, 29, said her five-year-old daughter Lamia’s weight had dropped from 19kg (42lbs) to 10.5kg (23lbs).
She said Lamia was healthy before the war began and had no prior illnesses.
“This all happened only because of the famine,” she said.
“There is simply nothing for the child to eat. There are no vegetables, no fruits.”
Now, Lamia suffers from swelling in her legs, thinning hair, and nerve problems, she said.
“She cannot walk. I went to many clinics, doctors, and hospitals. They all told me my daughter is suffering from malnutrition. But none of them gave me anything, not treatment, not any support.”
Getty Images
The Israeli military has facilitated aid drops into Gaza – but aid groups have said these are a “grotesque distraction” and that Israel should allow more aid in through the normal routes
Mandy Blackman, a British nurse working for the charity UK-Med in Gaza, said 70% of mothers attending their maternal health, ante-natal and post-natal clinics had clinical malnutrition.
“Babies are delivered smaller and more vulnerable as a result,” she said.
More than 62,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its military campaign, in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
Since the start of the war, at least 271 people, including 112 children, have died of “famine and malnutrition”, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Another woman, Aseel, who lives in Gaza City, said: “Five months ago, I weighed 56kg (123lbs). Today, I weigh only 46kg (101lbs).”
She said she hadn’t eaten a single piece of fruit or meat in months and had spent nearly her entire savings on basic ingredients to survive.
Aseel’s sister-in-law – who she lives with – has a one-month-old baby.
“She’s been desperately searching for baby formula at a reasonable price,” Aseel said.
She said that when they can find it, it costs as much as 180 shekels (£39) per can.
“I have no food stockpile, not even enough to last a week or two,” she added.
