
At least 36 shot dead near Gaza food site: hospital
The Israeli military said it had fired warning shots at suspects who approached its troops after they did not heed calls to stop, about a kilometre away from an aid distribution site that was not active at the time.
Gaza Strip resident Mohammed al-Khalidi said he was in the group approaching the site and heard no warnings before the firing began.
"We thought they came out to organise us so we can get aid, suddenly (I) saw the jeeps coming from one side, and the tanks from the other and started shooting at us," he said.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US-backed group which runs the aid site, said there were no incidents or fatalities there on Saturday and that it has repeatedly warned people not to travel to its distribution points in the dark.
"The reported IDF (Israel Defence Forces) activity resulting in fatalities occurred hours before our sites opened and our understanding is most of the casualties occurred several kilometres away from the nearest GHF site," it said.
The Israeli military said it was reviewing the incident.
GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to get supplies into the Gaza Strip, largely bypassing a United Nations-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians.
Hamas denies the accusation.
The UN has called the GHF's model unsafe and a breach of humanitarian impartiality standards, which GHF denies.
On Tuesday, the UN rights office in Geneva said it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks in the vicinity of aid sites and food convoys in the Gaza Strip - the majority of them close to GHF distribution points.
Most of those deaths were caused by gunfire that locals have blamed on the Israeli military.
The military has acknowledged that civilians were harmed, saying that Israeli forces had been issued new instructions with "lessons learned".
At least 50 more people were killed in other Israeli attacks across the enclave on Saturday, health officials said, including one strike that killed the head of the Hamas-run police force in Nuseirat in the centre of the Gaza Strip and 11 of his family members.
The Israeli military said that it had struck militants' weapon depots and sniping posts in a few locations in the enclave.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1200 people, mostly civilians and taking 251 hostages back to the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military campaign against Hamas in the strip has since killed about 58,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians according to health officials, displaced almost the entire population and plunged the enclave into a humanitarian crisis, leaving much of the territory in ruins.
Israel and Hamas are engaged in indirect talks in Doha aimed at reaching a US-proposed 60-day ceasefire and a hostage deal mediated by Egypt and Qatar, although there has been no sign of any imminent breakthrough.
At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages are believed to still be alive.
Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan was kidnapped from his kibbutz home and is held by Hamas, urged Israel's leaders to make a deal with the militant group.
"An entire people wants to bring all 50 hostages home and end the war," Zangauker said in a statement outside Israel's defence headquarters in Tel Aviv.
"My Matan is alone in the tunnels," she said, "He has no more time".
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9 News
an hour ago
- 9 News
Razan clung to life for 39 days. She died of hunger aged just 4
Your web browser is no longer supported. To improve your experience update it here Four-year old Razan Abu Zaher gave up her fight for life on Sunday. She died at a hospital in central Gaza from complications brought on by hunger and malnutrition, according to a medical source. Her skeletal body was laid out on a slab of stone. At least 76 children in Gaza have died of malnutrition since the conflict began in October 2023, as well as ten adults, the Palestinian health ministry says. Razan Abu Zaher's shrouded body is carried after she died from malnutrition. (CNN) According to the World Health Organisation, most of these occurred since Israeli authorities imposed a blockade at the beginning of March. Razan was one of at least four children to succumb in the last three days, the youngest just three months. Over the past 24 hours, 18 deaths have been recorded due to famine in Gaza, the health ministry says, reflecting a deepening crisis in the territory. CNN first met Razan a month ago. She was already weak with hunger and pitifully thin. Her mother, Tahrir Abu Daher, said then that she had no money to buy milk, which was in any case rarely available. "Her health was very good before the war, but after the war, her condition began to deteriorate due to malnutrition. There is nothing to strengthen her." Razan Abu Zaher pictured when she was still alive in hospital on June 23. (CNN) That was on June 23. Razan had already been in hospital for 12 days. She clung on to life for another 27 days. Razan died amid growing starvation in Gaza, with the flow of humanitarian aid severely reduced since the beginning of March, when Israeli authorities banned convoys from entering Gaza. That ban was partially lifted at the end of May, but aid agencies say the amounts reaching the territory are far too little to sustain the population. Israel said it was halting shipments of aid into Gaza because Hamas was stealing and profiting from it - an allegation Hamas denies. Israeli agencies also say the United Nations has not picked up aid ready to move into Gaza. The UN in turn has said that Israeli forces frequently deny permission to move aid within Gaza, and that much more is waiting to be allowed in. The Israeli agency that manages the flow of aid into the Gaza strip, the Co-ordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), said in a statement that the IDF was "working to allow and facilitate the transfer" of humanitarian aid, including food. Palestinian children queue for a portion of hot food distributed by a charity kitchen at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on July 15. (CNN) "Since the beginning of the hostilities and up to this day, approximately 67,000 food trucks have entered the Gaza Strip, delivering around 1.5 million tons of food," COGAT said. "Israel will continue to facilitate the entry of food" into Gaza, COGAT said, "while taking all possible measures to prevent the terrorist organisation Hamas from seizing the aid." Gaza was heavily dependent on aid and commercial shipments of food before the conflict began in October 2023, and shortages of food, medical supplies, fuel and other necessities have only worsened since. The scarcity of food since March has sent a rapidly growing number of people to already overwhelmed hospitals. "Gaza is witnessing the worst phase of famine, which has reached catastrophic levels amid unprecedented international silence," said Dr Khalil Al-Daqran, the spokesman for al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, where Razan died. Al-Daqran said the infants who were dying had been robbed of their childhood twice, "once by bombing and killing, and again by depriving them of milk and a piece of bread." The health ministry said an "unprecedented number of starving citizens of all ages are arriving at emergency departments in severe states of exhaustion and fatigue." "Hundreds whose bodies have been severely weakened are now at risk of imminent death due to hunger and their bodies' inability to endure any longer," the ministry added. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights – an NGO working in Gaza - reported over the weekend that one of its team in Gaza had said: "Our faces have changed and our bodies have wasted away. We no longer recognise each other from extreme emaciation, as if we are slowly fading away and dying." Dr Suhaib Al-Hams, director of Kuwait field hospital in Khan Younis, told CNN that people arriving there were in "dire need of food before medicine, as their bodies have reached a point beyond endurance and are all at risk of death." Palestinian rescuers arrive to evacuate injured people after an Israeli drone reportedly opened fire on civilian gatherings near an aid distribution point on June 1. (CNN) "Today, the World Central Kitchen stopped sending meals for the medical staff, they used to send us only rice. Doctors are working 24 hours a day with no food, neither at home nor at the hospital. People are dying of hunger," Al-Hams said Sunday. World Central Kitchen confirmed its Gaza teams had run out of ingredients to cook warm meals. "We served 80,000 meals yesterday (Saturday), emptying the last of our replenished stocks while aid trucks remain stuck at the border. "This is the second time lack of access to aid has forced our kitchen operations to pause," it added. In their desperation, thousands of people risk their lives every day to find something to eat. More than 70 people were reported to have been killed on Sunday in northern Gaza as they desperately sought food aid, according to the health ministry, which said they had been shot by Israeli troops. The Israel Defence Forces said troops in the area "fired warning shots in order to remove an immediate threat posed to them. The IDF is aware of the claim regarding casualties in the area, and the details of the incident are still being examined." "An initial review suggests that the number of casualties reported does not align with the information held by the IDF," it added. Dr Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Hospital where many of the casualties were taken, said that "a significant number of civilians, and even medical staff, are arriving in a state of fainting or collapse due to severe malnutrition." Nearly 800 Palestinians were killed while trying to access aid in Gaza between late May and July 7, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). During that period, OHCHR recorded the killings of 798 people, 615 of whom were killed near sites of the controversial US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). It added that 183 others were killed "on the routes of aid convoys" without giving details on who had been running those convoys. Dozens more have been killed since, according to the health ministry, including more than 30 in southern Gaza on Saturday. Tom Fletcher, the UN Emergency Relief Co-ordinator, told the UN Security Council on Thursday that food was running out in Gaza. "Those seeking it risk being shot. People are dying trying to feed their families." He said starvation rates among children had reached their highest levels in June, with more than 5800 girls and boys diagnosed as acutely malnourished. The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Friday it was receiving "deeply troubling reports of malnourished children and adults being admitted to hospitals with little resources available to treat them properly." On Saturday, Sarmad Tamimy, a plastic surgeon volunteering with Medical Aid for Palestinians, told CNN: "Honestly, I feel the lucky ones get killed immediately because (of) the horrible horrors that they're going to face with their extensive injuries, with inadequate nutrition, inadequate medical supplies, infections, maggots, (and) hospital-acquired infections." Israel Hamas Conflict World Gaza CONTACT US


7NEWS
9 hours ago
- 7NEWS
Officials say 73 Palestinians seeking aid killed in Gaza as Israel widens evacuation orders
At least 73 Palestinians were killed while trying to reach aid at locations across Gaza on Sunday, the territory's Health Ministry said, in one of the deadliest days yet for aid-seekers in over 21 months of war. There was new alarm as Israel's military issued evacuation orders for areas of central Gaza, one of the few areas where it has rarely operated with ground troops and where many international organisations attempting to distribute aid are located. The largest toll was in northern Gaza, where at least 67 Palestinians were killed while trying to reach aid entering through the Zikim crossing with Israel, according to the Health Ministry and local hospitals. The UN World Food Program said 25 trucks with aid had entered for 'starving communities' when it encountered massive crowds that came under gunfire. It called violence against aid-seekers 'completely unacceptable.' Some witnesses said Israel's military shot at the crowd. 'Suddenly, tanks surrounded us and trapped us as gunshots and strikes rained down. We were trapped for around two hours,' said Ehab Al-Zei, who had been waiting for flour. 'I will never go back again. Let us die of hunger, it's better.' Nafiz Al-Najjar, who was injured, said tanks and drones targeted people 'randomly' and he saw his cousin and others shot dead. Israel's military said soldiers had shot at a gathering of thousands of Palestinians in northern Gaza who posed a threat, and it was aware of some casualties. But it said the numbers reported by officials in Gaza were far higher than its initial investigation found. The military said it was attempting to facilitate the entry of aid, and accused Hamas militants of creating chaos and endangering civilians. More than 150 people were wounded overall, with some in critical condition, hospitals said. Separately, seven Palestinians were killed while sheltering in tents in Khan Younis in the south, including a five-year-old boy, according to the Kuwait Specialized Field Hospital, which received the casualties. The killings in northern Gaza didn't take place near aid distribution points associated with the recently created Gaza Humanitarian Fund, a US- and Israel-backed group. Witnesses and health workers say hundreds of people have been killed by Israeli fire while trying to access the group's aid distribution sites. Evacuation orders cut road across Gaza The new evacuation orders cut access between the central city of Deir al-Balah and the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis in the narrow territory. The military also reiterated evacuation orders for northern Gaza. The United Nations has been in contact with Israeli authorities to clarify whether UN facilities in the southwestern part of Deir al-Balah are included in the evacuation order, according to a UN official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorised to speak to the media. The official said that in previous instances, UN facilities were spared from evacuation orders. The latest order covers an area stretching from a previously evacuated area all the way to the Mediterranean coast and will severely hamper movement for aid groups and civilians in Gaza. Military spokesman Avichay Adraee called for people to head to the Muwasi area, a desolate tent camp on Gaza's southern coast that Israel's military has designated a humanitarian zone. The announcement came as Israel and Hamas have been holding ceasefire talks in Qatar, but international mediators say there have been no breakthroughs. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly asserted that expanding Israel's military operations in Gaza will pressure Hamas in negotiations. Earlier this month, Israel's military said it controlled more than 65 per cent of Gaza. Palestinian death toll nears 59,000 Gaza's population of more than 2 million Palestinians are in a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, now relying largely on the limited aid allowed into the territory. Many people have been displaced multiple times. Hamas triggered the war when militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1200 people and taking 251 others hostage. Fifty remain in Gaza, but fewer than half are thought to be alive. Israel's military offensive has killed more than 58,800 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't say how many militants have been killed but says more than half of the dead have been women and children. The ministry is part of the Hamas government, but the UN and other international organisations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties. The Hostages Family Forum, a grassroots organisation that represents many families of hostages, condemned the new evacuation announcement and demanded that Netanyahu and Israel's military explain what they hope to accomplish in central Gaza, accusing Israel of operating without a clear plan. 'Enough! The Israeli people overwhelmingly want an end to the fighting and a comprehensive agreement that will return all of the hostages,' the forum said. On Saturday night, during a weekly protest, tens of thousands marched in Tel Aviv to the branch of the US Embassy, demanding an end to the war. Reports of people dying of hunger Ambulances in front of three major hospitals in Gaza sounded their alarms simultaneously Sunday morning in an urgent appeal as the hunger crisis grows. The Health Ministry posted pictures on social media of doctors holding signs about malnourished children and the lack of medication. A ministry spokesperson, Zaher al-Wahidi, said at least nine children under five have died of malnutrition since Israel imposed a blockade on the entry of aid in March. The blockade was partially eased in May. He said tracking malnutrition deaths is difficult because some people might be suffering from other medical conditions that could be compounded with severe hunger. In northern Gaza, Shifa Hospital director Abu Selmiyah said the hospital recorded 79 people who died of malnutrition in the past month.

The Age
9 hours ago
- The Age
73 Palestinians killed while waiting for humanitarian aid across Gaza, health ministry says
DEIR AL-BALAH: At least 73 people were killed while attempting to access aid at locations across Gaza on Sunday, the health ministry in the Palestinian territory said. The Israeli military said that soldiers had shot at a gathering of thousands of Palestinians in northern Gaza who posed a threat, and that it was aware of some casualties. But it said that the numbers being reported by teams in Gaza were far higher than the military's initial investigation found. The military added that it is attempting to facilitate the entry of aid, and blamed Hamas militants for fomenting chaos and endangering civilians. The largest toll, according to the Gaza ministry, was in the northern part of the territory, where at least 67 Palestinians were killed while trying to reach aid entering northern Gaza through the Zikim crossing with Israel, according to the ministry and local hospitals. More than 150 people were wounded, with some of them in critical condition, hospitals said. Seven Palestinians were also killed while sheltering in tents in Khan Younis, including a 5-year-old boy, according to the Kuwait Specialized Field Hospital, which received the casualties. It wasn't immediately clear whether they were killed by the Israeli army or armed gangs or both. But some witnesses said that the Israeli military shot at the crowd. The killings in northern Gaza didn't take place near aid distribution points associated with the Gaza Humanitarian Fund, or GHF, a US- and Israel-backed group that hands out food packages to Palestinians. Witnesses and health workers say hundreds of people have been killed by Israeli fire while trying to access the group's distribution sites. Meanwhile, the Israeli military published new evacuation warnings for areas of central Gaza on Sunday, in one of the few areas where the military has rarely operated with ground troops.