Hamas agrees partial hostage release in ‘difficult' truce talks
The Islamist group's statement came after four days of indirect talks brokered by Qatar and as the United States
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RNZ News
13 hours ago
- RNZ News
UN reports 798 deaths near Gaza aid hubs in six weeks
By Olivia Le Poidevin , Reuters A Palestinian mourner breaks in tears during the funeral procession of people reportedly killed while waiting for aid delivery, in Gaza City, on 3 July, 2025. Photo: Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP The United Nations rights office said it had recorded at least 798 killings within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and near convoys run by other relief groups. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a UN-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the allegation. After the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian civilians trying to reach the GHF's aid hubs in zones where Israeli forces operate, the United Nations has called its aid model "inherently unsafe" and a violation of humanitarian impartiality standards. "(From 27 May) up until the seventh of July, we've recorded 798 killings, including 615 in the vicinity of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, and 183 presumably on the route of aid convoys," UN rights office (OHCHR) spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told a media briefing in Geneva. The GHF, which began distributing food packages in Gaza in late May after Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade, told Reuters the UN figures were "false and misleading". It denies that deadly incidents have occurred at its sites. "The fact is the most deadly attacks on aid site have been linked to UN convoys," a GHF spokesperson said. "Ultimately, the solution is more aid. If the UN (and) other humanitarian groups would collaborate with us, we could end or significantly reduce these violent incidents." The Israeli army told Reuters in a statement that it was reviewing recent mass casualties and that it had sought to minimise friction between Palestinians and the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) by installing fences and signs and opening additional routes. The OHCHR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights) said it based its figures on sources such as information from hospitals in Gaza, cemeteries, families, Palestinian health authorities, NGOs and its partners on the ground. Most of the injuries to Palestinians in the vicinity of aid distribution hubs recorded by the OHCHR since 27 May were gunshot wounds, Shamdasani said. "We've raised concerns about atrocity crimes having been committed and the risk of further atrocity crimes being committed where people are lining up for essential supplies such as food," she said. After the GHF assertion that the OHCHR figures are false and misleading, Shamdasani said: "It is not helpful to issue blanket dismissals of our concerns - what is needed is investigations into why people are being killed while trying to access aid." Israel has said its forces operate near the relief aid sites to prevent supplies falling into the hands of militants it has been fighting in the Gaza war triggered by the Hamas-led cross-border attack on 7 October, 2023. The GHF said on Friday it had delivered more than 70 million meals to Gaza Palestinians in five weeks, and that other humanitarian groups had "nearly all of their aid looted" by Hamas or criminal gangs. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has previously cited instances of violent pillaging of aid, and the UN World Food Programme said last week that most trucks carrying food assistance into Gaza had been intercepted by "hungry civilian communities". There is an acute shortage of food and other basic supplies 21 months into Israel's military campaign in Gaza, during which much of the enclave has been reduced to rubble and most of its 2.3 million inhabitants displaced. - Reuters
RNZ News
a day ago
- RNZ News
Israeli strike kills children near Gaza clinic with no immediate truce in sight
By Crispian Balmer, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Ali Sawafta , Reuters Children walk through the rubble of a destroyed building in Deir al-Balah following overnight Israeli airstrikes on 7 April 2025. Photo: AFP / Eyad Baba An Israeli airstrike hit Palestinians near a medical centre in Gaza, killing 10 children and six adults, local health authorities say, as ceasefire talks dragged on with no immediate deal expected. Verified video footage from the strike in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip showed the bodies of women and children lying in pools of blood amid dust and screaming. One clip showed several motionless children lying on a donkey cart. "She didn't do anything, she was innocent, I swear. Her dream was for the war to end and that they announce it today, to go back to school," said Samah al-Nouri, sitting by the body of her daughter who was killed in the blast. "She was only getting treatment in a medical facility. Why did they kill them?" she said, with other bodies laid out around her at a nearby hospital. Israel's military said it had struck a militant who took part in the Hamas-led 7 October 2023, attack that triggered the war. It said it was aware of reports regarding a number of injured bystanders and that the incident was under review. US-based Project HOPE said the strike had hit right outside its Altayara health clinic. "Horrified and heartbroken cannot properly communicate how we feel anymore," the aid group said in a statement. The Deir al-Balah missile strike came as Israeli and Hamas negotiators hold talks with mediators in Qatar over a proposed 60-day ceasefire and hostage release deal aimed at building agreement on a lasting truce. A senior Israeli official said on Wednesday that an agreement was not likely to be secured for another one or two weeks, however, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday he was hopeful of a deal. "I think we're closer, and I think perhaps we're closer than we've been in quite a while," Rubio told reporters at the ASEAN summit in Malaysia. Several rounds of indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas have failed to produce a breakthrough since the Israeli military resumed its campaign in March following a previous ceasefire. Repeated attacks by Israeli forces in recent weeks have killed hundreds of Gazans, many of them civilians, and injured thousands, according to local health authorities, putting an enormous strain on the enclave's few remaining hospitals. Dwindling fuel supplies risk further disruption in the semi-functioning hospitals, including to incubators at the neonatal unit of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, doctors there said. "We are forced to place four, five or sometimes three premature babies in one incubator," said Dr Mohammed Abu Selmia, the hospital director, adding that premature babies were now in a critical condition. An Israeli military official said that fuel destined for hospitals and other humanitarian facilities was let into the enclave on Wednesday and on Thursday. However, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said that far more fuel was needed to keep essential life-saving and life-sustaining services operating. US President Donald Trump met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week to discuss the situation in Gaza amid reports that Israel and Hamas were nearing agreement on a US-brokered ceasefire proposal after 21 months of war. Netanyahu said that if the two sides reach agreements on the US 60-day truce plan, Israel will begin negotiations on a permanent ceasefire. In a statement from Washington, he reiterated Israel's terms for ending the war, including Hamas disarming and no longer ruling Gaza. Hamas has rejected calls to lay down its weapons. "If this can be achieved through negotiations - that's good. If it's not achieved through 60-day negotiations then we will achieve it by other means, by use of force," Netanyahu said. A Palestinian official said the talks in Qatar were in crisis and that issues under dispute, including whether Israel would continue to occupy parts of Gaza after a ceasefire, had yet to be resolved. The two sides previously agreed a ceasefire in January but it did not lead to a deal on ending the war and Israel resumed its military assault two months later, stopping all aid supplies into Gaza for 11 weeks and telling civilians to leave the north of the tiny territory. Israel's military campaign in Gaza has now killed more than 57,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities. It has destroyed swathes of the territory and driven most Gazans from their homes. The Hamas attack on Israeli border communities that triggered the war in 2023 killed around 1200 people and the militant group seized 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. At least 20 are believed to still be alive. There has also been repeated violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. An Israeli man was killed at a shopping centre in the territory on Thursday by two Palestinian militants, who were then shot dead, police said. In a separate incident, a Palestinian man was shot dead after he stabbed and injured a soldier, the army said. -Reuters
NZ Herald
2 days ago
- NZ Herald
Hamas agrees partial hostage release in ‘difficult' truce talks
Hamas has said it will release 10 hostages as part of Gaza ceasefire talks after Israel struck an upbeat note about the prospects for a deal to stop the fighting. The Islamist group's statement came after four days of indirect talks brokered by Qatar and as the United States
