At least 25 killed by Israeli gunfire while seeking aid, say health officials
Mr Netanyahu wants to realise US President Donald Trump's vision of relocating much of Gaza's population of more than two million people through what the prime minister refers to as 'voluntary migration' – and what critics have warned could be ethnic cleansing.
'Give them the opportunity to leave! First, from combat zones, and also from the Strip if they want,' Mr Netanyahu said in an interview aired on Tuesday with i24, an Israeli TV station, to discuss the planned offensive in some of the territory's most populated areas including Gaza City.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP)
'We are not pushing them out but allowing them to leave.'
Witnesses and staff at Nasser and Awda hospitals, which received the bodies, said people were killed on their way to aid distribution sites and while awaiting convoys entering the Gaza Strip.
Israel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Efforts to revive ceasefire talks have resumed after apparently breaking down last month.
Hamas and Egyptian officials were set to meet on Wednesday to discuss efforts to stop the war, according to Hamas official Taher al-Nounou.
Israel has no plans to send its negotiating team to talks in Cairo, the prime minister's office said.
Israel has said it will widen its military offensive against Hamas to the areas of Gaza that it does not yet control, where most of the territory's residents have sought refuge.
Those plans have sparked international condemnation and criticism within Israel, and could be intended to raise pressure on Hamas to reach a ceasefire.
Israeli soldiers use binoculars to look at damaged buildings in the Gaza Strip, from southern Israel (Ariel Schalit/AP)
The militants still hold 50 hostages taken in the October 7 2023 attack that sparked the war.
Israel believes around 20 of them are alive.
Mr Netanyahu was asked by i24 News if the window had closed on a partial ceasefire deal and he responded that he wanted all of the hostages back, alive and dead.
Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty told reporters that Cairo is still trying to advance an earlier proposal for an initial 60-day ceasefire, the release of some hostages and an influx of humanitarian aid before further talks on a lasting truce.
Hamas has long called for a comprehensive deal but says it will only release the remaining hostages in return for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
The militant group has refused to lay down its arms as Israel has demanded.
Israel and South Sudan are in talks about relocating Palestinians to the war-torn East African nation, The Associated Press (AP) reported on Tuesday.
The office of Israel's deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel said on Wednesday that she was arriving in South Sudan for a series of meetings in the first visit by a senior government official to the country, but she did not plan to broach the subject of moving Palestinians.
Damaged humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza scattered on the ground next to the border with the Gaza Strip near the Kissufim crossing in southern Israel (Ariel Schalit/AP)
In a statement on Wednesday, South Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs called reports that it was engaging in discussions with Israel about resettling Palestinians baseless.
The AP previously reported that US and Israel have reached out to officials of three East African governments to discuss using their territories as potential destinations for moving Palestinians uprooted from Gaza.
Among those killed while seeking aid on Wednesday were 14 Palestinians in the Teina area approximately 3km away from a food distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), according to staff at Nasser hospital.
Hashim Shamalah, who was trying to reach the sites, said Israeli troops fired towards them as people tried to get through.
Many were shot and fell while fleeing, he said.
Five other Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire while trying to reach another GHF distribution site in the Netzarim corridor area, according to Awda hospital and witnesses.
The US and Israel support the GHF, an American contractor, as an alternative to the United Nations, which they say allows Hamas to siphon off aid.
The UN, which has delivered aid throughout Gaza for decades when conditions allow, denies the allegations.
Trucks carrying humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza move along the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel (Ariel Schalit/AP)
The GHF said there were no incidents at or near its sites on Wednesday.
There are aid convoys from other groups that travel within 100 metres (328ft) of GHF sites and draw large crowds attempting to loot them.
An overwhelming majority of violent incidents over the past few weeks have been related to those other aid convoys, the organisation said, noting it has provided more than one million meals to aid seekers.
At least six other people were killed by Israeli fire waiting for aid trucks close to the Morag corridor, which separates parts of southern Gaza, Nasser hospital said.
The UN and food security experts have warned starvation and malnutrition in Gaza are at the highest levels since the war began.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Tuesday reported the warning from the World Food Programme and said the Gaza Health Ministry told UN staff in Gaza that five people died over the previous 24 hours from malnutrition and starvation.
Gaza's Health Ministry says 106 children have died of malnutrition-related causes during the war and 129 adults have died since late June when the ministry started to count deaths among this age group.
The UN and its humanitarian partners are doing everything possible to bring aid into Gaza, Mr Dujarric said, but still face significant delays and impediments from Israeli authorities who prevent the delivery of food and other essentials at the scale needed.
A Palestinian boy after collecting water from a distribution point in Gaza City (Jehad Alshrafi/AP)
Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the 2023 attack.
Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals.
Israel's air and ground offensive has since displaced most of Gaza's population, destroyed vast areas and pushed the territory towards famine.
The offensive has killed more than 61,700 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals.
The UN and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties.
Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.
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Irish Examiner
4 hours ago
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9 hours ago
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Sheridan claims he has Tipperary and Laois councils backing his nomination, but stayed coy on the other two councils required. In order to run for president, a person needs at least four local authorities to nominate them or at least 20 Oireachtas members. Would he sign the Occupied Territories Bill into law as president? Sheridan said he would have 'no issue whatsoever' in signing the bill into law. Once the legislation is passed by the Oireachtas, the president must sign it into law. The former pharma boss said that he 'shares the opinions of the majority of the country, if not the entire country, that what's happening now in Palestine is nothing short of a disgrace'. 'When you start weaponising food and water and children are dying. I think it's the utmost finality of evil. Essentially, I think Israel will be on the wrong side of history indefinitely for what's going on over there. So I just want to make that point really clear,' he told The Journal. Advertisement He added that he has no shares that are linked to Israel. Did his company pay an Israeli hospital that trains Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers $50,000 as part of a medical technology deal? The Ditch reported yesterday that his company paid an Israeli hospital that trains Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers $50,000 as part of a medical technology deal. Sheridan told The Journal the 2020 transaction was connected with two doctors who happened to work at the hospital. They had developed a device that liquefied tablets for people that couldn't swallow or were incapacitated. The device would do very well in terms of treating people on the spot, explained Sheridan. 'It was a technology that we thought was very interesting, will be impactful on the world. Essentially, we took a gamble on it. The technology itself needed far more development than we initially thought… We don't have a continuing relationship,' he said. Was he fined in 2018 for making misleading statements about his company? Yes, he was fined $25,000. Nutriband was investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission over company filings in the US. The (SEC) is is an independent federal agency of the US government that is responsible for regulating the securities markets and protecting investors. The SEC fine was related to a disclosure on a product that Sheridan says they were planning to launch with FDA approval. He told reporters they relied upon the advice from two attorneys and the dermatologist advising the company on that particular product. 'It happened to be a wrong opinion, and we basically took our fine and our cease and desist and said he will not do it again. We've had an excellent relationship with the SEC since. It was an honest mistake. You pay your dues and you move on,' he said. Did his mother object to social housing? After a story appeared in the Irish Examiner today, Sheridan confirmed that his mother did object to a housing project through her work. He said his mother 'broke down' when Sheridan asked her about it yesterday. 'It's something that is not in the personality of my mother by any means. My mother grew up in social housing. You know, she is one of my inspirations to tackle the housing crisis, and she's fully behind it. So I'm just really stressed about that. As a family, we find this as a core issue that needs to be tackled,' he said. What does he think about immigration and racist attacks? Asked about the recent attacks on the Indian community, Sheridan said 'it's certainly troubling but has become a 'little bit more prominent' now. 'I really stress that if that's something that you support or get behind, and I'm definitely not your candidate,' he said today. Describing immigration and migration in general as a 'tricky subject', Sheridan said these are 'not statistics at the end of the day. We're talking about people'. 'I think we have a migration problem both ways, right? We have an emigration problem because the youth are leaving in their droves, but we don't have an immigrant problem,' he said. Related Reads The millionaire millennial seeking the presidency: How did Gareth Sheridan get so rich? Catherine Connolly is using American-style grassroots fundraising for her presidential campaign Catherine Connolly, presidential hopeful, has given her first press conference — here's what she said The Journal / YouTube Sheridan said the government were unprepared and lacked foresight with the immigration system, which he said was set up in an inadequate way to deal with the inflow of people that want to move here. 'It should be no surprise to us that Ireland has become a destination where people want to live and want to raise a family and want to grow their life, and we should have seen that coming,' he said. 'But we also have to understand that immigration is healthy for the economy, right? It's a matter of making sure that we all get along,' he added. Is he against removing the Triple Lock? Sheridan said today that he is against changes to the Triple Lock. This is one of the key pieces of legislation that the next president may have to sign off on if government is successful in pushing it through. The triple lock system dictates that Irish troops in groups of more than 12 cannot be deployed abroad without approval from Cabinet, the Dáil and a resolution from the United Nations Security Council. The changes proposed by government include removing the UN Security Council element. 'I think we're Irish first and European second and they need to listen to the people a little bit more,' said Sheridan. 'I think there's an overwhelming objection of the idea that we would move forward with that. And I want to stress that we're militarily neutral, but we've never been morally neutral, and that's important as well,' he said. Would Sheridan like to see a united Ireland? Sheridan said it is something he would love to see in his lifetime, but he said it is a complex issue that cannot be rushed. He told the media that the idea of a united Ireland needs to be 'very seriously thought out', stating that 'the narrative that we need to rush to bring that through is a little bit unprepared'. Is housing going to be one of his key talking points? Yes, Sheridan said he is not going to bring his toolbox and start building houses, but he will champion the issue. My ideal home here is we claim to 'make Ireland home again'. He said there has been complete ignorance to Article 41.21 of the Constitution which enshrines the right to a peoples' domestic needs. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
