logo
32 Palestinians shot dead trying to reach US group's food distribution sites, Gaza authorities say

32 Palestinians shot dead trying to reach US group's food distribution sites, Gaza authorities say

Boston Globe6 days ago
Israel's army, which isn't at the sites but secures them from a distance, said Saturday that it fired warning shots near Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah, after a group of suspects approached troops and ignored calls to keep their distance. It said the incident occurred overnight when the distribution site was closed.
GHF said that there were no incidents at or near its sites and added, 'we have repeatedly warned aid seekers not to travel to our sites overnight and early morning hours.'
Advertisement
Most of Saturday's deaths occurred as Palestinians massed around 2 miles from a GHF aid distribution center near the southern city of Khan Younis.
Mahmoud Mokeimar said that he was walking with masses of people, mostly young men, toward the hub. Troops fired warning shots, and then opened fire.
'The occupation opened fire at us indiscriminately,' he said. He said that he saw at least three motionless bodies on the ground and many wounded people fleeing.
Advertisement
Akram Aker, another witness, said that troops fired machine guns mounted on tanks and drones between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m.
'They encircled us and started firing directly at us,' Aker said. He said he saw many casualties on the ground.
Sanaa al-Jaberi said that there was shooting after the site opened as people seeking aid broke into a run.
'Is this food or death? Why? They don't talk with us, they only shoot us,' she said, and showed off her empty bag.
Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said that it received 25 bodies. Seven other people, including one woman, were killed in the Shakoush area, hundreds of meters or yards north of another GHF hub in Rafah, the hospital said.
Dr. Mohamed Saker, the head of Nasser's nursing department, said that it received 70 wounded people. He told The Associated Press that most people were shot in the head and chest.
'The situation is difficult and tragic,' he said, adding that the facility lacks medical supplies. Some of the wounded, including a child, were treated on the floor. One boy stood patiently, holding up a blood bag for someone on a stretcher.
Meanwhile, Fares Awad, head of the Health Ministry's ambulance and emergency service in northern Gaza, said that two people were killed in Gaza City when an airstrike hit a tent in a camp sheltering displaced families.
In central Gaza, Al-Awda Hospital said that 12 people were killed in an airstrike including police official Omar Aqel. Two children, including an infant, and five women — all relatives of Aqel — were among the dead.
Advertisement
Al-Awda Hospital said that it also received two people killed by an Israeli strike on a group of people in Bureij, and that another strike on a group of people along Salah El Din street in central Gaza killed a child.
Another strike on a house in the Gaza City neighborhood of Sheikh Radwan killed at least four people, according to the Health Ministry's ambulance and emergency service. A strike on a cart in Tal al-Hawa in northern Gaza killed another four people, the service said.
Israel's army had no comment on specific strikes, but said that it had struck around 90 targets throughout Gaza over the past day.
Gaza's population of more than 2 million Palestinians are in a catastrophic humanitarian crisis. Distribution at GHF sites is often chaotic. Boxes of food are stacked on the ground and crowds surge in to grab whatever they can, according to witnesses and videos released by GHF.
Hamas triggered the 21-month war when militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage. Fifty remain, but fewer than half are thought to be alive.
Israel's military offensive has killed more than 58,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn't say how many militants are among the dead. The ministry, which says more than half of the dead have been women and children, is part of the Hamas government. But the U.N. and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.
Israel and Hamas have been holding ceasefire talks in Qatar, but international mediators say there have been no breakthroughs.
Advertisement
'After 652 days, it is time to do what is right for Israel: Bring all 50 hostages home and end this war,' Efrat Machikawa, a relative of released hostage Gadi Moses, told the weekly rally in Tel Aviv.
Thousands of people later marched to the local branch of the U.S. Embassy to demand a ceasefire deal, with many holding posters of hostages.
In the occupied West Bank, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee visited the Palestinian Christian village, Taybeh, where residents say extremist Israeli settlers set fire to the Church of St. George on July 9.
Huckabee, an evangelical Christian who is normally strongly supportive of Israel, condemned the attack.
'To commit an act of sacrilege by desecrating a place that is supposed to be a place of worship — it's an act of terror and it's a crime,' he said.
The West Bank has experienced a surge in settler violence since the start of the war in Gaza. Palestinians say Israeli security forces have done little to stop the violence, and few settlers have been punished.
___
Samy Magdy reported from Cairo.
___
Follow AP's war coverage at
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Honduras mandates face masks again as respiratory illnesses spike
Honduras mandates face masks again as respiratory illnesses spike

Yahoo

timean hour ago

  • Yahoo

Honduras mandates face masks again as respiratory illnesses spike

Honduras mandates face masks again as respiratory illnesses spike TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) -Over five years after the COVID-19 outbreak, Honduras has reinstated mandatory mask wearing in public spaces amid a spike in respiratory illnesses and as a variant of the virus spreads through the Central American country. Honduras' health ministry confirmed two deaths from the virus this week, among patients with underlying health conditions, bringing the country's total in 2025 to six. "We have already surpassed last year's infection limit; there are currently five people admitted to Hospital Escuela with suspected COVID-19," said the head of Health Surveillance, Lorenzo Pavon. Official data showed that from January to July last year, 596 COVID-19 cases were reported, while this year 654 cases have been recorded in the same period. The temporary measures, which took effect on Thursday, make masks obligatory in hospitals, airports, shopping centers, banks, schools, public transport, and other enclosed or crowded spaces. The government also ordered temporary work-from-home for state institutions. Authorities are urging the public to complete their COVID-19 and influenza vaccination schedules and to seek medical advice for respiratory symptoms. Frequent hand washing and the use of antibacterial gel continue to be recommended measures. Officials also warned that they will maintain monitoring of variants and will reinforce public information campaigns. The Ministry of Health reiterated that it will continuously evaluate the epidemiological situation and warned that the measures could be expanded if the number of infections continues to rise. Solve the daily Crossword

Israel says it will let foreign countries drop aid into Gaza as hunger crisis spirals
Israel says it will let foreign countries drop aid into Gaza as hunger crisis spirals

NBC News

time2 hours ago

  • NBC News

Israel says it will let foreign countries drop aid into Gaza as hunger crisis spirals

Israel will allow foreign countries to airdrop aid into Gaza starting Friday, an Israeli security source said, as the country faces mounting backlash over a spiraling hunger crisis in the Palestinian enclave. The airdrops are expected to be carried out in the coming days by the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, according to the security source. Despite pressure for a ceasefire, both Israel and the United States signaled Friday that they were abandoning talks with Hamas. Israel also said that World Central Kitchen, an international relief organization that has provided food to Palestinians in the enclave throughout the war, had also begun reactivating its kitchens. WCK did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News. The organization paused operations in Gaza in November after a number of its workers were killed in an Israeli strike last year, but announced in June it would resume cooking in Gaza. Past efforts to airdrop aid into Gaza, including by the United States, were heavily criticized as an insufficient and impractical way to get relief to the more than 2 million people suffering in dire conditions under Israeli military assault. The developments come as Israel faces growing backlash on the international stage, with doctors and aid groups operating in Gaza warning of starvation spreading across the enclave. More than 100 people had died from 'famine and malnutrition,' most of them children, since the war began in the enclave, the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said in a statement Wednesday.

A week of fending off hunger in Gaza
A week of fending off hunger in Gaza

Boston Globe

time4 hours ago

  • Boston Globe

A week of fending off hunger in Gaza

Naeema, a 30-year-old Palestinian mother, carried her malnourished 2-year-old son, Yazan, in their damaged home in the Al-Shati refugee camp on July 23. The World Food Programme said nearly one in three people in Gaza are not eating for days at a stretch and "thousands" were "on the verge of catastrophic hunger." OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty Images .image { margin-top: 100px; } .image figcaption { display: block; max-width: 750px; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; font-size: 18px; caption-side: bottom; line-height: 1.5; } Men carried sacks of flour after raiding a truck that was carrying foodstuffs, in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on July 22. -/AFP via Getty Images A Palestinian woman grieved over the body of a man killed at a food distribution point in the southern Gaza Strip, at the Nasser hospital on July 19. -/AFP via Getty Images Palestinian children waited for a meal at a charity kitchen in the Mawasi area of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on July 22. -/AFP via Getty Images A displaced Palestinian child sat next to a pot of lentil soup that he received at a food distribution point in Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip on July 25. OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty Images Palestinian mothers sat with their malnourished children as they awaited treatment at the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on July 24. -/AFP via Getty Images A Palestinian boy waited for a meal at a charity kitchen in the Mawasi area of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on July 22. -/AFP via Getty Images Israeli activists took part in a protest against the war in the Gaza Strip, Israel's measures regarding food distribution, and the forced displacement of Palestinians, in Tel Aviv on July 22. Ohad Zwigenberg/Associated Press Rama, a 4-month-old malnourished Palestinian girl, laid in a hospital bed as she awaited treatment at the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on July 24. -/AFP via Getty Images A woman caressed a child's head as Palestinians waited at a food distribution point in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on July 19. EYAD BABA/AFP via Getty Images People carried sacks of flour walk along al-Rashid street in western Jabalia on June 17 after humanitarian aid trucks reportedly entered the northern Gaza Strip through the Israeli-controlled Zikim border crossing, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. BASHAR TALEB/AFP via Getty Images The mother of Yahya Fadi al-Najjar, an infant who died due to malnourishment, mourned as she held his body during the funeral at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on July 20. -/AFP via Getty Images A Palestinian girl sought out a meal at a charity kitchen in the Mawasi area of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on July 22. -/AFP via Getty Images Crowds struggled to get to the beginning of the line at a food distribution point in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on July 19. EYAD BABA/AFP via Getty Images A displaced Palestinian girl took a sip of lentil soup that she received at a food distribution point in Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip on July 25. OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty Images Palestinians gathered at a food distribution point in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on July 19. EYAD BABA/AFP via Getty Images Mohammed al-Mutawaq, an 18-month-old Palestinian boy suffering from medical issues and displaying signs of malnutrition, lay on a mattress inside a tent in the Al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, on July 24. OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty Images

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store