More than 70 killed trying to reach aid in Gaza, health ministry says
At least 73 people have been killed while attempting to access aid at locations across Gaza, the health ministry in the Palestinian territory has said.
It said 67 Palestinians were killed while trying to reach aid entering northern Gaza through the Zikim crossing with Israel. More than 150 people were injured, with some of them in a critical condition, hospitals said.
It was not immediately clear whether they were killed by the Israeli army or armed gangs, or both. But some witnesses said the Israeli military shot at the crowd.
The killings in northern Gaza did not take place near aid distribution points associated with the Gaza Humanitarian Fund, or GHF, a US and Israel-backed group that hands out food packages to Palestinians. Witnesses and health workers say hundreds of people have been killed by Israeli fire while trying to access the group’s distribution sites.
The Israeli military did not immediately make any comment on Sunday’s killings.
It came as the military published new evacuation warnings for parts of central Gaza, in one of the few areas the military has rarely operated with ground troops.
The evacuation cuts access between the city of Deir al-Balah and the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis in the narrow enclave.
The announcement comes as Israel and Hamas have been holding ceasefire talks in Qatar, but international mediators say there have been no breakthroughs.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly stressed that expanding military operations in Gaza will pressure Hamas to negotiate, though negotiations have been stalled for months.
Earlier this month, the Israeli military said it controlled more than 65% of the Gaza Strip.
The area of Gaza under the evacuation order is where many international organisations attempting to distribute aid are located.
The United Nations has been in contact with Israeli authorities to clarify whether its facilities in south-western Deir al-Balah are included in the evacuation order, an official said.
They said that in previous instances, UN facilities were spared from evacuation orders. The evacuation announcement covers an area stretching from a previously evacuated area all the way to the coast and will severely hamper movement for aid groups and civilians in Gaza, they added.
On Sunday morning, ambulances in front of three major hospitals in Gaza sounded their alarms simultaneously in an urgent appeal to shed light on the hunger crisis in the territory. The health ministry posted pictures on social media of doctors holding paper signs about malnourished children and the lack of medication.
Zaher al-Wahidi, one of the spokesmen at the health ministry, said at least nine children under five have died of malnutrition as of Sunday since Israel imposed the aid entry blockade in March.
He explained that tracking the number of people dying of starvation is hard because some could be suffering from other medical conditions that could be worsened when compounded with severe hunger.
In northern Gaza, Shifa Hospital director Abu Selmiyah said the facility recorded 79 people who died of malnutrition in the past month.
On the new evacuation order, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee warned the military will attack “with intensity” against militants. He called for residents, including those sheltering in tents, to head to the Muwasi area, a desolate tent camp on Gaza’s southern shore that the Israeli military has designated a humanitarian zone.
Gaza’s population of more than two million Palestinians are in a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.
Hamas triggered the 21-month war when militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage. Fifty hostages remain, but fewer than half are thought to be alive.
