Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Thursday that Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza took the lives of 111 Palestinians and another 820 were wounded over the previous 24 hours.
The Health Ministry said that the majority of those killed, 91, were killed while attempting to reach aid, including 54 who were killed on Wednesday near the Zikim crossing in northern Gaza. The Israeli military admitted to firing on a crowd in the area but claimed it wasn’t aware of any casualties.
The Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that 15 Palestinians were killed and 65 were injured on Thursday when Israeli forces targeted civilians near an aid distribution site in central Gaza. Medical sources told Al Jazeera that at least 23 Palestinians were killed while attempting to get aid on Thursday.
The Health Ministry said that since the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began operating at the end of May, at least 1,330 aid seekers have been killed and 8,818 have been injured.
Desperate Palestinians who are starving due to the Israeli siege have been fighting over aid trucks and pallets of aid that have been dropped from the sky. Eslam al-Telbany, a displaced woman from Jabalia, told The Associated Press that she was carrying a sack of flour and a bottle of cooking oil when she was attacked and had to give them up. “I went, and my children prayed that I’d return with food. They haven’t eaten or drank anything for two days,” she said.
Israel has taken some steps to allow slightly more aid to enter Gaza due to international pressure, but aid groups say it’s not nearly enough to avert further catastrophe and are calling for all restrictions to be lifted and an immediate ceasefire. Gaza’s Health Ministry reported dozens of starvation deaths in recent weeks.
Israeli airstrikes and shelling also continue to pound targets across the Strip on Thursday. According to WAFA, at least five Palestinians were killed when an Israeli drone targeted a tent in southern Gaza.
The Health Ministry said that the latest violence has brought its overall death toll since October 7, 2023, to 60,249 and the number of wounded to 147,089. Studies have found that the ministry’s numbers are likely a significant undercount.
