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France 24
3 hours ago
- General
- France 24
Gunfire during aid distribution in Gaza: 'I never want to go back there'
Early in the morning of July 20, Ahmed Abou Askar, a 25-year-old resident of Gaza City, walked five kilometres to the northwestern neighbourhood of Zikim. Ahmed, as well as hundreds of other civilians who did the same, were praying to get a bag of flour from the food distribution centre there. 'I nearly died' But Ahmed told our team that once he got to the food distribution site, he encountered a 'scene out of a film'. 'I found out from my cousin that aid trucks might be coming to Zikim, so we walked the five kilometres to get there. At first, I was reluctant to go get food aid in this way, which I found humiliating, but we had no food left at home. You have to walk for kilometres, carrying a 25-kilo bag of flour, which you got in the middle of a packed crowd gathered in front of a row of tanks. There is nothing more humiliating than that. As soon as the trucks filled with flour arrived, the Israeli army just started shooting hysterically. Even the tanks fired. A person next to me was killed, and I almost died.' 'I have absolutely nothing to feed seven people' Ahmed says that hundreds of people go to Zikim every day, even when there's been no news of an aid truck arriving, just hoping to get a bag of flour. For months, Gazans have been living under a near-total blockade. The markets are practically empty, and what is left is prohibitively expensive. Before the war, Ahmed had just obtained a degree in civil engineering. Alongside his studies, he also ran a little business refurbishing broken electronic devices and then reselling them. He is no longer working. He says he lives with his parents, his sister-in-law, and his brother's four children in a house that regularly has no running water or electricity. He also says his sister, her husband, and their two daughters were killed early in the war in November 2023. 'Sometimes I go to the market, but a kilo of flour costs more than 30 dollars [Editor's note: around € 26]. Sometimes we have nothing at all. We try to get by with just one meal a day, but that can cost up to 200 dollars with seven people in my family [Editor's note: more than € 180.] At the market, you can sometimes find aubergines or tomatoes, but they cost more than 50 shekels the kilo [Editor's note: around € 13]. Rice is 95 shekels the kilo [Editor's note: around € 25]. And often, there is just nothing for sale at all. Most of the time, the markets are empty. And when there is nothing, we eat nothing. Right now, there is nothing left to eat. I have absolutely nothing to feed seven people. It's been four days since we last ate.' Ahmed Abou Askar, a young man from Gaza An attack confirmed by the World Food Programme In a statement posted on July 20 on the official X account of the World Food Programme (WFP), the aid programme confirmed that one of its convoys was targeted shortly after passing the final checkpoint beyond the Zikim crossing point. 'As the convoy approached, the surrounding crowd came under fire from Israeli tanks, snipers and other gunfire,' the statement reads. 'We are deeply concerned and saddened by this tragic incident resulting in the loss of countless lives,' the WFP says. 'These people were simply trying to access food to feed themselves and their families on the brink of starvation.' 'Today's violent incident comes despite assurances from Israeli authorities that humanitarian operational conditions would improve; including that armed forces will not be present nor engage at any stage along humanitarian convoy routes,' the WFP added. The statement calls for an immediate halt to shootings near convoys and food distributions, reiterating that 'any violence involving civilians seeking humanitarian aid is completely unacceptable'. At least 99 deaths according to local authorities At least 99 people were killed and dozens were wounded in the incident, according to a count by Gaza's health ministry published on July 21. Photos taken by Gazan photographer Ali Jadallah, who works for the Turkish press agency Anadolu, show wounded people being transported to hospitals, carried by civilians or overwhelmed emergency workers. Response from the Israeli army Our team contacted the Israeli army to ask about the shots fired at unarmed civilians in Zikim. The Israeli army said that they had fired "warning shots in order to remove an immediate threat' during a 'gathering of thousands of Gazans in the northern Gaza Strip'. The army said that it was still examining the details of the incident, but did not give any more information. It claimed that it 'certainly does not intentionally target humanitarian aid trucks'. The Israeli army also told FRANCE 24 that its forces are "operating in a complex environment against the Hamas terrorist organisation, which seeks to create friction, endangering both the civilians of Gaza and IDF troops, and disrupts the delivery of humanitarian aid". 'I never want to go back to the aid trucks' Ahmed Abou Askar says that after his experience in Zikim, he has lost all faith in international aid. 'I never want to go back to the aid trucks. Even if my cousin or someone else calls me to say that they are here, I won't go." A hundred humanitarian organisations came together on Wednesday, July 23, to say that "mass starvation" was spreading across Gaza. In their statement, the NGOs, including Médecins Sans Frontières, Médecins du Monde, Amnesty International and Oxfam said: "Massacres at food distribution sites in Gaza are occurring near-daily. As of July 13, the UN confirmed 875 Palestinians were killed while seeking food, 201 on aid routes and the rest at distribution points.'
BBC News
a day ago
- Health
- BBC News
'We know we might get killed, yet we still go there to get flour'
"Hunger and the lack of everything makes us go there.""We know that we might get injured or killed at any time, yet we still go there to get a kilo of flour."Mohammed al-Qedra, 33, is one of the many patients brought to the field hospital run by British charity UK-Med in southern Gaza who sought food but found only said he was shot in the hand and leg while trying to get food for his family at a nearby aid distribution centre run by the Israel- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF)."I was pleading for someone to carry me and take me to hospital. A good Samaritan brought me here," he recalled in an interview with a freelance journalist working for the said he was aware of the risk he was taking by trying to reach the GHF site, but that he had no choice."The famine is bad for me and for everyone." "Today, I'm eating [at] the hospital. Once I get better, I will go back to these centres no matter what. I'm the sole breadwinner for the whole family." According to the UN human rights office, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military while trying to get food aid over the past two says at least 766 of them have been killed in the vicinity of one of the GHF's four distribution centres, which are operated by US private security contractors and are located inside Israeli military zones. Another 288 people have been reported killed near UN and other aid has accused Hamas of instigating the chaos near the aid sites. It says its troops have only fired warning shots and that they do not intentionally shoot GHF says the UN is using "false" figures from Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry. British paramedic Sam Sears said the UK-Med hospital in the coastal al-Mawasi was seeing approximately 2,000 patients a month in its emergency department, many of them injured while seeking aid."We have patients that have sustained gunshot wounds, shrapnel wounds, have leg amputations, have gunshot wounds to the chest, which have caused punctured lungs, and so on," he added, as he walked through the inpatient Aseel Horabi, a Palestinian medic who has been working at the hospital for almost a year, has herself had to go to the deadly aid sites, calling it a "path to death"."My husband went once [or] twice and then got shot and that was it! If we are to die from hunger, let it be," she said."I see the injured people who come to the hospital in big numbers. We sometimes receive up to 50 injured a day. During the day, we don't have any time to close our eyes and have some rest, or even drink a cup of tea." Dr Horabi, who lives in a nearby tent with her family because her home in Rafah was destroyed, said she had not eaten for a day."I bought a kilogram of potatoes and [it] cost me 120 [shekels] ($36; £27). Prices are not normal. It's hard to secure stuff. You could spend a $100 a day for just one meal!""Here at the hospital, currently they don't offer any meals. If they have meals, they give in small amounts to the patients," she added. "We have to deal with hungry patients and we, too, are hungry."She said she was dealing with patients who were drained both physically and psychologically."We have come to a disastrous situation. It's not that we are close to famine, we are living it," she warned. "The world is listening and watching but silent."She added: "We don't have time to think about sadness because we are thinking about what to eat, bread, what to cook tomorrow, and how to get to the hospital." On Wednesday, over 100 international aid organisations and human rights groups accused Israel of imposing a "siege" on Gaza, causing mass starvation through restricting goods entering asked to comment, the World Health Organization's executive director Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: "Mass starvation means starvation of a large proportion of a population, and a large proportion of the population of Gaza is starving.""It's man-made. And that's very clear. This is because of the blockade."He added: "[More than 1,000] people have died while trying to feed themselves. If they're not starving, imagine [why they're] risking their lives."Israel imposed a total blockade of aid deliveries to Gaza at the start of March and resumed its military offensive against Hamas two weeks later, collapsing a two-month ceasefire. It said it wanted to put pressure on the armed group to release its remaining Israeli the blockade was partially eased after almost two months, amid warnings of a looming famine from global experts, the shortages of food, medicine and fuel have WHO says a quarter of the 2.1 million population is facing famine-like conditions, and that almost 100,000 women and children are suffering from severe acute Hamas-run health ministry says at least 45 people have died as a result of malnutrition since Sunday, including two who died over the last 24 hours. Israel, which controls the entry of all supplies into Gaza, reject the accusation that it is imposing a siege and is responsible for any malnutrition cases."In Gaza today, there is no famine caused by Israel. There is, however, a man-made shortage engineered by Hamas," government spokesman David Mencer told a briefing on Wednesday."Now, too often the full story is not being told. This suffering exists because Hamas has created it."Mencer said more than 4,400 lorry loads of aid had entered Gaza over the past two months, but that about 700 lorry loads were waiting for collection at two crossing points for collection by the UN and its humanitarian partners."This is a bottleneck which has been caused by the United Nations, and it's the main obstacle to maintaining a consistent flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza," he UN agencies have said that it is nearly impossible to co-ordinate safe passage for their convoys with Israeli troops, leaving Palestinians at the mercy of a rapidly expanding starvation that is reaching every family in Gaza.
Arab News
2 days ago
- General
- Arab News
Jordan dispatches trucks with flour as starvation spreads in war-torn Gaza
LONDON: Jordan has dispatched dozens of food trucks to the Palestinian coastal enclave of the Gaza Strip this week, with the latest delivery of flour on Wednesday to help Palestinians amid the Israeli military campaign in the territory. The country's charitable arm, Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization, or JHCO, announced that the latest aid convoy entered through the Zikim border crossing, also known as Erez West, in northern Gaza. This week, the JHCO coordinated with the country's armed forces, World Central Kitchen, or WCK, and the World Food Program, or WFP, to dispatch four food convoys to Gaza. A total of 147 trucks delivered essential food supplies and humanitarian aid, primarily flour. The JHCO and WFP facilitated the entry of 111 trucks, while WCK arranged for the remaining 36 trucks, reaffirming their commitment to oversee the distribution of supplies to affected residents. عبور قافلة مساعدات إلى شمال غزة لصالح منظمة 'المطبخ المركزي العالمي" وضمّت القافلة ما مجموعه 36 شاحنة محمّلة بالمواد الغذائية، تم إدخالها تباعًا إلى المناطق الشمالية من القطاع، حيث يعاني القطاع من أوضاع إنسانية صعبة نتيجة تصاعد الأعمال العدائية والانقطاع المتكرر لسلاسل الإمداد. — JHCO (@_jhco) July 23, 2025 Videos on social media shared by Jordanian journalists show Palestinians carrying sacks of flour from distribution points in northern Gaza on Wednesday. Efforts to deliver aid through international organizations have encountered persistent challenges, especially at the Israeli border, where convoys are often delayed, according to JHCO. Some obstacles include the use of live ammunition against individuals approaching the crossings to obtain aid, it added. The Gaza Strip continues to face instability and occasional direct attacks on aid convoys as well as attempts to loot supplies and hinder the safe delivery of humanitarian assistance, the charity added.
CNN
2 days ago
- Politics
- CNN
‘Famine is knocking on the door': Oxfam director issues dire warning about Gaza
Oxfam director Scott Paul warns that famine is "banging down the door" in Gaza. Paul tells CNN there is currently two months of food - enough to feed all of Gaza - waiting at the border, but Israel is restricting the aid distribution. Israel has said it is allowing ample aid into the besieged Palestinian territory but aid agencies and multiple Western nations say the amount of food reaching Gaza's population under strict Israeli control is a fraction of what is needed.
CNN
2 days ago
- Politics
- CNN
‘Famine is knocking on the door': Oxfam director issues dire warning about Gaza
Oxfam director Scott Paul warns that famine is "banging down the door" in Gaza. Paul tells CNN there is currently two months of food - enough to feed all of Gaza - waiting at the border, but Israel is restricting the aid distribution. Israel has said it is allowing ample aid into the besieged Palestinian territory but aid agencies and multiple Western nations say the amount of food reaching Gaza's population under strict Israeli control is a fraction of what is needed.
