At least 34 people have been killed in Gaza following a series of Israeli strikes, including attacks on civilians waiting to collect humanitarian aid, according to the enclave’s civil defence agency.
Spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP on Saturday that nine people were killed and 181 injured when Israeli forces opened fire on crowds gathered near a border crossing in northern Gaza used for aid deliveries. Another six fatalities and 30 injuries were reported after troops targeted civilians at an aid point in central Gaza.
Bassal added that further strikes in central Gaza caused multiple casualties, while a drone attack near the southern city of Khan Yunis killed at least three people and injured several others.
Due to access restrictions and ongoing conflict, AFP said it could not independently verify the casualty figures or details provided by Gaza’s civil defence agency and the Israeli military.
Thousands of Palestinians continue to gather daily at food distribution centres across the territory, including four run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The aid operations, launched in late May, have repeatedly been disrupted by reports of Israeli forces firing on civilians in queues.
Since the war began nearly two years ago, Israel has maintained strict limits on the entry of food, medicine, and fuel into Gaza, exacerbating shortages and threatening hospital operations reliant on generators.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under mounting pressure to agree to a ceasefire to prevent famine and secure the release of hostages. However, Israel’s security cabinet on Friday approved plans for a major operation to seize Gaza City, drawing widespread condemnation.
Netanyahu insisted, “We are not going to occupy Gaza — we are going to free Gaza from Hamas.”
The conflict, sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack that killed 1,219 people in Israel, has so far claimed more than 61,000 Palestinian lives, according to figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which the UN considers reliable.
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