CAIRO: Israeli fire killed six Palestinians and wounded dozens of others as crowds of residents awaited aid trucks in Gaza City, Gaza health ministry officials said on Thursday.
Palestinians were rushing to get aid supplies at the Kuwait roundabout in northern Gaza City late on Wednesday evening when Israeli forces opened fire, residents and health officials said. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident.
The conflict in Gaza has displaced most of the enclave’s 2.3 million population and there have been chaotic scenes and deadly incidents at aid distributions as desperately hungry people scramble for food.
On Feb. 29, Palestinian health authorities said Israeli forces shot dead more than 100 Palestinians as they waited for an aid delivery near Gaza City. Israel blamed the deaths on crowds that surrounded aid trucks, saying victims had been trampled or run over.
In Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, an Israeli missile hit a house, killing nine people on Thursday, Palestinian medics said. Residents said Israeli aerial and ground bombardments continued overnight on areas across the enclave including in Rafah in the south, where over a million displaced people are sheltering.
The war began when Hamas fighters attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel then launched an air, sea, and ground assault that has killed more than 31,000 Palestinians, health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza say.
The Gaza health ministry said on Thursday Israeli military strikes across Gaza Strip had killed 69 Palestinians and wounded 110 others in the past 24 hours.
With the war now in its sixth month, the UN has warned that at least 576,000 people in Gaza – one quarter of the population – are on the brink of famine and global pressure has been growing on Israel to allow more access to the enclave.
Israel denies obstructing aid deliveries into Gaza. It has blamed failures by aid agencies for delays and has accused Hamas of diverting aid. Hamas denies this and says Israel uses hunger as a weapon in its military offensive.
A ship carrying aid is currently approaching Gaza in a pilot trial of maritime delivery, that is expected to be followed up by a US military effort to set up a dock on Gaza’s coast that will enable distribution of up to two million meals a day.
While welcoming aid ships, Palestinian and UN officials say maritime deliveries are not a substitute for sending aid through land crossings.
Israeli fire kills six Gazans awaiting aid trucks, say Palestinian health officials
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Israeli fire kills six Gazans awaiting aid trucks, say Palestinian health officials
- The conflict in Gaza has displaced most of the enclave’s 2.3 million population
- There have been chaotic scenes and deadly incidents at aid distributions as people scramble for food
Iraq starts investigations into Daesh detainees moved from Syria
- Those detainees are among 7,000 Daesh suspects, previously held by Syrian Kurdish fighters
- In 2014, Daesh swept across Syria and Iraq, committing massacres and forcing women and girls into sexual slavery
BAGHDAD: Iraq’s judiciary announced on Monday it has begun its investigations into more than 1,300 Daesh group detainees who were transferred from Syria as part of a US operation.
“Investigation proceedings have started with 1,387 members of the Daesh terrorist organization who were recently transferred from the Syrian territory,” the judiciary’s media office said in a statement, using the Arabic acronym for Daesh.
“Under the supervision of the head of Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council, several judges specializing in counterterrorism started the investigation.”
Those detainees are among 7,000 Daesh suspects, previously held by Syrian Kurdish fighters, whom the US military said it would transfer to Iraq after Syrian government forces recaptured Kurdish-held territory.
They include Syrians, Iraqis and Europeans, among other nationalities, according to several Iraqi security sources.
In 2014, Daesh swept across Syria and Iraq, committing massacres and forcing women and girls into sexual slavery.
Backed by US-led forces, Iraq proclaimed the defeat of Daesh in the country in 2017, and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) ultimately beat back the group in Syria two years later.
The SDF went on to jail thousands of suspected extremists and detain tens of thousands of their relatives in camps.
Last month, the United States said the purpose of its alliance with Kurdish forces in Syria had largely expired, as Damascus pressed an offensive to take back territory long held by the SDF.
In Iraq, where many prisons are packed with Daesh suspects, courts have handed down hundreds of death sentences and life terms to people convicted of terrorism offenses, including many foreign fighters.
Iraq’s judiciary said its investigation procedures “will comply with national laws and international standards.”
