Israel's Aggression Against Occupied Palestine: August 2025

During August, the occupation authorities intensified their genocidal war across the Gaza Strip, carrying out systematic mass killings, targeting Palestinian civilians in their homes, tents, shelters, and at aid distribution points. Israel has also used starvation as a weapon of war and to inflict genocide. According to records from the UN Human Rights Office, at least 2,014 people seeking aid were killed between May 27 and August 26. Of those, 1,074 Palestinians were killed near aid distribution sites run by the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, and another 940 Palestinians were killed near aid convoy routes.

The Israeli Occupation Forces, IOF, also continued to bomb and destroy life-sustaining infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, including hospitals and water and sanitation systems, and repeatedly issued forced evacuation orders that followed the Israeli cabinet’s decision to occupy Gaza City, thus forcibly displacing hundreds of thousands of families to severely overcrowded areas in the south, where they were trapped in trapped in increasingly inhumane and life-threatening conditions. Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, warned that the anticipated Israeli aggression on Gaza City would have a "horrific impact," stressing that people would “either die under bombardment because of the military operation, or they die because they could not be assisted in time, and they would silently die because of hunger.”

Israeli forces have also maintained a total closure of all of Gaza’s border crossings, preventing the entry of life-saving humanitarian aid, leading to food insecurity, malnutrition, and famine that reached unprecedented levels. According to IPC, as of 15 August 2025, Famine (IPC Phase 5) is confirmed in the Gaza Governorate. Between mid-August and the end of September 2025, conditions were expected to further worsen with Famine projected to expand to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis. The World Health Organization also indicated that acute respiratory infections and acute watery diarrhea remain the most commonly reported diseases, accounting for 58% and 41%, respectively, of the total number of cases recorded between August 3 and 9. Meningitis cases have also risen to 1,043 since last May, while Guillain-Barré syndrome cases have risen to 94, including 10 deaths.

Since the Israeli cabinet approved a plan to occupy the entire Gaza City, the IOF expanded its military assault on Gaza City to include al-Zeitoun and Sabra neighborhoods, destroying more than 1,000 buildings. By the end of August, IOF had destroyed approximately 300 housing units, either entirely or partially, daily in Gaza City and Jabalia, using around 15 robots carrying nearly 100 tons of explosives.