Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Wednesday that Israeli forces killed at least 139 Palestinians and wounded 487 over the previous 24-hour period, as US-backed Israeli strikes have ramped up across the Strip and the IDF continues to kill people seeking aid.
The Health Ministry said that the bodies of three people killed by previous Israeli attacks were also recovered from the rubble. “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 wrote on Telegram.
Al Jazeera reported that at least 11 Palestinians were killed on Wednesday while waiting for aid. The Health Ministry said that a total of 39 aid seekers were killed over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of Palestinians killed while attempting to get food since the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began operating at the end of May to 640.
Israeli media has confirmed that Israeli troops have been ordered to fire on unarmed Palestinians, and the IDF has admitted to killing civilians near aid sites, though it disputes the Health Ministry’s numbers. Despite the revelations, the aid massacres haven’t impacted US support for Israel, and the Trump administration is also now funding the GHF.
Israeli strikes on Wednesday included the bombing of a building sheltering displaced Palestinians in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, killing 17 people. An airstrike in a different part of Gaza City killed Dr. Marwan al-Sultan, the director of the Indonesian Hospital, along with several of his family members.
An expansion of Israeli operations was reported in northern Gaza, and at least one Israeli soldier was killed in the area. In southern Gaza, heavy Israeli strikes hit tents sheltering displaced Palestinians, killing at least six people in Khan Younis.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said the latest violence has brought the death toll since October 7, 2023, to 57,012 and the number of wounded to 134,592. Studies have found that the Health Ministry’s numbers are a significant undercount, and estimates that factor in indirect deaths caused by the Israeli siege and destruction of all of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure bring the death toll into the hundreds of thousands.
