Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has acknowledged his government has been arming a criminal gang in Gaza that has repeatedly been accused of looting humanitarian aid trucks. This comes as the new shadowy U.S.- and Israeli-backed aid operation known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has suspended aid deliveries again — despite starvation spreading in Gaza. Some aid was briefly distributed on Thursday. Palestinians described risking their lives to receive a small portion of food aid.

Palestinian woman: “We died inside. We died. We died. We can’t. All this to get food for our children. I got this, a bit of flour, a bit of lentils and two packs of pasta. We died. They made us pass at the peak of the heat, and they killed us. We can’t walk. We can’t go on.”

The U.N. is warning that acute malnutrition among Gaza’s young children has soared in recent months, with more than 2,700 Palestinians under the age of 5 diagnosed. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has called for a halt to what it calls the “relentless and systematic decimation of hospitals in Gaza.” Meanwhile, a fourth journalist has died following Israel’s attack on the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital. Ahmed Qaljah, who worked with Al Arabiya, is the 226th journalist killed in Gaza since 2023.