Latest news with #IsmailAlThawabta
LBCI
3 days ago
- Politics
- LBCI
Hamas says Israel is making 'aggressive' incursions into Gaza City
A Hamas official said Wednesday that Israeli forces were making "aggressive" incursions into Gaza City, after the military approved the framework for a new offensive in the territory. "The Israeli occupation forces continue to carry out aggressive incursions in Gaza City," Ismail Al-Thawabta, director general of the Hamas government media office in Gaza, told AFP. "These assaults represent a dangerous escalation aimed at imposing a new reality on the ground by force, through a scorched earth policy and the complete destruction of civilian property." AFP
Arab News
3 days ago
- Politics
- Arab News
Hamas says Israel making ‘aggressive' incursions into Gaza City
JERUSALEM: A Hamas official said Wednesday that Israeli forces were making 'aggressive' incursions into Gaza City, after the military approved the framework for a new offensive in the territory. 'The Israeli occupation forces continue to carry out aggressive incursions in Gaza City,' Ismail Al-Thawabta, director general of the Hamas government media office in Gaza, told AFP. 'These assaults represent a dangerous escalation aimed at imposing a new reality on the ground by force, through a scorched earth policy and the complete destruction of civilian property.' The assualt follows the Israeli military's announcement on Wednesday that it had approved the 'framework' for a new offensive in the Gaza Strip, days after the security cabinet called for the seizure of Gaza City. Armed forces chief Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir 'approved the main framework for the IDF's operational plan in the Gaza Strip,' a statement released by the army said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has not provided a precise timetable for when Israeli troops will enter the territory's largest city, where thousands have taken refuge after fleeing previous offensives. Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli air strikes on Gaza City have intensified in recent days, with the residential neighborhoods of Zeitoun and Sabra hit 'with very heavy air strikes targeting civilian homes, possibly including high-rise buildings.' News of the military's approval of the plan comes hours after Hamas said a senior delegation had arrived in Cairo for 'preliminary talks' with Egyptian officials on a temporary truce. The Netanyahu government's plans to expand the Gaza war after more than 22 months of fighting have sparked an international outcry as well as domestic opposition. 'These assaults represent a dangerous escalation aimed at imposing a new reality on the ground by force, through a scorched earth policy and the complete destruction of civilian property.' UN-backed experts have warned of widespread famine unfolding in the territory, where Israel has drastically curtailed the amount of humanitarian aid it allows in. Israel's offensive has killed at least 61,599 Palestinians, according to figures from the health ministry in Gaza which the United Nations considers reliable.
UAE Moments
14-07-2025
- Politics
- UAE Moments
Israel Bans Palestinians in Gaza from Swimming and Fishing
The Israeli military issued formal orders on Monday, July 14, declaring Palestinian entry into Gaza's coastal waters strictly prohibited. The ban covers swimming, fishing, and diving, and warns that any violations will be met with force by Israeli forces. During Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, more than 6,000 people, the majority of them fishermen, have effectively lost their jobs and sources of food. The fishing sector, once producing around 3,500 tonnes a year, has dropped to zero. Nearly all boats and equipment have been destroyed, and over 210 people from this sector have been killed since October 2023, including at least 60 fishermen. Gaza's fishing port has been destroyed, and all maritime activity has been stopped because of the genocide. Gaza's Government Media Office, led by director general Ismail Al‑Thawabta, condemned the ban as a violation of international law. He described it as a deliberate starvation tactic targeting Gaza's livelihood, undermining the right to work and live with dignity, and amounting to collective punishment under the Fourth Geneva Convention and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. As the enclave endures shortages of food, clean water, fuel, and electricity under a broader blockade, the maritime ban marks yet another devastating blow. With no safe space left on land or at sea, more than two million Palestinians in Gaza are stripped of one of the few existing freedoms and sources of survival. This article was previously published on kuwaitmoments. To see the original article, click here
Al Jazeera
20-06-2025
- Health
- Al Jazeera
At least 35 killed in new Israeli attack on Gaza aid seekers
At least 35 Palestinians have been killed and several others wounded by Israeli fire while waiting for humanitarian aid near the Netzarim Corridor, in the central Gaza Strip, sources at al-Awda Hospital told Al Jazeera. Israeli jets also bombed a house west of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, killing at least eight people and injuring more. Hospitals in Gaza said at least 50 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli army on Friday. Israeli attacks on hungry Palestinians near aid centres have killed hundreds of people since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) started distributions on May 27. The shadowy Israeli- and United States-backed group tasked with distributing aid supplies has been criticised by the United Nations for its 'failure' to ensure the safe delivery of supplies in Gaza, where aid agencies have warned that the entire population is facing the threat of famine after Israel imposed a total blockade from early March to late May. Ismail al-Thawabta, the director-general of Gaza's Government Media Office, said on Thursday that the total number of aid seekers killed stood at 409, and 3,203 more had been injured. UNICEF warned the Gaza Strip was also facing a man-made drought as its water systems collapsed. 'Children will begin to die of thirst,' spokesperson James Elder told reporters in Geneva on Friday. 'Just 40 percent of drinking water production facilities remain functional.' The UN agency warned that the GHF distribution system was 'making a desperate situation worse'. Elder, who was recently in Gaza, said he had many testimonials of women and children injured while trying to receive food aid, including a young boy who was wounded by a tank shell and later died of his injuries. He said a lack of public clarity on when the sites, some of which are in combat zones, were open was causing mass casualty events. 'There have been instances where information [was] shared that a site is open, but then it's communicated on social media that they're closed, but that information was shared when Gaza's internet was down and people had no access to it,' he said. On Wednesday, the GHF said in a statement it had distributed three million meals across three of its aid sites without an incident.
Daily Mail
27-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Thousands of Palestinians storm aid distribution sites in Gaza, with fences torn down amid desperate bid for food
Thousands of Palestinians on Tuesday stormed into sites where aid was being distributed by a foundation backed by the U.S. and Israel. In the southern city of Rafah, which is under full Israeli army control, thousands of people including women and children, some on foot or in donkey carts, flocked towards one of the distribution sites to receive food packages. A heartbreaking video shows swarms of people walking through a wired-off corridor and into a large open field where aid was stacked. Some of the recipients showed the content of the packages, which included some rice, flour, canned beans, pasta, olive oil, biscuits and sugar. Later, images on social media showed large parts of the fence torn down as people jostled their way onto the site. Israel and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said, without providing evidence, that Hamas had tried to block civilians from reaching the aid distribution centre. Hamas denied the accusation. 'The real cause of the delay and collapse in the aid distribution process is the tragic chaos caused by the mismanagement of the same company operating under the Israeli occupation's administration in those buffer zones,' Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, told Reuters. 'This has led to thousands of starving people, under the pressure of siege and hunger, storming distribution centres and seizing food, during which Israeli forces opened fire,' he added. By late afternoon on Tuesday, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said it had distributed about 8,000 food boxes, equivalent to about 462,000 meals, after an almost three-month Israeli blockade of the war-devastated enclave. Although the aid was available on Monday, Palestinians appeared to have heeded warnings, including from Hamas, about biometric screening procedures employed at the foundation's aid distribution sites. 'As much as I want to go because I am hungry and my children are hungry, I am afraid,' said Abu Ahmed, 55, a father of seven. 'I am so scared because they said the company belongs to Israel and is a mercenary, and also because the resistance (Hamas) said not to go,' he said in a message on the chat app WhatsApp. Israel says the Switzerland-based GHF is a U.S.-backed initiative and that its forces will not be involved in the distribution points where food will be handed out. But its endorsement of the plan, which resembles Israeli schemes floated previously, and its closeness with the U.S. has led many to question the neutrality of the foundation, including its own former chief, who resigned unexpectedly on Sunday. The Israeli military said four aid sites have been established in recent weeks across the enclave The Israeli military said four aid sites have been established in recent weeks across the enclave, and that two of them in the area of Rafah began operations on Tuesday and 'are distributing food packages to thousands of families in the Gaza Strip.' The GHF said the volume of people seeking aid at one distribution site was so great at one point on Tuesday that its team had to pull back to allow people to 'take aid safely and dissipate' and to avoid casualties. It said normal operations had since resumed. Israeli officials said one of the advantages of the new aid system is the opportunity to screen recipients to exclude anyone found to be connected with Hamas. Humanitarian groups briefed on the foundation's plans say anyone accessing aid will have to submit to facial recognition technology that many Palestinians fear will end up in Israeli hands to be used to track and potentially target them. Details of exactly how the system will operate have not been made public. The United Nations and other international aid groups have boycotted the foundation, which they say undermines the principle that humanitarian aid should be distributed independently of the parties to a conflict, based on need. 'Humanitarian assistance must not be politicised or militarised,' said Christian Cardon, chief spokesperson of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Israel, at war with Gaza's dominant Hamas militant group since October 2023, imposed the blockade in early March accusing Hamas of stealing supplies and using them to entrench its position. Hamas has denied such accusations. Displaced Palestinians receive food packages from a US-backed foundation pledging to distribute humanitarian aid in western Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 27 Men look around on alert in the wake of gunfire shots as displaced Palestinians receive food packages from a US-backed foundation pledging to distribute humanitarian aid in western Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 27, 2025 Displaced Palestinians receive food packages from a US-backed foundation pledging to distribute humanitarian aid in western Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip A youngster carries food aid as Palestinians seeking aid gather near an aid distribution site run by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Hamas, which has in recent months faced protests by many Palestinians who want the devastating war to end, has also warned residents against accessing GHF sites, saying Israel was using the company to collect intelligence information. The launch of the new system came days after Israel eased its blockade, allowing a trickle of aid trucks from international agencies into Gaza last week, including World Food Programme vehicles bringing flour to local bakeries. But the amount of aid that has entered the densely populated coastal enclave has been just a fraction of the 500-600 trucks that U.N. agencies estimate are needed every day. 'Before the war, my fridge used to be full of meat, chicken, dairy, soft drinks, everything, and now I am begging for a loaf of bread,' Abu Ahmed told Reuters via a chat app. As a small aid flow has resumed, Israeli forces - now in control of large parts of Gaza - have kept up attacks on various targets around the enclave, killing 3,901 Palestinians since a two-month-old ceasefire collapsed in mid-March, according to the Gaza health ministry. In all, more than 54,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's air and ground war, Gaza health authorities say. It was launched following a cross-border Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023 that killed some 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
