Gaza’s Health Ministry said Tuesday that at least 27 people were killed when Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians attempting to collect aid near a distribution site in southern Gaza.
The Israeli military admitted that it opened fire at Palestinians near the distribution sites, claiming it targeted “suspects” who were approaching IDF troops. The statement did not allege that the Palestinians were armed. Axios later reported that the IDF acknowledged it fired at civilians.
“Earlier today, during the movement of the crowd along the designated routes toward the aid distribution site—approximately half a kilometer from the site—IDF troops identified several suspects moving toward them, deviating from the designated routes,” the IDF said in a statement.
“The troops carried out warning fire, and after the suspects failed to retreat, additional shots were directed near individual suspects who advanced toward the troops,” the statement added.
The IDF said that it was “aware of reports regarding casualties, and the details of the incident are being looked into.”
Neima al-Aaraj, a woman from Khan Younis who witnessed the shooting, said there were many “martyrs and wounded” and that Israeli forces were firing indiscriminately. She said that she reached the distribution site but didn’t receive any aid.
“There was no aid there,” al-Aaraj said, according to Haaretz. “After the martyrs and wounded, I won’t return. Either way, we will die.”
Doctors and medical workers who treated the victims reported that most of them were shot in the head or chest. According to the Health Ministry, the latest massacre brings the total number of Palestinians killed near aid distribution sites since the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began operating in Gaza to 102.
The Israeli military has denied responsibility for an incident near an aid site on Sunday, where 31 Palestinians were reported killed, but that contradicts accounts from eyewitnesses, medics, and international charities operating on the ground, who all say Israeli forces were responsible for the massacre.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said in its daily update on Tuesday that a total of 39 Palestinians were killed and 208 were wounded by Israeli forces across Gaza over the previous 24-hour period.
The ministry said that since Israel resumed its genocidal war on March 18, at least 4,240 Palestinians have been killed, and 12,860 were injured. The numbers account for dead and wounded Palestinians brought to hospitals and morgues.
Since October 7, 2023, the ministry’s death toll has reached 54,510, and the number of wounded has climbed to 124,901, figures that don’t account for thousands missing and presumed dead under the rubble or indirect deaths caused by the Israeli siege.
