Gaza: Eleven killed by Israeli fire while seeking aid, rescuers say
Eleven Palestinians seeking aid were among at least 33 killed by Israeli gunfire and strikes across Gaza on Wednesday, rescuers and medics say.A spokesman for the Hamas-run civil defence agency said Israeli forces "opened fire and launched several shells" at thousands of people who were queuing for desperately needed food supplies on the main Salah al-Din Road.The Israeli military said troops operating in the Nuseirat area fired warning shots overnight after a group approached them in a manner that posed a potential threat, but that it was unaware of any injuries.Another 19 people were killed in three Israeli air strikes in northern and southern Gaza, according to the civil defence agency.
They included eight who died when a home was hit in the Zeitoun area of Gaza City, it said.Regarding the air strikes, the Israeli military said it was "operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities" in the territory.
Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said on Wednesday afternoon that at least 140 people had been killed over the previous 24 hours.The ministry reported on Tuesday that 51 people were killed while waiting for aid in the southern city of Khan Younis, while the UN cited partner organisations working on health as putting the death toll at more than 60.Eyewitnesses told the BBC that Israeli tanks and drones opened fire as crowds gathered near a charity community centre and a warehouse belonging to the UN's World Food Programme.The Israeli military acknowledged that its troops were in the area and said the details of the incident were under review.In a separate incident on Tuesday, the civil defence agency said another seven people seeking aid were killed and many others were injured on Rashid Street north-west of Gaza City.A doctor at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City told Reuters news agency that the fatalities were the result of Israeli air strikes and that the injuries were caused by gunfire.Umm Fida Masoud said her son "went to bring a bag of flour and came back [injured] in a bag".Meanwhile, a local journalist posted footage that he said showed his cousin celebrating after collecting a bag of flour for his family."A 50kg bag. I pulled it out from under the truck, inches from death," he declares.
Almost 400 people have been killed while trying to get aid since 26 May, when the Israel- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) opened the first of its three distribution centre, according to the health ministry.The GHF, which uses US private security contractors, aims to bypass the UN as the main supplier of aid to the 2.1 million Palestinians in Gaza.The UN and other aid groups refuse to co-operate with the new system, saying it contravenes the humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality, and independence.They also warn that Gaza's population faces catastrophic levels of hunger after an 11-week total Israeli blockade that was partially eased a month ago.The US and Israel say GHF's system will prevent aid being stolen by Hamas, which the group denies doing.On Wednesday, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) condemned it as "lame, medieval and lethal"."Inviting starving people to their death is a war crime. Those responsible of this system must be held accountable," Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X."This is a disgrace and a stain on our collective consciousness." The GHF has not commented, but it said in a statement that it had so far distributed 30 million meals across its three distribution centres "without incident"."We remain focused on a singular mission: to feed the people of Gaza - and we are committed to scaling our efforts to reach even more in need," it added.The WFP meanwhile warned that the 9,000 tonnes of food aid it had dispatched over the past four weeks was "a tiny fraction" of what was needed in Gaza.It also said the desperate need for food was causing large crowds to gather along well-known transport routes, hoping to intercept and access humanitarian supplies while in transit."Only a massive scale-up in food distributions can stabilize the situation, calm anxieties and rebuild the trust within communities that more food is coming," it said.Israeli military body Cogat reported that 85 lorry loads of aid entered southern and northern Gaza via the Kerem Shalom and Erez West crossings on Tuesday, 66 of which were collected. Another 380 lorry loads of aid were waiting for collection by the UN, it said.The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.At least 55,637 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry.
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NBC News
7 hours ago
- NBC News
Wounded Gaza children find respite from war at Ohio summer camp
BUTLER, Ohio — Their bodies are maimed or burned. Their childhoods have been shattered. And their futures are filled with uncertainty as war rages in Gaza. But for one week, three dozen wounded Palestinian children and members of their families have found a respite from the fighting at a summer camp in Mohican State Park, just an hour north of Columbus. Thanks to HEAL Palestine, a nonprofit group that aids the youngest victims of the Gaza war, children like 7-year-old Qamar Alkordi, who uses two-hand crutches to walk, have been able to play in a safe place with other wounded children and feel less alone. "There's other kids, they have the prosthetic, they are walking, and this is, like, it makes me happy to see this," her mother, Huda Alkordi, said about the sleepaway camp, where Qamar played in an inflatable pool and sprayed other kids with water. "And I really hope that Qamar, one day, she gonna walk, inshallah [God willing]." HEAL runs field hospitals and food kitchens in Gaza and runs educational programs for children who haven't been inside a school since Israel Defense Forces invaded the crowded Palestinian territory after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 250 were taken hostage. "A lot of them are facing a future of near illiteracy," said a HEAL co-founder, Dr. Zeena Salman, referring to how schools have largely ceased functioning in the shattered enclave. In the 19-plus months since Israel began bombing Gaza and with most of its 2 million residents forced from their homes, Gaza has become an especially dangerous place for children. About 1,309 children have been killed and 3,738 have been injured since the end of the ceasefire in March, UNICEF said in a report last month. Overall, more than 55,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the conflict began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Realizing that they were confronted with "the largest population of child amputees in modern history," Salman said, she and her cohorts came up with the idea of a summer camp for the dozens of children they have been able to bring to the United States for specialized care. "Some of them have lost four limbs, and we as individuals are not able to stop this from happening, but at HEAL Palestine, we can start to give them back a little bit of what was taken from them," Salman said. That means a summer camp with ramps so kids who rely on wheelchairs and walkers and prosthetics can get around and play. "We brought them to a camp that's very accessible, where they can play wheelchair basketball or can do art with, like, adapted paintbrushes, you know, for kids who don't have fingers," Salman said. "We want every child to feel whole." When camp is over, many of the children are sent back to Egypt, where they are living temporarily because Gaza's borders are closed, HEAL officials said. Qamar was badly injured when her home was bombed two months after the war began. It was Dec. 4, 2023, Qamar's birthday. But with the fighting getting closer and closer to their home, Huda Alkordi purposely did not make plans to celebrate. "I decided not to tell her that it's her birthday, just in case if something bad happened," she said. And something bad did happen. Both of Qamar's siblings were hurt in the attack, as were several of her cousins. But Qamar was the most badly wounded, and after a week in the hospital she developed an infection that the doctors were unable to treat. "They decided to amputate her leg because of infection that happened with her leg," her mother said. Watching her daughter play, Huda said she knows this is only a temporary break from the chaos in Gaza. But she said her daughter, even without one leg, is luckier than many other injured children still back in Gaza. "I had the chance to take my daughter out and give her that treatment," she said. "All of them, they deserve to get treatment." At age 18, Sara Bsaiso is one of the oldest campers. She, too, was injured in the early days of the war when her grandmother's home was hit by a missile in an airstrike that killed one of her brothers, mortally wounded another and set her ablaze. The brother who initially survived died days later while waiting for help. Bsaiso sustained third-degree burns over much of her body and went weeks with only limited medical care before she was able to be medically evacuated to the United States. She is staying in New Jersey. Being at the camp and being able to interact with so many other young people who went through similar ordeals has been healing, she said. "I'm so grateful to be here, and I'm so happy to see you bring in all of these amazing children together," she said. Bsaiso said that as she was growing up in Gaza, she and her family often went to the beach and swam in the Mediterranean Sea. Since she has been at the camp, she has had the chance to do something she hadn't done since she was injured. "I haven't been able to swim until now," she said. Bsaiso said she was living in what she called a "cozy house" in the Rimal section of Gaza City with her parents, four brothers and three sisters when the war started. "I was in law last year of school, and I remember when I'm preparing to go to school, and then suddenly everything went crazy," she said. "We didn't understand. We didn't understand. We thought first probably it's raining, but it wasn't." It was the start of the Israeli offensive. Bsaiso, who has undergone multiple operations and skin grafts, said she thinks about her family back in Gaza every day. "For sure, I'm hoping for the ceasefires," she said. "And there's my dad and two brothers and two sisters' sons stuck in Gaza. And yeah, I hope the ceasefires happen and the borders open and everything will be good." In the meantime, she said, she is using her time at summer camp to mend, both outside and in.
The Guardian
13 hours ago
- The Guardian
Israel, we're begging you: please let aid organisations do our jobs in Gaza
Abed Al Rahman, just a boy, carried the weight of his family's hunger as he stepped into the streets of Gaza in search of bread. He had his father's money, but when he saw the tide of people pushing towards a food distribution site in Rafah, hunger pulled him into their flow. Almost immediately, the site descended into chaos. Gunfire. Drones. Then in a flash, shrapnel from a tank shell ripped through his little body. When I met him at a hospital in Khan Younis – where painkillers, like food, are scarce – the 13-year-old was in agony. 'I have shrapnel inside my body that they couldn't remove,' he told me. 'I am in real pain; since 6am I have been asking for a painkiller.' As he recounted the chaos, his father's composure shattered, and tears rolled down his face. Was he going to lose his son simply because Abed Al Rahman wanted his family to eat? Abed Al Rahman had been trying to get food from a new private and militarised distribution site in Gaza. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is funnelling aid through a handful of southern sites guarded by private contractors and Israeli soldiers. With so few distribution points, those who can make the trek are forced to travel long, dangerous distances – risking their lives for grossly inadequate amounts of supplies. In the first week of the GHF's operation, there were five mass-casualty events in the vicinity of distribution sites as desperate civilians were met by gun and tank fire. Children have been killed. The UN's aid chief, Tom Fletcher, said the sites made 'starvation a bargaining chip' and were 'a fig leaf for further violence and displacement'. A system that bypasses the UN has, in fact, bypassed humanity. Indeed, politicised aid distribution is unsafe for everyone involved – last week, the GHF said eight of its local team members and volunteers had been killed. And while it's critical that there is a focus on this lethal lack of aid for Palestinians, the daily killing and maiming of children has become an afterthought. This is my fifth mission to Gaza since the horrors of 7 October, and in all that time almost nothing has been done to stop the world's deadliest conflict for children in recent memory. There have been more than 50,000 children reported killed or injured in 20 months. Fifty thousand. On the same morning I met Abed Al Rahman, I spoke with 24-year-old Sheima, also hospitalised. She, too, went to one of the GHF distribution sites. Different day, same story: her family was denied humanitarian aid for months. Consumed by hunger, her father too sick to travel, Sheima reached a site. Again, gunfire. Boxes of food thrown to the dirt. 'I saw dead bodies on the ground,' she told me. 'People stepping over them, just trying to get some food.' In the mayhem, Sheima became entangled in wire – her leg and arm torn open as she tried to flee. She didn't get any food. 'Even though I almost died, I would go again,' she said. 'I'm the eldest in my family – we need food to survive. I wish to die with a full stomach, not from starvation.' These raw testimonials reinforce two critical questions. First, when UN and international non-governmental organisations warehouses outside Gaza are jam-packed with lifesaving supplies, why is there still a lethal lack of humanitarian aid in Gaza? And second, will these few sites run by private contractors solve the crisis? On the first point, after a total blockade on all supplies going into Gaza from early March until 19 May, Unicef and the World Food Programme are now permitted to bring in limited quantities of only a few selected items. Meanwhile, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification warned last month that all 2.1 million Palestinians in Gaza are facing life-threatening food insecurity. Lack of access to clean water has been pushed to lethal levels. Amid incessant bombardments, drastic aid restrictions and mass displacement of the civilian population, the risk of famine is not just possible, but increasingly likely for families in Gaza. From the end of the ceasefire to May this year, malnutrition admissions among children aged under five surged by nearly 150%, with a steep rise in severe cases. This isn't just a trend – it's an urgent warning. And to the second question, can the GHF prevent famine? The reality is, far too little aid is being distributed from far too few distribution points, all amid concerns that families travelling from northern Gaza to reach sites in the south will not be allowed to return. This is not how you avert famine. Before the collapse of the most recent ceasefire, the UN operated a highly effective aid delivery system in Gaza. And during the ceasefire, we were delivering assistance from more than 400 distribution points across the territory. Access to food, safe water, medicines and shelter skyrocketed. Unicef even went door-to-door to reach malnourished children. Unicef continues to call for a ceasefire, protection of children, the release of hostages and full aid access. We know what it takes to deliver for children in emergencies – it is the same in every crisis and every conflict since the second world war. Children need nutritious food at scale, safety, clean water and dignity. Not security operators. Not indiscriminate fire. Not chaos. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. We delivered aid at scale during the ceasefire, and we can do it again. We just need to be allowed to do our jobs. Abed Al Rahman died of his injuries on 17 June 2025, after this article was written. James Elder is Unicef's global spokesperson
Sky News
a day ago
- Sky News
IDF does not 'deliberately target hospitals', says former Israeli defence minister Benny Gantz
A former Israeli defence minister has told Sky News it is "absolutely not true" that the country's military deliberately targets hospitals. In an interview with Yalda Hakim, Benny Gantz - who quit Benjamin Netanyahu's war cabinet last year - also said he has "nothing against" the people of Iran or Gaza. The World Health Organization (WHO) has said at least 94% of all hospitals in the Gaza Strip have been damaged or destroyed. A total of 917 healthcare workers in medical facilities have been killed, the WHO said last month. Asked about the figures, and if the Israeli military deliberately targets healthcare buildings, Mr Gantz replied: "This is absolutely not true." He said that when the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) targeted al Shifa hospital in Gaza earlier in the war, it "did everything in our capacity to ensure nobody was getting hurt". Mr Gantz continued: "Those hospitals are a coverage, they are being used by Hamas to put all their infrastructure under those hospitals, underneath those schools. "We alert them and evacuate it, then we do what we have to do. We do not deliberately go and hit a hospital just because it's a hospital. There's no way we're doing it." 27:55 The Israelis' military action in Gaza began after Hamas's attacks on 7 October 2023. Israel last week started launching airstrikes on targets in Iran as tensions between the countries escalated. Describing himself as a "man of peace", Mr Gantz said: "I have nothing against the people of Iran as much as I don't have anything against the people of Gaza. "I do hope that one day they can live with something they can live with and we can live beside. "Until then, we must continue to operate to free our hostages, to make sure that Hamas is not threatening is anyone and we can move forward." He said of Israel's military action: "Yes we are fighting for own security [..] but aren't we serving strategically the region? Aren't we serving strategically the global society?" His comments came after an Israeli airstrike on a camp in north Gaza killed a total of 19 people on Thursday, according to the director of al Shifa hospital. They included three children and five women, Mohamed Abu Selmiyah said. Since the war began in October 2023, a total of 55,706 people have been killed Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry has said.
