Latest news with #civildefence
Free Malaysia Today
7 days ago
- General
- Free Malaysia Today
Rescuers say 8 killed in Israeli strike on northern Gaza
At least 3,822 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel ended a ceasefire on March 18. (EPA Images pic) GAZA CITY : Gaza rescuers said eight people were killed today in an Israeli strike in the north of the besieged Palestinian territory. 'Eight dead (were) transported as a result of an Israeli airstrike' on the home of a local journalist in the Al-Saftawi area north of Gaza City at around 2am, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP. Israel has stepped up its offensive in Gaza this month, aiming for 'the defeat of Hamas', more than 18 months after the group's October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war. Some 1,218 people were killed in that attack, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Gunmen also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Monday that at least 3,822 people had been killed in the territory since Israel ended a ceasefire on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 53,977, mostly civilians.
The National
26-05-2025
- Politics
- The National
Israeli air strike on Gaza school kills at least 13
Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza An Israeli air strike at dawn on Monday killed 13 people at a Gaza city school, according to medics, as Israel presses ahead with its war. "Civil defence crews in Gaza city retrieved 13 martyrs and 21 injured from inside Fahmi Al-Jarjawi School in the Al Daraj neighbourhood, after the Israeli occupation forces targeted it at dawn today," Gaza's civil defence agency said. Israel's war in Gaza against Hamas drew condemnation from the international community as an aid blockade lasting almost three months has worsened shortages of food, water, fuel and medicine in the Palestinian territory. The strike came after leaked documents showed Israel intends to control three-quarters of Gaza's territory within two months, which suggests Palestinians could be relocated to three small zones in the strip. About 40 per cent of Gaza is occupied, according to Israeli estimates, but the military expects that to rise to 75 per cent within two months, under the plans reported by outlets including the Times of Israel and the Jerusalem Post. Those reports say civilians would be divided between three areas in northern, central and southern Gaza. One would be in Gaza city, a second in Deir Al Balah, and the third in Al Mawasi in the south, where many evicted Gazans have already been forced to relocate to a "safe zone" that has come under repeated attacks. On Sunday, Spain's foreign minister called for sanctions on Israel as European and Arab nations gathered in Madrid. The talks aimed to stop Israel's "inhumane" and "senseless" war in Gaza, Jose Manuel Albares told reporters before the meeting opened. Humanitarian aid must enter Gaza "massively, without conditions and without limits, and not controlled by Israel", he added, describing the territory as humanity's "open wound". Spain also urged partners to impose an arms embargo on Israel and "not rule out any" individual sanctions against those "who want to ruin the two-state solution forever", he added. The new condemnation came after Gaza rescuers said 22 people were killed and dozens more wounded in Israeli air strikes across the Palestinian territory on Sunday. Civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said seven people were killed in a strike on a home in Jabalia, in the north. Some people were still under the debris, he added, as "the civil defence does not have search equipment or heavy equipment to lift the rubble to rescue the wounded and recover the martyrs". Two more people, including a woman who was seven months pregnant, were killed in an attack targeting tents sheltering displaced people around Nuseirat in central Gaza, he said, adding that doctors were unable to save the unborn child.
Malay Mail
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Malay Mail
UN chief says Gaza enduring ‘cruellest phase' of war as aid trucks looted and Israel's strikes intensify
GAZA CITY, May 24 — The United Nations chief said yesterday that Palestinians were enduring 'the cruellest phase' of the war in Gaza, where more than a dozen food trucks were looted following the partial easing of a lengthy Israeli blockade. Aid was just beginning to trickle back into the war-torn territory after Israel announced it would allow limited shipments to resume as it pressed a newly expanded offensive aimed at destroying Hamas. Gaza civil defence agency official Mohammed al-Mughayyir told AFP at least 71 people were killed, while 'dozens of injuries, and a large number of missing persons under the rubble have been reported as a result of Israeli air strikes' yesterday. UN chief Antonio Guterres said 'Palestinians in Gaza are enduring what may be the cruellest phase of this cruel conflict', adding that Israel 'must agree to allow and facilitate' humanitarian deliveries. He pointed to snags, however, noting that of the nearly 400 trucks cleared to enter Gaza in recent days, only 115 were able to be collected. 'In any case, all the aid authorised until now amounts to a teaspoon of aid when a flood of assistance is required,' he added in a statement. 'Meanwhile, the Israeli military offensive is intensifying with atrocious levels of death and destruction,' he said. The World Food Programme said yesterday that 15 of its 'trucks were looted late last night in southern Gaza, while en route to WFP-supported bakeries'. 'Hunger, desperation, and anxiety over whether more food aid is coming, is contributing to rising insecurity,' the UN body said in a statement, calling on Israeli authorities 'to get far greater volumes of food assistance into Gaza faster'. A truck carrying aid makes its way to the Gaza Strip from the Israeli Kerem Shalom crossing, on May 20, 2025, amid the ongoing war with the Palestinian militant movement Hamas. — AFP pic 'No one should be surprised' Aid shipments to the Gaza Strip restarted on Monday for the first time since March 2, amid mounting condemnation of the Israeli blockade, which has resulted in severe shortages of food and medicine. 'I appeal to people of conscience to send us fresh water and food,' said Sobhi Ghattas, a displaced Palestinian sheltering at the port in Gaza City. 'My daughter has been asking for bread since this morning, and we have none to give her.' COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body that oversees civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, said that 107 humanitarian aid trucks entered Gaza on Thursday. But Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said yesterday that the UN had brought in 500 to 600 per day on average during a six-week ceasefire that broke down in March. 'No one should be surprised let alone shocked at scenes of precious aid looted, stolen or 'lost',' he said on X, adding that 'the people of Gaza have been starved' for more than 11 weeks. 'Enough!' The Israeli military said that over the past day, its forces had attacked 'military compounds, weapons storage facilities and sniper posts' in Gaza. 'In addition, the (air force) struck over 75 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip,' it added. The military said yesterday afternoon that air raid sirens were activated in communities near Gaza, later reporting that 'a projectile that crossed into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip was intercepted' by the air force. In Gaza's north, Al-Awda hospital reported yesterday that three of its staff were injured 'after Israeli quadcopter drones dropped bombs' on the facility. The civil defence agency later said it had successfully contained a fire at the hospital. An AFP journalist saw large plumes of smoke billowing above destroyed buildings in southern Gaza after Israeli bombardments. 'Have mercy on us,' said a distraught Youssef al-Najjar, whose relatives were killed in an air strike in the main southern city of Khan Yunis. 'We are exhausted from the displacement and the hunger — enough!' Israel resumed operations in Gaza on March 18, ending the ceasefire that began on January 19. Yesterday, Gaza's health ministry said at least 3,673 people had been killed in the territory since then, taking the war's overall toll to 53,822, mostly civilians. Hamas's October 2023 attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead. — AFP
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Gaza rescuers say 44 killed as Israel steps up offensive
Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed at least 44 people on Tuesday across the war-ravaged Palestinian territory, where Israel has intensified a military offensive aimed at crushing Hamas. Aid trickled into the Gaza Strip on Monday for the first time in more than two months, following intense international condemnation over Israel's total blockade that has sparked shortages of food and medicine. The Israeli army stepped up its military offensive in Gaza on Saturday, saying it was aimed at "the defeat of Hamas" -- the Islamist group that runs the Palestinian territory. Since then, scores of Gazans have been killed in Israeli strikes on the besieged coastal territory, according to rescuers. "Civil defence teams have transferred (to hospitals) at least 44 dead, mostly children and women, as well as dozens of wounded" across Gaza since 1:00 am (2200 GMT Monday), agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP. Bassal said eight were killed in a strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City and 12 in a strike on a house in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza. Another 15 were killed in a strike on a gas station near the Nuseirat refugee camp and nine in a strike on a house in the Jabalia refugee camp. There was no immediate comment on the strikes from the Israeli military. Israel called up tens of thousands of reservists before launching its expanded military offensive, and it sent in ground troops on Sunday. Israel's security cabinet approved earlier this month a plan to expand its military operation in Gaza, which one official said would include the "conquest" of the territory and the displacement of its population. Israel resumed major operations across Gaza on March 18 amid deadlock over how to proceed with a two-month ceasefire that had largely halted the war with Hamas. The war was sparked by Hamas's unprecedented October 2023 attack on southern Israel. "We will take control of all the territory of the strip," Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday. Netanyahu also said it was necessary for Israel to prevent a famine in Gaza for "diplomatic reasons", after his government announced it would allow limited food aid into the territory. The Israeli leader said aid had resumed because "images of mass starvation" could harm the legitimacy of Israel's war effort. - Aid trickles in - On Friday, President Donald Trump of the United States, Israel's strongest ally and main arms supplier, acknowledged that "a lot of people are starving" in Gaza. "We're looking at Gaza. And we're going to get that taken care of," Trump told reporters in Abu Dhabi, on a regional tour that excluded Israel. The World Health Organization warned that Gaza's "two million people are starving". The leaders of Britain, France and Canada issued a harsh condemnation of Israel's conduct of the war, slamming its "egregious actions" in Gaza, particularly the expanded offensive and the "wholly inadequate" resumption of aid. They warned of "concrete actions" if Israel did not ease its stepped up offensive. Netanyahu called their joint statement a "huge prize" for Hamas. A group of 22 countries, including France, Britain, Canada, Japan and Australia said in a joint statement that Gaza's population "faces starvation" and "must receive the aid they desperately need". Israel announced it would let limited aid into Gaza and said the first five trucks entered Monday carrying supplies "including food for babies". UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said in a statement that nine trucks had been "cleared to enter... but it is a drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed". On the ground, the Israeli military issued an evacuation call to Palestinians around Khan Yunis in southern Gaza ahead of what it called an "unprecedented attack". The civil defence agency said 91 people were killed in Israeli attacks across the territory on Monday. Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the military says are dead. Gaza's health ministry said Monday at least 3,340 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 53,486. bur/mj/dv/ser
News.com.au
20-05-2025
- Politics
- News.com.au
Gaza rescuers say 44 killed as Israel steps up offensive
Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed at least 44 people on Tuesday across the war-ravaged Palestinian territory, where Israel has intensified a military offensive aimed at crushing Hamas. Aid trickled into the Gaza Strip on Monday for the first time in more than two months, following intense international condemnation over Israel's total blockade that has sparked shortages of food and medicine. The Israeli army stepped up its military offensive in Gaza on Saturday, saying it was aimed at "the defeat of Hamas" -- the Islamist group that runs the Palestinian territory. Since then, scores of Gazans have been killed in Israeli strikes on the besieged coastal territory, according to rescuers. "Civil defence teams have transferred (to hospitals) at least 44 dead, mostly children and women, as well as dozens of wounded" across Gaza since 1:00 am (2200 GMT Monday), agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP. Bassal said eight were killed in a strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City and 12 in a strike on a house in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza. Another 15 were killed in a strike on a gas station near the Nuseirat refugee camp and nine in a strike on a house in the Jabalia refugee camp. There was no immediate comment on the strikes from the Israeli military. Israel called up tens of thousands of reservists before launching its expanded military offensive, and it sent in ground troops on Sunday. Israel's security cabinet approved earlier this month a plan to expand its military operation in Gaza, which one official said would include the "conquest" of the territory and the displacement of its population. Israel resumed major operations across Gaza on March 18 amid deadlock over how to proceed with a two-month ceasefire that had largely halted the war with Hamas. The war was sparked by Hamas's unprecedented October 2023 attack on southern Israel. "We will take control of all the territory of the strip," Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday. Netanyahu also said it was necessary for Israel to prevent a famine in Gaza for "diplomatic reasons", after his government announced it would allow limited food aid into the territory. The Israeli leader said aid had resumed because "images of mass starvation" could harm the legitimacy of Israel's war effort. - Aid trickles in - On Friday, President Donald Trump of the United States, Israel's strongest ally and main arms supplier, acknowledged that "a lot of people are starving" in Gaza. "We're looking at Gaza. And we're going to get that taken care of," Trump told reporters in Abu Dhabi, on a regional tour that excluded Israel. The World Health Organization warned that Gaza's "two million people are starving". The leaders of Britain, France and Canada issued a harsh condemnation of Israel's conduct of the war, slamming its "egregious actions" in Gaza, particularly the expanded offensive and the "wholly inadequate" resumption of aid. They warned of "concrete actions" if Israel did not ease its stepped up offensive. Netanyahu called their joint statement a "huge prize" for Hamas. A group of 22 countries, including France, Britain, Canada, Japan and Australia said in a joint statement that Gaza's population "faces starvation" and "must receive the aid they desperately need". Israel announced it would let limited aid into Gaza and said the first five trucks entered Monday carrying supplies "including food for babies". UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said in a statement that nine trucks had been "cleared to enter... but it is a drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed". On the ground, the Israeli military issued an evacuation call to Palestinians around Khan Yunis in southern Gaza ahead of what it called an "unprecedented attack". The civil defence agency said 91 people were killed in Israeli attacks across the territory on Monday. Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the military says are dead. Gaza's health ministry said Monday at least 3,340 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 53,486.
