Latest news with #Netzarim
Asharq Al-Awsat
16 hours ago
- Health
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Israeli Strikes Kill 44 Palestinians in Gaza, UN Warns of Man-Made Drought
Israeli fire killed at least 44 Palestinians in Gaza on Friday, many of whom had been trying to get food, local officials said, while the United Nations' children's agency warned of a looming man-made drought in the enclave as its water systems collapse. At least 25 people awaiting aid trucks were killed by Israeli fire south of Netzarim in central Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run local health authority said. Asked by Reuters about the incident, the Israel Defense Force said its troops had fired warning shots at suspected gunmen who advanced in a crowd towards them. An Israeli aircraft then "struck and eliminated the suspects", it said in a statement, adding that it was aware of others being hurt in the incident and was conducting a review. Separately, Gazan medics said at least 19 others were killed in other Israeli military strikes across the enclave, including 12 people in a house in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza Strip, taking Friday's total death toll to at least 44. In a statement on Friday, the Hamas group, which says Israel is using hunger as a weapon against the population of Gaza, accused Israel of systematically targeting Palestinians seeking food aid across the enclave. Israel denies this and accuses Hamas of stealing food aid, which the group denies. Meanwhile UNICEF, the UN's children's agency, warned in Geneva of drought conditions developing in Gaza. "Children will begin to die of thirst ... Just 40% of drinking water production facilities remain functional," UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told reporters. "We are way below emergency standards in terms of drinking water." UNICEF also reported a 50% increase in children aged six months to 5 years admitted for treatment of malnutrition from April to May in Gaza, and half a million people going hungry. FOOD AID Elder, who was recently in Gaza, said he had many testimonials of women and children injured while trying to receive food aid, including a young boy who was wounded by a tank shell and later died of his injuries. A lack of public clarity on when the sites - some of which are in combat zones - are open is causing mass casualty events, he added. The route near Netzarim has become dangerous since the start of a new US-backed aid distribution system run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), witnesses told Reuters, with desperate Gazans heading to a designated area late at night to try and get something from aid supplies due to be handed out after dawn. The route has also been used by aid trucks sent by the United Nations and aid groups, and people have also been heading there in the hope of grabbing bags off trucks. UNICEF said GHF was "making a desperate situation worse". On Thursday, at least 70 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes, including 12 people who tried to approach a site operated by the GHF in the central Gaza Strip. In an email to Reuters, GHF accused Gazan health officials of regularly releasing inaccurate information. It said Palestinians do not access the nearby GHF site via the Netzarim corridor. The statement did not address a question about whether GHF was aware of Thursday's incident. The GHF said in a statement on Thursday it had so far distributed nearly three million meals across three of its aid sites without incident. The Red Cross told Reuters that the "vast majority" of patients that arrived at its Field Hospital during mass casualty incidents had reported that they were wounded while trying to access aid, at or around aid distribution points. Between May 27 and Thursday, the aid group received 1,874 patients wounded by weapons, according to Red Cross figures. The Gaza war was triggered when Palestinian Hamas fighters attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 55,700 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, while displacing almost the entire population of more than 2 million and causing a hunger crisis.
Al Jazeera
3 days ago
- Health
- Al Jazeera
Israeli forces kill 69 Palestinians in Gaza, including 29 seeking aid
At least 69 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire across Gaza on Wednesday, including 29 people who were waiting for aid trucks, Palestinian health officials say, the latest carnage hitting people desperate to secure food for their hungry families. The latest incidence of the daily killing of Palestinian aid seekers in recent weeks took place early on Wednesday on Salah al-Din Street near the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza, medical sources told Al Jazeera. More than 100 others were injured in the attack, they said. In other deadly Israeli strikes across Gaza, eight people were killed, and others injured, in an air strike on a home in the Zeitoun neighbourhood south of Gaza City, medical sources told Al Jazeera. Eight more people were killed, and others injured, in Israeli strikes on tents of displaced people in al-Mawasi camp in Gaza's south, medical sources told Al Jazeera. The victims included a woman and two children, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. Another strike took place on the Maghazi camp in central Gaza, news agencies reported, citing medics. Wafa reported that 10 people, including a husband, wife and children from a single family, were killed in the strike. Hamas condemned Israel's assault on residential areas across the enclave, as well as its targeting of aid seekers at distribution points managed by the contentious US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). 'The systematic abuse of innocent civilians, the escalation of massacres, the targeting of the starving, forced evictions, and the shrinking of areas the occupation claims are 'safe'' amount to war crimes, the group said. Israel's attacks are 'part of the brutal war of extermination that has been ongoing for nearly 20 months', it added. The Israeli military, when asked for comment, told the Reuters news agency that it was looking into the reported deaths of people waiting for food aid. Regarding the other reported strikes, it claimed it was 'operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities' and taking 'feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm', Reuters reported. The GHF began distributing a trickle of food aid in Gaza at the end of May after Israel partially lifted a nearly three-month total blockade on food, medicines and other essential items, leading to fears of famine for the population of 2.3 million. No other aid has been allowed in by Israel, which in effect has kept the punishing blockade in place. Israeli mass killings of aid seekers have become a grim daily occurrence amid the chaotic scenes as desperate Palestinians are given a narrow window to rush for food. The United Nations and major humanitarian groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, citing concerns that it prioritises Israeli military objectives over humanitarian needs and bypasses organisations with decades of experience in providing food and medicine at hundreds of locations to the entire population of Gaza. Ahmed Ghaben told Al Jazeera about the death of a relative: 'My nephew went to bring his children a bag of flour, but he was brought back a lifeless body, as you can see, a martyr. He left 14 family members. He went [to get aid] due to hunger. He wasn't a resistance fighter. He went to get a bag of flour.' Al Jazeera's Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said, 'It's very clear that Israeli forces are targeting civilians who only went to get bags of flour or boxes of food. Eyewitnesses say the soldiers used a variety of weapons, including drones and tanks. Snipers who have been deployed in nearby hills have also been gunning down the civilians. 'The Israeli military claims these hungry crowds are a security threat, but these claims have not been substantiated with clear evidence.' On Tuesday, Israeli troops killed at least 70 Palestinians and wounded hundreds as they sought aid in Gaza on the deadliest day of violence at the sites so far. Gaza's Ministry of Health said on Tuesday that 397 Palestinian aid seekers had been killed and more than 3,000 wounded since distribution resumed in late May. The attacks come as Gaza's Health Ministry said that the death toll had risen to 55,637, with 129,880 wounded since the conflict erupted in October 2023. The ministry also issued a warning about serious fuel shortages, saying that the territory's few operational hospitals had only enough fuel to last three days. The ministry said that Israeli forces were preventing international aid groups and UN organisations from accessing fuel storage sites for hospitals under the pretext that they were in so-called 'red zones', threatening the shutdown of hospitals that rely on generators for power. In the meantime, with much of the world's attention on the Israel-Iran conflict, and what the United States may or may not do, a top leader of the Houthis in Yemen, one of Iran's key allies, said they will keep up their support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip until Israeli 'aggression stops, and the siege is lifted'. 'Our operations in support of Gaza will not cease, no matter the sacrifices', said Houthi-backed president Mahdi al-Mashat in a statement Wednesday.
Al Jazeera
3 days ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Israeli forces kill 47 Palestinians in Gaza, including 11 awaiting aid
At least 47 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire across Gaza, including 11 people who were waiting for aid trucks, Palestinian health officials say. The latest incidence of the near daily killings of Palestinian aid seekers in recent weeks took place early on Wednesday on Salah Al-Din Street near the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza, medical sources told Al Jazeera. More than 100 others were injured in the attack, they said. In other deadly Israeli strikes across Gaza, eight people were killed, and others injured, in an air strike on a home in the Zeitoun neighbourhood south of Gaza City, medical sources told Al Jazeera. Eight more people were killed, and others injured, in Israeli strikes on tents of displaced people in al-Mawasi camp in Gaza's south, medical sources told Al Jazeera. The victims included a woman and two children, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. Another strike took place on the Maghazi camp in central Gaza, news agencies reported, citing medics. Wafa reported that 10 people, including a husband, wife and children from a single family, were killed in the strike. The Israeli military, when asked for comment, told the Reuters news agency that it was looking into the reported deaths of people waiting for food aid. Regarding the other reported strikes, it claimed it was 'operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities' and taking 'feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm', Reuters reported. Since Israel slightly eased its total blockade on Gaza in late May, allowing limited amounts of aid to be distributed by the controversial US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, killings of aid seekers have become a regular occurrence amid the chaotic scenes as desperate Palestinians clamour for food. The UN and major humanitarian groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, citing concerns that it prioritises Israeli military objectives over humanitarian needs. On Tuesday, Israeli troops killed at least 70 Palestinians and wounded hundreds as they sought aid in Gaza on the deadliest day of violence at the sites so far. Gaza's health ministry said Tuesday that 397 Palestinian aid seekers had been killed and more than 3,000 wounded since distribution resumed in late May. Th attacks come as Gaza's health ministry said that the death toll had risen to 55,637, with 129,880 wounded since the conflict erupted in October 2023. The ministry also issued a warning of serious fuel shortages, saying that the territory's few operational hospitals had only enough fuel to last three days. The ministry said that Israeli forces were preventing international aid groups and UN organisations from accessing fuel storage sites for hospitals under the pretext that they were in so-called 'red zones', which threatened to shut down hospitals that rely on generators for power.
Al Jazeera
14-06-2025
- Al Jazeera
Palestinian man carries dead father on his bike in Gaza
NewsFeed Palestinian man carries dead father on his bike in Gaza Video shows a young man carrying his dead father on a bicycle, after he was shot while trying to secure food parcels at a US-backed aid site in Gaza. Israeli forces, backed by gangs, have killed more than 220 people at the aid distribution sites in Rafah and the Netzarim corridor since they opened.
CNA
12-06-2025
- Health
- CNA
Israeli fire kills 60 in Gaza, many near aid site, medics say
CAIRO: Israeli gunfire and airstrikes killed at least 60 Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday (Jun 12), most of them near an aid site operated by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in the centre of the enclave, local health officials said. Medical officials at Shifa and Al-Quds hospitals said at least 25 people were killed and dozens wounded as they approached a food distribution centre near the former Jewish settlement of Netzarim before dawn. Israel's military, which has been at war with Hamas militants since October 2023, said its forces fired warning shots overnight towards a group of suspects as they posed a threat to troops in the area of the Netzarim Corridor. "This is despite warnings that the area is an active combat zone. The IDF is aware of reports regarding individuals injured; the details are under review," it said. Later on Wednesday, health officials at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip said at least 14 people had been killed by Israeli gunfire as they approached another GHF site in Rafah. The GHF late on Wednesday accused Hamas of killing at least five people in an attack on a bus carrying two dozen Palestinians working with the aid organisation to one of its distribution sites. "We will continue our mission to provide critical aid to the people of Gaza," it said in a statement. The foundation earlier said it was unaware of Wednesday's incidents involving civilians but added that it was working closely with Israeli authorities to ensure safe passage routes are maintained, and that it was essential for Palestinians to closely follow instructions. "Ultimately, the solution is more aid, which will create more certainty and less urgency among the population," it said by email in response to Reuters questions. "There is not yet enough food to feed everyone in need in Gaza. Our current focus is to feed as many people as is safely possible within the constraints of a highly volatile environment." GHF said it distributed 2.5 million meals on Wednesday, the largest single-day delivery since it began operations, bringing to more than 16 million the number of meals provided since its operations started in late May. Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says that since then, 163 Palestinians had been killed and over 1,000 wounded trying to obtain the food boxes. The United Nations has condemned the killings and has refused to supply aid via the foundation, which uses private contractors with Israeli military backup in what they say is a breach of humanitarian standards. Elsewhere in Gaza on Wednesday, its health ministry said at least 11 other people were killed by separate Israeli gunfire and strikes across the coastal enclave. The war erupted 20 months ago after Hamas-led militants took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, on Oct 7, 2023, Israel's single deadliest day. Israel's military campaign has since killed nearly 55,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health authorities in Gaza, and flattened much of the densely populated strip, which is home to more than two million people. Most of the population is displaced and malnutrition is widespread. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday there had been "significant progress" in efforts to secure the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza, but that it was "too soon" to raise hopes that a deal would be reached.
