The World Food Program accused Israel of using tanks, snipers and other weapons to fire on a crowd of Palestinians seeking food aid, in what the territory’s Health Ministry said was one of the deadliest days for aid-seekers in over 21 months of war.
In northern Gaza on Sunday, the Health Ministry, witnesses and a UN official said Israeli forces opened fire toward crowds who tried to get food from a 25-truck convoy that had entered the hard-hit area.
The WFP statement, which said the crowd surrounding its convoy “came under fire from Israeli tanks, snipers and other gunfire,” backs up those claims. The statement did not specify a death toll, saying only the incident resulted in the loss of “countless lives.”
After Sunday’s incident, a photographer cooperating with The Associated Press counted 31 bodies at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City and 20 others in the courtyard of Sheikh Radwan clinic.
“These people were simply trying to access food to feed themselves and their families on the brink of starvation,” it said, adding that the incident occurred despite assurances from Israeli authorities that aid delivery would improve. Part of those assurances, it said, was that armed forces would not be present nor engage along aid routes.
“Shootings near humanitarian missions, convoys and food distributions must stop immediately,” the statement read.
The Israeli military declined to comment on the WFP claims although Israeli military spokesperson Lt Col Nadav Shoshani posted on X Sunday that soldiers were told “do not engage, do not shoot,” and shared a video of troops near a crowd of Palestinians gathering around a truck as one soldier yells repeatedly, “Do not shoot!” The Associated Press was unable to immediately verify the video, and it was not clear where it was filmed.
It is worth noting that Israel has refused to allow international media to enter Gaza throughout the war.
Sunday’s incident comes as Palestinian access to aid in the territory has been greatly diminished – and seeking that aid has become increasingly perilous ever since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US- and Israeli-backed aid organisation, wrested aid delivery responsibilities away from traditional providers like the UN.
Witnesses from aid sites have repeatedly spoken of Palestinians heading toward aid distribution sites coming under fire. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has said that the majority of the reported violence has not occurred at its sites.
Gaza health officials said Monday at least 13 people, including two women and five children, were killed in Israeli strikes since the previous night.
At least two people were killed Monday morning when crowds of Palestinians waiting for aid trucks were shot at in the area of Netzarim corridor in central Gaza, according to Dr Mohamed Abu Selmiyah, director of Shifa Hospital where the dead were taken. He said Israeli forces had opened fire.
An Israeli strike overnight hit a tent in the Muwasi area of Khan Younis, killing at least five people, according to the Health Ministry. The dead include two parents, two of their children and a relative, it said.
Other strikes hit tents in the Muwasi area and a residential building in Gaza City.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strikes.
Gaza’s Health Ministry meanwhile said Israeli forces detained Dr Marwan al-Hams, acting director of the strip’s field hospitals and the ministry’s spokesman. Once again, the Israeli military had no immediate comment.