Gazans hope for truce as Zionists keep up genocide
GAZA: Zionist forces killed at least 79 Palestinians and injured more than 289 others in Gaza and ordered new evacuations on Tuesday, local medics and residents said, in further bloodshed shortly after the Zionist entity and Iran agreed to a ceasefire in their air war. The Zionist-Iran deal announced by US President Donald Trump raised hopes among Palestinians of an end to over 20 months of war in Gaza that has widely demolished the territory and displaced most residents, with malnutrition widespread.
'Enough! The whole universe has let us down. (Lebanese group) Hezbollah reached a deal without Gaza, and now Iran has done the same,' said Adel Farouk, 62, from Gaza City. 'We hope Gaza is next,' he told Reuters. In Gaza, deadly violence continued with little respite.
Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that 21 people were killed and around 150 wounded by Zionist fire near an aid point in central Gaza early Tuesday, and that another 25 were killed in a separate incident in south Gaza.
'Every day we face this scenario: Martyrs, injuries, in unbearable numbers,' paramedic Ziad Farhat told AFP at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza. 'Hospitals cannot accommodate the number of casualties arriving,' he said.
Marwan Abu Naser, of the Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in central Gaza, said it had received 19 dead and 146 injured from crowds who tried to reach a nearby aid distribution center of the US and Zionist-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Abu Naser told Reuters the casualties resulted from gunfire. UN aid trucks entering Gaza also use area roads and Palestinians have in the past few days reported killings of people by Israeli fire as they waited at roadsides to grab bags of flour from the trucks.
The United Nations rejects the GHF delivery system as inadequate, dangerous, and a violation of humanitarian impartiality rules. Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations' Palestinian aid agency UNRWA, told reporters in Berlin on Tuesday that the new mechanism was an 'abomination' and 'a death trap', while a spokesman for the UN human rights office, Thameen Al-Kheetan, condemned the 'weaponization of food' in Gaza. On Monday, more than a dozen human rights organizations called on GHF to cease its operations, warning of possible complicity in war crimes.
Separately, 10 other people were killed by a Zionist airstrike on a house in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City, while 11 were killed by Zionist gunfire in the southern city of Khan Yunis, medics said. Palestinians said they wished the Zionist-Iran ceasefire announced by Trump had applied to Gaza. Adding to their frustration, the Zionist military dropped leaflets over several areas in north Gaza ordering residents to leave their homes and head towards the south, in what appeared to herald renewed Zionist military strikes against Hamas. 'Coming back to combat areas represents a risk to your lives,' the army statement said.
Bassal reported a first deadly shooting 'with bullets and tank shells' near the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza where thousands of Palestinians gather each night for rations from a nearby GHF distribution point. Witness Ribhi Al-Qassas told AFP that troops had 'opened fire randomly' at a crowd he estimated at 50,000 people. The second incident took place in south Gaza about two kilometers from another GHF center in Rafah governorate, Bassal said. '(Zionist) forces targeted civilian gatherings near Al-Alam and Al-Shakoush areas with bullets and tank shells', he told AFP. – Agencies
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Kuwait Times
20 hours ago
- Kuwait Times
Zionists kill dozens in Gaza amid war crimes, truce talks
GAZA: Gaza's civil defense agency said Zionist forces killed 37 people in the devastated territory on Saturday, including at least nine children who died in strikes. Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP 35 people were killed in seven Zionist drone and air strikes in various locations, and two others by Zionist fire while waiting for food aid in the Netzarim zone in central Gaza. He said the dead included three children who were killed in an air strike on a home in Jabalia, in northern Gaza. Bassal said at least six more children died in a neighborhood in the northeast of Gaza City, including some in an air strike near a school where displaced people were sheltering. AFP images showed mourners weeping over the bodies of seven people, including at least two children, wrapped in white shrouds and blankets at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. Video footage filmed from the Zionist entity showed smoke rising over northern Gaza after blasts. Other AFP footage filmed in Gaza City showed a cloud of smoke rising from buildings after a strike. In Jabalia, an AFP photographer saw civil defense rescuers aiding a man with blood on his back. After claiming victory in a 12-day war against Iran that ended with a ceasefire on June 24, the Zionist military said it would refocus on its offensive in Gaza, where Palestinian fighters still hold Zionist captives. Qatar said on Saturday that it and fellow mediators the United States and Egypt were engaging with the Zionist entity and Hamas to build on momentum from the ceasefire with Iran and work towards a Gaza truce. 'If we don't utilize this window of opportunity and this momentum, it's an opportunity lost amongst many in the near past. We don't want to see that again,' said Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari. The Zionist military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 56,412 people, mostly civilians. US President Donald Trump voiced optimism Friday about a new ceasefire in Gaza, as criticism grew over mounting civilian deaths at Zionist-backed food distribution centers in the territory. Asked by reporters how close a ceasefire was between the Zionist entity and Hamas, Trump said: 'We think within the next week, we're going to get a ceasefire.' The Zionist entity broke a ceasefire in March, launching new devastating attacks on Hamas. The Zionist entity also stopped all food and other supplies from entering Gaza for more than two months, drawing warnings of famine. The Zionist entity has since allowed a resumption of food through the controversial US- and Zionist-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which involves US security contractors with Zionist troops at the periphery. United Nations officials on Friday said the GHF system was leading to mass killings of people seeking aid. Eyewitnesses and local officials have reported repeated killings of Palestinians at distribution centers over recent weeks in the war-stricken territory. The Zionist military advocate general has ordered an investigation into possible war crimes over allegations that Zionist forces deliberately fired at Palestinian civilians near Gaza aid distribution sites, Haaretz newspaper reported on Friday. Haaretz quoted unnamed Zionist soldiers as saying they were told to fire at the crowds to keep them back, using unnecessary lethal force against people who appeared to pose no threat. Haaretz quoted unnamed sources as saying that the army unit established to review incidents that may involve breaches of international law had been tasked with examining soldiers' actions near aid locations over the past month. The unnamed Zionist soldiers told Haaretz that military commanders had ordered troops to shoot at the crowds of Palestinians to disperse them and clear the area. UN officials and other aid providers on Friday denounced what they said was a wave of killings of hungry people seeking aid. 'The new aid distribution system has become a killing field,' with people 'shot at while trying to access food for themselves and their families,' said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian affairs (UNWRA). 'This abomination must end through a return to humanitarian deliveries from the UN including @UNRWA,' he wrote on X. The health ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory says that since late May, more than 500 people have been killed near aid centers while seeking scarce supplies. The country's civil defense agency has also repeatedly reported people being killed while seeking aid. 'People are being killed simply trying to feed themselves and their families,' said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. 'The search for food must never be a death sentence.' Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) branded the GHF relief effort 'slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid.' – Agencies
Kuwait Times
20 hours ago
- Kuwait Times
Court postpones Netanyahu's appearance in trial
JERUSALEM: A Zionist court on Sunday postponed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's testimony in his corruption trial after he requested a delay, as US President Donald Trump called for the case to be thrown out. 'Following the explanations given... we partially accept the request and cancel at this stage Mr Netanyahu's hearings scheduled' for this week, the Jerusalem district court said in its ruling, published online by Netanyahu's Likud party. Netanyahu's lawyers had asked the court to excuse him from testifying over the next two weeks so he could focus on security issues following a ceasefire with Iran and amid ongoing fighting in Gaza where Zionist hostages are held. They had submitted Netanyahu's schedule to the court to demonstrate 'the national need for the prime minister to devote all his time and energy to the political, national and security issues at hand'. The court initially rejected the lawyers' request but said in its ruling on Sunday that it had changed its judgment after hearing arguments from the prime minister, the head of military intelligence and the chief of the Mossad spy agency. Trump on Saturday said in a post on his Truth Social platform that the United States was 'not going to stand' for the continued prosecution, prompting Netanyahu to thank him in a message on X. Earlier in the week, the US president had described the case against the Zionist entity's premier as a 'witch hunt', saying the trial 'should be CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Pardon given to a Great Hero'. Zionist entity opposition leader Yair Lapid reacted by saying that Trump 'should not interfere in a judicial trial in an independent country'. Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing in the corruption affair and his supporters have described the long-running trial as politically motivated. In one of the cases, he and his wife, Sara, are accused of accepting more than $260,000 worth of luxury goods such as cigars, jewelry and champagne from billionaires in exchange for political favors. In two others, Netanyahu is accused of attempting to negotiate more favorable coverage from two Zionist entity media outlets. The prime minister has requested multiple postponements to the trial since it began in May 2020. During his current term, which started in late 2022, Netanyahu's government has proposed far-reaching judicial reforms that critics say were designed to weaken the courts and prompted massive protests that were only curtailed by the onset of the Gaza war. Benjamin Netanyahu must leave office, his predecessor Naftali Bennett has told a televised interview, refusing to say whether he intends to challenge the country's longest-serving leader in an election. In an interview with Channel 12 that aired on Saturday, former prime minister Bennett said Netanyahu 'has been in power for 20 years... that's too much, it's not healthy'. 'He bears... heavy responsibility for the divisions in (Zionist) society', Bennett said of growing rifts within Zionist entity under Netanyahu, who has a strong support base but also staunch opponents who have demanded his departure including over his handling of the Gaza war since October 2023. Netanyahu 'must go', said the former prime minister, a right-wing leader who in 2021 joined forces with Netanyahu critics to form a coalition that ousted him from the premiership after 12 consecutive years at the helm. But the fragile coalition government Bennett had led along with current opposition chief Yair Lapid collapsed after about a year. Snap elections ensued, and Netanyahu again assumed the premiership with backing from far-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties. — AFP
Kuwait Times
20 hours ago
- Kuwait Times
UK climbs down on welfare cuts in latest U-turn
LONDON: The UK government backed down Friday on controversial plans to slash disability and sickness benefits after a major rebellion by MPs, dealing a blow to Prime Minister Keir Starmer's authority. The climbdown is the third U-turn that Starmer has been forced into making in less than a month, leading to questions about his political acumen and the direction of the ruling Labour party. Only days after Starmer insisted he would plough ahead with the reforms, the government confirmed concessions had been made to 126 rebel MPs who had threatened to scupper the proposed changes. Tuesday turnaround comes just before Starmer marks the first anniversary of what has been a rocky return to power for Labour after 14 years in opposition to the Conservatives. He said that following 'constructive discussion' with Labour rebels his welfare reforms now struck 'the right balance'. 'We've got a package which I think will work, we can get it right,' Starmer told broadcasters. The retreat means the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment (Pip) Bill, which contains the welfare reforms, will likely make it through a parliamentary vote due on Tuesday. 'It's always best to concede and then get it through in some way, shape or form. This is sort of damage limitation,' political scientist Steven Fielding told AFP. The concessions, due to be set out in parliament before Tuesday, include a 'staggered approach' to the reforms, care minister Stephen Kinnock said. This means the narrower eligibility criteria proposed will only apply to new claimants, not those already receiving the benefit payments. Starmer's government had hoped to make savings of £5.0 billion ($6.9 billion) as a result of the changes, which have now been partly abandoned. That means finance minister Rachel Reeves will need to find the money elsewhere. It has been a bumpy 12 months in office for Starmer during which Reeves has struggled to generate growth from a sluggish UK economy. On June 9, the government declared it had reversed a policy to scrap a winter heating benefit for millions of pensioners, following widespread criticism, including from its own MPs. Less than a week later Starmer—a former chief state prosecutor in England and Wales—announced a national inquiry focused on a UK child sex exploitation scandal that had attracted the attention of US billionaire Elon Musk. Starmer had previously resisted calls for an inquiry into the so-called 'grooming gangs' that saw girls as young as 10 raped by groups of men, mostly of South Asian origin. He favored a series of local probes. On Friday, the prime minister also backtracked on a speech given in May in which he warned that the UK was in danger of becoming an 'island of strangers' without stricter immigration curbs. 'That particular phrase—no—it wasn't right,' he said in an interview with the Observer newspaper. 'I'll give you the honest truth: I deeply regret using it,' he added. The prime minister has a massive majority of 165 MPs, meaning he should be able to force whatever legislation he wants through parliament. But many of his own MPs complain of a disconnect between Starmer's leadership, which is focused on combatting the rise of the far-right Reform UK party, and Labour's traditional centre-left principles. 'Labour is meant to stand for fairness, and those two flagship mistakes are all about being unfair,' Fielding said of the winter fuel and the disability cuts. The rows have overshadowed Labour's tightening of employment rights and its investment in housing and green industries, he added. A YouGov poll of more than 10,000 Britons released this week found that while Labour is losing voters to Reform, it is also forfeiting supporters to the Liberal Democrats and the Greens on the left. 'They've been making so many unforced errors,' said Fielding, a politics professor at Nottingham University in central England. 'I think there is now being a very reluctant recalibration of things.' — AFP
