38 Palestinians killed in new shootings near food distribution centers, medics say
KHAN YOUNIS: Gaza's Health Ministry says 38 Palestinians have been killed in new shootings in areas of food distribution centers in the south of the territory.
The toll Monday was the deadliest yet in the near-daily shootings that have taken place as thousands of Palestinians move through Israeli military-controlled areas to reach the food centers. Witnesses say Israeli troops open fire in an attempt to control the crowds.
There was no immediate comment by the Israeli military on Monday's deaths. It has said in previous instances that troops fired warning shots at what it calls suspects approaching their positions.
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Arab News
2 hours ago
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Ex-Syrian commander claims Assad ordered execution of missing US journalist Tice: BBC
LONDON: A former Syrian commander who allegedly oversaw the detention of missing American journalist Austin Tice claims that ex-President Bashar Assad personally ordered Tice's execution, according to a BBC investigation released over the weekend. The report centers on Maj. Gen. Bassam al-Hassan, a former commander in the elite Republican Guard and one of Assad's most trusted advisers. According to the BBC, Hassan spoke to FBI and CIA officials about Tice's fate during at least three meetings in Lebanon, one of which reportedly took place inside the US embassy compound. Hassan, who also served as chief of staff of the National Defense Forces — a pro-regime paramilitary group previously linked by the BBC to Tice's abduction — allegedly oversaw the facility where the journalist was held. Sources close to Hassan said that in 2013, following Tice's brief escape attempt, he was instructed to execute him. According to the sources, Hassan initially sought to dissuade Assad but ultimately relayed the order, which was then carried out. The detail of Tice's escape attempt aligns with prior reports, including a Reuters investigation citing witnesses who recalled seeing 'an American man, dressed in ragged clothing' attempting to escape through the streets of Damascus' upscale Mazzeh neighborhood — believed to be Tice's final sighting. Tice disappeared in August 2012 while reporting on Syria's civil war in the Damascus suburbs, just days after his 31st birthday. A former US Marine captain who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan, Tice was working as a freelance journalist while studying for a law degree at Georgetown University. He was abducted while preparing to leave the country to go to Lebanon. For years, the Assad regime has denied any knowledge of Tice's whereabouts or involvement in his disappearance. However, the BBC previously reported that classified documents obtained during its investigation supported long-standing suspicions by US authorities that Damascus was directly involved. The latest investigation suggests that Tice was held in the notorious Tahouneh prison, a regime-controlled facility in Damascus. Hassan is also said to have provided the US officials with possible locations for Tice's remains, though efforts to verify his claims are ongoing. 'There is not anything, at least at this time, to corroborate what (Hassan) is saying,' a source familiar with the investigation told The Washington Post. 'The flip side of it is, with his role in the regime, it's hard to understand why he would want to lie about something like that.' Despite the recent developments, skepticism persists. Western intelligence officials expressed doubt that Assad would have issued a direct kill order, noting that the Syrian president typically relies on intermediaries to insulate himself from such decisions. Speaking to the BBC during a recent trip to Lebanon, Tice's mother, Debra Tice, said she believed Hassan may have told US officials 'a story they wanted to hear' to help close the case. 'I am his mother. I still believe that my son is alive and that he will walk free,' she said. A former NDF member also told the BBC that Tice was viewed as a valuable bargaining chip for possible negotiations with Washington. According to the report, Hassan fled to Iran following the collapse of the Syrian regime in December. He was later contacted by phone and invited to Lebanon to meet US officials, who assured him he would not be detained. The BBC revelations come on the heels of an interview published by The Economist with Safwan Bahloul, a three-star general who previously served in Syria's external intelligence agency and was tasked with interrogating Tice. Bahloul, who speaks fluent English and has lived in Britain, said Hassan assigned him to question Tice and handed him the American's iPhone. His mission was to determine whether Tice was 'merely a journalist' or 'an American spy.' Bahloul also said Hassan orchestrated the recording of a video, released on YouTube in September 2012, that showed Tice blindfolded and surrounded by armed men. US intelligence later concluded that the video had been staged by the regime to suggest that Tice was being held by Islamic militants.
Saudi Gazette
2 hours ago
- Saudi Gazette
More than 20 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire near Gaza aid sites
JERUSALEM — At least 22 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli gunfire near aid distribution sites operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told the BBC that it was examining the reports. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed trying to get food from the GHF sites, opened by Israel after it partially lifted a three-month blockade which the UN said had pushed the Gazan population to the brink of starvation. UN human rights chief Volker Turk said: "Israel's means and methods of warfare are inflicting horrifying, unconscionable suffering on Palestinians in Gaza." Addressing the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, he accused Israel of weaponizing food and repeated his call for a full investigation into the attacks near the sites. UN agencies have refused to work with the GHF. On several previous occasions the IDF has acknowledged that its troops opened fire near aid sites. The health ministry said 20 were killed on Monday at the GHF center at al-Alam in the southern city of Rafah, while rescuers reported two killed at a GHF site in the central Netzarim corridor. Many of those killed and injured at al-Alam were taken to Nasser hospital in nearby Khan Younis, where relatives gathered. Many were buried in the hours after their arrival, in line with Islamic tradition. Ahmed Alfara, a doctor at the hospital, told the Reuters news agency that the distribution system had failed "100%". "No one can get that distribution, that aid, no one can get it," he said. "We have to recognise that [UN humanitarian agency] Unrwa and NGOs must again get that distribution and try to redistribute it for the Palestinian people." He reported that many of the casualties on Monday had suffered gunshot wounds, including to the head. Ahmed Fayad, who attempted to get food from the GHF site on Monday, described the GHF operation as a "trap". "We went there thinking we would get aid to feed our children, but it turned out to be a trap, a killing. I advise everyone: don't go there," he told Reuters. Al-Alam has been the scene of several similar deadly incidents since the new Israeli-backed food distribution system began operating. Before Monday's incident, the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said that at least 300 people had been killed and more than 2,600 wounded near aid distribution sites since the GHF began operations in Gaza on 26 May. The IDF has contested the death toll and said Hamas had caused much of the violence. Israel does not allow international news organizations including the BBC into Gaza, making verifying what is happening in the territory difficult. It has been 20 months since Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led cross-border attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. At least 55,297 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry. — BBC
Asharq Al-Awsat
2 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
34 Palestinians Killed in New Shootings Near Food Distribution Centers, Medics Say
At least 34 Palestinians were killed Monday in new shootings on the roads leading to Israeli- and US-supported food distribution centers in the Gaza Strip, the local Health Ministry said. The toll was the deadliest yet in the near-daily shootings that have taken place as thousands of Palestinians move through Israeli military-controlled areas to reach the food centers. As on previous days, witnesses said Israeli troops opened fire in an attempt to control crowds. The ministry says several hundred people have been killed and hundreds more wounded in such shootings since the centers, run by the private contractor Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, opened three weeks ago. There was no immediate comment by the Israeli military. It has said in previous instances that troops fired warning shots at what it calls suspects approaching their positions. Gaza's Health Ministry said 33 Palestinians were killed trying to reach the GHF center near the southern city of Rafah and another on route to a GHF hub in central Gaza. It said four other people were killed elsewhere. Witnesses describe crowds under fire Israeli troops started firing as thousands of Palestinians massed around 4 a.m. at the Flag Roundabout before the scheduled opening time of the Rafah food center, according to Heba Jouda and Mohamed Abed, two Palestinians who were in the crowd. People fell to the ground, trying to take cover, they said. "Fire was coming from everywhere," said Jouda, who has repeatedly made the journey to get food for her family over the past week. "It's getting worse day by day," she said. The Red Cross field hospital nearby received some 200 injured Monday, the highest single mass casualty event, the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement. Only a day earlier, it said, around 170 were brought to the facility, most of them wounded by gunshots while trying to reach the GHF center. The Health Ministry toll made it the deadliest day around the food sites since June 2, when 31 people were killed. The Flag Roundabout, hundreds of meters (yards) from the GHF center, has been a repeated scene of shootings. It is on the route designated by the Israeli military for people to take to reach the center. Palestinians over the past weeks have said Israeli troops open fire to prevent people from moving past a certain point on the road before the scheduled opening of the center or because people leave the road. A GHF spokesperson told The Associated Press on Sunday that "none of the incidents to date have occurred at our sites or during operating hours." It said the incidents have involved aid-seekers who were moving "during prohibited times ... or trying to take a short cut." It said it was trying to improve safety measures, including by recently moving the opening times from nighttime to daylight hours. A new aid distribution system Israel and the United States say the new GHF system is needed to prevent Hamas from siphoning off aid. GHF says there has been no violence in or around the sites themselves. UN agencies and major aid groups, which have delivered humanitarian aid across Gaza since the start of the 20-month Israel-Hamas war, have rejected the new system, saying it can't meet the territory's needs and allows Israel to use aid as a weapon. They deny there is widespread theft of aid by Hamas. Palestinian health officials say scores of people have been killed and hundreds wounded since the sites opened last month. Experts have warned that Israel's ongoing military campaign and restrictions on the entry of aid have put Gaza, which is home to some 2 million Palestinians, at risk of famine. Meanwhile, a new UN food crisis report released on Monday said the resumption of military operations in Gaza was escalating the food crisis in Gaza "to unprecedented levels." The Hunger Hotspots report by the World Food Program and Food and Agricultural Organization said that no adequate humanitarian aid or commercial supplies have reached the Gaza Strip since the end of the eight-week ceasefire, the longest interruption since the start of the conflict. According to the latest projections, released in May, the whole of Gaza's 2.1 million people are at risk of falling into acute food insecurity by September. The UN human rights chief said Israel's warfare in Gaza is inflicting "horrifying, unconscionable suffering" on Palestinians and urged government leaders to exert pressure on Israel's government and the Hamas movement to end it. "Israel's means and methods of warfare are inflicting horrifying, unconscionable suffering on Palestinians in Gaza," Volker Türk told the 47-member Human Rights Council in an address that raised concerns about the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel and the fallout from sweeping US tariffs among other topics. Israeli authorities have regularly accused the council of anti-Israel bias, and the Trump administration has kept the United States out of its proceedings. Israel's military campaign since October 2023 has killed over 55,300 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 fighters, without providing evidence. Hamas started the latest war in Gaza with its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, with gunmen killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking another 251 hostage. The fighters still hold 53 hostages, fewer than half of them alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
