Latest news with #aidWorkers
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
'They shoot people deliberately': Gazans testify that Hamas intentionally targets aid sites
The testimonies reveal that Hamas seeks to disrupt the distribution of food packages at the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid distribution sites. Gazans present at humanitarian aid distribution sites testified that Hamas carries out acts of terror, propaganda, and psychological manipulation against civilians at aid sites, COGAT (Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories) said on Tuesday. The audio recordings released by COGAT reveal that Hamas seeks to disrupt the distribution of food packages at the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid distribution sites. Gazans say that Hamas fires at residents near aid distribution sites and spreads false claims about IDF fire, as well as publishes "fabricated data about large numbers of casualties," through fake footage, COGAT said. The GHF disclosed on Monday that Hamas had placed bounties on American security workers in the enclave, and that 12 of the organization's local staff members had been murdered by Hamas. 'Hamas has placed bounties on both our American security personnel and Palestinian aid workers, offering cash rewards to anyone who injures or kills them,' the GHF statement said. The aid organization acknowledged the reports that the Hamas terror group has been targeting its personnel, staff, and aid workers. It announced that 12 of its local staff have been murdered, and others have been tortured. This is a developing story.
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Hamas accused of placing bounties on aid staff
Hamas has been accused of putting a bounty on the heads of American contractors distributing food in Gaza and the Palestinians who support them. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said it had received credible reports that the terror group was offering cash for the killing of its staff. In a statement late on Saturday, the body said Hamas had also 'pre-positioned' operatives near its distribution centres in a bid to disrupt the flow of aid. It follows the massacre of 12 Palestinian GHF staff earlier this month. GHF began operations in Gaza at the end of May, following a nearly three-month Israeli blockade on humanitarian aid entering Gaza. It has created a handful of purpose-built distribution centres that require a family member to come and collect aid for their loved-ones. Supported by Israel and the US, the model, which is intended to prevent aid being seized by Hamas, has been criticised by much of the rest of the international community, and NGOs, as being inhumane and not fit for purpose. Numerous mass-shootings of Gazans have taken place near the GHF centres, with eyewitnesses blaming Israeli troops, which provides an outer layer of security, although the IDF denies this and says it has fired only warning shots. The IDF last week launched an internal probe into the claims. Israel, along with GHF, has repeatedly claimed that Hamas has tried to disrupt the collection of aid by intimidating the population and firing on them near aid sites. 'The targets of Hamas's brutality are heroes who are simply trying to feed the people of Gaza in the middle of a war,' GHF said. 'Our US security personnel, some of America's most elite and decorated veterans, are on the ground to protect people. 'And our local staff, who keep these operations running, have already paid the ultimate price: twelve murdered, others tortured, and now more threats emerging by the day.' One Gazan source told The Telegraph they had seen no written material, on social media or elsewhere, to support the claim that Hamas was offering cash rewards to kill GHF staff and that promising bounties was not part of the terror group's normal playbook. It follows the approval by the US State Department of $30 million to prop up the controversial new aid model. Separately, Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel Katz, the defence minister, have reportedly tasked the IDF with coming up with a new way of getting aid trucks into Gaza, amid increased looting. Hamas implicated in looting Hamas has been implicated in the looting. Armed family gangs, known as clans, have also reportedly played a role, while other reports suggest an increasingly hungry population has taken to plundering trucks on occasion. At least 81 Gazans were killed and more than 400 injured in Israeli strikes across the enclave in the 24 hours up to midday on Saturday, according to the Strip's Hamas-run health authorities. Eleven people, including children, were reportedly killed in a single strike on a tented area for displaced children, according to reports. Meanwhile, tensions continue to escalate in the West Bank. A political row has broken out after the IDF soldiers used live ammunition to contain allegedly violent settlers. The troops' actions were criticised by the ultra-nationalist finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who comes from the West Bank settler community, as 'crossing a red line'. Other leading politicians have accused him, and his cabinet colleague, the security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, of fuelling settler violence in the first place.
Reuters
4 days ago
- Politics
- Reuters
UN chief says US-backed Gaza aid operation is unsafe, killing people
UNITED NATIONS, June 27 (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday that a U.S.-backed aid operation in Gaza is 'inherently unsafe,' giving a blunt assessment: 'It is killing people.' He also said U.N.-led humanitarian efforts are being 'strangled,' aid workers themselves are starving and Israel – as the occupying power - is required to agree to and facilitate aid deliveries into and throughout the Palestinian enclave. "People are being killed simply trying to feed themselves and their families. The search for food must never be a death sentence,' Guterres told reporters.
Free Malaysia Today
13-06-2025
- Health
- Free Malaysia Today
Israel says Hamas ‘weaponising suffering in Gaza' as aid workers killed
Palestinians carry bags filled with food and humanitarian aid provided by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in Gaza. (AP pic) GAZA CITY : Israel charged Thursday that Hamas was 'weaponising suffering in Gaza' after a US and Israeli-backed charity accused the Palestinian group of killing five of its aid workers in the territory. The distribution of food and basic supplies in the blockaded and war-ravaged Gaza Strip has become increasingly fraught and perilous, exacerbating the territory's deep hunger crisis. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said a bus carrying its staff to a distribution site near the southern city of Khan Younis was 'brutally attacked by Hamas' around 10pm Wednesday, killing at least five Palestinian aid workers. 'Hamas is weaponising suffering in Gaza, denying food, targeting lifesavers and forsaking its own people,' Israel's foreign ministry said on X. The GHF said 'There are at least five fatalities, multiple injuries and fear that some of our team members may have been taken hostage.' Dozens of Palestinians have been killed while trying to reach GHF distribution points since they began operating in late May, according to Gaza's civil defence agency. It said Israeli forces killed 31 people waiting for aid on Wednesday. The Israeli army did not respond to an AFP request for comment about the reported deaths. 'Died while waiting' An officially private effort with opaque funding, the GHF began operating on May 26 after Israel cut off supplies into Gaza for more than two months, sparking international condemnation and warnings of imminent famine. During its first week of operations, the GHF said it distributed more than seven million meals' worth of food, but its operations were widely criticised even before the deadly shootings near its sites. The UN and major aid groups have refused to work with the GHF, citing concerns over its practices and neutrality. Gaza medics have said hospitals are being inundated with people wounded while trying to obtain food. At Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital, the emergency department said it had received dozens of people who had been killed or wounded while waiting for aid, including 200 in a single day. 'Many Gazans went to the Nabulsi and Netzarim areas to receive aid and were shot at and shelled with tanks,' said Mutaz Harara, head of Al-Shifa's emergency department. But with few medical supplies and no operating theatres, 'many patients died while waiting for their turn,' he said. Convoys through Egypt? Meanwhile, two activist convoys travelling through North Africa are attempting to reach the Gaza border to highlight the blockaded territory's plight. Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said he expected Egyptian authorities 'to prevent the arrival of protesters at the Egypt-Israel border'. Egypt said while it backs efforts to put 'pressure on Israel' to lift its Gaza blockade, any foreign delegations seeking to visit the border area must obtain prior approval. With international and domestic pressure on the Israeli government mounting, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu survived the latest challenge to his right-wing coalition early Thursday. A bill to dissolve parliament, which could have led to a snap election, was narrowly defeated. The opposition had hoped to leverage dissatisfaction with Netanyahu over proposals to enlist ultra-Orthodox men into the army. The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas's Oct 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Israel said late on Wednesday that its forces had retrieved the bodies of two hostages from southern Gaza. Prior to the latest announcement, out of 251 taken hostage during the Hamas attack, 54 were still held in Gaza, including 32 the Israeli military has said are dead. Hamas's assault resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 55,104 people, the majority of them civilians. The UN considers the figures reliable.
BreakingNews.ie
12-06-2025
- Politics
- BreakingNews.ie
Dispute over identity of 12 reported killed by Hamas police force in Gaza
A unit of Gaza's Hamas-run police force says it has killed 12 members of an Israeli-backed Palestinian militia after detaining them, but an Israel-supported aid group said the dead were its workers. It was not immediately possible to verify the competing claims or confirm the identities of those killed on Thursday. Advertisement The militia, led by Yasser Abu Shabab, said its fighters had attacked Hamas and killed five militants but made no mention of its own casualties. It also accused Hamas of detaining and killing aid workers. The deaths were the latest sign of turmoil surrounding the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private contractor that Israel says will replace the UN in distributing food to Gaza's more than two million people. Palestinians with aid packages delivered by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (Abdel Kareem Hana/AP) Over the past two weeks, dozens of Palestinians have been killed and hundreds wounded in near daily shootings as they try to reach GHF centres, with witnesses saying Israeli troops have repeatedly opened fire. On Wednesday, at least 13 people were killed and 170 wounded when Israeli forces fired towards a crowd of Palestinians near a GHF centre in central Gaza, according to the al-Awda Hospital, which received the casualties. Advertisement The military said it fired warning shots overnight at a gathering that posed a threat, hundreds of metres from the aid site. Meanwhile, internet and phone lines were down across Gaza, according to telecom provider Paltel and the Palestinian telecoms authority. They said a key line had been severed during an Israeli operation and that the military would not allow technicians into the area to repair it. The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports. The UN humanitarian office, known as OCHA, said emergency services were cut off because of the outage, and civilians could not call ambulances. It said most UN agencies and aid groups could not reach their staff on the ground. Israel has barred international journalists from entering Gaza, making it difficult to confirm what happened in the killings early on Wednesday near the southern city of Khan Younis. Advertisement The GHF said Hamas attacked a bus carrying more than two dozen of its Palestinian aid workers on Thursday, killing at least eight and wounding others. It said it feared some had been abducted. 'We condemn this heinous and deliberate attack in the strongest possible terms,' it said. 'These were aid workers. Humanitarians. Fathers, brothers, sons and friends who were risking their lives every day to help others.' The Israeli military circulated the GHF statement but declined to provide its own account of what happened. OCHA said it could not confirm the circumstances of the killings but added: 'Civilians must never be attacked, let alone those trying to access or provide food amid mass starvation.' Advertisement The GHF said its staff at the centres include unarmed Palestinian employees. Many are armed international contractors, mainly Americans, guarding the centres. Fighters with the Abu Shabab group are deployed inside the Israeli military zones that surround the GHF centres, according to witnesses. Earlier this week, witnesses said Abu Shabab militiamen had opened fire on people en route to a GHF aid hub, killing and wounding many. GHF says it does not work with the Abu Shabab group. Last week, Israel acknowledged it is supporting armed groups of Palestinians opposed to Hamas. Hamas has rejected the GHF system and threatened to kill any Palestinians who co-operate with the Israeli military. Advertisement The Sahm police unit, which Hamas says it established to combat looting, released video footage showing several dead men lying in the street, saying they were Abu Shabab fighters who had been detained and killed for collaborating with Israel. It was not possible to verify the images or the claims around them. Ghassan Duhine, who identifies himself as deputy commander of the Abu Shabab group and a major in the Palestinian Authority's security forces, issued a statement saying Abu Shabab fighters had clashed with Sahm and killed five. He denied that the bodies in Sahm's images were the group's fighters. The Palestinian Authority, led by rivals of Hamas and based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has denied any connection to the Abu Shabab group, but many of the militiamen identify themselves as PA officers.
