CAIRO, Egypt — Israeli fire and airstrikes killed at least 35 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, most of them near an aid distribution site operated by the Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, local health authorities said Saturday.
Medics at Al-Awda and Al-Aqsa Hospitals in central Gaza areas, where most of the casualties were moved to, said at least 15 people were killed as they tried to approach the GHF aid distribution site near the Netzarim corridor.
In response to inquiries, the Israel Defense Forces said that despite warnings that the area was an active combat zone, a crowd of Gazans was identified during the night near IDF troops operating along the Netzarim corridor “in a manner that endangered them.”
According to the military, the forces carried out warning fire to disperse the group, and the incident was under review.
The IDF added that one person from the gathering continued rapidly approaching the troops and “posed an immediate threat,” prompting a drone strike to neutralize the individual.
The IDF emphasized that the aid distribution point in the area had not opened on Saturday and that the population had received prior notice of its closure.
There was no immediate comment by the GHF.
Saturday evening saw two rockets launched from the southern Gaza Strip at southern Israel. The rockets hit open areas, the army said, with no injuries caused.
Sirens had sounded in the border community of Nir Oz.
The rest of those killed died in separate attacks across the enclave, medics said.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution that the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said on Saturday that at least 274 people have been killed and more than 2,000 wounded near aid distribution sites since the GHF began operations.
In response to such claims, IDF Spokesman Effie Defrin said in early June that Hamas’s figures were “exaggerated,” adding that “Hamas disseminates false information, which is unfortunately taken by some international media without verification.”
Hamas, which denies Israeli charges that it steals aid, accused Israel of “employing hunger as a weapon of war and turning aid distribution sites into traps of mass deaths of innocent civilians.”
The IDF said Thursday that captured Hamas documents show the group has been “systematically exploiting” the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza throughout the ongoing war in order to fund its terror activities.
Health officials at Shifa Hospital in Gaza said Israeli fire killed at least 12 Palestinians, who had gathered to wait for aid trucks along the coastal road in the north of the Strip, taking Saturday’s death toll to at least 35.
The Israeli military ordered residents of Khan Younis and the nearby towns of Abassan and Bani Suhaila in the southern Gaza Strip to leave their homes and head west toward the so-called humanitarian zone, saying it would forcefully work against “terror organizations” in the area.
The war in Gaza erupted 20 months ago after Hamas-led terrorists raided Israel and took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, on October 7, 2023, Israel’s single deadliest day.
Israel’s military campaign has since killed nearly 55,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health authorities in Gaza. The figures cannot be verified and do not differentiate between combatants and civilians. The campaign has flattened much of the densely populated strip, which is home to more than two million people. Most of the population is displaced, and malnutrition is widespread.
Despite efforts by the United States, Egypt, and Qatar to restore a ceasefire in Gaza, neither Israel nor Hamas has shown willingness to back down on core demands, with each side blaming the other for the failure to reach a deal.