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world central kitchen
'It Was a Field Execution': IDF Shoots Driver Delivering Relief Supplies to Gaza in the Head
A Gaza trucker's association leader called it "a deliberate killing of a civilian driver who had complied with all instructions."
Jul 09, 2026
A soldier with the Israel Defense Forces reportedly shot and killed a Palestinian driver delivering aid to Gaza on Wednesday in what witnesses described as a "field execution."
Based on accounts from three witnesses, The Guardian reported that the driver, Ahmad Nasser Saleem, was shot in the head at close range shortly after his convoy entered Gaza to deliver food supplies from the World Central Kitchen.
They said the four-truck convoy had stopped along the Philadelphi Corridor on the edge of Gaza after one of the vehicles broke down. Israeli soldiers then ordered the drivers to dismount before one of them shot Saleem in the head when his hands were raised.
The other drivers in the convoy stressed that every movement made by the World Central Kitchen is coordinated with the Israeli government.
“After the truck broke down, we waited for authorization to get out and inspect it, because every movement we make has to be coordinated in advance,” said one of the other drivers, Diaa Mansour.
He said that while they were awaiting authorization, an Israeli military vehicle arrived and soldiers ordered him, Saleem, and another driver, Alaa Shaat, to get out of their trucks.
“They made us stand by the side of the road. They ordered me to take off my clothes and forced me to sit under the sun,” Mansour said. “Then they brought Ahmad out of his truck. One of the soldiers began talking to Ahmad while he stood with his hands raised. Ahmad did not speak Hebrew, and it seemed the soldiers did not understand his Arabic."
"Suddenly, they shot him. He was hit in the head and died at the scene," Mansour said. "It appeared they were trying to find out why we had stopped, but they did not understand the situation and opened fire immediately, without any discussion or attempt to communicate.”
Jihad Saleem, the deputy head of the Association of Transport Companies in Gaza, identified as a distant relative of the aid worker who was killed, said that the transportation of aid was "100%" coordinated with Israel through the UN World Food Program and WCK.
"The moment Ahmad raised his hands in surrender, one of the soldiers drew his M16 rifle and shot him directly in the head,” he said. “It was a field execution and a deliberate killing of a civilian driver who had complied with all instructions. He was wearing his orange safety vest and carried all the required permits, security clearances, and coordination that had been approved by the IDF."
The IDF confirmed the shooting, but disputed the series of events. A military spokesperson said the convoy "had stopped along the Philadelphi Corridor and exited their trucks contrary to established procedures" and that one of the drivers "ran toward the troops" who "initiated the suspect apprehension protocol and, after perceiving an immediate threat, opened fire toward him."
Jihad Saleem said that “drivers are subjected to daily violations, including beatings, abuse, humiliation, and being forced to stand for long hours under the sun."
“Even more disturbing," Saleem said, "the soldier who shot Ahmad talked to the three surviving drivers afterward and threatened them, saying they would meet the same fate as Ahmad. This clearly indicates that the attack was deliberate.”
Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza, which began in October 2023, has included the systematic restriction of humanitarian aid entering the strip, which has caused widespread starvation, which humanitarian groups have said Israel is using as a "weapon of war" against the Palestinian population.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said as of April 29, 2026, that it had recorded the killing of 593 aid workers in the territory, including eight since a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in October 2025.
The shooting of Ahmad Saleem follows the shooting of two other Palestinian aid drivers in May under similar circumstances. According to The Guardian, the two men had been detained by the IDF for days before being released near a roundabout in Rafah where they were each shot.
The month before, two drivers working for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) were killed by Israeli fire as they were filling their water trucks at an established distribution point.
Saleem is at least the 11th documented worker with WCK to have been killed by Israeli forces during the conflict. In April 2024, an Israeli strike hit a convoy clearly marked with the WCK logo and killed seven workers after the drivers had similarly coordinated their movements with the IDF.
That November, Israel bombed another vehicle, killing three WCK workers and two others, claiming that one of them had been involved in Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack against Israel, which was not independently confirmed and which the WCK said it had no knowledge of.
WCK said in a statement that it was "devastated" to learn of Saleem's killing on Wednesday.
"Ahmad Nasser Saleem was doing what so many of our partners do every day in Gaza—working to get food to hungry people," the group said. "We are in contact with his family, and our deepest grief is with them. WCK expects a full accounting of what happened. Humanitarian aid deliveries should never be a target."
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Israel Exploits Attack on Iran to Reinstate Gaza 'Starvation Policy'
"All the NGOs in Gaza need more food, medicine, medical equipment, fuel, tents, personal care every day. We cannot wait," said chef José Andrés, founder of World Central Kitchen.
Mar 02, 2026
After Israeli and US forces launched an illegal war aimed at forcing regime change in Iran this past weekend, Israel also announced "the closure of the crossings into the Gaza Strip," which it has bombed and starved for nearly 29 months, killing at least tens of thousands of Palestinians.
Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT)—which oversees civilian policy in Gaza and the West Bank—announced on social media Saturday that "several necessary security adjustments have been implemented" because of the operation against Iran, including the closure of Gaza crossings "until further notice."
COGAT also claimed that "the closure of the crossings will have no impact on the humanitarian situation" in Gaza, adding that "the substantial quantities of food that have entered since the beginning of the ceasefire amount to four times the nutritional needs of the population," so "the existing stock is expected to suffice for an extended period."
However, reports from human rights groups, journalists, and the United Nations have highlighted how Israel's restrictions have continued to impede evacuations of the sick and severely wounded, and nongovernmental groups' deliveries of humanitarian aid, despite the October ceasefire deal. Palestinians in Gaza also remain at risk of Israeli forces' airstrikes, gunfire, and shelling.
"A new chokehold on Gaza," Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, said Monday. "Once again, Israel is renewing its ban on supplies entering Gaza. After more than two years of unspeakable suffering and a spreading man-made famine, people still lack the most basic supplies, despite increases in aid since the ceasefire. UNRWA personnel in Gaza keep providing healthcare, learning, and clean water—but we must be allowed to do much more and certainly not less."
Even before Israel closed the borders on Saturday, the US-Israel attack on Iran led to Palestinians in Gaza "buying whatever food supplies and goods they could manage," Al Jazeera reported Monday. "People everywhere rushed to the market to buy sugar, flour, cooking oil, and yeast. Shelves began to empty, and the price of essential goods increased."
Things got even worse after COGAT's announcement. Asmaa Abu Al-Khair, a 38-year-old mother of eight, told Al Jazeera at a Gaza City market on Sunday that "I feel great anxiety. Everyone is talking about it—about Iran's strike and the closure of the crossings—and I cannot afford to buy what I need, while at the same time, I am afraid of famine returning. I have young children."
Many displaced families living in nearby tents also "do not have the money to buy supplies, nor the space to store them inside the tents," she said. "We endured so much hardship during the war, and it barely ended with the announcement of a ceasefire. So why close the crossing now? What do we have to do with what is happening? Is what we witnessed not enough? Why play with people’s nerves?"
Since Saturday, critics around the world have also warned about the impacts of Israel shutting off the Palestinian exclave indefinitely, again. Arab Center Washington DC fellow Assal Rad declared on social media that "under the cover of its illegal war on Iran, Israel is continuing genocide in Gaza."
Mass shooting survivor and former congressional candidate Cameron Kasky similarly said that "the siege on Gaza returns in its fullest force. Illegal wars to advance Israel's goals are being used for expanding the genocide plans."
Israel faces a South Africa-led genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the US-backed war on Gaza that it launched after Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has also issued related arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Chef José Andrés said on social media Sunday that World Central Kitchen—which he founded—is cooking 1 million hot meals every day, and if Gaza's borders stay closed, the group "will run out of food this week."
"We need food deliveries every single day to feed hungry families who are not part of this war," he said. "All the NGOs in Gaza need more food, medicine, medical equipment, fuel, tents, personal care every day. We cannot wait... let the humanitarian trucks go through today!"
Responding to Andrés, US Congressman Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) said that "Israel must reopen access to aid groups. If not, Netanyahu must be arrested immediately. He continues war crimes."
The Hague Group—a coalition of countries that came together last year, led by Colombia and South Africa, with the goal of upholding the ICC and ICJ rulings on Israel and Palestine—responded to COGAT by scheduling an emergency meeting that at least 30 nations are set to attend in the Dutch city for which the organization is named.
The focus of Wednesday's meeting "is simple," Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla, the group's executive secretary, said in a Monday statement. "How do we give international law teeth? Several states have begun enforcing their legal obligations, turning rhetoric into concrete action through The Hague Group's measures: cutting arms flows, closing ports, and pursuing accountability."
Ronald Lamola, South Africa's minister of international relations and cooperation, said that "the application of international law can no longer be selective: punitive for some and totally disregarded by others. The Hague Group exists to translate obligations that arise out of international law into coordinated state action. We invite governments of conscience—those prepared to uphold law in deed as well as word—to join us."
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur focused on the occupied Palestinian territories and a target of Trump administration sanctions, said that "I am honored to attend the upcoming emergency meeting of the The Hague Group."
"Time has come for decolonized multilateralism, grounded in universal rights and obligations, applied with integrity and free from double standards," Albanese added. "May European and Arab states join this necessary effort."
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Israeli Lies and Western Complicity: How Deceit Became a Weapon of War
The people of Gaza are not only being starved, bombed, and murdered. They are being erased from global consciousness by a wall of deception.
Jun 06, 2025
Throughout its long history of ethnic cleansing and occupation, Israel has remained consistent in its tactics: lie, deny, and distort the truth—often with the backing, or at least the indulgence, of Western powers. Lying has become an Israeli art form, refined over decades, practiced with impunity, and amplified by a complicit global media that not only tolerates but actively legitimizes these falsehoods.
The latest massacre at the food distribution in Gaza offers yet another stark and sickening reminder of this pattern. At dawn on Sunday, June 1st, more than 30 Palestinians were murdered while waiting for food aid in Rafah. As usual, Israel swiftly denied responsibility, claiming its army was unaware of any shooting near the American-led distribution center. But eyewitnesses, survivors, humanitarian organizations, and hospitals told a contradictory story.
Israel is not only getting away with war crimes—it’s getting away with lying about them.
Israel’s denial was immediately echoed—and defended by American officials. The U.S. ambassador—better described as Israel’s emissary within the State Department—dismissed reports of the massacre as “fake news.” This grotesque inversion of truth is a familiar maneuver, reminiscent of the Flour Massacre on February 29, 2024, when Israeli forces opened fire on civilians collecting flour, killing 112 and injuring over 760.
Again, Israel denied responsibility, claiming the deaths resulted from “stampedes” and civilians being run over by aid trucks. Yet even after the United Nations and media outlets like Al Jazeera challenged the Israeli disinformation and presented video footage clearly showing Israeli forces firing on unarmed civilians, no accountability followed.
In Gaza, it is not just food aid sites have become death traps. Ambulances are targets. First responders, doctors, and even their children have become “legitimate” military objectives.
Last week, Israel targeted the home of Dr. Alaa al-Najjar, killing nine of her ten children—Yahya (12), Eve (9), Rival (5), Sadeen (3), Rakan (10), Ruslan (7), Jibran (8), Luqman (2), and Sedar, not yet one year old. Her husband, Dr. Hamdi al-Najjar, succumbed to his injuries days later. Their tenth child, 11-year-old Adma, sustained a critical head injury and is unlikely to survive due to Gaza’s medical blockade.
Israel’s standard, callous response followed, explaining that its aircraft had struck “a number of suspects” in Khan Younis.
In March, the Israeli army murdered eight medics, six civil defense workers, and a United Nations employee—then buried them in the sand. The military later blamed the “suspicious behavior” of an ambulance for the attack. When confronted with video evidence disproving the claim, the army reverted to its usual script: “a mistake,” “a wrong decision,” “disciplinary action taken.” Fifteen lives erased with a bureaucratic shrug.
When Israel murdered seven humanitarian workers from the World Central Kitchen in April 2024, the Biden administration initially expressed outrage. Twenty-four hours later, that outrage was mollified by Israeli firsters in Washington. White House spokesperson John Kirby reversed course, claiming there was no evidence of deliberate targeting—absolving Israel in the same breath that had condemned it. A mass killing became a footnote.
This is nothing new.
In October 2023, nearly 500 civilians were killed in a blast at the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza. Israel immediately blamed a misfired Palestinian rocket. Just hours after landing in Tel Aviv, President Joe Biden publicly parroted the Israeli narrative—despite overwhelming eyewitness accounts, growing evidence, and skepticism from independent observers.
And then there is the case of Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian-American journalist gunned down in 2022. Israel initially claimed she was killed by Palestinian crossfire and released a video that was quickly discredited. Yet Western media gave more airtime to Israeli claims than to eyewitness testimony. Months later, under the weight of irrefutable evidence, Israel admitted responsibility—calling it, once again, a “mistake.”
The soldier who murdered a “lesser” U.S. citizen, like other killers of journalists, never faced justice. In fact he was promoted to Captain and went on killing with impunity—until reports emerged of his death during a battle in Jenin.
Just like the murdered children of Gaza, truth itself has become another collateral damage in Israel's war of disinformation. And those tasked with defending it—the media and democratic institutions—have too often served instead as marketers and conveyors of Israeli lies and propaganda.
The people of Gaza are not only being starved, bombed, and murdered. They are being erased from global consciousness by a wall of deception. And until the world begins to value Palestinian lives as much as it values Israeli (proven false) narratives, the Israeli theater of blood and deceit will continue.
Israel is not only getting away with war crimes—it’s getting away with lying about them. The impunity is not only military; it is moral, political, and informational. Israel has long mastered the art of the lie, dating back to the creation of political Zionism. The West, and its managed media, has normalized these falsehoods—just as it has normalized the starvation and siege of Gaza.
Israel lies with impunity because the world—especially the United States and much of the West—not only permits it, but promotes it. Western governments and media have built an echo chamber where Israeli narratives always take precedence—not due to credibility, but to avoid the reckoning that truth would demand. In choosing falsehood over fact, they evade moral accountability and sidestep the need to reconcile their professed values with the genocide they enable.
This is no longer just about Israeli lies. It’s about a global system complicit in sustaining Israel’s habitual lies and systematic deceit to cover up a starvation and a livestreamed genocide.
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'We Have No More Food,' Says World Central Kitchen Amid Israeli Attacks and Deadly Starvation
"Our trucks—loaded with food and supplies—are waiting in Egypt, Jordan, and Israel, ready to enter Gaza," said WCK founder José Andrés. "But they cannot move without permission."
May 08, 2025
After serving more than 130 million meals and distributing 26 million loaves of bread to Gazans over the past 18 months, even after repeated—and critics say deliberate—Israeli massacres of its staff, World Central Kitchen said Wednesday that it has no more food left to prepare as Israel continues to block lifesaving aid from entering the embattled enclave and more Palestinians starve to death.
"World Central Kitchen no longer has the supplies to cook meals or bake bread in Gaza," the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit said in a statement. "We have no more food to prepare."
"We have now reached the limits of what is possible."
"Since Israel closed border crossings in early March, WCK has been unable to replenish the stocks of food that we use to feed hundreds of thousands of Gazans daily," the group continued, referring to Israel's tightening of the 579-day "complete siege" imposed on the Palestinian territory after the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023.
"In recent weeks, our teams stretched every remaining ingredient and fuel source using creativity and determination," WCK said. "We turned to alternative fuels like wood pallets and olive husk pellets and pivoted away from rice recipes that require more fuel in favor of stews with bread."
"By constantly adapting over the past weeks, we were cooking 133,000 meals daily at our two remaining WCK field kitchens and baking 80,000 loaves of bread each day," the charity added. "But we have now reached the limits of what is possible."
WCK kept serving Gaza even after Israeli airstrikes killed 11 of its staff members.
In April 2024, seven members of a WCK aid team were killed when their clearly marked convoy was bombed in Deir al-Balah, despite receiving travel clearance from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which knew exactly where the vehicles were. Renowned Spanish-American chef José Andrés, who founded WCK in 2010—and was a vocal defender of Israel—called the attack "deliberate" as some Israelis took to social media to mock the slain humanitarians.
Seven months later, Israel bombed a WCK vehicle traveling in Khan Younis, killing three of the group's staffers. A "double-tap" follow-up strike killed two bystanders who attempted to help the initial victims.
In March 2025, a WCK volunteer was killed by an Israeli airstrike near one of the charity's Gaza facilities.
The slain WCK staffers are among the more than 400 humanitarian workerskilled by Israeli bombs or bullets in Gaza, where more than 52,600 Palestinians—most of them women and children—have been slaughteredd and over 118,700 others wounded since October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Upward of 14,000 Gazans are also missing and presumed dead and buried beneath the rubble of hundreds of thousands of bombed buildings. Nearly all of Gaza's more than 2 million people have been forcibly displaced, often multiple times, while starvation and sickness ravage the besieged strip.
Deadly malnutrition—which has claimed the lives of at least dozens of Gazans, mostly children—has increased markedly since Israel's March 2 lockdown. Local officials say that at least 57 Palestinians have died from malnutrition combined with lack of adequate medical care. One of the most recent victims was 4-month-old Jenan Saleh al-Skafi, who died of severe malnutrition in al-Rantisi Hospital in Gaza City on May 2.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 65,000 children in Gaza require urgent treatment for severe malnutrition.
Israel—which is facing an ongoing genocide case at the International Court of Justice—stands accused of using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza. Israeli leaders including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir have endorsed bombing Gaza's food stores and other humanitarian aid. Ben-Gvir claimed Republican leaders in the United States, which provides Israel with diplomatic cover and tens of billions of dollars in armed aid, agree with his stance.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is a fugitive from the International Criminal Court, where he is wanted for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity including extermination and forced starvation, has backed his ministers' calls to starve Gaza.
Despite the growing starvation in Gaza, Israel is making it harder for foreign-based nongovernmental organizations to register and operate in Palestine by imposing what European lawmakers this week called "purposely vague" and "highly discretionary" new rules.
Although it is out of food, WCK said it is still able to distribute desperately needed potable water to Palestinians in Gaza.
"Our pots may be empty, our cooking fires snuffed out—but World Central Kitchen will keep serving," said Andrés. "Our trucks—loaded with food and supplies—are waiting in Egypt, Jordan, and Israel, ready to enter Gaza. But they cannot move without permission. Humanitarian aid must be allowed to flow."
WCK Gaza response director Wadhah Hubaishi asserted that "the borders need to open for World Central Kitchen to be able to feed people in need."
"If given full access to our infrastructure, partnerships, and incoming supplies," he added, "we are capable of providing hungry families in Gaza with 500,000 meals a day."
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A Palestinian's Year in Review: Genocide in Gaza
While Israel's desperate attempt to control the global narrative on the Gaza genocide largely failed, the ethnic cleansing continues.
Dec 30, 2024
The story of the Israeli war on Gaza can be epitomized in the story of the Israeli war on Beit Lahia, a small Palestinian town in the northern part of the Strip.
When Israel launched its ground operations in Gaza, Beit Lahia was already largely destroyed due to many days of relentless Israeli bombardment which killed thousands.
Still, the border Gaza town resisted, leading to a hermetic Israeli siege, which was never lifted, even when the Israeli military redeployed out of much of northern Gaza in January 2024.
Beit Lahia is largely an isolated town, a short distance away from the fence separating besieged Gaza from Israel. It is surrounded mostly by agricultural areas that make it nearly impossible to defend.
Yet, a year of grisly Israeli war and genocide in Gaza did not end the fighting there. To the contrary, 2024 has ended where it started, with intense fighting on all fronts in Gaza, with Beit Lahia, a town that was supposedly 'conquered' earlier, still leading the fight.
Beit Lahia is a microcosm of Israel's failed war in the Strip, a bloody grind that has led nowhere, despite the massive destruction, the repeated ethnic cleansing of the population, the starvation and the genocide. Every day of Israel's terrible war on the Palestinians serves as a reminder that there are no military solutions and that the Palestinian will cannot be broken, no matter the cost or the sacrifice.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, remains unconvinced. He entered the new year with more promises of 'total victory', and ended it as a wanted criminal by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The issuing of an arrest warrant for the Israeli leader was a reiteration of a similar position taken by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the start of 2024.
The ICJ's position, however, was hardly as strong as many had hoped or wanted to believe. The world's highest court had, on January 26, ordered Israel “to take action to prevent acts of genocide”, but stopped short of ordering Israel to halt its war.
The Israeli objectives of the war remained unclear, although Israeli politicians provided clues as to what the war on Gaza was really all about. Last January, several Israeli ministers, including 12 from Netanyahu’s Likud party, took part in a conference calling for the resettlement of Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. “Without settlements, there is no security,” extremist Israeli minister of finance, Bezalel Smotrich, said.
For that to happen, the Palestinian people themselves, not merely those fighting on the ground, had to be tamed, broken and defeated. Thus, the 'flour massacres', a new Israeli war tactic that was centered around killing as many Palestinians as possible while waiting for the few aid trucks that were allowed to reach northern Gaza.
On February 29, more than 100 Gazans were killed while queueing for aid. They were mowed down by Israeli soldiers, as they desperately tried to lay their hands on a loaf of bread, baby milk or a bottle of water. This scene was repeated, again and again in the north, but also in other parts of the Gaza Strip throughout the year.
The aim was to starve the Palestinians in the north so that they would be forced to flee to other parts of the Strip. Famine actualized as early as January, and many of those who tried to flee south were killed, anyway.
From the early days of the war, Israel understood that to ethnically cleanse Palestinians, they must target all aspects of life in the Strip. This includes hospitals, bakeries, markets, electric grids, water stations, and the like.
The Gaza hospitals, of course, received a large share of Israeli attacks. In March, once more, Israel attacked the Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City with greater ferocity than before. When it finally withdrew, on April 1, the Israeli army destroyed the entire compound, leaving behind mass graves with hundreds of bodies, mostly medical staff, women and children. They even executed several patients.
Aside from a few statements of concern by western leaders, little was done to bring the genocide to an end. Only when seven international aid workers with the charity, the World Central Kitchen, were killed by Israel, a global outcry followed, leading to the first and only Israeli apology in the entire war.
Desperate to distract from its failure in Gaza, but also Lebanon, and keen on presenting the Israeli public with any kind of victory, the Israeli military began escalating its war beyond Gaza. This included the strike on the Iranian Embassy in Syria on April 1. Despite repeated attempts, which included the assassination in Iran of the head of Hamas's Political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, on July 31, an all-out regional war has not yet come to pass.
Another escalation was taking place, this time not by Netanyahu but by millions of people around the world, demanding an end to the Israeli war. A focal point of the protests were student movements that spread across US campuses and, ultimately, worldwide. Instead of allowing free speech to flourish, however, America's largest academic institutions resorted to the police, who violently shut down many of the protests, arresting hundreds of students, many of whom were not allowed to return to their colleges.
Meanwhile, the US continued to block international efforts aimed at producing a ceasefire resolution at the United Nations Security Council. Ultimately, on May 31, US President Joe Biden delivered a speech conveying what he termed an “Israeli proposal” to end the war. After some delay, Hamas accepted the proposal, but Israel rejected it. In his rejection, Netanyahu referred to Biden's speech as “incorrect” and “incomplete”. Strangely, but also unsurprisingly, the White House blamed the Palestinians for the failed initiative.
Losing faith in the American leadership, some European countries began changing their foreign policy doctrines on Palestine, with Ireland, Norway and Spain recognizing the State of Palestine on May 28. The decisions were largely symbolic but indicated that western unity around Israel was faltering.
Israel remained unfazed and, despite international warnings, invaded the Rafah area in southern Gaza on May 7, seizing control of the Philadelphi Corridor - a buffer zone between Gaza and the Egyptian border that extends for 14 kilometers.
Netanyahu's government insisted that only war can bring their captives back. There was very little success in that strategy, however. On June 8, Israel, with logistical support from the US and other western countries managed to rescue four of its captives held in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. To do so, Israel killed at least 276 Palestinians and wounded 800 more.
In August, another heart-wrenching massacre took place, this time in the Al-Tabaeen school in Gaza City, where 93 people, mostly women and children, were murdered in a single Israeli strike. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, women and children were the main victims of the Israeli genocide, accounting for 70 percent by November 8.
An earlier report by the Lancet Medical Journal said that if the war stopped in July, “186,000 or even more” Palestinians would have been killed. The war, however, went on. The rate of genocide in Gaza seemed to maintain the same killing ratio, despite the major regional developments including the mutual Iranian-Israeli tit-for-tat strikes and the major Israeli ground operation in Lebanon.
In October, Israel returned to the policies of targeting or besieging hospitals, killing doctors and other medical staff, and targeting aid and civil defense workers. Still, Israel would not achieve any of its strategic goals of the war. Even the killing of Hamas’ leader, Yahya Sinwar, in battle on October 16 would not, in any way, alter the course of the war.
Israel's frustration grew by leaps and bounds throughout the year. Its desperate attempt to control the global narrative on the Gaza genocide largely failed. On July 19, and after listening to the testimonies of over 50 countries, the ICJ issued a landmark ruling that “Israel's continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is illegal.”
That ruling, which expressed international consensus on the matter, was translated on September 17 to a UN General Assembly resolution “demanding an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestine within the next twelve months”.
All of this effectively meant that Israel's attempt at normalizing its occupation of Palestine, and its quest to illegally annex the West Bank was considered null and void by the international community. Israel, however, doubled down, taking its rage against West Bank Palestinians, who, too, were experiencing one of the worst Israeli pogroms in many years.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, by November 21, at least 777 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, 2023, while thousands more were wounded and over 11,700 arrested.
To make matters worse, Smotrich called, on November 11, for the full annexation of the West Bank. The call was made soon after the election of Donald Trump as the next US President, an event that initially inspired optimism amongst Israeli leaders, but later concerns that Trump may not serve the role of the savior for Israel after all.
On November 21, the ICC issued its historic ruling to arrest Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The decision represented a measure of hope, however faint, that the world is finally ready to hold Israel accountable for its many crimes.
2025 could, indeed, represent that watershed moment. This remains to be seen. However, as far as Palestinians are concerned, even with the failure of the international community to stop the genocide and reign in Israel, their steadfastness, sumoud, will remain strong until freedom is finally attained.
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World Central Kitchen 'Heartbroken' After Israel Bombing Kills Five in Gaza
The humanitarian aid group, which lost seven workers earlier this year in an attack by Israeli forces, said it was working with "incomplete information" about the latest strikes in Khan Younis.
Nov 30, 2024
Israel bombed a humanitarian vehicle in Gaza on Saturday, reportedly killing three aid workers with World Central Kitchen and Palestinian bystanders who tried to come to help after an initial strike.
"We are heartbroken to share that a vehicle carrying World Central Kitchen colleagues was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza," the U.S.-based aid group founded by chef José Andrés, said in a statement.
"At this time, we are working with incomplete information and are urgently seeking more details," the group said.
While Israeli officials said the vehicle was carrying a wanted Palestinian militant, WCK said it had "no knowledge that any individual in the vehicle had alleged ties to the October 7th Hamas attack." The group said it was pausing operations in Gaza for the time being. "Our hearts," they said, "are with our colleagues and their families in this unimaginable moment."
According to reports, the WCK vehicle was targeted on Salah al-Din Street in Khan Younis. After the three aid workers were killed in the first strike, Middle East Eye reports two other people "tried to help" but "were also targeted and killed" by what is known as a double-tap strike.
"The vehicle carried rice and other food supplies," Tamer Sammour, an eyewitness, told the news outlet.
MEE spoke with other witnesses:
Mohammed Abu Abed, a Khan Younis resident, identified one of the two men killed in the second strike as Adel Sammour.
"He asked me last night for bread, but I couldn’t help him," Abu Abed told MEE.
"The two men were farmers heading to work to make ends meet," he explained.
"They were waiting to be picked up for work when the first strike hit the vehicle nearby,”"he continued.
"When they tried to assist, they were also targeted and killed. They were just trying to make a living. They were innocent."
In April, a multi-vehicle WCK convoy was bombed by Israel, killing seven of the organization's workers. The attack sparked global condemnation but did little to end Israel's blocking of humanitarian aid.
A view of the destroyed vehicle following the Israeli army targeted the vehicle carrying aid workers of the US-based international aid organization World Central Kitchen (WCK) in an attack on Salah ad-Din Street in Khan Yunis, Gaza on November 30, 2024. (Photo by Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Image)
Earlier this month, as Common Dreams reported, an analysis showed the delivery of life-saving aid into Gaza had "fallen to an all-time low," largely due to Israel's obstruction.
Across Gaza over the last 24 hours, at least 19 people were killed in attacks by Israel.
Following the attack on WCK vehicle, Al-Jazeera's Hind Khoudary reported from Khan Younis on the organization's decision to halt its operations in the area.
"After today's attack, the community kitchens did not work and serve people," Khoudary reported. "So, it's beyond attacking Palestinians, Palestinian workers, aid organizations, it’s attacking all sources of aid, and all sources of community kitchens, and those who have been working tirelessly to prevent starvation in Gaza."
"The question remains," she added, "why does Israel continue to target the World Central Kitchen community and their employees in the Gaza Strip?"
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'Certainly Crossed': Israel Pummels Rafah as Dems Aim to Hold Biden to 'Red Line'
Biden "was worried about tanks going into the city, that has already happened," Rep. Pramila Jayapal said. "He was worried about strikes on dense areas, that has already happened."
May 31, 2024
Israeli forces moved into central Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip by Friday as Democrats urged U.S. President Joe Biden to uphold his promise to halt some weapons shipments to Israel if it invaded the city.
Israeli commandos, backed by tanks and artillery, occupied central Rafah after taking control of the Philadelphi Corridor, an 8-mile border zone between Gaza and Egypt. Satellite imagery showed that Israeli tanks and military vehicles could be seen in central and western Rafah, The New York Times reported.
The Israeli entry into central Rafah follows a week of airstrikes in the area that have killed many dozens of Palestinian civilians, prompting international outcry. It's also led to a dire shortage of food and medical supplies as humanitarian corridors close and relief groups leave the city, which had been a refuge for displaced Palestinians throughout much of the war.
Progressives responded by declaring that Biden's "red line" on Rafah has been definitively crossed and demanding an end to military support for Israel.
"It absolutely has crossed the red line, perhaps even before this," Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told The Hill on Friday. "I am frustrated by the reluctance to hold Netanyahu accountable... And I see this as dragging the United States into Netanyahu's war."
"[Biden] was worried about people being displaced; that has already happened, a million people have already been displaced," Jayapal added. "He was worried about tanks going into the city, that has already happened. He was worried about strikes on dense areas, that [has] already happened."
"So I really don't know what the red line is anymore because it feels fairly clear that this has certainly crossed the red line, and anything more than this would be a complete devastation of people, and at that point, it's too late," she added.
Other progressives, including members of the left-wing "Squad" in the U.S. House of Representatives, took similarly strong positions this week as news from the massacres in Rafah came in.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wrote on social media on Monday that the Israel's tent massacre the previous night already represented "open defiance" of Biden's red line.
"How many children have to die?," Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) wrote on social media Tuesday. "We're past the red line. It's time to stop sending military aid to Israel. Not one more dime."
Members of the Squad were not the only Democrats to voice their frustration.
"All the things that President Biden was worried about have come to pass," Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said Wednesday in an interview with CNN. "The United States needs to get a full and clear commitment from the Netanyahu government on their plans going forward before we continue to shovel more offensive military assistance to the Netanyahu government."
"The United States can no longer just be a blank check for the Netanyahu government," Van Hollen added.
“The United States can no longer just be a blank cheque for the Netanyahu government”. With the Biden administration facing mounting criticism over its support for Israel’s war in Gaza, Senator @ChrisVanHollen tells me why he believes its time to change tack pic.twitter.com/xsmvpc5bDR
— Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) May 29, 2024
By invoking the "red line," Democrats refer to a May 9 interview in which Biden vowed to halt shipments of offensive weapons to Israel if its military undertook a major invasion of heavily populated areas of Rafah.
"I made it clear that if they go into Rafah—they haven't gone in Rafah yet—if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities—that deal with that problem," Biden told CNN in the interview.
The Biden administration maintains that the red line hasn't yet been crossed because Israel has not engaged in a "major ground operation" in Rafah, as a spokesperson explained on Tuesday.
That assessment angered humanitarian groups, as it followed two massacres of Palestinian civilians in the Rafah area within 48 hours. On Sunday night, an Israeli strike on a humanitarian safe zone killed at least 45, mostly women and children. U.S.-made bombs were used in the attack, later analysis revealed. On Tuesday, a strike on a refugee camp killed 21, mostly women. The Israeli strikes have led to an international outcry, with demonstrators throughout the world calling for an end to the Rafah invasion.
The invasion has also caused aid groups such as the World Central Kitchen to pause operations in Rafah, furthering the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Nicolas de Riviere, France's ambassador to the U.N., said his country was "extremely concerned" and called for an end to the Rafah invasion and a clear humanitarian corridor.
"We want a ceasefire," he told Al Jazeera. "We want no operation in Rafah. We want full humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip. It’s not the case now."
The death count in Gaza continues to mount. In the last 24 hours, 60 Palestinians have died, and more than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began in October, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Israel's latest military activity in the Gaza Strip has not been limited to the south. Israeli forces announced Friday that they'd ended a three-week campaign in the city of Jabalia in northern Gaza, site of a major refugee camp. They left "a trail of devastation and destruction," according to Al Jazeera, as they did following an October campaign in Jabalia.
A Jabalia resident who returned home following this most recent Israeli campaign said he could not even locate his house."I did not know where my house was or where its borders were," Abdul Hadi Rayan, 42, told The Washington Post. "The area has no house suitable for living at all."
"Even if I decide to return to the camp and live in a tent, all the infrastructure, all the streets and water lines are destroyed," he added. "There is absolutely no place for life here now."
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) on Friday said it had "horrific reports" from Jabalia, including tents full of people being set on fire at a school where they were sheltering. UNRWA, whose commissioner called on Thursday for an end to Israeli violence against the agency in a guest essay in The New York Times, has been a lifesaving force in Gaza during the war but has been cited as a terrorist organization by Israel; the Knesset is considering a formal designation of UNRWA as such.
The last weeks we've received horrific reports from @UNRWA facilities in Jabalia north #Gaza
Displaced people- incl. children- reportedly killed & injured sheltering in our school, besieged by IDF tanks
Tents of people sheltering at our school reportedly set on fire by IDF. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/cHRcgVa9O1
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) May 31, 2024
A photo of a Palestine Red Crescent ambulance in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip, following the withdrawal of occupation forces yesterday.#NotATarget ❌#Gaza pic.twitter.com/bcUbZedU7j
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) May 31, 2024
Progressives argued that U.S. complicity in Israeli's military actions would come at great cost.
"We have to recognize that if we continue down this course of supporting Netanyahu with zero conditions, and despite the fact that he's doing things that we have said we won't tolerate, we lose not only credibility with the international community, but we're just continuing to lose credibility here at home about what values we actually stand for," Jayapal told The Hill.
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Biden’s Gaza Aid Pier Is a Predictable SNAFU
The U.S. donates $4 billion a year of your tax dollars to Israel, not to mention billions more in sweetheart deals, and we get for that money an insistence that we put naval personnel in danger at a rickety pier?
May 27, 2024
The U.S. military has given us many acronyms. Most are forgettable alphabet salads only beloved by bureaucrats. But SNAFU is one of the greats, allegedly originating during WW II. The polite phrase is “situation normal, all fouled up.” But we know that the GIs actually used the F word. Quite a lot, in my experience.
The Biden administration’s pitiful attempt at theatrics in an attempt to cover for the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza was its $360 million boondoggle, a Gaza aid pier, which I described as a Potemkin Village because of its lack of substantial substance.
On Saturday, three small navy support vessels for the pier were swept away by high seas, and two of them were driven onto shore, becoming beached. That’s the kind of thing that gets a captain busted down to the ranks. A third ship was also washed away, but it was attached to a section of the pier and so they both went spinning off. The pier section seems to be heading for the Israeli port of Ashdod. I don’t know where the third ship is, to which it had been attached. No naval personnel are said to have been injured, except for their pride.
Although CENTCOM maintains that what remains of the pier is still functional, I don’t know if that is really true. If this kind of thing happened within a week of its inauguration, can you really call that functional?
Speaking of Ashdod, that port city already has a harbor and the U.S. could have delivered aid there to be trucked down to Gaza much more efficiently. But let me guess.
The Israelis won’t let us? The Israelis won’t let us.
The U.S. donates $4 billion a year of your tax dollars to Israel, not to mention billions more in sweetheart deals, and we get for that money an insistence that we put naval personnel in danger at a rickety pier?
Palestinian-American activist Huwaida Arraf at “X,” quoted retired U.S. Army Colonel Ann Wright: “Having been in the U.S. military for 29 years, we’ve seen some pretty stupid things happen and this is one of the stupidest.”
It is no fault of the military personnel. U.S. President Joe Biden was warned that high seas made his aid pier impractical, and with the arrogance of Washington, he ignored the warnings. He was trying to do a favor for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for whom an arrest warrant has been requested by the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor. Netanyahu’s government will fall if the Israeli equivalent of neo-Nazis in the cabinet withdraw, and they say they will withdraw unless Netanyahu starves all the people of Gaza to death. Of course, 2.2 million emaciated dead bodies would be rather an embarrassment, as well, putting Netanyahu in striking distance of Cambodian genocidaire Pol Pot’s record. So Biden is trying to get the aid in by sea and to have the U.S. take the blame for there still being any Palestinians.
Although CENTCOM maintains that what remains of the pier is still functional, I don’t know if that is really true. If this kind of thing happened within a week of its inauguration, can you really call that functional?
The pier is mainly a PR stunt. It is an incredibly expensive and risky way to get food and medicine on the ground in Gaza. And the U.S. isn’t distributing that aid. It is handing it over to NGOs on the ground like the World Central Kitchen, seven of whose workers Netanyahu’s troops murdered. For WCK aid workers to have to get that food and medicine from the pier to the population centers is very dangerous and inefficient.
In the week the pier has been operational, CENTCOM says that the World Central Kitchen has only taken possession of 96 aid trucks. Gaza required 500 trucks a day, not the 13 a day that the Biden administration apparently has managed. I guess there were no deliveries Saturday, and who knows when there will be more? Nor do we know if WCK has actually been able to get the aid to people who need it, as Israel has expelled 900,000 refugees again during its aggressive invasion of Rafah, the former supposed safe zone.
SNAFU.
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Israel's Deadly Bombing of World Central Kitchen Convoy Was No Anomaly: Report
A new analysis from Human Right Watch argues that numerous attacks on humanitarian relief operations by Israeli forces prove the April 1 bombing that killed 7 people was "far from being an isolated 'mistake.'"
May 14, 2024
A deadly attack on a convoy of World Central Kitchen aid workers which killed 7 people last month was not a one-off occurrence, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday, but rather representative of a documented pattern in which Israel military forces have targeted relief personnel and infrastructure despite being informed of the exact locations of those operations.
"Even though aid groups had provided their coordinates to the Israeli authorities to ensure their protection," an analysis by HRW found that eight such attacks on such operations, including the April 1 bombing of the WCK in Deir al-Balah, have been carried out by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) over the last seven months.
According to the group's report, "Israeli authorities did not issue advance warnings to any of the aid organizations before the strikes, which killed or injured at least 31 aid workers and those with them."
"Israel's allies need to recognize that these attacks that have killed aid workers have happened over and over again, and they need to stop." —Belkis Willi, HRW
Details of the various attacks, said HRW, show that the WCK bombing was "far from being an isolated 'mistake,'" as the Israeli government has claimed.
Citing figures from the United Nations, HRW notes that over 250 aid workers have been killed in Gaza by Israel since the Hamas-led attack on October 7 of last year.
"Israel's killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers was shocking and should never have happened under international law," said Belkis Wille, associate crisis, conflict, and arms director at Human Rights Watch. "Israel's allies need to recognize that these attacks that have killed aid workers have happened over and over again, and they need to stop."
The other seven attacks documented in the report are:
- Attack on a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF or Doctors without Borders) convoy, November 18, 2023
- Attack on a guest house of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), December 9, 2023
- Attack on an MSF shelter, January 8, 2024
- Attack on an International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) guest house, January 18, 2024
- Attack on an UNRWA convoy, February 5, 2024
- Attack on an MSF guest house, February 20, 2024
- Attack on a home sheltering an American Near East Refugee Aid Organization (Anera) employee, March 8, 2024
Human Rights Watch sent a letter to Israeli authorities requesting more information about these documented incidents, but said it received no response.
"Israel should make public the findings of investigations into attacks that have killed and injured aid workers, and into all other attacks that caused civilian casualties," the group said on Tuesday. "The Israeli military's long track record of failing to credibly investigate alleged war crimes underscores the importance of the International Criminal Court's (ICC) inquiry into serious crimes committed by all parties to the conflict."
In addition to military targeting of relief operations, the Israeli military has been accused of various crimes, including indiscriminate bombing of civilian populations, forced displacement, and the targeting of medical facilities.
Also on Tuesday, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF/Doctors Without Borders) released a report documenting Israel's pattern of attacking its facilities, including hospitals, clinics, and ambulance services in Gaza during the current campaign.
"In view of this extensive timeline of reprehensible actions, MSF once again calls on all parties to respect and protect healthcare facilities, healthcare workers and patients in Gaza and the West Bank," the group said Tuesday. "An immediate and sustained ceasefire must be implemented in Gaza now to put an end to the suffering of people and the destruction of Gaza. We demand an immediate and unfettered flow of aid into the entirety of the Gaza Strip. We demand accountability for our colleagues and their family members who have been killed and wounded, and for patients."
In early May, following a month pause of Gaza operations following the deadly attack, WCK announced it was resuming its relief efforts in the area. It has also started construction on a new kitchen facility to elevate and support its mission to feed the people of Gaza as Israel's assault not only continues but intensifies.
"We have spent the past few weeks honoring the lives of Saif, Zomi, Damian, Jacob, James, John, and Jim. We are restarting our operation with the same energy, dignity, and focus on feeding people as these seven heroes brought to their work every single day," the groups said on May 5. "As our work in Gaza resumes, our demand for an impartial and international investigation into the April 1 attack remains."
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UN Secretary-General Calls for Probe After Staffer Killed in Gaza
One U.N. staff member was killed and another was injured after an attack on their "clearly marked" vehicle.
May 13, 2024
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday reiterated his demand for a cease-fire in Gaza as he called for a full investigation into an attack on a "clearly marked" U.N. vehicle which killed one staff member and injured another in Rafah.
The U.N. did not identify the victims, but said the staff member who was killed worked for the U.N. Department of Safety and Security (DSS) and was the body's first international worker to be killed in Gaza since Israel began bombarding the enclave in October.
"The secretary-general condemns all attacks on U.N. personnel and calls for a full investigation," said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for Guterres. "He sends his condolences to the family of the fallen staff member. With the conflict in Gaza continuing to take a heavy toll—not only on civilians, but also on humanitarian workers—the secretary-general reiterates his urgent appeal for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire and for the release of all hostages."
Approximately 190 U.N. workers have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its attack. Until Monday all had been Palestinian nationals and most had worked for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which has provided aid and public services to Gaza since 1948 and is a top employer in the enclave.
"Humanitarian workers must be protected," said Guterres on social media.
The DSS employees had been traveling to European Hospital in Rafah, where about 1 million Palestinians have been forcibly displaced since October. About 300,000 people have fled the city in the past week amid Israel's long-feared invasion.
The attack on the U.N. vehicle comes weeks after Israel struck another clearly marked humanitarian convoy, killing seven international aid workers with the U.S. group World Central Kitchen.
Israel has also attacked humanitarian aid operations, firing on civilians who gathered around a convoy to get food as starvation took hold of the enclave due to the Israeli blockade on nearly all relief deliveries, and killing at least one U.N. worker at a food distribution center in Rafah in March.
Israel and its defenders in the Biden administration have repeatedly claimed the Israel Defense Forces are taking steps to prevent civilian deaths, even as the death toll has surged past 35,000. In October, as the IDF began its assault in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said publicly that he had "released all the restraints" on the military.
Author and Middle East policy expert Assal Rad asserted Monday that "you don't kill 190 U.N. staff, repeatedly kill aid workers in clearly marked vehicles, kill an unprecedented number of journalists, doctors, and medics, tens of thousands of civilians, and more than 14,000 children on 'accident.'"
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