The Gaza Civil Defense said Israeli forces killed 21 people waiting for aid near a distribution point in the heart of the Palestinian territory, the latest deadly incident targeting aid seekers.
Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP that Palestinians waiting for aid in the central Gaza Strip early Tuesday were attacked. Israeli occupation forces killed 21 people and wounded about 150 with live ammunition and tank shells. AFP has contacted the Israeli military for comment.
The Gaza Strip has been reduced to almost complete ruins after more than a year and eight months of relentless and brutal Israeli attacks. More than 55,000 people have died in the besieged Palestinian territory. Children’s bodies have been torn apart by bombs, and several family members have died together after being buried in the ground. Hospitals, shelters, schools—nothing has been spared.
From the beginning of the attack, Israel has blocked the supply of food, water, and fuel to Gaza. Humanitarian aid has been deliberately blocked. Agricultural land has been destroyed. A famine situation has been created by depriving the ordinary people of Gaza of all the essentials for survival.
In December 2023, the international human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that the occupying Israel is using starvation as a tactic of war in Gaza. Attacks are repeatedly targeting vulnerable and hungry people who have gathered in the hope of relief.
Before the two-month ceasefire expired, Israel completely stopped all types of relief from entering Gaza on March 2. After almost three months of international pressure, Israel allowed some limited aid to enter at the end of May. However, not through the United Nations or international charities, but through a new organization called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) funded by the United States, which is distributing aid in a small number of places.
Israeli soldiers are now firing on Palestinians who come to receive aid almost every day at these GHF distribution centers. According to various international media outlets, thousands of hungry people gather at these distribution centers in Gaza in the hope of receiving aid, but many Palestinians die there as a result of direct Israeli fire.
According to the Gaza Media Office, since the end of May, more than 400 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers in GHF relief centers alone, and about 3,500 have been injured. Although this brutality has drawn strong condemnation from around the world, there has been no effective action.
Source: Al Jazeera