At least 27 Palestinians killed near Israeli aid site in Gaza, medics say

At least 27 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded by Israeli fire near a US-Israeli food distribution site in the southern Gaza Strip today, local health authorities said, in the latest attack on starving Palestinians in the besieged enclave, Reuters reports.

The Israeli occupation military said its forces had opened fire on a group of individuals who had left designated access routes near the distribution centre in Rafah.

It added it was still investigating what had happened.

The US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation launched its first distribution sites last week in what the occupation state said is an effort to alleviate widespread hunger amongst Gaza’s war-battered population, most of whom have had to abandon their homes to flee Israel’s bombs.

The foundation’s aid plan, which bypasses traditional aid groups and uses US mercenaries to distribute lifesaving food, has come under fierce criticism from the United Nations and established charities which say it does not follow humanitarian principles. Rights groups have warned the system is another step in Israel’s efforts to forcibly displace Palestinians as distribution sites have only been placed in the south of the Strip, leaving Palestinians in the north with no way to access food.

There have been reports of repeated killings near Rafah as crowds gather to get desperately needed supplies.

On Sunday, Palestinian and international officials reported that at least 31 Palestinians were killed and dozens more injured. On Monday, three more Palestinians were reportedly killed by Israeli fire.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said yesterday he was “appalled” by reports of Palestinians killed and wounded while seeking aid and called for an independent investigation.

The Israeli occupation military issued new evacuation orders to residents of several districts in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip late yesterday, calling on residents to head west towards the Mawasi area. Palestinian and United Nations officials say there are no safe areas in the enclave, and that most of its 2.3 million population has become internally displaced.

The territory’s health ministry said today that the new evacuation orders could halt work at the Nasser Hospital, the largest, still-functioning medical facility in the south, endangering the lives of those being treated there.

Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza in October 2023 and has killed more than 54,400 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since in what rights groups and the UN have warned is genocide being orchestrated with Western backing.