US envoy to go to Gaza meals distribution websites as UN says 1,373 killed ready for assist since late Might – Israel-Gaza struggle reside

Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff has visited Gaza and been proven one of many controversial assist websites round which a whole lot of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces.

Witkoff, the US president’s particular envoy for the Center East, had earlier met with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid mounting worldwide horror over situations of hunger in Gaza occurring amid months of Israeli-imposed assist restrictions.

The go to to the positioning in Rafah by Witkoff – a former actual property lawyer with no overseas coverage or humanitarian background, who has additionally met Vladimir Putin on Trump’s behalf – was reported by a quantity Israeli media organisations and comes as Human Rights Watch on Friday described the help websites run by the Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Basis – as “death traps” that had change into the scene of standard “bloodbaths”. The UN has stated nearly 9 hundred Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces making an attempt to achieve the websites.

Human Rights Watch on Friday accused Israeli forces working outdoors US-backed assist centres in war-torn Gaza of “routinely opening fire” on Palestinian civilians looking for meals, in addition to utilizing hunger as “a weapon of war”.

“US-backed Israeli forces and private contractors have put in place a flawed, militarised aid distribution system that has turned aid distributions into regular bloodbaths,” stated Belkis Wille, affiliate disaster and battle director at Human Rights Watch.

Israel and america have backed a personal assist operation run by the Gaza Humanitarian Basis (GHF) at 4 websites inside Gaza, protected by US navy contractors and the Israeli military, AFP reviews.

GHF launched its operations in late Might, sidelining the longstanding UN-led humanitarian system simply as Israel was starting to ease a greater than two-month assist blockade that led to dire shortages of meals and different necessities.

Since then, witnesses, the civil defence company and AFP correspondents inside Gaza have reported frequent incidents by which Israeli troops have opened fireplace on crowds of determined Palestinian civilians approaching GHF centres looking for meals.

Not less than 859 Palestinians had been killed whereas making an attempt to acquire assist at GHF websites between 27 Might and 31 July – most by the Israeli navy – in keeping with the UN Workplace of the Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

“Israeli forces are not only deliberately starving Palestinian civilians, but they are now gunning them down almost every day as they desperately seek food for their families,” HRW’s Wille stated in a press release.

The Israeli navy didn’t instantly reply to AFP’s request for touch upon the HRW report.

It has beforehand insisted that its forces don’t goal unarmed civilians and try to keep away from unintentional casualties.

France will droop its programme to obtain Palestinians from Gaza pending the end result of an investigation into how a pupil accused of sharing antisemitic posts was allowed into the nation, the French overseas minister stated on Friday.

The transfer comes after officers stated the feminine pupil from Gaza should go away France after the Sciences Po college within the northern metropolis of Lille revoked her accreditation over the net posts, AFP reviews.

“No evacuation of any kind will take place until we have drawn conclusions from this investigation,” Jean-Noel Barrot advised Franceinfo radio.

Palestinians getting into France from Gaza will endure a second screening, he added.

France has helped greater than 500 individuals go away Gaza because the newest struggle between the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel began, together with wounded kids, journalists, college students and artists.

The UN human rights workplace stated on Friday that 1,373 Palestinians have been killed whereas ready for assist within the Gaza Strip since late Might, most of them by the Israeli navy, AFP reviews.

“In total, since 27 May, at least 1,373 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food; 859 in the vicinity of (US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation) sites and 514 along the routes of food convoys,” the UN company’s workplace for the Palestinian territories stated in a press release.

“Most of these killings were committed by the Israeli military,” it added.

Gaza’s civil defence company stated 11 individuals had been killed by Israeli gunfire and air strikes on Friday, together with two who had been ready close to an assist distribution website contained in the Palestinian territory.

Civil defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal advised AFP that 5 individuals had been killed in a strike close to the southern metropolis of Khan Younis, and 4 extra in a separate strike on a car in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah.

The Israeli military advised AFP it couldn’t affirm the strikes with out particular coordinates.

Two different individuals had been killed and greater than 70 injured by Israeli fireplace whereas ready for assist close to a meals distribution centre run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Basis (GHF) between Khan Younis and the close by metropolis of Rafah, the civil defence stated.

The military didn’t instantly reply to the report.

A sequence of Israeli air strikes killed 4 individuals in southern Lebanon, Beirut’s ministry of well being stated Friday, providing a toll for assaults that came about the day earlier than, AFP reviews.

The Israeli navy stated on Thursday that it had focused Hezbollah “infrastructure that was used for producing and storing strategic weapons”, together with what the nation’s defence minister described because the group’s “biggest precision missile manufacturing site”.

By failing to sanction Israel, EU leaders are complicit in its crimes. They need to act now

Josep Borrell

In the event that they survive Donald Trump’s assaults, the worldwide courts is not going to ship their remaining verdict for a number of years. However for all those that have ears to listen to and eyes to see, there may be little doubt that the Israeli authorities is committing genocide in Gaza, slaughtering and ravenous civilians after systematically destroying all of the infrastructure within the territory. Within the meantime, settlers and the Israeli military are day by day responsible of significant, huge and repeated violations of worldwide regulation and worldwide humanitarian regulation within the West Financial institution and East Jerusalem.

Those that don’t act to cease this genocide and these violations of worldwide regulation, regardless that they’ve the facility to take action, are complicit in them. That is sadly the case with the leaders of the European Union and people of its member states, who refuse to sanction Israel regardless that the EU has a authorized obligation to take action.

You may learn the total opinion piece right here:

Syria has pledged to analyze clashes within the southern province of Sweida which killed a whole lot of individuals final month, Reuters reviews.

In a decree dated 31 July, justice minister Mazhar al-Wais stated a committee of seven individuals – together with judges, attorneys and a navy official – would look into the circumstances that led to the “events in Sweida” and report again inside three months.

The committee would examine reported assaults and abuses in opposition to civilians and refer anybody confirmed to have participated in such assaults to the judiciary.

The violence in Sweida started on 13 July between tribal fighters and Druze factions. Authorities forces had been despatched to quell the combating however the bloodshed worsened, and Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops within the identify of the Druze.

The Druze are a minority offshoot of Islam with followers in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Sweida province is predominantly Druze however can also be dwelling to Sunni tribes, and the communities have had longstanding tensions over land and different sources.

A US-brokered truce ended the combating, which had raged in Sweida metropolis and surrounding cities for almost every week.

Listed here are some photos coming to us over the wires.

Iran on Friday rejected accusations by the US and greater than a dozen of its allies that Tehran had tried to kill or kidnap dissidents, journalists and officers in Western international locations, AFP reviews.

In a press release, Iranian overseas ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei described the claims as “baseless”, calling them “an attempt to divert public attention from the most pressing issue of the day, the genocide in occupied Palestine”.

Western governments together with america, Britain, France and Germany condemned in a joint assertion on Thursday “the growing number of state threats from Iranian intelligence services in our respective territories”.

“We are united in our opposition to the attempts of Iranian intelligence services to kill, kidnap, and harass people in Europe and North America in clear violation of our sovereignty,” they stated.

“These services are increasingly collaborating with international criminal organisations to target journalists, dissidents, Jewish citizens, and current and former officials in Europe and North America.”

Baqaei stated the accusations had been “blatant fabrications… designed as part of a malicious Iranophobia campaign aimed at exerting pressure on the great Iranian nation”.

Sirens sounded in Israeli communities close to the Gaza Strip on Friday, prompting the navy to launch an interceptor missile in the direction of a suspected menace, the Israeli navy stated.

The navy later confirmed that the launch was triggered by a false alarm, and no menace was detected, Reuters reviews.

French overseas minister Jean-Noel Barrot stated on Friday that France is sending 4 flights carrying 10 tonnes of humanitarian assist to Gaza from Jordan, Reuters reviews.

“This is emergency aid but still not sufficient” within the face of this “revolting” state of affairs, Barrot advised broadcaster franceinfo.

A world starvation monitor stated on Tuesday {that a} famine situation was unfolding within the Gaza Strip, with malnutrition hovering, kids beneath 5 dying of hunger-related causes and humanitarian entry severely restricted.

Howdy and welcome to our reside protection of the disaster within the Center East.

US President Donald Trump’s particular envoy Steve Witkoff will go to meals distribution websites in Gaza run by the controversial US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Basis (GHF) the place a whole lot of Palestinians have died in current weeks attempting to get meals.

In keeping with the UN human rights workplace, not less than 859 individuals have been killed within the neighborhood of the GHF websites because the GHF started working in late Might. The Workplace of the Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) stated: “Most of these killings were committed by the Israeli military.”

Witkoff arrived in Israel on Thursday with Netanyahu’s authorities dealing with mounting worldwide strain.

He met with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday to debate the humanitarian state of affairs and a doable ceasefire, AP reviews.

Following the assembly, a senior Israeli official stated an understanding between Israel and the US was rising that there was a necessity to maneuver from a plan to launch a number of the hostages to a plan to launch all of the hostages, disarm Hamas militants, and demilitarise the Gaza Strip, in keeping with Reuters.

“The special envoy and the ambassador will brief the president immediately after their visit to approve a final plan for food and aid distribution into the region,” White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt had advised reporters.

Trump on Thursday referred to as the state of affairs in Gaza “a terrible thing,” when requested about feedback from his ally and Republican US Consultant Marjorie Taylor Greene, who termed Israel’s offensive in Gaza a “genocide”.

Earlier that day and shortly after Witkoff arrived in Israel, Trump had posted on social media: “The fastest way to end the Humanitarian Crises in Gaza is for Hamas to SURRENDER AND RELEASE THE HOSTAGES!!!”