More than 70 killed trying to reach aid in Gaza, health ministry says
It was not immediately clear whether they were killed by the Israeli army or armed gangs, or both. But some witnesses said the Israeli military shot at the crowd.
The killings in northern Gaza did not take place near aid distribution points associated with the Gaza Humanitarian Fund, or GHF, a US and Israel-backed group that hands out food packages to Palestinians. Witnesses and health workers say hundreds of people have been killed by Israeli fire while trying to access the group's distribution sites.
The Israeli military did not immediately make any comment on Sunday's killings.
It came as the military published new evacuation warnings for parts of central Gaza, in one of the few areas the military has rarely operated with ground troops.
The evacuation cuts access between the city of Deir al-Balah and the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis in the narrow enclave.
The announcement comes as Israel and Hamas have been holding ceasefire talks in Qatar, but international mediators say there have been no breakthroughs.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly stressed expanding military operations in Gaza will pressure Hamas to negotiate (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly stressed that expanding military operations in Gaza will pressure Hamas to negotiate, though negotiations have been stalled for months.
Earlier this month, the Israeli military said it controlled more than 65% of the Gaza Strip.
The area of Gaza under the evacuation order is where many international organisations attempting to distribute aid are located.
The United Nations has been in contact with Israeli authorities to clarify whether its facilities in south-western Deir al-Balah are included in the evacuation order, an official said.
They said that in previous instances, UN facilities were spared from evacuation orders. The evacuation announcement covers an area stretching from a previously evacuated area all the way to the coast and will severely hamper movement for aid groups and civilians in Gaza, they added.
On Sunday morning, ambulances in front of three major hospitals in Gaza sounded their alarms simultaneously in an urgent appeal to shed light on the hunger crisis in the territory. The health ministry posted pictures on social media of doctors holding paper signs about malnourished children and the lack of medication.
Zaher al-Wahidi, one of the spokesmen at the health ministry, said at least nine children under five have died of malnutrition as of Sunday since Israel imposed the aid entry blockade in March.
He explained that tracking the number of people dying of starvation is hard because some could be suffering from other medical conditions that could be worsened when compounded with severe hunger.
In northern Gaza, Shifa Hospital director Abu Selmiyah said the facility recorded 79 people who died of malnutrition in the past month.
On the new evacuation order, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee warned the military will attack 'with intensity' against militants. He called for residents, including those sheltering in tents, to head to the Muwasi area, a desolate tent camp on Gaza's southern shore that the Israeli military has designated a humanitarian zone.
Gaza's population of more than two million Palestinians are in a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.
Hamas triggered the 21-month war when militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage. Fifty hostages remain, but fewer than half are thought to be alive.
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North Wales Chronicle
an hour ago
- North Wales Chronicle
At least 25 killed by Israeli gunfire while seeking aid, say health officials
Mr Netanyahu wants to realise US President Donald Trump's vision of relocating much of Gaza's population of more than two million people through what the prime minister refers to as 'voluntary migration' – and what critics have warned could be ethnic cleansing. 'Give them the opportunity to leave! First, from combat zones, and also from the Strip if they want,' Mr Netanyahu said in an interview aired on Tuesday with i24, an Israeli TV station, to discuss the planned offensive in some of the territory's most populated areas including Gaza City. 'We are not pushing them out but allowing them to leave.' Witnesses and staff at Nasser and Awda hospitals, which received the bodies, said people were killed on their way to aid distribution sites and while awaiting convoys entering the Gaza Strip. Israel did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Efforts to revive ceasefire talks have resumed after apparently breaking down last month. Hamas and Egyptian officials met on Wednesday in Cairo, according to Hamas official Taher al-Nounou. Israel has no plans to send its negotiating team to talks in Cairo, the prime minister's office said. Israel has said it will widen its military offensive against Hamas to the areas of Gaza that it does not yet control, where most of the territory's residents have sought refuge. Those plans have sparked international condemnation and criticism within Israel, and could be intended to raise pressure on Hamas to reach a ceasefire. The militants still hold 50 hostages taken in the October 7 2023 attack that sparked the war. Israel believes around 20 of them are alive. Mr Netanyahu was asked by i24 News if the window had closed on a partial ceasefire deal and he responded that he wanted all of the hostages back, alive and dead. Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty told reporters that Cairo is still trying to advance an earlier proposal for an initial 60-day ceasefire, the release of some hostages and an influx of humanitarian aid before further talks on a lasting truce. Hamas has long called for a comprehensive deal but says it will only release the remaining hostages in return for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The militant group has refused to lay down its arms as Israel has demanded. Israel and South Sudan are in talks about relocating Palestinians to the war-torn East African nation, The Associated Press (AP) reported on Tuesday. The office of Israel's deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel said on Wednesday that she was arriving in South Sudan for a series of meetings in the first visit by a senior government official to the country, but she did not plan to broach the subject of moving Palestinians. In a statement on Wednesday, South Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs called reports that it was engaging in discussions with Israel about resettling Palestinians baseless. The AP previously reported that US and Israel have reached out to officials of three East African governments to discuss using their territories as potential destinations for moving Palestinians uprooted from Gaza. Among those killed while seeking aid on Wednesday were 14 Palestinians in the Teina area approximately 3km away from a food distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), according to staff at Nasser hospital. Hashim Shamalah, who was trying to reach the sites, said Israeli troops fired towards them as people tried to get through. Many were shot and fell while fleeing, he said. Five other Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire while trying to reach another GHF distribution site in the Netzarim corridor area, according to Awda hospital and witnesses. The US and Israel support the GHF, an American contractor, as an alternative to the United Nations, which they say allows Hamas to siphon off aid. The UN, which has delivered aid throughout Gaza for decades when conditions allow, denies the allegations. The GHF said there were no incidents at or near its sites on Wednesday. There are aid convoys from other groups that travel within 100 metres (328ft) of GHF sites and draw large crowds attempting to loot them. An overwhelming majority of violent incidents over the past few weeks have been related to those other aid convoys, the organisation said, noting it has provided more than one million meals to aid seekers. At least six other people were killed by Israeli fire waiting for aid trucks close to the Morag corridor, which separates parts of southern Gaza, Nasser hospital said. The UN and food security experts have warned starvation and malnutrition in Gaza are at the highest levels since the war began. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Tuesday reported the warning from the World Food Programme and said the Gaza Health Ministry told UN staff in Gaza that five people died over the previous 24 hours from malnutrition and starvation. Gaza's Health Ministry says 106 children have died of malnutrition-related causes during the war and 129 adults have died since late June when the ministry started to count deaths among this age group. The UN and its humanitarian partners are doing everything possible to bring aid into Gaza, Mr Dujarric said, but still face significant delays and impediments from Israeli authorities who prevent the delivery of food and other essentials at the scale needed. Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the 2023 attack. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals. Israel's air and ground offensive has since displaced most of Gaza's population, destroyed vast areas and pushed the territory towards famine. The offensive has killed more than 61,700 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The UN and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.
Rhyl Journal
an hour ago
- Rhyl Journal
At least 25 killed by Israeli gunfire while seeking aid, say health officials
Mr Netanyahu wants to realise US President Donald Trump's vision of relocating much of Gaza's population of more than two million people through what the prime minister refers to as 'voluntary migration' – and what critics have warned could be ethnic cleansing. 'Give them the opportunity to leave! First, from combat zones, and also from the Strip if they want,' Mr Netanyahu said in an interview aired on Tuesday with i24, an Israeli TV station, to discuss the planned offensive in some of the territory's most populated areas including Gaza City. 'We are not pushing them out but allowing them to leave.' Witnesses and staff at Nasser and Awda hospitals, which received the bodies, said people were killed on their way to aid distribution sites and while awaiting convoys entering the Gaza Strip. Israel did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Efforts to revive ceasefire talks have resumed after apparently breaking down last month. Hamas and Egyptian officials met on Wednesday in Cairo, according to Hamas official Taher al-Nounou. Israel has no plans to send its negotiating team to talks in Cairo, the prime minister's office said. Israel has said it will widen its military offensive against Hamas to the areas of Gaza that it does not yet control, where most of the territory's residents have sought refuge. Those plans have sparked international condemnation and criticism within Israel, and could be intended to raise pressure on Hamas to reach a ceasefire. The militants still hold 50 hostages taken in the October 7 2023 attack that sparked the war. Israel believes around 20 of them are alive. Mr Netanyahu was asked by i24 News if the window had closed on a partial ceasefire deal and he responded that he wanted all of the hostages back, alive and dead. Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty told reporters that Cairo is still trying to advance an earlier proposal for an initial 60-day ceasefire, the release of some hostages and an influx of humanitarian aid before further talks on a lasting truce. Hamas has long called for a comprehensive deal but says it will only release the remaining hostages in return for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The militant group has refused to lay down its arms as Israel has demanded. Israel and South Sudan are in talks about relocating Palestinians to the war-torn East African nation, The Associated Press (AP) reported on Tuesday. The office of Israel's deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel said on Wednesday that she was arriving in South Sudan for a series of meetings in the first visit by a senior government official to the country, but she did not plan to broach the subject of moving Palestinians. In a statement on Wednesday, South Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs called reports that it was engaging in discussions with Israel about resettling Palestinians baseless. The AP previously reported that US and Israel have reached out to officials of three East African governments to discuss using their territories as potential destinations for moving Palestinians uprooted from Gaza. Among those killed while seeking aid on Wednesday were 14 Palestinians in the Teina area approximately 3km away from a food distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), according to staff at Nasser hospital. Hashim Shamalah, who was trying to reach the sites, said Israeli troops fired towards them as people tried to get through. Many were shot and fell while fleeing, he said. Five other Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire while trying to reach another GHF distribution site in the Netzarim corridor area, according to Awda hospital and witnesses. The US and Israel support the GHF, an American contractor, as an alternative to the United Nations, which they say allows Hamas to siphon off aid. The UN, which has delivered aid throughout Gaza for decades when conditions allow, denies the allegations. The GHF said there were no incidents at or near its sites on Wednesday. There are aid convoys from other groups that travel within 100 metres (328ft) of GHF sites and draw large crowds attempting to loot them. An overwhelming majority of violent incidents over the past few weeks have been related to those other aid convoys, the organisation said, noting it has provided more than one million meals to aid seekers. At least six other people were killed by Israeli fire waiting for aid trucks close to the Morag corridor, which separates parts of southern Gaza, Nasser hospital said. The UN and food security experts have warned starvation and malnutrition in Gaza are at the highest levels since the war began. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Tuesday reported the warning from the World Food Programme and said the Gaza Health Ministry told UN staff in Gaza that five people died over the previous 24 hours from malnutrition and starvation. Gaza's Health Ministry says 106 children have died of malnutrition-related causes during the war and 129 adults have died since late June when the ministry started to count deaths among this age group. The UN and its humanitarian partners are doing everything possible to bring aid into Gaza, Mr Dujarric said, but still face significant delays and impediments from Israeli authorities who prevent the delivery of food and other essentials at the scale needed. Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the 2023 attack. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals. Israel's air and ground offensive has since displaced most of Gaza's population, destroyed vast areas and pushed the territory towards famine. The offensive has killed more than 61,700 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The UN and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Turned back from Gaza, aid shipments languish in warehouses, on roadsides
RAFAH, Egypt, Aug 13 (Reuters) - - Boxes of Gaza-bound aid turned back by Israel on Sunday languished atop a truck and flatbed trailer parked metres from its border with Egypt, as exasperated drivers and U.N. officials criticised delays in sending food and medicine to the enclave. Seven aid officials and three truckers interviewed by Reuters listed a host of obstacles, ranging from rejections of shipments for minor packing and paperwork issues to heavy scrutiny over possible dual military use for a range of goods, as well as short working hours at the Israeli border crossing. The supplies seen by Reuters on Monday on the stalled truck and trailer outside Egypt's Rafah border crossing carried blue logos of the World Health Organisation and labels describing contents like topical medications and suction devices to clean wounds. A WHO employee working at the border said the cargo was blocked for carrying "illegal medicines". Reuters could not independently verify why the trucks were not allowed to enter Gaza and the Israeli military authority in charge of coordinating aid did not respond to a question about why they were not let into the enclave. Reuters visited Egypt's border with Gaza on Monday on a trip organised by the Elders, a group of former world leaders set up by late South African President Nelson Mandela that backs a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Some Elders members have been highly critical of Israel's conduct in Gaza, including former Irish President Mary Robinson and former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, who joined the border trip. Responding to international outrage sparked by images of starving Gazans, Israel on July 27 announced measures to let more aid into Gaza. But aid agencies say only a fraction of what they send is getting in. Israel strongly denies limiting aid supplies. Speaking to reporters at the Rafah crossing, Clark expressed shock at the amount of aid turned back at the border. 'To see this crossing, which should be a place where people interact with each other, where people can come and go, where people aren't under blockade, where people who are ill can leave to come out – to see it just silent for the people, it's absolutely shocking for us,' Clark said. Approvals and clearance procedures that got a shipment through the Rafah border crossing "within a few days" of arrival in Egypt during a ceasefire earlier in the war now took "minimum one month,' according to the WHO employee at the border. On Monday, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said at least 1,334 trucks had entered Gaza through all land crossings, including from Egypt, since the Israeli measures announced on July 27, but this was far short of the 9,000 that would have gone in if 600 trucks had entered per day. The United States has said a minimum of 600 trucks per day are needed to feed Gaza's population. Reuters could not independently confirm the reasons for the delays described in this article or the specific figures supplied by those interviewed. Asked for its response to allegations of curbs on aid flows, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, COGAT, said Israel invests 'considerable efforts' in aid distribution. It said about 300 trucks had been transferred daily in "recent weeks," mostly carrying food, via all land crossings. "Despite the claims made, the State of Israel allows and facilitates the provision of humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip without any quantitative limit on the number of aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip,' COGAT said. The agency did not address specific questions about aid shipment volumes. In mid-July, Israel introduced a requirement that shipments of humanitarian aid arriving from Egypt undergo customs clearance. According to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Israel's move led to "additional bureaucratic hurdles, delays, and costs for humanitarian organisations." U.N. agencies were exempted from customs clearance from Egypt from July 27 to Aug. 3, OCHA said in a report, opens new tab on August 6. While not officially extended, the exemption still appeared to be in place, it said. Other international NGOs could be exempted only on a case-by-case basis and only for health items. More than 200 Gazans have died of malnutrition or starvation in the war, according to Palestinian health authorities, adding to the over 61,000 dead they say have been killed by military action. The U.N. human rights office and several expert studies have said the number is probably an undercount. Israel has disputed the Gaza health ministry figures, which do not distinguish between fighters and civilians, and says at least a third of the fatalities are militants. On Monday, COGAT said a review by its medical experts found the number of deaths reported by the Gaza health ministry due to malnutrition was inflated and most of those "allegedly dying from malnutrition" had pre-existing conditions. Drivers coming from Egypt cannot go directly to the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing, which had been operated by the Hamas-run border authority but is now closed. Instead, they route to the Israeli crossing of Kerem Shalom, about three km (two miles) to the south, where shipments undergo checks. Kamel Atteiya Mohamed, an Egyptian truck driver, estimated that of the 200 or 300 trucks trying to get through this route every day, only 30 to 50 make it. "They tell you, for example, that the pallet doesn't have a sticker, the pallet is tilted, or the pallet is open from the top. This is no reason for us to return it,' he told Reuters. He said that while the Egyptian crossing was open day and night, drivers often arrived at Kerem Shalom only to find it closed, as it does not normally operate beyond weekday business hours. 'Every day it's like this,' he said. 'Honestly, we're fed up.' While COGAT did not address specific questions about the driver's remarks and allegations of inflexible working hours, it said that "hundreds of truckloads of aid still await collection by the UN and international organizations" on the Palestinian side of the border crossings. A logistics site set up by the Egyptian Red Crescent near El Arish town, 40 km (25 miles) from the border, where shipments coming from Egypt to Gaza are loaded, has a tarp tent warehouse devoted to goods turned back from the border. A Reuters reporter saw rows of white oxygen tanks, as well as wheelchairs, car tires and cartons labelled as containing generators and first-aid kits and with logos of aid groups from countries such as Luxembourg and Kuwait, among others. Reuters was not able to verify when the items at the Red Crescent site were turned back or on what grounds. Aid workers describe such rejections as routine. Speaking at the meeting with the Elders that Reuters attended, one World Food Programme worker said that only 73 of the 400 trucks the agency had sent since July 27 had made it in. U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA has not been allowed to send aid into Gaza since March. The OCHA August 6 report said no shelter materials had been allowed to enter Gaza since March 2 and those available on the local market were "prohibitively expensive and limited in quantity." The WHO employee who works on the border said the truck and trailer seen by Reuters were among three trucks that had been turned back on Sunday. A manifest given for their cargo, seen by Reuters, included urine drainage bags, iodine, plasters and sutures.
