International charities and NGOs call for end to controversial Israeli-backed aid group in Gaza
At least seven Palestinians were killed seeking aid in southern and central Gaza between late Monday and early Tuesday.
The deaths came after Israeli forces killed at least 74 people in Gaza earlier Monday with airstrikes that left 30 dead at a seaside cafe and gunfire that left 23 dead as Palestinians tried to get desperately needed food aid, witnesses and health officials said.
Next week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to Washington to meet President Trump and other administration officials. Netanyahu's visit comes as Trump has signaled he is ready for Israel and Hamas to wind down the war in Gaza, which is likely to be a focus of their talks.
The war has killed over 56,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says more than half of the dead were women and children.
The health ministry on Tuesday afternoon said the bodies of 116 people killed by Israeli strikes had been brought to hospitals in Gaza over the past 24 hours.
The Hamas attack in October 2023 that sparked the war killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 others hostage. Some 50 hostages remain, many of them thought to be dead.
More than 165 major international charities and non-governmental organizations, including Oxfam, Save the Children and Amnesty, on Tuesday called for an immediate end to the Gaza Humanitarian Fund.
'Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while trying desperately to reach food to feed their families,' the group said in a joint news release.
The call by the charities and NGOs was the latest sign of trouble for the Gaza Humanitarian Fund, a secretive U.S. and Israeli-backed initiative headed by an evangelical leader who is a close ally of Trump.
The Gaza Humanitarian Fund started distributing aid on May 26, following a nearly three-month Israeli blockade that has pushed Gaza's population of more than 2 million people to the brink of famine.
In a statement Tuesday, the organization said it has delivered more than 52 million meals over five weeks.
'Instead of bickering and throwing insults from the sidelines, we would welcome other humanitarian groups to join us and feed the people in Gaza,' the statement said. 'We are ready to collaborate and help them get their aid to people in need. At the end of the day, the Palestinian people need to be fed.'
Last month, the organization said there has been no violence in or around its distribution centers and that its personnel have not opened fire.
Israel's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
According to Gaza's Health Ministry, more than 500 Palestinians have been killed around the chaotic and controversial aid distribution program over the past month.
Palestinians are often forced to travel long distances to access Gaza Humanitarian Fund hubs in hopes of obtaining aid.
The humanitarian fund is the linchpin of a new aid system that wrested distribution away from aid groups led by the U.N.
The new mechanism limits food distribution to a small number of hubs under guard of armed contractors, where people must go to pick it up. Currently four hubs are set up, all close to Israeli military positions.
Israel had demanded an alternative plan because it accuses Hamas of siphoning off aid. The United Nations and aid groups deny there is significant diversion. They reject the new mechanism, saying it allows Israel to use food as a weapon, violates humanitarian principles and won't be effective.
The Israeli military said it had recently taken steps to improve organization in the area.
Israel says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, accusing the militants of hiding among civilians because they operate in populated areas.
At least seven Palestinians were killed late Monday and early Tuesday in three separate locations while seeking aid, hospitals said.
Three of the deaths by Israeli fire occurred in Gaza's southern city of Khan Yunis, while four were killed in central Gaza.
More than 65 others were wounded, according to the Awda hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp, and the Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City, which received the casualties.
The casualties were among thousands of starved Palestinians who gather at night to take aid from passing trucks in the area of the Netzarim route in central Gaza.
Meanwhile, an 11-year-old girl was killed Tuesday when an Israeli strike hit her family's tent west of Khan Yunis, according to the Kuwait field hospital that received her body.
And the U.N. Palestinian aid agency said Israel's military struck one of its schools sheltering displaced people in Gaza City on Monday. The strike left no casualties but caused significant damage to the facility, UNRWA said.
Speaking to a meeting of his Cabinet on Tuesday, Netanyahu did not elaborate on the contents of his upcoming Washington visit, except to say he will discuss a trade deal.
Iran, following the 12-day war with Israel, is also expected to be a main topic of discussion. After brokering a ceasefire between Iran and Israel, Trump has signaled that he's turning his attention to bringing a close to the fighting between Israel and Hamas.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in the occupied West Bank said Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in the territory, including a 15-year-old, in two separate incidents.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the teen's shooting. In the second incident, it said a 'suspicious individual' was seen trying to cross into Israel from the southern West Bank, prompting soldiers to open fire.
The Shifa hospital in Gaza City suspended services at the dialysis unit amid a shortage of fuel required to operate power generators, the Health Ministry announced on Tuesday. The unit provides treatment to dozens of kidney failure patients in northern Gaza.
It called for international agencies to press Israel to quickly allow the delivery of fuel to Shifa and other overwhelmed hospitals across Gaza.
'The continued lack of fuel means the inevitable death of all patients and wounded in hospitals,' it said.
Mourners held Muslim funeral prayers Tuesday for seven people from the same family who were killed in an airstrike the previous day in central Gaza.
The strike hit a family house in the central town of Zawaida late Monday, killing two parents, two siblings and three grandchildren, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah, which received the casualties.
Magdy writes for the Associated Press. Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump and Hegseth Are Melting Down Over Leaked Iran Strike Intel
Donald Trump is not happy over the leaked Pentagon intelligence that found the strikes against Iran over the weekend were not as damaging as the president and his administration have been claiming. CNN and The New York Times both reported on the government's preliminary information about the efficacy of the attacks on Tuesday, and Trump has spent the past few days incessantly attacking the outlets while repeatedly insisting that strikes 'obliterated' Iran's nuclear capabilities. The details of the intelligence report — which found that the strikes only partially damaged their targets and likely only set back Iran's nuclear program a few months — went public as Trump was attending a NATO summit in the Netherlands, and his comments at the meeting of the allied nations largely revolved around the Iran strikes and how 'disgusting' and 'horrible' the media is for reporting on the government's early findings about what happened. Trump's Truth Social account has meanwhile been rife with all-caps attacks against CNN and the Times, as well as calls for everyone involved to be fired. 'FAKE NEWS REPORTERS FROM CNN & THE NEW YORK TIMES SHOULD BE FIRED, IMMEDIATELY!!! BAD PEOPLE WITH EVIL INTENTIONS!!!' he wrote this morning. Trump also used Truth Social to tease an early-morning press conference from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who berated the media today alongside Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine. 'How many stories have been written about how hard it is to fly a plane for 36 hours?' a visibly enraged Hegseth asked the congregated press, referring to the mission to bomb the Iranian nuclear sites, which he described as 'the most complex and secretive military operation in history.' 'How about we celebrate that?' Hegseth continued in his screed about the media's coverage of the strikes. 'How about we talk about how successful America is, that only we have these capabilities? I think it's too much to ask, unfortunately, for the fake news.' Hegseth even went after one of his former colleagues, Jennifer Griffin of Fox News, who asked about the administration's confidence that Iran did not preemptively move uranium from the sites of the strikes, which the Pentagon's preliminary report indicated was likely. 'Jennifer, you've been about the worst, the one who misrepresents the most, intentionally, what the president said,' he said. The chaotic scene today at the Pentagon, and on Trump's Truth Social feed, is part of an administration-wide effort to defend the strikes, discredit the leaked intelligence report, and inflate the president's ego while chastising or threatening those casting the strikes as anything short of a historic success. The president has been especially sensitive about the prospect of Iran having moved uranium ahead of the strikes. In recent days, a person with direct knowledge of the situation tells Rolling Stone that the president has been sensitive about any reporting suggesting stockpiles had been moved, in part because Trump essentially tipped off the Iranians by teasing that the U.S. could take action. 'It really pisses him off when people say that,' this source says, noting that would undermine Trump's assertion of how 'perfectly' this operation was conducted. Trump claimed on Truth Social as Hegseth berated the media today that 'nothing was taken out of the facility' and that the trucks appearing on satellite imaging ahead of the strikes 'were those of concrete workers.' Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, and other top officials have leapt to Trump's defense in response to the leaked report — but Hegseth may be the tip of the spear. One Trump adviser tells Rolling Stone that they chuckled at the former Fox News host's seemingly prepared line about how Trump's bombing operation was 'the most complex and secretive military operation' ever — or, in this source's paraphrase, even 'better than D-Day.' This adviser says it immediately reminded them of former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer's much-ridiculed declaration that Trump's first 2017 inauguration had 'the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe.' Trump has joined Hegseth in pushing absurd exaggerations about the efficacy of the strikes, and, not surprisingly given that the intelligence report did not parrot the president's talking points, the current propaganda blitz is accompanied by yet another one of Trump's sprawling leak crackdowns. As Rolling Stone first reported, the leak of classified material to outlets such as CNN and The New York Times quickly triggered a particularly aggressive investigation, with Trump and other senior administration officials fuming that this could have happened. The leak hunt was launched concurrently with the Trump team's broader clampdown on intelligence and sensitive information. Staff at the Pentagon and elsewhere in the federal government were personally warned by superiors that if they had anything to do with this disclosure to the media, they could be facing serious prison time, two sources with knowledge of the matter say. Additionally, Trump lieutenants moved to put an even tighter stranglehold on the amount of classified information it shares with Congress. 'We are declaring a war on leakers,' one senior White House official told Axios. Leavitt said Wednesday that 'the FBI is investigating who was the source of that leak because it's an illegal leak to CNN.' It's still too soon to know the reality of the operation's effectiveness. Caine was asked about this uncertainty during the press conference with Hegseth today. 'General, on Sunday you said final battle damage will take some time … and it would be way too early for me to comment on what may or may not still be there,' a reporter began before asking Caine, 'What has changed? Would you use the term 'obliterated,' as well?' Caine began to answer before Hegseth cut in and started attacking the media's 'irresponsible' coverage of the operation. More from Rolling Stone Republicans Keep Making Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' Worse Trump Demands Republicans Crack Down on Nonprofits That Protest ICE Trump Admin Says ICE Agents are the Real Victims Amid Violent Immigration Raids Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Florida GOP Hawks Merch for Brutal ‘Alligator Alcatraz' Migrant Detention Camp
The Florida Republican Party is selling merchandise promoting its new migrant detention camp in the Florida Everglades. Dubbed 'Alligator Alcatraz' by its proponents, Republicans are salivating at the prospect of subjecting undocumented migrants to brutal conditions in giant plastic tents situated in the oppressive heat and humidity of backwater Florida. 'The feds have greenlit Alligator Alcatraz — Florida's gator-guarded, python-patrolled prison for illegal aliens who thought they could game the system,' reads a fundraising email from the Florida GOP. 'Surrounded by miles of swamp and bloodthirsty wildlife, this ain't no vacation spot. It's a one-way ticket to regret for criminals who'll wish they'd self-deported' 'Every shirt, hat, or koozie you grab funds our push to keep Florida tough on crime, and tougher on borders,' the email reads. Shirts for sale feature what looks to be an AIgenerated image of a prison in a swamp, with a python and an alligator in the foreground. Koozies and hats are also for sale. Alcatraz is, of course, the notorious former maximum security prison in the middle of San Francisco Bay. The prison was long believed to be inescapable given the surrounding frigid waters and deadly currents. Earlier this year, Trump said he was directing the government to rebuild and reopen Alcatraz as a high-security prison for the nation's 'most ruthless and violent offenders.' The plan has seemingly stalled, probably because the facility underwent a transformation into a museum that has been open to the public for more than half a century. In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis is looking to replace oceans and sharks of the actual Alcatraz with gator-infested swampland. On Friday, DeSantis gave Fox News an exclusive tour of the facility, which the state is scrambling to ready for its first wave of migrants by next week. The facility is built on top of a remote 'airport' with a few scant buildings. As DeSantis put it, the federal government could 'fly these people back to their own country, they can do it [here,] one stop shop.' 'This is as secure as it gets,' the governor told Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy. 'If a criminal alien were to escape from here somehow — and I don't think they will — you have nowhere to go. What are you going to do? Trudge through the swamp and dodge alligators on the way back — 50 or 60 miles — just to get to civilization? Not going to happen.' The governor bragged that everything is being done 'by the book' and that inmates would even be given access to showers and medical care. 'It presents an efficient, low-cost opportunity to build a temporary detention facility because you don't need to invest that much in the perimeter,' Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said earlier this week in a promotional video for the camp. 'If people get out, there's not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons.' Creating torturous conditions for undocumented immigrants rounded up en mass seems to be a central component of the administration's immigration crackdown. The stunt in Florida evokes the specter of former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio's tent-city jail, which for decades boasted some of the cruelest and most inhumane conditions in the American prison system. Trump has also praised the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in El Salvador, a maximum security prison that doubles as a propaganda staging ground for the autocratic Salvadoran government. Earlier this year, the Trump administration disappeared hundreds of undocumented men — many of whom had no known criminal record — to CECOT, and made a public show of frog-marching them to the facility known for human rights abuses. Given that DeSantis is already inviting in camera crews to tour the unfinished Alligator Alcatraz facility, there's a good chance the remote, uncomfortable setting of this new prison will be featured prominently in the administration's zero-tolerance immigration narrative. As DeSantis hinted to Doocy during the tour: 'If the president is watching, I'm sure that runway could probably land Air Force One.' More from Rolling Stone Kristi Noem Secretly Pocketed Cash From Dark Money Group: Report Rick Scott Demands More Cuts to Medicaid, Which His Company Allegedly Scammed Leaked Iran Call Further Shreds Trump's Narrative: Report Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
Yahoo
19 minutes ago
- Yahoo
J.D. Vance Dismisses Kicking Millions Off Medicaid: ‘Minutiae'
President Donald Trump and the GOP's so-called 'Big Beautiful Bill' is far from beautiful and deeply unpopular with the public. Battling concerns from voters about increased barriers to accessing programs like Medicaid and food assistance; massive transfers of wealth from less fortunate Americans to corporations and the rich; and the mass deregulation of industries like crypto and AI, Vice President J.D. Vance is attempting a new tactic to persuade the hesitant: ignore all of that and focus on how much money the bill is giving to ICE. 'The thing that will bankrupt this country more than any other policy is flooding the country with illegal immigration and then giving those migrants generous benefits. The [One Big Beautiful Bill] fixes this problem. And therefore it must pass,' Vance wrote Tuesday on X. 'Everything else — the CBO score, the proper baseline, the minutiae of the Medicaid policy — is immaterial compared to the ICE money and immigration enforcement provisions,' he added. The millions of people who are expected to lose access to their health insurance as a result of the legislation would likely beg to differ. The version of the legislation passed by the House would give Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over $100 billion for the construction of new immigration detention centers, increasing arrest and deportation efforts, militarization of the border and the hiring of new agents. Such a massive windfall for immigration enforcement comes as ICE has blown through its annual budget months before the end of the fiscal year. In May, during a hearing of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) laid into the reckless spending of the Department of Homeland Security under Secretary Kristi Noem. 'You are spending like you don't have a budget. You are on the verge of running out of money for the fiscal year […] You are ignoring the immigration laws of this nation, implementing a brand-new immigration system that you have invented that has little relation to the statutes that you are required — that you are commanded — to follow as spelled out in your oath of office,' Murphy said. 'Your agency acts as if laws don't matter, as if the election gave you some mandate to violate the Constitution and the laws passed by this Congress. It did not give you that mandate.' Through the reconciliation bill and presidential policy, Republicans in Congress and the Trump administration are looking to give DHS and ICE that mandate. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller has demanded that ICE detain at least 3,000 migrants a day. As the reconciliation bill continues to move through the Senate, Trump and Noem traveled to Florida on Tuesday to tour the so-called 'Alligator Alcatraz,' a migrant detention center built in the hostile backwaters of the Florida Everglades. 'We're going to teach them how to run away from an alligator,' Trump said ahead of his visit to the center. 'Don't run in a straight line,' Trump said, waving his hand in a zig-zag to demonstrate how a detainee might potentially need to move to escape a half-ton reptile. This kind of callous cruelty is what the administration is focused on, whether it be its treatment of migrants, or dismissing kicking millions off of their health care as insignificant 'minutiae.' More from Rolling Stone White House Pushes B.S. About 'Big Beautiful Bill' as Popularity Craters Dem Senator Whines Amid GOP Push to Gut Medicaid: 'I Just Want to Go Home' Rick Scott Demands More Cuts to Medicaid, Which His Company Allegedly Scammed Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
