Latest news with #NidalAlMughrabi
RNZ News
2 days ago
- Health
- RNZ News
Israeli gunfire kills 17 people near Gaza aid site, health officials say
By Nidal al-Mughrabi , Reuters Smoke billows over buildings in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, during Israeli bombardment on January 10, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Photo: AFP Israeli gunfire killed at least 17 Palestinians and wounded dozens as thousands of displaced people approached an aid distribution site of a US -backed humanitarian group in central Gaza, local health authorities said. Medics said the casualties were rushed at two hospitals, the Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, and the Al-Quds in Gaza City, in the north. The Israeli military said they are looking into the incident. Last week it warned Palestinians not to approach routes leading to sites of the US -backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. local time, describing these roads as closed military zones. There was no immediate GHF comment on Tuesday's incident. The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. Many Gazans say they have to walk for hours to reach the sites, meaning they have to start travelling well before dawn if they are to stand any chance of receiving food. While the GHF has said there have been no incidents at its so-called secure distribution sites, Palestinians seeking aid have described disorder, and access routes to the sites have been beset by chaos and deadly violence. "I went there at 2am hoping to get some food, on my way there, I saw people returning empty-handed, they said aid packages have run out in five minutes, this is insane and isn't enough," said Mohammad Abu Amr, 40, a father of two. "Dozens of thousands arrive from the central areas and from the northern areas too, some of them walked for over 20 km (12 miles), only to come back home with disappointment," he told Reuters via a chat app. He said he heard the firing but did not see what happened. Later on Tuesday, local health authorities said an Israeli strike on a house in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza Strip killed eight people, taking Tuesday's death toll to at least 25. The Israeli military said separately, it intercepted one rocket fired from northern Gaza towards Israeli territories, which signalled Hamas and other militant group remained able to fire the weapons despite Israeli devastation of their arsenal. Israel allowed limited U.N.-led operations to resume on May 19 after an 11-week blockade in the enclave of 2.3 million people, where experts have warned a famine looms. The U.N. has described the aid allowed into Gaza as "drop in the ocean." Witnesses said at least 40 trucks carrying flour for U.N. warehouses were looted by desperate displaced Palestinians as well as thieves near Nabulsi roundabout along the coastal road in Gaza City. The war erupted after Hamas-led militants took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, Israel's single deadliest day. Israel's military campaign has since killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health authorities in Gaza, and flattened much of the coastal enclave. - Reuters
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Israeli gunfire kills 17 people near Gaza aid site, health officials say
By Nidal al-Mughrabi CAIRO (Reuters) -Israeli gunfire killed at least 17 Palestinians and wounded dozens of others as thousands of displaced people approached an aid distribution site of the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in central Gaza on Tuesday, local health authorities said. Medics said the casualties were rushed at two hospitals, the Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, and the Al-Quds in Gaza City, in the north. The Israeli military said they are looking into the incident. Last week it warned Palestinians not to approach routes leading to GHF sites between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. local time, describing these roads as closed military zones. There was no immediate GHF comment on Tuesday's incident. The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. However, many Gazans say they have to walk for hours to reach the sites, meaning they have to start travelling well before dawn if they are to stand any chance of receiving food. While the GHF has said there have been no incidents at its so-called secure distribution sites, Palestinians seeking aid have described disorder and access routes to the sites have been beset by chaos and deadly violence. "I went there at 2 a.m. hoping to get some food, on my way there, I saw people returning empty-handed, they said aid packages have run out in five minutes, this is insane and isn't enough," said Mohammad Abu Amr, 40, a father of two. "Dozens of thousands arrive from the central areas and from the northern areas too, some of them walked for over 20 km (12 miles), only to come back home with disappointment," he told Reuters via a chat app. He said he heard the firing but didn't see what happened. Israel allowed limited U.N.-led operations to resume on May 19 after an 11-week blockade in the enclave of 2.3 million people, where experts have warned a famine looms. The U.N. has described the aid allowed into Gaza as "drop in the ocean." Witnesses said at least 40 trucks carrying flour for U.N. warehouses were looted by desperate displaced Palestinians as well as thieves near Nabulsi roundabout along the coastal road in Gaza City. The war erupted after Hamas-led militants took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, Israel's single deadliest day. Israel's military campaign has since killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health authorities in Gaza, and flattened much of the coastal enclave. (Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza as criticism of Israel grows
By Nidal al-Mughrabi CAIRO/TEL AVIV (Reuters) -Israeli air strikes killed at least 50 Palestinians in Gaza on Tuesday, local health authorities said, as Israel continues its bombardment despite mounting international pressure to stop military operations and allow aid into Gaza unimpeded. The attacks were carried out on two homes, where women and children were among the 18 dead, and a school housing displaced families, among other areas, according to Gaza medics. Israel's military, which on Monday warned those in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis to evacuate to the coast as it prepared for an "unprecedented attack", had no immediate comment. Tuesday's strikes were carried out on Khan Younis and areas to the north, including Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat, Jabalia, and Gaza City, the medics said. Israeli strikes have killed more than 500 people in the past eight days as the military campaign has intensified, they say. Israel's military said on Monday it allowed five aid trucks into Gaza after a more than two-month blockade of food and other supplies. The U.N. has long said Gaza, with a population of about 2.3 million, needs at least 500 trucks of aid and commercial goods every day. Throughout the war, trucks with aid have waited weeks and months at Gaza's border to enter. The war, now in its 20th month, has strained Israel's relations with much of the international community and those with its closest ally, the United States, now appear to be wavering. The leaders of Britain, France and Canada warned on Monday they could take "concrete actions" against Israel if it did not stop military operations in Gaza and lift its restrictions on aid. In a separate statement alongside the European Union and 20 other nations, the three countries warned that Gaza's population was facing starvation and that the U.N. and aid groups must be allowed to carry out their work independently. Responding to the leaders' criticism, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was engaged in a "war of civilization over barbarism" and vowed it would "continue to defend itself by just means until total victory." Under a heavily-criticized U.S. and Israeli-backed plan to deliver aid, a newly created Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aims to start work in Gaza by the end of May. Israel's ground and air war has devastated Gaza, displacing nearly all its residents and killing more than 53,000 people, many of them civilians, according to Gaza health authorities. The war erupted after Hamas-led militants attacked Israeli communities near Gaza's border on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seizing 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's leadership has insisted that it can free the hostages and dismantle Hamas through force. Netanyahu has said Israel aims to control the whole of Gaza. Hamas has said it would release the hostages in exchange for an end to the war and the release of Palestinians in Israeli jails. A new round of indirect ceasefire talks in Qatar between Israel and Hamas has produced no breakthrough.
RNZ News
15-05-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Israeli military strikes kill scores in Gaza, medics say
By Nidal al-Mughrabi , Reuters Palestinians run for cover as an Israeli strike hits the home of the Hmeid family in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on 15 May, 2025. Photo: Bashar TALEB / AFP Israeli military strikes killed at least 60 people in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, Palestinian medics said, as the United States and Arab mediators pushed for a ceasefire deal and US President Donald Trump visited the Middle East. Most of the victims, including women and children, were killed in Khan Younis in southern Gaza in airstrikes that hit homes and tents, they said. The dead included local journalist Hassan Samour, who worked for the Hamas-run Aqsa radio station and was killed along with 11 family members when their home was struck, the medics said. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has intensified its offensive in Gaza as it tries to eradicate Hamas in retaliation for the deadly attacks the Palestinian militant group carried out on Israel in 2023. Hamas said in a statement that Israel was making a "desperate attempt to negotiate under cover of fire" as indirect ceasefire talks take place between Israel and Hamas, involving Trump envoys and Qatar and Egyptian mediators in Doha. Israel carried out the latest strikes on the day Palestinians commemorate the "Nakba", or catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands of people fled or were forced to flee their hometowns and villages during the 1948 Middle East war that gave birth to the state of Israel. With most of the 2.3 million people in Gaza internally displaced, some residents of the tiny enclave say suffering is greater now than at the time of the Nakba. "What we are experiencing now is even worse than the Nakba of 1948," said Ahmed Hamad, a Palestinian in Gaza City who has been displaced multiple times. "The truth is, we live in a constant state of violence and displacement. Wherever we go, we face attacks. Death surrounds us everywhere." Palestinian health officials say the Israeli attacks have escalated since Trump started a visit on Tuesday to the Gulf states of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates that many Palestinians had hoped he would use to push for a truce. The latest strikes follow attacks on Gaza on Wednesday that killed at least 80 people, local health officials said. Little has come of new indirect ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas led by Trump's envoys and Qatar and Egyptian mediators in Doha. Hamas says it is ready to free all the remaining hostages it is holding in Gaza in return for an end to the war, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prefers interim truces, saying the war can only end once Hamas is eradicated. "At a time when mediators are exerting intensive efforts to put the negotiation back on the right track, the Zionist occupation (Israel) responds to those efforts by military pressure on innocent civilians," the group said in a statement. "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants an open-ended war and he doesn't care about the fate of his hostages," it said. Israel invaded Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas-led attack on southern Israeli communities on 7 October, 2023, in which about 1200 people were killed and 251 were taken as hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's military campaign has killed more than 52,900 Palestinians, according to local health officials. It has left Gaza on the brink of famine, aid groups and international agencies say. A US-backed humanitarian organisation will start work in Gaza by the end of May under an aid distribution plan, but has asked Israel to let the United Nations and others resume deliveries to Palestinians now until it is set up. No humanitarian assistance has been delivered to Gaza since 2 March, and a global hunger monitor has warned that half a million people face starvation in Gaza. - Reuters
