Latest news with #GazaAid
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Shocking moment Gaza aid activists are dragged away by masked men as Egypt deports volunteers attempting to cross border
Gaza aid activists were violently dragged and carried onto buses by balaclava-clad Egyptian authorities. Footage shows authorities forcibly removing protesters from a sit-down demonstration at the Cairo border. Large numbers of protesters were rounded-up onto buses and will be deported. One protester, who spoke with an American accent, exclaimed: 'There's people in masks dragging people out.' While others can be heard chanting: 'Free Palestine '. Thousands of people have been arriving in the Egyptian capital since Thursday, with the intention of marching to the Rafah crossing in Gaza. It is part of the Global March to Gaza - a protest against Israel 's aid blockade on Gaza. Israel imposed a full 11-week humanitarian blockade on Gaza on March 2, cutting off food, medical supplies and other aid amid its ongoing conflict with the enclave. Around 4,000 volunteers landed in Cairo, then taking buses to the city of Arish in the north of the country's Sinai Peninsula. From there, they hoped to start their planned march, on a roughly 30-mile route, to the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing on the Gaza border. But organisers said that several dozen activists were stopped on the edge of Cairo as they attempted to reach the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, which is around a three-hour drive from Arish. A protester posted a video to social media while on a bus heading there, saying: 'This is an emergency. 'We have just been violently dragged into the buses here at the first checkpoint on the way to Ismailia. 'We were sitting quietly and not doing anything. We were debating that we would leave soon, in taxis back to Cairo because we did not break any law. 'And all of a sudden, several people stormed in and they started to push people and drag them violently outside. 'They have beaten people. I have seen one woman that was beaten in her face in front of me. They didn't leave time to grab the luggage or anything. 'So, this is one of the Secret Service people that was just walking in here. I have to stop this livestream now - we are in danger. This is an emergency. We need to help.' Most of the activists were ordered onto buses back to the capital after several hours of questioning - but some remain in custody. 'We were blocked for six to seven hours before security forces violently dispersed our group,' one organiser said. At least one activist was expelled from Egypt, several sources said, adding to dozens more denied entry or expelled in the run-up to the march. Egyptian authorities have not commented on the reported expulsions. The foreign ministry had warned that while Egypt backs efforts to put 'pressure on Israel' to lift its Gaza blockade, any foreign delegations intending to visit the border area must obtain prior permission. Uzma Usmani, the sponsorship and logistics lead for the UK delegation of the march, explained to CNN: 'This is just another tool, another way [for] the people to raise their voices, to let governments know that we are not happy. 'We need to take things into our own hands, to raise awareness, to put pressure on all the different governments so that they start taking action.' But in a statement on Wednesday, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said allowing the activists through the border would 'endanger the security of IDF soldiers'. He added he expected Egypt 'to prevent the arrival of jihadist demonstrators to the border of Egypt-Israel and not to allow them to carry out provocations and to try to enter into Gaza'. Egypt is in an awkward position in the Israel-Palestine conflict, as a key mediator between Hamas and Israel, also trying to prevent conflict spilling into its own territory. It is also attempting to balance its ties with Israel and the United States with its own public condemnation of the war's brutal civilian impact on Gaza. The Global March to Gaza action comes just days after Israel intercepted Madleen, an aid ship bound for Gaza carrying activist Greta Thunberg on board. Thunberg, 22, was among 12 activists on board the ship, which hoped to 'break [Israel's] siege on the Gaza Strip' with a delivery of humanitarian aid. Israel 'forcibly intercepted' the British-flagged vessel at 3.02am local time on June 9, some 100 miles from the coast of Gaza, the FFC said in a statement. After diverting the boat to the port of Ashdod, Israel's foreign ministry posted a picture of the activists all in orange life jackets being offered water and sandwiches. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the crew were safe and unharmed, and would be taken to the Israeli Port of Ashdod where they would be shown a video of Hamas's October 7 atrocities. Of the 12 people on board the Madleen carrying food and supplies for Gaza, eight were taken into custody after they refused to leave Israel voluntarily. Four others, including Thunberg, were deported.
CBC
13-06-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Aid boat bound for Gaza was seized by Israel, but crew member still considers trip a win
Dr. Baptiste André's shirt was still grimy when he walked out of the arrivals level at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris to a flurry of cameras, microphones and questions from journalists. The French native was one of 11 crew members on the Madleen, part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, and among the three — including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg — who signed deportation papers after the boat was seized by the Israeli navy on Monday before it could reach the Gaza Strip. (A fourth person, a journalist, also signed the papers.) The coalition aims to break Israel's naval blockade of Gaza and deliver a symbolic amount of aid. Most of the enclave's 2.1 million people have been displaced by war, and malnutrition is widespread, the United Nations says. Israel has dismissed the aid boat as a publicity stunt. During a 20-minute impromptu news conference on Wednesday, André became visibly emotional as he referred to the courage of some of his colleagues in an Israeli jail who refused to sign deportation papers — something he said he felt he had to sign for personal and professional reasons. André said the document he signed contained allegations that he had entered Israel illegally — a charge that is false, he said, because the boat was in international waters. By the time the Madleen, a charity vessel, was boarded and seized by Israeli naval forces in the Mediterranean, André said, the crew felt a sense of disappointment. "We were able to make 90 per cent of our route, but we were not able to dock on the shores of Gaza," he told CBC News. "The feeling onboard in the beginning was one of joy after many weeks of preparation," he said. "A lot of joy, but a lot of stress as well." 'Fear was very present' André, who served as the onboard medic, and the crew began their journey on June 1, sailing from southern Italy with a boatload of humanitarian aid. The Madleen was destined to dock in Gaza, where the crew planned to distribute the aid to Palestinians, but its journey ended 100 nautical miles (185 kilometres) from the coast of Gaza. It was about 3 a.m. local time on Monday, André said, when the crew was surrounded by Israeli drones before dozens of soldiers arrived and boarded the boat. Each crew member had specific duties, and André said his were to make sure everyone was wearing their life-jackets; to collect cellphones and throw them in the water; and to collect kitchen knives that were used to make meals, put them in a box and throw it overboard. He was also responsible for keeping grab bags that contained the crew's passports, bottles of water, medication and some food. Controls of the Madleen were taken over by the Israelis, and the crew was brought to Ashdod, a city in Israel on the Mediterranean coast, "against their will," André said. "The feeling onboard in that moment was one of fear, even though we had prepared with daily training to be able to manage all scenarios in the best possible way. But despite that, fear was very present." Most crew members have been deported Despite not making it to their destination, André said he still considers the expedition a "success," as the crew brought attention to the plight of Palestinians in Gaza. "This mission was framed as a movement of solidarity — we played our part in it," he said. Israel began a military campaign in Gaza after it was attacked by Hamas-led militants, who killed some 1,200 people and took about 251 hostage on Oct. 7, 2023, Israeli authorities say. Since then, nearly 55,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to health authorities in Gaza, and much of the densely populated strip has been flattened. The Israeli government said on Thursday that six other crew members of the Madleen were released and taken to Ben Gurion Airport for flights to their home countries. Lawyers with Adalah, a Palestinian-run legal centre in Israel, said crew members were subjected to "mistreatment, punitive measures, and aggressive treatment, and two volunteers were held for some period of time in solitary confinement." Israeli authorities declined to comment on their treatment. The government said it treats detainees in a lawful manner and investigates any allegations of abuse. The six who were released included Rima Hassan, a French member of the European parliament whom Israel had previously barred from entering Israel and the Palestinian territories, citing her support for boycotts of the country. The last two activists are expected to be deported on Friday, according to Adalah. WATCH | Canadian couple plans to take part in global march to Gaza: A Windsor couple preparing to join global march to Gaza border to protest war 7 days ago Duration 3:03 A Windsor Ont., couple is preparing to make the journey to the Middle East to join a peaceful global protest to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people. CBC's Katerina Georgieva reports.
Fox News
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
People in Gaza are thanking Trump for aid, leader of US-backed group says
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's (GHF) new chairman is ignoring critics and keeping his focus on what he calls the group's "singular mission" of making sure the people of Gaza have food. "Our mission has nothing to do with Hamas. It has nothing to do with Israel. It has everything to do with making sure that hungry Gazans get food. That is our singular mission. No other mission," Rev. Johnnie Moore, GHF's executive chairman, told Fox News Digital. Moore took the helm June 3, just a few days after the Israeli- and U.S.-backed aid group began its distribution operations. Even before GHF began distributing aid, it faced criticism in the weeks leading up to its launch. The United Nations came out strongly against the group. U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher was a vocal critic, claiming the U.N. already had the infrastructure and ability to distribute aid. Moore, however, believes GHF is "trying to solve a problem that the U.N. hasn't been able to solve," namely, the issue of Hamas stealing aid. Rather than admonish critics, Moore is urging them to join GHF's efforts to get food to people on the ground in Gaza. The GHF chief also noted that, despite what critics have said, Gazans have been "incredibly grateful" to receive the support. Not only have the beneficiaries been thanking the U.S., they've been thanking President Donald Trump. Moore attributes this to a promise the commander in chief made in the Oval Office. "They're thanking President Trump specifically because a few weeks ago, in the Oval Office, in one of the many, many press briefings that President Trump does, he made a passing comment," Moore said. "And the comment related to how Hamas was treating the Gazan people very badly when it came to humanitarian aid. And he made a promise that the United States would do something about it. And the people in Gaza are attributing our free distribution of food as a direct response to the promise of the president of the United States." Israel and the U.S. have repeatedly said that GHF is the best mechanism for distributing aid to Gazans and ensuring that Hamas does not get anything. Moore told Fox News Digital humanitarian aid officials have faced a "false choice" for years between Hamas and the people of Gaza. "I think for many, many years, the aid community thought that the cost of giving aid to the people of Gaza is that you had to lose a certain amount of that aid to all of these other nefarious purposes. We're just showing that that's a false choice. That doesn't have to be the case. We can actually give aid without facing these dilemmas," Moore said. "Since the Israeli authorities allowed the U.N. to resume bringing limited aid into Gaza after nearly 80 days of a total blockade of any supplies, there have been understandable instances of trucks carrying food being offloaded by hungry civilians," Eri Kaneko, spokesperson for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told Fox News Digital. "In some cases, we have also seen unacceptable looting by armed, criminal gangs, which posed tremendous risk to our drivers' safety. To meet humanitarian needs in Gaza and help reduce looting, far more essential supplies should be allowed into Gaza through multiple crossings and routes." In late May, Israeli U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon revealed the international institution was using "mafia-like" tactics against NGOs that were open to working with GHF. The U.N. removed several NGOs from a shared aid database, which acts as a "central system for tracking aid deliveries into Gaza," according to Danon. The following week, after Danon exposed the U.N.'s actions, the U.S. vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The resolution also addressed humanitarian aid, though Danon said it would have undermined, rather than advanced, such efforts. Just minutes before vetoing the resolution, U.S. Chargé d'Affaires Dorothy Shea urged the U.N. to support GHF "to help it safely deliver aid without being diverted by Hamas. The GHF has emphasized it will deliver aid consistent with the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence."
Japan Times
10-06-2025
- Health
- Japan Times
Palestinians' dangerous ordeal to reach Israeli-approved aid
When university professor Nizam Salama made his way to a southern Gaza aid point last week, he came under fire twice, was crushed in a desperate crowd of hungry people and finally left empty handed. Shooting first started shortly after he left his family's tent at 3 a.m. on June 3 to join crowds on the coast road heading towards the aid site in the city of Rafah run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a new U.S.-based organization working with private military contractors to deliver aid in Gaza. The second time Salama came under fire was at Alam Roundabout close to the aid delivery site, where he saw six dead bodies. Twenty-seven people were killed that day by Israeli fire on aid seekers, Palestinian health authorities said. Israel said its forces had shot at a group of people they viewed as a threat and the military is investigating the incident. At the aid delivery site, known as SDS 1, queues snaked through narrow cage-like fences before gates were opened to an area surrounded by sand barriers where packages of supplies were left on tables and in boxes on the ground, according to undated CCTV video distributed by GHF. Salama said the rush of thousands of people once the gates opened was a "death trap." A boy crouches as Palestinians gather to collect what remains of relief supplies from the GHF distribution center in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on June 5. | REUTERS "Survival is for the stronger: people who are fitter and can make it earlier and can push harder to win the package," he said. "I felt my ribs going into each other. My chest was going into itself. My breath ... I couldn't breathe. People were shouting; they couldn't breathe at all." Reuters could not independently verify all the details of Salama's account. It matched the testimonies of two other aid seekers, who spoke of crawling and ducking as bullets rattled overhead on their way to or from the aid distribution sites. All three witnesses said they saw dead bodies on their journeys to and from the Rafah sites. A statement from a nearby Red Cross field hospital confirmed the number of dead from the attack near the aid site on June 3. Asked about the high number of deaths since it began operations on May 26, GHF said there had been no casualties at or in the close vicinity of its site. The Israeli military didn't respond to detailed requests for comment. Israeli military spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin told reporters on Sunday that Hamas was "doing its best" to provoke troops, who "shoot to stop the threat" in what he called a war zone in the vicinity of the aid sites. He said military investigations were underway "to see where we were wrong." Salama, 52, had heard enough about the new system to know it would be difficult to get aid, he said, but his five children — including two adults, two teenagers and a 9-year-old — needed food. They have been eating only lentils or pasta for months, he said, often only a single meal a day. Palestinian children hold pots and pans as they wait at a hot meal distribution point in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip. | AFP-Jiji "I was completely against going to the aid site of the American company (GHF) because I knew and I had heard how humiliating it is to do so, but I had no choice because of the bad need to feed my family," said the professor of education administration. In total, 127 Palestinians have been killed trying to get aid from GHF sites in almost daily shootings since distribution under the new system began two weeks ago, Gaza's health authority said on Monday. The system appears to violate core principles of humanitarian aid, said Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, a major humanitarian organization. He compared it to the Hunger Games, the dystopian novels that set people to run and fight to the death. "A few will be rewarded and the many will only risk their lives for nothing," Egeland said. "International humanitarian law has prescribed that aid in war zones should be provided by neutral intermediaries that can make sure that the most vulnerable will get the relief according to needs alone and not as part of a political or military strategy," he said. GHF did not directly respond to a question about its neutrality, replying that it had securely delivered enough aid for more than 11 million meals in two weeks. Gaza's population is around 2.1 million people. Famine risk Israel allowed limited U.N.-led aid operations to resume on May 19 after an 11-week blockade in the enclave, where experts a week earlier warned a famine looms. The U.N. has described the aid allowed into Gaza as "drop in the ocean." Separate to the U.N. operation, Israel allowed GHF to open four sites in Gaza, bypassing traditional aid groups. The GHF sites are overseen by a U.S. logistics company run by a former CIA official and part-owned by a Chicago-based private equity firm, with security provided by U.S. military veterans working for a private contractor, two sources have said. Gaza University professor Nizam Salama sits inside the tent where he and his family have taken refuge, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on June 5. | REUTERS An Israeli defense official involved in humanitarian matters said GHF's distribution centers were sufficient for around 1.2 million people. Israel and the United States have urged the U.N. to work with GHF, which has seen a high churn of top personnel, although both countries deny funding it. Reuters has not been able to establish who provides the funding for the organization, but reported last week that Washington was considering an Israeli request to put in $500 million. GHF coordinates with the Israeli army for access, the foundation said, adding that it was looking to open more distribution points. It has paused then resumed deliveries several times after the shooting incidents, including on Monday. Last week, it urged the Israeli army to improve civilian safety beyond the perimeter of its operations. GHF said the U.N. was failing to deliver aid, pointing to a spate of recent lootings. Israel says the U.N.'s aid deliveries have previously been hijacked by Hamas to feed their own militants. Hamas has denied stealing aid and the U.N. denies its aid operations help Hamas. The U.N., which has handled previous aid deliveries into Gaza, says it has over 400 distribution points for aid in the territory. On Monday it described an increasingly anarchic situation of looting and has called on Israel to allow more of its trucks to move safely. Shooting starts Salama and four neighbors set out from Mawasi, in the Khan Younis area of the southern Gaza Strip, at 3 a.m. on Tuesday for the aid site, taking two hours to reach Rafah, which is several miles away near the Egyptian border. Shooting started early in their journey. Some fire was coming from the sea, he said, consistent with other accounts of the incidents. Israel's military controls the sea around Gaza. Mourners pray during the funeral of Palestinians killed, in what the Gaza health ministry say was Israeli fire near a distribution site in Rafah, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on June 3. | REUTERS His small group decided to press on. In the dark, the way was uneven and he repeatedly fell, he said. "I saw people carrying wounded persons and heading back with them towards Khan Younis," he said. By the time they reached Alam Roundabout in Rafah, about a kilometer from the site, there was a vast crowd. There was more shooting and he saw bullets hitting nearby. "You must duck and stay on the ground," he said, describing casualties with wounds to the head, chest and legs. He saw bodies nearby, including a woman, along with "many" injured people, he said. Another aid seeker interviewed by Reuters, who also walked to Rafah on June 3 in the early morning, described repeated gunfire during the journey. At one point, he and everyone around him crawled for a stretch of several hundred meters, fearing being shot. He saw a body with a wound to the head about 100 meters from the aid site, he said. The Red Cross Field Hospital in Rafah received a mass casualty influx of 184 patients on June 3, the majority of them injured by gunshots, the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement, calling it the highest number of weapon-wounded patients the hospital had ever received in a single incident. There were 27 fatalities. "All responsive patients said they were trying to reach an assistance distribution site," the statement said. When Salama finally arrived at the aid point on June 3, there was nothing left. "Everyone was standing pulling cardboard boxes from the floor that were empty," he said. "Unfortunately I found nothing: a very, very, very big zero." Although the aid was gone, ever more people were arriving. "The flood of people pushes you to the front while I was trying to go back," he said. As he was pushed further toward where GHF guards were located, he saw them using pepper spray on the crowd, he said. GHF said it was not aware of the pepper spray incident but said its workers used nonlethal measures to protect civilians. "I started shouting at the top of my lungs, brothers I don't want anything, I just want to leave, I just want to leave the place," Salama said. "I left empty-handed ... I went back home depressed, sad and angry and hungry too," he said.
Al Arabiya
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Israel deports Greta Thunberg after Gaza-bound ship was seized
Activist Greta Thunberg was deported from Israel on Tuesday, the country's Foreign Ministry said, a day after the Gaza-bound ship she was on was seized by the Israeli military. Thunberg left on a flight to France and was then headed to her home country of Sweden, Israel's Foreign Ministry said in a post on X. It posted a photo of Thunberg, who shuns air travel, seated on a plane. Thunberg was one of 12 passengers on the Madleen, a ship carrying aid to Gaza that was meant to protest Israel's ongoing war there and shed light on the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory, according to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the group behind the journey. Israeli naval forces seized the boat without incident early Monday about 200 kilometers (125 miles) off of Gaza's coast, according to the coalition, which along with rights groups, said Israel's actions were a violation of international law. Israel rejects that charge because it says such ships intend to breach what it says is a lawful naval blockade of Gaza. The boat, accompanied by Israel's navy, arrived in the Israeli port of Ashdod Monday evening, according to Israel's Foreign Ministry. Adalah, a legal rights group in Israel representing the activists, said Thunberg, two other activists and a journalist had agreed to be deported and leave Israel. The other eight activists refused deportation, were being held in detention and their case was set to be heard by Israeli authorities, Adalah said. The activists were expected to be brought before a court later Tuesday, the group added. Sabine Haddad, a spokeswoman for Israel's Interior Ministry, said the activists who were being deported Tuesday had waived their right to appear before a judge. Those who did not will face one and will be held for 96 hours before being deported. Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament who is of Palestinian descent, was also among the volunteers on board. She has been barred from entering Israel because of her opposition to Israeli policies toward the Palestinians. It was not immediately clear whether she was being immediately deported or detained. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Tuesday that one of the detained French activists signed an expulsion order and will leave Israel on Tuesday for France. The other five refused. He said all the activists received consular visits. On Monday, Adalah, the rights group, said that Israel had 'no legal authority' to take over the ship, because the group said it was in international waters and it was headed not to Israel but to the 'territorial waters of the state of Palestine.' Amnesty International said Israel was flouting international law with the naval raid and called on Israel to release the activists immediately and unconditionally. 'The arrest of the unarmed activists, who operated in a civilian manner to provide humanitarian aid, amounts to a serious breach of international law,' Adalah said in a statement. Israel viewed the ship as a publicity stunt, calling it the 'selfie yacht.' Israeli officials said that the flotilla was bringing 'meager' aid with what amounted to less than a truckload of goods.
