Live: Palestinian death toll in Gaza nears 26,000

The UN said on Thursday that the death toll from the Israeli attack on the Training Centre in Khan Younis on Wednesday has reached 13. 

“Yesterday, the UNRWA Khan Younis Training Centre was hit by direct fire. It struck a building housing 800 displaced people. At least 13 people were killed and 56 injured, 21 of them critically, in what should have been a place of safety,” UNRWA said.
 

Hamas has called Israel’s attack on Palestinians queueing to receive aid in Gaza City a “heinous war crime”.

The group said the attack shows the “sadism of the occupation and its disregard for human life and international laws, which are being violated with a US cover and green light”.

The National and Islamic Forces, a coalition of major Palestinian factions, also condemned Israel for the attack and called for it to be held accountable. 

“This new massacre is a complete war crime committed by the occupation forces and a perpetuation of the ongoing crimes of ethnic cleansing and genocide in the Gaza Strip,” the coalition said in a statement.
 

Amidst intense food shortages caused by Israeli bombing and the obstruction of aid into Gaza, Palestinians have been forced to resort to desperate measures, including mixing animal fodder and bird feed into their bread. 

Abu Alaa, a resident of Gaza, and the owner of a mill in central Gaza, said that the food available to people is not edible. 

“Something should be done about this urgently,” he told Middle East Eye. 

“People are mixing bird feed and animal food into their food. This is not right, it's not healthy. People are grinding this and mixing it into their bread,” he added.  

He explained that this is happening due to a lack of aid deliveries as well as the sharp skyrocketing prices of goods that are available. 

Abu Alaa says that he has been forced to reduce the price of wheat due to the dire circumstances, despite rising costs hitting everyone. 

Abu Anas, a local who lives near a mill, said that any food available in Gaza is no longer affordable.

Jaber, another local in Gaza, says that even if the taste is bad, he and others are mixing different types of flour and mixing ingredients to make bread.

“Sometimes the bread is made and it comes out red or yellow because of the ingredients mixed in it,” he said, adding that this is not good for people's health. 

Mazen al-Terk, 50, said the situation has become critical. 

“By God, we have stopped differentiating between donkey food and human food. We are eating anything, and no one is helping us. We call on all countries around the world to stand with us, because we can’t find food.

“We haven’t had access to pure white flour for three months now, since 9 October when Israel imposed the full siege. People are picking things up from the floor to eat them. Any flour that can be found is for around 700 shekels,” he added. 

The residents in Gaza say that using animal fodder in their bread, as well as other ingredients, has harmed their health, combined with the lack of clean water and lack of sanitation facilities. 

“All of my children have stomach pains and diarrhoea, because of the food, water, and rubbish in the streets,” al-Terk said. 

Reporting by Mohammed al-Hajjar.

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Israeli forces have been attacking Palestinian civilians in key points where emergency aid is being delivered for over a week, MEE’s correspondent on the ground said on Thursday.

According to the correspondent, who has not been named for security reasons, since a week ago, aid items have been delivered through the Rashid street and the sea, almost every day or every other day.

People would head to the area to be able to get their hands on basic goods, such as canned items, flour, dates, or other items. 

However, last week Israeli forces had an increased presence in the area and the aid was diverted through the Salah al-Din area instead. 

“People queue up in the area to get hold of the items since there are no teams to help with the distributions. There are large numbers of people there…so when Israeli forces attack the area there are dozens of deaths,” he said. 

“Three days ago Israeli forces attacked the aid deliveries and the people queuing for them at Dawaar al-Kuwait near the Salah al-Din area, and eight people were killed and dozens more wounded,” he added.

On Thursday, Israeli forces killed at least 20 Palestinians and wounded 180 others who were waiting for humanitarian relief in Gaza City. 

With a lack of medical and emergency services, civilians used horse-drawn carts and personal vehicles to transport wounded people to the hospital.
 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken renewed calls on Thursday for Israel to protect civilians, after a deadly Israeli strike on a UN facility on Wednesday killed at least 12 Palestinians and wounded dozens of others.

The US condemned the strike but avoided assigning blame, while Israel said it was probing the matter, according to Israeli media.

Two tank shells struck the UN shelter, leaving widespread devastation. 

During a visit to Angola, Blinken told reporters that the UN shelter “is essential and it has to be protected".

“We have reaffirmed this with the government of Israel, and it is my understanding that they are, as is necessary and appropriate, looking into this incident,” Blinken said, without saying at what level discussions took place.
 

The US and UK will impose new sanctions on leaders of the Houthi group that will mean at least four senior figures being subject to asset freezes and travel bans, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the plan.

Senior ministers in the Houthi administration in Yemen would also be sanctioned, with an announcement as early as Thursday, the report added.
 

Three partially functional medical facilities in Gaza are now no longer operating due to continued Israeli attacks, the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians reported on Thursday.

The organisation added that Israeli tank shells have also hit a Unrwa shelter in the north of Gaza.

 

The targeting of ships linked to Israel will continue until aid reaches the Palestinian people in Gaza, Yemen's Houthis leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi said on Thursday in a televised speech.

"Our country will continue its operations until food and medicine reach the people of Gaza," he said, Reuters reported.

The group's leader added that the results of the latest US and British escalation would be counterproductive and would not affect "our will and determination".
 

Israeli forces have surrounded and attacked Gaza’s al-Amal Hospital for a fourth day, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent. 

The organisation said on Thursday that Israeli forces had imposed a “complete curfew” around the hospital since yesterday afternoon, and have restricted the movement of ambulance and emergency crews.

A video has emerged showing Israeli troops attacking a Palestinian police officer. One Israeli soldier can be seen pointing a gun at the police officer, followed by another soldier slapping the policeman. 

The fight broke out in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem on Thursday, with one of the soldiers firing a stun grenade near the Palestinian police officer.

Israel has committed a new attack on the "hungry mouths" of Gaza, said the spokesman for Gaza’s health ministry.

Hundreds of Palestinians had been queueing for food in war-ravaged northern Gaza when Israeli forces attacked, killing at least 20 and wounding 150 others.

“The Israeli occupation committed a new massacre against thousands of hungry mouths who were waiting for aid,” Ashraf al-Qudra said in a statement on Telegram.

The number of dead is likely to rise, given the number of seriously wounded.

Many of the victims are being treated at al-Shifa Hospital, which Israel has bombed in the past and which has stopped functioning as a normal hospital, with few doctors working, Qudra said.

Attacks on civilian sites in Khan Younis are “utterly unacceptable” and must stop immediately, said the director of Unrwa, Thomas White. 

“As fighting intensifies around hospitals and shelters hosting the displaced, people are trapped inside and life-saving operations are impeded,” he said.

“The situation in Khan Younis underscores a consistent failure to uphold the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law: distinction, proportionality and precautions in carrying out attacks,” he said.

“This is unacceptable and abhorrent and must stop.”
 

The outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte asked the country's legal affairs ministry: "What can we say to make it look like Israel is not committing war crimes?"

The revelations have only recently come to light and were reported by NRC, the newspaper of record in the Netherlands. 

A group of government officials and diplomats has submitted evidence to The Hague regarding comments made by the Dutch prime minister. 

In November last year, the Netherlands decided to continue deliveries of parts for Israeli fighter jets despite official warnings that Israel may be committing "serious violations of humanitarian law of war".

According to NRC, Rutte's intervention in support of Israel is driven by his own political ambitions and the need to appeal to the US administration, in the hope that he succeeds Jens Stoltenberg as secretary general of Nato next summer. 

At least 20 Palestinians have been killed and 180 others wounded after Israeli forces targeted people waiting for humanitarian relief in Gaza City.

Around 35 percent of Americans believe Israel is carrying out a genocide against Palestinians, according to the latest Economist/YouGov poll.

36 percent of Americans do not support that view, and 29 percent remain undecided.

Almost half of Americans between the ages of 18-29, 49 percent, say Israel is engaged in genocide, while 24 percent disagree, and 27 percent remain undecided.

These trends are largely mirrored among registered Democrats, where 49 percent say that Israel is commiting genocide, 21 percent disagree, and 30 percent are undecided.

In contrast, Republicans show stronger support for Israel, with 57 percent stating there is no genocide, 18 percent asserting there is, and 25 percent undecided.