Report from Gaza: Aid Coordinator Describes Disease, Famine as Israel Blows Up Residential Towers

September 8, 2025
“There’s no real safe zone in Gaza [City] and all of the Gaza Strip,” says Eyad Amawi, who joins us for an update from Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip as Israeli forces move deeper into Gaza City to forcibly evict 1 million residents. The local aid coordinator describes relentless bombardment, water shortages, infectious diseases and worsening famine. “All of these things must end now. As a human being, the most priority is the life of the civilians here.”

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.
We turn now to Gaza, where the Israeli military has blown up at least three high-rise residential buildings in Gaza City as Israel expands its operation to destroy the entire city and forcibly evict its population of over 1 million residents. Israel has killed 28 Palestinians so far today. Officials say another 83 were killed over a 24-hour period ending Sunday. Residents of Gaza City say there’s no safe place to go.
IBTASIM MUQDAD: [translated] In regard to displacement, we were displaced before to the south. There were also martyrs there and bombardment. Wherever we went, there were bombardments, from one area to another, from Rafah to Khan Younis, from Khan Younis to Deir al-Balah. There were bombardments everywhere. We later came here. It is all the same. All displacement is for nothing. It is enough.
AMY GOODMAN: This comes as Save the Children reports Israel has killed more than 20,000 Palestinian children over the past 23 months. This means at least one Palestinian child has been killed every hour, on average, by Israeli forces. The group said, quote, “If the international community does not step up, an entire generation of children in Gaza will be lost,” unquote. Meanwhile, another six Palestinians have died of starvation, bringing the total to almost 400, including 140 children, who have starved to death.
For more, we go to Deir al-Balah in Gaza to speak with Eyad Amawi, representative of the Gaza Relief Committee, coordinator for local NGOs based in central Gaza. He’s visited Gaza City regularly over the last several days.
Welcome back to Democracy Now!, Eyad. Can you just describe the scene as the Israeli military attempts to remove the entire population of Gaza City, 1 million people? The descriptions of the robots blowing up buildings are terrifying.
EYAD AMAWI: Yeah, thank you so much for hosting me again and again.
The situation here in Gaza town especially, within the last 48 hours, the situation is worsening, because the Israeli occupation announced targeting towers. I mean towers meaning a residential area that contains more than 100 apartments. You can imagine when they hit it, Soussi Towers, yesterday, more than 200 apartments with real residential people leave it, flee in the street without any basic needs, and the surrounding area completely destroyed from the bombardment. And this is a new techniques, dynamics from the occupation to force our people to be displaced without evacuation order, something like happened before. So, the situation by the bombardment for the landmarks of the Gaza, it’s the baddest situation now.
There’s no real safe zone in Gaza town and all of the Gaza Strip. As your guest mentioned before, no free spaces remains in the south. So, the Gaza town, or most of our peoples there, I witnessed, they forced to be displaced to the western part, to the coastal area, and also without tents or shelters or guarantee shelters also. And the shortage of the sweet water, it’s the basic things nowadays, because the summer heat and also spreading the infectious diseases between the children, especially, and the elderly people also, because the crowded area is unbearable conditions here.
AMY GOODMAN: Schools have been turned into displacement camps, Eyad. Now, schools were supposed to open this week after summer break. Are any children in Gaza going to school?
EYAD AMAWI: That’s a great question. There is no functioning schools remains functioning nowadays. Most of our schools is targeted, have been targeted for a long time. And me and all of the international media witnessed the direct targeting for the schools. The beginning of the educational year yesterday began, and really there is no educational process launched until this moment, just personal initiatives in the camps. They try to learn, some children, not all. So, there is no systematic operation functioning now, my colleague.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about hunger, and also right to your own family, Eyad Amawi? If you can talk about what one international agency is calling “catastrophic hunger” of half a million people? The whole population is 2 million. What exactly this means? And is aid getting to people, or are people still being shot down as they still — as they try to go get food from this shadowy Israeli-American GHF, so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation?
EYAD AMAWI: Yeah, look, the famine also is worsening more and more, even though the limited number of trucks entering the Gaza. Our needs is more than 600 daily needs, but what the Israeli occupation gave the permission just for 15 from our needs, 15 percentage of our needs. So, they use another way, with another dynamics, with a hidden manners, to manage the famine and to increase the suffering by blockade some special nutritious food, like animals proteins and eggs and fruits and vegetables. They’re just entering some limited amounts of food that keep us alive with a limited amount of carbohydrates. And this is a system of starvation and a collective punishment that will increase the immune diseases for the children and also elderly people. So, the famine is take another face, by another actions by we will — they will lose — we will lose our next generations because the consequences of continuing starving the children for more than 700 days.
So, all of our human appeals here to call the international community to do interventions, to let trucks entering freely, without Israeli occupation restrictions, because our children, we have no time to save their lives, after the 150 days of strongest siege over them.
AMY GOODMAN: And what about the role of the United States? How critical is this? You have Netanyahu continuing his corruption trial. Many are saying he’s continuing the war on Gaza to make it difficult to finish this trial. The significance of the U.S. pressure on Israel?
EYAD AMAWI: Yeah, we hope here, as humanitarian workers and NGOs coordinators at all, there is some real pressure over Netanyahu government and the Israeli occupation government. Without real pressure, the genocide here will not stop.
Look, we heard a lot of promises for a long time before to bring peace for Gaza. Until this moment, I heard the bombardment, and they headed an order, a new evacuation for new towers. Now, in this moment when I talk to you, they sent a new order for a new tower. So, we hope that the new talks and the statements of the official of the America to get more insist over Netanyahu to stop the genocide, because we have no time, I mentioned before. And also, Netanyahu government and the Israeli people there must deal with the Palestinian here in Gaza as civilians and increase the pressure over Netanyahu to stop the genocide and transfer the captives and the hostages. All of these things must end now. As a human being, the most priority is the life of the civilians here. It’s enough. Enough.
AMY GOODMAN: Eyad Amawi, I want to thank you for being with us, representative of Gaza Relief Committee, coordinator for local NGOs, based in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.
 

Israeli Military Blows Up Three High-Rise Residential Buildings in Gaza City

The Israeli military has blown up at least three high-rise residential buildings in Gaza City as Israel expands its operation to destroy the entire city and forcibly evict the city’s population of over 1 million residents. Many of the demolitions are being carried out by robots that place explosives inside homes. Israel has killed 32 Palestinians so far today. Officials say another 83 were killed over a 24-hour period ending on Sunday. Residents of Gaza City say there is no safe place to go.
Ibtasim Muqdad: “In regard to displacement, we were displaced before to the south. There were also martyrs there and bombardment. Wherever we went, there were bombardments, from one area to another, from Rafah to Khan Younis, from Khan Younis to Deir al-Balah. There were bombardments everywhere. We later came here. It is all the same. All displacement is for nothing. It is enough.”

Save the Children: Israel Has Killed on Average a Child Every Hour for Past 23 Months

Save the Children reports that Israel has killed more than 20,000 Palestinian children over the past 23 months — this means at least one Palestinian child has been killed every hour on average by Israeli forces. The group said, “If the international community does not step up, an entire generation of children in Gaza will be lost.”
Meanwhile, another six Palestinians have died from “famine and malnutrition,” bringing the total to almost 400, including 140 children, who have starved to death.

Six People Killed in Shooting in Occupied East Jerusalem

In Israel, an attack on a bus stop in occupied East Jerusalem has left six people dead and as many as 15 injured. At least one of the victims was a rabbi. Israeli authorities say they believe the attack was carried out by two Palestinians from the West Bank. Police said the attackers were both shot dead.
In other news from Israel, the country’s Supreme Court has ruled the government has failed to provide adequate food for Palestinians held in Israeli jails. The court ruled Israel must provide prisoners “a basic level of existence.” The ruling came in response to a petition filed by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and the Israeli rights group Gisha.

Nearly 900 Arrested at Palestine Action Protest in the U.K.
In London, police arrested nearly 900 people Saturday at a protest against the U.K. government banning the group Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act. It is now illegal for anyone in Britain to show support for Palestine Action. Protests against the ban have been mounting for weeks.
Tamara Abood: “Ordinary people who have never been on protests in their lives are, you know, reckoning with their conscience. They’re thinking, 'I cannot keep sitting, day in, day out, and on my sofa watching this abject horror and do nothing.' And so, the extraordinary thing is, you know, the images, the most powerful images we’re seeing, are of, you know, disabled, middle-aged, elderly white people being carted off by the police for the crime of saying, 'Stop killing children.'”
In other protest news, organizers say over 110,000 people took to the streets of Brussels on Sunday in a major pro-Palestine rally that came days after the Belgian government announced it would soon recognize a Palestinian state and impose sanctions on Israel.

Thousands Greet Gaza Protest Flotilla in Tunisia

In Tunisia, thousands of people gathered Sunday to welcome boats carrying about 350 activists who are sailing to Gaza in an attempt to break the siege. Passengers on the flotilla include Nelson Mandela’s grandson, the South African MP Mandla Mandela.
Mandla Mandela: “Coming all the way from South Africa to participate in this is really a joy to once again be able to set sail and go and break the blockade in Gaza and end the siege, which has been going on for the past 18 years. And we hope that it will be received as such, because we are a peaceful people. We pose no threat. We are carrying humanitarian aid for our brothers and sisters.”