Baby girl killed with her parents in Gaza airstrike
The baby's body, wrapped in blue, was placed on those of her parents as Palestinians prayed over them. Motasem al-Batta, his wife and the child were believed to have been killed in their tent in the crowded Muwasi area.
'Two and a half months, what has she done?' neighbour Fathi Shubeir said. 'They are civilians in an area designated safe.'
Israel's military said it is dismantling Hamas's military capabilities and takes precautions not to harm civilians. It said it could not comment on the strike without more details.
Muwasi is one of the heavily populated areas in Gaza where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel plans to widen its coming military offensive.
The mobilisation of forces is expected to take weeks, and Israel may be using the threat to pressure Hamas into releasing more hostages taken in its October 7 2023 attack that sparked the war.
Families of hostages fear the coming offensive further endangers the 50 hostages remaining in Gaza, just 20 of them thought to be alive.
They and other Israelis were horrified by the recent release of videos showing emaciated hostages, speaking under duress, pleading for help and food.
A group representing the families has urged Israelis onto the streets on Sunday.
'Across the country, hundreds of citizen-led initiatives will pause daily life and join the most just and moral struggle: the struggle to bring all 50 hostages home,' it said in a statement.
The United Nations is warning that levels of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza are at their highest since the war began. Palestinians are drinking contaminated water as diseases spread, while some Israeli leaders continue to talk openly about the mass relocation of people from Gaza.
Another 11 malnutrition-related deaths occurred in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the territory's health ministry said on Saturday, with one child among them. That brings malnutrition-related deaths during the war to 251.
The UN and partners say getting aid into the territory of more than two million people, and then on to distribution points, remains highly challenging with Israeli restrictions and pressure from crowds of hungry Palestinians.
The UN human rights office says at least 1,760 people were killed while seeking aid between May 27 and Wednesday.
It says 766 were killed along routes of supply convoys and 994 in the vicinity of 'non-UN militarised sites', a reference to the Israeli-backed and US-supported Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which since May has been the primary distributor of aid in Gaza.
The Hamas-led attack in 2023 killed around 1,200 people in Israel. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed 61,897 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry, which does not specify how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The UN and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.
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Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Laura Loomer takes victory lap after State Department halts visitor visas for Gaza
Far-right activist Laura Loomer is taking a victory lap for a new State Department policy decision: halting all visitor visas from Gaza. The State Department announced Saturday it was stopping the visas for people from Gaza, one day after Loomer posted a series of videos capturing alleged flights bringing people from the territory to the United States. She questioned why they were allowed into the country, and demanded that whoever approved their visas be fired. 'All visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped while we conduct a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days,' the State Department said in a statement Saturday. In a social media post, the conservative firebrand celebrated the department's decision as 'fantastic news,' noting that it was made 'following the release of my reports yesterday exposing flights of GAZANS arriving at airports all across the US.' She added: 'Hopefully all GAZANS will be added to President Trump's travel ban. There are doctors in other countries. The US is not the world's hospital!' The Independent has asked the State Department whether Loomer had any influence on the decision. Throughout the day Friday, Loomer posted videos allegedly showing people from Gaza arriving at airports across the U.S., including Seattle, St. Louis, San Francisco, and Houston, in the past few weeks. The videos were originally posted by HEAL Palestine, a nonprofit dedicated to delivering urgent and long-term support to Palestinian children and families. The videos, posted by HEAL Palestine's Instagram account, show children coming to the U.S. for medical treatment. More than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's war in Gaza since Hamas' attack on October 7, 2023, according to Gaza's Health Ministry last month. Visitor visas are nonimmigrant visas for persons who want to enter the U.S. temporarily. The B-1 visa covers business, and the B-2 visa is for tourism which includes medical treatment, according to the State Department. In one heart-wrenching example, a 14-year-old girl, who arrived in San Francisco this month, was injured when a school that her displaced family was using as shelter was bombed. 'She sustained second-and third-degree burns across her body and face, shrapnel wounds to her head and leg, and is still living with embedded fragments,' the nonprofit wrote in an August 6 post. The child also suffers from malnutrition, weighing just 20 kilograms, or 44 pounds. The Independent has asked the nonprofit for comment on Loomer's posts. 'Who from the State Department is assisting 'Heal Palestine'?' Loomer wrote in a Friday social media post. 'Why are any Islamic invaders coming into the U.S. under the Trump admin?' She continued: 'This is a national security threat. We didn't vote for more Islamic immigration into the United States. Who signed off on these visas? They should be fired.' Loomer's posts picked up some traction, including from GOP members of Congress. Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy remarked Friday: 'Deeply concerned about the incoming flights - including to Texas - allegedly filled with folks from Gaza as reported by @LauraLoomer. Inquiring.' Florida Republican Congressman Randy Fine similarly said he was 'troubled' by Loomer's report. 'If true, this is absolutely unacceptable. My office will be working with the relevant authorities to confirm the truth, understand how it happened, and seek immediate expulsion,' he wrote on X Friday. After the State Department's announcement Saturday, Fine gave Loomer a pat on the back. 'Massive credit needs to be given to @LauraLoomer for uncovering this and making me and other officials aware. Well done, Laura,' he wrote on X. The far-right activist seems to have some sway within the Trump administration as a pattern seems to have emerged. Not long after Loomer makes an online complaint, a change seems to happen within the administration. Last month, Loomer boasted after Maurene Comey, who prosecuted Jeffrey Epstein's former girlfriend and sex offender, Ghislaine Maxwell, and music mogul Sean 'Diddy' Combs, was fired from the Justice Department. After she was terminated, Loomer took a victory lap, writing on X: 'This comes 2 months after my pressure campaign on Pam Blondi [sic] to fire Comey's daughter and Comey's son-in-law from the DOJ.' In May, Loomer urged President Donald Trump to pick a new nominee for surgeon general after she called his pick, Janette Nesheiwat, 'not ideologically aligned with Donald Trump or his admin's health initiatives.' The president later withdrew Nesheiwat's nomination. In April, Loomer met with Trump, urging him to fire members of the National Security Council who had been disloyal to him. Not long after, the president terminated several NSC staff. It's not clear how much Loomer's demands played a role in the decisions. Asked how many staffing decisions she's had a hand in, Loomer told the New York Times last month: 'I don't even know…I really enjoy and take great pleasure in humiliating people who suck at their job.'
New York Times
3 hours ago
- New York Times
U.S. Pauses Visitor Visas for Gazans After Right-Wing Outcry
The Trump administration announced Saturday that it had paused approvals of visitor visas for people from Gaza, a key pathway for those seeking medical care in the United States, including young children who arrived in recent weeks with serious conditions. The State Department said it would assess the process behind those visas. 'All visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped while we conduct a full and thorough review,' the department said in a statement on X Saturday morning. The move came after an intense lobbying campaign by the right-wing activist Laura Loomer, who called the incoming flights a 'national security threat' in a flurry of social media posts starting on Friday that targeted a nonprofit aiding in medical evacuations. Just weeks ago, the nonprofit, HEAL Palestine, an Ohio-based group that helps Palestinian families and children, began orchestrating what it called the 'largest single medical evacuation of injured children from Gaza to the U.S.,' bringing injured and ill Gazan children to the United States for care. To date, the group says it has evacuated 63 injured children for treatment, including 11, from age 6 to 15, who were flown to hospitals in nine U.S. cities this month. Many of the children had lost limbs during the conflict in Gaza. They are expected to travel to Egypt to rejoin their families once their medical care is completed, according to HEAL Palestine. The group, which was founded last year and also operates food kitchens in Gaza, did not respond to requests for comment. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
NBC News
4 hours ago
- NBC News
U.S. State Department stops medical-humanitarian visas for people from Gaza
WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department on Saturday said it was halting all visitor visas for individuals from Gaza while it conducts 'a full and thorough' review, a move that has been condemned by pro-Palestinian groups. The department said 'a small number' of temporary medical-humanitarian visas had been issued in recent days but did not provide a figure. The U.S. issued more than 3,800 B1/B2 visitor visas, which permit foreigners to seek medical treatment in the United States, to holders of the Palestinian Authority travel document so far in 2025, according to an analysis of monthly figures provided on the department's website. That figure includes 640 visas issued in May. The PA issues such travel documents to residents of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The department's website did not include a breakdown for the two territories. The State Department's move to stop visitor visas for people from Gaza comes after Laura Loomer, a far-right activist and an ally of President Donald Trump, said on social media on Friday that the Palestinian 'refugees' had entered the U.S. this month. Loomer's statement sparked outrage among some Republicans, with U.S. Representative Chip Roy, of Texas, saying he would inquire about the matter and Representative Randy Fine, of Florida, describing it as a 'national security risk'. The Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned the move, saying it was the latest sign of the 'intentional cruelty' of the Trump administration. The Palestine Children's Relief Fund said the decision to halt visas would deny access to medical care to wounded and sick children in Gaza . 'This policy will have a devastating and irreversible impact on our ability to bring injured and critically ill children from Gaza to the United States for lifesaving medical treatment — a mission that has defined our work for more than 30 years,' it said in a statement. Gaza has been devastated by a war that was triggered on Oct. 7, 2023, when Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an attack on Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli figures. Israel's offensive against Hamas in Gaza since then has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials.
