Israeli fire again kills Gaza aid-seekers as U.S. envoy meets with hostages' families

Los Angeles Times

4 days ago

DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli forces opened fire near two aid distribution sites run by the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as crowds of hungry Palestinians again sought food, killing at least 10 people, witnesses and health workers said Saturday.
The latest deaths come a day after U.S. officials visited a GHF site and the U.S. ambassador called the troubled system 'an incredible feat.'
Nearly a week has passed since Israel, under international pressure amid growing scenes of starving children, announced limited humanitarian pauses and airdrops meant to get more food to Gaza's more than 2 million residents, who now largely rely on aid after almost 22 months of war.
But the United Nations, partners and Palestinians say far too little aid is still coming in, with months' worth of supplies piled up outside the Gaza Strip waiting for Israeli approval. Trucks that enter are mostly stripped of supplies by desperate people and criminal groups before reaching warehouses for distribution.
Experts this week said a 'worst-case scenario of famine' was occurring in the besieged enclave. On Saturday, Gaza's Health Ministry said seven more Palestinians had died of malnutrition-related causes over the past 24 hours, including a child.
Families of the 50 hostages still in Gaza fear their loved ones are going hungry too, and blame Hamas, after the militants released images of an emaciated hostage, Evyatar David.
Near the northernmost GHF distribution site near the Netzarim corridor, Yahia Youssef, who had come to seek aid Saturday morning, described a panicked and grimly familiar scene. After helping carry three people wounded by gunshots, he said he saw others on the ground bleeding.
'It's the same daily episode,' Youssef said. Health workers said at least eight people were killed. Israel's military said it fired warning shots at a gathering approaching its forces.
At least two people were killed in the Shakoush area hundreds of yards from where the GHF operates another site in the southernmost city of Rafah, witnesses said. Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Yunis received two bodies and many injured.
Witness Mohamed Abu Taha said Israeli troops opened fire toward the crowds. He saw three people — two men and a woman — shot as he fled.
Israel's military said it was not aware of any fire by its forces in the area. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said nothing happened near its sites.
GHF says its armed contractors have used only pepper spray or fired warning shots to prevent deadly crowding. Israel 's military on Friday said it was working to make the routes under its control safer. Israel and GHF have claimed the toll has been exaggerated.
The GHF — backed by millions of dollars in U.S. support — launched in May as Israel sought an alternative to the U.N.-run system, which had safely delivered aid for much of the war but was accused by Israel of allowing Hamas to siphon off supplies. Israel has not offered evidence for that claim and the U.N. has denied it.
From May 27 to July 31, 859 people were killed near GHF sites, according to a United Nations report published Thursday. Hundreds more have been killed along the routes of U.N.-led food convoys. Hamas-led police once guarded those convoys and went after suspected looters, but Israeli fire targeted the officers.
Airdrops by a Jordanian-led coalition — including Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, France and Germany — are another approach, though experts say the strategy remains deeply inadequate and even dangerous for people on the ground.
'Let's go back to what works & let us do our job,' Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, wrote Saturday on social media, calling for more and safer truck deliveries.
An Israeli strike hit a group of Palestinians trying to secure aid trucks entering northern Gaza from the Israeli-controlled Zikim crossing, killing at least three people, said Fares Awad, head of the Health Ministry's ambulance and emergency service.
Nasser Hospital said it received five bodies after two separate strikes on tents sheltering displaced people in Gaza's south.
The Health Ministry's ambulance and emergency service said an Israeli strike hit a house between the towns of Zawaida and Deir al Balah, killing two parents and their three children. Another strike hit a tent near a closed prison where the displaced have sheltered in Khan Yunis, killing a mother and her daughter.
Israel's top general, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, warned that 'combat will continue without rest' if hostages aren't freed.
President Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, met with hostages' families Saturday, a week after quitting ceasefire talks, blaming what the U.S. called Hamas' intransigence.
'I didn't hear anything new from him. I heard that there was pressure from the Americans to end this operation, but we didn't hear anything practical,' said Michel Illouz, father of Israeli hostage Guy Illouz, whose body was taken into Gaza.
He said he asked Witkoff to exert pressure and set a time frame but got 'no answers.'
Protesters called on Israel's government to make a deal to end the war, imploring it to 'stop this nightmare and bring them out of the tunnels'
In part of Gaza City, displaced people who managed to return home found rubble-strewn neighborhoods unrecognizable. Most Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced, often multiple times, and are crowded into ever-shrinking areas considered safe.
'I don't know what to do. Destruction, destruction,' said Mohamed Qeiqa, who stood amid collapsed slabs of concrete and pointed out what had been a five-story building. 'Where will people settle?'
The war began when Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 hostage. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 60,400 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between militants and civilians but says women and children make up more than half the dead. The ministry operates under the Hamas government. The U.N. and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.
The ministry says 93 children have died from malnutrition-related causes in Gaza since the war began. It said 76 adults have died of malnutrition-related causes since late June, when it started counting adult deaths.
Shurafa, Metz and Magdy write for the Associated Press and reported from Deir al Balah, Jerusalem and Cairo, respectively.