Israel says it struck militants posing as aid workers in Gaza
The army said it carried out an airstrike on the men after confirming with the charity that they were not affiliated with it and that the car did not belong to it.
World Central Kitchen confirmed that the men and the vehicle were not affiliated with it. 'We strongly condemn anyone posing as World Central Kitchen or other humanitarians, as this endangers civilians and aid workers,' it said in a statement.
The military shared video footage showing several men in yellow vests standing around a vehicle with the charity's logo on its roof. The military said five of the men were armed.
The relief group, founded in 2010, has worked from Haiti to Ukraine, dispatching teams that can quickly provide meals on a mass scale in conflict zones and after natural disasters. The group prides itself on providing food that fits with local tastes.
In April, an Israeli strike killed seven World Central Kitchen workers in Gaza. Israel quickly admitted it had mistakenly killed the aid workers and launched an investigation.
In November, an Israeli strike killed five people, including a World Central Kitchen worker who Israel said was part of the Hamas attack that sparked the war. WCK said at the time that it was unaware the employee had any connection to the attack.
Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals but 50 remain inside Gaza. Israel believes around 20 are still alive.
Israel's air and ground offensive has since displaced most of the population, destroyed vast areas and pushed the territory toward famine. It has killed more than 61,400 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.
Besides those killed, 121 adults and 101 children have died of malnutrition-related causes, the ministry has said.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. 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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CBS News
37 minutes ago
- CBS News
Israel prepares to move Palestinians to southern Gaza as Israelis urge mass protest over war
Israel announced Saturday that it is preparing to move Palestinians from combat zones to southern Gaza as plans move ahead for a military offensive in some of the territory's most populated areas. The Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza, COGAT, said the supply of tents and other shelter equipment to the territory would resume on Sunday ahead of the mass movement of Palestinians to the south. The military said it had no comment on when that movement would begin. The latest development in the ongoing war comes as multiple country leaders, including France, Britain, Canada and Australia, announced they will recognize a Palestinian state. They have also criticized plans announced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plans for the sweeping new military offensive in Gaza. Meanwhile, anxious families of Israeli hostages called for a "nationwide day of stoppage" in Israel on Sunday to express growing frustration over 22 months of war. Families of hostages fear the coming offensive further endangers the 50 hostages remaining in Gaza, just 20 of them thought to still be alive. They and other Israelis were horrified by the recent release of videos showing emaciated hostages speaking under duress and pleading for help and food. The families and supporters have pressed the government for a deal to stop the war — a call that some former Israeli army and intelligence chiefs have made as well in recent weeks. Earlier this month, U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff met with the families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza in Tel Aviv as fears for the captives' survival grew. A group representing the families has urged Israelis into the streets on Sunday. "Across the country, hundreds of citizen-led initiatives will pause daily life and join the most just and moral struggle: the struggle to bring all 50 hostages home," it said in a statement. "I want to believe that there is hope, and it will not come from above, it will come only from us," said Dana Silberman Sitton, sister of Shiri Bibas and aunt of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, who were killed in captivity. She spoke at a weekly rally in Tel Aviv. An Israeli airstrike in Gaza killed a baby girl and her parents on Saturday, Nasser hospital officials and witnesses said. Motasem al-Batta, his wife and the girl were killed in their tent in the crowded Muwasi area. "Two and a half months, what has she done?" neighbor Fathi Shubeir asked, sweating as temperatures in the shattered territory soared above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius). "They are civilians in an area designated safe." Israel's military said it couldn't comment on the strike without more details. It said it is dismantling Hamas' military capabilities and takes precautions not to harm civilians. 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Palestinians are drinking contaminated water as diseases spread, while some Israeli leaders continue to talk openly about the mass relocation of people from Gaza. A 20-year-old Palestinian woman described as being in a "state of severe physical deterioration" died Friday after being transferred from Gaza to Italy for treatment, the hospital said Saturday. The U.N. and partners say getting food and other aid into the territory of over 2 million people, and then on to distribution points, remains highly challenging with Israeli restrictions and pressure from crowds of hungry Palestinians. The U.N. human rights office says at least 1,760 people were killed while seeking aid between May 27 and Wednesday. It says 766 were killed along routes of supply convoys and 994 in the vicinity of "non-U.N. militarized sites," a reference to the Israeli-backed and U.S.-supported Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which since May has been the primary distributor of aid in Gaza. The Hamas-led attack in 2023 killed around 1,200 people in Israel. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed 61,897 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, which does not specify how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children. The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
'Your job is to ensure Hamas does not lead you astray': Lapid slams Netanyahu for admission
The Israeli opposition criticized Netanyahu's statements during his press conference, where he addressed details of the new IDF Gaza operation and hostage talks. Opposition leader and Yesh Atid chair MK Yair Lapid slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following his admission that Hamas misled Israel in hostage deal negotiations during the second press conference on Sunday. The 'admission that 'Hamas led us astray' is nothing short of astonishing,' he said on X/Twitter, adding, 'That's exactly your job: to ensure Hamas doesn't lead you astray.' "Netanyahu – get over it! There is no such thing as a 'green light from the Americans' to conduct negotiations," the Hostages and Missing Families Forum commented. 'These are Israeli citizens, and the State of Israel must lead the moves, demand, and press itself against the mediators for an end to the war and the return of all the hostages home. The responsibility for their lives lies with the Israeli government, not with any other country," they said in a statement. 'The United States has been working tirelessly to free the hostages, end this war, and give civilians in Gaza a future free of Hamas. To do so, we need to place the responsibility where it lies – with Hamas – and hold it and other Gaza terrorists fully accountable. Today's meeting, like so many other recent actions, undermines those efforts,' the US Mission to the UN had posted following the press conferences. Leader of the Blue and White Party, MK Benny Gantz, who was part of the Israeli security cabinet during some periods of the war, was one of the first to react: 'Too many words, too few actions, too much time.' Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman stated: 'The Prime Minister of October 7 continues to lie with brazen audacity. He sacrifices the hostages on the altar of preserving the coalition, just as he sacrifices the regular and reserve soldiers to appease his natural partners – Shas and United Torah Judaism.' Yair Golan's harsh words over Netanyahu's press conference 'After 22 months of war, after promising that 'we are one step away from total victory,' after 674 days that our hostages are languishing in captivity, Netanyahu declared tonight: 'I have instructed the IDF to defeat Hamas.' Ridiculous,' The Democrats chair MK Yair Golan posted. 'As if until today, IDF soldiers were strolling in Gaza. What we saw tonight is not 'one step from victory' but the most severe security failure in Israel's history,' he said. 'The prime minister of 'Hamas is an asset,' who refuses to defeat the enemy for nearly two years and abandons dozens of Israeli citizens to die in captivity, is a danger to national security. Netanyahu is incapable of winning. He will not release the hostages. He is an utter failure. Israel will only win after he and his government are sent packing,' Golan concluded. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum addressed Netanyahu on Monday, asking him to publicly clarify his remarks at yesterday's press conference in response to a reporter's question, in which he ignored the fallen hostages. "He who abandons fallen ones ends up abandoning lives," the forum's address read. Uri Sela contributed to this report. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Hillary Clinton: Israel missed biggest opportunity for Hamas deal after 12 Day War
Every day Israel fails to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, its standing in the region and around the world erodes, and its long-term security is undermined, Clinton warned. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu missed the biggest opportunity for a deal with Hamas after the Iran war, former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton argued in an interview on the 'Raging Moderates' podcast released on Friday. 'Israel established such dominance – intelligence dominance, military dominance, controlled the air over Iran, was able to destroy important infrastructure of their military industrial complex, had the addresses of some of the leaders in the nuclear program – and then the US came in and added to that dominance with our unique capability. After that, it seemed to me, Netanyahu should proclaim victory. Take the W,' she explained. Describing Hamas as a death cult that is on its knees, she elaborated that with Iran, 'We have clearly sent a message – very forcefully – that we will not allow it to become a nuclear weapons power.' If she had been in Netanyahu's position, she said, she would have laid out 'a plan for a ceasefire on a fast track, whether or not Hamas agrees,' she began, arguing that the terrorist group has no interest in agreeing to a ceasefire, because the war perpetuates their narrative. 'I'm going to begin talking with our Arab neighbors about what we can do to put together some kind of security/redevelopment program; I'm going to demand that the Palestinian Authority reform itself in order to be a partner with Israel in doing anything about governing the day after Gaza.' Even if doing so costs Netanyahu politically, Clinton said she would appeal directly to the Israeli public with her vision for Israel's future – normalization with Saudi Arabia, supporting the Lebanese government to subdue Hezbollah, and working to ensure 'we get the right regime in Syria.' She argued that, by doing so, he could be re-elected – although 'Israel needs new leadership,' she added quickly. Gaza crisis erodes Israel's standing and security Clinton argued that by not addressing Gaza's humanitarian crisis - as a strong supporter of Israel, she added – it is 'undermining Israel's position in the world and it is putting Israelis and Jews at risk around the world.' 'This is not the usual suffering that comes from active warfare. Israel has other options,' which she said, other military and political leadership has proposed. 'There are other options that would continue to protect Israel but move it out of this quagmire that it has gotten itself into.' Netanyahu is a prisoner of the most extreme elements within Israeli society, and therefore, he is unable to get pragmatic again, which is what he used to be able to do,' the former presidential candidate said. Every day Israel fails to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, its standing in the region and around the world erodes, and its long-term security is undermined, Clinton warned.
