The vessels will set off from the Spanish port city to "open a humanitarian corridor and end the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people", said the Global Sumud Flotilla. They did not say how many ships would set sail or the exact time of departure.

Tom Fletcher, the UN's emergency relief coordinator, blamed Israel, accusing it of "systematic obstruction" of aid deliveries to the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

The approval for the expanded offensive comes days after Israel's security cabinet called for the seizure of Gaza's largest city, following 22 months of war that have created dire humanitarian conditions in the Palestinian territory.

Montreal, Canada - Palestinian-Canadian Faiza Najjar was able to leave Gaza last year, but could not bring her four adult daughters with her. She watched from a distance as food shortages in the territory worsened. From Canada, where she lives with her six other children, Najjar pursued a months-long effort...

Israeli media said the premier was considering ordering the total occupation of the Palestinian territory, with public broadcaster Kan reporting that "Netanyahu wants the Israeli army to conquer the entire Gaza Strip."

Hostage families and peace activists want Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to secure a ceasefire with Hamas and free the remaining captives abducted during the October 2023 Hamas attacks.

In response, Hamas's armed wing said it would allow the agency access to the hostages but only if "humanitarian corridors" for food and aid were opened "across all areas of the Gaza Strip".

One of the largest marches took place in Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority located just north of Jerusalem, with hundreds gathering at the main square, waving Palestinian flags.

Rome, Italy -- Award-winning Israeli author David Grossman called his country's campaign in Gaza "genocide" and said he was using the term with a "broken heart". This came days after a major Israeli rights group also used the same term, amid growing global alarm over starvation in the besieged territory....

Speaking in Scotland after meeting Britain's leader, Trump contradicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had earlier dismissed fears of famine in Gaza as Hamas propaganda.

Gaza City, Palestinian Territories -- Truckloads of food reached hungry Gazans on Monday after Israel promised to open secure aid routes, but humanitarian agencies warned vast amounts more were needed to stave off starvation. With Gaza's population of more than two million facing famine and malnutrition, Israel bowed to international...

UN's World Food Programme said a third of the population of Gaza had not eaten for days, and 470,000 people were "enduring famine-like conditions" that were already leading to deaths.

Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza on March 2 after ceasefire talks broke down. In late May, it began allowing a small trickle of aid to resume, amid warnings of a wave of starvation.

The humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory has gravely deteriorated in recent days, with international NGOs warning of soaring malnutrition among children.

United Nations, United States -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday slammed the international community for turning a blind eye to the suffering of Palestinians starving in the Gaza Strip, calling it a "moral crisis that challenges the global conscience." "I cannot explain the level of indifference and inaction we...

Mediators have been shuttling between Israeli and Hamas delegations in Qatar for more than two weeks, but the indirect talks have so far failed to yield an elusive truce.

The UN said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid since the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operations in late May

Gaza's population of more than two million people is facing severe shortages of food and other essentials, with residents frequently killed by Israeli forces as they try to collect humanitarian aid at a handful of distribution points.

Like most women at the Gaza City hospital where she attends her pregnancy check-ups, Fatima Arafa's face looks fatigued, a sign of the malnutrition affecting her due to wartime shortages.

US President Donald Trump voiced optimism on Friday about a new ceasefire in Gaza saying an agreement involving Israel and Hamas could come as early as next week.

Cairo, Egypt - An aid ship with 12 activists on board, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, is nearing Gaza, having reached the Egyptian coast, organisers said Saturday. The Madleen, part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, left Sicily last week with a cargo of relief supplies "to break Israel's blockade...

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that abandoning war-torn Gaza to its fate and giving Israel a "free pass" would kill the West's credibility with the world.

Negotiations to end nearly 20 months of war have so far failed to achieve a breakthrough, with Israel resuming operations in Gaza in March, ending a six-week truce.

"For nearly 80 days, Israel blocked the entry of life-saving international aid," Guterres said. "The entire population of Gaza is facing the risk of famine.

After 18 months of war, the situation in Gaza "is probably the worst" now, the United Nations' humanitarian agency OCHA said on Tuesday. WFP, one of the main providers of food assistance in Gaza, said it had "delivered its last remaining food stocks to hot meals kitchens in the Gaza...

The go-ahead for a new round of talks on a Gaza ceasefire came a day after the world's top court ordered Israel to ensure aid reaches desperate civilians. But despite a binding UN Security Council resolution earlier this week demanding an "immediate ceasefire", fighting raged on unabated in Gaza.

Antonio Guterres repeated his call for an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire" to alleviate "the plight of Palestinian children, women and men struggling to survive the nightmare in Gaza during a press conference in Cairo. On Saturday, the UN chief had visited the Rafah border crossing with Gaza.

An official from the Palestinian resistance group with knowledge of the talks said that there is a deep divergence in positions in the negotiations between Hamas and Israel. The official said that Israel wanted to reach a temporary ceasefire "so that it can resume its aggression against our people."

The funds, according to the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief), would support UNRWA's "humanitarian relief efforts in the Gaza Strip", where the Israel's war has raged for more than five months. The funding will provide food for more than 250,000 people and tents for 20,000 families.

South Africa's top diplomat accused Israel of setting a precedent for leaders to defy the top UN court, as she again alleged a campaign of starvation in Gaza. South Africa has hauled Israel before the International Court of Justice to allege genocide in the war triggered by the October 7...

According to Cyprus foreign ministry spokesperson, the ship will depart for Gaza today even as US charity World Central Kitchen said that the Jennifer had been loaded with 240 tonnes of food but that rough weather made it hard to predict when it would set sail for the Gaza Strip.

Agnes Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty, said nobody was holding Israel to account over the delays to deliveries by land to the Gaza Strip. She said the international community must be prepared to hold Israel to account. "We're not holding the stick that will allow for those violations to stop,"...

A diplomatic source said the food aid has arrived at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv before being transferred to the Palestinian Red Crescent at the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza. Morocco is the first country to transport its humanitarian aid via "this unprecedented land route".

The UN aid coordinator for the Palestinian territory Sigrid Kaag said her message to UN Security Council was that the international community must "flood the market in Gaza with humanitarian goods" and "re-energize the private sector" so more commercial goods can enter to meet civilians' needs.

While negotiators in Cairo tried to surmount tough stumbling blocks, fighting again raged in Gaza where the UN warns famine looms and desperate crowds have stopped and looted food aid trucks. Gazans were waiting to collect bags of flour outside an office of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA,...

Cairo, Egypt - Tunisian film star Hend Sabri has resigned as World Food Program goodwill ambassador in protest at what she called the use of starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza. Sabri, a leading figure in Arab cinema, said that she had decided with "a heavy heart and deep...

PARIS, FRANCE -  Some 258 million people needed emergency food aid last year because of conflict, economic shocks and climate disasters, a UN report said Wednesday, a sharp rise from 193 million the previous year. "More than a quarter of a billion people are now facing acute levels of hunger, and...

The World Food Program has it needs at least $1.9 billion this year alone to prevent famine in Yemen