DEIR EL-BALAHAs Palestinians faced extreme risks while looking for food despite airdrops and restrictions on overland aid distribution, Israeli fire killed over a dozen individuals on Saturday, including eight food seekers, according to Gaza health officials.
Yahia Youssef, who had come to get aid Saturday morning, recounted a terrified scenario that was now eerily familiar near a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution site. He claimed that after assisting in the removal of three gunshot victims, he turned to see more individuals bleeding on the ground.
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“It’s the same episode every day,” Youssef stated.
GHF responded that nothing (happened) at or near our premises when asked about multiple eyewitness reports of violence at the northernmost of the four facilities owned by the Israeli-backed American contractor.
The episode aired the day after U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee described the distribution as an amazing achievement and U.S. officials visited one location. As the organization’s attempts to provide aid to Gaza, which is starving, have been tainted by violence and controversy, international indignation has grown.
Abed Salah, a man in his 30s who was among the masses outside the GHF site in Netzarim corridor, stated that there was no threat and that we weren’t close to them (the army). By some miracle, I managed to avoid death.
What international hunger experts described this week as the worst-case situation of famine in the beleaguered enclave has been made worse by the danger faced by humanitarian workers in Gaza. About 2 million Palestinians’ security has been destroyed by Israel’s nearly 22-month military campaign against Hamas, and it is now nearly difficult to safely transport food to starving people.
The Gaza Strip’s health ministry reported on Saturday that seven Palestinians have perished in the last 24 hours in the region due to malnutrition-related factors.
According to a statement, they include a kid, increasing the total number of youngsters killed in Gaza due to malnutrition-related reasons to 93 since the start of the conflict. Since it began tracking adult deaths in late June, the ministry reported that 76 individuals in Gaza have perished from malnutrition-related causes.
According to a United Nations study released Thursday, 859 individuals were murdered close to GHF facilities between May 27 and July 31. Food convoy routes have resulted in hundreds more deaths.
GHF claims that in order to avoid lethal crowding, its armed contractors have only used warning shots or pepper spray.Although it stated on Friday that it was striving to make the passages under its control safer, Israel’s military has stated that it has only fired warning shots at anyone who approaches its personnel. According to Israel and GHF, the number has been inflated.
At least 18 Palestinians were killed by Israeli bombings and gunfire on Saturday, according to health officials. Three of them were taken from the area of a distribution location to a hospital in central Gaza, while 36 others were injured.
Ten of Saturday’s deaths, according to officials, were caused by strikes in central and southern Gaza. Five persons were killed in two separate attacks on tents housing displaced people, according to Nasser Hospital, which received their bodies. When a strike struck their tent beside a major road in Khan Younis, two brothers and a family member were among the fatalities.
Two parents and their three children were killed after an Israeli strike struck a family home between the villages of Zawaida and Deir al-Balah, according to the health ministry’s ambulance and emergency service.
A mother and her daughter were killed when another attack struck a tent near the gate of a closed prison where the displaced had sought refuge in Khan Younis, they claimed.
According to the hospital, five more Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers while they were waiting for help in the throng outside Rafah’s recently built Morag corridor and between Rafah and Khan Younis.
Questions on the attacks and firing near the aid sites were not immediately answered by Israel’s military. In the meantime, its top general issued a warning on Saturday that if captives are not released, fighting will go on without pause. Israel’s military would adjust to put Hamas under more strain, according to Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir.
Families of hostages pressure Israel to end the arrangement.
Families of hostages demonstrated in Tel Aviv and called on Israel’s government to do more to secure the release of their loved ones, particularly those captured on video that militant organizations made public earlier this week.
A week after ending ceasefire negotiations, U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff joined them, citing Hamas’s intransigence and promising to find alternative means of releasing prisoners and securing Gaza.
About 20 of the 251 hostages taken by terrorists commanded by Hamas are thought to still be alive in Gaza. Separate recordings of individual hostages were published this week by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Gaza’s second-largest armed group, which infuriated Israeli society and hostage families.
Although the recordings have not been aired by Israeli media, which has labeled them propaganda, Rom Braslavski’s family has permitted the publication of a picture of him in an unidentified place, clearly malnourished. His mother, Tami Braslavski, accused high-ranking Israeli officials and called for a meeting with them.
“My child was broken by them. On Thursday, Braslavski told Ynet, “I want him home now.” He’s thin, limp, and weeping. His bones are all gone.
Demonstrators pleaded with Israel’s government to “stop this nightmare and bring them out of the tunnels” and to negotiate an end to the conflict.
Lior Chorev, chief strategic officer of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, advised doing the right thing straight away.
Airdrops increase even if their impact is minimal.
This week, a number of European nations, including Israel, declared their intention to join the Jordan-led coalition that is coordinating parcel airdrops, although the majority agree the plan is still woefully insufficient.
There should be political will to enable road crossings if there is political will to permit airdrops, which are extremely expensive, inadequate, and ineffective. The head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, posted on X on Saturday. Let’s return to what works and carry out our duties.
Despite Israeli restrictions, sporadic strikes, and theft, U.N. organizations were able to securely distribute aid for a large portion of the war. Convoys were secured by Hamas-led police, who also pursued suspected looters and aid-reselling merchants.
The United Nations claimed to have safeguards against any planned diversion of supplies. Although it hasn’t shown any signs of widespread theft, Israel claims that Hamas was stealing it.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, primarily civilians, sparking the start of the Gaza War. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which is run by the Hamas administration and does not differentiate between militants and civilians, Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed almost 60,000 Palestinians. It is regarded as the most trustworthy source of casualty data by the United Nations and other international organizations.
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Magdy reported from Cairo, and Metz from Jerusalem.
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Visit https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war to follow AP’s coverage of the conflict.
