As death toll mounts, Gazans make life-risking journeys to seek food, aid
Social Sharing
Like thousands of other Palestinians in Gaza, Hind Al-Nawajha takes a dangerous, kilometres-long journey every day to try to get some food for her family, hoping she makes it back alive.
Accompanied by her sister, Mazouza, the mother-of-four had to duck down and hide behind a pile of rubble on the side of the road as gunshots echoed nearby.
"You either come back carrying [food] for your children and they will be happy, or you come back in a shroud. Or you go back upset [without food] and your children will cry," said Nawajha, 38, a resident of Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza.
"This is life; we are being slaughtered, we can't do it anymore."
In the past two days, dozens of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire as they tried to get food from aid trucks brought into the enclave by the United Nations and international relief agencies, Gaza medics said.
On Thursday, medics said at least 51 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes, including 12 people who tried to approach a site operated by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in the central Gaza Strip, the latest in near-daily reports of killings of people seeking food.
The Israeli military said there were several attempts by "suspects" to approach forces in the area of Netzarim in a manner that endangered them. It said forces fired warning shots to prevent suspects from approaching them, and it was currently unaware of injuries in the incident.
In an email, GHF criticized Gazan health officials, accusing them of regularly releasing inaccurate information.
GHF said that Palestinians do not access the nearby GHF site via the Netzarim corridor. It did not address questions about whether GHF was aware that such an incident had occurred.
Women, children killed in separate Israeli strikes
Thirty-nine people were killed, meanwhile, in separate Israeli airstrikes in the northern Gaza Strip, medics said. One of those strikes killed at least 19 people in a tent in the Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, they added.
Heba Ziada, 32, said her sister was killed in the strike on Al-Shati, which struck the entrance of a market in the refugee camp.
"My sister was 14 years old. What did she do wrong?" Ziada told CBC News freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife on Thursday.
Another strike killed at least 14 people and damaged several houses in Jabaliya, in the north of the enclave, medics said.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army on those attacks.
In recent days, the Israeli military said its forces had opened fire and fired warning shots to disperse people who approached areas where troops were operating, posing a threat. It said it was reviewing reports of casualties among civilians.
Returning empty-handed after trying to find food
Israel has been channelling much of the aid it is now allowing into Gaza through the new U.S.- and Israeli-backed GHF, which operates a handful of distribution sites in areas guarded by Israeli forces.
Gaza's Health Ministry said hundreds of Palestinians have been killed trying to reach GHF sites since late May.
The United Nations rejects the GHF delivery system as inadequate, dangerous and a violation of humanitarian impartiality rules. Israel says it is needed to prevent Hamas fighters from diverting aid, which Hamas denies.
On Wednesday, the GHF said in a statement it had distributed three million meals across three of its aid sites without an incident.
WATCH | A number of Palestinians trying to reach Rafah aid site killed on Monday:
'We saw death': Palestinians describe violence near GHF aid sites on Monday
3 days ago
Duration 1:10
At least 20 people were killed and 200 others wounded in Israeli fire near an aid distribution site in Rafah on Monday, according to medics. The deaths are the latest in mass shootings that have killed at least 300 Palestinians in the past several weeks, Gaza's Health Ministry says, as they try to access food through the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's distribution system.
The Gaza war was triggered when Palestinian Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct.7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 55,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, while displacing almost the entire population of more than two million and causing a hunger crisis.
The Norwegian Refugee Council warned Thursday that more than one million people were without adequate shelter in Gaza, saying equipment such as tents and tarpaulins had been blocked by Israel from entering since March 1.
Nawajha returned empty-handed on Wednesday from her journey to find food, flopping down exhausted on the dusty ground outside the tent in Gaza City, where she has been displaced and sheltering with her family.
She and her sister have been camping by the road for the past 20 days. They say they try to force their way into the distribution site where trucks carrying aid arrive, but are often outmuscled by men, who sometimes fight over sacks of flour coming off UN trucks.
"[When] there is no food, as you can see, children start crying and getting angry," said Nawajha. "When we are for three, four kilometres or more on our legs... Oh my … our feet are bruised and our shoes are torn off."
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CBC
15 hours ago
- CBC
As death toll mounts, Gazans make life-risking journeys to seek food, aid
Social Sharing Like thousands of other Palestinians in Gaza, Hind Al-Nawajha takes a dangerous, kilometres-long journey every day to try to get some food for her family, hoping she makes it back alive. Accompanied by her sister, Mazouza, the mother-of-four had to duck down and hide behind a pile of rubble on the side of the road as gunshots echoed nearby. "You either come back carrying [food] for your children and they will be happy, or you come back in a shroud. Or you go back upset [without food] and your children will cry," said Nawajha, 38, a resident of Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza. "This is life; we are being slaughtered, we can't do it anymore." In the past two days, dozens of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire as they tried to get food from aid trucks brought into the enclave by the United Nations and international relief agencies, Gaza medics said. On Thursday, medics said at least 51 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes, including 12 people who tried to approach a site operated by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in the central Gaza Strip, the latest in near-daily reports of killings of people seeking food. The Israeli military said there were several attempts by "suspects" to approach forces in the area of Netzarim in a manner that endangered them. It said forces fired warning shots to prevent suspects from approaching them, and it was currently unaware of injuries in the incident. In an email, GHF criticized Gazan health officials, accusing them of regularly releasing inaccurate information. GHF said that Palestinians do not access the nearby GHF site via the Netzarim corridor. It did not address questions about whether GHF was aware that such an incident had occurred. Women, children killed in separate Israeli strikes Thirty-nine people were killed, meanwhile, in separate Israeli airstrikes in the northern Gaza Strip, medics said. One of those strikes killed at least 19 people in a tent in the Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, they added. Heba Ziada, 32, said her sister was killed in the strike on Al-Shati, which struck the entrance of a market in the refugee camp. "My sister was 14 years old. What did she do wrong?" Ziada told CBC News freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife on Thursday. Another strike killed at least 14 people and damaged several houses in Jabaliya, in the north of the enclave, medics said. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army on those attacks. In recent days, the Israeli military said its forces had opened fire and fired warning shots to disperse people who approached areas where troops were operating, posing a threat. It said it was reviewing reports of casualties among civilians. Returning empty-handed after trying to find food Israel has been channelling much of the aid it is now allowing into Gaza through the new U.S.- and Israeli-backed GHF, which operates a handful of distribution sites in areas guarded by Israeli forces. Gaza's Health Ministry said hundreds of Palestinians have been killed trying to reach GHF sites since late May. The United Nations rejects the GHF delivery system as inadequate, dangerous and a violation of humanitarian impartiality rules. Israel says it is needed to prevent Hamas fighters from diverting aid, which Hamas denies. On Wednesday, the GHF said in a statement it had distributed three million meals across three of its aid sites without an incident. WATCH | A number of Palestinians trying to reach Rafah aid site killed on Monday: 'We saw death': Palestinians describe violence near GHF aid sites on Monday 3 days ago Duration 1:10 At least 20 people were killed and 200 others wounded in Israeli fire near an aid distribution site in Rafah on Monday, according to medics. The deaths are the latest in mass shootings that have killed at least 300 Palestinians in the past several weeks, Gaza's Health Ministry says, as they try to access food through the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's distribution system. The Gaza war was triggered when Palestinian Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct.7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 55,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, while displacing almost the entire population of more than two million and causing a hunger crisis. The Norwegian Refugee Council warned Thursday that more than one million people were without adequate shelter in Gaza, saying equipment such as tents and tarpaulins had been blocked by Israel from entering since March 1. Nawajha returned empty-handed on Wednesday from her journey to find food, flopping down exhausted on the dusty ground outside the tent in Gaza City, where she has been displaced and sheltering with her family. She and her sister have been camping by the road for the past 20 days. They say they try to force their way into the distribution site where trucks carrying aid arrive, but are often outmuscled by men, who sometimes fight over sacks of flour coming off UN trucks. "[When] there is no food, as you can see, children start crying and getting angry," said Nawajha. "When we are for three, four kilometres or more on our legs... Oh my … our feet are bruised and our shoes are torn off."
CTV News
20 hours ago
- CTV News
Israel threatens Iran's top leader after missiles damage hospital and wound dozens
Smokes raises from a building of the Soroka hospital complex after it was hit by a missile fired from Iran in Be'er Sheva, Israel, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa) BEERSHEBA, Israel -- Israel's defence minister overtly threatened Iran's supreme leader on Thursday after the latest missile barrage from Iran damaged a major hospital and hit a high-rise and several other residential buildings near Tel Aviv. At least 40 people were wounded in the attacks, according to Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service. Black smoke rose from the Soroka Medical Center in the southern city of Beersheba as emergency teams evacuated patients. There were no serious injuries in the strike on the hospital. In the aftermath of the strikes, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz blamed Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and said the military 'has been instructed and knows that in order to achieve all of its goals, this man absolutely should not continue to exist.' U.S. officials said this week that President Donald Trump had vetoed an Israeli plan to kill Khamenei. Trump later said there were no plans to kill him 'at least not for now.' Israel, meanwhile, carried out strikes on Iran's Arak heavy water reactor, in its latest attack on the country's sprawling nuclear program, on the seventh day of a conflict that began with a surprise wave of Israeli airstrikes targeting military sites, senior officers and nuclear scientists. A Washington-based Iranian human rights group said at least 639 people, including 263 civilians, have been killed in Iran and more than 1,300 wounded. In retaliation, Iran has fired some 400 missiles and hundreds of drones, killing at least 24 people in Israel and wounding hundreds. Missile hits main hospital in southern Israel Two doctors told The Associated Press that the missile struck almost immediately after air raid sirens went off, causing a loud explosion that could be heard from a safe room. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media. The hospital said the main impact was on an old surgery building that had been evacuated in recent days. After the strike, the medical facility was closed to all patients except for life-threatening cases, it said. Soroka has over 1,000 beds and provides services to around one million residents of Israel's south. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the strike on the hospital and vowed a response, saying: 'We will exact the full price from the tyrants in Tehran.' Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel, though most have been shot down by Israel's multi-tiered air defences, which detect incoming fire and shoot down missiles heading toward population centers and critical infrastructure. Israeli officials acknowledge it is imperfect. Haim Bublil, a local police commander, told reporters that several people were lightly wounded in the strike. Many hospitals in Israel activated emergency plans in the past week, converting underground parking to hospital floors and moving patients underground, especially those who are on ventilators or are difficult to move quickly. Israel also boasts a fortified, subterranean blood bank that kicked into action after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack ignited the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip. `No radiation danger' after strike on reactor Israel's military said its fighter jets targeted the Arak facility and its reactor core seal to halt it from being used to produce plutonium. 'The strike targeted the component intended for plutonium production, in order to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development,' the military said. Israel separately claimed to have struck another site around Natanz it described as being related to Iran's nuclear program. Iranian state TV said there was 'no radiation danger whatsoever' from the attack on the Arak site. An Iranian state television reporter, speaking live in the nearby town of Khondab, said the facility had been evacuated and there was no damage to civilian areas around the reactor. Israel had warned earlier Thursday morning it would attack the facility and urged the public to flee the area. Iran rejects calls to surrender or end its nuclear program Iran has long maintained its program is for peaceful purposes. However, it also enriches uranium up to 60 per cent, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90 per cent. Iran is the only non-nuclear-weapon state to enrich at that level. Israel is the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East but does not acknowledge having such weapons. The strikes came a day after Iran's supreme leader rejected U.S. calls for surrender and warned that any military involvement by the Americans would cause 'irreparable damage to them.' Israel had lifted some restrictions on daily life Wednesday, suggesting the missile threat from Iran on its territory was easing. Already, Israel's campaign has targeted Iran's enrichment site at Natanz, centrifuge workshops around Tehran and a nuclear site in Isfahan. Its strikes have also killed top generals and nuclear scientists. Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he would travel to Geneva for meetings with his European counterparts on Friday, indicating a new diplomatic initiative might be taking shape. Iran's official IRNA news agency said the meeting would include foreign ministers from the United Kingdom, France and Germany and the European Union's top diplomat. Trump has said he wants something 'much bigger' that a ceasefire and has not ruled out the U.S. joining in Israel's campaign. Iran has warned of dire consequences if the U.S. deepens its involvement, without elaborating. Arak had been redesigned to address nuclear concerns The Arak heavy water reactor is 250 kilometres (155 miles) southwest of Tehran. Heavy water helps cool nuclear reactors, but it produces plutonium as a byproduct that can potentially be used in nuclear weapons. That would provide Iran another path to the bomb beyond enriched uranium, should it choose to pursue the weapon. Iran had agreed under its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers to redesign the facility over proliferation concerns. The reactor became a point of contention after U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018. Ali Akbar Salehi, a high-ranking nuclear official in Iran, said in 2019 that Tehran bought extra parts to replace a portion of the reactor that it had poured concrete into to render it unusable under the deal. Israel, in conducting its strike, signaled it remained concerned the facility could be used to produce plutonium again one day. 'The strike targeted the component intended for plutonium production, in order to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development,' the Israeli military said in a statement. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, has been urging Israel not to strike Iranian nuclear sites. IAEA inspectors reportedly last visited Arak on May 14. Due to restrictions Iran imposed on inspectors, the IAEA has said it lost 'continuity of knowledge' about Iran's heavy water production -- meaning it could not absolutely verify Tehran's production and stockpile. ------ By Sam Mednick, Natalie Melzer, And Jon Gambrell Melzer reported from Tel Aviv, Israel, and Gambrell from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writer Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv contributed.
National Post
21 hours ago
- National Post
Struggle to lift five kilograms? Your health could be at risk, study finds
Scientists at the University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates have devised a simple test that they can say can predict an increased risk of developing a host of health problems in older adults. All you have to do is try to pick up a five-kilogram weight. Article content Struggle with that, they say, and you have a significantly higher risk of experiencing a lower quality of life, higher rates of depression, chronic lung diseases, hip fractures, joint disorders, high cholesterol, Alzheimer's disease, stroke, osteoarthritis and more. Article content Article content The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports under a no-nonsense title: 'The simple task of lifting five kilograms serves as a predictor of age-related disorders in old adults.' Article content Article content The large-scale study involved 51,536 'geriatric adults' — that is to say 50 and older, a definition that may annoy some — from 14 European countries as well as Israel. It was a roughly even split between men and women, with about a third of the group aged between 60 and 69, another third between 70 and 79, and the rest younger or older. (About 4 per cent were 90 and above.) Article content Participants were asked to report if they had difficulty lifting five kilograms in 2013 — 80.5 per cent said they did not — and were then followed for several years to see which diseases developed among each group. For a given disease, participants were excluded if they already had it in the baseline year. Article content Take high blood pressure. In 2013, just under 60 per cent of the group were free of a diagnosis of high blood pressure. Of those, 21.5 per cent went on to develop it. But among the participants who had trouble lifting the weight when the study began, that number amounted to 26.2 per cent. Article content Article content For hip fractures, the overwhelming majority (97 per cent) did not have one when the study started. But in the years that followed, 3.5 per cent of those who had trouble lifting the weight experienced a hip fracture, versus just 1.5 per cent of those who did not struggle with the weight. Article content Article content Parsing the data between younger and older ages, the researchers found that men and women under 65 who had trouble lifting five kilograms were most at risk of developing depression, low quality of life, low hand-grip strength (which can also indicate risks of other diseases) and Alzheimer's. Article content For older men and women who struggled with the weight, risk of Alzheimer's dropped somewhat while the other three conditions remained top of list. But for almost every condition the researchers tracked, struggling to lift five kilograms at the start of the study was a clear indicator of greater risk at the end. The only diseases that didn't fit the pattern were cancer and diabetes, where risk did not change.
