At least 34 Palestinians killed in new shootings near Gaza food distribution centres
The toll was the deadliest yet in the near-daily shootings that have taken place as thousands of Palestinians move through Israeli military-controlled areas to reach the food centres. The ministry says several hundred people have been killed and hundreds more wounded in such shootings since the centres, run by the private contractor Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, opened three weeks ago.
There was no immediate comment by the Israeli military.
Gaza's health ministry said 33 Palestinians were killed trying to reach the GHF centre near the southern city of Rafah and another en route to a GHF hub in central Gaza. It said four other people were killed elsewhere.
Israeli troops started firing as thousands of Palestinians gathered around 4am at the Flag Roundabout before the scheduled opening time of the Rafah food centre, according to Heba Jouda and Mohamed Abed, two Palestinians who were in the crowd.
People fell to the ground, trying to take cover, they said. 'Fire was coming from everywhere,' said Jouda, who has repeatedly made the journey to get food for her family over the past week. "It's getting worse day by day," she said.
The Red Cross field hospital nearby received some 200 wounded Monday, the highest single mass casualty event, the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement. Only a day earlier, it said, around 170 were brought to the facility, most of them wounded by gunshots while trying to reach the GHF centre. The health ministry toll made it the deadliest day around the food sites since June 2, when 31 people were killed.
The Flag Roundabout, hundreds of metres (yards) from the GHF centre, has been a repeated scene of shootings. It is on the route designated by the Israeli military for people to take to reach the centre.
Palestinians over the past weeks have said Israeli troops open fire to prevent people from moving past a certain point on the road before the scheduled opening of the centre or because people leave the road.
A GHF spokesperson told the Associated Press on Sunday that 'none of the incidents to date have occurred at our sites or during operating hours'. It said the incidents have involved aid-seekers who were moving 'during prohibited times ... or trying to take a short cut'. It said it was trying to improve safety measures, including by recently moving the opening times from nighttime to daylight hours.
Israel and the United States say the new GHF system is needed to prevent Hamas from siphoning off aid. GHF says there has been no violence in or around the sites themselves.
UN agencies and major aid groups, which have delivered humanitarian aid across Gaza since the start of the 20-month Israel-Hamas war, have rejected the new system, saying it can't meet the territory's needs and allows Israel to use aid as a weapon. They deny there is widespread theft of aid by Hamas.
Palestinian health officials say scores of people have been killed and hundreds wounded since the sites opened last month. Experts have warned that Israel's ongoing military campaign and restrictions on the entry of aid have put Gaza, which is home to some 2 million Palestinians, at risk of famine.
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