Officials Say 85 Palestinians Seeking Aid Are Killed in Gaza as Israel Widens Evacuation Orders
There was new alarm as Israel's military issued evacuation orders for parts of central Gaza, one of the few areas where it has rarely operated with ground troops and where many international organizations trying to distribute aid are located. One group said several offices were told to evacuate immediately. There was no immediate Israeli comment.
The largest death toll was in devastated northern Gaza, where living conditions are especially dire. At least 79 Palestinians were killed while trying to reach aid entering through the Zikim crossing with Israel, Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Health Ministry's records department, told The Associated Press. The U.N. World Food Program said 25 trucks with aid had entered for 'starving communities' when it encountered massive crowds.
A U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to comment on the incident to the media, said Israeli forces opened fire toward crowds who tried to take food from the convoy. Footage taken by the U.N. and shared with the AP showed Palestinian men running as automatic gunfire was heard.
'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 and said he hadn't eaten bread in 15 days. He spoke over the din of people carrying the dead and wounded. '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 accuses Hamas of creating chaos
Israel's military said soldiers 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. It accused Hamas militants of creating chaos.
More than 150 people were wounded, some in critical condition, hospitals said.
Al-Waheidi said Israeli gunfire killed another six Palestinians in the Shakoush area, hundreds of meters (yards) north of a hub of the recently created Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.- and Israel-backed group, in the southern city of Rafah. The GHF said it was not aware of any incident near its site. Witnesses and health workers say several hundred people have been killed by Israeli fire while trying to access the group's aid distribution sites.
Separately, seven Palestinians were killed while sheltering in tents in Khan Younis in the south, including a 5-year-old boy, according to the Kuwait Specialized Field Hospital, which received the casualties.
Evacuation orders cut road across Gaza
The new evacuation orders cut access between the central city of Deir al-Balah and Rafah and Khan Younis in the narrow territory. The military also reiterated evacuation orders for northern Gaza.
Palestinians were startled to see the orders for parts of Deir al-Balah, a relative haven. 'All of Rafah is under evacuation, and now you have decided that half of Deir al-Balah is under evacuation. Where will we move to?' asked resident Hassan Abu Azab, as others piled everything from bedding to live ducks onto carts and other vehicles. Smoke rose in the distance, with blasts and the sound of a siren.
The United Nations was in contact with Israeli authorities to clarify whether U.N. facilities in the southwestern part of Deir al-Balah are included in the order, according to a different U.N. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media. The official said that in previous instances, U.N. facilities were spared from such orders.
The Medical Aid for Palestinians group said several humanitarian organizations' offices and guesthouses had been 'ordered to evacuate immediately' and nine clinics, including the MAP one, had been forced to shut down. It was not immediately clear what other groups were affected.
Military spokesman Avichay Adraee called for people to head to Muwasi, a desolate tent camp with little infrastructure 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. 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% 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.
Ambulances in front of three major hospitals in Gaza sounded their alarms simultaneously Sunday in an urgent appeal as hunger grows. The Health Ministry posted pictures on social media of doctors holding signs about malnourished children and the lack of medication.
Hamas triggered the war when militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 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 over half of the dead have been women and children. The ministry is part of the Hamas government, but the U.N. and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.
The Hostages Family Forum, a grassroots organization that represents many families of hostages, condemned the new evacuation order and demanded that Netanyahu and Israel's military explain what they hope to accomplish in central Gaza.
'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 U.S. Embassy, demanding an end to the war.
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Yomiuri Shimbun
13 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Palestinian Death Toll in Israel-Hamas War Passes 60,000, Gaza Health Ministry Says
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The ministry, which doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, is staffed by medical professionals. The United Nations and other independent experts view its figures as the most reliable count of casualties. Israel has disputed its figures, but hasn't provided its own account of casualties. Dozens killed, most while seeking aid Airstrikes on tents housing displaced people in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp late Monday killed 30 people, including 12 children and 14 women, according to Al-Awda Hspital. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, saying the militants operate in populated areas. The military said that it targeted Hamas military infrastructure over the past day, including rocket launchers, weapons storage facilities and tunnels. Hospital officials, meanwhile, said that they received the bodies of an additional 33 people who were killed by gunfire around an aid convoy in southern Gaza on Monday, bringing the toll to 58. Witnesses said that Israeli forces fired toward the crowd. Another 14 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday near a site in central Gaza run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF, an Israeli-backed American contractor, according to local hospitals. GHF said that there were no violent incidents near its sites on Tuesday. The Israeli military said it was 'not aware of casualties' as a result of Israeli gunfire near the GHF site. There was no comment from the military on the shooting near the aid convoy on Monday. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire while seeking aid since May, according to witnesses, health officials and the U.N. human rights office. 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It is only pushing towards military escalation by hardening Hamas's stance,' he said Tuesday. The U.S. and Israel have both recalled their negotiating teams over the past week as long-running negotiations over a ceasefire and hostage release seem to have stalled. Palestinians swim for airdropped aid Under mounting international pressure, Israel announced a series of measures over the weekend to increase the flow of aid, including expanded humanitarian corridors and international aid drops. U.N. officials say there has been little change on the ground so far, and much more is needed. Air force cargo planes from Jordan and the United Arab Emirates have dropped aid over Gaza in recent days, and France and Germany have announced plans to join that effort. But Associated Press reporters in Gaza said that much of the aid has fallen in so-called red zones that Israel has ordered people to evacuate from. 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At least 8,867 Palestinians have been killed since then. Israel eased the blockade in May, but U.N. agencies say it hasn't allowed nearly enough aid to enter and that they have struggled to deliver it because of Israeli restrictions and the breakdown of law and order. An alternative Israeli-backed system run by GHF has been marred by violence and controversy.
Yomiuri Shimbun
15 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
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At least 30% of children six months to 5 years old suffer from acute malnutrition or wasting, meaning they're too thin for their height. And at least two people or four children under 5 per 10,000 are dying daily due to starvation or the interaction of malnutrition and disease. The report is based on available information through July 25 and says the crisis has reached 'an alarming and deadly turning point.' It says data indicate that famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of Gaza — at its lowest level since the war began — and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City. The report says nearly 17 out of every 100 children under the age of 5 in Gaza City are acutely malnourished. Mounting evidence shows 'widespread starvation.' Essential health and other services have collapsed. One in three people in Gaza is going without food for days at a time, according to the World Food Program. Hospitals report a rapid increase in hunger-related deaths in children under 5. Gaza's population of over 2 million has been squeezed into increasingly tiny areas of the devastated territory. 'This is not a warning. It is a reality unfolding before our eyes,' U.N. secretary-general Antonio Guterres said in a statement on the new report, adding that the 'trickle of aid must become an ocean.' More deaths to come The IPC alert calls for immediate and large-scale action and warns: 'Failure to act now will result in widespread death in much of the strip.' Humanitarian workers agreed. 'If we don't have the conditions to react to this mass starvation, we will see this exponential rise,' said Rachael Cummings, humanitarian director for Save the Children International, based in Gaza. 'So we will see thousands and potentially tens of thousands of people die in Gaza. That is preventable.' She described children digging through trash piles outside their office, looking for food. 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Asahi Shimbun
16 hours ago
- Asahi Shimbun
VOX POPULI: Children's lives hang by a thread in Gaza's man-made famine
A Palestinian reacts as he waits to receive food from a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis, in Gaza City on July 28. (REUTERS) International medical aid organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, uses a simple yet lifesaving tool to assess whether a child is at risk of starvation—calling it the 'bracelet of life.' The device is a color-coded measuring band deployed in conflict zones and disaster-stricken areas to quickly detect acute malnutrition in infants and young children. Wrapped around the mid-upper arm, the band provides an immediate visual assessment: yellow signals a warning of malnutrition, while red indicates severe malnutrition and a life-threatening risk. I discovered on the nongovernmental organization's website that the mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) tape can be printed at actual size. Using the downloadable file with all the markings, I printed the band and cut it out. The red zone begins at a circumference of just 11.5 centimeters, narrower than the circle I can form with my thumb and forefinger. I was struck by the thought that a human arm could be so thin and fragile that it could seemingly just snap. I recently came across an Asahi Shimbun report about a 7-month-old girl in northern Gaza suffering from severe malnutrition, whose MUAC measurement fell squarely in the red zone. Her mother said, 'She was a healthy baby who smiled a lot' when she was born. The words are quietly devastating. In Gaza, famine is spreading rapidly, compounding the toll of the ongoing conflict. Between July 22 and 26 alone, at least 39 people reportedly died of starvation. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres highlighted the despair gripping the enclave, saying many children speak of 'wanting to go to heaven'—'because at least,' they say, 'there is food there.' The children of Gaza are, in other words, harboring a quiet wish to escape from a world filled with agony. The U.N. chief's words underscored the heart-rending reality facing Gaza's youngest victims. Even U.S. President Donald Trump has acknowledged the real starvation unfolding in Gaza and signaled plans to open new food distribution centers in the blockaded territory. All this feels like a stark reminder that the lives of Gaza's people hang on the decisions of an often unpredictable U.S. leader, and it remains uncertain whether the situation will truly improve. Famine must be addressed at its root. This is not a natural disaster—it is a man-made famine, the result of Israel's actions. —The Asahi Shimbun, July 30 * * * Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.
