Ship earlier attacked by Yemen’s Houthi rebels sinks in the Red Sea
A ship attacked by Yemen’s Houthi rebels has sunk in the Red Sea after days of taking on water, officials said Saturday.
The Rubymar had been drifting after the attack in February. It marks the first ship sunk by the Houthis amid their monthslong attacks on shipping in the vital waterway.
Yemen’s internationally recognized government, as well as a regional military official, confirmed the ship sank. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as the information had not been cleared for publication.
The Rubymar’s Beirut-based manager could not be reached for comment.
Children as young as 12 injured in aid attack, say U.N. workers
U.N. workers treating the hundreds of people injured during an Israeli attack on crowds seeking aid in Gaza City said they saw amputees, people wounded by gunshots and injured children as young as 12 in hospitals.
115 people were killed and more than 700 were injured during the attack at Al-Rashid Street in Gaza City, according to the Health Ministry.
Israel says gunfire was targeted at a small group of people who presented an unspecified threat to soldiers, though its account is strongly disputed by eyewitnesses and doctors at local hospitals.
“These events cannot be allowed to go on,” said a humanitarian worker in a video clip on the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) official X account. He added that more than 200 people were being treated for injuries at Al Shifa hospital alone.
The aid convoy was the first joint OCHA, World Health Organization and UNICEF mission in months, the worker said, and was bringing fuel, medicines, vaccines and malnutrition food to the north of the strip.
Cease-fire talks making progress in Cairo, will resume over weekend
Gaza cease-fire negotiations are due to resume in Cairo on Sunday, Egyptian security sources said today.
The parties agreed on a duration of Gaza truce, hostage and prisoner releases, they said, adding that the completion of the deal still requires an agreement on the withdrawal of Israeli forces from northern Gaza and a return of its residents.
Death toll in Gaza surges past 30,300
The death toll in Gaza has climbed past 30,300, according to the Health Ministry, with more than 71,000 people wounded.
The death toll in the strip is an estimate, as rapidly depleting health, demographic and search and rescue resources make it difficult accurately count casualties. Another 7000 are missing and presumed dead under the rubble.
Speaking during a congressional hearing yesteday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin estimated that the death toll of women and children alone in Gaza was at “over 25,000,” as he called for a “credible plan” to protect civilians in the southern city of Rafah ahead of any Israeli ground invasion.
‘Large number’ of hospitalized aid seekers at Al Shifa had gunshot wounds, U.N spokesperson says
A “large number” of injured people seen by U.N. teams at Al Shifa hospital following Israel’s deadly attack on people gathering for food in Gaza City were injured by gunfire, the U.N.’s spokesperson for the Secretary General, Stéphane Dujarric, said in a press briefing.
Responding to questions about the number of people killed by gunfire during the attack, Dujarric said that while U.N. teams in Gaza had not yet “examined the bodies” of the dead, teams had seen scores of people injured by gunfire in hospital.
The Israeli military has denied shooting into crowds of hungry people at Nabulsi roundabout in Gaza City on Thursday. They later said that the majority of people were killed in a crush or were run over by trucks trying to escape. It maintains that it only shot at a small group of people who threatened soldiers, though they did not specify what that threat was.
Health workers at local hospitals said most of the deceased they received appeared to have been shot. 112 people were killed and over 750 were wounded in the attack, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Biden announces U.S. will airdrop food aid into Gaza as famine concerns grow
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden announced Friday that the U.S. will drop food aid into the Gaza Strip, noting that the humanitarian aid flowing into the region for Palestinians is insufficient.
“Aid flowing into Gaza is nowhere nearly enough… lives are on the line,” Biden said as he announced the decision about the airdrops during an Oval Office meeting he was holding with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
“We should be getting hundreds of trucks in, not just several,” he continued. “We’re going to pull out every stop we can.”
The president reiterated that the U.S. is trying to push for an immediate cease-fire between Hamas and Israel to allow more aid into Gaza, where he…
Read More: Injured from aid convoy violence had gunshot wounds, U.N. says