'At least 59 killed' after Israeli military opens fire near Gaza aid centre and carries out strikes
The Red Cross, which operates a field hospital in Rafah, said 25 people were "declared dead upon arrival" and "six more died after admittance" following gunfire near an aid distribution centre in the southern Gazan city.
The humanitarian organisation added that it also received 132 patients "suffering from weapon-related injuries" after the incident.
The Red Cross said: "The overwhelming majority of these patients sustained gunshot wounds, and all responsive individuals reported they were attempting to access food distribution sites."
The organisation said the number of deaths marks the hospital's "largest influx of fatalities" since it began operations in May last year.
The IDF has said it fired "warning shots" near the aid distribution site but it was "not aware of injured individuals" as a result.
It said in a statement: "Earlier today, several suspects were identified approaching IDF troops operating in the Rafah area, posing a threat to the troops, hundreds of metres from the aid distribution site.
"IDF troops operated in order to prevent the suspects from approaching them and fired warning shots."
Mother's despair over shooting
Somia Alshaar told Sky News her 17-year-old son Nasir was shot dead while visiting the aid centre after she told him not to go.
She said: "He went to get us tahini so we could eat.
"He went to get flour. He told me 'mama, we don't have tahini. Today I'll bring you flour. Even if it kills me, I will get you flour'.
"He left the house and didn't return. They told me at the hospital: your son...'Oh God, oh Lord'."
Asked where her son was shot, she replied: "In the chest. Yes, in the chest."
'A policy of mass murder'
Hassan Omran, a paramedic with Gaza's ministry of health, told Sky News after the incident that humanitarian aid centres in Gaza are now "centres of mass death".
Speaking in Khan Younis, he said: "Today, there were more than 150 injuries and more than 20 martyrs at the aid distribution centres... the Israeli occupation deliberately kills and commits genocide. The Israeli occupation is carrying out a policy of mass murder.
"They call people to come get their daily food, and then, when citizens arrive at these centres, they are killed in cold blood.
"All the victims have gunshot wounds to the head and chest, meaning the enemy is committing these crimes deliberately."
Israel has rejected genocide accusations and denies targeting civilians.
'Lies being peddled'
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the controversial US and Israeli-backed group which operates the distribution centre near Rafah, said: "Hamas is claiming there was violence at our aid distribution sites today. False.
"Once again, there were no incidents at or in the immediate vicinity of our sites.
"But that's not stopping some from spreading the lies being peddled by 'officials' at the Hamas-controlled Nasser Hospital."
The Red Cross said its field hospital in Rafah has recorded more than 250 fatalities and treated more than 3,400 "weapon-wounded patients" since new food distribution sites were set up in Gaza on 27 May.
It comes after four children and two women were among at least 13 people who died in Deir al Balah, in central Gaza, after Israeli strikes pounded the area starting late on Friday, officials in Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the territory said.
Fifteen others died in Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, according to Nasser Hospital.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not responded to a request for comment on the reported deaths.
Israeli has been carrying out attacks in Gaza since Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages on 7 October 2023.
Hamas still holds 50 hostages, with fewer than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel's offensive in Gaza has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
US President Donald Trump has said he is closing in on another ceasefire agreement that would see more hostages released and potentially wind down the war.
But after two days of talks this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there were no signs of a breakthrough.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Telegraph
How Gaza's aid crisis broke Hamas and starved the Strip
When Israel launched its controversial US-backed aid plan for Gaza, it aimed to stop Hamas's alleged profiteering from the seizure and sale of humanitarian supplies. The aid delivery plan overseen by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has proved a blood-soaked catastrophe. The Gazan health authorities report that hundreds of people have been killed by gunfire as they queue for food at the GHF aid points controlled by Israeli troops and American contractors. It has also caused Hamas's worst financial crisis in decades, Israeli officials report. The terror group has been unable to pay its fighters or repair its network of tunnels and hideouts beneath the Strip. Cash shortages have also left Hamas reportedly unable to pay salaries for police or ministry employees. Money reserves amassed before, or during the early stages of, the war have run short, while Israeli strikes have devastated the leadership and fractured its grip on the besieged territory. Hamas for years received large sums from Iran, Qatar and others, and was also able to tax cross-border commerce. Israel has long alleged that Hamas also made money by seizing and selling international aid entering Gaza, though this has been denied by the United Nations and aid agencies. That income ended, officials say, when Israel imposed a blockade in March, and then began using the GHF, set up jointly by the US and Israel, to run aid hubs and bypass UN-run distributions. The UN, the European Commission and major international aid organisations have said they have no evidence that Hamas has systematically stolen their aid. The Israeli government has not provided proof. Twenty-eight countries including Britain, this week condemned the new aid arrangements, amid widespread reports of starvation, and hundreds of people being shot as they tried to get food. The countries' joint statement described as 'horrifying' the recent deaths of over 800 Palestinians who were seeking aid, according to the figures released by Gaza's Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas, and the UN human rights office. 'The Israeli government's aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity,' the countries said. 'The Israeli government's denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable.' Palestinian health officials have said at least 101 people have died of hunger during the conflict, most of them in recent weeks. Food that does arrive in the coastal Strip is often sold and resold at extortionate prices, said Rabiha Abdel Aziz, a 75-year-old mother of nine living in a displacement camp in western Gaza. 'I don't know how people can eat,' she told The Telegraph, explaining that the family can no longer even afford a kilo of flour, which currently costs £26. She said: 'My grandchildren wake up in the morning and ask me for a piece of bread that we don't will we get the money to buy food at this price? We are dying of hunger and bombing.' 'People collapse in the streets' Salem Jehad, a father of four who is living in a camp west of Gaza city, said he was unable to find milk for his newborn son. He said: 'All my children have lost half their weight, and I am the same. Most people don't have money. 'Two years without work during the war, with the crossings closed and aid entering scarcely, people are collapsing in the streets from weakness and hunger. We drink water with salt to satisfy our hunger.' Mr Jehad said access to food had dramatically worsened since GHF took over the distribution and he wanted a return to the previous UN-run model. The UN said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid in Gaza since the GHF began operations in May. Aid distributions have been marred by chaotic scenes and frequent reports of Israeli forces firing on people waiting to collect rations. Israel's military has disputed previous death tolls, but has said its troops have at times fired warning shots, and it is investigating accusations of civilian deaths. Mr Jehad said: 'Now we are running into death traps. Gazans are dying to bring a kilo of flour and rice. Hamas's mistake over 'strategy of suffering' Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, who leads the Realign for Palestine lobby group, said that Hamas had counted on the humanitarian crisis to bring the war to an end. He told the Post: 'Hamas's strategy relied on the suffering of Gazans. 'But when this strategy failed, it foolishly doubled down on this approach, in large part because it had nothing else in its toolbox to deal with Israel's ferocious reaction to Oct 7 and the world's inability to stop it.' Lior Akerman, the head of national resilience at the Institute for Policy and Strategy (IPS) at Reichman University, and a former chief of staff in Shin Bet, Israel's MI5, said Hamas had 'almost completely disintegrated in the Gaza Strip'. He said: 'All the senior commanders were killed and all the frameworks of the fighting disintegrated. 'Today, in the absence of commanders, Hamas members in the Gaza Strip are operating like independent, armed militias. 'In every area, the terrorists continue to do the best they can with the weapons they possess, and they are effectively waging a guerrilla war against the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). 'This type of fighting could last for years and wear down the IDF in a never-ending war.' Truce negotiations held up Israel and Hamas are holding indirect talks in Doha aimed at reaching a 60-day truce and a hostage release deal. But there has been no sign of a deal yet, and discussions have reportedly been held up by Hamas's negotiators in Doha being unable to reach representatives in Gaza since late last week. Ronen Solomon, an Israeli intelligence analyst, said as Hamas had been degraded in Gaza, the group's centre of gravity had shifted to abroad. He said that with only Izz ad-Din al-Haddad, commander of the Gaza City Brigade, remaining as a senior figure in Gaza, 'a dramatic change has occurred'. 'The centre of gravity shifted from the Strip to Hamas abroad,' he said. 'And in particular to Khalil al-Khayya, who was very much involved in the planning of Oct 7 and continues to lead an extremist line from the Hamas base in Qatar.'
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
'They shot patients in beds' – BBC hears claims of massacre at Suweida hospital
Syrian government forces have been accused of carrying out a massacre at a hospital during sectarian clashes which erupted just over a week ago. The BBC has visited Suweida's National Hospital where staff claim patients were killed inside This story contains descriptions of violence The stench hit me before anything the car park of the main hospital in Suweida City, dozens of decomposing corpses are lined up in white plastic body are open to the elements, revealing bloated and mutilated remains of those who were killed tarmac beneath my feet is greasy and slippery with blood. In the sweltering sun, the smell is overwhelming."It was a massacre," Dr Wissam Massoud, a Neurosurgeon at the hospital tells me."The soldiers came here saying they wanted to bring peace, but they killed scores of patients from the very young to the very old."Earlier this week, Dr Massoud sent me a video which he said was in the immediate aftermath of the government it, a woman shows you around the hospital. On the ground in the wards are dozens of dead patients still bundled up in their bloodied bed sheets. Everyone here, doctors, nurses, volunteers say the same last Wednesday evening, it was Syrian government troops targeting the Druze community who came to the hospital and carried out the Abu Motab, a volunteer at the hospital, said of the victims: "What is their crime? Just for being a minority in a democratic country?""They are criminals. They are monsters. We don't trust them at all," Osama Malak an English teacher in the city told me outside the hospital gates."They shot an eight-year-old disabled boy in the head," he said."According to international law, hospitals should be protected. But they attacked us even in the hospitals."They entered the hospital. They started shooting everybody. They shot the patients in their beds as they slept."All sides in this conflict have been accusing each other of committing Bedouin and Druze fighters as well as the Syrian Army have been accused killing civilians and extra judicial killings. There is not yet a clear picture of what happened at the hospital. Some here estimate the number of people to be killed last Wednesday at more than 300 but that figure cannot be Tuesday night the Syrian defence ministry said in a statement it was aware of reports of "shocking violations" by people wearing military fatigues in the country's predominantly Druze city this week Raed Saleh, the Syrian Minister for Disaster Management and Emergency Response, told me that any allegations of atrocities committed by all sides would be fully investigated. Who are the Druze and why did Israel attack Syria?Bedouins tell BBC they could return to fighting Druze in SyriaBBC sees fragile ceasefire holding in Syria's battle-scarred Suweida province Access to Suweida City has been heavily restricted meaning gathering first hand evidence has been city is in effect under siege with Syrian government forces restricting who is allowed in and get in we had to pass through numerous we entered the city, we passed burned out shops and buildings, cars that had been crushed my City had clearly seen a serious battle between Druze fighters and Bedouin was at that point that the Syrian government first intervened to try and enforce a ceasefire. Although numerous Druze villages in Suweida province have been recaptured by government forces, Suweida City, home to more than 70,000 people, remains under full Druze we left the hospital, we found eight-year-old Hala Al Khatib sitting on a bench with her face is bloodied and bandaged. She appears to have lost an tells us that gunmen came and shot her in the head at she was hiding in a cupboard in her doesn't know it, but both Hala's parents are dead.
BBC News
3 hours ago
- BBC News
Gaza health ministry says 33 people died from malnutrition in 48 hours
At least 33 Palestinians, including 12 children, have died as a result of malnutrition across the Gaza Strip in the past 48 hours, the Hamas-run health ministry has deaths of 11 adults and four children were reported over the past day, a spokesman told the came as UN Secretary General António Guterres told the UN Security Council that "malnutrition is soaring" and "starvation is knocking on every door" in 2.1 million population is facing grave shortages of basic supplies, he said, and Israel has an obligation to facilitate humanitarian assistance by the UN and its partners. Israel, which controls Gaza's crossings, has insisted that it acts in accordance with international law and facilitates the entry of aid while ensuring it does not reach journalists, including the BBC, are blocked by Israel from entering Gaza independently, so it is difficult to verify the number of reported malnutrition footage filmed by a local Palestinian journalist working for the BBC at al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah showed the emaciated body of a man called Ahmed al-Hasanat, who doctors said had died from malnutrition on Tuesday. Health officials said a 13-year-old boy, Abdul Hamid al-Ghalban, also died in the southern city of Khan Younis. Photos from AFP and Anadolu news agencies showed the teenager's small body being prepared for burial at Nasser hospital and then carried in a white media meanwhile posted a video showing the body of a six-week-old boy, Yousef al-Safadi, who health officials said died at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City due to US-based medical humanitarian group MedGlobal also said in a statement that its nutritional teams in Gaza had witnessed five severely malnourished children, aged between three months and four years old, die within the past three days."This is a deliberate and human-made disaster," MedGlobal's executive director, Joseph Belliveau, said. "Those children died because there is not enough food in Gaza and not enough medicines, including IV fluids and therapeutic formula, to revive them."MedGlobal said that since the beginning of July, cases of acutely malnourished, mainly children, had nearly tripled at its facilities, indicating a widespread food UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) also said that it was receiving "SOS" messages from its staff in Gaza, saying they were desperately short of food. Some Unrwa doctors and aid workers had reportedly been fainting while working, due to hunger and exhaustion, it this week, the World Food Programme (WFP) reported that malnutrition was surging, with 90,000 women and children in urgent need of treatment, and that nearly one person in three was not eating for noted that food aid was the only way for most people to access any food because prices in local markets had skyrocketed. It said a 1kg (2.2lb) bag of flour now cost over $100 (£74).The WFP called for a "massive scale-up in food aid distribution" and said it had food supplies nearby and teams on the ground ready to UN says a minimum of 600 aid lorries a day need to enter Gaza. However, the UN Organisation for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said it was only permitted to bring in 1,600 lorries of aid between May and July - an average of around 27 per Israeli foreign ministry said on Sunday that it had allowed 4,400 lorry loads of aid to enter Gaza over the past two months, and that 700 loads were waiting to be picked up by UN agencies from crossing UN has said that it struggles to pick up and distribute supplies because of the ongoing hostilities, Israeli restrictions on humanitarian movements, and fuel shortages. 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 armed group to release its remaining Israeli the blockade was partially eased in late May, amid warnings of a looming famine from global experts, the shortages of food, medicine and fuel have grown have also been almost daily reports of Palestinians being killed while seeking aid since Israel and the US helped to establish a new aid system to bypass the existing one overseen by the new system, run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), started at the end of May, and uses US private security contractors to hand out food parcels from sites inside Israeli military says the system prevents supplies from being stolen by the UN and its partners have refused to co-operate with the GHF, saying it is unsafe and violates the humanitarian principles of impartiality, neutrality, and Tuesday, the UN human rights office said that it had recorded the killing of 766 people by the Israeli military in the vicinity of the GHF's aid sites since they began operating eight weeks ago. Another 288 killings had been recorded along routes of UN and other aid convoys."We are seeing the last gasp of a humanitarian system built on humanitarian principles," António Guterres told the UN Security Council. "This system is being denied the conditions to function, denied the space to deliver, denied the safety to save lives."He also said that the Israeli military's intensifying operations and evacuation orders in Deir al-Balah meant "devastation is being layered upon devastation".On Monday night, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the Israeli ground operation in Deir al-Balah had compromised its efforts to continue working, after its staff residence and main warehouse came under Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. At least 59,106 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry.
