Israel-Hamas war: Israeli air strike on Gaza aid convoy kills five Palestinians
Israel has carried out its fourth attack on aid workers this week, as a top UN official slams the evacuation orders.
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At least seven people have been killed by an Israeli air strike on an aid convoy, which was carrying fuel and medicine to a hospital in southern Gaza.
The five Palestinian men who were killed were in the lead vehicle of a convoy for the Washington-based American Near East Refugee Aid agency. Their movements had been coordinated with the Israeli military.
“This is a shocking incident,” Anera’s Palestine country director, Sandra Rasheed, said.
“The convoy, which was coordinated by Anera and approved by Israeli authorities, included an Anera employee who was fortunately unharmed.
“Tragically, several individuals, all employed by the transportation company we work with, were killed in the attack.”
An IDF statement confirmed the route had been coordinated, but claimed that “armed assailants seized control of the vehicle”, however, that claim is yet to be verified.
The airstrike on the convoy came hours after the United Nations said that their humanitarian vehicle was shot near an Israeli checkpoint struck, despite the convoy coordinating with the IDF.
“A clearly marked UN humanitarian vehicle, part of a convoy that had been fully coordinated with the IDF was struck 10 times by IDF gunfire, including with bullets targeting front windows,” UN Secretary-General spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, adding that the two occupants were unharmed.
“This is the latest incident to underscore that systems in place for coordination are not working, and we continue to work with the IDF to ensure that incidents like that do not happen again.
“We have no way to assess the mindset of those who are shooting at us.”
This was the fourth attack on aid workers this week.
On April 1, the IDF killed seven aid workers in a drone attack on a convoy run by the World Central Kitchen charity, including Australian Zomi Frankcom.
Israeli military air strikes have killed more than 100 Palestinian employees of UNRWA.
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UN AID OFFICIAL QUESTIONS WORLD’S ‘HUMANITY’
A top UN aid official has questioned “what has become of our basic humanity,” as the humanitarian operations in Gaza are struggling to respond to the catastrophe.
Acting head of the UN’s humanitarian office Joyce Msuya said that “we cannot plan more than 24 hours in advance because we struggle to know what supplies we will have, when we will have them or where we will be able to deliver.”
“Civilians are hungry. They are thirsty. They are sick. They are homeless. They have been pushed beyond... what any human being should bear,” she told the Security Council.
Ms Msuya’s comments came after the UN had to halt the movement of aid within Gaza after Israel made new evacuation orders.
“More than 88 percent of Gaza’s territory has come under an (Israeli) order to evacuate at some point,” she said, adding that civilians, “in a state of limbo,” were being forced into an area equivalent to just 11 percent of the Gaza Strip.
“The evacuation orders appear to defy the requirements of international humanitarian law.”
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,602 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry.
The UN rights office said most of the dead are women and children.
“What we have witnessed over the past 11 months... calls into question the world’s commitment to the international legal order that was designed to prevent these tragedies,” Ms Msuya said.
“It forces us to ask: what has become of our basic sense of humanity?”.
‘HELL ON EARTH’: CHINA CONDEMNS ISRAEL’S OPERATION
China has condemned Israel’s military operation in occupied West Bank as Gaza has been “turned into hell on earth”.
At least ten Palestinians were killed in the latest devastating wave of Israeli raids and strikes on several towns in the north West Bank.
China’s representative to the UN Security Council, Fu Cong, said the occupation of the West Bank continues to “violate international law and [UN Security] council resolutions.”
“[Israel’s] settlements continue to grow and it ramps up searches, arrests and raids against Palestinians,” he said.
“Senior Israeli officials in the government recently spoke of using the same approach in the [occupied] West Bank as they have employed in operations in Gaza … We are shocked and seriously concerned by such extreme remarks that risk global condemnation. Gaza has now been turned into hell on earth.”
“We must never allow the same humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza to happen in the West Bank, which will turn the West Bank into another hell on earth.”
Violence in the West Bank has surged alongside the war in Gaza, with an estimated 640 Palestinians killed by Israeli troops and settlers since October 7.
ISRAEL AGREES TO LIMITED ‘PAUSES’ FOR POLIO VAX
Israel has agreed to a series of three-day “humanitarian pauses” in Gaza to allow UN health officials to administer polio vaccinations in the territory, the World Health Organisation said.
“The way we discussed and agreed, the campaign will start on the first of September, in central Gaza, for three days, and there will be a humanitarian pause during the vaccination,” Rik Peeperkorn, the agency’s representative for Palestinian territories, said.
The vaccination rollout will also cover southern and northern Gaza, which will each get their own three-day pauses, Mr Peeperkorn told reporters, adding that Israel had agreed to allow an additional day if required.
Israeli authorities did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the new measures were “not a ceasefire.”
A #polio vaccination campaign in #Gaza is planned to begin on 1 September.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) August 29, 2024
We welcome the commitment to humanitarian pauses in specific areas, and suspension of evacuation orders for the implementation of the campaign.
But the only lasting medicine is peace. The only way to… pic.twitter.com/J52cbVTAoe
Hamas said it supports the “UN humanitarian truce.” The United States and European Union have both voiced concern over polio in Gaza, after the first case there in 25 years was confirmed this month in an unvaccinated 10-month-old baby.
UN agencies have said they plan to provide oral vaccines against type-2 poliovirus (cVDPV2) to more than 640,000 children in the territory.
Poliovirus is highly infectious and most often spread through sewage and contaminated water — an increasingly common problem in Gaza with much of the territory’s infrastructure destroyed by Israel in its war against Hamas.
The disease mainly affects children under the age of five. It can cause deformities and paralysis, and is potentially fatal.
HOSTAGE FREED FROM HAMAS TUNNEL SPEAKS
The hostage rescued from a Hamas tunnel by Israeli special forces has told of his horrific 11-month ordeal, saying he spent most of the time in complete darkness underground.
Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, who is from the Bedouin Arab community, was found alone without guards in a room beneath Mahrat in the Gaza Strip.
“He was dead and is now brought back to life,” Mr Alkadi’s brother, Juma’a, told CNN of his return to his village in Tarabin in the Negev desert.
Officials said the hostage was found by chance as the Israeli military worked on clearing Hamas’s tunnel network underneath Gaza, officials said.
Israeli officials told CNN they are still working to determine why Mr Alkadi was alone when he was found, but that one theory is he may have been abandoned.
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DEADLY ISRAEL RAIDS ON WEST BANK
Israel launched a large-scale operation in the occupied West Bank, where the army said it killed Palestinian fighters, as the nearly 11-month-old Gaza war showed no signs of abating.
The military said its forces killed nine militants while the Palestinian Red Crescent reported 10 deaths in the West Bank, where violence has surged during the war sparked by Gaza rulers Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.
Israel launched co-ordinated raids across four northern West Bank cities — Jenin, Nablus, Tubas and Tulkarem — where the military has focused much of its recent operations.
Palestinians in the West Bank, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry figures.
During the same period, at least 19 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks, according to Israeli officials.
CALLS ON AUSTRALIA TO REJECT HAMAS SUPPORTERS’ VISAS
ASPI Executive Director Justin Bassi has called on the Australian government to ban Hamas supporters from obtaining a visa to come into the country, reports Sky News.
The Albanese government is under fire over its decision to issue 2922 Palestinians fleeing Gaza visas – a vast majority of which were granted visitor visas rather than temporary humanitarian stays.
Mr Bassi, who was the National Security Adviser to former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull for three years, argued there should be a prohibition which applied not only to those who support Hamas but any other terrorist organisation as well.
OIL TANKER ATTACKED BY HOUTHIS LEAKING OIL
A video released by the Iran-backed Houthis on social media purports to show an explosion on a Red Sea tanker carrying 150,000 tonnes of crude oil.
The 274-meter long Greek-flagged Sounion had departed from Iraq and was destined for a port near Athens when it was struck off the rebel-held port city of Hodeid on August 21.
The video appears to show three explosions on the ship with the Houthis claiming they had attacked the vessel with missiles and drones.
The Sounion’s crew of 23 Filipinos and two Russians were rescued by a ship with the European Union’s Aspides mission.
The tanker is still on fire and now appears to be leaking oil, a Pentagon spokesman said.
Pentagon spokesman Air Force Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder on Wednesday said that a third party had tried to send two tugs to help salvage the Sounion, but the Houthis threatened to attack them.
The United States warned of a potential environmental disaster in the Red Sea.
“The Houthis’ continued attacks threaten to spill a million barrels of oil into the Red Sea, an amount four times the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster,” US State Department Matthew Miller said in a statement.
The Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 released 257,000 barrels along the coast of Alaska.
“While the crew has been evacuated, the Houthis appear determined to sink the ship and its cargo into the sea,” Miller said.
The Houthi rebels launched their campaign against international shipping in November, saying it is in support of Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war.
It came as the United States announced “progress” in Gaza truce talks underway in Cairo, even after a major but brief cross-border escalation between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon.
FREED HOSTAGE THROWS ‘CELEBRATE LIFE’ PARTY
Freed Hamas hostage Noa Argamani has thrown a “celebrate life” party nearly 11 months after the terror group’s brutal October 7 attack.
The 26-year-old spent 246 days in captivity in Gaza after she and her boyfriend Avinatan Or were kidnapped from the Supernova music festival.
She was rescued in June 8 in a daring mission when Israeli commandos raided an apartment where she as being held in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. Her boyfriend remains in Hamas captivity.
In new images she can be seen dancing with dad, Yaakov, at a summer party held on Friday.
“It’s not ideal that we’re having this party while there’s still a war in the background,” she told the gathering of family and friends, “while our soldiers are on the battlefield, while there are still 109 hostages there in Gaza, including my partner, Avinatan Or, who we miss terribly.
“But at the same time, I’m happy to celebrate life itself with all of you,” she added.
“To remember that we have to value every day in this life, we have to celebrate every moment that we’re here.”
A large banner with images of Argamani and Or with the words “We will dance again” was hoisted up at the celebration.
The occasion also paid tribute to Argamani’s mother, Liora, who died from brain cancer weeks after their reunion.
Argamani and Or became prominent symbols of the October 7 assault after video of their kidnapping was beamed around the world. She was placed at the back of a motorbike and could be seen screaming for her boyfriend as she was taken away.
The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1199 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Out of 251 people taken hostage that day, 105 are still being held hostage inside the Gaza Strip, including 34 the military says are dead.
Argamani has been a vocal advocate for the swift return of the remaining captives.
“We don’t want to lose more people than we already lost,” Noa Argamani said while visiting Japan.
– with AFP
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