Israeli attacks kill 140 in Gaza in 24 hours, medics say

CAIRO: Israeli gunfire and strikes killed at least 140 people across Gaza in the past 24 hours, local health officials said, as some Palestinians in the Strip said their plight was being forgotten as attention has shifted to the air war between Israel and Iran.

At least 40 of those killed over the past day died as a result of Israeli gunfire and airstrikes on Wednesday, Gaza’s health ministry said. The deaths included the latest in near daily killings of Palestinians seeking aid in the three weeks since Israel partially lifted a total blockade on the territory.

Medics said separate airstrikes on homes in the Maghazi refugee camp, the Zeitoun neighbourhood and Gaza City killed at least 21 people, while five others were killed in an airstrike on an encampment in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Fourteen more people were killed in Israeli fire at crowds of Palestinians awaiting aid trucks brought in by the United Nations along the Salahuddin road in central Gaza, medics said.

Asked about the Salahuddin road incident, the Israel Defence Forces said that despite repeated warnings that the area was an active combat zone, individuals approached troops operating in the Nuseirat area in the central Gaza Strip in a manner that posed a threat to forces.

Troops fired warning shots, it said, adding that it was unaware of injuries. Regarding other strikes, the IDF said it was “operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities” while taking “feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm”.

On Tuesday, Gaza’s health ministry said 397 Palestinians among those trying to get food aid had been killed and more than 3,000 wounded since aid deliveries restarted in late May.

Some in Gaza expressed concern that the latest escalations in the war between Israel and Hamas that began in October 2023 would be overlooked due to the new Israel-Iran conflict. “People are being slaughtered in Gaza, day and night, but attention has shifted to the Iran-Israel war. There is little news about Gaza these days,” said Adel, a resident of Gaza City.

“Whoever doesn’t die from Israeli bombs dies from hunger. People risk their lives every day to get food, and they also get killed and their blood smears the sacks of flour they thought they had won,” he told Reuters via a chat app.

Israel is now channelling much of the aid into Gaza through a new US- and Israeli-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which uses private US security and logistics firms and operates a handful of distribution sites in areas guarded by Israeli forces.

Israel has said it will continue to allow aid into Gaza, home to more than 2 million people, while ensuring it doesn’t get to Hamas. Hamas denies seizing aid, saying Israel uses hunger as a weapon.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, called the current system for distributing aid “a disgrace & a stain on our collective consciousness”, in a post on X on Wednesday.

“The fear of starvation and desperate need for food is causing large crowds to gather along well-known transport routes, hoping to intercept and access humanitarian supplies while in transit,” the WFP said in a statement.

“Any violence resulting in starving people being killed or injured while seeking life-saving assistance is completely unacceptable,” it added. Palestinians in Gaza have been closely following Israel’s air war with Iran, long a major supporter of Hamas.