Gaza Rescuers Say 33 Killed By Israel Fire

Gaza's civil defence agency said 33 people were killed by Israeli fire in the Palestinian territory on Wednesday, including 11 who were seeking aid.
The war sparked by Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel has ravaged the Gaza Strip and resulted in severe shortages of food, fuel and clean water.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that 11 people were killed and more than 100 wounded "after the occupation forces opened fire and launched several shells... at thousands of citizens" who had gathered to queue for food in central Gaza.
The military told AFP that its forces operating in central Gaza identified "a group of suspicious individuals" approaching "in a manner that posed a potential threat to the forces."
It said its troops then fired "warning shots", but that it was "unaware of injuries".
In early March, Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza, amid a deadlock in truce negotiations, only partially easing restrictions in late May.
Since then, chaotic scenes and a string of deadly shootings have occurred near areas where Palestinians have gathered in hopes of receiving aid.
The civil defence agency said another 19 people were killed in three Israeli strikes on Wednesday, which it said targeted houses and a tent for displaced people.
The Israeli military told AFP regarding one of those attacks that its troops were "operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities".
Later Wednesday, the Israeli army said a soldier -- staff sergeant Stav Halfon -- had been killed during an operation in the southern Gaza Strip.
In another incident, three more people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a neighbourhood northeast of Gaza City on Wednesday, Bassal said.
Israeli restrictions on media in the Gaza Strip and difficulties in accessing some areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency.
The agency reported that at least 53 people were killed on Tuesday, as they gathered near an aid centre in the southern city of Khan Yunis hoping to receive flour.
After Israel eased its blockade, the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began distributing aid in late May, but its operations have been marred by chaotic scenes and dozens of deaths.
UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the foundation over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.
However, the UN humanitarian office OCHA pointed out Tuesday that incidents "are also increasingly occurring along routes used by the UN to deliver humanitarian supplies", not just GHF.
It added that its humanitarian partners, including the World Food Programme (WFP), have reported that fuel in Gaza was reaching "critically low levels".
"Without immediate resupply, essential services -- including the provision of clean water -- will grind to a halt very soon," the statement added.
OCHA said on Monday that its partners "continue to warn of the risk of famine in Gaza, amid catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity".
The Hamas attack which triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to Israeli official figures.
The Gaza health ministry said on Wednesday that 5,334 people have been killed since Israel resumed major operations in the territory on March 18, ending a two-month truce.
The overall death toll in Gaza since the war broke out has reached 55,637 people, according to the health ministry. A column of fire and smoke erupts following Israeli bombardment of areas in eastern Gaza City AFP Palestinians try to get food at a charity kitchen providing hot meals in Gaza City AFP

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Iran: What are the chances for regime change? – DW – 06/23/2025

The longer Israel's attack on Iran goes on, the greater the speculation about the possibility of overthrowing the government in Tehran. But regime change has historically had disastrous consequences in the region. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu openly told the US broadcaster Fox News on Sunday that regime change in Iran "could certainly be the result" of Israel's operation there, because, he said, the Iranian government was "very weak." US President Donald Trump has meanwhile sent out contradictory signals. "We know exactly where the so-called 'Supreme Leader' is hiding," he wrote on his personal social network, Truth Social on June 17, singling out Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "He is an easy target, but is safe there — We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now." In the night between Saturday and Sunday, the US flew strikes against Iran's three main nuclear sites, and Trump has threatened more attacks should Tehran not return to the negotiation table. "There will be either peace, or there will be tragedy for Iran," the US president said Saturday, adding that the US "will go for other targets" should that not be the case. On Sunday, Trump again posted on Truth Social, saying: "It's not politically correct to use the term, 'Regime Change,' but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn't there be a Regime change?? MIGA!!!" The longer the conflict with Iran goes on, the more tempting it might appear to Israel and the United States to get rid not just of the Iranian nuclear program, but of the Islamic Republic as well. "It's extremely doubtful that it would be possible to bring about a regime change like that from the outside, with the push of a button," said Eckart Woertz, the head of the German Institute of Global and Area Studies in Hamburg. "If it did come to that, whether things would then go in the right direction is a whole other question." 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But various parties to the alliance disagreed on a number of things, including how military, political and development aid should cooperate. And so, for 20 years, the security situation remained extremely precarious. The country was devastated by attacks as the Taliban launched repeated counteroffensives. Between 2001 and 2021, around 3,600 Western soldiers and almost 50,000 Afghan civilians were killed. The Afghanistan mission cost a total of almost $1 billion (€868 million). After the chaotic withdrawal of the US and its allies in the summer of 2021, the Taliban returned to power. Since then, they have rolled back almost all the progress made over the past 20 years. Afghanistan is isolated and desperately poor, with 23 million people dependent on humanitarian aid. The US once supplies weapons to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who was in power for more than two decades. 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Twenty years after the American invasion and the attempted regime change in Iraq, the situation has improved. Violence has died down, and the next round of parliamentary elections is due to take place in November. Nonetheless, Iraq remains a country in the process of change. Libya is also still suffering the consequences of an attempted regime change, which came from within and was flanked from abroad. In the wake of the Arab Spring, a civil war began in 2011 with protests against the rule of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. When Gadhafi attempted to put down the uprisings with bloodshed, NATO intervened militarily in the form of a no-fly zone to protect the civilian population. The regime held on for a few months. Then on October 20, 2011, Gadhafi was killed. But a government acceptable to the entire country was never established. Instead, there have been years of further conflict between rival militias. The state has virtually disintegrated, with two different governments fighting for control since March 2022. The human rights situation remains extremely precarious. Aside from these cautionary examples from recent history, Woertz sees another problem: Ultimately, ground force would be required to force a change of government in Iran. "I don't see a massively strong rebel movement within Iran that could topple the current regime," he said. "While there was a successful regime change in Germany once, at the end of World War II, that required a ground invasion," said Woertz. "And then you need a transition backed by local people. It helps if there is a common external enemy — like the Soviet bloc after 1945 — which glosses over the differences. But regime change has never happened with aerial bombardment alone, and I don't think Iran will be an exception now."

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