Gaza: Teen brother and sister among Palestinians killed by Israel in one of war's deadliest days
Layan and Omar al Jmasy, aged 16 and 15, were killed along with their parents and siblings as Israel launched one of its deadliest days of attacks in Gaza since the war started 17 months ago.
The children were hit in Gaza City, according to Ahmad Abu Rizik. He knew Layan and Omar as they went to one of the tent schools he founded as part of his Gaza Great Minds project.
Layan had been "so excited" to start grade 11 on Tuesday, but an Israeli airstrike ended her life the very same day.
She "passed away and she was always the first to surprise her teachers, whether it was for their birthdays or any other special occasion".
"She always wanted to play and had a beautiful spirit, just like her brother Omar," her maths teacher said, according to Mr Rizik.
Describing Omar, 29-year-old Mr Rizik said he was "very smart", excelled in his studies and loved playing football.
He told Sky News he was a "very cheerful person, always there to be laughter wherever he is".
"They were always smiling and share happiness everywhere they go," Mr Rizik, who himself has three children aged four, two and two months, said in a post on X about the siblings.
Mr Rizik founded Gaza Great Minds to give students a chance to learn during Israel's military campaign, which was triggered by Hamas 's attacks on 7 October 2023.
Father 'really scared" to lose his children
He said he is "terrified" of losing his family or any more of his pupils now the ceasefire has ended.
"I am really scared to lose my kids […] or even my students because they are in different locations in Gaza City and most of them are in camps and camps are the most-affected or targeted places right now as from what we saw in the last night."
2:17
Israel resumed airstrikes on Gaza in the early hours of Tuesday, bringing to an end a fragile ceasefire agreement with Hamas which had brought relative peace to the enclave for almost two months.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says the number of dead so far from Tuesday's strikes was 413, with more than 500 others injured.
Most of those killed were reported to be women and children.
Mr Rizik said he has already been displaced seven times.
1:36
"I lived in a school, in one of its classes, I lived in a tent, lived in the streets, literally, I lived in one of the camps in Gaza inside a very tiny tent, I lived in a partly destroyed house..," Mr Rizik said.
'Family drink water mixed with sewage'
He said his family is forced to drink water mixed with sewage and his children haven't had any protein for more than a year, while milk formula and nappies have been especially hard to find.
His children have suffered from dehydration and stomach pain.
They got poisoned "many many times because [of] food that wasn't clean", Mr Rizik said.
The father of three said he was scared for his family as the violence resumed and was scrambling to find canned milk and clean water for his children.
He has also been seeking canned food to "keep them for the darkest days we are facing".
"It's not easy at all because we don't know what the future holds for us, it's like living in a nightmare and you don't know where or when you will wake up."
Mr Rizik said the sight of starving children chasing parachutes that dropped aid on Gaza was what inspired him to build a safe space for them to learn during the war.
The war, sparked by the 7 October 2023 Hamas massacre of 1,200 people in southern Israel, has since seen more than 48,000 Palestinians killed in the besieged territory, according to Gazan health officials.
The Gaza health ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count but said more than half of the fatalities were women and children.
Speaking of the trauma the war has left on pupils, Mr Rizik said: "When we told them to draw something, all of our students drew either destroyed houses or people being tortured by the soldiers."
While in "normal" schools most children would laugh if a clown was brought in, Mr Rizik said that wasn't the case at his tent schools.
"They lost the ability to smile again, so this is how they are traumatised," he said.
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Daily Mail
11 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Israel announces 'tactical pause' for UK-backed aid air drops in Gaza as Starmer condemns 'utterly horrifying' images of children starving
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The Herald Scotland
14 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
'Humanity will win' - Is there change in air over Palestinian state?
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But little did I know that day, as I made my way through this exhibition of photographs and objects entitled 'The Hundred Martyrs', that in the decades to come the suffering and sacrifice would escalate to the unimaginable levels of today. During my visit, the exhibition's curators told me how they had been inundated with requests by the relatives of other Intifada victims who wanted their loved ones' belongings and memories to be part of this temporary monument. Each of the objects that I saw displayed underneath the photographs in transparent plastic cases represented individual shrines. Their value was not material, but purely symbolic in that they belonged to a 'martyr,' someone who had died directly or indirectly as a result of the uprising. In each instance, curators' assistants had journeyed out through the Israeli checkpoints and cordons that surrounded Palestinian communities to collect these personal photographs and artefacts They stood alone as testament to an individual life. Lives not just remembered, but preserved, along with stories equally powerful and emotive. I remember that day stopping before the empty birdcage belonging to 15-year-old Nizar Eideh of Ramallah, who on the morning just before he was shot dead in stone throwing clashes with Israeli troops, released a bird he had bought a few days earlier, worried that the bird's mother might miss him. (Image: EYAD BABA) GENERATION IN PERIL ALMOST two and a half decades later, photographs and objects, just like those in 'The Hundred Martyrs' exhibition, continue to serve as mute witnesses to a generation of Palestinians in peril. One such image released just this past week shocked the world. 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It was on September 30, barely days after the start of the Second Intifada that Mohammed al-Durra was killed as his father tried to shield him after being caught in Israeli crossfire at Gaza's Netzarim Junction. Caught on live television the youngster's horrific death was broadcast around the world. In Baghdad, they would subsequently name a street after this little boy. In Morocco, a public park. In Jordan, the Tai Kwon Do Association gave his name to their annual championship. In other Arab countries, postage stamps were issued carrying his picture. The TV pictures of his death became a rallying cry for international action and to this day the circumstances surrounding Mohammed al-Durra's killing remain the subject of anger, controversy and debate. Some Israeli officials even insisted at the time that it was 'staged' by the Palestinians, while one pro-Israeli American academic derisorily called the pictures nothing more than 'Pallywood cinema'. Even in death it seemed, little Mohammed al-Durra continued to be a target in this, a conflict where there must always be two stories. As a journalist covering the Intifada at that time, I like others, wondered just for a moment whether maybe, just maybe, something good might come from such a tragedy. Perhaps at long last, from the haunted look on the face of this little boy, the realisation might dawn that the eye-for an-eye score settling between Israelis and Palestinians could not continue forever. NO REMORSE? IN a recent article of his own, Raja Shehadeh asked two important questions. How is it that most Israelis do not acknowledge their humanity. How are they able to show no remorse for what their army is carrying out in their name? Back during the time of the both First and Second Intifadas, many Israelis then too seemed able to live with the atrocities they heard and read about daily. For some Israelis - sheltering just beyond the shadow of such bloodshed – the self-deception required to do so was made easier by the fact that the carnage was largely confined to the occupied territories and rarely trickled onto their own streets. The attacks of October 7, 2023, by Hamas on Israeli communities subsequently put paid to that of course and today both Israelis and Palestinians are living with the terrible consequences. But even back during those early Intifada times not every Israeli – as is the case today - turned the other way though. In the autumn of 1988 shortly after the start of the first uprising, the Israeli novelist, A B Yehoshua, was so disgusted by the complacency of his fellow citizens that he said he now understood how so many Germans after World War Two could say they had never seen or heard of the Holocaust concentration camps. It goes without saying of course that Yehoshua's comments went straight to the heart of the Israeli psyche and generated a bitter backlash. But whether Israelis liked it or not, the irrefutable evidence of widespread human rights abuses against ordinary Palestinians was there to see for anyone who took the time to go and look for themselves. In today's digital world of course there is no need to do that, for images like those of Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, inevitably manage to seep out into our consciences. This happens in part thanks to the courage of Palestinian journalists. It happens also despite an Israeli ban on international reporters having access to Gaza. It means too that we cannot ignore the mass starvation before our eyes. As I write this, one in three Gazans goes multiple days without eating. 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Yosef (Tommy) Lapid, a member of the Israeli parliament, leader of the Shinui Party and a former concentration camp victim, confronted Israeli General, Shaul Mofaz, during a meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, saying that as a Holocaust survivor he found the IDF methods intolerable and shocking. In a letter to Dr Shevah Weiss, the chairman of Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, Mohammed Barakeh, an Arab–Israeli Knesset member, put into words the thoughts of many over Israel's tactics during the ongoing invasion of the West Bank at that time. 'In these wretched days, I've asked myself more than once how, within such a short period of history, the victim has become the murderer, and a people who, perhaps, suffered more than any other from arbitrary repression and refugee status, is capable of meting out the same fate to others,' Barakeh grimly noted. 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Bold words, but ones that as a long term observer of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I believe have an increasingly hollow ring. Instead, I'm of the view that we are fast approaching a critical juncture in this seemingly interminable battle of wills. Read more Tears and trauma: David Pratt in Ukraine DAVID PRATT ON THE WORLD: Whatever happens in Brazil's resentful and rancorous election, the result will have major repercussions for us all David Pratt in Ukraine: It's hard to comprehend this level of destruction David Pratt: Kremlin's protestations have a hollow ring as atrocities mount up 'IRRESISTIBLE FORCE' YES, I know talk of a 'turning point' has been mooted many times in the past, but there is just an inkling that the political ground is shifting on both sides of what the Israeli writer Amos Elon once described as an 'irresistible force colliding with an immovable body'. Forget the River Jordan, for it's the Rubicon that is being crossed here for both Palestinians and Israelis alike. Given what has unfolded in Gaza, there is no going back to the way things were for either side and that in itself could lead to a tectonic political shift. Much of the world now sees through Israel's victimhood veil and Netanyahu's use of war to keep himself in power has all but run its course. As for the Palestinians, they must seize the opportunity to capitalise on any growing goodwill like never before and endeavour to do what they have failed to achieve for the past thirty years - unity. As for the international community, to repeat Raja Shehadeh words, 'it will be our humanity, not international law' that will in the end win the day. All these remarks might seem out of step with the political moment, but the irrefutable fact is that there will be no peace until there is a Palestinian state. To that end I for one can't help but sense a whiff of change in the air. Insubstantial yet perhaps, but undeniable, nonetheless.
Scottish Sun
20 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Israel to resume aid airdrops into Gaza tonight as IDF creates ‘humanitarian corridors' after growing ceasefire pleas
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) ISRAEL has resumed air-dropping foreign aid into Gaza and said it will take other steps to ease the humanitarian crisis in the besieged strip. The Israeli military said "humanitarian corridors" would be established for the safe movement of UN convoys delivering aid to distraught Gazans. 11 Smoke rises after Israeli warplanes bombed buildings in a residential area Credit: AFP 11 Palestinians struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in northern Gaza Credit: AP 11 A mother cradles her 18-month-old child in Gaza where fears of famine are growing Credit: Getty 11 A boy cries as he tries to receive food in the besieged territory Horror scenes of mass starvation have sparked an international outcry after Israel restricted supplies to the territory. Aid groups warned this week that Palestinians are on the brink of famine, with one in five children suffering from malnutrition. The UN warned that civilians in the besieged enclave are becoming "walking corpses". But Israel has denied responsibility, blaming Hamas for the suffering of Gaza's population. read more on gaza AID HORROR At least 20 dead as Hamas 'agitators' spark deadly crowd crush at Gaza aid site The Israeli military said in a statement that the airdrops would be conducted in coordination with international aid organisations and would include seven pallets of aid containing flour, sugar, and canned food. Palestinian sources confirmed that aid has begun dropping in northern Gaza. The IDF says aid drops would improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza and disprove "the false claim of deliberate starvation in the Gaza Strip". It says it has let enough food into Gaza and accuses the UN of failing to distribute it. "The IDF emphasises that there is no starvation in the Gaza Strip; this is a false campaign promoted by Hamas," the Israeli military said in its Saturday statement. "Responsibility for food distribution to the population in Gaza lies with the UN and international aid organisations. Shocking moment thousands of Gazans overrun US-backed aid site as 'shots fired' "Therefore, the UN and international organisations are expected to improve the effectiveness of aid distribution and to ensure that the aid does not reach Hamas." The UN said that Israel hadn't provided ample route alternatives for its convoys which have hindered aid access, adding that it is operating as effectively as possible under Israeli restrictions. An estimated 127 people have died due to malnutrition, including 85 children, since the start of the war, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. On Wednesday, more than 100 aid agencies warned that mass starvation was spreading across the enclave. The military also said Saturday that it had connected a power line to a desalination plant, expected to supply daily water needs for about 900,000 Gazans. Israel's foreign ministry said the military would "apply a 'humanitarian pause' in civilian centres and in humanitarian corridors" on Sunday morning. The announcement came after indirect ceasefire talks in Doha between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas were broken off with no deal in sight. The UN said that humanitarian pauses in Gaza would allow "the scale up of humanitarian assistance". The Israeli military stressed that despite the humanitarian steps, "combat operations have not ceased" in the Gaza Strip. Israel is keeping up its heavy bombardment in the face of global ceasefire pleas and huge protests in Tel Aviv. 11 Smoke plumes rising from Israeli bombardment in Beit Lahia on July 9 Credit: AFP 11 Flames rise in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border Credit: Reuters 11 Flames rise in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border Credit: Reuters Explosions from fresh overnight strikes rocked the besieged coastal strip, with Israeli Defence Forces troops continuing to advance on Hamas lairs. The terrorists are still hiding out within civilian communities after the cornered Islamist group repeatedly rejected ceasefire terms. Israel has vowed to continue on the war path until they have secured the release of all of the remaining hostages snatched on October 7. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also been adamant that Hamas must be wiped out in its entirety so it cannot attack ever again. Meanwhile, President Emmanuel Macron yesterday ramped up pressure on Israel to halt fighting as he announced France would soon recognise a Palestinian state. Macron held emergency talks over the crisis with UK PM Sir Keir Starmer, who called conditions in the 25-mile enclave 'unspeakable and indefensible'. Macron announced the move on X as he wrote: "True to its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognise the State of Palestine. "We must also guarantee the demilitarisation of Hamas, and secure and rebuild Gaza. "Finally, we must build the State of Palestine, ensure its viability, and ensure that by accepting its demilitarisation and fully recognising Israel, it contributes to the security of all in the Middle East. There is no alternative." A formal announcement will be made at a session of the UN General Assembly in New York in five weeks time. France will become the first G7 nation to view Palestine as its own state starting in September. Donald Trump slammed Mr Macron's announcement, saying it "doesn't matter" as he left the US for a visit to Scotland. 11 French President Emmanuel Macron meets with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas last year Credit: AFP 11 Donald Trump slammed Mr Macron's announcement saying it 'doesn't matter' Credit: Getty 11 Sir Keir has declared that statehood is the Palestinians' 'inalienable right' Credit: Reuters The US was quick to condemn Paris as Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington "strongly rejects" the announcement. Sir Keir has already declared that statehood is Palestinians' 'inalienable right' but has yet to officially declare recognition. Yesterday, the PM confirmed that the UK is working with Jordan on plans to air-drop aid into Gaza and evacuate children needing medical assistance. In a readout of the call, Number 10 said the leaders had agreed "it would be vital to ensure robust plans are in place to turn an urgently-needed ceasefire into lasting peace". "The Prime Minister set out how the UK will also be taking forward plans to work with partners such as Jordan to air drop aid and evacuate children requiring medical assistance," a Downing Street spokesperson said. However, the head of the UN's Palestinian refugee agency warned airdrops were "a distraction and screensmoke" that would fail to reverse deepening starvation in Gaza, and could in some cases harm civilians. At least 59,106 people have been killed in Gaza since, according to the Gazan health ministry, which is said to be run by Hamas. And almost two million Palestinians have reportedly been displaced from the region.
