Israeli tank fire killed at least 59 Palestinians in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, as they were trying to get food from aid trucks, Reuters reported on Tuesday, marking the deadliest aid massacre since the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began operating in Gaza at the end of May.
While many Palestinians have been killed near GHF sites, the massacre in Khan Younis did not appear to be related to the GHF, as the crowd that was fired on was waiting for aid trucks to pass through, according to witnesses speaking to Reuters.
Medics said another 221 people were injured in the massacre, and Gaza’s Health Ministry published photos of victims being treated at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Footage from social media shows dozens of bodies strewn along a street in Khan Younis.
“All of a sudden, they let us move forward and made everyone gather, and then shells started falling, tank shells,” Alaa, a survivor of the attack, told Reuters. “No one is looking at these people with mercy. The people are dying, they are being torn apart, to get food for their children. Look at these people, all these people are torn to get flour to feed their children.”
The Associated Press reported that witnesses said Israeli forces began firing on the crowd after an airstrike hit a nearby home. The Israeli military admitted it fired on the crowd, acknowledged there were “several casualties,” and claimed that it would investigate the massacre.
According to Al Jazeera, a total of 89 Palestinians were killed across Gaza on Tuesday as Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling continued to pound the Strip. The daily US-backed massacres continue in Gaza as much of the world’s attention is on the Israel-Iran war.
