Israeli attacks kill 113 Palestinians and wound over 500 in Gaza in 24 hours
Israeli forces continue to block access for ambulance and civil defence teams, leaving many victims trapped and unable to receive aid.
Since 7 October 2023, the death toll has risen above 59,000 with over 143,000 others wounded.
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Gulf Today
2 hours ago
- Gulf Today
Israeli fire kills 78 more Palestinians in Gaza as aid delivery remains chaotic
Israeli strikes or gunfire killed at least 78 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Monday, including a pregnant woman whose baby was delivered after her death but also died, local health officials said. Dozens were killed while seeking food, even as Israel moved to ease restrictions on the entry of aid. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 59,800 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Its count doesn't distinguish between fighters and civilians. The ministry operates under the Hamas government. The UN and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties. Under mounting pressure over the spiraling hunger crisis in Gaza, Israel said over the weekend that the military would pause operations in Gaza City, Deir al-Balah and Muwasi for 10 hours a day and designate secure routes for aid delivery. International airdrops of aid have also resumed. Aid agencies say the new measures are not enough to counter worsening starvation in the territory. A mourner carries the body of a Palestinian killed in an overnight Israeli strike in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Monday. Reuters Martin Penner, a spokesperson for the UN food agency, told the media that all 55 of its aid trucks that entered on Sunday were unloaded by crowds before reaching their destination. Another UN official said nothing on the ground has changed and no alternative routes were allowed. Israel said it would continue military operations alongside the new humanitarian measures. A baby girl died hours after being delivered in a complex emergency cesarean. She had been placed in an incubator and was breathing with assistance from a ventilator, AP footage showed. Her mother, Soad al-Shaer, who had been seven months pregnant with her, was among 12 Palestinians killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house and neighboring tents in the Muwasi area of Khan Younis, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies. Another strike hit a two-story house in Khan Younis, killing at least 11 people, more than half of them women and children, according to the hospital. At least five others were killed in strikes elsewhere in Gaza, according to other hospitals. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on most of the strikes. It said it was not aware of one strike in Gaza City during the pause that health officials said killed one person. Mourners react during the funeral of Palestinians killed in an overnight Israeli strike in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday. Reuters Israel says it only targets fighters and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the fighters operate in densely populated areas. The daily airstrikes across the territory frequently kill women and children. Images of emaciated children have sparked outrage around the world, including from Israel's close allies. U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday called the images of emaciated and malnourished children in Gaza "terrible.' Israel has restricted aid to varying degrees throughout the war. In March, it cut off the entry of all goods, including fuel, food and medicine, to pressure Hamas to free hostages. Israel partially lifted those restrictions in May but also pushed ahead on a new US-backed aid delivery system that has been wracked by chaos and violence. Traditional aid providers have encountered a breakdown in law and order surrounding their deliveries. COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of coordinating aid shipments, said UN agencies collected 120 trucks for distribution on Sunday and that another 180 trucks had been allowed into Gaza. Palestinians inspect the site struck by an Israeli bombardment in Muwasi, Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, on Monday. AP The United Nations and aid groups say the territory needs 500-600 trucks a day to meet its needs. Israel's blockade and military operations have destroyed nearly all food production in the territory of roughly 2 million Palestinians. Also on Monday, two air force planes from Jordan and the United Arab Emirates airdropped 17 tons of humanitarian aid in Gaza - an amount that would fill less than a single aid truck. Aid groups say airdrops are often ineffective and dangerous, with falling parcels landing on people or in combat zones or other dangerous areas. "At the moment, 2 million people are trapped in a tiny piece of land, which makes up just 12% of the whole strip - if anything lands in this area, people will inevitably be injured,' said Jean Guy Vataux, emergency coordinator in Gaza for Doctors Without Borders. "If the airdrops land in areas where Israel has issued displacement orders, people will be forced to enter militarized zones - once again risking their lives for food,' he added. The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, warned that airdrops are "expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians,' and would not address the crisis. At least 25 people were killed by Israeli forces while seeking aid from a truck convoy passing through the southern Gaza Strip, according to health officials and witnesses. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, on Monday. Reuters Four children were among those killed, according to records at Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies. The shooting occurred in a military corridor Israel has carved out between the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah. It was not immediately clear who had supplied the convoy. Survivors at the hospital said Israeli forces had fired toward the crowds. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire while seeking aid since May, according to the UN human rights office, witnesses and local health officials. The Israeli military has said it only fires warning shots at people who approach its forces. The Awda hospital in central Gaza said it received the bodies of seven Palestinians who it said were killed by Israeli fire close to an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed American contractor. The hospital said 20 others were wounded close to the site. GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Fares Awad, head of the Gaza Health Ministry's emergency service, said at least five Palestinians were killed and about 30 others were wounded by Israeli gunfire while waiting for aid trucks from the Zikim Crossing near Gaza City. Hamas started the war with its Oct. 7, 2023, attack, in which Palestinian fighters killed some 1,200 people and abducted 251 others. They still hold 50, and Israel believes that more than half the remaining hostages are dead. Most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals. Associated Press
Dubai Eye
16 hours ago
- Dubai Eye
More aid needed to tackle famine-like conditions in Gaza, says WFP
A long-term steady supply of aid is needed to counter the worsening hunger crisis in Gaza, UN agencies said on Monday after mounting pressure prompted Israel to ease restrictions in the Palestinian enclave. Israel carried out an air drop and announced a series of measures over the weekend, including daily humanitarian pauses in three areas of Gaza and new safe corridors for aid convoys, after images of starving children alarmed the world. On Monday, the Gaza health ministry said at least 14 people had died in the past 24 hours of starvation and malnutrition, bringing the war's death toll from hunger to 147, including 89 children, most in just the last few weeks. The World Food Programme said 60 trucks of aid had been dispatched but that this amount fell short of Gaza's needs. "Sixty is definitely not enough. So our target at the moment, every day is to get 100 trucks into Gaza," WFP Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe, Samer Abdel Jaber, told Reuters. The WFP said that almost 470,000 people in Gaza are enduring famine-like conditions, with 90,000 women and children in need of specialist nutrition treatments. "I cannot say that in a week we will be able to really avert the risks. It has to be something continuous and scalable," Abdel Jaber said. LOOTING Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said aid supply would be kept up whether Israel was negotiating a ceasefire or fighting in Gaza. The WFP said it has 170,000 metric tonnes of food in the region, outside Gaza, which would be enough to feed the whole population for the next three months if it gets the clearance to bring into the enclave. COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, said that over 120 trucks were distributed in Gaza on Sunday by the UN and international organisations. But some of those trucks that made it into Gaza were seized by desperate Palestinians, and some by armed looters, witnesses said. "Currently aid comes for the strong who can race ahead, who can push others and grab a box or a sack of flour. That chaos must be stopped and protection for those trucks must be allowed," said Emad, 58, who used to own a wood factory in Gaza City. More aid was expected to flow in on Monday. Qatar said in a statement it had sent 49 trucks that arrived in Egypt en route for Gaza. Jordan and the UAE airdropped supplies into Gaza. Israel cut off aid to Gaza from the start of March in what it said was a means to pressure Hamas into giving up dozens of hostages it still holds, and reopened aid with new restrictions in May. Israel says it abides by international law but must prevent aid from being diverted by militants, and blames Hamas for the suffering of Gaza's people. "Israel is presented as though we are applying a campaign of starvation in Gaza. What a bald-faced lie. There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza," Netanyahu said on Sunday. He added that with the newly announced measures, it was up to the UN to deliver the aid. United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher said on Sunday that some movement restrictions appeared to have been eased by Israel. A senior WFP official said on Sunday that the agency needs quick approvals by Israel for its trucks to move into Gaza if it is to take advantage of the humanitarian pauses in fighting.
Middle East Eye
18 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
UK urged to move fast after PM signs off on receiving wounded Gaza children
A British organisation bringing children from Gaza to the United Kingdom for medical treatment has called on the UK government to "urgently operationalise" a plan to bring 30 wounded children after the prime minister announced further evacuations late on Friday. In a recorded video, Keir Starmer said that the UK had "put millions of pounds of aid into Gaza", including an extra £40m this year, but "that help is not getting in". "So we are scaling up our work. We are accelerating efforts to evacuate children from Gaza who need critical medical assistance, bringing them to the UK for specialist medical treatment," he said. Starmer's comments were welcomed by the UK-based Project Pure Hope (PPH), which brought the first two - and, so far, the only - Palestinian children from Gaza to the UK for treatment earlier this year in partnership with the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund. The two girls, Rama, 12, and Ghena, five, came to the UK from Egypt with congenital conditions and have been receiving life-saving treatment in the private wings of leading London hospitals, funded entirely by charitable donations. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Over a month ago, PPH asked the government to help facilitate and fund a cohort of 20-40 acutely ill and suffering children to come directly from Gaza to the UK, and had been awaiting a decision. Now, with Starmer's sign off, PPH is urging the government to move quickly, saying it has already paved the way for such evacuations with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Israeli and Jordanian authorities, and could activate its plan to bring the group of children immediately. "Time is of the essence," said Omar Din, one of PPH's co-founders. "Every day of delay risks the lives and futures of children who deserve a chance to recover and rebuild." MPs pressure government Starmer's announcement came after nearly three dozen cross-party MPs called on the government to help facilitate legal pathways and also help with the costs for Palestinian children coming to the UK for treatment. The WHO estimates that at least 12,000 adults and children need to leave Gaza for specialised care. With a short list of countries willing to take them and Israeli authorities limiting those permitted to leave the enclave, aid workers and doctors say people are dying before they can get out. One major obstacle to bring Palestinian children from Gaza to the UK for medical treatment has been the difficulty in obtaining visas that require biometrics. The UK closed its only authorised biometric registration centre in Gaza in October 2023, leaving the nearest visa applications centres in Egypt and Jordan. In a 25 July letter to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Foreign Secretary David Lammy, the MPs recalled the case of Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani campaigner for girl's education, who received life-saving surgery at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham in 2012, four days after she was shot by the Taliban. Children will die quickly amid 'genocidal starvation' in Gaza, warns top famine expert Read More » The MPs, led by Labour's Sam Rushworth and including International Development Committee chair Sarah Champion, said the precedent "demonstrates what can be achieved with international co-ordination and political will". "If the government is not willing to defer biometric registration until arrival in the UK, we exhort you to work with the WHO, COGAT and the Jordanian government to secure passage to the consulate in Amman, where the relevant biomatrics check can be done prior to flying to the UK," they wrote. The MPs also raised the question of funding. With National Health Services facilites used, the government would apply the NHS tariff plus 150 percent surchage, meaning "costs can run to hundreds of thousands of pounds per patient", they said. They noted the role the UK had played in supporting just under half a million people to receive essential healthcare in Gaza and funding a polio vaccine campaign. "Could [Official Development Assistance] not be used to likewise support life-saving health care 'at cost' in the UK? Paediatric specialists around the UK stand ready to help," they wrote. "From the 669 children rescued by Sir Nicolas Winton on the Kindertransport 86 years ago, to the more recent Home for Ukraine scheme, the British people expect our country to play our part." Din told MEE that, in order to get started with bringing the group of children, his organisation is waiting for the government to confirm details, including funding and timing. MEE asked the Foreign Office on Monday when the government planned to start evacuating the children from Gaza, if it would allocate funding for their treatment, and whether their evacuations would be organised through a scheme like the one for the Ukrainians, but did not receive an immediate answer. On Tuesday, Din is scheduled to travel to Cairo to pick up Majd, the third child that PPH will bring to the UK for private medical treatment. "Whilst the UK scheme is getting off the ground, we carry on with our privately funded work," he said.
