Latest news with #Kalashnikov-style
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Security breaks down in Gaza as desperate people search for food
There is a state of chaos, a breakdown of security, and looting in north Gaza's main city, where Palestinians are desperately searching for food and where aid is difficult to access. The Hamas-run interior ministry said seven of its police officers deployed to a market in Gaza City on Thursday were killed by an Israeli air strike as they attempted to restore order and confront what it called "looters". The Israeli military has not commented on the incident, but it did say it had struck "dozens of terror targets" throughout Gaza over the past day. Local medics and rescuers said at least 44 people were killed across the territory on Thursday, including 23 at the central Bureij refugee camp. It comes a day after the UN's World Food programme (WFP) said at least two people were shot dead as what it described as "hordes of hungry people" broke into its warehouse in the central town of Deir al-Balah in search of food after 11 weeks of a total Israeli blockade. It was not clear who opened fire. Almost 50 people were also reportedly shot and injured when thousands overran a new aid distribution centre run by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in the southern city of Rafah on Tuesday, according to a senior UN official in Gaza. The Israeli military said troops fired warning shots into the air but not at the crowds. On Thursday, interior ministry police officers armed with Kalashnikov-style rifles and handguns went to a market near Gaza City's central al-Saraya junction, which houses a number of small stalls selling canned food and vegetables. Videos circulating on social media, too graphic to share, show bodies, blood, and scattered remains lying on the ground following what the ministry said was an Israeli attack. "Israeli occupation aircraft targeted a number of police officers... while they were performing their duty in confronting a group of looters earlier today, leading to the martyrdom of several officers and civilians in yet another massacre," a statement said. The BBC sought comment from the Israeli military about the incident. A statement from the military on Thursday afternoon said aircraft had struck dozens of targets over the past day, including "terrorists, military structures, observation and sniper posts that posed a threat to [Israeli] troops in the area, tunnels, and additional terrorist infrastructure sites". There has been increased lawlessness in Gaza since Israel began targeting the Gaza interior ministry's police officers last year, citing their role in Hamas governance. After the territory's police chief and his deputy were killed in a strike in January, the ministry insisted the force was a "civilian protection agency". The Israeli military accused the force of "violating human rights and suppressing dissent". There were reports of a breakdown of order elsewhere in Gaza on Thursday, as desperate people searched for food and other supplies. One witness who had gone to a GHF aid distribution centre near Rafah told the BBC that thousands of people had gathered in the area from dawn, and that they ended up breaking through the site's gate to try to obtain supplies. At 08:00 local time, the witness said, the Israeli military issued a warning via a quadcopter drone instructing people to head to the distribution centre, and that they began moving in an orderly way towards the area. "For exactly 10 minutes, things were organised but then the crowd broke through the gate and rushed into the courtyard." "People grabbed boxes and sacks of flour and left, all under the surveillance of the Israeli quadcopter," they added. Footage from near the GHF site shows thousands of Palestinians walking near the centre on Thursday morning. Some are in horse-drawn carts, while others wheel bicycles covered with goods. Young men, for the most part, can be seen carrying sacks of flour on their heads and backs. One exhausted woman appears to struggle to walk among the crowd. Gaza warehouse broken into by 'hordes of hungry people', says WFP EU says Israeli strikes in Gaza 'go beyond what is necessary' to fight Hamas Dozens injured by Israeli gunfire as crowds overwhelmed Gaza aid site, UN says Abu Fawzi Faroukh, a 60-year-old Palestinian man who was at the site on Thursday morning, told AFP news agency that aid supplies were more difficult for the elderly and vulnerable to obtain. "The young men are the ones who have received aid first, yesterday and today, because they are young and can carry loads. But the old people and women cannot enter due to the crowding." "We have been humiliated, the Palestinian people are humiliated," he added. People described similar scenes at the newly opened GHF distribution site in central Gaza, with a number telling the BBC they had come away empty-handed. Umm Mohammed Abu Hajar said she had heard there was aid being distributed in the area, so took her ID and went to see what she could get. "I found all the people hungry," she said. "So, I couldn't get anything. I left like this... empty-handed." She said more organisation was needed in order to distribute aid "fairly", adding that currently, "some people eat and some people don't". Another man, Hani Abed, who was at the same distribution centre, said he'd failed to get any aid for him and his 10 family members. "I came empty-handed and I left empty-handed," he said. "I will take dirt for my children to eat." The GHF said approximately 17,280 food boxes, containing the equivalent of 997,920 meals, were handed out to Gazans at its three operational distribution sites on Thursday. "Operations will continue scaling, with plans to build additional sites across Gaza, including in the northern region, in the weeks ahead," it added. It also rejected the reports of Palestinians being shot at while trying to obtain aid at its centres. "No shots have ever been fired," it said. The GHF's new aid system bypasses the UN and requires Palestinians to collect food parcels from distribution sites protected by US security contractors in areas controlled by the Israeli military in southern and central Gaza. The UN has refused to co-operate with the system, saying it is unethical and workable. The head of the UN's humanitarian office in Gaza, Jonathan Whittall, said on Wednesday that GHF could not possibly meet the needs of the 2.1 million population and was "essentially engineering scarcity". The US and Israeli governments have said the new system is preventing aid from being stolen by Hamas, which the armed group denies doing. Israel imposed a total blockade on humanitarian aid and commercial supplies to Gaza on 2 March and resumed its military offensive two weeks later, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas. It said the steps put pressure on the armed group to release the 58 hostages still held in Gaza, at least 20 of whom are believed to be alive. On 19 May, the Israeli military launched an expanded offensive that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said would "take control of all areas" of Gaza. The following day, he said Israel would also temporarily ease the blockade and allow a "basic" amount of food in. The families of the remaining hostages have urged Netanyahu to agree a new ceasefire with Hamas to secure their release. On Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the Israeli government "supported" a new ceasefire proposal that was sent to Hamas by US special envoy Steve Witkoff. "Israel signed off on this proposal before it was sent to Hamas," she said. However, a senior Hamas official later told the BBC that the group rejected the proposal because it contradicted the discussions that it had with Witkoff. The official said it did not include guarantees that the temporary ceasefire would lead to a permanent end to the fighting or that Israeli troops would withdraw to the positions they held before 2 March. Israeli and US media cited Israeli officials as saying Witkoff's proposal included releasing 10 living hostages and the remains of dead hostages in two phases in exchange for a 60-day ceasefire and the release of a number of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response Hamas' cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. At least 54,249 people have been killed in Gaza since then, including 3,986 since Israel resumed its offensive, according to the territory's health ministry.
Local France
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Local France
Cars torched and bullet holes found outside French prisons
In recent months Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin and Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau have vowed to intensify the fight against narcotics and drug-related crime. 'All this appeared to have been coordinated and is clearly linked to the anti-drug gang strategy,' a source told AFP after the incidents recorded overnight to Tuesday. 'The republic is face to face with drug trafficking, and is taking measures that will seriously disrupt criminal networks,' Darmanin himself said on X, promising a 'firm and courageous' response from the government. According to prison staff union FO Justice, 'vehicles were torched, prison gates set on fire, and even targeted with heavy guns'. Three vehicles, including two belonging to prison staff, were set on fire in the car park of the Villepinte prison, north of Paris, a police source said. A fuel canister was found on site, and CCTV footage showed two individuals torching cars. Cars parked outside three other prisons – one near Paris and two in southern France – were also set on fire, another police source said. In a prison in Toulon, on France's southern coast, 15 bullet impacts were found on the front gate following an attack with a Kalashnikov-style assault weapon, FO Justice said. In a prison in nearby Aix, two vehicles were set on fire and the gate of the local ERIS prison surveillance unit was damaged, the union added. Advertisement Overnight Sunday to Monday, fires had already been set in the parking lots of a prison staff training centre and a prison near Paris, several sources said. 'These criminal acts are a full-on attack on our institution, on the republic and the staff who serve the republic every day,' FO Justice said, calling for a 'strong, clear response by the government'. Wilfried Fonck, national secretary for Ufap Unsa Justice, another union, told AFP that the prison system did not have enough staff to secure prison perimeters '24/7'. Anarchist slogans were found at some of the attack sites, and police are keeping all lines of investigation open, a source close to the case said.
Times of Oman
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Times of Oman
France: Several prisons targeted with wave of arson attacks
Paris: French Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Tuesday that several prisons in France were attacked overnight. He said the attacks seemed to be linked to government efforts to clamp down on drug trafficking. Darmanin said that prisons were being targeted with fire and even heavy weapons. "Prisons are facing intimidation attempts ranging from vehicle burning to automatic weapon fire," he posted on social media. Several facilities were attacked during the night into Tuesday, with officials saying that Toulon-La Farlede was targeted with heavy gunfire. "I am travelling to Toulon to support the officers involved," Darmanin said. "The Republic is facing drug trafficking and is taking measures that will profoundly disrupt criminal networks. It [France] is challenged and will be firm and courageous." According to a statement from the prison union FO Justice, "vehicles were burned, entrance doors set on fire, and even targeted by heavy weapons fire." At the Villepinte remand center in the Paris region, closed circuit footage showed two perpetrators entering the facility via an earth mound, each setting fire to a vehicle, with a third being damaged by the spread of the fire. Police sources said vehicles were also set alight at facilities in Nanterre near Paris and the two southeastern prisons of Aix-Luynes and Valence. At Toulon-La Farlede, 15 impacts were recorded on the facility's door after a "heavy weapon attack, Kalashnikov-style." From Sunday night into Monday, fires were also set in the parking lot of the National School of Penitentiary Administration (ENAP) and Raau prison in the Paris region. What prison unions are saying "These criminal acts are a frontal attack against our institution, against the Republic, and against the officers who serve it daily," FO Justice said. The union demanded "a strong, immediate, and unambiguous response from the state." Another union, UFAP Unsa Justice, told the AFP news agency that the prison administration did not have "the human resources to ensure 24-hour security around the facilities." Since his appointment, Darmanin has expressed his desire to isolate France's 100 biggest drug traffickers in a high-security prison. The French parliament is also currently reviewing a law to "free France from the trap of drug trafficking," which includes the creation of a National Prosecutor's Office for Organised Crime (PNACO).
The Independent
05-02-2025
- The Independent
Belgian police hunt for masked gunmen after shooting outside Brussels metro
Police in Belgium are hunting armed men after a shooting outside a metro station in the centre of Brussels on Wednesday morning. The incident took place outside Clémenceau station at around 6.15am just before the suspects fled into the metro tunnels. Footage, which has not been verified, showed two hooded gunmen firing Kalashnikov-style rifles outside the station before running off. Sarah Frederickx, of the Brussels South Local Police Service, said: "We are looking for several suspects. It is a small group, possible 2 or 3 people. 'They are possibly still armed, and we don't want to take any unnecessary risks. We understand that this is a far-reaching measure taken at a difficult time of the day. We will reopen the tunnels as quickly as possible'. Thousands of Belgians are facing travel delays as two major Metro lines were closed off during the manhunt on Wednesday. 'South Station is the busiest station on the network and there are also a lot of commuters that arrive there by train and take the metro there. 'As a result of this the impact is major. We don't know how long it will go on for,' public transport company MIVB's spokesperson Guy Sablon said. It comes after Sweden's worst mass shooting at a school left at least 11 people dead, including the gunman, on Tuesday. Armed police exchanged fire with an unnamed shooter at Risbergska School in Örebro, 125 miles west of Stockholm. Maria Pegado, 54, a teacher at the school, described hearing gunshots after someone opened the door and shouted at everyone to get out. "I took all my 15 students out into the hallway and we started running," she said. "Then I heard two shots but we made it out. We were close to the school entrance. I saw people dragging injured out, first one, then another. I realised it was very serious.'
