'We're ready to die for food': More Palestinians killed amid Gaza aid chaos
Seven Palestinians trying to find food in Gaza reportedly died on Wednesday, while others came under renewed fire, as ITV News Senior International Correspondent John Irvine reports
Hundreds of Palestinians stormed a United Nations food warehouse in central Gaza on Wednesday, in a desperate attempt to get something to eat, shouting and shoving each other and even ripping off pieces of the building to get inside.
Seven people died in the chaos, according to hospital officials.
It comes as one Palestinian boy told ITV News: 'We need food. We have nothing….no rice…nothing at all. We are ready to die for food.' A boy in Gaza told ITV News he was ready to 'die for food'. / Credit: ITV News
He was filmed by our Palestinian journalist colleague Mohamed Abu Safia near a different distribution hub, set up in Rafah by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which has been slated by Israel to take over aid operations.
A crowd was fired on while overrunning that facility on Tuesday, killing at least one Palestinian and wounding 48 others, Gaza's Health Ministry said.
On Wednesday, Mohamed heard more gunfire as he walked with those trying to reach the GHF hub, in the hope of finding food, despite the events of the previous day.
Once again many turned back for the long walk home empty-handed. People run towards a food distribution hub in Rafah, Gaza. / Credit: ITV News
The UN and other humanitarian organisations have rejected the new system operated by GHF, saying it will not be able to meet the needs of Gaza's 2.3 million people and that it allows Israel to use food to control the population.
The organisations have also warned of the risk of friction between Israeli troops and people seeking supplies.
Palestinians have become desperate for food after nearly three months of Israeli border closures pushed Gaza to the brink of famine.
A United Nations envoy compared the limited aid being allowed into Gaza to 'a lifeboat after the ship has sunk'.
Sigrid Kaag, acting UN special coordinator for the Mideast, told the UN Security Council that people facing famine in Gaza 'have lost hope.'
'Instead of saying 'goodbye,' Palestinians in Gaza now say, 'See you in heaven,'' Kaag said on Wednesday. Former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed by Israel Defence Forces last year, his brother Mohammed took over as leader after his death / Credit: IDF
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country killed senior Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar, the brother of Yahya Sinwar, one of the masterminds of the militant group's Oct. 7, 2023, attack, who was killed by Israeli forces last year.
Speaking before parliament, Netanyahu included Sinwar in a list of Hamas leaders killed by Israeli forces, apparently confirming his death in a recent airstrike in Gaza.
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The National
a day ago
- The National
Rhoda Meek: My wayward, constantly escaping bundles of woolly joy
My five rare North Ronaldsay sheep are friendly, fascinating and utterly infuriating. Given their breeding – which is primitive and partial to roaming – their preference is to be anywhere except where they are supposed to be and they have been running rings around me for months. These ovine delights are tiny, which means that they can find and escape through gaps that even the dog struggles to get through. And as if that wasn't enough, they are clever to boot. In my (albeit limited) experience, they are masters of outwitting both dogs and people. That trait is genetic, thanks to a deeply unhelpful streak called 'anti-flocking'. It does exactly what it says on the tin: when they are under pressure, they scatter. Poor Wisp didn't know if he was on his head or his heels the first time he tried to round them up. The flock of five Ronnies split into groups of two and three. He set off after the three, who promptly split into groups of one and two. He went after the two … You get the idea. When he finally did corner a couple of them, they simply stared at him and refused to move. READ MORE: 'Joy, celebration and warmth' of Palestinian art to be showcased at Edinburgh Fringe When, dog and human, rapidly running out of steam, reached a rocky area, the wee horrors hid behind the rocks, their light fleece blending in perfectly. And for a last hurrah, as the dog got close enough to be useful, they keeled over and played dead. At least they are light enough that when they do that, I can pick them up and bodily move them to where I want them. It might have been the first time that I'd hefted a Ronnie on to my shoulders, but it wouldn't be the last! North Ronaldsay sheep are one of the oldest sheep breeds in the world. Native to the Orkney island of the same name, they've been in Orkney for more than 5000 years – part of a group known as Northern European short-tailed sheep. In 1832, the islanders built a dry stone dyke around the island to keep sheep off the best grazing land. Banished to the shoreline, the breed adapted by eating seaweed. That diet makes them very different from most other sheep. Seaweed is low in copper, so they've evolved to absorb more of it from their food. This means that if you feed them things with high copper levels, they can get copper poisoning. Apparently they also don't react well to Rhododendron, but then neither do many ecologists. Despite all that, they're hardy and incredibly low-input. They lamb easily, cope well with poor weather and don't need much help. Today, they're classed as 'vulnerable' by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, with fewer than 600 registered breeding females left. That's not a lot, so there are an increasing number of people keeping them in locations other than Orkney in order to ensure the future of the breed. Which is why there are now three North Ronaldsay ewes and two wedders living in Tiree. Truth be told, it was a bit of an accident. I was selling tea at the Royal Highland Show a few years ago and, as you do when you're stuck in the same spot for four days, I snuck off for a look around. I ended up in the rare breeds tent and, as a Hebridean sheep owner, I naturally struck up a conversation. When I left, I had a sneaking suspicion I'd agreed to buy some Ronnies – but it had all happened so fast … Two years later, I got a text to say they'd been born and would be ready for collection in October. I figured that, as a hardy rare breed that lived on the shore and ate fresh air, they'd be fairly easy to accommodate. Their fleeces are lovely (North Ronaldsay even has its own mill) and I was feeling optimistic. What could possibly go wrong? They were so small that all five arrived in the back of a pickup. Raised in Argyll, but from pedigree stock direct from North Ronaldsay, they came with a full backstory – and a warning. Keep activated charcoal to hand. Just in case they eat something they shouldn't. I was left wondering whether it was quite so surprising that they are small in number. Mine had grown up on sycamore, but as that's in short supply here, I decided to put them back on seaweed. My neighbour had helpfully acquired a pile of seaweed for her garden and left it on my croft, so I pressed that into service during the autumn, scattering tasty sheep nuts over the seaweed to tempt the greedy wee group. They loved it, and were soon tucking into the seaweed to the extent that I was asked to cease and desist as the pile diminished. It was during this period I began experimenting with different fields. That was when I realised that being small in stature did not mean they'd be easy to manage. Quite the opposite. Their luxurious fleeces are perfect for getting stuck. The afternoon that Lachie-up-the-road and I had to extract them from a bramble patch two fields over, I decided the shore might be worth a shot. Maybe they'd heft nicely to a seaweed-rich bit of coastline. 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The National
a day ago
- The National
Scottish grandmother volunteers to help displaced Gazans
'You can't justify that – a three-year-old child is a three-year-old child,' said Smith, from Berwickshire. 'It does not matter where on the planet they are from, they do not deserve to be targeted, maimed and murdered.' Equally harrowing was hearing about a young mum who lost her baby and one arm when an Israeli explosive hit as she was breastfeeding. It's only now, a month since Smith returned to Scotland from Cairo in Egypt, that she is able to talk about her experience because the trauma she witnessed was so overwhelming. READ MORE: Freedom Flotilla urges UK Government to 'protect' ship from Israel as it nears Gaza However, she is determined other Scots should hear about the thousands of Palestinians who have escaped the bombardment of Gaza but whose current living hell has been largely overlooked. Most were allowed to cross the border into Egypt because they needed urgent medical treatment for injuries cause by Israeli explosives but are now trying to survive in some of the worst slum areas of Cairo without status, jobs or welfare. 'What I saw and heard in Cairo was catastrophic – not just the aftermath of war but the bureaucracy of abandonment, the quiet violence of being rendered invisible,' Smith (below) told the Sunday National. There are more than 100,000 Gazans now living in Cairo with no legal status. 'They are not refugees. They are not asylum seekers. Nor do they want to be. They want to go home. In the meantime, they are people with no rights, no support and no safety net — invisible in a sprawling, chaotic city of over 10 million. Their kids can't go to Egyptian schools and none of them are allowed to work. It's the most impossible situation for them as if they haven't been through enough,' she said. Smith spent a month volunteering mostly with Network for Palestine, a charity set up by Palestinians to help the evacuees. Her trip was entirely self-funded as she felt she could no longer see the carnage on the TV news without trying to help. A long-time supporter of Medical Aid for Palestine, she had previously worked with Palestinians in the West Bank under the auspices of the British Council in 2010. 'Of all the countries in the world, Palestine is the most like Scotland,' said Smith, right. 'They have some of the best of us – gallows humour, hospitality, national and civic pride, warmth and openness, innovation, resourcefulness and they love a hoolie.' One of the hardest aspects of her visit was seeing the effects of war on the children. Before the current Israeli onslaught and even under occupation, the children were bright and full of energy. The Gazan children in Cairo, by contrast, had completely shut down. 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NBC News
2 days ago
- NBC News
A mournful Eid al-Adha in Gaza
Under the damaged dome of al-Albani Mosque in Khan Younis, families stood on broken stone and dust, raising their voices in takbir, the declaration of god's greatness, to mark the first morning of Eid al-Adha on Friday. In Gaza, the holiest of the two major Muslim holidays is traditionally a time for communal worship, the sacrifice of lambs, and shared meals. Families gather around piles of bread baked on the saj and morsels of liver fresh from the slaughter. But this year in Khan Younis, there was no feast. No lambs to sacrifice. No smell of meat cooking, no joyful reunions. The celebration, stripped of its customs, pressed on in grief. 'We don't eat meat, we don't eat liver, we are not happy like other times waiting for the Eid with joy,' Eftarag Abou Sabaa told NBC News' team in Khan Younis. Rather than the ritual sacrifice of a lamb, Abou Sabaa said, 'We sacrifice the blood of martyrs. We sacrifice our sons, our daughters, and our mothers; we sacrifice ourselves in a way that sets us apart from other people.' That morning, crowds moved quietly to the Khan Younis cemetery to visit loved ones lost to the war, and greeted each other by the tombstones of children, parents, and friends. Only the buzz of Israeli drones overhead filled the solemn silence. 'This is not an Eid of joy; it is an Eid of mourning and death,' Ahmed Darwish, displaced from Rafah to west Khan Younis, told NBC News as he stood beside the graves. 'Our children and women are in pieces. Instead of sacrificing animals, we collected body parts this morning.' On Eid, Israeli strikes continued as families wept by the bodies of their loved ones, killed before celebrations could begin. Reda Abdel Rahim Eljara told an NBC News team that Israeli air strikes had already killed her husband and one of her sons. On the first day of Eid al-Adha, she lost two more sons and her daughter-in-law. "Three months ago, on Eid al-Fitr, my son Qais got married," she told NBC News. "Today, on the main Eid, he is martyred with his wife." Umm Ahmad Al-Qatati said her son, Omar, 11, was shot as he left his tent to shower and get ready for a visit to see his father. 'He was so excited for Eid morning, but they sent him to the morgue instead,' she said. "Instead of celebrating Eid, he went to be with his Lord." Those for whom death had not come, trudged forward. At the ruins of al-Albani Mosque, Thaer al-Salmi, 14, continued to pray. "We try to find some joy by praying and wearing a few clothes to feel the Eid spirit," he said. 'I hope this war ends, and that next Eid will be like it was two years ago — a real celebration without war.'
