Israeli forces fire on people waiting for aid in Gaza, killing 25, witnesses say
Israeli forces and drones opened fire toward hundreds of people waiting for aid trucks in central Gaza early on Tuesday, killing at least 25 people, Palestinian witnesses and hospitals said.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment.
Advertisement
The Awda hospital in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp, which received the victims, said the Palestinians were waiting for the trucks on the Salah al-Din Road south of Wadi Gaza.
Witnesses told The Associated Press that Israeli forces opened fire as people were advancing eastward to be close to the approaching trucks.
'It was a massacre,' said Ahmed Halawa. He said tanks and drones fired at people, 'even as we were fleeing. Many people were either martyred or wounded'.
Hossam Abu Shahada, another eyewitness, said drones were flying over the area, watching the crowds first, then there was gunfire from tanks and drones as people were moving eastward.
Advertisement
He described a 'chaotic and bloody' scene as people were attempting to escape.
He said he saw at least three people lying on the ground motionless and many others wounded as he fled the site.
The Awda hospital said another 146 Palestinians were wounded. Among them were 62 in critical condition, who were transferred to other hospitals in central Gaza, it said.
In the central town of Deir al-Balah, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital said it received the bodies of six people who were killed in the same incident.
Advertisement
Palestinian witnesses and health officials say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire on crowds seeking desperately needed food, killing hundreds of people in recent weeks. The military says it has fired warning shots at people it said approached its forces in a suspicious manner.
The deaths were the latest in Israel-Hamas war in Gaza which killed about 56,000 Palestinians, according to the strip's health ministry.
The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but say more than a half of the dead were women and children.
Israel launched its campaign in Gaza after Hamas's October 7 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took another 251 hostages.
Advertisement
Most of the hostages were released by ceasefire agreements.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
26 minutes ago
- The Sun
IDF ‘assassinates Hamas mastermind of October 7' who founded terror group's military wing in targeted Israeli airstrike
ISRAEL says it has killed one of the last masterminds behind the bloody October 7 attacks. Senior Hamas commander Hakham Muhammad Issa Al-Issa was "eliminated" in a targeted airstrike on Gaza City, according to the IDF. 1 The Israel Defense Forces said Al-Issa — described as a founding member of Hamas' military wing — was 'eliminated' in an operation on the Sabra neighbourhood. 'Issa led Hamas' force build-up, training, and planned the October 7 massacre,' the IDF posted on X. As Head of Combat Support, he advanced aerial & naval attacks against Israelis. 'The IDF & [Israel Security Agency] will continue to locate and eliminate all terrorists involved in the October 7 massacre.' According to Palestinian reports, Al-Issa was killed along with his wife and grandson, though this has not been independently confirmed. The IDF later said it had verified his death, according to The Jerusalem Post. Al-Issa is widely believed to have played a pivotal role in orchestrating the October 7 assault on southern Israel that triggered the current war, with terrorists slaughtering kidnapping dozens of innocent people. The military described him as a 'central knowledge figure' and a high-value target who was instrumental in building Hamas' training and weapons programmes. The IDF said in a statement: 'In the past, Issa led Hamas' force-buildup efforts in the Gaza Strip, was one of the founders of its military wing, served as Head of the Training Headquarters, and was a member of Hamas' General Security Council. 'Additionally, Issa played a significant role in the planning and execution of the brutal October 7 massacre.'
The Guardian
33 minutes ago
- The Guardian
EU ‘cannot linger at the margins' of Gaza conflict, says former top diplomat
The EU must come up with a more assertive response to the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and the violations of international law, the bloc's former chief diplomat has said. In a strongly worded article, Josep Borrell said the EU had a 'duty' to intervene and must come up with its own concerted plan to end the war instead of relying on the US. 'Europe can no longer afford to linger at the margins,' he said in the article that was co-authored with Kalypso Nicolaïdis, an occasional adviser to the EU and professorial chair in international affairs at the Florence school of transnational governance at the European University Institute. 'The EU needs a concerted plan. 'Not only is Europe's own security at stake, but more important, European history imposes a duty on Europeans to intervene in response to Israel's violations of international law,' they say, adding: 'Europeans cannot stay the hapless fools in this tragic story, dishing out cash with their eyes closed.' Their intervention in Foreign Affairs magazine comes as EU member states continue to struggle to unite on action. Last week Borrell's successor, Kaja Kallas, said it was 'very clear' that Israel had breached its human rights commitments in Gaza but said the 'concrete question' was what action the member states could agree on. Her remarks were made after a review of the EU-Israel association agreement, a trade and cooperation pact, was triggered last month by 17 member states in protest at Israel's blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza. Last month Borrell launched a blistering attack on Israel accusing it of 'carrying out the largest ethnic-cleansing operation since the end of the second world war'. The authors say there are ways and lessons from the past to guide EU member states who want to take action without having to get buy-in from countries reluctant to do so, for historical reasons, including Germany, Hungary and Austria. They suggest a number of actions, from using the EU's financial leverage, to suspending Israel's presence in EU programmes such as the Erasmus+ student exchange. They also suggest EU member states could explore using article 20 of the EU's treaty to 'allow for at least nine member states to come together to utilise certain foreign policy tools not related to defence'. 'Because such an action has never been taken before, those states would have to explore what [it] … would concretely allow them to do,' the article said. Borrell and Nicolaidïs argue that the disunity in the EU has reduced what should be a powerful mediating voice in the Middle East into a bit player. 'Some EU leaders cautiously backed the international criminal court's investigations, while others, such as Austria and Germany, have declined to implement its arrest warrants against Israeli officials,' they say. 'And because EU member states, beginning with Germany and Hungary, could not agree on whether to revisit the union's trade policy with Israel, the EU continues to be Israel's largest trading partner. 'As a result, the EU, as a bloc, has been largely relegated to the sidelines, divided internally and overshadowed in ceasefire diplomacy by the United States and regional actors such as Egypt and Qatar. Shouldn't the EU also have acted as a mediator?'
Times
34 minutes ago
- Times
Channel 4 to screen Gaza documentary the BBC wouldn't show
Channel 4 will this week broadcast a documentary about medics in Gaza that was dropped by the BBC over concerns it 'risked creating a perception of partiality' in the corporation's coverage of the conflict. Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, which will air on Wednesday evening, examines allegations that Israeli forces have targeted hospitals and healthcare workers in the territory in breach of international law. Channel 4 described the documentary, which was made by the independent production company Basement Films, as 'a forensic investigation'. Louisa Compton, Channel 4's head of news and current affairs, who acquired the documentary, said: 'We are showing this programme because we believe that, following thorough fact-checking and verification, we are presenting a duly impartial view of a subject that both divides opinion and frequently provokes dispute about what constitutes a fact. 'The result is harrowing … It will make people angry, whichever side they take, or if they take no side. But while we would never judge anyone who decides that showing something could create a risk of being thought to be taking sides, we believe there are times when the same risk is run by not showing anything at all.' The BBC commissioned the film last year and was initially supposed to broadcast it earlier this year. Executives first shelved the documentary until an investigation into a previous film on the region had concluded, then scrapped it entirely on June 20. It is understood that the corporation had been particularly concerned that posts on social media by some of the documentary makers could contravene the BBC's commitment to impartiality. The day before it was axed, one of its co-directors, the Emmy award-winning journalist Ramita Navai, appeared on BBC Radio 4's Today programme to talk about the Iran-Israel conflict. Segueing into speaking about Gaza, Navai said: 'The world has been watching as Israel has become a rogue state that is committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing and mass-murdering Palestinians.' The presenter Amol Rajan responded that many listeners would 'take issue' with her description of Israel's actions, to which Navai replied: 'That isn't my opinion. I have been investigating it for a year and a half, actually, for a documentary for the BBC investigating Israel's war crimes. I've collected lots of evidence of that.' Ben de Pear, the founder of Basement Films and a former editor of Channel 4 News, had also criticised the BBC and its director-general, Tim Davie, for not running the film. Speaking at Sheffield DocFest earlier this month, de Pear said: 'All the decisions about our film were not taken by journalists, they were taken by Tim Davie. He is just a PR person. Tim Davie is taking editorial decisions which, frankly, he is not capable of making.' The film had been scrutinised by BBC legal and compliance teams, but the corporation said the documentary had not undergone its 'final pre-broadcast sign-off processes'. The delay to its release caused an outcry among BBC journalists. At a recent BBC staff town hall, Davie was repeatedly questioned about the decision, which was the most common staff concern raised, ahead of pay and redundancies. Production was first paused following the scandal over Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, which was made by a different company, Hoyo Films. After it emerged that the narrator was the son of a deputy agriculture minister in the Hamas-run government, the film was pulled from the BBC's iPlayer. It is now the subject of an internal BBC investigation, the findings of which are expected to be published next month. Channel 4 said that the film had been fact-checked to ensure it meets its editorial standards and the Ofcom Broadcasting Code. Basement Films added: 'We want to apologise to the contributors and team for the long delay and thank Channel 4 for enabling it to be seen.'
