At least 25 people killed by Israeli gunshots and strikes in Gaza, some while seeking aid
The majority of victims were killed by gunfire as they waited for aid trucks close to the Zikim crossing with Israel, said staff at Shifa hospital, where the bodies were brought.
Israel's army didn't respond to request for comments about the latest shootings.
Those killed in strikes include four people in an apartment building in Gaza City among others, hospital staff and the ambulance service said.
The strikes come as ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas have hit a standstill after the U.S and Israel recalled their negotiating teams on Thursday, throwing the future of the talks into further uncertainty.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday his government was considering 'alternative options' to ceasefire talks with Hamas. His comments came as a Hamas official said negotiations were expected to resume next week and portrayed the recall of the Israeli and American delegations as a pressure tactic.
Egypt and Qatar, which are mediating the talks alongside the United States, said the pause was only temporary and that talks would resume, though they did not say when.
For desperate Palestinians a ceasefire can't come soon enough.
The United Nations and experts say that Palestinians in Gaza are at risk of famine, with reports of increasing numbers of people dying from causes related to malnutrition. While Israel's army says it's allowing aid into the enclave with no limit on the number of trucks that can enter, the U.N. says it is hampered by Israeli military restrictions on its movements and incidents of criminal looting.
The Zikim crossing shootings come days after at least 79 Palestinians were killed trying to reach aid entering through the same crossing. Israel's military said at the time its soldiers shot at a gathering of thousands of Palestinians who posed a threat, and that it was aware of some casualties.
Israel is facing increased international pressure to alleviate the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza. More then two dozen Western-aligned countries and more than 100 charity and human rights groups have called for an end to the war, harshly criticizing Israel's blockade and a new aid delivery model it has rolled out.
The charities and rights groups said even their own staff were struggling to get enough food
For the first time in months Israel said it is allowing airdrops, requested by Jordan. A Jordanian official said the airdrops will mainly be food and milk formula. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer wrote in a newspaper article on Saturday that the U.K. was 'working urgently' with Jordan to get British aid into Gaza.
Aid group the World Central Kitchen said on Friday that it was resuming limited cooking operations in Deir al-Balah after being forced to halt due to a lack of food supplies.
It said it's trying to serve 60,000 meals daily through its field kitchen and partner community kitchens, less than half of what it's cooked over the previous month.
————————
Magdy reported from Cairo, Egypt
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Bloomberg
42 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
What Is the World Going to Do About Iran's Uranium?
The US spent billions of dollars accounting for gram levels of uranium around the world since the end of the Cold War. It paid for UN monitoring and security summits while directly repatriating some 7,000 kilograms of the radioactive material from 47 countries to minimize the possibility that it could ever be used in a weapon. But on June 13, those decades of international effort were rolled back overnight. Even as Israeli attacks dealt grave damage to Iran's capacity to make new nuclear fuel, it eliminated monitoring of the Islamic Republic's vast inventory of enriched uranium. Iran's 409 kg of highly-enriched uranium could be stored in 16 transport cylinders At last count, Iran possessed 409 kg of near-bomb-grade material, along with 8,000 kg of uranium enriched to lower levels. The whereabouts of that stockpile hasn't been verified since the attacks began. Iran had warned it would take the material to a secure location if attacked. With the UN nuclear watchdog prohibited from inspecting for the first time since Iran began making fuel in the early 2000s, there's now the possibility that Tehran has taken its stockpile to a clandestine facility. By failing to account for or destroy the nuclear-fuel inventory, Israel and the US have provided Iran with 'strategic ambiguity' it didn't have before the war began — a bargaining chip in any potential negotiations over what happens next. The dilemma is how to respond. Here's a set of scenarios and options the US and the International Atomic Energy Agency could take in their approach to handling the situation. Click on the options below to see how events might unfold. Cold War Legacy The concept of strategic ambiguity was developed during the Cold War, most notably by Nobel Laureate economist Thomas Schelling, to manage uncertainty at the onset of the nuclear age. Effectively a measure of risk or threat, it allowed some level of guess work over capacity and intentions that was meant to prevent a slide toward all-out war. Israel, for example, uses it to manage perception of its own nuclear stockpile, neither denying nor confirming its existence. While intelligence agencies may be able to reduce ambiguity by using spies and analyzing satellite imagery, eliminating it altogether requires diplomacy or force. That's because nuclear material needs some level of physical verification to ensure it hasn't been diverted for military use. Less than 25 kg of highly enriched uranium is needed to construct a bomb. At last count, Iran possesses uranium enriched to various levels, which taken together is enough feedstock for two dozen weapons. Iran's Main Nuclear Fuel Making Sites After Israeli and US bombed three sites in June, governments are attempting to detect Iranian efforts to reconstitute activities The amount of ambiguity the US and Israel can tolerate is set to play a decisive role in their actions through the end of the year. How much of Iran's nuclear inventory are they willing to leave to chance? That's the question facing decision makers. Given the Trump administration insists it has obliterated Iran's nuclear program, the US and Israel may choose no further action. In such a scenario, actors would have to be highly tolerant of ambiguity, not least because the cache of uranium last seen in Iran's possession will be weapons-usable for thousands of years. Another possibility is that the US and Israel have low tolerance for ambiguity, and that they are willing to go all in on compelling Iran to verify the state and location of its uranium. In the absence of an Iranian capitulation, they will need to enforce compliance, potentially with boots on the ground for verification. Even with the most powerful weapons at their disposal, air strikes alone cannot eliminate ambiguity over Iran's fuel inventory status. Mutually acceptable, or negotiated ambiguity, is another potential outcome. A combination of remote-sensing, statistical methods and physical on-the-ground verification is used to account for material. That's what UN nuclear inspectors were doing before the attack, publishing the results every three months. Methodology This simulation applies game theory to test potential pathways. Key decision points correspond to real-world events including IAEA and UN General Assembly meetings in September, as well as the deadline to reimpose Security Council sanctions before they expire on Oct. 18. It also weighs the length of time required by diplomats and legislators to implement certain decisions. The first set of scenarios involves resolving 'ambiguity' over the location of Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium: • In our 'high ambiguity' scenario, sides take a low cost wait-and-see approach that doesn't include physical verification of the uranium inventory. • In our 'mutually acceptable ambiguity' scenario, sides opt for negotiations. They include physical verification of Iran's uranium inventory at the cost of allowing some enrichment. • In our 'zero ambiguity' scenario, the option is for escalation through military confrontation to force Iran to allow physical verification of its uranium inventory. We also look at potential outcomes and costs of the strategies used by Iran and the US. Scenarios were repeated in mixed-strategy simulations to test how the dynamics between Iran and the US may evolve. Key assumptions include: • Iran is 100% committed to retaining at least some enrichment capacity because not doing so would in practice result in additional capitulation. • The US needs to be at least 50% committed to enforcing a zero-enrichment strategy to involve troops on the ground. • The scenarios are constructed around the decision points in September and October and take into account the approximate diplomatic timelines required to convene meetings, draft resolutions and vote on the decisions.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Israel's Netanyahu has decided on full occupation of Gaza, reports say
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to announce plans to fully occupy the Gaza Strip, Israeli media have reported. Netanyahu's decision will see the Israeli military expand its operations across the entire enclave, including areas where Hamas's captives are being held, i24NEWS, The Jerusalem Post, Channel 12 and Ynet reported on Monday. 'The decision has been made,' Amit Sega, chief political analyst with Channel 12, quoted an unnamed senior official in Netanyahu's office as saying. 'Hamas won't release more hostages without total surrender, and we won't surrender. If we don't act now, the hostages will starve to death and Gaza will remain under Hamas's control.' The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the reported plans and called on the international community to 'intervene urgently to prevent their implementation, whether they are a form of pressure, trial balloons to gauge international reactions, or genuinely serious'. Netanyahu's office did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera's request for comment. The reports come as Netanyahu is set to convene his war cabinet on Tuesday to discuss the next steps for Israel's military in Gaza as its war in the besieged enclave nears the two-year mark. Netanyahu is facing growing international pressure to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza and halt the war amid mounting Palestinian deaths due to malnutrition and Israeli attacks. At least 74 Palestinians, including 36 aid seekers, were killed in Israeli attacks on Monday, according to medical sources in Gaza. The Israeli leader is also facing mounting domestic pressure to secure the release of Hamas's remaining captives in Gaza, following the release of footage of detainees Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David appearing emaciated. Netanyahu on Monday doubled down on his war goals, including eliminating Hamas and securing the release of the remaining captives. 'We must continue to stand together and fight together to achieve all our war objectives: the defeat of the enemy, the release of our hostages, and the assurance that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel,' Netanyahu said at the start of a regular cabinet meeting on Monday. Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan on Monday accused the United States and other Western countries of turning a blind eye to Israeli atrocities, and said that Netanyahu's government bore 'full responsibility' for the lives of the captives 'due to its stubbornness, arrogance, and evasion of reaching a ceasefire agreement, and the escalation of the war of extermination and starvation against our people'. More than 60,930 Palestinians, including at least 18,430 children, have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, according to Gaza health authorities. Forty-nine captives, including 27 who are believed to be dead, are still being held by Hamas, according to Israeli authorities.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Netanyahu to urge ‘full conquest' of Gaza as ceasefire talks reach an impasse
Negotiations on a hostage and ceasefire deal in Gaza appear to be at an impasse, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leaning towards expanded military operations and Hamas demanding the humanitarian situation be addressed before it returns to talks. Netanyahu will urge a meeting of the security cabinet on Tuesday to support the full 'conquest of the Strip' according to reports in Israeli media that were described as accurate by a source familiar with the matter. Israel's Ynet cited senior officials close to Netanyahu as saying: 'The die is cast – we're going for full conquest. If the Chief of Staff doesn't agree – he should resign.' The source told CNN that the defense establishment opposes an expansion of ground operations in areas where the hostages are believed to be held, as it would risk putting them in harm's way. The report was criticized by a group of mothers of Israeli soldiers, saying it would be fatal for both hostages and soldiers. The Palestinian Authority called on the international community to intervene. Asked about plans to widen the military campaign, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar said Monday it reflected 'a wish to see all the hostages come back, and the wish to see the end of this war after the talks for a partial deal were not successful.' It's unclear whether the Israeli government's approach is in line with that of US President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. Witkoff spent three hours with the families of Israeli hostages on Saturday, and the Hostages and Missing Families Forum quoted him as saying that the plan 'is not to expand the war but to end it. We think the negotiations should be changed to all or nothing. End the war and bring all 50 hostages home at the same time – that's the only way.' 'We have a plan to end the war and bring everyone home,' Witkoff reportedly added. 'Someone will be to blame' if the remaining living hostages do not return to Israel still alive, he said, according to the forum. When asked, Witkoff's team did not offer any further information on the special envoy's comments. Trump said Sunday that Witkoff would likely be traveling to Moscow later in the week. Fifty hostages remain in Gaza, at least 20 of whom are believed to be alive. There was widespread shock in Israel at the release of images by Hamas at the weekend of two of the hostages – Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski – looking weak and emaciated. Netanyahu said the images demonstrated that Hamas 'don't want a deal. They want to break us with these horrifying videos, with the false horror propaganda they're spreading around the world.' However, the families forum warned the government against expanding the military campaign in Gaza. 'Netanyahu is preparing the greatest deception of all. The repeated claims of freeing hostages through military victory are a lie and a public fraud,' the forum said Sunday. The forum called on Israel and Hamas to commit to bringing 'the 50 hostages home, ending the war, and then rebuilding and reviving Israel,' the statement said. Hamas has insisted it is committed to negotiations but only when 'the catastrophic humanitarian situation' is addressed, according to Basem Naim, a senior Hamas political official. Another Hamas official, Mahmoud Mardawi, told CNN last week there was 'no point' in continuing talks as long as Gaza's starvation crisis persists. Hunger-related deaths in Gaza spiked in July, the World Health Organization said last week. Malnutrition rates reached 'alarming levels,' with more than 5,000 children under five admitted for outpatient treatment of malnutrition in just the first two weeks of July, WHO said. The Hamas-controlled Government Media Office in Gaza said Monday that 600 truckloads of aid were needed every day to alleviate the hunger crisis and claimed that in the past week an average of 84 trucks a day had entered the territory. COGAT, the Israeli agency supervising the delivery of aid into Gaza, said Monday that more than 200 trucks were collected and distributed by the UN and international organizations on Sunday. But many of the trucks that do get in are looted, either by desperate civilians or organized gangs. The United Nations said on Friday that nearly 1,400 people have been killed since the end of May while seeking food; 859 in the vicinity of sites run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and 514 along the routes of food convoys. The UN said that 'most of the killings were committed by the Israeli military.' Thirty people were killed on Sunday while trying to get food, 19 of them in the north and 11 in the vicinity of an aid site run by the GHF in Rafah, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment. Opinion polls in Israel have consistently shown a large majority in favor of ending the conflict in Gaza and securing the release of the hostages. A new survey by the Institute for National Security Studies found that 38% of Israeli Jews thought it was not possible to disarm Hamas; 57% thought it was possible. On Monday, hundreds of retired Israeli security officials urged Trump to pressure Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza. 'It is our professional judgement that Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel,' the former officials wrote in an open letter shared with the media on Monday. 'At first this war was a just war, a defensive war, but when we achieved all military objectives, this war ceased to be a just war,' said Ami Ayalon, former director of the Shin Bet security service. But far-right members of the government are pushing for the occupation of much of Gaza and measures to encourage its population to leave the territory altogether.
