Israeli gunfire, strikes kill 120 Palestinians in Gaza, many at aid sites
Israeli forces have killed more than 120 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours, medical sources have told Al Jazeera, including dozens of hungry aid seekers, as Israel continues to relentlessly bombard the besieged territory, with the overall war death toll now surpassing a staggering 55,000 people.
Gaza's Health Ministry said 57 people trying to access aid were killed and more than 363 injured by Israel since Wednesday morning. The distribution points are operated by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US- and Israeli-backed drive in tightly Israeli-controlled zones.
Israel's Foreign Ministry has described the GHF aid system as a 'dramatic success' despite mass killings and scenes of utter human desperation, triggering widespread international opprobrium.
The isolated aid sites – set up in Rafah and in the Netzarim Corridor – have been branded 'human slaughterhouses' as more than 220 people have been killed while desperately trying to secure meagre food parcels for their families since GHF started operating on May 27.
The Israeli army has admitted its troops fired 'warning shots' in the area of the Netzarim Corridor, where the majority of aid seekers were reported killed overnight.
Gaza's Government Media Office said the Israeli military 'is deliberately creating chaos in the Gaza Strip by perpetuating a policy of starvation and deliberately targeting and killing starving people seeking food'.
The United Nations also condemned the killings and has refused to supply aid via the foundation, which uses private contractors with Israeli military backup in what the UN says is a breach of humanitarian standards.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) called the aid distribution model 'a distraction from the ongoing atrocities and a waste of resources'.
It reiterated that the humanitarian community in Gaza, including UNRWA, is 'ready and has the experience and expertise to reach people in need'.
Israel has banned UNRWA and other legacy aid agencies with decades of experience from operating in Gaza, where a famine looms, while it maintains a punishing aid blockade.
Chris Newton, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, said Israel's chaotic and violence-plagued aid system is deliberately structured to keep Palestinians desperate and hungry while pushing them southward.
Newton told Al Jazeera that GHF's stated aim of providing 1,750 calories worth of food per person per day is well short of the minimum standard for crisis situations.
That amount of food is 'closer to the ration given in a starvation experiment run in the 1940s in the US than it is to Israel's own previous 2008 red line for the minimum calories needed to avoid malnutrition in Gaza,' said Newton.
Elsewhere in Gaza on Wednesday, dozens of other people were killed by Israeli gunfire and strikes across the coastal territory.
An Israeli attack in Gaza City's Tuffah neighbourhood killed at least seven people, according to local medical sources.
Three Palestinians, including two children, were killed when an Israeli strike hit a home in northern Gaza's Jabalia, while in central Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp, three more Palestinians were killed in an Israeli drone strike, which wounded several others, according to the news agency Wafa.
In southern Gaza's Khan Younis, Israeli air strikes on displacement tents in the Tiberias camp killed four Palestinians, including a child, and wounded others, Wafa said.Children have borne much of the brunt of Israel's ongoing assault. Gaza's Health Ministry said the total death toll from Israel's war has risen to 55,104 since October 7, 2023 – most of them women and children.
Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City, said al-Shifa Hospital, like many other health facilities, has been reduced in terms of its capacity to provide proper healthcare to people, let alone children.
UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, who was at al-Shifa, said, 'Everywhere we go, this is the same scenario.
'Despite doctors' most incredible efforts, we see children being brutalised, burned … because it's a war on children.'
In the meantime, Israel continues to hold some of the crew members and activists who were on board the Madleen aid vessel trying to break the Israeli siege. Israeli forces intercepted the vessel and its 12 crew members in international waters off Gaza earlier this week.
While it deported four of the members, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, eight others remain in detention.
The group Adalah–The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel called on Israel to immediately release the remaining detained volunteers and return them either 'to the Madleen to resume their humanitarian mission to Gaza or to their countries of origin'.At least two of the detainees were placed in solitary confinement, according to their lawyers, though one – Rima Hassan – has since been returned to the main prison wing.
Brazilian national Thiago Avila was placed in solitary at Ayalon Prison due to an 'ongoing hunger and thirst strike' that began this week. 'He has also been treated aggressively by prison authorities, although this has not escalated to physical assault,' Adalah said.
Hassan, a French citizen and member of the European Parliament, was also temporarily placed in isolation in Neve Tirza Prison after writing 'Free Palestine' on a wall in another prison called Givon.
The UN's special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, has decried the arrests as 'arbitrary' and 'unlawful' and also called for the detainees' immediate release.
The Israeli military says it recovered the bodies of Yair Yaakov and a second captive, whose name has not yet been released, in a joint operation in Khan Younis with the Israeli intelligence agency Shin Bet.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Here's how the House GOP's proposed Medicaid cuts could impact Minnesota
Thousands of protestors gathered at the Minnesota State Capitol as part of the nationwide "Hands Off" protests condemning several actions of the Trump administration Saturday, April 5, 2025. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer) Minnesota could lose up the half a billion dollars annually if a GOP-backed tax bill becomes federal law, Minnesota's Medicaid director warned Thursday. That could mean fewer services or tighter restrictions on eligibility, affecting health care for hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans and the hospitals and other providers that treat them. The bill, which has already passed the U.S. House on a 215-214 vote, is still far off from becoming law; Senate Republicans are drafting their own version, and the GOP remains deeply split over how to pay for tax cuts, which is their ultimate goal. For now, the House legislation is the most detailed public plan for how Republicans will fund an extension of President Donald Trump's 2017 tax cuts, plus a bunch more. The tax cuts passed by the House would decrease federal revenue by about $3.7 trillion over the next ten years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. To offset the loss of income, Republicans want to cut spending by $1.3 trillion, mostly by targeting Medicaid and SNAP, which helps low-income people buy food. (The $2.4 trillion gap between the revenue and spending cuts would be added to the federal debt, which will in turn increase what taxpayers must shell out in interest payments, which have surpassed $1 trillion annually.) Medicaid pays for health care for the elderly, low-income and disabled. The cost is shared between states and the federal government; last year, Minnesota spent $18 billion on Medical Assistance, which is Minnesota's version of Medicaid. The federal government covered $11 billion of that. More than 1.2 million Minnesotans rely on Medical Assistance, and deep cuts would cause 'serious harm' to Minnesotans, said John Connolly, Minnesota's Medicaid director. 'Our position at the Minnesota Department of Human Services is that the bill currently on the table is inefficient, ineffective and fundamentally unfair,' Connolly said during a press briefing. Minnesota is already grappling with how to pay for care for an aging population as health care costs continue to rise. The state Legislature made $270 million in cuts to Medical Assistance this year, as spending on the program has risen faster than tax revenues. DHS estimates that if the U.S. House tax bill were to become law, the state would lose out on $500 million per year. The bill would cause between 152,000 and 253,000 Minnesotans to lose health insurance, according to Kaiser Family Foundation. It would also push costs onto state and local governments, Connolly said, by requiring county and tribal governments to verify participants' eligibility twice as often as they do now, and increasing the administrative burden for the state. The largest chunk of the possible cuts to Minnesota comes from a provision that would reduce Medicaid reimbursements for states that subsidize health insurance for undocumented people. The Legislature voted this week to remove eligibility of undocumented adults for MinnesotaCare, a state- and federally-funded health insurance program for the working poor that is separate from Medical Assistance. As long as undocumented children remain eligible for MinnesotaCare — and if the House language becomes law — Minnesota would still have its federal funding cut by about $330 million, according to DHS. Senate Republicans are wary of deep Medicaid cuts, and are instead expected to target SNAP, the New York Times reported Thursday. The Senate has not yet introduced its version of the tax bill. A proposal to shift 25% of federal SNAP benefit costs onto states would shift up to $220 million annual cost to Minnesota, according to the state Department of Youth and Family Services. More than 440,000 Minnesotans rely on SNAP benefits, according to DCYF. More than one-third are children, 18% are seniors and 14% are adults with a disability. If these federal cost shifts and cuts become law, the Minnesota Legislature would likely be forced to return to St. Paul for a special session to either raise taxes, cut services or move money around to fulfill lawmakers' constitutional obligation to balance the budget.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
diaMentis selected by Dassault Systèmes to join an exclusive group of innovative companies in the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab accelerator program
PARIS, June 12, 2025 /CNW/ - diaMentis, a company developing an innovative diagnostic support technology in mental health, recognized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a scientific breakthrough, has recently been selected by Dassault Systèmes to join its prestigious 3DEXPERIENCE Lab accelerator program. This unique program provides a hand-picked group of startups access to cutting-edge technological tools and resources to support the development of breakthrough solutions to today's global challenges. The latest results achieved with diaMentis' various patented innovations were recently published in the renowned scientific journal Biomedical Signal Processing and Control. These clinical outcomes, following the first interim analysis (IA1), demonstrate unprecedented performance levels in identifying biological markers specific to bipolar I disorder and schizophrenia. "Being selected by Dassault Systèmes for the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab represents a further recognition from a globally respected organization. This partnership will allow us to optimize our industrial development by leveraging their 3DEXPERIENCE platform and the expertise of their technology and health specialists," said Bernard Guimont, Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Head of Partnerships at diaMentis. diaMentis is in the final stages of developing a Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) which, once approved, will help clinicians diagnose and treat mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder, more quickly and effectively, using an objective and innovative approach. "We believe our technological platform, which uses High-Density Retinal Signal, has the potential to impact not only psychiatric disorders, but also non-psychiatric and neurological conditions," said Normand Tremblay, Co-founder and CEO of diaMentis. Mr. Tremblay adds: "The social and economic burden of these illnesses is astronomical and places tremendous financial pressure on healthcare systems worldwide. Once approved, diaMentis' technology will not only help save and improve lives, but also significantly enhance the efficiency of care delivery." About diaMentisdiaMentis was founded based on research conducted at Laval University and holds intellectual property rights related to the analysis of retinal signals. The company has been granted patents in the U.S. and Canada and has additional patents pending in several other countries. With its increasingly robust scientific results and in order to complete its regulatory process, diaMentis is currently seeking US$10M in short-term financing to finalize its clinical validation study at clinical sites across the U.S. and Canada. View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE diaMentis View original content to download multimedia: Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Over 100 reported killed in Gaza in 24 hours as telecoms go down
More than 100 people were reported killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza within 24 hours, as deadly incidents near aid distribution sites and a major communications outage deepened the crisis in the war-shattered Palestinian territory on Thursday. The Health Ministry in Gaza, controlled by Hamas, reported 103 deaths and 427 injuries in the past day alone. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, and the figures could not be independently verified. Since the start of the war on October 7, 2023, which was triggered by a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that killed around 1,200 people and saw more than 250 taken hostage, more than 55,200 people have been killed in Gaza and over 127,800 injured, according to the ministry. Palestinians reported that Israeli forces opened fire near aid distribution positions, while a humanitarian foundation said Hamas launched a deadly attack on its staff. The Palestinian news agency WAFA said at least 13 people were killed and around 200 injured at an aid centre in the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza. The Hamas-run Health Ministry confirmed the incident, but put the toll at 10 dead and at least 120 wounded. Separately, WAFA reported five more deaths in the Sudaniya area north-west of Gaza City, where people were waiting for food assistance. The Israeli military has not commented on the incidents. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), supported by Israel and the United States, began distributing aid last month following a near three-month Israeli blockade. The initiative aims to prevent Hamas from diverting aid, according to Israeli officials. However, the operation has drawn criticism from the UN and humanitarian organizations, who cite safety and access concerns. The GHF said that a Hamas attack on one of its staff buses killed eight Palestinian employees and injured several others on Wednesday evening. The team was en route to a distribution centre west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. The foundation stated that some employees may have been taken hostage and that it was still gathering information. "These were aid workers. Humanitarians. Fathers, brothers, sons, and friends," GHF said, condemning what it called a "heinous and deliberate attack." The organization urged the international community to hold Hamas accountable, saying its staff had been targeted simply for delivering food to Palestinians. WAFA, citing medical sources, reported that 224 people have been killed and over 1,850 injured around aid distribution points since May 27. 'The points have become traps for mass killings,' the agency said. Communications blackout adds to chaos Also on Thursday, Gaza's last functioning fibre-optic network was damaged in an attack, resulting in a complete outage of internet and landline services, according to the Palestinian Telecommunications Authority. WAFA said the blackout would have severe humanitarian and social consequences and called for immediate restoration. Telecommunications have been repeatedly disrupted during the conflict, hampering relief coordination and civilian communication. Israel has been engaged in a sustained military campaign in Gaza for 20 months, with the stated goal of eliminating Hamas and securing the release of remaining hostages. A new major ground offensive was launched nearly a month ago. The campaign has drawn international criticism, including from Israel's close allies, over the mounting civilian toll and the humanitarian situation on the ground.
