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Israeli forces push into parts of a central Gaza city that the war had largely spared

Israeli forces push into parts of a central Gaza city that the war had largely spared

Boston Globe3 days ago
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The United Nations food agency, meanwhile, accused Israeli forces of firing on
In the latest sign of international frustration, the United Kingdom, France, and 23 other Western-aligned countries issued a statement saying
Associated Press reporters heard explosions and saw smoke rising from parts of the city that were ordered evacuated Sunday. The Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said it was the first time ground troops had operated in the area.
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A man living in the evacuation zone, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said Israel dropped pamphlets at dawn ordering people to evacuate. Two hours later, tanks rolled into the area.
He said his 62-year-old father, who had spent the night elsewhere, fled from house to house as Israeli forces moved in and saw them flattening structures with bulldozers and tanks. Both men managed to leave the evacuation zone.
The World Health Organization said Israeli forces raided its main staff residence in Deir al-Balah, forcing women and children to evacuate on foot toward the coast.
'Male staff and family members were handcuffed, stripped, interrogated on the spot and screened at gunpoint,' the U.N health agency said in a statement. It said two staff and two family members were detained, with three later released and one still being held.
The WHO said its main warehouse in the city, which is in the evacuation zone, was damaged by an explosion and a fire, hurting the agency's ability to help hospitals and emergency medical teams. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric had earlier said two UN guesthouses in Deir al-Balah were damaged by shrapnel. He said the cause was still being investigated but that heavy Israeli airstrikes had been reported in the area. Local and international staff will continue to work there, he said.
The military declined to say if it had ordered the evacuation of aid groups based in the city, saying only that it maintains continuous contact with them and facilitates their relocation when necessary.
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Separately, the military announced that a 19-year-old soldier was killed and an officer was severely wounded in combat in southern Gaza.
Tens of thousands of people have sought refuge in Deir al-Balah during repeated waves of mass displacement in Gaza.
The U.N. humanitarian coordinator says 87.8 percent of Gaza is now under evacuation orders or inside Israeli military zones, 'leaving 2.1 million civilians squeezed into a fragmented 12 percent of the Strip, where essential services have collapsed.'
Israel has taken over large areas of Gaza and split the territory with corridors stretching from the border to the sea as it seeks to pressure Hamas to release more hostages.
In response to the Deir al-Balah incursion, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum warned in its statement that '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."
Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war and killed around 1,200 people. Fewer than half of the 50 hostages still in Gaza are believed to be alive.
Israel blames the deaths of Palestinian civilians on Hamas because the militants operate in densely populated areas, and it accuses the group of prolonging the war because Hamas has not accepted Israel's terms for a cease-fire.
The World Food Program, in a rare condemnation, said the crowd surrounding its convoy in northern Gaza Sunday 'came under fire from Israeli tanks, snipers, and other gunfire.' It said 'countless lives' were lost. A photographer working with the AP counted 51 bodies at two hospitals.
The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 80 people were killed. Israel's military said it fired warning shots 'to remove an immediate threat' and questioned the death toll reported by the Palestinians. It declined to comment on the WFP statement.
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Hundreds of people have been killed while seeking food in recent weeks, both from UN convoys and separate aid sites run by an Israeli-backed group
The Palestinian death toll from the war has climbed to more than 59,000, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Its count does not distinguish between militants and civilians, but the ministry says more than half of the dead are women and children. The ministry is part of the Hamas government, but the UN and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.
Gaza health officials said at least 18 people, including three women and five children, were killed in Israeli strikes overnight and into Monday.
At least three people were killed when crowds of Palestinians waiting for aid trucks were shot at in the area of the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza, according to two hospitals that received the bodies.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Israeli forces detained Dr. Marwan al-Hams, acting director of the strip's field hospitals and the ministry's spokesman.
Israeli troops killed a local journalist, Tamer al-Zaanein, who was accompanying al-Hams, and wounded two other people when they detained him near a Red Cross field hospital in southern Gaza, according to the Health Ministry and the journalist's family.
The International Committee of the Red Cross declined to provide details but said it was 'very concerned' about safety and security around the hospital 'and the impact this can have on patients and staff.'
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Israeli military officials offered no immediate comment on any of the strikes.
The fighting in Gaza has triggered conflicts elsewhere in the region, including between Israel and the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, who have fired missiles and drones at Israel in what they say is in solidarity with Palestinians.
The Israeli military said it struck the Hodeidah port in Yemen early Monday. Israel has struck the port before, including
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the targets included areas of the port that Israel had destroyed in previous strikes. 'The Houthis will pay heavy prices for launching missiles towards the state of Israel,' Katz said.
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Trump's envoy blames Hamas as Gaza ceasefire talks stall again, with Palestinian children "starving to death"
Trump's envoy blames Hamas as Gaza ceasefire talks stall again, with Palestinian children "starving to death"

CBS News

time21 minutes ago

  • CBS News

Trump's envoy blames Hamas as Gaza ceasefire talks stall again, with Palestinian children "starving to death"

President Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff said Thursday the U.S. was cutting short the latest round of Gaza ceasefire talks and bringing home its negotiating team from Qatar for consultations, after he said Hamas had issued a response that "shows a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire." The talks have been bogged down over conflicting demands on terms to end the 21-month war. Hamas says it will only release all of the hostages still held in Gaza in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal and an end to the war. Israel says it will not agree to end the war until Hamas frees the hostages, gives up power and disarms — a condition the U.S.- and Israeli-designated terrorist group rejects. "While the mediators have made a great effort, Hamas does not appear to be coordinated or acting in good faith," Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff said in a statement. "We will now consider alternative options to bring the hostages home and try to create a more stable environment for the people of Gaza." It was unclear what "alternative options" the U.S. was considering. The White House had no immediate comment, and the State Department did not immediately respond to messages. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recalled the Israeli negotiating team to Israel in light of Hamas' response on Thursday morning. In a brief statement, the prime minister's office expressed its appreciation for the efforts of Witkoff and mediators Qatar and Egypt, but gave no further details. In a statement sent to CBS News on Thursday evening, a Hamas official said the group had "always behaved with high responsibility to conclude a comprehensive, viable and practical deal that can grant a permanent ceasefire and put an end to the suffering of our people, and I wonder how can someone consider this as selfishness." The official said he was "really surprised" by the "out of context statement by the U.S. envoy and the overarching attitude that reflects a preprepared, irresponsible and negative response" by the U.S. The official stressed that Hamas was "still involved in the ceasefire talks" and expected the mediators and the international community to "carry their responsibility" to alleviate the dire circumstances in Gaza. Earlier Thursday, an Israeli official had told The Associated Press that Hamas' latest response was "workable." Another official, with knowledge of the ceasefire talks, told the AP Hamas had submitted a "positive response" through Qatari mediators. Israel launched its war in Gaza in response to Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack, which killed some 1,200 Israelis and saw 251 others taken hostage. Most of the captives have been released or rescued, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says 50 remain in Gaza, including 20 still believed to be alive. The war has killed more than 59,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Hamas-run Ministry of Health, which doesn't distinguish between militants and civilians, but says more than half of the dead are women and children. As Israel's blockade and military offensive in Gaza grinds on, four major news organizations said Thursday that their journalists in the Palestinian enclave were facing the threat of starvation. The joint statement by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Reuters and the BBC called on Israel to allow journalists in and out of Gaza and to allow adequate food supplies into the territory. The United Nations backed the call by the media organizations for Israel to let adequate food supplies into Gaza and allow journalists to enter and exit freely. U.N. staff in Gaza are hungry, too, deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Thursday. People are starving "because we're just not getting in," he said, reiterating that obstacles imposed by Israel were inhibiting the delivery of U.N. aid. "If this does not get better soon and more aid goes through all the various checkpoints, people will die," Haq said. "We've been saying this for months, and now we're at the point where, in fact, people are dying." UNICEF, the U.N.'s Children's Fund, said in a statement on Thursday that 798 Palestinian civilians, including children, were killed near aid distribution sites in Gaza between May 27 and July 7 while seeking food. More than 100 people have died in Gaza from malnutrition since the war started, UNICEF said, and 80% were children. The charity said screening in the Palestinian enclave had found 6,000 children in a state of acute malnourishment in June alone, marking a 180% increase since February. "Children in the Gaza Strip are starving to death. Severe malnutrition is spreading among children faster than aid can reach them, and the world is watching it happen," UNICEF Regional Director for the Mideast Edouard Beigbeder said in the group's statement. Israel says it is allowing enough aid into Gaza and it blames U.N. agencies for failing to distribute it. But those agencies say it's nearly impossible to safely deliver aid because of Israeli restrictions and a breakdown of law and order in Gaza, with crowds of thousands swarming around food trucks as soon as they move into the territory. UNICEF said that From May 19 to July 2, an average of 30 U.N. aid trucks entered Gaza per day, compared to the average of 500 trucks per day that were entering before the wary. The charity said current food supplies in Gaza amounted to about 6% of the normal, pre-war levels. In greater numbers than ever, children hollowed up by hunger are overwhelming the Patient's Friends Hospital, the main emergency center for malnourished kids in northern Gaza. Staff at the facility said five young children who died last weekend of malnutrition marked a change: they were the first deaths seen at the center in children who had no preexisting conditions. Symptoms are getting worse, with children too weak to cry or move, said Dr. Rana Soboh, a nutritionist. In past months, most children brought in malnourished improved with treatment, despite supply shortages, but now patients stay longer and don't get better, she said. The lack of basic health care and sanitation is also enabling deadly diseases to spread in Gaza, the charity OXFAM warned on Friday. "Water-borne diseases that are both preventable and readily treatable have increased by almost 150% inside Gaza over the past three months as Israel continues to deliberately block aid," the group said. "Available multi-agency health data shows that the numbers of Palestinians presenting to health facilities with acute watery diarrhea have increased by 150 percent, bloody diarrhea by 302 percent, and acute jaundice cases by 101 percent." OXFAM said the figures were likely "grossly under-reported because most of the two million people trapped by Israel's continuing siege have little access to the few healthcare facilities that have managed to keep operating."

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