Latest news with #Khoudary
Qatar Tribune
3 days ago
- Politics
- Qatar Tribune
Starving Palestinians flee as Israel intensifies attacks on Gaza City
Agencies Gaza Israel's military has stepped up attacks on Gaza City as part of its expanded operations aimed at seizing the last major population centre in the enclave, forcing tens of thousands of starving Palestinians to flee again. The Gaza City neighbourhoods of Zeitoun, Sabra, Remal and Tuffah have particularly borne the brunt of the Israeli bombardments in recent days as a spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Israel's plans to forcibly displace Palestinians to southern Gaza would increase their suffering. Thousands of families have fled Zeitoun, where days of continuous strikes have left the neighbourhood devastated. At least seven people were killed on Sunday when an Israeli air strike hit Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City. Also on Sunday, the Israeli military said tents and equipment to erect shelters will be provided to the Palestinians who have been displaced multiple times in 22 months of war, which has been called an act of genocide by multiple rights organisations. Al Jazeera's Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said artillery fire and air raids have forced many from their homes. 'The Zeitoun neighbourhood is a very densely populated area, home to many families, including those who have been sheltering there. Residents were surprised when the artillery shelling and the intensive air raids started. Some people stayed. Others started moving. As the violence escalated, many were forced to evacuate – hungry, devastated and displaced yet again, leaving behind everything they had,' Khoudary said. Israel last week announced plans to push deeper into Gaza City and remove its residents to the south, a move that has drawn international condemnation. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, said civilians would be moved to 'safe zones' even though these areas have also been repeatedly bombed. Nearly 90 percent of the 2.4 million Palestinians in Gaza remain displaced, and an overwhelming number of them are now facing starvation. At least seven more Palestinians died of starvation in Gaza in 24 hours, Gaza's Ministry of Health said on Sunday, raising the war's hunger-related death toll to 258, including 110 children, as a result of Israel's ongoing siege of the enclave. On Sunday, Israel killed nearly 40 Palestinians, half of them aid seekers, taking the total number of Palestinians killed since the war began in October 2023 to 61,827.
Days of Palestine
04-07-2025
- Health
- Days of Palestine
Rotten Aid and Toxic Flour: Gaza Families Expose Contaminated Food Deliveries
DaysofPal – In Gaza, where hunger has become a daily torment and survival a test of endurance, families are now forced to sift through bags of rotting flour crawling with worms, the only food they have left. One family recently documented the contents of an aid parcel: flour infested with mold, insects, and weevils. With no other option, they sat on the floor, picking through the filth by hand, not to cook a meal, but to salvage something vaguely edible for their children. Al Jazeera correspondent Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, described the aid packages as inadequate and deeply insufficient. 'The parcels I've seen from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation contain only a meager amount of food that will not feed a family for long and is not nutritious enough,' she said. A typical box, she noted, included just 4 kg of flour, a couple of bags of pasta, two cans of fava beans, tea bags, some biscuits, and small portions of lentils and soup. 'This is not enough,' Khoudary added. 'And it is not worth the humiliation that Palestinians are enduring just to receive these parcels. We're talking about nearly three months without chicken, without meat, without nutritious food, and that's why most people coming to the hospital now are malnourished Palestinian children.' The crisis deepened further after Gaza's government media office announced that narcotic pills were discovered inside bags of flour distributed through so-called 'American-Israeli aid centers.' Authorities described the discovery as a deliberate attempt to destabilize Palestinian society from within. 'What happened is not a mere violation, but an organized crime,' the statement read. 'This is a psychological and moral war, targeting the resilience of Gaza's population and seeking to sow addiction in a society already under siege.' The statement held Israel fully responsible for what it called a 'calculated insertion of toxic substances into humanitarian aid' and urged residents to exercise extreme caution when handling any incoming foodstuffs. Gaza's media office has called on international bodies to investigate and act, warning that the systematic degradation of aid into a tool of psychological warfare constitutes a grave breach of humanitarian norms. Shortlink for this post:
Al Jazeera
25-03-2025
- Health
- Al Jazeera
Children among 62 killed as Israel pounds Gaza from north to south
Renewed Israeli bombardments across the Gaza Strip have killed dozens of Palestinians, including children, as the Israeli army has issued a new round of forced displacement orders across the besieged territory. In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, the Ministry of Health in Gaza said at least 62 people were killed in Israeli attacks over the past 24-hour reporting period. At least 23 people, including seven children, were killed in overnight attacks, according to medical sources. Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera's Hind Khoudary said different areas across the Strip were under heavy artillery shelling and air attacks. In southern Gaza, at least five Palestinians were killed in attacks that hit two tents sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis, she said. Another eight Palestinians were killed in an attack on a residential home in Bureij in central Gaza while more attacks were reported in northern areas, including in Gaza City and Jabalia. In Beit Lahiya, also in the north, an Israeli attack killed at least three Palestinians, including a three-year-old girl. 'There have been continuous air strikes on civilians' homes and where Palestinians are sheltering,' Khoudary said. After the latest attacks, Hamas issued a statement denouncing the 'horrific massacres' and urged the international community to rein in Israel, which last week broke a two-month ceasefire with the Palestinian group. Since it renewed its bombardment on Gaza on March 18, the Israeli army has killed 792 people, including hundreds of children, and wounded 1,663, according to the Health Ministry. Amid a total aid blockade, tens of thousands of people have also been forced to flee once again, just weeks after returning following the start of the ceasefire on January 19. In its latest round of forced displacement orders, the Israeli army on Tuesday warned of new attacks in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoon and Shujayea in Gaza City, saying rockets had been fired towards Israel from the northern area. Other orders were also issued for Khan Younis and Rafah in the south. A number of aid groups and United Nations agencies have long said there are no safe areas in Gaza as Israeli-designated 'humanitarian zones' and shelters have repeatedly come under Israeli attack. The international charity Save the Children on Tuesday called the resumption of the war 'a death sentence' for children in besieged Gaza. 'Children are being killed in their sleep in tents. They are being starved and attacked. The only way to ensure children and families are protected is through a definitive ceasefire,' it said. Nearly 18 months of Israeli attacks have killed more than 50,000 people and wounded about 113,000, according to the Health Ministry, while thousands more are missing under the rubble of destroyed buildings and presumed dead. The Israeli war began after Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, led to an estimated 1,139 people being killed and about 250 taken captive. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the renewed offensive aims to pressure Hamas into releasing the remaining 59 captives who are being held in Gaza. About 24 of them are believed to still be alive. Hamas says it wants Israel to abide by what it agreed on when it signed the January ceasefire, including holding talks on ending the war permanently in exchange for the release of the remaining captives.
Al Jazeera
24-03-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Israeli strike on Gaza hospital kills Hamas leader, teen, officials say
An Israeli air strike on a hospital in southern Gaza has killed at least two people, including a senior Hamas official and a 16-year-old boy, Hamas and health officials have said. Ismail Barhoum, a member of Hamas's political bureau, was killed while undergoing treatment at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis late on Sunday, Hamas said in a statement. 'We condemn this latest crime, which adds to the occupation's long record of terrorism, violating sanctities, lives and medical facilities,' the Palestinian armed group said in a statement. 'It reaffirms its disregard for all international laws and conventions and its continued policy of systematic killing against our people and leadership.' Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz confirmed that Barhoum had been the target of the attack. Israel's military said the attack had been carried out with 'precise munitions in order to mitigate harm', following an 'extensive intelligence-gathering process'. 'Hamas exploits civilian infrastructure while brutally endangering the Gazan population – cynically using an active hospital as a shelter for planning and executing murderous terrorist attacks in a direct violation of international law,' the military said in a statement. Barhoum's assassination came just hours after Hamas said Israeli forces had killed Salah al-Bardawil, another member of the group's political bureau, along with his wife, in a strike on a tent shelter in Khan Younis. Israel has killed four members of Hamas's political bureau since Tuesday, when its forces resumed major military operations in the enclave following a weeks-long impasse over the next stage of its ceasefire with Hamas. Footage from outside Nasser Hospital showed a fireball exploding from the building's upper floors as an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Rami Abu Taima was preparing to do a live broadcast at the scene. Reporting from Gaza's Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera's Hind Khoudary said at least eight other Palestinians were wounded in the attack, all of whom had been receiving treatment for previous injuries. Khoudary said doctors at the hospital reported spending hours putting out fires in the department targeted in the attack. 'Hospitals across the Gaza Strip are overwhelmed. There are no medical supplies or medicine as the Israeli forces continue to close the border crossing for 21 days now,' Khoudary said. 'The situation is also escalating in different parts of the Gaza Strip, especially Beit Layhia in the north and Rafah in the southern parts of the Gaza Strip.' Feroze Sidhwa, a trauma surgeon volunteering at Nasser Hospital, said the 16-year-old boy killed in the attack was one of his patients. 'I operated on him. I believe on March 18, I did an abdominal operation. He probably would have gone home tomorrow, but now he's dead,' Sidhwa told Al Jazeera. Sidhwa said the surgical ward for male patients had been destroyed and would need to be completely rebuilt. 'The whole hospital smells like smoke now,' he said. 'The [ward's] entire electrical system was destroyed. Every door was blown off its hinges. Most of the windows were shattered. The ceiling has collapsed. It's completely unusable. It's going to have to be torn out and redone.' Sidhwa criticised Israeli forces for targeting the hospital. 'Benjamin Netanyahu has been ill recently. Well, he stands accused of genocide. Nobody thinks Hamas can bomb a hospital because Benjamin Netanyahu happens to go there. That's crazy,' Sidhwa said. 'That's completely insane. You don't bomb hospitals. Everybody knows that.' Israeli forces have killed more than 600 people since resuming their assault on the enclave, including dozens within the last 24 hours, according to Palestinian health officials. On Sunday, the official death toll in Gaza since the start of the war topped 50,000, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, a figure that many experts believe is likely an undercount of the true number.
Al Jazeera
08-03-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Israeli attacks on Gaza kill three as Hamas, Egypt hold ceasefire talks
Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed three Palestinians and wounded several in the southern governorate of Rafah as Hamas and Egyptian officials meet in Cairo for talks on the future of a precarious ceasefire. On Saturday morning, an Israeli drone targeted a group of people east of Rafah city, killing two Palestinians. Our colleagues on the ground reported that one person was also killed by Israeli fire in at-Tannour, also east of Rafah. Since Friday night, Rafah has been the target of intense Israeli attacks from tanks and drones with shelling impacting residential areas, including al-Jnaina, ash-Shawka and Tal as-Sultan, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. According to Gaza's Ministry of Health, at least 48,453 Palestinians have been killed and 111,860 wounded by Israeli attacks since October 7, 2023. At the same time, the head of the enclave's Government Media Office reported on Saturday in marking International Women's Day that 12,316 women have been killed throughout the war. 'Women's Day coincides with the continuation of the Israeli siege and the prevention of aid as women live in catastrophic humanitarian conditions and suffer from starvation and thirst,' Salama Maarouf said. At least 2,000 women and girls have been permanently disabled due to amputations, according to government data. Ceasefire talks Amid the ongoing attacks, a Hamas delegation arrived in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, on Friday to discuss the Gaza ceasefire. According to the AFP news agency, two senior Hamas members are part of a high-level delegation that is expected to talk to Egyptian officials on Saturday about the next phase of the ceasefire. Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera's Hind Khoudary said Palestinians are waiting for any news about the deal. 'We know that the first phase of the ceasefire ended on March 1, and Israel and Hamas agreed on a truce for a week. Today, that truce comes to an end,' Khoudary reported. 'Palestinians are very anxious and stressed that the second phase of the ceasefire hasn't taken effect yet. People here are waiting for any news from these negotiations and feel that this ceasefire is fragile.' As Palestinians wait for news of the ceasefire, the Israeli blockade of humanitarian aid is putting immense pressure on people already struggling to get by. 'This blockade is suffocating Palestinians. They are saying they never imagined that a ceasefire and Ramadan would come and that they would not be able to cook their favourite dishes,' Khoudary explained, adding that community kitchens are now running out of stock. At the end of February, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said humanitarian aid would no longer enter Gaza in retaliation for Hamas not accepting Israel's proposal for phase one of the ceasefire to be extended. Meanwhile, more than 50 freed Israeli captives urged Netanyahu to fully implement the Gaza ceasefire and secure the release of those still held in Gaza. 'We who have experienced the inferno know that a return to war is life-threatening for those still left behind,' the 56 former captives said in a letter posted on Instagram. 'Implement the agreement in full in one single manoeuvre.'
