Gaza doctors give their own blood to patients after scores gunned down seeking aid
A girl reacts as Palestinians evacuate the wounded from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, June 5, 2025. REUTERS/ Khamis Al-Rifi
GENEVA — Doctors in the Gaza Strip are donating their own blood to save their patients after scores of Palestinians were gunned down while trying to get food aid, the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Thursday.
Around 100 MSF staff protested outside the UN headquarters in Geneva against an aid distribution system in Gaza run by an Israeli-backed private company, which has led to chaotic scenes of mass carnage.
"People need the basics of life...they also need it in dignity," MSF Switzerland's director general, Stephen Cornish, told Reuters at the protest.
"If you're fearing for your life, running with packages being mowed down, this is just something that is completely beyond everything we've ever seen," he said. "These attacks have killed dozens...They were left to bleed out on the ground."
Cornish said staff at one of the hospitals where MSF operates had to give blood as most Palestinians are now too poorly nourished to donate.
Israel allowed the private Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to begin food distribution in Gaza last week, after having completely shut the Gaza Strip to all supplies since the beginning of March.
Gaza authorities say at least 102 Palestinians were killed and nearly 500 wounded trying to get aid from the food distribution sites in the first eight days.
Eyewitnesses have said Israeli forces fired on crowds. The Israeli military said Hamas militants were to blame for opening fire, though it acknowledged that on Tuesday, when at least 27 people died, that its troops had fired at "suspects" who approached their positions.
The United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Wednesday supported by all other Council members, which would have called for an "immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire" in Gaza and unhindered access for aid. — Reuters
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Gaza doctors give their own blood to patients after scores gunned down seeking aid
A girl reacts as Palestinians evacuate the wounded from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, June 5, 2025. REUTERS/ Khamis Al-Rifi GENEVA — Doctors in the Gaza Strip are donating their own blood to save their patients after scores of Palestinians were gunned down while trying to get food aid, the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Thursday. Around 100 MSF staff protested outside the UN headquarters in Geneva against an aid distribution system in Gaza run by an Israeli-backed private company, which has led to chaotic scenes of mass carnage. "People need the basics of also need it in dignity," MSF Switzerland's director general, Stephen Cornish, told Reuters at the protest. "If you're fearing for your life, running with packages being mowed down, this is just something that is completely beyond everything we've ever seen," he said. "These attacks have killed were left to bleed out on the ground." Cornish said staff at one of the hospitals where MSF operates had to give blood as most Palestinians are now too poorly nourished to donate. Israel allowed the private Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to begin food distribution in Gaza last week, after having completely shut the Gaza Strip to all supplies since the beginning of March. Gaza authorities say at least 102 Palestinians were killed and nearly 500 wounded trying to get aid from the food distribution sites in the first eight days. Eyewitnesses have said Israeli forces fired on crowds. The Israeli military said Hamas militants were to blame for opening fire, though it acknowledged that on Tuesday, when at least 27 people died, that its troops had fired at "suspects" who approached their positions. The United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Wednesday supported by all other Council members, which would have called for an "immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire" in Gaza and unhindered access for aid. — Reuters
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Pope Leo, in first month, makes a break in style from Francis
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Two of Leo's long-time associates told Reuters they expect the 69-year-old Pope to take a deliberative approach to the challenges facing the Catholic Church and may require months before making major decisions. "Leo is taking his time," Rev. Mark Francis, a friend of the new pontiff since the 1970s, told Reuters. "While he is going to continue in the path indicated by Pope Francis, his disposition is very different." Leo was first appointed a bishop by Francis in 2015 and then chosen by the late pope to take up a senior Vatican role two years ago. He has frequently praised his predecessor in his first weeks. He has also repeated some of Francis' main themes, and has echoed the Argentine pontiff's emotional appeals for an end to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. But the two men have different temperaments, according to Rev. Francis, who attended seminary with Leo in Chicago and later knew him when they both lived in Rome in the 2000s. 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He did not make his first trip abroad until late July 2013, four months into his papacy. Leo's first foreign trip is likely to be to Turkey, to celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of an early Church council with Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Vatican has not announced the trip, but it was previously planned for Francis. Bartholomew told an Italian television station that he and Leo discussed the possibility of the new pope travelling to Turkey in late November. Francis, who often spoke off the cuff, was known for giving freewheeling news conferences on flights home from his trips abroad and frequently responded to queries with an unexpected quip. Asked during his first flight home about a Vatican official said to be gay, Francis famously responded: "If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge him?" Rev. 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At least 27 Palestinians killed near Gaza aid site; UN demands investigation
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