GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli troops killed 20 people waiting to collect food on Monday, in the latest deadly incident near a US-backed aid centre in the Palestinian territory’s south.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that “the (Israeli) occupation forces opened fire” near the Al-Alam roundabout in the southern city of Rafah, where many were waiting to reach an aid distribution site.
Bassal said that “20 martyrs and more than 200 wounded by occupation gunfire” were taken to nearby hospitals.
Ahmed al-Farra, head of the paediatric department at Nasser Hospital in the nearby city of Khan Yunis, told AFP that people “are hungry, they didn’t get any food since nearly four months ago”.
In early March, Israel imposed a total aid blockade on the Gaza Strip amid an impasse in truce negotiations, only partially easing restrictions in late May.
“All the borders are closed and this is the only way to get aid,“ Farra said of US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) sites.
“And when they get there they are killed by snipers, as you can see.”
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it had received 200 people at its field hospital in the Al-Mawasi area near Rafah, without elaborating on the circumstances.
In a statement on X, it said it was “the highest number received by the Red Cross Field Hospital in one mass casualty incident”.
Red Cross teams also treated 170 patients at the hospital on Sunday, “many of whom were wounded by gunshots, and who reported that they were trying to access a food distribution site”, the statement said.
Israel has faced mounting international pressure over humanitarian conditions in Gaza, which the United Nations described in May as “the hungriest place on Earth”.
The GHF began distributing aid in late May, but its operations have been marred by chaotic scenes and dozens of deaths.
The UN and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the organisation citing neutrality issues they say violate humanitarian principles.
‘Intense hostilities’
Following previous incidents around GHF sites, the Israeli military has said its troops fired warning shots and were reacting to people approaching them in a way they considered threatening.
Israeli restrictions on media in the Gaza Strip and other difficulties in accessing some areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency.
The ICRC said in its statement that “civilians continue to be killed and injured as intense hostilities continue. Due to the ongoing restrictions of humanitarian assistance, people are also struggling to access basic goods, including fuel”.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said at least 55,432 people have been killed in the territory since the start of the war, which is now in its 21st month.
Of those, 5,139 have been killed since Israel resumed its offensive on March 18 following a truce.
The war was triggered by an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to official Israeli figures.
