Hamas kills 5 aid workers in Gaza Humanitarian Foundation bus attack

Euronews

a day ago

Hamas "brutally attacked" a bus carrying the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) staff to a distribution site near the southern city of Khan Yunis on Wednesday night, killing at least five, the US-backed charity said.
"There are at least five fatalities, multiple injuries and fear that some of our team members may have been taken hostage," GHF said in a statement. The five killed staff members are Palestinian.
'We condemn this heinous and deliberate attack in the strongest possible terms,' GHF said. 'These were aid workers. Humanitarians. Fathers, brothers, sons, and friends, who were risking their lives everyday to help others.'
Israel's foreign ministry reacted to the news by stating on X that "Hamas is weaponising suffering in Gaza -- denying food, targeting lifesavers and forsaking its own people."
Reverend Johnnie Moore, a Christian evangelical advisor to US President Donald Trump who was recently appointed head of GHF, called the killings 'absolute evil' and lashed out at the UN and Western countries over what he said was their failure to condemn them.
'The principle of impartiality does not mean neutrality. There is good and evil in this world. What we are doing is good and what Hamas did to these Gazans is absolute evil,' he wrote on X.
Israel and the US say the new system is needed to prevent Hamas from siphoning off aid from the long-standing UN-run distribution scheme, which is capable of delivering food, fuel and other humanitarian assistance to all parts of Gaza.
UN officials deny there has been any systematic diversion of aid by Hamas, and instead say they have struggled to deliver it because of Israeli restrictions and the breakdown of law and order in Gaza.
The killings early Wednesday were carried out by the Hamas Sahm police unit, which Hamas claims it established to combat looting.
The unit released video footage showing several dead men lying in the street, saying they were Abu Shabab militia fighters who had been detained and killed for collaborating with Israel. It was not possible to verify the images or the claims around them.
Abu Shabab officials denied that the images showed members of their militia.
The GHF began operating in late May, stating it has distributed more than 7 million meals worth of food during the first week of its mandate.
An Air India plane bound for London's Gatwick airport has crashed on takeoff at Ahmedabad airport on Thursday, according to reports.
There were more than 100 people on board at the time of the crash. There has been no official confirmation of casualties at this time.
India's Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu said he was "shocked and devastated" by the news of the crash in Ahmedabad.
"We are on highest alert. I am personally monitoring the situation and have directed all aviation and emergency response agencies to take swift and coordinated action," Ram Mohan Naidu said.
"Rescue teams have been mobilised, and all efforts are being made to ensure medical aid and relief support are being rushed to the site. My thoughts and prayers are with all those on board and their families."
Flight tracking websites show the aircraft is a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner.
"We are following reports of a crash of Air India flight AI171 from Ahmedabad to London. We received the last signal from the aircraft at 08:08:51 UTC, just seconds after takeoff," Flight Radar wrote in a post on X.
The aircraft was scheduled to arrive at 6:25 pm local time (7:25 pm CEST).
Unverified videos on social media showed black plumes of smoke billowing and an aircraft slowly descending on a residential area.
Meghaninagar is a residential suburb in the Sabarmati area of Ahmedabad, in the western Indian state of Gujarat.
Our journalists are working on this story and will update it as soon as more information becomes available.