Palestinians are brought to Nasser hospital in Khan Younis after being wounded or killed by Israeli forces while they tried to get food on Tuesday.
Moaz Abu Taha/APAimages via Reuters
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Moaz Abu Taha/APAimages via Reuters
GAZA CITY and DUBAI — Israel’s primary focus is now its war with Iran, but Israeli troops are still holding territory deep inside Gaza, and Tuesday marked the deadliest day in recent weeks for Palestinians there trying to reach food distribution sites and trucks.
Health officials in Gaza say at least 59 people were killed by Israeli military drones and artillery fire Tuesday, and more than 200 wounded, trying to get food. Most of the deaths, at least 45, occurred at an intersection in southern Gaza’s city of Khan Younis, where a large crowd of people had amassed waiting for trucks to enter carrying flour.
It was the deadliest single incident of people desperately trying to lay their hands on food since late March, when Israel began allowing a trickle of aid into Gaza following nearly three months of total blockade.
Israeli attacks on Palestinians trying to reach food aid since March 27 have killed at least 400 people and wounded more than 3,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which releases daily death counts. Those killed while seeking aid are among the ministry’s overall death toll of nearly 55,500 people killed in the war.
Israel says its restrictions on food and its continued blockade of other aid is to keep the items from benefiting Hamas. The group holds an estimated 20 hostages still alive and the bodies of 33 deceased hostages, taken in the deadly Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
The aid restrictions have plunged families in Gaza into extreme hunger. Half a million people in Gaza are now starving and the entire territory is at risk of famine, according to a report last month by dozens of independent experts on hunger.
