Shock moment gun-toting terrorists loot Gaza aid truck as 22 Arab states urge Hamas to SURRENDER in unprecedented plea
The video clip shared on social media by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) depicts armed gunmen on top of an aid truck as civilians stand around waiting for food.
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The IDF released footage it says shows armed Hamas operatives looting an aid truck
Credit: Twitter/IDF
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The two men standing on top of the truck brandish their weapons as Gazans gather
Credit: Twitter/IDF
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A charity distributes meals to Palestinians facing food shortages
Credit: Getty
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Satellite pictures show Palestinians gathering at a location about 1.2 kilometres southeast of a distribution site
Credit: AFP
The two men standing on top of the truck brandish their weapons as Gazans gather in the hope of receiving aid.
One of them points his weapon down towards the crowd.
An IDF spokesperson captioned the video saying: "Footage from just four days ago shows Hamas terrorists looting an aid truck, this is the same organization spreading false claims about a deliberate starvation campaign in Gaza."
It comes as the humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to worsen, with the United Nations
warning of a serious famin
e.
read more on gaza
The crisis is now so widespread across Gaza
Satellite footage shows thousands of starving Palestinians crowding around aid trucks begging for food.
A British and EU drive to end the war in Gaza was backed by 22 Arab states - which called on Hamas terrorists to surrender for the first time on Wednesday.
Arab and Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey, signed a declaration condemning the October 7 attacks in a groundbreaking move.
Most read in The US Sun
The statement also called on Hamas to free all hostages, lay down its arms and withdraw from its blood-soaked coastal stronghold.
The dramatic move was backed by all EU states plus 17 more nations which called for a two-state solution to end bloodshed across the Middle East.
Harrowing moment desperate Gazans overrun food trucks as Israel challenges UN to ship in more aid after pausing fighting
Sir Keir Starmer backed the move warning Israel the UK would formally recognise a new Palestinian state unless fighting ceased in September.
But critics said the move would only encourage Hamas to dig in and hold out for the major concession from the UK.
And Israel accused Starmer of "rewarding" October 7 terrorists.
Israel has faced widespread criticism from foreign governments and international bodies over the mounting humanitarian emergency in Gaza.
Gaza's population of 2.3 million currently faces the verge of famine.
At least 63 people, including 24 children under five, died from hunger in July, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
But Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has called allegations that his country is conducting a starvation campaign in the territory a "bold faced lie".
However, a global body responsible for monitoring hunger has warned Gazans now face the "worst-case scenario of famine".
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said: "Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths."
Earlier in the month,
20 people died at an aid distribution site in Gaza following a
.
Donald Trump claims he did not discuss the UK's move towards recognition of Palestine when he met Sir Keir on Monday.
Speaking on board
But Sir Keir told ministers the humanitarian situation in Gaza is now "increasingly intolerable".
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Palestinians carry aid supplies that entered Gaza on trucks through Israel
Credit: Reuters
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Displaced Palestinians gather to receive aid
Credit: AFP
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Palestinians gather at an aid distribution point
Credit: Getty
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RTÉ News
an hour ago
- RTÉ News
US envoy Witkoff to inspect aid distribution in Gaza
US President Donald Trump's envoy met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last night ahead of a visit to inspect aid distribution in Gaza, as a deadly food crisis drives mounting international pressure for a ceasefire. Steve Witkoff, who has been involved in months of stalled negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal, met Mr Netanyahu shortly after his arrival, the Israeli leader's office said. Later today, Mr Witkoff is to visit Gaza, the White House announced. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Mr Witkoff, who visited Gaza in January, would inspect "distribution sites and secure a plan to deliver more food and meet with local Gazans to hear firsthand about this dire situation on the ground". German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul also met Mr Netanyahu in Jerusalem, and afterwards declared: "The humanitarian disaster in Gaza is beyond imagination. "Here, the Israeli government must act quickly, safely and effectively to provide humanitarian and medical aid to prevent mass starvation from becoming a reality. "I have the impression that this has been understood today." In an example of the deadly problems facing aid efforts in Gaza, the territory's civil defence agency said that at least 58 Palestinians were killed late Wednesday when Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd attempting to block an aid convoy. Hostage video The armed wing of Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad meanwhile released a video showing German-Israeli hostage Rom Braslavski. In the six-minute video, Mr Braslavski, speaking in Hebrew, is seen watching recent news footage of the crisis in Gaza. He identifies himself and pleads with the Israeli government to secure his release. Mr Braslavski was a security guard at the Nova music festival, one of the sites targeted by Hamas and other Palestinian fighters in the October 2023 attack that sparked the Gaza war. "They managed to break Rom. Even the strongest person has a breaking point," his family said in a statement released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum in Israel. "Rom is an example of all the hostages. They must all be brought home now." Hungry crowd The Israeli military said troops had fired "warning shots" as Gazans gathered around the aid trucks. An AFP correspondent saw stacks of bullet-riddled corpses in Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital. Jameel Ashour, who lost a relative in the shooting, told AFP at the overflowing morgue that Israeli troops opened fire after "people saw thieves stealing and dropping food and the hungry crowd rushed in hopes of getting some". Mr Witkoff has been the top US representative in indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas but talks in Doha broke down last week and Israel and the United States recalled their delegations. Israel is under mounting international pressure to agree a ceasefire and allow the world to flood Gaza with food, with Canada and Portugal the latest Western governments to announce plans to recognise a Palestinian state. International pressure Mr Trump criticised Canada's decision and, in a post on his Truth Social network, placed the blame for the crisis squarely on Palestinian militant group Hamas. "The fastest way to end the Humanitarian Crises in Gaza is for Hamas to SURRENDER AND RELEASE THE HOSTAGES!!!" declared Trump, one of Israel's staunchest international supporters. Earlier this week, however, the US president contradicted Mr Netanyahu's insistence that reports of hunger in Gaza were exaggerated, warning that the territory faces "real starvation". UN-backed experts have reported "famine is now unfolding" in Gaza, with images of sick and emaciated children drawing international outrage. The US State Department said it would deny visas to officials from the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank -- the core of any future Palestinian state. 'This is what death looks like' The October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official figures. Of the 251 people seized, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 declared dead by the Israeli military. The Israeli offensive, nearing its 23rd month, has killed at least 60,249 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry. This week UN aid agencies said deaths from starvation had begun. The civil defence agency said Israeli attacks across Gaza on Thursday killed at least 32 people. "Enough!" cried Najah Aish Umm Fadi, who lost relatives in a strike on a camp for the displaced in central Gaza. "We put up with being hungry, but now the death of children who had just been born?" Further north, Amir Zaqot told AFP after getting his hands on some of the aid parachuted from planes, that "this is what death looks like. People are fighting each other with knives." "If the crossings were opened... food could reach us. But this is nonsense," Zaqot said of the airdrops. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP cannot independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defence and other parties.
Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
Keir Starmer and Donald Trump looked ready to put a ring on it. No wonder Melania stayed at home
The bromance between Keir Starmer and Donald Trump is quite something to behold. The American president's swooning over his latest love object is more than matched by the British prime minister's puppy-love simpering. 'I like him a lot,' Trump declared to the world from the Oval Office in January. 'He's a very nice guy,' he expounded in February. Starmer gushed back: 'I like and respect him'. READ MORE By last weekend, they seemed ready to put a ring on it in Scotland as they flew together, first on the president's Marine One helicopter, then on his Air Force One jet. To the disappointment of millions of voyeurs, the pair refrained from holding hands as they disembarked for dinner-á-deux in Aberdeen. 'I like this man a lot,' Trump reiterated for the benefit of slow learners. They've even started making dates in public. After Trump hosted him at his Scottish golf club, Starmer proposed taking the American to a football match next time. Any wonder Melania stayed at home? The president can't stop talking about the new man in his life. At a press conference about the tariff deal that he coerced the EU into , he meandered from what began as a seeming tribute to the bloc into a paean to his darling Keir. 'I think he'll be very happy with this,' Trump blabbed, despite – or, maybe, because of – the fact that the UK is not a member of the EU. [ Why did the EU sign a tariff deal overwhelmingly favourable to the US? Opens in new window ] Britain has adopted Ireland's old role, sycophantically courting an American president with some of its blood in his veins. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/ Getty Images) The sight of young swains playing footsie in company has its charm but, when two grown men – collective age 142 next month – are at it, you have to wonder what's in it for each of them. Opposites attract, they say, and the Labour Party leader has repeatedly insisted their bromance works in spite of a political chasm between him and the Maga megalomaniac. Perhaps he doth protest too much. When Trump landed in Scotland and chastised Europe for admitting 'bad people' over its borders, he was preaching to the convert standing next to him. Starmer, who has warned that immigration will make Britain 'an island of strangers', gladly recited: 'We've returned 35,000 – in fact, in the first year of this Labour Government – of people who shouldn't be here'. Cash-strapped Britain says it cannot afford a £1m payment due to the International Fund for Ireland peace initiative but it's preparing to spend at least ten-times that on Trump's 'unprecedented' and 'historic' second state visit. Starmer has promised it will be like nothing anybody has ever seen before. Oh, boy, he's even talking like Trump now. Some of his tactics are starting to look familiar too. Using the two-state solution as a bargaining chip to make Israel ease up on its mass slaughter in Gaza is straight out of Trump's playbook of bluff. Does the prime minister not understand that two states are the objective; not some convenient threat? [ Was Keir Starmer pushed on Palestinian statehood or did he wait for right moment? Opens in new window ] Starmer's obsequiousness is embarrassing but that's the payback when you pair up with a passive-aggressive partner. Trump keeps humiliating him – rabbiting on about how much he likes Nigel Farage and vilifying Labour's London mayor Sadiq Khan as 'nasty' and 'stupid', while Starmer sits grinning beside him. It's unedifying to watch, but it reaps rewards. The 10 per cent US-UK tariff rate is the lowest Trump has agreed with any country. That's the quid pro quo. Ireland knows how it works because this country spent the best part of a century póg-a-thóin-ing Uncle Sam as a national survival strategy. If Ronald Reagan wants jigs and reels, he gets them. If George W Bush wants to invade Iraq without fear of being arrested on visiting Ireland and being sent for trial to The Hague, sure, whatever it takes. Uncle Sam wants to direct rendition flights or soldiers through Shannon Airport? Be our guest. Most obliging of you, says the US, turning its rivers green and rolling out the red carpet for the Taoiseach on Paddy's Day. This country is in no position to scoff at Starmer's antics. Though, admittedly, it is tempting, especially after that London Times caricature of three dancing Joe Bidens dressed as leprechauns with swinging pints of stout when the last US president visited here in 2023. There may have been sour grapes involved. Britain had spectacularly lost the ancestry tug-o'-war between Biden's three-parts English and five-parts Irish genealogy. As if to rub it in, the former president claimed his mother had once slept on a hotel floor after being told the British queen had previously stayed in the same room and fondly recalled his Auntie Gertie assuring him: 'Your father is not a bad man. He's just English'. [ Politics 'Clear understanding' 15% tariff max will be applied by US to pharma exports Opens in new window ] 'I think he'll be very happy with this,' Trump said what he thought Starmer's reaction would be to the EU-US tariff deal. Photograph: Jane Barlow/ Pool/ AFP via Getty Images 'You're welcome to him,' droves of English Twitter (as X was known) users retweeted. Not all of us over here wanted him. Joey's Irishness was full of blarney, no matter how sincerely he meant it. Everywhere he went, he delivered his single transferable speech about his Irish moral values. Then he went back to United States and sent 'ironclad support' to Israel for its onslaught on Gaza along with killing machinery to do the job. On his last Paddy's Day visit as Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar was skating on thin ice in the Oval Office to the soundtrack of calls back home for the visit to be cancelled. Britain has adopted Ireland's old role, sycophantically courting an American president with some of its blood in his veins. While the short game may prove profitable for Starmer, there will be long-term repercussions. The British prime minister has been trying to establish Brexited Britain as a European superpower, allying with France. That requires him to ride two horses simultaneously. Trump despises the EU, falsely claiming its sole raison d'être is to 'rip off' the US. He would be sorely miffed if he thought Starmer was two-timing him with Emanuel Macron. And Trump can be a vindictive former friend. See Elon Musk, Jeffrey Epstein, Rupert Murdoch, et al. In Turnberry last weekend, RTÉ's London correspondent Tommy Meskill asked Trump if he planned to visit Ireland. 'I will. I love Doonbeg,' he said, name-checking his golf resort for any potential paying customers who were watching. 'I'll go.' Right back at you Britain – you're welcome to him.
Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
EU follows Starmer by giving in to Trump
It's hard to imagine anything more supine and bootlicking than Keir Starmer's Trump strategy. It's almost too excruciating to watch. When, at last Monday's meeting in Scotland, the US president insulted a key ally and friend of the UK prime minister's (London mayor Sadiq Khan ), referring to him as a 'nasty person', Starmer could only laugh it off, saying 'he's a friend of mine'. And since when has a UK leader ever been forced into the role of guest (the event took place at Donald Trump's Turnberry golf resort) when meeting a foreign leader on home soil? A human rights lawyer by trade, Starmer has largely refrained from calling out Israel for its murderous assault on civilians in Gaza for fear of deviating too much from US foreign policy. READ MORE He is even said to have run his Palestinian state recognition plan by Trump before announcing it. In contrast to his domestic policy agenda, which is littered with U-turns, Starmer has been nothing if not consistent when it comes to the US, offering Washington almost complete obedience. Back in May when the UK agreed a very lopsided trade deal with the US, which applied a 10 per cent tariff on UK exports, there was a perception that the EU, with an eye on China's hardball stance, would drive a harder bargain. The bloc, after all, plays gatekeeper to the biggest and richest consumer market in the world. But after months of talking tough, threatening counter measures and anti-coercion instruments, the EU has effectively copied Starmer's template, capitulating almost entirely to Trump's wrecking-ball agenda. Since when has a UK leader ever been forced into the role of guest when meeting a foreign leader on home soil? Photograph: Tierney L. Cross/ The New York Times Even Canada and Mexico, which have potentially more to lose (more of their national income is tied into trade with the US), have pushed back harder against Trump. The preliminary EU-US agreement allows for a 15 per cent across-the-board tariff rate on EU exports , a far cry from the zero-for-zero deal initially offered by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen , while committing the EU to big purchases of US energy and armaments. For its part, the EU has reduced tariffs on most US imports, in some cases to zero, while giving US exporters unprecedented access to Europe's 450 million-strong consumer market. Justifying the terms of the deal, von der Leyen even adopted one of the central Maga talking points, namely that the EU's transatlantic trade with the US needed to be 'rebalanced', a reference to the EU's big trade surplus (in goods) with the US. Previously EU leaders argued that the trading relationship with the US was not out of balance as the bloc buys far more services from US than it sells to them, making up for the lopsided nature of the goods trade. The EU's Common Commercial Policy (CCP), whereby member states delegate authority to the Commission to broker trade deals on their behalf, is seen by many as the jewel in the EU's crown. Farmers here may rail against the EU's environmental policies but Irish food and drink exports, now valued at a record €17 billion per annum, are in dozens of markets across the world largely because of the EU's CCP. The bloc's negotiators are known to drive hard in trade talks. They took 10 years to reach a trade deal with Canada. They jumped out of negotiations with Australia in 2023 when Canberra upped its demand for access to the EU's beef, lamb and dairy markets. This time the bloc rolled over. Despite the spin coming from Brussels about the deal providing stability and trade certainty, 'Trump bludgeoned the EU on trade,' as one CNN headline put it. Most of the analysis suggests the EU was over a barrel because of disagreement between member states (the herding 27 cats narrative); the US's transatlantic security guarantee; and the need to maintain US support for Ukraine. But the deal came with little or no security guarantees and no additional pledges around Ukraine. While tariffs in the short term will improve the US's trade balance, they will come at the expense of higher prices domestically. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/ Getty Images) Trump, despite the tough guy rhetoric, has largely played a passive role when it comes to Ukraine and Gaza, allowing belligerent leaders in Russia and Israel free rein. There is also a worry that Trump, handed such an easy victory, will come back for more or at least find pretexts to extract more concessions. From Ireland's perspective, the 15 per cent tariff on pharma , the main element of the State's export trade with the US, represents damage but controlled damage in the context of a global retreat from free trade. The Irish pharma industry here makes big profits and can – according to insiders – absorb the 15 per cent hit without uprooting itself. Multinational investment plans work to 10-year cycles and are hardly likely to switch tack on the basis of six months of Trump-induced volatility. The nightmare scenario for Ireland would be for a Pfizer to transfer all or part of its operations here back to the US in response to US protectionism. The calculus in Brussels might be to let Trump play out his tariff plan which most economists believe will blow up in his face. While tariffs in the short term will improve the US's trade balance, they will come at the expense of higher prices domestically, something that could destabilise the US economy and pave the way from another bruising encounter with bond markets.
