CNN
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Gaza's health ministry said at least 20 people were killed and 155 injured in Israeli shelling as they waited for aid on Thursday, as desperate Palestinians faced increasingly deadly violence as they searched for food. Announced.
The Israeli military denied being behind the attack and said it was evaluating the incident.
Mohammad Ghulab, a doctor in the emergency department at Al Shifa Hospital, said the death toll is expected to rise further as casualties are still being transferred to hospitals. Earlier, witnesses at the scene said dozens of people were killed.
Graphic footage from the immediate aftermath of the scene provided by witnesses showed several traumatized bodies and pools of blood on a road strewn with debris and dust.
The Health Ministry said the incident was the result of “Israeli occupation forces targeting a gathering of civilians waiting for humanitarian aid to quench their thirst at the Kuwait roundabout in the Gaza Strip.”
“Medical teams are unable to cope with the volume and type of injured people reaching hospitals in northern Gaza due to weak medical and human resources,” the ministry said.
The attack took place against a backdrop of extreme hunger and poverty in the besieged enclave due to severe restrictions on Israeli entry aid to the Gaza Strip, according to the United Nations agency. More than 500,000 people are said to be at risk of starvation in the Gaza Strip.
The Kuwait Roundabout in Gaza City is known as an area where aid trucks distribute food and crowds of people seeking supplies gather.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) denied responsibility for the attack in a brief statement to CNN on Friday.
“Reports that the Israel Defense Forces attacked dozens of Gazans at an aid distribution point are false,” the statement said.
The Israeli military said it was “evaluating the incident with appropriate thoroughness.”
Witnesses said the area was hit by what sounded like tank or artillery fire.
Gaza civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal accused Israel of being behind the attack in a statement late Thursday.
“Israeli occupation forces continue to carry out a policy of killing innocent civilians awaiting relief as a result of the famine in the northern Gaza Strip,” Bassal said in a statement.
Israel has restricted the flow of aid to Gaza in recent months, but has allowed some trucks into the northern part of the Strip, where famine is worst. As civil authority collapses in Gaza, the arrival of aid vehicles often causes chaos and disorder, putting thousands of people at risk of harm during distribution.
03:56 – Source: CNN
'We have nothing': Children face starvation as supplies run out in Gaza
The incident at the Kuwait roundabout follows violence at the same location on Wednesday, where a large crowd was waiting for food distribution.
Israeli forces opened fire, killing at least seven people and wounding 86 others, health officials and witnesses said.
Fatih Obaid, a doctor at Al Shifa's emergency department, said many of the people brought to Al Shifa after the incident had gunshot wounds and that the hospital was unable to treat all the patients due to a lack of medicines and medical equipment. He said he was having a hard time.
Al Shifa patient Nimr Abu Atta, who was shot in the abdomen, said he had been hit by “gunfire from Israeli tanks.”
Abu Atta said he was hit by a roundabout in Kuwait when he went to buy flour for his children. “My wife died in the war two months ago, and I'm taking care of our seven children,” he said.
The IDF has not yet responded to CNN's inquiries about the earlier incident. Israeli soldiers are regularly stationed near this landmark.
In recent weeks, there have been reports of deadly attacks by Israeli soldiers on crowds seeking aid.
The Gaza-based government media agency said Tuesday that at least 400 people have been killed in similar incidents since the war began.
“Particularly in northern Gaza, the targeting of those seeking aid to feed hunger among children has intensified,” Salameh Maalouf, head of the media office, said in a statement.
CNN cannot independently verify the Gaza government's figures because international media does not have access to the Gaza Strip.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA) said on Monday that 14 similar incidents were recorded at two entrances to Gaza City between mid-January and the end of February, and at least one between March 1 and 8. It was announced that 11 additional cases have been recorded. At least 28 Palestinians are reported to have been killed.
Last month, more than 100 people were killed in one of the deadliest single tragedies during Israel's war with Hamas. Israeli forces opened fire near civilians gathered around a food aid truck in northern Gaza, and in the ensuing panic many of the victims were run over and killed by the trucks, an incident known locally as the “Flour Massacre”. known as.
More than 30,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, and others have been forced to flee their homes as Israel's war with Hamas stretches into its sixth month.
The latest conflict in Gaza was sparked by attacks by Hamas militants on southern Israel, killing more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 200 hostages.
According to the World Food Programme, Gaza's entire population of approximately 2.2 million people faces “crisis or worse levels of severe food insecurity,” and child malnutrition in the enclave has recently been reported to be “higher than anywhere else in the world.” “It's expensive,” he warned.
Food shortages are reportedly worst in northern Gaza, where Israel focused its military offensive early in the war. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), child malnutrition in the region is about three times higher than in southern Gaza.
Displaced Palestinians told CNN they are struggling to feed their children. Doctors say starving mothers cannot produce enough milk to breastfeed their babies. And then her parents arrive at a packed medical facility in search of formula.
Israel insists there is “no limit” to the amount of aid that can enter Gaza, but its inspection regime for aid trucks means that only a fraction of the amount of food and other supplies that flowed into Gaza each day before the war were allowed to enter Gaza. Only the section has been accepted. I'm in now.
United Nations humanitarian coordinator Jamie McGoldrick, returning from a two-day trip to Gaza, warned on Wednesday that hunger in the Gaza Strip had reached “catastrophic levels”. “People are hungry, exhausted and traumatized. Many are clinging to life,” said Adel Khodor, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
This is a work in progress and will be updated.
