At least 18 killed in Gaza since dawn
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Dubai Eye
32 minutes ago
- Dubai Eye
Israel sends tanks into Gaza's Deir al-Balah, hostage families concerned
Israeli tanks pushed into southern and eastern districts of the Gazan city of Deir al-Balah for the first time on Monday, an area where Israeli sources said the military believes hostages may be held. The area is packed with Palestinians displaced during more than 21 months of war in Gaza, hundreds of whom fled west or south after Israel issued an evacuation order, saying it sought to destroy infrastructure and capabilities of the militant group Hamas. Tank shelling in the area hit houses and mosques, killing at least three Palestinians and wounding several others, local medics said. To the south in Khan Younis, an Israeli airstrike killed at least five people, including a husband and wife and their two children in a tent, medics said. In its daily update, Gaza's health ministry said at least 130 Palestinians had been killed and more than 1,000 wounded by Israeli gunfire and military strikes across the territory in the past 24 hours, one of the highest such totals in recent weeks. There was no immediate Israeli comment on the Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis incidents. Israeli sources have said the reason the army had stayed out of the Deir al-Balah districts was because they suspected Hamas might be holding hostages there. At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages in captivity in Gaza are believed to be still alive. Families of the hostages have expressed concern for their relatives and demanded an explanation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Israel Katz and the army chief of how they will protect them. "The people of Israel will not forgive anyone who knowingly endangered the hostages - both the living and the deceased. No one will be able to claim they didn't know what was at stake," the Hostage Families Forum Headquarters said in a statement. Gaza health officials have warned of potential "mass deaths" in coming days from hunger, which has killed at least 19 people since Saturday, the Hamas-run territory's health ministry said. Health officials say hospitals have been running out of fuel, food aid and medicine, risking a halt to vital operations. Health ministry spokesperson Khalil Al-Deqran said medical staff have been depending on one meal a day and that hundreds of people flock to hospitals every day, suffering from fatigue and exhaustion. In southern Gaza, the health ministry said an Israeli undercover unit had on Monday detained Marwan Al-Hams, head of Gaza's field hospitals, in a raid that killed a local journalist and wounded another outside a field medical facility run by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). An ICRC spokesperson said it had treated patients injured in the incident but did not comment further on their status. It said it was "very concerned about the safety and security" around the field hospital. Israel has raided and attacked hospitals across Gaza during the war, accusing Hamas of using them for military purposes, an accusation the group denies. Sending undercover forces to carry out arrests is rare. The incursion into Deir al-Balah and growing number of deaths appeared to be complicating efforts to secure a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel in talks mediated by Qatar and Egypt, with US backing. A Hamas official told Reuters on Sunday that the group was angered by the mounting death toll and hunger crisis, and that this could affect the talks on a 60-day truce and hostage deal. UNRWA, the UN refugee agency dedicated to Palestinians, said on X it was receiving desperate messages from Gaza warning of starvation, including from its own staff, as food prices have soared. "Meanwhile, just outside Gaza, stockpiled in warehouses UNRWA has enough food for the entire population for over three months. Lift the siege and let aid in safely and at scale," it said. The health ministry said on Sunday at least 67 people were killed by Israeli fire as they waited for UN aid trucks to enter Gaza. It said at least 36 aid seekers were killed a day earlier. Israel's military said its troops had fired warning shots to remove what it said was "an immediate threat." It said initial findings suggested reported casualty figures were inflated. Israel's military said it "views the transfer of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip as a matter of utmost importance, and works to enable and facilitate its entry in coordination with the international community". The war began when Hamas stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. The Israeli military campaign against Hamas in Gaza has since killed over 59,000 Palestinians, according to health officials, displaced almost the entire population and caused a humanitarian crisis.
Middle East Eye
2 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Gaza extermination: What is your last thought when you're starving to death?
On Sunday alone, at least 18 Palestinians died of hunger in Gaza, as Israel continues to enforce a systematic starvation policy on the territory's two million residents. I have been haunted by the thought: what goes through someone's mind as they take their final breaths because of starvation? Every time I try to distract myself, a notification pops up on my screen with another name, another death by starvation, pulling me back into this relentless loop. What did they think of at the very end? I have an idea of what runs through a person's mind as they are about to be killed in an air strike. Most people in Gaza do. We have had those thoughts so often that they are embedded in our nervous system; they will never fully leave, even decades after this genocide ends. I also understand the type of thoughts that consume people dying due to the lack of medical care. I lived that moment with someone very close to me. I looked into their eyes as they took their final breaths. I could almost hear their thoughts. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters But starvation is different. I picture someone lying on a bed, dying in total silence - a silence so powerful it can kill bones, muscles, flesh and blood. A silence stronger than the 125,000 tonnes of explosives that have been dropped on Gaza over the past 21 months. A silence that keeps borders sealed and food blocked from entry. What do they feel, knowing that they have survived thousands of air strikes, artillery shells, field executions, epidemics and the collapse of the health system, only to die because they could not get the bare minimum calories a human needs to stay alive? Do they feel betrayed by humanity? Recalling a last meal Or do they just think about food, craving it? Do they picture themselves around a large table, surrounded by family, steam rising from hot pots, laughter in the air, the clinking of spoons and forks on glass plates? Does their failing mind try to recall the last meal they had? Does it start tricking them into smelling a favourite dish? Follow Middle East Eye's live coverage of the Israel-Palestine war Perhaps food is the last thing they think of in that moment. Maybe, for the first time in months, they feel full - not in their stomach, but in their soul. Perhaps there is a sense of completion; they can no longer lose parts of themselves, pieces of their dignity, as they queue for a hot meal or run through a hail of bullets among starving crowds near an aid distribution site. Maybe they finally understand it was never worth it; that the world did not deserve their desperate attempts to stay alive and be a part of it. That, for the first time in their lives, they have been set free from occupation, as the nations of the world remain occupied. These are Gaza's taxi stories now, snapshots of an entire population quietly wasting away I have always believed that taxis are a reflection of what is happening in a society. You get in, and you're immediately immersed in conversations about soaring prices, the unbearable heat, and the inevitable political analysis from drivers and passengers, which always outlasts the journey. Back when I still had my car, before the fuel crisis, I used to miss those raw, unfiltered connections. Every now and then, I would leave my car parked and take a taxi, just to experience it again. Last week, on my way to work, I got into a taxi where a young woman was holding a newborn baby. Under the scorching sun and in the suffocating heat, I looked at the infant sleeping on his mother's lap, and said: 'Poor baby, he looks hot.' 'He's just sleepy,' she replied. 'He hasn't slept all night.' I asked why. 'He never gets enough from breastfeeding,' she said. 'I'm taking him to the doctor.' Going to bed hungry She went on to explain that her one-month-old baby was suffering from severe malnutrition. He had previously weighed around 3.8 kilogrammes, but instead of gaining weight, he'd now fallen to 3.3 kg. Her breast milk, she told me, no longer carries enough nutrients - because she herself is malnourished, and she can't find baby formula anywhere. A few weeks earlier, I shared a taxi with a woman and her daughter. The little girl, curious and playful, kept touching my bag and glancing up at me for a reaction. I smiled and played along for a while before turning to her mother and saying: 'God bless her. How old is she?' Gaza is a mirror reflecting the world's absolute shame Read More » 'Five,' the woman replied. I smiled again, then turned to look out the window, thinking: that's not the hand of a five-year-old. Her hand was far too small and thin, even for a three-year-old. I have genuinely lost count of how many mothers I have met on my way to work, heading to hospitals with their children, fragile, sunken-eyed, starving. These are Gaza's taxi stories now, snapshots of an entire population quietly wasting away. But it is not just the taxis. It is the pharmacies with empty shelves, the hospitals with no supplies, the markets without food, and the homes where children go to bed hungry night after night. What happens in Gaza's taxis is just one window into a society being starved in every aspect of life. The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Middle East Eye
2 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Palestinian Ministry of Health condemns Israeli arrest of Gaza hospital director
The Palestinian Ministry of Health has confirmed that Dr Marwan al-Hams, director of the Abu Yousef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah, has been arrested by Israeli Special Forces. The Ministry condemned the arrest as a "cowardly act", and described al-Hams as "one of the most prominent humanitarian and medical voices" in Gaza. Israel has frequently targeted health workers and hospital infrastructure during its ongoing war on Gaza. The arrest follows Israel's killing of prominent Palestinian doctor Marwan al-Sultan in a missile strike on his home on 2 July.
