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Hamas has release a statement warning it could stop taking part in negotiations after the incident today which health authorities in Gaza say has killed at least 104 Palestinians who were seeking humanitarian aid amid the widespread food deprivation in the Gaza Strip.
Reuters reports in its statement Hamas said:
The negotiations conducted by the movement’s leadership are not an open process at the expense of the blood of our people.
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Key events
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The Palestinian Authority has received 407m shekels ($114m) from Israel with more funds on the way in the coming days after a deal to release frozen tax funds, the Norwegian government said on Thursday, according to Reuters.
On 18 February, Norway said it had agreed to assist in the transfer of funds earmarked for the Palestinian Authority that were collected by Israel. “This money is absolutely necessary to prevent the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, to ensure that the Palestinians receive vital services, and that teachers and health workers are paid,” Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said.
The Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-governance in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Under interim peace accords reached in the 1990s, Israel’s finance ministry collects tax on behalf of the Palestinians and makes monthly transfers to the Palestinian Authority. But a dispute broke out over payments in the after the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas.
Under the agreed solution, Norway serves as an intermediary, holding tax revenue equal to the portion that Israel estimates would have gone to Gaza, while the Palestinian Authority would receive the rest, the Nordic country has said.
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Israeli government spokesperson Avi Hyman has spoken to reporters. He said “we’re not sure of the specifics quite yet” and described Thursday’s incident during aid distribution near Gaza City, as a “tragedy”.
Hyman claimed that initial indications were that deaths were caused by delivery drivers plowing into a surging crowd: “At some point the trucks were overwhelmed and the people driving the trucks, which were Gazan civilian drivers, plowed into the crowds of people, ultimately killing, my understanding is, tens of people. It’s obviously a tragedy but we’re not sure of the specifics quite yet.”
Health authorities in Gaza say 104 people have been killed and 280 injured in the incident.
The precise details of the incident remain unclear, and it has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued.
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AP have spoken to a witness of Thursday’s incident in which health officials in Gaza say at least 104 people were killed:
Kamel Abu Nahel, who was being treated for a gunshot wound at Shifa hospital, said he and others went to the distribution point in the middle of the night because they heard there would be a delivery of food. “We’ve been eating animal feed for two months,” he said.
He said Israeli troops opened fire on the crowd, causing it to scatter, with some people hiding under nearby cars. After the shooting stopped, they went back to the trucks, and the soldiers opened fire again. He was shot in the leg and fell over, and then a truck ran over his leg as it sped off, he said.
Medics arriving at the scene on Thursday found “dozens or hundreds” lying on the ground, according to Fares Afana, the head of the ambulance service at Kamal Adwan hospital. He said there were not enough ambulances to collect all the dead and wounded and that some were being brought to hospitals in donkey carts.
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Updated at 15.15 CET
Israel says it is still reviewing access to al-Aqsa mosque during Ramadan
Israel is reviewing possible curbs on access to al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem over the upcoming Ramadan fasting month, a government spokesperson said after media reports that the far-right minister for police might be overruled on the issue.
According to Reuters, national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said last week there would be a quota for members of Israel’s 18% Muslim minority who wish to take part in peace prayers at al-Aqsa mosque. But Israel’s Channel 12 TV reported on Wednesday that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu would overrule Ben-Gvir.
Israel says it is still reviewing access to al-Aqsa mosque during Ramadan. Photograph: Léo Corrêa/AP
“The specific issue of prayer on the Temple Mount, in al-Aqsa, is currently still under discussion by the cabinet,” government spokesperson Avi Hyman said in a briefing on Thursday. He added that a final decision would take security and public health, as well as the freedom of worship, into account.
A Ben-Gvir spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters. On Wednesday, Ben-Gvir posted on X that any attempt to override his authority would amount to a “capitulation to terror”, and urged Netanyahu to deny the Channel 12 report.
ShareHamas warns it could end hostage release negotiations
Hamas has release a statement warning it could stop taking part in negotiations after the incident today which health authorities in Gaza say has killed at least 104 Palestinians who were seeking humanitarian aid amid the widespread food deprivation in the Gaza Strip.
Reuters reports in its statement Hamas said:
The negotiations conducted by the movement’s leadership are not an open process at the expense of the blood of our people.
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Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the newswires from the Gaza Strip.
Smoke rises again over Khan Younis as Israel’s military continues its ground operation in the Gaza Strip. Photograph: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/ReutersThe makeshift camps in Rafah extend right up to the border wall separating Gaza from Egypt. Photograph: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/ReutersPalestinians children provide support to their families as those who took refuge in Rafah city due to Israeli attacks struggle to meet their basic needs in makeshift tent camps. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty ImagesShare
In the wider region there have been a couple of other developments. Reuters reports, citing Iraqi security sources, that a drone strike by Turkey in northern Iraq has killed two fighters from the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS), a militia affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK).
Additionally there are reports of a strike near Homs in Syria, which local media is attributing to Israel. Israel is believed in recents months to have struck at targets inside Lebanon and Syria, but rarely publicly acknowledges strikes in Syria.
ShareEgypt and Jordan condemn what they describe as the ‘shameful crime’ and ‘brutal targeting’ of Palestinians seeking aid
Egypt and Jordan have issued separate statements condeming Israel after the incident this morning which health officials in the Gaza Strip say has killed at least 104 people.
In a statement, Jordan’s foreign ministry said:
We condemn the Israeli occupation forces’ brutal targeting of the gathering of Palestinians who were waiting for aid on the Nabulsi roundabout near Al-Rashid street in Gaza.
Egypt issued a statement which said “We consider targeting peaceful citizens rushing to pick up their share of aid a shameful crime and a flagrant violation of international law” after saying the country condemned the “inhumane Israeli targeting” of what it described as “unarmed Palestinian civilians in the Nabulsi roundabout in the northern Gaza.”
The IDF says it has the incident under review and has claimed that “dozens of Gazans were injured as a result of pushing and trampling”.
In a statement on its official Telegram channel, Israel’s military has also said “The IDF will continue to assist in the transfer and coordination of humanitarian aid.”
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Updated at 14.59 CET
Israel’s military has published a video of what it claims is a mob looting aid trucks in Gaza in the buildup to the incident which health officials in Gaza says has killed at least 104 people.
Itay Blumental, who is a military correspondent at Israel public broadcasting corporation, has posted this interpretation of the IDF’s claim about what has happened. He wrote:
About 30 trucks with humanitarian aid entered [under] the operation of international agencies and the Israel Defense Forces after checking from Rafah and Kerem Shalom to the north of the Gaza Strip on the coastal axis. The final destination: humanitarian shelters in Gaza City and the Rimal neighbourhood.
Toward 4am thousands of Gazans arrived from the coastline and attacked the trucks – dozens were killed and hundreds were injured from trampling, crowding and overcrowding when crowds boarded the trucks and took everything that came near
In a report received by the security bodies, fire was opened from humanitarian shelters in the north of the Gaza Strip on some of the trucks that started moving north. Later these trucks were also looted.
Early in the morning, after the chaos with the trucks, hundreds of Gazans approached the IDF force and a tank … whose mission was to secure one stage of the logistics operation. According to army officials, when the crowd approached the force, they first fired into the air, and when the mob did not stop, it was fired at him live shooting. There are a few casualties in this incident.
The exact sequence of events remains unclear, and is likely to be highly disputed. The office of the president of the Palestinian Authority has blamed Israeli forces for what it described as an “ugly massacre”. The IDF has said “the incident is under review.”
Due to forced relocation and the lack of access to aid, agencies have warned that much of the population in Gaza is suffering from food deprivation, with one in six children under the age of two found to be malnourished during screening in January, and reports yesterday that one in five pregnant women seen in a Gaza clinic are also malnourished.
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Updated at 15.16 CET
Palestinian president condemns what he describes as ‘ugly massacre’ of people waiting for aid
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s office said he condemned what it described as “the ugly massacre conducted by the Israeli occupation army this morning”. Health authorities in Gaza say 104 people have been killed and 280 wounded in the incident.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa reports the presidency said:
The killing of this large number of innocent civilian victims who risked their livelihood is considered an integral part of the genocidal war committed by the occupation government against our people. Israeli and the Israeli occupation authorities bear full responsibility and will be held accountable for it before international courts.
The International Court of Justice in The Hague has been hearing two cases that involve Israel. One is a South African-led case accusing Israel of breaching the genocide convention with its actions in Gaza, and the other is a UN general assembly request for an advisory opinion of the legality of Israel’s policies in occupied Palestinian territory. Israel denies all the charges.
Reuters quotes Abbas’ office saying he “condemned the ugly massacre conducted by the Israeli occupation army this morning against the people who waited for the aid trucks at the Nabulsi roundabout”.
The precise details of the incident remain unclear, and it has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued.
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Updated at 15.20 CET
Israeli troops opened fire at ‘several people’ in Gaza crowd – Israeli source tells Reuters
Reuters have just reported on a statement from the Israeli military on the attacks in Gaza City on Thursday.
An Israeli source said Israeli troops opened fire on Thursday at “several people” among a crowd that surrounded aid trucks in the Gaza Strip after feeling under threat.
Gaza health authorities had said more than 70 people waiting for aid were killed by Israeli fire, but a Gaza health ministry spokesperson said the death toll has now risen to 104 people.
In a statement, the Israeli military said dozens of people were injured in pushing and trampling that occurred as they tried to take aid from the trucks. It said the incident was under review.
ShareIsrael appropriates 650 acres of West Bank land near big settlement
Israel appropriated on Thursday several tracts of land near a major Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, but a source briefed on the decision told Reuters that there was no plan for construction there.
An announcement by the Civil Administration, part of Israel’s defence ministry, said the tracts amounted to 2,640 dunams, or 652 acres. The Israeli source told Reuters that the tracts of land would now be designated part of Maale Adumim settlement, east of Jerusalem.
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