Video. Crowds risk death for food in Gaza as famine warnings intensify
Witnesses say that at least 48 people were killed on Wednesday as people crowded around aid trucks entering through the Zikim crossing. Israel has eased some restrictions, but chaos and violence continue to hamper deliveries.
Meanwhile, Israeli right-wing activists rallied near the Gaza border, calling for the construction of settlements inside the territory.
More than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
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Euronews
9 minutes ago
- Euronews
Ben-Gvir violates decades-old pact as he prays at al-Aqsa compound
Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited and prayed at Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site on Sunday, the al-Aqsa compound, triggering a wave of regional condemnation and sparking fears of further escalations in tensions. The provocative move came as Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip continue, with at least 33 Palestinians killed on Sunday enroute to aid distribution points, as global criticisms mount over Israel manufacturing famine-like conditions in the besieged enclave. Ben-Gvir's visit to the hillside compound threatens to further setback efforts by international mediators, such as Qatar and Egypt, to bring an end to Israel's almost two-year military offensive on Gaza. The area, which Jews call the 'Temple Mount', is the holiest site in Judaism and is believed to be home to the ancient biblical temples. Muslims however call the site the 'Noble Sanctuary', which today is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third-holiest site. Visits to the site, the first Islamic Qibla – the direction Muslims across the world pray towards, by Israeli officials are considered a provocation across the Arab and Muslim world. Openly praying on the premises violates a longstanding status quo. Jews have been allowed to visit and tour the holy compound, but are barred from praying there, with Israeli troops and police meant to ensure that as they protect the premises. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office says Israel would not change the norms governing the site following Ben-Gvir's visit. The far-right minister visited the site following Hamas' release of videos showing an Israeli hostage in Gaza appearing thin and weak. The video sparked an uproar in Israel and piled pressure on Netanyahu's government to strike a deal to bring back the remaining hostages. Some 50 hostages are still under Hamas captivity in Gaza, 20 of which are still believed to be alive. They were taken after Hamas staged an attack on southern Israel on 7 October, 2023, killing 1,200 people. Israel's mission to the UN said it requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on the hostages, which will take place Tuesday. 'They do not want a deal,' Netanyahu said of Hamas. 'They want to break us using these videos of horror.' His office said it spoke with the Red Cross to seek help in providing the hostages with food and medical care. The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was 'appalled by the harrowing videos' and called for access to the hostages. Hamas' military wing said it was ready to respond positively to Red Cross requests to deliver food to hostages, if humanitarian corridors are opened in a 'regular and permanent manner' in Gaza. Ben-Gvir called for Israel to formally annex the Gaza Strip and renewed his desire to a Palestinian expulsion from the territory, with it reviving rhetoric that has complicated hostage deal and ceasefire negotiations. He said the video showing 24-year-old Evyatar David in a dimly lit tunnel is an attempt to pressure Israel and increase global criticism against it to strike a deal, which he opposed, instead endorsing further attacks on Gaza. His visit was condemned as an incitement by Palestinian leaders, as well as Jordan – custodians of the al-Aqsa Mosque, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Houthi rebels in Yemen fired three drones at Israel shortly after, which Israel said were intercepted. Ben-Gvir's previous visits to the holy site caused an eruption in violence in and around the site, fuelling an 11-day war with Hamas in 2021. Violence continues around Gaza food distribution points Health officials in Gaza say Israeli forces killed 33 Palestinians on Sunday enroute to aid distribution hubs on Sunday. Eyewitnesses say Israeli forces opened fire as hungry crowds surged towards the aid sites. Witness Yousef Abed described coming under indiscriminate fire and seeing at least three people bleeding on the ground. 'I couldn't stop and help them because of the bullets,' he said. Two hospitals in southern and central Gaza said they received bodies from routes leading to the Israeli-backed US company, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's (GHF) aid sites, including 11 killed in the Teina area while trying to reach the hub in Khan Younis. Three Palestinian eyewitnesses, including one traveling through Teina, said they saw soldiers open fire on the routes, which are in military zones. Israel's military said it was not aware of casualties as a result of its gunfire near aid sites. GHF's media office said there was no gunfire 'near or at our sites.' The United Nations says 859 people were killed near GHF sites from 27 May to 31 July and hundreds of others have been killed along the routes of UN-led food convoys. GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray or fired warning shots to prevent deadly crowding. The IDF said it only fires warning shots. Both claim the death tolls have been exaggerated. Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry says 93 children and 82 adults have died so far from malnutrition-related causes. The UN says 500-600 aid trucks are needed daily to satisfy the needs of Gaza's two million population, only a fraction of that enters the enclave in what it described as a man-made humanitarian catastrophe. Malnutrition-related deaths are not included in the ministry's war casualty count. The ministry says the death toll from Israeli attacks across Gaza is now nearing 61,000. Their figures do not distinguish between civilian and combatant casualties, but the UN says deaths it has been able to verify indicate that more than two-thirds were women and children.
LeMonde
8 hours ago
- LeMonde
Netanyahu asks ICRC for help after 'profound shock' of Gaza hostage videos
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested the help of the International Committee of the Red Cross on Sunday, August 3, to aid hostages in Gaza, as outrage built at videos showing two of them emaciated. The prime minister's office said he spoke to the ICRC coordinator for the region, Julien Lerisson, and "requested his involvement in providing food to our hostages and (...) immediate medical treatment." The ICRC said in a statement it was "appalled by the harrowing videos" and reiterated its "call to be granted access to the hostages." In response, Hamas's armed wing said that it would allow the agency access to the hostages but only if "humanitarian corridors" for food and aid were opened "across all areas of the Gaza Strip." The al-Qassam Brigades said it did "not intentionally starve" the hostages, but they would not receive any special food privileges "amid the crime of starvation and siege" in Gaza. Over recent days, Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad have released three videos showing two hostages seized during the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the ongoing war. The images of Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David, both of whom appeared weak and malnourished, have fuelled renewed calls in Israel for a truce and hostage release deal. A statement from Netanyahu's office on Saturday said he had spoken with the families of the two hostages and "expressed profound shock over the materials distributed by the terror organisations." Netanyahu "told the families that the efforts to return all our hostages are ongoing," the statement added. Earlier in the day, tens of thousands of people had rallied in the coastal hub of Tel Aviv to call on Netanyahu's government to secure the release of the remaining captives. There was particular outrage in Israel over images of David, who appeared to be digging what he said in the staged video was his own grave. The videos make references to the dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza, where UN-mandated experts have warned a "famine is unfolding." EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the images "are appalling and expose the barbarity of Hamas," calling for the release of "all hostages (...) immediately and unconditionally". 'Hamas must disarm' Kallas said in the same post on X that "Hamas must disarm and end its rule in Gaza" − demands endorsed earlier this week by Arab countries, including key mediators Qatar and Egypt. She added that "large-scale humanitarian aid must be allowed to reach those in need." Israel has heavily restricted the entry of aid into Gaza, while UN agencies, humanitarian groups and analysts say that much of what Israel does allow in is looted or diverted in chaotic circumstances. Many desperate Palestinians are left to risk their lives seeking what aid is distributed through controlled channels. On Sunday, Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli fire killed nine Palestinians who were waiting to collect food rations from a site operated by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) near the southern city of Rafah. Five more people were killed near a different GHF aid site in central Gaza on Sunday, while Israeli attacks elsewhere killed another five people, said civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal. 'Provocation' In Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir conducted a Jewish prayer at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam's third-holiest site, and called for the annexation of Gaza. The site is also revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, though they are barred from praying there under a long-standing convention. This was the first time a government minister openly prayed inside the compound, Israeli media reported. In a statement filmed at the compound, Ben Gvir said that "the response to Hamas's horror videos" should include annexing Gaza and the "voluntary emigration" of its population.
LeMonde
13 hours ago
- LeMonde
Why air-dropping aid will never stop famine in Gaza
Dropping aid into a conflict zone by parachute is the least effective method of distributing humanitarian assistance. That was the categorical conclusion the US military reached after carrying out a massive air drop campaign using large cargo planes, in northern Iraq in the spring of 1991. At the time, hundreds of thousands of Kurds had fled into the mountains along the Iraq-Turkey border to escape repression by Saddam Hussein's regime. The United States, the United Kingdom and France imposed a no-fly zone for Iraqi aircraft in the country's far north. Yet the air drops caused many casualties among the refugees, with people being killed by falling crates, violent fights breaking out over aid and some supplies mistakenly landing in minefields. Soldiers on the ground protested against the operation, considering it to be more about media coverage than effectiveness, and they ultimately secured authorisation to use helicopters to deliver the aid. This allowed for actual aid distributions to be conducted, rather than just dropping supplies – but even that was only an interim solution before convoys of trucks finally provided humanitarian relief worthy of the name. 'Flour massacre' The failure that air dropping aid in northern Iraq represented was so devastating that such methods were ruled out for large-scale use for more than three decades. Only Israel's determination to use humanitarian aid as leverage over the population of Gaza, a violation of fundamental humanitarian law, has brought the last-resort option of air drops back as a possibility. In February 2024, four months of unprecedented Israeli bombardment followed by an exceptionally violent ground offensive triggered a horrifying food shortage in Gaza City and the Palestinian enclave's north, which had been cut off from the rest of the Gaza Strip. There, a 25-kilogram sack of flour would sell for $1,000, and this led to the tragedy known as the "flour massacre" on February 29, 2024: 118 people died, killed by the Israeli army, crushed by tanks or trampled in the panic of an aid distribution operation that had turned into a nightmare.
