Israeli strikes kill at least 21 in Gaza amid growing military push
The Israeli military said in a statement on Wednesday that forces were operating in Gaza City, as well as in northern Gaza. It said without elaborating that in Jabaliya, an area hard-hit in multiple rounds of fighting, an air strike killed 'a number of' Hamas militants.
Troops struck roughly 120 targets throughout Gaza over the past day, including militant cells, tunnels and booby-trapped structures, among others, the military said.
Desperation is mounting in the Palestinian territory of more than 2 million, which experts say is at risk of famine because of Israel's blockade and nearly two-year offensive.
More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food in the Gaza Strip, mostly near aid sites run by an American contractor, the UN human rights office said Tuesday.
More than 100 human rights groups and charities signed a letter published on Wednesday demanding more aid for Gaza and warning of grim conditions causing starvation.
More than 59,000 Palestinians have been killed during the Israel-Hamas war, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which says that more than half of the dead are women and children. The UN and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.
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India Today
an hour ago
- India Today
Gaza faces starvation as over 100 aid groups urge Israel to lift blockade
More than 100 charity and human rights groups said Wednesday that Israel's blockade and ongoing military offensive are pushing Palestinians in the Gaza Strip toward starvation, as Israeli strikes killed another 29 people overnight, according to local health the Trump administration's Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, was set to meet with a senior Israeli official about ceasefire talks, a sign that lower-level negotiations that have dragged on for weeks could be approaching a say Gaza is at risk of famine because of Israel's blockade and the offensive launched in response to Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack. The head of the World Health Organization said Gaza is 'witnessing a deadly surge' in malnutrition and related diseases, and that a 'large proportion' of its roughly 2 million people are starving. Israel says it allows enough aid into the territory and faults delivery efforts by UN agencies, which say they are hindered by Israeli restrictions and the breakdown of has said it will only release the remaining 50 hostages it holds, around 20 of them believed to be alive, in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal. Israel has vowed to recover all the captives and continue the war until Hamas has been defeated or disarmed.'CHAOS, STARVATION AND DEATH'In an open letter, 115 organisations, including major international aid groups such as Doctors Without Borders, Mercy Corps and Save the Children, said they were watching their own colleagues, as well as the Palestinians they serve, 'waste away.'The letter blamed Israeli restrictions and 'massacres' at aid-distribution points. Witnesses, health officials and the U.N. human rights office say Israeli forces have repeatedly fired on crowds seeking aid, killing more than 1,000 people. Israel says its forces have only fired warning shots and that the death toll is Israeli government's 'restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death,' the letter Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus echoed that criticism, telling reporters that acute malnutrition centers in Gaza are full of patients and lack adequate supplies. He said rates of acute malnutrition exceed 10% and that among pregnant and breastfeeding women, more than 20% are malnourished, often UN health agency's representative in the occupied Palestinian territories, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, said there were more than 30,000 children under 5 with acute malnutrition in Gaza and that the WHO had reports that at least 21 children under 5 have died so far this SAYS CRITICS ARE ECHOING HAMAS PROPAGANDAadvertisementThe Israeli Foreign Ministry rejected the criticism in the open letter and accused the groups of 'echoing Hamas' propaganda.' It said it has allowed around 4,500 aid trucks into Gaza since lifting a complete blockade in May, and that more than 700 trucks are waiting to be picked up and distributed by the an average of around 70 trucks a day, the lowest rate of the war and far below the 500 to 600 trucks a day the UN says are needed, and which entered during a six-week ceasefire earlier this UN says it has struggled to deliver aid inside Gaza because of Israeli military restrictions, ongoing fighting and a breakdown of law and order. An alternative system established by Israel and an American contractor has been marred by violence and ADVISER TO NETANYAHU WILL MEET US ENVOY IN ROME White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Witkoff was headed to Europe to meet with key leaders from the Middle East to discuss the latest ceasefire proposal and release of hostages.'We want this ceasefire to happen as soon as possible, and we want these hostages to be released,' Leavitt official familiar with the negotiations said Ron Dermer, a top adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was traveling to Rome to meet Witkoff on Thursday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive evolving deal is expected to include a 60-day ceasefire in which Hamas would release 10 living hostages and the remains of 18 others in phases in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Aid supplies would be ramped up, and the two sides would hold negotiations on a lasting STRIKE KILL AT LEAST 29 Israel has continued to carry out waves of daily airstrikes against what it says are militant targets, which often kill women and children. Israel blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the militants operate in densely populated of the overnight strikes hit a house in Gaza City, killing at least 12 people, according to Shifa Hospital, which received the casualties. The dead included six children and two women, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The Israeli military said it struck an Islamic Jihad militant, and that the incident was under review because of reports of civilian said another strike late Tuesday in Gaza City killed three children.A strike on an apartment in northern Gaza killed at least six people. Among the dead were three children and two women, including one who was pregnant, the ministry said. The military said it struck a Hamas central Gaza, a strike in a densely populated part of the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp killed eight people and wounded 57, according to Awda Hospital, which received the militants abducted 251 people in the Oct. 7 attack and killed around 1,200 people, mostly than 59,000 Palestinians have been killed during the war, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Its count doesn't distinguish between militants and civilians, but the ministry says that more than half of the dead are women and children. The U.N. and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.- EndsTune InMust Watch
India Today
an hour ago
- India Today
WHO chief says Gaza is suffering from 'mass starvation' caused by humans
Gaza is suffering man-made mass starvation caused by a blockade on aid into the Palestinian enclave, World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on spoke following an appeal by more than 100 aid agencies warning of hunger in Gaza while tons of food, clean water and medical supplies sit untouched just outside the territory."I don't know what you would call it other than mass starvation, and it's man-made, and that's very clear," Tedros told a virtual press conference live-streamed from Geneva. "This is because of (the) blockade."advertisement Gaza's food stocks have run out since Israel, at war with Palestinian militant group Hamas since October 2023, cut off all supplies to the territory in March and then lifted that blockade in May - but with restrictions that it says are needed to prevent aid from being diverted to militant a result, international aid agencies say that only a trickle of what is needed is currently reaching people in Gaza. Israel says it is committed to allowing in aid but must control it to prevent it from being diverted by militants. It says it has let enough food into Gaza during the war and blames Hamas for the suffering of Gaza's 2.2 million more Palestinians died overnight from starvation, the Gaza health ministry said, bringing the total number of people who have starved to death to 111, most of them in recent weeks as a wave of hunger crashes on the Palestinian WHO said the deadly surge in malnutrition has caused the deaths of at least 21 children reported to the agency in 2025, but stressed those figures are likely the tip of the for treating malnutrition are full without sufficient supplies for emergency feeding, the WHO added, as the hunger crisis has been compounded by the collapse of aid pipelines and restrictions on also said the UN and its humanitarian partners were unable to deliver any food for nearly 80 days between March and May, and the resumption of deliveries was still situation is dire, he and other WHO officials said, with around 10% of people screened experiencing either severe or moderate malnutrition, and up to 20% of pregnant July alone, 5,100 children have been admitted to malnutrition programmes, including 800 who were severely emaciated, said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO's representative for the occupied Palestinian territories.- EndsMust Watch
The Hindu
6 hours ago
- The Hindu
Spare live animals, move to biological models
As human beings are superior to animals, and as animals instinctively rely on the benevolence, goodwill, and protective nature of man, we must fulfil our obligation to treat our fellow non-human beings with love, kindness, and respect. The issue of the suffering animals undergo in animal testing laboratories is known and so it is rational that humans must respond by finding solutions which can end the suffering of animals and bring peace to human hearts. A dimension to an ethical problem Before animals came to be used in toxicity tests, humans were used in feeding experiments to assess the risk of toxicity in American food supply. The first systematic test of this kind was conducted between 1902 to 1904 on behalf of the United States government to test the toxicity of preservatives such as benzoate, borax, and formaldehyde in food products. A.L. Tatum, a toxicology researcher of the time, cites the following reason for the shift from human studies to animal studies: 'People are rather unpredictable and don't always die when they are supposed to and don't always recover when they should. All in all, we must depend heavily on laboratory experimentation for sound and controllable basic principles.' So, while discussing the ethical problem of the use of animals in research, it is wrong to presume that human subjects were always exempt from experimentation and testing. The rationalisation of the culture of moral indifferentism and inhumanity is the problem; once rationalised it can as easily be directed at humans as it is at animals. There is consensus today that animal testing is not effective in predicting harm to humans. The findings derived from experiments on animals are not always applicable to humans. The case for a shift Developments in the field of tissue engineering or regenerative medicine have enabled us to cultivate at least the following anatomical parts: artificial animal muscle, artificial pancreas, artificial bladders, cartilage, bioartificial heart, blood vessels, artificial skin, artificial bone marrow, bioartificial bone and trachea. It would be ethical and kind to conduct experiments wherever possible using these rather than using animals. It is the request of this writer — to scientists, laboratories and research organisations — to consider doing medical, pharmaceutical and other experimentation and testing, wherever possible, on cells, tissues, and organs developed in laboratories. Spare live animals. Conducting experiments on laboratory-grown anatomical parts would also help the development of the nascent field of tissue-engineering or regenerative medicine. To make the replacement of animals with lab-grown organs a directive principle and an enforceable one, 'Chapter IV: Experimentation on Animals' of The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 may be amended to include an article which says: 'Scientists, laboratories and research organisations should consider doing experimentation and testing, wherever possible, on lab-grown anatomical parts and bioartificial models of biological systems of humans and animals rather than on animals'. Animals cannot be protected merely by changing laws. If the laws which can protect them are inadequate it is because we have not accorded them their real status by recognising them as fellow beings who suffer just like us. We also need to bring about a change in our values, the scientific procedure in laboratories which makes the use of animals inevitable, and create an awareness about animal suffering. The use of visual models on computers to understand the anatomical parts of animals has helped us do away with the practice of dissecting animals in biology classes and laboratories. We can definitely do away with all kinds of animal dissection for educational purposes and teach our students better anatomy by using 2D radiographic imagery and 3D visual models of the different organs and biological systems. But, for the purposes of experimentation and safety testing, it would be useful if we make a paradigm shift from animal models to ex-corpus models or artificial biological models. This we can do by coordinating the shift with tissue-engineering organisations which can produce and provide these artificial biological models. The field of regenerative medicine can help with this shift by modelling and replicating the required biochemistry and biological systems of the body outside the body and by producing bioartificial functional models of the organs. A pledge Let us make our civilisation more hospitable to life by changing our procedures, practices and laws wherever possible. Let us pledge to conduct experimentation and testing as far as possible on biological substances and learn to recognise the inherent sacredness and dignity of animals. Ankur Betageri is Assistant Professor at Bharati College, University of Delhi
