Gaza’s Health Ministry said Thursday that Israeli forces killed 103 Palestinians and wounded 427 over the previous 24-hour period as Israeli troops continued to shoot people seeking aid, and airstrikes and artillery pounded the Strip.
Details about Israeli strikes, photos, and videos were not as widely available as usual on Thursday, as Palestinian authorities reported a total internet blackout due to an Israeli attack on the last remaining main fiber optic cable connecting Gaza. The UN said that the blackout had hampered its aid operations inside the besieged enclave.
“Lifelines to emergency services, humanitarian coordination, and critical information for civilians have all been cut. There is a full internet blackout, and mobile networks are barely functioning,” said deputy UN spokesman Farhan Haq.
The Health Ministry said that 21 Palestinians were killed while seeking aid on Thursday morning, and another 294 were injured. Massacres of Palestinians seeking aid at distribution sites operated by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) have become a daily occurrence.
Zeteo has published an account of an American contractor working at one of the sites in Gaza who harshly criticized the operation, saying it was “directly leading to more pain, suffering, and death for the Palestinians in Gaza.”
The contractor said that Israeli “tanks fire all day long near these aid sites. Snipers fire from what used to be a hospital. Bombs and bullets fly all day long in one direction – toward Palestinians.”
Most of the aid massacres typically happen early in the morning as desperate Palestinians try to reach the aid sites early before supplies run out. “We know the Israeli military has been enforcing curfews in some parts of Gaza,” the contractor said.
“I would not be surprised if the aid was delivered at night deliberately, given it would then draw people out, at which point they could be fired on as combatants, even though they weren’t. It’s very clear that the Israeli military will take any opportunity available to fire,” the contractor added.
The GHF claimed that on Wednesday evening, a bus carrying dozens of its Palestinian staff members was attacked by Hamas and that eight people were killed. Hamas hasn’t commented on the allegations but claimed its police force killed 12 members of the Israeli-backed Abu Shabab gang, though it’s unclear if the two incidents are related.
The Health Ministry said that since the GHF began operating in Gaza at the end of May, at least 245 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid, and 2,152 have been injured.
