'At least 59 killed' after Israeli military opens fire near Gaza aid centre and carries out strikes
The Red Cross, which operates a field hospital in Rafah, said 25 people were "declared dead upon arrival" and "six more died after admittance" following gunfire near an aid distribution centre in the southern Gazan city.
The humanitarian organisation added that it also received 132 patients "suffering from weapon-related injuries" after the incident.
The Red Cross said: "The overwhelming majority of these patients sustained gunshot wounds, and all responsive individuals reported they were attempting to access food distribution sites."
The organisation said the number of deaths marks the hospital's "largest influx of fatalities" since it began operations in May last year.
The IDF has said it fired "warning shots" near the aid distribution site but it was "not aware of injured individuals" as a result.
It said in a statement: "Earlier today, several suspects were identified approaching IDF troops operating in the Rafah area, posing a threat to the troops, hundreds of metres from the aid distribution site.
"IDF troops operated in order to prevent the suspects from approaching them and fired warning shots."
Mother's despair over shooting
Somia Alshaar told Sky News her 17-year-old son Nasir was shot dead while visiting the aid centre after she told him not to go.
She said: "He went to get us tahini so we could eat.
"He went to get flour. He told me 'mama, we don't have tahini. Today I'll bring you flour. Even if it kills me, I will get you flour'.
"He left the house and didn't return. They told me at the hospital: your son...'Oh God, oh Lord'."
Asked where her son was shot, she replied: "In the chest. Yes, in the chest."
'A policy of mass murder'
Hassan Omran, a paramedic with Gaza's ministry of health, told Sky News after the incident that humanitarian aid centres in Gaza are now "centres of mass death".
Speaking in Khan Younis, he said: "Today, there were more than 150 injuries and more than 20 martyrs at the aid distribution centres... the Israeli occupation deliberately kills and commits genocide. The Israeli occupation is carrying out a policy of mass murder.
"They call people to come get their daily food, and then, when citizens arrive at these centres, they are killed in cold blood.
"All the victims have gunshot wounds to the head and chest, meaning the enemy is committing these crimes deliberately."
Israel has rejected genocide accusations and denies targeting civilians.
'Lies being peddled'
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the controversial US and Israeli-backed group which operates the distribution centre near Rafah, said: "Hamas is claiming there was violence at our aid distribution sites today. False.
"Once again, there were no incidents at or in the immediate vicinity of our sites.
"But that's not stopping some from spreading the lies being peddled by 'officials' at the Hamas-controlled Nasser Hospital."
The Red Cross said its field hospital in Rafah has recorded more than 250 fatalities and treated more than 3,400 "weapon-wounded patients" since new food distribution sites were set up in Gaza on 27 May.
It comes after four children and two women were among at least 13 people who died in Deir al Balah, in central Gaza, after Israeli strikes pounded the area starting late on Friday, officials in Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the territory said.
Fifteen others died in Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, according to Nasser Hospital.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not responded to a request for comment on the reported deaths.
Israeli has been carrying out attacks in Gaza since Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages on 7 October 2023.
Hamas still holds 50 hostages, with fewer than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel's offensive in Gaza has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
US President Donald Trump has said he is closing in on another ceasefire agreement that would see more hostages released and potentially wind down the war.
But after two days of talks this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there were no signs of a breakthrough.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News
3 hours ago
- Sky News
British surgeon claims IDF shooting Gazans in specific areas - 'almost like a game of target practice'
Why you can trust Sky News A British surgeon who recently returned from Gaza has told Sky News that there is "profound malnutrition" among the population - and claims IDF soldiers are shooting civilians at aid points "like a game of target practice". Dr Nick Maynard spent four weeks working inside Nasser Hospital, where a lack of food has left medics struggling to treat children and toddlers. The conditions inside the hospital, in the south of the Strip, have been documented in a Sky News report. 3:49 Dr Maynard told The World with Yalda Hakim: "I met several doctors who had cartons of formula feed in their luggage - and they were all confiscated by the Israeli border guards. Nothing else got confiscated, just the formula feed. "There were four premature babies who died during the first two weeks when I was in Nasser Hospital - and there will be many, many more deaths until the Israelis allow proper food to get in there." In other developments: • Israel and the US have recalled their teams from Gaza ceasefire talks • US envoy Steve Witkoff has accused Hamas "of failing to act in good faith" • France has announced that it will recognise the state of Palestine • An influential group of MPs is calling on the UK to "immediately" do the same 5:33 'They were shells' Dr Nick Maynard has been going to Gaza for the past 15 years - and this is his third visit to the territory since the war began. The British surgeon added that virtually all of the kids in the paediatric unit of Nasser Hospital are being fed with sugar water. "They've got a small amount of formula feed for very small babies, but not enough," he warned. Dr Maynard said the lack of aid has also had a huge impact on his colleagues. "I saw people I'd known for years and I didn't recognise some of them," he added. "Two colleagues had lost 20kg and 30kg respectively. They were shells, they're all hungry. "They're going to work every day, then going home to their tents where they have no food." 3:42 IDF 'shooting Gazans at aid points' Elsewhere in the interview, Dr Maynard claimed Israeli soldiers are shooting civilians at aid points "almost like a game of target practice". He has operated on boys as young as 11 who had been "shot at food distribution points" run by the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. "They had gone to get food for their starving families and they were shot," he said. "I operated on one 12-year-old boy who died on the operating table because his injuries were so severe." 2:54 Dr Maynard continued: "What was even more distressing was the pattern of injuries that we saw, the clustering of injuries to particular body parts on certain days. "One day they'd be coming in predominately with gunshot wounds to the head or the neck, another day to the abdomen. "Twelve days ago, four young teenage boys came in, all of whom had been shot in the testicles and deliberately so. "The clustering was far too obvious to be accidental, and it seemed to us like this was almost like a game of target practice. "I would never have believed this possible unless I'd witnessed this with my own eyes." Sky News has contacted the Israeli Defence Forces for comment. An IDF spokesperson previously told Sky News it "strongly rejected" the accusations that its forces were instructed to deliberately shoot at civilians. "To be clear, IDF directives prohibit deliberate attacks on civilians," the spokesperson said, adding that the incidents are "being examined by the relevant IDF authorities". 2:10 The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been managing the supply of aid to Gaza since Israel lifted an 11-week blockade in May. It has four aid distribution sites, all of which are located in Israeli military zones, with journalists prohibited from entering. More than 1,000 people have been reported killed while trying to receive food aid since the GHF took over, according to the UN. UNRWA, its relief agency for Gaza, has heavily criticised the scheme. Commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini said: "The so-called 'GHF' distribution scheme is a sadistic death trap. Snipers open fire randomly on crowds as if they are given a licence to kill." facing "mass starvation".
Sky News
4 hours ago
- Sky News
'Almost like a game of target practice': British surgeon says IDF shooting Gazans at aid points
A British surgeon who recently returned from Gaza has told Sky News that there is "profound malnutrition" among the population - and claims IDF soldiers are shooting civilians at aid points "like a game of target practice". Dr Nick Maynard spent four weeks working inside Nasser Hospital, where a lack of food has left medics struggling to treat children and toddlers. The conditions inside the hospital, in the south of the Strip, have been documented in a Sky News report. 3:49 Dr Maynard told The World with Yalda Hakim: "I met several doctors who had cartons of formula feed in their luggage - and they were all confiscated by the Israeli border guards. Nothing else got confiscated, just the formula feed. "There were four premature babies who died during the first two weeks when I was in Nasser Hospital - and there will be many, many more deaths until the Israelis allow proper food to get in there." In other developments: • Israel and the US have recalled their teams from Gaza ceasefire talks • US envoy Steve Witkoff has accused Hamas "of failing to act in good faith" • France has announced that it will recognise the state of Palestine • An influential group of MPs is calling on the UK to "immediately" do the same 5:33 'They were shells' Dr Nick Maynard has been going to Gaza for the past 15 years - and this is his third visit to the territory since the war began. The British surgeon added that virtually all of the kids in the paediatric unit of Nasser Hospital are being fed with sugar water. "They've got a small amount of formula feed for very small babies, but not enough," he warned. Dr Maynard said the lack of aid has also had a huge impact on his colleagues. "I saw people I'd known for years and I didn't recognise some of them," he added. "Two colleagues had lost 20kg and 30kg respectively. They were shells, they're all hungry. "They're going to work every day, then going home to their tents where they have no food." 3:42 IDF 'shooting Gazans at aid points' Elsewhere in the interview, Dr Maynard claimed Israeli soldiers are shooting civilians at aid points "almost like a game of target practice". He has operated on boys as young as 11 who had been "shot at food distribution points" run by the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. "They had gone to get food for their starving families and they were shot," he said. "I operated on one 12-year-old boy who died on the operating table because his injuries were so severe." 2:54 Dr Maynard continued: "What was even more distressing was the pattern of injuries that we saw, the clustering of injuries to particular body parts on certain days. "One day they'd be coming in predominately with gunshot wounds to the head or the neck, another day to the abdomen. "Twelve days ago, four young teenage boys came in, all of whom had been shot in the testicles and deliberately so. "The clustering was far too obvious to be accidental, and it seemed to us like this was almost like a game of target practice. "I would never have believed this possible unless I'd witnessed this with my own eyes." Sky News has contacted the Israeli Defence Forces for comment. An IDF spokesperson previously told Sky News it "strongly rejected" the accusations that its forces were instructed to deliberately shoot at civilians. "To be clear, IDF directives prohibit deliberate attacks on civilians," the spokesperson said, adding that the incidents are "being examined by the relevant IDF authorities". 2:10 The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been managing the supply of aid to Gaza since Israel lifted an 11-week blockade in May. It has four aid distribution sites, all of which are located in Israeli military zones, with journalists prohibited from entering. More than 1,000 people have been reported killed while trying to receive food aid since the GHF took over, according to the UN. UNRWA, its relief agency for Gaza, has heavily criticised the scheme. Commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini said: "The so-called 'GHF' distribution scheme is a sadistic death trap. Snipers open fire randomly on crowds as if they are given a licence to kill." facing "mass starvation".
BBC News
10 hours ago
- BBC News
One in five children in Gaza is malnourished, UN aid agency says
One in five children in Gaza City is malnourished and cases are increasing every day, the UN's Palestinian refugee agency (Unrwa) a statement issued on Thursday, Unrwa Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini cited a colleague telling him: "People in Gaza are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses."More than 100 international aid organisations and human rights groups have also warned of mass starvation - pressing for governments to take which controls the entry of all supplies into Gaza, says there is no siege and blames Hamas for any cases of malnutrition. The UN, however, has warned that the level of aid getting into Gaza is "a trickle" and the hunger crisis in the territory "has never been so dire".In his statement on Thursday, Lazzarini said "more than 100 people, the vast majority of them children, have reportedly died of hunger"."Most children our teams are seeing are emaciated, weak and at high risk of dying if they don't get the treatment they urgently need," he added, pleading for Israel to "allow humanitarian partners to bring unrestricted and uninterrupted humanitarian assistance to Gaza".On Wednesday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said a large proportion of the population of Gaza was "starving"."I don't know what you would call it other than mass starvation - and it's man-made," the head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said. In northern Gaza, Hanaa Almadhoun, 40, said local markets are often without food and other supplies. "If they do exist then they come at exorbitant prices that no ordinary person can afford," she told the BBC over WhatsApp. She said flour was expensive and difficult to secure, and that people have sold "gold and personal belongings" to afford it. The mother-of-three said "every new day brings a new challenge" as people search for "something edible". "With my own eyes, I've seen children rummaging through the garbage in search of food scraps," she added. During a visit to Israeli troops in Gaza on Wednesday, Israel's President Isaac Herzog insisted his country was providing humanitarian aid "according to international law".But Tahani Shehada, an aid worker in Gaza, said people "are just trying to survive hour-by-hour"."Even simple things like cooking [and] taking a shower have become luxuries," she said. "I have a baby. He's eight months old. He doesn't know what fresh fruit tastes like," she added. Israel stopped aid deliveries to Gaza in early March following a two-month ceasefire. The blockade was partially eased after nearly two months, but food, fuel and medicine shortages with the US, established a new aid system run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). According to the UN human rights office, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military while trying to get food aid over the past two says at least 766 of them have been killed in the vicinity of one of the GHF's four distribution centres, which are operated by US private security contractors and are located inside Israeli military 288 people have been reported killed near UN and other aid has accused Hamas of instigating the chaos near the aid sites. It says its troops have only fired warning shots and that they do not intentionally shoot GHF says the UN is using "false" figures from Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry. Najah, a 19-year-old widow sheltering in a hospital in Gaza, said she fears she would "get shot" if she travelled to aid distribution site."I hope they bring us something to eat and drink. We die of hunger with nothing to eat or drink. We live in tents. We are finished off," Najah told the BBC. A doctor working in Gaza with a UK medical charity, Dr Aseel, said Gaza was not close to famine, but already "living it". "My husband went once [to an aid distribution point] and twice and then got shot and that was it," she said. "If we are to die from hunger, let it be. The path to aid is the path to death."Abu Alaa, a market seller in Gaza, said he and his children "go to bed hungry every night". "We are not alive. We are dead. We are pleading with the whole world to intervene and save us," he added. Walaa Fathi, who is eight months pregnant with her third child, said Gazans are "experiencing a catastrophe and a famine that no one could have imagined". "I hope that my baby stays in my womb and I don't have to give birth in these difficult circumstances," she told the BBC from Deir al-Balah.
