Friday, 30 May 2025

 

As Israel kills aid-seekers, Netanyahu claims some Gazans are getting fat – War on Gaza Day 600

Palestinians flock to the distribution point controlled by the “Gaza Humanitarian Relief Foundation” in the southern Gaza Strip to receive aid on the second day of the aid distribution in Ez-Zawaydah area of Gaza on May 28, 2025.  (Moiz Salhi – Anadolu Agency)

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

At least 63 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza Wednesday, including eight killed in an attack on the home of journalist Osama al-Arbid in the northern Strip.

Another media worker, journalist Mutaz Rajab, who worked as a cameraman and video editor for the local Al-Quds Today TV, was killed Wednesday, bringing the total number of media professionals killed in Gaza to 221, the Gaza Media Office said in a statement.

Five aid workers from an Istanbul-based international humanitarian organization, working with the UN World Food Programme (WFP), were killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip between Tuesday and Wednesday.

FOR MORE DETAILS ON WEDNESDAY’S INCIDENTS IN GAZA, READ:

Wednesday Update: Dozens Killed Across The Gaza Strip


Israel kills 10 aid seekers in two days in Rafah: Gaza’s Government Media Office

Gaza’s Government Media Office says 10 Palestinians have been killed and 62 injured in two days as they rushed to get aid from a distribution centre run under a US and Israeli mechanism.

Israeli forces “opened direct fire on hungry Palestinian civilians who had gathered to receive aid”, the office said in a statement. “This heinous crime occurred during peaceful gatherings of citizens driven by desperate need and extreme hunger to head to locations supposedly providing aid.”

“This crime was part of a dubious engineering project run by the American organization called Gaza Humanitarian Relief (GHF),” which “denies the principles of humanitarian action, namely humanity, neutrality, integrity, and independence”.

The government added that aid distribution centers set up under the scheme were “nothing but a false humanitarian cover for racist security schemes aimed at humiliating, starving, and, if necessary, killing Palestinians”.

The controversial US and Israeli-led Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said on 28 May that it delivered “all available aid without incident – approximately eight trucks worth” on Wednesday.

FACT: Before the war, Israel allowed about 500 truckloads of aid to enter Gaza per day; two-thirdsof Gazans were dependent on food aid. During the first 15 months of Israel’s war on Gaza, the number of trucks varied widely, but averaged 85 per day. During the six-week ceasefire (starting mid-January 2025), Israel allowed about 600 trucks to enter per day, but in early March, Israel completelycut off humanitarian supplies to Gaza. Since then,no humanitarian aid – including food, water, medicine, shelter, and hygiene supplies – has been allowed to enter.

Read more about Gaza’s long-term food insecurity, and Israel’s culpability, here.

RELATED: Visual guide to how the Gaza aid distribution turmoil unfolded

Palestinians struggle to get food at charity kitchen in Deir el-Balah
Palestinians struggle to get food at charity kitchen in Deir el-Balah (Ashraf Amra/Anadolu)


Four killed after starving Palestinians burst into UN food warehouse in Gaza

Four people have died as thousands of Palestinians burst into a United Nations warehouse in Gaza, tearing away sections of the building’s metal walls in a desperate attempt to find food.

Two people were fatally crushed and two others died of gunshot wounds after the crowd forced its way into the World Food Programme warehouse in Deir al-Balah on Wednesday afternoon, health officials said.

It was not immediately clear if Israeli forces, private contractors or others had opened fire. A Red Cross field hospital said injuries from the scene included women and children with gunshot wounds.

“This is what happens when you try to replace the humanitarian system with a political agenda,” said a local. “Those thousands of Palestinians, starving and desperate, stormed the distribution center, not because they’re violent, not because people are hungry, but because aid is being used as a weapon, not a lifeline.”


‘We can’t survive without it’: Palestinians rely on community kitchens

Lina Abu Shaaban, a Gaza City resident, says her family depends on a community kitchen because food has become so expensive amid shortages caused by the Israeli blockade.

“We can’t survive without it. I wait five to seven hours in the heat just to get food, and I’m always scared of being bombed,” she told Al Jazeera while waiting in line for a bowl of lentils at the kitchen.

Another resident in line, Um Ahmad al-Sayfi, also said she has no choice but to get food from the community kitchen because her family is suffering from a lack of supplies. She condemned Israel’s targeting of the food distribution points.

“They bomb them so that we die of hunger. I saw a kitchen get hit just days ago – children were burning. Why don’t they want us to live?” she told Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking unit says the Israeli military “deliberately targeted” more than 20 community kitchens and food distribution and storage sites across Gaza between March 26 and Tuesday of this week.

Children wait for hot meals from charitable organizations in Gaza City, Gaza, on May 27, 2025.
Children wait for hot meals from charitable organizations in Gaza City, Gaza, on May 27, 2025. (Saeed Jaras – Anadolu Agency)

Netanyahu says no mass starvation in Gaza, suggests Palestinians are overweight

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuinsisted that international accusations that Israel is using food as a weapon of war in Gaza are “a lie”, and suggested that Palestinians in the besieged enclave were overweight. 

Speaking at the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance conference in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Netanyahu said Palestinians in Gaza were not experiencing mass starvation “at all”. 

“We take thousands of prisoners, sort them out into civilians and combatants, and we photograph them… The first thing you do is you tell them, ‘Take your shirt off. We want to see that there is no suicide vest.’.. and you don’t see one, not one emaciated from the beginning of the war to the present,” he said.

“In fact, you see quite the opposite because you don’t get that much exercise, certainly not in tunnels, but you get food.”

NOTE: Israeli officials have claimed that Gaza has plenty of food – so much that the blockade is an opportunity to reduce obesity. Others insist, without evidence, that Hamas has been stealing aid. On the contrary, Israeli news outlets have reported that the Israeli military itself is behind the looting of aid trucks.

RELATED: Hamas says deal reached with US envoy for permanent ceasefire; Israel rebuffs


UN says Israel not ‘making it easy’ to deliver, distribute aid to Gaza

The UN said on Wednesday that Israel has denied all six humanitarian aid movements coordinated by the UN for Gaza, worsening an already dire situation for civilians in the besieged enclave.

“As for the occupying power, Israel, it must agree to allow and facilitate the aid that is urgently needed,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said at a news conference.

Dujarric said that “since last week, about 900 truckloads were submitted for Israeli approval, and 800 were approved, but just over 500 could be offloaded on the Israeli side of Kareem Shalom, and even fewer made it into the Palestinian side, where we and our partners could collect just over 200 of them, limited by insecurity and restricted access.”

NOTE: Israel agreed to allow international aid groups to see to the distribution of nonfood aid (medical and shelter), while the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation would distribute food.

RELATED: Pregnant women bear full brunt of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza


HEALTHCARE STATISTICS: At least 60 children have died from malnutrition in Gaza caused by Israel’s ongoing blockade, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday, as Tel Aviv’s war entered its 600th day. 477 patients have died while awaiting permission to leave Gaza for treatment abroad (more healthcare statistics here).

PRISON STATISTICS: The Israeli army has detained more than 17,000 Palestinians since October 2023, a prisoners’ affairs group said on Wednesday, including 537 women and 1,360 children, who were taken into Israeli custody in the West Bank and (Arab towns) inside Israel,” the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a statement. The figure does not include those arrested from the Gaza Strip, whose numbers are estimated to be in the thousands (more prison statistics here).


West Bank: Israeli forces kill Palestinian sleeping in his home

Israeli forces shot dead a 20-year-old Palestinian man while he slept in his home in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday.

Jassem al-Sadda was killed in the village of Jit, east of Qalqilya, according to medical workers who confirmed his death.

His family said soldiers opened fire on him without warning and prevented ambulance crews from reaching him.

After confirming his death, the soldiers Jassem’s body over to a Palestinian ambulance crew.


MORE WEST BANK HEADLINES:

(For background on the West Bank, read this and this) 


ICC prosecutor prepares arrest warrants for Smotrich and Ben Gvir

The International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan was preparing international arrest warrants for Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir before he went on administrative leave from his position, due to an ongoing investigation concerning him, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

According to the report, the arrest warrants relate to the two Israeli far-right ministers’ involvement in the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. 

Citing current and former ICC officials, the paper also noted that the decision has reportedly been passed on to Khan’s deputies, although it remains unclear how they will proceed.

The ICC is reportedly investigating additional unnamed Israeli officials, along with Ben Gvir and Smotrich, over their involvement in settlement expansion.

RELATED: Spying & threats: Israel spent 9 years trying to keep the ICC off the trail of Israel’s war crimes.


US NEWS ON PROTESTS, ETC:

(For background on the student protest movement, read this)

Mohsen Mahdawi Joins Zeteo for a Post-Detention, Post-Graduation Interview


MORE NEWS:

Israel Killed UN Worker in “Summary Execution” in Gaza Paramedic Massacre

Israel intensifies efforts to stop Germany from ‘even hinting’ at arms embargo: Report

‘We can’t say we didn’t know’: Israeli academics demand end to war on Gaza


STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – MAY 28, 2025:

  • At least 55,230 Palestinians killed, 132,277 injured – including:
  • at least 54,249 killed in Gaza (~16,500 children) 
  • at least 981 killed in the West Bank (~199 children)
  • at least 123,492 injured in Gaza
  • at least 8,785 injured in the West Bank

According to Palestinian authorities, during the ceasefire Jan. 19 – March 18 2025, Israeli attacks killed at least 170 Gazans, and Israel committed at least 962 ceasefire violations.

Since the Israeli army resumed its assaults on Gaza on March 18, it has killed at least 3,986 people. 11 Israeli soldiers have been killed during the same time period.

Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 14,000 more are still buried under rubble.

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – May 28, 2025: ~1,601 – including ~1,139 on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 416 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza, 46 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel.

By one count, Israeli attacks have killed approximately 215 Palestinian journalists and media workers; Palestinians have killed 4 Israeli journalists (other groups have tallied between 180 and 274 Palestinian journalists killed – depending on the criteria used).

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

Hover over each bar for exact numbers. Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org

No comments:

Post a Comment

  A Terrorist Suicide Bombing in a Damascus Church Triggers a Wider Takfiri Purge of Syrian Minorities On 22 June at approximately 6:30pm du...