Israeli navy ships fired towards crowds of aid seekers in Gaza: Report
Israeli daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth is reporting that Israeli navy ships were used to shoot “deterrent fire” towards crowds of Palestinian aid seekers near GHF distribution sites in early June.
According to the report, the Israeli military confirmed that the ships were used on several occasions for deterrence purposes, saying that those incidents occurred outside of the operating hours of the sites.
The Gaza Health Ministry said on Saturday that more than 700 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 5,000 injured near GHF distribution sites in Gaza while seeking aid.
Cheap, Chinese drones have become crucial Israeli killing machine: Report
Commercial photography drones costing as little as $3,000 have become a key tool for the Israeli military to depopulate swathes of Gaza, according to a new investigation by +972 Magazine and Local Call.
The report found that the “majority of Israeli military companies” in Gaza now use the drones, which have been retrofitted with military attachments known as “iron balls” that allow soldiers to drop a grenade with the press of a button.
The drones are deployed routinely to force people to leave or prevent them from returning to an evacuated area, with testimony from soldiers suggesting that innocent civilians are routinely targeted.
“It was clear that they were trying to return to their homes — there’s no question,” one soldier explained, adding that their bodies were left to be eaten by dogs. “None of them were armed, and nothing was ever found near their bodies. We never fired warning shots. Not at any point.”
“Two sources used variations of the phrase ‘learning through blood’ to describe the army’s expectation that Palestinians will come to understand these arbitrary boundaries after civilians are killed upon entering the area,” the report said.
Palestinian journalist killed when Israeli drone strike targets his home
The Government Media Office in the Gaza Strip says Palestinian journalist Ahmed Salama Abu has been killed, bringing the number of journalists killed since the beginning of the war to 229.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza is the deadliest conflict for journalists in modern history. Palestinian news agency Shehab reported that the journalist was killed in an Israeli drone strike that hit the door of his home west of Nuseirat in central Gaza.
UN warns Gaza services will shut down unless fuel allowed in
Stephane Dujarric, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s spokesman, has told reporters that the UN brought 75,000 litres of fuel into the Gaza Strip yesterday in the first such delivery in 130 days.
But Dujarric said the UN and its humanitarian partners need hundreds of thousands of litres of fuel each day “to keep essential, life-saving and life-sustaining operations going”.
That means “the amount entered yesterday isn’t sufficient to cover even one day of energy requirement. Fuel is still running out and services will shut down if greater volumes do not enter the Gaza Strip immediately”, Dujarric said.
“One partner, for instance, reported to us this week that, in a matter of days, fuel shortages could cut off supplies to clean drinking water to about 44,000 children that depend on that water source”, he said.
Israel has maintained a strict blockade on the Gaza Strip, blocking deliveries of sufficient fuel, food, water and other critical supplies.
Palestinian newborns share an incubator at Al Helou Hospital in Gaza City due to fuel shortages, on July 10
Gaza water crisis at ‘breaking point’, aid group warns
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) says the water system in the Palestinian enclave has broken down amid Israel’s continued bombardment and blockade on fuel, with most people receiving “far below” the amount needed per day.
“There is simply not enough clean water to meet the needs of the population in Gaza. The people we meet have no food, and now no water,” the IRC’s Scott Lea, who recently visited the Strip, said in a statement.
The humanitarian organisation said Palestinians in Gaza not only lack clean water to drink, but they are forced to use unsafe supplies for cooking, cleaning and bathing, which increases their risk of diseases.
“Fuel is not just a logistics issue – it’s a lifeline,” Lea said. “Without it, water cannot be supplied, sewage cannot be managed, and families are left in increasingly dangerous conditions, unable to meet their basic needs.”
