[🇧🇩] Israel and Hamas war in Gaza-----Can Bangladesh be a peace broker?

[Saif]

Gaza rescuers say more than 50 killed as Israel orders evacuations

Plumes of smoke rose Thursday over the northern Gaza Strip, where Israel's military urged civilians to evacuate, as rescuers said Israeli strikes across the territory killed more than 50 people.

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Gaza rescuers say more than 50 killed as Israel orders evacuations
AFP Gaza City, Palestine
Published: 23 May 2025, 09: 38

A picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing in the background above Gaza during Israeli bombardment in the besieged Palestinian territory on 22 May, 2025. AFP

Plumes of smoke rose Thursday over the northern Gaza Strip, where Israel's military urged civilians to evacuate, as rescuers said Israeli strikes across the territory killed more than 50 people.

The latest evacuation warning for parts of Gaza City and neighbouring areas came hours after the United Nations said it had begun distributing around 90 truckloads of aid in Gaza -- the first such delivery since Israel imposed a total blockade on 2 March.

The World Food Programme (WFP) later said a "handful of bakeries" had resumed making and distributing bread, while the United Nations said some trucks were "intercepted" by residents.

Under global pressure to lift the blockade and halt a newly expanded offensive, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was open to a "temporary ceasefire", but reaffirmed the military aimed to bring all of Gaza under its control.

In an Arabic-language statement on Thursday, the military said it was acting "with intense force" in 14 areas of the northern Gaza Strip, including parts of Gaza City and the Jabalia refugee camp.

A map posted alongside the warning showed a swath of territory marked in red, with the army accusing "terrorist organisations" of operating there and urging civilians to move south.

The vast majority of Gaza's 2.4 million have been displaced at least once during the war.

After Israel announced it would allow in limited aid, Netanyahu said it was necessary to "avoid a humanitarian crisis in order to preserve our freedom of operational action".

In Gaza, the Hamas government media office reported the arrival of 87 aid trucks.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that "a small number of trucks carrying flour were intercepted by residents and their contents removed".

Dujarric said it "was not a criminal act with armed men", but "what I've been referring to sometimes as self-distribution, which I think only reflects the very high level of anxiety that people in Gaza are feeling not knowing when the next humanitarian delivery will take place".

Palestinian children wait in front of a hot meal distribution truck at a displacement camp near Gaza City's port on 22 May, 2025. AFP

'Hunger and disease'
Palestinians have been scrambling for basic supplies, with Israel's blockade leading to critical food and medicine shortages.

UN agencies have said that the amount of aid entering Gaza falls far short of what is required to ease the crisis.

Hossam Abu Aida, a 38-year-old displaced Palestinian in Gaza City said: "I am tormented for my children".

"For them, I fear hunger and disease more than I do Israeli bombardment," he told AFP.

AFP footage showed bags of recently delivered flour at a bakery in the central city of Deir el-Balah, where workers and a host of machines began kneading, shaping, baking and packaging stack after stack of pita bread.

"Some aid is finally reaching Gazans in desperate need, but it's moving far too slowly," said WFP executive director Cindy McCain.

"A handful of bakeries in south and central Gaza... have resumed bread production after dozens of trucks were finally able to collect cargo from the Kerem Shalom border crossing and deliver it overnight," the WFP said in a statement.

Israel stepped up its offensive at the weekend, vowing to defeat Gaza's Hamas rulers, whose October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war.

Gaza's civil defence agency reported "52 martyrs" in Israeli air strikes across the territory on Thursday.

AFP footage of northern Gaza showed numerous plumes of smoke rising from the area over the course of the afternoon.

There was no comment from the Israeli military on any strikes on Thursday.

'Emboldening Hamas'

The intensified Israeli offensive has drawn criticism, with EU foreign ministers agreeing on Tuesday to review the bloc's cooperation accord with Israel.

Sweden said it would press the 27-nation European Union to impose sanctions on Israeli ministers, while Britain suspended free-trade negotiations with Israel.

In a joint statement, the leaders of Britain, Canada and France slammed the escalation and the "wholly inadequate" resumption of aid, warning of the possibility of "concrete actions in response".

Netanyahu hit back on Thursday, saying the three leaders "may think that they're advancing peace. They're not. They're emboldening Hamas to continue fighting forever."

Hamas's October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Gaza's health ministry says at least 3,613 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on 18 March, taking the war's overall toll to 53,762, mostly civilians.

During the Hamas attack, militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the Israel military says are dead.

Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel would be ready "if there is an option for a temporary ceasefire to free hostages", noting that at least 20 captives held by Hamas and its allies were still believed to be alive.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli strikes kill 16 in Gaza

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed at least 16 people on Friday across the Palestinian territory, where Israel has ramped up its military offensive in recent days.

www.newagebd.net

Israeli strikes kill 16 in Gaza
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 24 May, 2025, 00:41

People pack items in a room in a damaged building following Israeli bombardment in the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on Friday. | AFP photo

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed at least 16 people on Friday across the Palestinian territory, where Israel has ramped up its military offensive in recent days.

The toll from ‘Israeli strikes in various areas across the Gaza Strip since midnight’ totalled 16 dead, agency official Mohammed al-Mughayyir said.

He said there were also dozens of people wounded in the attacks, which mainly hit the centre and south of the territory.

In Gaza’s north, Al-Awda hospital reported Friday that three of its staff were injured ‘after Israeli quadcopter drones dropped bombs’ on the facility.

The Israeli army said that over the past day, its forces had attacked ‘military compounds, weapons storage facilities and sniper posts’ in Gaza.

‘In addition, the air force struck over 75 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip,’ it added.

Aid began trickling into the Gaza Strip on Monday for the first time in more than two months, amid mounting condemnation of an Israeli blockade that has sparked severe shortages of food and medicine.

COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body that oversees civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said that on Thursday 107 humanitarian aid trucks entered Gaza.

The UN’s World Food Programme said the following day that 15 of its trucks ‘were looted late last night in southern Gaza, while en route to WFP-supported bakeries’.

WFP executive director Cindy McCain had previously said some aid was finally reaching Gazans, ‘but it’s moving far too slowly’.

Israel resumed major operations in Gaza on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire.

On Friday, Gaza’s health ministry said at least 3,673 people had been killed in the territory since then, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,822, mostly civilians.

Hamas’s October 2023 attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Meanwhile, United Nations chief Antonio Guterres on Friday said ‘Palestinians in Gaza are enduring what may be the cruelest phase of this cruel conflict’ as Israel ramps up its military offensive.

‘For nearly 80 days, Israel blocked the entry of life-saving international aid,’ he said in a statement. ‘The entire population of Gaza is facing the risk of famine.

‘The Israeli military offensive is intensifying with atrocious levels of death and destruction.

‘Today, 80 per cent of Gaza has been either designated an Israeli-militarised zone or an area where people have been ordered to leave.’

Israel resumed major operations in Gaza on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire.

Aid also began trickling into the Gaza Strip on Monday for the first time in more than two months, amid condemnation of the Israeli blockade that sparked severe shortages of food and medicine.

‘Israel has clear obligations under international humanitarian law,’ Guterres said. ‘As the occupying power, it must agree to allow and facilitate the aid that is needed.’​

 

[Saif]

Israeli strikes kill 15 in Gaza

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed at least 15 people on Saturday across the Palestinian territory, where Israel has ramped up its military offensive in recent days.

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Israeli strikes kill 15 in Gaza
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 25 May, 2025, 00:10

A child cries as Palestinians gather to receive a hot meal at a food distribution point in the Nuseirat camp for refugees in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday. | AFP photo

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed at least 15 people on Saturday across the Palestinian territory, where Israel has ramped up its military offensive in recent days.

Civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP the dead included a couple who were killed with their two young children in a pre-dawn strike on a house in the Amal quarter of the southern city of Khan Yunis.

To the west of the city, at least five people were killed by a drone strike on a crowd of people that had gathered to wait for aid trucks, he said.

At Khan Yunis’s Nasser Hospital, tearful mourners gathered around white-shrouded bodies outside.

‘Suddenly, a missile from an F-16 destroyed the entire house, and all of them were civilians—my sister, her husband and their children,’

said Wissam Al-Madhoun. ‘We found them lying in the street. What did this child do to Netanyahu?’

The Israeli military said it was unable to comment on individual strikes without their ‘precise geographical coordinates’.

In a statement, the military said that over the past day the air force had struck more than 100 targets across the territory, including members of ‘terrorist organisations in the Gaza Strip, military structures, underground routes and additional terrorist infrastructure’.

Israel resumed operations in Gaza on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire.

Gaza’s health ministry said Saturday that at least 3,747 people had been killed in the territory since then, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,901, mostly civilians.

Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said on Friday that Palestinians were enduring ‘the cruellest phase’ of the war in Gaza, where a lengthy Israeli blockade has led to widespread shortages of food and medicine.

Limited aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip restarted on Monday for the first time since March 2, amid mounting condemnation of the Israeli blockade.

The World Food Programme said 15 of its trucks were looted late Thursday night, calling on Israel ‘to get far greater volumes of food assistance into Gaza faster’.

‘Hunger, desperation, and anxiety over whether more food aid is coming, is contributing to rising insecurity,’ it said.

The Gaza City municipality, meanwhile, warned Saturday of ‘a potential large-scale water crisis’ due to a lack of supplies needed for urgent repairs.

It said damage from the war had ‘affected the majority of Gaza’s water infrastructure, leaving large portions of the population vulnerable to severe water shortages’.

It added that temperatures were rising and demand was expected to increase.​

 

[Saif]

UN says more food needed in Gaza as looting hampers deliveries

Israeli airstrikes killed at least six Palestinians guarding aid trucks against looters, Hamas officials said on Friday, as the head of the United Nations warned that only a "teaspoon" of aid was getting in following Israel's 11-week-long blockade. The Israeli military said 107 trucks carrying flo

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UN says more food needed in Gaza as looting hampers deliveries

REUTERS
Published :
May 25, 2025 20:58
Updated :
May 25, 2025 20:58

Palestinians wait to receive aid, in Gaza City, May 25, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Stringer

Israeli airstrikes killed at least six Palestinians guarding aid trucks against looters, Hamas officials said on Friday, as the head of the United Nations warned that only a "teaspoon" of aid was getting in following Israel's 11-week-long blockade.

The Israeli military said 107 trucks carrying flour and other foodstuffs as well as medical supplies entered the Gaza Strip from the Kerem Shalom crossing point on Thursday, for a total of 305 since Monday when the blockade was relaxed.

But getting the supplies to people sheltering in tents and other makeshift accommodation has been fitful and UN officials say at least 500 to 600 trucks of aid are needed every day.

So far, an umbrella network of Palestinian aid groups said, 119 aid trucks have got past the Kerem Shalom crossing point and into Gaza since Israel eased its blockade on Monday in the face of an international outcry.

Despite the relaxation of the blockade, distribution has been hampered by looting by groups of men, some of them armed, near the city of Khan Younis, an umbrella network representing Palestinian aid groups said.

"They stole food meant for children and families suffering from severe hunger," the network said in a statement, which also condemned Israeli airstrikes on security teams protecting the trucks.

The U.N. World Food Programme said 15 trucks carrying flour to WFP-supported bakeries had been looted, which it said reflected the dire conditions facing Gazans.

"Hunger, desperation and anxiety over whether more food aid is coming is contributing to rising insecurity," it said in a statement.

A Hamas official said six members of a security team tasked with guarding the shipments were killed.

Israel imposed the blockade in early March, accusing Hamas of stealing aid meant for civilians. Hamas rejects the charge, saying a number of its own fighters have been killed protecting the trucks from armed looters.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which generally considers all armed Palestinians as militants.

"Hamas constantly calls the looters 'guards' or protectors' to mask the fact that they're disturbing the aid process," a military official said.

'DESPERATION'

With most of Gaza's 2 million population squeezed into an ever narrowing zone on the coast and in the area around the southern city of Khan Younis by Israel's military operation, international pressure to get aid in quickly has ratcheted up.

"Without rapid, reliable, safe and sustained aid access, more people will die – and the long-term consequences on the entire population will be profound," said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

A German government spokesperson said the aid was "far too little, too late and too slow," adding that delivery of supplies had to be increased significantly.

Israel has announced that a new system, sponsored by the United States and run by private contractors, will soon begin operations from four distribution centres in the south of Gaza, but many details of how the system will work remain unclear.

The UN has already said it will not work with the new system, which it says will leave aid distribution conditional on Israel's political and military aims.

Israel says its forces will only provide security for the centres and will not distribute aid themselves.

As the aid has begun to trickle in, the Israeli military has continued the intensified ground and air operation launched last week, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said would end with Israel taking full control of the Gaza Strip.

The military said it had conducted more strikes in Gaza overnight, hitting 75 targets, including weapons storage facilities and rocket launchers. Palestinian medical services said at least 25 people had been killed in the strikes.

Israel launched an air and ground war in Gaza after Hamas militants' cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, which killed some 1,200 people by Israeli tallies and saw 251 hostages abducted into Gaza.

The Israeli campaign has since killed more than 53,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and devastated the coastal strip. Aid groups say signs of severe malnutrition are widespread.​

 

[Saif]

Father in intensive care after nine children killed in Israeli strike on Gaza

The father of nine children killed in an Israeli military strike in Gaza over the weekend remains in intensive care, said a doctor on Sunday at the hospital treating him. Hamdi Al-Najjar, himself a doctor, was at home in Khan Younis with his 10 children when an Israeli air strike occurred, killing

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Father in intensive care after nine children killed in Israeli strike on Gaza

REUTERS
Published :
May 25, 2025 22:03
Updated :
May 25, 2025 22:03

Hamdi Al-Najjar, a wounded Palestinian father and doctor who, according to medics, lost nine of his children in an Israeli strike on Friday, lies in a hospital bed in the Intensive Care Unit at Nasser Hospital after being injured in the same strike, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 25, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Hatem Khaled

The father of nine children killed in an Israeli military strike in Gaza over the weekend remains in intensive care, said a doctor on Sunday at the hospital treating him.

Hamdi Al-Najjar, himself a doctor, was at home in Khan Younis with his 10 children when an Israeli air strike occurred, killing all but one of them. He was rushed to the nearby Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza where he is being treated for his injuries.

Abdul Aziz Al-Farra, a thoracic surgeon, said Najjar had undergone two operations to stop bleeding in his abdomen and chest and that he sustained other wounds including to his head.

"May God heal him and help him," Farra said, speaking by the bedside of an intubated and heavily bandaged Najjar.

The Israeli military has confirmed it conducted an air strike on Khan Younis on Friday but said it was targeting suspects in a structure that was close to Israeli soldiers.

The military is looking into claims that "uninvolved civilians" were killed, it said, adding that the military had evacuated civilians from the area before the operation began.

According to medical officials in Gaza, the nine children were aged between one and 12 years old. The child that survived, a boy, is in a serious but stable condition, the hospital has said.

Najjar's wife, Alaa, also a doctor, was not at home at the time of the strike. She was treating Palestinians injured in Israel's more than 20-month war in Gaza against Hamas in the same hospital where her husband and son are receiving care.

"She went to her house and saw her children burned, may God help her," said Tahani Yahya Al-Najjar of her sister-in-law.

"With everything we are going through only God gives us strength."

Tahani visited her brother in hospital on Sunday, whispering to him that she was there: "You are okay, this will pass."

On Saturday, Ali Al-Najjar said that he rushed to his brother’s house after the strike, which had sparked a fire that threatened to collapse the home, and searched through the rubble. "We started pulling out charred bodies," he said.

In its statement about the air strike, the Israeli military said Khan Younis was a "dangerous war zone".

Practically all of Gaza's more than 2 million Palestinians have been displaced after more than 20 months of war.

The war erupted when Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023, killing around 1,200, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 more.

The retaliatory campaign, that Israel has said is aimed at uprooting Hamas and securing the release of the hostages, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, Gazan health officials say.

Most of them are civilians, including more than 16,500 children under the age of 18, according to Gaza's health ministry.​