Latest news with #Israel military
Times
4 days ago
- Health
- 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.
Globe and Mail
5 days ago
- Health
- Globe and Mail
Israeli strike kills children near Gaza clinic with no immediate truce in sight
An Israeli air strike hit Palestinians near a medical centre in Gaza on Thursday, killing 10 children and six adults, local health authorities said, as ceasefire talks dragged on with no immediate deal expected. Verified video footage from the strike in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip showed the bodies of women and children lying in pools of blood amid dust and screaming. One clip showed several motionless children lying on a donkey cart. 'She didn't do anything, she was innocent, I swear. Her dream was for the war to end and that they announce it today, to go back to school,' said Samah al-Nouri, sitting by the body of her daughter who was killed in the blast. 'She was only getting treatment in a medical facility. Why did they kill them?' she said, with other bodies laid out around her at a nearby hospital. Israel's military said it had struck a militant who took part in the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war. It said it was aware of reports regarding a number of injured bystanders and that the incident was under review. Israeli report accuses Hamas of using sexual assault as 'tactical weapon of war' on Oct. 7 U.S.-based Project HOPE said the strike had hit right outside its Altayara health clinic. 'Horrified and heartbroken cannot properly communicate how we feel anymore,' the aid group said in a statement. The Deir al-Balah missile strike came as Israeli and Hamas negotiators hold talks with mediators in Qatar over a proposed 60-day ceasefire and hostage release deal aimed at building agreement on a lasting truce. A senior Israeli official said on Wednesday that an agreement was not likely to be secured for another one or two weeks, however, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday he was hopeful of a deal. 'I think we're closer, and I think perhaps we're closer than we've been in quite a while,' Rubio told reporters at the ASEAN summit in Malaysia. Several rounds of indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas have failed to produce a breakthrough since the Israeli military resumed its campaign in March following a previous ceasefire. Repeated attacks by Israeli forces in recent weeks have killed hundreds of Gazans, many of them civilians, and injured thousands, according to local health authorities, putting an enormous strain on the enclave's few remaining hospitals. Dwindling fuel supplies risk further disruption in the semi-functioning hospitals, including to incubators at the neonatal unit of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, doctors there said. 'We are forced to place four, five or sometimes three premature babies in one incubator,' said Dr Mohammed Abu Selmia, the hospital director, adding that premature babies were now in a critical condition. An Israeli military official said that fuel destined for hospitals and other humanitarian facilities was let into the enclave on Wednesday and on Thursday. However, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said that far more fuel was needed to keep essential life-saving and life-sustaining services operating. Opinion: With Trump's support, Netanyahu is poised to get his way in Gaza U.S. President Donald Trump met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week to discuss the situation in Gaza amid reports that Israel and Hamas were nearing agreement on a U.S.-brokered ceasefire proposal after 21 months of war. Netanyahu said that if the two sides reach agreements on the U.S. 60-day truce plan, Israel will begin negotiations on a permanent ceasefire. In a statement from Washington, he reiterated Israel's terms for ending the war, including Hamas disarming and no longer ruling Gaza. Hamas has rejected calls to lay down its weapons. 'If this can be achieved through negotiations – that's good. If it's not achieved through 60-day negotiations then we will achieve it by other means, by use of force,' Netanyahu said. A Palestinian official said the talks in Qatar were in crisis and that issues under dispute, including whether Israel would continue to occupy parts of Gaza after a ceasefire, had yet to be resolved. The two sides previously agreed a ceasefire in January but it did not lead to a deal on ending the war and Israel resumed its military assault two months later, stopping all aid supplies into Gaza for 11 weeks and telling civilians to leave the north of the tiny territory. Israel's military campaign in Gaza has now killed more than 57,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities. It has destroyed swathes of the territory and driven most Gazans from their homes. The Hamas attack on Israeli border communities that triggered the war in 2023 killed around 1,200 people and the militant group seized 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. At least 20 are believed to still be alive. There has also been repeated violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. An Israeli man was killed at a shopping centre in the territory on Thursday by two Palestinian militants, who were then shot dead, police said. In a separate incident, a Palestinian man was shot dead after he stabbed and injured a soldier, the army said.
Al Arabiya
6 days ago
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Israeli drone kills one in south Lebanon, tensions rise between UNIFIL, residents
A man was killed Thursday in an Israeli drone strike on southern Lebanon, the health ministry said, after Israel announced it was carrying out 'special, targeted operations' against Hezbollah. Separately, tension was reported on Thursday between residents and the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon. Despite a November truce that ended a war between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel has kept up its strikes on Lebanon, targeting the group's sites and operatives but also occasionally members of their Palestinian ally Hamas. 'One man was killed and two others wounded in an Israeli enemy drone strike that targeted a motorcycle in the village of Mansouri' near the coastal city of Tyre, the ministry said. On Tuesday, a drone strike hit a car in a nearby village, killing one person. Israel's military said it had 'eliminated' a Hezbollah member involved in developing the Iran-backed group's artillery capabilities in the south. Three others, including a Palestinian Hamas member allied with Hezbollah, were killed in a separate strike on northern Lebanon that same day. On Wednesday, the Israeli military said its troops entered Lebanon to dismantle Hezbollah infrastructure near the Israeli border. The November 27 ceasefire sought to end more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah, including two months of all-out war that left the group severely weakened. Under the ceasefire deal, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters back north of the Litani river, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border, leaving the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers as the only armed parties in the region. Israel was required to fully withdraw its troops from the country but has kept them in five places it deems strategic. On Thursday, a patrol of the UN Interim Forces in Lebanon was blocked and pelted with stones by 'several individuals in civilian clothes' in the southern village of Wadi Jilu, UNIFIL said. 'The LAF arrived at the scene and the situation was brought under control,' UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti said in a statement, referring to the Lebanese Armed Forces. In recent weeks, several incidents have seen civilians in Hezbollah strongholds confront UNIFIL patrols. The mission is part of an international body tasked with monitoring the ceasefire agreement.
