GAZA: At least 798 people have been killed in Gaza since late May while attempting to receive food aid, the United Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said.
“Up until the seventh of July, we’ve recorded now 798 killings, including 615 in the vicinity of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, and 183 presumably on the route of aid convoys,” OHCHR spokesper-son Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, at least eight Palestinians were killed on Friday in an Israeli air strike on a school sheltering displaced families in northern Gaza, said local medical sources.
The strike targeted the school in an area where many civilians had sought refuge from ongoing military operations, according to Al Jazeera Arabic. The report, citing a source at Al-Shifa Hospital, added that several others were wounded in the attack.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has described Gaza as a “graveyard of children and starving people,” highlighting the dire humanitarian situation.
In a post on social media platform X, UNRWA said, “No way out. Their choice is between two deaths: starvation or being shot at.”
The agency condemned what it called a “cruel and Machiavellian scheme” killing Palestinians and warned that “our norms and values are being buried.”
UNRWA urged urgent action, stating, “Inaction will bring more chaos. Time to act is overdue.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has, for the first time, publicly stated that Israel is seeking an end to the war in Gaza — but only under conditions set by Israel, Al Jazeera reported.
Speaking in Washington, Netanyahu said Israel is prepared to enter a 60-day temporary ceasefire and begin negotiations for a permanent resolution. However, he listed three “minimal requirements” for any lasting end to the conflict.
These include a complete disarmament of Hamas, the group’s full military and political dismantlement, and its removal from any future role in Gaza.
Netanyahu warned that if Israel’s demands are not met during the ceasefire period, military opera-tions would resume. “One way or another, Israel is going to achieve its objectives,” he said.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Wednesday it was forced to evacuate one of its clinics in west-ern Khan Younis and suspend operations at another, as Israeli forces advanced into the densely popu-lated area of southern Gaza.
In a statement posted on X, the medical charity said tanks came within 100 metres of the al-Attar clinic, and the surrounding area was hit by gunfire, drones, and airstrikes, forcing staff and patients to flee. “The quadcopter and military vehicles near the clinic were firing. Several bullets penetrated the facility. Then we heard multiple explosions around the clinic, and shrapnel hit the building,” said Rami Abu An-za, MSF’s nursing team supervisor.
The advance pushed thousands of displaced people into a shrinking coastal area, MSF added, describ-ing conditions as increasingly perilous.
MSF also reported that its al-Mawasi clinic was struggling to function. It received two critically injured boys who had been shot near the GHF aid distribution point in Rafah. Staff were unable to transfer them to nearby hospitals due to ongoing hostilities and overcrowding at medical facilities.
Separately, Israeli Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Eyal Zamir visited the site of an attack in the Israeli settlement of Gush Etzion on Thursday night and vowed to escalate counterterrorism opera-tions in the occupied West Bank. –Agencies
