Dozens killed on Saturday include 38 Palestinians looking for help on controversial distribution sites, according to sources.
Seventy-two Palestinians, most of whom help the seekers of aid, were killed by Israeli fires in Gaza since dawn on Saturday, hospital sources in the besieged enclave told Tel Aviv Tribune.
The number of deaths includes 38 Palestinians looking for aid on distribution sites operated by the controversial humanitarian foundation of the United States and Gaza, supported by Israel (GHF).
Deaths are the latest murders reported near the GHF sites, despite the announcement of Israel last week according to which it would begin to implement “tactical breaks” in fighting in certain regions to allow Palestinians better access to humanitarian aid.
Israel announced the start of daily breaks in military operations on July 27. However, 105 Palestinians were killed as they asked for food on Wednesday and Thursday, the United Nations Human Rights Bureau in the occupied Palestinian territory said on Friday.
Friday, at least 1,373 Palestinians were killed while trying to access the aid, according to the Human Rights Office.
169 other Palestinians, including 93 children, died of famine or malnutrition since the start of the War of Israel in October 2023, according to figures from the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
The Palestinians of the enclave reported that many cases of Israeli soldiers and US security entrepreneurs hired by the GHF deliberately draw on aid seekers near the distribution sites.
Faced with an increasing international conviction on the conditions in Gaza, in recent days has granted parameters of aid to the enclave by countries such as Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Spain, Germany and France.
But humanitarian groups, including the United Nations Aid Agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, have warned that the Airdrops are insufficient and have called on Israel to facilitate the free movement of aid via land.
The Gaza Government Media Bureau said that only 36 aid trucks had entered the enclave on Saturday, well below the 600 trucks which, according to them, were necessary to meet the humanitarian needs of the population.
In Khan Younis, a member of the staff of Red Palestine Crescent Society was killed and three others injured by an Israeli attack on its headquarters, according to the aid group.
“A member of Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) staff was killed and three other injured after Israeli forces targeted the company’s headquarters to Khan Younis, triggering a fire on the first floor of the building,” said the PRCS in an article on X on Saturday.
Deir El El-Balah report from Central Gaza earlier on Saturday, Hind Khoudary of Tel Aviv Tribune said that the Palestinians had seen no improvement in their situation despite recent aid deliveries.
“In the markets, you are barely found food. Everything that is available is very, very expensive and the Palestinians are always forced to risk their lives to get everything they can get,” said Khoudary.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, said that Gaza knew a famine that had been “widely shaped” by attempts to replace the aid system led by the non-employed by the GHF “with political motivation”.
“The sidelining and weakening of UNRWA have nothing to do with the claims to have aid for armed groups. It is a deliberate measure to put pressure on and punish the Palestinians to live in Gaza,” said Lazzarini in a post on X.
UNICEF warned that malnutrition in Gaza has exceeded the famine threshold, with 320,000 young children among those who risk acute malnutrition.
“We are at the crossroads, and the choices made will now determine whether tens of thousands of children live or die,” Ted Chaiban, assistant executive director of humanitarian action and supply operations in the West Bank on Friday.
