Palestinian Foreign Ministry strongly denounces mass killings at aid centres in Gaza
Palestine News and Info Agency (WAFA) reported that the ministry called the attack a 'heinous crime' and part of a broader pattern of deliberate killing targeting over two million civilians in Gaza through bombardment, starvation, dehydration, and lack of medical care - all aimed, it said, at forcibly displacing the population.
The ministry said it continues to engage diplomatically with states and international bodies to put an end to these crimes, stressing that the failure of the international community to act constitutes complicity.
It urged a moral and legal awakening to enforce an immediate halt to what it described as genocide, forced displacement, and annexation. - BERNAMA-WAFA
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The Star
6 hours ago
- The Star
Silent protest in Cape Town condemns starvation, genocide in Gaza
CAPE TOWN, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- A group of women under the banner of Mothers4Gaza held a silent protest on Saturday in Cape Town, South Africa's legislative capital, to denounce what they described as state-sanctioned starvation and genocide in Gaza. With their mouths taped shut, the women stood in Sea Point holding placards that collectively spelled out "STOP GENOCIDE." Some held graphic images of emaciated children and adults, reportedly starved due to the Israeli blockade on food and humanitarian aid. Organizers said the demonstration aimed to draw attention to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and express solidarity with Palestinian mothers and children. The protest, they added, represented those who refuse to normalize mass starvation and ethnic cleansing. The demonstration followed several consecutive days of protests at symbolic locations, including the Cape Town Holocaust and Genocide Centre, the British Consulate General, and the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates. On the same day, another protest took place outside Cape Union Mart, a South African retail chain reportedly linked to Israel. Irene Knight, a Mothers4Gaza member, said they wanted to stand in solidarity with the mothers and children in Palestine. "There's been so much devastation in Palestine. There have been bombings and starvation -- all brought about by the Israeli regime," said Knight. "But there doesn't seem to be an urgency in the world to stop it, and we came here to protest that." Knight urged Western governments to halt funding and arming Israel. "Governments and institutions that have remained silent and complicit need to act. This genocide must end. Israel must be stopped from annihilating Palestine," she said. Greer Blizzard, another Mothers4Gaza member, drew parallels between the situation in Gaza and South Africa's own history, saying that Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank have endured decades of systemic apartheid, and it is time for the world to bring it to an end. Gaza-based health authorities said earlier that a total of 154 people, including 89 children, have died from starvation and malnutrition. The United Nations Children's Fund reported that nearly all of Gaza's 1.2 million children are in need of mental health and psychosocial support, suffering from depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation.
The Sun
9 hours ago
- The Sun
Germany: Aid to Gaza still ‘very insufficient'
BERLIN: The amount of aid entering Gaza remains 'very insufficient' despite a limited improvement, the German government said on Saturday after ministers discussed ways to heighten pressure on Israel. The criticism came after Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul visited the region on Thursday and Friday and the German military staged its first food airdrops into Gaza, where aid agencies say that more than two million Palestinians are facing starvation. Germany 'notes limited initial progress in the delivery of humanitarian aid to the population of the Gaza Strip, which, however, remains very insufficient to alleviate the emergency situation,' government spokesman Stefan Kornelius said in a statement. 'Israel remains obligated to ensure the full delivery of aid,' Kornelius added. Facing mounting international criticism over its military operations in Gaza, Israel has allowed more trucks to cross the border and some foreign nations to carry out airdrops of food and medicines. International agencies say the amount of aid entering Gaza is still dangerously low, however. The United Nations has said that 6,000 trucks are awaiting permission from Israel to enter the occupied Palestinian territory. The German government, traditionally a strong supporter of Israel, also expressed 'concern regarding reports that large quantities of humanitarian aid are being withheld by Hamas and criminal organisations'. Israel has alleged that much of the aid arriving in the territory is being siphoned off by Hamas, which runs Gaza. The Israeli army is accused of having equipped Palestinian criminal networks in its fight against Hamas and of allowing them to plunder aid deliveries. 'The real theft of aid since the beginning of the war has been carried out by criminal gangs, under the watch of Israeli forces,' Jonathan Whittall of OCHA, the United Nations agency for coordinating humanitarian affairs, told reporters in May. A German government source told AFP it had noted that Israel has 'considerably' increased the number of aid trucks allowed into Gaza to about 220 a day. Berlin has taken a tougher line against Israel's actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank in recent weeks. The source said that a German security cabinet meeting on Saturday discussed 'the different options' for putting pressure on Israel, but no decision was taken. A partial suspension of arms deliveries to Israel is one option that has been raised. Hamas militants launched an attack in Israel on October 7, 2023, that resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Israel's military offensive on Gaza since then has killed at least 60,249 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry. The UN considers the ministry's figures reliable. - AFP
Free Malaysia Today
15 hours ago
- Free Malaysia Today
UN reports mounting toll among aid seekers as US envoy due in Gaza
Piles of humanitarian aid packages from GHF wait to be picked in the Gaza Strip. (AP pic) GAZA CITY : Israeli forces have killed hundreds of hungry Palestinians waiting for aid outside US-backed food distribution points, the UN's rights office said Friday, as a special envoy from Washington was due to inspect the sites. The visit by President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff also coincided with a report from global advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) that accused Israeli forces of presiding over 'regular bloodbaths' around the US-backed centres, which have become magnets for criticism since their inception in late May. The UN's rights office in the Palestinian territories said at least 1,373 people had been killed seeking aid in Gaza since May 27 – 105 of them in the past two days. 'Most of these killings were committed by the Israeli military,' the office said, breaking down the death toll into 859 killed near the US-backed food sites and 514 along routes used by UN and aid agency convoys. 'These victims, the majority of whom appear to be young men and boys, are not just numbers,' the office said. 'Each person killed or injured had been desperately struggling for survival, not only for themselves but also for their families and dependants.' Gaza's civil defence agency said 11 people were killed by Israeli fire and air strikes on Friday, including two who were waiting near an aid distribution site run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). GHF largely sidelined the longstanding UN-led humanitarian system just as Israel was beginning to ease a more than two-month aid blockade that exacerbated existing shortages of food and other essentials. 'Beyond imagination' In its report on the GHF centres on Friday, Human Rights Watch accused the Israeli military of illegally using starvation as a weapon of war. 'Israeli forces are not only deliberately starving Palestinian civilians, but they are now gunning them down almost every day as they desperately seek food for their families,' said Belkis Wille, associate crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch. 'US-backed Israeli forces and private contractors have put in place a flawed, militarised aid distribution system that has turned aid distributions into regular bloodbaths.' Responding to the report, the military said GHF worked independently but that Israeli soldiers operated 'in proximity to the new distribution areas in order to enable the orderly delivery of food'. It accused Hamas of trying to prevent food distribution and said that it was conducting a review of the reported deaths, adding it worked to 'minimise, as much as possible, any friction between the civilian population' and its forces. After arriving in Israel on Thursday, Witkoff held talks with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu over how to resolve the almost 22-month-old war, feed desperate civilians and free the remaining hostages held by Palestinian militants. Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas and free the captives but is under international pressure to end the bloodshed that has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians and threatened many more with famine. Following his discussions with Witkoff, Netanyahu met foreign minister Johann Wadephul of Germany, another staunch Israeli ally, who nonetheless delivered a blunt message. 'The humanitarian disaster in Gaza is beyond imagination,' Wadephul told reporters after the meeting, urging the government 'to provide humanitarian and medical aid to prevent mass starvation from becoming a reality'. 'I have the impression that this has been understood today,' he added. Hostage video On Thursday, the armed wing of the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad released a video showing German-Israeli hostage Rom Braslavski, 21, watching recent news footage of the crisis in Gaza and pleading with the Israeli government to secure his release. 'Even the strongest person has a breaking point,' his family said in a statement released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum in Israel. 'Rom is an example of all the hostages. They must all be brought home now.' On Friday, Wadephul also met relatives of hostages still held in the Gaza Strip. According to the German foreign office, among the 49 hostages still held, a 'single-digit' number are German-Israeli dual nationals 'Germany continues to do everything in our power to achieve the release of the hostages,' Wadephul said, expressing outrage at the video release. This 'horrible' footage reveals 'once again the utter depravity of the kidnappers', he said. The Hamas-led Oct 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official figures. Of the 251 people seized, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 declared dead by the Israeli military. The Israeli offensive, nearing its 23rd month, has killed at least 60,249 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry. This week UN aid agencies said deaths from starvation had begun. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP cannot independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defence and other parties.
