
57 aid seekers killed in Gaza as death toll crosses 55,000
Agencies
Gaza
At least 57 aid seekers were killed and more than 363 injured by Israel since Wednesday morning, bringing the total number of people killed at aid distribution centres to 224, with 1,858 others injured, Gaza's Health Ministry said.
The Palestinian news agency WAFAsaid the deaths occurred near an aid distribution point in the Netzarim Corridor and were caused by Israeli forces. At least 120 Palestinians have been killed and 474 injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 24 hours, according to the ministry.
Three bodies of people killed in previous Israeli attacks were also recovered from the rubble in the war-torn territory, the ministry said.
The total death toll from Israel's war on Gaza has risen to 55,104 killed and 127,394 injured since October 7, 2023, it said. Israel has killed 4,821 Palestinians and injured 15,353 since breaking a ceasefire in March this year.
Deadly clashes near aid distribution points have taken place repeatedly in recent days.
In late May, Israel eased its blockade of aid deliveries to the besieged territory.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US organisation backed by the governments of Israel and the United States, began delivering aid to Gaza, bypassing the UN and other international organisations.
The GHF's distribution has been controversial. Palestinians attempting to collect food and other aid have been killed by gunfire at the distribution points on several occasions.
The GHF says that it has so far distributed around 12 million meals in Gaza. According to the UN, at least 500 to 600 truckloads are needed daily.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Al Jazeera
19 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Israeli strikes kill at least 42 across Gaza as UN eyes ceasefire vote
Israeli attacks have killed at least 42 people across Gaza since dawn, medical sources told Al Jazeera, as the United Nations General Assembly prepares for a vote urging an unconditional ceasefire in the besieged enclave. Sources told Al Jazeera that at least 26 of the people killed on Thursday died in Israeli drone attacks while waiting for food and basic supplies being distributed by the controversial United States and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Gaza civil defence official Mohammed el-Mougher told AFP news agency that al-Awda Hospital received at least 10 bodies and about 200 others who were wounded 'after Israeli drones dropped multiple bombs on gatherings of civilians near an aid distribution point around the Netzarim checkpoint in central Gaza'. El-Mougher said that Gaza City's al-Shifa Hospital also received six bodies after Israeli attacks on aid queues near Netzarim and in the as-Sudaniya area in northwestern Gaza. Since the GHF began its operation in Gaza in late May, dozens of Palestinians have been killed while trying to reach the aid distribution points, according to Gaza's civil defence agency. The previously unknown GHF has come under intense criticism from the United Nations, which says its distribution model is deeply flawed. 'This model will not address the deepening hunger. The dystopian 'Hunger Games' cannot become the new reality,' Philippe Lazzarini, the chief of the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), wrote on X. 'The UN including @UNRWA has the knowledge, expertise & community trust to provide dignified & safe assistance. Just let the humanitarians do their jobs,' he added. Separately, a medical source at al-Shifa Hospital told Al Jazeera that two Palestinians were killed as a result of Israeli shelling targeting the Bir an-Naaja area west of Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. Meanwhile, Hamas condemned on Thursday the decision of Israel to cut off communication lines in Gaza, describing it as 'a new aggressive step' in the country's 'war of extermination'. 'We call on the international community to assume its responsibility to stop the aggression and ensure the protection of civilians and humanitarian and civilian facilities.' The disruption of communications has resulted in the UNRWA losing contact with its colleagues in the agency in Gaza, the UN's main humanitarian provider in Gaza said. The latest developments come as the UN General Assembly is set to vote on a draft resolution that demands an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in the war in Gaza. The 193-member General Assembly is likely to adopt the text with overwhelming support, diplomats say, despite Israel lobbying countries this week against taking part in what it called a 'politically motivated, counterproductive charade'. Last week, the United States vetoed a similar effort in the Security Council.


Qatar Tribune
a day ago
- Qatar Tribune
57 aid seekers killed in Gaza as death toll crosses 55,000
Agencies Gaza At least 57 aid seekers were killed and more than 363 injured by Israel since Wednesday morning, bringing the total number of people killed at aid distribution centres to 224, with 1,858 others injured, Gaza's Health Ministry said. The Palestinian news agency WAFAsaid the deaths occurred near an aid distribution point in the Netzarim Corridor and were caused by Israeli forces. At least 120 Palestinians have been killed and 474 injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 24 hours, according to the ministry. Three bodies of people killed in previous Israeli attacks were also recovered from the rubble in the war-torn territory, the ministry said. The total death toll from Israel's war on Gaza has risen to 55,104 killed and 127,394 injured since October 7, 2023, it said. Israel has killed 4,821 Palestinians and injured 15,353 since breaking a ceasefire in March this year. Deadly clashes near aid distribution points have taken place repeatedly in recent days. In late May, Israel eased its blockade of aid deliveries to the besieged territory. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US organisation backed by the governments of Israel and the United States, began delivering aid to Gaza, bypassing the UN and other international organisations. The GHF's distribution has been controversial. Palestinians attempting to collect food and other aid have been killed by gunfire at the distribution points on several occasions. The GHF says that it has so far distributed around 12 million meals in Gaza. According to the UN, at least 500 to 600 truckloads are needed daily.


Al Jazeera
a day ago
- Al Jazeera
Israeli gunfire, strikes kill 120 Palestinians in Gaza, many at aid sites
Israeli forces have killed more than 120 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours, medical sources have told Al Jazeera, including dozens of hungry aid seekers, as Israel continues to relentlessly bombard the besieged territory, with the overall war death toll now surpassing a staggering 55,000 people. Gaza's Health Ministry said 57 people trying to access aid were killed and more than 363 injured by Israel since Wednesday morning. The distribution points are operated by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US- and Israeli-backed drive in tightly Israeli-controlled zones. Israel's Foreign Ministry has described the GHF aid system as a 'dramatic success' despite mass killings and scenes of utter human desperation, triggering widespread international opprobrium. The isolated aid sites – set up in Rafah and in the Netzarim Corridor – have been branded 'human slaughterhouses' as more than 220 people have been killed while desperately trying to secure meagre food parcels for their families since GHF started operating on May 27. The Israeli army has admitted its troops fired 'warning shots' in the area of the Netzarim Corridor, where the majority of aid seekers were reported killed overnight. Gaza's Government Media Office said the Israeli military 'is deliberately creating chaos in the Gaza Strip by perpetuating a policy of starvation and deliberately targeting and killing starving people seeking food'. The United Nations also condemned the killings and has refused to supply aid via the foundation, which uses private contractors with Israeli military backup in what the UN says is a breach of humanitarian standards. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) called the aid distribution model 'a distraction from the ongoing atrocities and a waste of resources'. It reiterated that the humanitarian community in Gaza, including UNRWA, is 'ready and has the experience and expertise to reach people in need'. Israel has banned UNRWA and other legacy aid agencies with decades of experience from operating in Gaza, where a famine looms, while it maintains a punishing aid blockade. Chris Newton, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, said Israel's chaotic and violence-plagued aid system is deliberately structured to keep Palestinians desperate and hungry while pushing them southward. Newton told Al Jazeera that GHF's stated aim of providing 1,750 calories worth of food per person per day is well short of the minimum standard for crisis situations. That amount of food is 'closer to the ration given in a starvation experiment run in the 1940s in the US than it is to Israel's own previous 2008 red line for the minimum calories needed to avoid malnutrition in Gaza,' said Newton. Elsewhere in Gaza on Wednesday, dozens of other people were killed by Israeli gunfire and strikes across the coastal territory. An Israeli attack in Gaza City's Tuffah neighbourhood killed at least seven people, according to local medical sources. Three Palestinians, including two children, were killed when an Israeli strike hit a home in northern Gaza's Jabalia, while in central Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp, three more Palestinians were killed in an Israeli drone strike, which wounded several others, according to the news agency Wafa. In southern Gaza's Khan Younis, Israeli air strikes on displacement tents in the Tiberias camp killed four Palestinians, including a child, and wounded others, Wafa said. Children have borne much of the brunt of Israel's ongoing assault. Gaza's Health Ministry said the total death toll from Israel's war has risen to 55,104 since October 7, 2023 – most of them women and children. Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City, said al-Shifa Hospital, like many other health facilities, has been reduced in terms of its capacity to provide proper healthcare to people, let alone children. UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, who was at al-Shifa, said, 'Everywhere we go, this is the same scenario. 'Despite doctors' most incredible efforts, we see children being brutalised, burned … because it's a war on children.' In the meantime, Israel continues to hold some of the crew members and activists who were on board the Madleen aid vessel trying to break the Israeli siege. Israeli forces intercepted the vessel and its 12 crew members in international waters off Gaza earlier this week. While it deported four of the members, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, eight others remain in detention. The group Adalah–The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel called on Israel to immediately release the remaining detained volunteers and return them either 'to the Madleen to resume their humanitarian mission to Gaza or to their countries of origin'. At least two of the detainees were placed in solitary confinement, according to their lawyers, though one – Rima Hassan – has since been returned to the main prison wing. Brazilian national Thiago Avila was placed in solitary at Ayalon Prison due to an 'ongoing hunger and thirst strike' that began this week. 'He has also been treated aggressively by prison authorities, although this has not escalated to physical assault,' Adalah said. Hassan, a French citizen and member of the European Parliament, was also temporarily placed in isolation in Neve Tirza Prison after writing 'Free Palestine' on a wall in another prison called Givon. The UN's special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, has decried the arrests as 'arbitrary' and 'unlawful' and also called for the detainees' immediate release. The Israeli military says it recovered the bodies of Yair Yaakov and a second captive, whose name has not yet been released, in a joint operation in Khan Younis with the Israeli intelligence agency Shin Bet.