Israeli fire kills 25 in Gaza

Israeli fire and airstrikes killed at least 25 Palestinians across the enclave yesterday, local health authorities said, at least five of them near two aid sites operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Medics at Al-Awda Hospital in the central Gaza Strip said at least three people were killed and dozens wounded by Israeli fire as they tried to approach a GHF site near the Netzarim corridor. Two others were killed en route to another aid site in Rafah in the south.

An airstrike killed seven other people in Beit Lahiya town north of the enclave, medics said. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May after Israel partially lifted a near three-month total blockade. Scores of Palestinians have been killed in near-daily mass shootings trying to reach the food, reports Reuters.

The United Nations rejects the Israeli-backed new distribution system as inadequate, dangerous, and a violation of humanitarian impartiality principles.

Hamas, which denies Israeli charges that it steals aid, accused Israel of "employing hunger as a weapon of war and turning aid distribution sites into traps of mass deaths of innocent civilians."

In a separate development, the Israeli army said yesterday that a soldier had been killed in battle in Gaza one day earlier.

"Noam Shemesh aged 21 from Jerusalem... fell during combat in the southern Gaza Strip," the army said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Internet is back up in the Gaza Strip, the head of the Palestinian Telecommunications Regulatory Authority told AFP, after a three-day blackout blamed on Israel's military.

"The network is up now in all of the Gaza Strip," said the regulatory body's CEO Laith Daraghmeh.

The Palestinian Authority's telecommunications ministry reported on Thursday that internet and fixed-line communications were down after Israeli forces targeted a fibre optic cable, a claim Israel has not commented on.

The ministry said that its maintenance and repair teams had at first been unable to safely access the sites where the damage occurred.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said on Thursday that the internet outage hindered its operations by impeding communication with first responders in the field, also blaming Israel for the blackout.

Now in its 21st month, the war in Gaza has caused massive damage to infrastructure including water mains, power lines and roads across the Palestinian territory.

Separately, thousands of demonstrators protested across France on Saturday evening in support of Palestinians and calling for peace in Gaza.

French trade unions, left-wing parties and pro-Palestinian activist groups called for a global weekend of protests against Israel's offensive in the territory.

They issued their rallying call before Israel on Friday launched a massive wave of strikes on Iran, raising fears of a prolonged conflict that experts say could engulf the region.

In Paris, where the largest march took place, police counted 9,000 demonstrators, while the CGT trade union and hard-left party France Unbowed (LFI) said 150,000 attended the gathering.