Children queuing for supplements killed in Israeli strike in Gaza, hospital says
Despite optimism expressed by the US, which is acting as a mediator along with Qatar and Egypt, they do not so far seem to have come close to a breakthrough.On Wednesday night, a senior Israeli official told journalists in Washington that it could take one or two weeks to reach an agreement.The official, who was speaking during a visit to the US by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, also said that if an agreement was reached on a 60-day ceasefire, Israel would use that time to offer a permanent end to the war that would require Hamas to disarm. If Hamas refused to disarm, Israel would "proceed" with military operations, they added.Earlier, Hamas issued a statement saying that the talks had been difficult, blaming Israeli "intransigence".The group said it had shown flexibility in agreeing to release 10 hostages, but it reiterated that it was seeking a "comprehensive" agreement that would end the Israeli offensive.The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.At least 57,680 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.Most of Gaza's population has also been displaced multiple times. More than 90% of homes are estimated to be damaged or destroyed; the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed; and there are shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter.
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The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Nearly 800 killed at Gaza food hubs and aid convoy routes since end of May, UN says
At least 798 people have been killed while seeking food at distribution points operated by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and other humanitarian convoys since the end of May, the UN human rights office said on Friday. The GHF, proposed by Israel as an alternative to the UN aid system in Gaza, has been almost universally condemned by rights groups for its violation of principles of humanitarian impartiality and what they have said could be complicity in war crimes. 'Up until 7 July, we've recorded now 798 killings, including 615 in the vicinity of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, and 183 presumably on the route of aid convoys,' the UN spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva. Israel backed the GHF after claiming that Hamas diverted aid from the UN-led aid system, a claim for which the UN said there was no evidence. The private company employs American mercenaries to oversee four food distribution zones, as opposed to the previous 400 non-militarised zones run under the UN system. The GHF said the UN figures were 'false and misleading' and denied that deadly incidents occurred at its sites. 'The fact is the most deadly attacks on aid sites have been linked to UN convoys,' a GHF spokesperson said. GHF also denied that any injuries were inflicted at any of its sites, blaming Israeli troops firing on Palestinians trying to reach the four hubs it has established in southern and central Gaza. In Gaza, the GHF has become infamous for the near-daily shootings of people seeking food who have queued to receive meals since the group started operating in early May. Palestinians seeking food have to navigate a complicated set of instructions and stick to specific routes, as well as walk long distances to access the food sites. Even then there is no guarantee they will be safe. On Friday the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières said its teams in Gaza were witnessing 'a sharp and unprecedented rise in acute malnutrition'. The number of cases at its Gaza City clinic has nearly quadrupled over the past two months. At least 10 people were killed and more than 60 injured on Friday when Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd in Rafah, southern Gaza, according to Ahmad al-Farra, the head of paediatrics at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, which received the dead and wounded. At least 15 Palestinians were killed overnight and on Friday by Israeli airstrikes in northern Gaza, including a strike on a school serving as a refugee shelter. 'The situation in the hospital was like it always is during massacres: extreme overcrowding, shortage of medical supplies and medicines, and a very high number of injured compared with the number of doctors,' said Farra. Treatment units were set up outside the hospital to cope with the influx of patients as hallways inside filled with the wounded. The situation in the hospital, one of the few medical facilities still operating in southern Gaza, was made more difficult after the Israeli military operated in the surrounding areas overnight. Doctors reported shells landing nearby and heavy gunfire on the outskirts of the hospital, with a number of patients arriving with gunshot wounds. The areas around the hospital were filled with encampments for displaced people and witnesses said Israeli forces had stationed tanks and fired teargas at tents. Two local people reported Israeli soldiers in a nearby cemetery, while one said they saw the soldiers exhuming bodies there. Israeli forces withdrew from the surrounding areas in the morning, but Farra warned the hospital only had enough fuel for the next 48 hours unless new supplies arrived. Air conditioning had to be shut off in the hospital to preserve power amid the sweltering summer heat. Nahla abu Qursheen, a 35-year-old mother of four who fled the tanks on Thursday, said those who did return to the encampment found their tents destroyed. Pictures showed ruined tents amid deep furrows in the ground on Friday. 'I still don't know what happened to our tent. We are still here on the street. Last night was very difficult – missiles and shelling. My children slept on top of each other, just to fit under a single piece of cloth,' Abu Qursheen said, exhausted from sleeping in the street. Israel has intensified its airstrikes on Gaza over the last week, as negotiators report a ceasefire deal is in sight, but not yet achieved. The US president, Donald Trump, said on Wednesday he was optimistic a deal was possible this week or next, during the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington. Hamas reportedly agreed to release 10 hostages of the 50 that remain, during the two-month ceasefire period. Qatari mediators have warned a ceasefire will take time, as key stumbling blocks remain. Hamas wants assurances that Israel will not restart fighting as it did in mid-March after the first Gaza ceasefire, while Israel is seeking the complete expulsion of Hamas from the Gaza Strip. Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, has floated the proposal of relocating the population to a 'humanitarian city' in southern Gaza, which legal experts have described as a blueprint for crimes against humanity. Juliette Touma, the communications director for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, said such a plan would worsen the humanitarian crisis and forcibly displace people in Gaza. The war in Gaza started after Hamas-led militants killed more than 1,200 people in Israel and took more than 250 hostages on 7 October 2023. More than 57,000 people have been killed during Israel's 21 months of military operations there. As negotiations drag on, people in Gaza say they are losing hope. 'They say there is a truce, they say! Every day they say it will end today or tomorrow, but it's all lies. Wake up and stop this war. Enough of the death, the hunger and the constant displacement,' Abu Qursheen said.
Times
2 hours ago
- Times
At least 50 Palestinians killed near aid centres in Gaza
At least 50 Palestinians have been shot dead near aid distribution centres in Gaza on Monday, the Hamas-run health ministry said, after witnesses said Israeli troops had opened fire. According to the ministry, at least 23 of the victims were killed near an aid distribution site in Rafah, in the south of the strip. About 200 others were wounded in the same incident. Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in recent weeks near aid distribution centres, with witnesses saying they had come under fire from Israeli soldiers. Israel's military did not comment immediately on the latest incident, but has acknowledged in the past that its troops had fired warning shots against 'suspicious' people heading to the aid centres, while blaming militants for provoking the violence. • Israel-Iran live: Tehran TV station reports attack as thousands flee city The killings had added pressure on Israel to allow more aid into the territory after a three-month siege brought it to the brink of famine, according to the UN. The UN has begun bringing in much-needed supplies, but it complains that the amount allowed in by Israel is insufficient. It has also been critical of a new US and Israeli-backed organisation, the Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF), that has employed armed contractors to hand out aid at several distribution sites, close to where the shootings have taken place. The GHF said in a statement on Monday that it has distributed more than three million meals at its four distribution sites without incident. The group has been mired in controversy after two top executives quit, citing the constraints on their work. A leading American consultancy also cancelled its contract with the group and suspended its lead employee on the project. The Hamas-run health ministry said the shootings on Monday took place in southern Gaza, where the GHF had set up its centres. If confirmed, it would be the deadliest such incident yet. After ceasefire talks with Hamas unravelled last month, Israel launched a new operation aimed at destroying Hamas, freeing the hostages it still holds, and 'encouraging' Gaza's 2.1 million inhabitants to leave the devastated territory. Britain, France and Canada had threatened Israel with sanctions over the new operation, with Britain suspending trade talks and sanctioning two extremist Israeli ministers. The war began in October 2023 after Hamas attacked Israel, killing more than 1,100 people and kidnapping more than 200. More than 56,000 Palestinians have been killed since, according to the health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants. It is run by Hamas, but its tolls are viewed as generally reliable by the UN. Volker Türk, the UN human rights chief, called on governments to pressure Israel on Monday to end the war, as attention shifted to Israel's conflict with Iran, which rained missiles on Israeli cities. 'Israel's means and methods of warfare are inflicting horrifying, unconscionable suffering on Palestinians in Gaza,' Türk said at a UN meeting.
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
'They were just kids': Mother mourns sons killed in Israeli strike while waiting for aid
Iman al-Nouri's youngest son, two-year-old Siraj, woke up crying from hunger on Thursday and asked to get some nutritional 14-year-old cousin, Sama, agreed to take him and two of his older brothers - Omar, nine, and Amir, five - to the Altayara health clinic in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza."The [medical] point was still closed, so they were sitting on the pavement when suddenly we heard the sound of the strike," Iman told a local journalist working for the BBC."I went to [my husband] and said: 'Your children, Hatim! They went to the point.'" Warning: This piece contains graphic descriptions of death and violenceIman, a 32-year-old mother of five, rushed to the scene after hearing the strike, only to find her sons and niece lying on a donkey cart that was being used to transport casualties to the hospital because there were no and Sama were among the dead, while Omar and Siraj were seriously wounded."Omar still had some breath in him. They tried to revive him," Iman recalled. "Omar needed blood, and it took them an hour to get it. They gave it to him, but it was in vain.""Why are they gone? Why? What did they do wrong?" she asked. "They had dreams just like any other children in the world. If you gave them a small toy, they'd be so happy. They were just kids." Iman said Siraj's head was bleeding and he had lost an eye – an image that she cannot now get out of her head."He had fractures in his skull and... according to the doctor, not just bleeding, but [a major haemorrhage] on his brain," she added. "How long can he stay like this, living on oxygen? Two are already gone. If only he could help me hold on a little longer."Tragically, doctors have said they are unable to treat Siraj."Since yesterday at 07:00 until now, he's in the same condition. He's still breathing, his chest rises and falls, he still has breath in him. Save him!" she pleaded. A spokesperson for the US-based aid group Project Hope, which runs the Altayara clinic, told the BBC that the strike happened at around 07: and children were waiting outside before it opened at 09:00, in order to be first in line for nutrition and other health services, Dr Mithqal Abutaha footage of the Israeli air strike shows two men walking along a street, just metres away from a group of women and children. Moments later, there is an explosion next to the men and the air is filled with dust and a graphic video showing the aftermath of the attack, many dead and severely wounded children and adults are seen lying on the ground."Please get my daughter an ambulance," one woman calls out as she tends to a young girl. But for many it was too late for help."Dr Abutaha said 16 people were killed, including 10 children and three Israeli military said it targeted a "Hamas terrorist" and that it regretted any harm to what it called "uninvolved individuals", while adding that the incident was under review. Project Hope said the strike was "a blatant violation of international humanitarian law, and a stark reminder that no one and no place is safe in Gaza".Dr Abutaha said it was "unbearable" when he found out that people were killed "where they [were] seeking their basic humanitarian and human rights".He questioned the Israeli military's statement on the strike, including its expression of regret, saying that it "cannot bring those patients, those beneficiaries back alive".He also said that the clinic was a UN-recognised, "deconflicted humanitarian facility", and that no military actions should have taken place nearby. Iman said her children used to go to the clinic every two or three days to get nutritional supplements because she and Hatim were not able to give them enough food."Their father risks his life just to bring them flour. When he goes to Netzarim [military corridor north of Deir al-Balah], my heart breaks. He goes there to bring food or flour.""Does anyone have anything? There's no food. What else would make a child scream if he didn't want something?"Israel imposed a total blockade of aid deliveries to Gaza at the start of March and resumed its military offensive against Hamas two weeks later, collapsing a two-month ceasefire. It said it wanted to put pressure on the Palestinian armed group to release Israeli the blockade was partially eased in late May, amid warnings of a looming famine from global experts, there are still severe shortages of food, as well as medicine and UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) says there are thousands of malnourished children across the territory, with more cases detected every Abutaha said Project Hope had also noticed an alarming rise in cases of malnutrition among adults, which they had not observed before in addition to allowing in some UN aid lorries, Israel and the US helped set up a new aid distribution system run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), saying they wanted to prevent Hamas from stealing aid. But since then, there have been almost daily reports of people being killed by Israeli fire while seeking UN human rights office said on Friday that it had so far recorded 798 such killings, including 615 in the vicinity of the GHF's sites, which are operated by US private security contractors and located inside military zones in southern and central Gaza. The other 183 killings were recorded near UN and other aid Israeli military said it recognised there had been incidents in which civilians had been harmed and that it was working to minimise "possible friction between the population and the [Israeli] forces as much as possible".The GHF accused the UN of using "false and misleading" statistics from Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry. Dr Abutaha called on Israel to allow in enough food, medicine and fuel to meet the basic humanitarian needs of everyone in Gaza, so that "everyone could have a dignified life".He also expressed concern that people were being given "false hope" that Israel and Hamas could soon agree a new ceasefire Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that an agreement on a 60-day truce and the release of 28 hostages could be just days Palestinian officials said on Friday night that the indirect talks in Qatar were on the brink of collapse because of significant gaps remaining on issues like Israeli troop withdrawals and Hamas's rejection of an Israeli plan to move all of Gaza's population into a camp in Rafah."Every day they talk about a ceasefire, but where is it?" Iman said. "They've killed us through hunger, through gunfire, through bombs, through air strikes. We've died in every possible way.""It's better to go to God than stay with any of them. May God give me patience."
