Israeli tank shelling kills 51 people awaiting aid trucks in Gaza
CAIRO/GAZA: Israeli tank shelling killed at least 51 Palestinians, as they awaited aid trucks in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, the territory’s health ministry said, adding that dozens of others were wounded.
According to the Gaza residents, Israeli tanks fired shells at crowds of desperate Palestinians awaiting aid trucks along the main eastern road in Khan Younis. They said at least 51 people were killed and 200 wounded, with at least 20 of them in critical condition.
There was no immediate comment by the Israeli military on the incident.
Witnesses said Israeli tanks fired at least two shells at thousands of people awaiting aid trucks. Nasser Hospital wards were crowded with casualties, and medical staff had to place some on the ground and in corridors due to the lack of space.
The incident was the latest in nearly daily mass deaths of Palestinians who were seeking aid in past weeks, including near sites operated by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
Local health officials said at least 23 people were killed by Israeli gunfire on Monday as they approached a GHF aid distribution site in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
The GHF stated in a press release late on Monday that it had distributed more than three million meals at its four distribution sites without incident.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military about Monday’s reports of shootings. In previous incidents, it has occasionally acknowledged troops opening fire near aid sites, while blaming militants for provoking the violence.
Israel has put responsibility for distributing much of the aid it allows into Gaza into the hands of the GHF, which operates sites in areas guarded by Israeli troops.
The United Nations has rejected the plan, saying GHF distribution is inadequate, dangerous and violates humanitarian impartiality principles.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023, when Palestinian Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli allies.
U.S. ally Israel’s subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 55,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, while internally displacing nearly Gaza’s entire population and causing a hunger crisis.
