THE Israeli army has launched air attacks on the Syrian Defence Ministry and near the presidential palace in the capital, Damascus, killing at least three and wounding 34.
The strikes come after Israel threatened to increase attacks if Syrian government forces are not withdrawn from the south of the country where there has been fighting between Druze and security forces.
In the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, the Health Ministry says at least 21 people have been killed at a food distribution site of the controversial US- and Israeli-backed GHF.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health has disputed the allegation from the controversial United States- and Israel-backed organisation that armed agitators were responsible for the incident on Wednesday morning at the site in Khan Younis.
In an earlier statement, the GHF had said 19 victims were trampled and another was stabbed “amid a chaotic and dangerous surge”.
Without providing any evidence, it said the stampede had been provoked by “elements within the crowd – armed and affiliated with Hamas”.
The statement also claimed that GHF staff saw multiple weapons in the crowd and that one of its US contractors was threatened with a gun.
However, Palestinian witnesses and authorities have vehemently contested the GHF’s version of events.
One survivor told Al Jazeera, “We were running like everyone else. We got to the gate and realized that it was closed, thousands of people were there. The Americans fired tear gas into the crowd to disperse them which caused a stampede and many people died while being crushed by the crowd”.
Gaza’s Health Ministry released a statement saying 21 Palestinians had been killed at the GHF site on Wednesday. It noted that 15 of the victims died as a result of a stampede and suffocation after tear gas was fired at crowds of aid seekers.
“️For the first time, deaths have been recorded due to suffocation and the intense stampede of citizens at aid distribution centres,” the ministry added.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says one in 10 children screened in its clinics in Gaza are malnourished as Israel’s siege on the triggers triggers a man-made starvation crisis.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 58,573 people and wounded 139,607, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks, and more than 200 were taken captive.