© REUTERS
In Gaza City, at least 20 people were killed in the night from Thursday to Friday by Israeli “shots” at a crowd waiting for humanitarian aid. This was reported by the Palestinian extremist organization Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. Israel denies.
“Israeli occupying forces fired on a group of civilians waiting for humanitarian aid (at a roundabout in Gaza City, ed.). The number of victims transferred to al-Shifa hospital has been revised to 20 dead and 155 injured,” the Hamas Health Ministry said. An initial report mentioned 11 deaths.
The hospital’s emergency department director, Mohamemd Ghurab, added that the soldiers “fired directly at people who gathered at the Kuwait Roundabout to await the food trucks.” An employee of the French news agency AFP saw numerous ambulances at the scene transporting bodies and wounded people with gunshot wounds.
The Israeli army denied opening fire on civilians early Friday morning. “Press information according to which Israeli forces attacked dozens of people at an aid distribution point is incorrect,” the army said in a brief press release. It adds that it “seriously analyzes the incident”, without giving its own version of the facts.
The statements of Hamas and Israel are difficult to independently verify.
115 dead at the end of February
At the end of February, according to Hamas, 115 people were also killed after the Israeli army opened fire on a crowd gathered around an aid convoy.
© AFP
The United Nations fears a general famine in the occupied Gaza Strip, especially in the north where about 300,000 people live today.
Due to the humanitarian crisis in the area, several countries have started looking for other ways to get relief supplies on site, as this is very difficult to do via land. Belgium, among others, is dropping aid packages from the air in the Gaza Strip and the European Union has launched a maritime corridor together with several other countries.