Israel prepares to move Palestinians to southern Gaza ahead of offensive
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.
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The military said it had no comment on when that movement would begin.
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.
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 also made in recent weeks.
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'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.
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Rhyl Journal
2 hours ago
- Rhyl Journal
Israel prepares to move Palestinians to southern Gaza ahead of offensive
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 the mass movement of Palestinians would begin, but Defence Minister Israel Katz said on social media that 'we are now in the stage of discussions to finalise the plan to defeat Hamas 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. 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 also made in recent weeks. '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, along with Pushpa Joshi, sister of kidnapped Nepalese hostage Bipin Joshi, a student seized from a kibbutz. 'I miss my best friend,' Pushpa said.
Glasgow Times
2 hours ago
- Glasgow Times
Baby girl killed with her parents in Gaza airstrike
The baby's body, wrapped in blue, was placed on those of her parents as Palestinians prayed over them. Motasem al-Batta, his wife and the child were believed to have been killed in their tent in the crowded Muwasi area. 'Two and a half months, what has she done?' neighbour Fathi Shubeir said. 'They are civilians in an area designated safe.' Israel's military said it is dismantling Hamas's military capabilities and takes precautions not to harm civilians. It said it could not comment on the strike without more details. A Palestinian man carries the body of his seven-year-old nephew who, according to the family, was killed in an Israeli army airstrike on Friday night (Jehad Alshrafi/AP) Muwasi is one of the heavily populated areas in Gaza where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel plans to widen its coming military offensive. The mobilisation of forces is expected to take weeks, and Israel may be using the threat to pressure Hamas into releasing more hostages taken in its October 7 2023 attack that sparked the war. Families of hostages fear the coming offensive further endangers the 50 hostages remaining in Gaza, just 20 of them thought to be alive. They and other Israelis were horrified by the recent release of videos showing emaciated hostages, speaking under duress, pleading for help and food. A group representing the families has urged Israelis onto 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. Palestinian and Israeli activists took part in a protest against the killing of journalists in Gaza as they gathered in the West Bank town of Beit Jala on Friday (Mahmoud Illean/AP) The United Nations is warning that levels of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza are at their highest since the war began. Palestinians are drinking contaminated water as diseases spread, while some Israeli leaders continue to talk openly about the mass relocation of people from Gaza. Another 11 malnutrition-related deaths occurred in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the territory's health ministry said on Saturday, with one child among them. That brings malnutrition-related deaths during the war to 251. The UN and partners say getting aid into the territory of more than two million people, and then on to distribution points, remains highly challenging with Israeli restrictions and pressure from crowds of hungry Palestinians. The UN 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-UN militarised sites', a reference to the Israeli-backed and US-supported Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which since May has been the primary distributor of aid in Gaza. Elsewhere, a 20-year-old Palestinian woman described as being in a 'state of severe physical deterioration' has died after being transferred to Italy for treatment, a hospital said on Saturday. The patient was admitted to Pisa University Hospital late on Wednesday and died on Friday. She was removed from Gaza as part of a humanitarian mission and arrived with a 'with a very complex, compromised clinical picture', according to the hospital. She died after entering a respiratory crisis and subsequently going into cardiac arrest, the hospital said in a statement. Hospital staff had performed tests and started supportive therapy before she died, the statement said. The woman, named by Italian media as Marah Abu Zuhri, had arrived in Italy with her mother. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said almost 120 Gazans – 31 patients and their families – had been flown to Rome, Milan and Pisa on three planes. In a post on X, Mr Tajani said it was the 14th medical evacuation of Palestinians that Italy had conducted since January 2024, and the largest. The hospital did not specify whether the woman had suffered from malnutrition, but said that she had arrived in a 'state of severe physical deterioration.' 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 health ministry, which does not specify 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 casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.
