Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says two of its US aid workers injured in Gaza
The U.S.- and Israeli-backed GHF said in a statement that the injured Americans were receiving medical treatment and were in a stable condition.
"The attack – which preliminary information indicates was carried out by two assailants who threw two grenades at the Americans – occurred at the conclusion of an otherwise successful distribution in which thousands of Gazans safely received food," the GHF said.
In addition to aid workers, the GHF employs private U.S. military contractors tasked with providing security at their sites.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack. The Israeli military had no immediate comment when contacted by Reuters.
The Hamas-run interior ministry in Gaza on Thursday had warned residents of the coastal enclave not to assist the GHF, saying deadly incidents near its food distribution sites endangered hungry Gazans.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, bypassing traditional aid channels, including the United Nations which says the U.S.-based organisation is neither impartial nor neutral.
The GHF has said it has delivered more than 52 million meals to Palestinians in five weeks, while other humanitarian groups had "nearly all of their aid looted".
Since Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade on Gaza on May 19, the U.N. says more than 400 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid handouts. A senior U.N. official said last week that the majority of people killed were trying to reach aid distribution sites of the GHF.
Footage released by GHF has shown at least one aid site to be overrun with no clear distribution process. Palestinians have described the sites as chaotic.
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The Sun
5 hours ago
- The Sun
Israel bombs hijacked Brit ship Galaxy Leader seized by Houthis in devastating wave of airstrikes against terror group
ISRAEL has bombed the hijacked Brit ship Galaxy Leader seized by Houthis in devastating wave of airstrikes. The car carrier was snatched by the terror group when crack troops swooped onto it with a helicopter in November 2023. 6 6 6 The Galaxy Leader is owned by a British company, which is partially owned by Israeli tycoon Abraham Ungar. The militants had celebrated its capture as a war trophy - with Yemeni influencers visiting the vessel to show it off. The brutal attack on Sunday night involved around a whopping 50 missiles and bombs, according to the IDF. The Force added the attack was in response to relentless Houthi attacks on Israel. The IDF said: "The Houthi terrorist regime's forces installed a radar system on the ship, and are using it to track vessels in international maritime space in order to promote the Houthi terrorist regime's activities." The strikes were also said to have hit the ports of Hodeidah, Ras Isa and Salif, alongside the Ras Qantib power plant on the coast. A mere few hours later, two retaliation missiles were launched from Yemen, Israel said. Attempts were made to intercept them but the results were still under review. The Houthi group has continued to fire ballistic missiles at Israel since the tense ceasefire with Iran was reached. But the firing attempts are - most of the time - blasted singly, meaning Israel's Iron Dome is usually able to down them. Trump boasts 'Oops, there will be no attack' after US bombs Houthi terror soldiers 'preparing to fight' in drone strike In October, Houthi rebels forced hostages on board a hijacked British cargo ship to party on live TV as new satellite images reveal the vessel's movements. Footage shared on Yemen TV channels shows the captives watching a traditional knife dance as the guests of honour on the ship where they are being held hostage. Exclusive images provided to The Sun also showed the boat being brought back and forth from the shore by the Houthis. Satellite pics taken by company Maxar show the ship tied with its back to shore last April. The condition of the crew is dire as they face 'significant health issues" including malaria, a report claims. Most of the crew are from the Philippines, with three from Ukraine, two each from Bulgaria and Mexico, and one from Romania. The Houthis have sought to portray themselves as treating the hostages generously and have welcomed visits from the Red Cross and a top naval commander. But Filipino diplomatic sources have previously said they do not expect the captives to be released until Israel's war in Gaza is over. 6 6 6 For about a dollar per trip, male-only groups of visitors can board wooden boats five times a week to marvel at the hijacked carrier. The Houthis, designated a "global terrorist" group by Washington, have previously draped it in Yemeni and Palestinian flags and anti-American and anti-Israeli banners. They have continued their campaign to disrupt trade in the Red Sea for almost a year now. Footage from earlier this month shows them sending an explosive-laden drone at a British oil tanker. They shared the clip of a big explosion near the side of the Cordelia Moon, which damaged its port side tank and covered it in clouds of smoke. Around 12 per cent of all global trade normally passes through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the now-under-attack 20-mile-wide stretch of the Red Sea also known as the "Gate of Tears". Who are the Houthis? THE Houthi rebels have spent months terrorising the Red Sea by launching persistent missile and drone attacks on vessels and warships - but who are they? The Shia militant group who now controls large swaths of Yemen spent over a decade being largely ignored by the world. However, since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, they sprung from relative obscurity to holding roughly £1trillion of world trade hostage - turning one of the world's busiest shipping lanes into an active warzone. Their warped battle cry is 'Death to America, Death to Israel, curse the Jews and victory to Islam'. Why are they attacking ships? Last October, the rebel group began launching relentless drone and missile attacks on any ships - including warships - they deem to be connected with Israel in solidarity with their ally Hamas. In reality, they targeted commercial vessels with little or no link to Israel - forcing global sea traffic to largely halt operations in the region and sending shipping prices around the world soaring. The sea assaults added to the carnage in the Middle East tinderbox as intense ripples from Israel's war in Gaza were felt across the region - with Iran accused of stoking the chaos. The Houthi chiefs pledged their Red Sea attacks would continue until Israel stopped its offensive in Gaza. The group's chiefs have previously said their main targets are Israel, and its allies the US and Britain. And despite repeated threats from the West and joint US and UK strikes blitzing their strongholds in Yemen - Iran's terror proxy appears undeterred. The UK and US have hit Houthi bases as recently as this month after the terror group once again targeted boats in the shipping lane. Israel has also hammered the group with airstrikes, reportedly hitting oil storage tanks at the port in Al Hudaydah
The Guardian
6 hours ago
- The Guardian
Palestinians fear razing of villages in West Bank, as settlers circle their homes
Ali Awad is tired. The 27-year-old resident of Tuba, one of the dozen or so villages that make up Masafer Yatta in the arid south Hebron hills of the occupied West Bank, had been up all night watching as a masked Israeli settler on horseback circled his family home. 'When we saw the masked settler, we knew he wanted violence,' said Awad, his eyes bloodshot. They were lucky this time: the settler disappeared into the darkness before police could show up. The men in Masafer Yatta rarely sleep these days. They take turns standing watch at night, fearful that nearby Israeli settlers will attack under the cover of darkness. Daylight brings little respite. Residents work with an ear pricked up for the sound of approaching vehicles, scanning the horizon for Israeli bulldozers which could signal their homes are next to be demolished. Israel designated Masafer Yatta a military training zone – named firing zone 918, where no civilians can live – in 1981. It has been working since to push out the roughly 1,200 residents who remain. These residents have been fighting in Israeli courts for more than two decades to stop their expulsion, a battle which has slowed, but not stopped, the demolition of Palestinian homes there. Recently, an Israeli administrative body issued a decision which legal experts and activists have said could remove the last remaining legal barriers for the demolition of homes in Masafer Yatta. The decision could lead to the forcible transfer of 1,200 people, something the UN warned could be a war crime. 'This would amount to forcible transfer, which is a war crime. It could also amount to a crime against humanity if committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack,' the UN human rights office said on 26 June. On 18 June, the civil administration's central planning bureau, the Israeli military agency that issues construction permits in occupied Palestinian territories, issued a directive that all pending building requests in Masafer Yatta be rejected. Previously, residents could file building planning requests and, while they were being examined, their structures could not legally be demolished. By cancelling all pending requests, the new directive dismisses all previously submitted cases without examining their particularities and gives demolitions the green light. The decision was made at the same time as Israeli authorities are pursuing sharply increased numbers of demolitions across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, destroying 933 structures since the beginning of the year, a record-breaking pace, according to UN data. As structures are demolished, more Palestinians are killed in the West Bank, with at least 950 killed and 9,000 injured by Israeli forces and settlers since the start of the war in Gaza on 7 October 2023, according to Palestinian health authorities. The new directive cites a military planning document issued a day earlier, which said that firing zone 918 was necessary for combat preparedness and that the presence of civilian structures prevented training exercises. The document says: 'The practical condition for such [military training] access is the removal of the unauthorised constructions, thus enabling the IDF to conduct its training … No construction in the firing zone can be permitted.' It adds that for live-fire exercises to be conducted, the area needs to be 'sterile'. According to a lawyer representing residents of Masafer Yatta, Netta Amar-Shiff, the new directive bypasses a previous legal ruling and abrogates local laws, and could rapidly expedite the destruction of villages. 'If this directive is activated, it means planning institutions can dismiss building requests under military auspices, so no civilian construction and development can be approved. It's easier for them to eliminate entire villages,' Amar-Shiff said. Humanitarian organisations have long accused Israel of establishing firing zones as an excuse to push Palestinians off their land and expand settlement construction. About 18% of Area C, the parts of the West Bank under full Israeli control, has been designated as firing zones. According to government meeting minutes in 1981, the then agriculture minister and future PM, Ariel Sharon, proposed the creation of firing zone 918 with the purpose of forcing Palestinians out of the area. In the meeting, Sharon told the IDF he wanted to expand shooting zones 'in order to keep these areas … in our hands', pointing to 'the expansion of the Arab villagers' in the area. In a comment, the Israeli military said the civil administration was 'holding ongoing discussions regarding villages built within the boundaries of firing zone 918' and that the military had a 'vital need for the area'. 'As a general rule, no approval will be granted for construction within the firing zone, which is designated as a closed military area,' the Israeli military said in a statement to the Guardian, adding that building permit requests were subject to approval by military command. To Awad, last week's decision is the latest attempt in a long line of court decisions and policies by the Israeli government to expel the residents of Masafer Yatta from their homes. In May 2022, Israel's high court ruled that the residents could be expelled and the land repurposed for military use, as it said villagers were not permanent residents of the area before the firing zone was declared. Residents and lawyers, relying on expert testimony and literature, said they had inhabited the area for decades. 'This decision was a clear way of cutting the last nerve of life that these people had,' said Awad, calling it part of a larger policy of 'ethnic cleansing of Palestinians'. Awad and the other residents of Masafer Yatta have spent more than two decades filing petitions, appeals, proposing master plans and submitting documents to try to fight the destruction of their community. 'We tried for many years to supply different documents and proofs and plans to the courts. But, after years of this, a commander in the army says no and that's enough,' said Nidal Younis, head of the Masafer Yatta council, in a press briefing late last month. As the residents navigate Israel's labyrinthine bureaucracy to stave off demolition orders, settlers have acted as the extrajudicial vanguard of displacement, making daily life nearly intolerable for Palestinians. Almost every single resident has a story about being harassed or attacked by nearby settlers, whose presence has been slowly growing, with new outposts popping up on the area's hilltops. In the early hours of 25 June, settlers set fire to Nasser Shreiteh's home in the town of Susiya, burning his kitchen and a bedroom almost entirely, running off as he tried to extinguish the fire. 'They want to evict everyone, they want everyone to disappear. But I am here, if they burn my house down, I will stay here, I have no other place to go,' said Shreiteh, a 50-year-old with seven children, as he overlooked the charred remains of his kitchen. As he spoke, an Israeli military patrol passed and behind it roared a beaten-up sedan driven by settlers, swerving in circles as the car's trunk swung open. They pulled up to Shreiteh's driveway and made an obscene hand gesture before driving off. Incidents of settler violence in the area have sharply increased since the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 and the subsequent war in Gaza. The rise of the far-right, extremist ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir has provided political cover, allowing settlers to act with virtual impunity. Many settlers have been called to military reserves, where they serve around their settlements. Residents of Masafer Yatta said settlers would often walk around in military dress, such as combat trousers, which made it impossible to tell whether they were dealing with settlers or soldiers. Settler violence has escalated the tighter residents have clung to their land. In late January, settlers torched Awad's car, which he had used to transport children to school and residents to legal hearings. Souad al-Mukhamari, a 61-year-old resident of Sfai, another village in Masafer Yatta, complained that one of her granddaughters, a child, had been beaten and pepper-sprayed by a settler a month earlier. Her own home overlooked the debris of a school that was demolished in 2022. Palestinians can do little to protect themselves from settler violence, and are severely punished if they attempt to do so. They complain that Israeli authorities fail to protect them and do not follow up on their complaints. Legal advocates have said they expect little protection from Israel's legal system, but instead are looking to the international community to increase pressure on Israel to halt settlement construction and protect the rights of Palestinians. 'We don't see any possibility of internal change within Israel to protect these communities,' said Sarit Michaeli, an international advocacy officer at the Israeli human rights group B'tselem. 'The only way to stop this is whether there is clear international action to clarify to Israeli policymakers that actions have consequences,' she added. The Trump administration has expressed little interest in addressing illegal settlement construction and violence, lifting Biden-era sanctions on settlers. Instead, Michaeli said the EU could play a role in pressuring Israeli officials, especially as it announced at the end of May that it is reviewing its association agreement with Israel over human rights compliance concerns. As residents of Masafer Yatta wait for international action, they live under the constant threat of displacement and settler violence, their means of resistance all stripped away one at a time. Still, they are determined to stay. 'Just mentally we are preparing for more demolitions. There's nothing more on the ground we can do, besides putting our words in the media so they can reach farther than we can scream,' Awad said.
Scottish Sun
10 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Hamas ‘raped dead bodies' & tied stripped Oct 7 hostages to trees before shooting them, harrowing new testimony reveals
HAMAS terrorists raped and mutilated women during the October 7 attack, harrowing witness testimony has revealed. A shocking new investigative report has revealed a pattern of widespread sexual atrocities conducted by the terror group on the horror day. 8 Revellers were seen fleeing the Nova music festival after Hamas launched the savage attack Credit: Twitter 8 The Nova music festival massacre where a new report reveals Hamas committed sexual violence Credit: Doug Seeburg 8 A memorial site for victims killed during the Nova music festival Credit: EPA Among the 1,200 innocent people slaughtered, some young women were stripped and tied to trees and poles and shot through their genitals and in the head, The Times reports. Hamas raped and gang raped in at least six difference locations, according to the new testimony compiled in The Dinah Report. The first-hand experience comes from 15 of the returned hostages, one survivor of attempted rape at the Nova music festival, and 17 who saw or heard the attacks. The survivors describe scenes of "unspeakable violence" and "systematic depravity" in the new report compiled by Israeli legal and gender-based violence experts. Read more on world news KREMLIN 'SUICIDE' Doubt over 'suicide' of Putin minister as pic of gun appears VERY quickly Some women, who were raped and mutilated, were then left for dead. Others were targeted while lifeless. Sharon Zagagi-Pinhas, former chief military prosecutor of the Israeli army and one of the report's lead authors, said: "Many of the witnesses spoke of the victims being shot and them still trying to rape a dead body." The report accuses Hamas of deploying sexual violence as a tactical weapon of war, with similar methods to those used by ISIS and Boko Haram. 'Clear patterns emerged,' it reads, 'including victims found partially or fully naked with their hands tied… evidence of gang rapes followed by execution, and genital mutilation.' The report details scenes at multiple attack sites — including the Nova music festival, Route 232, Nahal Oz military base, and the kibbutzim of Re'im, Nir Oz, and Kfar Aza. Hamas hurled grenades at us like game of Russian Roulette… I heard last gasp of boyfriend as bodies piled up around me Hamas conducted premeditated, coordinated acts of brutality, the report says. It also draws on forensic evidence from thousands of images and hours of video. The conclusive report comes after some have denied that Hamas would carry out sexual violence given they are Muslim. Zagagi-Pinhas said: 'sexual violence need not mean rape — also forced nudity, forcing some of the hostages to strip and shower while being watched or trying to force them into marriage. 8 Burnt out cars from the October 7th Hamas attacks Credit: Getty 8 IDF soldiers remove the body of civilians who were killed in the terror attack Credit: Getty 'Women found dead, naked and mutilated — with gunshots in their genitalia — and tied to trees. The fact that the same things happened in three to six locations can't be coincidence but proof this was premeditated.' The sick attack was the catalyst that plunged four nations - Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and Iran - into war, killing tens of thousands and marking a historic shift in the Middle East. On October 7, 2023, some 1,175 civilians, soldiers and foreign nationals inside Israel were savagely murdered in a hideous early-morning assault. Hamas terrorists stormed into Israel from Gaza, firing thousands of rockets, flying over in paragliders and bulldozing through in trucks in over 100 different places across the border. An IDF report found that 6,000 fighters from Gaza managed to get into Israel that day - including 3,800 from the Hamas terror group's elite Nukhba forces. Horrifying reports that followed October 7 revealed children were killed, women were raped and around 250 had been kidnapped and taken back to Gaza. 8 Israeli soldiers continue to search for ID and belongings among the cars and tents at the Supernova Music Festival site days after the attack Credit: Getty 8 Family and friends of Livnat Levi, who was taken hostage by Hamas Credit: Getty It was described by many, including former US President Joe Biden, as "the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust". Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu declared "we are at war" following the ambush - and said the military would "turn Gaza into a deserted island" and urged its residents to "leave now". The horrors of October 7 sparked the almost two-year-long conflict - still raging in the Middle East as the IDF attempts to obliterate Hamas. Netanyahu has rejected calls - including from his own government - for an investigation into the security failings that led to October 7 - saying he wants to win the war first. An investigation by the New York Times revealed that documents, emails and interviews show Israel was aware of Hamas' plan for October 7 over a year before it happened. Military and intelligence top brass dismissed the plans as aspirational, believing it was too hard for Hamas to carry out. The newspaper saw a 40-page document which outlined a step-by-step plan of the kind of invasion that would later kill more than 1,000 people. Israel's domestic intelligence unit Shin Bet reportedly discussed a possible threat to the Nova festival hours before Hamas hit on October 7 - but festival officials were not warned, Haaretz reports.
