Israeli attacks kill 94 people in Gaza in last 24 hours
The health ministry also said earlier that 21 Palestinian aid seekers died from a stampede and suffocation due to tear gas being fired at crowds gathered outside a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) food distribution site in southern Gaza's Khan Younis.
One medic said lots of people had been crammed into a small space and had been crushed.
The GHF said that the stampede was precipitated by "elements within the crowd - armed and affiliated with Hamas", a claim which Hamas rejected as "false and misleading".
Witnesses told Reuters that guards at the site sprayed pepper gas at them after they had locked the gates to the centre, trapping them between the gates and the outer wire-fence.
On Tuesday, the UN rights office in Geneva said it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks in the vicinity of aid sites and food convoys in Gaza - the majority of them close to GHF distribution points.
Also on Wednesday, an Israeli strike on a camp sheltering displaced people in al-Mawasi in southern Gaza killed nine people.
The latest casualties have pushed the overall toll of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza to 58,573 people, with another 139,607 wounded.
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Middle East Eye
30 minutes ago
- Middle East Eye
Israeli special forces abduct director of hospital in Gaza
Israeli special forces have abducted Dr Marwan al-Hams, director of Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital and spokesperson for the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza, outside the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) field hospital in the southern part of the enclave. The Palestinian health ministry said on Monday that Hams, who also oversees field hospitals in the Gaza Strip, was on his way to visit the ICRC facility in northern Rafah when undercover Israeli soldiers opened fire, killing one person and wounding another civilian, before capturing him. The person killed was a local journalist who had been conducting an interview with al-Hams at the time of the attack. "This cowardly act targeted one of the most prominent humanitarian and medical voices who has conveyed to the world the pain of starving children, the suffering of wounded patients deprived of medication, and the cries of mothers at hospital gates," the ministry said in a statement. "It clearly reflects a deliberate intention to silence the truth and obscure the suffering of an entire people enduring one of the worst health and humanitarian disasters." New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters An ICRC spokesperson said they had admitted and treated patients wounded in the incident and said it was "very concerned about the safety and security" around the field hospital. 'Starving civilians' The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) has meanwhile accused Israel of 'starving civilians', including a million children in Gaza, by blocking vital food and medicine deliveries into the besieged enclave. Unrwa issued the warning on Sunday, calling on Israel to lift its blockade and allow humanitarian aid to flow freely. At militarised distribution sites run by the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) Palestinian civilians trying to access food are being shot and killed by the Israeli army. Since the GHF was set up in late May, nearly 900 people have been killed, according to Palestinian health authorities. People carrying sacks of flour walk along al-Rashid street in western Jabalia on 17 June 2025 (AFP) Since Israel broke a six-week ceasefire in March, Israel has maintained a tight blockade on Gaza. Although limited aid has trickled in since late May, supplies accumulated during the truce have run out, pushing the territory into the worst shortages since the war began in October 2023. The situation is particularly dire for pregnant women and newborns. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says its clinics are seeing record numbers of malnutrition cases. 'Many babies are being born prematurely due to widespread malnutrition among pregnant women,' said MSF doctor Joanne Perry. She added that overcrowded neonatal units now have up to five babies sharing a single incubator. 'Wounds are not healing due to protein deficiency. Infections are lingering far longer than normal. This is a full-blown crisis,' said Perry.
Gulf Today
2 hours ago
- Gulf Today
85 more Palestinians seeking aid killed in Gaza as Israel widens evacuation orders
At least 85 Palestinians were killed while trying to reach food at locations across Gaza on Sunday, the territory's Health Ministry said, on the deadliest day yet for aid-seekers in over 21 months of war. There was new alarm as Israel's military issued evacuation orders for areas of central Gaza, one of the few areas where it has rarely operated with ground troops and where many international organizations trying to distribute aid are located. One aid group said several groups' offices were told to evacuate immediately. There was no immediate Israeli comment on that. Palestinians, who were wounded in an Israeli fire while seeking aid supplies, according to medics, are transported in Beit Lahyia. Reuters The largest death toll was in devastated northern Gaza, where living conditions are especially dire. At least 79 Palestinians were killed while trying to reach aid entering through the Zikim crossing with Israel, Zaher Al Waheidi, head of the Health Ministry's records department, told The Associated Press. The UN World Food Programme said 25 trucks with aid had entered for "starving communities" when it encountered massive crowds that came under gunfire. The ministry, which says more than half of the dead have been women and children, is part of the Hamas government. But the UN and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties. The shootings occurred near hubs operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which launched operations in May. The US and Israel seek to replace the traditional UN-led aid distribution system in Gaza, asserting that Hamas fighters siphon off supplies. The UN denies the allegation. A Palestinian woman lies on a stretcher as she receives treatment after being wounded in morning Israeli strikes. Reuters While GHF says it has distributed millions of meals to hungry Palestinians, local health officials and witnesses say Israeli army fire has killed hundreds of people as they try to reach the hubs. GHF's four sites are in military-controlled zones. 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." Most of Saturday's deaths occurred as Palestinians massed around 3 kilometers (2 miles) from a GHF aid distribution center near the southern city of Khan Younis. Palestinians wounded by Israeli fire near an aid centre lie on the floor at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on Sunday. Reuters 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. 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. Palestinians children queue for a portion of hot food distributed by a charity kitchen at the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza. Agence France-Presse 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. Demonstrators carry a banner during a protest to demand the immediate release of hostages held in Gaza since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Saturday. Reuters 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. 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 the Palestinian group Hamas 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. Demonstrators take part in a protest to demand the immediate release of hostages held in Gaza since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, near the US Consulate in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Saturday. Reuters Israel and Hamas have been holding ceasefire talks in Qatar, but international mediators say there have been no breakthroughs. "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 US Embassy to demand a ceasefire deal. In the occupied West Bank, US 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. Associated Press
Middle East Eye
3 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Israel bombards Gaza's Deir al-Balah as 18 die from starvation
Israeli shelling pummelled the central Gaza city of Deir el-Balah on Monday as the army warned it was launching an operation "in an area where it has not operated before". The Israeli military on Sunday ordered those in the central Gaza area, thought to be between 50,000 and 80,000 people, to leave immediately. The spokesman for Gaza's civil defence agency, Mahmud Bassal, told AFP that "we received calls from several families trapped in the Al-Baraka area of Deir el-Balah due to shelling by Israeli tanks". "There are a number of wounded, but no one can reach the area to evacuate them," he said. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the latest order leaves 87.8 percent of Gaza's area under "evacuation orders" or within Israeli militarised zones. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Israel's military campaign in Gaza has killed 58,895 Palestinians since October 2023, while almost the entire population has been displaced. On Sunday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar said he had ordered the withdrawal of the residency permit of Jonathan Whittall, head of the OCHA in Israel. Sa'ar said Whittall had spread falsehoods about Israel's assault on Gaza, citing his "biased and hostile conduct against Israel". Whittall had previously described Palestinians in Gaza as "slowly dying" as a result of the war and Israel's blockade. Widespread hunger Palestinian health officials reported on Sunday that 18 people had died from malnutrition the previous day. They warned that hundreds more could soon face the same fate as hospitals are overwhelmed with patients suffering from dizziness and exhaustion caused by severe food shortages.
