Gaza is being overlooked and left in a ‘complete communications blackout’ after the exchange of fire between Israel and Iran, a TV personality has warned.
The latest escalation of tensions between the countries has removed the spotlight from Gazans as eight civilians were killed and dozens wounded in a shooting near food distribution points on Sunday, according to Palestinian health officials.
TV personality Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall said the latest developments were ‘catastrophic’ for Gaza as the media focus switched to air strikes in Tehran and Tel Aviv, and pressure has eased on Israel from the international community.
He told BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg: ‘One of things I’ve been thinking about is the Middle Eastern story that for the first time isn’t really on the front pages, and that’s the people of Gaza.
‘This is an absolute disaster for them. At a time when international concern about the mounting atrocities of innocent civilians being slaughtered in their food queues was really beginning to shake loose, today the Saudi French summit on the state of Palestine has been postponed indefinitely.’
‘Gaza has just been in a complete communications blackout as if things couldn’t get any worse. I think we need to spare a thought for them’, he added.
Israel’s military did not immediately comment on the attack at the food distribution site, which occurred more than 20 months after the war in Gaza was first ignited by Hamas’s October 7 attack.
Early on Friday, Israel turned its focus on Iran, targeting nuclear infrastructure and, more recently, oil fields.
On Sunday night, Israel reportedly targeted Iran’s foreign ministry building.
Mohammad Kazemi, the head of the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and his deputy were also killed in air strikes, the Iranian news agency Tasnin.
Meanwhile, fires were reported near the city of Haifa following a wave of Iranian air strikes in northern Israel, with several patients rushed to hospitals.
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Witnesses in Gaza said Israeli forces opened fire around dawn towards crowds of desperate Palestinians heading to two aid sites in Rafah.
Experts and aid workers say Israel’s blockade and military campaign have caused widespread hunger and raised the risk of famine.
The shooting was metres from a site operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a group that Israel and the United States hope will replace the UN aid distribution system. The international body says the new group violates humanitarian principles.
There have been near-daily shootings near the sites since they opened last month.
Witnesses say Israeli forces have repeatedly fired on the crowds and health officials say scores have been killed.
The military has acknowledged firing warning shots at what it says were suspects approaching its forces.
‘There were wounded, dead, and martyrs’, Ahmed al-Masri said Sunday as he returned from one of the sites empty-handed.
‘It’s a trap.’
Umm Hosni al-Najjar said she joined the crowd heading to the aid point in Rafah’s Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood at around 4.30am local time.
She said the shooting began as people were advancing to the site a few minutes after her arrival.
‘There were many wounded and martyrs,’ she said.
‘No-one was able to evacuate them.’
The Nasser Hospital in the nearby city of Khan Younis said it received eight bodies after the shooting.
The aid system rolled out last month has been marred by chaos and violence, while the UN system has struggled to deliver food because of Israeli restrictions and a breakdown of law and order, despite Israel loosening a total blockade it imposed from early March to mid-May.
Israel and the US have accused Hamas of siphoning off aid from the UN-run system, while UN officials say there is no evidence of systematic diversion.
The UN says the new system does not meet Gaza’s needs, allows Israel to control who gets aid and risks further mass displacement as people move closer to the sites.
Two distribution sites are in the southernmost city of Rafah, which is now mostly inhabited, and all three are in Israeli military zones that are off limits to independent media.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation insisted there had been no violence in or around the distribution points.
It has warned people to stay on the designated routes and recently paused delivery to discuss safety measures with the military.
Hamas started the war with its attack on southern Israel on October 7 2023, when Palestinian militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took another 251 hostage.
The militants still hold 53 hostages, fewer than half of them alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 55,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
It says women and children make up most of the dead, but does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel said it had eliminated 20,000 militants.
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