Israeli strikes kill 146 Palestinians in Gaza in 24 hours, local health authorities say
JERUSALEM/CAIRO: Israel's airforce killed at least 146 Palestinians in new attacks on Gaza over the past 24 hours and injured many more, local health authorities said on Saturday, as the country appeared set to press ahead with a new ground offensive.
Israeli strikes since Thursday have seen one of the deadliest phases of bombardment since a truce collapsed in March. The latest strikes came as U.S. President Donald Trump ended his Middle East tour on Friday with no apparent progress towards a new ceasefire.
'Since midnight, we have received 58 martyrs, while a large number of victims remain under the rubble. The situation inside the hospital is catastrophic,' said the director of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, Marwan Al-Sultan.
Local health authorities said 459 people had been injured in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours.
Rubio says US 'troubled' on Gaza, open to alternatives on aid
Israel's military said on Saturday it was conducting extensive strikes and mobilizing troops as part of preparations to expand operations in the Gaza Strip and achieve 'operational control' in areas of the Palestinian enclave.
The Gaza health system is barely operational with hospitals hit repeatedly by the Israeli military during the 19-month war and medical supplies drying up as Israel tightened its blockade since March.
The escalation, which includes the build-up of armoured forces along the border, is part of the initial stages of 'Operation Gideon's Wagons', which Israel says is aimed at defeating Hamas and getting its hostages back.
An Israeli defence official said earlier this month the operation would not be launched before Trump concluded his visit to the Middle East.
'We are gradually increasing forces; Hamas remains defiant,' the military said on Saturday.
Trump says US should 'take' Gaza and turn it into 'freedom zone'
United Nations experts warn that famine looms in Gaza after Israel blocked aid deliveries to the strip 76 days ago, with UN aid chief Tom Fletcher asking the Security Council this week if it would act to 'prevent genocide'.
Trump on Friday acknowledged Gaza's growing hunger crisis and the need for aid deliveries, as international pressure grows on Israel to resume ceasefire talks and end its blockade of Gaza.
A U.S.-backed foundation aims to start distributing aid to Gazans by the end of May, using private U.S. security and logistics firms, but the U.N. has said it won't work with the foundation because it is not impartial, neutral or independent.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on May 5 that Israel was planning an expanded, intensive offensive against Hamas as his security cabinet approved plans that could involve seizing the entire Gaza Strip and controlling aid.
Deadly Israeli strikes pound Gaza, Trump says 'people are starving'
On Friday Israel's military ordered Gazans to move south after heavy strikes in the northern town of Beit Lahia and the Jabalia refugee camp. Residents, however, said tanks were advancing towards the southern city of Khan Younis.
Its military campaign has devastated the tiny, crowded enclave, pushing nearly all its 2 million inhabitants from their homes and killing more than 53,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities.
NBC News reported on Friday, citing five people with knowledge of the matter, that the Trump administration is working on a plan to permanently relocate as many as one million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya.
Palestinians, including Hamas, and the rival authority of President Mahmoud Abbas reject any displacement of people outside their land.
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Business Recorder
a day ago
- Business Recorder
Israeli military kills 4 near aid distribution site in Gaza, medics say
TEL AVIV/GAZA: Four people were killed and others injured by Israeli forces on Sunday as Palestinians making their way to an aid distribution site in the southern Gaza Strip came under fire, according to Palestinian paramedics. The Israeli military said in a statement that troops had opened fire in southern Gaza but said that it had directed warning shots at a group that was moving towards soldiers and deemed a threat to them. It was the latest bout of shooting near aid distribution points in Gaza's south since a controversial Israeli- and U.S.-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, began handing out aid late last month. Palestinian paramedics said they had evacuated the bodies of four people who were killed early on Sunday near an aid distribution venue in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Media affiliated with Gaza's dominant Hamas reported that the Israeli military had opened fire near a distribution site in Rafah operated by the GHF. US-backed Gaza group suspends aid for a day over threats, Hamas vows to protect UN aid The Israeli military statement said the people towards whom warning shots were fired before dawn on Sunday had been verbally warned to leave the area, which was considered an active military zone at the time. The military has said people should only move to and from the GHF distribution centres between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., with non-daylight hours considered a closed military period. The military acknowledged reports of injuries but did not specify how many people it believed had been hurt or shot. Sanaa Doghmah said her husband, Khaled, 36, was fatally shot in the head while trying to reach a distribution site in Rafah to collect food for their five children. 'He was going to get food for his children and himself, to make them live, feed them because they don't have a pinch of flour at home,' Khaled's aunt, Salwah, said at his funeral. The GHF, which is handing out aid under an Israeli initiative that is bypassing traditional relief agencies who say their deliveries into Israeli-blockaded Gaza have been restricted, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. US-backed Gaza aid group says resumes food distribution GHF: Aid handed out The U.S.-based organisation earlier said in a Facebook post that aid was distributed in central and southern Gaza on Sunday. It had handed out no aid on Saturday, accusing Hamas of making threats that 'made it impossible' to operate in the enclave, which the Islamist group denied. The GHF uses private American military contractors to operate its sites and has been accused of a lack of neutrality and independence by U.N. and other international humanitarian agencies. It has denied such accusations. Israel relented to international pressure to allow limited U.N.-led operations to resume on May 19 after an 11-week blockade in the enclave of 2.3 million people, where experts have warned a famine looms. The U.N. has described the aid allowed into Gaza as 'drop in the ocean.' While the GHF has said there have been no incidents at its so-called secure distribution sites, Palestinians seeking aid have described scenes of disorder and access routes to the sites have been beset by chaos and deadly violence. Rescuers say Israeli fire kills at least 27 near Gaza aid point Dozens of Palestinians were killed near GHF sites on June 1-3, Gaza health authorities said. Israel's military has said it was investigating the incidents but that warning shots were fired in each incident, and that on Tuesday it had also fired at Palestinians advancing towards troops. The GHF did not give out aid on Wednesday as it pressed Israel to boost civilian safety beyond its sites, then on Friday it paused some aid distribution 'due to excessive crowding.' The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to the U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza. Israel's military campaign has since killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health authorities in Gaza, and flattened much of the coastal enclave.
Business Recorder
a day ago
- Business Recorder
US-backed Gaza group suspends aid for a day over threats, Hamas vows to protect UN aid
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Express Tribune
2 days ago
- Express Tribune
Gaza health system near collapse, two more hospitals at risk: WHO Chief
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo:REUTERS Listen to article At least 34 Palestinians have been killed since Saturday morning, according to Palestinian health sources. Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis recieved at least 15 bodies, while another seven were brought to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, sources told Al-Jazeera. Yet another six people were killed while waiting near an aid point in al-Akhawah. Besides, bodies were retrieved from different parts of the city. Eight arrested Moreover, eight Palestinians were arrested in Hebron district, Wafa news agency reported. Five of them were detained near a water spring in Nahalin Town, west of Bethelem. Two brothers were arrested by Israeli soldiers while tending to livestock near their home, and another person was arrested from Ash-Shuyukh Town, northeast of Hebron. Famine threat Meanwhile, health sources and aid agencies have warned of imminent threats to Gaza's health system and food supply in the enclave, Al Jazeera reported. The latter have warned that all residents in Gaza face the threat of famine after Israel imposed a severe blockade in March, blocking the entry of food, medicine and fuel. Succumbing to international pressure, Israel allowed some aid to enter Gaza last month but operations were halted at aid distribution hubs earlier this week after Israeli forces opened fire near the sites. Health services in Gaza are also at risk of collapsing. World Health Organization Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned that Nasser Hospital and Al-Amal Hospital in southern Gaza are 'at risk of becoming non-functional'. On X Ghebreyesus wrote, "Gaza's health system is collapsing, with Nasser Medical Complex -- the most important referral hospital left -- and Al-Amal Hospital at risk of becoming non-functional". Without Nasser Medical Complex and Al-Amal Hospital people will lose access to health services, he added. #Gaza's health system is collapsing, with Nasser Medical Complex -- the most important referral hospital left -- and Al-Amal Hospital at risk of becoming non-functional. Without them, people will lose access to health services. These hospitals lie within or just outside the… — Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) June 6, 2025 Although the two hospitals lie within or just outside the evacuation zone announced on June 2, Israeli authorities have informed that access routes leading to both hospitals will be obstructed, said Ghebreyesus, adding that consequently, safe access for new patients and staff will be difficult if not impossible. "The hospitals going out of service would have dire consequences for patients in need of surgical care, intensive care, blood bank and transfusion services, cancer care, and dialysis." Ghebreyesus said the "relentless and systematic decimation of hospitals in Gaza has been going on for too long. It must end immediately". He reiterated WHO's calls for the release of hostages, and an immediate and lasting ceasefire.
