Boy from Gaza injured in Israeli airstrike receives prosthetic leg in Chicago
An 8-year-old boy from Gaza who was seriously injured in an airstrike last year is able to walk again, after receiving a prosthetic leg at a hospital in Chicago.
Baraa was evacuated from Gaza last year, after he lost his right foot and suffered major injuries to his left arm and left leg in an Israeli airstrike. He also lost his father and grandmother when their house was bombed by the Israeli military in Rafah.
The nonprofit Heal Palestine organization brought Baraa, his 3-year-old sister, and his mother to Chicago in July.
Now, thanks to doctors at Shriners Children's Chicago, he's taking his first steps with a prosthetic leg. Heal Palestine shared video on Instagram showing Baraa learning to walk again.
Heal Chicago said he still faces a lengthy recovery from his injuries.
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Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Yahoo
Gaza rescuers say Israel army kills more than 50 people near aid site
Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces on Tuesday killed more than 50 Palestinians near an aid centre in the territory's south, the latest such incident amid severe shortages after more than 20 months of war. The war since October 2023 between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas has ravaged the Gaza Strip, with shortages of food, fuel and clean water. Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that at least 53 people were killed and some 200 wounded as thousands of Palestinians gathered to receive flour near an aid centre in the southern city of Khan Yunis. "Israeli drones fired at the citizens. Some minutes later, Israeli tanks fired several shells at the citizens, which led to a large number of martyrs and wounded," he said. Mohammad Abu Amer, who was present at the scene, told AFP that "ordinary, unarmed people" were targeted. "They went to buy bread and flour for their children, and (Israeli forces) killed them in cold blood", he said from Nasser Hospital in the city where the dead and wounded were taken. The Israeli army said it looking into "reports regarding a number of injured individuals" from its fire. It said that "a gathering was identified adjacent to an aid distribution truck that got stuck" near the Israeli forces. In Rafah, also in southern Gaza, the civil defence said four people were killed by Israeli fire, and two others by Israeli shelling near a hopstial in Gaza City in the north. - Chaotic scenes - Israeli restrictions on media in the Gaza Strip and other difficulties in accessing some areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza denounced "a terrible massacre" as a result of shelling on a crowd of "thousands of civilians" Tuesday. "There are dozens of martyrs who are still on the ground and others who were turned into pieces because of the shells falling directly among the civilians," a ministry official told a press conference. In early March, Israel imposed a total aid blockade on Gaza amid an impasse in truce negotiations, only partially easing restrictions in late May. That was when the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began distributing aid, but its operations have been marred by chaotic scenes and dozens of deaths. The UN's humanitarian agency OCHA said Monday that during recent aid distributions several children have been "temporarily separated from their families due to mass movements around militarised distribution points". GHF said in a statement that its teams had distributed two million meals on Tuesday "without incident", and nearly 28 million since it started operating. At Gaza City's Al-Ahli hospital, one of the last remaining functioning health facilities in the territory's badly hit north, Amer Abu Safiya told AFP there was little doctors could do to treat a wound on his hand. "Every day we are being bombed... Al-Ahli Hospital has been destroyed. Medical services are halted. As you can see, there's nothing to wrap around my hand, and there's no medication", he said, holding up his swollen hand while laying down on a makeshift bed in the hospital's backyard. - Internet down - OCHA said its humanitarian partners in Gaza "continue to warn of the risk of famine in Gaza, amid catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity". The Palestinian Authority said internet and fixed-line communication services were down in central and south Gaza on Tuesday, following an attack on the territory's main fibre optic cable it blamed on Israel. It's the third time in less than a week that internet was partly or fully down in Gaza due to damage on telecoms infrastructure. The war was triggered by an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to official Israeli figures. The Gaza health ministry said on Monday that 5,194 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on the territory on March 18 following a truce. The overall death toll in Gaza since the war broke out on October 7, 2023 has reached 55,493 people, according to the health ministry. az-lba/ds/ami/adp
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Yahoo
Dozens killed by Israeli fire as they sought desperately needed aid in Gaza, Palestinian health ministry says
At least 51 people were killed and more than 200 others injured by Israeli fire as they waited for aid trucks to arrive in Khan Younis in southern Gaza early Tuesday morning, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said. The incident marks the highest reported number of people killed while seeking aid over the past few weeks in the enclave. In total, nearly 400 Palestinians have been killed near aid centers since Israel lifted an 11-week total blockade on Gaza and allowed a trickle of aid to enter, according to the health ministry. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a Tuesday statement that 'a gathering was identified adjacent to an aid distribution truck that got stuck in the area of Khan Younis, and in proximity to IDF troops operating in the area.' The IDF said it was 'aware of reports regarding a number of injured individuals from IDF fire following the crowd's approach,' that 'details of the incident are under review,' and that it 'regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and operates to minimize harm as much as possible to them while maintaining the safety of our troops.' One eyewitness, Mohammed Abu Abed, said that a group of people was hit by an airstrike. He told CNN: 'We were waiting for flour trucks. Suddenly, we were among the people and were hit by two missiles that tore apart people's bodies, remains, pieces of flesh everywhere. I don't know what to say; they killed the people, unarmed people who had nothing on them.' 'They went to bring bread for their children, just bread or flour. They killed us in cold blood,' Abu Abed said. The IDF told CNN it was 'unaware' of an airstrike in that area on Tuesday. Video from the scene in Khan Younis on Tuesday shows dozens of bodies lying on the ground, covered in blood. The latest scenes of death, violence and desperation underline a grim existence for over 2.1 million people living in Gaza – which the United Nations has warned is edging closer to famine. Humanitarian organizations say that aid currently entering the enclave is only a tiny fraction of what is needed, with the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) – the main supplier of aid in Gaza – coming under global scrutiny since it opened its distribution points late last month. Palestinians en route to GHF distribution sites have repeatedly been fired upon since its inception, according to the health ministry, with some 3,000 people injured in addition to the fatalities. On Tuesday, eight people were also killed after coming under Israeli fire near an aid distribution site west of Rafah, the ministry said. The GHF, an Israeli-US backed private contractor, has been criticized by multiple international aid agencies for setting up its distribution centers amid active combat zones. The organization has repeatedly said there has been no violence at their sites. But the GHF acknowledged earlier this month that there have been Palestinian casualties in the surrounding areas, which the organization described as 'well beyond our secure distribution site.' A spokesman referred further questions to the Israeli military. The IDF has not yet responded to CNN's comment on Tuesday's incident in Rafah. On Tuesday, Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on X: 'Israel has weaponized food and blocked lifesaving aid. I urge immediate, impartial investigations into deadly attacks on desperate civilians trying to reach food distribution centres.' One of those killed in Khan Younis on Tuesday was a 20-year-old man, who had traveled there in hope of returning with food for his family. Speaking through tears, his mother said: 'He didn't go for a picnic. He went to bring food for his siblings and father.' Nearby, at Nasser Medical Complex, hospital staff said that the entire ward was crowded with casualties. Video from the hospital showed dozens of people arriving with wounds, with others inside the hospital waiting for treatment as they laid on the floor. One intensive care doctor told Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), an aid organization based in the United Kingdom, that the hospital had received on Tuesday 'a large number of injured and killed from the Israeli army's targeting of aid distribution points in Khan Younis.' 'The situation here is catastrophic beyond imagination,' the doctor said, adding that the morgue was completely full and that additional bodies had been placed outside the building. 'We are trying our best, but the numbers are overwhelming,' he said. CNN's Oren Liebermann contributing reporting.
Los Angeles Times
10 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
At least 51 Palestinians killed while waiting for aid trucks in Gaza, health officials say
KHAN YUNIS, Gaza Strip — At least 51 Palestinians were killed and more than 200 wounded in the Gaza Strip while waiting for United Nations and commercial trucks to enter the territory with desperately needed food, according to Gaza's Health Ministry and a local hospital. Palestinian witnesses told the Associated Press that Israeli forces carried out an airstrike on a nearby home before opening fire toward the crowd in the southern city of Khan Yunis. The Israeli military said soldiers had spotted a gathering near an aid truck that was stuck in Khan Yunis, near where Israeli forces were operating. It acknowledged 'several casualties' as Israelis opened fire on the approaching crowd and said authorities would investigate what happened. The shooting did not appear to be related to a new Israeli- and U.S.-supported aid delivery network that rolled out last month and has been marred by controversy and violence. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs, or OCHA, said the people killed were waiting for food rations arriving in U.N. convoys. Also on Tuesday, the main Palestinian telecommunications regulatory agency based in the West Bank city of Ramallah reported that Israeli strikes had cut off fixed-line phone service and internet access in central and southern Gaza. One witness, Yousef Nofal, said he saw many people motionless and bleeding on the ground after Israeli forces opened fire. 'It was a massacre,' he said, adding that the soldiers continued firing on people as they fled from the area. Mohammed Abu Qeshfa reported hearing a loud explosion followed by heavy gunfire and tank shelling. 'I survived by a miracle,' he said. The dead and wounded were taken to the city's Nasser Hospital, which confirmed 51 people had been killed. Later Tuesday, medical charity MSF raised the death toll to 59, saying that an additional 200 had been wounded while trying to receive flour rations in Khan Yunis. Samaher Meqdad was at the hospital looking for her two brothers and a nephew who had been in the crowd. 'We don't want flour. We don't want food. We don't want anything,' she said. 'Why did they fire at the young people? Why? Aren't we human beings?' Palestinians say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire on crowds trying to reach food distribution points run by a separate U.S.- and Israeli-backed aid group since the centers opened last month. Local health officials say scores have been killed and hundreds wounded. In those instances, the Israeli military has acknowledged firing warning shots at people it said had approached its forces in a suspicious manner. Deadly Israeli airstrikes continued elsewhere in the enclave on Tuesday. Al-Awda Hospital, a major medical center in northern Gaza, reported that it received the bodies of eight Palestinians killed in an Israeli strike on a house in the central Bureij refugee camp. Israel says the new system operated by a private contractor, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, is designed to prevent the militant group Hamas from siphoning off aid to fund its activities. U.N. agencies and major aid groups deny there is any major diversion of aid and have rejected the new system, saying that it can't meet the mounting needs in Gaza and that it violates humanitarian principles by allowing Israel to control who has access to aid. Experts have warned of famine in the territory that is home to about 2 million Palestinians. The U.N.-run network has delivered aid across Gaza throughout the 20-month Israel-Hamas war, but has faced major obstacles after Israel loosened a total blockade it had imposed from early March until mid-May. U.N. officials say Israeli military restrictions, a breakdown of law and order, and widespread looting make it difficult to deliver the aid that Israel has allowed in. Olga Cherevko, a spokesperson for OCHA, said Tuesday that the aid Israeli authorities have allowed into Gaza since late May has been 'woefully insufficient.' Fuel has not entered Gaza for over 100 days, she said. 'The only way to address it is by sufficient volumes and over sustained periods of time. A trickle of aid here, a trickle of aid there is not going to make a difference.' Israel's military campaign since October 2023 has killed over 55,300 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Its count doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel launched its campaign aiming to destroy Hamas after the group's Oct. 7, 2023, attack in southern Israel, in which militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 others hostage. The militants still hold 53 hostages, fewer than half of them alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Jahjouh, Magdy and Krauss write for the Associated Press. Magdy reported from Cairo and Krauss from Dubai. AP writer Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut contributed to this report.
