Many dead and wounded after gunfire near Gaza aid distribution point
For the past 20 days, Ahmed Rashad has been out of canned goods. The former private sector employee has struggled to buy enough food to ease the hunger pangs of his five children and family. Their home in Rafah was destroyed and now lies inside a zone made inaccessible by the Israeli military. All 15 of them are living in a tent in the so-called humanitarian area of Al-Mawasi, a patch of sand in southwestern Gaza that lacks everything. On Saturday night, Rashad followed a few neighbors toward Tell es-Sultan in Rafah, heading for a distribution point run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an NGO that Israel and the United States want to establish as the sole humanitarian operator in the enclave. There had been no official announcement, but everyone was hoping there would be a distribution.
Speaking to Le Monde by phone, the 40-year-old Palestinian father said the shooting began around 3:30 am. (Israel has banned international journalists from the Gaza Strip for over a year and a half.) Those who came via the beach found themselves under fire from "Israeli cruisers at sea," he said, and he saw "seven or eight martyrs lying on the ground." At 4:30 am, he claimed, Israeli quadcopter drones began firing into the crowd. "A woman and her daughter collapsed in front of me. I thought she was exhausted because we walk enormous distances on foot. In fact, she had been shot in the knee," he recounted.
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France 24
37 minutes ago
- France 24
At least 16 Gazans killed in Israeli strikes as US-backed group pauses humanitarian aid
The civil defence agency in Gaza said an Israeli strike on a tent housing displaced Palestinians near the southern city of Khan Younis on Wednesday killed at least 12 people. "At least 12 people were killed, including several children and women, in a strike by an Israeli drone this morning on a tent for displaced persons" near Khan Younis, the agency's spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP, adding that four more people had been killed in other strikes. The Israeli army did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment. The fresh wave of strikes came as a controversial US-backed agency said that aid centres in the hunger-wracked territory will temporarily close on Wednesday after dozens of people were shot dead by Israeli troops while trying to receive humanitarian aid. 10:10 Twenty-seven people were killed in southern Gaza on Tuesday when Israeli troops opened fire near one of the centres operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). At least 31 people were killed and scores were wounded by Israeli gunfire in a previous incident on Sunday, according to the enclave's health ministry. Israel recently eased its blockade of the Palestinian enclave, but the UN has said the entire population remains at risk of famine. The UN Security Council will vote Wednesday on a resolution calling for a ceasefire and humanitarian access to Gaza, a measure expected to be vetoed by the United States. The GHF said its "distribution centres will be closed for renovation, reorganisation and efficiency improvement work" on Wednesday and would resume operations on Thursday. The Israeli army, which confirmed the temporary closure, warned against travelling "on roads leading to the distribution centres, which are considered combat zones". The GHF, officially a private effort with opaque funding, began operations a week ago but the UN and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with it over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives. Following Tuesday's deadly incident near one of GHF's centres, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres decried the killing of Palestinians seeking food aid as "unacceptable". Israeli authorities and the GHF – which uses contracted US security – have denied allegations that the Israeli army shot at civilians rushing to pick up aid packages at GHF sites. The Israeli army has said the incident is under investigation.
Euronews
3 hours ago
- Euronews
Israel attends EU meeting despite bloc's hardening stance over Gaza
The EU's 27 foreign ministers are scheduled to meet their Israeli counterparts on 23 June for an EU-Southern Neighbourhood ministerial meeting which is aimed at deepening the bloc's cooperation with Israel as well as nine other southern partners including Algeria, Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia. 'The objective is for Israeli representatives to be present at the meeting,' a senior Israeli official told Euronews, adding that the participation of Gideon Saar, Israel's foreign affairs minister 'is still to be confirmed'. But the meeting comes at a time of unprecedented cooling of relations between the EU and Israel following the country's blockage of food from entering into Gaza and after Palestinian health officials and witnesses alleged recent shootings by Israeli soldiers of Palestinians headed for humanitarian aid sites. The Israeli army has said it fired 'near a few individual suspects' who left the designated route, approached its forces and ignored warning shots. The meeting also comes after the EU's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas stated in late May that the bloc would examine if Israel has violated its human rights obligations under Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which defines the trading and diplomatic relations between both sides. No timeline has been fixed for the review, which will be conducted by the EU's external action service (EEAS). Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein has "completely" rejected the direction taken in Kallas' statement, saying it reflected "a total misunderstanding of the complex reality Israel is facing". The Netherlands, which tabled the move and is considered a firm ally of Israel, said that Israel's 'humanitarian blockade' on Gaza, where a limited quantity of critical supplies entered for the first time in more than eleven weeks on Monday, is in "violation of international humanitarian law" and therefore of Article 2. An EU official said that the 23 June meeting involving Israel will not be a forum to discuss the ongoing war in Gaza but a routine gathering conducted under the EU's Southern Neighbourhood partnership, which is meant to strengthen existing cooperation with 10 southern neighbours on a wide range of issues, including governance, climate change, economic development, energy and migration. In addition, the EU is Israel's biggest trade partner, with the trading relationship valued at more than €45 billion each year. The EU's Southern Neighbourhood partnership derives from the 1995 Barcelona Declaration which committed to turn the Mediterranean into 'an area of dialogue, exchange and cooperation, guaranteeing peace, stability and prosperity', according to an official Commission document. In 2020, trade between the EU and the region represented €149.4 billion and the bloc's imports were worth €58.0 billion. In 2021, the EU 27 agreed to strengthen their partnership with the Southern Neighbourhood following the COVID-19 pandemic and meet their counterparts every year. Their cooperation is based on 'good governance, human rights and fundamental freedoms promotion and protection, democratic institutions and the rule of law", according to 2021 European Council summit conclusions. One of the last EU-Southern Neighbourhood ministerial meetings took place in 2022 in Barcelona, where participants discussed regional cooperation as well as the war in Ukraine. Under pressure from the French government, TikTok has banned the hashtag #SkinnyTok, a controversial trend linked to the glorification of extreme thinness and unhealthy weight-loss advice. The move comes amid mounting concerns across Europe over the platform's influence on young users and its role in promoting body image disorders. The French Ministry for Digital Affairs celebrated the removal as a significant step toward protecting minors online. 'This is a first collective victory,' Digital Minister Clara Chappaz wrote on X on Sunday, adding that she wants to ban social media platforms for minors under 15 years of age. The now-banned hashtag had amassed more than half a million posts, many glamorising extreme thinness, sharing guilt-inducing messages like "you aren't ugly, you are just fat." The content overwhelmingly featured young women, often filtered to appear thinner, reinforcing toxic body standards for millions of viewers across the world. However, despite the removal of the hashtag, concerns persist. Typing 'SkinnyTok' into the app now redirects users to wellness advice, but similar harmful content still thrives under altered or misspelled hashtags. For Charlyne Buiges, a nurse specialising in eating disorders who started the petition that helped push the issue into public view, the ban is a moment of validation: 'It's a great victory, I was very happy,' she said. 'I immediately reinstalled the TikTok application and went to see if it was really real. Once I saw the hashtag was banned, I told myself I didn't do all this for nothing," she told Euronews. Ella Marouani, a 22-year-old nursing student who has battled an eating disorder that she says was fueled by social media told Euronews she felt frustrated by the lack of action from the platform: 'I made several reports to TikTok about videos that were problematic and each time I was told that the rules of the community had not been violated' she said. Ella's experience paints a sobering picture of how early - and how easily - such content can shape a young person's self-image. 'I came across a few #SkinnyTok videos in my algorithm and they made me deeply angry,' she said. 'A few years ago, I would have probably believed in these videos so I am deeply angry for the young people who come across this content," she said. Health professionals have also been sounding the alarm. Lea Tourain, a Paris-based nutritionist, sees firsthand how distorted body ideals impact teenagers. 'I think it's really dangerous, and it scares me because it's becoming more and more fashionable,' she said. 'In my consultations, I have young girls who come with an image of themselves, with a filter, or simply with someone they follow on social media, who advocates extreme thinness and they ask me how to achieve the same body. It's very worrying," she explained in an interview with Euronews. Despite TikTok's claims that it enforces 'strict rules against body shaming and dangerous behaviour related to weight loss,' many say enforcement is either too weak or too slow. That's one of the key concerns for French Socialist MP Arthur Delaporte, who leads a parliamentary commission investigating social media's role in spreading harmful content. Delaporte is calling for a coordinated European response and tougher penalties for platforms that fail to act. 'We need to stop the digital giants from setting up dangerous and flawed algorithms that ultimately aggravate mental disorders,' he said. 'We do need to impose sanctions at European level, sanctions at an international level, fines if need be… at some point we need to bang our fists on the table and consider even banning the platform.' The European Commission, which launched a formal investigation into TikTok under the Digital Services Act (DSA) in February 2024, remained largely on the sidelines during this latest move. The absence of the Commission in this decision raised doubts about the EU's role in enforcing its own tech rules. Meanwhile, a growing number of European countries, including Belgium and Switzerland, also took their steps against the platform, just as France had done, circumventing Brussels. Belgium's Digital Minister Vanessa Matz had filed a formal complaint against TikTok and referred the issue to the Commission. In Switzerland, lawmakers are exploring ways to regulate the platform, possibly through age restrictions.
France 24
4 hours ago
- France 24
US-backed Gaza aid centres to close temporarily after 27 killed
Twenty-seven people were killed in southern Gaza on Tuesday when Israeli troops opened fire near one of the centres operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Israel recently eased its blockade of the Palestinian enclave, but the UN has said the entire population remains at risk of famine. The UN Security Council will vote Wednesday on a resolution calling for a ceasefire and humanitarian access to Gaza, a measure expected to be vetoed by the United States. The GHF said its "distribution centres will be closed for renovation, reorganisation and efficiency improvement work" on Wednesday and would resume operations on Thursday. The Israeli army, which confirmed the temporary closure, warned against travelling "on roads leading to the distribution centres, which are considered combat zones". The GHF, officially a private effort with opaque funding, began operations a week ago but the UN and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with it over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives. Following Tuesday's deadly incident near one of GHF's centres, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres decried the killing of Palestinians seeking food aid as "unacceptable". Israeli authorities and the GHF -- which uses contracted US security -- have denied allegations that the Israeli army shot at civilians rushing to pick up aid packages at GHF sites. The Israeli army has said the incident is under investigation. - 'A trap' - At a hospital in southern Gaza, the family of Reem al-Akhras, who was killed in the shooting at Rafah's Al-Alam roundabout near GHF's facility, were beside themselves with grief. "She went to bring us some food, and this is what happened to her," her son Zain Zidan said, his face streaked with tears. Akhras's husband, Mohamed Zidan, said "every day unarmed people" were being killed. "This is not humanitarian aid -- it's a trap." The Israeli military maintains that its forces do not prevent Gazans from collecting aid. Army spokesperson Effie Defrin said the Israeli soldiers had fired towards suspects who "were approaching in a way that endangered" the troops, adding that the "incident is being investigated". UN human rights chief Volker Turk called such attacks against civilians "unconscionable" and said they "constitute a grave breach of international law and a war crime". The International Committee of the Red Cross meanwhile said "Gazans face an "unprecedented scale and frequency of recent mass casualty incidents". - Relief boat - The United States said Tuesday that a US-backed relief effort in Gaza was succeeding in distributing meals but acknowledged the potential for improvement after the reports of shootings near the GHF centre. A boat organised by an international activist coalition was meanwhile sailing toward Gaza, aiming to deliver aid. The boat from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition departed Sicily Sunday carrying a dozen people, including environmental activist Greta Thunberg, along with fruit juices, milk, tinned food and protein bars. "Together, we can open a people's sea corridor to Gaza," the coalition said. But Israel's military said Tuesday it was ready to "protect" the country's maritime space. When asked about the Freedom Flotilla vessel, army spokesman Defrin said "for this case as well, we are prepared", declining to go into detail. Israel has stepped up its offensive in what it says is a renewed push to defeat the Palestinian group Hamas, whose October 2023 attack sparked the war. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said at least 4,240 people have been killed since Israel resumed its offensive on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 54,510, mostly civilians. Hamas's 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Apart from the aid centre incident, the civil defence agency reported 19 killed on Tuesday. The army said three of its soldiers had been killed in northern Gaza, bringing the number of Israeli troops killed in the territory since the start of the war to 424.
