Hundreds mourn Palestinian-American teen killed by Israeli forces
Footage shows the moment 14-year-old Palestinian-American teen Omar Mohammad Rabea was allegedly fatally shot by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.
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Qatar Tribune
5 days ago
- Qatar Tribune
Israeli attacks kill 27 aid seekers in Gaza, says health ministry
Agencies Gaza Israeli forces have killed at least 27 Palestinians and injured 90 more as they opened fire close to an aid distribution site in Rafah, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. The latest killings came early on Tuesday at the Flag Roundabout, near an aid hub operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). It was the third such incident around the Rafah hub in as many days. Gaza's authorities report that more than 100 aid seekers have been killed since the United States- and Israel-backed GHF started operating in the enclave on May 27, with reports of violence, looting and chaos rife. The Israeli military said it had fired shots as 'a number of suspects' deviated from the regulated routes, on which a crowd was making its way to the GHF distribution complex. The 'suspects' were about 500 metres (approximately 550 yards) from the site, the military said in a statement on Telegram, adding that it was looking into reports of casualties. The death toll was confirmed by Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Gaza Health Ministry's records department. A spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, Hisham Mhanna, said 184 wounded people had been taken to its field hospital in Rafah, 19 of whom were found dead on arrival, and eight others died later of their wounds. Video verified by Al Jazeera's Sanad fact-checking agency showed the arrival of dozens of injured people at the hospital. Gaza's Government Media Office accused Israel of 'a horrific, intentionally repeated crime', saying it has been luring starving Palestinians to the GHF centres – controversially opened following an 11-week total blockade to take over most aid distribution from the United Nations and other aid agencies – and then opening fire. It said Tuesday's death toll brought the number of aid seekers killed at aid sites in the Rafah governorate and the so-called Netzarim Corridor since GHF launched operations to 102, with 490 others injured. The United Nations on Monday demanded an independent investigation into the repeated mass shootings of aid seekers in Gaza. 'It is unacceptable that Palestinians are risking their lives for food,' said Secretary General Antonio Guterres. 'I call for an immediate and independent investigation into these events and for perpetrators to be held accountable.' 'We heard from witnesses that there was chaos,' said Al Jazeera's Hind Khoudary, reporting about Tuesday's killings from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza. 'The Israeli forces just opened fire randomly, shooting Palestinians … using quadcopters and live ammunition.' Health Ministry officials and doctors said most of the wounded have been hit in their chest and head, she added. The bloodshed, she continued, had unfolded in the same way as on the previous two days, amid ongoing chaos around the aid distribution centres. 'There's no process. There's no system,' she said. 'You just need to run first to be able to get the food.' Rasha al-Nahal told The Associated Press news agency that 'there was gunfire from all directions', and that she saw more than a dozen people dead and several wounded on the road. When she finally made it to the distribution hub, there was no aid, al-Nahal said, adding that Israeli troops 'fired at us as we were returning'. Another witness, Neima al-Aaraj, from Khan Younis, described the shooting as 'indiscriminate'. 'I won't return,' she said. 'Either way, we will die.' The Israeli military, in its statement on Telegram, said troops had fired warning shots as people deviated from 'designated access routes' and 'after the suspects failed to retreat, additional shots were directed near a few individual suspects who advanced toward the troops'. However, it denied firing on civilians or blocking them from accessing aid. This account echoes statements around similar incidents on Sunday, when 31 aid seekers were reportedly killed, and on Monday, when three more were killed.
Qatar Tribune
6 days ago
- Qatar Tribune
Israel attacks kill 32 Palestinians waiting for food at Gaza aid sites
Agencies Gaza Israel has killed at least 32 Palestinians waiting to get food at two aid distribution sites in Gaza, leaving more than 200 others injured. Israeli tanks opened fire on thousands of civilians gathered at a distribution site in southern Gaza's Rafah on Sunday morning, killing at least 31 people, according to Gaza's Government Media Office. Soon after, another person was killed in a shooting at a similar distribution point south of the Netzarim Corridor in Gaza City, it said in a statement on Telegram. The aid is being distributed by Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a controversial group backed by Israel and the United States, which has completed a chaotic first week of operations in the enclave. The United Nations and other aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, accusing it of lacking neutrality and suggesting the group has been formed to enable Israel to achieve its stated military objective of taking over all of Gaza. 'Aid distribution has become a death trap,' the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, said in a statement on Sunday. The Israeli military said in a statement that its forces did not fire at civilians near or within the site, citing an initial inquiry. 'In recent hours, false reports have been spread, including serious allegations against the [Israeli military] regarding fire toward Gazan residents in the area of the humanitarian aid distribution site in the Gaza Strip,' the army said. The GHF had earlier told The Associated Press news agency that Israeli soldiers fired 'warning shots' as Palestinians gathered to receive food. However, Ibrahim Abu Saoud, who witnessed the attack on aid seekers in Rafah, told AP that Israeli forces opened fire on people as they moved towards the distribution point. The 40-year-old said the crowd was about 300 metres (328 yards) away from the military. He said he saw many people with gunshot wounds, including a young man who died at the scene. 'We weren't able to help him,' Abu Saoud said. Al Jazeera's Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said Palestinians are being killed while trying to secure 'one meal for their children'. 'This is why Palestinians have been going to these distribution points, despite the fact that they know that they are controversial. The distribution points are backed by the US and Israel, but they do not have any other option,' she said. 'Even the food parcels that were distributed to Palestinians are barely enough. We are talking about one kilo of flour, a couple of bags of pasta, a couple of cans of fava beans – and it's not nutritious. It's not enough for a family in Gaza nowadays.' Condemning the attacks, the Government Media Office described the GHF distribution sites as 'mass death traps, not humanitarian relief points'. 'We confirm to the entire world that what is happening is a systematic and malicious use of aid as a tool of war, employed to blackmail starving civilians and forcibly gather them in exposed killing points, managed and monitored by the occupation army and funded and politically covered by … the US administration,' it said in a statement. Speaking from Gaza City, Bassam Zaqout of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society said the current aid distribution mechanism had replaced 400 former distribution points with just four. 'I think there are different hidden agendas in this aid distribution mechanism,' he told Al Jazeera. Palestinian group Hamas, which runs the enclave's government, released a statement, saying the Israeli shootings were a 'blatant confirmation of premeditated intent' as it held Israel and the US fully responsible for the killings. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said the killings were a 'full-fledged war crime' and demanded international intervention to 'stop this ongoing massacre and impose strict accountability mechanisms'.
Qatar Tribune
26-05-2025
- Qatar Tribune
Far-right Israelis storm Al-Aqsa, UNRWA compounds amid Jerusalem Day march
Right-wing Israelis in Jerusalem have stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and a United Nations facility for Palestinian refugees as an annual march took place marking Israel's conquest of the eastern part of the city. Some Israelis chanted, 'Death to Arabs' and 'May your village burn,' as they marched through the alleyways of Jerusalem's Old City on Monday, going through the Muslim quarter to mark 'Jerusalem Day', which commemorates the Israeli occupation and annexation of East Jerusalem after the 1967 war. Thousands of heavily armed police and border police were dispatched in advance because settlers regularly assault, attack and harass Palestinians and shops in the Muslim quarter. The settlers live in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem in settlements and outposts, which are illegal under international law. Groups of young people, some carrying Israeli flags, were seen on Monday confronting Palestinian shopkeepers, passers-by and schoolchildren as well as Israeli rights activists and police, at times spitting on people, lobbing insults and trying to force their way into houses. Police detained at least two youths, according to AFP journalists at the scene. A small group of those rallying, including an Israeli member of parliament, stormed a compound in East Jerusalem belonging to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA. Israel has banned the agency from working in occupied Palestinian territory and in Israel, impacting the life-saving work that it has been carrying out for more than 70 years in areas that include the besieged and bombarded Gaza Strip. UNRWA West Bank coordinator Roland Friedrich said about a dozen Israeli protesters, including Yulia Malinovsky, one of the legislators behind an Israeli law that banned UNRWA, entered the compound, climbing its main gate in view of Israeli police. Last year's procession, held during the first year of Israel's assault on Gaza, saw ultranationalist Israelis attack a Palestinian journalist in the Old City and call for violence against Palestinians. And four years ago, the march contributed to the outbreak of an 11-day war in Gaza. Earlier on Monday, Israel's far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and other politicians were among more than 2,000 Israelis who stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and surrounding areas. Negev and Galilee Minister Yitzhak Vaserlauf and Knesset member Yitzhak Kreuzer were among those accompanying the ultranationalist minister. The Jerusalem Waqf – the Islamic authority that oversees the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) – decried the storming of the compound by Ben-Gvir and other members of the Israeli Knesset and called for a halt to all 'provocative activities' in the area. Under the management of the Jordan-appointed Waqf, only Muslims are allowed to pray at the compound. (Agencies)
