Latest news with #NorthernGaza
CNA
3 hours ago
- General
- CNA
UN chief calls for probe into deaths near Gaza aid site
Asked for comment, the army said only that "strikes were conducted toward terror targets in northern Gaza". The Israeli military also issued an evacuation order for parts of Khan Yunis on Monday. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 4,201 people have been killed in the territory since Israel resumed its offensive on Mar 18, taking the war's overall toll to 54,470, mostly civilians. Hamas's 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Sky News
3 days ago
- General
- Sky News
Last hospital in northern Gaza out of service after evacuation
The last working hospital in northern Gaza is no longer functional according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) - a day after staff reported Israeli troops had surrounded the site. The WHO said Al-Awda Hospital went out of service on Thursday, and patients and health workers evacuated the same evening for fear of their safety. It said that the hospital's closure is "severing a critical lifeline for the people" in northern Gaza, and pleaded "for the hospital's protection and staff and patients' safety". Israeli authorities issued evacuation orders last week for large parts of northern Gaza ahead of offensives against Hamas, although the army did not order the hospital itself to evacuate. Dr Rami al Ashrafi told the Associated Press on Thursday that Al-Awda Hospital had been encircled by Israeli troops and had come under fire in recent days. 0:21 Gaza situation 'worst since war began' - UN It comes as the United Nations said on Friday that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is the worst since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October 2023 - despite a resumption in aid deliveries. Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York that while "any aid that gets into the hands of people who need it is good," the deliveries have so far had "very, very little impact". He added: "The catastrophic situation in Gaza is the worst since the war began." The UN and other international aid groups have refused to work with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) - supported by Israel and the US - as they claim it is not neutral and forces the displacement of Palestinians by its distribution of aid. 0:32 As of Friday, GHF said that it has managed to distribute more than 2.1 million meals. Israel's UN ambassador Danny Danon said this week it would allow aid deliveries from both GHF and the UN's operations. Meanwhile, Hamas said it was still reviewing a US-proposed ceasefire a day after the White House said Israel accepted the offer. US President Donald Trump said in Washington that both sides were "very close to an agreement on Gaza, and we'll let you know about it during the day or maybe tomorrow". The proposal reportedly calls for a 60-day pause in fighting, and the release of nine living hostages and half of the known hostages who have died, over the course of a week. Israel and Hamas would then continue talks to bring the remaining hostages home, but Israel would retain the right to resume military action in Gaza if talks were to break down. According to Reuters, some 28 Israeli hostages - alive and dead - would be returned in the first week of the ceasefire, in exchange for 125 Palestinian prisoners sentenced for life and the remains of 180 dead.
ABC News
4 days ago
- General
- ABC News
Gazans defiant amid starvation and Israeli relentless attacks
People in northern Gaza say they won't leave, despite not receiving any food for weeks and in face of intensifying Israeli attacks. A new aid organisation approved by the Israeli Government has started delivering food to desperate people in southern and central Gaza, but those in the north say they're going without.
Al Jazeera
4 days ago
- Health
- Al Jazeera
Israel orders closure of al-Awda Hospital, a ‘lifeline' in north Gaza
Israel has ordered the closure of al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza, leaving health officials scrambling to relocate dozens of people who remain at the medical facility, as deadly bombardment and starvation rack the besieged enclave. At least 70 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks since the early hours of Thursday. The Gaza Health Ministry called Israel's push, which forced the hospital out of commission, a 'continuation of the violations and crimes' against the medical sector in the territory. Al-Awda was the last operating hospital in northern Gaza, according to health officials. 'The Health Ministry calls on all concerned sides to ensure protection for the health system in the Gaza Strip, as guaranteed by international and humanitarian laws,' the ministry said in a statement. The World Health Organization (WHO) said 97 people, including 13 patients, are still at the hospital. The United Nations agency is planning a mission on Friday to transfer the patients to another facility. 'Due to impassable roads, the hospital's medical equipment cannot be relocated,' WHO said in a statement. 'With Al-Awda's closure, there is no remaining functional hospital in North Gaza — severing a critical lifeline for the people there.' WHO pleaded 'for the hospital's protection and staff and patients' safety'. Israel has been besieging and bombing hospitals across Gaza, killing more than 1,400 medical workers, as well as patients and the displaced taking shelter, since the beginning of the war, according to local authorities. The closure of al-Awda Hospital comes as the humanitarian crisis becomes more catastrophic by the day in Gaza, with Israel continuing its suffocating blockade on the enclave. An effort, backed by the United States and Israel, to distribute limited food supplies at specific sites run by a shadowy organisation, known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, continued to be marred by chaos on Thursday. 'We have come a long distance, around 10km [6.2 miles] to take this box tainted with blood,' Palestinian resident Saher Abu Tahoon told Al Jazeera in central Gaza. 'We need this box because there's no food to eat. We haven't seen any food or flour in five days. We went to get food for our children from a very faraway place. I can't even carry this box because I am too tired, and I am too hungry.' Multiple explosions were heard and Israeli gunfire was reported near a distribution centre in central Gaza earlier on Friday. Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud said Palestinians who walked to the newly opened aid site at the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza were unable to leave due to Israeli military activity in the area. 'Many of the people who showed up at the site are trapped right now and unable to leave the area due to the presence of Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles [and] the ongoing shooting,' Mahmoud said. 'They've been sending appeals to the Red Cross to coordinate their departure from the area. It's becoming very risky for them to walk on their own.' Israel has been pushing to bypass and sideline the United Nations from the aid distribution process, a self-serving approach critics say would further weaponise humanitarian assistance in the territory. 'The problems are that the insecurity continues, and frankly, they are not making it easy for us to deliver humanitarian goods,' Dujarric said. There are 600 aid trucks on the Gaza side of the Karem Abu Salem crossing (called Kerem Shalom by Israel), but Israel has blocked the world body from retrieving the supplies for the past three days, he added. Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), said 'starvation is threatening the future of the children' in the Palestinian enclave. 'What's urgently needed is a political will to allow the UN and partners to provide assistance at scale without hindrance or interruption,' Lazzarini said in a post on X. 'Allow us to do our work.' Amid the dire humanitarian conditions, Israel maintained its relentless bombardment on Thursday, killing at least 70 Palestinians in attacks across Gaza, according to medical sources. The Palestinian Civil Defence said an Israeli strike on a residential building in Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City left approximately 30 people missing under the rubble. 'Due to the lack of heavy equipment, it is not possible to recover the missing individuals from under the rubble,' the Civil Defence said in a statement. 'Therefore, we call on the international community and human rights organizations for immediate and urgent intervention to protect civilians and innocent people in the Gaza Strip.' Meanwhile, Washington said that Israel has accepted a temporary ceasefire proposal put forward by US envoy Steve Witkoff, but Hamas is still studying the plan. 'Israel signed off on this proposal before it was sent to Hamas,' White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters. 'I can also confirm that those discussions are continuing, and we hope that a ceasefire in Gaza will take place so we can return all of the hostages home.' Hamas political bureau member Basem Naim told the AFP news agency that the US proposal meant 'the continuation of killing and famine … and does not meet any of our people's demands, foremost among them halting the war.' 'Nonetheless, the movement's leadership is studying the response to the proposal with full national responsibility,' he added. Akiva Eldar, an Israeli political analyst, told Al Jazeera it was 'unusual' for Israel to come out and agree to a proposal first and that Netanyahu may be betting on the plan being impossible for Hamas to accept so that he can paint them as the 'bad guys' and continue the war. 'It happened before … and Netanyahu put the blame on them,' he said. Earlier this week, Hamas officials said the group reached an understanding for a ceasefire deal with Witkoff, but Israel and the US were quick to dismiss the assertion by the Palestinian group.
Al Jazeera
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Israeli strikes kill more than 50 as school and housing hit
Israeli attacks on northern Gaza are reported to have killed more than 50 people since dawn. The death toll from the overnight attacks was being tallied on Monday morning. Among the targets hit was a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City and a family home in Jabalia, according to Palestinian Civil Defence officials. At least 33 people were killed in an attack in the middle of the night on the Fahmi al-Jarjawi school in the Daraj neighbourhood of Gaza City, Civil Defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told the AFP news agency. The school had been sheltering 'hundreds' of people, Bassal said, adding that those killed were mostly children and women. Dozens were injured, he added. The Israeli military claimed on Monday that the target of the attack had been a Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad control centre housing 'key terrorists'. 'Numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians,' it added. Video footage broadcast by Al Jazeera showed fires in classrooms where forcibly displaced people had been sleeping, a child wandering alone among the flames, and people on the outside desperately trying to break windows. In a separate attack on a residence in the town of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, 19 members of the Abd Rabbo family were killed, according to Bassal. A nearby tent camp in Gaza City was also targeted, according to unconfirmed reports, killing six people. Despite mounting international pressure, which has pushed Israel to lift a blockade on aid supplies in the face of warnings of looming famine, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated last week that Israel would carry out an intensified military campaign until it controls the whole of Gaza. International humanitarian law forbids attacks on civilian infrastructure, including schools. But Israel has repeatedly bombed schools, mostly being used as shelter by displaced people, throughout its 19-month war in Gaza. At least 50 people were killed by bombs and artillery attacks in November 2023 at al-Buraq School in Gaza City At the nearby al-Tabin School, more than 100 people were killed as they gathered for morning prayers in August last year.
