Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Monday that Israeli forces killed 60 Palestinians and wounded 344 over the previous 24 hour period as relentless US-backed Israeli attacks continue across the Gaza Strip.
The Health Ministry said that among the dead were 27 Palestinians who were killed while attempting to get food aid, and another 281 were injured. The ministry said that since the end of May, it has recorded the killing of 1,965 aid seekers and the wounding of 14,701.
On top of the violent deaths, Palestinians in Gaza continue to starve to death due to the US-backed Israeli blockade. The Health Ministry said that Gaza Hospitals recorded five malnutrition deaths, including two children, over the previous 24 hours.
An elderly Palestinian man was also killed by an aid drop when a box hit a tent in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. Several Palestinians have been killed by aid drops since Israel allowed them to restart. Aid groups have said dropping pallets of aid from the sky is dangerous and nowhere close to as sufficient as allowing more trucks to bring aid in Gaza by land.
The Israeli military has continued to launch heavy strikes on Gaza City as it’s preparing an offensive to take over the city, which involves cleansing it of 1.2 million Palestinians sheltering there. Thousands have already fled eastern Gaza City, which has been the focus of recent Israeli attacks.
While some Palestinians have started fleeing Gaza City, many are expected to stay behind since they have been displaced so many times and don’t believe they’d be much safer in southern Gaza. According to Haaretz, the Israeli military is preparing for the possibility that many civilians stay in Gaza City and is ready to fire artillery into those areas to pressure them to leave.
The Health Ministry said on Monday that the latest violence has brought its death toll since October 7, 2023, to 62,004, and the number of wounded to 156,230. Studies have found that the ministry’s numbers are likely a significant undercount.
