Israeli gunfire and strikes kill at least 25 in Gaza, many while seeking aid

Los Angeles Times

2 days ago

DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli airstrikes and gunshots killed at least 25 people overnight into Saturday, according to Palestinian health officials and the local ambulance service, as ceasefire talks appear to have stalled and Gaza faces famine.
Gunfire killed the majority of people as they waited for aid trucks close to the Zikim crossing with Israel, said staff at Shifa Hospital, where the bodies were taken.
Israel's army didn't respond to a request for comment about the shootings.
Those killed in strikes included four people in an apartment building in Gaza City, hospital staff and the ambulance service said.
Ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas were at a standstill after the U.S. and Israel recalled negotiating teams Thursday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday his government was considering 'alternative options' to ceasefire talks. A Hamas official, however, said negotiations were expected to resume next week and described the recall of the Israeli and U.S. delegations as a pressure tactic.
Egypt and Qatar, which mediate the talks alongside the United States, called the pause only temporary and said talks would resume. They did not say when.
The United Nations and experts say Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are at risk of famine, with reports of increasing numbers of people dying from causes related to malnutrition.
And now children with no preexisting conditions have begun to starve to death.
While Israel's army says it's allowing aid into the enclave with no limit on the number of trucks that can enter, the U.N. says it is hampered by Israeli military restrictions on its movements and incidents of criminal looting. The Hamas-run police had provided security for safe aid delivery, but it has been unable to operate after being targeted by Israeli airstrikes.
Israel on Saturday said more than 250 trucks carrying aid from the U.N. and other organizations entered Gaza this week. About 600 trucks were entering per day during the latest ceasefire that Israel ended in March.
The latest Zikim crossing shootings come days after at least 80 Palestinians were killed trying to reach aid entering through the crossing. Israel's military at the time said its soldiers shot at a gathering of thousands of Palestinians who posed a threat.
During the shootings late Friday, Sherif Abu Aisha said people started running when they saw a light that they thought was from the aid trucks, but as they got close they realized it was from Israel's tanks. That's when the army started firing on people, he told the Associated Press. He said his uncle, a father of eight, was among those killed.
'We went because there is no food ... and nothing was distributed,' he said.
Men carried the latest bodies through the rubble Saturday. A small boy wailed over a corpse.
Israel faces growing international pressure to alleviate Gaza's catastrophic humanitarian crisis. More than two dozen Western-aligned countries and over 100 charity and human rights groups have called for an end to the war, harshly criticizing Israel's blockade and a new aid delivery model it has rolled out.
More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food, mostly near the new aid sites run by a U.S. contractor, the U.N. human rights office says.
The charities and rights groups said even their own staffers were struggling to get enough food.
For the first time in months, Israel said it is allowing airdrops of aid, requested by neighboring Jordan. A Jordanian official said the airdrops will mainly be food and milk formula.
Britain plans to work with partners such as Jordan to airdrop aid and evacuate children requiring medical assistance, Prime Minister Keir Starmer's office said Saturday. The office did not give details.
But the head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, warned on social media that airdrops are 'expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians' and won't reverse the increasing starvation or prevent aid diversion.
Shurafa and Magdy write for the Associated Press and reported from Deir al Balah and Cairo, respectively.