Palestinian authorities say the attacks were “premeditated” as people seeking humanitarian supplies are increasingly targeted.
At least 21 Palestinians were killed when Israeli forces opened fire on thousands of people waiting for aid in Gaza City, the same area targeted hours earlier, officials said.
Gaza's health ministry described the attack late Thursday as “another planned massacre” and said more than 150 people were injured.
Witnesses told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces used helicopters, tanks and drones to target thousands of people waiting in food trucks.
It was the latest in a series of attacks on people in desperate need of food and other necessities as Israel continues to block and strictly control aid entering the enclave.
Earlier on Thursday, Israeli forces shot dead at least six Palestinians at the same Kuwait Roundabout food distribution station, bringing the death toll from such attacks to more than 400.
Israeli forces have launched five separate attacks on relief distribution centers in the Gaza Strip over the past 48 hours, killing 56 people and wounding more than 300, the Gaza Strip government's press office said on Friday.
“We hold the Israeli occupation, as well as the US administration and the international community, fully responsible for the crime of genocide,” he said in a statement on Telegram.
The Israeli military denied that it fired into the crowd and claimed “armed Palestinians” were responsible for the attack.
“Armed Palestinians opened fire while Gazan civilians were waiting for aid vehicles to arrive” in Gaza City on Thursday, and then “continued firing even as a crowd of Gazans began looting trucks,” the military said Friday. said in a statement.
“Additionally, a number of Gazan civilians were hit by trucks,” he said, adding that preliminary investigations had determined that Gazan forces did not carry out attacks with tanks, guns or airstrikes.
The military said it was “continuing to investigate the incident.”
weapons of war
UN emergency relief coordinator Martin Griffiths said on Friday that Israeli military shootings of Palestinians searching for food “cannot be allowed to continue”.
“People shouldn't have to die trying to keep their families alive,” he said in a post to X.
“The distribution of aid to Gaza must occur in a safe, dignified and predictable manner. Anything less is unconscionable. The war must end.”
The distribution of aid to Gaza should occur in a safe, dignified and predictable manner.
Anything less is unconscionable. pic.twitter.com/qDjn8zIqV9— Martin Griffiths (@UNReliefChief) March 15, 2024
Shaina Rowe, communications advisor for the Norwegian Refugee Council, said the continued killing of aid seekers reflects a breakdown in communication between aid organizations and Israeli authorities.
“This is a clear sign that the deconfliction system by which humanitarian agencies and the United Nations inform and respond to Israel is completely dysfunctional,” she told Al Jazeera, adding that the system was It added that it would allow Israel to inform its future route. Make sure you are not targeted.
“This is preventable and should not happen,” Lowe added.
Human rights groups say Israel is using hunger as a weapon of war against Palestinians.
Israel's war in Gaza is in its sixth month, with the United Nations warning that at least 576,000 people in the enclave – a quarter of the population – are at risk of starvation, with It warned of growing global pressure to allow more access. in order to help.
Israel, which controls Gaza's crossings, has opened only one entry point into the enclave since the start of the war and has imposed “endless inspection procedures” on truck traffic, the UN agency said.
In the face of Israeli obstruction of aid trucks, the international community has devised complex workarounds, including a maritime corridor from Cyprus to the besieged Strip and a contingency plan to get supplies off the coast of Gaza. These include a U.S. plan to build a pier, a move that has been criticized. It is an attempt to divert attention from Washington's continued military and political support for Israel as famine looms and the onslaught continues.
Last month, Israeli forces killed 118 people in a scramble for flour on Al Rashid Street on the coast southwest of Gaza City, sparking global condemnation, but attacks continue unabated.
At least 31,490 Palestinians have been killed and 73,439 injured in Israeli attacks since October 7, the Gaza Health Ministry said in its latest update on Friday.
