Latest news with #aid distribution
CBC
2 days ago
- Politics
- CBC
Missile kills children at Gaza water station, Israel blames a malfunction
Israel says a missile malfunction caused it to strike a water station in Gaza over the weekend, killing six children. But the United Nations is voicing concern about how many Palestinians have died near aid distribution sites.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
59 Palestinians in Gaza killed by Israeli airstrikes or shot dead while seeking aid
At least 31 Palestinians were fatally shot on their way to an aid distribution site in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Palestinian hospital officials and witnesses said. The Israeli military said it had fired warning shots toward people it said were behaving suspiciously to prevent them from approaching.
The National
3 days ago
- Health
- The National
At least 27 Palestinians killed at aid distribution site in southern Gaza
At least 27 people were killed and 180 injured on Saturday when Israeli forces opened near an aid distribution site in Rafah, southern Gaza, the Wafa news agency reported. The deaths come a day after the Israeli military, which has previously accused militants of firing at civilians near aid centres, said it had worked to minimise 'possible friction' between aid seekers and soldiers. It said 'instructions were issued to forces in the field following lessons learnt'. Earlier on Friday, the UN said 798 people had been killed seeking aid between late May and July 7, including 615 in the vicinity of distribution sites operated by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Another 33 Palestinians died in Israeli attacks across Gaza, Wafa reported. The victims included a mother and her three children in the west of Gaza city, and a couple and their children who were killed in a strike on their tent in Deir Al Balah, Wafa reported. US contractors guarding GHF aid distribution sites in Gaza are firing live ammunition and stun grenades at Palestinians rushing to get food, AP has reported, based on accounts and videos. Despite witness testimonies and Israeli confessions, the GHF denies that Palestinians have been attacked near its sites. Earlier in July, two American contractors said their colleagues regularly used stun grenades, pepper spray and bullets against aid-seekers. 'There are innocent people being hurt. Badly. Needlessly,' one of them said. Thousands of starving Palestinians typically gather near the sites. The scenes have been chaotic, turning deadly as people rush when gunfire is heard. More than 170 NGOs, including the UN, and several states such as the UK have condemned Israel's 'inhumane' aid distribution system. While aid, including baby milk, fuel and water continues to be largely denied entry into Gaza, the humanitarian situation has deteriorated beyond control. One in three people in Gaza are going without food, and 90,000 children need treatment for malnutrition, the UN has said. The ability of humanitarian agencies to respond is also being limited, Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the UN 's World Food Programme, told reporters in New York on Friday. 'I met many of these families who told me that they go through days when their children don't eat at all, but on the days they do eat, they often have hot soup with a meagre handful of lentils or a few pieces of pasta. 'Mothers told me how they try to keep their children from playing so they don't consume more energy than can be provided by food,' Mr Skau said.
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
Nearly 800 killed at Gaza food hubs and aid convoy routes since end of May, UN says
At least 798 people have been killed while seeking food at distribution points operated by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and other humanitarian convoys since the end of May, the UN human rights office said on Friday. The GHF, proposed by Israel as an alternative to the UN aid system in Gaza, has been almost universally condemned by rights groups for its violation of principles of humanitarian impartiality and what they have said could be complicity in war crimes. 'Up until 7 July, we've recorded now 798 killings, including 615 in the vicinity of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, and 183 presumably on the route of aid convoys,' the UN spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva. Israel backed the GHF after claiming that Hamas diverted aid from the UN-led aid system, a claim for which the UN said there was no evidence. The private company employs American mercenaries to oversee four food distribution zones, as opposed to the previous 400 non-militarised zones run under the UN system. The GHF said the UN figures were 'false and misleading' and denied that deadly incidents occurred at its sites. 'The fact is the most deadly attacks on aid sites have been linked to UN convoys,' a GHF spokesperson said. GHF also denied that any injuries were inflicted at any of its sites, blaming Israeli troops firing on Palestinians trying to reach the four hubs it has established in southern and central Gaza. In Gaza, the GHF has become infamous for the near-daily shootings of people seeking food who have queued to receive meals since the group started operating in early May. Palestinians seeking food have to navigate a complicated set of instructions and stick to specific routes, as well as walk long distances to access the food sites. Even then there is no guarantee they will be safe. On Friday the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières said its teams in Gaza were witnessing 'a sharp and unprecedented rise in acute malnutrition'. The number of cases at its Gaza City clinic has nearly quadrupled over the past two months. At least 10 people were killed and more than 60 injured on Friday when Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd in Rafah, southern Gaza, according to Ahmad al-Farra, the head of paediatrics at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, which received the dead and wounded. At least 15 Palestinians were killed overnight and on Friday by Israeli airstrikes in northern Gaza, including a strike on a school serving as a refugee shelter. 'The situation in the hospital was like it always is during massacres: extreme overcrowding, shortage of medical supplies and medicines, and a very high number of injured compared with the number of doctors,' said Farra. Treatment units were set up outside the hospital to cope with the influx of patients as hallways inside filled with the wounded. The situation in the hospital, one of the few medical facilities still operating in southern Gaza, was made more difficult after the Israeli military operated in the surrounding areas overnight. Doctors reported shells landing nearby and heavy gunfire on the outskirts of the hospital, with a number of patients arriving with gunshot wounds. The areas around the hospital were filled with encampments for displaced people and witnesses said Israeli forces had stationed tanks and fired teargas at tents. Two local people reported Israeli soldiers in a nearby cemetery, while one said they saw the soldiers exhuming bodies there. Israeli forces withdrew from the surrounding areas in the morning, but Farra warned the hospital only had enough fuel for the next 48 hours unless new supplies arrived. Air conditioning had to be shut off in the hospital to preserve power amid the sweltering summer heat. Nahla abu Qursheen, a 35-year-old mother of four who fled the tanks on Thursday, said those who did return to the encampment found their tents destroyed. Pictures showed ruined tents amid deep furrows in the ground on Friday. 'I still don't know what happened to our tent. We are still here on the street. Last night was very difficult – missiles and shelling. My children slept on top of each other, just to fit under a single piece of cloth,' Abu Qursheen said, exhausted from sleeping in the street. Israel has intensified its airstrikes on Gaza over the last week, as negotiators report a ceasefire deal is in sight, but not yet achieved. The US president, Donald Trump, said on Wednesday he was optimistic a deal was possible this week or next, during the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington. Hamas reportedly agreed to release 10 hostages of the 50 that remain, during the two-month ceasefire period. Qatari mediators have warned a ceasefire will take time, as key stumbling blocks remain. Hamas wants assurances that Israel will not restart fighting as it did in mid-March after the first Gaza ceasefire, while Israel is seeking the complete expulsion of Hamas from the Gaza Strip. Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, has floated the proposal of relocating the population to a 'humanitarian city' in southern Gaza, which legal experts have described as a blueprint for crimes against humanity. Juliette Touma, the communications director for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, said such a plan would worsen the humanitarian crisis and forcibly displace people in Gaza. The war in Gaza started after Hamas-led militants killed more than 1,200 people in Israel and took more than 250 hostages on 7 October 2023. More than 57,000 people have been killed during Israel's 21 months of military operations there. As negotiations drag on, people in Gaza say they are losing hope. 'They say there is a truce, they say! Every day they say it will end today or tomorrow, but it's all lies. Wake up and stop this war. Enough of the death, the hunger and the constant displacement,' Abu Qursheen said.
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.
