Israeli tank shelling kills at least 51 people awaiting aid trucks in Gaza, ministry says
Israeli tanks fired into a crowd trying to get aid from trucks in the Gaza Strip on Monday, killing at least 51 people, according to medics, in one of the bloodiest incidents yet in mounting violence as desperate residents struggle for food.
Video shared on social media showed around a dozen mangled bodies lying in a street in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. The Israeli military acknowledged firing in the area and said it was looking into the incident.
Eyewitnesses interviewed by Reuters said Israeli tanks had fired at least two shells at a crowd of thousands, who had gathered on the main eastern road through Khan Younis in the hope of getting food from aid trucks that use the route.
'All of a sudden, they let us move forward and made everyone gather, and then shells started falling, tank shells,' said Alaa, an eyewitness, interviewed by Reuters at Nasser Hospital, where wounded victims lay sprawled on the floor and in corridors due to the lack of space.
'No one is looking at these people with mercy. The people are dying, they are being torn apart, to get food for their children. Look at these people, all these people are torn to get flour to feed their children.'
Explainer: What is the new U.S.-backed Gaza aid plan and why doesn't the UN like it?
Medics said at least 51 people were killed and 200 wounded, at least 20 of them in critical condition. Casualties were being rushed into the hospital in civilian cars, rickshaws, and donkey carts.
In a statement, the Israeli Defence Forces said: 'Earlier today, a gathering was identified adjacent to an aid distribution truck that got stuck in the area of Khan Yunis, and in proximity to IDF troops operating in the area.
'The IDF is aware of reports regarding a number of injured individuals from IDF fire following the crowd's approach. The details of the incident are under review. The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and operates to minimise harm as much as possible to them while maintaining the safety of our troops.'
Medics said at least 14 other people were also killed in separate Israeli gunfire and airstrikes elsewhere in the enclave, taking Tuesday's death toll to at least 65.
The incident was the latest in nearly daily mass killings of Palestinians seeking aid in the past three weeks, since Israel partially lifted a total blockade on the territory it had imposed for nearly three months.
Israel has been channelling much of the aid it is now allowing into Gaza through a new U.S.- and Israel-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which operates a handful of distribution sites in areas guarded by Israeli forces.
The United Nations rejects the system as inadequate, dangerous and a violation of humanitarian impartiality rules. Israel says it is needed to prevent Hamas fighters from diverting aid, which Hamas denies.
Gaza authorities say hundreds of Palestinians have been killed trying to reach the GHF's sites, including 23 people killed by Israeli gunfire on Monday in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
The GHF said in a press release late on Monday that it had distributed more than three million meals at its four distribution sites without incident.
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