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Express Tribune
4 days ago
- Politics
- Express Tribune
At least 22 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza today
Listen to article At least 22 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza so far today, medical sources said. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza has released a 2,086‑page list of 58,380 Palestinians killed since October 7, 2023, including the names, ages, genders and ID numbers of victims, on Thursday. About 953 of those listed were infants under one year old, with nine reportedly dying on the day they were born. The ministry announced that trucks carrying medical supplies and childhood vaccinations are expected to arrive 'later today' at Gaza hospitals via the World Health Organization and UNICEF. The statement urged 'all concerned parties' to ensure safe passage for the convoy. Aid group Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said its Khan Younis distribution centre will remain closed for maintenance on Thursday. On Wednesday, 20 people were killed there—15 in a stampede and suffocation following tear gas use—according to Gaza health officials. GHF confirmed the deaths but blamed Hamas‑affiliated individuals for stirring unrest and denied firing tear gas. UN reports have criticised GHF's sites as 'death traps,' with over 870 fatalities near its aid distribution points since late May. Aftermath of Israeli attack on UNRWA-run school Photo: [Eyad Baba/AFP] Palestinians salvage items after an Israeli strike on a tent camp at the UNRWA-run Abou Helou school for girls at the Bureij refugee camp [Eyad Baba/AFP] Photo: [Eyad Baba/AFP] Photo: [Eyad Baba/AFP] Israeli strike on Catholic church Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned an Israeli strike on Gaza's only Catholic church, saying it was 'unacceptable' after at least six people, including parish priest Gabriel Romanelli, were wounded. I raid israeliani su Gaza colpiscono anche la chiesa della Sacra Famiglia. Sono inaccettabili gli attacchi contro la popolazione civile che Israele sta portando avanti da mesi. Nessuna azione militare può giustificare un tale atteggiamento. — Giorgia Meloni (@GiorgiaMeloni) July 17, 2025 The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem confirmed the Holy Family Church was hit by a military raid this morning. 'Currently, there are no fatalities confirmed,' the Patriarchate said in a statement, adding that further details would be provided once available. Parish priest of the Church of the Holy Family, father Gabriele Romanelli, receives medical attention after he suffered light leg injuries following an Israeli strike on the church, according to medics, at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, in this still image taken from a video on July 17, 2025. — Reuters People carry the body of Palestinian Christian Saad Salama, who was killed in an Israeli strike on the Church of the Holy Family, at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, in Gaza City. — Reuters Disabled, elderly, children worst hit by war The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned Thursday that Israel's ongoing military offensive in Gaza is disproportionately affecting vulnerable groups, including people with disabilities, the elderly and children. In a statement posted on X, the agency said over 83 percent of individuals with disabilities have lost access to assistive devices, while 80 percent of elderly residents are in urgent need of life-saving medication. In #Gaza, older persons, persons with disabilities, and children are disproportionately impacted by the ongoing war. The collapse of essential services and protection mechanisms has left them at heightened risk. The situation is critical. #CeasefireNow also for the most… — UNRWA (@UNRWA) July 17, 2025 Meanwhile, Pakistan's permanent representative to the UN, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, renewed Islamabad's demand for an 'immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire' in Gaza during a UN Security Council briefing on the humanitarian situation. 'The world cannot stand by as Gaza is starved and shattered,' the ambassador said in a post on X. 'Behind each number is a life: a person with a story, a dream extinguished & a family torn apart.' On another sweltering July morning, seven-month-old Salam lay motionless in her mother's trembling arms—her tiny ribs protruding like fragile twigs beneath skin drawn thin by hunger. Her sunken eyes, too weak to cry, flickered faintly as UNRWA health workers rushed to assist her… — Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the UN (@PakistanUN_NY) July 17, 2025 Ahmad reiterated that a just and lasting peace requires the realisation of a two-state solution based on pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as the capital of a sovereign Palestinian state. Israeli troops wounded, West Bank raids intensify Two Israeli soldiers from the elite Battalion 202 paratrooper brigade were seriously injured during combat operations in northern Gaza, the Israeli military said. The wounded soldiers were evacuated to Israel for treatment, and their families have been notified. Further details were not disclosed. Meanwhile, Israeli forces arrested at least eight Palestinians during overnight raids across the occupied West Bank, according to Al Jazeera Arabic and the Palestinian news agency Wafa. In Bethlehem, a 58-year-old man and a 23-year-old were detained in separate operations. In Tubas, a Palestinian youth was injured by Israeli troops during a raid. In Qabatiya, near Jenin, one person was arrested and the homes of two Palestinians killed in previous encounters with Israeli forces were rigged with explosives for punitive demolition, Wafa reported. Raids also occurred in Kafr Jamal and Kafr Zibad, southeast of Qalqilya. In Washington, US President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, said ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas are 'going well,' according to Reuters. He did not offer specifics but indicated cautious optimism over the ongoing talks. Israel's war on Gaza The Israeli army has launched a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing at least 57,481 Palestinians, including 134,592 children. More than 111,588 people have been injured, and over 14,222 are missing and presumed dead. Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave. The proposed deal includes a pause in hostilities, increased humanitarian aid, and negotiations on the release of captives.
GMA Network
24-06-2025
- Health
- GMA Network
Gaza rescuers say 46 killed as UN slams US-backed aid system
Palestinians mourn by the body of a man killed in Israeli fire at a food aid distribution point set up by the privately-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) on the Salaheddin road, at Al-Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on June 24, 2025. Eyad Baba/ AFP GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories — Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli forces killed another 46 people waiting for aid in the Palestinian territory on Tuesday as rights groups and UN agencies slammed the US-backed food distribution system. Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that 21 people were killed and around 150 wounded by Israeli fire near an aid point in central Gaza early Tuesday, and that another 25 were killed in a separate incident in south Gaza. "Every day we face this scenario: martyrs, injuries, in unbearable numbers," paramedic Ziad Farhat told AFP at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza. "Hospitals cannot accommodate the number of casualties arriving," he said. The latest deaths came as Israel's opposition leader and the families of Israeli hostages being held in Gaza called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to widen a ceasefire with Iran to include the Palestinian territory. Pressure also grew on the US- and Israeli-backed privately run aid group Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which was brought into the Palestinian territory at the end of May to replace United Nations agencies. The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) called the system an "abomination" while a spokesman for the UN human rights office, Thameen Al-Kheetan, condemned the "weaponization of food" in Gaza. According to figures issued on Tuesday by the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, at least 516 people have been killed and nearly 3,800 wounded by Israeli fire while seeking rations since late May. The territory of more than two million people is suffering from famine-like conditions after Israel blocked all supplies from early March to the end of May and continues to impose restrictions, according to human rights groups. The Israeli military said the reports of deaths near the Netzarim corridor were "under review." 'Tank shells' Gaza civil defense spokesman Bassal reported a first deadly shooting "with bullets and tank shells" near the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza where thousands of Palestinians gather each night for rations from a nearby GHF distribution point. The Israeli military later said that a crowd had been identified in an area "adjacent" to its troops. France condemned what it called deadly "Israeli fire" against civilians in a statement from the foreign ministry apparently referring to the Netzarim corridor incident. Witness Ribhi Al-Qassas told AFP that troops had "opened fire randomly" at a crowd he estimated at 50,000 people. The second incident took place in south Gaza about two kilometers from another GHF centre in Rafah governorate, Bassal said. "Israeli forces targeted civilian gatherings near Al-Alam and Al-Shakoush areas with bullets and tank shells," he told AFP. Israeli restrictions on media in the Gaza Strip and difficulties in accessing some areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by rescuers and witnesses in the Palestinian territory. "The weaponization of food for civilians, in addition to restricting or preventing their access to life-sustaining services, constitutes a war crime," Al-Kheetan said in Geneva. UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with GHF over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives. In a statement on Saturday, GHF said it was "delivering aid at scale, securely and effectively," but it acknowledged it "cannot meet the full scale of need while large parts of Gaza remain closed." GHF has denied responsibility for deaths near its aid points. On Monday, more than a dozen human rights organizations called on the organization to cease its operations, warning of possible complicity in war crimes. Ceasefire calls After Israel agreed to a ceasefire with Iran on Tuesday after a 12-day war, Netayahu faced renewed calls to agree a ceasefire with Hamas after more than 20 months of war in Gaza. "And now Gaza. It's time to finish it there too. Bring back the hostages, end the war," opposition leader Yair Lapid of the center-right Yesh Atid party wrote on X. Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel's war against Iran was "contributing to the successes in Gaza, but it will still take a bit more time." The October 2023 attack on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas that sparked the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Of the 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants in October 2023, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead. Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 56,077 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry. The United Nations considers its figures reliable. — Agence France-Presse
Egypt Independent
09-06-2025
- General
- Egypt Independent
Aid to Gaza hangs by a thread amid looting and starvation
CNN — Israel's blockade of Gaza may have been partially lifted – and a new US-backed plan to deliver aid has begun. But there are multiple indications that the plight of Gazans is rapidly worsening. Restrictions imposed by the Israeli military on aid routes, ongoing airstrikes, a lack of security and the continuous displacement of tens of thousands of people are aggravating an already alarming situation, according to the UN and other aid agencies. The supplies that do get in risk getting looted. 'People in Gaza are starving. This demands the urgent opening of all crossings and allowing unimpeded access for humanitarian organizations to deliver aid at scale, through multiple routes,' the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its latest assessment. One woman, Umm Zuhair, who was trying to get food for her family on Sunday at one of newly established aid distribution sites, told CNN: 'We're so hungry that we're willing to risk getting shot just for a kilo of flour.' The number of children in Gaza with acute malnutrition is rising, the UN reported Saturday, while a lack of fuel threatens to close hospitals that are still operating. The Israeli agency handling the inspection of aid going into Gaza, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), said Saturday that 350 trucks containing humanitarian aid had entered the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing in the last week – less than 20 per cent of the volume of goods getting into Gaza before the conflict. And even the aid that gets in frequently does not make it to the most desperate. UN agencies report continuing difficulties with getting distribution routes within Gaza agreed with the Israeli military. OCHA said that out of 16 truckloads ready for distribution last Thursday, five were rejected, including fuel and water, and six failed to reach their destination. Additionally, the looting of aid convoys in Gaza has risen sharply in recent weeks. 'Operations have faced unprecedented levels of insecurity and a very high risk of looting, with partners reporting that most looting incidents are conducted by desperate civilians,' according to OCHA. People carry relief supplies from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in central Gaza on Sunday. Eyad Baba/AFP/Getty Images Nahed Shehaibar, head of the Private Transport Association in Gaza, said on Saturday that transport of aid had been suspended 'for the third consecutive day due to repeated attacks on trucks, including gunfire that has damaged and put several trucks out of service.' Last week the association reported that one driver was killed and another injured while trying to deliver aid, but Shehaibar said on Sunday that 11 trucks of commercial goods had reached merchants in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza successfully. The distribution of aid through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the US and Israeli-backed aid initiative that started operating late last month, has been dogged by security issues. On Sunday, GHF said it operated three distribution sites – two in southern Gaza and one in central Gaza – to hand out more than 17,000 boxes of food. In addition, GHF said in its daily update that it gave more than 10,000 meals to community leaders north of Rafah in what the organization called a pilot test of 'direct-to-community distribution.' But many people who went to the Netzarim site in central Gaza left empty-handed. Mohammad Salim told CNN: 'I went at 6 a.m. and found nothing. What's happening is shameful. I'm holding an empty cardboard box – there's nothing inside, not even lentils.' He said some people took more than they needed and complained there was no ID-based distribution system, as operated by the UN. CNN has previously reported that GHF has no system in place to screen aid recipients. Nader Musleh, who had walked from Al-Mawasi several kilometers away, agreed. 'Some people took five or 10 boxes, and there's no organization at all,' he said. Mohammad Abu Akouz was one of several civilians who alleged that some people were injured after coming under Israeli tank fire as they made their way to the site. An Israeli military official told CNN that Israeli forces fired what they called 'warning shots' from an armored vehicle approximately a kilometer from the distribution site. The official said the area is an active war zone. GHF said it had been unable to open its sites on Saturday, accusing Hamas of making threats against its operations, including against drivers and Palestinian workers. It said the threats had made it impossible to proceed without putting innocent lives at risk. A driver familiar with the operation, who asked not to be named for security reasons, told CNN on Sunday that Hamas had 'threatened the bus drivers responsible for transporting workers to the three American aid distribution points, warning them not to continue the transfers.' The drivers had been scheduled to move 180 employees to the three distribution sites, he added. GHF said on Friday that it had distributed more than 140,000 boxes of food, with each box intended to feed a family for half a week. The boxes contain pasta, lentils and cooking oil, among other products. GHF says its goal is to distribute boxes containing enough food for 4.5 million meals each day. Palestinians pray during a funeral for those who were killed on their way to a Gaza aid hub at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza, on June 1. Abdel Kareem Hana/AP After last week's shootings, GHF appealed to people not to arrive at distribution points 'before the official opening time or gather near the gates ahead of schedule. This is for your safety and the safety of others.' The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Saturday in a post on X that gathering outside distribution centers outside of announced hours was 'strictly prohibited,' and warned that the areas around the aid hubs were closed military zones between 6 p.m. (11 a.m. ET) and 6 a.m. (11 p.m. ET). The UN says that the use of the Israeli and American-backed GHF has militarized aid distribution and is inadequate for the huge task of feeding families in Gaza. GHF has no presence in northern Gaza. In its latest assessment, OCHA said that 90 per cent of families in Gaza lack the cash needed to buy what little food remains available in markets. 'Meat, dairy, vegetables and fruit are nearly absent from people's diets,' it said. Half of the community kitchens in Gaza have been forced to stop cooking due to lack of supplies or displacement orders, according to OCHA. The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) – the main agency for supplying aid in Gaza – said Saturday that a nutrition study had found that the percentage of children under 5 suffering from acute malnutrition had risen from 4.7% in the first half of May to 5.8% in the second half of the month. UNRWA said the number of children forced to fend for themselves had pushed an increasing number into 'dangerous survival strategies. Children are reported working on the streets, participating in looting or gathering within large crowds in search of food supplies at insecure distribution points.' It's not just food that is running chronically short. Dr. Mohamed Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, told CNN on Sunday that the few hospitals in Gaza still operating 'will completely shut down within two days if fuel does not enter.' He added that 'a large number of the wounded cannot be treated due to the lack of blood supplies and medical equipment,' and medical staff faced difficult choices about which patients to save. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said Sunday that Al-Shifa Hospital and the Baptist Ahli Hospital, both in northern Gaza, were at risk of shutting down service within 24 hours. It said that would mean the collapse of what remains of the healthcare system in Gaza City. In the south, the Health Ministry said the Nasser Medical Complex was operating on a limited fuel supply that will last no more than two days.
The Citizen
08-06-2025
- Politics
- The Citizen
Gaza rescuers say Israeli fire kills 36, six near aid centre
Israel has come under increasing international criticism over the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. People carry relief supplies from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) as displaced Palestinians return from an aid distribution centre in the central Gaza Strip on 8 June 2025. Picture: Eyad Baba / AFP Gaza's civil defence agency said Saturday that Israeli forces had killed at least 36 Palestinians, six of them in a shooting near a US-backed aid distribution centre. The Israeli military told AFP that troops had fired 'warning shots' at individuals it said were 'advancing in a way that endangered the troops'. The shooting deaths were the latest reported near the aid centre run by the Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF) in the southern district of Rafah, and came after it resumed distributions following a brief suspension in the wake of similar deaths earlier this week. Meanwhile, an aid boat with 12 activists on board, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, was nearing Gaza in a bid to highlight the plight of Palestinians in the face of an Israeli blockade that has only been partially eased. Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that at around 7:00 am (04:00 GMT), 'six people were killed and several others wounded by the forces of the Israeli occupation near the Al-Alam roundabout', where they had gathered to seek humanitarian aid from the distribution centre around a kilometre away. AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls compiled by the civil defence agency or the circumstances of the deaths it reports. ALSO READ: French grandmother files genocide complaint over Gaza killings Samir Abu Hadid, who was there early Saturday, told AFP that thousands of people had gathered near the roundabout. 'As soon as some people tried to advance towards the aid centre, the Israeli occupation forces opened fire from armoured vehicles stationed near the centre, firing into the air and then at civilians,' Abu Hadid said. The GHF said in a statement it had not distributed aid on Saturday because of 'direct threats' from Hamas. Later Saturday, the Israeli army said an operation in Gaza City resulted in the killing of Asaad Abu Sharia, reportedly head of the Mujahideen Brigades. The armed group is close to Hamas ally Islamic Jihad that Israel has also accused over deaths of hostages seized from Kibbutz Nir Oz near the border. The army said he had taken part in the bloody attack on Nir Oz when Hamas launched its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. It said he was 'directly implicated' in the killings of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, a family who became a symbol of seized hostages for many in Israel. Activist boat nears Gaza The GHF, officially a private effort with opaque funding, began operations in late May as Israel partially eased a more than two-month-long aid blockade. UN agencies and major aid groups have declined to work with it, citing concerns it serves Israeli military goals. On Saturday, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said that the overall toll for the Gaza war had reached 54,772, the majority civilians. The UN considers these figures reliable. The war was sparked by Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures. READ MORE: SA calls for urgent probe after 32 Palestinians killed while waiting for food Israel has come under increasing international criticism over the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, where the UN warned in May that the entire population was at risk of famine. The aid boat Madleen, organised by an international activist coalition, was sailing towards Gaza on Saturday, aiming to breach Israel's naval blockade and deliver aid to the territory, organisers said. 'We are now sailing off the Egyptian coast,' German human rights activist Yasemin Acar told AFP, saying they expected to reach Gaza by Monday. The Palestinian territory was under Israeli naval blockade even before Hamas's October 2023 attack and the Israeli military has made clear it intends to enforce it. A 2010 commando raid on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, which was part of a similar attempt to breach Israel's naval blockade, left 10 civilians dead. Evacuation order The Israeli military has stepped up its operations in Gaza in recent weeks in what it says is a renewed push to defeat Hamas, whose October 2023 attack sparked the war. On Saturday, the military issued evacuation orders for neighbourhoods in northern Gaza, saying they had been used for rocket attacks. Also on Saturday, Hamas released a photograph of one of the remaining hostages, Matan Zangauker, appearing to be in poor health, with a warning that he would not survive. His mother, Einav Zangauker, speaking at a protest in Tel Aviv, said 'I can no longer bear this nightmare. The angel of death, Netanyahu, continues to sacrifice the hostages'. During the October 2023 attack, militants abducted 251 hostages, 55 of whom remain in Gaza, including 31 the Israeli military says are dead. NOW READ: Israel launches expanded Gaza offensive aimed at defeating Hamas
Scotsman
04-06-2025
- General
- Scotsman
Why Israeli PM is wrong about UK. We just want Gaza's children to be fed
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... When the invitation arrived, my first thought surprised and frightened me, more than a little. 'Would I be safe if I accepted the invitation to the event at the Israeli Embassy.' It is not something that has ever crossed my mind about any of the events I have been invited to as an MP in the eight years since I was elected. But it was there, and very real. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad I felt the same anxiety a few days ago when I heard of the murder of Israeli Embassy staff in Washington DC. Is anyone now safe? It is not that this outrage was any worse or any more deplorable than what we are seeing in Gaza, or the Israeli people experienced on October 7. A girl holds a container at a food distribution point in the Nuseirat camp for refugees in central Gaza Strip (Picture: Eyad Baba) | AFP via Getty Images Retribution upon restribution It has long passed the point where sufficient adjectives are available to encapsulate the horror. But this latest murder somehow felt like a harbinger of even worse to come, that the conflict is now way beyond the control or even influence of the international community. And in the Middle East, it seems that retribution upon retribution is being sought with ever worsening tactics. Food is now a weapon of war. Humanitarian aid is being used as some sort of means of controlling people who have been left with nothing else but to fight for life. For 12 weeks, Israel blocked aid to Gaza and while our government, and indeed all political parties, recognise that country's right to defend itself against Hamas, the situation has now gone far beyond that. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Last week the UK Government, together with France and Canada, warned that they were not prepared to 'stand by while the Netanyahu government pursues these egregious actions'. And that if the renewed military action and further expansion in the West Bank did not stop, they would 'not hesitate to take further action including targeted sanctions'. No place for Hamas There will be those who will say that it is too little, too late and that too many people have died, both Israelis and Palestinians. I know that I have felt that the pursuit of peace and the two-state solution which so many of us crave has been increasingly hopeless. And my frustrations that the Israeli government is not prepared to listen even to its own citizens who want an end to this war reached new heights with Netanyahu's reaction to that joint UK, French and Canadian statement. They had, he claimed, 'effectively said that they want Hamas to remain in power'. That is so far from the truth as to be nonsense. Every political party in this country, my own Liberal Democrats included, have made it abundantly clear that there can be no place for Hamas in the future of Gaza. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad We do want peace, for both the Palestinians and Israel. We also want an end to both the resultant Islamophobia and antisemitism which has reached previously unknown levels in this country. Perhaps more than anything else, I want to see the children of Gaza fed and the families of the hostages enjoy shabbat with their loved ones again.
