Latest news with #Palestinian
Kuwait Times
an hour ago
- Politics
- Kuwait Times
Paris fountain flows red to slam Gaza bloodbath
PARIS: Pro-Palestinian activists hold a Palestinian flag and placards reading 'Gaza: Emmanuel Macron must act', 'Gaza: Ceasefire' and 'Gaza: Stop the bloodshed' after pouring red paint into the Fontaine des Innocents during a demonstration on May 28, 2025. - AFP PARIS: French activists dyed a Paris fountain red Wednesday to symbolize what they called the 'bloodbath' of Palestinians in Gaza. Activists from Oxfam and Amnesty International poured dye into the Fontaine des Innocents in the heart of the French capital, while others held placards saying 'Cease fire' and 'Gaza: stop the bloodbath'. 'This operation aims to denounce France's slow response to an absolute humanitarian emergency facing the people of Gaza today,' the activists, which included the French branch of Greenpeace, said in a joint statement. 'France cannot limit itself to mere verbal condemnations,' said former minister Cecile Duflot, executive director of Oxfam France. Clemence Lagouardat, who helped coordinate Oxfam's humanitarian response in Gaza, denounced the Zionist blockade of the besieged territory. 'The people in Gaza need everything, it's a matter of survival,' she told AFP. The Zionist offensive has killed at least 53,977 people in Gaza, mostly civilians. Continued of Page 6 Israel has now stepped up a renewed campaign to destroy Hamas, drawing international condemnation as aid trickles in following a blockade since early March that has sparked severe food and medical shortages. 'There is a genocide going on and political inaction is becoming a kind of complicity in this genocide,' said Jean-Francois Julliard, head of Greenpeace France. 'We call on (President) Emmanuel Macron to act with courage, clarity and determination to put an end to this bloodshed.' The activists urged states 'with influence over (the Zionist entity)' to press for an immediate and lasting ceasefire, an arms embargo on the Zionist entity, the revision of a cooperation agreement between the EU and the Zionist entity and other measures. Macron has accused Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of 'unacceptable' and 'shameful' behavior in blocking aid to the Palestinians in Gaza. – AFP
Yomiuri Shimbun
an hour ago
- Politics
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Four Palestinians Die in Storming of UN Food Warehouse a Day after Gunfire at New Gaza Aid Site
The Associated Press Palestinians storming a U.N. World Food Program warehouse and carry bags of flour in Zawaida, Central Gaza Strip, on Wednesday, May 28, 2025. DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hundreds of Palestinians stormed a United Nations food warehouse Wednesday in Gaza in a desperate attempt to get something to eat, shouting and shoving each other and ripping off pieces of the building to get inside. Four people died in the chaos, hospital officials said. The deaths came a day after a crowd was fired upon while overrunning a new aid-distribution sitein Gaza set up by an Israeli and U.S.-backed foundation, killing at least one Palestinian and wounding 48 others, Gaza's Health Ministry said. The Israeli military, which guards the site from a distance, said it fired only warning shots to control the situation. The foundation said its military contractors guarding the site did not open fire. A Red Cross field hospital said the 48 people wounded suffered gunshot wounds, including women and children. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country killed senior Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar, the brother of Yahya Sinwar, one of the masterminds of the militant group's Oct. 7, 2023, attack, who was killed by Israeli forces last year. Speaking before parliament, Netanyahu included Mohammed Sinwar in a list of Hamas leaders killed by Israeli forces, apparently confirming his death in a recent airstrike in Gaza. In other developments, Israel carried out airstrikes on the international airport in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, destroying the last plane belonging to the country's flagship airline. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said it was the last plane used by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels. It was not immediately clear if anyone was killed or wounded in the strikes, which came after Houthi rebels fired several missiles at Israel in recent days, without causing casualties. The Israeli-backed distribution hub outside Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah was opened Monday by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has been slated by Israel to take over aid operations. The crowd of Palestinians broke through fences Tuesday around the distribution site where thousands had gathered. An Associated Press journalist heard Israeli tank and gunfire and saw a military helicopter firing flares. The U.N. and other humanitarian organizations have rejected the new aid system, saying it will not be able to feed Gaza's 2.3 million people and that it lets Israel use food to control the population. They have also warned of the risk of friction between Israeli troops and people seeking supplies. Four dead as crowd storms warehouse holding U.N. aid Palestinians burst into the U.N.'s World Food Program warehouse Wednesday in central Gaza. Two people were fatally crushed in the crowd, while two others died of gunshot wounds, officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said. Scores of aid-seekers could be seen carrying large bags of flour as they fought their way back out into the sunlight through throngs of people pressing to get inside. Each bag of flour weighs around 25 kilograms (55 pounds). A United Nations envoy compared the limited aid being allowed into Gaza to 'a lifeboat after the ship has sunk.' Sigrid Kaag, acting U.N. special coordinator for the Mideast, told the U.N. Security Council that people facing famine in Gaza 'have lost hope.' 'Instead of saying 'goodbye,' Palestinians in Gaza now say, 'See you in heaven,'' Kaag said. The World Food Program said 'humanitarian needs have spiraled out of control' after Israel's long blockade of supplies entering Gaza, which began in early March to pressure Hamas. The Palestinian ambassador to the U.N. broke down as he spoke of the 1,300 children killed and 4,000 wounded since Israel ended the latest ceasefire in March, and of mothers seen 'embracing their motionless bodies, caressing their hair, talking to them, apologizing to them.' 'If this is civilized,' Riyad Mansour said, 'what is barbarism?' Wael Tabsh, a displaced man from the city of Khan Younis, urged world leaders to help end the war. 'How long will this torture last?' he asked. Violence erupted soon after new hub opened Palestinians are desperate for food after nearly three months of Israeli border closures have pushed Gaza to the brink of famine. Israel says it helped establish the new aid mechanism to prevent Hamas from siphoning off supplies, but it has provided no evidence of systematic diversion, and U.N. agencies say they have mechanisms in place to prevent it while delivering aid to all parts of the territory. GHF says it has established four hubs, two of which have begun operating in the now mostly uninhabited Rafah. It said around eight truckloads of aid were distributed at the hubs on Wednesday without incident. About 600 trucks entered Gaza every day during the ceasefire earlier this year. The GHF sites are guarded by private security contractors and have chain-link fences channeling Palestinians into a what resemble military bases surrounded by large sand berms. Israeli forces are stationed nearby in a military zone separating Rafah from the rest of the territory. The U.N. and other aid groups have refused to participate in GHF's system, saying it violates humanitarian principles. They say it can be used by Israel to forcibly displace the population by requiring them to move near the few distribution hubs or else face starvation, a violation of international law. Netanyahu said Tuesday there was only a brief 'loss of control' at the site. He repeated that Israel plans to move Gaza's entire population to a 'sterile zone' at the southern end of the territory while troops fight Hamas elsewhere. Netanyahu has also vowed to facilitate what he refers to as the voluntary emigration of much of Gaza's population to other countries, a plan that Palestinians and many others view as forcible expulsion. Israel says it destroyed the Houthis' last plane The Israeli strikes on the main airport in Yemen destroyed the last plane belonging to the country's flagship carrier, Yemenia, according to the airport. The airline did not say if anyone was wounded. Yemenia had a total of four registered aircraft, according to the plane-tracking website FlightRadar24. Israel destroyed three in a May 6 airstrike on the airport that also riddled the runway with craters. Houthi-backed Yemeni President Mahdi al-Mashat visited the airport Wednesday and said his group 'will not back down' from its support of people in Gaza until the siege ends, according to SABA Yemen News Agency. The Houthis have targeted Israel throughout the war in Gaza in solidarity with Palestinians, raising their profile at home and internationally as the last member of Iran's self-described 'Axis of Resistance' capable of launching regular attacks on Israel. The Houthi missiles have mostly been intercepted, although some have penetrated Israel's missile defense systems, causing casualties and damage. Israel has frequently struck back, especially around the vital Hodeida port. The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel in the Oct. 7 attack, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Hamas still holds 58 hostages, around a third of them believed to be alive. Most of the rest were released in ceasefire deals or other agreements. Israeli forces have rescued eight and recovered dozens of bodies. Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The ministry says women and children make up most of the dead, but it does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its tally.
Express Tribune
an hour ago
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Israel claims killing Hamas chief in Gaza strike
Listen to article Israel claimed on Wednesday a strike on a hospital in southern Gaza earlier this month killed Mohammad Sinwar, Hamas' Gaza chief and the younger brother of the Palestinian group's deceased leader Yahya Sinwar. Mohammad Sinwar had been the target of an Israeli strike on the southern Gaza hospital on May 21 and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that it was likely that he was dead. Hamas has yet to confirm Sinwar's death. Netanyahu announced that Sinwar had been "eliminated" in an address to the Israeli parliament as he listed off names of other Hamas officials that Israel had killed over the past 20 months, including Sinwar's brother Yahya. "In the last two days we have been in a dramatic turn towards a complete defeat of Hamas," he said, adding that Israel was also "taking control of food distribution", a reference to a new aid distribution system in Gaza managed by a US-backed group. Israeli military has intensified its genocide campaign in Gaza after breaking a fragile ceasefire with Hamas in March. The war erupted on October 7, 2023 when Hamas-led fighters killed around 1,200 people in southern Israel and took More than 250 hostages. Israel's war of Gaza has decimated the coastal territory, killing more than 53,000, according to health officials in Gaza, and displaced over 2 million Palestinians. Gazan health officials have said most of those killed have been civilians – children and women. Israel says it has killed tens of thousands of Palestinian fighters but has not provided any evidence to support those claims. Israeli military chief Eyal Zamir on May 26 said Hamas had lost many assets, including its command and control centre. Sinwar was elevated to the top ranks of the Palestinian group last year after Israel killed his brother Yahya in combat. Yahya Sinwar masterminded the October 2023 attack was later named the overall leader of the group after Israel killed his predecessor Ismail Haniyeh in Iran.
NDTV
2 hours ago
- Politics
- NDTV
Israel And UN Clash Over Aid To Gaza
United Nations: Israel accused the United Nations Wednesday of seeking to "block" Gaza aid distribution, as the global body said it was doing its utmost to gather the limited assistance greenlighted by Israel's authorities. The humanitarian situation in Gaza, where Israel has imposed a two-month aid blockade, is dire, with food security experts saying starvation is looming for one in five people. "While the UN spreads panic and makes declarations detached from reality, the state of Israel is steadily facilitating the entry of aid into Gaza," Israel's United Nations Ambassador Danny Danon told the Security Council. He said the assistance was entering by trucks -- under limited authorization by Israel at the Kerem Shalom crossing since last week following the blockade -- and via a "new distribution mechanism developed in coordination with the US and key international partners." Danon was referring to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private, US-backed aid group that has established its own distribution system, one the United Nations considers contrary to its humanitarian principles. A chaotic distribution of aid at a GHF center Tuesday left 47 people wounded. Israel's ambassador blamed Hamas for the tumult, saying the Palestinian group set up roadblocks and checkpoints to block access to the distribution center. He accused the UN of "trying to block" the aid. The United Nations "is using threats, intimidation and retaliation against NGOs that choose to participate in the new humanitarian mechanism," Danon added. - 'Will not participate' - Danon specifically accused the United Nations of having removed these nongovernmental organizations from a database listing groups working in Gaza, an accusation rejected by the UN. "There are no differences between the current list and the one from before the launch of the GHF," Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told AFP. But the UN reiterated its opposition to coordinating with GHF. "We will not participate in operations that do not meet our humanitarian principles," insisted Dujarric. He also said the UN was doing all it could to gather the aid arriving through Kerem Shalom. Since last week 800 truckloads were approved by Israel but fewer than 500 made it into Gaza, according to Dujarric. "We and our partners could collect just over 200 of them, limited by insecurity and restricted access," he said. "If we're not able to pick up those goods, I can tell you one thing, it is not for lack of trying." Danon had said "more than 400 trucks" full of aid were already on the Gaza side of the crossing and that Israel had provided "safe routes" for the distribution. "But the UN did not show up," the Israeli envoy said. "Put your ego aside, pick up the aid and do your job." Israeli military operations in Gaza have killed at least 54,804 people, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry there. The UN considers the figures reliable. The punishing offensive has reduced much of the Palestinian territory to rubble -- including hospitals, schools and other basic infrastructure -- and resulted in the displacement of almost all of its roughly two million people. Israel launched its operations in response to the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, which killed 1,218 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
1News
2 hours ago
- Politics
- 1News
Four Palestinians die as UN Gaza food warehouse overrun
Hundreds of Palestinians stormed a United Nations food warehouse in Gaza in a desperate attempt to get something to eat, shouting and shoving each other and even ripping off pieces of the building to get inside. Four people died in the chaos, hospital officials said. The deaths came a day after a crowd was fired upon while overrunning a new aid-distribution site in the Gaza Strip set up by an Israeli and US-backed foundation, killing at least one Palestinian and wounding 48 others, Gaza's Health Ministry said Thursday. The Red Cross Field Hospital said the wounded from that scene included women and children with gunshot wounds. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country killed senior Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar, the brother of Yahya Sinwar, one of the masterminds of the militant group's October 7, 2023, attack, who was killed by Israeli forces last year. Speaking before parliament. Netanyahu included Sinwar in a list of Hamas leaders killed by Israeli forces, apparently confirming his death in a recent airstrike in Gaza. ADVERTISEMENT In other developments on Thursday, Israel carried out airstrikes on the international airport in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, destroying the last plane belonging to the country's flagship airline. The strikes came after Iran-backed Houthi rebels fired several missiles at Israel in recent days, without causing casualties. The Israeli military said it destroyed aircraft used by the rebels. It was not immediately clear if anyone was killed or wounded in the strikes. The crowd of Palestinians on Wednesday broke through fences around the distribution site where thousands had gathered. An Associated Press journalist heard Israeli tank and gunfire and saw a military helicopter firing flares. It was not clear whether Israeli forces, private contractors or others opened fire. The foundation said its military contractors had not fired on the crowd but 'fell back' before resuming aid operations. Israel said its nearby troops had fired warning shots. The distribution hub outside Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah was opened Monday by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has been slated by Israel to take over aid operations. The UN and other humanitarian organisations have rejected the new system, saying it will not be able to meet the needs of Gaza's 2.3 million people and that it allows Israel to use food to control the population. The organisations have also warned of the risk of friction between Israeli troops and people seeking supplies. Palestinians have become desperate for food after nearly three months of Israeli border closures pushed Gaza to the brink of famine. ADVERTISEMENT Four dead as crowd storms warehouse holding UN aid Palestinians carry bags of flour from a UN World Food Program warehouse in Zawaida, Central Gaza Strip. (Source: Associated Press) Palestinians burst into the UN's World Food Program warehouse Thursday in the central Gaza Strip, pushing each other in the shadow of the cavernous facility's main door. Others ripped off pieces of the metal walls in an effort to get inside. Two people were fatally crushed in the crowd, while two others died of gunshot wounds, officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said. Scores of aid-seekers could be seen carrying large bags of flour as they fought their way back out into the sunlight through throngs of people pressing to get inside. Each bag of flour weighs around 25 kilograms. A United Nations envoy compared the limited aid being allowed into Gaza to 'a lifeboat after the ship has sunk'. Sigrid Kaag, acting UN special coordinator for the Mideast, told the UN Security Council that people facing famine in Gaza 'have lost hope'. 'Instead of saying 'goodbye', Palestinians in Gaza now say, 'See you in heaven',' Kaag said Thursday. ADVERTISEMENT Violence erupted soon after new aid hub opened Palestinians carry bags of flour from a UN World Food Program warehouse in Zawaida, Central Gaza Strip. (Source: Associated Press) The distribution hub outside Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah was opened Tuesday by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has been slated by Israel to take over aid operations. Palestinians have become desperate for food after nearly three months of Israeli border closures pushed Gaza to the brink of famine. 'What we saw yesterday is a very clear example of the dangers of distributing food under (these) circumstances,' Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN Human Rights Office for the Palestinian territories, told reporters in Geneva. Israel says it helped establish the new aid mechanism to prevent Hamas from siphoning off supplies, but it has provided no evidence of systematic diversion, and UN agencies say they have mechanisms in place to prevent it while delivering aid to all parts of the territory. GHF says it has established four hubs, two of which have begun operating in the now mostly uninhabited southern city of Rafah. It said that around eight truckloads of aid were distributed at the hubs on Thursday without incident. About 600 trucks entered Gaza every day during a ceasefire earlier this year. ADVERTISEMENT The GHF sites are guarded by private security contractors and have chain-link fences channelling Palestinians into what resemble military bases surrounded by large sand berms. Israeli forces are stationed nearby in a military zone separating Rafah from the rest of the territory. The UN and other aid groups have refused to participate in GHF's system, saying it violates humanitarian principles. They say it can be used by Israel to forcibly displace the population by requiring them to move near the few distribution hubs or else face starvation, a violation of international law. Netanyahu said Wednesday that 'there was some loss of control momentarily' at the distribution point, adding that "happily, we brought it under control'. He repeated that Israel plans to move Gaza's entire population to a 'sterile zone' at the southern end of the territory while troops fight Hamas elsewhere. Netanyahu has also vowed to facilitate what he refers to as the voluntary emigration of much of Gaza's population to other countries, a plan for what Palestinians and others view as forcible expulsion. Israel says it destroyed the Houthis' last plane The Israeli strikes on the main airport in Yemen destroyed the last plane belonging to the country's flagship carrier, Yemenia, according to the airport. Yemenia had a total of four aircraft registered, according to the plane-tracking website FlightRadar24. Israel destroyed three of the planes in a May 6 airstrike on the airport that also riddled the runway with craters. ADVERTISEMENT Footage released by the airport Thursday showed a smoking Yemenia plane shorn in half with debris cluttering the runway. Yemenia said the plane was scheduled to fly Muslim pilgrims to Saudi Arabia. It did not say if anyone was wounded. The carrier also announced the temporary suspension of flights to and from the airport. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the strikes on Thursday destroyed the last plane used by the Houthis. The Houthis have targeted Israel throughout the war in Gaza in solidarity with Palestinians, raising their profile at home and internationally as the last member of Iran's self-described 'Axis of Resistance' capable of launching regular attacks on Israel. The Houthi missiles have mostly been intercepted, although some have penetrated Israel's missile defence systems, causing casualties and damage. Israel has frequently struck back against the rebels in Yemen, especially around the vital Hodeida port. Netanyahu said Israel would continue to strike as long as the Houthis continued launching missiles toward Israel. 'Whoever doesn't understand it by force — will understand it by more force,' he said. The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Hamas still holds 58 hostages, around a third of them believed to be alive. Most of the rest were released in ceasefire deals or other agreements. Israeli forces have rescued eight and recovered dozens of bodies. ADVERTISEMENT Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The ministry says women and children make up most of the dead, but it does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its tally.
