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Over 30 Killed Near Aid Site in Gaza, Palestinian Health Authorities Say

Palestinians inspect the rubble following Israeli strikes on the al-Qattaa family home in al-Tuffah neighborhood in Gaza City on May 31, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Palestinians inspect the rubble following Israeli strikes on the al-Qattaa family home in al-Tuffah neighborhood in Gaza City on May 31, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Over 30 Killed Near Aid Site in Gaza, Palestinian Health Authorities Say

Palestinians inspect the rubble following Israeli strikes on the al-Qattaa family home in al-Tuffah neighborhood in Gaza City on May 31, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Palestinians inspect the rubble following Israeli strikes on the al-Qattaa family home in al-Tuffah neighborhood in Gaza City on May 31, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

More than 30 Palestinians were killed and dozens more injured on Sunday in southern Gaza near a humanitarian aid distribution site run by a US company, according to local health officials. 

Witnesses said the Israeli military had opened fire as Palestinians gathered to collect food. The military denied it had fired towards civilians and the US company running the facility said it had distributed aid without incident. 

Reuters could not independently verify what took place. 

The head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, wrote on X that international medics in Gaza had reported there were "mass casualties including scores of injured & killed among starving civilians due to gunshots". 

A series of incidents have underscored the insecurity around aid delivery to Gaza, following the easing of an almost three-month Israeli blockade last month. 

"There are martyrs and injuries. Many injuries. It is a tragic situation in this place. I advise them that nobody goes to aid delivery points. Enough,” paramedic Abu Tareq said at Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Younis city. 

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said paramedics had recovered the bodies of 23 Palestinians and evacuated another 23 injured people from the aid collection site area in Rafah. 

Local health authorities said at least 31 bodies had so far arrived at Nasser Hospital. 

The US-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which operates the aid distribution site in Rafah, denied anyone was killed or injured near its site and said that all of its distribution had taken place without incident. It accused Palestinian group Hamas of fabricating "fake reports". 

The entity released undated footage, which it said showed that aid was distributed at one site without incident. Reuters could not independently verify the footage, which appeared to show dozens of people gathering around piles of boxes. 

INITIAL INQUIRY 

Israel's military said in a statement that findings from an initial inquiry indicated soldiers had not fired on civilians while they were near or within the aid distribution site. 

GHF is a US-based entity backed by the US and Israeli governments that began providing aid in Gaza last month, bypassing traditional aid groups. 

The group has been widely criticized by the international community, with UN officials saying its aid plans would only foment forced relocation of Palestinians in Gaza and more violence. 

Residents and medics said Israeli soldiers fired from the ground at a crane nearby that overlooks the area, and a tank had opened fire at thousands of people who were en route to get aid from the site in Rafah. Reuters footage showed ambulance vehicles carrying injured people to Nasser Hospital. 

The Hamas-run Gaza government media office accused Israel of using aid as a weapon, "employed to exploit starving civilians and forcibly gather them at exposed killing zones, which are managed and monitored by the Israeli military". 

Israel denies that people in Gaza are starving because of its actions, saying it is facilitating aid deliveries and pointing to its endorsement of the new GHF distribution centers and its consent for other aid trucks to enter Gaza. 

US President Donald Trump said last month that a lot of people in Gaza were "starving". 

Israel accuses Hamas of stealing supplies intended for civilians and using them to entrench its hold on Gaza. Hamas denies looting supplies and has executed a number of suspected looters. 

Reda Abu Jazar said her brother was killed as he waited to collect food near the Rafah aid distribution center. "Let them stop these massacres, stop this genocide. They are killing us," she said, as Palestinian men gathered for funeral prayers. 

UNRWA's Lazzarini, condemned the deaths, saying in a statement on X that "aid distribution has become a death trap". He said aid distribution should be "only through the United Nations, including UNRWA". 

The Red Crescent also reported that 14 Palestinians were injured on Sunday near a separate site in central Gaza, also operated by GHF. 

CEASEFIRE TALKS FALTER 

Israel and Hamas meanwhile traded blame for the faltering of a new Arab and US mediation bid to secure a temporary ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza by Hamas, in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli jails. 

Hamas said on Saturday it was seeking amendments to a US-backed ceasefire proposal, but President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff rejected the group's response as "totally unacceptable". 

Egypt and Qatar said they are continuing efforts to converge views and overcome disagreements to reach a ceasefire. 

Dozens of Palestinians marched on Sunday at the funeral of a Gaza doctor, Hamdi Al-Najjar, who was critically injured in late May in an airstrike that killed all but one of his 10 children. Najjar died late on Saturday. 

The Israeli military has confirmed it conducted an air strike on Khan Younis that day, but said it was targeting suspects in a structure that was close to Israeli soldiers. 

The military is looking into claims that "uninvolved civilians" were killed, it said, adding that the military had evacuated civilians from the area before the operation began. 

Israel began its offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli tallies, and saw 251 taken as hostages into Gaza. 

Israel's campaign has devastated much of Gaza, killing more than 54,000 Palestinians and destroying most buildings. Much of the population now lives in shelters in makeshift camps.  

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Arab World

Lebanon PM Pledges Reconstruction on Visit to Ruined Border Towns

This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
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Lebanon PM Pledges Reconstruction on Visit to Ruined Border Towns

This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam visited heavily damaged towns near the Israeli border on Saturday, pledging reconstruction.

It was his first trip to the southern border area since the army said it finished disarming Hezbollah there, in January.

Swathes of south Lebanon's border areas remain in ruins and largely deserted more than a year after a US-brokered November 2024 ceasefire sought to end hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed group.

Lebanon's government has committed to disarming Hezbollah, and the army last month said it had completed the first phase of its plan to do so, covering the area between the Litani River and the Israeli border about 30 kilometers (20 miles) further south.

Visiting Tayr Harfa, around three kilometers from the border, and nearby Yarine, Salam said frontier towns and villages had suffered "a true catastrophe".

He vowed authorities would begin key projects including restoring roads, communications networks and water in the two towns.

Locals gathered on the rubble of buildings to greet Salam and the delegation of accompanying officials in nearby Dhayra, some waving Lebanese flags.

In a meeting in Bint Jbeil, further east, with officials including lawmakers from Hezbollah and its ally the Amal movement, Salam said authorities would "rehabilitate 32 kilometers of roads, reconnect the severed communications network, repair water infrastructure" and power lines in the district.

Last year, the World Bank announced it had approved $250 million to support Lebanon's post-war reconstruction, after estimating that it would cost around $11 billion in total.

Salam said funds including from the World Bank would be used for the reconstruction and rehabilitation projects.

The second phase of the government's disarmament plan for Hezbollah concerns the area between the Litani and the Awali rivers, around 40 kilometers south of Beirut.

Israel, which accuses Hezbollah of rearming, has criticized the army's progress as insufficient, while Hezbollah has rejected calls to surrender its weapons.

Despite the truce, Israel has kept up regular strikes on what it usually says are Hezbollah targets and maintains troops in five south Lebanon areas.

Lebanese officials have accused Israel of seeking to prevent reconstruction in the heavily damaged south with repeated strikes on bulldozers, excavators and prefabricated houses.

Visiting French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Friday said the reform of Lebanon's banking system needed to precede international funding for reconstruction efforts.

The French diplomat met Lebanon's army chief Rodolphe Haykal on Saturday, the military said.

Arab World

Over 2,200 ISIS Detainees Transferred to Iraq from Syria, Says Iraqi Official

One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)
One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)
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Over 2,200 ISIS Detainees Transferred to Iraq from Syria, Says Iraqi Official

One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)
One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)

Iraq has so far received 2,225 ISIS group detainees, whom the US military began transferring from Syria last month, an Iraqi official told AFP on Saturday.

They are among up to 7,000 ISIS detainees whose transfer from Syria to Iraq the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced last month, in a move it said was aimed at "ensuring that the terrorists remain in secure detention facilities".

Previously, they had been held in prisons and camps administered by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria.

The announcement of the transfer plan last month came after US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack declared that the SDF's role in confronting ISIS had come to an end.

Saad Maan, head of the security information cell attached to the Iraqi prime minister's office, told AFP on Saturday that "Iraq has received 2,225 terrorists from the Syrian side by land and air, in coordination with the international coalition", which Washington has led since 2014 to fight IS.

He said they are being held in "strict, regular detention centers".

A Kurdish military source confirmed to AFP the "continued transfer of ISIS detainees from Syria to Iraq under the protection of the international coalition".

On Saturday, an AFP photographer near the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria saw a US military convoy and 11 buses with tinted windows.

- Iraq calls for repatriation -

ISIS seized swathes of northern and western Iraq starting in 2014, until Iraqi forces, backed by the international coalition, managed to defeat it in 2017.

Iraq is still recovering from the severe abuses committed by the extremists.

In recent years, Iraqi courts have issued death and life sentences against those convicted of terrorism offences.

Thousands of Iraqis and foreign nationals convicted of membership in the group are incarcerated in Iraqi prisons.

On Monday, the Iraqi judiciary announced it had begun investigative procedures involving 1,387 detainees it received as part of the US military's operation.

In a statement to the Iraqi News Agency on Saturday, Maan said "the established principle is to try all those involved in crimes against Iraqis and those belonging to the terrorist ISIS organization before the competent Iraqi courts".

Among the detainees being transferred to Iraq are Syrians, Iraqis, Europeans and holders of other nationalities, according to Iraqi security sources.

Iraq is calling on the concerned countries to repatriate their citizens and ensure their prosecution.

Maan noted that "the process of handing over the terrorists to their countries will begin once the legal requirements are completed".

Arab World

Drone Attack by RSF in Sudan Kills 24, Including 8 Children, Doctors’ Group Says

Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
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Drone Attack by RSF in Sudan Kills 24, Including 8 Children, Doctors’ Group Says

Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)

A drone attack by a notorious paramilitary group hit a vehicle carrying displaced families in central Sudan Saturday, killing at least 24 people, including eight children, a doctors’ group said.

The attack by the Rapid Support Forces occurred close to the city of Rahad in North Kordofan province, said the Sudan Doctors Network, which tracks the country’s ongoing war.

The vehicle transported displaced people who fled fighting in the Dubeiker area of North Kordofan, the doctors’ group said in a statement. Among the dead children were two infants, the group said.

The doctors’ group urged the international community and rights organizations to “take immediate action to protect civilians and hold the RSF leadership directly accountable for these violations.”

There was no immediate comment from the RSF, which has been at war against the Sudanese military for control of the country for about three years.

Sudan plunged into chaos in April 2023 when a power struggle between the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country.

The devastating war has killed more than 40,000 people, according to UN figures, but aid groups say that is an undercount and the true number could be many times higher.

It created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis with over 14 million people forced to flee their homes. It fueled disease outbreaks and pushed parts of the country into famine.