40 Gazans killed while seeking aid and from hunger, say health officials

RTÉ News​

3 days ago

At least 40 Palestinians have killed by Israeli gunfire and airstrikes on Gaza, including 10 seeking aid, health authorities have said, adding that another five had died of starvation in what humanitarian agencies warn may be an unfolding famine.
The 10 died in two separate incidents near aid sites belonging to the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in central and southern Gaza, local medics said.
The United Nations says more than 1,000 people have been killed trying to receive aid in the enclave since the GHF began operating in May 2025, most of them shot by Israeli forces operating near GHF sites.
"Everyone who goes there, comes back either with a bag of flour or carried back (on a wooden stretcher) as a martyr, or injured. No one comes back safe," said 40-year-old Palestinian Bilal Thari.
He was among mourners at Gaza City's Al Shifa hospital who had gathered to collect the bodies of their loved ones killed a day earlier by Israeli fire as they sought aid, according to Gaza's health officials.
At least 13 Palestinians were killed yesterday while waiting for the arrival of UN aid trucks at the Zikim crossing on the Israeli border with northern Gaza, the officials added.
At the hospital, some bodies were wrapped in thick patterned blankets because white shrouds, which hold special significance in Islamic burials, were in short supply due to continued Israeli border restrictions and the mounting number of daily deaths, Palestinians said.
"We don't want war, we want peace, we want this misery to end. We are out on the streets, we all are hungry, we are all in bad shape, women are out there on the streets, we have nothing available for us to live a normal life like all human beings, there's no life," Mr Thari told Reuters.
There was no immediate comment by Israel on the incidents of shootings yesterday and today.
Israel blames Hamas for the suffering in Gaza and says it is taking steps for more aid to reach its population, including pausing fighting for part of the day in some areas, air drops, and announcing protected routes for aid convoys.
Meanwhile, five more people died of starvation or malnutrition over the past 24 hours, Gaza's health ministry said. The new deaths raised the toll of those dying from hunger to 180, including 93 children, since the war began.
UN agencies have said that airdrops of food are insufficient and that Israel must let in far more aid by land and quickly ease access to it.
COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, said that during the past week, over 23,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid in 1,200 trucks had entered Gaza but that hundreds of the trucks had yet to be driven to aid distribution hubs by UN and other international organisations.
The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said yesterday that more than 600 aid trucks had arrived since Israel eased restrictions late in July.
However, witnesses and Hamas sources said many of those trucks have been looted by desperate displaced people and armed gangs.
Palestinian and UN officials said Gaza needs around 600 aid trucks to enter per day to meet the humanitarian requirements-the number Israel used to allow into Gaza before the war.
The Gaza war began when Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostage in an attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, according to Israeli figures.
Israel's offensive has since killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.