At least 93 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire as they waited for UN aid trucks in northern Gaza yesterday, the Gaza health ministry said, as Israel issued new evacuation orders for areas packed with displaced people.
The ministry said dozens of people were also wounded in the incident in northern Gaza. It was one of the highest reported death tolls among repeated recent cases in which aid seekers have been killed, including 36 on Saturday. Another six people were killed near another aid site in the south, it said.
Israel’s military said its troops had fired warning shots towards a crowd of thousands of people in northern Gaza yesterday to remove what it said was ‘an immediate threat’.
It said initial findings suggested reported casualty figures were inflated, and it ‘certainly does not intentionally target humanitarian aid trucks’.
It did not immediately comment on the incident in the south.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said that shortly after entering Gaza, a WFP convoy of 25 trucks carrying food aid encountered ‘massive crowds of hungry civilians’ who then came under gunfire.
“WFP reiterates that any violence involving civilians seeking humanitarian aid is completely unacceptable,” it said in a statement.
In total, health authorities said around 100 had been killed by Israeli gunfire and air strikes across the enclave yesterday.
Palestinian health officials said hundreds of people could soon die as hospitals were inundated with patients suffering from dizziness and exhaustion due to the scarcity of food and a collapse in aid deliveries.
The United Nations also said yesterday that civilians were starving and needed an urgent influx of aid.
Later, it said 18 people have died of hunger in the past 24 hours.
Food prices have increased well beyond what most of the population of more than two million can afford.
Several people who spoke to Reuters via chat apps said they either had one meal or no meal in the past 24 hours.
UNRWA, the UN refugee agency dedicated to Palestinians, demanded Israel allow more aid trucks into Gaza, saying it had enough food for the entire population for over three months which was not allowed in.
Israel’s military said that it ‘views the transfer of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip as a matter of utmost importance, and works to enable and facilitate its entry in co-ordination with the international community’.
l Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is recovering from a bout of food poisoning, his office said yesterday, adding that he will continue to carry out his duties while resting at home for the next three days.
Netanyahu, 75, fell ill overnight and was found to be suffering from intestinal inflammation and dehydration, for which he is receiving intravenous fluids, a statement said.
“In accordance with his doctors’ instructions, the prime minister will rest at home for the next three days and will manage state affairs from there,” his office added.