Israel Launches New Gaza Offensive After Dozens Killed Seeking Aid
The escalation comes amid growing international alarm over mounting civilian casualties after dozens of Palestinians seeking aid were killed Sunday in one of the deadliest incidents since Israel introduced a new humanitarian delivery system in late May.
The Israeli army had previously refrained from escalating military operations in Deir Al Balah due to some of the remaining Israeli hostages being help captive in the area, Israeli sources told Reuters.
The Israeli military issued evacuation orders on Sunday to the city's residents, urging them to move south to the town of Al Mawasi on the coast.
'The Defense Army continues to operate with great force to destroy the enemy's capabilities and terrorist infrastructure in the area, as it expands its activities,' IDF spokesperson Avichay Adraee said.
Families of Israeli hostages criticize offensive
Families of the some 50 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza said they were 'shocked' by news of the latest offensive.
'The people of Israel will not forgive anyone who knowingly endangered the hostages—both the living and the deceased,' they said in a statement released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. 'No one will be able to claim they didn't know what was at stake.'
It added that the Israeli government has not provided any clear explanation as to how 'the offensive in the Deir Al Balah area does not put the hostages at serious risk.'
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that Sunday's displacement orders were 'yet another devastating blow to the already fragile lifelines keeping people alive across the Gaza Strip.'
Initial estimates indicate that between 50,000 and 80,000 people were in the area at the time the order was issued, including some 30,000 people sheltering in 57 displacement sites,' it said in a statement on Sunday night.
OCHA says that with the latest displacement order over 87% of Gaza is now under such orders, or under the control of the Israeli military.
'[Sunday] was a horrible night but we made it through,' resident Oday Basheer, who helps run a kitchen in Deir Al Balah, told TIME.
Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) called the situation 'extremely critical.'
'Shelling is taking place all around our office, and military vehicles are just 400 metres away from our colleagues and their families, who endured a harrowing night after relocating there,' MAP Communications Officer Mai Elawawda said in a statement.
Dozens killed at aid centers
The military escalation comes after at least 73 Palestinians were killed on Sunday while trying to collect aid, according to Gaza health officials. At least 67 were killed waiting for aid from a U.N. convoy in northern Gaza and a further six people killed in Khan Younis in the south.
Gaza health officials said that Sunday's deaths in northern Gaza occurred near the Zikim border crossing point, where a 25-truck World Food Programme (WFP) convoy entered the strip.
The U.N.-run WFP says that after the convoy entered, it was surrounded by people seeking aid. As the convoy approached, the surrounding crowd came under fire from Israeli tanks, snipers and other gunfire, WFP said.
'This terrible incident underscores the increasingly dangerous conditions under which humanitarian operations are forced to be conducted in Gaza,' WFP said, adding that hunger has reached 'new levels of desperation', with 90,000 women and children in urgent need of treatment.
TIME has reached out to a IDF spokesperson for comment.
The U.N. reported last week that at least 700 Palestinians had been killed collecting aid in or around Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid centers, with an additional 200 killed at other distribution hubs in the Gaza strip.
Under the new distribution system, GHF is now the sole supplier of new aid entering the strip, with some United Nations facilities still able to distribute some stockpiled supplies.
Many of the previous deadly incidents in Gaza near aid hubs have occured at those run by GHF. It acknowledged such an incident for the first time last week when at least 20 Palestinians were killed in Khan Younis.
GHF accused 'armed agitators' for causing the deadly incident, which the Gaza Health Ministry called false in response.
United Kingdom, Canada, and France accuse Israel of 'drip feeding' aid
United Kingdom, Canada, and France, on Monday were among 26 countries to issue a joint statement accusing Israel of the 'drip feeding of aid' in Gaza.
'The Israeli Government's denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable. Israel must comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law,' the statement read.
'We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food. It is horrifying that over 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid.'
The statement reiterated calls for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and the return of all remaining hostages still held captive in the enclave.
Israel's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Oren Marmorstein has called the joint statement 'disconnected from reality.'
'All statements and all claims should be directed at the only party responsible for the lack of a deal for the release of hostages and a ceasefire: Hamas,' he posted on X.
Gaza's Ministry of Health said on Monday that the death toll in the enclave had reached over 59,000 since the start of the Israel-Hamas War in October 2023.
In the absence of independent monitoring on the ground, the ministry is the primary source for casualty data relied upon by humanitarian groups, journalists, and international bodies. Its figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
The war was triggered after the Hamas terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing over 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages.
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Chicago Tribune
an hour ago
- Chicago Tribune
Dozens killed seeking aid in Gaza as Israel weighs further military action
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — At least 38 Palestinians were killed overnight and into Wednesday in the Gaza Strip while seeking aid from United Nations convoys and sites run by an Israeli-backed American contractor, according to local health officials. The Israeli military said it had fired warning shots when crowds approached its forces. Another 25 people, including several women and children, were killed in Israeli airstrikes, according to local hospitals in Gaza. The military said it only targets Hamas. The latest deaths came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to announce further military action — and possibly plans for Israel to fully reoccupy Gaza. Experts say Israel's ongoing military offensive and blockade are already pushing the territory of some 2 million Palestinians into famine. A new U.N. report said only 1.5% of Gaza's cropland is accessible and undamaged. Another escalation of the nearly 22-month war could put the lives of countless Palestinians and around 20 living Israeli hostages at risk, and would draw fierce opposition both internationally and within Israel. Netanyahu's far-right coalition allies have long called for the war to be expanded, and for Israel to eventually take over Gaza, relocate much of its population and rebuild Jewish settlements there. U.S. President Donald Trump, asked by a reporter Tuesday whether he supported the reoccupation of Gaza, said he wasn't aware of the 'suggestion' but that 'it's going to be pretty much up to Israel.' Of the 38 Palestinians killed while seeking aid, at least 28 died in the Morag Corridor, an Israeli military zone in southern Gaza where U.N. convoys have been repeatedly overwhelmed by looters and desperate crowds in recent days, and where witnesses say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire. The Israeli military said troops fired warning shots as Palestinians advanced toward them, and that it was not aware of any casualties. Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies, said another four people were killed in the Teina area, on a route leading to a site in southern Gaza run by the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an American contractor. The Al-Awda Hospital said it received the bodies of six people killed near a GHF site in central Gaza. GHF said there were no violent incidents at or near its sites, and that the one in central Gaza was not open on Wednesday. It said the violence may have been related to the chaos around U.N. convoys. Two of the Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza City, in the north of the territory, killing 13 people there, including six children and five women, according to the Al-Ahli Hospital, which received the bodies. The Israeli military says it only targets fighters and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because its fighters are entrenched in heavily populated areas. Israel facilitated the establishment of four GHF sites in May after blocking the entry of all food, medicine and other goods for 2 1/2 months. Israeli and U.S. officials said a new system was needed to prevent Hamas from siphoning off humanitarian aid. The United Nations, which has delivered aid to hundreds of distribution points across Gaza throughout the war when conditions allow, has rejected the new system, saying it forces Palestinians to travel long distances and risk their lives for food, and that it allows Israel to control who gets aid, potentially using it to advance plans for further mass displacement. The U.N. human rights office said last week that some 1,400 Palestinians have been killed seeking aid since May, mostly near GHF sites but also along U.N. convoy routes where trucks have been overwhelmed by crowds. 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A new report by the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization and the U.N. satellite center found that just 8.6% of Gaza's cropland is still accessible following sweeping Israeli evacuation orders in recent months. Just 1.5% is accessible and undamaged, it said. The military offensive and a breakdown in security have made it nearly impossible for anyone to safely deliver aid, and aid groups say recent Israeli measures to facilitate more assistance are far from sufficient. Hospitals recorded four more malnutrition-related deaths over the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 193 people, including 96 children, since the war began in October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Jordan said Israeli settlers blocked roads and hurled stones at a convoy of four trucks carrying aid bound for Gaza after they drove across the border into the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli far-right activists have repeatedly sought to halt aid from entering Gaza. Jordanian government spokesperson Mohammed al-Momani condemned the attack, which he said had shattered the windshields of the trucks, according to the Jordanian state-run Petra News Agency. The Israeli military said security forces went to the scene to disperse the gathering and accompanied the trucks to their destination. Hamas-led fighters killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack and abducted another 251. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals. Of the 50 still held in Gaza, around 20 are believed to be alive. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed over 61,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children. It is part of the now largely defunct Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source for the number of war casualties.
USA Today
2 hours ago
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New York Post
3 hours ago
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