Gaza's humanitarian crisis deepens: Israel's relentless attacks on civilians and healthcare
People look for survivors following an Israeli strike that targeted the home of the al-Bursh family in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip.
Israel continues its attacks on the Gaza Strip, after it bombed the Noura Al-Kaabi Kidney Dialysis Centre in the northern Gaza Strip and opened fire on thousands of civilians gathered at a distribution site in southern Gaza's Rafah, over two days.
The Gaza Government Media Office said Israeli forces killed at least 31 people when they opened fire at the distribution site.
The Government Media Office condemned the attacks and described distribution sites as 'mass death traps, not humanitarian relief points'.
'We confirm to the entire world that what is happening is a systematic and malicious use of aid as a tool of war, employed to blackmail starving civilians and forcibly gather them in exposed killing points, managed and monitored by the occupation army and funded and politically covered by the US administration,' it said in a statement.
The Noura Al-Kaabi Kidney Dialysis Centre was providing dialysis services to kidney patients in the northern Gaza Strip.
"The destruction of the centre puts the health of kidney patients in a catastrophe with unpredictable consequences. 41% of kidney failure patients died during the war due to being denied access to dialysis centres and after the destruction of the centres and departments designated for them," said the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
eNCA
a day ago
- eNCA
US-backed group suspends Gaza aid operations
A US and Israeli-backed group operating aid sites in the Gaza Strip announced the temporary closure of the facilities on Wednesday, with the Israeli army warning that roads leading to distribution centres were "considered combat zones". The announcement by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) follows a string of deadly incidents near the distribution sites it operates that have sparked condemnation from the United Nations. Israeli bombardment on Wednesday killed at least 16 people in the Gaza Strip, including 12 in a single strike on a tent housing displaced people, the Palestinian territory's civil defence agency told AFP. On Tuesday, 27 people were killed in southern Gaza when Israeli troops opened fire near a GHF aid site, with the military saying the incident was under investigation. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the deaths of people seeking food aid as "unacceptable", and the world body's rights chief condemned attacks on civilians as "a war crime" following a similar incident near the same site on Sunday. Israel recently eased its blockade of Gaza, but the UN says the territory's entire population remains at risk of famine. - UN vote - AFP | - The GHF said its "distribution centres will be closed for renovation, reorganisation and efficiency improvement work" on Wednesday and would resume operations on Thursday. The Israeli army, which confirmed the temporary closure, warned against travelling "on roads leading to the distribution centres, which are considered combat zones". The GHF, officially a private effort with opaque funding, began operations a week ago but the UN and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with it over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives. Israeli authorities and the GHF, which uses contracted US security, have denied allegations that the Israeli army shot at civilians rushing to pick up aid packages. Food shortages in Gaza have propelled fresh international calls for an end to the war, but a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas remains elusive. The UN Security Council will vote Wednesday on a resolution calling for a ceasefire and humanitarian access to Gaza, a measure expected to be vetoed by key Israel backer the United States. - 'A trap' - At a hospital in southern Gaza, the family of Reem al-Akhras, who was killed in Tuesday's shooting near GHF's facility, were beside themselves with grief. AFP | - "She went to bring us some food, and this is what happened to her," her son Zain Zidan said, his face streaked with tears. Akhras's husband, Mohamed Zidan, said "every day unarmed people" were being killed. "This is not humanitarian aid -- it's a trap." The Israeli military maintains that its forces do not prevent Gazans from collecting aid. AFP | Eyad BABA Army spokesperson Effie Defrin said the Israeli soldiers had fired towards suspects who "were approaching in a way that endangered" the troops, adding that the "incident is being investigated". UN human rights chief Volker Turk called attacks against civilians "unconscionable" and said they "constitute a grave breach of international law and a war crime". The International Committee of the Red Cross meanwhile said "Gazans face an "unprecedented scale and frequency of recent mass casualty incidents". - Activists' boat - AFP | Eyad BABA Scenes of hunger in Gaza have also sparked fresh solidarity with Palestinians, and a boat organised by an international activist coalition was sailing toward Gaza, aiming to deliver aid. The boat from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition departed Sicily Sunday carrying a dozen people, including environmental activist Greta Thunberg, along with fruit juices, milk, tinned food and protein bars. "Together, we can open a people's sea corridor to Gaza," the coalition said. But Israel's military said Tuesday it was ready to "protect" the country's maritime space. When asked about the Freedom Flotilla vessel, army spokesman Defrin said "for this case as well, we are prepared", declining to go into detail. AFP | Eyad BABA Israel has stepped up its offensive in Gaza in what it says is a renewed push to defeat the Palestinian group Hamas, whose October 2023 attack sparked the war. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said at least 4,335 people have been killed since Israel resumed its offensive on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 54,607, mostly civilians. Hamas's 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. The army said three of its soldiers had been killed in northern Gaza, bringing the number of Israeli troops killed in the territory since the start of the war to 424. By Afp Team In Gaza City With Louis Baudoin-laarman In Ramallah
IOL News
2 days ago
- IOL News
'Massacre of civilians': 27 killed and over 160 injured in aid distribution attack as Gaza's health system teeters on collapse
A plume of smoke erupts as vehicles move along a road used by displaced people fleeing from Khan Yunis westwards to al-Mawasi in the southern Gaza Strip after the Israeli military had issued an evacuation order the previous day. The Ministry described the attack as a "massacre of citizens waiting for aid' and stated that many of the injured remain in critical condition. Initial reports indicated that there were 24 fatalities and dozens of injuries, but the number rose as more victims arrived at overwhelmed and heavily under-resourced hospitals. A deadly Israeli strike on Palestinians awaiting humanitarian aid in the Al-Alam distribution zone in Rafah Governorate has left at least 27 people dead and over 161 wounded, many critically, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said in a statement released on Tuesday. The strike came amid escalating attacks and ongoing evacuations ordered by the Israeli military. These attacks are directly impacting Gaza's few remaining health facilities. Of particular concern is the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, which is the last operational hospital in southern Gaza that provides specialised services. 'Dozens of patients and wounded in intensive care, operating rooms, emergency units, and neonatal wards face certain death if the complex goes out of service,' warned the Health Ministry. Health System on the Brink Gaza's medical infrastructure is nearing total collapse. According to the Ministry, operating rooms, ICUs, and ERs are overwhelmed by the influx of casualties. Additionally, there is a severe shortage of life-saving medicines, surgical supplies, and diagnostic equipment. Generators are running on minimal fuel, risking total blackouts in critical care areas. Starvation and Malnutrition As the health system is on the brink of collapse and attacks continue, Israel's blockade threatens the entire population of the Gaza Strip with famine, global hunger monitor Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) initiative has warned in a report. The report stated the Gaza Strip 'is still confronted with a critical risk of famine' after over a year and a half of war, with the vast majority of its approximately 2.1 million people at severe risk. In March, the Israeli military halted the entry of food, water, medicine and all other life-saving supplies into Gaza. It is June and the blockade continues with no sign of stopping or a ceasefire. The report added that approximately 93 percent of Gaza's population is experiencing acute food shortages. Human Rights Watch reported last month that children in Gaza have been dying from starvation-related complications since the Israeli government began using starvation as a weapon of war, which it deemed a war crime. Doctors and families in Gaza described children, as well as pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, suffering from severe malnutrition and dehydration, and hospitals ill-equipped to treat them. To make matters worse, food prices in Gaza are soaring excessively. The IPC report points to a 3,000 percent increase in the price of wheat flour since February in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza and Khan Younis in the south.
TimesLIVE
2 days ago
- TimesLIVE
At least 27 Palestinians killed near Gaza aid site: UN demands investigation
At least 27 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded by Israeli fire near a food distribution site in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, health officials said, in a third day running of chaos and bloodshed to blight the aid operation. The Israeli military said its forces had opened fire on a group of people who had left designated access routes near the distribution centre in Rafah and approached their positions. It added it was still investigating what had happened. The deaths came hours after Israel said three of its soldiers had been killed in fighting in the northern Gaza Strip, as its forces pushed ahead with a months-long offensive against Hamas militants that has laid waste to much of the enclave. Reuters could not independently verify the reports in northern and southern Gaza. A spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross told Reuters that its field hospital in Rafah had received 184 casualties, adding that 19 of those were declared dead upon arrival, and eight died of their wounds shortly after. Video showed injured people, including at least one woman, being rushed to a medical centre on carts drawn by donkeys, before being transferred onto stretchers or into ambulances.
