At least 73 people seeking aid in Gaza killed by Israeli gunfire on Sunday, health ministry says
Some 67 people were killed in northern Gaza, the ministry said, while six others were killed in Khan Younis in the south of the Strip. It is unclear whether the 67 people reported killed in northern Gaza were all killed in the same place or in multiple incidents.
The Israel Defense Forces said that troops had 'fired warning shots in order to remove an immediate threat posed to them' after 'a gathering of thousands of Gazans was identified in the northern Gaza Strip.'
'The IDF is aware of the claim regarding casualties in the area, and the details of the incident are still being examined,' the Israeli military said, without disclosing any casualty figures.
The Israeli military also issued a warning to residents in a number of areas in northern Gaza, including the cities of Beit Lahia, Jabalya and Beit Hanoun.
'These areas are active combat zones and extremely dangerous,' the IDF's Arabic language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, said Sunday. 'The Israel Defense Forces are operating in these areas with very intense force. For your safety, movement to these areas is strictly prohibited. Those who heard have been warned.'
According to Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, people were shot at by the Israeli army on Sunday morning while attempting to get aid northwest of Gaza City, which is in the north of the enclave.
'Al-Shifa Medical Complex is in a catastrophic state due to the overwhelming number of martyrs, injuries and starving civilians,' Abu Salmiya told CNN in a statement.
'There have been a large number of deaths and injuries among those seeking aid, and ambulances and civilian vehicles have not stopped arriving, transporting the wounded and the dead from the northwestern areas of Gaza,' he continued.
'A significant number of civilians, and even medical staff, are arriving in a state of fainting or collapse due to severe malnutrition,' he said.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said that its Al-Saraya Field Hospital in Gaza City received 120 injured people, some of them in critical condition, on Sunday. It said it also received two dead bodies.
'Israeli forces targeted civilians waiting for aid arriving from the Zikim area, north of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. Due to the large number of casualties received by the hospital, new beds were urgently opened to ensure adequate treatment for the injured, as the hospital's capacity is estimated at only 68 beds,' the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
On Saturday, at least 32 people were killed while seeking aid near a distribution point run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, according to the Palestinian health ministry and witnesses.
The Israeli military said troops had 'identified suspects who approached them during operational activity in the Rafah area' about one kilometer from the aid site 'at night-time when it's not active.'
The IDF said troops had called on the suspects 'to distance themselves, and after they did not comply, the troops fired warning shots.' It said it was aware of reports regarding casualties and the incident was under review.
According to Gaza's Hamas-run Government Media Office, some 995 people have been killed while attempting to obtain food near aid distribution sites between May 27 and Sunday.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said earlier this month that nearly 800 Gazans had been killed trying to access aid between late May and July 7.
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