Israeli forces kill 44 people waiting for aid in Gaza, witnesses say
The incidents happened on Tuesday as health authorities announced the number of Palestinians killed in the war has risen above 56,000.
Advertisement
The new food distribution sites run by an American contractor, with US and Israeli government support, have been plagued by scenes of violence and chaos since opening last month.
Palestinian witnesses and health officials say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire on crowds heading to the sites for desperately needed food, killing hundreds in recent weeks. The military says it has fired warning shots at people it said approached its forces in a suspicious manner while going to the sites.
In central Gaza, three witnesses told the Associated Press that Israeli forces opened fire as people advanced east towards aid trucks south of Wadi Gaza.
'It was a massacre,' said Ahmed Halawa. He said tanks and drones fired at people 'even as we were fleeing'. He added: 'Many people were either martyred or wounded.'
Advertisement
Hossam Abu Shahada said drones were flying over the area, watching the crowds, then there was gunfire from tanks and drones as people were moving eastwards. He described a 'chaotic and bloody' scene as people tried to escape.
He said he saw at least three people lying motionless and many others wounded.
Israel's military said it was reviewing the incident, which took place near the Netzarim corridor, a road that separates northern and southern Gaza.
The Awda hospital in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp, which received the victims, confirmed 25 deaths and said 146 others were wounded. It said 62 were in a critical condition and transferred to other hospitals.
Advertisement
In the central town of Deir al-Balah, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital said it received the bodies of six people from the same incident.
In the souther-nmost city of Rafah, witnesses said Israeli troops opened fire as crowds tried to reach another food distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
A tent camp for displaced Palestinians stretches among the ruins of buildings destroyed by Israeli bombardments (Jehad Alshrafi/AP)
At least 19 were killed and 50 others wounded, according to Nasser hospital and Gaza's Health Ministry.
Two witnesses said Israeli troops started firing as thousands of Palestinians massed at the Shakoush area, several hundred yards from the distribution site.
Advertisement
Salem Ismail was in the crowd and was shot in a leg. He said he saw forces firing towards the crowd who were moving north towards the site.
Ayman Abu Joda said he saw heavy gunfire from Israeli tanks and that many people were shot. He said he helped evacuate three wounded people, one hit in the chest and two in the legs.
'It was the same tragedy every day: We seek food and the occupation opens fire and kills many,' he said.
The casualty toll was confirmed to the Associated Press by Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Health Ministry's records department.
Advertisement
The GHF said on social media its hub there opened Tuesday at 10am and closed after finishing food distribution. It called on people not to head to the hub.
Israel wants the GHF to replace a system co-ordinated by the United Nations and international aid groups. Along with the United States, it accuses Hamas of stealing aid, without offering evidence. The UN denies there is systematic diversion of aid.
The GHF sites are in Israeli military zones where independent media have no access.
Meanwhile, Gaza's Health Ministry said Israel's 21-month military operation in Gaza has killed 56,077 people.
The war was sparked by Hamas's surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7 2023, that killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 others hostage. Many have been released by ceasefire or other agreements.
The death toll is by far the highest in any round of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.
The ministry said the dead include 5,759 who have been killed since Israel resumed fighting on March 18, shattering a two-month ceasefire.
The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says more than half of the dead were women and children.
Israel says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, which operates in heavily populated areas. Israel says more than 20,000 Hamas militants have been killed, though it has provided no evidence to support that claim.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
15 hours ago
- The Guardian
Israeli military preparing to expel Gaza City residents as baby in tent among those killed in latest attacks
The Israeli military will begin preparing for the forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza City, it said on Saturday, as health officials said it had killed at least 40 people including a baby in a tent and people seeking aid in its latest attacks. The announcement came days after Israel said it intended to launch a new offensive to seize control of Gaza City, the enclave's largest urban centre, in a plan that raised international alarm. The Israeli offensive has already displaced most of the population, killed tens of thousands of civilians and created a famine. Gaza residents would be provided with tents and other shelter equipment starting from Sunday ahead of relocating them from combat zones to the south of the enclave 'to ensure their safety,' the Israeli military claimed on Saturday. It did not say when the mass displacement would begin. Israel has repeatedly bombed areas it had declared as safe zones. On Saturday a baby girl and her parents were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit a tent in al-Muwasi, previously designated a humanitarian zone by Israel, in southern Gaza, Nasser hospital officials and witnesses said. 'Two and a half months, what has she done?' her neighbour Fathi Shubeir asked. 'They are civilians in an area designated safe.' Israel's military said it couldn't comment on the strike without more details. Al-Muwasi is now one of the most heavily populated areas in Gaza after Israel pushed people into the desolate area. But prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week said Israel planned to widen its coming military offensive to include the area, along with Gaza City and 'central camps' – an apparent reference to the built-up Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps in central Gaza. According to the civil defence agency, at least 13 of the Palestinians killed on Saturday were shot by troops as they were waiting to collect food aid near distribution sites in the north and in the south. There were also another 11 malnutrition-related deaths in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Saturday, including at least one child. That brings malnutrition-related deaths due to the Israeli blockade on aid to 251. In recent days, Gaza City residents have reported more frequent air strikes targeting residential areas especially in the east and south and including the Zeitun neighbourhood. Hamas said on Saturday the military was targeting the area with warplanes, artillery and drones. Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said conditions in Zeitun were rapidly deteriorating with residents having little to no access to food and water amid heavy Israeli bombardment. He said that about 50,000 people were estimated to be in that area of Gaza City, 'the majority of whom are without food or water' and lacking 'the basic necessities of life'. Ghassan Kashko, 40, who is sheltering with his family at a school building in the neighbourhood, said: 'We don't know the taste of sleep.' He said air strikes and tank shelling were causing 'explosions... that don't stop'. Israel was carrying out ethnic cleansing in Zeitun, Bassal said. The Israeli military says it abides by international law though rights groups, including in Israel, say it is committing genocide. In its announcement on Saturday the military said shelter equipment would be transferred via the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Gaza by the United Nations and other international relief organisations after being inspected by defence ministry personnel, the military said. Israeli inspections and bureaucracy have until now resulted in much aid being refused entry to the territory. A spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs expressed concern over Israel's plans to relocate people to southern Gaza saying it would only increase suffering. But the UN body welcomed Israel's recognition that shelter is a desperate need and that tents and other shelter equipment will be allowed again into Gaza. 'The UN and its partners will seize the opportunity this opens,' the spokesperson said. The UN warned on Thursday that thousands of families already enduring appalling humanitarian conditions could be pushed over the edge if the Gaza City plan moves ahead. Palestinian and United Nations officials have said no place in the enclave is safe, including areas in southern Gaza where Israel has been ordering residents to move to. The military declined to comment when asked whether the shelter equipment was intended for Gaza City's population, estimated at around one million people presently, and whether the site to which they will be relocated in southern Gaza would be the area of Rafah, which borders Egypt. Israel's defence minister Israel Katz said on Saturday that the plans for the new offensive were still being formulated. The Palestinian militant faction Islamic Jihad, an ally of Hamas, said that the military's announcement 'as part of its brutal attack to occupy Gaza City, is a blatant and brazen mockery of international conventions.' Protests calling for a hostage release and an end to the war were expected throughout Israel on Sunday, with many businesses, municipalities and universities saying they will support employees striking for the day. The families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas called for the 'nationwide day of stoppage' on Sunday to express growing frustration over the war. They fear the coming offensive will further endanger the 50 hostages remaining in Gaza, just 20 of whom are thought to still be alive.
North Wales Chronicle
16 hours ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Woman from Gaza evacuated to Italy dies in hospital
The patient was admitted to Pisa University Hospital late on Wednesday and died on Friday. She was removed from Gaza as part of a humanitarian mission and arrived with a 'with a very complex, compromised clinical picture', according to the hospital. She died after entering a respiratory crisis and subsequently going into cardiac arrest, it said in a statement. Hospital staff had performed tests and started supportive therapy before she died, the statement said. The woman, named by Italian media as Marah Abu Zuhri, had arrived in Italy with her mother. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said almost 120 Palestinians – 31 patients and their families – had been flown to Rome, Milan and Pisa on three planes. In a post on X, Mr Tajani said that it was the 14th medical evacuation of Palestinians that Italy had conducted since January 2024, and the largest. The hospital did not specify whether the woman had suffered from malnutrition, but said that she had arrived in a 'state of severe physical deterioration.' Eugenio Giani, leader of the Tuscan region, expressed his condolences on Saturday for the woman's death. Earlier in the week, United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that starvation and malnutrition in Gaza were at their highest levels since the Israel-Hamas war began. The UN says nearly 12,000 children under five were found to have acute malnutrition in July – including more than 2,500 with severe malnutrition, the most dangerous level. The World Health Organisation says the numbers are likely an undercount. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month no one in Gaza is starving. 'There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza,' he said. US President Donald Trump responded to Mr Netanyahu's claim by noting the images emerging of emaciated people. 'I don't know,' Mr Trump said when asked if he agreed with the Israeli leader's comment. 'I mean, based on television, I would say not particularly because those children look very hungry.' On Saturday, the US State Department said all visitor visas for people from Gaza are being stopped while a review is carried out of how 'a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas' were issued in recent days. Over the past two weeks, Israel has allowed around triple the amount of food into Gaza than what had been entering since late May. That was after two and a half months when Israel barred all food, medicine and other supplies, saying it was to pressure Hamas to release hostages taken during its October 2023 attack that launched the war.
Rhyl Journal
16 hours ago
- Rhyl Journal
Woman from Gaza evacuated to Italy dies in hospital
The patient was admitted to Pisa University Hospital late on Wednesday and died on Friday. She was removed from Gaza as part of a humanitarian mission and arrived with a 'with a very complex, compromised clinical picture', according to the hospital. She died after entering a respiratory crisis and subsequently going into cardiac arrest, it said in a statement. Hospital staff had performed tests and started supportive therapy before she died, the statement said. The woman, named by Italian media as Marah Abu Zuhri, had arrived in Italy with her mother. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said almost 120 Palestinians – 31 patients and their families – had been flown to Rome, Milan and Pisa on three planes. In a post on X, Mr Tajani said that it was the 14th medical evacuation of Palestinians that Italy had conducted since January 2024, and the largest. The hospital did not specify whether the woman had suffered from malnutrition, but said that she had arrived in a 'state of severe physical deterioration.' Eugenio Giani, leader of the Tuscan region, expressed his condolences on Saturday for the woman's death. Earlier in the week, United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that starvation and malnutrition in Gaza were at their highest levels since the Israel-Hamas war began. The UN says nearly 12,000 children under five were found to have acute malnutrition in July – including more than 2,500 with severe malnutrition, the most dangerous level. The World Health Organisation says the numbers are likely an undercount. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month no one in Gaza is starving. 'There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza,' he said. US President Donald Trump responded to Mr Netanyahu's claim by noting the images emerging of emaciated people. 'I don't know,' Mr Trump said when asked if he agreed with the Israeli leader's comment. 'I mean, based on television, I would say not particularly because those children look very hungry.' On Saturday, the US State Department said all visitor visas for people from Gaza are being stopped while a review is carried out of how 'a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas' were issued in recent days. Over the past two weeks, Israel has allowed around triple the amount of food into Gaza than what had been entering since late May. That was after two and a half months when Israel barred all food, medicine and other supplies, saying it was to pressure Hamas to release hostages taken during its October 2023 attack that launched the war.
