Israeli strikes kill at least 100 in Gaza as Trump says ‘lots of people are starving’

A mourner reacts during the funeral of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, at the Indonesian hospital in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday. (Reuters)
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Updated 16 May 2025
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Israeli strikes kill at least 100 in Gaza as Trump says ‘lots of people are starving’

  • Israel's latest onslaught forces people to flee from Jabaliya refugee camp and town of Beit Lahiya
  • During visit to Abu Dhabi, Trump speaks about Gaza saying: 'There’s a lot of bad things going on'

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Israel launched dozens of airstrikes across Gaza on Friday that local health officials said killed 108 people, mostly women and children, and which Israeli officials described as a prelude to a stepped-up campaign to pressure Hamas to release hostages.
Israel also struck two ports in Yemen that it said were used by the Houthi militant group to transfer weapons. Local health officials said at least one person was killed and nine injured.
The strikes across the Gaza Strip followed days of attacks that killed more than 130 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, and came as US President Donald Trump wrapped up a visit to the region that included stops in three Gulf states but not Israel.




Displaced Palestinians fleeing Beit Lahia amid ongoing Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip arrive in Jabalia, northern Gaza, on Friday. (AP)

There had been widespread hope that Trump’s trip could increase the chances of a ceasefire deal or the resumption of humanitarian aid to Gaza, which Israel has prevented for more than two months. The Trump administration is also trying to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran, which backs several anti-Israel militant groups, including Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen.
Speaking to reporters in Abu Dhabi on the final day of his trip, Trump said he was looking to resolve a range of global crises, including Gaza. “We’re looking at Gaza,” he said. “And we’ve got to get that taken care of. A lot of people are starving. A lot of people are — there’s a lot of bad things going on.”
The Gaza Health Ministry said 31 children and 27 women were killed and hundreds more wounded in Friday’s airstrikes.




Palestinian children struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip on Friday. (AP)

In southern Gaza, Israel struck the outskirts of Deir Al-Balah and the city of Khan Younis. It said it hit anti-tank missile posts and military structures.
Three children and their grandfather were killed as they fled bombardment in Khan Younis, said the head of pediatrics at Nasser Hospital, Dr. Ahmed Al-Farra.
In northern Gaza, the attacks sent people fleeing from the Jabaliya refugee camp and the town of Beit Lahiya. Israel said it eliminated several militants who were operating in an observation compound.
Dark smoke was seen rising over Jabaliya as people fled on donkey carts, by car and foot.
“We got out of the house with difficulty, killing and death, we did not take anything,” said Feisal Al-Attar, who was displaced from Beit Lahiya.
After the strikes on Yemen, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “There will be more to come.” The Israeli military, which attacked Houthi targets earlier this month, said it had intercepted several missiles fired from Yemen toward Israeli airspace during Trump’s visit to the region.




Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike near Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip, Friday. (AP)

An Israeli official said the latest strikes in Gaza were part of the lead-up to a larger operation that it warned would begin soon if Hamas doesn’t release the 58 hostages still in Gaza since the group’s October 2023 attack that launched the war. The official was not authorized to brief media and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Netanyahu vowed earlier in the week to escalate pressure on Hamas with the aim of destroying the militant group that has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades. In comments released by his office Tuesday, the prime minister said Israeli forces were days away from entering Gaza “with great strength to complete the mission.”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed Friday that strikes in Gaza earlier in the week targeted the presumed leader of Hamas’ military wing in Gaza, Mohammed Sinwar, although there has been no word on his fate. He is the brother of the slain former leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar — a mastermind of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
‘Heavy hearts’
In Israel, a group that supports the families of hostages said they awoke Friday with “heavy hearts” to reports of increased attacks and called on Netanyahu to “join hands” with Trump’s efforts to free hostages. On Monday, Israeli-American Edan Alexander was released after backdoor US-Hamas diplomacy.
In the Oct. 7 attack, Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and abducted 251 others. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Almost 3,000 have been killed since Israel broke a ceasefire on March 18, the ministry said.
Of the hostages that remain in Gaza, Israel believes as many as 23 are still alive, although Israeli authorities have expressed concern for the status of three of those.
Gaza blockade enters third month
Dozens of Palestinians in Khan Younis lined up at a charity kitchen Friday in a scene that quickly turned chaotic as the enclave entered its third month of Israel’s aid blockade.
Several children behind a metal partition screamed and cried out for food. At one point, charity kitchen workers struggled to push people back into line.
Some workers were attacked as the crowd surged forward, pressing against the partition and lunging toward the large pots of rice to grab whatever they could.
Israel’s blockade is preventing food, fuel medicine and all other supplies from entering, worsening a humanitarian crisis. Israel says the blockade aims to pressure Hamas to release the hostages it still holds.
“Our only hope was that Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East would result in solutions and somehow open crossings to bring in humanitarian assistance as soon as possible into the Gaza Strip,” said Saqer Jamal, a displaced man from Rafah who was at the kitchen.
The United Nations announced Friday that 18 kitchens previously closed due to food shortages in Gaza reopened after community members shared remaining food stocks.
Earlier this week, a new humanitarian organization that has US backing to take over aid delivery said it expects to begin operations before the end of the month — after what it describes as key agreements from Israeli officials.
A statement from the group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, identified several US military veterans, former humanitarian coordinators and security contractors that it said would lead the delivery effort.
Many in the humanitarian community, including the UN, said they won’t participate because the system does not align with humanitarian principles and won’t be able to meet the needs of Palestinians in Gaza.


Lebanese leaders indirectly urge Hezbollah to stay out of the Israel-Iran conflict

Updated 16 June 2025
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Lebanese leaders indirectly urge Hezbollah to stay out of the Israel-Iran conflict

  • Lebanese President Joseph Aoun urged all sides in Lebanon to maintain calm and preserve the country’s stability
  • The Hezbollah-Israel war left over 4,000 people dead in Lebanon and caused destruction worth $11 billions. In Israel, 127 people, including 80 soldiers, were killed

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s president and prime minister said Monday that their country must stay out of the conflict between Israel and Iran because any engagement would be detrimental to the small nation engulfed in an economic crisis and struggling to recover from the latest Israel-Hezbollah war.
Their remarks amounted to a message to the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group — an ally of both Iran and the Palestinian militant Hamas group in Gaza — to stay out of the fray.
Hezbollah, which launched its own strikes on Israel a day after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack, has been hard-hit and suffered significant losses on the battlefield until a US-brokered ceasefire last November ended the 14 months of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel.
Earlier this year, Hamas fighters inside Lebanon fired rockets from Lebanese soil, drawing Israeli airstrikes and leading to arrests of Hamas members by Lebanese authorities.
The Hezbollah-Israel war left over 4,000 people dead in Lebanon and caused destruction worth $11 billions; Hezbollah was pushed away from areas bordering Israel in south Lebanon. In Israel, 127 people, including 80 soldiers, were killed during the war.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam spoke during a Cabinet meeting Monday that also discussed the Iran-Israel conflict and the spike in regional tensions over the past four days.
Information Minister Paul Morkos later told reporters that Aoun urged all sides in Lebanon to maintain calm and preserve the country’s stability. For his part, Salam said Lebanon should not be involved in “any form in the war,” Morkos added.
Hezbollah, funded and armed by Iran, has long been considered Tehran’s most powerful ally in the region but its latest war with Israel also saw much of Hezbollah’s political and military leadership killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Since Israel on Friday launched strikes targeting Iran’s nuclear program and top military leaders, drawing Iran’s retaliatory ballistic missiles at Israel, the back-and-forth has raised concerns that the region, already on edge over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, would be plunged into even greater upheaval.


First European commercial plane lands in Damascus airport in over a decade

Updated 16 June 2025
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First European commercial plane lands in Damascus airport in over a decade

  • Dan Air’s plane was carrying 138 passengers, including Syrians and foreign nationals
  • It announced flights from Damascus to Bucharest, the German cities of Frankfurt and Berlin, and the Swedish capital, Stockholm

LONDON: Damascus International Airport in the Syrian Arab Republic welcomed its first European commercial flight this week since the civil war began in 2011.

A European airline, Dan Air, landed in Damascus on Sunday after flying from Bucharest, the capital of Romania, the SANA news agency reported.

Mohammad Nidal Al-Shaar, the minister of economy and industry in Syria’s interim government, was on the plane that was received in Damascus by Radu Gimpostan, who led the Romanian Embassy’s delegation.

Dan Air’s plane carried 138 passengers, including Syrians and foreign nationals, and the return flight from Damascus to Bucharest would carry 125 passengers. The airline has announced flights from Damascus to Bucharest, the German cities of Frankfurt and Berlin, and the Swedish capital, Stockholm.

Syrian officials said that the flights would facilitate the mobility of travelers between Syria and Europe following more than a decade of interrupted aviation services.


Israeli forces evict Jenin families, convert homes into military outposts

Updated 16 June 2025
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Israeli forces evict Jenin families, convert homes into military outposts

  • Houses belonging to the Yaseen family were seized after about 50 people evicted
  • Soldiers ‘roaming the streets, firing live ammunition and tear gas, shutting down businesses and harassing residents,’ says Rummana council head

LONDON: Israeli forces in Jenin have evicted many Palestinian families and converted their homes into military outposts across several villages.

The Israeli activity took place across the occupied West Bank city over the past week.

Mohammad Issa, head of the Aneen village council in the west of Jenin, told Wafa news agency on Monday that Israeli troops stormed two homes belonging to the Yaseen family last Friday and forcibly evicted five families of about 50 people.

The homes were later utilized as military outposts while Israeli forces continued to raid Aneen village daily, deploying armored vehicles, erecting roadblocks and stopping-and-searching residents, Wafa added.

“The presence of soldiers inside residential homes has created a climate of fear and insecurity,” said Issa. “Commercial activity has slowed dramatically as a result.”

Hassan Sbeihat, head of the Rummana village council, told Wafa that Israeli forces had converted 11 homes in the elevated western part of the village into military positions over the last four days.

“Israeli infantry patrols are roaming the streets, firing live ammunition and tear gas, shutting down businesses and harassing residents,” Sbeihat said.

He added that families were forcibly displaced and sought shelter with relatives, with no clear sign of when they might return to their homes.

Aziz Zaid, head of the Nazlat al-Sheikh village council, said that Israeli forces evicted residents Wajdi Fadl Saeed Zaid and Omar Hassan Al-Bari from their homes, which were converted into outposts.

He added that the Israeli military continues to conduct house-to-house searches and physically assault residents, Wafa reported.

Zaid said that Israeli forces closed the village’s western entrance, blocked the main road and closed a pharmacy as well as grocery store.


Sultan of Oman, Iranian president discuss Israeli strikes, diplomatic solutions

Updated 16 June 2025
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Sultan of Oman, Iranian president discuss Israeli strikes, diplomatic solutions

  • President Masoud Pezeshkian says while Iran faces Israeli aggression, it supports diplomatic solutions
  • Sultan Haitham bin Tarik condemns damage caused by Israeli strikes on Iranian infrastructure and facilities

LONDON: Sultan Haitham bin Tariq of Oman held a phone call on Monday with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to offer condolences for the Iranian victims of Israeli airstrikes and discuss the latest developments.

Sultan Haitham condemned the damage caused by Israeli strikes to infrastructure and facilities, wishing a speedy recovery to the injured Iranian citizens. He stressed the need for de-escalation from both sides and called for negotiations and dialogue to prevent the ongoing conflict from deteriorating, the Oman News Agency reported.

He reaffirmed the Omani government’s commitment to activate diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis, prevent its escalation, and establish fair and just settlements that restore normalcy.

Pezeshkian said that while his country is facing Israeli aggression, it supports diplomatic solutions through dialogue and negotiation, emphasizing the importance of adhering to international law and respecting Iran’s sovereignty, the ONA added.


38 Palestinians killed in new shootings near food distribution centers, medics say

Updated 16 June 2025
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38 Palestinians killed in new shootings near food distribution centers, medics say

KHAN YOUNIS: Gaza’s Health Ministry says 38 Palestinians have been killed in new shootings in areas of food distribution centers in the south of the territory.
The toll Monday was the deadliest yet in the near-daily shootings that have taken place as thousands of Palestinians move through Israeli military-controlled areas to reach the food centers. Witnesses say Israeli troops open fire in an attempt to control the crowds.
There was no immediate comment by the Israeli military on Monday’s deaths. It has said in previous instances that troops fired warning shots at what it calls suspects approaching their positions.