Dozens killed and scores injured in shooting near aid point in Gaza
At least 25 people were killed and 175 wounded on Sunday as they were on their way to receive food in the Gaza Strip, according to a Red Cross field hospital and multiple witnesses. The witnesses said Israeli forces fired on crowds around 1,000 meters from an aid site run by an Israeli-backed organisation.
The Israeli military said in a brief statement it was 'currently unaware of injuries caused by (Israeli military) fire within the Humanitarian Aid distribution site."
The Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has been distributing aid in Gaza, said in a statement that it delivered aid 'without incident" early Sunday and has denied previous accounts of chaos and gunfire around its sites, which are in Israeli military zones where independent access is limited.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's distribution of aid has been marred by chaos, and multiple witnesses have said Israeli troops fired on crowds near the delivery sites. Before Sunday, at least six people had been killed and more than 50 wounded according to local health officials.
UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to work with the foundation, saying that it violates humanitarian principles because it allows Israel to control who receives aid and forces people to relocate to distribution sites, causing additional mass displacement in the enclave.
Israel and the United States say the new system is aimed at preventing Hamas from siphoning off assistance. Israel has not provided any evidence of systematic diversion, and the UN denies it has occurred.
The gunfire on Sunday erupted at a roundabout around a kilometre from the distribution site, in an area that is controlled by Israeli forces, witnesses said.
Ibrahim Abu Saoud, an eyewitness, said Israeli forces opened fire at people moving toward the aid distribution centre.
'There were many martyrs, including women,' the 40-year-old resident said. 'We were about 300 meters (yards) away from the military.'
Abu Saoud said he saw many people with gunshot wounds, including a young man who he said had died at the scene. 'We weren't able to help him,' he said.
Mohammed Abu Teaima, 33, said he saw Israeli forces open fire and kill his cousin and another woman as they were heading to the hub. He said his cousin was shot in his chest and died at the scene. Many others were wounded, including his brother-in-law, he said.
'They opened heavy fire directly toward us,' he said as he was waiting outside the Red Cross field hospital for word on his wounded relative.
The first bridge, in the Bryansk region on the border with Ukraine, collapsed on top of a passenger train from Klimov to Moscow on Saturday, causing the casualties.
Hours later, officials said a second train was derailed when the bridge beneath it collapsed in the nearby Kursk region, which also borders Ukraine.
In that collapse, a freight train was thrown off its rails onto the road below as an explosion collapsed the bridge, local acting Governor Alexander Khinshtein said on Sunday. The crash sparked a fire, but there were no casualties, he said.
Russia's Investigative Committee, the country's top criminal investigation agency, said in a statement that explosions had caused the two bridges to collapse, but did not give further details.
In the past, some officials have accused pro-Ukrainian saboteurs of attacking Russia's railway infrastructure. The details surrounding such incidents, however, are limited and cannot be independently verified.
In a statement Sunday, Ukraine's military intelligence, known by the Ukrainian abbreviation GUR, said a Russian military freight train carrying food and fuel had been blown up on its way to Crimea. It did not claim the attack was carried out by GUR or mention the bridge collapses. The statement said Moscow's key 'artery with the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia region and Crimea has been destroyed'.
Russian forces have been pushing into the region of Zaporizhzhia in eastern Ukraine since Moscow's invasion in February 2022. They took Crimea and annexed it in 2014.
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