Israeli minister prays at flashpoint holy site as officials report 27 aid-seekers killed in Gaza
With Israel already facing global criticism over famine-like conditions in the besieged strip, the visit by Itamar Ben-Gvir to the hillside compound threatened to further set back efforts by international mediators to halt Israel's nearly two-year military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
The area, which Jews call the Temple Mount, is the holiest site in Judaism and was home to the ancient biblical temples. Muslims call the site the Noble Sanctuary. Today it is home to the Al Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam.
Visits are considered a provocation across the Muslim world and openly praying violates a longstanding status quo at the combustible site.
Under the status quo, Jews have been allowed to tour the site but are barred from praying, with Israeli police and troops providing security. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said after Ben-Gvir's visit that Israel would not change the norms governing the holy site.
Ben-Gvir made the stop following Hamas' release of videos showing two emaciated Israeli hostages. The videos caused in uproar in Israel and raised pressure on the government to reach a deal to bring home from Gaza the remaining hostages who were captured on Oct. 7, 2023, in the attack that triggered the war.
During his visit to the hilltop compound, Ben-Gvir called for Israel to annex the Gaza Strip and encourage Palestinians to leave, reviving rhetoric that has complicated negotiations to end the war. He raged against a video that Hamas released Saturday of 24-year-old hostage Evyatar David showing him skeletal and hollow-eyed in a dimly lit Gaza tunnel. He called it an attempt to pressure Israel.
Ben-Gvir's previous visits to the site have been explosive and prompted threats from Palestinian militant groups. Clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian demonstrators in and around the site fueled an 11-day war with Hamas in 2021.
His Sunday visit was swiftly condemned as an incitement by Palestinian leaders as well as Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Sufian Qudah, spokesman for the foreign ministry in neighboring Jordan, which serves as the custodian of the Al Aqsa Mosque, condemned what he called 'provocative incursions by the extremist minister' and implored Israel to prevent escalation.
Videos of hungry and suffering Israeli hostages
Israel has been jolted this week by videos of hostages with their faces hollow, ribs protruding and bodies ravaged by hunger.
The videos — released by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the second-largest militant group in Gaza — triggered outrage across the political spectrum in Israel. Tens of thousands rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday urging Israel and the United States to urgently pursue their release after suspending ceasefire talks.
Right-wing politicians who have opposed deals with Hamas said the footage reinforced their conviction that the militant group must be obliterated once and for all.
'From here we need to bring a message and ensure that from today, we conquer all of the Gaza Strip, declare sovereignty over all of the Gaza Strip, take out every Hamas member and encourage voluntary emigration,' Ben-Gvir said on a video posted on social media after his visit to the holy site.
Deadly chaos grips food distribution points
Palestinians reported more deadly violence at aid sites and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said a staff member had been killed when Israeli forces shelled its office with artillery.
With international anger growing at the situation in Gaza, around 90,000 protesters in Australia marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, turning the city landmark into a symbol of opposition to Israel's military campaign in Gaza.
Hospital officials said Israeli forces killed at least 27 Palestinians seeking food on Sunday in the besieged territory, where witnesses described facing gunfire as hungry crowds surged toward aid sites and the malnutrition-related death toll also rose.
Desperation has gripped the Palestinian territory of more than 2 million, which experts warn is facing 'a worst-case scenario of famine ″ because of Israel's blockade and nearly two-year offensive.
Yousef Abed, among the people en route to a distribution point, described coming under indiscriminate fire, seeing at least three people bleeding on the ground.
'I couldn't stop and help them because of the bullets,' he said.
Two hospitals in southern and central Gaza reported receiving bodies from routes leading to Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid sites, including 11 killed in the Teina area en route to a distribution point in Khan Younis.
Three Palestinian eyewitnesses, including one traveling through Teina, told The Associated Press that shootings occurred on the routes, which are in military zones secured by Israeli forces. They said they saw soldiers open fire on hungry crowds advancing toward troops.
Eyewitnesses seeking food have reported similar gunfire attacks in recent days near aid distribution sites, leaving dozens of Palestinians dead. The United Nations reported 859 people were killed near GHF sites from May 27 to July 31 and that hundreds more have been slain along the routes of U.N.-led food convoys.
GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray or fired warning shots to prevent deadly crowding. Israel's military has said it only fires warning shots as well. Both claimed the death tolls have been exaggerated.
Israel's military did not immediately responded to questions about Sunday's reported fatalities at the sites but said it was reviewing Red Crescent's claim. GHF's Media Office said there was no gunfire 'near or at our sites.'
Meanwhile, the Gaza Health Ministry said six more Palestinian adults died of malnutrition-related causes over the past 24 hours. It said Sunday's casualties brought the death toll among Palestinian adults to 82 over the five weeks since the ministry started counting deaths among adults in late June. Malnutrition-related deaths are not included in the ministry's count of war casualties.
Ninety-three children have also died of causes related to malnutrition since the war in Gaza started in 2023, the ministry said.
Israel has taken a series of steps to increase the flow of food into Gaza over the past week, but U.N. and relief groups say conditions have not improved.
The war began when Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, and abducting another 251. They are still holding 50 captives, around 20 believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals. Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed more than 60,400 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
The ministry, which doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, is staffed by medical professionals. The United Nations and other independent experts view its figures as the most reliable count of casualties. Israel has disputed its figures, but hasn't provided its own account of casualties.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Washington Post
4 minutes ago
- Washington Post
What to know as Israel considers reoccupying Gaza in what would be a major escalation of the war
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering ordering the full reoccupation of the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli media, a move that would draw fierce opposition internationally and within Israel. It would mark a stunning escalation of the nearly 22-month war in the territory that has already been largely destroyed and where experts say famine is unfolding . It would put the lives of countless Palestinians and about 20 living hostages at risk, and deepen Israel's already stark international isolation .
San Francisco Chronicle
6 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Trump narrows Fed chair candidates to four, excluding Treasury Secretary Bessent
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he's whittled down his list of potential Federal Reserve chair candidates to four as he considers a successor to Jerome Powell — a choice that could reset the path of the U.S. economy. Asked on CNBC's 'Squawk Box' for a future replacement to Powell, Trump named Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, and Kevin Warsh, a former member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. 'I think Kevin and Kevin, both Kevins, are very good,' Trump said during an interview on CNBC's 'Squawk Box.' He said two other people were also under consideration, but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is not among them. 'I love Scott, but he wants to stay where he is," Trump said. He did not name his other two top candidates but used the opportunity to disparage Powell, whom he has dubbed 'too late' in cutting interest rates. The news that Trump plans to make a decision on the Fed chair 'soon' comes as the Republican president has been highly critical of current Powell, whose term ends in May 2026. Trump recently floated having the Fed's board of governors take full control of the U.S. central bank from Powell, whom he has relentlessly pressured to cut short-term interest rates in ways that raise questions about whether the Fed can remain free from White House politicking. Trump has openly mused about whether to remove Powell before his tenure as chair ends, but he's held off on dismissing the Fed chair after a recent Supreme Court ruling suggested he could only do so for cause rather than out of policy disagreements. The president has put pressure on Powell by claiming he mismanaged the Fed's $2.5 billion renovation project, but he's also said that he's 'highly unlikely' to fire Powell. One of the Fed's governors, Adriana Kugler, made a surprise announcement last Friday that she would be stepping away from her role. That created an opening for Trump, who called her departure 'a pleasant surprise,' to name a new Fed governor. Trump told CNBC it's 'a possibility' that his pick to replace Kugler could also be his choice to replace Powell. Here's what to know about the two known candidates: Kevin Hassett Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, has been supportive of the president's agenda — from his advocacy for income tax cuts and tariffs to his support of the recent firing of BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer. Hassett served in the first Trump administration as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. He has a doctoral degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and worked at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute before joining the Trump White House in 2017. As part of Hassett's farewell announcement in 2019, Trump called him a 'true friend' who did a 'great job.' Hassett became a fellow at the Hoover Institution, which is located at Stanford University. He later returned to the administration to help deal with the pandemic. On CNBC on Monday, Hassett said 'all over the U.S. government, there have been people who have been resisting Trump everywhere they can." Kevin Warsh A former Fed governor who stepped down in 2011, Warsh is currently a fellow at the Hoover Institution. He has been supportive of cutting interest rates, a key goal of Trump's. 'The president's right to be frustrated with Jay Powell and the Federal Reserve,' Warsh said on Fox News' 'Sunday Morning Futures' last month. Warsh has been increasingly critical of Powell's Federal Reserve and in July, on CNBC, called for sweeping changes on how the Fed conducts business as well as a new Treasury-Fed accord 'like we did in 1951, after another period where we built up our nation's debt and we were stuck with a central bank that was working at cross purposes with the Treasury.' He said the Fed's 'hesitancy to cut rates, I think, is actually quite a mark against them.' 'The specter of the miss they made on inflation" after the pandemic, he said, "it has stuck with them. So one of the reasons why the president, I think, is right to be pushing the Fed publicly is we need regime change in the conduct of policy.' 'He's very highly thought of,' Trump said in June when asked directly about Warsh.
San Francisco Chronicle
6 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Epstein's ex, Ghislaine Maxwell, doesn't want grand jury transcripts released
NEW YORK (AP) — Jeffrey Epstein 's former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, wants to keep grand jury records secret in the sex trafficking case that sent her to prison, her lawyers said Tuesday as prosecutors continued urging a court to release some of those records in the criminal case-turned-political fireball. Maxwell hasn't seen the material herself, her attorneys said — the grand jury process is conducted behind closed doors. But she opposes unsealing what her lawyers described as potentially 'hearsay-laden' transcripts of grand jury testimony, which was given in secret and without her lawyers there to challenge it. 'Whatever interest the public may have in Epstein, that interest cannot justify a broad intrusion into grand jury secrecy in a case where the defendant is alive, her legal options are viable and her due process rights remain,' attorneys David O. Markus and Melissa Madrigal wrote. A message seeking comment from prosecutors was not immediately returned. Government attorneys have been trying to quell a clamor for transparency by seeking the transcripts' release — though the government also says the public already knows much of what's in the documents. Most of the information 'was made publicly available at trial or has otherwise been publicly reported through the public statements of victims and witnesses,' prosecutors wrote in court papers Monday. They noted that the disclosures excluded some victims' and witnesses' names. Prosecutors had also said last week that some of what the grand jurors heard eventually came out at Maxwell's 2021 trial and in various victims' lawsuits. There were only two grand jury witnesses, both of them law enforcement officials, prosecutors said. Prosecutors made clear Monday that they're seeking to unseal only the transcripts of grand jury witnesses' testimony, not the exhibits that accompanied it. But they are also working to parse how much of the exhibits also became public record over the years. While prosecutors have sought to temper expectations about any new revelations from the grand jury proceedings, they aren't proposing to release a cache of other information the government collected while looking into Epstein. The filing aimed to support their request to release the usually secret records amid a public clamor for more transparency about the investigation into Epstein, six years after the financier died in prison. Maxwell, his former girlfriend, was later convicted of helping him prey on underage girls. The transcript face-off comes six years after authorities said Epstein killed himself while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges and four years after Maxwell was convicted. Some of President Donald Trump's allies spent years suggesting there was more to the Epstein saga than met the eye and calling for more disclosures. A few got powerful positions in Trump's Justice Department — and then faced backlash after it abruptly announced that nothing more would be released and that a long-rumored Epstein 'client list' doesn't exist. After trying unsuccessfully to change the subject and denigrating his own supporters for staying interested in Epstein, the Republican president told Attorney General Pam Bondi to ask courts to unseal the grand jury transcripts in the case.
