59 people killed in Gaza airstrikes, health officials say
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At least 30 killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza as war deaths top 58,000, officials say
At least 30 killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza as war deaths top 58,000, officials say. Israel and Hamas appear no closer to a breakthrough in talks meant to pause the 21-month war. A new sticking point has emerged over the deployment of Israeli troops during the truce. Violence has also surged in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where funerals were held Sunday for two Palestinians, including Palestinian-American Sayfollah Musallet, 20, who was killed in an attack by Israeli settlers. in Gaza, officials at Al-Awda Hospital in central Gaza said it received 10 bodies after an Israeli strike on a water collection point in Nuseirat. Among the dead were six children, the hospital said. The Israeli military said it was targeting a militant but that a technical error made its munition fall “dozens of meters from the target” It said the incident was being examined. In the central town of Zawaida, an Israelistrike on a home killed nine, including two women and three children.
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DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip killed at least 30 people on Sunday, including six children at a water collection point, local health officials said, despite attempts by mediators to bring about a ceasefire.
Israel and Hamas appeared no closer to a breakthrough in talks meant to pause the 21-month war and free some Israeli hostages. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Washington last week to discuss the deal with the Trump administration, but a new sticking point has emerged over the deployment of Israeli troops during the truce, raising questions over the feasibility of a new deal.
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Israel says it will only end the war once Hamas surrenders, disarms and goes into exile, something it refuses to do. Hamas says it is willing to free all the remaining 50 hostages, less than half said to be alive, in exchange for an end to the war and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said Sunday that more than 58,000 people have been killed in the war. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count but says more than half of the dead are women and children. In the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war, Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted 251 in a raid on northern Israel.
Throughout the war in Gaza, violence has also surged in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where funerals were held Sunday for two Palestinians, including Palestinian-American Sayfollah Musallet, 20, who was killed in an attack by Israeli settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
toggle caption Jehad Alshrafi/AP
Children killed at a water collection point
In Gaza, officials at Al-Awda Hospital in central Gaza said it received 10 bodies after an Israeli strike on a water collection point in Nuseirat, also in central Gaza. Among the dead were six children, the hospital said.
Ramadan Nassar, a witness who lives in the area, told The Associated Press that around 20 children and 14 adults were lined up Sunday morning to fill up water. When the strike occurred, everyone ran and some, including those who were severely injured, fell to the ground, he said.
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He said Palestinians walk some 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) to fetch water from the area.
The Israeli military said it was targeting a militant but that a technical error made its munition fall “dozens of meters from the target.” It said the incident was being examined.
Additionally, health officials said an Israeli strike hit a group of citizens walking in the street on Sunday afternoon, killing 11 people and injuring around 30 others in central Gaza City.
Dr. Ahmed Qandil, who specializes in general surgery and laparoscopic, was among those killed, the Gaza Health Ministry said in a statement. One of the ministry’s spokespeople, Zaher al-Wahidi, told the AP that Qandil was on his way to Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital when the strike happened. All bodies and those wounded were taken to Al-Ahli hospital, according to al-Wahidi.
In the central town of Zawaida, an Israeli strike on a home killed nine, including two women and three children, officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said.
The military said it was unaware of a strike on the home, but has struck over 150 targets over the past 24 hours, including what it said are weapons storage facilities, missile launchers and sniping posts. Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the militant group operates out of populated areas.
toggle caption Jehad Alshrafi/AP
Funeral held for Palestinian-American killed in the West Bank
In the West Bank, where violence between Israeli troops and Palestinians has been compounded by attacks on Palestinians by Israeli settlers, funerals were held for a Palestinian-American and a Palestinian friend of his.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said Musallet, a Florida native, was killed after being beaten by Israeli settlers. Diana Halum, a cousin, said the attack occurred on his family’s land. The Health Ministry initially identified him as Seifeddine Musalat, 23.
Musallet’s friend, Mohammed al-Shalabi, was shot in the chest, according to the ministry.
On Sunday, their bodies were carried through the streets of Al-Mazraa a-Sharqiya, a town south of where they were killed. Mourners, waving Palestinian flags, chanted “God is great.”
In a statement Saturday, Musallet’s family said he was “a kind, hard-working, and deeply-respected young man, working to build his dreams.” It said he built a business in Tampa, Florida, and that he was deeply connected to his Palestinians heritage.
Musallet’s family said it wants the U.S. State Department to investigate his death and hold the settlers accountable. The State Department said it was aware of the reports of his death but had no comment out of respect for the family.
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Israel’s military has said Palestinians hurled rocks at Israelis in the area on Friday, lightly wounding two people and setting off a larger confrontation.
Palestinians and rights groups have long accused the military of ignoring settler violence.
Airstrikes And Gunfire Kill At Least 59 People In Gaza As Pressure Grows For Ceasefire, Hostage Deal
Israeli strikes and gunfire kill at least 59 people across Gaza, health officials say. Israel’s army said it was not aware of anyone being killed by gunfire Saturday. Forty-eight hostages are still held captive there, around 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive. International pressure on Israel to end the war is increasing, with a growing list of countries deciding recently to recognize Palestinian statehood, which Israel rejects.“My son Eitan sleeps sick and starving on the floor of a tunnel in Gaza or, worse, is used as a human shield against IDF fighters. What will you save him with?” says the father of one of the hostages held in Gaza since the Hamas attack that started the war. “Mr. President, as you meet Prime Minister Netanyahu, please make the hostages your top priority,” a hostage says.
Among the dead were those hit by two strikes in the Nuseirat refugee camp — nine from the same family in a house and, later, 15 in the same camp, including women and children, according to staff at al-Awda Hospital, where the bodies were brought.
Five others were killed when a strike hit a tent for the displaced, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the dead. Israel’s army said it was not aware of anyone being killed by gunfire Saturday in southern Gaza, nor of a strike in the Nuseirat area during the time and at the location provided by the hospital.
The director of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City told The Associated Press that medical teams there were concerned about Israeli “tanks approaching the vicinity of the hospital,” restricting access to the facility where 159 patients are being treated. “The bombardment has not stopped for a single moment,” Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya said.
He added that 14 premature babies were treated in incubators in Helou Hospital, though the head of neonatal intensive care there, Dr. Nasser Bulbul, has said that facility’s main gate was closed because of drones flying over the building.
Netanyahu and Trump scheduled to meet as pressure grows
The attacks came after a defiant Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told fellow world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly on Friday that his nation “must finish the job” against Hamas in Gaza. Forty-eight hostages are still held captive there, around 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive.
Netanyahu’s words began after dozens of delegates from multiple nations walked out of the U.N. General Assembly hall en masse Friday morning as he began speaking.
“You were like the last of the lepers. Netanyahu, we promise you that if you don’t bring a comprehensive agreement and end the war, you will forever be a leper,” said Itzik Horn, the father of Eitan Horn, one of the hostages held in Gaza since the Hamas attack that started the war. He was referencing the U.N. speech and Israel’s isolation.
“My son Eitan sleeps sick and starving on the floor of a tunnel in Gaza or, worse, is used as a human shield against IDF fighters. What will you save him with?” Horn added Saturday evening.
International pressure on Israel to end the war is increasing, with a growing list of countries deciding recently to recognize Palestinian statehood, which Israel rejects.
Countries have been lobbying U.S. President Donald Trump to press Israel for a ceasefire. Trump and Netanyahu are scheduled to meet Monday. At a weekly protest in Tel Aviv Saturday night, a hostage who had been held in Gaza for 471 days begged Trump to give the remaining captives the same chance to return home.
“Mr. President, as you meet Prime Minister Netanyahu, please make the hostages your top priority,” Doron Steinbrecher, 32, said. “Families remain torn apart, their loved ones trapped in darkness, some waiting for a chance to return to life and freedom, others waiting to be buried with dignity.”
Among those whose bodies are held in Gaza is Inbar Haiman. Her uncle asked Saturday at a protest in Jerusalem that Trump help facilitate the return. “We want her back home as if she were alive,” Eli Cohen said.
59 Palestinians in Gaza are killed by Israeli airstrikes or shot dead while seeking aid
Airstrikes in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah killed 13 including the four children, officials said. Fifteen others were killed in Khan Younis in the south, according to Nasser Hospital. The Red Cross said its field hospital saw its largest influx of dead in more than a year of operation after the shootings. There were no signs of a breakthrough in ceasefire talks following two days of meetings between U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The 21-month war has left much of Gaza’s population of over 2 million reliant on outside aid while food security experts warn of famine in the region.. Israel’s military said it fired warning shots toward people it said were behaving suspiciously to prevent them from approaching. It said it was not aware of any casualties near its sites. The GHF denies there has been violence in or around its sites, but two of its contractors told The Associated Press that their colleagues have fired live ammunition and stun grenades as Palestinians scramble for food.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — At least 31 Palestinians were fatally shot on their way to an aid distribution site in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, while Israeli airstrikes killed at least 28 Palestinians including four children, Palestinian hospital officials and witnesses said.
A Palestinian man carries the body of his child, who was killed in an Israeli military airstrike on Gaza, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Saturday, July 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
There were no signs of a breakthrough in ceasefire talks following two days of meetings between U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump had said he was nearing an agreement between Israel and Hamas that would potentially wind down the war.
The 31 Palestinians shot dead were on their way to a distribution site run by the Israeli-backed American organization Gaza Humanitarian Foundation near Rafah in southern Gaza, hospital officials and witnesses said.
The Red Cross said its field hospital saw its largest influx of dead in more than a year of operation after the shootings, and that the overwhelming majority of the more than 100 people hurt had gunshot wounds.
Airstrikes in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah killed 13 including the four children, officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said. Fifteen others were killed in Khan Younis in the south, according to Nasser Hospital. Israel’s military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Intense airstrikes continued Saturday evening in the area of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza.
Israelis rallied yet again for a ceasefire deal. “Arrogance is what brought the disaster upon us,” former hostage Eli Sharabi said of Israeli leaders.
Teen’s first attempt to pick up food ends in death
The 21-month war has left much of Gaza’s population of over 2 million reliant on outside aid while food security experts warn of famine. Israel blocked and then restricted aid entry after ending the latest ceasefire in March.
“All responsive individuals reported they were attempting to access food distribution sites,” the Red Cross said after the shootings near Rafah, noting the “alarming frequency and scale” of such mass casualty incidents.
Israel’s military said it fired warning shots toward people it said were behaving suspiciously to prevent them from approaching. It said it was not aware of any casualties. The GHF said no incident occurred near its sites.
Abdullah al-Haddad said he was 200 meters (655 feet) from the aid distribution site run by the GHF close to the Shakoush area when an Israeli tank started firing at crowds of Palestinians.
“We were together, and they shot us at once,” he said, writhing in pain from a leg wound at Nasser Hospital.
Mohammed Jamal al-Sahloo, another witness, said Israel’s military had ordered them to proceed to the site when the shooting started.
Sumaya al-Sha’er’s 17-year-old son, Nasir, was killed, hospital officials said.
“He said to me, ‘Mom, you don’t have flour and today I’ll go and bring you flour, even if I die, I’ll go and get it,'” she said. “But he never came back home.”
Until then, she said, she had prevented the teenager from going to GHF sites because she thought it was too dangerous.
Witnesses, health officials and U.N. officials say hundreds have been killed by Israeli fire while heading toward GHF distribution points through military zones off limits to independent media. The military has acknowledged firing warning shots at Palestinians who it says approached its forces in a suspicious manner.
The GHF denies there has been violence in or around its sites. But two of its contractors told The Associated Press that their colleagues have fired live ammunition and stun grenades as Palestinians scramble for food, allegations the foundation denied.
In a separate effort, the U.N. and aid groups say they struggle to distribute humanitarian aid because of Israeli military restrictions and a breakdown of law and order that has led to widespread looting.
The first fuel — 150,000 liters — entered Gaza this week after 130 days, a joint statement by U.N. aid bodies said, calling it a small amount for the “the backbone of survival in Gaza.” Fuel runs hospitals, water systems, transport and more, the statement said.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in their Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the war and abducted 251. Hamas still holds some 50 hostages, with at least 20 believed to remain alive.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 57,800 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, under Gaza’s Hamas-run government, doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count. The U.N. and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.
A Palestinian-American killed in the West Bank
Friends and relatives paid their respects a day after Palestinian-American Seifeddin Musalat and local friend Mohammed al-Shalabi were killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Musalat was beaten to death by Israeli settlers on his family’s land, his cousin Diana Halum told reporters. The settlers then blocked paramedics from reaching him, she said.
Musalat, born in Florida, was visiting his family home. His family wants the U.S. State Department to investigate his death and hold the settlers accountable. The State Department said it was aware of the reports of his death but had no comment out of respect for the family.
A witness, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid Israeli retaliation, said the settlers descended on Palestinian lands and “started shooting at us, beating by sticks and throwing rocks.”
Israel’s military has said Palestinians hurled rocks at Israelis in the area earlier on Friday, lightly wounding two people and setting off a larger confrontation.
Palestinians and rights groups have long accused the military of ignoring settler violence, which has spiked — along with Palestinian attacks and Israeli military raids — since the war in Gaza began.
Witnesses describe ‘horror’ after Israeli forces fire at Palestinians waiting for aid trucks
At least 59 people were killed and 221 wounded in the incident, at least 20 of them in critical condition. The Israeli military acknowledged firing in the area of the crowd in Khan Younis and said it was looking into the incident. Unverified video shared on social media showed about a dozen mangled bodies lying in a street. ‘The ground was filled with martyrs, the wounded, and pools of blood,’ one witness said. The Nasser hospital received 51 dead and 250 injured people, said Dr Mohamed Saqer. Many victims arrived as dismembered body parts, with amputations and other severe injuries, said a doctor at the Nasser medical complex. IDF said a crowd had been identified adjacent to an aid distribution truck that got stuck in area of Khan Younes. The exact identity of the trucks was not immediately clear. UN agencies, commercial operators and others have all moved limited amounts of aid into Gaza in recent weeks. Israeli troops operating in proximity to the area are under review.
At least 59 Palestinians were killed according to medics and hundreds more wounded in the southern city. People at the scene and doctors described seeing injured and dead with wounds typical of those caused by artillery or tank fire. Unverified video shared on social media showed about a dozen mangled bodies lying in a street.
Multiple other incidents of violence involving crowds of desperate Palestinians trying to get food were reported on Tuesday. Medics said at least 14 other people were also killed by Israeli gunfire and airstrikes elsewhere in the densely populated enclave, taking Tuesday’s overall death toll to at least 73.
Eight Palestinians were reported to have died in a separate shooting near an aid distribution site in the city of Rafah, and several more injured or killed in a third incident between Rafah and Khan Younis.
View image in fullscreen Women mourn for those killed after Israeli soldiers opened fire in Khan Younis on Monday. Photograph: Moaz Abu Taha/APAImages/Shutterstock
The Israeli military acknowledged firing in the area of the crowd in Khan Younis and said it was looking into the incident.
Musab Barbakh, 22, said he had arrived at the al-Tahlia junction at midnight. “I was sitting with a group of young men at around 8.30am when suddenly a shell landed right in the middle of us. I don’t know how I survived without any injuries. As I was running away, another shell hit another group of people. Then a missile was fired, followed by random gunfire,” he said.
“The ground was filled with martyrs, the wounded, and pools of blood. Cars were exploding, the bodies of the martyrs were torn apart – wherever you looked, you saw scenes of body parts, blood, and corpses. I felt like I was living in a horror movie.”
Abdullah Anshasi, 30, from the al-Amal neighbourhood in Khan Younis, said he, too, was waiting for the aid to arrive when “explosions began and shrapnel rained down around us”.
“Many people were killed. We saw several artillery shells land around us,” he said. “What we witnessed was horrifying: human bodies flying through the air, hundreds of injured people lying on the ground. We survived by a miracle.”
View image in fullscreen The Nasser hospital received 51 dead and 250 injured people, said Dr Mohamed Saqer. Photograph: Dr Mohammed Saqer
Palestinian medics said at least 59 people were killed and 221 wounded in the incident, at least 20 of them in critical condition.
“The injured were transported to us … on donkey carts, with multiple injured people stacked on top of each other. In some, as many as 20 wounded all piled up,” Dr Mohammed Saqer, the head of the nursing department at the Nasser medical complex in Khan Younis, said.
“Most of the injuries are in the upper body – limbs, chest, heart, and head. Many victims arrived as dismembered body parts, with amputations and other severe injuries. Based on our inquiries with eyewitnesses and those accompanying the injured, the attack appears to have been carried out using artillery shells, followed by live gunfire from soldiers.”
A second doctor at the Nasser medical complex said the hospital morgue was completely full, so bodies were being placed outside the building. “Thousands of people – relatives and injured – have flooded the hospital, searching for their loved ones. Wounded people are lying in the hospital courtyards. The emergency department has been completely paralysed,” they said.
View image in fullscreen ‘Thousands of people have flooded the hospital,’ said one doctor at the Nasser medical complex. Photograph: Dr Mohammed Saqer
The IDF said it was aware of reports of casualties “from IDF fire”.
“The details of the incident are under review. The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and operates to minimise harm as much as possible to them while maintaining the safety of our troops,” its statement said.
The IDF said a crowd had been identified adjacent to an aid distribution truck that had got stuck in the area of Khan Younis, and in proximity to IDF troops operating in the area.
The exact identity of the trucks expected at the al-Tahlia junction was not immediately clear. UN agencies, commercial operators and others have all moved limited amounts of aid into Gaza in recent weeks.
Anas Barbakh, 21, said he had travelled to al-Tahlia after hearing that trucks loaded with flour had reached the crossroads for the past two days.
“So many people were killed and wounded that we couldn’t even tell who was dead, who was injured, or who was still alive. My brother and my cousin Musab were injured – one in the head and the other in the chest. We transported them to the hospital on horse-drawn carts,” he told the Guardian.
View image in fullscreen A crowd gathers near Nasser hospital in Khan Younis as Palestinian casualties – who were waiting to receive aid – are brought in after an Israeli strike. Photograph: Hatem Khaled/Reuters
A tight blockade on all supplies entering Gaza was imposed by Israel throughout March and April, threatening many of the 2.3 million people who live there with a “critical risk of famine”. Food has become extremely scarce, sending prices for basics soaring.
“Despite the danger, we are forced to go [to get aid]. No one can afford to buy a bag of flour for $400 … I have a family of 10 people to feed,” said Barbakh.
Since the blockade was partially lifted last month, the UN has tried to bring in aid but has faced major obstacles, including rubble-choked roads, Israeli military restrictions, continuing air strikes and growing anarchy.
Aid officials said between 20 and 30 UN trucks had entered Gaza through the main checkpoint of Kerem Shalom in recent days but all had been looted. “There is no law and order. Some of it is criminal and organised but mostly it is just desperate people trying to get some food,” a senior UN official told the Guardian.
Palestinians say Israeli forces have opened fire repeatedly on crowds trying to reach food distribution points run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private organisation that recently began operating in Gaza with Israeli and US support.
The second incident reported on Monday involved Palestinians seeking to access an aid hub in Rafah. The details of the third incident were unclear, though witnesses described many injured. There was no immediate comment from the IDF or GHF.
On Monday, at least 37 Palestinians were killed as they tried to reach a GHF site, local authorities said. The IDF disputed the death toll, saying it did not match their information. Witnesses blamed that shooting on Israeli troops who opened fire early in the morning as crowds of hungry Palestinians converged on two hubs managed by the GHF.
Q&A Why is it so difficult to report on Gaza? Show Coverage of the war in Gaza is constrained by Israeli attacks on Palestinian journalists and a bar on international reporters entering the Gaza Strip to report independently on the war. Israel has not allowed foreign reporters to enter Gaza since 7 October 2023, unless they are under Israeli military escort. Reporters who join these trips have no control over where they go, and other restrictions include a bar on speaking to Palestinians in Gaza. Palestinian journalists and media workers inside Gaza have paid a heavy price for their work reporting on the war, with over 180 killed since the conflict began. The committee to protect journalists has determined that at least 19 of them “were directly targeted by Israeli forces in killings which CPJ classifies as murders”. Foreign reporters based in Israel filed a legal petition seeking access to Gaza, but it was rejected by the supreme court on security grounds. Private lobbying by diplomats and public appeals by prominent journalists and media outlets have been ignored by the Israeli government. To ensure accurate reporting from Gaza given these restrictions, the Guardian works with trusted journalists on the ground; our visual teams verify photo and videos from third parties; and we use clearly sourced data from organisations that have a track record of providing accurate information in Gaza during past conflicts, or during other conflicts or humanitarian crises. Emma Graham-Harrison, chief Middle East correspondent Was this helpful? Thank you for your feedback.
Israel hopes the GHF will replace the previous comprehensive system of aid distribution run by the UN, which Israeli officials claim allowed Hamas to steal and sell aid. UN agencies and major aid groups, which have delivered humanitarian aid across Gaza since the start of war, have rejected the new system, saying it is impractical, inadequate and unethical. They deny there is widespread theft of aid by Hamas.
The GHF’s provisions so far have been grossly inadequate, humanitarian officials in the devastated territory said.
Israel’s military campaign since October 2023 has killed more than 55,500 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Its count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Israel launched its campaign aiming to destroy Hamas after the group’s 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took another 251 hostage. The militants still hold 53 hostages, fewer than half of them alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Associated Press contributed to reporting
Israeli tank fire kills at least 59 in Gaza crowd trying to get food, medics say
Israeli tanks fired into a crowd trying to get aid from trucks in the Gaza Strip on Monday, killing at least 59 people, according to medics. The Israeli military acknowledged firing in the area and said it was looking into the incident. The deaths are the latest in mass shootings that have killed at least 300 Palestinians in the past several weeks, Gaza’s Health Ministry says. At least 14 other people were also killed in separate Israeli gunfire and airstrikes elsewhere in the enclave, taking Tuesday’s death toll to at least 65, medics said. Israel has been allowing much of the aid it is now allowing into Gaza through a new U.S.- and Israel-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) The United Nations rejects the system as inadequate, dangerous and a violation of humanitarian impartiality rules. Israel says it is needed to prevent Hamas fighters from diverting aid, which Hamas denies. The GHF said in a news release late Monday that it had distributed more than three million meals at its four distribution sites without incident.
Video shared on social media showed around a dozen mangled bodies lying in a street in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. The Israeli military acknowledged firing in the area and said it was looking into the incident.
Eyewitnesses interviewed by Reuters said Israeli tanks had fired at least two shells at a crowd of thousands, who had gathered on the main eastern road through Khan Younis in the hope of getting food from aid trucks that use the route.
“All of a sudden, they let us move forward and made everyone gather, and then shells started falling, tank shells,” said Alaa, an eyewitness, interviewed by Reuters at Nasser Hospital, where wounded victims lay sprawled on the floor and in corridors due to a lack of space.
“No one is looking at these people with mercy. The people are dying, they are being torn apart, to get food for their children. Look at these people, all these people are torn to get flour to feed their children.”
Women attend the funeral of Palestinians killed in what the Gaza Health Ministry said were Israeli airstrikes Tuesday in Khan Younis. (Hatem Khaled/Reuters)
Palestinian medics said at least 59 people were killed and 221 wounded in the incident, at least 20 of them critically. Casualties were being rushed to the hospital in civilian cars, rickshaws and donkey carts.
It was the worst death toll in a single day since aid resumed in Gaza in May.
In a statement, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said: “Earlier today, a gathering was identified adjacent to an aid distribution truck that got stuck in the area of Khan Younis, and in proximity to IDF troops operating in the area.
“The IDF is aware of reports regarding a number of injured individuals from IDF fire following the crowd’s approach. The details of the incident are under review. The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and operates to minimize harm as much as possible to them while maintaining the safety of our troops.”
Hundreds killed near aid sites in recent weeks
Medics said at least 14 other people were also killed in separate Israeli gunfire and airstrikes elsewhere in the enclave, taking Tuesday’s death toll to at least 65.
The incident was the latest in near-daily killings of Palestinians seeking aid in the past three weeks, since Israel partially lifted a total blockade on the territory it had imposed for nearly three months.
Israel has been channeling much of the aid it is now allowing into Gaza through a new U.S.- and Israel-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which operates a handful of distribution sites in areas guarded by Israeli forces.
EARLIER | A number of Palestinians trying to reach Rafah aid site killed on Monday: ‘We saw death’: Palestinians describe violence near GHF aid sites on Monday Duration 1:10 At least 20 people were killed and 200 others wounded in Israeli fire near an aid distribution site in Rafah on Monday, according to medics. The deaths are the latest in mass shootings that have killed at least 300 Palestinians in the past several weeks, Gaza’s Health Ministry says, as they try to access food through the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s distribution system.
The United Nations rejects the system as inadequate, dangerous and a violation of humanitarian impartiality rules. Israel says it is needed to prevent Hamas fighters from diverting aid, which Hamas denies.
Gaza authorities say hundreds of Palestinians have been killed trying to reach the GHF’s sites, including 23 people killed by Israeli gunfire on Monday in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
The GHF said in a news release late Monday that it had distributed more than three million meals at its four distribution sites without incident.
Eyes on Iran war
The Gaza war was triggered in October 2023, when Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. Israel’s subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 55,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, while displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million and causing a hunger crisis.
Since last week, residents of Gaza have kept an eye on the war between Israel and Iran, which began with Israel launching major strikes on Friday. Iran has long been a major supporter of Hamas.
Residents of the Gaza Strip have circulated images of wrecked buildings in Israel hit by Iranian missiles, some openly happy to see Israelis experiencing a measure of the fear of airstrikes that Gazans have endured for 20 months.
“We live these scenes and pain daily. We are very happy that we saw the day when we saw rubble in Tel Aviv, and they are trying to get out from under the rubble and the houses that were destroyed on top of their residents,” said Saad Saad, a Gazan man.
“The time has come for Iran to teach the Israeli occupation state a lesson,” said another, Taysseir Mohaissan.
Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/video/59-people-killed-in-gaza-airstrikes-health-officials-say/