Israel reportedly delivers medical aid to Syria’s Sweida as ceasefire appears to stick – The Times of Israel
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
Washington Post retracts Gaza aid report, says it failed to meet ‘fairness standards’
The Washington Post on Tuesday filed a correction to a recent article claiming the IDF killed over 30 people near an aid site in Gaza. The article, published Sunday and viewed over two million times before the correction, was changed because the Washington Post claimed it “didn’t meet Post fairness standards” The Washington Post admitted it didn’t give proper weight to Israel’s denial of involvement in the shooting. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has also denied claims of casualties and injuries at the aid distribution sites. “All aid was distributed today without incident. No injuries or fatalities,” the GHF said.
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways
The Washington Post admitted it didn’t give proper weight to Israel’s denial of involvement in the shooting, which the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has also denied.
The Washington Post on Tuesday filed a correction to a recent article claiming the IDF killed over 30 people near an aid site in Gaza, naming the source as “health officials.”
The article, published Sunday and viewed over two million times before the correction, was changed because the Washington Post claimed it “didn’t meet Post fairness standards.”
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According to a social media post on X/Twitter, the article “failed to make clear if attributing the deaths to Israel was the position of the Gaza health ministry or a fact verified by The Post.”
Although the original article included statements from Israel, including an initial inquiry indicating IDF soldiers did not fire at civilians at the aid centers, the newspaper admitted it didn’t “give proper weight to Israel’s denial and gave improper certitude about what was known about any Israeli role in the shootings.”
The GHF has proved the IDF did not fire at civilians at aid centers
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution center in Rafah denied on Sunday claims that the IDF attacked a food distribution point near Rafah, contradicting widely circulated Hamas reports.
GAZA RESIDENTS carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, near the Netzarim Corridor, yesterday. (photo credit: Ramadan Abed/Reuters)
Security camera footage from Sunday’s aid distribution site shows calm civilian activity, with no incidents reported. Aid was delivered without disruption, and the available evidence does not support claims of injuries or fatalities. While some media outlets have reported these allegations, others have contacted the organization to verify the facts, the GHF stated.
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Following the incident, the GHF denied claims of casualties and injuries at the aid distribution sites. “All aid was distributed today without incident. No injuries or fatalities. We have heard that these fake reports have been actively fomented by Hamas. They are untrue and fabricated,” GHF noted.
Reuters contributed to this report.
GHF opens third Gaza aid center, hands out up to 1.8 million meals
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) on Thursday opened its third food distribution center, located in central Gaza. Two other food centers previously opened near Rafah in deep southern Gaza, and one more is still due to open in Khan Yunis in mid-southern Gaza. The authority said that eight trucks of aid were distributed from the central Gaza site, totaling 7,680 boxes that provide 443,520 meals. The total number of meals distributed to date to date is 1,838,182 via roughly 17,280 boxes.
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways
The authority said that eight trucks of aid were distributed from the central Gaza site, totaling 7,680 boxes that provide 443,520 meals.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) on Thursday opened its third food distribution center, located in central Gaza.
Two other food centers previously opened near Rafah in deep southern Gaza, and one more is still due to open in Khan Yunis in mid-southern Gaza.
Approximately 997,920 meals were distributed on Thursday, according to GHF, bringing the total number of meals distributed to date to approximately 1,838,182 via roughly 17,280 boxes.
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The authority said that eight trucks of aid were distributed from the central Gaza site, totaling 7,680 boxes that provide 443,520 meals.
Next, the first food site in Rafah distributed food from six trucks, totaling 5,760 boxes that provide 332,640 meals.
A leaflet of Rahma Worldwide is seen on a box of aid as Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said it has commenced operations to begin distribution of aid, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 26, 2025. (photo credit: Gaza Humanitarian Foundation/Handout via REUTERS)
Finally, the other Rafah food site continued operations, distributing four trucks of food totaling 3,840 boxes that provide 221,760 meals.
Plans to establish more sites
In addition, GHF stated that besides existing food sites in southern and central Gaza, which were the original plan, the authority plans to expand to establish more sites in northern Gaza in the coming weeks.
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“Operations will continue scaling, with plans to build additional sites across Gaza, including in the northern region, in the weeks ahead,” said GHF.
Originally, Israel said it would limit GHF operations, and would not include northern Gaza at all, or only at a much later stage.
It was unclear what caused the change in policy, though it seems that many of the one million Palestinians in northern Gaza have not left, despite original IDF plans to get most of them to go to southern Gaza.
What we know about claims China ‘broke through’ Israeli blockade to deliver aid to Gaza Strip
In May 2025, following weeks of Israeli forces turning humanitarian aid away from the Gaza Strip, claims circulated that China had broken through the blockade to drop humanitarian aid over Gaza. The claims circulated on X (archived), Facebook, Threads, Bluesky and TikTok. Snopes reached out to the Palestinian Ministry of Health (an agency in the Hamas-controlled government of Palestine), the Palestine Red Crescent Society, the World Health Organization, the Israeli Ministry of Defense and the Chinese embassy in the U.S. to ask whether any of these officials could confirm reports of a Chinese airdrop between May 10 and May 19, 2025. Chinese media last reported on aid deliveries to Gaza in February 2025. The latest confirmed reports of China delivering aid to Gaza were from February 25, 2025, according to Xinhua News Agency. The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said no “aid or commercial supplies” entered Gaza from March 2 to May 19,. 2025, including via the blockade, due to the blockade.
One TikTok video posted on May 16, 2025, which had 1.7 million likes at the time of this writing, carried the text “Chinese aircraft break through Israel’s blockade.” The video claimed to show a Chinese plane dropping aid over Gaza and locals celebrating.
The claims circulated on X (archived), Facebook (archived), Threads (archived), Bluesky (archived) and TikTok (archived). Snopes readers emailed in as early as May 10, when the claim also appeared on X, to ask whether it was true.
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However, it remained unclear whether Chinese authorities had dropped aid on Gaza in May 2025 before Israeli authorities lifted their border blockade. According to a spokesperson for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, no “aid or commercial supplies” entered Gaza from March 2 to May 19, 2025, including via airdrop, due to the blockade.
Videos claiming to show the drop used clips that circulated years before May 2025. Chinese media last reported on aid deliveries to Gaza in February 2025.
We reached out to the Palestinian Ministry of Health (an agency in the Hamas-controlled government of Palestine), the Palestine Red Crescent Society, the World Health Organization, the Israeli Ministry of Defense and the Chinese embassy in the U.S. to ask whether any of these officials could confirm reports of a Chinese airdrop between May 10 and May 19, 2025. A PRCS spokesperson said the group could not comment and the Chinese embassy referred us to the China International Development Cooperation Agency. We await replies to our queries.
Videos promoting claim used old clips
Popular examples of the claim featured a compilation of clips purporting to show the Chinese airdrops. However, these clips were either old or unlikely to depict a Chinese operation.
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For example, the TikTok video above used two old clips. One, showing aid boxes parachuting to the ground (time code 0:10), circulated on X (archived) and Facebook (archived) around April 9, 2024. U.S. Central Command, which is part of the Department of Defense, said it carried out an airdrop of humanitarian aid into northern Gaza on this date. Snopes did not independently confirm whether the clip depicted this specific drop. Regardless, the clip circulated well before May 2025, when the video claimed China carried out an airdrop into Gaza.
Another clip in that video showed children holding a sign with a Chinese flag (0:14). This sign read, in part, “2023-11-26” and “Yiwu China,” indicating Nov. 26, 2023. Screenshots from the clip featured in a December 2023 news report in a Chinese media outlet that children in Gaza were thanking the Chinese city of Yiwu after they discovered humanitarian aid parcels had come from there.
Snopes did not independently confirm whether the claims in the Chinese report were true but, again, this clip clearly circulated more than a year before May 2025.
Another popular TikTok video showed a clip of people running toward aid dropped from the sky (time code 0:06). We found early postings of the clip (archived) dating to September 2024 — again, long before the claimed drop date of May 2025, and before Israel started blocking humanitarian aid into Gaza in March 2025.
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Both TikTok videos used clips of planes dropping humanitarian aid from the sky. One British defense publication, UK Defence Journal, reported that these aircraft were C-17 Globemaster IIIs, an aircraft built by Boeing and used by the U.S. Air Force and other countries in Europe and the Middle East.
China, notably, does not use the C-17 and has instead developed its own equivalent aircraft, the Y-20. Because of the similar appearance of the two planes and the blurry quality of the footage in question, Snopes has not independently verified whether the TikTok videos above show C-17s or Y-20s.
China last documented aid drops pre-blockade
The latest confirmed reports of China delivering aid to Gaza were from February 2025. The aid consisted of 60,000 food parcels and, according to Xinhua News Agency, the official Chinese state news agency, came into Gaza via land rather than via air. A report on CGTN, the English-language news channel of state-run China Global Television Network, showed the arrival of the aid around Feb. 26, 2025. (The video transcript carried a March 2025 date, but the ticker at the bottom of the screen ran stories from Feb. 26 (time code 0:12) and Feb. 25 (time code 1:01), indicating CGTN broadcast the report on Feb. 26.)
The China International Development Cooperation Agency did not publicly confirm that China had carried out any aid drops during the Israeli blockade.
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On May 19, 2025, the Israeli Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories authority said (archived) on X it allowed five U.N. aid trucks to cross into Gaza, the first delivery since early March. The U.N. said (archived) on X that same day that Israeli authorities allowed nine trucks to enter Gaza, but called efforts “a drop in the ocean.”
Israeli politicians, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have previously accused Hamas of stealing aid. Netanyahu repeated this accusation when he announced in March 2025 that Israel would “stop letting goods and supplies into Gaza.”
Sources:
Associated Press. “Netanyahu Says Israel Has Cut off Gaza Aid ‘Because Hamas Steals the Supplies.'” YouTube, 3 Mar. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVpFgZTWKp8&t=37s.
C-17 Globemaster III. https://www.boeing.com/content/theboeingcompany/us/en/defense/c-17-globemaster-iii. Accessed 21 May 2025.
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“China Is Trying to Sell Its ‘Chubby Girl’ Transport Plane to Foreign Buyers.” South China Morning Post, 10 Jan. 2024, https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3247848/china-trying-sell-its-chubby-girl-transport-plane-foreign-buyers.
China Sends Humanitarian Aid to Gaza through Jordan. https://english.news.cn/20250219/a55206ed362944b49c23f362cee8527f/c.html#:~:text=The%20humanitarian%20assistance,shipment%20reaches%20Gaza. Accessed 21 May 2025.
@cogatonline. “Following the Recommendation of Professional @IDF.” X, 19 May 2025, https://x.com/cogatonline/status/1924500806251712771.
Debre, Isabel. “What Is Gaza’s Ministry of Health and How Does It Calculate the War’s Death Toll?” AP News, 26 Oct. 2023, https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-gaza-health-ministry-health-death-toll-59470820308b31f1faf73c703400b033.
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Gaza Ceasefire: China Sends 60,000 Food Parcels of Emergency Aid to Battered Enclave. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2025-03-27/VHJhbnNjcmlwdDgzNjk0/index.html. Accessed 21 May 2025.
Langford, Craig. False Claims of Chinese Airdrops to Gaza. 18 May 2025, https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/false-claims-of-chinese-airdrops-to-gaza/.
@omerdos. “אף משאית לא נכנסה הבוקר לעזה, וגם לא תיכנס בשלב זה.” X, 2 Mar. 2025, https://x.com/omerdos/status/1896093105088315669.
Our Work. http://en.cidca.gov.cn/ourwork_2.html. Accessed 21 May 2025.
@UNReliefChief. “Israeli Authorities Have Temporarily Allowed Us to Deliver Limited Aid to Gaza after 11 Weeks of Blockade.” X, 19 May 2025, https://x.com/UNReliefChief/status/1924503729409012191.
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USCENTCOM. “April 9 USCENTCOM Conducts Humanitarian Airdrops into Gaza.” USCENTCOM, 9 Apr. 2024, https://www.centcom.mil/MEDIA/PRESS-RELEASES/Press-Release-View/Article/3736174/april-9-uscentcom-conducts-humanitarian-airdrops-into-gaza/.
“YIWU CHINA”，加沙孩子感谢义乌背后有何故事？. https://tidenews.com.cn/news.html?id=2663208. Accessed 21 May 2025.
Middle East crisis: Israeli strikes on Syria kill at least 25 people, war monitor says – as it happened
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has given an updated death toll resulting from the Israeli strikes overnight across Syria. The death toll is now 25, up from 18 earlier. The observatory described the Sunday night strike as “one of the most violent Israeli attacks” in Syria in years and said it was carried out with 14 missiles. Iran described the airstrikes as a “criminal” attack on Syria. At least 40,988 Palestinian people have been killed and 94,825 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said. The director of Northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital, Hussam Abu Safia, warned that the hospital will be out of service within 48 hours due to fuel shortages and a lack of critical medical supplies. The UN human rights chief, Volker Turk, said that ending the war in Gaza is a priority. The World Food Programme said 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza are in “urgent” need of food and livelihood assistance.
9 Sept 2024 14.57 BST Summary The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights , a UK-based war monitor, has said that 25 people were killed in overnight Israeli airstrikes on Syria. Syrian state media had put the death toll at 16 with 40 people injured. Iran described the airstrikes as a “criminal” attack on Syria. The main target appeared to be a military research centre in Masyaf associated with Syria’s chemical and ballistic missiles programme but explosions were also heard in Damascus, Homs and Tartus.
Benny Gantz , the centre-right National Unity party leader and former defence minister, has reportedly said that Israel should shift its focus toward Hezbollah and the Lebanese border. “The story of Hamas is old news,” Gantz was quoted as saying at a Middle East forum in Washington DC. He said that, instead, “the story of Iran and its proxies all around the area and what they are trying to do is the real issue”.
The UN human rights chief, Volker Turk , said that ending the war in Gaza is a priority and asked countries to act on what he called Israel’s “blatant disregard” for international law in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The director of Northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital , Hussam Abu Safia , warned that the hospital will be out of service within 48 hours due to fuel shortages and a lack of critical medical supplies. Safia said fuel shortages in the intensive care unit could lead to the deaths of dozens of children.
At least 40,988 Palestinian people have been killed and 94,825 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement. You can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Middle East coverage here. Share Updated at 15.01 BST
9 Sept 2024 14.49 BST The World Food Programme (WFP), the UN’s food agency, says 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza are in “urgent” need of food and livelihood assistance. The WFP in the Middle East and north Africa said Israeli evacuation orders are hindering efforts to deliver aid. The agency reiterated its call for an immediate ceasefire. 🔴11 months of war in #Gaza
And 2.2 million people are still in urgent need of food & livelihood assistance.
Despite @WFP’s commitment to deliver aid, evacuation orders are hindering our efforts, and needs are on the rise.
A ceasefire is needed! pic.twitter.com/uHJAPFnchd — WFP in the Middle East & North Africa (@WFP_MENA) September 9, 2024 Víctor Aguayo, Unicef’s director of child Nutrition, has said that one of the most severe food and nutrition crises in history is currently being experienced by Palestinian people in Gaza. He said the impact of the war and “severe restrictions” on the humanitarian response have led to a “complete collapse” of food, health and protection systems, with “catastrophic consequences”. Aguayo warned that there is a real risk of famine, with most of the agricultural land in the Gaza Strip having been destroyed by Israeli airstrikes. Under the technical definition of famine, 20% of households must face an extreme lack of food, or essentially be starving. One-third of children must be suffering from acute malnutrition or wasting, and two adults or four children for every 10,000 people must be dying daily from hunger and its complications. Share
9 Sept 2024 14.33 BST Death toll in Gaza reaches 40,988, says health ministry At least 40,988 Palestinian people have been killed and 94,825 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Monday. The toll includes 16 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry. The health ministry has said thousands of other dead people are most likely lost in the rubble of the enclave. Share Updated at 14.57 BST
9 Sept 2024 14.17 BST The UN’s Palestine relief agency, Unrwa, has said that over 446,000 children in Gaza have been vaccinated against polio so far, after Hamas and Israel agreed on limited pauses in their fighting, “As of tomorrow, the campaign will move to the north entering its most complex phase. Many more children urgently need the vaccine,” Unrwa, the main channel for humanitarian support for Palestinians, wrote in a post on X. The World Health Organization believes that 90% of children under 10 in Gaza must be immunised for the campaign to be effective. At the end of the second phase of the #polio vaccination campaign in #Gaza, @UNRWA teams and partners have vaccinated over 446,000 children.
As of tomorrow, the campaign will move to the north entering its most complex phase. Many more children urgently need the vaccine. pic.twitter.com/z9EWNWUPE8 — UNRWA (@UNRWA) September 9, 2024 The vaccination campaign comes after a case was discovered last month for the first time in 25 years after doctors concluded a 10-month-old had been partially paralysed by a mutated strain of the polio virus after not being vaccinated due to the war. Share
9 Sept 2024 14.07 BST Health officials said on Monday that two separate Israeli airstrikes had killed seven people in central Gaza, while another strike killed one man in Khan Younis further south. Share
9 Sept 2024 13.55 BST As we reported in an earlier post, the new school year in the Palestinian territories officially began on Monday. But all schools in Gaza are shut after 11 months of Israel’s war and no sign of an immediate ceasefire. In addition to the 625,000 Palestinians already registered for school who would be missing classes, another 58,000 six-year-olds should have registered to start first grade this year, the education ministry said. ActionAid have spoken to schoolchildren whose education has been disrupted because of the devastating impacts of the war. Arwa said: [I am] an 11-year-old student in the fifth grade. I lost my right of going to school as displaced people need to live there. Most schools were destroyed, burnt down or bombarded as a result of the ongoing war. I really miss my school. I miss my friends and my teachers very much. Maryam said: My house was bombed, and I now live in my school. I wish to go back home. I wish for the war to be over. I don’t want to live in my school. I want to learn in it. I miss my friends and my teachers … My books were burnt to ashes. My bag was torn, and my notebooks are gone … I wish to go back home. I wish to get back to learning. I want to put on my school uniform and get ready for school. And to buy my school supplies. Raed, aged 9, said: I really miss my school and wish to go back [to] learn. I haven’t been in school, nor have I studied for 10 months now. Mona, aged 7, said: I miss my school and my friends a lot. I miss holding a pen and writing. I miss writing and learning my alphabet. Share Updated at 13.55 BST
9 Sept 2024 13.37 BST Here are some of the latest images coming out from the newswires: View image in fullscreen Injured Palestinian people who got injured are brought to Al-Ahli Baptist hospital for treatment after an Israeli airstrike in the Zeitoun neighbourhood in the northern Gaza Strip. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images View image in fullscreen This picture was taknen after an Israeli airstrike on a house belonging to the Abu Samaan family in the Zeitoun neighbourhood in the northern Gaza Strip on 09 September 2024. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Smoke rises from an explosion in Gaza, near the Israel-Gaza border as seen from Israel. Photograph: Florion Goga/Reuters Share
9 Sept 2024 13.33 BST In the latest evacuation order, the Israeli military has told residents of an area in the northern Gaza Strip they must leave their homes, after the firing of rockets into southern Israel the previous day. “To all those in the specified area. Terrorist organisations are once again firing rockets at the State of Israel and carrying out terrorist acts from this area. The specified area has been warned many times in the past. The specified area is considered a dangerous combat zone,” an Israeli military spokesperson wrote on X. The vast majority of Gaza’s population has been displaced, often multiple times, and more than 85% of the territory has been put under evacuation orders by the Israeli military, according to the UN. Several hundred thousand people have packed into al-Mawasi, a so-called safe zone located west of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, since the beginning of the conflict despite minimal provision there of even basic services. Share
9 Sept 2024 12.45 BST Israel’s energy minister Eli Cohen has warned the international community that it should not complain if Israel “acts with force to exact a heavy price from Lebanon” if the community is unable to “restrain” Hezbollah. Describing Hezbollah as “a terrorist organization that deliberately fires at residential buildings with the intent to kill Israeli civilians” he included in a social media post an image purporting to show damage to a building from an aerial attack. Hezbollah is a terrorist organization that deliberately fires at residential buildings with the intent to kill Israeli civilians.
If the international community cannot restrain Hezbollah, it shouldn’t complain when we act with force and exact a heavy price from Lebanon and… pic.twitter.com/WNeTUJbZIa — אלי כהן | Eli Cohen (@elicoh1) September 9, 2024 Emanuel Fabian, military correspondent for the Times of Israel, reports that a barrage of 15 rockets has been fired into Israel from the direction of Lebanon. Citing the IDF, he writes that “The rockets struck open areas, and there are no reports of injuries.” Earlier a drone from the direction of Lebanon was reported to have struck a high-rise building in the Israeli city of Nahariya. Share Updated at 12.49 BST
9 Sept 2024 12.26 BST In a statement on its official Telegram channel, Israel’s military has claimed to have located “a machine used to produce weapons” in the Zeitoun area of northern Gaza. It stated that troops “raided terror targets where terrorists had embedded themselves, eliminated dozens of terrorists and dismantled numerous terrorist infrastructures” in the area. The claims have not been independently verified. Share
9 Sept 2024 12.17 BST Bezalel Smotrich, the hardline finance minister in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, has again today reiterated that he sees it as his life’s mission to “thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state”. In a post to social media, echoing words he said back in June, Smotrich said: My life’s mission is to build the land of Israel and thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger the state of Israel. It is not political. It is national and existential. This is the reason why I took upon myself, in addition to the position of minister of finance, also the responsibility for the civil issues in Judea and Samaria. [An Israeli term for the occupied West Bank] I will continue to work with all my might so that the half million settlers who are on the frontline and under fire will enjoy the rights of every citizen in Israel and to establish facts on the ground that will prevent the establishment of a Palestinian terrorist state that will be a forward Iranian base for the next massacre. Share Updated at 12.31 BST
9 Sept 2024 11.58 BST Afternoon summary The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights , a UK-based war monitor, has said that 25 people were killed in overnight Israeli airstrikes on Syria. Iran described the airstrikes as a “criminal” attack on Syria. The main target appeared to be a military research centre in Masyaf associated with Syria’s chemical and ballistic missiles programme but explosions were also heard in Damascus, Homs and Tartus.
Benny Gantz , the centre-right National Unity party leader and former defence minister, has reportedly said that Israel should shift its focus toward Hezbollah and the Lebanese border. “The story of Hamas is old news,” Gantz was quoted as saying at a Middle East forum in Washington DC. He said that, instead, “the story of Iran and its proxies all around the area and what they are trying to do is the real issue”.
The UN human rights chief, Volker Turk , said that ending the war in Gaza is a priority and asked countries to act on what he called Israel’s “blatant disregard” for international law in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The director of Northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital, Hussam Abu Safia, warned that the hospital will be out of service within 48 hours due to fuel shortages and a lack of critical medical supplies. Safia said fuel shortages in the intensive care unit could lead to the deaths of dozens of children. Share Updated at 15.01 BST
9 Sept 2024 11.48 BST The Syrian foreign ministry has condemned the overnight Israeli strikes on Syria as an act of blatant aggression. In addition to the people killed and injured in the attack, it had caused “material damage to some residential areas”, the ministry said in a statement reported by Syria’s official news agency, Sana. Two regional intelligence sources told Reuters that a major military research centre for chemical arms production located near Masyaf, in Hama province near the Mediterranean coast, had been hit several times. They said it was believed to house a team of Iranian military experts involved in weapons production. “We do not confirm what was reported by media outlets linked to the Zionist regime (Israel) about an attack on an Iranian centre or a centre under Iran’s protection”, Iran’s foreign minister spokesperson Nasser Kanaani told journalists. Share
9 Sept 2024 11.45 BST Israeli strikes on Syria kill at least 25 people, war monitor says The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, has given an updated death toll resulting from the Israeli strikes overnight across Syria. The death toll is now 25, up from 18 earlier. The war monitor said among the people killed were “five civilians, four soldiers and intelligence personnel and 13 Syrians working with pro-Iran groups”. Three more bodies were unidentified, the observatory added. The observatory described the Sunday night strike as “one of the most violent Israeli attacks” in Syria in years and said it was carried out with 14 missiles. The Syrian state news agency is reporting that 16 people were killed. The Guardian has not yet independently verified these figures. View image in fullscreen People inspect the damage at the site of overnight Israeli strikes on the outskirts of Masyaf in Syria’s central Hama province. Photograph: Louai Beshara/AFP/Getty Images Share Updated at 14.50 BST
9 Sept 2024 11.19 BST Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under huge pressure to agree a hostage-for-peace deal with Hamas that has been under negotiation for several months. A major impasse in the negotiations has been the Philadelphi corridor along Gaza’s border with Egypt and the Netzarim east-west corridor across the territory. Netanyahu has insisted that Israel retain control of the corridors to prevent smuggling and catch militant fighters. Hamas is demanding the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. The Philadelphi corridor only emerged as an Israeli government talking point in recent weeks, and was not part of the plan that the US president, Joe Biden, had presented in May, which the Israeli government said at the time it accepted. About 250 hostages were taken by the Hamas-led 7 October attacks on southern Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed. 97 hostages abducted during the attack remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 33 confirmed dead by the Israel Defense Forces, according to the Times of Israel. An Israeli official told the outlet that the Israeli government still expects a new US proposal for a hostage deal to be presented in the future. “We are waiting,” says the official. “The Americans are being cautious, they don’t want to put forward a deal that they know will be rejected by Hamas. They know that Hamas is the one putting obstacles in the way.” “Just because it’s not happening soon doesn’t mean it won’t happen,” the official added. 4:01 ‘It’s time for this war to end’: Joe Biden presents new Gaza ceasefire plan – video Share
9 Sept 2024 11.02 BST Here are some more remarks given by Volker Turk, the UN’s human rights chief, in the traditional opening address to sessions of the human rights council, which typically list a wide range of pressing global concerns. Its five-week autumn session opened today. Turk said: I urge voters to ask themselves which of the political platforms or candidates will work for the human rights of everyone. And I urge all voters to be vigilant. Be wary of the shrill voices, the ‘strongman’ types that throw glitter in our eyes, offering illusory solutions that deny reality. Share Updated at 11.34 BST