Latest news with #IsraeliAirStrikes
The National
8 hours ago
- Health
- The National
'Lame and lethal' aid system claims dozen more lives in Gaza
At least 70 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes in Gaza on Thursday, the enclave's civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal said. Medics earlier reported that 12 people had been killed while trying to approach an aid site operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in the central Gaza Strip. The system has been described by a top UN official as 'lame, medieval and lethal' following hundreds of deaths in similar incidents over the past few weeks. Dozens of Palestinians were killed in separate Israeli air strikes in the northern Gaza Strip, medics added. One of those strikes killed at least 12 people, including women and children, near a mosque in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza city, they added. Another eight civilians were killed in Israeli shelling of Gaza city on Thursday, Wafa news agency said. Five of those were killed in an attack on a house in the Zeitoun neighbourhood, and three others when an apartment in the west of the city was hit. Israeli forces also blew up homes east of Jabalia Al Balad in northern Gaza, the agency reported. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army on Thursday's incidents. In recent days it said it was reviewing reports of civilian casualties. About 100 other people were injured when Israeli drones and military vehicles opened fire in the morning near an aid distribution point in central Gaza, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. At least 338 people have been killed in total while gathering to collect aid from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), according to a tally released by local health authorities on Monday. The recently created US and Israel-backed agency, whose four distribution centres are guarded by private security contractors and surrounded by Israeli forces, began operations in late May to supersede the aid delivery system operated by the UN. Israel said the move prevents the militant group Hamas from taking aid intended for civilians. The centres are regularly overrun by Gazans desperate for food after a nearly three-month total blockade of aid deliveries imposed by Israel in March. Crowds start gathering near the distribution sites before dawn, despite a warning from the Israeli military that these areas are considered combat zones between 6pm and 6am. "Palestinian lives have been so devalued. It is now the routine to shoot and kill desperate and starving people while they try to collect little food from a company made of mercenaries," Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said in a post on X after at least 14 people were killed while waiting for aid on Wednesday. He described GHF as "a lame, medieval and lethal system that is deliberately harming people under the camouflage of 'humanitarian aid'". Dozens killed waiting for aid in Khan Younis "Hundreds of people have been reported killed since the 'Gaza Humiliation Foundation' started operating just over three weeks ago," he said, describing the group's operations as "a lame, medieval and lethal system that is deliberately harming people under the camouflage of 'humanitarian aid'". He called for those responsible for establishing the new system to be held accountable, saying: "Inviting starving people to their death is a war crime." The Palestinian death toll from Israel's war in Gaza passed 55,700 the health ministry said on Thursday and the number injured rose to more than 130,100. The ministry's figures do not distinguish between combatants and civilians, although it says the majority of victims have been women and children. The war began on October 7, 2023, with a Hamas attack on southern Israel in which about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and about 250 taken hostage.
Arab News
2 days ago
- Politics
- Arab News
France plans European ‘initiative' to end Iran-Israel conflict: presidency
PARIS: France is planning along with European partners to suggest a negotiated solution to end the conflict between Iran and Israel, President Emmanuel Macron's office said Wednesday. At a national security council meeting, Macron ordered Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot to draw up in the coming days 'an initiative with close European partners that would propose a demanding negotiated settlement to put an end to the conflict,' it said, without giving details on the nature of the plan. Barrot has been in regular touch with his German and British counterparts since Israel launched massive air strikes against Iran on Friday. All three countries were involved in talks that led to a landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers to curb Tehran's nuclear activities in exchange for relief from sanctions. The United States withdrew from that accord during President Donald Trump's first term. Macron also urged Israel to end strikes on targets in Iran not linked to nuclear activities or ballistic missiles. He voice 'concern over the current escalation, with Israeli strikes increasingly hitting targets not linked to Iran's nuclear or ballistic program, and a mounting number of civilian victims in Iran and Israel,' his office said. He said it was 'necessary to urgently end these military operations, which pose significant threats to regional security,' it added. The French president also urged the foreign ministry to take measures to help French citizens leave Israel or Iran if they wished to do so, the Elysee added, without providing further details.
BBC News
2 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
Gaza: Eleven killed by Israeli fire while seeking aid, rescuers say
Eleven Palestinians seeking aid were among at least 33 killed by Israeli gunfire and strikes across Gaza on Wednesday, rescuers and medics say.A spokesman for the Hamas-run civil defence agency said Israeli forces "opened fire and launched several shells" at thousands of people who were queuing for desperately needed food supplies on the main Salah al-Din Israeli military said troops operating in the Nuseirat area fired warning shots overnight after a group approached them in a manner that posed a potential threat, but that it was unaware of any 19 people were killed in three Israeli air strikes in northern and southern Gaza, according to the civil defence agency. They included eight who died when a home was hit in the Zeitoun area of Gaza City, it the air strikes, the Israeli military said it was "operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities" in the territory. Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said on Wednesday afternoon that at least 140 people had been killed over the previous 24 ministry reported on Tuesday that 51 people were killed while waiting for aid in the southern city of Khan Younis, while the UN cited partner organisations working on health as putting the death toll at more than told the BBC that Israeli tanks and drones opened fire as crowds gathered near a charity community centre and a warehouse belonging to the UN's World Food Israeli military acknowledged that its troops were in the area and said the details of the incident were under a separate incident on Tuesday, the civil defence agency said another seven people seeking aid were killed and many others were injured on Rashid Street north-west of Gaza City.A doctor at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City told Reuters news agency that the fatalities were the result of Israeli air strikes and that the injuries were caused by Fida Masoud said her son "went to bring a bag of flour and came back [injured] in a bag".Meanwhile, a local journalist posted footage that he said showed his cousin celebrating after collecting a bag of flour for his family."A 50kg bag. I pulled it out from under the truck, inches from death," he declares. Almost 400 people have been killed while trying to get aid since 26 May, when the Israel- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) opened the first of its three distribution centre, according to the health GHF, which uses US private security contractors, aims to bypass the UN as the main supplier of aid to the 2.1 million Palestinians in UN and other aid groups refuse to co-operate with the new system, saying it contravenes the humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality, and also warn that Gaza's population faces catastrophic levels of hunger after an 11-week total Israeli blockade that was partially eased a month US and Israel say GHF's system will prevent aid being stolen by Hamas, which the group denies Wednesday, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) condemned it as "lame, medieval and lethal"."Inviting starving people to their death is a war crime. Those responsible of this system must be held accountable," Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X."This is a disgrace and a stain on our collective consciousness." The GHF has not commented, but it said in a statement that it had so far distributed 30 million meals across its three distribution centres "without incident"."We remain focused on a singular mission: to feed the people of Gaza - and we are committed to scaling our efforts to reach even more in need," it WFP meanwhile warned that the 9,000 tonnes of food aid it had dispatched over the past four weeks was "a tiny fraction" of what was needed in also said the desperate need for food was causing large crowds to gather along well-known transport routes, hoping to intercept and access humanitarian supplies while in transit."Only a massive scale-up in food distributions can stabilize the situation, calm anxieties and rebuild the trust within communities that more food is coming," it military body Cogat reported that 85 lorry loads of aid entered southern and northern Gaza via the Kerem Shalom and Erez West crossings on Tuesday, 66 of which were collected. Another 380 lorry loads of aid were waiting for collection by the UN, it Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken least 55,637 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry.
BreakingNews.ie
2 days ago
- Politics
- BreakingNews.ie
Israel unleashes intense air strikes in Tehran
Intense Israeli air strikes have targeted Iran's capital in a conflict that a human rights group said had killed at least 585 people across Iran and injured 1,326 others. The Washington-based group Human Rights Activists said it had identified 239 of those killed in Israeli strikes as civilians and 126 as security personnel. Advertisement The group, which also provided detailed casualty figures during the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, cross-checks local reports in the Islamic Republic against a network of sources it has developed in the country. Strikes have injured hundreds of people in Tehran (AP/ISNA) Iran has not been publishing regular death tolls during the conflict and has minimised casualties in the past. Its last update, issued on Monday, put the death toll at 224 people killed and 1,277 others wounded. Uncertainty roiled the region and residents of Tehran fled their homes in droves on the sixth day of Israel's air campaign aimed at Iran's military and nuclear programme. Advertisement Israel acknowledged the strikes early on Wednesday in Tehran, saying that more than 50 fighter jets took part. The Israelis claimed they hit a centrifuge manufacturing facility. The Israeli government said it had to launch its air strike campaign to stop Iran from getting closer to being able to build a nuclear weapon. An oil storage facility was hit in Tehran on Sunday (AP) It came as Iran and the United States had been negotiating over the possibility of a new diplomatic deal over Tehran's programme, though American President Donald Trump has said Israel's campaign came after a 60-day window he set for the talks. Iran long has insisted its nuclear program was peaceful, though it was the only non-nuclear-armed state to enrich uranium up to 60%, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, was still conducting inspections, though limited, in the country. U.S. intelligence agencies as well have said they did not believe Iran was actively pursuing the bomb. Advertisement Iran has retaliated against Israel's airstrike campaign by launching some 400 missiles and hundreds of drones at Israel. So far, 24 people have been killed in Israel.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Israel unleashes intense air strikes in Tehran
Intense Israeli air strikes have targeted Iran's capital in a conflict that a human rights group said had killed at least 585 people across Iran and injured 1,326 others. The Washington-based group Human Rights Activists said it had identified 239 of those killed in Israeli strikes as civilians and 126 as security personnel. The group, which also provided detailed casualty figures during the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, cross-checks local reports in the Islamic Republic against a network of sources it has developed in the country. Iran has not been publishing regular death tolls during the conflict and has minimised casualties in the past. Its last update, issued on Monday, put the death toll at 224 people killed and 1,277 others wounded. Uncertainty roiled the region and residents of Tehran fled their homes in droves on the sixth day of Israel's air campaign aimed at Iran's military and nuclear programme. Israel acknowledged the strikes early on Wednesday in Tehran, saying that more than 50 fighter jets took part. The Israelis claimed they hit a centrifuge manufacturing facility. The Israeli government said it had to launch its air strike campaign to stop Iran from getting closer to being able to build a nuclear weapon. It came as Iran and the United States had been negotiating over the possibility of a new diplomatic deal over Tehran's programme, though American President Donald Trump has said Israel's campaign came after a 60-day window he set for the talks. Iran long has insisted its nuclear program was peaceful, though it was the only non-nuclear-armed state to enrich uranium up to 60%, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, was still conducting inspections, though limited, in the country. U.S. intelligence agencies as well have said they did not believe Iran was actively pursuing the bomb. Iran has retaliated against Israel's airstrike campaign by launching some 400 missiles and hundreds of drones at Israel. So far, 24 people have been killed in Israel.
