Islamic State blamed as suicide bomber kills 20 people in Christian church in Damascus
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At least 20 people were killed and dozens injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the Mar Elias Church in the Dweila neighbourhood of Syria's capital Damascus yesterday, health authorities and security sources said.
It was the first suicide bombing in Damascus since Bashar al-Assad was toppled by an Islamist-led rebel insurgency in December.
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The Journal
12 hours ago
- The Journal
Israeli soldiers routinely ordered to fire on civilians waiting for humanitarian aid in Gaza
ISRAELI SOLDIERS IN Gaza have been ordered repeatedly to fire on unarmed civilians when they approach humanitarian aid distribution sites, according to reporting from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Aid sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private entity the UN and NGOs have refused to deal with, have been the sites of regular massacres since the organisation began operating in the besieged Palestinian territory. Israeli forces have also killed people near UN aid distribution sites. Since 27 May, 549 people have been killed near aid sites in Gaza, according to the territory's health ministry. The United States approved $30m in funding for the GHF yesterday. Soldiers who recently returned from Gaza have told Haaretz that officers are regularly ordering them to fire live ammunition at crowds of people as a means of telling them not to approach the aid sites until they are open. Palestinians flock to the aid center set up by the US and Israeli-led Gaza Humanitarian Relief Foundation Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo This is despite the fact that the crowds of hungry people pose no threat to the troops. 'It's a killing field,' one soldier said. 'Where I was stationed, between one and five people were killed every day. They're treated like a hostile force – no crowd-control measures, no tear gas – just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars. Then, once the centre opens, the shooting stops, and they know they can approach.' Our form of communication is gunfire. Another soldier said they often open fire on people who arrive early looking for food. Advertisement 'We open fire early in the morning if someone tries to get in line from a few hundred meters away, and sometimes we just charge at them from close range. But there's no danger to the forces.' I'm not aware of a single instance of return fire. There's no enemy, no weapons. One soldier said firing shells at civilians has become routine. 'You know it's not right. You feel it's not right – that the commanders here are taking the law into their own hands. But Gaza is a parallel universe. You move on quickly. The truth is, most people don't even stop to think about it.' Haaretz reported that Israel's Military Advocate General has ordered an investigation be carried out by the branch of the military that looks into suspected war crimes. One senior officer said that firing live ammunition at civilians 'goes against everything the army is supposed to stand for'. 'Why are people collecting food being killed just because they stepped out of line, or because some commander doesn't like that they're cutting in? 'Why have we reached a point where a teenager is willing to risk his life just to pull a sack of rice off a truck? And that's who we're firing artillery at?' While much of the world's attention was drawn to the recent conflict between Israel and Iran, the Israeli war against Gaza has fallen down the list of priorities in the arena of international affairs. 'Gaza doesn't interest anyone anymore,' said a reservist. 'It's become a place with its own set of rules. The loss of human life means nothing. It's not even an 'unfortunate incident,' like they used to say.' Need more information on what is happening in Israel and Palestine? Check out our FactCheck Knowledge Bank for essential reads and guides to navigating the news online. Visit Knowledge Bank Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
Irish Examiner
12 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Israeli strike kills 18 Palestinians as turmoil mounts over food distribution
An Israeli strike hit a street in central Gaza on Thursday, where witnesses said a crowd of people were getting bags of flour from a Palestinian police unit which had confiscated the goods from gangs looting aid convoys. Hospital officials said 18 people were killed. The strike was the latest violence surrounding the distribution of food to Gaza's population, which has been thrown into turmoil over the past month. After blocking all food for two and a half months, Israel has allowed only a trickle of supplies into the territory since mid-May. A Palestinian boy carries a sack of food (Abdel Kareem Hana/AP) Efforts by the United Nations to distribute the food have been plagued by armed gangs looting trucks, and by crowds of desperate people offloading supplies from convoys. The strike in the central town of Deir al-Balah appeared to target members of Sahm, a security unit tasked with stopping looters and cracking down on merchants who sell stolen aid at high prices. The unit is part of Gaza's Hamas-led interior ministry, but includes members of other factions. Witnesses said the Sahm unit was distributing bags of flour and other goods confiscated from looters and corrupt merchants, drawing a crowd, when the strike hit. Video of the aftermath showed bodies of multiple young men in the street with blood splattering on the pavement and walls of buildings. The dead included a child and at least seven Sahm members, according to the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital where casualties were taken. Palestinians carry humanitarian aid packages near the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution centre in Khan Younis (Abdel Kareem Hana/AP) There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel has accused the militant Hamas group of stealing aid and using it to prop up its rule in the enclave. Israeli forces have repeatedly struck Gaza's police, considering them a branch of Hamas. An association of Gaza's influential clans and tribes said on Wednesday they have started an independent effort to guard aid convoys to prevent looting. The National Gathering of Palestinian Clans and Tribes said it helped escort a rare shipment of flour that entered northern Gaza that evening. It was unclear, however, if the association had co-ordinated with the UN or Israeli authorities. 'We will no longer allow thieves to steal from the convoys for the merchants and force us to buy them for high prices,' Abu Ahmad al-Gharbawi, a figure involved in the tribal effort, told the Associated Press. The move by tribes to protect aid convoys brings yet another player in an aid situation that has become fragmented, confused and violent, even as Gaza's more than two million Palestinians struggle to feed their families. Throughout the more than 20-month-old war, the UN led the massive aid operation by humanitarian groups providing food, shelter, medicine and other goods to Palestinians despite the fighting. Israel, however, seeks to replace the UN-led system, saying Hamas has been siphoning off large amounts of supplies from it, a claim the UN and other aid groups deny. Israel has backed an American private contractor, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has started distributing food boxes at four locations, mainly in the far south of Gaza for the past month. Thousands of Palestinians walk for hours to reach the hubs, moving through Israeli military zones where witnesses say Israeli troops regularly open fire with heavy barrages to control the crowds. Health officials say hundreds of people have been killed and wounded. The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots.
Irish Examiner
a day ago
- Irish Examiner
Ukraine halts Russia's advance in the Sumy region, commander says
Ukrainian forces have halted Russia's recent advance into the northern region of Sumy and have stabilised the front line near the border with Russia, Ukraine's top military commander said. Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander in chief of Ukraine's armed forces, said that Ukrainian successes in Sumy have prevented Russia from deploying about 50,000 Russian troops, including elite airborne and marine brigades, to other areas of the front line. His claim could not be independently verified. Russian forces have been slowly grinding forward at some points on the roughly 620-mile front line, though their incremental gains have been costly in terms of troop casualties and damaged armour. The outnumbered Ukrainian army has relied heavily on drones to keep the Russians back. Months of US-led international efforts to stop the war have failed. Amid the hostilities, the two sides have continued swaps of prisoners of war (POW) agreed on during recent talks between their delegations in Istanbul. Ukrainian servicemen attend military training (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP) Russia's Defence Ministry and Ukrainian authorities said another exchange took place on Thursday. Ukraine's co-ordination headquarters for POWs said the swap included injured soldiers and those with health complaints. The youngest is 24 and the oldest is 62, it said, adding that more exchanges are expected soon. Sumy, the city which is the capital of the Ukrainian region of the same name, had a pre-war population of around 250,000. It lies about 12 miles from the front line. Russia's push into the region earlier this year compelled Ukraine to strengthen its defences there. A special defence group has been formed to improve security in Sumy and the surrounding communities, Col Gen Syrskyi said, with a focus on improving fortifications and accelerating construction of defensive barriers. In March, Ukrainian forces withdrew from much of Russia's neighbouring Kursk region, parts of which they had controlled after a surprise cross-border attack in August. That retreat enabled Russia to launch a counter-offensive that advanced between one to seven miles into Ukrainian territory, according to different estimates. Ukrainian officials say fierce fighting is also taking place in the eastern Donetsk region. The Russian Defence Ministry said on Thursday that its forces have captured two villages, Novoserhiivka and Shevchenko, in Donetsk. Capturing Shevchenko marked an important stage in Russia's ongoing offensive that is trying to break into Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, which borders Donetsk and is a major industrial centre, according to the ministry. Meanwhile, the two sides continued to launch long-range strikes. The Russian ministry said 50 Ukrainian drones were downed over nine regions overnight, including three over the Moscow region. Ukraine's air force said that Russia deployed 41 Shahed and decoy drones across the country overnight, wounding five people. It said that 24 drones were either intercepted or jammed.
