Israeli fire again kills Gaza aid-seekers as US envoy meets with hostages' families

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli forces opened fire near two aid distribution sites run by the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as crowds of hungry Palestinians again sought food, killing at least 10 people, witnesses and health workers said Saturday. The violence came a day after U.S. officials visited a GHF site and the U.S. ambassador called the troubled system “an incredible feat.”

Another 19 people were shot dead as they crowded near the Zikim crossing from Israel in the hope of obtaining aid, said Fares Awad, head of the Gaza health ministry’s ambulance and emergency service.

Nearly a week has passed since Israel, under international pressure amid growing scenes of starving children, announced limited humanitarian pauses and airdrops meant to get more food to Gaza's over 2 million people. They now largely rely on aid after almost 22 months of war.

But the United Nations, partners and Palestinians say far too little aid is coming in, with months of supplies piled up outside Gaza waiting for Israeli approval. Trucks that enter are mostly stripped of supplies by desperate people and criminal groups before reaching warehouses for distribution.

Experts this week said a “worst-case scenario of famine” was occurring. On Saturday, Gaza’s health ministry said seven Palestinians had died of malnutrition-related causes over the past 24 hours, including a child.

Aid is “far from sufficient,” Germany's government said via spokesman Stefan Kornelius. The U.N. has said 500 to 600 trucks of aid are needed daily.

Families of the 50 hostages still in Gaza fear they are going hungry too, and blame Hamas, after the militants released images of an emaciated hostage, Evyatar David.

“The humanitarian aid flowing into Gaza, meant to alleviate suffering, must reach Evyatar, Guy and all the other hostages too,” David's brother Illay told a large rally in Tel Aviv.

Near the northernmost GHF distribution site near the Netzarim corridor, Yahia Youssef, who had come to seek aid, described a grimly familiar scene. After helping carry three people wounded by gunshots, he said he saw others on the ground, bleeding.

“It’s the same daily episode,” Youssef said. Health workers said at least eight people were killed. Israel's military said it fired warning shots at a gathering approaching its forces.

At least two people were killed in the Shakoush area hundreds of meters (yards) from where the GHF operates in the southernmost city of Rafah, witnesses said. Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis received two bodies and many injured.

Witness Mohamed Abu Taha said Israeli troops opened fire toward the crowds. He saw three people — two men and a woman — shot as he fled.

Israel’s military said it was not aware of any fire by its forces in the area. The GHF said nothing happened near its sites.

GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray or fired warning shots to prevent deadly crowding. Israel ’s military on Friday said it was working to make the routes under its control safer.

The GHF — backed by millions of dollars in U.S. support — launched in May as Israel sought an alternative to the U.N.-run system, which had safely delivered aid for much of the war but was accused by Israel of allowing Hamas to siphon off supplies. Israel has not offered evidence for that claim and the U.N. has denied it.

From May 27 to July 31, 859 people were killed near GHF sites, according to a U.N. report Thursday. Hundreds more have been killed along the routes of U.N.-led food convoys. Hamas-led police once guarded those convoys, but Israeli fire targeted the officers.

Israel and GHF have claimed the toll has been exaggerated.

Airdrops by a Jordan-led coalition — which is made up of Israel, the UAE, Egypt, France, and Germany — are another approach, though experts say the strategy remains deeply inadequate and even dangerous for people on the ground.

“Let’s go back to what works & let us do our job," Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, wrote on social media, calling for more and safer truck deliveries.

U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, met with hostages' families Saturday, a week after quitting ceasefire talks, blaming Hamas' intransigence.

“I didn’t hear anything new from him. I heard that there was pressure from the Americans to end this operation, but we didn’t hear anything practical,” said Michel Illouz, father of Israeli hostage Guy Illouz.

He said he asked Witkoff to set a time frame but got “no answers.”

Protesters called on Israel's government to make a deal to end the war, imploring them to "stop this nightmare and bring them out of the tunnels.”

Nasser Hospital said it received five bodies after two Israeli strikes on tents sheltering displaced people in Gaza’s south.

The health ministry’s ambulance and emergency service said a strike hit a house between the towns of Zawaida and Deir al-Balah, killing two parents and their three children. Another strike hit a tent in Khan Younis, killing a mother and her daughter.

Israel’s top general Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir warned that “combat will continue without rest” if hostages aren’t freed.

Most Palestinians are crowded into ever-shrinking areas considered safe.

“I don’t know what to do. Destruction, destruction," said Mohamed Qeiqa, who returned home to Gaza City and stood amid the neighborhood's collapsed concrete slabs. “Where will people settle?”

The war began when Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 60,400 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between militants and civilians but says women and children make up over half the dead. The ministry operates under the Hamas government. The U.N. and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.

The ministry says 93 children have died from malnutrition-related causes in Gaza since the war began. It said 76 adults have died of malnutrition-related causes since late June, when it started counting adult deaths.

Metz reported from Jerusalem and Magdy from Cairo. AP writer Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

White House special envoy Steve Witkoff arrives to meet families of hostages held captive in the Gaza Strip, at the plaza known as the hostages square in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025. ( AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Families of hostages protest, demanding the release from Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip, at the plaza known as the hostages square in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Palestinians carry sacks of flour taken from a humanitarian aid convoy en route to Gaza City, in the outskirts of Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Friday, Aug. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Families of hostages protest, demanding the release from Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip, at the plaza known as the hostages square in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

People mourn over the body of a young Palestinian killed while trying to reach trucks carrying humanitarian aid en route to Gaza City, outside the Hamad Al-Qatari Hospital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Friday, Aug. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Samah Matar poses for a photo with her sons Yousef, 6, in her arms, and Amir, 4, who suffer from malnutrition and cerebral palsy, at a U.N.-run school in Gaza City, Saturday, July 26, 2025. In Gaza, malnutrition is often worsened by preexisting conditions and compounded by illnesses linked to inadequate health care and poor sanitation, largely the result of the ongoing war. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

White House special envoy Steve Witkoff, centre, arrives to meet families of hostages at the plaza known as the hostages square in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025. ( AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Families of hostages protest, demanding the release from Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip, at the plaza known as the hostages square in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Families of hostages protest, demanding the release from Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip, at the plaza known as the hostages square in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Palestinians carry sacks of flour taken from a humanitarian aid convoy en route to Gaza City, in the outskirts of Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Friday, Aug. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians carry sacks of flour taken from a humanitarian aid convoy en route to Gaza City, in the outskirts of Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Friday, Aug. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Federal officials on Thursday gave final approval for the Dakota Access oil pipeline to continue operating its contentious Missouri River crossing, an outcome that comes nearly a decade after boisterous protests against the project on the North Dakota prairie.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to grant the key easement means the pipeline will keep operating but with added conditions for detecting leaks and monitoring groundwater, among others. The announcement brings an end to a drawn-out legal and regulatory saga stemming from the protests in 2016 and 2017, though further litigation over the pipeline is likely.

The $3.8 billion, multistate pipeline has been transporting oil since June 2017 from North Dakota’s Bakken oil field to a terminal in Illinois. The line carries about 4% of U.S. daily oil production, or roughly 540,000 barrels per day,

The Corps is “decisively putting years of delays to rest and moving out to safely execute this crossing beneath Lake Oahe," Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Adam Telle said in a statement.

The pipeline crosses the river upstream from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation, which straddles the Dakotas. The tribe has long opposed the pipeline, fearing a spill and contamination of its water supply. In 2016 and 2017, thousands of people camped and protested for months near the river crossing.

The protests resulted in hundreds of arrests and related criminal cases and lawsuits, some of them still ongoing, including litigation that threatens the future of the environmental group Greenpeace.

In December, the Corps released its final environmental impact statement nearly six years after a federal judge ordered a more rigorous review of the pipeline's crossing. In that document, the Corps endorsed the option to grant the easement for the crossing and keep the pipeline operating with modifications.

Those measures include enhanced leak detection and monitoring systems, expanded groundwater and surface water monitoring and third-party expert evaluation of the leak and detection systems, among others, the Corps said. The conditions also include water supply contingency planning and other studies coordinated with affected tribes.

The Corps had weighed several options, including removing or abandoning the pipeline's river crossing or even rerouting it north. The agency said its decision “best balances public safety, protection of environmental resources, and leak detection and response considerations while meeting the project’s purpose and need.”

Pipeline developer Energy Transfer hailed the decision, saying the pipeline has been safely operating for nearly 10 years and is critical to the country’s energy infrastructure.

“We want to thank the Corps for the tremendous amount of time and effort put in by so many to bring this matter to a thoughtful close,” said Vicki Granado, a company spokesperson.

The Associated Press sent text messages and emails to media representatives for the tribe and left a voicemail at the tribe's headquarters. They didn't immediately respond Thursday.

North Dakota Republican Gov. Kelly Armstrong, Interior Secretary and former North Dakota governor Doug Burgum and U.S. Senators John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer each welcomed the decision to ensure the pipeline continues operating.

The Corps' announcement came as officials and oil industry leaders were gathered for a trade conference in Bismarck.

Energy Transfer and Enbridge are in early stages of a project to move about 250,000 daily barrels of light Canadian crude oil through the Dakota Access Pipeline by using another pipeline and building a 56-mile connecting line, spokespersons for the companies said. Enbridge will decide sometime in mid-2026 whether to move ahead.

FILE - A sign for the Dakota Access Pipeline is seen north of Cannonball, N.D. and the Standing Rock Reservation on May 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File)