Gaza rescuers say Israeli forces kill 60, half near aid centres
GAZA CITY: Gaza's civil defence agency said 31 Palestinian aid seekers were among at least 60 people killed on Friday (Jun 20) by Israeli forces, the latest in a string of deadly incidents near aid distribution sites.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that five people were killed while waiting for aid in the southern Gaza Strip and 26 others near a central area known as the Netzarim corridor, an Israeli-controlled strip of land that bisects the Palestinian territory.
Thousands of Palestinians have gathered there daily in the hope of receiving food rations, as famine looms across Gaza after more than 20 months of war.
The Israeli army told AFP that its troops in the Netzarim area had first fired "warning shots" at "suspects" approaching them.
When the individuals continued advancing, "an aircraft struck and eliminated the suspects in order to remove the threat", the army said.
Similar incidents have occurred in that area regularly since late May, when the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation opened its distribution centres, as Israel eased a two-month aid blocakde.
The privately run foundation's operations in Gaza have been marred by chaotic scenes. United Nations agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with it over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.
Elsewhere in the territory on Friday, Bassal said 14 people were killed in two separate strikes in and around the central city of Deir el-Balah, and 13 others in three Israeli air strikes in the Gaza City area.
One of those strikes, which killed three people, hit a phone charging station in the city, Bassal said.
In southern Gaza, two people were killed "by Israeli gunfire" in two separate incidents, he added.
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 armed wing of Palestinian miliant group, Al-Quds Brigades, said on Friday it had targeted an Israeli military post in the southern city of Khan Younis, claiming "dead and wounded" Israeli troops as a result.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNA
an hour ago
- CNA
Commentary: India and Pakistan are on a global charm offensive to tell their version of the conflict
LONDON: In the past fortnight, multi-party parliamentary delegations from India and Pakistan have stopped in London as part of a world tour. Having had the opportunity to interact with both delegations, one thing becomes abundantly clear: Dialogue is a dead end (for now). They were essentially two sides of the same coin, each seeking to make the case for their nation's narrative following the brief, 87-hour conflict in May. Both sought to claim the moral high ground while painting the other side as the aggressor. Each resented any parallels or equivalency drawn between their positions. According to India, its actions were a response to the terror attack in Pahalgam that claimed the lives of 26 civilians. According to Pakistan, its military action was triggered by India's military operation, while arguing that New Delhi has failed to offer the smoking gun of Pakistani complicity in the terror attack. Both trumpeted their battlefield successes while downplaying their losses. The Pakistani side touted the loss of Indian aircraft in the initial military exchange, while the Indian side downplayed this, noting that such losses should be expected as part of any military campaign (and refusing to admit to any specific losses). India also played up the strength of its air defences in repelling Pakistan's counterattacks and the concomitant weakness of Pakistan's air defences. Both emphasised red lines. For India, another terror attack would trigger a war. For Pakistan, any violation of the Indus Water Treaty would do the same. The Indian delegation noted that India had dropped its previous 'hesitation' of deploying hard power, while the Pakistani delegation accused India of 'dragging water onto the battlefield'. Each side offered differing conditionalities on returning to the negotiating table: New Delhi will only discuss the issue of terrorism and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, while Islamabad wants to focus on the water treaty and Indian-administered Kashmir. Both countries are seeking to internationalise the conflict, but in different ways. For India, the emphasis is on framing Pakistan as the epicentre of global terrorism (with reminders of Osama bin Laden being killed in Pakistan in 2011 and Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl being beheaded in Pakistan in 2002). For Pakistan, the emphasis is on getting third party 'facilitators' rather than 'mediators' (given New Delhi's rejection of third-party mediation). AMERICA'S DEFAULT RESPONSE Ultimately, both countries face similar dilemmas in getting their message across to the international community. For India, the global war on terrorism has lost the resonance it once had, making it difficult for New Delhi to make the case to the world of the severity of Pakistan's threat to global stability. For Pakistan, the effort to get United States or Western involvement in India-Pakistan hostilities and the issue of Kashmir is an uphill battle given the plethora of international (and domestic) crises presently confronting Western capitals. This will not stop Islamabad from trying to do so as demonstrated by Army Chief Asim Munir's visit to Washington this week, which demonstrates Pakistan's ability to leverage global issues – from the Sino-US rapprochement in the late 1960s and early 1970s to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and into the 1980s and the US-led 'War on Terror' in the 2000s – to advance its primary foreign policy objective of strengthening its position vis-a-vis India. Now Islamabad is seeking to do so again by leveraging the Trump administration's efforts to obtain Islamabad's support in the conflict between Iran and Israel (given that Pakistan shares a border with the former). Trump's 'sphere of influence' worldview makes it unlikely that the United States will play any substantive or lasting role in South Asia. While Trump claims to have applied pressure on both countries to initiate a ceasefire on May 10 – which has been denied by India – his initial nonchalant response (noting that both countries would sort it out 'one way or the other', which was supplemented by Vice President JD Vance's comment that the conflict was 'fundamentally none of our business') reveals what is likely to be the default response to future hostilities, as long as they stay below the threshold of a nuclear conflict. South Asia has lost the strategic significance it once had following the US-NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. TALKING PAST EACH OTHER In this context, the world tours by parliamentarians from India and Pakistan appear more focused on appeasing domestic political constituencies than any genuine effort aimed at shifting global public opinion. There was more emphasis on dictating each country's position rather than engaging in a genuine dialogue. All this limits the prospects for any peace process. The Pakistani delegation pushed for the resumption of a 'comprehensive dialogue', but what would both sides discuss when they are essentially talking past each other? They cannot even agree on the facts of what happened, accusing the other of misinformation, hyper-nationalistic rhetoric and religious extremism. The Indian side accused Pakistan of employing 'terrorism as an instrument of state policy' while the Pakistani side claimed that the Modi government wants to 'eradicate' India's Muslims. This makes it impossible for both countries to sit down together. NUCLEAR DETERRENCE IS WORKING If there is any silver lining it is that among the world's flashpoints, India-Pakistan hostilities still seem relatively contained despite the bad blood in the bilateral relationship. The short four-day conflict and emphasis on precision-strike operations contrasts with conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East where there has been significant collateral damage and prolonged and expansive military operations across multiple theatres. This shows that nuclear deterrence is working in limiting the threshold of violence, although this threshold is being tested and eroded as both countries find new ways of targeting each other, from sponsoring irregular separatist/terrorist outfits to developing drone and cyber warfare capabilities. As a result, South Asia is in an interesting position, a region that is the most vulnerable to a nuclear exchange, and hence, ironically the most restrained of the world's major flashpoints.
CNA
7 hours ago
- CNA
Hundreds of US citizens left Iran in last week, State Dept cable says
WASHINGTON: Hundreds of American citizens have departed Iran using land routes over the past week since an aerial war between the Islamic Republic and Israel broke out, according to an internal State Department cable seen by Reuters on Friday (Jun 20). While many left without problem, "numerous" citizens had faced "delays and harassment" while trying to exit, the cable said. It said, without giving further details, that one unidentified family had reported that two US citizens attempting to leave Iran had been detained. The internal cable dated June 20 underscores the challenge Washington is facing in trying to protect and assist its citizens in a country with which it has no diplomatic relations and in a war in which the United States may soon get involved. President Donald Trump and the White House said on Thursday he will decide in the next two weeks whether the US will get involved in the Israel-Iran war. Trump has kept the world guessing on his plans, veering from proposing a swift diplomatic solution to suggesting Washington might join the fighting on Israel's side. The air war began on June 13 when Israel attacked Iran and has alarmed a region that has been on edge since the start of Israel's war in Gaza in October 2023. Israel is the only country in the Middle East widely believed to have nuclear weapons, and said it struck Iran to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons. Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, has retaliated with its own strikes on Israel. Iran is a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, while Israel is not. "Due to the limitations of US consular support in Iran, US citizens seeking departure should take advantage of existing means to leave Iran," a State Department spokesperson said in comments emailed late on Friday, when asked about the cable, which was first reported by The Washington Post. POTENTIAL EVACUATION The US State Department in a travel alert earlier on Friday urged its citizens wishing to depart Iran to use land routes via Azerbaijan, Armenia or Turkey. Iranian airspace is closed. The US Embassy in the Turkmenistan capital of Ashgabat has requested entry for over 100 American citizens, but the Turkmenistan government has yet to give its approval, the cable said. The Islamic Republic treats Iranian-US dual citizens solely as nationals of Iran, the State Department emphasized. "US nationals are at significant risk of questioning, arrest and detention in Iran," the alert said. Washington is looking at ways to potentially evacuate its citizens from Israel, but it has almost no way of assisting Americans inside Iran. The two countries have had no diplomatic ties since the Iranian Revolution in 1979. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Thursday said the administration was looking at different ways to get US citizens out. "We're working to get military, commercial, charter flights and cruise ships for evac," he said in an X post, urging US citizens and green card holders to complete an online form. As of Friday, more than 6,400 US citizens filled out that form for Israel, a separate internal department email seen by Reuters said. The form allows the agency to predict an approximate figure for potential evacuations. "Approximately 300-500 US citizens per day would potentially require departure assistance," said the internal email, also dated June 20 and marked "sensitive". The State Department does not have official figures but thousands of US citizens are thought to be residing in Iran and hundreds of thousands in Israel. Israel's strikes over the last week have killed 639 people in Iran, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency. Israel says Iranian attacks have killed 24 civilians in Israel.
CNA
13 hours ago
- CNA
Israel says killed three Iranian commanders in fresh wave of strikes
JERUSALEM: Israel said on Saturday (Jun 21) it had killed three Iranian commanders in its unprecedented bombing campaign across the Islamic republic, which Foreign Minister Gideon Saar claimed had already delayed Tehran's presumed nuclear plans by two years. Israel's military said its fighter jets successfully targeted top Iranian official Saeed Izadi, in charge of coordination with Palestinian militant group Hamas, in Qom south of Tehran and announced the deaths of two other commanders from Iran's Revolutionary Guards. As Israel continued to strike Iran's nuclear facilities and military targets, in an interview published on Saturday, Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar said by the country's own assessment it had "already delayed for at least two or three years the possibility for them to have a nuclear bomb". "We will do everything that we can do there in order to remove this threat," Saar told German newspaper Bild, asserting Israel's onslaught would continue. Israel and Iran have traded wave after wave of devastating strikes, after Israel launched its aerial campaign on Jun 13, fearing Tehran was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon - an ambition Iran has denied. Israel said it had attacked Iran's Isfahan nuclear site for a second time after its air force said it had also launched salvos against missile storage and launch sites in central Iran. United States President Donald Trump warned a day earlier that Tehran has a "maximum" of two weeks to avoid possible American air strikes, as Washington weighs whether to join Israel's unprecedented bombing campaign. "AGGRESSION CONTINUES" Top diplomats from Britain, France and Germany met their Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Geneva on Friday, and urged him to resume talks with the United States that had been derailed by Israel's attacks. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said: "We invited the Iranian minister to consider negotiations with all sides, including the United States, without awaiting the cessation of strikes, which we also hope for". But Araghchi told NBC News after the meeting that "we're not prepared to negotiate with them (the United States) anymore, as long as the aggression continues". Trump was dismissive of European diplomatic efforts, telling reporters: "Iran doesn't want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help in this". Trump also said he is unlikely to ask Israel to stop its attacks to get Iran back to the table. "If somebody's winning, it's a little bit harder to do," he said. Any US involvement would likely feature powerful bunker-busting bombs that no other country possesses to destroy an underground uranium enrichment facility in Fordo. On the streets of Tehran, many shops were closed and normally bustling markets were largely abandoned on Friday. A US-based NGO, the Human Rights Activists News Agency, said on Friday that based on its sources and media reports at least 657 people have been killed in Iran, including 263 civilians. Iran's health ministry said on Saturday that at least 350 people had been killed in the Israeli strikes, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians. Iran has responded with barrages which Israeli authorities say have killed at least 25 people. Overnight, Iran said, in an eighteenth wave of strikes, it targeted central Israel with drones and missiles. A hospital in the Israeli port of Haifa reported 19 wounded, including one person in a serious condition, after the latest Iranian salvo. Israel's National Public Diplomacy Directorate said more than 450 missiles have been fired at the country so far, along with about 400 drones. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted military sites and air force bases. Western powers have repeatedly expressed concerns about the rapid expansion of Iran's nuclear programme, questioning in particular the country's accelerated uranium enrichment. The International Atomic Energy Agency's chief Rafael Grossi has said that Iran is the only country without nuclear weapons to enrich uranium to 60 per cent. However, it added that there was no evidence Tehran had all the components to make a functioning nuclear warhead. Grossi told CNN it was "pure speculation" to say how long it would take Iran to develop weapons. Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the conflict was at a "perilous moment" and it was "hugely important that we don't see regional escalation".
