More Gazan deaths at aid site as Israel continues attacks in Syria

TOP HEADLINES

• At least 20 Palestinians have been killed at an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). READ MORE BELOW

• The Israeli military said it had finished paving a new road in southern Gaza separating several towns east of Khan Younis from the rest of the territory in an effort to disrupt Hamas operations.

• The Israeli military said it had attacked the entrance gate of the Syrian military headquarters in the capital Damascus, while Syria's state news agency reported that Israeli drones had targeted the city of Sweida. READ MORE BELOW

• U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said he has asked Israel to "aggressively" investigate the murder of an American citizen who was beaten to death in the West Bank, allegedly by Israeli settlers.

• One in 10 children screened in clinics run by the United Nations refugee agency in Gaza since 2024 has been malnourished, the agency said on Tuesday.

• EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc was leaving the door open to action against Israel over the war in Gaza if the humanitarian situation does not improve.

IN DETAIL

More deaths at a GHF aid distribution center

At least 20 Palestinians were killed on Wednesday at an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), in what the U.S.-backed group said was a crowd surge instigated by armed agitators.

The Gaza health ministry disputed this explanation, saying tear gas was fired at the crowd, causing panic and a subsequent stampede.

The GHF, which is supported by Israel, said 19 people were trampled and one fatally stabbed during the crush at one of its centers in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

"We have credible reason to believe that elements within the crowd – armed and affiliated with Hamas – deliberately fomented the unrest," GHF said in a statement.

There has been no immediate comment from Hamas.

Palestinian health officials told Reuters 21 people had died of suffocation at the site. One medic said lots of people had been crammed into a small space and had been crushed.

A Gaza health ministry statement said: "Twenty-one citizens were killed, including 15 who died of suffocation as a result of tear gas fired at the starving people and the subsequent stampede at the American aid distribution center (death traps), south of Khan Yunis, since dawn today."

On Tuesday, the U.N. rights office in Geneva said it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks in the vicinity of aid sites and food convoys in Gaza - the majority of them close to GHF distribution points.

Most of those deaths were caused by gunfire that locals have blamed on the Israeli military. The military has acknowledged that Palestinian civilians were harmed near aid distribution centers, saying that Israeli forces had been issued new instructions with "lessons learned".

The GHF uses private U.S. security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a U.N.-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the accusation.

The U.N. has called the GHF's model unsafe and a breach of humanitarian impartiality standards - an allegation GHF has denied.

Israel steps up Syria strikes

Israel's military said it struck the entrance to the Syrian defense ministry in Damascus on Wednesday, stepping up attacks with the declared aim of protecting the Druze minority from harm by government forces.

It marked the third day in a row that Israel has struck Syria where government security forces have clashed with local Druze fighters in the southern city of Sweida.

Security sources from within the defense ministry said that at least two drone strikes had hit the building and that officers were taking cover in the basement. State-owned Elekhbariya TV said the Israeli strike wounded two civilians.

The Israeli military said it had "struck the entrance gate of the Syrian regime's military headquarters complex" in Damascus and that it continued "to monitor developments and the actions being taken against Druze civilians in southern Syria".

Syria's state media and witnesses said Israeli strikes throughout Wednesday also struck the predominantly Druze city of Sweida, where a fourth day of fighting swiftly collapsed a ceasefire announced the previous evening.