Category: 2. World

The award-winning Israeli author David Grossman has described his country’s campaign in Gaza as a genocide and said he now “can’t help” but use the term.

“I ask myself: how did we get here?” the celebrated writer and peace activist told the Italian daily La Repubblica in an interview published on Friday.

“How did we come to be accused of genocide? Just uttering that word – ‘genocide’ – in reference to Israel, to the Jewish people, that alone, the fact that this association can even be made, should be enough to tell us that something very wrong is happening to us.”

Grossman said that for many years he had refused to use the term. “But now I can’t help myself – not after what I’ve read in the papers, not after the images I’ve seen, not after speaking with people who’ve been there. This word is an avalanche: once you say it, it just gets bigger, like an avalanche. And it adds even more destruction and suffering,” he said.

Grossman’s comments come days after two major Israeli rights groups said Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, amid growing global alarm over starvation in the besieged territory.

The author, who has long been a critic of the Israeli government, told La Repubblica he was using the word “with immense pain and with a broken heart”.

“Reading in a newspaper or hearing in conversations with friends in Europe the association of the words ‘Israel’ and ‘hunger’ – especially when this comes from our own history, from our supposed sensitivity to human suffering, from the moral responsibility we’ve always claimed to hold toward every human being, not just toward Jews – this is devastating,” said Grossman, who won the country’s top literary prize, the Israel prize, in 2018 for his work spanning more than three decades.

“The occupation has corrupted us,” he said. “I am absolutely convinced that Israel’s curse began with the occupation of the Palestinian territories in 1967. Maybe people are tired of hearing about it, but that’s the truth. We’ve become militarily powerful, and we’ve fallen into the temptation born of our absolute power, and the idea that we can do anything.”

Asked what he thought of France and the UK being among the latest countries preparing to formally recognise a state of Palestine, Grossman said: “I actually think it’s a good idea, and I don’t understand the hysteria around it here in Israel. Maybe dealing with a real state, with real obligations, rather than a vague entity like the Palestinian Authority, will have its advantages. Of course, there would need to be very clear conditions: no weapons, and the guarantee of transparent elections from which anyone who advocates violence against Israel is excluded.”

He said he remained “desperately committed” to the two-state solution. “It will be complex, and both we and the Palestinians will need to act with political maturity in the face of the inevitable attacks that will come.” He added: “There is no other plan.”

United States President Donald Trump on Friday said he had ordered two nuclear submarines to be positioned in regions near Russia in response to threats from former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.

“I have ordered two nuclear submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

“Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences. I hope this will not be one of those instances.”

Trump did not say whether he meant nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed submarines. He also did not elaborate on the locations, which are kept secret by the US military.

The United States and Russia control the vast majority of the world’s nuclear weaponry, and Washington keeps nuclear-armed submarines on patrol as part of its so-called nuclear triad of land, sea and air-launched weapons.

Trump and Medvedev, who is deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, traded taunts in recent days after Trump on Tuesday said Russia had “10 days from today” to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine or be hit, along with its oil buyers, with tariffs.

Moscow, which has set out its own terms for peace in Ukraine, has shown no sign that it will comply with Trump’s deadline.

Medvedev on Monday accused Trump of engaging in a “game of ultimatums” and reminded him that Russia possessed Soviet-era nuclear strike capabilities of last resort after Trump told Medvedev to “watch his words”.

In response to a post by US Senator Lindsey Graham reiterating America’s seriousness to reach a peace deal, the former Russian president wrote: “It’s not for you or Trump to dictate when to ‘get at the peace table’. Negotiations will end when all the objectives of our military operation have been achieved.

“Work on America first, gramps!”

Medvedev has emerged as one of the Kremlin’s most outspoken anti-Western hawks since Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022. Kremlin critics deride him as an irresponsible loose cannon, though some Western diplomats say his statements illustrate the thinking in senior Kremlin policy-making circles.

Earlier today, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow hoped for more peace talks with Ukraine but that the momentum of the war was in its favour, signalling no shift in his stance despite a looming sanctions deadline from Washington.

Trump has said he will impose new sanctions on Moscow and countries that buy its energy exports — of which the biggest are China and India — unless Russia moves by August 8 to end the three-and-a-half-year war.

Trump has expressed mounting frustration with Putin, accusing him of “bullshit” and describing Russia’s latest attacks on Ukraine as “disgusting”.

Putin, without referring to the Trump deadline, said three sessions of peace talks with Ukraine had yielded some positive results, and Russia was expecting negotiations to continue.

“As for any disappointments on the part of anyone, all disappointments arise from inflated expectations. This is a well-known general rule,” he said.

“But in order to approach the issue peacefully, it is necessary to conduct detailed conversations. And not in public, but this must be done calmly, in the quiet of the negotiation process.”

He said Russian troops were attacking Ukraine along the entire front line and that the momentum was in their favour, citing the announcement by his defence ministry on Thursday that Moscow’s forces had captured the Ukrainian town of Chasiv Yar after a 16-month battle.

Ukraine denied that Chasiv Yar was under full Russian control.

Kyiv has, for months, been urging an immediate ceasefire, but Russia says it wants a final and durable settlement, not a pause. Since the peace talks began in Istanbul in May, it has conducted some of its heaviest air strikes of the war, especially on the capital Kyiv.

The Ukrainian government has said the Russian negotiators do not have the mandate to make significant decisions and that President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on Putin to meet him for talks.

“We understand who makes the decisions in Russia and who must end this war. The whole world understands this too,” Zelensky said on Friday on X, reiterating his call for direct talks between him and Putin.

“The United States has proposed this. Ukraine has supported it. What is needed is Russia’s readiness.” Russia says a leaders’ meeting could only take place to set the seal on agreements reached by negotiators.

Ukraine and its European allies have frequently said they do not believe Putin is really interested in peace and have accused him of stalling, which the Kremlin denies.

“I will repeat once again, we need a long and lasting peace on good foundations that would satisfy both Russia and Ukraine, and ensure the security of both countries,” Putin said, adding that this was also a question of European security.

Putin was speaking alongside his ally Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, at talks on an island in Lake Ladoga that is the site of a famous Russian monastery.

Russian TV earlier showed the two men greeting monks at the Valaam Monastery, where they have met several times before, and holding candles during the chanting of prayers.

Ukrainians mourn 31 killed in Russian strike on Kyiv

Meanwhile, Ukrainian rescuers recovered more than a dozen more bodies from the rubble of a collapsed apartment block in Kyiv overnight, bringing the death toll from Russia’s worst air strike of the year on Ukraine’s capital to 31.

A two-year-old was among the five children found dead after Thursday’s sweeping Russian drone and missile attack, Zelensky said on Friday, announcing the end of a more than 24-hour-long rescue operation.

A total of 159 people were wounded in the multi-wave strike, in which Russia launched more than 300 drones and eight missiles early on Thursday, the latest in a campaign of fierce strikes on Ukrainian towns and cities.

The worst damage was to an apartment building that partially collapsed in the Sviatoshyn district in western Kyiv. Damage was also reported in at least three other districts of the capital.

Natalia Matviyenko, 65, sitting near the damaged apartment building, said she did not place much faith in Trump’s tough rhetoric.

“Trump just says, ‘I’m upset with President Putin’s behaviour.’ And what? No results,” she said.

The US leader, who returned to power on a pledge to swiftly end the war, has in recent weeks rolled back his earlier conciliatory approach toward Moscow and signalled openness to arming Ukraine.

But a diplomatic effort to end the war has stalled, with Moscow not backing down from what Kyiv and its allies describe as maximalist demands.

‘Will Putin listen?’

On Friday, mourners laid flowers and lit candles at the wrecked apartment block, where rumbling excavators hoisted heavy pieces of rubble. The makeshift shrine included brightly coloured stuffed animals.

Oksana Kinal, 43, who was placing flowers to honour a co-worker who had been killed alongside a son, said she hoped Trump would follow up on his threat but also expressed doubt.

“I think America has a lot of points of leverage that can be used against Russia,” she said. “But will Putin listen to this? I don’t know.”

Kyiv’s air force said on Friday that Ukrainian air defences had destroyed more than 6,000 drones and missiles across the country in July alone.

“The world possesses every instrument required to ensure Russia is brought to justice,” Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko wrote on X on Friday. “What is lacking is not power but will.”

Additional input from AFP.

Olga Cherevko, a staff member at the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Gaza, has said that while Israel is now letting slightly more aid into the enclave, its vast bureaucratic restrictions on aid flow have continued to make it impossible to reverse widespread malnutrition.

“The slight increase in what is coming in is not nearly enough to even scratch the surface to meet the people’s needs here on the ground,” Cherevko told Al Jazeera from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.

She described Palestinians as continuing to suffer “depths of despair, depths of malnutrition and starvation”.

A major reason more aid trucks aren’t entering Gaza, she said, is that the UN must coordinate every step of the delivery process with Israel, which often extensively delays approvals and clearances.

On 5 August 2024, Sheikh Hasina resigned as prime minister of Bangladesh and fled the country, the culmination of a student uprising that saw the most widespread participation of women in street protests in Bangladesh’s history.

Armed with sticks and stones, Bangladeshi women headed marches and stood defiant against riot police and the military. Their presence became a defining image of a revolution that has rewritten Bangladesh’s political and social narrative.

The uprising led to the establishment of an interim government under the Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, which has focused on stabilising the country. But in the wake of the political shift, many women still feel they are not being heard. In May, thousands joined the Women’s March for Solidarity demanding the government take action to ensure women’s rights and safety.

Here, five Bangladeshi women share their experiences of what life has been like for them over the past year, and suggest the changes they think need to be made.

Umama Fatema, student activist

When Umama Fatema persuaded a group of fellow female students at Dhaka University to leave their dormitories to join one of the protests last year, she had no idea how far things would go.

“Everything happened so quickly and soon the uprising spread to every corner of the country,” says Fatema, a student activist and key coordinator of the July protests.

“It is because of women that the movement became a people’s revolution. Without women, none of it would have been possible.”

But one year on, Bangladesh’s student movement has fractured and optimism is waning.

“The movement raised important questions regarding governance, accountability and women’s rights, which remain unresolved,” Fatema says. “Instead of addressing them, people have focused on forging their own political paths.”

Fatema says that after a while, the atmosphere became so toxic that women’s participation in the movement quickly began to drop. Until recently, she was the spokesperson for Students Against Discrimination, the organisation that spearheaded the student revolution.

“If women are included merely as tokens, they hold no real power,” says Fatema. “As a result, issues like rape and sexual harassment are not given proper attention by the state because within the existing power structure of Bangladesh, women are still considered secondary.”

Fatema argues that the interim government’s lack of decisive action has led to growing public frustration. “People expected swift justice, but the process has moved too slowly,” she says. “All this talk about reform and justice for the dead now feels like empty promises.”

Shompa Akhter, garment worker

Shompa Akhter has worked in Bangladesh’s garment industry for nearly two decades. In her village in Kushtia, western Bangladesh, there are few opportunities for women, so like many, she moved to the capital in search of work.

Employed at a factory on the outskirts of Dhaka, Akhter works long hours and earns roughly 15,000 taka (£90) a month – not nearly enough for her family to get by.

“The cost of everything has gone up – rice, lentils, vegetables, oil and gas – but our wages haven’t kept pace,” says Akhter.

“My children’s school fees are a constant worry. We skip nutritious meals just to cover that. And God help us if any of them falls ill! I often have to borrow money from family or loan sharks just to make ends meet.”

Akhter recently took part in protests demanding higher wages and better working conditions for Bangladesh’s 4.4 million garment workers, the majority of whom are women. The garment sector, considered the lifeblood of the country’s economy, contributes $47bn (£35bn) annually, amounting to 82% of total export earnings.

“We garment workers keep the factories running and yet we are treated as disposable,” says Akhter. “But our voices matter and we demand wages that reflect our labour and allow us to live with dignity.”

“Being a woman in Bangladesh still means fighting for your place – whether it’s in your home, workplace or community,” Akhter adds. “My dream is for my daughters to grow up in a country where they don’t have to fight just to be heard.

“The government must bring us to the negotiating table,” she says. “Women need to be involved at every level of decision-making if we want real, lasting change in Bangladesh.”

Triaana Hafiz, transgender model

When the transgender model Triaana Hafiz moved to Dhaka in 2023, she thought things might be different. Growing up in Khulna, south-west Bangladesh, she faced constant discrimination and harassment.

“I knew I was different and so did everyone else. I tried to keep my head down but society would not allow me to exist, even quietly,” says Hafiz.

“It got so bad, I thought about committing suicide on multiple occasions.”

Her big break came when she landed a modelling job in the capital. “It wasn’t easy but in Dhaka I felt I could finally start living my life as I truly am. I found a beautiful community of open-minded people who didn’t question or belittle my identity as a transgender woman.”

When the student protests broke out in 2024, Hafiz felt hopeful. “The main motto of the revolution was that there would be no more discrimination,” she says.

“I am not so naive as to think this automatically applied to me. But I had hoped that this younger generation of leaders would be more tolerant and inclusive.

“If anything, in the past year, discrimination has gotten worse, with politicians openly spreading transphobic hate,” she says.

Hafiz wants the interim government to incorporate the rights of people with diverse gender identities into new and reformed laws.

“Everyone in the new Bangladesh has the right to live with dignity and security,” she says. “We need to be a country where diversity is celebrated, not just tolerated; one where everyone belongs, regardless of gender, sex, religion, ethnicity or class.”

Rani Yan Yan, Indigenous rights defender

The Indigenous rights defender Rani Yan Yan hails from the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in south-east Bangladesh, which has for decades been a site of ethnic conflict, violence from the military and Bengali settlers, displacement and tension.

The region has long had a significant military presence, which has been linked to human rights violations and the suppression of Indigenous rights, including killings, enforced disappearances, land confiscation and sexual violence against Indigenous women and girls.

In 2018, Yan Yan was violently beaten by members of the security forces while helping two girls from her community who had been sexually assaulted.

In May this year, an Indigenous woman, Chingma Khyang, was brutally gang-raped and murdered. “This attack was typical of hundreds that have occurred over the years, where perpetrators have been granted impunity,” says Yan Yan.

“The interim government must immediately put an end to the culture of impunity that has long persisted in the Hill Tracts.”

In June, human rights group Ain o Salish Kendra warned of a serious failure of the state to protect women and a breakdown in security. The organisation has urged the government to send a clear and firm message that such barbarity has no place in Bangladesh.

“There is still so much work to be done, but as a priority, we must ensure that the rule of law prevails in Bangladesh, with an open and democratic government that is accountable to all its citizens,” says Yan Yan.

Samanta Shermeen, political newcomer

Samanta Shermeen was recently elected senior joint convener of the National Citizen party.

“During the [July] uprising, we saw Bangladeshi women play an extremely active and powerful role. But since then, they have been systematically sidelined,” says Shermeen.

“If we can’t give women the proper respect and recognition they deserve, the revolution would have been for nothing.”

Earlier this year, she condemned attacks by radicals who vandalised a pitch ahead of a women’s football match. “It was a blatant act of misogyny and a violation of the principles that underpin Bangladesh’s core values,” Shermeen says.

“Despite this, our women’s national football team has just qualified for the final round of the Women’s Asian Cup for the first time,” she says proudly.

“Bangladeshi women are unstoppable. The more you try to hold us back, the more determined we are to succeed,” Shermeen says. “The revolution proved that – and it was only just the beginning.”

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Plans announced by France, the United Kingdom and Canada to recognize a Palestinian state won’t bring one about anytime soon, though they could further isolate Israel and strengthen the Palestinians’ negotiating position over the long term.

The problem for the Palestinians is that there may not be a long term.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects Palestinian statehood and has vowed to maintain open-ended control over annexed east Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank and the war-ravaged Gaza Strip — territories Israel seized in the 1967 war that the Palestinians want for their state.

Israeli leaders favor the outright annexation of much of the West Bank, where Israel has already built well over 100 settlements housing over 500,000 Jewish settlers. Israel’s offensive in Gaza has reduced most of it to a smoldering wasteland and is pushing it toward famine, and Israel says it is pressing ahead with plans to relocate much of its population of some 2 million to other countries.

The United States, the only country with any real leverage over Israel, has taken its side.

Palestinians have welcomed international support for their decades-long quest for statehood but say there are more urgent measures Western countries could take if they wanted to pressure Israel.

“It’s a bit odd that the response to daily atrocities in Gaza, including what is by all accounts deliberate starvation, is to recognize a theoretical Palestinian state that may never actually come into being,” said Khaled Elgindy, a visiting scholar at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.

“It looks more like a way for these countries to appear to be doing something,” he said.

Fathi Nimer, a policy fellow at Al-Shabaka, a Palestinian think tank, says they could have suspended trade agreements with Israel, imposed arms embargoes or other sanctions. “There is a wide tool set at the disposal of these countries, but there is no political will to use it,” he said.

Most countries in the world recognized Palestinian statehood decades ago, but Britain and France would be the third and fourth permanent members of the U.N. Security Council to do so, leaving the U.S. as the only holdout.

“We’re talking about major countries and major Israeli allies,” said Alon Pinkas, an Israeli political analyst and former consul general in New York. “They’re isolating the U.S. and they’re leaving Israel dependent — not on the U.S., but on the whims and erratic behavior of one person, Trump.”

Recognition could also strengthen moves to prevent annexation, said Hugh Lovatt, an expert on the conflict at the European Council on Foreign Relations. The challenge, he said, “is for those recognizing countries to match their recognition with other steps, practical steps.”

It could also prove significant if Israel and the Palestinians ever resume the long-dormant peace process, which ground to a halt after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to office in 2009.

“If and when some kind of negotiations do resume, probably not in the immediate future, but at some point, it puts Palestine on much more equal footing,” said Julie Norman, a professor of Middle East politics at University College London.

“It has statehood as a starting point for those negotiations, rather than a certainly-not-assured endpoint.”

Israel’s government and most of its political class were opposed to Palestinian statehood long before Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack triggered the war.

Netanyahu says creating a Palestinian state would reward Hamas and eventually lead to an even larger Hamas-run state on Israel’s borders. Hamas leaders have at times suggested they would accept a state on the 1967 borders but the group remains formally committed to Israel’s destruction.

Western countries envision a future Palestinian state that would be democratic but also led by political rivals of Hamas who accept Israel and help it suppress the militant group, which won parliamentary elections in 2006 and seized power in Gaza the following year.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose authority administers parts of the occupied West Bank, supports a two-state solution and cooperates with Israel on security matters. He has made a series of concessions in recent months, including announcing the end to the Palestinian Authority’s practice of providing stipends to the families of prisoners held by Israel and slain militants.

Such measures, along with the security coordination, have made it deeply unpopular with Palestinians, and have yet to earn it any favors from Israel or the Trump administration. Israel says Abbas is not sincerely committed to peace and accuses him of tolerating incitement and militancy.

Lovatt says there is much to criticize about the PA, but that “often the failings of the Palestinian leadership are exaggerated in a way to relieve Israel of its own obligations.”

If you had told Palestinians in September 2023 that major countries were on the verge of recognizing a state, that the U.N.’s highest court had ordered Israel to end the occupation, that the International Criminal Court had ordered Netanyahu’s arrest, and that prominent voices from across the U.S. political spectrum were furious with Israel, they might have thought their dream of statehood was at hand.

But those developments pale in comparison to the ongoing war in Gaza and smaller but similarly destructive military offensives in the West Bank. Israel’s military victories over Iran and its allies have left it the dominant and nearly unchallenged military power in the region, and Trump is the strongest supporter it has ever had in the White House.

“This (Israeli) government is not going to change policy,” Pinkas said. “The recognition issue, the ending of the war, humanitarian aid — that’s all going to have to wait for another government.” 

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia on Friday welcomed the return of two wounded soldiers who had been captured by the Thai army after the two sides had already implemented a ceasefire to end five days of combat over competing territorial claims.

Their repatriation comes amid accusations and bickering over whether either side had targeted civilians and breached the laws of war, and sharp nationalist feuding on social media.

The rest of a 20-member group of Cambodian soldiers captured on Tuesday in one of the disputed pockets of land over which the two sides were fighting remain in Thai hands, and Cambodian officials are demanding their release.

The two countries have given differing accounts of the circumstances of the capture. Cambodian officials say their soldiers approached the Thai position with friendly intentions to offer post-fighting greetings, while Thai officials said the Cambodians appeared to have hostile intent and entered what Thailand considers its territory, so were taken prisoner.

Cambodian Defense Ministry Spokesperson Maly Socheata confirmed that the two wounded soldiers had been handed over at a border checkpoint between Thailand’s Surin province and Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey province, and urged the Thai side to promptly repatriate the remaining personnel in accordance with “international humanitarian law.”

Thailand says it has been following international legal procedures and was holding the remaining 18 soldiers until it could investigate their actions.

A statement issued Friday by Thailand’s 2nd Army Region identified the two repatriated Cambodian soldiers as a sergeant with a broken arm and a gash on his hip, and a second lieutenant who appeared to be suffering from battle fatigue and needed care from his family. It said both men had taken an oath not to engage in further hostilities against Thailand.

Neither man nor the others in Thai custody have been made available for interviews by neutral third parties.

The Cambodian Human Rights Committee, which is a government agency, released a letter addressed to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights claiming that the two soldiers had been tortured and denied medical care.

The letter, which offered no evidence to back up its claims, demanded among other measures an “impartial investigation by the United Nations or relevant international bodies” into its allegations.

There were other peaceful activities on Friday on both sides of the border as both countries staged tours of the former battle areas for foreign diplomats and other observers, highlighting damage allegedly caused by the other side. The two countries continue to accuse each other of having violated the laws of war with attacks on civilians and the illegal use of weapons.

More than three dozen people, civilian and soldiers, were killed in the fighting, which in addition to infantry battles included artillery duels and the firing of truck-mounted rockets by Cambodia, to which Thailand responded with airstrikes. More than 260,000 people in total were displaced from their homes.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, military representatives of both sides are supposed to meet next week to iron out details to avoid further clashes. However, the talks are not supposed to cover the competing territorial claims that are at the heart of decades-long tension between the two countries.

Partisans of both sides are also waging a war of words online, with Thailand accusing Cambodia of also carrying out malicious hacking. Both countries’ professional journalism societies have accused each other of spreading false information and other propaganda.

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BERLIN (Reuters) – German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul sought to tone down previous comments about his country’s position on Palestinian statehood during a trip to the West Bank on Friday, saying Germany had no immediate plans to recognise a Palestinian state.

Wadephul’s comment followed sharp criticism from Israeli officials over his earlier suggestion, before he left for the trip, that Germany could respond to any unilateral Israeli actions with recognition of a Palestinian state.

Far-right Israeli government minister Itamar Ben-Gvir had written on X: “80 years after the Holocaust, and Germany returns to supporting Nazism”.

After meeting Israel’s foreign minister, prime minister and president on Thursday evening, Wadephul explained on Friday that Germany did not plan to recognise a Palestinian state immediately, “as that is one of the final steps to be taken” as part of a two-state solution.

Wadephul’s attempt to clarify his remarks highlights Germany’s longstanding difficulty in taking a clear position on the issue, caught between growing international pressure to hold Israel accountable for its actions and Germany’s own post-Holocaust commitment to ensuring Israel’s security.

He called on Israel to ensure safe access for United Nations agencies to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, saying the current restrictions were worsening the crisis.

“The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza must end now,” Wadephul said, stressing that aid distribution through the UN had long worked effectively and needed to resume without obstacles.

He said Germany would provide an additional 5 million euros ($5.7 million) to the UN World Food Programme to support bakeries and soup kitchens and fund a field hospital in Gaza City.

Asked about Israeli concerns that aid could be diverted by Hamas, Wadephul acknowledged that misuse could not be fully ruled out but said it was no reason to block relief efforts.

“The best way to prevent Hamas from misusing supplies is to deliver more aid and ensure full coverage for the population,” he said.

He also condemned rising violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, adding that Berlin would continue pushing at the European level for sanctions on violent settlers.

The UN human rights office said Friday that 1,373 Palestinians have been killed while waiting for aid in the shortage-stricken Gaza Strip since late May, most of them by the Israeli military.

“In total, since 27 May, at least 1,373 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food; 859 in the vicinity of (US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation) sites and 514 along the routes of food convoys,” the UN agency’s office for the Palestinian territories said in a statement.

“Most of these killings were committed by the Israeli military,” it added.

Israeli fire killed 11 in Gaza

Gaza’s civil defence agency said 11 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and air strikes on Friday, including two who were waiting near an aid distribution site inside the Palestinian territory.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that five people were killed in a strike near the southern city of Khan Yunis, and four more in a separate strike on a vehicle in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah.

Read More: France to deliver 40 tonnes of emergency aid to Gaza

The Israeli army told AFP it could not confirm the strikes without specific coordinates.

Two other people were killed and more than 70 injured by Israeli fire while waiting for aid near a food distribution centre run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) between Khan Yunis and the nearby city of Rafah, the civil defence said.

The army did not immediately respond to the report.

Thousands of Gazans have gathered each day near aid distribution points in Gaza, including the four managed by GHF, whose operations have been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on people waiting to collect rations.

GHF has denied that fatal shootings have occurred in the immediate vicinity of its aid points.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency and other parties.

Israeli restrictions on the entry of goods and aid into Gaza since the start of the war nearly 22 months ago have led to shortages of food and essential goods, including medicine, medical supplies and fuel, which hospitals rely on to power their generators.

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The shortages were exacerbated by a more than two-month total blockade on aid imposed by Israel, which began easing the stoppage in late May as GHF was beginning its operations.

Israel’s defence ministry body overseeing civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, COGAT, said Friday that more than 200 trucks of aid had been collected and distributed by the UN and international organisations the previous day.

The UN says Gaza requires at least 500 trucks of aid per day.

COGAT added that four tankers of fuel for the UN had entered the Palestinian territory, and that 43 pallets of aid were airdropped in cooperation with the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Jordan.