At least 85 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces on Sunday while trying to reach food aid in Gaza, marking the worst massacre of aid seekers in Gaza in recent months, The Associated Press has reported.
A Gaza Health Ministry official said that at least 79 Palestinians were killed in northern Gaza while attempting to reach UN aid trucks. The UN’s World Food Program said that 25 of its trucks entered north Gaza and “encountered massive crowds of hungry civilians, which came under gunfire.”
A UN official told AP that Israeli forces opened fire toward starving crowds who tried to take food from the convoy, and witnesses described the attack. “Suddenly, tanks surrounded us and trapped us as gunshots and strikes rained down. We were trapped for around two hours,” said Ehab Al-Zei, who had been waiting for flour. “I will never go back again. Let us die of hunger, it’s better.”
The Israeli military acknowledged that its forces fired on the crowd. According to The New York Times, the IDF claimed it fired “warning shots” to “remove an immediate threat posed to them,” but didn’t specify the nature of the threat or even claim that anyone in the crowd was armed. The IDF also disputed the death toll, claiming it didn’t “align” with its review of the massacre, but it did not offer a different one.
In another aid-related massacre, at least six Palestinians were killed near a distribution site run by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, since the GHF began operating in Gaza, at least 922 Palestinians have been killed and 5,861 have been injured while seeking aid. The majority have been killed on their way or leaving GHF sites, while others have been killed attempting to get aid from UN trucks.
The Israeli military also issued a sweeping forced evacuation order for central Gaza and reaffirmed its evacuation order for areas of northern Gaza. Israeli strikes also continued to pound Gaza, including in Khan Younis in the south, where at least seven Palestinians, including a five-year-old boy, were killed by Israeli attacks on tents.
Medical sources told Al Jazeera that a total of 115 people were killed across Gaza on Sunday. Gaza’s Health Ministry said in its daily update, which it releases about midday Gaza time, that at least 128 Palestinians were killed and 495 were wounded over the previous 24-hour period. Palestinians are also starving to death at a faster rate due to the Israeli blockade, with the Health Ministry reporting that a total of 18 Palestinians died of malnutrition over 24 hours.
The Health Ministry also said that its death toll since October 7, 2023, has reached 58,895, and the number of wounded has climbed to 140,980. Studies have found that the ministry’s numbers are a significant undercount.