Hundreds killed in recent weeks while seeking aid in Gaza: UN

Kuwait Times

a day ago

Ceasefire talks held up by Zionist entity withdrawal plans
JERUSALEM: Ten Palestinians were reported killed Friday while waiting for rations in Gaza, adding to nearly 800 similar deaths in the last six weeks, according to the UN, with Zionist entity's army saying it issued new instructions to troops following repeated reports of fatalities. Friday's reported violence came as negotiators from Zionist entity and the Palestinian group Hamas were locked in indirect talks in Qatar to try to agree on a temporary ceasefire in the more than 21-month conflict.
Zionist entity's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday he hoped a deal for a 60-day pause in the war could be struck in the coming days, and that he would then be ready to negotiate a more permanent end to hostilities. Hamas has said the free flow of aid is a main sticking point in the talks, with Gaza's more than two million residents facing a dire humanitarian crisis of hunger and disease amid the grinding conflict.
Zionist entity began easing a more than two-month total blockade of aid in late May. Since then, a new US- and Zionist entity-backed organization called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has effectively sidelined the territory's vast UN-led aid delivery network. There are frequent reports of Zionist forces firing on people seeking aid, with Gaza's civil defense agency saying 10 Palestinians were killed Friday while waiting at a distribution point near the southern city of Rafah.
The UN, which refuses to cooperate with GHF over concerns it was designed to cater to Zionist military objectives, said Friday that 798 people have been killed seeking aid between late May and July 7, including 615 'in the vicinity of the GHF sites'. 'Where people are lining up for essential supplies such as food and medicine, and where... they have a choice between being shot or being fed, this is unacceptable,' UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva.
GAZA: Palestinians carry bags of flour at a UN World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse on Al-Jalaa street in Gaza City, in the central Gaza Strip on July 12, 2025. -- AFP
Indirect talks between Hamas and Zionist entity for a ceasefire in Gaza are being held up by Zionist entity's proposals to keep troops in the territory, two Palestinian sources with knowledge of the discussions told AFP on Saturday.
Delegations from both sides began discussions in Qatar last Sunday to try to agree on a temporary halt to the 21-month conflict sparked by Hamas's deadly October 2023 attack on Zionist entity.
Zionist entity has meanwhile kept up its strikes on Gaza and the territory's civil defence agency said more than 20 people were killed on Saturday, including in an air strike on an area sheltering the displaced. 'We all generally came here because we were told it was a safe area,' Bassam Hamdan told AFP after the overnight attack in an area of Gaza City. 'While we were sleeping, there was an explosion... where two boys, a girl and their mother were staying. We found them torn to pieces, their remains scattered,' he added.
In southern Gaza, bodies covered in white plastic sheets were brought to the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis while wounded in Rafah were taken for treatment by donkey cart, on stretchers or carried, AFP photographs showed. If an agreement for a 60-day ceasefire were reached, both Hamas and Zionist entity have said 10 hostages taken in 2023 who remain alive in captivity would be released.
Zionist entity Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was prepared then to enter talks for a more permanent end to hostilities. But one Palestinian source, speaking anonymously due to the sensitivity of the talks, said Zionist entity's refusal to accept Hamas's demand to withdraw all of its troops from Gaza was holding back progress.
A second source said mediators had asked both sides to postpone the talks until the arrival of US President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, in the Qatari capital. 'The negotiations in Doha are facing a setback and complex difficulties due to Zionist entity's insistence, as of Friday, on presenting a map of withdrawal, which is actually a map of redeployment and repositioning of the Zionist army rather than a genuine withdrawal,' the first source said.
They added that Zionist entity was proposing to maintain military forces in more than 40 percent of the Palestinian territory, forcing hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians into a small area near the city of Rafah, on the border with Egypt. 'Hamas's delegation will not accept the Zionist entity maps... as they essentially legitimize the reoccupation of approximately half of the Gaza Strip and turn Gaza into isolated zones with no crossings or freedom of movement,' they said. The second Palestinian source accused the Zionist delegation of having no authority, and 'stalling and obstructing the agreement in order to continue the war of extermination'. — AFP