Israel says it will establish 22 new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank
They would include new settlements and the legalization of outposts already built without government authorization.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war and the Palestinians want it to be the main part of their future state.
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NBC News
2 minutes ago
- NBC News
Chaos amid starvation: Videos from Gaza show Palestinians struggling to get food at distribution sites
Click or tap to continue reading ⇨ by Marin Scott, Bryan Gallion and Tavleen Tarrant A new food distribution system debuted in the Gaza Strip on May 27 after an 11-week aid blockade Israel said was aimed to further pressure Hamas into releasing hostages — the longest blockade of humanitarian resources since the war started in October 2023. Distribution began while doctors warned that hunger was approaching starvation for many Palestinians. The operation is run by Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a Delaware-based nonprofit backed by the United States and Israel. Both countries said this arrangement would prevent Hamas from stealing aid after they made unsubstantiated claims of systematic theft by the militant group. For people in Gaza, the process of obtaining food at GHF sites has been chaotic, dangerous and sometimes deadly. Between May 27 and July 31, 'at least 1,373 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food,' according to a report from the United Nations Human Rights Office. Of the total, 859 people were killed "in the vicinity" of GHF sites and 514 others along the routes of food convoys, it said, adding that most of these killings were committed by the Israeli military. The Israeli government and GHF blame Hamas for the chaos and deaths. Videos shared on social media in the last two months, collected and verified by NBC News, depict the dangers that hungry Palestinians face when seeking desperately needed aid. This browser does not support the video element. This video, filmed on the opening day of distribution at the GHF site in Rafah, captures the chaos after Israeli soldiers fired live rounds into the air to disperse the massive crowds. Credit: Social Media GHF created four food distribution sites to control the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, replacing an old system run by the United Nations that was organized across hundreds of sites. Of the four GHF sites, three are still operating. Israel continues to control almost every part of the aid distribution process, with its military inspecting all aid arriving at border employs contractors who provide security at each site. The organization says any fatal attacks on Palestinians have happened outside its distribution sites. 'To date, none of our aid workers have engaged in any lethal engagement,' a GHF spokesperson said. This browser does not support the video element. A June 20 video from the Khan Younis distribution site shows GHF-contracted security personnel in tactical gear pointing guns at Palestinians looking for aid.A GHF spokesperson said the video shows that a flash-bang grenade was used to 'get people to move.' Credit: Basem Mallouh, Instagram This browser does not support the video element. A second video at the same site shows security contractors in tactical gear deploying pepper spray at a crowd, as GHF employees wearing blue vests stand nearby.A GHF spokesperson said pepper spray, described as 'nonlethal,' has been used by the organization to 'disperse crowds, break up a fight or prevent a trampling incident.' Credit: TikTok This browser does not support the video element. Another video from June shows a man in tactical gear firing a canister into a crowd of asked about the video, a GHF spokesperson said the organization uses 'white smoke to disperse, not gas/tear gas,' and described it as 'totally harmless.' Credit: Social Media In interviews with NBC News' crew in Gaza, several Palestinians said they were scared for their lives as they attempted to obtain food for their families. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) 'opened fire on us randomly,' Mohammed Abu Deqqa said of his experience trying to collect food from GHF's site in Al-Shakoush, Rafah. 'There are so many dead and wounded, we were only trying to get food ... It was hell.' This browser does not support the video element. In a video from July 12, shots from Israeli forces are seen hitting the ground near a large group of Palestinians as they pack together about half a mile away from the GHF aid site in said the incident was "not at our site." The IDF said this incident is "under review." Credit: Social Media In a video from July 12, shots from Israeli forces are seen hitting the ground near a large group of Palestinians as they pack together about half a mile away from the GHF aid site in said the incident was "not at our site." The IDF said this incident is "under review." Credit: Social Media The Israeli military has acknowledged that its soldiers have fired warning shots or have fired at individuals who they claim appear to pose a threat or are in unauthorized areas. In a statement to NBC News, an IDF spokesperson said that as part of its operations along main routes to GHF distribution centers, the military conducts reviews aimed at 'improving the operational response in the area and minimizing possible friction' between Palestinians and IDF forces. This browser does not support the video element. On July 24, GHF advertised a 'women-only' distribution day on its social media channels. Credit: NBC News Crew On July 24, GHF advertised a 'women-only' distribution day on its social media channels. Credit: NBC News Crew This browser does not support the video element. In a video captured by NBC News, Najah Shaheen, a mother of six, said she walked more than 2 miles to a distribution point. The 58-year-old said that she has diabetes and that she hadn't eaten in days. Credit: NBC News Crew In a video captured by NBC News, Najah Shaheen, a mother of six, said she walked more than 2 miles to a distribution point. The 58-year-old said that she has diabetes and that she hadn't eaten in days. Credit: NBC News Crew Three women who had been seeking aid told NBC News that the crowd faced live bullets, tear gas and pepper spray as people tried to get food at the Khan Younis GHF site that Saqr, director of nursing at Nasser Hospital, said two women were killed while on their way to the distribution site. A GHF spokesperson said that the women-only day was 'very successful' and that there were 'no incidents' at the site itself. Israel announced Sunday it was implementing limited pauses in fighting to allow supplies to enter Gaza after international outrage over its aid restrictions. Experts and advocates told NBC News the hunger crisis in Gaza has reached a 'tipping point.' President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, assessed a GHF distribution site during a rare visit to Gaza on Friday. Many Palestinians continue to risk their lives to avoid starvation while mourning loved ones they have lost in their desperate search for food.'I told him not to go. I said we would endure the hunger,' a grieving father, Khamis Abu Mustafa, said of his 23-year-old son, Ali, who died in June while trying to collect food from the Khan Younis GHF site for his family. 'But he couldn't bear to see his siblings starving. He went — and came back a martyr.' More from NBC News
New York Times
2 minutes ago
- New York Times
American Victims of Hamas and Hezbollah Attacks Sue U.N. Agency
Victims and relatives of people killed or injured in attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah have sued the United Nations agency dedicated to Palestinians, accusing it of aiding the armed groups and fueling terrorism. The lawsuit suit was filed on Thursday in federal court in the District of Columbia by American citizens living in Israel and the United States and their family members. A similar case has been playing out since last year in federal court in Manhattan. Both suits are attempting to hold the United Nations Relief and Work Agency, known as UNRWA, responsible in some measure for violent acts by Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, groups dedicated to the destruction of Israel that have been designated terrorist organizations by the United States. The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified monetary damages, both compensatory and punitive. Israel has long maintained that UNRWA has been infiltrated by militants and is biased against Israel in the war in Gaza, an accusation U.N. officials have denied. The agency has been at the center of controversy during the conflict, which was set off by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. In the New York case, lawyers for the U.N. agency have argued it is exempt from such suits because it has diplomatic immunity. The Biden administration supported that position, but in April, lawyers in President Trump's Justice Department reversed the government's stance, paving the way for the latest lawsuit. Some analysts say the Justice Department's new position could open the door not only to more civil cases seeking damages from the agency, but also to the Treasury Department's imposing sanctions on it. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
2 minutes ago
- New York Times
Two War Reporter Brothers, 60 Countries and Now a Pair of New Books
In 2006, the journalists Jon Lee Anderson and his brother, Scott, both happened to be reporting stories from Lebanon. Israel had invaded the country in a bid to crush Hezbollah. Jon Lee was in Beirut, trying to learn what he could about a shadowy war. Scott was doing the same in the southern city of Tyre, where the Israelis had imposed a blanket curfew, threatening to shoot anything that moved. Scott was traveling with the photographer Paolo Pellegrin to see what was happening at a hospital when a drone strike missed their vehicle by a matter of yards. The shock wave knocked all the buttons off Scott's shirt and gave him a concussion. Blood was pouring out of his ear. The frighteningly close call convinced the brothers that they needed a rule. 'We have a kind of superstition, which is that it's not good to be in the same war zone at the same time,' Jon Lee said. 'And the one time we were, Scott nearly got killed.' The Andersons were recounting this story in Scott's New Jersey living room — comfortably far from a war zone, though finding them on the same continent, let alone in the same city, was a matter of fortuitous timing. Scott, 66, who lives in Jersey City, was leaving for a monthlong trip to Turkey with his teenage daughter in a few weeks; Jon Lee, 68, who lives with his wife in Dorset, England, was passing through New York to give a talk at the Americas Society before visiting his daughter in New Hampshire, where she was about to give birth. It isn't exactly common for two people from the same family to do the uncommon work of reporting from some of the world's most dangerous hot spots — Jon Lee as a staff writer for The New Yorker, Scott as a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine. Nor is it common for siblings to have new books coming out in the same month. In another accident of fortuitous timing, Scott's 'King of Kings' and Jon Lee's 'To Lose a War' both publish in August. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
