Saif
Senior Member
- Messages
- 17,770
- Likes
- 8,502
- Nation

- Residence

- Axis Group

Israeli fire kills 34 in Gaza
Gazaβs civil defence agency said Israeli fire killed 34 people in the territory on Saturday.
www.newagebd.net
Israeli fire kills 34 in Gaza
Agence France-Presse . Tel Aviv, Israel 03 August, 2025, 00:24
Nine-year-old malnourished Palestinian girl Mariam Dawwas gets her hair combed by her mother as she sits with her on the floor, in the Rimal neighbourhood in Gaza City on Saturday. Dawwasβ mother, Modallala, 33, who is living with her family in a displacement camp in the northern Gaza Strip, said her daughter had no known illness and weighed 25 kilograms before the war, but has now dropped to 10 kilograms. | AFP photo
Gazaβs civil defence agency said Israeli fire killed 34 people in the territory on Saturday.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said five people were killed in an Israeli strike on an area of central Gaza where Palestinians were awaiting a food distribution by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
He added that Saturdayβs strikes mostly targeted areas near Gaza City in the north and Khan Yunis in the south.
Meanwhile, US envoy Steve Witkoff met anguished relatives of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza on Saturday, as fears for the captivesβ survival mounted almost 22 months into the war sparked by Hamasβs October 2023 attack.
Witkoff was greeted with some applause and pleas for assistance from hundreds of protesters gathered in Tel Aviv, before going into a closed meeting with the families.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum confirmed the meeting was underway and videos shared online showed Witkoff arriving as families chanted βBring them home!β and βWe need your help.β
The visit came one day after Witkoff visited a US-backed aid station in Gaza, to inspect efforts to get food into the devastated Palestinian territory.
Yotam Cohen, brother of 21-year-old hostage Nimrod Cohen, told AFP: βThe war needs to end. The Israeli government will not end it willingly. It has refused to do so.
Of the 251 hostages taken during the Hamas attack, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
After the meeting, the Forum released a statement saying that Witkoff had given them a personal commitment that he and US President Donald Trump would work to return the remaining hostages.
Hamas attempted to maintain pressure on the families, releasing a video of one of the hostages -- 24-year-old Evyatar Davidβfor the second time in two days, showing him looking emaciated in a tunnel.
The video called for a ceasefire and warned that time was running out for the hostages. Davidβs family said their son was the victim of a βvileβ propaganda campaign and accused Hamas of deliberately starving their son.
βThe deliberate starvation of our son as part of a propaganda campaign is one of the most horrifying acts the world has seen. He is being starved purely to serve Hamasβs propaganda,β the family said.
The United States, along with Egypt and Qatar, had been mediating ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel that would allow the hostages to be released and humanitarian aid to flow more freely.
But talks broke down last month and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuβs government is under increasing domestic pressure to come up with another way to secure the missing hostages, alive and dead.
He is also facing international calls to open Gazaβs borders to more food aid, after UN and humanitarian agencies warned that more than two million Palestinian civilians are facing starvation.
But Israelβs top general warned that there would be no respite in fighting if the hostages were not released.
βI estimate that in the coming days we will know whether we can reach an agreement for the release of our hostages,β armed forces chief of staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said in a statement.
βIf not, the combat will continue without rest.β
Zamir denied that there was widespread starvation in Gaza.
βThe current campaign of false accusations of intentional starvation is a deliberate, timed, and deceitful attempt to accuse the IDF (Israeli military), a moral army, of war crimes,β he said.
Alongside reports from UN-mandated experts warning a βfamine is unfoldingβ in Gaza, more and more evidence is emerging of serious malnutrition and deaths among the most vulnerable Palestinian civilians.
Modallala Dawwas, 33, living in a displacement camp in Gaza City told AFP her daughter Mariam had no known illnesses before the war but had now dropped from 25 kilos (four stone) to 10 (barely one and half) and was seriously malnourished.
Hamasβs 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official figures.
Israelβs campaign in Gaza has killed at least 60,332 people, mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territoryβs health ministry, deemed reliable by the UN.
Agence France-Presse . Tel Aviv, Israel 03 August, 2025, 00:24
Nine-year-old malnourished Palestinian girl Mariam Dawwas gets her hair combed by her mother as she sits with her on the floor, in the Rimal neighbourhood in Gaza City on Saturday. Dawwasβ mother, Modallala, 33, who is living with her family in a displacement camp in the northern Gaza Strip, said her daughter had no known illness and weighed 25 kilograms before the war, but has now dropped to 10 kilograms. | AFP photo
Gazaβs civil defence agency said Israeli fire killed 34 people in the territory on Saturday.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said five people were killed in an Israeli strike on an area of central Gaza where Palestinians were awaiting a food distribution by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
He added that Saturdayβs strikes mostly targeted areas near Gaza City in the north and Khan Yunis in the south.
Meanwhile, US envoy Steve Witkoff met anguished relatives of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza on Saturday, as fears for the captivesβ survival mounted almost 22 months into the war sparked by Hamasβs October 2023 attack.
Witkoff was greeted with some applause and pleas for assistance from hundreds of protesters gathered in Tel Aviv, before going into a closed meeting with the families.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum confirmed the meeting was underway and videos shared online showed Witkoff arriving as families chanted βBring them home!β and βWe need your help.β
The visit came one day after Witkoff visited a US-backed aid station in Gaza, to inspect efforts to get food into the devastated Palestinian territory.
Yotam Cohen, brother of 21-year-old hostage Nimrod Cohen, told AFP: βThe war needs to end. The Israeli government will not end it willingly. It has refused to do so.
Of the 251 hostages taken during the Hamas attack, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
After the meeting, the Forum released a statement saying that Witkoff had given them a personal commitment that he and US President Donald Trump would work to return the remaining hostages.
Hamas attempted to maintain pressure on the families, releasing a video of one of the hostages -- 24-year-old Evyatar Davidβfor the second time in two days, showing him looking emaciated in a tunnel.
The video called for a ceasefire and warned that time was running out for the hostages. Davidβs family said their son was the victim of a βvileβ propaganda campaign and accused Hamas of deliberately starving their son.
βThe deliberate starvation of our son as part of a propaganda campaign is one of the most horrifying acts the world has seen. He is being starved purely to serve Hamasβs propaganda,β the family said.
The United States, along with Egypt and Qatar, had been mediating ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel that would allow the hostages to be released and humanitarian aid to flow more freely.
But talks broke down last month and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuβs government is under increasing domestic pressure to come up with another way to secure the missing hostages, alive and dead.
He is also facing international calls to open Gazaβs borders to more food aid, after UN and humanitarian agencies warned that more than two million Palestinian civilians are facing starvation.
But Israelβs top general warned that there would be no respite in fighting if the hostages were not released.
βI estimate that in the coming days we will know whether we can reach an agreement for the release of our hostages,β armed forces chief of staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said in a statement.
βIf not, the combat will continue without rest.β
Zamir denied that there was widespread starvation in Gaza.
βThe current campaign of false accusations of intentional starvation is a deliberate, timed, and deceitful attempt to accuse the IDF (Israeli military), a moral army, of war crimes,β he said.
Alongside reports from UN-mandated experts warning a βfamine is unfoldingβ in Gaza, more and more evidence is emerging of serious malnutrition and deaths among the most vulnerable Palestinian civilians.
Modallala Dawwas, 33, living in a displacement camp in Gaza City told AFP her daughter Mariam had no known illnesses before the war but had now dropped from 25 kilos (four stone) to 10 (barely one and half) and was seriously malnourished.
Hamasβs 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official figures.
Israelβs campaign in Gaza has killed at least 60,332 people, mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territoryβs health ministry, deemed reliable by the UN.


