07-04-2025
An Israeli strike hit near a charity kitchen in Gaza as Palestinians gathered for food
The strike hit around noon as the kitchen was distributing meals to displaced people living in tent camps. Samah Abu Jamie said her nephew was among those killed and her young daughter was wounded as they waited with their pots to collect meals for their families.
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'They were going to get food. I told her, 'Daughter, don't go',' she said. 'These were children, and they had nothing with them but a pot. Is a pot a weapon?'
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strike.
Charity kitchens have been drawing bigger crowds of Palestinians because other sources of food are running out. More than a month ago,
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The World Food Program has warned that its supplies to keep kitchens going could be depleted by next week. It had to stop distributing boxes of food staples directly to families last week, spokesperson Abeer Etefa said Monday. The bakeries it ran have also shut down for lack of flour, ending a main source of bread for hundreds of thousands of people.
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The heads of six UN agencies operating in Gaza said in a joint statement Monday that the blockade has left Gaza's population 'trapped, bombed and starved again.' They said Israeli claims that enough supplies entered during the cease-fire 'are far from the reality on the ground, and commodities are running extremely low.'
'We are witnessing acts of war in Gaza that show an utter disregard for human life,' they said. 'Protect civilians. Facilitate aid. Release hostages. Renew a ceasefire.'
The strike outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis about 2 a.m. set the media tent ablaze, killing Yousef al-Faqawi, a reporter for the Palestine Today news website, and another man, according to hospital officials.
The military said the strike targeted Hassan Eslaiah, claiming he was a Hamas militant who took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel that ignited the war. Eslaiah was among six journalists who were wounded in the strike, according to the hospital.
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Eslaiah had occasionally contributed images to the Associated Press and other international media outlets as a freelance journalist, including on Oct. 7. The AP has not worked with him for over a year.
A strike that hit a street in Gaza City killed an emergency room doctor, the Gaza Health Ministry said. Israel's campaign has killed more than 1,000 health workers and at least 173 journalists, according to the UN and the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Hospitals in Khan Younis and the central town of Deir al-Balah said they received the bodies of 33 people, 19 of them women and children, from strikes overnight and into the day on Monday, including those from the kitchen and the media tent attack.
Some of the strike reduced houses to rubble. Imad Maghari said the blast that hit his neighbors in Deir al-Balah at 2 a.m. was like 'an earthquake,' followed by the screams of women and children. He said one neighbor lost five family members and another a young boy.
'I don't know what danger he poses. He's 7 years old,' Maghari said.
Israel's military offensive in retaliation for Hamas' Oct. 7 attack has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry, whose count does not distinguish between militants and civilians. The offensive has destroyed vast areas of the Gaza Strip and displaced around 90% of its population.
Israel says it tries to avoid civilian casualties and blames Hamas for their deaths because it operates among the population.
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In the Oct. 7 attack, Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people. They are still holding 59 captives — 24 of whom are believed to be alive — after most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Dozens of protesters gathered outside Netanyahu's official residence in Jerusalem to call for an agreement to release the captives. Many fear that Netanyahu's decision to resume the fighting has put the remaining hostages in grave danger and hope Trump can help broker another deal.
'Now the moment of truth has come,' said Varda Ben Baruch, grandmother of
