Latest news with #UnitedStates-backed
NZ Herald
2 days ago
- Business
- NZ Herald
According to UN data, hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza have been shot dead while seeking food
In recent weeks, it has emerged as a final sticking point in negotiations over a ceasefire, placing the Israeli- and United States-backed GHF squarely in the crosshairs of the latest talks. Hamas is demanding a return to the United Nations-co-ordinated system of aid delivery that operated in Gaza for decades. Israel charges that Hamas has corrupted that system. It wants to maintain strict controls on assistance to Gazans, using the newly created GHF as the primary mechanism for food distribution. Critics, including the UN and most of the international humanitarian aid community, say the GHF is designed to further Israeli war aims by selectively and inadequately providing assistance, and by forcing Gazans to put their lives in danger for a box of provisions. In a statement released yesterday, 21 European countries and others including New Zealand, Canada, and Australia issued a joint statement saying that 'the suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths'. It condemned 'the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food'. 'The Israeli Government's aid delivery model,' it said, 'is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity.' Like much of what happens inside Gaza, where Israel has banned international reporters except on brief tours led by the Israel Defence Forces, the origins and operations of the GHF remain obscure. Even more opaque is its funding. The foundation says it received about US$100 million in start-up money from a government it has declined to identify. In late June, the Trump Administration said it would supply US$30m to GHF operations. A major donation initially expected from the United Arab Emirates, according to internal planning documents seen by the Washington Post, has not materialised. The Government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which has been deeply involved in the aid programme, has publicly denied paying for it. But behind the foundation, which is a registered non-profit, is a web of interconnected US and Israeli individuals, and private US companies - including some that hope to eventually make money on the relief effort, according to public and private documents reviewed by the Washington Post and interviews with more than a dozen US and Israeli government officials, business representatives and others involved, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Among those positioned to profit from GHF-linked contracts are a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, whose subsidiary Orbis Operations helped set up the foundation; and Safe Reach Solutions, the primary contractor overseeing GHF operations inside Gaza, which was created late last year for that purpose. SRS is owned by a Wyoming-based trust whose beneficiary is McNally Capital. Boston Consulting Group was also engaged in the effort to stand up the GHF, on what it has said was a pro bono basis. In March, it signed a two-month contract for more than US$1m with McNally to continue assisting SRS, with later extensions in May, an arrangement first reported by the Financial Times. BCG later withdrew from the project amid controversy, and a BCG spokeswoman, Nidhi Sinha, said no payment was accepted. The GHF has continued to deliver food to hungry Gazans: since late May, according to the foundation's count, more than 80 million meals in boxes that are calibrated to feed 5.5 people for 3.5 days. Dwindling resources have limited the number of trucks available to bring food into the enclave to about 70 to 80 per day, compared with early plans for more than 300, according to people familiar with GHF operations. Construction of additional distribution sites has also been indefinitely put off because of a lack of financing, ongoing Israeli military operations, and the need to remove unexploded ordnance throughout Gaza. Money problems, and the unknown outcome of ceasefire negotiations, have also put on hold GHF plans for a more holistic - and controversial - proposal to relocate Gazans, summarised in a 19-page slide deck distributed at the US Embassy in Tel Aviv in January, several people said. In addition to the food distribution, the slides included plans for GHF construction of large-scale residential compounds inside and potentially outside Gaza where 'the population' could reside while the enclave was 'demilitarised and rebuilt'. The slide deck suggested that approach would allow the GHF to gain trust with Gazans - a currency that could be leveraged to 'facilitate President Trump's vision' for the battle-scarred enclave. Bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli strike on civilians waiting for aid in the western part of Rafah on July 19. Photo / Getty Images Aid 'in a non-UN way' The GHF concept was born as part of a larger effort by a group of Israeli military officials, Israeli businesspeople and foreign partners to support Israel's war effort and plan for Gaza's future. They began meeting shortly after the conflict began with Hamas' October 7, 2023, surprise attack in southern Israel, which killed about 1200 people and saw at least 250 hostages taken back to Gaza. As Israel responded to the attack, pounding Gaza with airstrikes and ground troops, it cut off the daily assistance that the 365sqkm enclave had depended on for decades. Netanyahu's Government - long distrustful of the UN, which co-ordinated deliveries of food, fuel and medical supplies - justified the blockade by claiming that Hamas controlled and profited from the aid distribution. Under pressure from the Biden Administration and humanitarian organisations that said depriving non-combatants of food was a potential war crime, Israel eventually allowed limited relief to resume. But the Israelis kept a tight hold on the spigot of assistance, generating friction between Netanyahu and the US Government, Israel's main source of weaponry and diplomatic backing. 'There was a need to get humanitarian aid into Gaza,' an Israeli familiar with the group's efforts said, but it needed to be done 'in a non-UN way'. In January 2024, the fledgling Gaza aid working group sought advice from Michael Vickers, a former Green Beret, CIA veteran and undersecretary of defence for intelligence during the Obama Administration. Vickers was on the board of Orbis Operations, a consulting company based in McLean, Virginia, that was founded by former national security, military, and intelligence specialists and which McNally purchased in 2021. Vickers told the planners, 'I'm not the guy, but I know the guy who can talk to you', according to a person familiar with the approach. The man they wanted, Vickers said, was then-Orbis vice-president Philip Reilly, a former senior CIA operations officer with extensive experience in private security operations. Reilly quickly gained the trust of the IDF and the Gaza planning group, and spent much of 2024 immersing himself in the details of the Gaza conflict. Neither Vickers nor Reilly responded to queries about their involvement in the Gaza initiative. The Biden Administration was well aware that the Israeli Government and private-sector Israelis and Americans were working with the Government on a plan to impose a new aid delivery system. While some in the Administration were supportive, most were sceptical. But they did not directly interfere in the project. 'They were all talking - they being the Israeli Government, the prime minister's office, the IDF - sort of throwing spaghetti against the wall to find some magic formula to take the responsibility off their shoulders' to care for Gaza's civilians, a former Biden official involved in Israel policy said. Ambitions and incorporations By the northern autumn, the outline of a plan was laid out in a lengthy feasibility study compiled by Silat Technologies, an Orbis subsidiary, envisioning the creation of a non-profit entity, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, 'to safely deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza'. Planning documents distributed over the next several months said that the foundation's leadership should include respected humanitarian figures such as David Beasley, former head of the World Food Programme, and Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister who now runs an institute to advise change-making political leaders. Although the UN and major non-governmental aid organisations already operating in Gaza were described as an integral part, their proposed role was unclear. An elaborate social media presence and public relations programme would include outreach to select journalists to promote a positive image of the GHF. The foundation would hire a 'prime' contractor to organise and supervise construction of the sites and the aid operation inside Gaza. That firm would then subcontract a private security company - ideally US-based - to be the boots and guns on the ground, guarding the aid as it was transported to distribution sites and protecting the sites themselves. The private companies lined up to service the planned foundation also included BCG, where both Reilly and Vickers were senior advisers. BCG, which later said its initial services were offered pro bono, projected US$2b in initial operating costs for the GHF. On November 21, a new limited liability company, Safe Reach Solutions, was registered in Jackson, Wyoming, and placed in a trust administered by a local company, Two Ocean Trust. While no information in the registration documents indicated what the new company did, who ran it or whom it employed, the beneficiary of the trust and any money it made, according to three people familiar with the arrangement, was McNally Capital, the private equity firm that owns Orbis. SRS, with Reilly as its chief executive, would later become the primary GHF contractor. Spokespeople for Two Ocean Trust and SRS declined to comment. In a statement to the Washington Post, McNally Capital said it 'did not invest in SRS or actively manage the company', but said it has an 'economic interest' in the firm. 'Given our long-established relationship with Phil Reilly … our strong belief in the importance of humanitarian aid, and the US Government's appeal for innovative solutions,' the statement said, McNally was 'pleased to have supported the establishment of SRS as an important step toward meeting the full scope of humanitarian need in Gaza'. Founded in 2008 by Ward McNally, of the Rand McNally publishing family, the firm specialises in the acquisition of aerospace, defence, and technology companies. 'Obviously, McNally is a business. They're in the business of making money,' a person familiar with the financial aspects of the project said. But 'I think it's very ambiguous whether this ends up being profitable'. A checkpoint test run As the new year approached, progress toward the food aid programme planning was interrupted by the prospect of a Gaza ceasefire and partial hostage release. Israel had agreed to move its troops out of portions of Gaza at least temporarily - allowing citizens to return to what remained of their homes in the largely destroyed northern portion of the enclave. But Israeli officials insisted on a vehicle checkpoint - run by non-IDF security - on the Netzarim Corridor, a dividing line between northern and southern Gaza, to ensure weapons were not carried back to areas the IDF said it had earlier cleared of Hamas militants. With nine days' notice, US and Arab mediators turned to the newly created SRS to organise the checkpoint. Reilly subcontracted UG Solutions, a small security firm based in North Carolina, to staff the ground operation. Headed by former Green Beret Jameson Govoni, UG had previously worked in Ukraine and Haiti, among other hot spots, and could move quickly because it had few of the classified contracts with the US or other governments that proved to be complications for bigger security companies. The ceasefire mediators - the US and Qatar - administered payments to SRS, the prime contractor, according to people familiar with the operation. The ceasefire began on January 19, the day before Donald Trump's second-term inauguration. Although the truce lasted only until mid-March, when Israel launched another ground invasion of northern Gaza, the checkpoint was deemed a success, with no major incidents reported. The Netzarim operation came to be considered a test run for the food distribution operation, and SRS and UG were well positioned to take it over for GHF. On February 2, the foundation was registered as a humanitarian non-profit in Switzerland and Delaware. The Netanyahu Government had every reason to believe that Trump would support the initiative. He vowed to quickly end the war and proposed that the US 'take over' and 'own' Gaza, developing it as a high-end Mediterranean resort. Food distribution by the GHF, planning documents indicated, was just the first step in a larger redevelopment plan. Palestinians line up to receive a hot meal at a distribution point in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood in Gaza City on May 21. Photo / AFP A rocky launch When the ceasefire collapsed on March 18 and the IDF resumed ground operations and airstrikes, Israel again stopped all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. As the days and weeks ticked on, thousands of tonnes of food and goods piled up in warehouses outside its borders; WFP and other humanitarian actors began to tally reports of starvation inside. By early May, Israel was under mounting international pressure to end its aid blockade, and Trump was looking for progress on his promise to end the war as he prepared for a trip to the Gulf. At a May 9 news conference in Tel Aviv, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee claimed the GHF as a Trump 'initiative'. US representatives, including Aryeh Lightstone, an official who now works with Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and formerly served as an aide to David Friedman when he was US ambassador to Israel, courted UN and humanitarian partners to sign on to the plan. But opposition to the plan had grown. The UN and most aid partners refused, publicly denouncing the proposal as immoral and designed to further Israel's war plans against Hamas by 'militarising' assistance to more than a million civilians corralled into ever-shrinking 'safe zones' demarcated by the IDF in southern Gaza. Neither Beasley nor Blair agreed to sign on. On May 22, newly named GHF executive director Jake Wood, a US Marine veteran and co-founding board chair of Team Rubicon, a humanitarian organisation that operated in disaster zones, released a letter he had sent to COGAT, the Israeli Government co-ordinator for Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Its purpose, he wrote, was to confirm 'our understandings of agreements' - including an understanding that aid agencies would also be permitted to distribute food and medical assistance under 'existing' humanitarian mechanisms, outside the GHF programme. 'GHF acknowledges that we do not possess the technical capacity or field infrastructure to manage such distributions independently,' he wrote, suggesting that the new aid mechanism should complement, but not replace, Gaza's existing aid sector. The night before the scheduled May 26 launch, Wood unsuccessfully sought to persuade the IDF to delay the start date by at least a week amid unanswered questions about funding, the participation of other agencies and the nearby positioning of Israeli troops. Wood resigned, and the next day, UG contractors accompanied the first convoys of GHF food into Gaza. Some of the plans, he said in a statement, were not consistent with 'humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence'. David Burke, a fellow Marine veteran and former Team Rubicon colleague who had been named GHF chief operating officer, also resigned. Burke and Wood did not respond to inquiries from the Washington Post. The GHF promoted John Acree, a former official with the US Agency for International Development originally named head of the GHF operations inside Gaza, to interim executive director of the foundation. The opening of the sites brought new problems, with tens of thousands of despairing Gazans surging towards promised food. In the first week of GHF's operations, witnesses said that Israeli troops shot in the direction of Palestinians queuing outside the fenced distribution sites at least three times. UG contractors voiced concerns about the rules of engagement of nearby IDF troops and the safety of the Palestinians, according to several people familiar with the site operations. Paid Palestinian volunteers working at the GHF sites were receiving death threats from Hamas for participating in the Israeli-backed plan. Volunteers were afraid to travel back to their families at night, but the financial planners had not budgeted to provide them with housing, running water or other supplies to stay on-site, one person said. 'There were number crunchers at every stage, asking why do we have to do this stuff,' said another person familiar with the conversations between BCG financial consultants and SRS planners. Contractors purchased some provisions for the workers out of their own pockets, the person said. The limited number of trucks that passed through the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza each day to the sites after Israeli inspection meant that supplies ran out too early, leaving thousands empty-handed, angry, and disbelieving there was no more food to be had. On May 30, BCG abruptly withdrew from the project. Amid what several people familiar with the situation said was internal criticism of perceived anti-Palestinian initiatives, the company said that members of its team had undertaken 'unauthorised' efforts on post-war planning. Two senior partners, it said in a statement, had been 'exited ... from the firm' and BCG 'has not and will not be paid for any of their work.' The end game Despite ongoing problems and frequent reports of gunfire nearby, the GHF food programme achieved a rhythm of sorts after a few weeks. News releases provided a daily accounting of tens of thousands of boxes of pasta, lentils, cooking oil and other commodities it distributed. But the killing of civilians in the vicinity of GHF sites has continued. Last month, eight Palestinian volunteers were shot and killed, allegedly by Hamas, aboard a bus returning them to GHF sites after visiting their families. Early this month, this IDF said 'terrorists' had tossed grenades into a distribution site, injuring two American contractors. Then came the deaths in last Wednesday's stampede. 'We came to Gaza to help feed people, not to fight a narrative war,' GHF spokesman Chapin Fay told reporters hours after the stampede deaths, publicly accusing Hamas of causing the carnage by showing up at the site with guns. Aid organisations said it was the predicted result of Israeli militarisation of what should be a neutral endeavour. On Sunday local time, at least 79 Palestinians were killed when food-seeking crowds mobbed a UN aid convoy in the northern part of the enclave and were fired on by Israeli troops, according to Gaza health authorities and witnesses. The IDF said it was 'aware of the claim' and that details of the event were 'being examined'. Acree, the GHF interim executive director, repeated appeals to the UN and other aid organisations to co-operate with the foundation. 'The demand for food is relentless, and so is our commitment,' he said in a statement. 'We're adjusting our operations in real time to keep people safe and informed, and we stand ready to partner with other organisations to scale up and deliver more meals to the people of Gaza.' GHF contracts expire at the end of August, unless a ceasefire comes first. If and when the fighting stops, it remains unclear how much aid will be allowed into Gaza and who will distribute it. Since late June, Trump has said repeatedly that negotiations were going well and that a truce was imminent.
Express Tribune
4 days ago
- Health
- Express Tribune
Infant, 4-year-old child die of hunger in Gaza
Palestinian newborns share an incubator at Al-Helou hospital due to fuel crisis, according to medics, amid the Israeli military offensive, in Gaza City on July 10, 2025. — Reuters/Mahmoud Issa Listen to article A five-week-old infant and a four-year-old child have died of starvation in Gaza, according to hospital officials, as Israel's blockade on aid and fuel continues. Al-Shifa Hospital reported the death of the baby, while medical staff at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said four-year-old Razan Abu Zaher succumbed to complications from severe malnutrition. Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya, the hospital's director, told Al Jazeera that the infant, who was just 35 days old, died from malnutrition overnight. Another person also died of starvation at the hospital on the same night, he said. Gaza's Ministry of Health said that emergency rooms are overwhelmed, with a 'mass influx' of starving patients. According to the ministry, some 17,000 children are now suffering from severe malnutrition. 'How much longer until a ceasefire is reached so that bombs stop falling on emaciated and dying children?" In Gaza, time is running out for children caught up in the horrors of war.@UNRWA's @JulietteTouma shares some of their — United Nations (@UN) July 18, 2025 Al Jazeera reported that Israeli forces have continued to fire on Palestinians gathering at aid distribution points, many of which are organised under United States-backed operations. Some have described these sites as 'death traps'. Israeli settlers have also attacked a major water system in the occupied West Bank, temporarily cutting off supply to thousands of Palestinians, AFP reports. Subhil Olayan, a water operator monitoring the Ein Samiyah spring from a hilltop station, said the attacks damaged pipelines and forced a temporary halt to pumping operations. 'There is no life without water, of course,' Olayan told AFP following the attack, which disrupted access to villages that rely on the spring as a main or backup source. Read: Israel strikes Gaza Catholic church, killing three The system of wells, pumps, and pipelines supplies water to around 110,000 people, according to the Palestinian company that manages the facility. Water scarcity is a chronic issue in the West Bank, and any disruption can have wide-reaching consequences. Israeli settlers swim in the Ein Samiyah spring near the village of Kafr Malik, in the Israel-occupied West Bank, on July 15, 2025. — AFP 'The settlers came and the first thing they did was break the pipeline. And when the pipeline is broken, we automatically have to stop pumping,' Olayan said. 'The water just goes into the dirt, into the ground,' he added, noting that repair teams acted quickly to resume service. Israeli forces killed at least six Palestinians and demolished several civilian homes in northern Gaza and Gaza City on Saturday, according to Al Jazeera reporters and Palestinian sources. The deaths were reported in the early hours of the morning during ongoing Israeli military operations in Gaza City and areas to the north, local journalists said. Further details on the circumstances were not immediately available. Read more: Israel kills 32 near two aid centres in Gaza In a separate incident, the Israeli army carried out demolitions in the Shujayea neighbourhood, east of Gaza City, destroying a number of homes, Palestinian sources told Al Jazeera. Israel's war on Gaza The Israeli army has launched a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing at least 58,667 Palestinians, including 17,400 children. More than 139,974 people have been injured, and over 14,222 are missing and presumed dead. Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave. The proposed deal includes a pause in hostilities, increased humanitarian aid, and negotiations on the release of captives.
Canada News.Net
4 days ago
- Health
- Canada News.Net
Starvation and Bloodshed Grip Gaza as Peace Talks Stall
A typical, but devastating day of violence and deepening humanitarian catastrophe unfolded across the Gaza Strip on Saturday, as at least 116 Palestinians were killed, including 38 gunned down while trying to collect food, and a 35-day-old baby died of starvation amid Israel's continued blockade and relentless bombardment, all of which can only be described as mass murder on an unprecedented scale. The infant, who succumbed to malnutrition at Gaza City's al-Shifa Hospital, was one of two people who died of starvation on Saturday, according to hospital director Muhammad Abu Salmiya. "He died because there is no food, no milk, no medicine," Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera. "We are losing children every day. We are powerless." The latest deaths come as Gaza's Ministry of Health sounded the alarm over unprecedented levels of hunger and overcrowding in emergency wards. Officials say that 17,000 children in the enclave are now suffering from severe malnutrition as aid remains scarce and access to basic necessities continues to deteriorate. While peace talks aimed at brokering a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have stalled, the situation on the ground has only grown more desperate. On Saturday, Israeli air raids and artillery shelling continued to pound the territory, hitting homes, aid distribution sites, and even tents sheltering displaced families. Among the 116 Palestinians killed Saturday, 38 were shot dead while seeking food at controversial United States-backed aid distribution points operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a group that has largely replaced United Nations and NGO-led relief operations in recent months. According to Gaza's civil defence agency, the shootings occurred near two GHF sites — one southwest of Khan Younis and another northwest of Rafah. "These deaths were the result of Israeli gunfire," agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told Al Jazeera. Witnesses described terrifying scenes of chaos. "Suddenly, we saw the jeeps coming from one side and the tanks from the other, and they started shooting at us," said Mohammed al-Khalidi, who narrowly escaped with his life. Another witness, Mohammed al-Barbary, said his cousin was killed in the incident. "The GHF sites are death traps," he said. "My cousin was innocent. He went to get food. He wanted to live. We want to live like everyone else." One boy, Ahmad Zeidan, 9, whose mother was killed while fetching food for her children, described the the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as 'a firing squad.' The GHF denied responsibility for the shootings, saying the killings occurred "several kilometres away" and "hours before our sites opened." However, Gaza's Health Ministry claims nearly 900 Palestinians have been killed near GHF aid points since the group began operations in late May. Israeli military officials said they are "reviewing the incident." Meanwhile, Israeli strikes claimed dozens more lives across the Strip. Four bodies were recovered after a strike on Bani Suheila near Khan Younis. An Israeli drone attack also killed one person in a tent housing displaced people in Khan Younis. In central Gaza, a strike on a home in the town of az-Zawayda killed the director of Nuseirat police, Colonel Omar Saeed Aql, along with 11 members of his family, according to the Interior Ministry. More air raids hit Gaza City, killing three people in the Zeitoun neighbourhood and five more in Tal al-Hawa. The Palestinian Red Crescent confirmed the casualties. In the north, two people were killed by Israeli shelling in the Jabalia an-Nazla neighbourhood. In a separate incident, Israeli naval forces opened fire on and detained three Palestinian fishermen off the coast of Gaza, according to the Palestinian Prisoners' Media Office. Israel has enforced a strict naval blockade on Gaza since 2007, which has further intensified since the war began in October 2023. Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera's Hind Khoudary said families are increasingly faced with an impossible choice — risk death for food or bury their loved ones empty-handed. "People are not just hungry," she said. "They are being hunted while they are hungry." Since the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023, Israel has killed 58,386 people and injured 139,077 others, the majority of whom have been women and children, according to Gaza's Ministry of Health. (File photo).
Gulf Today
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Gulf Today
Israeli military official admits Iran hit some military sites last month
An Israeli military official said on Tuesday that Iranian air strikes last month had hit some Israeli military sites, the first such apparent public acknowledgement that such locations had been struck. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance with military briefing rules, said that "very few" sites had been hit and that they remained functional. The official declined to provide further details, including identifying which military locations were affected or how severe the damage was to military infrastructure. Iran carried out waves of air strikes against Israel last month after Israel launched a surprise attack on June 13, targeting Iranian nuclear facilities and missile arsenal. The Iranian strikes frequently targeted densely populated cities Tel Aviv and Haifa, and the country's south around Beersheba, where there are a number of military facilities. Several residential buildings were hit in the attacks, although the Israeli military says that most incoming missiles and drones launched by Iran were intercepted during the 12-day war. In Israel, 28 people were killed. Iranian authorities have said that 935 people were killed in the Israeli attacks, which also targeted Tehran, the country's densely populated capital. Military commanders and civilians were killed in Iran, while in Israel, among the 28 killed, one was a soldier on leave. Israel and Iran agreed to a United States-backed ceasefire on June 24 after the US bombed Iranian nuclear facilities. Reuters
Straits Times
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Israeli military official says Iran hit some military sites last month
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox FILE PHOTO: A drone view shows an impacted residential site, following an early morning missile attack from Iran on Israel, in Be'er Sheva, Israel June 24, 2025. REUTERS/Yonatan Honig/File Photo TEL AVIV - An Israeli military official said on Tuesday that Iranian air strikes last month had hit some Israeli military sites, the first such apparent public acknowledgement that such locations had been struck. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance with military briefing rules, said that "very few" sites had been hit and that they remained functional. The official declined to provide further details, including identifying which military locations were affected or how severe the damage was to military infrastructure. Iran carried out waves of air strikes against Israel last month after Israel launched a surprise attack on June 13, targeting Iranian nuclear facilities and missile arsenal. The Iranian strikes frequently targeted densely populated cities Tel Aviv and Haifa, and the country's south around Beersheba, where there are a number of military facilities. Several residential buildings were hit in the attacks, although the Israeli military says that most incoming missiles and drones launched by Iran were intercepted during the 12-day war. In Israel, 28 people were killed. Iranian authorities have said that 935 people were killed in the Israeli attacks, which also targeted Tehran, the country's densely populated capital. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore NDP celebrations to be held at 5 heartland sites, including Bishan and Punggol, on Aug 10 Singapore Keep citizens at the centre of public service, Chan Chun Sing tells civil servants Singapore SIA flight from Brisbane to Singapore diverted to Perth due to technical issue Asia As Trump plays tariffs hard ball, vexed Asean countries have little choice but to play on Singapore Man arrested for allegedly throwing glass bottle at SMRT bus Singapore New Draft Master Plan could reignite developers' interest to buy land Business Great Eastern could resume trading after delisting vote fails to pass; OCBC's exit offer lapses Multimedia 'I suspect he's cheating': She finds proof when spouses stray Military commanders and civilians were killed in Iran, while in Israel, among the 28 killed, one was a soldier on leave. Israel and Iran agreed to a United States-backed ceasefire on June 24 after the U.S. bombed Iranian nuclear facilities. REUTERS
