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Israel Furiously Counters Top EU Official’s Claim That ‘Starvation Is Being Used as Weapon of War’
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. Photo: Reuters/Johanna Geron
Israeli officials reacted with outrage on Monday in the face of a claim by the EU’s foreign policy chief that Jerusalem is imposing a famine on Palestinian civilians in Gaza as the war in the beleaguered territory continues to rage.
“In Gaza we are no longer on the brink of famine; we are in a state of famine, affecting thousands of people,” Josep Borrell — a Spanish official who serves as the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy — said at the opening of a conference in Brussels on humanitarian aid for Gaza.
“This is unacceptable. Starvation is used as a weapon of war. Israel is provoking famine,” Borrell continued.
Among those who responded to Borrell was Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who highlighted the seizure of aid convoys by Hamas terrorists with the apparent acquiescence of UNRWA, the UN agency solely dedicated to Palestinian refugees and their descendants, several of whose employees participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in southern Israel. Confronted with this evidence, more than a dozen countries — among them EU members Germany and France — paused funding to the agency in January.
“Israel allows extensive humanitarian aid into Gaza by land, air, and sea for anyone willing to help,” Katz declared in a post on X/Twitter. “Despite Hamas violently disrupting aid convoys and UNRWA’s collaboration with them, we persist.”
Katz then told Borrell to “stop attacking Israel and recognize our right to self-defense against Hamas’s crimes.”
In a blunt posting on the same platform, Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy noted that on Sunday, “8 million lbs. of food entered Gaza by land. That’s ~4LBS. OF FOOD PER CAPITA. That’s not famine, starvation, or catastrophic food insecurity.”
Levy added tartly: “I’m sorry if the facts are awkward for your efforts to help Hamas rapists survive 10/7 and live to fight another day.”
Separately, in a statement on Friday, COGAT — the Israeli agency that assists with humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza — noted that since the beginning of March, “an average of 126 food trucks entered Gaza daily. This is 80 percent more food trucks entering compared to before Oct. 7. 500 trucks entered Gaza daily before Oct. 7, carrying building, agriculture, and industrial supplies; only an average of 70 carried food.”
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Israeli Strike on Tehran Kills Bodyguard of Slain Hezbollah Chief
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi lays a wreath as he visits the burial site of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, on the outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon, June 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
A member of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah was killed in an Israeli air strike on Tehran alongside a member of an Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group, a senior Lebanese security source told Reuters and the Iraqi group said on Saturday.
The source identified the Hezbollah member as Abu Ali Khalil, who had served as a bodyguard for Hezbollah’s slain chief Hassan Nasrallah. The source said Khalil had been on a religious pilgrimage to Iraq when he met up with a member of the Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada group.
They traveled together to Tehran and were both killed in an Israeli strike there, along with Khalil’s son, the senior security source said. Hezbollah has not joined in Iran’s air strikes against Israel from Lebanon.
Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada published a statement confirming that both the head of its security unit and Khalil had been killed in an Israeli strike.
Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli aerial attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs in September.
Israel and Iran have been trading strikes for nine consecutive days since Israel launched attacks on Iran, saying Tehran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. Iran has said it does not seek nuclear weapons.
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Hamas Financial Officer and Commander Eliminated by IDF in the Gaza Strip
Israeli soldiers operate during a ground operation in the southern Gaza Strip, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, July 3, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), in cooperation with the General Security Service (Shin Bet), announced on Friday the killing of Ibrahim Abu Shamala, a senior financial official in Hamas’ military wing.
The operation took place on June 17th in the central Gaza Strip.
Abu Shamala held several key positions, including financial officer for Hamas’ military wing and assistant to Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas’ military wing until his elimination in March 2024.
He was responsible for managing all the financial resources of Hamas’ military wing in Gaza, overseeing the planning and execution of the group’s war budget. This involved handling and smuggling millions of dollars into the Gaza Strip to fund Hamas’ military operations.
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Report: Wary of Assassination by Israel, Khamenei Names 3 Potential Successors
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, May 20, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei named three senior clerics as candidates to succeed him should he be killed, the New York Times reported on Saturday citing unnamed Iranian officials. It is understood the Ayatollah fears he could be assassinated in the coming days.
Khamenei reportedly mostly speaks with his commanders through a trusted aide now, suspending electronic communications.
Khamenei has designated three senior religious figures as candidates to replace him as well as choosing successors in the military chain of command in the likely event that additional senior officials be eliminated.
Earlier on Saturday Israel confirmed the elimination of Saeed Izadi and Bhanam Shahriari.
Shahriari, head of Iran’s Quds Force Weapons Transfer Unit, responsible for arming Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, was killed in an Israeli airstrike over 1,000 km from Israel in western Iran.
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