logo
Dozens of Palestinians reported killed near aid distribution centre in Gaza

Dozens of Palestinians reported killed near aid distribution centre in Gaza

Qatar Tribune3 days ago

dpa
Tel Aviv
The Israeli military has again killed people waiting near a distribution centre for humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas authorities there.
The Hamas-controlled health authority said there had been more than 50 fatalities and around 200 injured in the south of the sealed-off coastal area. It did not give any details.
Eyewitnesses told DPA that some people were on foot and others in vehicles on their way to a distribution centre when the Israeli army shelled them in an area between the cities of Rafah and Khan Younis.
The Israeli army stated that a humanitarian aid truck had become stuck near Khan Younis. A crowd had gathered in the area, where Israeli forces were operating, and approached the soldiers.
The army acknowledged reports of injuries caused by Israeli fire.
'The details of the incident are currently being investigated,' it said in a statement.
The Israeli military expressed regret for any harm caused to individuals not involved in the incident and stated that it strives to minimize injury to civilians.
At the same time, it emphasized the need to ensure the safety of Israeli troops.
The claims from both the Israeli military and Palestinians could not be independently verified.
Palestinian media carried a video showing bloodied victims in a clinic, but the authenticity of the footage has not been confirmed.
A doctor working in Gaza City for the World Health Organization (WHO) cited reports of at least 50 victims, including more than 20 fatalities.
According to the WHO, incidents also occurred on Sunday and Monday when dozens of patients with gunshot wounds arrived at hospitals.
Many did not survive and those that did said they were attacked near distribution centres.
The centres are operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is supported by Israel and the United States. It began its mission in the Gaza Strip last month following an almost three-month-long Israeli blockade of aid supplies.
The distribution is intended as an alternative to the distribution of aid by the United Nations and international aid organizations. Both these groups have criticized the GHF.
Israel and the US say the distribution by the GHF prevents Hamas from appropriating humanitarian aid supplies.
On several occasions people have been reported killed near the distribution centres.
Israel on previous occasions said they had fired at people who were not following prescribed routes. The GHF has previously said that the deaths have occurred outside their own security zone.
According to the WHO, 17 of the 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip that still offer minimal services are on the verge of collapse.
The main issue is a lack of fuel, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X.
Israel is blocking fuel imports and, according to Tedros, is not allowing the WHO to access remaining reserves stored in areas of the Gaza Strip designated as evacuation zones by Israel.
These zones cover 80% of the territory, according to the UN.
Without fuel, operating theatres, dialysis machines, and incubators cannot function, medicines cannot be refrigerated, and water cannot be boiled.
'Ceasefire. NOW,' Tedros said.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

At least 35 killed in new Israeli attack on Gaza aid seekers
At least 35 killed in new Israeli attack on Gaza aid seekers

Al Jazeera

time13 hours ago

  • Al Jazeera

At least 35 killed in new Israeli attack on Gaza aid seekers

At least 35 Palestinians have been killed and several others wounded by Israeli fire while waiting for humanitarian aid near the Netzarim Corridor, in the central Gaza Strip, sources at al-Awda Hospital told Al Jazeera. Israeli jets also bombed a house west of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, killing at least eight people and injuring more. Hospitals in Gaza said at least 50 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli army on Friday. Israeli attacks on hungry Palestinians near aid centres have killed hundreds of people since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) started distributions on May 27. The shadowy Israeli- and United States-backed group tasked with distributing aid supplies has been criticised by the United Nations for its 'failure' to ensure the safe delivery of supplies in Gaza, where aid agencies have warned that the entire population is facing the threat of famine after Israel imposed a total blockade from early March to late May. Ismail al-Thawabta, the director-general of Gaza's Government Media Office, said on Thursday that the total number of aid seekers killed stood at 409, and 3,203 more had been injured. UNICEF warned the Gaza Strip was also facing a man-made drought as its water systems collapsed. 'Children will begin to die of thirst,' spokesperson James Elder told reporters in Geneva on Friday. 'Just 40 percent of drinking water production facilities remain functional.' The UN agency warned that the GHF distribution system was 'making a desperate situation worse'. Elder, who was recently in Gaza, said he had many testimonials of women and children injured while trying to receive food aid, including a young boy who was wounded by a tank shell and later died of his injuries. He said a lack of public clarity on when the sites, some of which are in combat zones, were open was causing mass casualty events. 'There have been instances where information [was] shared that a site is open, but then it's communicated on social media that they're closed, but that information was shared when Gaza's internet was down and people had no access to it,' he said. On Wednesday, the GHF said in a statement it had distributed three million meals across three of its aid sites without an incident.

Israeli forces kill 69 Palestinians in Gaza, including 29 seeking aid
Israeli forces kill 69 Palestinians in Gaza, including 29 seeking aid

Al Jazeera

time2 days ago

  • Al Jazeera

Israeli forces kill 69 Palestinians in Gaza, including 29 seeking aid

At least 69 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire across Gaza on Wednesday, including 29 people who were waiting for aid trucks, Palestinian health officials say, the latest carnage hitting people desperate to secure food for their hungry families. The latest incidence of the daily killing of Palestinian aid seekers in recent weeks took place early on Wednesday on Salah al-Din Street near the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza, medical sources told Al Jazeera. More than 100 others were injured in the attack, they said. In other deadly Israeli strikes across Gaza, eight people were killed, and others injured, in an air strike on a home in the Zeitoun neighbourhood south of Gaza City, medical sources told Al Jazeera. Eight more people were killed, and others injured, in Israeli strikes on tents of displaced people in al-Mawasi camp in Gaza's south, medical sources told Al Jazeera. The victims included a woman and two children, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. Another strike took place on the Maghazi camp in central Gaza, news agencies reported, citing medics. Wafa reported that 10 people, including a husband, wife and children from a single family, were killed in the strike. Hamas condemned Israel's assault on residential areas across the enclave, as well as its targeting of aid seekers at distribution points managed by the contentious US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). 'The systematic abuse of innocent civilians, the escalation of massacres, the targeting of the starving, forced evictions, and the shrinking of areas the occupation claims are 'safe'' amount to war crimes, the group said. Israel's attacks are 'part of the brutal war of extermination that has been ongoing for nearly 20 months', it added. The Israeli military, when asked for comment, told the Reuters news agency that it was looking into the reported deaths of people waiting for food aid. Regarding the other reported strikes, it claimed it was 'operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities' and taking 'feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm', Reuters reported. The GHF began distributing a trickle of food aid in Gaza at the end of May after Israel partially lifted a nearly three-month total blockade on food, medicines and other essential items, leading to fears of famine for the population of 2.3 million. No other aid has been allowed in by Israel, which in effect has kept the punishing blockade in place. Israeli mass killings of aid seekers have become a grim daily occurrence amid the chaotic scenes as desperate Palestinians are given a narrow window to rush for food. The United Nations and major humanitarian groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, citing concerns that it prioritises Israeli military objectives over humanitarian needs and bypasses organisations with decades of experience in providing food and medicine at hundreds of locations to the entire population of Gaza. Ahmed Ghaben told Al Jazeera about the death of a relative: 'My nephew went to bring his children a bag of flour, but he was brought back a lifeless body, as you can see, a martyr. He left 14 family members. He went [to get aid] due to hunger. He wasn't a resistance fighter. He went to get a bag of flour.' Al Jazeera's Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said, 'It's very clear that Israeli forces are targeting civilians who only went to get bags of flour or boxes of food. Eyewitnesses say the soldiers used a variety of weapons, including drones and tanks. Snipers who have been deployed in nearby hills have also been gunning down the civilians. 'The Israeli military claims these hungry crowds are a security threat, but these claims have not been substantiated with clear evidence.' On Tuesday, Israeli troops killed at least 70 Palestinians and wounded hundreds as they sought aid in Gaza on the deadliest day of violence at the sites so far. Gaza's Ministry of Health said on Tuesday that 397 Palestinian aid seekers had been killed and more than 3,000 wounded since distribution resumed in late May. The attacks come as Gaza's Health Ministry said that the death toll had risen to 55,637, with 129,880 wounded since the conflict erupted in October 2023. The ministry also issued a warning about serious fuel shortages, saying that the territory's few operational hospitals had only enough fuel to last three days. The ministry said that Israeli forces were preventing international aid groups and UN organisations from accessing fuel storage sites for hospitals under the pretext that they were in so-called 'red zones', threatening the shutdown of hospitals that rely on generators for power. In the meantime, with much of the world's attention on the Israel-Iran conflict, and what the United States may or may not do, a top leader of the Houthis in Yemen, one of Iran's key allies, said they will keep up their support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip until Israeli 'aggression stops, and the siege is lifted'. 'Our operations in support of Gaza will not cease, no matter the sacrifices', said Houthi-backed president Mahdi al-Mashat in a statement Wednesday.

Dozens of Palestinians reported killed near aid distribution centre in Gaza
Dozens of Palestinians reported killed near aid distribution centre in Gaza

Qatar Tribune

time3 days ago

  • Qatar Tribune

Dozens of Palestinians reported killed near aid distribution centre in Gaza

dpa Tel Aviv The Israeli military has again killed people waiting near a distribution centre for humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas authorities there. The Hamas-controlled health authority said there had been more than 50 fatalities and around 200 injured in the south of the sealed-off coastal area. It did not give any details. Eyewitnesses told DPA that some people were on foot and others in vehicles on their way to a distribution centre when the Israeli army shelled them in an area between the cities of Rafah and Khan Younis. The Israeli army stated that a humanitarian aid truck had become stuck near Khan Younis. A crowd had gathered in the area, where Israeli forces were operating, and approached the soldiers. The army acknowledged reports of injuries caused by Israeli fire. 'The details of the incident are currently being investigated,' it said in a statement. The Israeli military expressed regret for any harm caused to individuals not involved in the incident and stated that it strives to minimize injury to civilians. At the same time, it emphasized the need to ensure the safety of Israeli troops. The claims from both the Israeli military and Palestinians could not be independently verified. Palestinian media carried a video showing bloodied victims in a clinic, but the authenticity of the footage has not been confirmed. A doctor working in Gaza City for the World Health Organization (WHO) cited reports of at least 50 victims, including more than 20 fatalities. According to the WHO, incidents also occurred on Sunday and Monday when dozens of patients with gunshot wounds arrived at hospitals. Many did not survive and those that did said they were attacked near distribution centres. The centres are operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is supported by Israel and the United States. It began its mission in the Gaza Strip last month following an almost three-month-long Israeli blockade of aid supplies. The distribution is intended as an alternative to the distribution of aid by the United Nations and international aid organizations. Both these groups have criticized the GHF. Israel and the US say the distribution by the GHF prevents Hamas from appropriating humanitarian aid supplies. On several occasions people have been reported killed near the distribution centres. Israel on previous occasions said they had fired at people who were not following prescribed routes. The GHF has previously said that the deaths have occurred outside their own security zone. According to the WHO, 17 of the 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip that still offer minimal services are on the verge of collapse. The main issue is a lack of fuel, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X. Israel is blocking fuel imports and, according to Tedros, is not allowing the WHO to access remaining reserves stored in areas of the Gaza Strip designated as evacuation zones by Israel. These zones cover 80% of the territory, according to the UN. Without fuel, operating theatres, dialysis machines, and incubators cannot function, medicines cannot be refrigerated, and water cannot be boiled. 'Ceasefire. NOW,' Tedros said.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store