Latest news with #Bureij
BBC News
5 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
Gaza: Security breaks down as desperate people search for food
There is a state of chaos, a breakdown of security, and looting in north Gaza's main city, where Palestinians are desperately searching for food and where aid is difficult to Hamas-run interior ministry said seven of its police officers deployed to a market in Gaza City on Thursday were killed by an Israeli air strike as they attempted to restore order and confront what it called "looters".The Israeli military has not commented on the incident, but it did say it had struck "dozens of terror targets" throughout Gaza over the past medics and rescuers said at least 44 people were killed across the territory on Thursday, including 23 at the central Bureij refugee camp. It comes a day after the UN's World Food programme (WFP) said at least two people were shot dead as what it described as "hordes of hungry people" broke into its warehouse in the central town of Deir al-Balah in search of food after 11 weeks of a total Israeli blockade. It was not clear who opened 50 people were also reportedly shot and injured when thousands overran a new aid distribution centre run by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in the southern city of Rafah on Tuesday, according to a senior UN official in Gaza. The Israeli military said troops fired warning shots into the air but not at the crowds. On Thursday, interior ministry police officers armed with Kalashnikov-style rifles and handguns went to a market near Gaza City's central al-Saraya junction, which houses a number of small stalls selling canned food and circulating on social media, too graphic to share, show bodies, blood, and scattered remains lying on the ground following what the ministry said was an Israeli attack."Israeli occupation aircraft targeted a number of police officers... while they were performing their duty in confronting a group of looters earlier today, leading to the martyrdom of several officers and civilians in yet another massacre," a statement BBC sought comment from the Israeli military about the incident.A statement from the military on Thursday afternoon said aircraft had struck dozens of targets over the past day, including "terrorists, military structures, observation and sniper posts that posed a threat to [Israeli] troops in the area, tunnels, and additional terrorist infrastructure sites".There has been increased lawlessness in Gaza since Israel began targeting the Gaza interior ministry's police officers last year, citing their role in Hamas the territory's police chief and his deputy were killed in a strike in January, the ministry insisted the force was a "civilian protection agency". The Israeli military accused the force of "violating human rights and suppressing dissent". There were reports of a breakdown of order elsewhere in Gaza on Thursday, as desperate people searched for food and other witness who had gone to a GHF aid distribution centre near Rafah told the BBC that thousands of people had gathered in the area from dawn, and that they ended up breaking through the site's gate to try to obtain 08:00 local time, the witness said, the Israeli military issued a warning via a quadcopter drone instructing people to head to the distribution centre, and that they began moving in an orderly way towards the area."For exactly 10 minutes, things were organised but then the crowd broke through the gate and rushed into the courtyard.""People grabbed boxes and sacks of flour and left, all under the surveillance of the Israeli quadcopter," they from near the GHF site shows thousands of Palestinians walking near the centre on Thursday morning. Some are in horse-drawn carts, while others wheel bicycles covered with goods. Young men, for the most part, can be seen carrying sacks of flour on their heads and backs. One exhausted woman appears to struggle to walk among the crowd. Abu Fawzi Faroukh, a 60-year-old Palestinian man who was at the site on Thursday morning, told AFP news agency that aid supplies were more difficult for the elderly and vulnerable to obtain."The young men are the ones who have received aid first, yesterday and today, because they are young and can carry loads. But the old people and women cannot enter due to the crowding.""We have been humiliated, the Palestinian people are humiliated," he described similar scenes at the newly opened GHF distribution site in central Gaza, with a number telling the BBC they had come away Mohammed Abu Hajar said she had heard there was aid being distributed in the area, so took her ID and went to see what she could get."I found all the people hungry," she said. "So, I couldn't get anything. I left like this... empty-handed."She said more organisation was needed in order to distribute aid "fairly", adding that currently, "some people eat and some people don't". Another man, Hani Abed, who was at the same distribution centre, said he'd failed to get any aid for him and his 10 family members."I came empty-handed and I left empty-handed," he said. "I will take dirt for my children to eat."The GHF said approximately 17,280 food boxes, containing the equivalent of 997,920 meals, were handed out to Gazans at its three operational distribution sites on Thursday."Operations will continue scaling, with plans to build additional sites across Gaza, including in the northern region, in the weeks ahead," it also rejected the reports of Palestinians being shot at while trying to obtain aid at its centres. "No shots have ever been fired," it GHF's new aid system bypasses the UN and requires Palestinians to collect food parcels from distribution sites protected by US security contractors in areas controlled by the Israeli military in southern and central Gaza. The UN has refused to co-operate with the system, saying it is unethical and head of the UN's humanitarian office in Gaza, Jonathan Whittall, said on Wednesday that GHF could not possibly meet the needs of the 2.1 million population and was "essentially engineering scarcity".The US and Israeli governments have said the new system is preventing aid from being stolen by Hamas, which the armed group denies doing. Israel imposed a total blockade on humanitarian aid and commercial supplies to Gaza on 2 March and resumed its military offensive two weeks later, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas. It said the steps put pressure on the armed group to release the 58 hostages still held in Gaza, at least 20 of whom are believed to be 19 May, the Israeli military launched an expanded offensive that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said would "take control of all areas" of Gaza. The following day, he said Israel would also temporarily ease the blockade and allow a "basic" amount of food families of the remaining hostages have urged Netanyahu to agree a new ceasefire with Hamas to secure their Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the Israeli government "supported" a new ceasefire proposal that was sent to Hamas by US special envoy Steve Witkoff. "Israel signed off on this proposal before it was sent to Hamas," she a senior Hamas official later told the BBC that the group rejected the proposal because it contradicted the discussions that it had with official said it did not include guarantees that the temporary ceasefire would lead to a permanent end to the fighting or that Israeli troops would withdraw to the positions they held before 2 and US media cited Israeli officials as saying Witkoff's proposal included releasing 10 living hostages and the remains of dead hostages in two phases in exchange for a 60-day ceasefire and the release of a number of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli launched a military campaign in Gaza in response Hamas' cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken least 54,249 people have been killed in Gaza since then, including 3,986 since Israel resumed its offensive, according to the territory's health ministry.
Asharq Al-Awsat
5 days ago
- Health
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Israel Strike on a Home in Gaza Kills 22 as it Orders Hospital Evacuation
An Israeli strike on a house in central Gaza on Thursday killed 22 people, including nine women and children. The airstrike hit a family home in Bureij, an urban refugee camp in central Gaza, according to the officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah. An Associated Press journalist viewed the hospital records of the dead from the strike. Strikes in northern Gaza late Wednesday and early Thursday hit a house, killing eight people, including two women and three children, and a car in Gaza City, killing four, local hospitals said. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which says it only targets fighters and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the gunmen operate in populated areas. Meanwhile the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of a hospital in northern Gaza, staff said. Dr. Rami al-Ashrafi said the army wants to evacuate everyone in Al-Awda Hospital in the heavily devastated Jabaliya area. One of the last functioning medical centers in northern Gaza, the hospital has been encircled by Israeli troops and has come under fire in recent days. Speaking by phone to the AP, al-Ashrafi said there are 82 staffers, including doctors, and seven patients left at the hospital. A total of 30 patients and 57 staff were already evacuated Tuesday, he said Israeli authorities issued evacuation orders last week for large parts of northern Gaza ahead of offensives against Hamas, although the army did not order the hospital itself to evacuate. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, said last week that Israeli military operations and evacuation orders in Gaza 'are stretching the health system beyond the breaking point.'
Al Bawaba
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Al Bawaba
Israeli strikes kill 92 Palestinians in Gaza today
ALBAWABA- At least 92 Palestinians were killed across the Gaza Strip within 24 hours as Israel intensified its air and ground attacks ahead of a broader military offensive. Also Read 21 killed in intensified Israeli strikes across Gaza since dawn Dozens more were wounded in the bombardments, which targeted multiple civilian areas, including schools sheltering displaced families. According to Gaza's Health Ministry, today marked one of the deadliest days in recent weeks, with 92 people killed. One of the most lethal single attacks struck a UN-run school in the densely populated Bureij refugee camp, killing 27 people, including nine women and three children, according to officials at Al-Aqsa Hospital. عاجل | صحة غزة: 92 شهيدا في يوم واحد — الجزيرة - عاجل (@AJABreaking) May 7, 2025 The school had been serving as a shelter for hundreds of displaced civilians. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini condemned the strike, stating, "The Israeli army twice targeted the same UNRWA school-turned-shelter in one day. This marks the fifth such attack on this facility since the war began. Death pursues families in Gaza wherever they go — there is no safe place in the Strip." In a separate attack early Wednesday, another strike on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City killed 16 people, as reported by Al-Ahli Hospital. Additional Israeli air raids across various parts of the enclave killed at least 16 more. Witnesses described scenes of devastation, with fire and thick plumes of smoke engulfing the shelter in Bureij as paramedics pulled survivors from the rubble. Also Read Israel strikes Sanaa International Airport in Yemen The Israeli military has not stated the specific strikes but reiterated its longstanding position that Hamas operates from within civilian infrastructure, including schools, thereby placing blame for the high civilian toll on the group. The surge in attacks comes as Israel moves forward with a new operational plan that envisions a prolonged military campaign, territorial seizure in Gaza, forced displacement of civilians to the south, and control over humanitarian aid, in part via private security firms. Tens of thousands of Israeli reserve troops are being mobilized to implement the plan, which is expected to begin following U.S. President Donald Trump's upcoming visit to the region.
RNZ News
07-05-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Israeli strikes on school housing displaced and market kill 38 in Gaza, medics say
By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Ramadan Abed , Reuters Palestinians sift through destroyed shelters at a UNRWA school housing displaced people, following an Israeli strike in the Bureij refugee camp in the centre of the Gaza Strip, on 7 May , 2025. Photo: EYAD BABA / AFP Israeli airstrikes on a school housing conflict-displaced families and close to a crowded market and restaurant in Gaza City killed at least 38 people on Wednesday, local health authorities said. Medics said two strikes targeted the Karama School in Tuffah, a suburb of Gaza City, killing 15. Later in the day, an Israeli strike near a restaurant and market in the city killed at least 23 people, including women and children, medics said. There was no immediate Israeli comment. Reuters footage of the scene near the market showed wounded men being rushed away on the back of pickups and carts. Ambulances sped down shattered streets and a woman in tears carried a baby away from the scene, with two young children beside her. "The blood was like a lake, oh my baby, pools of blood," she can be heard screaming. Ahmed Al-Saoudi said he witnessed the airstrike near the market. "People come to the market to get what they need if they can find it ... Neither the people nor the animals were safe. Neither the young nor the old," he said. An image posted on social media showed what appeared to be a family of three - mother, father and son - lying dead on the street in pools of blood. The young boy was carrying a pink backpack. Reuters could not immediately verify the image that was purportedly from the scene near the restaurant. Two Israeli airstrikes on another school, housing displaced people in Bureij camp in central Gaza, killed at least 33 people, including women and children, on Tuesday, local health authorities said. The Israeli military said it struck "terrorists" operating from a command center in the compound. The strike smashed classrooms, destroyed furniture and left a large crater in the school campus. On Wednesday, survivors sifted through rubble to look for some of their belongings. "What happened is an earthquake. The Israeli occupation hit a school housing children. They are children," said eyewitness Ali Al-Shaqra. He said the school housed 300 families. "Here is the building; it was razed to the ground. We cannot find the gas cylinder, the flour bag we had, the kilo of rice, or the meal we got from the Tukkiyah (community kitchen). Thank God we are left with the clothes we had on," Shaqra added. In Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, near the border with Egypt, residents and Hamas sources said Israeli forces, who have taken control of the city, continued to blow up and demolish houses and buildings. Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, said on Wednesday their fighters had detonated a pre-planted minefield targeting an Israeli armoured force east of Khan Younis in the south. They said they inflicted casualties, followed by mortar shelling of the area. Israel resumed its offensive in March after the collapse of a US-backed ceasefire that had halted fighting for two months. It has since imposed an aid blockade, drawing warnings from the UN that the 2.3 million population faces imminent famine. Israeli troops have already taken over an area amounting to around a third of Gaza, displacing the population and building watchtowers and surveillance posts on cleared ground the military has described as security zones. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will expand the offensive against Hamas after his security cabinet approved plans that may include seizing the entire Gaza Strip and controlling aid. But an Israeli defence official said on Monday the operation would not be launched before US President Donald Trump concludes his visit next week to the Middle East, and there was a "window of opportunity" for a ceasefire and hostage release deal during Trump's visit. A senior Hamas official said on Wednesday Hamas would not agree to any interim truce in return for a resumption of aid for a few days, and insisted on a full ceasefire deal to end the war. Basem Naim said Hamas would not accept "desperate attempts before Trump's visit, through the crime of starvation, the continuation of genocide, and the threat of expanding military action to achieve a partial agreement that returns some (Israeli) prisoners in exchange for a few days of food and drink". The war began on 7 October, 2023, when Hamas killed 1200 people and took 251 hostage, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's campaign has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to Hamas-run health authorities, and reduced much of Gaza to ruins. The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said two local journalists, Nour Abdu and Yehya Sbeih were killed in Wednesday's attacks, raising the number of Palestinian journalists killed by Israeli fire since the war began to 214. - Reuters
CBC
07-05-2025
- Health
- CBC
9 women, 3 children among Palestinians killed in Israeli attack on Gaza City school shelter
Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at least 59 people, hospital officials said Wednesday, as Israel prepares to ramp up its campaign against Hamas in a war now entering its 20th month. The strikes included one attack on Tuesday night on a school sheltering hundreds of displaced Palestinians, which killed 27 people, officials from the Al-Aqsa Hospital said, including nine women and three children. It was the fifth time since the war began that the school in central Gaza has been struck. An early morning strike on another school-turned-shelter in Gaza City killed 16 people, according to officials at Al-Ahli Hospital, while strikes on targets in other areas killed at least 16 others. A large column of smoke rose and fires pierced the dark skies above the school shelter in Bureij, a built-up urban refugee camp. Paramedics and rescuers rushed to pull people out from the blaze. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strikes. Israel blames Hamas for the death toll because it operates from civilian infrastructure, including schools. The new bloodshed comes days after Israel approved a plan to intensify its operations in the Palestinian enclave, which would include seizing Gaza, holding on to captured territories, forcibly displacing Palestinians to southern Gaza and taking control of aid distribution along with private security companies. Israel is calling up tens of thousands of reserve soldiers to carry out the plan. Israel says the plan will be gradual and will not be implemented until after U.S. President Donald Trump wraps up his visit to the region later this month. Any escalation of fighting would likely drive up the death toll. Israeli troops have already taken over an area amounting to around a third of Gaza, displacing the population and building watchtowers and surveillance posts on cleared ground the military has described as security zones. 'Window of opportunity' for truce amid Trump visit Israel resumed its offensive in March after the collapse of a U.S.-backed ceasefire that had halted fighting for two months. It has since imposed an aid blockade, drawing warnings from the United Nations that the 2.3 million population faces imminent famine. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will expand the offensive against Hamas after his security cabinet approved plans that may include seizing the entire Gaza Strip and controlling aid. But an Israeli defence official said on Monday that there was a "window of opportunity" for a ceasefire and hostage release deal during Trump's visit. A senior Hamas official said on Wednesday that the Palestinian militant group would not agree to any interim truce in return for a resumption of aid for a few days, and insisted on a full ceasefire deal to end the war. Basem Naim said Hamas would not accept "desperate attempts before Trump's visit, through the crime of starvation, the continuation of genocide and the threat of expanding military action to achieve a partial agreement that returns some [Israeli] prisoners in exchange for a few days of food and drink." The war began on Oct.7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostage, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's campaign has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, and reduced much of Gaza to ruins.
