Israel kills scores in further Gaza bloodshed
GAZA: Israeli forces killed at least 40 Palestinians in Gaza and ordered new evacuations on Tuesday, local medics and residents said, in further bloodshed shortly after Israel and Iran agreed to a ceasefire in their air war. The Israel-Iran deal announced by US President Donald Trump raised hopes among Palestinians of an end to over 20 months of war in Gaza that has widely demolished the territory and displaced most residents, with malnutrition widespread.
"Enough! The whole universe has let us down. Hezbollah reached a deal without Gaza, and now Iran has done the same," said Adel Farouk, 62, from Gaza City. "We hope Gaza is next," he said via a chat app, speaking before two explosions rang out in Tehran, with Trump accusing both sides of violating the deal, though voicing particular unhappiness with Israel, rebuking it with an obscenity in an extraordinary outburst of frustration.
In Gaza, deadly violence continued with little respite. Marwan Abu Naser, of the Al Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in central Gaza, said it had received 19 dead and 146 injured from crowds who tried to reach a nearby aid distribution centre of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Abu Naser said that the casualties resulted from gunfire.
Israel's military said that a gathering overnight was identified adjacent to forces operating in Gaza's central Netzarim Corridor, and it was reviewing reports of casualties. Responding to a request for comment, the GHF said in an e-mail that there has been no incident near their aid site, which it added was located several kilometres south of the Netzarim Corridor.
UN aid trucks entering Gaza also use area roads and Palestinians have in the past few days reported killings of people by Israeli fire as they waited at roadsides to grab bags of flour from the trucks. Israel has been channelling much of the aid it lets into Gaza through the GHF, which operates a handful of distribution sites in areas guarded by Israeli forces.
The United Nations rejects the GHF delivery system as inadequate, dangerous, and a violation of humanitarian impartiality rules. Israel says it is needed to prevent the Hamas militants it is fighting from diverting aid deliveries. The Palestinian group denies doing so. Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations' Palestinian aid agency UNRWA, told reporters in Berlin on Tuesday that the new mechanism was an "abomination" and "a death trap".
Separately, 10 other people were killed by an Israeli air strike on a house in the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City, while 11 were killed by Israeli gunfire in the southern city of Khan Yunis, medics said, raising the day's toll to at least 40. Israel says militants use built-up residential areas for operating cover. Hamas denies this.
Palestinians said they wished the Israel-Iran ceasefire announced by Trump had applied to Gaza. Adding to their frustration, the Israeli military dropped leaflets over several areas in north Gaza ordering residents to leave their homes and head towards the south, in what appeared to herald renewed Israeli military strikes against Hamas.
Sources close to Hamas said that there had been some new efforts to resume ceasefire talks with Israel. They said Hamas was open to discussing any offers that would "end the war and secure Israel's withdrawal from Gaza". But these echoed longstanding Hamas conditions that Israel has always rejected. Hamas has said it is willing to free remaining hostages in Gaza under any deal to end the war, while Israel says it can only end if Hamas is disarmed and dismantled. Hamas refuses to lay down its arms. Israel's air and ground war in Gaza has killed around 56,000 Palestinians, according to its health ministry, while displacing almost the entire population of more than 2 million and spreading a hunger crisis. — Reuters
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Observer
2 hours ago
- Observer
Iran signals openness to transfers of enriched uranium abroad
TEHRAN: Iran could transfer its stocks of enriched uranium to another country in the event of an agreement with the United States on Tehran's nuclear programme, Iran's UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said on Saturday, according to news site Al-Monitor. A transfer of 20 per cent and 60 per cent enriched uranium would not be a red line for Tehran, Iravani said, adding that the material could alternatively remain in Iran under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) supervision. However, he stressed that Iran would not renounce its right to domestic uranium production, a condition the United States firmly rejects. Iravani also ruled out any restrictions on Iran's ballistic missile programme and reiterated that a new agreement would hinge, among other conditions, on the lifting of international sanctions. His remarks come hours after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X late Friday that Iran is fundamentally willing to resume nuclear negotiations with the United States, though he urged US President Donald Trump to moderate his tone. "If President Trump is genuine about wanting a deal, he should put aside the disrespectful and unacceptable tone towards Iran's Supreme Leader, Grand Ayatollah Khamenei and stop hurting his millions of heartfelt followers," Araghchi said. "Good will begets good will and respect begets respect". Trump recently said that new talks with Iran would take place "next week," though he offered no further details. Several previous rounds of negotiations between Washington and Tehran have failed to yield an agreement. Earlier this month, tensions escalated sharply when Israel, accusing Iran of fast-approaching a point of no return in its goal of obtaining atomic weapons, carried out strikes on nuclear sites, defence positions, cities and energy infrastructure during a 12-daywar. More than 20 high-ranking Iranian military officials were killed, some in their homes. The US also intervened with a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. Trump later said the attacks had set back Iran's nuclear programme by years and when asked if he would strike again should uranium enrichment continue, he replied in the affirmative, insisting Iran must not acquire nuclear weapons. In response to the attacks, the Iranian parliament passed a law this week suspending cooperation with the IAEA. However, Tehran has not formally notified the agency and experts warn that negotiations cannot proceed without the IAEA's technical oversight. Iran maintains that its nuclear programme is intended solely for civilian purposes. The IAEA believes Iran has managed to produce 400 kilogrammes of uranium with a purity level of 60 per cent. Experts say this could be used to produce several nuclear weapons if the material were further enriched to 90 per cent. It is unclear what happened to the stockpile in the wake of the attacks by Israel and the US.
Observer
3 hours ago
- Observer
MSF slams Gaza aid scheme as 'slaughter masquerading'
GENEVA: Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) called on Friday for a controversial Israel- and US-backed relief effort in Gaza to be halted, branding it "slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid". The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which began operating last month, "is degrading Palestinians by design, forcing them to choose between starvation or risking their lives for minimal supplies", MSF said in a statement. It said more than 500 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip while seeking food in recent weeks. Starting in March, Israel blocked deliveries of food and other crucial supplies into Gaza for more than two months, leading to warnings of that the entire population of the occupied Palestinian territory is at risk of famine. The United Nations said that Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is illegal under international law. Israel began allowing food supplies to trickle in at the end of May, using GHF — backed by armed US contractors, with Israeli troops on the perimeter — to run operations. The latter have been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on people desperate to get food. There are also concerns about the neutrality of GHF, officially a private group with opaque funding. Children line up to receive a meal at a food distribution point in Gaza. — AFP The UN and major aid groups have refused to work with it, citing concerns it serves Israeli military goals and that it violates basic humanitarian principles. The Gaza health ministry says that since late May, nearly 550 people have been killed near aid centres while seeking scarce food supplies. "With over 500 people killed and nearly 4,000 wounded while seeking food, this scheme is slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid and must be immediately dismantled," MSF said. GHF has denied that fatal shootings have occurred in the immediate vicinity of its aid points. On Tuesday, the United Nations condemned what it said was Israel's "weaponisation of food" in Gaza and called it a war crime. MSF said the way GHF distributes food aid supplies "forces thousands of Palestinians, who have been starved by an over 100 day-long Israeli siege, to walk long distances to reach the four distribution sites and fight for scraps of food supplies". "These sites hinder women, children, the elderly and people with disabilities from accessing aid; and people are killed and wounded in the chaotic process," it said. Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa, MSF's emergency coordinator in Gaza, said the four sites were all under the full control of Israeli forces, surrounded by watch points and barbed wire. "If people arrive early and approach the checkpoints, they get shot. If they arrive on time but there is an overflow and they jump over the mounds and the wires, they get shot," he said in the statement. "If they arrive late, they shouldn't be there because it is an 'evacuated zone' — they get shot." MSF said that its teams in Gaza were seeing patients every day who had been killed or wounded trying to get food at one of the sites. It pointed to "a stark increase in the number of patients with gunshot wounds". MSF urged "the Israeli authorities and their allies to lift the siege on food, fuel, medical and humanitarian supplies and to revert to the pre-existing principled humanitarian system coordinated by the UN". — AFP
Times of Oman
7 hours ago
- Times of Oman
Trump warns of fresh strikes on Iran, slams Khamenei over 'victory' claims in recent war with Israel
Washington: US President Donald Trump has lashed out at Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over his claim that Iran won its recent 12-day war with Israel, and warned that the United States would "absolutely" bomb the country again if Tehran pursued nuclear weapons, Al Jazeera reported. In a post on his Truth Social platform on Friday, Trump accused Khamenei of "blatantly and foolishly" lying by claiming victory in the war and said he had personally prevented Khamenei's assassination. "His Country was decimated, his three evil Nuclear Sites were OBLITERATED, and I knew EXACTLY where he was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the U.S. Armed Forces, by far the Greatest and Most Powerful in the World, terminate his life," Trump said. In Friday's post, Trump said he had demanded Israel pull back from "the final knockout". Khamenei, in his first public remarks since a ceasefire ended the Israel-Iran conflict earlier this week, said Iran had "slapped America in the face" by launching missiles at a major US base in Qatar in retaliation for American strikes on nuclear facilities at Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz. Trump said Khamenei's remarks, which he described as "a statement of anger, hatred, and disgust", prompted him to halt talks on lifting sanctions and other diplomatic efforts that could have aided Iran's recovery. Al Jazeera further reported that Trump made similar bellicose remarks earlier during a White House news conference, where he confirmed he would "without question, absolutely" consider new air strikes if Iran's nuclear programme had not been dismantled. Iran's response to the strikes has included suspending cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Friday that Iran may reject any requests from the agency to inspect nuclear sites, calling Director General Rafael Grossi's insistence on visits "meaningless and possibly even malign in intent." No IAEA inspections have taken place since June 13, when Israel began bombing Iranian facilities, Al Jazeera reported. Meanwhile, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Friday that Israel remained on a war footing with Iran. He stated that he had instructed the Israeli military to prepare an enforcement plan aimed at preserving air superiority, halting nuclear and missile development, and responding to Iran's support for terrorist activities. Katz added that Israel had considered eliminating Khamenei during the conflict and would not have required US approval to do so.
