Latest news with #Khalilal-Daqran
CNBC
2 days ago
- Health
- CNBC
Israel announces 'tactical pause' in Gaza fighting after outrage over starving Palestinians
Israel announced Sunday it was pausing fighting in some areas of the Gaza Strip to facilitate aid delivery after international outrage swelled in recent days over surging deaths by malnutrition and widespread starvation caused by Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid. The announcement issued by the Israel Defense Forces said it would be implementing "humanitarian corridors" for the safe movement of United Nations aid trucks and "humanitarian pauses" in some of Gaza's most densely populated areas. The military's "tactical pause" will take place from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the areas where the Israeli military is not operating: Al-Mawasi, Deir al-Balah and Gaza City, the IDF said, and will continue daily "until further notice." Additional secure routes will be in place between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. to enable the safe passage of aid trucks, the IDF said, adding it is "prepared to expand the scale of this activity as required." Trucks began moving into Gaza from Egypt after Israel's announcement, with the Egyptian Red Crescent saying the convoy included over 100 aid trucks containing more than 1,200 tons of food. However, a spokesperson for the Gaza Health Ministry, Dr. Khalil al-Daqran, told NBC News that 25 people had been killed by Israeli army fire so far on Sunday morning, including 11 people seeking aid in central Gaza. Al-Daqran added that Israeli airstrikes across the strip are ongoing. The World Food Programme welcomed the implementation of humanitarian corridors, saying it has enough food already in the region, or on its way, to feed Gaza's entire population for three months. Gaza needs more than 62,000 tons of food assistance monthly, it said in the statement Sunday. Israel also said it had air-dropped seven packages of aid into the enclave on Sunday, after inviting foreign countries to do the same. Aid delivery by air has been slammed by international organizations as a "distraction" from the roadblocks Israel has imposed on overland aid delivery, which remains the only way to get a meaningful amount of food and other supplies into Gaza. "Aid drops are a grotesque distraction from the reality of what's needed on the ground in Gaza right now. They can never deliver the volume, the consistency or the quality of aid and services that's needed," Ciarán Donnelly, vice president of international programs at the International Rescue Committee, told the BBC. An additional six people in Gaza have succumbed to malnutrition in the last 24 hours, according to the health ministry, bringing the total to at least 133 people killed by starvation, including 87 children. The enclave's wider population of some 2 million is also at risk of mass starvation, aid organizations have warned, slamming Israel's aid delivery mechanism, which they say is riddled with obstructive bureaucracy, delays and arbitrary denials. Thousands of truckloads of aid are piled up outside Gaza's border crossings waiting to be delivered, but Israel says it's the responsibility of the United Nations aid agencies to distribute inside Gaza, which in turn blame Israel for erecting bureaucratic and logistical hurdles so complex that only a fraction can be distributed across the enclave. "The U.N. and international organizations are expected to improve the effectiveness of aid distribution and to ensure that the aid does not reach Hamas," the IDF said Saturday. Israel has long maintained that aid restrictions are in place to prevent Hamas from stealing the food, though an internal U.S. government analysis found no evidence of systematic theft of the supplies by Hamas over the past 20 months. OCHA, the U.N.'s humanitarian aid agency, and the World Food Programme, have previously maintained that they have not seen evidence of Hamas diverting aid. Israel lifted its nearly three-month total aid blockade in May to allow some organizations to distribute a limited amount of aid, and has maintained that there's no hunger inside Gaza, with the IDF saying on Saturday that "there is no starvation in the Gaza Strip; this is a false campaign promoted by Hamas." International aid agencies, hospitals and medical organizations, as well as NBC News' reporting on the ground, have widely documented mounting hunger across Gaza. "Food crisis in Gaza is a humanitarian catastrophe," Jagan Chapagain, chief executive of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said Sunday in a post on X, adding: "Even the carers are not getting enough food to stay healthy enough to care for others."
Saba Yemen
08-06-2025
- Health
- Saba Yemen
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital: Fuel supply in Gaza hospitals only enough for two days
Gaza - Saba: Khalil al-Daqran, spokesman for al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, on Sunday confirmed that the fuel supply in Gaza hospitals is only enough for two days. In a statement to Al Jazeera on Sunday, al-Daqran called on the world to pressure the occupation to open the crossings to allow the entry of medical supplies. He explained that the wounded are facing difficulty reaching hospitals in southern Gaza. Al-Daqran pointed out that the hospital's artificial kidney department is out of service due to the occupation's attacks. Since October 7, 2023, Israeli enemy forces have been waging a war of genocide in the Gaza Strip, ignoring all international appeals and orders from the International Court of Justice to halt it. The genocide has left approximately 180,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced, and a famine has claimed the lives of the majority of the Strip's population. Whatsapp Telegram Email Print
Express Tribune
04-06-2025
- Health
- Express Tribune
Israel attacks Syrian military installations, weapons
sraeli soldiers stand on the Syrian side of the ceasefire line between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, as seen from the Golan Heights, December 10, Listen to article At least 95 Palestinians have been killed and 440 injured by Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 24 hours, according to the Palestinian health ministry. The war in Gaza is having a devastating effect on pregnant women and nursing mothers, with an estimated 50,000 at serious risk due to shortages of food and essential medicines, according to a hospital in central Gaza, reported Al Jazeera. Khalil al-Daqran, spokesperson for Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, said rates of miscarriage had increased sixfold since the outbreak of war and had been accompanied by a large rise in premature births, Wafa reported. That had left Gaza's embattled neonatal units overwhelmed, he said. Al-Daqran said Israel's targeting of the healthcare had brought it to the brink of collapse, with far-reaching impacts on patients in Gaza. More than 23 hospitals had been put out of action, with those that remained only partly functioning, as a result of severe shortages of medical supplies and fuel, he said. That meant more than 12,000 cancer patients were left without treatment, resulting in about five deaths a day, while dialysis patients were also dying through a lack of essential treatment. According to Middle East Monitor, 41% of kidney failure patients have died since the beginning of the ongoing Israeli assault, as a result of their inability to receive dialysis treatment due to the destruction of medical facilities and the collapse of essential health services. Aid suspended Meanwhile, the United States- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) suspended aid distribution in the war-torn territory on Wednesday, a day after Israeli forces again opened fire on Palestinian aid seekers near a GHF distribution site, killing at least 27 and injuring more than 100. Read: 27 killed, dozens injured by Israeli fire near Gaza aid site Israel's military also said that approach roads to the aid distribution centres will be 'considered combat zones' on Wednesday, and warned that people in Gaza should heed the GHF announcement to stay away. 'We confirm that travel is prohibited tomorrow on roads leading to the distribution centers…and entry to the distribution centers is strictly forbidden,' an Israeli military spokesperson said. In a post on social media, GHF said the temporary suspension was necessary to allow for 'renovation, reorganisation and efficiency improvement work'. 'Due to the ongoing updates, entry to the distribution centre areas is slowly prohibited! Please do not go to the site and follow general instructions. Operations will resume on Thursday. Please continue to follow updates,' the group said. The temporary suspension of aid comes as more than 100 Palestinian people seeking aid have been reported killed by Israeli forces in the vicinity of GHF distribution centres since the organisation started operating in the enclave on May 27. The killing of people desperately seeking food supplies triggered mounting international outrage with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres demanding an independent inquiry into the deaths and for 'perpetrators to be held accountable'. 'It is unacceptable that Palestinians are risking their lives for food,' Guterres said. 'It is unacceptable that Palestinians are risking their lives for food,' Guterres said. The Israeli military has admitted it shot at aid seekers on Tuesday, but claimed that they opened fire when 'suspects' deviated from a stipulated route as a crowd of Palestinians was making its way to the GHF distribution site in Gaza. 'Syrian weapons struck down' Separately, the Israeli military said in a statement it struck weapons belonging to the Syrian regime in southern Syria, in a second attack that Israel launched after claiming that two projectiles were fired from Syria into Golan Heights on Tuesday. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the two projectiles, according to Reuters. Syrian state news agency and security sources reported a series of Israeli strikes, the first major ones in nearly a month, targeting several sites in the Damascus countryside and Quneitra and Daraa. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz had said earlier that he held Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa responsible for the two projectile launches. "We consider the president of Syria directly responsible for any threat and fire toward the State of Israel, and a full response will come soon," Katz claimed. אנו רואים בנשיא סוריה כאחראי ישירות לכל איום וירי לעבר מדינת ישראל והתגובה המלאה תגיע בהקדם. לא נאפשר חזרה למציאות של ה-7 באוקטובר. — ישראל כ'ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) June 3, 2025 The Syrian foreign ministry said in a statement that reports of the launches towards Israel had not been verified yet and reiterated that Syria has not and will not pose a threat to any party in the region, state news agency SANA reported. "We believe that there are many parties that may seek to destabilize the region to achieve their own interests," the Syrian foreign ministry added. Syria and Israel have recently engaged in direct talks to ease tensions, a significant development in relations between states that have been on opposite sides of conflict in the Middle East for decades. The Israeli military earlier said that two projectiles crossed from Syria towards Israel and fell in open areas. Several Arab and Palestinian media outlets circulated a claim of responsibility from a little-known group named "Martyr Muhammad Deif Brigades," an apparent reference to Hamas' military leader who was killed in an Israeli strike in 2024. Reuters could not independently verify the statement. Syrian state media earlier reported an Israeli strike in the southern Daraa province, an attack the Syrian foreign ministry later said resulted in "significant human and material losses." Local residents said Israeli mortars were striking the Wadi Yarmouk area, west of Daraa province, near the border with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The area has witnessed increased tensions in recent weeks, including reported Israeli military incursions into nearby villages, where residents have reportedly been barred from sowing their crops. Israel has waged a campaign of aerial bombardment that destroyed much of Syria's military infrastructure. It also has occupied the Syrian Golan Heights since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and taken more territory in the aftermath of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's ouster in December, citing lingering concerns over the past of the country's new rulers. Around the same time that Israel reported the projectiles from Syria, the Israeli military said it intercepted a missile from Yemen. Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis said they targeted Israel's Jaffa with a ballistic missile. The group says it has been launching attacks against Israel in support of Palestinians during the Israeli war in Gaza. Read: Israel 'without a doubt' committed war crimes in Gaza: Mathew Miller War crimes Moreover, Hamas described recent comments made by US State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller on Sky News, where he acknowledged Israeli war crimes as a "significant acknowledgement", Al Jazeera reported. In an interview with the Trump 100 podcast, Matthew Miller, who served as the State Department spokesperson under President Joe Biden, offered an unusually candid assessment of the administration's foreign policy challenges, particularly surrounding Israel's military operations in Gaza. 'It is without a doubt true that Israel has committed war crimes,' Miller said, adding that Israeli soldiers were not being held accountable and that there were ongoing policy disagreements inside the administration over the US-Israel relationship. Miller served from 2023 until the end of Mr Biden's term and was responsible for publicly defending US foreign policy decisions, including during the Israel-Gaza conflict and the war in Ukraine. Speaking after leaving office, Mr Miller disclosed that there were both 'small and big' disagreements over how to manage relations with Israel, especially during the 2024 escalation in Gaza. In a statement to Al Jazeera, Hamas said the remarks 'denounce the Israeli occupation, validate its atrocities, and reveal efforts by the US administration to conceal the reality of this brutal war targeting innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip.' Israel's war on Gaza The total death toll from Israel's war on Gaza has risen to 54,607 killed and 125,341 injured since October 7, 2023, according to Palestinian health sources. Israel has killed 4,335 Palestinians and injured 13,300 since breaking a ceasefire in March this year. Israel's atrocities have displaced around 90% of Gaza's estimated two million residents, created a severe hunger crisis, and caused widespread destruction across the territory. Aid agencies have warned about the risk of famine among the enclave's more than 2 million. Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war crimes against civilians in the enclave.
eNCA
27-04-2025
- Health
- eNCA
Gaza ministry says hundreds of war missing confirmed dead, toll at 52,243
GAZA - The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza announced Sunday that the death toll from the war had risen to more than 52,000 people, after hundreds previously listed as missing were confirmed dead. "An additional 697 martyrs have been added to the cumulative statistics after their data was completed and verified by the committee monitoring missing persons," the health ministry said in a statement, giving the overall toll of 52,243. Several United Nations agencies that operate in Gaza have said the ministry's data is credible and they are frequently cited by international organisations. One hospital in the Palestinian territory confirmed the data and elaborated on the process. "The families of those initially reported missing had informed authorities of their disappearance, but their bodies were subsequently recovered, either from beneath the rubble or from areas previously inaccessible to medical teams due to the presence of the Israeli army," said Khalil al-Daqran, spokesman for Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. He said the ministry's release of the 697 figure came after a "judicial committee" that collects and checks data completed its documentation, "confirming their martyrdom and transferring their status from missing persons to martyrs." When asked why such a large number was announced simultaneously, the Hamas government's Media Office in Gaza explained that statistics are released periodically. It is not the first time the health ministry has made such a revision. "Because the judicial committee issues its report periodically rather than daily. They follow their own procedural protocols, and once their report was finalised, it was officially adopted," Ismail al-Thawabta, director general of the Media Office, told AFP. With Gaza largely in ruins after more than 18 months of war, the health ministry has struggled to count the death toll. AFP | STRINGER But neither the Israeli military nor top Israeli officials have denied the scale of the overall toll. Earlier this year, Israel and Hamas agreed to a truce, which began on January 19, but collapsed two months later on March 18 due to disagreements over the next phase of the deal.
Hindustan Times
27-04-2025
- Health
- Hindustan Times
Gaza's overall death toll at 52,243; hundreds of missing confirmed dead: Report
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza announced Sunday that the death toll from the war had risen to more than 52,000 people, after hundreds previously listed as missing were confirmed dead. "An additional 697 martyrs have been added to the cumulative statistics after their data was completed and verified by the committee monitoring missing persons," the health ministry said in a statement, giving the overall toll of 52,243. Also Read: 'Professional failures': Israel as probe finds military at fault over 15 medics' killing in Gaza Several United Nations agencies that operate in Gaza have said the ministry's data is credible and they are frequently cited by international organisations. One hospital in the Palestinian territory confirmed the data and elaborated on the process. "The families of those initially reported missing had informed authorities of their disappearance, but their bodies were subsequently recovered -- either from beneath the rubble or from areas previously inaccessible to medical teams due to the presence of the Israeli army," said Khalil al-Daqran, spokesman for Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. Also Read: Qatar's chief negotiator expresses frustration at 'slowness' of Gaza peace talks He said the ministry's release of the 697 figure came after a "judicial committee" that collects and checks data completed its documentation, "confirming their martyrdom and transferring their status from missing persons to martyrs." When asked why such a large number was announced simultaneously, the Hamas government's Media Office in Gaza explained that statistics are released periodically. It is not the first time the health ministry has made such a revision. Also Read: 'Little light in a lot of sorrow': How a missing dog was reunited with Israeli family after 18 months in Gaza "Because the judicial committee issues its report periodically rather than daily. They follow their own procedural protocols, and once their report was finalised, it was officially adopted," Ismail al-Thawabta, director general of the Media Office, told AFP. With Gaza largely in ruins after more than 18 months of war, the health ministry has struggled to count the death toll. Israel has repeatedly questioned the credibility of the daily figures put out by the ministry, criticising the Gaza authorities for failing to distinguish between combatants and civilians. But neither the Israeli military nor top Israeli officials have denied the scale of the overall toll. Earlier this year, Israel and Hamas agreed to a truce, which began on January 19, but collapsed two months later on March 18 due to disagreements over the next phase of the deal. Since then, Israel has resumed its military campaign in Gaza, resulting in at least 2,151 additional deaths.
