Latest news with #Gaza Strip
The National
a day ago
- Politics
- The National
Israeli army air strikes on Gaza kill at least 76 Palestinians
Israeli army air strikes on the Gaza Strip on Sunday killed more than 76 Palestinians, including at a market and a water distribution point, as talks for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas stalled. In one of the attacks, at least 15 people were killed in an Israeli army strike on a popular market in Gaza city's Al Daraj neighbourhood, official news agency Wafa reported. A surgeon at Al Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital, Dr Ahmed Qandil, was among the dead, medical sources said. Gaza's civil defence said more than 50 people were injured in the attack. A separate strike killed at least 10 people at a water distribution point in central Gaza, officials said. Al Awda Hospital said it received 10 bodies, including six children, as well as 16 injured people after Israeli warplanes struck the water distribution point north-west of Nuseirat camp. Seven children were among those injured. The Israeli army said it had intended to hit an Islamic Jihad militant in the area but a malfunction had caused the missile to fall "dozens of metres from the target". "The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians," it said, adding that the incident was under review. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has condemned the strike on the water distribution point and other attacks on hungry Palestinians seeking to get food from the aid distribution centres run by the US-baked Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Dozens others were killed in separate attacks on Gaza, Wafa said. A drone strike killed at least five people in the Al Mawasi area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Three were killed in a separate strike on tents housing displaced people near Al Fayrouz area in north-western Gaza city. Two were killed when Israeli warplanes struck a group of people in the Al Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza city. Gaza's Health Ministry said on Sunday that at least 58,026 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in the 21-month war that was caused by the Hamas -led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023 that killed about 1,200 people and saw the abduction of 251. Out of 251 people taken hostage that day, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 that the Israeli army says are dead. The war has displaced almost the entire population of more than 2.3 million people, caused a humanitarian crisis and left much of the territory in ruins. Seven UN agencies warned that a fuel shortage had reached 'critical levels', threatening aid operations, hospital care and already chronic food insecurity. The Israeli army on Saturday warned Gaza residents against entering the sea area along the enclave, saying security restrictions have been imposed. 'We urge fishermen, swimmers, and divers to refrain from entering the sea. Entering the sea along the strip puts you at risk,' spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X. Talks to agree a 60-day ceasefire in the fighting and hostage release were in the balance on Sunday after Israel and Hamas accused each other of trying to block a deal. Hamas wants the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, but a Palestinian source said Israel had presented plans to maintain troops in more than 40 per cent of the territory. The source said Israel wanted to force hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into the south of Gaza 'in preparation for forcibly displacing them to Egypt or other countries'. A senior Israeli official said Israel had demonstrated 'a willingness to flexibility in the negotiations, while Hamas remains intransigent, clinging to positions that prevent the mediators from advancing an agreement'. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is prepared to enter talks for a more lasting end to hostilities once a temporary truce is agreed, but only if Hamas disarms.
The National
a day ago
- Health
- The National
Israeli army air strikes on Gaza kill at least 50 Palestinians
Israeli army air strikes on the Gaza Strip on Sunday killed more than 50 Palestinians, including at a market and a water distribution point, as talks for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas stalled. In one of the attacks, at least 15 people were killed in an Israeli army strike on a popular market in Gaza city's Al Daraj neighbourhood, official news agency Wafa reported. A surgeon at Al Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital, Dr Ahmed Qandil, was among the dead, medical sources said. Gaza's civil defence said more than 50 people were injured in the attack. A separate strike killed at least 10 people at a water distribution point in central Gaza, officials said. Al Awda Hospital said it received 10 bodies, including six children, as well as 16 injured people after Israeli warplanes struck the water distribution point north-west of Nuseirat camp. Seven children were among those injured. Dozens others were killed in separate attacks on Gaza, Wafa said. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has condemned the strike on the water distribution point and other attacks on hungry Palestinians seeking to get food from the aid distribution centres run by the US-baked Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Gaza's Health Ministry said on Sunday that at least 58,026 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in the 21-month war that was caused by the Hamas -led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023 that killed about 1,200 people and saw the abduction of 251. Out of 251 people taken hostage that day, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 that the Israeli army says are dead. The war has displaced almost the entire population of more than 2.3 million people, caused a humanitarian crisis and left much of the territory in ruins. Seven UN agencies warned that a fuel shortage had reached 'critical levels', threatening aid operations, hospital care and already chronic food insecurity. The Israeli army on Saturday warned Gaza residents against entering the sea area along the enclave, saying security restrictions have been imposed. 'We urge fishermen, swimmers, and divers to refrain from entering the sea. Entering the sea along the strip puts you at risk,' spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X. Talks to agree a 60-day ceasefire in the fighting and hostage release were in the balance on Sunday after Israel and Hamas accused each other of trying to block a deal. Hamas wants the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, but a Palestinian source said Israel had presented plans to maintain troops in more than 40 per cent of the territory. The source said Israel wanted to force hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into the south of Gaza 'in preparation for forcibly displacing them to Egypt or other countries'. A senior Israeli official said Israel had demonstrated 'a willingness to flexibility in the negotiations, while Hamas remains intransigent, clinging to positions that prevent the mediators from advancing an agreement'. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is prepared to enter talks for a more lasting end to hostilities once a temporary truce is agreed, but only if Hamas disarms.
Malay Mail
a day ago
- Health
- Malay Mail
UN warns Gaza fuel crisis ‘critical', aid and health services on brink of collapse
GENEVA, July 13 — The United Nations warned yesterday that dire fuel shortages in the Gaza Strip had reached 'critical levels', threatening to further increase the suffering in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory. Seven UN agencies said in a joint statement that 'fuel is the backbone of survival in Gaza'. Fuel was needed to 'power hospitals, water systems, sanitation networks, ambulances, and every aspect of humanitarian operations', they said, highlighting that bakeries also needed fuel to operate. The besieged Palestinian territory has been facing dire fuel shortages since the beginning of the devastating war that erupted after Hamas's deadly attack inside Israel on October 7, 2023. But now 'fuel shortage in Gaza has reached critical levels', warned the agencies, including the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme and the humanitarian agency OCHA. 'After almost two years of war, people in Gaza are facing extreme hardships, including widespread food insecurity,' they pointed out. 'When fuel runs out, it places an unbearable new burden on a population teetering on the edge of starvation.' The UN said that without adequate fuel, the agencies that have been responding to the deep humanitarian crisis in a territory swathes of which have been flattened by Israeli bombing and facing famine warnings, 'will likely be forced to stop their operations entirely'. 'This means no health services, no clean water, and no capacity to deliver aid,' the statement said. 'Without adequate fuel, Gaza faces a collapse of humanitarian efforts,' it warned. 'Without fuel, bakeries and community kitchens cannot operate. Water production and sanitation systems will shut down, leaving families without safe drinking water, while solid waste and sewage pile up in the streets,' it added. 'These conditions expose families to deadly disease outbreaks and push Gaza's most vulnerable even closer to death.' The warning comes days after the UN managed to bring fuel into Gaza for the first time in 130 days. While a 'welcome development', the UN agencies said the 75,000 litres of fuel they were able to bring in was just 'a small fraction of what is needed each day to keep daily life and critical aid operations running'. 'The United Nations agencies and humanitarian partners cannot overstate the urgency of this moment,' they said. 'Fuel must be allowed into Gaza in sufficient quantities and consistently to sustain life-saving operations.' — AFP
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
59 Palestinians in Gaza killed by Israeli airstrikes or shot dead while seeking aid
At least 31 Palestinians were fatally shot on their way to an aid distribution site in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Palestinian hospital officials and witnesses said. The Israeli military said it had fired warning shots toward people it said were behaving suspiciously to prevent them from approaching.
Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Times
The IDF soldiers defying Netanyahu's expulsion zone in Gaza
When the Israeli soldier first entered Gaza, he believed the war was righteous. But with each passing deployment, Avshalom Zohar Sal's missions made less and less sense to him and the war goals grew murkier and murkier. 'What I saw the first time I entered was not what I encountered the second time, nor the third nor the fourth,' he said. 'Every time, Gaza looked different, the mission looked different, and my personal feelings were different.' The step that Sal, 28, then took has put him at the heart of an extraordinary power struggle in Israel. He and two friends, reservists serving in the war, hired lawyers to petition the High Court to rule on whether Israel's actions in Gaza nearly two years after the atrocities of October 7, 2023, had become a violation of international law. The appeal is a 'last resort' for the petitioners, who 'suspect that the leaders of the state and the army are asking them to be partner to a war that has forced displacement, forced transfer and even the expulsion of thousands, millions of citizens at its core'. At the same time Binyamin Netanyahu 's government was drawing up a plan to transfer part of the population of southern Gaza into an enclosed camp containing only vetted civilians. Anyone outside of the 'humanitarian city', which could include up to 600,000 people, would then be considered a terrorist and a potential target of Israeli fire. Two months after the petition was lodged, the office of Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, the chief of staff, issued his response last weekend, stating that the 'concentration and movement of the population are not part of the objectives of the war, and that the IDF certainly does not force the population to move inside or outside the Gaza Strip'. The refusal marked an unprecedented red line through the defence ministry's blueprint and reportedly led to a heated exchange between Zamir and Netanyahu during a war cabinet meeting. Israel's acknowledged war goals are to destroy Hamas and free the remaining hostages taken on October 7, when about 1,200 people were killed in Israel. 'If the mission is now, expulsion, occupation and Jewish settlement, like they are discussing, then it's an illegal one and I will not do it,' said Sal. 'This will either lead to an unprecedented confrontation between the army and state, the likes of which we've never seen before, or the army will bow and salute the order, and carry out a plan that will harm Israel for generations to come.' Gazans at al-Shifa hospital mourn relatives killed by Israeli bombing on Saturday MAJDI FATHI/NURPHOTO/SHUTTERSTOCK More than 56,000 people have died in the conflict, according to the Hamas-run health ministry and charities say that a large proportion of Gaza's 2.3 million people are at risk of starvation because of Israeli restrictions on food and medicine. A report based on interviews with soldiers by +972 Magazine in Israel said that civilian evacuations in Gaza are sometimes enforced by drones used to bomb civilians to force them to leave their homes or prevent them from returning to evacuated areas. Negotiations are continuing over a 60-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which would allow the release of some of the hostages still held in Gaza. It had been hoped that a deal would be struck last week. • Israel Katz, the defence minister, has said that he planned to use that time to build an encampment for civilians in the largely destroyed city of Rafah, where Israeli troops will remain stationed, one of the sticking points of the deal. It was Katz's earlier offer for Palestinians to 'voluntarily emigrate' with no return date, that persuaded Sal and his friends to submit their petition. The deadline for his ministry to issue a response passed on Thursday. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) say there is no disagreement between the government and the army. A senior general said that civilians would be moved according to international law the same way they have been moved throughout the war: by issuing evacuation orders to numbered blocks that correspond with certain areas and turning those areas into active combat zones, giving civilians 24-72 hours to clear out or else be considered an active threat. The transfer of the Gazan population is not a war goal, said Brigadier General Oren Solomon, because the war goal is to eliminate Hamas. But the way to do it is to separate the general population from the terrorists by building several camps. 'We don't go against the political directives. We act on them. The debate is over how it will happen, and we know that we can't just make one place. We understand that the humanitarian city can't take the entire population, so we must make a few like that,' Solomon said. ABDALHKEM ABU RIASH/ANADOLU/GETTY IMAGES The pilot plan is to move 600,000 Palestinians in the tent city of Al-Mawasi, a narrow strip of coastal land where thousands of homeless Palestinians reside. Israel says Hamas are hiding among the displaced civilians, and so Al-Mawasi must be cleared out and the civilians checked and moved to the 'sterile' zone with 'tents, water, medical care, food — all without being stolen by Hamas'. The plan has been discussed in the Israeli media, but there has been little reaction from mainstream society, which remains traumatised by October 7. 'The sentiment of the majority of the population are indifferent to the humanitarian situation in Gaza,' said Idit Shafran Gittleman, a former director of the military and society programme at the Israel Democracy Institute. 'Their main thought is, 'Don't give us October 7 again. Do whatever you need to do so we can live here without this fear of October coming again.'' She does not see a scenario where there is mass refusal to serve, nor a situation where the prime minister will sack the new army chief. If the plan is passed through the cabinet, the army must enact it. However, the legal apparatus — including a court ruling against the transfer brought on by Sal's petition — may stop the plan in its tracks. It has come at a personal cost for the educator and reservist, who is about to move in with his girlfriend to a kibbutz on the Gaza border. 'People will see this and call me a traitor from one side, and a Palestinian child killer on the other,' Sal said. 'No one thinks about this situation that I find myself in as an Israeli citizen. I am different from what the government purports to represent, that I possess values rooted in Judaism and Israel that are completely anti-war.'
