May: A Grim Month In The Record Of Targeting Journalists In Gaza
According to the center's monitoring, the latest journalist killed was Moataz Rajab, a correspondent for Al-Quds Al-Youm channel, who was martyred on May 28 following an "israeli" airstrike that targeted a civilian vehicle on Al-Nafaq Street in Gaza City. This brought the number of journalists killed in May to seven.
The center reported that the total number of journalists killed since October 7, 2023, has risen to 221, marking the deadliest wave of journalist killings in modern history.
On May 25, the center documented the killing of journalist Hassan Majdi Abu Warda, director of Barq Gaza news agency, in an "israeli" airstrike that hit his home in northern Gaza. The center affirmed that targeting journalists' homes and displacement areas "reflects a systematic pattern of grave violations of international humanitarian law."
On May 18, journalist Abdel Rahman Al-Abadleh was killed. He was preceded by journalist Ahmad Al-Helou, a correspondent for Quds Network, and journalist Hassan Sammour, who was killed along with his family in an airstrike on their home east of Khan Younis on May 15. Journalist Hassan Aslih was martyred on May 13 while receiving treatment at Nasser Medical Complex. On May 7, journalists Nour El-Din Abdo and Yahya Sobeih were killed in separate Israeli airstrikes.
The center stated that "turning the month of May into a graveyard for journalists in Gaza is further evidence of israel's violation of press freedom and disregard for international law," calling for independent international investigations and accountability for those responsible.
The center reiterated that targeting journalists and civilians in conflict zones constitutes a war crime under the Geneva Conventions and UN Security Council Resolution 2222 on the protection of journalists, warranting legal prosecution and international accountability.
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NZ Herald
an hour ago
- NZ Herald
Israeli troops fire warning shots as UN aid convoy looted in Gaza
The result, according to humanitarian officials, is that conditions for vulnerable residents who live inside Gaza remain dire – with little of the aid being sent in reaching those who need it most, while injuries and deaths are rising during attempts by the United Nations to distribute food – because Israeli troops open fire to keep swelling crowds away from the convoys and from Israeli checkpoints. The Gaza Health Ministry has recorded at least 209 deaths among people seeking aid since last Saturday, when Israel announced it would allow more food deliveries into the enclave, in part, Israeli officials said, 'to refute the false claim of deliberate starvation in the Gaza Strip'. The world's leading body on hunger crises said this week that 'the worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out' in Gaza. At least 154 people have died of malnutrition since the start of the war, the vast majority of them in July, according to local health officials. 'There's going to be a period of these scenes of mobbing aid convoys until an adequate and consistent level of aid is flowing in,' said Jeremy Konyndyk, the president of Refugees International and a US official overseeing humanitarian efforts during the Biden and Obama administrations. 'That is an inevitable and unavoidable outcome of the level of deprivation that the Israeli Government has imposed on Gaza through the blockade this spring.' On Friday, the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, and special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff visited Gaza to assess the situation. 'This morning I joined @SEPeaceMissions Steve Witkoff for a visit to Gaza to learn the truth about @GHFUpdates aid sites,' Huckabee posted on X. 'We received briefings from @IDF and spoke to folks on the ground. GHF delivers more than one million meals a day, an incredible feat!' The 100 million meals delivered so far, however, amount to less than one meal per day per person in Gaza. Many of the products must be cooked and therefore require fuel and water, which are not readily available. A former Israeli military official, who has knowledge of the operations in Gaza, acknowledged that there was a 'total breakdown of order' caused by an Israeli military campaign that dismantled Hamas but never installed an alternative governing body. Criminal gangs are rampantly looting and ordinary civilians believe every aid truck they encounter may be their last, the official said. UN officials said while some of the looting is being carried out by armed gangs, the vast majority of people hauling food from the trucks are desperately hungry civilians trying to feed their families. 'Without a ceasefire, people are under so much mental stress thinking, 'This might end soon, this is my one chance to get what I can for my family',' said the former Israeli official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about the situation in Gaza. 'When Israel says we're going to let the aid enter now, at this point it's great PR, but it's too little, too late.' Although Israel and other foreign governments announced they would airdrop food beginning on Saturday, the aerial missions do not deliver a volume that changes the humanitarian situation in a significant way, officials say. Another effort, the food distribution centres operated in southern Gaza, has also been marred by chaos and shootings. More than 1000 aid seekers have been killed, including by Israeli gunfire, near the sites since operations began in May, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The UN's struggle to get its aid into Gaza is particularly concerning because UN agencies long ran the largest food distribution network in the territory. In March, after a temporary ceasefire, Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza, halting all aid. When Israel came under pressure to lift the siege, it sidelined UN operations in favour of the US-backed GHF, saying that UN aid was being diverted by Hamas – a claim disputed by Western and UN officials. Today, hundreds of community kitchens and warehouses across Gaza that were once supplied by regular UN convoys have not been allowed by Israel to restart, said a UN official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive, ongoing negotiations with Israel. Mona Qadoum, a 45-year-old mother of five in Gaza City, said she is surviving on canned lentils she saved from aid packages she received before the Israeli blockade in March. She ran out of flour, which now sells for more than US$10 ($17) for 450g, and oil, which sells for US$25 a bottle. She blamed looters for stealing aid shipments and selling them for exorbitant prices on the market. Two weeks ago, she began to beg for food. 'They say aid trucks have entered Gaza, so why hasn't any of it been distributed? You tell me,' Qadoum said from her mother-in-law's home, where she lives after selling her tent to buy food. 'Only the looters and thieves have taken anything.' UN employees and Israeli officials and soldiers who spoke to the Post agree that the situation on al-Rashid St is typical of almost every aid delivery in recent days and weeks. But they offer different reasons for the system's breakdown. UN officials say one problem is that they have been refused permission from Israeli officials to use other, less crowded routes; Israel has issued displacement orders for about 80% of Gaza's territory and marked those areas as closed military zones. As a result, UN convoys can only travel into Gaza through two routes – one in the north and one in the south – that go through crowded areas, UN officials say. And although Israeli authorities have approved more aid trucks since last Saturday, the convoys usually are permitted to depart only late in the day, when huge crowds have already gathered along the known routes, further raising the prospect of looting. For months, the UN and humanitarian partners have pushed Israeli authorities to open more border crossings. As the crisis worsened, Israel provided UN agencies with written assurances that by the end of June more border crossings would be opened, at least 100 trucks per day would enter Gaza, and no Israeli forces would be present along convoy routes or distribution warehouses, the UN official familiar with ongoing negotiations said. But none of it materialised. A video taken this week from a UN aid convoy in southern Gaza – and published by the office of the UN humanitarian affairs co-ordinator – shows hundreds of Palestinians crouching along the side of a dusty road as gunfire strafes the ground, close to their feet, keeping them back. It's not clear whether the shooting comes from Israeli military positions. As the UN cars approach, the shooting pauses and the civilians, mostly teenagers and young men clutching empty sacks and backpacks, immediately swarm the convoy. Other people involved in transporting aid say that driving along known routes is so dangerous they have to careen at high speeds down crowded, potholed roads. Sometimes, drivers on Gaza's main artery, Salah al-Din Rd, hit people as they try to veer through a line of looters hurling rocks and firing guns, said Bilal Abu Mugheisab, 35. Abu Mugheisab works for his family's trucking and security company, which he said has a subcontract to provide armed escorts for trucks ferrying goods for World Central Kitchen and the United Arab Emirates, among other donors. 'Some people throw themselves in front of the trucks, putting their lives at risk,' Abu Mugheisab said. 'People may get run over by these aid trucks. Drivers can't see a thing, and that's how accidents happen.' He said it would be safer to drive down another road instead of Salah al-Din, but he had no choice: the other road fell within Israel's no-go zone. Israeli officials, in response, say that they cannot easily approve new routes in combat zones. They say the UN, citing humanitarian principles governing neutrality during armed conflicts, has turned down offers from the Israel Defence Forces and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which employs private security forces, to protect its convoys. 'They say the Israeli offer will harm their neutrality, but they're the ones picking sides and then complaining about the Israeli side,' an Israeli official said. Still, the proximity of IDF positions to aid convoys means Israeli troops frequently fire toward crowds or other armed groups that are not aligned with Hamas but seek to maintain order, exacerbating the security situation, UN officials and Palestinian witnesses say. It is often difficult to discern between armed members of local clans and Hamas militants, and Israeli troops are routinely instructed to fire on any armed actors who approach aid trucks, the former Israeli military official and an Israeli special forces unit commander said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press. On Monday, two days before the massive mob overran the UN convoy on al-Rashid St, a similar bout of violence took place on the same coastal stretch, just blocks away, according to two witnesses. Ahmad Maher Abu al-Qarayer, a resident of northern Gaza, said armed local security forces – a combination of people working for the Government, police and local clans – ran into the IDF no-go zone about 6.30pm to arrest a gang of organised looters who had set upon a truck convoy carrying goods from the World Food Programme and even opened fire on them. Moments later, a missile from an Israeli drone struck the security forces, killing more than a half-dozen of their men, Qarayer said. 'In a moment, everything was turned upside down,' recalled Mohamed Tamous, a volunteer with the Gaza civil defence force and a paramedic who was also at the scene. Tamous was shocked, he said, because the Israelis appeared to intentionally target people securing the convoy but allowed people to 'storm in and loot the aid'. In response to questions from the Post, the IDF said it 'struck several Hamas terrorists who were waiting for aid trucks to reach northern Gaza in order to loot them', without providing proof that its targets were Hamas. 'Hamas is doing everything in its power to prevent the successful distribution of food in the Gaza Strip,' the military said. Qarayer, who witnessed the drone strike Monday, said he was 'lucky': the 33-year-old was strong enough to pull 10kg of rice from the trucks amid the carnage and run back home to his six children. 'But some people can't go to grab any aid,' he said. 'There are injured people, children and elderly people.' Despite the chaos and the danger, Qarayer said he was considering going back soon to wait for another UN convoy on al-Rashid Rd. 'I don't have any flour. Maybe I'll go back and try again,' he said. 'Whatever happens, happens.'
Otago Daily Times
4 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Court win for pro-Palestinian rally on Sydney Harbour Bridge
Pro-Palestinian protesters will march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge after a court authorised the rally despite police attempting to have it prohibited. NSW Supreme Court Justice Belinda Rigg rejected a police application to shut down the Sunday march on public safety grounds. Thousands of protesters are expected at the demonstration to highlight what the United Nations has described as "worsening famine conditions" in Gaza. Organised by the Palestinian Action Group Sydney, the protest has garnered support from activists nationwide, human rights and civil liberties groups as well as several MPs and public figures such as former Socceroo Craig Foster. Arguments were presented to the court on Friday, and Justice Rigg chose to reserve her decision until Saturday morning. In her judgment, she refused the police commissioner's application, saying arguments the rally would cause disruption on the bridge were not sufficient to bar the protest. "It is in the very nature of the entitlement to peaceful protest that disruption will be caused to others," she said. Justice Rigg noted there was significant support for the march from hundreds of organisations including Amnesty International, various churches, the Jewish Council of Australia, the nurses and midwives association and other trade unions. The decision means protesters will have certain legal immunity and protections from offences like blocking or obstructing traffic or pedestrians. The decision was a win for humanity and a defeat of the "anti-protest Minns Labor government", NSW Greens MP Sue Higginson said. "The court was crystal clear that a protest being inconvenient does not mean it can be stopped. In fact, that's the whole point of the protest," she said. Ms Higginson said people had the absolute right to protest "whether police want them to and whether the premier wants them to or not, and tomorrow our iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge and our humanity will speak to the world". Protesters are expected to march from the CBD, across the bridge to North Sydney. In solidarity with their interstate peers, protesters in Melbourne are gearing up to rally through the city's CBD, aiming to reach the King Street Bridge. Meanwhile, more than 60 per cent of Australians want tougher government measures to stop Israel's military offensive in Gaza, a poll has found. Respondents to the YouGov survey published on Friday and commissioned by the Australian Alliance for Peace and Human Rights believe Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's condemnations of Israel have fallen short. "While the government has recently signed a statement calling for an immediate ceasefire, 61 per cent of Australians believe this is not enough," the alliance said. "(Australians) want to see concrete economic, diplomatic and legal measures implemented." The poll surveyed 1507 Australian voters in the last week of July, coinciding with a deteriorating starvation crisis due to the Israeli government blocking aid from entering Gaza and while diplomatic efforts from countries such as Canada have ramped up. The results highlighted how the nearly two-year-long war on Gaza had resonated with Australians, YouGov director of public data Paul Smith said. More than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed including more than 17,000 children, according to local health authorities, with reports of dozens of people dead in recent weeks due to starvation. Israel's campaign began after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, reportedly killing 1200 people and taking 250 hostages.
Scoop
17 hours ago
- Scoop
NZ Hit With 15% Trump Trade Tariff, Trade Minister Says He Will Push Back
New Zealand exports to the US will face a 15 percent tariff rate, it has been announced. The White House has revised its list of tariffs for particular countries and New Zealand has been put on a 15 percent base rate, up from the original 10 percent announced earlier. Trade Minister Todd McClay told Midday Report 's Charlotte Cook that New Zealand was being unfairly penalised for what is a small trade deficit with the United States. "It appears it has been done based upon countries that have a trade deficit with the US, who sell them more than they buy. "In New Zealand's case, that's about half a billion US dollars and in a scheme the size of the US economy it's really not significant or meaningful." McClay told Midday Report he had asked Treasury for urgent advice about Friday's development. "Many of the exporters are saying they have been able to absorb the 10 percent, or in many cases pass it on, but at 15 percent it is going to start having a greater effect on our exporters. "We sell about $9 billion worth of goods into the US every year and so a 15 percent tariff rate is meaningful, but again the difference in trade is not significant in the scheme of things." He maintained New Zealand had good relations with the US. "The first step will be to talk to them directly and we've been engaging a lot. In fact, it's been very good engagement, both at official level, [Foreign Minister] Winston Peters has been to Washington and I've met with my counterpart a number of times now." McClay said he had put in a request for a call with Ambassador Jamieson Greer and would expect that to happen over the weekend so he could "start making the case" for a lower tariff rate. US President Donald Trump announced the tariffs back in April and said he they would be imposed on more than 125 countries. Tariffs are paid by importers of products from other countries to their own governments, like taxes, effectively making imported goods more expensive for local consumers. Advocates say they protect local economies, while detractors say they reduce trade and push up prices. In announcing the initial range of tariffs in April, Trump caused confusion when he held up a chart saying New Zealand charged US goods a 20 percent tariff, which the New Zealand government denied. It ended up being 10 percent, which Finance Minister Nicola Willis at the time called "extraordinary". Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said New Zealand would not respond in kind. Two-thirds of Kiwi businesses in a survey earlier this year thought the tariffs would have a more severe global impact than Covid-19 and the global financial crisis over the next 12 months. Trump has repeatedly threatened a range of different tariffs on various nations since returning to the White House - most recently India, citing its own trade barriers and purchasing of energy and arms from Russia, and Canada, over its newfound support for Palestinian statehood.
