Israeli strikes kill at least 34 people in Gaza, officials say, as some aid restrictions are eased
Israel announced Sunday that the military would pause operations in Gaza City, Deir al-Balah and Muwasi for 10 hours a day until further notice to allow for the improved flow of aid to Palestinians in Gaza, where concern over hunger has grown, and designate secure routes for aid delivery.
Israel said it would continue military operations alongside the new humanitarian measures. The Israeli military had no immediate comment about the latest strikes, which occurred outside the time frame for the pause Israel declared would be held between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m.
Aid agencies have welcomed the new aid measures, which also included allowing airdrops into Gaza, but said they were not enough to counter the rising hunger in the Palestinian territory.
Images of emaciated children have sparked outrage around the world, including from Israel's close allies. U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday called the images of emaciated and malnourished children in Gaza 'terrible.'
Israel has restricted aid to varying degrees throughout the war. In March, it cut off the entry of all goods, including fuel, food and medicine to pressure Hamas to free hostages.
Israel partially lifted those restrictions in May but also pushed ahead on a new U.S.-backed aid delivery system that has been wracked by chaos and violence. Traditional aid providers also have encountered a similar breakdown in law and order surrounding their aid deliveries.
Most of Gaza's population now relies on aid. Accessing food has become a challenge that some Palestinians have risked their lives for.
The Awda hospital in central Gaza said it received the bodies of seven Palestinians who it said were killed Monday by Israeli fire close to an aid distribution site run by the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The hospital said 20 others were wounded close to the site.
Elsewhere, a woman who was seven months pregnant was killed along with 11 others after their house was struck in the Muwasi area, west of the southern city of Khan Younis. The woman's fetus survived after a complex surgery, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
One strike hit a two-story house in the western Japanese neighborhood of Khan Younis, killing at least 11 people, more than half of them women and children, said the Nasser Hospital, which received the casualties.
The Israeli military and GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment on those strikes.
In its Oct. 7, 2023, attack, Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. It still holds 50, more than half Israel believes to be dead.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 59,800 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Its count doesn't distinguish between militants and civilians, but the ministry says over half of the dead are women and children. The ministry operates under the Hamas government. The U.N. and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.
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Magdy reported from Cairo.
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The Independent
9 minutes ago
- The Independent
Israel's leader claims no one in Gaza is starving. Data and witnesses disagree
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says no one in Gaza is starving: 'There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza. We enable humanitarian aid throughout the duration of the war to enter Gaza – otherwise, there would be no Gazans.' President Donald Trump on Monday said he disagrees with Netanyahu's claim of no starvation in Gaza, noting the images emerging of emaciated people: 'Those children look very hungry.' After international pressure, Israel over the weekend announced humanitarian pauses, airdrops and other measures meant to allow more aid to Palestinians in Gaza. But people there say little or nothing has changed on the ground. The U.N. has described it as a one-week scale-up of aid, and Israel has not said how long these latest measures would last. "This aid, delivered in this way, is an insult to the Palestinian people,' said Hasan Al-Zalaan, who was at the site of an airdrop as some fought over the supplies and crushed cans of chickpeas littered the ground. Israel asserts that Hamas is the reason aid isn't reaching Palestinians in Gaza and accuses its militants of siphoning off aid to support its rule in the territory. The U.N. denies that looting of aid is systematic and that it lessens or ends entirely when enough aid is allowed to enter Gaza. Here's what we know: Deaths are increasing The World Health Organization said Sunday there have been 63 malnutrition-related deaths in Gaza this month, including 24 children under the age of 5 — up from 11 deaths total the previous six months of the year. Gaza's Health Ministry puts the number even higher, reporting 82 deaths this month of malnutrition-related causes: 24 children and 58 adults. It said Monday that 14 deaths were reported in the past 24 hours. The ministry, which operates under the Hamas government, is headed by medical professionals and is seen by the U.N. as the most reliable source of data on casualties. U.N. agencies also often confirm numbers through other partners on the ground. The Patient's Friends Hospital, the main emergency center for malnourished kids in northern Gaza, says this month it saw for the first time malnutrition deaths in children who had no preexisting conditions. Some adults who died suffered from such illnesses as diabetes or had heart or kidney ailments made worse by starvation, according to Gaza medical officials. The WHO also says acute malnutrition in northern Gaza tripled this month, reaching nearly one in five children under 5 years old, and has doubled in central and southern Gaza. The U.N. says Gaza's only four specialized treatment centers for malnutrition are 'overwhelmed.' The leading international authority on food crises, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, has warned of famine for months in Gaza but has not formally declared one, citing the lack of data as Israel restricts access to the territory. Aid trucks are swarmed by hungry people The measures announced by Israel late Saturday include 10-hour daily humanitarian pauses in fighting in three heavily populated areas, so that U.N. trucks can more more easily distribute food. Still, U.N. World Food Program spokesperson Martin Penner said the agency's 55 trucks of aid that entered Gaza on Monday via the crossings of Zikim and Kerem Shalom were looted by starving people before they reached WFP warehouses. Experts say that airdrops, another measure Israel announced, are insufficient for the immense need in Gaza and dangerous to people on the ground. Israel's military says 48 food packages were dropped Sunday and Monday. Palestinians say they want a full return to the U.N.-led aid distribution system that was in place throughout the war, rather than the Israeli-backed mechanism that began in May. Witnesses and health workers say Israeli forces have killed hundreds by opening fire on Palestinians trying to reach those food distribution hubs or while crowding around entering aid trucks. Israel's military says it has fired warning shots to disperse threats. The U.N. and partners say that the best way to bring food into Gaza is by truck, and they have called repeatedly for Israel to loosen restrictions on their entry. A truck carries roughly 19 tons of supplies. Israel's military says that as of July 21, 95,435 trucks of aid have entered Gaza since the war began. That's an average of 146 trucks per day, and far below the 500 to 600 trucks per day that the U.N. says are needed. The rate has sometimes been as low as half of that for several months at a time. Nothing went in for 2 1/2 months starting in March because Israel imposed a complete blockade on food, fuel and other supplies entering Gaza. Delivering aid is difficult and slow The U.N. says that delivering the aid that is allowed into Gaza has become increasingly difficult. When aid enters, it is left just inside the border in Gaza, and the U.N. must get Israeli military permission to send trucks to pick it up. But the U.N. says the military has denied or impeded just over half the movement requests for its trucks in the past three months. If the U.N. succeeds in picking up the aid, hungry crowds and armed gangs swarm the convoys and strip them of supplies. The Hamas-run civilian police once provided security along some routes, but that stopped after Israel targeted them with airstrikes. ___ ___
Leader Live
39 minutes ago
- Leader Live
At least 78 killed amid Israeli strikes in Gaza as some aid restrictions eased
The dead included a newborn who was delivered in a complex surgery after his mother, who was seven months pregnant, was killed in a strike, according to the Nasser Hospital. Israel announced on Sunday that the military would pause operations in Gaza City, Deir al-Balah and Muwasi for 10 hours a day until further notice to allow for the improved flow of aid to Palestinians in Gaza, where concern over hunger has grown, and designate secure routes for aid delivery. Israel said it would continue military operations alongside the new humanitarian measures. The Israeli military had no immediate comment about the latest strikes, which occurred outside the time frame for the pause Israel declared would be held between 10am and 8pm local time. Aid agencies have welcomed the new aid measures, which also included allowing airdrops into Gaza, but said they were not enough to counter the rising hunger in the Palestinian territory. Images of emaciated children have sparked outrage around the world, including from Israel's close allies. US President Donald Trump on Sunday called the images of emaciated and malnourished children in Gaza 'terrible'. Israel has restricted aid to varying degrees throughout the war. In March, it cut off the entry of all goods, including fuel, food and medicine to pressure Hamas to free hostages. Israel partially lifted those restrictions in May but also pushed ahead on a new US-backed aid delivery system that has been wracked by chaos and violence. Traditional aid providers have also encountered a similar breakdown in law and order surrounding their aid deliveries. Most of Gaza's population now relies on aid. Accessing food has become a challenge that some Palestinians have risked their lives for. The Awda hospital in central Gaza said it received the bodies of seven Palestinians who it said were killed on Monday by Israeli fire close to an aid distribution site run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The hospital said 20 others were wounded close to the site. The GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The pregnant woman and her child were killed along with 11 others after their house was struck in the Muwasi area, west of the southern city of Khan Younis, according to a hospital run by the Palestinian Red Crescent. Another strike hit a two-storey house in the western Japanese neighbourhood of Khan Younis, killing at least 11 people, more than half of them women and children, said the Nasser Hospital, which received the casualties. At least five others were killed in strikes elsewhere in Gaza, according to local hospitals. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on most of the strikes. It said it was not aware of one strike in Gaza City during the pause that health officials said killed one person. In its October 7 2023 attack, Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. It still holds 50, more than half of whom Israel believes to be dead. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 59,800 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Its count does not distinguish between militants and civilians, but the ministry says more than half of the dead are women and children. The ministry operates under the Hamas government. The UN and other international organisations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Can airdrops solve the Gaza crisis? Aid agencies are sceptical
The UK is set to join Jordan and the United Arab Emirates in airdropping aid into Gaza as starvation and malnutrition have reached perilous levels in the war-torn strip. Following pressure from the international community, Israel has announced brief 'humanitarian pauses' between 10am and 8pm each day to allow more aid to be delivered to starving Palestinians, as US president Donald Trump said on Monday: 'They have to get food and safety right now.' The World Health Organisation has warned that malnutrition is on a 'dangerous trajectory' in the Gaza Strip, with 63 deaths in July. Around one in five small children in Gaza City are now acutely malnourished, according to the UN's Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA). Airdropping is a controversial method of aid distribution, as humanitarian organisations have cited a number of safety and efficiency issues. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) operations manager Jacob Burns called it 'humanitarian theatre', adding 'it's absolutely not the only way' to get aid into Gaza. 'For the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), airdrops really are a last resort,' spokesperson Sarah Davies told The Independent, as the method comes with its own set of challenges. Here's all you need to know about the controversial aid distribution method. What is airdropping? Airdropping is usually reserved for instances when it is hard to get aid to where it needs to go. It involves dropping food or non-food items into an area from an aeroplane. Usually they require a predetermined location, with staff on the ground who have cleared the area of other people, buildings, or anything that could be damaged or damage the goods themselves. The aid then needs to be distributed on the ground. 'The most efficient way to do this is through things like international organisations who are experienced in this,' said Ms Davies. She added that the ICRC was not currently involved in the airdrops. 'We can't deliver assistance in a way that risks people or exposing them to harm. We work by assessing the needs throughout the areas of Gaza, where we're present, and we respond directly to those needs.' The dangers of airdropping In the densely populated Gaza Strip, airdropping faces a new challenge of distributing aid without causing harm to individuals. 'The primary danger of the airdrop is you cannot safely aim a pallet of aid,' said Mr Burns. 'People have already been killed by aid drops in Gaza.' Five people died in March last year after at least one parachute failed to deploy in an aid package airdrop, causing the parcel to fall on people, according to Gaza's health ministry. As well as the spatial safety issues, the sheer desperation of citizens can put their lives at risk as they race to get to the food source first. 'If you're starving and suddenly you see food drop out of the sky, obviously you're going to run towards that aid and it's a situation where the strongest will win,' said Mr Burns. He added that separate to Israel's claims that Hamas has been stealing aid, criminal gangs have used violence to loot aid – and airdropping offers no further control over that problem. 'If you're just throwing aid randomly into the Gaza Strip, then you have no idea who can control that.' How effectively does it distribute food? According to the ICRC, airdrops are a less efficient form of transporting aid than land transportation. 'They're really quite unsustainable, because they are very expensive', said Ms Davies, who explained that aeroplanes require fuelling and mechanical requirements that can make it a more expensive operation to supply 'quite limited amounts of items in a way that, unfortunately, we see doesn't always reach those who really need it'. Mr Burns added that airdrops don't allow for as much aid to get in as land transportation would, as he called on Israel to 'let aid in in a flood rather than a trickle, which is what airdrops are'. The ideal way of distributing aid The MSF worker then called for 'organised massive distributions of aid that can meet everyone's needs'. Land transportation, in which aid is brought into Gaza via trucks by humanitarian organisations, was named by the ICRC as a more effective approach to aid distribution because aid workers can bring in more supplies in a less time-consuming, resource-intensive way. The World Food Programme has said it has enough food to feed the entire population of 2.1 million people for almost three months. 'While we do welcome any decisions, any changes that mean that more aid reaches more people, we do reiterate that it needs to be done in a way where people are given dignified access to aid,' said Ms Davies. 'Doing aid entry and aid distribution from land transportation allows international organisations who have experience of decades of work in Gaza, who have the trust of the communities in Gaza, to do so in this way.'
