Key points
- Israel kills 15 Palestinians who were waiting for aid
- UN repeatedly warns new aid distribution system does not meet principles of humanity
- Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 55,493 people: Gaza’s Health Ministry
ISLAMABAD: Gaza’s civil defence agency said that Israeli forces on Thursday killed at least 18 people, including 15 who had gathered near an aid distribution site in central Gaza.
The AFP cited civil defence official Mohammad al-Mugghayyir as saying that “18 people have been killed due to ongoing Israeli shelling on the Gaza Strip since dawn today, 15 of whom were waiting for aid”, adding that the remaining three were killed by shelling near Gaza City.
Earlier, on Wednesday, Israeli troops killed at least 70 Palestinians and injured approximately 200 others as they sought aid in Gaza, firing at them with tank shells, machine guns, and drones.
Those casualties are among the 89 Palestinians killed in attacks across the besieged enclave since dawn.
Aid seekers
Israeli soldiers fired at the desperate crowds of aid seekers as they gathered along the main eastern road in the southern city of Khan Yunis.
The UN has repeatedly warned that the new aid distribution system does not meet principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality. The global body has also called for aid restrictions to be lifted.
According to medics at Nasser Hospital, where the casualties are being treated, the death toll is expected to rise as many of the injured are in critical condition.
UN World Health Organization
Meanwhile, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday that Gaza’s health system was at breaking point, overwhelmed time and again by scores of people killed or injured near aid distribution sites,
“We are walking the fine grey line between operational capacity and full disaster, every day,” said Dr Thanos Gargavanis, WHO trauma surgeon and emergency officer.
