Europe unveils a deal for more food and fuel for Gaza. Israeli strike
kills 15 outside a clinic
[July 11, 2025]
By WAFAA SHURAFA, SARAH EL DEEB, MELANIE LIDMAN and SAM
MCNEIL
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — European officials reached a new deal
with Israel to allow desperately needed food and fuel into Gaza, the
European Union’s foreign policy chief said Thursday, hours after an
Israeli airstrike killed 15 people, including 10 children, waiting for
help outside a medical clinic.
The children's deaths drew outrage from humanitarian groups even as
Israel allowed the first delivery of fuel to Gaza in more than four
months, though still less than a day's supply, according to the United
Nations.
“The killing of families trying to access life-saving aid is
unconscionable,” UNICEF's chief, Catherine Russell, said. “These were
mothers seeking a lifeline for their children after months of hunger and
desperation.”
The Israeli military said it was targeting a militant when it struck
near the clinic.
Security camera footage outside the clinic in the central Gaza city of
Deir al Balah showed about a dozen people squatting in front of the
clinic when a projectile explodes a few meters (yards) away, leaving
bodies scattered.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepared to leave
Washington after meetings with President Donald Trump, apparently
without finalizing a temporary ceasefire advocated by the White House.
A deal to increase aid
The deal announced by European officials could result in “more crossings
open, aid and food trucks entering Gaza, repair of vital infrastructure
and protection of aid workers,” said Kaja Kallas, the 27-member EU’s top
diplomat.
“We count on Israel to implement every measure agreed,” she said in a
post on social media.
Aid groups say Israeli military restrictions and recurring violence have
made it difficult to deliver assistance in Gaza even after Israel eased
its 2 1/2 month total blockade in May. Experts have warned the strip is
at risk of famine, 21 months into the Israel-Hamas war.
Kallas said the deal would reactivate aid corridors from Jordan and
Egypt and reopen community bakeries and kitchens across Gaza.
She said measures would be taken to prevent the militant Hamas group
from diverting aid. Israel has long accused Hamas of stealing aid and
selling it to finance militant activities. The U.N. says there is no
evidence for widespread diversion.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar acknowledged the deal while at a
conference in Vienna, saying it followed "our dialogue with the EU” and
that it includes "more trucks, more crossings and more routes for the
humanitarian efforts.”
Neither Saar not Kallas said whether the aid would go through the
U.N.-run system or an alternative, U.S.- and Israeli-backed mechanism
that has been marred by violence and controversy.
The U.N. said Israel had permitted a team to bring 75,000 liters of fuel
into Gaza, the first delivery allowed in 130 days. U.N. spokesman
Stephane Dujarric warned it wasn't enough to cover a single day's energy
needs in the territory and that services would shut down without more
shipments.
Israeli strikes kill at least 36
Israeli strikes pounded the Gaza Strip overnight and early Thursday,
killing at least 36 Palestinians, local hospitals and aid workers said.
The Israeli military said one soldier was killed in Gaza.
The 15 killed outside the clinic were waiting for nutritional
supplements, according to Project Hope, an aid group that runs the
facility. Along with the 10 children, two women were among those killed.
“No child waiting for food and medicine should face the risk of being
bombed," said Dr. Mithqal Abutaha, the group's project manager.
At the morgue of Al-Aqsa Hospital, families prayed over the bodies of
their loved ones, laid across the floor.
Omar Meshmesh held the body of his 3-year-old niece Aya Meshmesh. “What
did she ever do? Did she throw a rocket at them or throw something at
them? ... she’s an innocent child.”
Israel's military said it struck near the clinic while targeting a
militant it said had entered Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. It said it was
investigating.
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Smoke and fire rise to the sky following an Israeli army bombardment
in the northern Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Thursday,
July 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Gaza’s Nasser Hospital reported a total of 21 deaths in airstrikes
in the southern town of Khan Younis and the nearby coastal area of
Muwasi. It said three children and their mother, as well as two
other women, were among the dead.
Netanyahu leaves Washington
Readying to leave Washington, Netanyahu said Israel continues to
pursue a deal for a 60-day pause in the fighting and the release of
half of the 50 hostages remaining in Gaza, many of them believed
dead.
Once that deal is in place, Israel is prepared to negotiate a
permanent end to the war, Netanyahu said — but only on condition
that Hamas disarms and gives up its governing and military
capabilities in Gaza.
If this “is not achieved through negotiations in 60 days, we will
achieve it in other ways; by using force, the force of our heroic
army,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.
Still, U.S. officials held out hope that restarting high-level
negotiations — mediated by Egypt and Qatar and including White House
envoy Steve Witkoff — could bring progress.
“We’re closer than we’ve been in quite a while and we’re hopeful,
but we also recognize there’s still some challenges in the way,”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters during a stop in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
West Bank violence, another Israeli soldier killed
The Israeli military said a soldier was killed in Khan Younis the
day before, after militants burst out of an underground tunnel and
tried to abduct him. The soldier was shot and killed, while troops
in the area shot the militants, hitting several of them, it said.
Eighteen soldiers have been killed in the past three weeks, one of
the deadliest periods for the Israeli army in months, putting
additional public pressure on Netanyahu to end the war.
Meanwhile, two Palestinian attackers killed a 22-year-old Israeli
man at a supermarket in a settlement in the Israeli-occupied West
Bank on Thursday afternoon, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom
emergency services.
Israeli police said two people in a stolen vehicle attacked a
security guard at the supermarket. Paramedics said people on site
shot and killed the two attackers. There was no information about
the attackers but Israeli troops were setting up roadblocks around
the Palestinian town of Halhul, around 10 kilometers (6 miles) from
the supermarket.
Earlier Thursday, a 55-year-old Palestinian man was killed in the
West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. The Israeli
military said the man was shot after stabbing a soldier in the
village of Rumana. The soldier suffered moderate wounds.
The war in Gaza has sparked a surge of violence in the West Bank,
with the Israeli military targeting militants in large-scale
operations that have killed hundreds of Palestinians and displaced
tens of thousands.
That has coincided with a rise in settler violence and Palestinian
attacks on Israelis. Palestinian militants from the West Bank have
also attacked and killed Israelis in Israel and the West Bank.
The war began after Hamas attacked Israel in 2023, killing around
1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage. Most have been released
in earlier ceasefires. Israel responded with an offensive that has
killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women
and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The ministry, which is under Gaza’s Hamas-run government, doesn’t
differentiate between civilians and combatants. The U.N. and other
international organizations see its figures as the most reliable
statistics on war casualties.
___
McNeil reported from Brussels, El Deeb from Beirut and Lidman
reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writer Edith M.
Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
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