‘Charred body pieces everywhere’ after Israeli strike sets tents ablaze in Gaza safe zone
Palestinians were digging through burnt debris searching for bodies Thursday after some 20 people were killed a day earlier in an Israeli strike that set ablaze tents sheltering displaced families in a designated humanitarian zone in southern Gaza.
Residents carried a body wrapped in carpets out of the charred wreckage of the makeshift shelters in Al-Mawasi, near the beach west of Khan Younis, where tens of thousands of people have sheltered in the crowded tent camp for months.
The tent camp was designated a humanitarian zone by Israeli authorities, who have long told Palestinians to go there for safety.
Mohamed Abu Shahla was sheltering in the tent camp when the strike hit “all of a sudden and without any warning.”
“It didn’t spare any people or anything,” Abu Shahla told CBC News on Thursday.
The strike set several large tents ablaze, and the fire was worsened by the explosion of cooking gas canisters and the burning furniture of the displaced people. On Thursday, the area was strewn with charred clothing, mattresses and other belongings among the twisted frames of scorched shelters.
He said displaced Palestinians were looking for some 15 children missing following the attack.
“You heard the screams of women and children while they burned … there isn’t a single body that’s whole. All of them are in pieces,” he said.
Majority of victims are women, children: Civil defence
Eyewitnesses said the strike on the tent camp caused a fireball to erupt.
“[Al-]Mawasi is not safe … nowhere in the Gaza Strip is safe,” Ahmad Al-Siqali said.
Muhammad Abdul Raouf, a night director with the volunteer-run Palestinian Civil Defence group, said the majority of the 20 confirmed killed were women and children.
“The place was scattered with martyrs [when we arrived], charred body pieces everywhere,” he told CBC News Wednesday.
Israel said the strike targeted senior Hamas operatives, whom it did not identify.
“We don’t see anyone from the whole world standing by us or helping us in this situation. Let them stop this crazy war that’s against us. Let them stop the war,” said Abu Kamal Al-Assar, a witness at the site.
At a funeral in Khan Younis, where relatives wept over the white-shrouded bodies of people killed the day before, resident Abu Anas Mustafa called the Amnesty report, which accuses Israel of commiting genocide in Gaza, “a victory for Palestinian diplomacy,” although he said it “came late.”
“It is the 430th day of the war today, and Israel has been carrying out massacres and a genocide from the first 10 days of the war,” he said.
House in Gaza City destroyed in attack
The attack was one of several others across the Gaza Strip that killed a total of 39 Palestinians, according to medics.
In Gaza City, medics said an attack destroyed a house where an extended family had taken shelter and damaged two nearby homes, killing at least three people.
The Israeli army says militants frequently use residential buildings, schools and hospitals for operational cover. Hamas denies this, accusing Israeli forces of indiscriminate attacks and ignoring the plight of civilians in harm’s way.
In Rafah, near the border with Egypt, an Israeli strike killed three Palestinians on Thursday, medics said. Three others were killed in a separate airstrike in Shejaia, in eastern Gaza City, they added.
Droves of Palestinians reached central Gaza on Wednesday after being ordered to evacuate the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. Palestinians accuse Israel’s army of trying to drive them out of the northern edge of the enclave to create a buffer zone while the Israeli army denies this, saying it has returned to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping.
On Thursday, Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in the north of the enclave, said a 16-year-old boy who used a wheelchair was killed, and several people, including medics, were wounded by Israeli drone fire against the medical facility.
There was no Israeli comment on Abu Safiya’s account. The health ministry said the three hospitals that are barely operational on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip have come under repeated attack since Israeli forces sent tanks to Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun towns and the nearby Jabalia camp in October.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, it has laid much of the Gaza Strip to waste, forcing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million people from their homes. Authorities in the Hamas-run territory say more than 44,500 Gazans have been killed, with thousands of others feared dead under the rubble.
Published at Thu, 05 Dec 2024 17:33:01 +0000
NYPD releases new surveillance image of unmasked suspect in health insurance CEO shooting
The masked gunman who killed the CEO of one of the largest U.S. health insurance companies in front of midtown Manhattan surveillance cameras remained free Thursday from the dragnet thrown by the nation’s largest police department.
The New York City Police Department did release a new surveillance image, asking for the public’s help in identifying the person in it for questioning.
The person is unmasked, in contrast to surveillance images released on Wednesday. In those images, the suspect wore a hooded jacket and a mask that concealed most of his face, which wouldn’t have attracted attention on a frigid day. Some of the photos were taken at a Starbucks coffee shop shortly before the shooting.
Police offered a reward of up to $10,000 US for information leading to an arrest and conviction.
Last seen riding in Central Park
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, 50, died in a dawn ambush Wednesday as he walked to the company’s annual investor conference at a Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan. UnitedHealthcare is the largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans in the U.S. and manages health insurance coverage for employers and state and federally funded Medicaid programs, but it’s not clear at this point if Thompson’s slaying was related to his professional position.
Investigators recovered several 9 mm shell casings from outside the hotel and a cellphone from the alleyway through which the shooter fled, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny had said earlier.
Meanwhile, multiple U.S. media outlets including The Associated Press, reported that the gunman used ammunition emblazoned with the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose,” according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the investigation. The words on the ammunition may have been a reference to strategies insurance companies allegedly use to try to avoid paying claims; they were also the title of a 2010 book that detailed reasons why insurance companies deny claims to Americans.
An employee at a nearby hostel confirmed that police had visited the location Thursday with questions related to the probe but declined to provide further information.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference Wednesday that while investigators had not yet established a motive, the shooting was no random act of violence.
“Many people passed the suspect, but he appeared to wait for his intended target,” she said.
Investigators believe, judging from surveillance video and evidence collected from the scene, that the shooter had at least some prior firearms training and experience with guns and the weapon was equipped with a silencer, said one of the law enforcement officials who spoke with AP.
Investigators are also looking into whether the suspect had pre-positioned a bike as part of an escape plan, the official said. The shooter fled on a bike and was last seen riding into Central Park.
Minnesota police unaware of any threats
Security camera video showed the killer approach Thompson from behind, level his pistol and fire several shots, barely pausing to clear a gun jam while the health executive tumbled to the pavement. Other cameras captured the initial stages of the gunman’s escape. He fled the block across a pedestrian plaza, then escaped on the bicycle.
Police used drones, helicopters and dogs in an intensive search for the suspect.
The insurer’s Minnetonka, Minn.-based parent company, UnitedHealth Group Inc., was holding its annual meeting with investors to update Wall Street on the company’s direction and expectations for the coming year. The company ended the conference early in the wake of Thompson’s death.
Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, a major American health insurance company, was shot dead on a sidewalk in New York City on Wednesday in what appeared to be a ‘brazen targeted attack,’ according to police.
Thompson, a father of two sons, had been with the company since 2004 and served as CEO for more than three years.
“Brian was a highly respected colleague and friend to all who worked with him,” UnitedHealth Group said in a statement. “We are working closely with the New York Police Department and ask for your patience and understanding during this difficult time.”
Thompson’s wife, Paulette Thompson, told NBC News that he told her “there were some people that had been threatening him.” She didn’t have details but suggested the threats may have involved issues with insurance coverage.
Eric Werner, the police chief in the Minneapolis suburb where Thompson lived, said his department had not received any reports of threats against the executive.
Published at Thu, 05 Dec 2024 17:33:35 +0000