Khan Younis Archives - Page 3 of 14

Starvation in The Gaza Genocide

CrossFireArabia
July 20, 2025

Gaza is starving. There has never been like it in this Israeli-induced and enforced genocide that has now been going on for about 19 months and counting.

People are literally falling in the streets and in front of the television cameras because of the biting hunger that doesn’t seem to end at the hands of a merciless Israeli enemy.

Of the people who manage to get to the dilapidated and destroyed hospitals they are dropping off on the doors of these institutions with many losing consciousness and even shrieking the last breath of death. And people die while the people in the world looks on with lavish feasts.

UNRWA says Israeli is systematically and willfully starving the Palestinian population into submission; they want them either dead or expel from their ancestral homes in the Gaza Strip. The UN refugee organization says that up to 1 million children are threatened with death through starvation. These figures are given as they are the most natural thing in the world.

This is one of the worst periods of the genocide as Arab and Israeli makers meet in Doha and elsewhere try to end this nightmare but to no avail as politics over-rides common sense and decency.

Dr Mohammad Abu Salmiyah, director of the Al Shifa Hospital says that neither patients nor medical staff nor ancillary personnel in the whole of the Gaza hospitals, which number 36 in total, have had anything to eat in the last 24 hours.

Al Jazeera correspondent Anis Alsharif says neither him nor the other anchors have had a bite to eat since Saturday afternoon because there isn’t any. People around here walk aimless until their last breath of death. Yet people, except for the frail seems to go on, as if their is an ordained hand telling, forcing them to go on.

The Israelis have refused to let anything into Gaza since last March when they realized that there was a possibility that Palestinians would flourish again; and this is after they threw on them around 100,000 tons of bombs, facilitated by their American benefactors – a situation that begun soon after, 7 October, 2023.

There is simply no food into the strip thanks to Israel. Even animal fodder, which Gazans had been reduced to eating in order to survive in the first period of starvation in 2024 and early 2025, has run out. Then fodder like wheat and barely was eaten to survive, but this appears to be the end game.

In this brave new world of starvation and famine, food has become a scarce, nay, non-existent commodity because of Israeli policies to beat the Palestinians with but they will not win despite the evil intentions.

UNRWA continues to appeal to the international community to force Israel to lift its tight and claustrophobic siege on Gaza and let the aid, food and medicine into the strip. Meanwhile, it says it has its cargoes lying in the Sinai Peninsula waiting to be delivered to the starving people of Gaza. It says in its storehouses, it has three months of supplies but it’s waiting for the might of Israel to upon up the borders.

Meanwhile people are continuing to die starting from Rafah, in Khan Younis in the center of the Strip to the far-northern areas in Jabalia, Biet Lahia and Biet Hanoon where fighting is still going on between Palestinian resistance fighters and the Israeli army.

In comes the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation which has since last May tried to provide food parcels at distribution centers run by US and Israeli personnel and which is today turning into a “free-shooting killing field” of starving Palestinian that has young been denounced by the United Nations as “weaponizing food” with very sinister connotations that include depopulating Gaza of its original inhabitants.

Seeing is believing. Palestinians, and on a daily basis, and under the eyes of the world are shot fatally on a daily basis. Take Sunday for example, the number of those that have killed is already in the 60s. As they run to get their food parcels they are shot by Israeli soldiers guarding the distribution centers. They are shot with no compunctions but with a sense of hellish deliverance.

And it is the social media who are narrating, nay “dancing” on the graves of the Palestinians. This war is probably the most documented set of atrocities, but people, the international community, gaze on with a sense of helpless, frustration and complicity. Professor Amos Goldberg, who teaches Holocaust Studies at the Hebrew University, doesn’t mince words. He says this is a “disgusting genocide”.

News

Tom Fletcher: No ‘Vocabulary’ to Describe The Destruction

CrossFireArabia
July 17, 2025

Conditions in Gaza have reached an unspeakable level of devastation with children paying the highest price, top UN officials told the Security Council on Wednesday, warning of soaring child deaths, starvation and a shattered health system amid continuing bombardment and displacement.

Tom Fletcher, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, said there was no “vocabulary” left to adequately describe conditions on the ground.

“Food is running out. Those seeking it risk being shot. People are dying trying to feed their families. Field hospitals receive dead bodies, and medical workers hear stories firsthand from the injured – day after day after day,” he said.

Starvation rates among children reached their highest levels in June, with more than 5,800 girls and boys diagnosed as acutely malnourished.

“Last week, amid this hunger crisis, children and women were killed in a strike while waiting for the food supplements to keep them alive.”

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher briefs the Security Council

A classroom full of children, lost every day

UNICEF’s Executive Director Catherine Russell told ambassadors that an average of 28 children are killed in Gaza every day – “the equivalent of an entire classroom.”

Over the past 21 months, more than 17,000 children have been killed and 33,000 injured across Gaza.

Many of those children, she said, were struck “as they line up for lifesaving humanitarian aid – further proof that there is no safe place for civilians anywhere in Gaza.”

“Children are not political actors. They do not start conflicts, and they are powerless to stop them. But they suffer greatly, and they wonder why the world has failed them,” she added.

“And make no mistake, we have failed them.”

Critical infrastructure collapse

Gaza’s health system “is shattered,” Mr. Fletcher reported – only 17 of 36 hospitals and 63 of 170 primary health centres are even partially functioning; shortages mean up to five babies share one incubator.

Seventy per cent of essential medicines are out of stock, half of all medical equipment is damaged, pregnant women are giving birth without care, women and girls manage their periods without basic supplies.

Meanwhile, water production capacity has plummeted leaving the entire enclave (95 per cent) facing water insecurity.

“With clean water increasingly difficult to access, children have little choice but to drink contaminated water,” Ms. Russell said, noting that this is increasing the risk of disease outbreaks.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell briefs the Security Council

Aid impeded, fuel at trickle levels

Mr. Fletcher further described the scale of challenges to moving something as simple as a bag of flour into Gaza.

He noted multiple layers of approvals that Israel requires, scanning, re‑loading, multiple handoffs, damaged roads, delays at holding points, insecurity and desperate civilians grabbing supplies off trucks.

Last week – after almost 130 days – some fuel entered Gaza, as Israeli authorities agreed to allow two trucks in per day, five days a week. However, petrol – fuel for ambulances and other critical services – has not been permitted.

Between 19 May and 14 July, just 1,633 aid trucks – about 62 per cent of loads submitted for clearance – entered Gaza, far below the average of 630 daily truckloads moved during the previous ceasefire, Mr. Fletcher said.

Appeals to Israel, Hamas – and the Council

Both officials pressed for immediate, safe, sustained, demilitarised humanitarian access through all available crossings, consistent fuel flows, protection of civilians at distribution points, and restoration of the UN‑led aid pipeline that briefly functioned during earlier pauses in fighting.

They also reiterated the UN’s call for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held in Gaza and called on all parties – including Hamas and other armed groups – to respect international humanitarian law.

Mr. Fletcher asked the Security Council to assess whether Israel, as the occupying power, is meeting its obligations to ensure food and medical supplies reach civilians.

“We hold all parties to the standards of international law in this conflict. We don’t have to choose – and in fact, we must not choose – between demanding the end to the starvation of civilians in Gaza and demanding the unconditional release of all the hostages,” he said.

“We must reject antisemitism – we must fight it with every fibre of our DNA. But we must also hold Israel to the same principles and laws as all other States.”

UN News

News

‘No More Spaces to Bury Our Dead’ – Gaza

CrossFireArabia
July 3, 2025

Graves are running out in Gaza. The Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs in Gaza announced, Wednesday evening, that graves have run out in most areas of the Strip. It added this is amidst the escalating genocide carried out by Israel over the past 22 months and the rising number of people that are being killed.

The systematic targeting of civilians and the ongoing genocide is resulting in the depletion of graves in most areas of the Gaza Strip, the Ministry stated, explaining that the Israeli army completely or partially destroyed more than 40 grave sites across the Strip since October 2023.

The ministry stated the Israeli army prevents Palestinians from “accessing cemeteries located within its security and military control, which has led to a reduction in burial spaces, the depletion of existing cemeteries, and the exacerbation of the severe shortage of graves for burying martyrs and the dead.”

It explained that this comes at a time when the Israeli army is preventing “the entry of shrouds, building materials, and materials necessary for preparing graves, which prevents the burial of martyrs in accordance with Sharia regulations.”

In addition, Israeli evacuation orders have reduced the available land for burials, transforming it into a shelter for displaced Palestinians, according to the statement.

Consequently, the statement noted the accumulation of bodies of “martyrs” in hospitals and their courtyards, while schoolyards and homes have been converted into emergency burial sites.

It noted that with the worsening grave availability crisis in Gaza, the cost of preparing a single grave has increased from 700-1,000 shekels (one dollar equals 3.37 shekels), “burdening the families of the martyrs.”

The ministry is appealing to Arab and Islamic countries and entrepreneurs to support the “Ikram Campaign” it recently announced, to build free graves to honor the martyrs.

It also called on local and international relief organizations and entrepreneurs “to urgently intervene to provide relief to the families of the martyrs, work to build free graves, and provide urgent burial supplies, including shrouds, building materials, and burial equipment.”

Almost daily, activists circulate images on social media of the dead piling up in hospital courtyards as the death toll rises due to the escalating genocide.

Palestinians complain about the lack of graves to bury their “martyred” relatives, while some resort to opening old graves to bury additional bodies inside.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has waged a genocidal war in Gaza, including killing, starvation, destruction, and forced displacement, ignoring all international calls and orders from the International Court of Justice to halt it.

The genocide, with American support, has left approximately 191,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing, in addition to hundreds of thousands displaced and a famine that has claimed the lives of many, including children as reported by Anadolu.

News

Gaza Relief: Bread Soaked in Blood

CrossFireArabia
June 18, 2025

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is directly responsible for the escalating Israeli crimes against starved Palestinian civilians near aid distribution points in central and southern Gaza

The foundation’s operational model involves luring civilians to specific locations coordinated with the Israeli army, where they are subjected to killing, injury, and cruel and degrading treatment. These points have effectively become death traps used as tools in Israel’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinian population for over 20 months.

On Tuesday morning, at least 80 Palestinians were killed and 200 others injured by Israeli fire near a US-backed aid distribution point in eastern Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, as they approached the site to collect aid.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor calls for an independent international investigation into the foundation’s role and for its officials to be held criminally accountable for the crimes they facilitated—whether through planning, enabling, or remaining silent.

Euro-Med Monitor further urges donors to immediately halt all financial or logistical support to the foundation and to blacklist it among entities complicit in grave violations of international law.

The foundation’s continued operation of these sites—despite documentation of over 380 deaths in just three weeks—cannot be seen as incidental or isolated incidents. Rather, it constitutes direct involvement in the crime of starvation and the systematic targeting of civilians, a flagrant violation of humanitarian neutrality, and a clear contribution to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and complicity in genocide.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said in a press statement that Israel has killed around 385 Palestinians and injured over 3,000 others since it imposed its aid distribution mechanism in the Gaza Strip on 27 May until 16 June. The Monitor explained that the mechanism relies on luring thousands of starving civilians each day to two main distribution centres—one near the “Netzarim corridor” in central Gaza and the other in Rafah, southern Gaza. Civilians are forced to walk long, exposed routes stretching for several kilometres, only to come under direct fire from military vehicles, drones, helicopters, and artillery shells. Large numbers are killed or wounded, while only the lucky few who survive the deadly journey reach the distribution points to receive a meagre amount of food that fails to meet even the minimum survival needs.

The Israeli army usually ignores the crimes it commits against starved civilians near aid distribution points. In the rare instances when it issues statements, it offers vague and generic narratives, often citing the presence of “suspects” near the forces—claims that are never substantiated with credible evidence. On the contrary, field data indicates that the victims are civilians, including women, children, and the elderly.

The investigations the Israeli army claims to open are even rarer than its public statements. These investigations are often superficial, left incomplete, their findings withheld, or they result in no real accountability. This reflects a systematic policy aimed at concealing evidence and ensuring impunity for perpetrators—a policy that spans decades of documented Israeli violations that have faced no serious accountability, including those committed as part of the ongoing crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip.

Euro-Med Monitor holds the international community responsible for allowing the continuation and escalation of systematic crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces against starved civilians near the so-called aid distribution centres in central and southern Gaza. The failure of influential states to take deterrent measures—and their inability to exert any meaningful pressure to stop Israel’s crimes, including the continued operation of its inhumane aid distribution mechanism—has effectively provided political and practical cover for Israel to persist in using these centres as sites of mass killing and for carrying out practices that violate Palestinians’ most basic rights and demean their human dignity.

Israel, which is using starvation as a central tool in committing the crime of genocide, cannot under any circumstances be considered a legitimate party in any humanitarian operation

Relevant states and UN bodies have effectively abandoned their legal and moral obligations to protect civilians and prevent the worsening of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. They have refrained from taking firm measures—not only to hold Israel accountable for killing starved civilians but even to protect the UN-led aid delivery mechanism, which Israel has deliberately undermined through siege and armed force, in blatant and dangerous defiance of the international system and the principles it was founded upon.

International reactions have often been limited to ineffective verbal condemnations, falling far short of any meaningful action. This has enabled Israel to continue committing its crimes without real cost, leaving civilians to face death—either from starvation or from gunfire—as they follow the same path drawn by the occupying power under the guise of “humanitarian aid.”

Continuing to allow Israel to carry out such serious crimes against Palestinians in Gaza—killing and injuring hundreds daily as they attempt to access limited food aid—entails international legal responsibility for states with the capacity to influence events, particularly those that continue to provide political or military support to Israel.

The failure to take effective measures—such as imposing sanctions or exerting genuine pressure to halt these crimes—constitutes, under international law, direct contribution to the crime or responsibility for failing to prevent it despite having the proven ability to do so. This establishes legal liability for those states as parties that have, through action or inaction, contributed to the continuation of the crime.

Since Israel imposed its own mechanism for the distribution of humanitarian aid, Euro-Med Monitor has documented the involvement of Israeli occupation forces—alongside local gangs operating in coordination with them and personnel from the American security company managing the distribution sites—in the killing of Palestinian civilians as they approached the centres, despite posing no real threat to Israeli forces or security personnel.

Even in cases where an alleged threat exists, international law does not justify the use of lethal force. Security forces are bound by international legal standards to adhere to the principle of proportionality and gradual escalation in the use of force, and are only permitted to resort to deadly force as a last resort—and only in situations where there is an imminent and real threat to life. Such conditions were absent in the documented cases, making these killings a grave and explicit violation of international law.

The deliberate targeting of Palestinian civilians—through killings and injuries as they attempt to access food—combined with the use of starvation as a weapon, constitutes a blatant violation of international humanitarian law and international criminal law. These are war crimes under the Rome Statute, including wilful killing, targeting civilians, and using starvation as a method of warfare—all of which are categorically prohibited during armed conflicts.

The pattern of these violations—characterised by their widespread and systematic nature against the civilian population—meets the legal threshold for crimes against humanity, particularly the crimes of murder, persecution, and inhumane acts causing severe suffering or serious injury to mental or physical health, when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population.

Placing these crimes within their broader context—including the systematic destruction of means of survival, obstruction of humanitarian aid, and the imposition of deadly living conditions on civilians, alongside public statements made by various Israeli political and military officials—reveals a clear and declared intent to destroy the Palestinian population in Gaza. This amounts, under Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to the crime of genocide—specifically through the deliberate killing of members of the group and the imposition of living conditions intended to bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part.

As the occupying power, Israel bears a legal obligation under international humanitarian law to ensure the entry of humanitarian aid and the fulfilment of the basic needs of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip. However, this duty in no way entitles Israel to manage or control the distribution of aid.

Aid distribution must remain exclusively in the hands of neutral and specialised humanitarian actors, and that any military or political interference by Israel in this domain constitutes a serious breach of international law and a deviation from the humanitarian purpose of relief work.

Israel, which is using starvation as a central tool in committing the crime of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza with the aim of destroying them as a national group, cannot under any circumstances be considered a legitimate party in any humanitarian operation. Involving Israel in organising or overseeing aid delivery only serves to turn the aid itself into a means of annihilating the population and imposing coercive options on survivors—paving the way for their forced displacement as part of a colonial project aimed at erasing their presence and forcibly annexing their land.

The refusal of UN agencies and independent humanitarian organisations to cooperate with the Israeli mechanism—due to its lack of even the most basic humanitarian standards—should serve as a clear warning and an urgent call for the international community, especially influential states, to intensify political and diplomatic pressure on Israel. This should guarantee the immediate and unconditional flow of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, end the use of any mechanisms employed as tools of genocide, and take swift action to end the ongoing crime against Gaza’s population since October 2023.

Euro-Med Monitor calls for comprehensive and independent international investigations into the role of the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in facilitating and executing serious crimes committed against Palestinian civilians. These investigations should address the individual responsibility of the organisation’s founders, directors, logistics coordinators, team leaders, and any other staff members—whether through planning, facilitating, directly contributing, or knowingly failing to prevent the commission of crimes.

We urge all states with territorial or universal jurisdiction to open immediate criminal investigations against all individuals affiliated with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and its contracted private security firms, in order to hold them accountable for their role in crimes committed against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, particularly including wilful killings, starvation, and cruel or degrading treatment.

We further call for the initiation of civil lawsuits before national courts to demand compensation from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and all implicated entities and individuals for the severe harm caused to victims and their families, including deaths, physical and psychological injuries, and the forced deprivation of the rights to life, food, and dignity. Both criminal and civil accountability is essential to ensuring justice for the victims, ending impunity, and preventing the recurrence of such crimes under the guise of humanitarian work.

States and relevant entities must exert all possible pressure on Israel to force it to cease killing starving civilians, immediately end the operation of its inhumane aid distribution mechanism, and push for the urgent restoration of humanitarian access and the lifting of Israel’s unlawful blockade on the Gaza Strip. This is the only viable path to halting the rapid humanitarian collapse and ensuring the unimpeded entry of aid and goods. Safe humanitarian corridors must be established under UN supervision to guarantee the delivery of food, medicine, and fuel to all areas of Gaza, alongside the deployment of independent international observers to monitor compliance.

Euro-Med Monitor also calls on all states, individually and collectively, to uphold their legal obligations and take urgent action to stop the ongoing genocide in Gaza in all its forms. It calls for all necessary measures to be taken to protect Palestinian civilians, ensure Israel’s compliance with international law and the rulings of the International Court of Justice, and guarantee accountability for crimes committed against Palestinians. It also urged the enforcement of arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court against Israel’s Prime Minister and former Defence Minister at the earliest opportunity, without prejudice to the principle that no immunity applies to international crimes.

Finally, Euro-Med Monitor urges the international community to impose economic, diplomatic, and military sanctions on Israel in response to its systematic and grave violations of international law. This includes a comprehensive ban on the export or import of weapons, spare parts, software, or dual-use items; the suspension of all political, financial, military, intelligence, and security cooperation with Israel; the freezing of assets belonging to political and military officials involved in crimes against Palestinians; travel bans against those officials; the suspension of Israeli military and security companies from international markets and the freezing of their assets in international banks; and the suspension of trade privileges, customs benefits, and bilateral agreements that grant Israel economic advantages enabling it to continue committing crimes against the Palestinian people.

News

Israel Kills 32 Palestinians in Gaza

CrossFireArabia
June 18, 2025

The Israeli army killed at least 32 Palestinians and wounded dozens more in airstrikes and gunfire across Gaza on Wednesday, according to medical sources and witnesses.

Among the dead were 11 Palestinians who had gathered near the Netzarim corridor in southern Gaza City awaiting humanitarian aid, where Israeli forces opened fire, wounding others, some critically.

The Israeli military allows only a limited number of aid trucks into Gaza, prompting large crowds of desperate civilians to gather.

According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, these gatherings have increasingly become targets of Israeli attacks or thefts by armed gangs supported by Israel to sow chaos.

Elsewhere in Gaza City, an Israeli airstrike on a home in the al-Zaytoun neighborhood killed three people, including a child, and wounded several others.

In central Gaza, a strike on a house in the Maghazi refugee camp killed 10 Palestinians and injured others.

Separately, in the southern city of Khan Younis, Israeli forces struck two tents sheltering displaced families in the al-Mawasi area, killing eight civilians, including children.

Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing nearly 55,400 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.