Latest news with #US-and-Israeli
RTÉ News
03-08-2025
- Politics
- RTÉ News
Aid group says Israeli attack killed staff member in Gaza
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has said one of its staff members was killed and three others wounded in an Israeli attack on its Khan Younis headquarters in Gaza. In a post on social media platform X, the aid organisation said the fatality occured after "Israeli forces targeted the society's headquarters in Khan Younis, igniting a fire on the building's first floor". A video, which the organisation said "captures the initial moments" of the attack, shows fires burning in a building, with the floors covered in rubble. It comes two days after US envoy Steve Witkoff visited a US-and-Israeli backed aid station in the enclave to inspect efforts to get food into the devastated Palestinian territory. Nearly two years after the war began, UN agencies have warned that time is running out and that Gaza was "on the brink of a full-scale famine". The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said eight staff members from the Red Crescent, six from the Gaza civil defence agency and one employee of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees were killed in an attack by Israeli forces in southern Gaza in March. Mr Witkoff met the families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza as fears for the captives' survival mounted. He told the families in Tel Aviv that he was working with the Israeli government on a plan that would effectively end the war in Gaza. Meanwhile Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with relatives of two hostages held in the enclave, who were seen in videos released by Hamas, to express his "profound shock" over the images, his office said. Since Thursday, Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad have released three clips showing two hostages taken during the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel. The images of Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David, looking emaciated after nearly 22 months of captivity, have sparked strong reactions among Israelis, fueling renewed calls to reach a truce and hostage release deal without delay. "The prime minister expressed profound shock over the materials distributed by the terror organisations Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad," a statement from Mr Netanyahu's office said. It added the Israeli prime minister told "the families that the efforts to return all our hostages are ongoing and will continue constantly and relentlessly". In the footage shared by the Palestinian Islamist groups, Mr Braslavski, a 21-year-old German-Israeli dual national, and Mr David, 24, both appear weak and malnourished. Mr Braslavski and Mr David are among 49 hostages abducted during Hamas's 2023 attack who are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead. Most of the 251 hostages taken in the attack have been released during two short-lived truces in the war, some in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli custody. Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the war, resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official Israeli figures. Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed at least 60,332 people, mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, deemed reliable by the UN.
RTÉ News
02-08-2025
- Politics
- RTÉ News
US envoy meets Israeli hostage's families in Tel Aviv
US envoy Steve Witkoff has met the families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza, as fears for the captives' survival mounts almost 22 months into the war sparked by Hamas's October 2023 attack. Mr Witkoff was greeted with some applause and pleas for assistance from hundreds of protesters gathered in Tel Aviv, before going into a closed meeting with the families. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum confirmed the meeting was under way and videos shared online showed Mr Witkoff arriving as families chanted "bring them home" and "we need your help". The visit came one day after the US official visited a US-and-Israeli backed aid station in Gaza, to inspect efforts to get food into the devastated Palestinian territory. Yotam Cohen, brother of 21-year-old hostage Nimrod Cohen, told AFP in the square: "The war needs to end. "The Israeli government will not end it willingly. It has refused to do so." Mr Cohen said the Israeli government "must be stopped". "For our sakes, for our soldiers' sakes, for our hostages' sakes, for our sons and for the future generations of everybody in the Middle East," he added. After the meeting, the forum released a statement saying Mr Witkoff had given them a personal commitment that he and US President Donald Trump would work to return the remaining hostages. The United States, along with Egypt and Qatar, had been mediating ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel that would allow the hostages to be released and humanitarian aid to flow more freely. But talks broke down last month and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government is under increasing domestic pressure to come up with another way to secure the missing hostages, alive and dead. He is also facing international calls to open Gaza's borders to allow more food aid after UN and humanitarian agencies warned that more than two million Palestinian civilians are facing starvation. But Israel's top general warned there would be no respite in fighting in Gaza if the hostages were not released. "I estimate that in the coming days we will know whether we can reach an agreement for the release of our hostages," army chief of staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said, according to a military statement. "If not, the combat will continue without rest," he said, during remarks to officers in Gaza yesterday. Of the 251 people who were abducted from Israel during Hamas's attack in October 2023, 49 remain in Gaza, 27 of them dead, according to the Israeli military. Palestinian armed groups this week released two videos of hostages looking emaciated and weak. Mr Zamir denied that there was widespread starvation in Gaza. "The current campaign of false accusations of intentional starvation is a deliberate, timed and deceitful attempt to accuse the IDF (Israeli military), a moral army, of war crimes," he said. "The ones responsible for the killing and suffering of the residents in the Gaza Strip is Hamas," he added. Hamas's 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official figures. A total of 898 Israeli soldiers have also been killed, according to the military. Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed at least 60,332 people, mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, deemed reliable by the UN. Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed 21 people in the territory today. Civil defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal said two people were killed and another 26 injured after an Israeli strike on a central Gaza area where Palestinians had gathered before a food distribution point run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. He added that the bombings mostly targeted the areas near the southern city of Khan Younis and Gaza City in the north. Mr Witkoff visited another GHF site for five hours yesterday, promising that Mr Trump would come up with a plan to better feed civilians. Adnan Abu Hasna, of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, told AFP that the agency had "approximately 6,000 trucks ready for the Gaza Strip, but the crossings are closed by political decision". "There are five land crossings into the strip through which 1,000 trucks can enter daily," he added. The UN human rights office in the Palestinian territories said yesterday at least 1,373 Palestinians seeking aid in Gaza had been killed since 27 May, most of them by the Israeli military.
