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Over 30 Palestinians killed near aid centres run by controversial Israeli-backed scheme

Over 30 Palestinians killed near aid centres run by controversial Israeli-backed scheme

The Journal19-07-2025
GAZA'S CIVIL DEFENCE agency has said Israeli gunfire killed at least 32 people and wounded more than 100 near two aid centres in the latest deaths of Palestinians seeking food.
Deaths of people waiting for handouts in huge crowds near food points in Gaza have become a regular occurrence, with the territory's authorities frequently blaming Israeli fire.
But the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is the main distributor of aid in the territory, has accused militant group Hamas of fomenting unrest and shooting at civilians.
The Israeli military said it was 'looking into' the latest reports.
Gaza civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the deaths happened near a site southwest of Khan Yunis and another centre northwest of Rafah, both in the south, attributing the deaths to 'Israeli gunfire'.
One eyewitness said he headed to the Al-Tina area of Khan Yunis before dawn with five of his relatives to try to get food when 'Israeli soldiers' started shooting.
'My relatives and I were unable to get anything,' Abdul Aziz Abed, 37, told AFP.
'Every day I go there and all we get is bullets and exhaustion instead of food.'
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Three other eyewitnesses also accused troops of opening fire.
'They started shooting at us and we lay down on the ground. Tanks and jeeps came, soldiers got out of them and started shooting,' said Tamer Abu Akar, 24.
Nine people were killed in gunfire at the same centre in the Al-Shakoush area northwest of Rafah on Friday, the civil defence agency said.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the agency and other parties.
'Agitators'
The war in Gaza, sparked by militant group Hamas's deadly attack on Israel on 7 October, 2023, has created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people who live in the coastal territory.
Most people have been displaced at least once by the fighting and doctors and aid agencies say the physical and mental health effects of 21 months of conflict are being increasingly seen.
'We are receiving cases suffering from extreme exhaustion and complete fatigue, in addition to severe emaciation and acute malnutrition due to prolonged lack of food,' the director of the Kuwaiti Field Hospital in Khan Yunis, Sohaib Al-Hums, said on Friday.
'Hundreds' of people were facing 'imminent death', he added.
The World Food Programme said nearly one in three people in Gaza were not eating for days at a stretch and 'thousands' were 'on the verge of catastrophic hunger'.
The free flow of aid into Gaza is a key demand of Hamas in the indirect talks with Israel for a 60-day ceasefire in the war, alongside a full Israeli military withdrawal.
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Following a more than two-month total Israeli blockade, GHF took over the running of aid distribution in late May, despite criticism from the United Nations, which previously coordinated handouts, that it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.
GHF said 20 people died at its Khan Yunis site on Wednesday but blamed 'agitators in the crowd… armed and affiliated with Hamas' for creating 'a chaotic and dangerous surge' and firing at aid-seekers.
The previous day, the UN said it had recorded 875 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food, including 674 'in the vicinity of GHF sites', since it began operating.
Hamas's 2023 attack on Israel led to the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians.
Of the 251 people taken hostage that day, 49 are still in Gaza, including the 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory military action has killed 58,667 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
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© AFP 2025
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The latest child to starve to death in Gaza weighed less than when she was born
The latest child to starve to death in Gaza weighed less than when she was born

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The latest child to starve to death in Gaza weighed less than when she was born

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The latest child to starve to death in Gaza weighed less than when she was born
The latest child to starve to death in Gaza weighed less than when she was born

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time4 hours ago

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The latest child to starve to death in Gaza weighed less than when she was born

A mother pressed a final kiss on what remained of her five-month-old daughter and wept. Esraa Abu Halib's baby now weighed less than when she was born. On a sunny street in shattered Gaza, the bundle containing Zainab Abu Halib represented the latest death from starvation after 21 months of war and Israeli restrictions on aid. The baby was taken to the paediatric department of Nasser Hospital on Friday. She was already dead. A worker at the morgue carefully removed her Mickey Mouse-printed shirt, pulling it over her sunken, open eyes. He pulled up the hems of her pants to show her knobby knees. His thumb was wider than her ankle. He could count the bones of her chest. The girl had weighed more than 3kg (6.6lbs) when she was born, her mother said. When she died, she weighed less than 2kg (4.4lbs). Palestinians pray over the body of five-month-old baby Zainab Abu Halib (Mariam Dagga/AP) A doctor said it was a case of 'severe, severe starvation'. She was wrapped in a white sheet for burial and placed on the sandy ground for prayers. The bundle was barely wider than the imam's stance. He raised his open hands and invoked Allah once more. Zainab was one of 85 children to die of malnutrition-related causes in Gaza in the past three weeks, according to the latest toll released by the territory's health ministry on Saturday. Another 42 adults died of malnutrition-related causes in the same period, it said. 'She needed a special baby formula which did not exist in Gaza,' Zainab's father, Ahmed Abu Halib, told The Associated Press as he prepared for her funeral prayers in the hospital's courtyard in the southern city of Khan Younis. Dr Ahmed al-Farah, head of the paediatric department, said the girl had needed a special type of formula that helps with babies allergic to cow's milk. He said she had not suffered from any diseases, but the lack of the formula led to chronic diarrhoea and vomiting. She was not able to swallow as her weakened immune system led to a bacterial infection and sepsis, and quickly lost more weight. Esraa Abu Halib shows to journalists a photo of her five-month-old baby, Zainab (Mariam Dagga/AP) The child's family, like many of Gaza's Palestinians, lives in a tent, displaced. Her mother, who also has suffered from malnutrition, said she breastfed the girl for only six weeks before trying to feed her formula. 'With my daughter's death, many will follow,' she said. 'Their names are on a list that no-one looks at. They are just names and numbers. We are just numbers. Our children, whom we carried for nine months and then gave birth to, have become just numbers.' Her loose robe hid her own weight loss. The arrival of children suffering from malnutrition has surged in recent weeks, Dr al-Farah said. His department, with a capacity of eight beds, has been treating about 60 cases of acute malnutrition. They have placed additional mattresses on the ground. Another malnutrition clinic, affiliated with the hospital, receives an average of 40 cases weekly, he said. 'Unless the crossings are opened and food and baby formula are allowed in for this vulnerable segment of Palestinian society, we will witness unprecedented numbers of deaths,' he warned. Doctors and aid workers in Gaza blame Israel's restrictions on the entry of aid and medical supplies. Food security experts warn of famine in the territory of more than two million people. After ending the latest ceasefire in March, Israel cut off the entry of food, medicine, fuel and other supplies completely to Gaza for two and a half months, saying it aimed to pressure Hamas to release hostages. Our children, whom we carried for nine months and then gave birth to, have become just numbers Under international pressure, Israel slightly eased the blockade in May. Since then, it has allowed in about 4,500 trucks for the UN and other aid groups to distribute, including 2,500 tons of baby food and high-calorie special food for children, Israel's Foreign Ministry said last week. Israel says baby formula has been included, plus formula for special needs. The average of 69 trucks a day, however, is far below the 500 to 600 trucks a day the UN says are needed for Gaza. The UN says it has been unable to distribute much of the aid because hungry crowds and gangs take most of it from its arriving trucks. Separately, Israel has backed the US-registered Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which in May opened four centres distributing boxes of food supplies. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food, mostly near those new aid sites, the UN human rights office says. Much of Gaza's population now relies on aid. 'There was a shortage of everything,' the mother of Zainab said as she grieved. 'How can a girl like her recover?'

Israeli air strikes in Gaza Strip leave at least 25 dead, health officials say
Israeli air strikes in Gaza Strip leave at least 25 dead, health officials say

Irish Examiner

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Israeli air strikes in Gaza Strip leave at least 25 dead, health officials say

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