Israeli forces killed at least 23 Palestinians seeking food on Sunday in Gaza, according to hospital officials and witnesses, who described facing gunfire as hungry crowds surged around aid sites, as the malnutrition-related death toll also rose.
Desperation has gripped the Palestinian territory of more than 2 million, which experts have warned is facing famine because of Israel’s blockade and nearly two-year offensive.
Yousef Abed, among the crowds en route to a distribution point, described coming under what he called indiscriminate fire, seeing at least three people bleeding on the ground.
“I couldn’t stop and help them because of the bullets,” he said.
Southern Gaza’s Nasser Hospital said they received bodies from routes to the sites, including eight from Teina, about three kilometres (1.8 miles) away from a distribution site in Khan Younis, which is operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the private US- and Israeli-backed contractor that took over aid distribution more than two months ago.
Three Palestinian eyewitnesses, seeking food in Teina and Morag, told The Associated Press shootings occurred on the routes to distribution points, which are in military zones secured by Israeli forces. They said they saw soldiers open fire on hungry crowds advancing toward troops.
Further north in central Gaza, hospital officials described a similar episode, with Israeli troops opening fire Sunday morning toward crowds of Palestinians trying to reach GHF’s fourth and northernmost distribution point.
“Troops were trying to prevent people from advancing. They opened fire and we fled. Some people were shot,” said Hamza Matter, one of the aid seekers.
At least five people were killed and 27 wounded near GHF’s site close to Netzarim corridor, Awda Hospital said.
Eyewitnesses seeking food have reported similar gunfire attacks in recent days near aid distribution sites, leaving dozens of Palestinians dead.
The United Nations reported 859 people were killed near GHF sites from May 27 to July 31 and that hundreds more have been slain along the routes of UN-led food convoys.
The GHF launched in May as Israel sought an alternative to the UN-run system, which had safely delivered aid for much of the war but was accused by Israel of allowing Hamas, which guarded convoys early in the war, to siphon supplies.
Israel has not offered evidence of widespread theft. The UN has denied it.
GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray or fired warning shots to prevent deadly crowding. Israel’s military has said it only fires warning shots as well. Both claimed the death tolls have been exaggerated.
Israel’s military did immediately responded to questions about Sunday’s reported fatalities. GHF’s Media Office said there was no gunfire “near or at our sites.”
Meanwhile, the Gaza health ministry said six more Palestinian adults died of malnutrition-related causes over the past 24 hours. It said Sunday’s casualties brought the death toll among Palestinian adults to 82 over the five weeks since the ministry started counting deaths among adults in late June. Malnutrition-related deaths are not included in the ministry’s count of war casualties.
Ninety-three children have also died of causes related to malnutrition since the war in Gaza started in 2023, the ministry said.