Gaza rescuers say Israeli forces killed 20 including six waiting for aid

Hamam Al-Farani sits next to his sister, in white, along with other family members as the body of their father Alaa, killed in an Israeli army strike that also injured the boy, is prepared for burial at Shifa hospital in Gaza City, on Tuesday, June 24, 2025.

• The health ministry says that since late May, more than 500 people have been killed near aid centers seeking scarce supplies

GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli fire killed at least 20 people on Wednesday, including six who were waiting to collect food aid in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

The latest in a string of deadly incidents near aid distribution sites came after the United Nations had condemned the “weaponization of food” in the Gaza Strip, where a US- and Israeli-backed foundation has largely replaced established humanitarian organizations.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that six people were killed and 30 others wounded “following Israeli fire targeting thousands of civilians waiting for aid” in an area of central Gaza where Palestinians have gathered each night in the hope of collecting food rations.

Bassal said the crowd was hit by Israeli “bullets and tank shells.”

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was “looking into” the report.

Pressure grew Tuesday on the privately run aid group Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which was brought into the Palestinian territory at the end of May to replace United Nations agencies but whose operations have been marred by chaotic scenes and neutrality concerns.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, called the US- and Israeli-backed system an “abomination” that has put Palestinians’ lives at risk, while a spokesman for the UN human rights office, Thameen Al-Kheetan, condemned the “weaponization of food” in the territory.

Despite easing its aid blockade in May, Israel continues to impose restrictions.

The health ministry says that since late May, more than 500 people have been killed near aid centers seeking scarce supplies. The civil defense agency said Israeli forces killed 46 people waiting for aid on Tuesday.

The GHF has denied responsibility for deaths near its aid points.

Bassal, the civil defense spokesman, said Israeli air strikes on central and northern Gaza early Wednesday killed at least 14 people.

A pre-dawn strike on a house in the central Nuseirat refugee camp killed six people including a child, with eight others killed in two separate strikes on houses in Deir el-Balah and east of Gaza City, Bassal said.

Israeli restrictions on media in the Gaza Strip and difficulties in accessing some areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by rescuers and authorities in the Palestinian territory.

The war was triggered by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 56,077 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry. The United Nations considers its figures reliable.

https://www.arabnews.com/node/2605738/middle-east

CNN's Jeremy Diamond investigates and PROVES Israeli soldiers are shooting Palestinians to death with their machine guns mounted on Israeli tanks, as starving Palestinians try to get to US-Israeli food distribution centers.

The US and Israel conspired to starve Palestinians to death by eliminating world health agencies distributing food and aid, by setting up US-Israeli-operated food distribution centers that distribute FAR LESS FOOD AND SUPPLIES than world organizations.

The US and Israel are commitng more war crimes by using food as a weapon of war against the Palestinian people.

Israeli officials said they are controlling and limiting the calorie count of each starving Palestinian.

نعمة حسن

After I warned her not to go to aid centers, she promised me to be only once and not coming back after that

She came to me a week after the funeral of her friend

We went together, she is my companion since the beginning of the war.. We got off at 4 am to get a share

It was so scary the darkness, and grim men on the road watching your steps

The sound of airplanes, bells and bombings from time to time. After walking long distances, we arrived at the place full of people waiting for the opportunity to get flour like us

At a certain moment we went forward, gunshots started over our heads, I shouted at my girlfriend so that we wouldn't die from each other, but I turned around to find her thrown with a wound in her head.

I lay next to her (dead) like her, afraid of crying and the feet that cross us...

I did not fear her death as much as I was to leave her starving and dead near a strange fence.

Someone told me while he was escaping from bullets: Leave her, you will die with her if you stay

She came back with (3 kilos) of flour stained with her blood.

Grumpy men stopped me, they took them from me and I did not resist.

I left her for them without regret and came back half hungry.

The tent arrived, I hugged my babies and cried like I never have before.