Thousands in Gaza scramble for limited aid amid ongoing food shortages
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20 minutes ago
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Family condemns Hamas video showing emaciated Israeli hostage
The family of Israeli hostage Evyatar David held by Hamas in Gaza has accused the group of deliberately starving him as part of a "propaganda campaign". The family statement on Saturday came a day after Hamas released a video showing an emaciated David in a narrow concrete tunnel. David, 24, has been in captivity since his seizure by Hamas at a music festival in southern Israel on 7 October 2023. "We are forced to witness our beloved son and brother, Evyatar David, deliberately and cynically starved in Hamas's tunnels in Gaza - a living skeleton, buried alive," the family statement added. The hostage's family also urged the Israeli government and the world community to do "everything possible to save Evyatar". In the video released by Hamas, Evyatar David is heard saying "I haven't eaten for days... I barely got drinking water" and is seen digging what he says will be his own grave. During its attack on Israel nearly two years ago, Hamas seized 251 hostages. David is one of 49 hostages who Israel says are still being held in Gaza. This includes 27 hostages who are believed to be dead. Israel has been accused by aid agencies of pushing Gaza towards famine by weaponising food in its war against Hamas - an allegation it denies. Israel has said there is "no starvation" and it is not imposing restrictions on aid entering Gaza - claims rejected by its close allies in Europe, the UN and other agencies active in the Strip. On Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was "continuing the series of actions aimed at improving the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip". It said that 90 aid packages containing food for residents in southern and northern Gaza had been airdropped in the past few hours as part of co-operation between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, France and Germany. Meanwhile, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said seven more people, including a child, died of malnutrition in the territory on Saturday. The health ministry said the total number of malnutrition deaths since the start of the war has reached 169, including 93 children. Also on Saturday in Gaza, the health ministry said at least 83 had been killed and 1,079 injured as a result of Israel's military offensive in the past 24 hours. Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat told the BBC it had received the bodies of three people killed by Israeli forces near an aid distribution point on Salah al-Din street, south of the Wadi Gaza area in central Gaza, run by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The hospital said at least 36 people were injured. The IDF said its troops "fired warning shots" hundreds of metres away from the aid distribution site, and not during its operating hours, after a crowd did not comply with their calls not to advance towards them "in a manner that posed a threat". "The IDF is not aware of any casualties as a result of the warning shots, and the details of the incident are still being examined," it said. GHF said there was "nothing at or near our sites today". International journalists, including the BBC, are blocked by Israel from entering Gaza independently, making it difficult to verify claims. Israel imposed a total blockade of aid deliveries to Gaza at the start of March and resumed its military offensive against Hamas two weeks later, collapsing a two-month ceasefire. It said it wanted to put pressure on the group to release its remaining Israeli hostages. The blockade was partially eased after 11 weeks amid warnings of a looming famine from global experts, but shortages of food, medicine and fuel remain, aid agencies have said. Israel launched its offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed. The Hamas-run health authorities say 60,430 people have been killed as a result of the Israeli military campaign. Stories of the hostages taken by Hamas from Israel 'All the people are hungry': Voices from Gaza on desperate lack of food 'Thank you, but it's too late': Why some Palestinians aren't convinced by Starmer's promise
Yahoo
an hour ago
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Cory Booker's message to the Democratic Party: Don't bend the knee to Trump
Democratic Sen. Cory Booker is imploring his party to fight back harder against President Donald Trump, arguing that history will remember some for their 'complicity' in 'bending the knee' to him. In a wide-ranging interview with CNN's Manu Raju, Booker argued that Democrats can gain credibility with voters by showing they're concerned about the American people rather than their party. The New Jersey senator also weighed in on whether his party should embrace its most progressive wing and urged his own state to consider redrawing House maps to fight back against a GOP-led redistricting effort in Texas. As Democratic voters demand a more aggressive approach toward Trump from party leaders, Booker told CNN he's 'going to continue to do what leadership is' and reprehended institutions for what he viewed as caving to pressure from the president. 'What I want to see more people doing is not doing what some law firms have done, bend the knee to Donald Trump. Not doing what some universities have done, bend the knee to Donald Trump. You see major corporations who want some merger approval not standing up on principle but bending the knee to Donald Trump. That to me is outrageous,' Booker said. 'History is going to remember these people for their complicity in what is a guy that's going to severely try to undermine our government – who already incited a riot on our Capitol,' the Democrat said. 'This is a moment in history where people are going to ask, 'Where did you stand? Did you bow to an authoritarian leader or did you stand strong and fight?'' Booker clashed with Democrats this week as he sought to amend several bipartisan police benefits bills with language that would stop the Trump administration from withholding Department of Justice grants for political reasons – arguing it is already happening in New Jersey. In impassioned remarks, Booker said members of his party are complying with Trump as he 'violates the Constitution' and 'trashes our norms and traditions.' 'How far are we going to let (Trump) go until we draw a line and say, 'I don't care where it is, on the floor of the Senate, within our communities, we're going to stand and fight against this authoritarianism?'' Booker told CNN. Booker said he wants Democrats to be aggressive when it comes to redistricting efforts, as Republican-led Texas is moving ahead with a Trump-backed strategy to redraw the state's congressional map to try and gain more House seats. The senator suggested Democrats should do the same in New Jersey despite the Democratic Party's past rhetoric about the importance of nonpartisan redistricting. Trump 'thinks you should break the rules for Democrats to sit back and just say, 'OK, we're going to play by the queen's rules,'' Booker told CNN. 'No, I'm telling you right now we need to win in the midterm. We need to stop him from cheating, from lying, and from stealing the election. And if they're doing something to add their congressional seats, we need to look at our ways of doing that right now,' he said. Booker's political call to arms comes as Democrats struggle with frustration with the party among their base, some of whom appear to be turning to more progressive leaders like the Democratic nominee in the New York City mayor's race, 33-year-old Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani. Like many Democrats, Booker declined to say whether he supports the Mamdani, who delivered a surprise primary victory in June. 'New York City, I love you. You're my neighbor. You're about 10 miles from where I live. You guys figure out your elections,' Booker said. 'I'm going to focus on mine.'
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Hamas Releases Video of Israeli Hostage Evyatar David
Galya David (L) and Ilay Yosef David (R), mother and brother, sit next to a portrait of Evyatar David, who was captured by Hamas militants during the October 7 attack and is being held hostage in Gaza, as they attend a press conference in Athens on November 6, 2023. Credit - Angelos Tzortzinis—AFP/Getty Images Hamas has released a propaganda video showing a severely emaciated Israeli hostage being held in what appears to be an underground tunnel in Gaza, the first video of its kind in months. Evyatar David, 24, was kidnapped at the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7, 2023, during the terrorist attack by Hamas in which 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage. The video shows David looking visibly gaunt as he ticks off days on a calendar in a narrow tunnel. Another section of the video shows him being forced to dig a hole in the ground that he says will be his grave. The Hamas propaganda video is interspersed with images of starving Palestinian children. David, a guitar and piano player who comes from a musical family, is one of an estimated 20 living hostages still being held by Hamas and other militants. Of the estimated 250 people taken during the Hamas terror attack on October 7, 140 have been released during negotiations, 8 have been rescued, and the bodies of 57 who died in captivity or during rescue attempts have been recovered. Read More: The Tragedy Unfolding in Gaza David's family, who asked for the video not to be published, said in a statement that he had been 'deliberately and cynically starved in Hamas's tunnels in Gaza,' describing him as 'a living skeleton, buried alive.' 'The deliberate starvation of our son as part of a propaganda campaign is one of the most horrifying acts the world has seen. He is being starved purely to serve Hamas's propaganda,' they added. The video release comes a day after Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another militant group with ties to Hamas, also released a video of another Israeli hostage, Rom Braslavski. President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff met with the families of the hostages in Tel Aviv on Saturday, where he told them that Trump and he believe they will be 'successful' in negotiating a deal to bring all of the hostages home. 'Now we have to get all the 20 [live hostages] at the same time... we think that we have to shift this negotiation to all or nothing so that everybody comes home. We think it is going to be successful and we have a plan around it,' Witkoff said, according to Axios. 'President Trump now believes that everybody ought to come home at once - no piecemeal deals. That doesn't work.' Ceasefire talks have continued to stall between Hamas and Israel as a starvation crisis spreads in Gaza, with a United Nations (UN)-backed international food security body warning that there is a 'worst-case famine scenario' unfolding in the region. Read more: The Malnutrition Crisis in Gaza Will Outlive the War The UN said this week that humanitarian access to Gaza 'remains severely restricted,' and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) director of emergencies said the level of starvation was 'unlike anything we have seen in this century.' It added that Israel is now allowing 'humanitarian pauses' with more than 100 aid trucks allowed to enter Gaza on Sunday. Witkoff and the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, visited an aid site in Gaza run by the controversial Israel and U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) on Friday, as the United Nations said that over 1,373 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food since the end of May, including 859 at GHF sites. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in response that reports of civilian casualties near distribution sites are under review. 'The IDF allows the American civilian organization (GHF) to operate independently in distributing aid to the residents of Gaza, and operates in proximity to the new distribution areas in order to enable the orderly delivery of food,' it said in a statement to TIME. 'IDF forces are conducting systematic review processes in order to improve the operational response in the area and minimize, as much as possible, any friction between the civilian population and IDF forces,' it continued. Contact us at letters@
