Latest news with #aid convoy
Asharq Al-Awsat
6 days ago
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Jordan Says Israeli Settlers Attacked Gaza-Bound Aid Convoy on Wednesday
Jordan said Israeli settlers attacked a Gaza-bound aid convoy on Wednesday in the second such incident in days, accusing Israel of failing to act firmly to prevent repeated assaults. The convoy, carrying 30 trucks of humanitarian aid, was delayed in its arrival in a violation of signed agreements, government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani told Reuters. "This requires a serious Israeli intervention and no leniency in dealing with those who obstruct these convoys," Momani said.
Al Arabiya
6 days ago
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Jordan says Israeli settlers attacked Gaza-bound aid convoy
Jordan said Israeli settlers attacked a Gaza-bound aid convoy on Wednesday in the second such incident in days, accusing Israel of failing to act firmly to prevent repeated assaults. The convoy, carrying 30 trucks of humanitarian aid, was delayed in its arrival in a violation of signed agreements, government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani told Reuters. 'This requires a serious Israeli intervention and no leniency in dealing with those who obstruct these convoys,' Momani said.
France 24
31-07-2025
- Politics
- France 24
Trump's envoy arrives in Israel as Gaza criticism mounts
Gaza's civil defence agency reported dozens of Palestinians killed late Wednesday when Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd attempting to block an aid convoy -- the latest in a spate of near-daily incidents of desperate aid seekers being shot. The Israeli military confirmed having fired "warning shots" as Gazans gathered around aid trucks, but said it had no knowledge of casualties in the incident. An AFP correspondent saw the bullet-riddled corpses of Palestinians in Gaza's al-Shifa hospital. Jameel Ashour, who lost a relative in the shooting, told AFP at the overflowing morgue that Israel troops had opened fire after a crowd surged towards the convoy. "When people saw thieves stealing and dropping food, the hungry crowd rushed in hopes of getting some," he said. With indirect ceasefire and hostage release negotiations between Hamas and Israel at an impasse, Witkoff will meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss humanitarian aid and the "next steps" on Gaza. He may also visit a US-backed humanitarian group distributing food in Gaza, according to Israeli reports. Witkoff has been the top US representative in indirect ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, but the discussions broke down last week when Israel and the United States recalled their delegations from Doha. Israel is under mounting international pressure to agree a ceasefire and allow the world to flood a hungry Gaza with food, with Canada the latest Western country to announce plans to recognise a Palestinian state. MAGA doubts Trump has been Israel's staunchest international defender at a time when concerns about the campaign in Gaza have left Netanyahu increasingly isolated on the world stage, but the two leaders have occasionally found themselves at odds of late. Earlier this week Trump promised to get more humanitarian aid into Gaza, warning that the territory faces "real starvation" -- directly contradicting Netanyahu's insistence that reports of hunger were exaggerated. UN-backed experts, meanwhile, have reported "famine is now unfolding" in Gaza, with news images of sick and emaciated children drawing outrage and powers like France, the UK and now Canada lining up to support Palestinian statehood. Trump is now reportedly concerned that his most fervent domestic US supporters, the so-called "MAGA base", are turning against Israel. Israel is also under pressure to resolve the crisis from other traditional supporters. Germany's top diplomat Johann Wadephul was expected in Jerusalem on Thursday for talks with Netanyahu and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar. 'Warning shots' In Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney warned that the worsening suffering of civilians in Gaza left "no room for delay in coordinated international action to support peace". Israel blasted Canada's announcement as part of a "distorted campaign of international pressure", while Trump warned that trade negotiations with Ottawa could be hurt by what Washington regards as a premature bid to back Palestine. The fighting in Gaza has lasted for almost 22 months, triggered by Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which left 1,219 people dead, according to a tally based on official figures. Of the 251 Israelis kidnapped that day, 49 are still held in Gaza, 27 of them declared dead by the Israeli military. The Israeli campaign has since killed 60,249 Palestinians, according to a tally from the Hamas government's health ministry, and this week UN aid agencies warned that deaths from starvation had begun. In the incident Wednesday night, Gaza's civil defence agency said gunfire killed at least 58 people in a crowd gathered around a humanitarian aid convoy in the north of the territory. According to an AFP correspondent and witnesses, the trucks had entered Gaza through the Israeli military checkpoint at Zikim, on their way to World Central Kitchen and the World Food Programme warehouses in Gaza City. Thousands of people rushed to stop the trucks before they continued to the warehouses, and shooting erupted. Separately, the Hamas-led Gaza government's health ministry issued a statement Thursday begging Palestinians not to loot a new aid convoy, warning that it contained no food but instead medical supplies for the territory's hard-pressed hospitals. Another 32 people were reported killed by the civil defence on Thursday in Israeli attacks across Gaza. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP cannot independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defence and other parties. burs-dc/smw © 2025 AFP
Washington Post
20-07-2025
- Health
- Washington Post
79 Gazans killed waiting for food after Israeli troops open fire, medics say
Israeli troops killed at least 79 Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday, local health authorities said, after large and desperate crowds mobbed one of the United Nations convoys carrying a trickle of aid into the mostly besieged enclave. The U.N. World Food Program said its 25-truck convoy was mobbed shortly after it passed through the Zikim border crossing from Israel into Gaza. 'Our convoy encountered massive crowds of hungry civilians which came under gunfire,' the agency said in a statement. Israel's four-month blockade has left Gazans so bereft of basics like fuel that the bodies of victims from Sunday's mass shooting were often piled onto donkey carts, rather than ambulances, to reach al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 79 people were killed. The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that it had identified 'a gathering of thousands of Gazans' and fired 'warning shots' to 'remove an immediate threat' to troops. The military did not respond to further questions about the nature of the threat. It has issued similar statements after mass shootings of aid-seekers gathered near distribution sites run by the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation over the past two months. 'The IDF is aware of the claim regarding casualties in the area, and the details of the incident are still being examined,' the army said. It added that the Gaza Health Ministry's death toll did not 'align' with its own information, but provided no alternative figures. Israel's blockade and military operations have reduced Gaza's 2 million-strong population to near starvation. World Central Kitchen, a U.S.-based nonprofit, said Sunday that its teams had run out of ingredients to cook warm meals. The health ministry said 18 people had died of a lack of food in 24 hours. 'The Israeli Authorities are starving civilians in #Gaza,' the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees said in a post Sunday on X. 'Among them are 1 million children.' On the Al-Jazeera news network, the voice of correspondent Anas al-Sharif cracked as he pointed viewers to an elderly woman who appeared to have fainted from exhaustion as the cameras rolled. 'People are falling down now in the streets of Gaza from extreme hunger,' he said. Mahmoud Basal, a spokesman for Gaza's civil defense force, announced he was going on hunger strike, saying in a video statement that what is happening in Gaza 'is not merely a crisis.' 'It is a documented crime being committed against an entire people,' he said, addressing world leaders. 'You hold the power to stop this crime. History will not forgive those who watch in silence or those who remain complicit.' Reached by phone at al-Shifa Hospital, an eyewitness to the shootings in northern Gaza said she had seen Israeli troops open fire as crowds ran to the aid trucks. Rebhi al-Masri, 30, said her brother-in-law was badly wounded from being shot in the neck and chest. Another relative was shot in the pelvis, and her brother had gone missing in the chaos. 'I have no idea where he is,' she said. 'Everybody started running.' Zaher al-Wahidi, a spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry, said another nine people were shot near two other aid distribution points or convoys in other areas of the enclave on Sunday. As of July 13, the U.N. had recorded 875 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food in recent months, 674 of whom were killed around Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites. More than 200 others were killed while seeking food 'on the routes of aid convoys or near aid convoys' run by the U.N. or its humanitarian partners, Thameen al-Kheetan, a spokesman, told reporters in Geneva. The U.N. said Friday that Israel had declined to renew the visa for a top U.N. official in Gaza who had criticized the military's shooting of Palestinian aid-seekers. Jonathan Whittall, who heads the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories, had addressed the spiraling bloodshed in a news conference last month. 'What we are seeing is carnage,' he said. 'It's a death sentence for people just trying to survive.' Israeli media reported Sunday that the Foreign Ministry had viewed the comments as 'biased.' A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to comment, and the Israeli mission to the U.N. in New York did not immediately respond.
