At Least 31 Killed as Israeli Forces Open Fire Near Gaza Aid Site, Dozens More Dead in Wider Attacks.
(The Post News)– Israeli forces have killed at least 31 Palestinians and wounded about 200 others near a food aid point in central Gaza, Gaza’s Civil Defence added, in another violent episode of violence in the deepening humanitarian crisis in the blockaded enclave.
It occurred near the former settlement of Netzarim, nowadays a very militarised crossing. The victims were waiting to be distributed food aid when they were attacked by Israeli drones and tanks, according to Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for Gaza’s Civil Defence.
“We have carried a minimum of 31 martyrs and some 200 injured due to Israeli tank and drone fire on thousands of civilians. “Heading to be distributed food parcels from the American aid centre,” Basal explained. The Israeli army has not commented on the incident.
Medical authorities in Shifa and Al-Quds hospitals confirmed most of the slain were civilians who were seeking assistance at a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) centre, an NGO funded by Israel and the United States. This was a second such incident on a Tuesday, when 17 were reported to have been killed at a GHF centre in Rafah. The Israeli army there claimed to have used warning fire to dispel “suspects” perceived as dangerous.
In other parts of Gaza, at least five others were reported killed in Israeli air raids along Khan Younis, with four of them in the al-Mawasi area and one in Qizan Rashwan, based on Nasser Hospital sources.
The fresh bloodshed comes as the Israeli attack escalates across the Gaza Strip, with relentless bombing directed at civilian populations and main infrastructure. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, deaths from Israel’s war effort launched after Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, have now reached at least 54,981 Palestinians killed and 126,920 wounded.
On October 7, nearly 1,139 Israelis were killed and more than 200 others taken into custody in a surprise invasion by Hamas, which led to the current war.
In an unrelated turn of events, Hamas condemned the Israeli military’s killing of Ra’iq Abdul Rahman Bisharat, a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader and former captive who was formerly held by Israel.
As we mourn the martyred liberated prisoner Ra’iq Abdul Rahman Bisharat, we vow our people and their cause will not rest until the occupation is expelled from our land and places of worship,” the group was reported as saying in a statement.
Hamas called on Palestinians to unite in opposition to what it described as “Israel’s aggression” both in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Wednesday’s violence underscores the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where medical assistance, food, and shelter are chronically short. Successive assaults on distribution points have led relief agencies to warn that it is increasingly impossible to get aid to the most vulnerable.
The Israeli military has not yet provided an official account of what happened in aid centres in Netzarim and Rafah. Global human rights organizations are calling for unbiased enquiries into possible violations of international law and rules of armed conflict.
As the war drags on into its ninth month, demands for a ceasefire are mounting, though diplomatic efforts repeatedly have failed. The number of dead increases by the day, and with it, alarm at an even wider humanitarian disaster in the days ahead.
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