Aid delivery descends into chaos in Gaza

GAZA STRIP — An aid delivery in Gaza descended into chaos on Saturday with shots fired after almost six months of bombardment left hundreds of thousands in desperate need.

A Red Crescent paramedic at a nearby hospital said five people were killed and dozens injured by gunfire and a stampede during a rare aid distribution in north Gaza.

Witnesses told Agence France-Presse that shots were fired both by Gazans overseeing the aid delivery and Israeli troops nearby, and panicked lorry drivers drove quickly away, hitting people trying to get the food. The Israeli military said it had "no record of the incident described".

Aid deliveries have become increasingly fraught as the needs of Gazans increase.

Foreign powers have ramped up airdrops of aid but several people have been killed by falling crates, stampedes or drowned trying to retrieve packages from the Mediterranean.

Two charities have organized aid deliveries by sea from Cyprus, with their second mission in a little more than two weeks setting sail on Saturday.

The second shipment of about 875 metric tons of food aid for Gaza residents left port early on Saturday afternoon, the semistate Cyprus News Agency reported.

The food, mostly flour, rice and sugar, was loaded onto three vessels and one platform that was already outside the port and were heading to Gaza, it said.

Israel's siege, sparked by a deadly militant attack on Oct 7, brings nightly airstrikes and in recent days major operations around several hospitals, which it says are used by Palestinian militant groups, a claim the Hamas authorities deny.

The World Health Organization, or WHO, warned that Gaza had just 10 "minimally functioning "hospitals for its more than two million people, with its chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus saying about 9,000 patients urgently needed treatment abroad.

UN agencies have warned repeatedly that northern Gaza is on the verge of famine and have called it a human-made crisis because aid lorries are backed up on the Egypt-Gaza border awaiting long checks by Israeli officials. Israel has denied responsibility.

The top UN court has ordered Israel to allow in aid, and the UN Security Council has adopted a resolution demanding an "immediate cease-fire", but neither has affected the situation on the ground.

The Egyptian news outlet Al-Qahera reported that talks aimed at brokering a truce between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip would resume in Cairo on Sunday, days after Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave the green light for fresh negotiations.

Egypt, Qatar and the United States have mediated previous rounds of negotiations, but a workable agreement has remained elusive.

The mediators had hoped to secure a cease-fire before the start of Ramadan, but progress stalled and the Muslim holy month is more than half over.

Hamas' attack on Oct 7, which triggered the conflict, resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel.

Israel's retaliatory campaign against Hamas has killed at least 32,782 people, the health ministry in Gaza says.

Hamas seized about 250 hostages. Of those, Israel says it believes 130 remain in Gaza, including 33 presumed dead.

Domestic pressure

Netanyahu is under domestic pressure, facing regular demonstrations over his failure to bring home all the captives.

During a rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday, Shira Elbag, whose daughter Liri, 19, was among those seized, urged Israelis to demand a change of focus from Netanyahu. "After 176 days, the excuses are over," she said.

A central plank of the talks in Qatar has been negotiating the release of the hostages alongside a truce and access to humanitarian aid.

The US is Israel's chief military backer, but tension has been mounting.

Washington has urged Netanyahu to abandon his plan for a full ground invasion of Rafah, the southern Gaza city to which most of the population has fled.

The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed officials, that Washington had nonetheless approved billions of dollars of bombs and fighter jets for Israel in recent days.

Agencies - Xinhua