GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defence agency said 16 people were killed in Israeli military operations in the Palestinian territory on Sunday, most of them while waiting for aid.
The first responders agency’s teams transported the bodies of 16 people killed by Israeli fire in various part of the Palestinian territory, spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
At least three people were killed and many injured when Israeli forces “targeted a gathering of hundreds of citizens near the aid distribution point” in central Gaza Sunday morning, Bassal said.
In the coastal territory’s north, Bassal said civil defence teams transported seven people killed on their way to get aid distributed from trucks in the area northwest of Gaza City.
In south Gaza, two people were killed and 50 were injured “when (Israeli) forces opened fire on citizens near an aid distribution point,“ Bassal said.
Contacted by AFP, the army said it was “not aware of gunshots near Netzarim or Rafah”, and that it was looking into the events in northern Gaza.
Israeli restrictions on media in Gaza and the difficulties of access on the ground mean AFP is unable to independently verify the casualty tolls provided by the civil defence agency.
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed while trying to reach Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution points since the US- and Israel-backed organisation began operating in late May, according to the civil defence agency.
An officially private effort with opaque funding, the GHF began operating on May 26 after Israel cut off supplies into Gaza for more than two months, sparking international condemnation and warnings of imminent famine.
The Gaza Strip has been ravaged by more than 20 months of war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, with the situation continuing to deteriorate on the ground.
Bassal said that the humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to worsen, “with no food, no water and no medicine, while thousands of children, the elderly and the sick go to sleep hungry”.
