Jordan condemns Israel's 'barbaric' airstrikes on Gaza
"We have been following since last night Israel's aggressive and barbaric bombing of the Gaza Strip," government spokesman Mohammed Momani said, underlining "the need to stop this aggression."
AFP
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L'Orient-Le Jour
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Israel bombs Yemeni port of Hodeida, newly rebuilt dock destroyed, Houthis say
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Around 1,000 families have already evacuated Deir al-Balah, threatened by an Israeli offensive The U.N. humanitarian agency (OCHA) estimated that around 1,000 families evacuated Deir al-Balah after the Israeli army called for them to leave, prefacing an offensive on the city. OCHA said that around 50,000 to 80,000 people lived in the area affected by the evacuation call, which includes "numerous warehouses, four first aid clinics, four medical centers, and crucial water infrastructure." The damage that could be caused to this infrastructure "will have deadly consequences," according to OCHA, which announced that its staff would remain in Deir al-Balah. The agency's director, Tom Fletcher, indicated on X that U.N. employees would remain "to help" in Deir al-Balah. 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L'Orient-Le Jour
an hour ago
- L'Orient-Le Jour
Over 70 killed waiting for aid in Gaza, Barrack returns to Beirut: Everything you need to know this Monday
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L'Orient-Le Jour
an hour ago
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Gaza civil defense says Israeli fire kills 93 aid seekers
Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli forces opened fire on crowds of Palestinians trying to collect humanitarian aid in the war-torn Palestinian territory on Sunday, killing 93 people and wounding dozens more. 80 were killed as truckloads of aid arrived in the north, while nine others were reported shot near an aid point close to Rafah in the south, where dozens of people lost their lives just 24 hours earlier. Four were killed near another aid site in Khan Younis, also in the south, agency spokesman Mahmoud Basal told AFP. The U.N. World Food Program said its 25-truck convoy carrying food aid "encountered massive crowds of hungry civilians which came under gunfire" near Gaza City, soon after it crossed from Israel and cleared checkpoints. Israel's military disputed the death toll and said soldiers had fired warning shots "to remove an immediate threat posed to them" as thousands gathered near Gaza City. Deaths of civilians seeking aid have become a regular occurrence in Gaza, with the authorities blaming Israeli fire as crowds facing chronic shortages of food and other essentials flock in huge numbers to aid centres. The U.N. said earlier this month that nearly 800 aid-seekers had been killed since late May, including on the routes of aid convoys. Like 'hunting animals' In Gaza City, Qasem Abu Khater, 36, told AFP he had rushed to try to get a bag of flour but instead found a desperate crowd of thousands and "deadly overcrowding and pushing." "The tanks were firing shells randomly at us and Israeli sniper soldiers were shooting as if they were hunting animals in a forest," he added. "Dozens of people were martyred right before my eyes and no one could save anyone." The WFP condemned violence against civilians seeking aid as "completely unacceptable." 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Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed 58,895 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Gaza. Separately, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday expressed his regret to Pope Leo XIV after what he described as a "stray" munition killed three people sheltering at the Holy Family Church in Gaza City. At the end of the Angelus prayer on Sunday, the pope slammed the "barbarity" of the Gaza war and called for peace, days after the Israeli strike on the territory's only Catholic church. The strike was part of the "ongoing military attacks against the civilian population and places of worship in Gaza," he added. The Catholic Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, held mass at the Gaza church on Sunday after travelling to the devastated territory in a rare visit on Friday. 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According to the aid agency, 87.8 percent of Gaza is now under displacement orders or within Israeli militarized zones, leaving "2.1 million civilians squeezed into a fragmented 12 per cent of the Strip, where essential services have collapsed." The army's latest announcement prompted concern from families of hostages held since Oct. 7, 2023 that the Israeli offensive could harm their loved ones. Delegations from Israel and militant group Hamas have spent the last two weeks in indirect talks on a proposed 60-day cease-fire in Gaza and the release of 10 living hostages. Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas's 2023 attack, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
