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Qatar Tribune
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Qatar Tribune
Israel attacks kill 32 Palestinians waiting for food at Gaza aid sites
Agencies Gaza Israel has killed at least 32 Palestinians waiting to get food at two aid distribution sites in Gaza, leaving more than 200 others injured. Israeli tanks opened fire on thousands of civilians gathered at a distribution site in southern Gaza's Rafah on Sunday morning, killing at least 31 people, according to Gaza's Government Media Office. Soon after, another person was killed in a shooting at a similar distribution point south of the Netzarim Corridor in Gaza City, it said in a statement on Telegram. The aid is being distributed by Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a controversial group backed by Israel and the United States, which has completed a chaotic first week of operations in the enclave. The United Nations and other aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, accusing it of lacking neutrality and suggesting the group has been formed to enable Israel to achieve its stated military objective of taking over all of Gaza. 'Aid distribution has become a death trap,' the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, said in a statement on Sunday. The Israeli military said in a statement that its forces did not fire at civilians near or within the site, citing an initial inquiry. 'In recent hours, false reports have been spread, including serious allegations against the [Israeli military] regarding fire toward Gazan residents in the area of the humanitarian aid distribution site in the Gaza Strip,' the army said. The GHF had earlier told The Associated Press news agency that Israeli soldiers fired 'warning shots' as Palestinians gathered to receive food. However, Ibrahim Abu Saoud, who witnessed the attack on aid seekers in Rafah, told AP that Israeli forces opened fire on people as they moved towards the distribution point. The 40-year-old said the crowd was about 300 metres (328 yards) away from the military. He said he saw many people with gunshot wounds, including a young man who died at the scene. 'We weren't able to help him,' Abu Saoud said. Al Jazeera's Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said Palestinians are being killed while trying to secure 'one meal for their children'. 'This is why Palestinians have been going to these distribution points, despite the fact that they know that they are controversial. The distribution points are backed by the US and Israel, but they do not have any other option,' she said. 'Even the food parcels that were distributed to Palestinians are barely enough. We are talking about one kilo of flour, a couple of bags of pasta, a couple of cans of fava beans – and it's not nutritious. It's not enough for a family in Gaza nowadays.' Condemning the attacks, the Government Media Office described the GHF distribution sites as 'mass death traps, not humanitarian relief points'. 'We confirm to the entire world that what is happening is a systematic and malicious use of aid as a tool of war, employed to blackmail starving civilians and forcibly gather them in exposed killing points, managed and monitored by the occupation army and funded and politically covered by … the US administration,' it said in a statement. Speaking from Gaza City, Bassam Zaqout of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society said the current aid distribution mechanism had replaced 400 former distribution points with just four. 'I think there are different hidden agendas in this aid distribution mechanism,' he told Al Jazeera. Palestinian group Hamas, which runs the enclave's government, released a statement, saying the Israeli shootings were a 'blatant confirmation of premeditated intent' as it held Israel and the US fully responsible for the killings. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said the killings were a 'full-fledged war crime' and demanded international intervention to 'stop this ongoing massacre and impose strict accountability mechanisms'.
Saba Yemen
13 hours ago
- Politics
- Saba Yemen
Government Media Office: "Zionist Enemy circulates fabricated video to cover up Rafah Massacre"
Gaza - SABA The Government Media Office in Gaza stated on Sunday that the Zionist enemy army's release of a "fabricated and misleading" video constitutes an attempt to cover up its massacre of civilians near so-called "Israeli-American humanitarian aid distribution centers" in Rafah city, which left 31 civilians martyred and 200 injured. In a press statement, the Office noted that "releasing the video over 15 hours after the massacre confirms it's part of a calculated media campaign to absolve the enemy," questioning: "If reconnaissance aircraft filmed the incident, why wasn't it released immediately?" The statement dismissed the enemy's claims about "local gunmen firing at crowds" as "blatant lies," contradicting survivor testimonies and field evidence confirming victims were hit by direct enemy gunfire in areas under full enemy control, with no crossfire. The Office revealed the published footage was filmed in eastern Khan Younis—not western Rafah where the massacre occurred—showing staged chaos involving "local gangs known for ties with the enemy" who looted aid and fired randomly to sow panic, creating pretexts for the enemy's subsequent shootings. The video's inclusion of "flour bags" exposes its fabrication, the statement added, as the purported "Israeli-American aid" contains no flour but consists of materials stolen from international organizations like the "Rahma" foundation. The statement further rejected enemy allegations about Hamas obstructing aid, stressing that for over 90 days, the enemy has systematically blocked aid flows, closed crossings, targeted trucks, and disrupted humanitarian coordination as part of its starvation and genocide policy. It recalled the enemy's repeated use of pre-edited fake footage to justify crimes, including recent claims about "armed militants" in UNRWA schools where all casualties were civilians. The Office concluded that the video cannot whitewash a documented crime—shooting starving civilians seeking sustenance—emphasizing that "Rafah massacres stand as evidence of mass murder no dark, fabricated video can erase." The enemy resumed its intensified aggression and siege on Gaza at dawn on March 18, 2025, violating a two-month ceasefire agreement effective since January 19. Whatsapp Telegram Email Print
Saba Yemen
17 hours ago
- Health
- Saba Yemen
British surgeon describes "Real Massacre" at aid distribution center in Gaza
Gaza – Saba: British surgeon Victoria Rose described the situation at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on Sunday as the result of a "real massacre" after the hospital received dozens of wounded following an Israeli attack on Palestinians at an aid distribution site in Rafah. In a short video shared by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza on its Facebook account, the British surgeon, working in the emergency department of the medical complex, said: "This morning, Sunday, gunfire broke out at an aid distribution center run by the so-called 'Gaza Humanitarian Foundation' in Rafah, southern Gaza. A large number of wounded were transported to local field hospitals." Dr. Rose explained that Nasser Medical Complex received a significant number of casualties, stating that local sources reported around 200 people injured by live ammunition. She added, "The situation here is a real massacre." Earlier, the Government Media Office in Gaza announced in a statement that 32 Palestinians were killed and more than 250 others injured, including dozens in critical condition, since early Sunday morning in Rafah. Earlier on Sunday, Gaza's Health Ministry stated that "every martyr who arrived at the hospitals had been shot with a single bullet to the head or chest, confirming the enemy's intent to carry out direct and horrific killings of civilians." With American and European support, the Israeli enemy army has been committing genocidal crimes in Gaza since October 7, 2023, resulting in the deaths of 54,418 Palestinian citizens, the majority of whom are children and women, and injuring 124,190 others—figures that are not yet final. Thousands of victims remain trapped under rubble or in the streets, unreachable by rescue and medical teams. Whatsapp Telegram Email Print more of (International)
New Indian Express
a day ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Israel attacks starving Palestinians at aid distribution site, kills at least 30; UN calls Gaza 'hungriest place on earth'
Israel on Saturday attacked starving Palestinians who gathered near an aid distribution point set up by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in Rafah and killed at least 30 people and wounded more than 120. In a statement, the Government Media Office in Gaza said the killings "reflect the nature of these areas as mass death traps, not humanitarian relief points." 'We confirm to the entire world that what is happening is a systematic and malicious use of aid as a tool of war, employed to blackmail starving civilians and forcibly gather them in exposed killing points, managed and monitored by the occupation army and funded and politically covered by the occupation and the US administration, which bears full moral and legal responsibility for these crimes,' the statement read. The GMO said that at least 39 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's attacks on the newly established US-backed aid sites in less than a week. The toll doesn't include the 17 people killed on Saturday. The Palestinian Centre for Missing and Forcibly Disappeared Persons on Friday raised an alarm regarding Palestinians vanishing from the aid sites set up by the Israeli army after Israel's three-month long blockade of humanitarian assistance pushed the entire population of Gaza into a famine like situation, starving at least 57 people to death, mostly children including infants.
Saba Yemen
3 days ago
- Politics
- Saba Yemen
Gaza Government Media Office: Health & Humanitarian Situation in Gaza reaches total collapse
Gaza – SABA: The Government Media Office in the Gaza Strip has declared that the health and humanitarian situation in the territory has reached a stage of total collapse due to the ongoing policies of genocide carried out by the Israeli occupation. Ismail Al-Thawabta, Director General of the Media Office, told the Palestinian Safa news agency on Friday that Gaza is facing a catastrophic food crisis and famine as Israel systematically prevents the entry of food, resulting in actual cases of starvation. He explained that the absence of hygiene and the leakage of sewage have led to the spread of epidemics and skin and digestive diseases in overcrowded shelter centers. Al-Thawabta added that the near-total destruction of water and electricity infrastructure has rendered basic services unavailable to the majority of the population. He stressed that this situation constitutes not only a humanitarian catastrophe but an ongoing crime against humanity that amounts to genocide under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. He noted that Israel has deliberately committed massacres against Palestinian civilians and families in Gaza, with over 15,000 massacres reported since the start of the genocide campaign. Among these, 14,000 families have been subjected to massacres, with 2,483 families completely erased from the civil registry, totaling 7,120 martyrs. Additionally, 5,620 families were mostly wiped out, leaving only one survivor in each, with a death toll of 10,151 martyrs. 'This pattern of targeting clearly reflects a genocidal intent and contradicts the rules of international humanitarian law, particularly the four Geneva Conventions, which prohibit attacks against civilians and protected families,' Al-Thawabta stated. Regarding hospital attacks, he emphasized that the systematic targeting of hospitals, shelters, and the killing of children is not random, but part of a deliberate strategy to inflict maximum pain and destruction for multiple objectives. These objectives, according to Al-Thawabta, include depopulating the land through mass killings of children and families to force displacement, dismantling societal resilience structures including the healthcare system, shelters, schools, mosques, and churches, and paralyzing humanitarian and medical efforts to increase death tolls and deepen the catastrophe. These acts aim to use suffering as a political bargaining tool, which is in blatant violation of international law. He pointed out that under Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, targeting protected medical and humanitarian facilities constitutes a clear war crime. Al-Thawabta confirmed that since March 18, the pace of Israeli crimes has seen a bloody escalation aimed at enforcing a 'surrender or genocide' equation before summer, using starvation and brutal bombardment as pressure tools. This includes the destruction of what remains of community infrastructure in Rafah – the last refuge for hundreds of thousands of displaced people – where a major massacre occurred. The escalation also aims to create a state of total shock to obstruct any political or field solutions, enforce new realities on the ground, and attempt a final forced displacement from Gaza – all in direct violation of international law and amounting to a crime of mass deportation. Al-Thawabta highlighted the catastrophic outcomes of this escalation, including over 5,500 civilian deaths in just two months and the destruction of thousands of tents and shelter centers in southern Gaza, including the so-called 'safe zone.' This also included attacks on rescue teams and field hospitals, rendering the remaining humanitarian response systems inoperative. He concluded by asserting that what is happening in Gaza is not just a military assault, but a described and systematic act of genocide being perpetrated by the occupying forces amid a disgraceful international silence and absence of accountability. Al-Thawabta called on relevant international bodies, particularly the International Criminal Court and the United Nations, to act immediately to halt this genocide and hold its perpetrators accountable. Whatsapp Telegram Email Print more of (International)
