Israeli gunfire and strikes kill 42 in Gaza as many of the dead sought aid
Gaza
overnight and into Saturday, according to Palestinian health officials and the local ambulance service, as starvation deaths continued and ceasefire talks appear to have stalled.
The majority of victims were killed by gunfire as they waited for aid trucks close to the Zikim crossing with Israel, said staff at Shifa hospital, where the bodies were taken.
Israel's military said it fired warning shots to distance a crowd 'in response to an immediate threat' and said it was not aware of any casualties.
Those killed in the strikes include four people in an apartment building in Gaza City among others, hospital staff and the ambulance service said.
READ MORE
The strikes come as ceasefire talks between
Israel
and
Hamas
have hit a standstill after the
United States
and Israel recalled their negotiating teams on Thursday, throwing the future of the talks into further uncertainty.
Palestinians mourn during the funeral of people who were killed while trying to reach aid trucks. Photograph: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
Israeli prime minister
Binyamin Netanyahu
said on Friday his government was considering 'alternative options' to ceasefire talks with Hamas.
His comments came as a Hamas official said negotiations were expected to resume next week and portrayed the recall of the Israeli and American delegations as a pressure tactic.
Egypt and Qatar, which are mediating the talks alongside the US, said the pause was only temporary and that talks would resume, though they did not say when.
The
United Nations
and experts said that Palestinians in Gaza were at risk of famine, with reports of increasing numbers of people dying from causes related to malnutrition.
While Israel's army says it is allowing aid into the enclave with no limit on the number of trucks that can enter, the UN says it is hampered by Israeli military restrictions on its movements and incidents of criminal looting.
The Zikim crossing shootings come days after at least 80 Palestinians were killed trying to reach aid entering through the same crossing.
During the shootings on Friday night, Sherif Abu Aisha said people started running when they saw a light that they thought was from the aid trucks, but as they got close, they realised it was from Israel's tanks.
That is when the army started firing on people, he told The Associated Press.
He said his uncle, a father of eight, was among those killed.
'We went because there is no food… and nothing was distributed,' he said.
Smoke rises into the sky following an Israeli air strike in the northern Gaza Strip (Leo Correa/AP/PA)
Israel is facing increased international pressure to alleviate the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
More than two dozen Western-aligned countries and more than 100 charity and human rights groups have called for an end to the war, harshly criticising Israel's blockade and a new aid delivery model it has rolled out.
The charities and rights groups said even their own staff were struggling to get enough food.
For the first time in months Israel said it is allowing airdrops, requested by
Jordan
.
A Jordanian official said the airdrops will mainly be food and milk formula.
UK prime minister
Keir Starmer
wrote in a newspaper article on Saturday that the UK was 'working urgently' with Jordan to get British aid into Gaza.
Aid group the World Central Kitchen said on Friday it was resuming limited cooking operations in Deir al-Balah after being forced to halt due to a lack of food supplies.
It said it is trying to serve 60,000 meals daily through its field kitchen and partner community kitchens, less than half of what it has cooked over the previous month.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Examiner
10 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
UK will recognise Palestine in September unless Israel ‘takes steps' over Gaza
The UK will recognise the state of Palestine 'in September' unless Israel takes 'substantive steps' to end the 'appalling situation in Gaza', British prime minister Keir Starmer has said. Earlier, Mr Starmer recalled his government from their summer recess to discuss the situation. According to a readout of the cabinet meeting issued by Downing Street, Mr Starmer told ministers 'now was the right time to move this position' on the two-state solution. The read out went on: 'He said that because of the increasingly intolerable situation in Gaza and the diminishing prospect of a peace process towards a two-state solution, now was the right time to move this position forward. 'He said that the UK will recognise the state of Palestine in September, before UNGA (UN General Assembly), unless the Israeli government takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza, reaches a ceasefire, makes clear there will be no annexation in the West Bank, and commits to a long-term peace process that delivers a two-state solution.' It comes after the UK prime minister had been under increasing pressure to recognise Palestine amid the warnings of starvation in Gaza. Read More France calls on EU to pressure Israel to move on Palestinian two-state solution
RTÉ News
40 minutes ago
- RTÉ News
High Court action over use of Irish airspace for weapons transport
A legal challenge to the use of Irish airspace for flights transporting weapons to Israel has been lodged at the High Court. Campaign group Uplift, along with news organisation The Ditch and Irish-born Palestinian surgeon, Dr Ahmed El Mokhallalati have lodged papers seeking permission to apply for judicial review. In the statement filed to ground the application, they say they are seeking declarations that the Minister for Transport has failed to investigate allegations that Irish airspace has been used for the transport of weapons for use by the Israeli Defence Force in its military operations in Gaza and that part of the relevant legislation is unconstitutional. They also claim the Irish Government is in breach of export legislation in the manner in which "dual use export licences" are being granted for goods which they say are used to manufacture weapons. Uplift says it published a report in May last year outlining its view that a surge in "dual use" trade between Ireland and Israel, since Israel commenced military action against Gaza may be linked to goods being used in the production of military equipment. They say there is a high risk that goods from Ireland are being exported to be used by two Israeli companies involved in manufacturing weapons and military equipment. The Government has said the level of dual use exports is not related to the ongoing military attack on Gaza. The Ditch has published research on tracking flights which appeared to be transporting weapons to Israel through Irish airspace. They say there's clear evidence that this is being done. They say in their statement of grounds, that it is legally impermissible to do this, that it's facilitating genocide being carried out by the IDF against the Palestinian people and that no exemptions were sought for the transportation of these weapons. They claim the Minister for Transport has failed in his duties under Air navigation and transport legislation to investigate the allegations about the use of Irish airspace. They also say the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment has been unlawfully granting dual use export licences. Surgeon Ahmed El Mokhallalati, who was born in Dublin, outlined his experiences in Gaza and described how he had contacted the Uplift organisation with a wish to do something about the ongoing death and destruction there. He said he believed Ireland had been facilitating the transfer of weapons and munitions of war to be used against the people in Gaza and he said these were the same weapons which destroyed his home, killed his friends and families and caused horrific and unspeakable harm to the people whose lives he worked hard to try to save. He said he was disappointed to see that the Government was continuing to ignore the abuse of its airspace in this manner and he said he felt compelled to take some action. He said he believed the Government was turning a blind eye to the use of Irish airspace to transport weapons and facilitating the most egregious crimes against humanity. Uplift say they are hoping to get a hearing at the High Court to seek leave to bring the judicial review proceedings before the end of this week.
Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
‘Revenge is not a policy': dissenting Israeli voices begin to penetrate silence over Gaza
Abhorrence of Israel' s devastating war in Gaza has resonated for months in capitals and in university campuses abroad. Now a growing number of Israelis are speaking out against what they describe as atrocities carried out in their name in the Palestinian enclave. Israeli protesters are holding aloft portraits of Palestinian children killed in Gaza. Academics and authors, politicians and retired military leaders are accusing the Israeli government of indiscriminate killing and war crimes. In the early months of the war, the vast majority of Israelis considered the offensive a just and necessary response to the deadly Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7th, 2023, even if they were sceptical that the government's long-term goal of eliminating Hamas was attainable, opinion polls showed. Despite that, a majority of Israelis have long wanted a deal that would end the war in exchange for the release of all hostages still held in Gaza and relieve soldiers exhausted by months of deadly conflict, according to the polls. [ 'People think there are hostages - it is what it is'. But families cannot carry on with their lives Opens in new window ] But in recent months, a small but increasingly vocal minority has made anguished calls to end the war on moral grounds, even if many Israelis aren't aware that such protests are happening. Many of the protesters may have supported Israel's right to self-defence after the Hamas attack, but many now say it has gone way too far and contravenes their values. Tamar Parush, an Israeli lecturer in sociology, during an anti-war protest at the Shaar Hanegev junction near the Gaza border in May. Photograph: Amit Elkayam/New York Times 'We are on the edge of the abyss,' Tamar Parush (56), a lecturer in sociology at Sapir College in southern Israel, said at a recent anti-war protest attended by hundreds of Israelis at the busy Shaar Hanegev junction near the border with Gaza. 'Revenge is not a policy,' she said. 'We could have fought a smarter war.' At first, such voices of internal dissent were raised only on the fringes of Israeli society. About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed by Palestinian assailants during the October attack, making it the deadliest day in Israel's history, and about 250 others were taken hostage. Many Israelis held Hamas solely responsible for the subsequent suffering in Gaza and said they felt little sympathy for civilians there. About 60,000 Palestinians have since been killed in the war, according to Gaza health officials, whose tally does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, but includes more than 10,000 children. The war has displaced most of the two million residents of Gaza several times and brought the territory to the brink of famine. More than 80 children have died from starvation and malnutrition, according to the Gaza health ministry. [ From a viewing platform in Israel, observers watch Gaza's destruction through binoculars Opens in new window ] Despite the desperate humanitarian crisis, a survey conducted in May by the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University found that 64.5 per cent of the Israeli public was not at all, or not very, concerned about the humanitarian situation in Gaza. About three-quarters of Israeli Jews thought Israel's military planning should not take into account the suffering of the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza, or should do so only minimally, according to another recent survey by the Israel Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan research group in Jerusalem. But the institute said that over time it had found a slight increase in the share of Israeli Jews who thought the suffering should be taken into account to a large extent, and a mirroring moderate decline in those who said they were unconcerned. That increase is reflected in the growing discomfort and activism in Israel's liberal camp. 'There has been a discernible shift in the discourse,' said Lee Mordechai, a historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who has been documenting the war and believes that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza – an accusation vehemently rejected by the Israeli government. 'There is still a crisis in the peace camp over what can and can't be said, but people are speaking out more,' he added. Students at Tel Aviv University hold images of Israeli hostages held by Hamas and children killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, in May. Photograph: Amit Elkayam/New York Times He was speaking at the Hebrew University campus in late May, where dozens of students and faculty members held a half-hour silent vigil carrying portraits of children killed in Gaza. Simultaneous protests were taking place at Tel Aviv University and other campuses. Some prominent Israelis have also raised alarms. Ehud Olmert, a former prime minister, decried what he called the 'cruel and criminal killing of civilians' and the starvation of Gaza as a government policy. Moshe Yaalon, a former military chief and defence minister, has warned for months of ethnic cleansing. Yair Golan, a former deputy chief of the military and leader of the Democrats, a left-leaning opposition party, caused a furore when he said the government was killing babies 'as a hobby'. The Israeli government denies committing war crimes in Gaza, though the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant. Israel's military insists that it acts in line with international law, saying it takes steps to minimise civilian casualties and is fighting a complex campaign against an enemy that hides among the population and exploits civilian infrastructure. One inflection point came about a year into the war, Mordechai said, when reports emerged of an Israeli plan to move all the residents of northern Gaza to the south. The government did not officially adopt the plan, proposed by commanders in the reserves, but critics said that elements of it were quietly under way. [ I showed my friends in Israel this photo of a starving baby in Gaza and asked them if they knew Opens in new window ] Then this year, in mid-March, Israel ended a two-month ceasefire and resumed fighting in a decision that many Israelis believed was primarily politically motivated, to help Netanyahu keep his far-right coalition partners from bringing down his government. A New York Times investigation found that Netanyahu had acted to prolong and expand the war, allowing Israel to defeat and weaken more of its enemies but also deferring an internal political reckoning. Hundreds of reservists and retired officers in Israel's air force signed an open letter in April urging the Israeli government to agree to a deal with Hamas to return hostages. 'The continuation of the war doesn't advance any of the declared goals of the war, and will bring about the deaths of the hostages, of IDF soldiers and innocent civilians,' the letter stated, using an abbreviation to refer to the Israeli military. Hundreds of Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza. About 140,000 Israelis from various professional fields have signed similar letters, according to Standing Together, a grassroots organisation of Jewish and Arab Israelis that has spearheaded anti-war protests and advocates peace and equality. The mainstream domestic news media has rarely provided vivid coverage of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza Thousands of Israelis packed the main conference centre in Jerusalem in May for a 'People's Peace Summit' organised by a coalition of more than 50 local peace and social justice organisations. It began with a minute's silence for all the victims of the war – Palestinians and Israelis, civilians and soldiers. Since then more than 1,300 university faculty members have signed an open letter decrying what they called a 'horrible litany of war crimes and even crimes against humanity, all of our own doing'. 'We have been silent for too long,' the letter stated, adding, 'It is our duty to stop the slaughter.' Bestselling Israeli authors David Grossman, Zeruya Shalev and Dorit Rabinyan were among scores of writers who signed another letter expressing 'shock' over Israel's actions in Gaza. In the days after the October 2023 attack, Rabinyan had said that her compassion for the suffering on the other side was 'paralysed'. The mainstream domestic news media has rarely provided vivid coverage of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. While the left-wing Haaretz newspaper has covered the suffering, a popular right-wing television station, Channel 14, regularly provides a platform for people calling for even harsher action against Gaza's civilians. In July, Standing Together activists have been demonstrating outside the studios of the main Israeli television channels to press local journalists to report on the dire hunger situation in Gaza. 'People debate starving or deporting Gaza's residents on television as if these are legitimate options,' says Michael Sfard, an Israeli human rights lawyer. 'But a different voice is trying to penetrate the almost unified public discourse,' he added. Criticising soldiers' conduct is a sensitive matter in a country where most Jewish 18-year-olds are conscripted and many Israelis are loath to accuse an army made up of their own relatives or friends of war crimes. Itamar Avneri, a Tel Aviv City Council member and a founder of Standing Together, said for that reason the group was careful to criticise the government, not the soldiers. 'This is a war of destruction,' he said at the protest near the Gaza border. 'The Gazans are our neighbours.' – This article originally appeared in The New York Times 2025 The New York Times Company
