Latest news with #Deir al-Balah
Al Arabiya
3 days ago
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
‘Extremely high' risk of serious abuses amid expanded Israel Gaza operation: UN
Israeli displacement orders, followed by intensive attacks, on Deir al-Balah in Gaza will lead to further civilian deaths, the head of the UN human rights office said on Tuesday. 'It seemed the nightmare couldn't possibly get worse. And yet it the concentration of civilians in the area, and the means and methods of warfare employed by Israel until now, the risks of unlawful killings and other serious violations of international humanitarian law are extremely high,' Volker Turk, the head of the UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights said on Tuesday in a statement.
BBC News
4 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
WHO condemns Israeli raid on Gaza residence and warehouse attack
The World Health Organization (WHO) says Israel's ground offensive in central Gaza has compromised its efforts to continue working, after its facilities came under UN agency accused Israeli forces of attacking a building housing its staff and their families in the city of Deir al-Balah on Monday and mistreating those sheltering there. Its main warehouse was also attacked and Israeli military has not yet first major ground operation in Deir al-Balah since the start of the war with Hamas 21 months ago has displaced tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, amid warnings of a severe hunger crisis across the territory. The UN said on Monday it was receiving reports of malnourished people arriving at clinics and hospitals in extremely poor health, while the Hamas-run health ministry said 19 people had died from malnutrition since Saturday. On Sunday, the Israeli military ordered the immediate evacuation of six city blocks in southern Deir al-Balah, warning that it would be operating "with great force to destroy the enemy's capabilities and terrorist infrastructure".The estimated 50,000 to 80,000 people living in the affected areas were instructed to head south towards the al-Mawasi area in the south of the UN's humanitarian office said UN staff would remain in Deir al-Balah despite the evacuation order, spread across dozens of premises whose co-ordinates had been shared with Israel, and stressed that they had to be Monday night, the WHO put out a statement saying it condemned "in the strongest terms" attacks on its said the WHO staff residence was attacked three times, and that staff and their families, including children, were "exposed to grave danger and traumatized after air strikes caused a fire and significant damage"."Israeli military entered the premises, forcing women and children to evacuate on foot toward al-Mawasi amid active conflict. Male staff and family members were handcuffed, stripped, interrogated on the spot, and screened at gunpoint," it added."Two WHO staff and two family members were detained. Three were later released, while one staff member remains in detention."The WHO demanded the immediate release of its detained staff member and the protection of its other staff, who have been relocated with their families to its office in Deir al-Balah. The WHO's main warehouse in the city was damaged after "an attack caused explosions and fire inside", the organisation said. The warehouse was later looted by desperate crowds, it agency did not attribute blame for the attack, but said it was "part of a pattern of systematic destruction of health facilities". The WHO warned that its operational presence in Gaza was "now compromised, crippling efforts to sustain a collapsing health system and pushing survival further out of reach for more than two million people".There has been no comment yet from the Israeli military on the attacks on the WHO's premises or on the wider offensive in Deir Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported on Monday that troops were operating to "establish a corridor that will cut through the city, severing it from the al-Mawasi area and preventing free movement between central Gaza refugee camps where the Israeli army has no ground presence".According to the UN, about 87.8% of Gaza is now covered by Israeli evacuation orders or is within Israeli militarized zones, leaving the 2.1 million population squeezed into about 46 sq km of land where essential services have sources say that the possible presence of Israeli hostages held by Hamas is one reason why Deir al-Balah has so far not been the target of a ground offensive. At least 20 of the 50 hostages still in captivity are believed to be families have expressed concern that an offensive could endanger 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 least 59,029 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry.
Sky News
4 days ago
- General
- Sky News
Middle East latest: Trump 'caught off guard' by recent Israeli strikes in Gaza and Syria
Food situation in Gaza 'the worst its ever been' A charity director based in Deir al-Balah has said the food situation in Gaza is "absolutely desperate" and "the worst its ever been". Rachael Cummings, humanitarian director for Save The Children, has been based in the Strip since February last year. Speaking to Sky's chief presenter Mark Austin, she said: "One of my colleagues said to me yesterday, 'We are all walking together towards death'. And this is the situation now for people in Gaza. "There is no food for their children, it's absolutely desperate here." "The markets are empty," Ms Cummings said. "People may even have cash in their pockets yet they cannot buy bread [or] vegetables. "My team have said to me, 'There's nothing in my house to feed my children, my children are crying all day, every day." She also shared fears over Israel's latest evacuation orders "forcibly displacing people when there is nowhere for people to go". Gazans in Deir al-Balah have been told to head south and towards the coast. "Where people are being pushed into is extremely overcrowded," she said. "It's a very dangerous place, especially for children."
Japan Times
4 days ago
- Politics
- Japan Times
Israel sends tanks into Gaza's Deir al-Balah, leaving hostage families concerned
Israeli tanks pushed into the southern and eastern districts of the Gazan city of Deir al-Balah for the first time on Monday, an area where Israeli sources said the military believes hostages may be held. The area is packed with Palestinians displaced during more than 21 months of war in the Gaza Strip, hundreds of whom fled west or south after Israel issued an evacuation order, saying it sought to destroy infrastructure and capabilities of the militant group Hamas. Tank shelling in the area hit houses and mosques, killing at least three Palestinians and wounding several others, local medics said. "U.N. staff remain in Deir al-Balah, and two U.N. guesthouses have been struck, despite parties having been informed of the locations of U.N. premises, which are inviolable. These locations — as with all civilian sites — must be protected, regardless of evacuation orders," U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said. The World Health Organization said its staff residence and main warehouse in Deir al-Balah was attacked on Monday. Two WHO staff and two family members were detained by the Israeli military, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, adding that three were later released while one staff member remained in detention. Israel's mission to the U.N. in New York declined to comment. To the south in Khan Younis, an Israeli airstrike killed at least five people, including a husband and wife and their two children in a tent, medics said. In its daily update, Gaza's Health Ministry said at least 130 Palestinians had been killed and more than 1,000 wounded by Israeli gunfire and military strikes across the territory in the past 24 hours, one of the highest such totals in recent weeks. There was no immediate Israeli comment on the Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis incidents. Palestinians ride away from an Israeli attack along Salah al-din road in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Monday. | AFP-JIJI Israeli sources have said the reason the army had stayed out of the Deir al-Balah districts was because they suspected Hamas might be holding hostages there. At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages in captivity in Gaza are believed to be still alive. Families of the hostages have expressed concern for their relatives and demanded an explanation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz and the army chief on how they will protect them. "The people of Israel will not forgive anyone who knowingly endangered the hostages — both the living and the deceased. No one will be able to claim they didn't know what was at stake," the Hostage Families Forum Headquarters said in a statement. Gaza health officials have warned of potential "mass deaths" in coming days from hunger, which has killed at least 19 people since Saturday, the Hamas-run territory's Health Ministry said. Hunger United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was appalled by an accelerating breakdown of humanitarian conditions in Gaza "where the last lifelines keeping people alive are collapsing," Dujarric said. "He deplores the growing reports of children and adults suffering from malnutrition," said Dujarric. "Israel has the obligation to allow and facilitate by all the means at its disposal the humanitarian relief provided by the United Nations and by other humanitarian organizations." Health officials say hospitals have been running out of fuel, food aid and medicine, risking a halt to vital operations. Health Ministry spokesperson Khalil Al-Deqran said medical staff have been depending on one meal a day and that hundreds of people flock to hospitals every day, suffering from fatigue and exhaustion. In southern Gaza, the Health Ministry said an Israeli undercover unit had on Monday detained Marwan Al-Hams, head of Gaza's field hospitals, in a raid that killed a local journalist and wounded another outside a field medical facility run by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Smoke billows into the air during Israeli strikes in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on Monday. | REUTERS An ICRC spokesperson said the ICRC had treated patients injured in the incident, but did not comment further on their status. It said it was "very concerned about the safety and security" around the field hospital. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Israel has raided and attacked hospitals across Gaza during the war, accusing Hamas of using them for military purposes, an accusation the group denies. Sending undercover forces to carry out arrests is rare. The incursion into Deir al-Balah and the growing number of deaths appeared to be complicating efforts to secure a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel in talks mediated by Qatar and Egypt, with U.S. backing. A Hamas official said on Sunday that the militant group was angered by the mounting death toll and hunger crisis, and said it could affect the talks on a 60-day truce and hostage deal. Aid waiting UNRWA, the U.N. refugee agency dedicated to Palestinians, said on X it was receiving desperate messages from Gaza warning of starvation, including from its own staff, as food prices have soared. "Meanwhile, just outside Gaza, stockpiled in warehouses, UNRWA has enough food for the entire population for over three months. Lift the siege and let aid in safely and at scale," it said. The Health Ministry said on Sunday at least 67 people were killed by Israeli fire as they waited for U.N. aid trucks to enter Gaza. It said at least 36 aid seekers were killed a day earlier. Israel's military said its troops had fired warning shots to remove what it said was "an immediate threat." It said initial findings suggested that reported casualty figures were inflated. Israel's military said it "views the transfer of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip as a matter of utmost importance, and works to enable and facilitate its entry in coordination with the international community." Britain and more than 20 other countries called on Monday for an immediate end to the war in Gaza and criticized the Israeli government's aid delivery model after hundreds of Palestinians were killed near sites distributing food. Israel rejected the statement "as it is disconnected from reality and sends the wrong message to Hamas." The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. The Israeli military campaign against Hamas in Gaza has since killed over 59,000 Palestinians, according to health officials, displaced almost the entire population, and caused a humanitarian crisis.
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Israeli tanks move deep into Gaza where hostages are believed to be held
Israeli tanks pushed into the Gazan city of Deir al-Balah for the first time on Monday. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) believe some of the remaining hostages may be being held in the city, which is crowded with thousands of displaced Palestinians. Gaza medics said at least three Palestinians were killed and several were wounded after tank shelling hit eight houses and three mosques in the area. The Israeli assault comes a day after the IDF ordered residents to leave, saying it planned to fight Hamas militants. The raid and bombardment forced dozens of families to flee and head west towards the coastal part of Deir al-Balah and nearby Khan Younis. Earlier on Monday, an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis killed at least five people, including a man, his wife, and their two children, medics said. There was no immediate Israeli comment on the Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis incidents.
