Dozens killed seeking aid in Gaza as Israel considers further military action
At least 38 Palestinians were killed overnight and into Wednesday in the Gaza Strip while seeking aid from United Nations convoys and sites run by an Israeli-backed American contractor, according to local health officials. The Israeli military said it had fired warning shots when crowds approached its forces.
The latest deaths came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to announced further military action — and possibly plans for Israel to fully reoccupy Gaza. Experts say Israel's ongoing military offensive and blockade are already pushing the territory of some 2 million Palestinians into famine.
Another escalation of the nearly 22-month war could put the lives of countless Palestinians and around 20 living Israeli hostages at risk, and would draw fierce opposition both internationally and within Israel. Netanyahu's far-right coalition allies have long called for the war to be expanded, and for Israel to eventually take over Gaza, relocate much of its population and rebuild Jewish settlements there.
U.S. President Donald Trump, asked by a reporter Tuesday whether he supported the reoccupation of Gaza, said he wasn't aware of the "suggestion" but that "it's going to be pretty much up to Israel."
More Palestinians killed in scramble for food
At least 28 Palestinians were killed overnight and into Wednesday in the Morag Corridor, an Israeli military zone in southern Gaza where U.N. convoys have been repeatedly overwhelmed by looters and desperate crowds in recent days, and where witnesses say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire.
The Israeli military said troops fired warning shots as Palestinians advanced toward them, and that it was not aware of any casualties.
Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies, said another four people were killed in the Teina area, on a route leading to a site in southern Gaza run by the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an American contractor. The Al-Awda Hospital said it received the bodies of six people killed near a GHF site in central Gaza. Another 12 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes, according to the two hospitals.
GHF said there were no violent incidents at or near its sites. The military says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas because its militants are entrenched in heavily populated areas.
UN experts say Israeli-backed aid group should be dismantled
Israel facilitated the establishment of four GHF sites in May after blocking the entry of all food, medicine and other goods for 2 1/2 months. Israeli and U.S. officials said a new system was needed to prevent Hamas from siphoning off humanitarian aid.
The United Nations, which has delivered aid to hundreds of distribution points across Gaza throughout the war when conditions allow, has rejected the new system, saying it forces Palestinians to travel long distances and risk their lives for food, and that it allows Israel to control who gets aid, potentially using it to advance plans for further mass displacement.
The U.N. human rights office said last week that some 1,400 Palestinians have been killed seeking aid since May, mostly near GHF sites but also along U.N. convoy routes where trucks have been overwhelmed by crowds. It says nearly all were killed by Israeli fire.
This week, a group of U.N. special rapporteurs and independent human rights experts called for the GHF to be disbanded, saying it is "an utterly disturbing example of how humanitarian relief can be exploited for covert military and geopolitical agendas in serious breach of international law."
The experts work with the U.N. but do not represent the world body.
The GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots when crowds threatened its forces, and GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray and fired into the air on some occasions to prevent deadly crowding at its sites.
Israel's blockade and military offensive have made it nearly impossible for anyone to safely deliver aid, and aid groups say recent Israeli measures to facilitate more assistance are far from sufficient.
Hospitals recorded four more malnutrition-related deaths over the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 193 people, including 96 children, since the war began in October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Jordan says aid convoy attacked by Israeli settlers
Jordan said Israeli settlers blocked roads and hurled stones at a convoy of four trucks carrying aid bound for Gaza after they drove across the border into the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli far-right activists have repeatedly sought to halt aid from entering Gaza.
Jordanian government spokesperson Mohammed al-Momani condemned the attack, which he said had shattered the windshields of the trucks, according to the Jordanian state-run Petra News Agency.
The Israeli military said security forces went to the scene to disperse the gathering and accompanied the trucks to their destination.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack and abducted another 251. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals. Of the 50 still held in Gaza, around 20 are believed to be alive.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed over 61,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children. It is part of the now largely defunct Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source for the number of war casualties.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
L'Orient-Le Jour
8 hours ago
- L'Orient-Le Jour
One killed in Israeli strike on Baalbeck district; Cabinet discusses Hezbollah disarmament in Baabda
Israeli army kills one in Baalbeck district drone strike One person has been killed in an Israeli drone strike that hit the Baalbeck district village of Kfar Dan, near the shrine of prophet Joseph, our correspondent in the Bekaa reports. According to our information, the victim was targeted while walking through the village. The Bekaa has come increasingly under attack in recent days amid Israel's ongoing aggressions against Lebanon, despite the cease-fire in place since November 2024. Cabinet meeting: 'I will never accept that the state abandons its own' Labor Minister Mohammad Haidar, part of Hezbollah's quota in the government, spoke out against any attempt to disarm the party before the Israeli army ends its attacks and occupation of southern Lebanon. 'I am a son of this people," Haidar said. "How could I face the mother of a martyr, a father still living in a tent, or a young man who lives every day in existential anguish, and tell him that he must submit and give up the only guarantee that protects him?' "We cannot talk about disarming 'The Resistance' until the enemy has withdrawn, our prisoners have returned, the attacks have stopped, and reconstruction has begun," he continued. "Otherwise, I am sorry, but I cannot take responsibility for an unjust decision against my people, and I will never accept that the state abandons its own." Gaza sees highest yet acute malnutrition rates in children Gaza has seen its highest monthly figure of acute malnutrition in children, with hunger-related deaths rising in the enclave, the Director General of the World Health Organization said, as Israel continues its suffocating blockade of the Strip, inducing a man-made famine. "In July, nearly 12,000 children under five years were identified as having acute malnutrition in Gaza, the highest monthly figure ever recorded," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said from WHO's headquarters in Geneva. At least 99 people have died, including 64 adults and 35 children, including 29 below 5-years old since the start of this year to July 29, Tedros said. Some 2,500 of those children are suffering from severe malnutrition, according to the WHO. 17:01 Beirut Time Cabinet meeting: Hezbollah says disarmament 'free service' to Israel Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc, 'Loyalty to the Resistance,' issued a statement in parallel with the ongoing Cabinet meeting at Baabda Palace, describing the government's decision to disarm Hezbollah as a 'free service' rendered to Israel. 'We call on the Lebanese government to correct the situation it has put Lebanon in, having bowed to American demands that serve the interests of the enemy,' the statement reads. 15:48 Beirut Time U.S. President Donald Trump said it was very important to him that all 'Middle Eastern countries adhere to the Abraham Accords, ' according to Reuters. In 2020, the Abraham Accords, negotiated by Donald Trump during his first term, led to the normalization of relations between several Arab countries, including Morocco and the United Arab Emirates. 15:41 Beirut Time Israeli minister announces reconstruction of settlement in occupied West Bank Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced Thursday that the Sa-Nur settlement in the West Bank — evacuated by Israel in 2005 — will be rebuilt, according to AFP. 'We are correcting the sin of the expulsion,' said Smotrich, who accompanied a group of families preparing to resettle the ruins of the northern West Bank outpost. 'Even back then, we knew that even if the expulsion sadly happened, one day we would return to every place we were driven out of. That includes Gaza, and it's even more true here,' he added. 15:41 Beirut Time Cabinet convenes in Baabda The Cabinet meeting has started in Baabda Presidential Palace. Of the Hezbollah-Amal ministers, only Yassine Jaber (Finance, Amal) is absent. 15:40 Beirut Time Cabinet meets on state weapons monopoly As the Cabinet meets to continue discussing the state's exclusive control over arms, ministers Tamara Elzein (Amal, Environment), Mohammad Haidar (Hezbollah, Labor), and Rakan Nasreddine (Hezbollah, Health) have arrived at Baabda Presidential Palace, according to our reporter on site. Before the session began, President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam held a private meeting, the presidency announced. Earlier in the day, the president told Saudi outlet Al-Hadath that today's session would 'finalize decision-making on the weapons monopoly.' 13:42 Beirut Time The Lebanese Army recovered two defective Israeli drones in Yaroun, in the district of Bint Jbeil, in southern Lebanon, according to our correspondent. He specifies that these are two robotic drones, which means that they are remotely piloted to carry out missions such as detonating mines or surveilling locations. 13:42 Beirut Time Flotilla off the coast of Gaza to demand release of hostages The families of Israeli hostages boarded several boats this morning and set sail for the coast of the Gaza Strip in order to get 'as close as possible' to their loved ones held captive by Hamas, according to an AFP videographer on board one of the boats. 'Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! We need all the international help we can get to rescue the hostages,' said Yehouda Cohen, the father of a hostage and a member of the group that set sail from the Israeli port of Ashkelon, on the northern border of the Gaza Strip, and was joined at sea by several other boats. 13:41 Beirut Time Four new deaths due to starvation, malnutrition in Gaza Hospitals in the Gaza Strip have recorded four new deaths 'due to starvation and malnutrition in the last 24 hours,' Al Jazeera reported, citing the enclave's Health Ministry. This brings the total number of starvation-related deaths to 197, including 96 children. 'The latest victim of starvation is a two-year-old girl who died in the al-Mawassi area,' near Khan Younis, the channel reported. 12:45 Beirut Time Famine, displacement, killings in Gaza 'very much resemble' genocide: Senior European official A senior European Union official told Politico that famine, displacement and killings in Gaza 'very much resemble' genocide. According to the newspaper, this is one of the 'strongest condemnations of Israel by Brussels since the start of the war.' European Commission Executive Vice President Teresa Ribera emphasized: "What we are seeing is a population being targeted, killed, and condemned to starve. A population is confined, homeless — their homes destroyed — without food, water, or medicine — denied access — and subjected to bombing and shooting even when trying to obtain humanitarian aid. All humanity is absent, and no witnesses are allowed. She added: 'If this is not genocide, it very much resembles the definition used to express its meaning.' Ribera also said that the EU should consider suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which is the basis of their trade and economic relations. 11:01 Beirut Time Israeli strikes targeted Hezbollah weapons, construction equipment: Army Commenting on this series of strikes, the Israeli army said, through its Arabic-speaking spokesman Avichay Adraee, that it had attacked 'Hezbollah targets, including weapons warehouses, a missile launch pad,' and 'construction equipment intended for the reconstruction of terrorist infrastructure.' 11:01 Beirut Time Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon last night killed 1 person The Lebanese Health Ministry and our local correspondent reported one death in the series of 20 Israeli nighttime strikes on southern Lebanon. According to our correspondent, the victim was a Syrian worker who was maintaining construction equipment in a garage that was hit by an Israeli missile. 11:01 Beirut Time 23 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since dawn At least 23 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli bombings on Gaza since the early hours of the day, according to medical sources cited by Al-Jazeera. Among the casualties, at least six Palestinians were killed in a strike on a tent in the al-Mawassi area, west of Khan Younis. Earlier, 17 other people were killed in the besieged enclave, according to the Qatari media outlet. 11:01 Beirut Time Humanitarian situation in Gaza remains 'very serious': European official The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains 'very serious,' an EU official told Reuters after EU foreign policy and humanitarian aid officials briefed member countries last night on the progress of an agreement reached last month with Israel to facilitate humanitarian access to Gaza. The official noted that there had been 'some positive developments' regarding fuel deliveries, the reopening of some roads, an upward trend in the number of trucks entering the enclave daily, and the repair of some vital infrastructure. However, he added that 'significant obstacles continue to hamper humanitarian operations and the delivery of aid to Gaza, including the lack of a secure operating environment that would allow for the large-scale distribution of aid.'
L'Orient-Le Jour
8 hours ago
- L'Orient-Le Jour
What is Guillain-Barré syndrome, which caused the death of three people in Gaza?
As famine has significantly worsened since the beginning of the summer in the Gaza Strip, due to Israel's blockade on humanitarian aid, the Health Ministry of the enclave announced on Monday, Aug. 4, the death of three Palestinians, including two children under 15, as a result of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS). This neurological condition is a recurring consequence of large-scale epidemics, such as those spreading in Gaza, which has been plunged for nearly two years into a disastrous health situation because of the ongoing war between Hamas and the total number of Palestinians who have died from malnutrition since the start of the conflict on Oct. 7, 2023, had risen to 188 people, including 94 children, according to the most recent estimates from the ministry available on Aug. 5, this is the first time the ministry has...
Nahar Net
a day ago
- Nahar Net
Young surgeon tries to save lives at crippled Gaza hospital
by Naharnet Newsdesk 06 August 2025, 17:45 At Shifa hospital in the Gaza Strip, nothing is sterilized, so Dr. Jamal Salha and other surgeons wash their instruments in soap. Infections are rampant. The stench of medical waste is overwhelming. And flies are everywhere. Without painkillers, patients moan while lying on metal beds lining the corridors. There's no electricity and no ventilation amid searing heat, leaving anxious visitors to fan bedridden relatives with pieces of cardboard. Shifa, once the largest hospital in Gaza and the cornerstone of its health care system, is a shell of its former self after 22 months of war. The hospital complex the size of seven soccer fields has been devastated by frequent bombings, two Israeli raids and blockades on food, medicine and equipment. Its exhausted staff works around the clock to save lives. "It is so bad, no one can imagine," said Salha, a 27-year-old neurosurgeon who, like countless doctors in Gaza, trained at Shifa after medical school and hopes to end his career there. But the future is hard to think about when the present is all-consuming. Salha and other doctors are overwhelmed by a wartime caseload that shows no sign of easing. It has gotten more challenging in recent weeks as patients' bodies wither from rampant malnutrition. Shifa was initially part of a British military post when it opened in 1946. It developed over the years to boast Gaza's largest specialized surgery department, with over 21 operating rooms. Now, there are only three, and they barely function. Because Shifa's operating rooms are always full, surgeries are also performed in the emergency room, and some of the wounded must be turned away. Bombed-out buildings loom over a courtyard filled with patients and surrounded by mounds of rubble. Salha fled northern Gaza at the start of the war — and only returned to Shifa at the beginning of this year. While working at another extremely busy hospital in central Gaza, he kept tabs on Shifa's worsening condition. "I had seen pictures," he said. "But when I first got back, I didn't want to enter." A young doctor and a war After graduating from medical school in 2022, Salha spent a year training at Shifa. That is when he and a friend, Bilal, decided to specialize in neurosurgery. But everything changed on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel and Israel's retaliatory campaign began. For the first few weeks of the war, Salha was an intern at Shifa. Because Israel had cut off Gaza's internet service, one of Salha's jobs was to bring scans to doctors around the complex. He had to navigate through thousands of displaced people sheltering there and run up and down stairwells when elevators stopped working. Once Israeli troops moved into northern Gaza, he and has family left. Bilal, who stayed in Gaza City, was killed a few months later, Salha said. Not long after Salha left, Israeli forces raided Shifa for the first time in November 2023. Israel said the hospital served as a major Hamas command and control center. But it provided little evidence beyond a single tunnel with two small rooms under the facility. It made similar arguments when raiding and striking medical facilities across Gaza even as casualties from the war mounted. Israel says it makes every effort to deliver medical supplies and avoid harming civilians. Under international law, hospitals lose their protected status if they are used for military purposes. Hamas has denied using hospitals for military purposes, though its security personnel can often be seen inside them and they have placed parts of hospitals off limits to the public. Israeli forces returned to Shifa in March 2024, igniting two weeks of fighting in which the military said it killed some 200 militants who had regrouped there. The hospital was left in ruins. The World Health Organization said three hospital buildings were extensively damaged and that its oxygen plant and most equipment were destroyed, including 14 baby incubators. While all this was going on, Salha worked at a hospital in central Gaza, where he performed over 200 surgeries and procedures, including dozens of operations on fractured skulls. Some surgeons spend a lifetime without ever seeing one. When he returned to Shifa as a neurosurgeon resident, the buildings he used to run between — some had been rehabilitated — felt haunted. "They destroyed all our memories," he said. A shrunken hospital is stretched to its limits Shifa once had 700 beds. Today there are roughly 200, and nearly as many patients end up on mattresses on the floor, the hospital manager said. Some beds are set up in storage rooms, or in tents. An extra 100 beds, and an additional three surgery rooms, are rented out from a nearby facility. The hospital once employed 1,600 doctors and nurses. Now there about half as many, according to Shifa's administrative manager, Rami Mohana. With Gaza beset by extreme food insecurity, the hospital can no longer feed its staff, and many workers fled to help their families survive. Those who remain are rarely paid. On a recent morning, in a storage room-turned-patient ward, Salha checked up on Mosab al-Dibs, a 14-year-old boy suffering from a severe head injury and malnutrition. "Look how bad things have gotten?" Salha said, pulling at al-Dibs' frail arm. Al-Dibs' mother, Shahinez, was despondent. "We've known Shifa since we were kids, whoever goes to it will be cured," she said. "Now anyone who goes to it is lost. There's no medicine, no serums. It's a hospital in name only." There are shortages of basic supplies, like gauze, so patients' bandages are changed infrequently. Gel foams that stop bleeding are rationed. Shifa's three CT scan machines were destroyed during Israeli raids, Mohana said, so patients are sent to another nearby hospital if they need one. Israel has not approved replacing the CT scanners, he said. Patients wait for hours — and sometimes days — as surgeons prioritize their caseload or as they arrange scans. Some patients have died while waiting, Salha said. After months without a pneumatic surgical drill to cut through bones, Shifa finally got one. But the blades were missing, and spare parts were not available, Salha said. "So instead of 10 minutes, it could take over an hour just to cut the skull bones," he said. "It leaves us exhausted and endangers the life of the patient." When asked by The Associated Press about equipment shortages at Shifa, the Israeli military agency in charge of aid coordination, COGAT, did not address the question. It said the military ''consistently and continuously enables the continued functioning of medical services through aid organizations and the international community." Unforgettable moments From his time at the hospital in central Gaza, Salha can't shake the memory of the woman in her 20s who arrived with a curable brain hemorrhage. The hospital wouldn't admit her because there were no beds available in the intensive care unit. He had wanted to take her in an ambulance to another hospital, but because of the danger of coming under Israeli attack, no technician would go with him to operate her ventilator. "I had to tell her family that we will have to leave her to die," he said. Other stories have happier endings. When a girl bleeding from her head arrived at Shifa, Salha's colleague stopped it with his hand until a gel foam was secured. The girl, who had temporarily lost her vision, greeted Salha after her successful recovery. "Her vision was better than mine," the bespectacled Salha said, breaking a smile. "Sometimes it seems we are living in a stupor. We deal with patients in our sleep and after a while, we wake up and ask: what just happened?"
