Heartbreaking images as Gaza families mourn people killed queuing for aid
A distraught woman is pictured hugging a dead body while other images vividly show the pain and grief on the faces of children after Israeli attacks on people in Gaza seeking aid.
Gaza saw its deadliest day yet for aid-seekers in over 21 months of war as at least 85 Palestinians were killed while trying to reach food last Sunday, the territory's Health Ministry said. The largest death toll was in devastated northern Gaza, where living conditions are especially dire. There were 79 Palestinians killed while trying to reach aid entering through the Zikim crossing with Israel, Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Health Ministry's records department.
And stark images now show relatives with the grief written across their faces after the bodies of people killed in the Zikim area have been brought to al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza city today.
A crying woman lying down had her arms around a body that had been laid out on the floor. She pressed her head against theirs with the victim wrapped up in cloth.
Another photo showed a boy in tears while he crushed down amidst rubble and had his hand to his head. A woman sitting next to him had an expression of simple disbelief as she held her hands out.
And a woman in a crowd was being held back as she cried and tried to reach forward, while the looks of helplessness and suffering was summed up by a sobbing child holding onto a railing and being held by a woman.
The UN World Food Programme said 25 trucks with aid had entered for 'starving communities' when it encountered massive crowds last Sunday in Zikim.
A UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to comment on the incident to the media, said Israeli forces opened fire toward crowds who tried to take food from the convoy and people were seen running as automatic gunfire was heard.
'Suddenly, tanks surrounded us and trapped us as gunshots and strikes rained down. We were trapped for around two hours,' said Ehab Al-Zei, who had been waiting for flour and said he hadn't eaten bread in 15 days. He spoke over the din of people carrying the dead and wounded. 'I will never go back again. Let us die of hunger, it's better.'
Nafiz Al-Najjar, who was injured, said tanks and drones targeted people 'randomly' and he saw his cousin and others shot dead.
Israel's military said soldiers shot at a gathering of thousands of Palestinians in northern Gaza who posed a threat, and it was aware of some casualties. But it said the numbers reported by officials in Gaza were far higher than its initial investigation found. It accused Hamas militants of creating chaos. More than 150 people were wounded, some in critical condition, hospitals said.
Meanwhile, Al-Waheidi said Israeli gunfire killed another six Palestinians in the Shakoush area, hundreds of yards north of a hub of the recently created Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US- and Israel-backed group, in the southern city of Rafah. The GHF said it was not aware of any incident near its site. Witnesses and health workers say several hundred people have been killed by Israeli fire while trying to access the group's aid distribution sites.
The UN and experts say that Palestinians in Gaza are at risk of famine, with reports of increasing numbers of people dying from causes related to malnutrition as the conflict in Gaza continues. It began when Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the October 7 attack and abducted 251 hostages.
A further 25 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes and gunshots overnight, according to health officials and the ambulance service on Saturday, as ceasefire talks appear to have stalled and Palestinians in Gaza face famine.
The majority of victims were killed by gunfire as they waited for aid trucks close to the Zikim crossing with Israel, said staff at Shifa hospital, where the bodies were brought.
Israel's army didn't respond to request for comments about the latest shootings. Those killed in strikes include four people in an apartment building in Gaza City among others, hospital staff and the ambulance service said. On Thursday Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said at least 59,586 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's war on the Gaza Strip since October 2023.
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Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
A PATTERN OF DEADLY ATTACKS ON GAZA FAMILIES By Ben van der Merwe, Michelle Inez Simon, Kaitlin Tosh and Sophia Massam
This is Ahmed Al-Hatta. He was killed by an Israeli strike on his family home on 18 March. The strike took place at around 3am - when he was with his wife and their six children . All of them were killed. The youngest, twin girls Banan and Janan, were just six years old. Many more families were killed in their homes that night, by far the deadliest since late 2023. By sunrise, the Al-Hattas were among at least 242 people killed. By the end of the day, the total would stand at 465. Since then, over 8,500 people have been killed. That has brought the total number of fatalities during the conflict to over 60,000. Data shared exclusively with Sky News by Gaza's health ministry allows us, for the first time, to show the date of every death since the war began. Click to read how Sky News verified the data. Across almost two years of war, 17 days stand out as the deadliest – those when more than 450 people died. Women and children made up a much higher share of deaths on these days than on others. Looking further into the data, we found out why – a pattern of strikes on family homes. Click to read how Sky identified families in the data Almost half of all people killed on these days (44%) died alongside a family member, compared with less than a third (30%) on other days. Strikes on families reached their peak on 18 March, accounting for almost two-thirds of all deaths. The Israeli military said it was targeting Hamas, but most of those killed were women and children. Mourners pray next to the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, at Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the central Gaza Strip on 18 March. Pic: Reuters/Ramadan Abed In order to understand how those strikes led to so many civilian casualties, Sky News analysed all 465 deaths recorded that day by Gaza's health ministry. Out of 112 strikes verified by Sky News, just 16 killed known or suspected Hamas officials and militants. On average, nine family members were killed alongside them. The 11 deadliest strikes on that day, those which killed 10 or more people, all took place before dawn – when families were most likely to be at home and sleeping. These 11 strikes killed six Hamas militants, along with 207 of their neighbours and family members "It's reasonable to expect when people go home at night they... will be surrounded by family members," says Brian Finucane, who spent a decade advising the US State Department on conflict law. In April 2024, Israeli outlets +972 and Local Call reported, based on conversations with six anonymous Israeli intelligence officers, that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was routinely targeting suspected militants in their homes at night. The officers reportedly said that this was "because, from what they regarded as an intelligence standpoint, it was easier to locate the individuals in their private houses". "It seems clearly an excessive use of force and not proportional." Dr Craig Jones, a senior lecturer at Newcastle University and an expert in conflict law, has been interviewing survivors of such attacks, which he terms "familicide". He says Israel has previously demonstrated the ability to wait until targets have left their family home before striking. "They're also showing now a capacity to wait, but... [they're now] waiting for the operative to go into a place where civilians are living," he says. "It seems clearly an excessive use of force and not proportional." In response to Sky's findings, an IDF spokesperson said its directives instruct commanders to apply the basic rules of the law of armed conflict, "particularly distinction, proportionality, and precautions". "Exceptional incidents are subject to lessons-learned processes and are thoroughly examined and addressed by the appropriate enforcement mechanisms," they added. "The IDF remains committed to the rule of law and will continue to operate in accordance with [the law of armed conflict]." Hamas did not respond to a request for comment. Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a residential building in Jabalia in northern Gaza on 18 March. Pic: Reuters/Mahmoud Issa How the attacks on 18 March unfolded At around 8pm on the evening of 17 March, Palestinians started to notice flares in the skies over Gaza City. It was two months since a fragile ceasefire had been agreed, and negotiations over a second phase were about to collapse. Shortly after midnight, the bombing began. Using satellite imagery and more than 30 geolocated videos from social media, Sky's Data and Forensics Unit has mapped the violence that unfolded that night. The first airstrike, in North Gaza, was reported at 12.46am. Within minutes, there were reports of explosions across Gaza. Residents captured footage of the strikes as they landed through the night, like this video from Gaza City. Rescue workers immediately began searching the rubble for the dead and wounded. This video was posted at 2.53am. As the sun rose, bombs continued to fall on family homes. That included the home of Abdulqader and Wafa al Salihi, who lived with their one-year-old son Nasser in a block of flats in central Gaza. All three were killed in a strike on their building, along with Wafa's eight-year-old nephew. Sky News found no evidence that either parent had any ties to Hamas. Elsewhere, Palestinians surveyed the damage from the night before. The strike on this house killed Mohammed al Madi and his two adult daughters. One of the deadliest strikes on a family home that night, and among the deadliest of the entire war, happened here in eastern Rafah. The strike, which took place at around 1am, hit the home of the Jarghoun family. Among those killed were 71-year-old Eid Jarghoun and three of his adult children. Two of them were killed alongside their own wives and children. In total, 17 family members were killed, including four women and seven children. The youngest victim, Lian, had celebrated her second birthday just five days earlier. The video below, verified by Sky News, shows their bodies being retrieved from the rubble of the house. The IDF told Sky News that one of those killed, Jihad Jarghoun, ran a weapons manufacturing workshop for Hamas. Sky News could not independently verify this claim. Conflict-monitoring group Airwars, which has compiled reports on over 1,100 Gaza airstrikes, says the IDF frequently assassinates targets at night in their family homes, leading to large-scale civilian casualties. "This is actually the conflict we have documented with more families killed alongside each other than any other conflict we've looked at over the last decade," says Airwars executive director Emily Tripp. View of destruction in North Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border between Israel and Gaza, 18 March 2025. Pic: Reuters/Amir Cohen As the number of deaths in Gaza passes 60,000, there is still no end to the war in sight. At around 10.30pm on Monday night, a bomb hit the tent of the Agha family, killing the parents, uncle and brother of 11-year old Safa al Agha. On Tuesday morning, Safa mourned over the body of her mother. "We haven't been happy yet," she said. "We were sitting in the living room, then all of sudden..." "Who did you leave us for?" she said. "My dear mama, may God have mercy on you." The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done. CREDITS Data journalism: Ben van der Merwe Reporting: Ben van der Merwe, Kaitlin Tosh, Michelle Inez Simon and Sophia Massam Editors: Chris Howard and Natasha Muktarsingh Production: Michelle Inez Simon, Mary Poynter, Kaitlin Tosh and Reece Denton Shorthand development: Kate Schneider and Kaitlin Tosh Graphics: Taylor Stuart, Annie Adam and Bria Anderson Top Built with Shorthand
The Independent
10 hours ago
- The Independent
Why there hasn't been a formal declaration of famine in Gaza
The leading international authority on food crises said Tuesday that the 'worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in Gaza." It predicted 'widespread death' without immediate action. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, said Gaza has been on the brink of famine for two years, and that recent developments, including 'increasingly stringent blockades' by Israel, have 'dramatically worsened' the situation. Even though Israel eased a 2 1/2-month blockade on the territory in May, aid groups say only a trickle of assistance is getting into the enclave and that Palestinians face catastrophic levels of hunger 21 months into the Israeli offensive launched after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack. Hundreds have been killed by Israeli forces as they try to reach aid sites or convoys, according to witnesses, health officials and the United Nations ' human rights office. The military says it has only fired warning shots. The IPC warning stopped short of a formal declaration of famine. Here's why: The IPC and aid groups says Gaza's hunger crisis is worsening Gaza's population of roughly 2 million Palestinians relies almost entirely on outside aid. Israel's offensive has wiped out what was already limited local food production. Israel's blockade, along with ongoing fighting and chaos inside the territory, has further limited people's access to food. The U.N. World Food Program says Gaza's hunger crisis has reached 'new and astonishing levels of desperation." Nearly 100,000 women and children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition, and a third of Gaza's population is going days without eating, Ross Smith, the agency's director for emergencies, said Monday. Gaza's Health Ministry said Tuesday that more than 100 people have died while showing signs of hunger and malnutrition, mostly children. It did not give their exact cause of death. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, is staffed by medical professionals and its figures on war deaths are seen by the U.N. and other experts as the most reliable estimate of casualties. Famine occurs when these conditions are met The IPC was first set up in 2004 during the famine in Somalia. It includes more than a dozen U.N. agencies, aid groups, governments and other bodies. Famine can appear in pockets — sometimes small ones — and a formal classification requires caution. The IPC has only declared famine a few times — in Somalia in 2011, and South Sudan in 2017 and 2020, and last year in parts of Sudan's western Darfur region. Tens of thousands are believed to have died in Somalia and South Sudan. It rates an area as in famine when all three of these conditions are confirmed: — 20% of households have an extreme lack of food, or are essentially starving. — At least 30% of children 6 months to 5 years old suffer from acute malnutrition, based on a weight-to-height measurement; or 15% of that age group suffer from acute malnutrition based on the circumference of their upper arm. — At least two people, or four children under 5, per 10,000 are dying daily due to starvation or the interaction of malnutrition and disease. Gaza poses a major challenge for experts because Israel severely limits access to the territory, making it difficult and in some cases impossible to gather data. The IPC said Tuesday that data indicate famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of Gaza, and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City. Famine declarations usually come from the UN or governments While the IPC says it is the 'primary mechanism' used by the international community to conclude whether a famine is happening or projected, it typically doesn't make such a declaration itself. Often, U.N. officials together with governments will make a formal statement based on an analysis from the IPC. But the IPC says once a famine is declared it's already too late. While it can prevent further deaths, it means many people will have died by the time a famine is declared. It's not always clear that hunger is the cause of death Most cases of severe malnutrition in children arise through a combination of lack of nutrients along with an infection, leading to diarrhea and other symptoms that cause dehydration, said Alex de Waal, author of 'Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine' and executive director of the World Peace Foundation. 'There are no standard guidelines for physicians to classify cause of death as 'malnutrition' as opposed to infection," he said. When famine occurs, there are often relatively few deaths from hunger alone. Far more people die from a combination of malnutrition, disease and other forms of deprivation. All of these count as excess deaths — separate from violence — that can be attributed to a food crisis or famine, he said. The war has made it hard to get accurate information Israel's offensive has gutted Gaza's health system and displaced some 90% of its population. With hospitals damaged and overwhelmed by war casualties, it can be difficult to screen people for malnutrition and collect precise data on deaths. 'Data and surveillance systems are incomplete and eroded," said James Smith, an emergency doctor and lecturer in humanitarian policy at the University College London who spent more than two months in Gaza. 'Which means that all health indicators — and the death toll — are known to be an underestimation,' he said. Even when famine is declared, the response can be lacking A declaration of famine should in theory galvanize the international community to rush food to those who need it. But with aid budgets already stretched, and war and politics throwing up obstacles, that doesn't always happen. 'There is not a big, huge bank account' to draw on, said OCHA's Laerke. 'The fundamental problem is that we build the fire engine as we respond.' Aid groups say plenty of food and other aid has been gathered on Gaza's borders, but Israel is allowing only a small amount to enter. Within Gaza, gunfire, chaos and looting have plagued the distribution of food. The international pressure led Israel to announce new measures over the weekend, including daily humanitarian pauses in fighting in parts of Gaza and airdrops of food. Israel says there's no limit on how many aid trucks can enter Gaza. U.N. agencies say Israeli restrictions, and the breakdown of law and order, make it difficult to distribute the food that does come in. 'Only a massive scale-up in food aid distributions can stabilize this spiraling situation, calm anxieties and rebuild the trust within communities that more food is coming,' the World Food Program said. 'An agreed ceasefire is long overdue.' ___ Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed.
Reuters
12 hours ago
- Reuters
How many Palestinians has Israel's Gaza offensive killed?
July 29 (Reuters) - Palestinian health authorities say Israel's ground and air campaign against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip has killed more than 60,000 people, with nearly a third of the dead under the age of 18. After a two-month ceasefire earlier this year, Israel resumed an all-out air and ground campaign against Hamas in March. Palestinian health officials say more than 8,500 have been killed since then. The war began on Oct. 7, 2023 when Hamas militants stormed across the border into Israeli communities. Israel says the militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 people into captivity in Gaza. A new update released by the Palestinian Ministry of Health on Tuesday put the number of those killed in Gaza during the war at 60,034 people, ranging from a newborn baby to a 110-year-old. Of those, 18,592 or 30.8% were under 18. The official Palestinian Health Ministry death toll dwarfs those killed in previous bouts of fighting between Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza since 2005, according to data from Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem. An international monitoring group warned on Tuesday a worst-case scenario of famine is now unfolding in Gaza and immediate action is needed to avoid widespread death. This explainer examines how the Palestinian toll is calculated, how reliable it is, the breakdown of civilians and fighters killed and what each side says. In the first months of the war, death tolls were calculated simply by counting bodies that arrived in hospitals and data included names and identity numbers for most of those killed. In May 2024, the ministry included unidentified bodies, which accounted for nearly a third of the overall toll. However, since October 2024, it has only included identified bodies. A Reuters examination in March of an earlier Gaza Health Ministry list of those killed showed that more than 1,200 families were completely wiped out, including one family of 14 people. The numbers do not necessarily reflect all victims, as the Palestinian Health Ministry estimates several thousand bodies are under rubble. Official Palestinian tallies of direct deaths in the Gaza war likely undercounted the number of casualties by around 40% in the first nine months of the war as Gaza's healthcare infrastructure unravelled, according to a peer-reviewed study published in The Lancet journal in January. The U.N. human rights office also says the Palestinian authorities' figure is probably an undercount. The deaths the U.N. has verified up to March this year show that nearly 70% were women and children. Pre-war Gaza had robust population statistics and better health information systems than in most Middle East countries, public health experts told Reuters. The U.N. often cites the ministry's death figures and the World Health Organization has voiced full confidence in them. While Hamas has run Gaza since 2007, the enclave's Health Ministry also answers to the overall Palestinian Authority ministry in Ramallah in the West Bank. Gaza's Hamas-run government has paid the salaries of all those hired in public departments since 2007, including in the Health Ministry. The Palestinian Authority pays the salaries of those hired before then. Israeli officials have said previously that the death toll figures are suspect because of Hamas' control over government in Gaza and are manipulated. The government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Palestinian health authorities' toll passing 60,000. The Israeli military says 454 of its soldiers were killed in combat, and 2,840 others wounded since its Gaza ground operation began on Oct. 27, 2023. The Israeli military also says it goes to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties. It says Hamas uses Gaza's civilians as human shields by operating within densely populated areas, humanitarian zones, schools and hospitals, which Hamas denies. The Palestinian Health Ministry figures do not differentiate between civilians and Hamas combatants, who do not wear formal uniform or carry separate identification. The Israeli military said in January 2025 it had killed nearly 20,000 Hamas fighters. It has not provided an update since. Such estimates are reached through a combination of counting bodies on the battlefield, intercepts of Hamas communications and intelligence assessments of personnel in targets that were destroyed. Hamas has said Israeli estimates of its losses are exaggerated, without saying how many of its fighters have been killed.
