In Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, at least 51 Palestinians were killed and over 200 wounded following a severe assault by Israeli forces. The forces conducted an aerial bombardment before opening fire on a crowd that had gathered to receive humanitarian aid.
According to the Associated Press, referencing Gaza’s health ministry and Nasser Hospital, this tragic incident occurred on Tuesday morning as Palestinians awaited food supplies from UN and private trucks.
Witnesses reported that Israeli fighter jets first targeted a building near the aid distribution site. Shortly after, Israeli military forces unleashed heavy gunfire and tank fire on the assembled crowd. There has been no official statement from Israel regarding this event.
“It was a massacre”
Eyewitness Yusuf Nofal described it as a “massacre,” noting that soldiers continued to fire as civilians fled. “I saw many people lying bleeding and motionless on the ground,” he stated. Another witness, Mohamed Abu Keshfa, recounted the chaos of explosions, ongoing gunfire, and tank bombardments, saying, “I survived by a miracle.”
The injured were taken to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where many relatives searched frantically for their loved ones. “We don’t want flour, we don’t want food; we just want to know why they shot our children. Aren’t we human?” pleaded Samaher Mekdan, who was looking for her two brothers and a nephew.
This incident is not isolated; Israeli forces have previously been accused of targeting civilians at food distribution points. Since the establishment of new centers, backed by the US and Israel, there have been numerous fatalities and hundreds of injuries. The Israeli military has confirmed that, in some cases, warning shots were fired when civilians approached military positions in a “suspicious manner.”
Challenges in Humanitarian Aid Distribution
The new food distribution network is managed by a private contractor known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Israel claims this initiative is designed to prevent Hamas from misusing humanitarian aid. However, the United Nations and leading humanitarian organizations criticize this approach, arguing it is inadequate for the escalating needs of the population and undermines humanitarian principles by giving Israel control over aid distribution.
As the UN cautions about the potential for famine in Gaza, food distribution remains fraught with difficulties. Efforts by UN missions over the past 20 months have not alleviated the humanitarian crisis, as military restrictions, insecurity, and looting hinder the distribution of even approved aid.
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