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Jordan Times
an hour ago
- Politics
- Jordan Times
Gaza civil defence says 14 killed by Israeli fire
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories — Gaza's civil defence agency said 14 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in four separate incidents on Wednesday, three of them near aid distribution sites. The territory has been in the grip of war for almost 22 months and now, according to a UN-mandated report, its two-million-plus inhabitants are facing an unfolding famine. Gaza's civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Basal said six people were killed by Israeli fire near an aid distribution centre northwest of Rafah. The Israeli military said it fired warning shots at a group of people who approached its troops hundreds of metres away from the aid centre and hours before its opening. The civil defence agency said two people were killed by Israeli fire while waiting for aid near Netzarim junction, while four were killed while waiting for aid near the Wadi Gaza bridge. The Israeli army acknowledged opening fire near an aid site in the central Gaza Strip, where both Wadi Gaza and Netzarim are located, but said its assessment was that there were no casualties. The civil defence agency said an air strike near the territory's sole Catholic church, the Church of the Holy Family in Gaza City, killed two people. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the agency and other parties. Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 60,034 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run government's health ministry. Since the weekend, Israel has observed a daytime pause in military operations on secure routes and in built-up areas to facilitate aid delivery and distribution. The move was announced amid an international outcry over the deepening hunger crisis facing Palestinian civilians.
BreakingNews.ie
5 hours ago
- Health
- BreakingNews.ie
Dozens more Palestinians killed by Israeli fire as war drags on
Israeli strikes and gunfire in the Gaza Strip have killed at least 46 Palestinians overnight into Wednesday morning, most of them among crowds seeking food, hospitals said. The dead include more than 30 people who were seeking humanitarian aid, according to a hospital that treated dozens of wounded people. Advertisement The Israeli military did not immediately comment on any of the strikes, but says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, because the group's militants operate in densely populated areas. Palestinians inspect the site where an Israeli strike hit in Muwasi, Khan Younis (Mariam Dagga/AP) The deaths came as the UK announced it would recognise a Palestinian state in September, unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, after a similar declaration by France's president. Israel's foreign ministry said that it rejected the British statement. The Shifa hospital in Gaza City said it received 12 people who were killed on Tuesday night when Israeli forces opened fire towards crowds waiting for aid trucks coming from the Zikim crossing in north-western Gaza. Thirteen others were killed in strikes in the Jabaliya refugee camp and the northern towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, the hospital said. Advertisement In the southern city of Khan Younis, the Nasser hospital said it received the bodies of 16 people it says were killed on Tuesday evening while waiting for aid trucks close to the newly built Morag corridor, which separates Khan Younis from the southernmost city of Rafah. The hospital received another body, of a man killed in a strike on a tent in Khan Younis, it said. The Awda hospital in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp said that it received the bodies of four Palestinians who it says were killed on Wednesday by Israeli fire close to an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in the Netzarim corridor area, south of the Wadi Gaza. Palestinians scramble for aid packages dropped into the Mediterranean Sea (Abdel Kareem Hana/AP) Seven more Palestinians, including a child, have died of malnutrition-related causes in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, the territory's health ministry said on Wednesday. A total of 89 children have died of malnutrition since the war began in Gaza. Advertisement The ministry said 65 Palestinian adults have also died of malnutrition-related causes across Gaza since late June, when it started counting deaths among adults. Hamas started the war with a militant-led attack on southern Israel on October 7 2023, killing around 1,200 people and abducting 251 others. They still hold 50 hostages, though Israel believes that more than half are dead. Most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Its count doesn't distinguish between militants and civilians. Advertisement The ministry operates under the Hamas government. The UN and other international organisations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.
The Independent
5 hours ago
- Health
- The Independent
At least 46 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire, Gaza hospitals say, as the war drags on
Israeli strikes and gunfire in the Gaza Strip killed at least 46 Palestinians overnight into Wednesday morning, most of them among crowds seeking food, local hospitals said. The dead include more than 30 people who were killed while seeking humanitarian aid, according to that treated dozens of wounded people. The Israeli military didn't immediately comment on any of the strikes, but says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, because the group's militants operate in densely populated areas. The deaths came as the United Kingdom announced that it would recognize a Palestinian state in September, unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, following a similar declaration by France's president. Israel's foreign ministry said that it rejected the British statement. The Shifa hospital in Gaza City said that it received 12 people who were killed Tuesday night when Israeli forces opened fire towards crowds awaiting aid trucks coming from the Zikim crossing in northwestern Gaza. Thirteen others were killed in strikes in the Jabaliya refugee camp, and the northern towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, the hospital said. In the southern city of Khan Younis, the Nasser hospital said it received the bodies of 16 people who it says were killed Tuesday evening while waiting for aid trucks close to the newly-built Morag corridor, which separates Khan Younis from the southernmost city of Rafah. The hospital received another body for a man killed in a strike on a tent in Khan Younis, it said. The Awda hospital in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp said that it received the bodies of four Palestinians who it says were killed Wednesday by Israeli fire close to an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF, in the Netzarim corridor area, south of the Wadi Gaza. In addtion, seven Palestinians, including a child, have died of malnutrition-related causes in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, the territory's health ministry said on Wednesday. A total of 89 children have died of malnutrition since the war began in Gaza. The ministry said that 65 Palestinian adults have also died of malnutrition-related causes across Gaza since late June, when it started counting deaths among adults. Hamas started the war with a militant-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people and abducted 251 others. They still hold 50 hostages, though Israel believes that more than half the remaining hostages are dead. Most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Its count doesn't distinguish between militants and civilians. The ministry operates under the Hamas government. The U.N. and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties. ___
Arab News
5 hours ago
- Health
- Arab News
At least 46 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire, Gaza hospitals say, as the war drags on
DEIR AL-BALAH: Israeli strikes and gunfire in the Gaza Strip killed at least 46 Palestinians overnight into Wednesday morning, most of them among crowds seeking food, local hospitals said. The dead include more than 30 people who were killed while seeking humanitarian aid, according to that treated dozens of wounded people. The Israeli military didn't immediately comment on any of the strikes, but says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, because the group's militants operate in densely populated areas. The deaths came as the United Kingdom announced that it would recognize a Palestinian state in September, unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, following a similar declaration by France's president. Israel's foreign ministry said that it rejected the British statement. The Shifa hospital in Gaza City said that it received 12 people who were killed Tuesday night when Israeli forces opened fire toward crowds awaiting aid trucks coming from the Zikim crossing in northwestern Gaza. Thirteen others were killed in strikes in the Jabaliya refugee camp, and the northern towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, the hospital said. In the southern city of Khan Younis, the Nasser hospital said it received the bodies of 16 people who it says were killed Tuesday evening while waiting for aid trucks close to the newly-built Morag corridor, which separates Khan Younis from the southernmost city of Rafah. The hospital received another body for a man killed in a strike on a tent in Khan Younis, it said. The Awda hospital in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp said that it received the bodies of four Palestinians who it says were killed Wednesday by Israeli fire close to an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF, in the Netzarim corridor area, south of the Wadi Gaza. In addtion, seven Palestinians, including a child, have died of malnutrition-related causes in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, the territory's health ministry said on Wednesday. A total of 89 children have died of malnutrition since the war began in Gaza. The ministry said that 65 Palestinian adults have also died of malnutrition-related causes across Gaza since late June, when it started counting deaths among adults. Israel's military offensive has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Its count doesn't distinguish between militants and civilians. The ministry operates under the Hamas government. The UN and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.
New York Times
7 hours ago
- Politics
- New York Times
A Corner of ‘Fake Peace' in Gaza, Torn Apart by an Israeli Strike
Some came to get Wi-Fi, some to hang out, one woman for 'me time,' just her and a good book. Al-Baqa Cafe sat facing the beach and the waves, away from the wreckage of Gaza City. There, it seemed almost possible to relax, to forget — if only for the space of a few cups of coffee. 'Everything about the place brought back memories, of safety, of life before,' said Mohammed Abu Shamala, 25, an aid worker who grabbed a table there last month with two friends. He had just started chatting with another friend when the place exploded. Chairs barreled through the air, he said. Dust blocked the sea from sight. Mr. Abu Shamala and his friend were slammed to the concrete floor, where blood was pooling. 'It felt like the world was pushing down on me from every direction,' he said later. 'I screamed, not because of the pain, but just to hear my own voice, to make sure I was still alive.' An Israeli warplane had bombed the cafe. The strike, on June 30, killed 32 people, Gaza's health ministry said. The Israeli military said it killed at least three Hamas operatives there, including a man it identified as the commander of Hamas's naval forces in northern Gaza and two it said belonged to the group's mortar unit. It did not provide evidence tying the men to Hamas. But the cafe contained many others: a cross-section of residents trying to feel human again for a few hours, which is to say, all kinds of people. Journalists there for the reliable internet. A young boxer making up with her best friend after an argument. A family having a birthday party for their little girl. Waiters chatting in the shade. They were all hit, new casualties of a war in which Israel has made it easier to order airstrikes on those it says are Hamas militants, even if it risks killing many civilians. Gaza health officials say the death toll has topped 60,000 Palestinians since Israel began striking the enclave in response to the October 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, which Israel says killed more than 1,200 people. The Gaza officials' figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Gaza health officials are also tracking a growing category: People who have starved to death. They say scores of people have died of malnutrition, including dozens of children, though aid workers say that is probably an undercount. It is not clear how many also had other illnesses. Al-Baqa Cafe was busy at the time of the strike on June 30, shortly before 3 p.m. It often was, partly for offering steady Wi-Fi, and partly because the Israeli military had not ordered the beach area evacuated recently, giving people the hopeful impression that it was safe. They were the latest to learn that no place in Gaza truly is. 'Now, instead of making drinks, we spent our time picking up human remains and wiping blood off the wooden walls,' said Yaqoub Al-Baqa, 35, the manager. 'It's beyond heartbreaking.' The quarter-century-old cafe had been closed for much of the war as Gaza City became a repeat battlefield and residents fled. But as families returned during the two-month cease-fire that had begun in January, the cafe reopened, serving tea, coffee, crepes, ice cream and pastries, and it stayed open after Israel broke the cease-fire in March. Many of the people there knew each other. They had been coming for years, claiming the same tables as if they, too, were old friends. Mr. Abu Shamala and his friends usually sat in the section for single men. But given recent drone strikes on other cafes, they felt safer in the so-called family section, where women could sit together or with men they knew. Walking in felt comfortingly familiar, he said. He waved hi to Ismail Abu Hatab, a well-known photojournalist and filmmaker, and Frans al-Salmi, an artist, before flagging down a waiter to order tea. Then he noticed Bayan Abusultan, a journalist friend he hadn't seen in two months. Ms. Abusultan had arrived at Al-Baqa that morning to read a book of Palestinian literary criticism and enjoy what she called a bit of 'fake peace,' she later wrote on Facebook. When she saw Mr. Abu Hatab and Ms. al-Salmi, she sat by them instead of in her usual spot, she wrote. They were filming a video for one of Mr. Abu Hatab's international exhibitions, and they had picked that table for the nice light, they told her. Mr. Abu Hatab was even better dressed that day than usual, she wrote, so she ribbed him gently: 'You've got a lot of money, man!' He denied it, laughing. In other exhibitions abroad, Mr. Abu Hatab, 33, had shown his photographs of displaced Gazans living among the ruins. He had wanted to become successful enough to be able to move his family out of Gaza, said his brother, Abdul Hakim Abu Hatab, 23. Instead, his earnings mostly went toward buying sacks of flour to feed his family. Ms. al-Salmi, 36, born Amna but called Frans by everyone, was also saving up money to someday travel and sell her paintings abroad, said her sister, Alaa al-Salmi, 24. Yet two days earlier, she had donated her whole month's salary from her job at an aid group to children who had lost their parents during the war, her sister said. 'She didn't leave a single shekel for herself,' her sister said. As Ms. Abusultan, the journalist, sat down after chatting with the two, she complimented a girl sitting nearby on her beautifully embroidered blouse. The girl was laughing with her friends, she recalled. Another table opposite her was more somber: Two women in their early 20s sat there quietly, a giant pink teddy bear gift-wrapped with pink ribbon in a chair next to them. Their names were Nidaa al-Mashharawi and Malak Musleh. Ms. al-Mashharawi worked at a charity for orphans. Ms. Musleh was a boxer with dreams of representing Palestine someday at international championships. She had been training since she was 14, ignoring social strictures that said girls shouldn't box, said Noor Musleh, 40, her mother. The usually inseparable best friends had recently had a spat, said Noor Musleh and Mohammad al-Mashharawi, 25, Ms. al-Mashharawi's brother. Ms. Musleh had called her friend the night before to make up. The teddy bear was her peace offering. But they started arguing again soon after arriving at Al-Baqa. Ms. al-Mashharawi stormed upstairs, her brother said. Ms. Musleh followed her, and they made peace again. At another table sat Naseem Abu Sabha, 25, and Ola Abed Rabou, 22, who had gotten engaged at a more hopeful time, during the cease-fire. They had picked a spot away from the other tables so they could talk privately, she said. To her surprise, her fiancé got her a cookie, a rare and expensive treat in Gaza these days. They dared to talk about what life might look like if they ever managed to leave Gaza. Maybe he could find a job abroad, he said. A blast, and he lay next to her on the ground, moaning in pain. Then he fell silent. Yet with blood staining only his back and right leg, 'I believed we would walk out of the hospital together,' she said. It was only after doctors treated her injured left leg that her parents delivered the news of his death. The Israeli military identified Mr. Abu Sabha as part of Hamas's mortar unit, but did not provide evidence when asked. His fiancée said he had belonged to Hamas in the past but left the group before the war. Ms. Abusultan, the journalist, was hurled to the ground alongside Mr. Abu Shamala, the friend she'd been chatting with, her book gone. A wave of shrapnel bloodied her face and body, she wrote. Looking right, she saw a severed leg. Then she looked at Ms. al-Salmi and Mr. Abu Hatab's table. The artist and the photographer were dead. So were the best friends. Also among those killed were eight workers, said Mr. Al-Baqa, the cafe's manager. They included Hadi and Moataz Abu Dan, 21- and 19-year-old brothers who had worked on and off at Al-Baqa since childhood. Mr. Al-Baqa said he did not believe the Israeli military's justifications for targeting the cafe. 'There's nothing military about this place,' he said. 'It's a cafe by the beach.' But when they reopened in a few weeks, he said, the staff would be careful to allow in only customers they knew. Mr. Abu Shamala, the aid worker who had come to unwind with friends, said he did not know if he could ever go back. 'That day changed me,' he said. 'Al-Baqa was once the calmest, safest corner of our lives. Now it's the darkest, most terrifying place in our memory.' Isabel Kershner and Adam Rasgon contributed reporting from Jerusalem.
