Death toll in Gaza rises to 56,647
Over the past 24 hours, Israeli forces killed 112 Palestinians in the enclave, and wounded 463 more.
Since Israel unilaterally ended the ceasefire in March, its forces have killed 6,315 in Gaza and wounded a further 22,064.
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Middle East Eye
19 minutes ago
- Middle East Eye
At least 67 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks, including Indonesian hospital director
At least 67 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since dawn- 11 of whom were killed while waiting for humanitarian aid - Al Jazeera reported on Tuesday, citing hospital sources. The victims include the director of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, Marwan al-Sultan. Al-Sultan was killed along with his wife and children in an Israeli attack on a residential building southwest of Gaza City. Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) said in May that 1,400 healthcare workers had been killed and that that Israel systematicall targets medical staff. A Channel Four documentary tonight called. Gaza Doctors Under Attack, investigates Israeli attacks on hospitals, doctors, and medical staff.
Gulf Today
an hour ago
- Gulf Today
Humanitarian groups seek end to Israeli-backed aid system in Gaza
Over 150 international charities and humanitarian groups called Tuesday for disbanding a controversial Israeli- and US-backed system to distribute aid in Gaza because of chaos and deadly violence against Palestinians seeking food at its sites. The bodies of 116 people killed by Israeli strikes were brought to hospitals in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Tuesday afternoon. The joint statement by groups including Oxfam, Save the Children and Amnesty International came as at least 10 Palestinians were killed while seeking desperately needed food, witnesses and health officials said. Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes killed at least 37 in southern Gaza's Khan Younis, according to Nasser Hospital. "Tents, tents they are hitting with two missiles?' asked Um Seif Abu Leda, whose son was killed in the strikes. Mourners threw flowers on the body bags. In other developments, Israel's defense minister, Israel Katz, warned that his country would respond forcefully to the firing of a missile the military said originated from Yemen. Sirens sounded across parts of Israel, alerting residents to the attack and the launch of two projectiles from Gaza. All were intercepted by Israeli defense systems. Palestinians carry humanitarian aid packages distributed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. AP The missile launch marked the first attack by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels since the end of the 12-day war initiated by Israel with Iran. Katz said Yemen could face the same fate as Tehran. Nasruddin Amer, deputy head of the Houthi media office, vowed on social media that Yemen will not "stop its support for Gaza ... unless the aggression stops and the siege on Gaza is lifted.' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he planned to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump next week in Washington. Trump has signaled that he is ready for Israel and Hamas to wind down the war in Gaza. Speaking to his Cabinet, Netanyahu did not elaborate on plans for the visit, except to say he will discuss a trade deal. Iran is also expected to be a main topic of discussion in Washington after Trump brokered a ceasefire between it and Israel. Mourners carry a body during the funeral of Palestinians, who were killed in an Israeli air strike, in Gaza. Reuters More than 165 major international charities and non-governmental organizations called for an immediate end to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which the U.S. and Israel have backed to take over aid distribution in Gaza from a network led by the United Nations. "Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while trying desperately to reach food to feed their families,' the group said. Their call was the latest sign of trouble for the GHF, a secretive initiative headed by an evangelical leader who is a close ally of Trump. The GHF started distributing aid on May 26, following a nearly three-month Israeli blockade that pushed Gaza's population of more than 2 million to the brink of famine. The GHF has called for Israel's military to investigate allegations from Gaza's Health Ministry that more than 500 Palestinians have been killed at or near its distribution centers over the past month. Last month, the organization said there has been no violence in or around its centers and that its personnel have not opened fire. In a statement Tuesday, the organization said it has delivered more than 52 million meals. "Instead of bickering and throwing insults from the sidelines, we would welcome other humanitarian groups to join us and feed the people in Gaza,' it said. A girl receives treatment for her wounds, sustained in an Israeli strike on a camp housing displaced Palestinians, at Khan Yunis' Nasser hospital in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday. AFP Israel's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The GHF is the linchpin of a new aid system that wrested distribution away from aid groups led by the U.N. The new arrangement limits food distribution to a small number of hubs guarded by armed contractors. Four hubs are set up, all close to Israeli military positions. Palestinians often must travel long distances to them. Israel demanded the alternative plan because it accuses Hamas of siphoning off aid. The U.N. and aid groups deny there is significant diversion. They reject the new mechanism, saying it allows Israel to use food as a weapon, violates humanitarian principles and is not effective. Israel's military said it recently took steps to improve organization in the area. Israel says it only targets fighters and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, accusing the Palestinian group Hamas of hiding among civilians because they operate in populated areas. At least 10 Palestinians were killed in Gaza on Tuesday while seeking aid, hospitals said. Seven of the deaths occurred in Khan Younis. Three others occurred near the Netzarim corridor that separates northern and southern Gaza. Mourners react during the funeral of Palestinians who, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, were killed in an Israeli airstrike earlier in the day, in Deir Al Balah. Reuters Dozens more were wounded, according to the Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp and the Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City, which received the casualties. Thousands of starved Palestinians gather at night to take aid from passing trucks in the area of the Netzarim route. Israel's military late Tuesday warned residents to evacuate an additional area of Khan Younis, pushing them into an increasingly confined zone along the coast. The war in Gaza has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, according to the territory's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says more than half of the dead have been women and children. The war was sparked by the October 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw 251 others taken hostage. Some 50 hostages remain, many of them thought to be dead. Elsewhere, the Palestinian Health Ministry in the occupied West Bank said Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in the territory, including a 15-year-old, in separate events. Israel's military said it was reviewing the shooting of the teen, saying it appeared to happen when people threw rocks toward soldiers. In the other death, military officials said a "suspicious individual' was seen trying to cross into Israel from the southern West Bank, prompting soldiers to open fire. Associated Press
Middle East Eye
10 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Israeli troops executed her father and brother. Then taunted the survivors
Hungry, terrified, and crammed into a small apartment, as intense Israeli bombardment rocked the area around them. This is how Hadeel Saleh and her family of nine spent several days in March 2024 during a violent Israeli raid on Gaza City's al-Shifa hospital and the surrounding neighbourhood. Their ordeal was interrupted by dozens of Israeli soldiers storming the home without warning. Without hesitation, they shot and killed her 60-year-old Palestinian father. When her older brother rushed to help, he too was gunned down. During the raid on the hospital, Israeli forces had put it out of service and then went door to door to neighbouring buildings, killing at will and forcing survivors to flee. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters More than a year after the devastating assault, testimonies continue to emerge. Haunted by the trauma, Saleh has still not been able to return to the home where her father and brother were killed. Standing just outside, she recounted to Middle East Eye what she described as the most nightmarish day of her life. Al-Shifa hospital siege Saleh, 21, said her family had been forced to flee multiple times during the first year of the war, after their home was destroyed in an earlier bombing. Their most recent shelter was an apartment near al-Shifa hospital, located by the Haidar Abdel Shafi roundabout. 'Our situation was extremely difficult. It was our 10th displacement, and it happened during Ramadan,' she told MEE. 'Food was scarce, goods were almost entirely unavailable, and we had to leave all our belongings behind due to repeated displacements and the lack of transportation.' In the early hours of 18 March 2024, the Israeli army launched a major raid on al-Shifa hospital, with intense air strikes and artillery fire targeting the surrounding neighbourhoods. After encircling the area with tanks and military vehicles, Israeli troops stormed buildings near the hospital complex, carrying out field executions and, in less lethal encounters, forcibly expelling residents from their homes. Hadeel Saleh standing in Gaza City near the building where Israeli forces killed her father and bother (MEE/Mohammad al-Hajjar) 'Around 2:30am, we woke up to the sound of intense gunfire nearby, along with missiles, tanks, and heavy warplane activity,' Saleh recalled. 'We were terrified. We tried to find out what was happening, but couldn't. We later learned it was a raid on al-Shifa hospital.' Saleh and her family, like many others in the area, found themselves effectively under siege. For days, they were unable to leave their homes, let alone flee the area. 'Those days were incredibly hard. We couldn't break our fast, couldn't pray, and couldn't even switch on a torch to see in the dark,' she said. 'Soldiers were everywhere, and tanks were constantly moving. There was no way out.' The family remained trapped in hiding for eight tense days before Israeli forces reached the residential building where they had taken shelter. 'Executed at point-blank range' At around 3am on 26 March, just as the family was preparing their suhoor, the pre-dawn meal during Ramadan, they were ambushed by more than 60 Israeli soldiers. 'They blew up the building's entrance with sound bombs and explosives. We were on the ground floor. Then they blasted through our apartment door and stormed in, firing their weapons before even seeing us,' Saleh said. All nine members of the family were huddled silently in a darkened room with the door closed. Another displaced family, mostly women and children, was also sheltering with them. The only adult males present were Hadeel's father, Mohammed Saleh, and her two brothers: Bilal, 28, and Salah, 18. Moments later, the soldiers burst into the room. 'He was immediately executed at point-blank range before he could say a single word' - Hadeel Saleh, Palestinian woman Saleh's father stood to speak, attempting to explain that they were civilians and had children with them. 'He was immediately executed at point-blank range before he could say a single word,' Saleh recalled. 'They shot him in the stomach.' At first, the family hoped the wound was not fatal, as there was no visible blood when he collapsed. Her brothers tried to pull him to safety, but then the soldiers opened fire again. 'They shot Bilal, first in the leg, then in the stomach,' she said. Salah was cornered, beaten, and tortured, as the soldiers appeared to deliberate whether to kill him too. After shooting the two men and preventing anyone from approaching them, the soldiers separated the women from Salah. They then forced him to strip and began searching the apartment. 'He made sure he was dead' During the search of the apartment, one soldier noticed that Bilal was still alive and fired again. 'When he saw him breathing, he executed him with a bullet to the neck, right in front of Salah,' Saleh said. 'He made sure he was dead.' 'I was in a state of utter terror. I was trembling uncontrollably and broke down from the horror of it all. We begged the soldiers to bring a doctor for my father, who had heart disease and diabetes, but no one responded." Survivors recount harrowing Israeli field executions in Gaza Read More » A few minutes later, a soldier returned and informed them that her father had died. 'We burst into tears,' she said. 'The soldier shouted at us, telling us he had killed Bilal as well.' After confirming the two men were dead, the soldiers asked the family who they were. 'That was the clearest evidence,' Saleh said. 'They had executed my father and brother without even knowing who they were - civilians, killed in cold blood.' When Salah told the soldiers the men were his father and older brother, one soldier turned to him and said, with sarcasm: 'Now you're the man of the house.' Salah replied: 'After you killed the man of the house, you say this?' 'They aimed their weapons at him, and had it not been for our repeated pleas for them not to kill him, he would have been executed too,' Saleh said. 'Ramadan Kareem' The surviving members of the family were ordered to leave the house and head south. The women asked to change their clothes before leaving, but the soldiers insisted they do so in front of them. When they refused, they were forced to leave wearing only the prayer garments they had on. 'Before leaving, I asked about the fate of my father and brother's bodies,' Saleh said. 'They laughed at my question and forced me out. 'I was terrified they would burn the building with their bodies inside. I had heard of them doing that in other homes. 'Before we were evacuated, they told us they would blow up the apartment above us. The explosion was horrific. After the blast, they mockingly said, 'Ramadan Kareem',' a greeting commonly meaning "blessed Ramadan" used during the Islamic holy month. 'We were in a miserable state, tears in our eyes, walking through pitch-black streets' - Hadeel Saleh After around two hours of horror, the family was forced to leave the bodies behind and flee. 'At exactly 5:10am, they pushed us out of the house. We were in a miserable state, tears in our eyes, walking through pitch-black streets, barely able to see,' she said. 'They threatened that if we didn't head south, a tank would follow behind us and a drone would hover overhead.' As they walked, they passed corpses scattered along the way, Saleh said. Eventually, they diverted their route and remained in Gaza City. On 1 April, Israeli forces withdrew from their second major raid on al‑Shifa hospital, concluding a two-week operation that left hundreds dead or wounded, caused widespread destruction, and left bodies strewn across the hospital grounds and surrounding areas. A few hours after the withdrawal, on 2 April, the family returned to the house to retrieve and bury the bodies of their loved ones. They have not returned to live there since.
