Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Monday that Israeli forces killed 66 Palestinians and wounded 182 over the previous 24-hour period as Israeli troops continued to gun down desperate aid seekers and strikes continued to pound targets across the Strip.
The Health Ministry said another two bodies of Palestinians killed in previous Israeli attacks were recovered. “There are still a number of victims under the rubble and on the streets, and ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them,” the ministry said.
Among the dead were 38 Palestinians who were killed while making the perilous journey to US and Israeli-backed aid distribution sites that are run by private American security contractors who work for the US-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
According to Reuters, at least 23 Palestinians were killed near an aid site in the southern city of Rafah, and the dead were brought to the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. “We went there thinking we would get aid to feed our children, but it turned out to be a trap, a killing. I advise everyone: don’t go there,” Ahmed Fayad, who tried to reach the aid site, told the outlet.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN’s Palestinian relief agency, UNRWA, drew attention to the aid massacres in a post on Monday and called for Israel to lift restrictions on aid shipments going through other channels besides the GHF.
“Gaza: tragedies go on unabated while attention shifts elsewhere. Scores of people have been killed & injured in the past days including starving people trying to get some food from a lethal distribution system,” he wrote on X.
“Restrictions on bringing in aid from the UN including UNRWA continue despite an abundance of assistance ready to be moved into Gaza. In addition, severe shortages of fuel are now hampering the delivery of critical services especially health & water,” Lazzarini added.
The Health Ministry said that since the GHF began operating at the end of May, at least 338 aid seekers have been killed, and more than 2,831 have been wounded.
Since October 7, 2023, the ministry’s total death toll has reached 55,432, and the number of wounded has climbed to 128,923, figures that don’t account for thousands missing and presumed dead under the rubble or indirect deaths caused by the Israeli siege.
