Summary
- Gaza has become worse than hell on Earth, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross tells the BBC’s Jeremy Bowen
- Mirjana Spoljaric says Palestinians have been stripped of human dignity and international humanitarian law is being hollowed out
- It comes as aid distribution centres in Gaza are closed today, as Israel’s military warns roads leading to the sites will be considered “combat zones”
- At least 27 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire close to an aid point on Tuesday, Hamas-backed local officials said – the third deadly incident this week near a site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF)
- The IDF said its troops fired shots after identifying suspects who moved towards them “deviating from the designated access routes”
- Elsewhere, 12 Palestinians have been killed after an Israeli strike hit a school housing displaced people in Khan Younis, the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency and a hospital official say
- Israel does not allow international news organisations, including the BBC, into Gaza, making verifying what is happening in the territory difficult
‘Nowhere is safe,’ says Palestinian in Gaza City
“Unfortunately, there is no safe place in Gaza,” Mahran Khodr tells Reuters news agency from Gaza City, the scene of a deadly Israeli strike overnight.
He explains they fled an area further north in Gaza and moved to Gaza City because they were told it was safer.
“Even those sleeping in tents became exposed to danger at any moment,” he said at the site of the strike.
“Where do we go? We are dying of hunger every day, and there is also bombing. Our children have become (like) skeletons.”
BBC rejects incorrect White House claims on Gaza coverage
The BBC has rejected incorrect White House criticism of its Gaza coverage, describing a claim it had taken down a story as “completely wrong”.
At Tuesday’s White House briefing, President Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused the BBC of taking “the word of Hamas” when reporting on the number of people killed in a shooting near an aid distribution site on Sunday.
She also claimed, wrongly, that the BBC had retracted a story.
“The claim the BBC took down a story after reviewing footage is completely wrong. We did not remove any story and we stand by our journalism,” the BBC said in a statement.
Karoline Leavitt criticised the BBC for changing the number of casualties in the story’s headline. The corporation said its coverage was updated with new figures throughout the day, which is “totally normal practice on any fast-moving news story”.
The numbers were “always clearly attributed, from the first figure of 15 from medics, through the 31 killed from the Hamas-run health ministry to the final Red Cross statement of ‘at least 21’ at their field hospital,” the statement said.
Dozens join anti-war protest in Israel
Dozens of people have joined a three-day anti-war march in Israel, according to the group behind the protest.
Standing Together is a small but growing anti-war group of Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel.
It says in a post on X that participants are marching from Tel Aviv to the Gaza border as part of a “movement”. The group is calling for an end to the war and the release of Israeli hostages.
In an update, the group says it has reached the Kerem Shalom border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel.
It says it “stands against the attempt by far-right activists to disrupt the entry of aid to hungry people in Gaza”.
‘Our blood supply is running out,’ -hospital director
Dr Marwan Shafiq al-Hams, who runs field hospitals in the Gaza Strip, told our team yesterday the situation at medical facilities is becoming increasingly desperate.
“We originally had space for 25 beds,” he told us. “Now we have 42 patients hospitalised in the intensive care unit at Nasser Medical Complex. They need blood, and we cannot find any.”
“These wounded and injured individuals already had anemia before the injury,” he added. “Now they have severe anaemia.”
“Our blood supply is running out.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned in March that Gaza needs at least 4,500 blood units per month to meet urgent demand but, at the time, had access to fewer than 500.
‘Our neighbour was wounded’, says aid shooting witness
Muhannad Abed was trying to collect aid at a distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) yesterday, when – according to witnesses, medics and Gaza authorities – Israeli forces opened fire.
“The shooting was direct,” he tells our team. “People couldn’t even go out into the street.”
He says his neighbour was wounded.
“We found a crowd of people, everyone took something, just enough for themselves, and left.”
On their way back, he says, they saw multiple bodies of people who had been shot.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its troops fired shots after identifying suspects who moved towards them “deviating from the designated access routes”.
“How are we supposed to provide food?” says Muhannad. “There’s none.”
It was the third deadly incident in as many days to occur on a route to a GHF site.
As we’ve been reporting, the GHF has said it would close aid sites today for “update, organisation and efficiency improvements works”.
Gaza worse than hell on Earth-Red Cross chief
Gaza has become worse than hell on Earth, according to the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Mirjana Spoljaric.
Speaking in a BBC interview at the ICRC headquarters in Geneva, Spoljaric says humanity is failing. States are not doing enough to end the war, end the suffering of Palestinians and release Israeli hostages, she adds.
Palestinians, she says, have been stripped of human dignity. International humanitarian law is being hollowed out.
What is happening in Gaza, she says, surpasses any acceptable legal, moral and humane standard.
The ICRC is an international organisation that operates in war zones. It has over 300 staff in Gaza, most of whom are Palestinians.
Its surgical hospital in Rafah, in southern Gaza, is the closest medical facility to the area where many Palestinians have been killed during chaotic aid distribution in the last few days near sites run by the Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
The ICRC says that yesterday morning its Rafah surgical teams received 184 patients, including 19 people dead on arrival and eight others who died of their wounds shortly afterwards. It was the highest number of casualties from a single incident at the field hospital since it was established just over a year ago.
The ICRC is considered the custodian of the Geneva Conventions. The fourth, agreed after World War Two, is designed to protect civilians in wars.
The rules of war, Spoljaric says, apply to all parties.
The Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023 were no justification for current events, she says. Spoljarić says the ICRC is deeply concerned about talk of victory at all costs, total war and dehumanisation.
Pregnant women in Gaza ‘frightened’ as dangers around childbirth grow
Amid a deadly war in Gaza, new lives begin. But newborn babies and those still in the womb are among the worst hit by the harsh conditions.
With acute shortages of food, the UN says that one in 10 new babies is underweight or premature. There has also been an increase in miscarriages, stillbirths and congenital abnormalities.
Many mothers are struggling to breastfeed because of their own poor health.
At Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, Malak Brees, now seven months pregnant, did not expect to conceive her second child. Six weeks ago, she lost a lot of amniotic fluid, putting her baby in danger.
“The doctors told me it was due to malnutrition and exhaustion… They told me it was in the hands of God – the foetus could survive or die.”
While poor nutrition is causing new hazards in pregnancy, childbirth too has become far riskier.
Sometimes Israeli military action and displacement mean that women are giving birth in their tents or shelters with no medical help.
“If mothers are lucky enough to come to the hospitals to deliver their babies, women who give birth vaginally are typically being sent home three to four hours afterwards,” says Sandra Adler Killen, an American registered emergency and paediatric nurse, who recently worked at the hospital in Gaza.
Rather than representing the hope of new life, babies have come to epitomise the struggle to survive.
The key developmentspublished at 10:1910:19
It’s mid-morning in Gaza, where aid points run by the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) have been closed for a day for “improvements works”.
Here’s the latest:
- Aid distribution sites shuttered, the controversial GHF continues to face forceful criticism from humanitarian organisations
- Many Palestinians rely on these sites for basic provisions, including food, but Unicef’s Gaza spokesperson tells the BBC the quantity is “not sufficient” – instead of the 600 daily lorry loads he says should be entering, it’s more like 600 boxes
- The Israel Defence Forces (IDF), meanwhile, warns that roads leading to the aid points will be considered “combat zones”
- It comes after 27 Palestinians were killed on their way to retrieve aid from one such site on Tuesday, the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency said
- The IDF said its troops fired after identifying suspects moving towards them “deviating from the designated access routes”
- It was the third attack in three days of a similar nature. The killings have deepened criticism of the new US-backed aid system, writes our correspondent in Jerusalem
- Meanwhile, we have approached the IDF for comment as a Civil Defence spokesperson and a hospital official report that at least 12 people have been killed in an Israeli strike on a school
Death toll from Israeli strike on school rises to 12, health officials say
The death toll from the Israeli air strike on the school-turned-shelter in western Khan Younis has risen to 12, rescuers and health officials say.
Mahmoud Basal, a spokesperson for the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency, and an official at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis say 12 bodies have been recovered after two tents housing displaced families inside the school were hit.
The hospital official says another five dead had been brought there since midnight, including two from Abasan, east of Khan Younis.
Basal says Israeli strikes have also killed four people in northern Gaza – two in the Jabalia refugee camp, and two in Gaza City.
The BBC has approached the IDF for comment.
Unicef: Gaza should be receiving up to 600 lorries of aid daily – instead, it’s 600 boxes
A Unicef spokesperson in Gaza has criticised the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), saying the US and Israeli backed group is a “pretence of aid”.
Speaking about GHF’s decision to pause its activity today, James Elder tells the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he wasn’t aware of it until early this morning.
Describing the situation in Gaza yesterday, he says people have been walking 15-20km to get aid.
“There are teenage boys in tears at the car window showing me their ribs,” he says.
He says beyond the pause, there’s a wider issue of how aid is being distributed in Gaza.
“They’re claiming their giving aid to people, it’s not nearly sufficient. We’re talking about a handful of distribution sites versus 400 during the ceasefire,” he says.
He adds that trusted organisations continue to be blocked from distributing aid in the enclave.
“That’s what’s really lacking, big organisations that should be delivering 500-600 trucks a day. Instead, we’re talking about 500-600 boxes going to individuals a day,” he says.
Medics and eyewitnesses report deadly Israeli strike on school
At least eight Palestinians were killed and several others injured in an Israeli air strike targeting a school in western Khan Younis, southern Gaza, according to medics and eyewitnesses.
Eyewitnesses report that an Israeli drone struck two tents, which were housing dozens of displaced people, including women and children, who had fled from areas in eastern Khan Younis.
A paramedic from the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency said in a WhatsApp message sent to journalists that rescue crews recovered the bodies of eight people, including two children, and transported more than 20 wounded individuals, some with critical injuries from a school sheltering hundreds of displaced Palestinians.
Local journalists and activists stated that the school had recently received hundreds of displaced residents from the al-Amal neighborhood in central Khan Younis, following Israeli air-dropped leaflets calling on residents to evacuate the area.
UN Security Council to vote on resolution calling for ceasefire
The UN Security Council is set to vote later today on a resolution calling for a ceasefire and unrestricted humanitarian access in Gaza.
The resolution calls for “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza respected by all parties”.
It also demands the “immediate, dignified and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas and other groups”.
The upcoming vote is the council’s first on the subject since November, when the United States blocked a ceasefire draft resolutioncalling for an end to fighting.
The vote will take place at 16:00 EDT (21:00 BST).
How does the new aid distribution system work?
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aims to replace the UN-led aid distribution network in Gaza.
It was launched following repeated claims from Israel that the UN did not prevent supplies being hijacked by Hamas, which the UN denies.
Under the new system, Gazans are required to collect supplies from a small number of centres (marked on the map below) in areas under Israeli military control and staffed by armed American contractors.
Critics say the model has left people needing to walk long distances to the sites and transport boxes weighing 20kg back to their homes or shelters.
Our colleagues at BBC Verify, who have been analysing footage from Gaza, say that last week, at the opening of one of these distribution centres, total chaos erupted.
Videos showed the distribution centre overrun by desperate civilians trampling over toppled barriers; people flinched as sounds of gunshots rang out.
US-Israel backed aid group says it will restart distribution on Thursday
As we’ve reported, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) says it’s closing its sites today for “update, organization and efficiency improvements works”.
The US and Israeli-backed group, which began operating last week, says it will start distributing aid again on Thursday.
In a statement, the group says it has asked the Israeli military to “guide foot traffic” near military boundaries to reduce “confusion or escalation” risks.
GHF adds it is also working to develop clearer guidance for civilians and enhance training to support their safety.
“Our top priority remains ensuring the safety and dignity of civilians receiving aid,” it says.
What happened on Tuesday?
What did Hamas-run Civil Defence agency say?
On Tuesday, at least 27 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire as they attempted to collect aid near a distribution site in Gaza, a spokesman said.
Mahmoud Basal said civilians were fired upon by tanks, quadcopter drones, and helicopters near the al-Alam roundabout, about 1km (0.6 miles) from the aid site.
What did medical workers say?
The director of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Atef Al-Hout, said many of the injured arrived with gunshot wounds, while a foreign medic working in the area described the scene as “total carnage”.
What did the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) say?
The IDF said its troops fired shots after identifying suspects who moved towards them “deviating from the designated access routes”.
What happened over the weekend?
This was the third deadly incident in as many days to occur on a route to a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid site.
Israel previously denied shooting Palestinians in a similar incident on Sunday, which the Hamas-run health ministry said killed 31 people and injured nearly 200.