Israel's Paranoia
Live Reporting
Israeli forces shot dead fishermen, denied them medical care: UNICEF
Elder, a UNICEF spokesman, says he witnessed Israeli forces shoot dead two Palestinian fishermen in Gaza and denied them medical care.
“I was watching fishermen – they were probably lawyers and engineers in a past life – with a single fishing net each, just trying to catch a few fish for their families. Suddenly, a tank came from the very large Israeli checkpoint,” Elder told Al Jazeera.
He said that he and doctors and paramedics from other UN agencies witnessed two fishermen flee on foot only to be shot down on the beach. They immediately called the Israeli army for permission to provide medical attention to the fishermen.
“That help was denied,” Elder said. “Half an hour later, the other fishermen took body bags and went down to the beach.”
One of the fishermen, Elder added, was shot in the back, while the other was shot in the neck.
“I know that because I saw that, only because we bore witness to that. These are not unique events on the Gaza Strip.”
Palestinians in Gaza ‘denied aid, protection, dignity’
James Elder, a UNICEF spokesman, says the situation in Gaza is “dire”.
“It should break our hearts that it’s been allowed to get to this point,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that as soon as he walked into the hospital in Deir el-Balah, he found a little boy named Ali who was asleep in the family home five days ago when it was struck.
“He fell three floors and landed in rubble. I met his mother who said the two other siblings have been killed. This has gone on for 250 days,” Elder said.
Now Palestinians are living in “sweltering heat… in tents crammed together in a breathless space with 40-degree heat on sand,” he said. “They’re being denied aid, protection, dignity.”
Israel’s attacks in West Bank ‘adding to the growing burden of trauma’
The World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed its concerns over the escalating health crisis in the occupied Palestinian territory, including the West Bank, where attacks on health infrastructure and increased restrictions on movement are obstructing access to health care”.
At least 547 Palestinians have been killed in a spike in violence in West Bank since October 7.
“In addition, over 5,200 people, 800 of them children, have been injured, adding to the growing burden of trauma and emergency care at already strained health facilities.” said the WHO in a statement.
“As of 28 May, WHO has documented 480 attacks on health care in the West Bank since 7 October 2023, resulting in 16 deaths and 95 injuries. The attacks affected 54 health facilities, 20 mobile clinics and 319 ambulances.
“The closure of checkpoints, arbitrary obstructions, and detentions of health workers, rising insecurity, as well as the siege and closure of entire towns and communities has made movement within the West Bank increasingly restricted, impeding access to health facilities. Extensive infrastructure and housing damage, particularly in the northern West Bank, have compounded the situation by obstructing access for ambulances and first-aid responders.”
Children in Gaza suffering from disease due to malnutrition
Clinical nutritionist Rana Zuaiter says children in Gaza are thirsty as the water is contaminated. She told Al Jazeera there is no food security or humanitarian aid in the besieged enclave. As a result, 90 percent of children suffer from diarrhoea, hepatitis and other diseases.
Zuaiter added that a lack of diet diversity and food insecurity are some factors driving this increase in malnutrition cases.
“One in three children is suffering from starvation. It’s a huge number of man-made starvation, which Israel uses as a weapon of war,” she said.
She urged the world to stop the air strikes and to allow food aid distribution within Gaza to prevent starvation.
Israeli police arrest five protesters outside Netanyahu’s residence
The Israel Broadcasting Corporation has published video footage of a demonstration in front of the family home of PM Netanyahu in Israel’s coastal Caesarea town.
The broadcaster said that the Israeli police arrested at least five people, who were protesting against Netanyahu’s policies, including on getting a deal with Hamas for the release of Israeli captives held in Gaza.
Those detained were arrested for causing “unreasonable noise”, the report added.
‘Direct targeting’: Attacks on Gaza’s schools continue to increase
More than 76 percent of schools in the Gaza Strip require “full reconstruction or major rehabilitation” to be functional in the future, according to a new assessment.
Based on satellite imagery collected in May, the new Education Cluster assessment highlights a “continuous spike in the direct targeting of schools” the latest Gaza situation update from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports.
Of the school buildings used as shelters for displaced people in Gaza, 69 percent have been directly hit or damaged in attacks, OCHA reports. And more than 96 percent of the schools directly attacked – 296 in total – were located in areas subject to Israeli military evacuation orders, OCHA adds.
Talal al-Hathal, director of the Al Fakhoora Programme at the Education Above All foundation in Qatar, said Israelis attacks have ravaged Gaza’s educational sector.
Such attacks are “shameful as we consider the global education crisis where we see that more than 250 million children are out of school globally”, al-Hathal told Al Jazeera.
Lack of water making near-famine conditions across Gaza worse
Israeli forces have destroyed nearly all the water wells in northern Gaza. The lack of water is making the near-famine conditions across Gaza worse as Palestinians struggle to access clean drinking water.
Footage shared online, and verified by Al Jazeera, shows a stampede and crowding among the displaced people at UNRWA schools trying to get drinking water on a daily basis.
“See how people suffer from lack of water and the spread of sewage, shelter and other challenges, including lack of food and aid,” one of the displaced people said.
“I came for several days trying to get water but wasn’t successful,” said an elderly woman. “We were displaced from Beit Hanoon after we lost our homes and now in Jabalia camp, we beg for water.”
One woman said that “the Israelis destroyed not only our homes but water wells too … we cannot feed our children and now we cannot find a drop of clean water”.
“This is not life. Even animals have a better life compared to us. We are butchered, if not by the Israeli bombardment, by starvation and lack of water,” she added.
In addition to wells, Israeli strikes and incursions destroyed desalination units and its troops are blocking fuel. Some Palestinians have resorted to drinking seawater.
Demonstrators arrested outside Israeli PM Netanyahu’s residence
The Israel Broadcasting Corporation has published video footage of a demonstration in front of the family home of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel’s coastal Caesarea town.
The broadcaster said that the Israeli police arrested at least five people, who were protesting against Netanyahu’s policies, including on getting a deal with Hamas for the release of Israeli captives held in Gaza.
Those detained were arrested for causing “unreasonable noise”, the report added.
WHO flags deadly attacks on Palestinian healthcare in the occupied West Bank
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of an “escalating health crisis” in the occupied West Bank amid increasing attacks on Palestinians with deadly consequences.
Between October 7 and May 28, WHO said it had documented 480 attacks on healthcare in the West Bank, including on medical facilities, mobile clinics, ambulances, and the detention of health workers and patients.
Those attacks left 16 people dead and 95 injured, WHO said.
Since Israel’s war on Gaza started on October 7, 521 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, including 126 children. The injured number more than 5,200, including 800 children, WHO added.
At the same time, checkpoint closures, lack of security, and sieges and closures of entire communities were making movement within the occupied West Bank increasingly restricted for Palestinians, and healthcare ever more difficult to access.
Clashes, detentions reported as Israeli army raids occupied West Bank communities
The Israeli military has stormed the town of Burqa, northwest of Nablus in the West Bank, igniting clashes with Palestinian armed groups in the area.
The Palestinian news agency, Wafa, also reported that two Palestinians were detained by Israeli forces following separate raids targeting the Jalazone refugee camp and the al-Masayef neighbourhood in the city of Ramallah.
Clashes also erupted during the two raids in Ramallah, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage to property.
Iraqi group claims it carried out drone raid against Israel’s Haifa
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq said it launched a drone attack against the northern Israeli port city of Haifa, according to a statement posted on the group’s Telegram channel and confirmed by Al Jazeera’s Sanad verification unit.
There were no immediate reports from Israeli authorities regarding a drone attack, or if one had been repelled.
In the statement, the group also pledged its support for Palestinians in “resisting the occupation”, adding that it is “giving permission to those who fight” against persecution.
WFP warns of 1m ‘trapped’ in southern Gaza without clean water, sanitation as fighting escalates
Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), said a “public health and protection disaster” is unfolding in southern Gaza where one million displaced people are trapped amid a “shocking” level of “destruction”.
Reporting after the completion of a two-day mission to Gaza, Skau said the challenges faced by humanitarian workers are “like nothing I have ever seen” amid escalating fighting in the south and centre of Gaza, which is taking a devastating toll on the civilian population.
“From the south to the northernmost tip of the Strip, people are traumatised and exhausted,” he said in a post on social media.
“People want a ceasefire, and they want dignity back,” Skau said in a video interview.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) has announced that the floating aid pier in Gaza has again been relocated – the third time it has been out of commission since it became operational in May.
The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) must be allowed to work unhindered in Gaza, Group of Seven (G7) leaders said as they wrapped up their annual summit in Italy.
A 14-year-old Palestinian boy has died from starvation in northern Gaza and more than 200 children are at risk of death from hunger.
Israel hits Gaza as tensions surge on Lebanon border
GAZA STRIP (AFP) - Israeli strikes hit Gaza on Friday as truce talks with Hamas militants failed to progress and tensions surged on Israel's northern border with Lebanon.
Witnesses reported the strikes in various parts of the Gaza Strip in the morning, particularly the centre.
