(25 Aug 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ljubljana, Slovenia – 25 August 2025
1. Palestinian Foreign Minister, Varsen Aghabekian Shahin (left), and Slovenian Foreign Minister, Tanja Fajon (right), at joint press conference
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Varsen Aghabekian Shahin, Palestinian Foreign Minister:
"We discussed several issues. We discussed the unprecedented genocidal war in Gaza and the toll of this genocidal war for the last 23 months and the use of (by) Israel, of starvation, as a weapon of war, which is also a war crime as per international law. More than 250 Palestinians have already died because of starvation. This is very well documented. And the report that came out from New York, clearly states that famine exists. It’s not an illusion, it’s not a fake reality. It is a reality that Gazans are living.”
3. Wide of Shahin and Fajon during press conference
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Varsen Aghabekian Shahin, Palestinian Foreign Minister: ++AUDIO AS INCOMING++
"80% of Gaza has been destroyed and the scale of devastation is just unimaginable. 240 journalists, of your colleagues, have been killed, brutally killed in Gaza. And that number exceeds the number of all journalists killed in modern world wars after World War II.”
5. Wide of Shahin and Fajon during press conference
STORYLINE:
Palestinian Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian Shahin on Monday accused Israel of using starvation as a "weapon of war" during a press conference with her Slovenian counterpart in Ljubljana.
Slovenian Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon and Shahin met in Slovenia’s capital as the world’s leading authority on food crises said on Friday the Gaza Strip’s largest city is gripped by famine, and that it’s likely to spread across the territory without a ceasefire and an end to restrictions on humanitarian aid.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, said famine is happening in Gaza City, home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, and could spread south to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis by the end of next month.
"More than 250 Palestinians have already died because of starvation. This is very well documented. And the report that came out from New York, clearly states that famine exists," Shahin said.
"It’s not an illusion, it’s not a fake reality. It is a reality that Gazans are living.”
The IPC determination came after months of warnings by aid groups that Israel’s restrictions of food and other aid into Gaza, and its military offensive, were causing starvation among Palestinian civilians, particularly children.
Israel rejected the report, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling it an “outright lie.”
The grim milestone — the first time the IPC has confirmed a famine in the Middle East — is sure to ramp up international pressure on Israel, which has been fighting Hamas since the militant group’s October 7, 2023, attack.
Meanwhile on Monday, Israel struck southern Gaza’s main hospital with a missile and then fired another as journalists and rescue workers rushed to the scene, killing at least 20 people, local health workers said Monday.
The victims on the fourth floor of Nasser Hospital were killed when one missile hit and was followed in the same spot by another missile moments later as rescue crews arrived, the ministry said.
The first strike hit a top floor of a building at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
Minutes later, as journalists and rescuers in orange vests rushed up an external staircase, a second missile hit the same spot, said Dr. Ahmed al-Farra, head of Nasser’s pediatrics department.
AP video shot by Darko Bandic
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