Situation in Gaza rapidly deteriorating, UNICEF warns
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SBS Australia
3 days ago
- SBS Australia
At least 38 Palestinians killed while seeking aid in Gaza, local health officials say
At least 38 Palestinians were killed on 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 militants. UN-backed food security experts said last week the "worst-case scenario" of famine is playing out in Gaza, with mounting evidence of "widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease" driving a rise in hunger-related deaths. Israel has consistently denied allegations it has fuelled a hunger crisis in Gaza, instead blaming Hamas and claiming the listed terror group has weaponised humanitarian aid to supply its fighters. A new UN report said only 1.5 per cent of Gaza's cropland is accessible and undamaged. Of the 38 Palestinians killed while seeking aid, at least 28 died in the Morag Corridor, an Israeli military zone in southern Gaza where UN 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 towards 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 (GHF), 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. 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 militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because its militants are entrenched in heavily populated areas. UN experts say Israeli-backed aid group should be dismantled. Israel facilitated the establishment of four GHF sites in May after blocking the entry of all food, medicine and other goods for 2.5 months. Israeli and United States officials said a new system was needed to prevent Hamas from siphoning off humanitarian aid. Hamas has denied stealing aid. An internal US government analysis, conducted by a bureau within the US Agency for International Development in late June, found no evidence of systematic theft of US-funded humanitarian supplies by Hamas. Separately, the European Commission has said it has found no reports of Hamas stealing humanitarian aid in Gaza. The UN, 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 UN human rights office said last week at least 1,373 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food since 27 May, mostly near GHF sites but also along UN convoy routes where trucks have been overwhelmed by crowds. It says nearly all were killed by Israeli fire. This week, a group of UN special rapporteurs and independent human rights experts called for the GHF to be disbanded, saying it is "an utterly disturbing example of how humanitarian relief can be exploited for covert military and geopolitical agendas in serious breach of international law".
SBS Australia
3 days ago
- SBS Australia
Dozens killed in Gaza while seeking aid
Listen to Australian and world news, and follow trending topics with SBS News Podcasts . TRANSCRIPT Health officials say at least 38 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces while seeking aid. Tasmanian Labor to move no-confidence motion against re-appointed Premier Jeremy Rockliff. The National Indigenous Tennis Carnival kicks off in Darwin. At least 38 Palestinians have been killed 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. It comes as the UN human rights office reported last week that some 1400 Palestinians have been killed seeking aid since May, with nearly all reportedly killed by Israeli fire. Another 25 people, including several women and children, have been killed in the latest Israeli air strikes, according to local hospitals in Gaza. UN Secretary-General spokesman, Farhan Haq, says the duel threat of attacks from Israel and starvation has been catastrophic. "More people are being killed and injured either along convoy routes or where they are staying. The situation is beyond catastrophic. Hospitals are overstretched. Patients are lying on the floor or in the streets, suffering, as beds, medical supplies and equipment are severely lacking. Starvation continues to happen, and today the Ministry of Health reported five new malnutrition-related deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to about almost 200 deaths, half of whom are children." The latest killings come as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to announce further military action — and possibly plans for Israel to fully reoccupy Gaza. The Israeli military says troops fired warning shots as Palestinians advanced toward them, and that it was not aware of any casualties. United States President Donald Trump says special envoy Steve Witkoff made great progress in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The meeting comes two days ahead of a US deadline set for Russia to agree to peace in Ukraine or face new sanctions. White House officials say the talks went well and that Moscow is eager to continue engaging with the US. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says more announcements on the matter are expected soon. "We'll have more to say about that later on today. We'll be confirming it. Ambassador Witkoff is on his way back now. I just got off the phone with him a few minutes ago. We'll have some other discussions throughout the day and there will be some announcements real soon, maybe positive, maybe not, we'll see." The Tasmanian Labor Party says they will move a motion of no-confidence in the Liberals when the state parliament resumes on August 19. It comes after the state's Liberal premier Jeremy Rockliff was re-appointed by Governor Barbara Baker, following a snap election that resulted in a hung parliament. But Ms Baker also stresses that the parliament will have the final say on who should be the premier. The state's opposition leader Dean Winter says Tasmanians can be assured that the motion won't lead to a new election, but it will decide if whether Liberals and Labor will form the government. "Under the Liberals we've seen three early election in a row, and that's gotta change, which means we need to change the way parliament works, and we need to change the government. The crossbenchers have seen the way that the government led by Jeremy Rockliff has been operating now for the past 15 months, in particular, but even longer than that. It's been a lack of consultation, a lack of respect, and only a couple of weeks ago, the Premier was attacking those independents and crossbenchers through the election campaign." Mr Rockliff and his cabinet will be sworn in next week. Controversial MP Mark Latham has been labelled a 'one-trick pony' after fending off a Labor-led censure bid in the New South Wales state parliament. The censure failed after the coalition opposition, the Greens and minor party MPs voted to adjourn it until October. The failed motion came after the one-time prime ministerial hopeful used parliamentary privilege in the upper house to reveal details about a police commissioner and an independent MP, and amid several scandals, including taking photos of women MPs without their knowledge. The government's upper house leader Penny Sharpe says the result is disappointing. The National Indigenous Tennis Carnival has kicked off in Darwin on Wednesday, with over 160 First Nations players across Australia joining the game. This is the 6th year of the Tennis Carnival, and this year, the Carnival was opened by Tenins icon Evonne Goolagong Cawley. The 74-year-old Wiradjuri woman and 14-time Grand Slam winner says the event means more than just playing tennis. "I can't believe that this has been going for six years, and rightly says, it's one of the most unique programs that I have ever been in. It's not just about Tennis, it's about education, meeting up with friends, making new friends."
SBS Australia
4 days ago
- SBS Australia
Netanyahu says his resolve to topple Hamas has been strengthened
"You see your child, nothing much to add, you see your child dying before your eyes and you can't do anything. It drives you crazy, it's unbearable, there's nothing you can do. It's hard, very hard." That's the father of hostage Rom Braslavski, Ofir, reacting to seeing a video of his son appearing unwell and emaciated. He says as a parent, it breaks his heart to see his son in such poor health. Fifty hostages remain in Gaza, at least 20 of whom are believed to be alive. The images of emaciated Israeli hostages held in Gaza have horrified Israelis and added pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. Tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets on Saturday night to demand a ceasefire deal, in one of the largest turnouts for the weekly protests in recent months. Mr Netanyahu says he will convene his cabinet later this week to discuss the next steps for Israel's military. He says the videos have strengthened his resolve to topple Hamas. "We must continue to stand together and fight together to achieve the war goals we have set, all of them; the defeat of the enemy, the release of our hostages, and the assurance that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel. Later this week, I will convene the cabinet to instruct the IDF on how to achieve these three goals, all of them, without exception." Meanwhile, Gaza's humanitarian crisis continues, with Gaza's Health Ministry saying five more people have died from malnutrition in the last 24 hours, raising the toll of those dying from hunger to 180 since the war began. 62-year-old Hassan Abu Zayed told Reuters he had been waiting outside a makeshift soup kitchen in Khan Younis since early morning for a meal to feed the children in his family. He says that for many like him, aid remains out of reach. "It is terrible famine. People who do not die because of the war, die because of hunger. There is no food for people. People are done. Enough. Enough." Anthony Aguilar is a former contractor for UG Solutions, a company paid to provide security for aid deliveries in Gaza. He says the aid distribution operation he worked on, where 20 people were killed in a stampede in mid-July, is like the dystopian survival movie 'The Hunger Games'.** "We would place all of the aid on a site in piles and rows, kind of like, imagine, if you will, the Hunger Games. When distribution happened, the Israeli Defence Force would release the large crowd, and the building crowd of Palestinians from a security line about a kilometre away, respectively, to each site, depending on which site we were using. And then that would turn into only what I could describe as like the Gaza Olympics or the survival of the fittest, that it just became an all-out race to the sites to get the aid." The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which runs the aid distribution sites, and UG Solutions, which provided security on its behalf, deny any wrongdoing. They say Mr Aguilar is a disgruntled ex-employee who was fired for poor performance. A spokesperson for the Israeli Defence Force, Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshan, says the Israeli army is committed to the effort of bringing humanitarian aid into Gaza. He says the war against Hamas in Gaza could end today, if Hamas puts down its weapons and releases Israeli hostages. "We are working alongside international organisations. This is something we've been doing since the beginning of the war in a joint war room, daily conversations with the different organisations and the international community on how to improve aid distribution in Gaza. Obviously, the IDF is in charge of facilitating the entrance. But also we do everything we can to make sure that we help the international organizations, that we make the adjustments to help them distribute the aid. So we've put in place designated routes that are agreed and known to both sides. We've put out tactical ceasefires in different locations that can help them distribute aid. And we're communicating with them every day, finding new ways to improve distribution and find solutions to the problems." He insists Israel is not putting a limitation on the amount of aid trucks going in. But Hassan Abu Zayed - who was queuing at the soup kitchen in Khan Younis - says the system isn't working. "This aid does not reach us. We do not see it. People like us do not get aid. Most of the people do not get the aid. We hear about it in the news but we do not see it. We do not see it on the ground. I hope that the crossings open and the food enters and the flour and aid enters for people and that this big crisis that we are living ends." The Israeli military agency that coordinates aid says during the past week, more than 23,000 tons of humanitarian aid in 1,200 trucks has entered Gaza, but much of that aid has yet to be driven to aid distribution hubs. Meanwhile, Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has spoken to President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority. Mr Albanese reiterated Australia's call for the immediate entry of aid to meet the needs of people in Gaza, a permanent ceasefire, and the release of all hostages. He also reinforced Australia's commitment to a two-state solution because, he says, a just and lasting peace depends upon it.
