New massacre of aid seekers in Gaza amid escalation, worsening starvation crisis
Gaza's Ministry of Health reported that the latest massacre raises the total number of Palestinians killed while seeking food since 27 May to 995, with more than 6,000 injured and 45 still missing. The ministry also confirmed that at least 71 children have died of hunger, as the ongoing Israeli blockade has blocked the entry of food and medicine for over four months.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned that one million children in Gaza are now facing starvation, accusing Israel of pursuing a deliberate starvation policy against civilians. The agency called for the immediate lifting of the blockade and unhindered humanitarian access.
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera broadcast footage of fighters from Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, ambushing Israeli forces east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. The escalation comes as the Israeli army issued warnings for civilians to stay away from northern areas including Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya, and Jabalia, labelling them 'active combat zones.'
Despite continued attacks, Palestinian sources said Hamas had received new maps from mediators showing Israeli troop deployments across parts of Gaza, including Beit Hanoun, areas of Rafah and Khan Younis, and Gaza City's Shujaiya neighbourhood. According to a source familiar with talks in Doha, Hamas is reviewing the maps and consulting with other Palestinian factions.
Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported 'cautious optimism' for a possible deal within two weeks, although disagreements remain over the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released per Israeli captive. Qatari mediation has reportedly narrowed the gaps, though Israeli officials, quoted by state broadcaster Kan, accused Hamas of stalling and failing to submit an official response.
In a joint statement, Palestinian factions—including Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front, the Democratic Front, and the Palestinian National Initiative—blamed the Israeli government and the U.S. administration for obstructing the negotiations. They accused Israel of committing genocide and forced displacement against more than two million Palestinians in Gaza, calling it a crime that violates international law and the Geneva Conventions.
The factions warned that Israel's starvation tactics and ongoing military assaults suggest an intent to depopulate Gaza rather than agree to a ceasefire. They urged Palestinians everywhere, alongside Arab, Islamic, and international allies, to step up political and popular efforts to break the siege and stop the atrocities.
Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) confirmed that 25 aid trucks managed to enter northern Gaza via the Zikim crossing on Sunday but were met by large crowds of desperate civilians. The agency reported that the crowd came under fire, resulting in multiple casualties. WFP stressed that attacks on civilians or humanitarian workers are absolutely unacceptable and called for their immediate protection.
In the last 24 hours alone, Gaza's Ministry of Health reported 130 new deaths and 495 injuries, bringing the death toll since 7 October 2023 to 58,895, with 140,980 wounded. Aid-related casualties during the past day accounted for 31 of the dead and more than 107 of the injured.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al-Ahram Weekly
2 hours ago
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Israel strikes Yemen's rebel-held Hodeida port - Region
Israel said its forces struck Yemen's Hodeida port on Monday in the latest attack targeting Huthi rebels, with a security official from the group reporting a dock destroyed. Israel has carried out several air raids on Huthi-held areas of Yemen, including on Hodeida earlier this month, in response to repeated missile and drone attacks since the Gaza war began in October 2023. The rebels claim to act in solidarity with Palestinians. On Monday, the Israeli military "struck terror targets of the Huthi terror regime at the port of Hodeida and is forcefully enforcing the prevention of any attempt to restore the previously attacked terror infrastructure," Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement. "Yemen's fate will be the same as Tehran's," Katz added, in an apparent reference to the recent 12-day war between Israel and Iran in which Israel pummelled Iranian military and nuclear sites, as well as targets in the capital. The Huthis' Al-Masirah television reported "a series of Israeli air strikes on the Hodeida port". A Huthi security official, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, told AFP that "the bombing destroyed the port's dock, which had been rebuilt following previous strikes." An Israeli military statement said that the targets included "engineering vehicles... fuel containers, naval vessels used for military activities" against Israel and "additional terror infrastructure used by the Huthi terrorist regime". It said the port had been used to transfer weapons from Iran, which were then used by the Huthi rebels against Israel. The statement added that Israel had identified efforts by the Iran-backed rebels to "re-establish terrorist infrastructure at the port". The Huthis recently resumed deadly attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, targeting ships they accuse of having links to Israel, to force Israel to end the Gaza war. Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
Al-Ahram Weekly
3 hours ago
- Al-Ahram Weekly
UPDATED: Israeli soldiers kill 93 starving Palestinians near 'aid center' in Gaza - War on Gaza
Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces opened fire on crowds of Palestinians trying to collect humanitarian aid in the war-torn Palestinian territory on Sunday, killing 93 people and wounding dozens more. Eighty were killed as truckloads of aid arrived in the north, while nine others were reported shot near an aid point close to Rafah in the south, where dozens of people lost their lives just 24 hours earlier. Four were killed near another aid site in Khan Younis, also in the south, agency spokesman Mahmud Basal told AFP. The UN World Food Programme said its 25-truck convoy carrying food aid "encountered massive crowds of hungry civilians which came under gunfire" near Gaza City, soon after it crossed from Israel and cleared checkpoints. Civilian deaths have become routine as Israeli forces continue striking crowds gathered near aid centres, where people are facing extreme shortages of food and essential supplies because of the Israeli blockade on the strip. The UN said earlier this month that nearly 800 aid-seekers had been killed since late May, including on the routes of aid convoys. Like 'hunting animals' In Gaza City, Qasem Abu Khater, 36, told AFP he had rushed to try to get a bag of flour but instead found a desperate crowd of thousands and "deadly overcrowding and pushing". "The tanks were firing shells randomly at us and Israeli sniper soldiers were shooting as if they were hunting animals in a forest," he added. "Dozens of people were martyred right before my eyes and no one could save anyone." The WFP condemned violence against civilians seeking aid as "completely unacceptable". Israel on Sunday withdrew the residency permit of head of the OCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) office in Israel, Jonathan Whittall, who has repeatedly condemned the humanitarian conditions in Gaza. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, in a post to X, accused him of spreading lies about the war in Gaza. Israel's genocidal campaign has killed at least 58,895 Palestinians and wounded nearly 140,000 others, the majority of them women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry. Independent investigations suggest the true death toll in Gaza could be far higher -- approaching 100,000 -- as thousands remain missing and are presumed buried beneath the rubble. Most of Gaza's population of more than two million people have been displaced at least once during the war and there have been repeated evacuation calls across large parts of the coastal enclave. On Sunday morning, the Israeli military told residents and displaced Palestinians sheltering in the Deir el-Balah area to move south immediately due to imminent operations in the area. The bodies of Palestinians who were killed while attempting to access aid trucks entering northern Gaza through the Zikim crossing with Israel are brought to a clinic in Gaza City, Sunday, July 20, 2025. AP Whole families were seen carrying what few belongings they have on packed donkey carts heading south. "They threw leaflets at us and we don't know where we are going and we don't have shelter or anything," one man told AFP. The displacement order was "another devastating blow to the already fragile lifelines keeping people alive across the Gaza Strip", the UN OCHA said on Sunday. According to the aid agency, 87.8 percent of Gaza is now under displacement orders or within Israeli militarized zones, leaving "2.1 million civilians squeezed into a fragmented 12 per cent of the Strip, where essential services have collapsed." Palestinians react after carrying the bodies of those killed while trying to reach aid trucks entering northern Gaza through the Zikim crossing with Israel, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Sunday, July 20, 2025. AP Earlier, Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Health Ministry's records department, told The Associated Press At least 79 Palestinians were killed while trying to reach aid entering through the Zikim crossing with Israel. More than 150 people were wounded, some in critical condition, hospitals said. The UN World Food Program said 25 trucks with aid had entered for 'starving communities' when it encountered massive crowds. A UN 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. 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. Women mourning the death of a relative at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis on 20 July. AFP Ethnic cleansing 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 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 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. Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
Al-Ahram Weekly
4 hours ago
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Calm returns to south Syria after violence that killed over 1,100: Monitor - Region
Calm returned to southern Syria's Sweida province on Sunday, a monitor and AFP correspondents reported, after a week of sectarian violence between Druze fighters and rival groups that killed more than 1,100 people. A ceasefire announced on Saturday appeared to be holding after earlier agreements failed to end fighting between longtime rivals the Druze and the Bedouin that spiralled to draw in the Islamist-led government, the Israeli military and armed tribes from other parts of Syria. AFP correspondents on the outskirts of Sweida city reported hearing no clashes on Sunday morning, with government forces deployed in some locations in the province to enforce the truce. The first humanitarian aid convoy entered the city on Sunday, Red Crescent official Omar al-Malki said, adding that it would be followed by others. He said the convoy came "in coordination with the government bodies and the local authorities in Sweida", which are controlled by the Druze. The Syrian government meanwhile said a Druze group blocked its own convoy from entering the city. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that since around midnight (2100 GMT Saturday), "Sweida has been experiencing a cautious calm", adding government security forces had blocked roads leading to the province in order to prevent tribal fighters from going there. The Britain-based Observatory gave an updated toll late Sunday of 1,120 killed since the violence erupted a week ago, including 427 Druze fighters and 298 civilians from the minority group, as well as 354 government security personnel and 21 Sunni Bedouin. Witnesses, Druze factions and the Observatory have accused government forces of siding with the Bedouin and committing abuses including summary executions when they entered Sweida days ago. 'Totally calm' Hanadi Obeid, a 39-year-old doctor, told AFP that "the city hasn't seen calm like this in a week". The interior ministry said overnight that Sweida city was "evacuated of all tribal fighters, and clashes within the city's neighbourhoods were halted". The Observatory had said Druze fighters retook control of the city on Saturday evening. Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa had on Saturday announced a ceasefire in Sweida and renewed a pledge to protect Syria's ethnic and religious minorities in the face of the latest sectarian violence since Islamists overthrew longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December. A spokesman for Syria's tribal and clan council told Al Jazeera late Saturday that fighters had left the city "in response to the call of the presidency and the terms of the agreement". A medic inside Sweida told AFP by telephone on Sunday that "the situation is totally calm... We aren't hearing clashes." Residents of Sweida city, who number at about 150,000, have been holed up in their homes without electricity and water, and food supplies have also been scarce. An AFP photographer said the morgue at Sweida's main hospital was full and bodies were lying on the ground outside the building. The United Nations migration agency said more than 128,000 people in Sweida province have been displaced by the violence. 'Brutal acts' US special envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said Sunday that the country stood at a "critical juncture", adding that "peace and dialogue must prevail -- and prevail now". "All factions must immediately lay down their arms, cease hostilities, and abandon cycles of tribal vengeance," he wrote on X, saying "brutal acts by warring factions on the ground undermine the government's authority and disrupt any semblance of order". Sharaa's announcement on Saturday came hours after the United States said it had negotiated a ceasefire between Syria's government and Israel, which had bombed government forces in both Sweida and Damascus earlier in the week. Following the strikes, the Syrian president hit out at Israel's military intervention, saying it "resorted to a wide-scale targeting of civilian and government facilities," which would have pushed "matters to a large-scale escalation, except for the effective intervention of American, Arab, and Turkish mediation, which saved the region from an unknown fate." Israel, which has its own Druze community, has presented itself as a defender of the minority group. However, some analysts say this could be a pretext for pursuing its own military goal of keeping Syrian government forces as far away as possible from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Saturday urged the Syrian government's security forces to prevent jihadists from entering and "carrying out massacres" in the south, and called on Damascus to "bring to justice anyone guilty of atrocities, including those in their own ranks." *This story was edited by Ahram Online. Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
