Staff Reporter:
The Gaza civil defence agency said Israeli forces opened fire on people waiting to enter a US-backed food distribution centre on Wednesday, killing 57 and wounding over 360.
“We transported at least 57 martyrs and about 363 wounded as a result of Israeli tank and drone fire on thousands of citizens… on their way to receive food from the American aid centre,” civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
Israel has apparently adopted a new hobby of killing Palestinian aid seekers since late-May, killing 224 people and injuring 1,858 others, Gaza’s health ministry said.
Restrictions imposed on media in the Gaza Strip and the difficulties of access on the ground mean AFP is not able to independently verify the death tolls announced by the civil defence agency.
Bassal said thousands of Palestinians had been gathering since 2am (2300 GMT Tuesday) in the hope of reaching the US and Israeli-backed food distribution centre.
“Israeli tanks fired several times, then at around 5:30am intensified their fire, coinciding with heavy fire from drones targeting civilians,” he said.
Mohammad Abu Salima, head of Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital, told AFP it had received the bodies of 24 people killed while waiting to enter the aid centre and was treating 96 who had been wounded.
Al-Awda hospital, in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, said in a statement that it had received seven bodies and was treating 112 people who had been wounded in the same incident.
There have been a series of deadly shootings since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) first opened aid distribution points in the Palestinian territory on 27 May, as Israel faced mounting international condemnation over the humanitarian conditions.
On Wednesday, Gaza’s Government Media Office released a statement, saying the Israeli military “is deliberately creating chaos in the Gaza Strip by perpetuating a policy of starvation and deliberately targeting and killing starving people seeking food”.
It said this strategy began 100 days ago, when a small number of aid trucks were allowed into the besieged enclave, only to be targeted by Israeli forces or by organised robberies carried out by armed gangs supported by Israeli forces.
