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Japan Today
4 days ago
- Health
- Japan Today
34 killed in deadliest day of shootings near Gaza's new food distribution centers
By WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY Israeli troops opened fire Monday as crowds tried to reach Israeli- and U.S.-supported food distribution centers in Gaza, witnesses said. The 34 people killed, according to health officials, made it the deadliest day of such shootings since the new aid system launched last month. The Israeli military didn't immediately comment on Monday's shootings. But after some previous ones that have been a near-daily occurrence since the aid centers opened three weeks ago, it said its troops had fired warning shots at what it called suspects approaching their positions, though it didn't say whether those shots struck anyone. Palestinians say they face the choice of starving or risking death as they make their way past Israeli forces to reach the distribution points, which are run by a private contractor, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza says several hundred people have been killed and hundreds more wounded in such shootings since the centers opened. The ministry said 33 Palestinians were killed Monday trying to reach the GHF center near the southern city of Rafah and another was killed while headed to a GHF hub in central Gaza. It said four other people who weren't trying to get to distribution centers were killed elsewhere. Palestinians are desperate to feed their families after most food ran out during the 2½ months this year when Israel barred all supplies from entering the territory. Israel has eased the blockade since last month to let in a trickle of aid. Israeli troops started firing as thousands of Palestinians massed around 4 a.m. at the Flag Roundabout before the scheduled opening time of the Rafah food center, according to Heba Jouda and Mohamed Abed, two Palestinians who were in the crowd. People fell to the ground, trying to take cover, they said. 'Fire was coming from everywhere,' said Jouda, who has repeatedly made the journey to get food for her family over the past week. "It's getting worse day by day," she said. The Red Cross field hospital nearby received some 200 injured Monday, the highest single mass casualty event it has seen, the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement. Only a day earlier, it said, around 170 were brought to the facility, most of them wounded by gunshots while trying to reach the GHF center. The Health Ministry toll made it the deadliest day around the food sites since June 2, when 31 people were killed. The Flag Roundabout, hundreds of meters (yards) from the GHF center, has been the scene of repeated shootings. It is on the route designated by the Israeli military for people to take to reach the center. Palestinians over the past weeks have said Israeli troops open fire to prevent people from moving past a certain point on the road before the scheduled opening of the center or because people leave the road. A GHF spokesperson told The Associated Press on Sunday that 'none of the incidents to date have occurred at our sites or during operating hours.' It said the incidents have involved aid-seekers who were moving 'during prohibited times ... or trying to take a short cut.' It said it was trying to improve safety measures, including by recently moving the opening times from nighttime to daylight hours. Israel and the United States say the GHF system is intended to replace the U.N.-led humanitarian operation that has delivered aid across Gaza since the start of the 20-month Israel-Hamas war. Israel contends that the new mechanism is needed to prevent Hamas from siphoning off aid. U.N. agencies and major aid groups deny that there is widespread theft of aid by Hamas and have rejected the new system. They say it can't meet the population's needs and turns food into a weapon for Israel to carry out its military goals, including moving the more than 2 million Palestinians into a 'sterile' enclave in the southern Gaza. Speaking at Britain's House of Commons' Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday, an official with Doctors Without Borders said Israel's claims of extensive diversion by Hamas were 'specious and cynical,' and were intended 'to undermine a humanitarian system which was actually functioning.' 'This is neither a humanitarian enterprise nor a system. This is basically lethal chaos,' Anna Halford, a field coordinator for the group, said when asked by lawmakers about the GHF centers. Experts warn that Israel's ongoing military campaign and restrictions on aid entry have put Gaza at risk of famine. Israel's military campaign since October 2023 has killed over 55,300 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Its count doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel launched its campaign aiming to destroy Hamas after the group's Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, in which militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking another 251 hostage. The militants still hold 53 hostages, fewer than half of them alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Japan Today
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Japan Today
U.N. agencies warn that Israel's plans for aid distribution will endanger lives in Gaza
Palestinians struggle to obtain donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, Friday, May 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana) By WAFAA SHURAFA, JAMEY KEATEN and SARAH EL DEEB International aid agencies warned on Friday that Israeli plans to control aid distribution in Gaza, including a U.S.-backed proposal, will only increase suffering and death in the devastated Palestinian territory, calling on Israel to lift its blockade on food and other supplies, now in its third month. The U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, said that the new U.S.-devised aid system would be launched soon, urging the U.N. and other aid groups to participate. So far, the U.N. has rejected the new system, saying it 'weaponizes aid,' threatens to cause mass displacement of Palestinians, violates principles of neutrality and simply won't be able to provide the scale of aid needed. In what has become a daily scene of desperation in Gaza, thousands of Palestinians crowded a charity kitchen in the southern city of Khan Younis, jostling and waving their pots to receive scoops of pasta. Such kitchens are virtually the only source of food left for the territory's 2.3 million people, but dozens have shut down in recent days as food supplies run out under Israel's blockade. Aid groups say more closures are imminent. Raed al-Zaharna and his children walked away emptyhanded after the day's meals ran out. 'I'm thinking now, 'What will I feed them?' I can't find anything,' he said. Israel has blocked food, medicine, fuel and other supplies from entering Gaza since March 2, saying it's trying to pressure Hamas into releasing hostages and disarming. It also shattered a ceasefire deal with Hamas, relaunching bombardment across Gaza and seizing large swaths of the territory. Rights groups have called the blockade a 'starvation tactic' and a potential war crime. Israel has said it won't resume aid until it installs a new distribution mechanism, replacing the massive operation led by the U.N. and independent relief groups throughout the 19-month-old war. Israel accuses Hamas and other militants of siphoning off aid, though it hasn't presented evidence for its claims. The U.N. denies significant diversion takes place, saying it monitors distribution. 'Humanitarian aid should never be used as a bargaining chip,' UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said in Geneva. 'There is a simple alternative. Lift the blockade, let humanitarian aid in, save lives.' Huckabee said details of the new U.S.-backed system would be announced in the coming days, with deliveries set to begin 'very soon,' though he gave no time frame. He depicted it as independent from Israel, which he said wouldn't be involved in distribution. He said private companies would provide security, while Israel's military would secure the perimeters from afar. He echoed Israel's claims that it was necessary because Hamas was stealing aid. 'I will be the first to admit it will not be perfect, especially in the early days,' Huckabee said. A new group supported by the U.S., called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF, has proposed implementing an aid distribution project along the lines of Israel's demands, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. The group is made up of American security contractors, former government officials, ex-military officers and humanitarian officials. In its proposal, GHF said that it would initially set up four distribution sites, guarded by private security firms. Each would serve 300,000 people, covering only about half of Gaza's population. Huckabee said that the system will be scaled up 'as soon as it is possible.' Aryeh Lightstone, a senior member of U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff's team, was involved in briefing U.N. agencies and aid groups about the foundation in Geneva on Thursday, according to one person who attended, Joseph Belliveau, executive director of Medglobal, a medical humanitarian group operating in Gaza. He said that he and other attendees pressed back saying the new model shouldn't replace the current, independent and neutral system led by the U.N. Belleveau said that aid groups had been working for years 'with strict due diligence processes ... in a way that avoids diversion' of aid. "What we need is to be just allowed (to work). We need that blockade lifted,' he said. Israel has given no details publicly about the new aid mechanism. The U.N. says that what Israel has outlined to it so far in private discussions violates humanitarian principles. Elder, of UNICEF, said that the plan as presented in the GHF document appears 'designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic.' Aid workers say Palestinians would be forced to move to the distribution hubs or walk for miles to reach them, triggering a forced displacement depopulating large parts of Gaza. Though hub locations haven't been set, aid workers say that according to briefings they received, it appears none will be located in northern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are located. Throughout the war, Israel has repeatedly called for Palestinians to leave the north, including Gaza City, saying it's for their safety as troops battle Hamas militants. Elder said that the plan would entrench forced displacement 'for political and military purposes.' The most vulnerable, including children, older people and those suffering from illness, may not be able to get to the hubs, he said. In a statement last month, 20 aid groups operating in Gaza said the plan would force Palestinians into 'de facto internment conditions' in pockets around the hubs. Israel has also told U.N. officials it wants to vet aid recipients, aid workers say, raising fears it could withhold aid from some for political or military reasons, though the GHF proposal says aid would be distributed according to need. Elder also warned civilians will be endangered as they seek aid in militarized areas. 'More children are likely to suffer and risk death and injury as a consequence of this plan,' Elder said. Aid officials say the new system also simply won't provide enough aid. Relief groups have operated hundreds of distribution points around Gaza distributing food, water, shelter supplies and other goods, even as they support medical centers, run shelters and implement other programs. The operation has been led by UNRWA, the main U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. Israel banned the agency last year, alleging its staff have been infiltrated by Hamas. UNRWA, which employs more than 10,000 people in Gaza, said that it acts quickly to remove anyone suspected of militant ties, and that Israel hasn't given it evidence of its claims. UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma said the agency has 'the largest reach' and 'it is very, very difficult to imagine any humanitarian operation without UNRWA.' Ruth James, Oxfam regional humanitarian coordinator, said large networks are needed to get aid to everyone. 'That takes time and expertise,' she said. 'Any new system that comes in this quickly and without humanitarian expertise and trust from communities will not be able to do that.' Huckabee called on U.N. agencies and aid groups to join the new mechanism. Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the U.N. humanitarian office, said Friday that U.N. concerns have not been addressed in multiple meetings with Israeli officials. He dismissed claims that theft of aid was significant in scale. 'The problem is the blockage of hundreds of aid trucks that should go into the Gaza Strip every single day. That is the root cause of the humanitarian crisis.' © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Japan Today
26-04-2025
- Politics
- Japan Today
Israeli airstrike kills 10 people, half of them children, as mediators try to restart a ceasefire
Palestinians mourn over the bodies of their relatives who were killed in an Israeli airstrike, as they brought to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, on Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi) By WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY An Israeli airstrike flattened a three-story home in Gaza City on Saturday, killing 10 people — half of them children — as Arab mediators scrambled to restart a ceasefire. Israeli strikes killed at least 49 people in the past 24 hours, according to health officials. The dead in the early morning airstrike in a neighborhood in western Gaza City included three women and five children, according to Shifa Hospital, which received the bodies. Israel's military said that it had struck a Hamas militant and the structure where he operated collapsed, adding that the collapse was under review. 'There is no one from the resistance among them,' said Saed Al-Khour, who lost his family in the strike. 'Since 1 o'clock until now we have been pulling out the remains of children, women and elderly people.' He stood amid the rubble, under a tilted ceiling. Three other people were killed in the Shati refugee camp along Gaza City's shoreline. Hamas said Saturday that it had sent a high-level delegation to Cairo to try and get the ceasefire, shattered last month by Israeli bombardment, back on track. Israel has vowed to continue the war until all hostages are returned and Hamas is destroyed or disarmed and sent into exile. It says it will hold parts of Gaza indefinitely and implement U.S. President Donald Trump's proposal for the resettlement of the population in other countries, which has been widely rejected internationally. Hamas has said that it will only release the dozens of hostages it holds in return for Palestinian prisoners, a complete Israeli withdrawal and a lasting ceasefire, as called for in the now-defunct agreement reached in January. Hamas said that its delegation will discuss with Egyptian officials the group's vision to end the war, which also includes reconstruction. Earlier this week, other Hamas officials arrived in Cairo to discuss a proposal that would include a five-to-seven year truce and the release of all remaining hostages, officials said. Egypt and Qatar are developing the proposal, which would include the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners, according to an Egyptian official and a Hamas official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to brief media. Israel has continued its nearly two-month blockade of Gaza, even as aid groups warn that supplies are dwindling. On Friday, the World Food Program said that its food stocks in Gaza had run out, ending a main source of sustenance for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. It said the dozens of charity kitchens it supports are expected to run out of food in the coming days. About 80% of Gaza's population of more than 2 million relies primarily on charity kitchens for food because other sources have shut down under Israel's blockade, according to the U.N. 'Meanwhile, nearly 3,000 UNRWA trucks of lifesaving aid are ready to enter Gaza,' the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said on social media. 'The siege must stop.' Hamas on Saturday called on the Trump administration to immediately reverse its decision that the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees isn't immune from being sued, calling it a dangerous step by Israel's close ally. Israel's offensive has killed more than 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't say how many of the dead were fighters or civilians. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence. The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. The militants still have 59 hostages, 24 believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Associated Press
18-03-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Israel launches new strikes against Hamas and promises ‘increasing military force' after talks stall
World News By WAFAA SHURAFA Share DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel launched new strikes against Hamas and promised 'increasing military force' after talks on on further hostage releases stalled. Early Friday morning, Israel's Prime Minister's office said it instructed the army to strike Hamas across Gaza. The statement said it was because of Hamas' repeated refusals to release its hostages and its rejection of all offers it received from the U.S. presidential envoy Steve Witkoff and mediators. The strikes come after nearly two months of a ceasefire to pause the 17-month long war where dozens of hostages were released for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP's earlier story follows below. DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel carried out airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, southern Lebanon and southern Syria on Monday, killing at least 10 people, including a child, according to local authorities. The Israeli military said it was targeting militants plotting attacks. The airstrikes were the latest in what have been frequent and often deadly attacks by Israeli forces during the fragile ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon. Israel has blocked all food, medicine, fuel and other supplies from entering Gaza the past two weeks, demanding Hamas accept changes in the two sides' ceasefire deal. Related stories Hamas says it will release a US-Israeli hostage and 4 bodies, but Israel expresses immediate doubt How many hostages are left in Gaza? Head of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has been killed, Iraqi prime minister says In Syria, Israel seized a zone in the south after the fall of longtime autocrat Bashar Assad in December. Israel says it is a preemptive security measure against the former Islamist insurgents who now run Syria, though their transitional government has not expressed threats against Israel. The strikes hit a residential area in the southern Syrian city of Daraa, killing three people and wounding 19 others, including four children, a woman and three civil defense volunteers, the Syrian civil defense agency said. It said two ambulances were damaged. Other strikes hit military positions near the city. The Israeli military said it was targeting military command centers and sites in southern Syria that contained weapons and vehicles belonging to Assad's forces. It said the materials' presence posed a threat to Israel. In central Gaza, two strikes hit around the urban refugee camp of Bureij. One struck a school serving as a shelter for displaced Palestinians, killing a 52-year-old man and his 16-year-old nephew, according to officials at nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the casualties were taken. The Israeli military said it struck militants planting explosives. An earlier strike killed three men in Bureij. The Israeli military said the men were trying to plant an explosive device in the ground near Israeli troops. Gaza's Hamas-led government said the men were collecting firewood. In Lebanon, Israel said it struck two members of the Hezbollah militant group in the southern Lebanese town of Yohmor, who it said were 'observation operatives.' Lebanon's state news agency reported two people killed in the strike and two wounded. The military later said it carried out further strikes on Hezbollah sites in Lebanon, without specifying where. A U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect in late November ending the 14-month war between the two sides, and each side has repeatedly accused the other of violating the deal. Since the ceasefire in Gaza began in mid-January, Israeli forces have killed dozens of Palestinians who the military says approached its troops or entered unauthorized areas. Still, the deal has tenuously held without an outbreak of wide violence. The ceasefire's first phase saw an exchange of some hostages held by Hamas in return for the freeing of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying to mediate the next steps in the ceasefire. Israel wants Hamas to release half of the remaining hostages in return for a promise to negotiate a lasting truce. Hamas instead wants to follow the ceasefire deal reached by the two sides, which calls for negotiations to begin on the ceasefire's more difficult second phase, in which the remaining hostages would be released and Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza. Hamas is believed to have 24 living hostages and the bodies of 35 others. ___ AP reporter Ghaith Alsayed in Damascus, Syria, contributed to this report. 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