DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Health officials in the Gaza Strip say the death toll from the 14-month war between Israel and Hamas militants has topped 45,000 people.
The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but it has said that more than half of the fatalities are women and children. The Israeli military says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The Health Ministry said 45,028 people have been killed and 106,962 have been wounded since the start of the war in October 2023. It has said the real toll is higher because thousands of bodies are still buried under rubble or in areas that medics cannot access. The latest war has been by far the deadliest round of fighting between Israel and Hamas, with the death toll now amounting to roughly 2 percent of Gaza’s entire prewar population of about 2.3 million.
Israel claims Hamas is responsible for the civilian death toll because it operates from within civilian areas in the densely populated Gaza Strip. Rights groups and Palestinians say Israel has failed to take sufficient precautions to avoid civilian deaths.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead. Most of the rest were released during a ceasefire last year.
An Israeli strike killed at least 10 people, including a family of four, in Gaza City overnight, Palestinian medics said Monday.
The strike late Sunday hit a house in Gaza City’s eastern Shijaiyah neighborhood, according to the Health Ministry’s emergency service. Rescuers recovered the bodies of 10 people from under the rubble, including those of two parents and their two children, it said.
Death toll in Israel’s Gaza offensive tops 45,000
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Death toll in Israel’s Gaza offensive tops 45,000
- But real toll believed higher because thousands of bodies are still buried under rubble or in areas that medics cannot access
- Israel claims Hamas is responsible for the civilian death toll because it operates from within civilian areas
UK’s ruling Labour under internal pressure to recognize Palestine
- Holocaust survivor Lord Dubs among party grandees saying govt must take step ahead of any peace deal
- Saudi Arabia, France co-chairing conference on two-state solution next month
LONDON: The UK government is under pressure from senior Labour figures to recognize Palestinian statehood.
Ahead of a UN conference on a two-state solution in New York next month, Labour peer and Holocaust survivor Lord Dubs said such a move would strengthen the Palestinians’ hand in future peace talks with Israel, and would give them “self-respect.”
He told The Guardian: “Even if it doesn’t lead to anything immediately, it would still give Palestinians a better standing.”
Lord Hain, a former government minister, said “delaying recognition until negotiations are concluded simply allows Israel’s illegal occupation to become permanent,” and recognition should be “a catalyst, not a consequence” of peace negotiations.
The UN conference could see both the UK and France formally recognize a Palestinian state. Saudi Arabia, which is co-chairing the conference with France, urged countries to view Palestinian statehood as “a precondition for peace, and not its product.”
France and Saudi Arabia say the aim of the conference is not “to ‘revive’ or to ‘relaunch’ another endless process, but to implement, once and for all, the two-state solution.”
They have asked participants “to highlight the actions they are willing to undertake, individually or collectively, in fulfilment of their obligations and in support of the international consensus on the peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine and the two-state solution.”
French President Emmanuel Macron has previously hinted that his government would join the 147 states that already recognize Palestine.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy told Parliament that discussions are underway with French counterparts over recognition, but that Britain is angling for more than just a symbolic gesture at the conference.
Earlier in May, 69 Labour politicians — including a number of government ministers — signed a letter drafted by Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East calling on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to recognize Palestine, in what they called a “unique window of opportunity.”
Labour MP Alex Ballinger, a member of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said: “We can no longer speak in platitudes about two states while blocking the very steps that could help make one of them real.”
Afzal Khan, a former Labour shadow minister, said: “Recognition would now be a positive first step towards securing a peaceful two-state solution, end unlawful settlement expansions and blockades, and unlock the diplomatic and humanitarian pathways to lasting justice.”
Syria hails US lifting of sanctions as ‘positive step’
- The United States lifted comprehensive economic sanctions on Syria on Friday
- Marks a dramatic policy shift following the December overthrow of Bashar Assad
DAMASCUS: Syria on Saturday hailed the formal lifting of sanctions by the United States as a “positive step” that will help its post-war recovery.
“The Syrian Arab Republic welcomes the decision from the American government to lift the sanctions imposed on Syria and its people for long years,” a foreign ministry statement said.
The United States lifted comprehensive economic sanctions on Syria on Friday, marking a dramatic policy shift following the December overthrow of Bashar Assad and opening the door for investment in the country’s reconstruction.
The ministry described the move as “a positive step in the right direction to reduce humanitarian and economic struggles in the country.”
It formalized a decision announced by US President Donald Trump during a visit to Saudi Arabia earlier this month.
The sanctions relief extends to Syria’s new government with conditions that the country does not provide safe haven for terrorist organizations and ensure security for religious and ethnic minorities, the US Treasury Department said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the waiver would “facilitate the provision of electricity, energy, water and sanitation, and enable a more effective humanitarian response across Syria.”
The authorization covers new investment in Syria, provision of financial services and transactions involving Syrian petroleum products.
“Today’s actions represent the first step on delivering on the president’s vision of a new relationship between Syria and the United States,” Rubio said.
The United States had imposed sweeping restrictions on financial transactions with Syria during the country’s 14-year civil war and made clear it would use sanctions to punish anyone involved in reconstruction as long as Assad remained in power.
Since Assad’s ouster, Syria’s new government, led by Islamist former rebels, some of them with past links to Al-Qaeda, has been looking to build relations with Western governments and roll back sanctions.
Israeli soldiers and former detainees detail widespread use of human shields in Gaza
- Palestinians and soldiers claim the Israeli military is forcing civilians to act as human shields in Gaza.
- Despite Israel's refutes, human rights groups say Israeli military used human shields in Gaza and the West Bank for decades.
TEL AVIV: The only times the Palestinian man wasn’t bound or blindfolded, he said, was when he was used by Israeli soldiers as their human shield.
Dressed in army fatigues with a camera fixed to his forehead, Ayman Abu Hamadan was forced into houses in the Gaza Strip to make sure they were clear of bombs and gunmen, he said. When one unit finished with him, he was passed to the next.
“They beat me and told me: ‘You have no other option; do this or we’ll kill you,’” the 36-year-old told The Associated Press, describing the 2-1/2 weeks he was held last summer by the Israeli military in northern Gaza.
Orders often came from the top, and at times nearly every platoon used a Palestinian to clear locations, said an Israeli officer, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
Several Palestinians and soldiers told the AP that Israeli troops are systematically forcing Palestinians to act as human shields in Gaza, sending them into buildings and tunnels to check for explosives or militants. The dangerous practice has become ubiquitous during 19 months of war, they said.
In response to these allegations, Israel’s military says it strictly prohibits using civilians as shields — a practice it has long accused Hamas of using in Gaza. Israeli officials blame the militants for the civilian death toll in its offensive that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.
In a statement to the AP, the military said it also bans otherwise coercing civilians to participate in operations, and “all such orders are routinely emphasized to the forces.”
The military said it’s investigating several cases alleging that Palestinians were involved in missions, but wouldn’t provide details. It didn’t answer questions about the reach of the practice or any orders from commanding officers.
The AP spoke with seven Palestinians who described being used as shields in Gaza and the occupied West Bank and with two members of Israel’s military who said they engaged in the practice, which is prohibited by international law. Rights groups are ringing the alarm, saying it’s become standard procedure increasingly used in the war.
“These are not isolated accounts; they point to a systemic failure and a horrifying moral collapse,” said Nadav Weiman, executive director of Breaking the Silence — a whistleblower group of former Israeli soldiers that has collected testimonies about the practice from within the military. “Israel rightly condemns Hamas for using civilians as human shields, but our own soldiers describe doing the very same.”
Abu Hamadan said he was detained in August after being separated from his family, and soldiers told him he’d help with a “special mission.” He was forced, for 17 days, to search houses and inspect every hole in the ground for tunnels, he said.
Soldiers stood behind him and, once it was clear, entered the buildings to damage or destroy them, he said. He spent each night bound in a dark room, only to wake up and do it again.
The use of human shields ‘caught on like fire’
Rights groups say Israel has used Palestinians as shields in Gaza and the West Bank for decades. The Supreme Court outlawed the practice in 2005. But the groups continued to document violations.
Still, experts say this war is the first time in decades the practice — and the debate around it — has been so widespread.
The two Israeli soldiers who spoke to the AP — and a third who provided testimony to Breaking the Silence — said commanders were aware of the use of human shields and tolerated it, with some giving orders to do so. Some said it was referred to as the “mosquito protocol” and that Palestinians were also referred to as “wasps” and other dehumanizing terms.
The soldiers — who said they’re no longer serving in Gaza — said the practice sped up operations, saved ammunition, and spared combat dogs from injury or death.
The soldiers said they first became aware human shields were being used shortly after the war erupted on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, and that it became widespread by the middle of 2024. Orders to “bring a mosquito” often came via radio, they said — shorthand everyone understood. Soldiers acted on commanding officers’ orders, according to the officer who spoke to the AP.
He said that by the end of his nine months in Gaza, every infantry unit used a Palestinian to clear houses before entering.
“Once this idea was initiated, it caught on like fire in a field,” the 26-year-old said. “People saw how effective and easy it was.”
He described a 2024 planning meeting where a brigade commander presented to the division commander a slide reading “get a mosquito” and a suggestion they might “just catch one off the streets.”
The officer wrote two incident reports to the brigade commander detailing the use of human shields, reports that would have been escalated to the division chief, he said. The military said it had no comment when asked whether it received them.
One report documented the accidental killing of a Palestinian, he said — troops didn’t realize another unit was using him as a shield and shot him as he ran into a house. The officer recommended the Palestinians be dressed in army clothes to avoid misidentification.
He said he knew of at least one other Palestinian who died while used as a shield — he passed out in a tunnel.
Troops unsuccessfully pushed back, a sergeant says
Convincing soldiers to operate lawfully when they see their enemy using questionable practices is difficult, said Michael Schmitt, a distinguished professor of international law at the US Military Academy at West Point. Israeli officials and other observers say Hamas uses civilians as shields as it embeds itself in communities, hiding fighters in hospitals and schools.
“It’s really a heavy lift to look at your own soldiers and say you have to comply,” Schmitt said.
One soldier told the AP his unit tried to refuse to use human shields in mid-2024 but were told they had no choice, with a high-ranking officer saying they shouldn’t worry about international humanitarian law.
The sergeant — speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal — said the troops used a 16-year-old and a 30-year-old for a few days.
The boy shook constantly, he said, and both repeated “Rafah, Rafah” — Gaza’s southernmost city, where more than 1 million Palestinians had fled from fighting elsewhere at that point in the war.
It seemed they were begging to be freed, the sergeant said.
‘I have children,’ one man says he pleaded
Masoud Abu Saeed said he was used as a shield for two weeks in March 2024 in the southern city of Khan Younis.
“This is extremely dangerous,” he recounted telling a soldier. “I have children and want to reunite with them.”
The 36-year-old said he was forced into houses, buildings and a hospital to dig up suspected tunnels and clear areas. He said he wore a first-responder vest for easy identification, carrying a phone, hammer and chain cutters.
During one operation, he bumped into his brother, used as a shield by another unit, he said.
They hugged. “I thought Israel’s army had executed him,” he said.
Palestinians also report being used as shields in the West Bank.
Hazar Estity said soldiers took her Jenin refugee camp home in November, forcing her to film inside several apartments and clear them before troops entered.
She said she pleaded to return to her 21-month-old son, but soldiers didn’t listen.
“I was most afraid that they would kill me,” she said. “And that I wouldn’t see my son again.”
Trump administration takes first steps in easing sanctions on Syria
- Syrians and their supporters have celebrated the sanctions relief but say they need them lifted permanently
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration granted Syria sweeping exemptions from sanctions Friday in a big first step toward fulfilling the president’s pledge to lift a half-century of penalties on a country devastated by civil war.
The measures from the State and Treasury departments waived for six months a tough set of sanctions imposed by Congress in 2019 and expanded US rules for what foreign businesses can do in Syria, now led by Ahmad Al-Sharaa, a former militia commander who helped drive longtime leader Bashar Assad from power late last year.
It follows President Donald Trump’s announcement last week that the US would roll back heavy financial penalties targeting Syria’s former autocratic rulers — in a bid to give the new interim government a better chance of survival after the 13-year war.
The congressional sanctions, known as the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, aimed to isolate Syria’s previous ruling Assad family by effectively expelling those doing business with them from the global financial system.
If we engage them, it may work out, it may not work out. If we do not engage them, it was guaranteed to not work out
Marco Rubio
“These waivers will facilitate the provision of electricity, energy, water, and sanitation, and enable a more effective humanitarian response across Syria,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. “The President has made clear his expectation that relief will be followed by prompt action by the Syrian government on important policy priorities.”
Syrians and their supporters have celebrated the sanctions relief but say they need them lifted permanently to secure the tens of billions of dollars in investment and business needed for reconstruction after a war that fragmented the country, displaced or killed millions of people, and left thousands of foreign fighters in the country.
The Trump administration said Friday’s announcements were “just one part of a broader US government effort to remove the full architecture of sanctions.” Those were imposed on Syria’s former rulers over the decades because of their support for Iranian-backed militias, a chemical weapons program and abuses of civilians.
A welcome US announcement in Syria
People danced in the streets of Damascus after Trump announced in Saudi Arabia last week that he would be ordering a “cessation” of sanctions against Syria.
“We’re taking them all off,” Trump said a day before meeting Al-Sharaa. “Good luck, Syria. Show us something special.”
Rubio told lawmakers this week that sanctions relief must start quickly because Syria’s transition government could be weeks from “collapse and a full-scale civil war of epic proportions.”
But asked what sanctions relief should look like overall, Rubio gave a one-word explanation: “Incremental.”
Syria’s interim leaders “didn’t pass their background check with the FBI,” Rubio told lawmakers. The group that Al-Sharaa led, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, was originally affiliated with Al-Qaeda, although it later renounced ties and took a more moderate tone. It is still listed by the US as a terrorist organization.
But Al-Sharaa’s government could be the best chance for rebuilding the country and avoiding a power vacuum that could allow a resurgence of the Daesh and other extremist groups.
“If we engage them, it may work out, it may not work out. If we do not engage them, it was guaranteed to not work out,” Rubio said.
Debate within the Trump administration
While some sanctions can be quickly lifted or waived through executive actions like those taken Friday, Congress would have to permanently remove the penalties it imposed.
The congressional sanctions specifically block postwar reconstruction. Although they can be waived for 180 days by executive order, investors are likely to be wary of reconstruction projects when sanctions could be reinstated after six months.
Some Trump administration officials are pushing for relief as fast as possible without demanding tough conditions first. Others have proposed a phased approach, giving short-term waivers right away on some sanctions then tying extensions or a wider executive order to Syria meeting conditions. Doing so could substantially slow — or even permanently prevent — longer-term relief.
That would impede the interim government’s ability to attract investment and rebuild Syria after the war, critics say.
Proposals were circulating among administration officials, including one shared this week that broadly emphasized taking all the action possible, as fast as possible, to help Syria rebuild, according to a US official familiar with the plan who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
Another proposal — from State Department staff — that circulated last week proposes a three-phase road map, starting with short-term waivers then laying out sweeping requirements for future phases of relief or permanent lifting of sanctions, the official said.
Removing “Palestinian terror groups” from Syria is first on the list of conditions to get to the second phase. Supporters of sanctions relief say that might be impossible, given the subjectivity of determining which groups meet that definition and at what point they can be declared removed.
Other conditions for moving to the second phase are for the new government to take custody of detention facilities housing Islamic State fighters and to move forward on absorbing a US-backed Kurdish force into the Syrian army.
To get to phase three, Syria would be required to join the Abraham Accords — normalized relations with Israel — and to prove that it had destroyed the previous government’s chemical weapons.
Israel has been suspicious of the new government, although Syrian officials have said publicly that they do not want a conflict with Israel. Since Assad fell, Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes and seized a UN-patrolled buffer zone in Syria.
NGO calls for probe of US-backed Gaza aid group
GENEVA: Swiss authorities should investigate the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a controversial US-backed group preparing to move aid into the Gaza Strip, justice watchdog TRIAL International said on Friday.
Describing the foundation as a private security company, it said aid distribution should be left to UN organizations and humanitarian agencies.
“The dire humanitarian situation in Gaza requires an immediate response,” TRIAL International’s executive director, Philip Grant, said in a statement.
“However, the planned use of private security companies leads to a risky militarization of aid,” he added.
That, he argued, “is not justified in a context where the UN and humanitarian NGOs have the impartiality, resources, and expertise necessary to distribute this aid without delay to the civilian population.”
TRIAL International said it had filed legal submissions calling on Switzerland, where GHF is registered, to check that the group was complying with its own statutes and the Swiss legal system.
FASTFACT
Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 3,673 people had been killed in the territory since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,822, mostly civilians.
The GHF has said it will distribute some 300 million meals in its first 90 days of operation.
But the UN and traditional aid agencies have already said they will not cooperate with the group, which some have accused of working with Israel.
On Thursday, the UN cited concerns about “impartiality, neutrality, and independence.”
Aid began trickling into the Gaza Strip on Monday for the first time in more than two months, amid mounting condemnation of an Israeli blockade that has sparked severe shortages of food and medicine.
Israel launched its war on Gaza after the October 2023 attack.
On Friday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 3,673 people had been killed in the territory since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,822, mostly civilians.
