Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says five workers killed in attack
At least five Palestinians working for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a controversial aid group backed by the United States and Israel, were killed late Wednesday when the bus they were traveling in came under attack, the organization said in a statement.
The GHF, which began distributing food aid barely two weeks ago from sites in the southern and central Gaza Strip, said the team of about two-dozen staff were attacked about 10 p.m. local time while traveling to a distribution center west of Khan Younis. 'Some of our team members may have been taken hostage,' the statement said.
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Associated Press
3 hours ago
- Associated Press
UN votes overwhelmingly to demand Gaza ceasefire, hostage release and aid access
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. member nations voted overwhelmingly Thursday to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages held by Hamas, and unrestricted access for the delivery of desperately needed food to 2 million Palestinians. The vote in the 193-member General Assembly was 149-12 with 19 abstentions. It was adopted with a burst of applause. The United States and close ally Israel opposed the resolution, along with Argentina, Hungary, Paraguay, Papua New Guinea and six Pacific island nations. The resolution, drafted by Spain, 'strongly condemns any use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare.' Israel's U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon spoke vehemently against the resolution, especially for failing to condemn Hamas for its attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which triggered the war in Gaza. He denied that Israel was using starvation as a weapon of war, calling the accusation a 'blood libel,' and insisted that aid is being delivered. Experts and human rights workers say hunger is widespread in Gaza and some 2 million Palestinians are at risk of famine if Israel does not fully lift its blockade and halt its military campaign, which it renewed in March after ending a ceasefire with Hamas. The Palestinian U.N. ambassador, Riyad Mansour, pleaded with U.N. members to approve the resolution. 'The actions you take today to stop the killing, displacement and the famine will determine how many more Palestinian children die a horrible death,' he said. The Palestinians and their supporters went to the General Assembly after the U.N. Security Council failed to pass a resolution last week demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and calling on Israel to lift all restrictions on the delivery of aid. The United States scuttled the resolution with its veto because it was not linked to the release of the hostages, while all 14 other members of the council voted in favor. It was the fifth time the U.S. had vetoed a resolution calling for a halt to the fighting. General Assembly President Philemon Yang said in opening Thursday's meeting that the world body once again was being called on to address 'the unacceptable and catastrophic situation in Gaza' because the Security Council is paralyzed and unable to fulfil its responsibility for maintaining international peace and security. There are no vetoes in the assembly. But unlike in the Security Council, its resolutions are not legally binding, though they are seen as a barometer of world opinion. After a 10-week blockade that barred all aid to Gaza, Israel is allowing the United Nations to deliver a trickle of food assistance and is backing a newly created U.S. aid group, which has opened several sites in the center and south of the territory to deliver food parcels. But the aid system rolled out last month by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been troubled by near-daily shootings as crowds make their way to aid sites, while the longstanding U.N.-run system has struggled to deliver food because of Israeli restrictions and a breakdown of law and order. Like the failed Security Council resolution, the resolution passed Thursday does not condemn Hamas' attack or say the militant group must disarm and withdraw from Gaza. Both are U.S. demands. Acting U.S. Ambassador Dorothy Shea reiterated those demands before Thursday's vote and said the resolution 'sends an unacceptable message to Hamas and other Iran-backed terrorist proxies, and that message is, you will be rewarded for taking hostages, diverting aid and launching attacks from civilian areas.' The resolution references a March 28 legally binding order by the top United Nations court for Israel to open more land crossings into Gaza for food and other supplies. The International Court of Justice issued the order in a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of acts of genocide, charges Israel strongly denies. It stresses that Israel, as an occupying power, has an obligation under international law to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches those in need. The resolution reiterates the assembly's commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with the Gaza Strip as part of a Palestinian state. The assembly is holding a high-level meeting next week to push for a two-state solution, which Israel has rejected. It supports mediation efforts by Egypt, Qatar and the United States aimed at implementing a January ceasefire agreement. In the Oct. 7 attack, the Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages; 53 are still being held, of whom Israel believes 30 are dead. Israel's military campaign has killed over 55,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. It says women and children make up most of the dead, but doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel says it has killed more than 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Israel says Hamas 'weaponising suffering in Gaza' as aid workers killed
Israel charged on Thursday that Hamas was "weaponising suffering in Gaza" after a US and Israeli-backed charity accused the Palestinian militant group of killing eight of its aid workers in the territory. The distribution of food and basic supplies in the blockaded and war-ravaged Gaza has become increasingly fraught and perilous, exacerbating the territory's deep hunger crisis. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said a bus carrying its staff to a distribution site near the southern city of Khan Yunis was "brutally attacked by Hamas" around 10:00 pm (1900 GMT) on Wednesday. The GHF said: "As of now, we can confirm at least eight fatalities, multiple injuries, and we fear that some of our team members have been taken hostage." Israel's foreign ministry said "Hamas is weaponising suffering in Gaza -- denying food, targeting lifesavers and forsaking its own people". Asked to respond to the GHF accusation, the Hamas government media office in Gaza said GHF was a "filthy tool" of Israeli forces and was being used to "lure civilians into death traps". It did not comment on the GHF's accusation. Dozens of Palestinians have been killed while trying to reach GHF distribution points since they began operating in late May, according to Gaza's civil defence agency. The agency said another 21 people were killed while waiting for aid on Thursday, adding that they were among 29 people across the territory who were killed by Israeli fire. Contacted by AFP about reports of a deadly incident near an aid distribution point close to the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza, the Israeli military said it had "conducted warning shots hundreds of metres from the aid distribution site, prior to its opening hours." Israeli restrictions on media in Gaza and the difficulties of access on the ground mean AFP is unable to independently verify the casualty tolls provided by the civil defence agency or the deaths reported by the GHF. - 'Died while waiting' - An officially private effort with opaque funding, the GHF began operating on May 26 after Israel cut off supplies into Gaza for more than two months, sparking international condemnation and warnings of imminent famine. During its first week of operations, the GHF said it distributed more than seven million meals' worth of food, but its operations were widely criticised even before the deadly shootings near its sites. The United Nations and major aid groups have refused to work with the GHF, citing concerns over its practices and neutrality. Gaza medics have said hospitals are being inundated with people wounded while trying to obtain food. At Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital on Wednesday, the emergency department said it had received dozens of people who had been killed or wounded while waiting for aid in recent days, including 200 in a single day. "Many Gazans went to the Nabulsi and Netzarim areas to receive aid and were shot at and shelled with tanks," said Mutaz Harara, head of Al-Shifa's emergency department. But with few medical supplies and no operating theatres, "many patients died while waiting for their turn", he said. The war has caused major damage to infrastructure across Gaza, including water mains, telecommunication cables, power lines and roads. The Palestinian Authority said internet and fixed-line communication services were down in Gaza on Thursday following an attack on the territory's last fibre optic cable which it blamed on Israel. - Aid workers deported - Meanwhile, Israel's foreign ministry said six people detained aboard a boat attempting to breach Israel's Gaza blockade were put on a plane for deportation on Thursday afternoon. They included European parliamentarian Rima Hassan, it said. "Bye-bye -- and don't forget to take a selfie before you leave," the ministry wrote on X. The UN General Assembly on Thursday adopted 149-12 with 19 abstentions a non-binding resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and urging "all necessary measures" to pressure Israel into ending the conflict. The US vetoed a similar push at the Security Council last week. Egyptian authorities meanwhile detained more than 200 pro-Palestinian activists in Cairo ahead of a planned march to the Gaza border, the organisers said. Egypt said while it backs efforts to put "pressure on Israel" to lift its Gaza blockade, any foreign delegations seeking to visit the border area must obtain prior approval. The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Israel said late on Wednesday that its forces had retrieved the bodies of two hostages from southern Gaza. Prior to the latest announcement, out of 251 taken hostage during the Hamas attack, 54 were still held in Gaza, including 32 the Israeli military has said are dead. Hamas's assault resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 55,207 people, the majority of them civilians. The United Nations considers the figures reliable. bur-acc-jd-lba/dv/gv
Associated Press
4 hours ago
- Associated Press
Netanyahu's government survives vote to dissolve Israel's parliament
JERUSALEM (AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government survived an attempt to dissolve Israel's parliament early Thursday morning, with most of his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners joining him in voting against a bill that would have forced them to register for military service while the country is at war. The vote was the most serious challenge to Netanyahu's government since the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which was the biggest security failure in Israel's history and triggered the ongoing war in Gaza. The bill's failure means that no other piece of legislation to dissolve parliament, called the Knesset, can be submitted for at least six months, shoring up Netanyahu's embattled coalition. The ultra-Orthodox parties are furious that the government has failed to pass a law exempting their community from mandatory military service. The issue has long divided the Jewish Israeli public, especially during the 20-month war in the Gaza Strip. Israel's opposition had hoped that the public anger over the exemptions would help topple the government. But just two of the 18 ultra-Orthodox members of the Knesset supported the bill. Most ultra-Orthodox legislators agreed to vote against the bill after Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein said that he and the ultra-Orthodox parties had reached an understanding on the basis of a new draft law, which they will continue discussing over the coming week. Yitzhak Goldknopf, the head of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, resigned in protest as the Minister of Construction and Housing, but will remain a member of the Knesset. Ari Kalman, spokesperson for Goldknopf, said that the minister resigned because he was frustrated with Netanyahu's constant requests for more time to pass a draft exemption law. 'Whatever they haven't been able to do over the past year they won't do in a week,' Kalman said. Military service is mandatory for most Jews in Israel, but the politically powerful ultra-Orthodox, who make up roughly 13% of Israeli society, have traditionally received exemptions if they are studying full time in religious seminaries. The ultra-Orthodox, also known as Haredim, or 'God-fearing' in Hebrew, say that integrating into the army threatens their traditional way of life. Each year, roughly 13,000 ultra-Orthodox men reach the conscription age of 18, but less than 10% enlist, according to parliament's State Control Committee, which held a hearing examining the issue. Israel is engaged in the longest active war in the country's history, which has stretched its military to the breaking point. The Haredim's widespread refusal to serve, and threats to topple the government during wartime, have enraged many Israelis, especially those who have served multiple rounds of reserve duty.
