Seven more die from malnutrition in Gaza, Hamas-run ministry says
In a separate development, Gaza hospital sources told the BBC six Palestinians were killed near a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid distribution centre in the Rafah area in southern Gaza, on Wednesday morning. The sources said crowds had attempted to enter the distribution centre shortly ahead of its opening and were attacked by an Israeli tank.The GHF told the BBC no killings took place at or near its sites today.The Israel Defense Force (IDF) told the BBC a "gathering of suspects" it said posed a threat to its troops were told to move away, and subsequently the army fired "warning shots" at a distance of "hundreds of metres away" from the distribution centre.The military also said "an initial review suggests that the number of casualties reported does not align with the information held by the IDF".There have been almost daily deadly incidents reported near GHF aid sites, with Palestinians regularly accusing the Israeli military or security contractors of opening fire at them and killing aid seekers.The IDF has disputed the death tolls.In a statement later on Wednesday, the Hamas-run health ministry said 103 people had been killed and one body recovered from the rubble in the last 24 hours. Among those killed, according to the statement, were 60 people who died seeking aid.Israel imposed a total blockade of aid deliveries at the start of March and resumed its military offensive against Hamas two weeks later, collapsing a two-month ceasefire. It said it wanted to put pressure on the group to release its remaining Israeli hostages.Although the blockade was partially eased after almost two months amid warnings of a looming famine from global experts, the shortages of food, medicine and fuel have worsened.Israel launched its offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken hostage.The Hamas-run health authorities say 60,138 people have been killed as a result of the Israeli military campaign. In a separate development, Israel has reacted furiously to British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's pledge to recognise a Palestinian state in September unless Israel meets certain conditions including agreeing a ceasefire and reviving the prospect of a two-state solution.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the UK's stance rewarded "Hamas' monstrous terrorism".A British-Israeli woman held hostage by Hamas said Sir Keir was "not standing on the right side of history". Emily Damari, who was released in January after being held by Hamas for more than 15 months, said the prime minister "risks rewarding terror".
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ITV News
an hour ago
- ITV News
Israeli soldiers again fire on Palestinians seeking aid, killing at least ten
At least ten people have been killed in the latest shooting by Israeli forces on Palestinians trying to reach food and aid, at two seperate sites. On Saturday, Israeli forces opened fire near two aid distribution sites run by the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) as crowds of hungry Palestinians sought food. Witnesses and health workers said at least ten people were killed, a day after US officials visited a GHF site and the US ambassador called the internationally decried system 'an incredible feat.' Near the northernmost GHF distribution site near the Netzarim corridor, Yahia Youssef, who had come to seek aid Saturday morning, described a panicked and grimly familiar scene. After helping carry three people wounded by gunshots, he said he saw others on the ground, bleeding. 'It's the same daily episode,' Youssef said. Health workers said at least eight people were killed. Israel's military said it fired warning shots at a gathering approaching its forces. At least two people were killed in the Shakoush area hundreds of meters from where the GHF operates another site in the southernmost city of Rafah, witnesses said. Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Younis received two bodies and many injured. Witness Mohamed Abu Taha said Israeli troops opened fire toward the crowds. He saw three people, two men and a woman, shot as he fled. Israel's military said it was not aware of any fire by its forces in the area. The GHF said nothing happened near its sites. GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray or fired warning shots to prevent deadly crowding. Israel 's military on Friday said it was working to make the routes under its control safer. The UN says nearly 1,400 Palestinians have been killed whilst seeking food from aid distribution centres. Israel and GHF have claimed that toll has been exaggerated. The GHF — backed by millions of dollars in U.S. support — launched in May as Israel sought an alternative to the UN run system, which had safely delivered aid for much of the war but was accused by Israel of allowing Hamas to siphon off supplies. Israel has not offered evidence for that claim and the UN has denied it. From May 27 to July 31, 859 people were killed near GHF sites, according to a United Nations report published Thursday. Hundreds more have been killed along the routes of UN led food convoys. Hamas led police once guarded those convoys and went after suspected looters, but Israeli fire targeted the officers. Airdrops by a Jordan led coalition of Israel, the UAE, Egypt, France, and Germany, are another approach, though experts say the strategy remains deeply inadequate and even dangerous for people on the ground. 'Let's go back to what works & let us do our job,' Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, wrote Saturday on social media, calling for more and safer truck deliveries. Nearly a week has passed since Israel, under international pressure amid growing scenes of starving children, announced limited humanitarian pauses and airdrops meant to get more food to Gazans, who now rely mostly on aid after nearly 22 months of war. Despite this the UN and partners say not nearly enough aid is coming in, with months' worth of supplies piled up outside Gaza waiting for Israeli approval. Trucks that enter are mostly stripped of supplies by desperate people and criminal groups before reaching warehouses for distribution. Families of the 50 hostages still in Gaza fear they are going hungry too, and blame Hamas, after the militants released images and video of an emaciated hostage, Evyatar David. Evayatar David's family have given permission for the video to be used to raise awareness for the plight of their son. ITV News is not showing the full video as released by Hamas. US President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, met with hostages' families Saturday, a week after quitting ceasefire talks, blaming Hamas's intransigence. 'I didn't hear anything new from him. I heard that there was pressure from the Americans to end this operation, but we didn't hear anything practical,' said Michel Illouz, father of Israeli hostage Guy Illouz, whose body was taken into Gaza. He said he asked Witkoff to exert pressure and set a time frame but got 'no answers.' Protesters called on Israel's government to make a deal to end the war, imploring them to 'stop this nightmare and bring them out of the tunnels.' In part of Gaza City, displaced people who managed to return home found rubble-strewn neighborhoods unrecognizable. Most Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced, often multiple times, and are crowded into ever-shrinking areas considered safe. 'I don't know what to do. Destruction, destruction,' said Mohamed Qeiqa, who stood amid collapsed slabs of concrete and pointed out what had been a five-story building. 'Where will people settle?' Gaza's Health Ministry says 93 children have died from malnutrition-related causes since the war began. It said 76 adults have died of malnutrition-related causes since late June, when it started counting adult deaths.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Gaza hospitals say 18 killed by Israeli fire as aid site shootings continue to rise
Hospitals in Gaza say Israeli fire killed more than a dozen people on Saturday, eight of them while trying to get food, as malnutrition-related deaths continue to rise in the territory. The bloodshed comes a day after Donald Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, visited an aid distribution site run by the Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Global outrage has grown over Israel's restrictions on aid and the deadly unrest surrounding the GHF sites, with daily reports of shootings at all four locations since the group took over aid distribution at the end of May. The UN says 859 Palestinians have been killed during that time in the vicinity of these sites, and more than 500 have been killed along the routes of food convoys. Health officials reported that Israeli airstrikes and gunfire killed at least 18 Palestinians on Saturday, including three who were in the area around a distribution site. Nasser Hospital also said Israeli forces killed five Palestinians who were among crowds awaiting aid in the south. In a statement to the Associated Press, GHF said 'nothing (happened) at or near our sites'. Both the GHF and the Israeli army have said they only shoot if there is a threat, or fire warning shots to disperse crowds. Doctors in Gaza have reported treating an increasing number of gunshot and shrapnel wounds in patients who were trying to get food at the aid sites. 'We weren't close to them [the troops] and there was no threat,' a witness, Abed Salah, who was among crowds close to the GHF site near Netzarim corridor, told AP. 'I escaped death miraculously.' Officials added that 10 of Saturday's casualties were killed by strikes in central and southern Gaza, with five people killed in two separate strikes on tents sheltering displaced people. The US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who accompanied Witkoff on the trip on Friday, claimed the GHF sites were delivering 'more than one million meals a day' and called the distribution 'an incredible feat'. Reports from aid workers, doctors, and journalists in Gaza paint a different story, with UN-backed food security experts saying this week that the 'worst-case scenario of famine' is now playing out in Gaza. Seven Palestinians died of malnutrition-related causes over the past 24 hours, including a child, the territory's health ministry said on Saturday. This brings the total deaths among children from causes related to malnutrition in Gaza to 93 since the war began. Sign up to First Thing Our US morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion After international outcry, airdrops of aid have resumed, and several European countries have announced plans to join the Jordan-led coalition orchestrating the drops, but aid groups say this delivers only a fraction of what aid trucks can supply – and are also dangerous. What is really needed, they say, is to open the land borders and restore the full flow of aid. 'If there is political will to allow airdrops – which are highly costly, insufficient + inefficient, there should be similar political will to open the road crossings,' Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, wrote on X on Saturday. The German government, traditionally a staunch ally of Israel, joined calls for Israel to deliver more aid on Saturday, saying that the current amount remains 'very insufficient'. The criticism came after the German military completed its first food airdrops into Gaza. In Tel Aviv, Witkoff joined families of hostages protesting, as they urged the Israeli government to end the war and release their loved ones. Yotam Cohen, brother of 21-year-old hostage Nimrod Cohen, told AFP: 'The war needs to end. The Israeli government will not end it willingly. It has refused to do so.' Negotiations between Hamas and Israel aimed at securing a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza and a deal for the release of hostages ended in deadlock last week, with Witkoff blaming Hamas for a 'lack of desire to reach a ceasefire'. Hamas said on Saturday that it would not lay down arms unless an independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state is established.
Leader Live
6 hours ago
- Leader Live
Eight people seeking food among at least 18 killed by Israeli fire in Gaza
Near a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution site, Yahia Youssef, who had come to seek aid on Saturday morning, described a panicked scene now grimly familiar. After helping carry out three people wounded by gunshots, he said he looked around and saw many others lying on the ground bleeding. 'It's the same daily episode,' Mr Youssef said. In response to questions about several witness accounts of violence at the northernmost of the Israeli-backed American contractor's four sites, the GHF media office said 'nothing (happened) at or near our sites'. The episode came a day after US officials visited one site and the US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee called GHF's distribution 'an incredible feat'. International outrage has mounted as the group's efforts to deliver aid to hunger-stricken Gaza have been marred by violence and controversy. 'We weren't close to them (the troops) and there was no threat,' Abed Salah, a man in his 30s who was among the crowds close to the GHF site near Netzarim corridor, said. 'I escaped death miraculously.' The danger facing aid seekers in Gaza has compounded what international hunger experts this week called a 'worst-case scenario of famine' in the besieged enclave. Israel's near 22-month military offensive against Hamas has shattered security in the territory of some 2.0 million Palestinians and made it nearly impossible to deliver food safely to starving people. From May 27 to July 31, 859 people were killed in the vicinity of GHF sites, according to a United Nations report published on Thursday. Hundreds more have been killed along the routes of food convoys. Israel and GHF have said they have only fired warning shots and that the toll has been exaggerated. Health officials reported that Israeli airstrikes and gunfire killed at least 18 Palestinians on Saturday, including three whose bodies were transported from the vicinity of a distribution site to a central Gaza hospital along with 36 others who were wounded. Officials said 10 of Saturday's casualties were killed by strikes in central and southern Gaza. Nasser Hospital said it received the bodies of five people killed in two separate strikes on tents sheltering displaced people. The dead include two brothers and a relative, who were killed when a strike hit their tent close to a main thoroughfare in Khan Younis. Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv, families of Israeli hostages protested and urged Israel's government to push harder for the release of their loved ones, including those shown in footage released by militant groups earlier this week. US President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff joined them a day after visiting Gaza and a week after walking away from ceasefire talks in Qatar, blaming Hamas's intransigence and pledging to find other ways to free hostages and make Gaza safe. Of the 251 hostages who were abducted when Hamas led an attack on southern Israel on October 7 2023, about 20 are believed to be alive in Gaza. Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the second-largest militant group in Gaza, released separate videos of individual hostages this week, triggering outrage among hostage families and Israeli society. The war in Gaza began when Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, which does not distinguish between militants and civilians and operates under the Hamas government. The UN and other international organisations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.
