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26-06-2025
GAZA STRIP: Israeli attacks have killed at least 51 people in the Gaza Strip, including 14 Palestinians who were waiting near aid distribution centres, medical sources told media, even as United States President Donald Trump said “great progress” was being made to bring an end to the war.
Sources at al-Awda and Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospitals in Gaza told media that at least nine Palestinians were killed and several others injured by Israeli fire early on Wednesday while waiting for aid near the Netzarim Junction in central Gaza.
The deaths are the latest in a wave of violence near aid distribution points established late last month by the controversial Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
The GHF has come under fierce criticism from aid agencies and the United Nations, which says the group is not able to meet the population’s needs and turns food into a weapon for Israel to carry out its military operations.
Reporting from Gaza City, journalist Mahmoud said aid distribution centres run by GHF are typically established very close to where Israeli forces are stationed, with their tanks, armored vehicles and surrounding snipers.
“So when large crowds gather, they are vulnerable to Israeli fire,” he said.
“Disturbingly, people are given just 20-minute windows at the aid centres to get their hands on whatever is available, such as food parcels. Once that 20-minute period ends, shooting often starts. That is one of the reasons we’re seeing large numbers of people dying at these centres,” he added.
There is growing pressure on the GHF, which was brought into the Palestinian territory at the end of May, to look into the attacks. But the organization has denied responsibility.
Israel has said previous shootings near GHF aid sites have been provoked by the approach of “suspects” towards soldiers.
Deir el-Balah home hit ‘without warning’
In addition to the killings near aid distribution points, journalist Mahmoud said five people were killed in the bombing of a home in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.
“Five family members were killed instantly by a bomb dropped there. Three other family members were killed in the Nuseirat refugee camp,” he said.
Ramzi Khaled, a Gaza City resident who was close to a building sheltering displaced people when Israeli forces attacked it overnight told media “suddenly, without any previous warning, people who are staying and living in a shelter that is al-Shawwa (fuel) station … without any previous warning, the place was hit.”
“The ceiling was toppled to the ground. They are all in pieces. Approximately 12 people (were) present in this building; they are all in pieces. We retrieved what we could, three people in pieces, and here we are trying to retrieve some, a martyr and the rest who are under the rubble,” he added.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 56,077 people and wounded 131,848, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7 attacks, and more than 200 were taken captive.
As Israel continues with its assault, its military said seven soldiers were killed in combat in Gaza on Tuesday.
The military released the names of six of them but withheld one as the seventh soldier’s family was yet to be notified of his death.
Those killed were aged between 19 and 21, according to the military. They were all members of the 605th Combat Engineering Battalion. (Int’l News Desk)
