An Israeli strike hit near a charity kitchen in Gaza as Palestinians
gathered for food
[April 08, 2025]
By WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli strike on Monday hit next to
a charity kitchen where Palestinians crowded to receive cooked meals as
food supplies dwindle under Israel's monthlong blockade of the Gaza
Strip, one of a string of attacks in the territory that killed more than
30 people, mostly women and children, hospital officials said.
Another strike hit a media tent outside a hospital, killing two people,
including a local reporter, and wounding six other journalists, medics
said. The Israeli military said the strike targeted a man whom it
identified as a Hamas militant posing as a journalist.
Video footage showed people carrying the body of a little girl, her face
covered with blood, from the blast that witnesses said hit a tent next
to the charity kitchen outside the southern city of Khan Younis. Six
other people were killed, including two women, and at least 10 people
were wounded, hospital officials said.
The strike hit around noon as the kitchen was distributing meals to
displaced people living in tent camps. Samah Abu Jamie said her nephew
was among those killed and her young daughter was wounded as they waited
with their pots to collect meals for their families.
“They were going to get food. I told her, ‘Daughter, don’t go',” she
said. “These were children, and they had nothing with them but a pot. Is
a pot a weapon?”
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strike.
'Bombed and starved again'
Charity kitchens have been drawing bigger crowds of Palestinians because
other sources of food are running out. More than a month ago, Israeli
cut off all food, fuel, medicine and other supplies for Gaza’s
population of more than 2 million people, forcing aid groups to ration
their stocks.
The World Food Program has warned that its supplies to keep kitchens
going could be depleted by next week. It had to stop distributing boxes
of food staples directly to families last week, spokesperson Abeer Etefa
said Monday. The bakeries it ran have also shut down for lack of flour,
ending a main source of bread for hundreds of thousands of people.
Since it ended its ceasefire with Hamas last month, Israel has carried
out bombardments across Gaza, killing hundreds of people, and ground
forces have carved out new military zones. Israel says it is pressuring
Hamas to free its remaining hostages, disarm and leave the territory.
Under the ceasefire deal, it had agreed to negotiate for the hostages’
release.
The heads of six U.N. agencies operating in Gaza said in a joint
statement Monday that the blockade has left Gaza’s population “trapped,
bombed and starved again.” They said Israeli claims that enough supplies
entered during the ceasefire “are far from the reality on the ground,
and commodities are running extremely low.”
“We are witnessing acts of war in Gaza that show an utter disregard for
human life,” they said. “Protect civilians. Facilitate aid. Release
hostages. Renew a ceasefire.”
Strikes hit journalists and homes
The strike outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis about 2 a.m. set the
media tent ablaze, killing Yousef al-Faqawi, a reporter for the
Palestine Today news website, and another man, according to hospital
officials.
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Palestinians search for survivors amid the debris of a building
destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on
Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
The military said the strike targeted Hassan Eslaiah, claiming he
was a Hamas militant who took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on
southern Israel that ignited the war. Eslaiah was among six
journalists who were wounded in the strike, according to the
hospital.
Eslaiah had occasionally contributed images to The Associated Press
and other international media outlets as a freelance journalist,
including on Oct. 7. The AP has not worked with him for over a year.
A strike that hit a street in Gaza City killed an emergency room
doctor, the Gaza Health Ministry said. Israel’s campaign has killed
more than 1,000 health workers and at least 173 journalists,
according to the U.N. and the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Hospitals in Khan Younis and the central town of Deir al-Balah said
they received the bodies of 33 people, 19 of them women and
children, from strikes overnight and into the day on Monday,
including those from the kitchen and the media tent attack.
Some of the strike reduced houses to rubble. Imad Maghari said the
blast that hit his neighbors in Deir al-Balah at 2 a.m. was like “an
earthquake,” followed by the screams of women and children. He said
one neighbor lost five family members and another a young boy.
“I don’t know what danger he poses. He’s 7 years old,” Maghari said.
Israel’s military offensive in retaliation for Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack
has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children,
according to the Gaza health ministry, whose count does not
distinguish between militants and civilians. The offensive has
destroyed vast areas of the Gaza Strip and displaced around 90% of
its population.
Israel says it tries to avoid civilian casualties and blames Hamas
for their deaths because it operates among the population.
In the Oct. 7 attack, Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people,
mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people. They are still holding 59
captives — 24 of whom are believed to be alive — after most of the
rest were released in ceasefires or other deals.
Protests in Israel as Netanyahu meets Trump
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with U.S. President
Donald Trump in Washington on Monday to discuss Gaza and other
issues.
Dozens of protesters gathered outside Netanyahu’s official residence
in Jerusalem to call for an agreement to release the captives. Many
fear that Netanyahu’s decision to resume the fighting has put the
remaining hostages in grave danger and hope Trump can help broker
another deal.
“Now the moment of truth has come,” said Varda Ben Baruch,
grandmother of Israeli American hostage Edan Alexander, addressing
Netanyahu. “You are in the United States and you have to sit there
with President Trump and close a deal so that everyone will be
released home.”
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