Turkey has joined Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan in condemning Israeli forces shooting desperately hungry Palestinians waiting for the delivery of aid, with the Turkish Foreign Ministry accusing Israel of using “starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza.”
At least 115 Palestinians were killed and hundreds more wounded, the Health Ministry in Gaza said. Israeli troops apparently fired heavily into the crowd, as more than 80% of the wounded brought to one hospital had been struck by gunfire, the hospital’s chief said Friday.
Israel said many of the dead were trampled in a chaotic crush for the food aid, and that its troops only fired when they felt endangered by the crowd.
The number of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip has soared above 30,000 since Israel’s war on Hamas began nearly five months ago after Hamas-led militants stormed across southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 others hostage.
Israel responded with a blistering offensive in the Gaza Strip that has created a humanitarian catastrophe and devastation in northern areas like Gaza City, which are largely cut off from the rest of the territory with little aid entering.
Currently:
— EU says it will send funds to Gaza’s main aid provider after the U.N. agency agrees to an audit.
— Veteran British left-wing disruptor George Galloway wins a special election dominated by war in Gaza.
— Palestinian American woman who faces trial in Israeli military court is released on bail.
— Colombia pauses buying Israeli weapons and president calls war in Gaza a “genocide.”
— Journalism leaders ask for more protection for those covering the war.
— Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
Here’s the latest:
BIDEN SAYS U.S. WILL BEHIN AIRDROPS OF HUMANITARIAN AID TO GAZA
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said Friday that the U.S. will begin air-dropping humanitarian assistance into Gaza, a day after witnesses say Israeli troops killed dozens of Palestinians as crowds raced to pull goods off an aid convoy.
Biden said the air drops will begin in the “coming days,” and made the announcement while hosting Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the White House.
At least 115 Palestinians were killed on Thursday and more than 750 others were injured, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Israel said many of the dead were trampled in a stampede linked to the chaos and that its troops fired at some in the crowd who they believed moved toward them in a threatening way.
PALESTINIAN RIVALS HAMAS AND FATAH MEET IN MOSCOW, FIRST MEETING SINCE OCT. 7
BEIRUT — Representatives of rival Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah met in an official capacity for the first time since Oct. 7 this week at a summit hosted by Russia, along with other Palestinian factions.
Following two days of meetings, the factions said in a joint statement Friday that they aim to hold more rounds of meetings to reach “national unity that includes all Palestinian forces and factions within the framework of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.”
Hamas is not part of the Fatah-dominated PLO, which has officially recognized the state of Israel. Hamas does not — although its leaders have signaled that they are interested in joining the PLO, which would at least implicitly entail recognizing Israel based upon pre-1967 borders.
Hamas political official Osama Hamdan said last week that his group hopes to reach a “unified position” on future governance of the Palestinian territories with Fatah and other factions. Hamdan said Hamas supports a “Palestinian government to be formed by the factions” which would be tasked with post-war reconstruction and preparing for general elections in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The form post-war governance of Gaza will take has been a matter of heated debate, including between Israel and its primary backer, the United States. While both Israel and the U.S. say Hamas cannot govern the enclave after the war, the Biden administration seeks eventual Palestinian governance in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank as a precursor to Palestinian statehood. The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects a two-state solution and envisions hand-picked Palestinians administering Gaza.
EGYPT’S FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS HE HOPES FOR PAUSE IN GAZA FIGHTING
ANTALYA, Turkey — Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri expressed hope for an agreement to pause fighting in Gaza that could lead to a permanent cease-fire.
Speaking at a diplomacy forum in the Turkish city of Antalya, Shoukri said it was important that a cease-fire is achieved before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is expected to begin around March 10.
“We are hopeful that the areas of divergence between the two sides can be bridged and that we can reach at least a temporary cessation of hostilities to lead to a permanent one,” Shoukri said.
“If this conflict was to continue in Ramadan,” Egypt’s top diplomat added, “I think this will have a very dire consequence in that the emotions will be further inflamed, the dissatisfaction of the Arab and Muslim world — not to mention, of course, the West Bank and Jerusalem — will be aggravated.”
Speaking at the same panel, Palestinian Foreign Affairs Minister Riad Malki accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of harboring “undeclared objectives” of depopulating Gaza.
“This is exactly what Netanyahu wants: to displace people completely out of Gaza, to not only to leave Gaza uninhabitable, but also to leave Gaza with no population,” he said.
Malki is a cabinet member in the Palestinian Authority, which administers semi-autonomous areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
GAZA HOSPITAL SAYS 80% OF ITS PATIENTS WOUNDED IN MELEE HAD BEEN HIT BY GUNFIRE
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — The head of a Gaza City hospital where some of the wounded from a deadly melee over an aid convoy had been taken said Friday that more than 80% had been hit by gunfire.
The remainder of the patients — 34 of 176 —were injured in a stampede triggered by the shooting, said Dr. Mohammed Salha, acting director of the Al-Awda Hospital.
At least 112 Palestinians were killed and more than 750 were wounded after huge crowds of desperate people raced to pull goods off an aid convoy Thursday, according to health officials.
Witnesses said they came under fire from nearby Israeli troops. Israel said many of the dead were trampled in a stampede linked to the chaos and that its troops only fired when they felt endangered by the crowd.
The high ratio of gunshot injuries among the wounded at Al-Awda Hospital suggests there had been heavy Israeli fire.
It was not immediately clear how many of the 112 dead had been killed by gunfire.
Salha said doctors at his hospital have been unable to operate on 20 seriously wounded patients from Thursday’s incident because of the lack of medicine, medical equipment and diesel for generators.
The hospital, like others in Gaza, has been suffering severe shortages since Israel declared war following Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack and unleashed a blistering air and ground offensive across the besieged enclave.
AIRSTRIKE IN SYRIA KILLS IRANIAN NAVAL CAPTAIN, NEWS AGENCY REPORTS
TEHRAN, Iran — An Iranian news outlet reported that an Israeli airstrike Friday near a coastal Syrian town killed a navy captain of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
The report by the semi-official Tasnim news agency identified the dead guard member as Reza Zarei, saying he was in Syria on an advisory mission.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, reported three explosions in a suburb of the coastal town of Baniyas. It said a house was struck, killing an Iranian adviser and two others whom it did not identify.
There was no comment from Israel or the Syrian government.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of war-torn Syria in recent years.
Israel rarely acknowledges its actions in Syria, but it has said that it targets bases of Iran-allied militant groups, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces.
In January, an Israeli airstrike on the capital Damascus killed five Iranian advisers.
THE EU AGREES CONDITIONS FOR GIVING $50 MILLION TO U.N. AGENCY FOR GAZA
BRUSSELS — The European Union said Friday that it will pay 50 million euros ($54 million) to the main U.N. provider of aid in Gaza next week after the agency agreed to allow EU-appointed experts to audit the way it screens staff to identify extremists.
The UNRWA agency is reeling from allegations that 12 of its 13,000 Gaza staff members participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in southern Israel. The agency fired the employees, but more than a dozen countries suspended funding worth about $450 million, almost half the budget for 2024.
The EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, had been due to disburse 82 million euros ($89 million) to UNRWA on Feb. 29 but wanted the agency to accept its terms for an audit. The commission is the third biggest donor to UNRWA after the United States and Germany.
It said that the agency has now “indicated that it stands ready to ensure that a review of its staff is carried out to confirm they did not participate in the attacks and that further controls are put in place to mitigate such risks in the future.”
The commission said that two further tranches of funding worth 16 million euros ($17.3 million) each will be given to UNRWA as it complies with the agreement.
UNRWA is on the brink of financial collapse. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini welcomed the EU’s announcement and said that the commitment to provide money next week “comes at a critical time.”
TURKEY DENOUNCES ISRAELI FORCES FIRING ON PALESTINIANS WHO WERE WAITING FOR AID DELIVERY
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey denounced Israeli forces firing on Palestinians waiting for the delivery of aid as “yet another crime against humanity.”
In a statement issued late Thursday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry accused Israel of using “starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza” and alleged that the latest event, which left more than 100 people dead, was evidence “of Israel’s intention to destroy the entire Palestinian population.”
“The entire world must realise that the atrocity in Gaza is about to become a global catastrophe with repercussions far beyond the region,” the ministry said. “We therefore call on all those with influence over the Israeli government to stop the ongoing violence in Gaza.”
