Latest news with #PalestinianTerritories
Arab News
a day ago
- Health
- Arab News
Medical NGO blames new US aid group for deadly Gaza chaos
RAFAH, Palestinian Territories: Medical charity Doctors Without Borders said Sunday that people it treated at a Gaza aid site run by a new US-backed organization reported being 'shot from all sides' by Israeli forces. The NGO, known by its French name MSF, blamed the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's aid distribution system for chaos at the scene in the southern Gaza town of Rafah. Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli fire killed 31 Palestinians at the site. Witnesses told AFP the Israeli military had opened fire. The GHF and Israeli authorities denied any such incident took place but MSF and other medics reported treating crowds of locals with gunshot wounds at the Nasser hospital in the nearby town of Khan Younis. 'Patients told MSF they were shot from all sides by drones, helicopters, boats, tanks and Israeli soldiers on the ground,' MSF said in a statement. MSF emergency coordinator Claire Manera in the statement called the GHF's system of aid delivery 'dehumanizing, dangerous and severely ineffective.' 'It has resulted in deaths and injuries of civilians that could have been prevented. Humanitarian aid must be provided only by humanitarian organizations who have the competence and determination to do it safely and effectively.' MSF communications officer Nour Alsaqa in the statement reported hospital corridors filled with patients, mostly men, with 'visible gunshot wounds in their limbs.' MSF quoted one injured man, Mansour Sami Abdi, as describing people fighting over just five pallets of aid. 'They told us to take food — then they fired from every direction,' he said. 'This isn't aid. It's a lie.' The Israeli military said an initial inquiry found its troops 'did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the humanitarian aid distribution site.' A GHF spokesperson said: 'These fake reports have been actively fomented by Hamas,' the Islamic militant group that Israel has vowed to destroy in Gaza.
Arab News
2 days ago
- General
- Arab News
Gaza rescuers say Israeli gunfire kills 10, wounds over 100 near aid
PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES: Gaza rescuers said Israeli gunfire killed at least 10 Palestinians and wounded more than 100 early Sunday as thousands of people headed toward a US-backed aid distribution site. 'At least 10 Palestinians were killed and more than 100 others... were wounded due to gunfire from Israeli vehicles toward thousands of citizens' approaching a US aid site west of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said.
Arab News
2 days ago
- General
- Arab News
Hamas says responds to US truce proposal, to free 10 living hostages
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Hamas on Saturday said it had responded to a ceasefire proposal from US envoy Steve Witkoff, saying 10 living hostages would be freed from Gaza as part of the deal. The Palestinian militant group did not explicitly say it had accepted the version of the proposal it received on Thursday, which reportedly included a provision for the release of 10 living hostages. Hamas noted that its response had been made out of a 'sense of responsibility toward our people and their suffering.' The White House previously said the proposal had been approved in advance by Israel, which on Friday warned Hamas to either accept the deal and free the hostages 'or be annihilated.' Hamas said in a statement on Friday that it had 'submitted its response to US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff's latest proposal to the mediating parties.' 'As part of this agreement, 10 living prisoners of the occupation held by the resistance will be released, in addition to the return of 18 bodies, in exchange for an agreed-upon number of Palestinian prisoners,' it added. A breakthrough in negotiations had been elusive since a previous ceasefire fell apart on March 18 with the resumption of Israeli operations. US President Donald Trump had said Friday that the parties were 'very close to an agreement.' Two sources close to the negotiations have said the deal involves a 60-day truce, potentially extendable to 70 days. It would see the release of five living hostages and nine bodies in exchange for a number of Palestinian prisoners during the first week, followed by a second exchange the following week, the sources said. Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Saturday that at least 4,117 people have been killed in the territory since Israel resumed major operations on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 54,381, mostly civilians. Hamas's attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Arab News
3 days ago
- Business
- Arab News
Israel threatens Hamas with ‘annihilation' as Trump says Gaza ceasefire close
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Israel on Friday said Hamas must accept a hostage deal in Gaza or 'be annihilated,' as US President Donald Trump announced that a ceasefire agreement was 'very close.'It came amid dire conditions on the ground, with the United Nations warning that Gaza's entire population was at risk of Minister Israel Katz said Hamas must agree to a ceasefire proposal presented by US envoy Steve Witkoff or be destroyed, after the Palestinian militant group said the deal failed to satisfy its demands.'The Hamas murderers will now be forced to choose: accept the terms of the 'Witkoff Deal' for the release of the hostages – or be annihilated.'Israel has repeatedly said that the destruction of Hamas was a key aim of the to end nearly 20 months of war in Gaza have so far failed to achieve a breakthrough, with Israel resuming operations in March following a short-lived the United States, Trump told reporters 'they're very close to an agreement on Gaza,' adding: 'We'll let you know about it during the day or maybe tomorrow.'Food shortages in Gaza persist, with aid only trickling in after the partial lifting by Israel of a more than two-month Laerke, a spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency, called Gaza 'the hungriest place on Earth.''It's the only defined area – a country or defined territory within a country – where you have the entire population at risk of famine,' he the UN condemned the 'looting of large quantities of medical equipment' and other supplies 'intended for malnourished children' from one of its Gaza warehouses by armed groups have warned that desperation for food and medicine among Gazans was causing security to has doubled down on its settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, while defying calls from French President Emmanuel Macron and other world leaders for a two-state week Israel announced the creation of 22 new settlements in the Palestinian territory, which Israel has occupied since said the move was a 'deliberate obstacle' to Palestinian statehood while Egypt called it 'a provocative and blatant new violation of international law and Palestinian rights.'The 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which includes Egypt, also condemned Israel's Friday, Katz vowed to build a 'Jewish Israeli state' in the West settlements in the Palestinian territory are considered illegal under international law and seen as a major obstacle to a lasting peace in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian framed the move as a direct rebuke to Macron and others pushing for recognition of a Palestinian on Friday said that recognition of a Palestinian state, with some conditions, was 'not only a moral duty, but a political necessity.'Israel's foreign ministry accused the French president of undertaking a 'crusade against the Jewish state.'Separately, a diplomatic source said that Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan would make the first visit of its kind to the West Bank on White House announced on Thursday that Israel had 'signed off' on a new ceasefire proposal submitted to Palestinian group said the deal failed to satisfy its demands, but stopped short of rejecting it outright, saying it was 'holding consultations' on the civil defense agency said that at least 45 people had been killed in Israeli attacks on Friday, including seven in a strike targeting a family home in Jabalia in the northern Gaza sobbed over the bodies of their loved ones at Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital following the strike, AFPTV footage showed.'These were civilians and were sleeping at their homes,' said neighbor Mahmud Al-Ghaf, describing 'children in pieces.'The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but said separately that the air force had hit 'dozens of targets' across Gaza over the past health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Friday that at least 4,058 people had been killed since Israel resumed operations on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 54,321, mostly 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official the 251 hostages seized during Hamas's attack, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
The Guardian
5 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
UN envoy breaks down in tears over death of children in Gaza
Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, delivered an emotional address to the security council. He broke down in tears as he described the suffering of Palestinian children and the ongoing war in Gaza. He slammed his fist on the table, pausing his speech, and told the summit: 'I have grandchildren, I know what they mean to their families.' It has been 600 days since the war in Gaza began, killing more than 54,000 Palestinians
