Israeli army tanks and drones attack Palestinians waiting for food in southern Gaza, authorities say

'Now, we die for aid': Dozens killed by hails of gunfire in the queues

Fifty-nine Palestinians were killed in southern Gaza on Tuesday when Israeli tanks and drones fired on people waiting for aid lorries carrying food to arrive, authorities and witnesses said.

More were feared dead, while another 200 people were critically injured by the attack at Al Tahliya roundabout in the city of Khan Younis, the Gaza Health Ministry said.

Israeli warplanes bombed a home in the area before ground forces opened fire on a crowd of people waiting on food and other supplies, witnesses said.

Staff at Nasser Hospital, where the wounded were taken, were overwhelmed by the number of dead and injured, it said.

“We’ve received around 60 martyrs already,” spokesman Dr Mohammed Saqr told The National. “The number is rising every moment. Many of the bodies are in pieces – that tells you what kind of weapons were used.”

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army.

The shooting took place shortly after dawn as hundreds of displaced Palestinians gathered near an American aid distribution point by a desalination plant in hopes of a sack of flour or a few cans of food, witnesses said. Israeli tanks shelled the area, followed by heavy gunfire from drones, they told The National.

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“Suddenly, the tanks started firing. People fell instantly. The place was chaos – blood everywhere, bodies lying on the ground,” said Mahmoud Wadi, 34.

He said he had been standing in a line for aid with his brother and three children when the killing started.

Ambulances could not reach the scene, so survivors used donkey carts and bicycles to evacuate the injured and dead, he added. “We carried our neighbours’ corpses in whatever we could find.”

At the hospital, floors were soaked with blood, while people wandered the hallways looking for relatives. Dr Saqr said staff struggled to treat dozens of patients with injuries they could not tend to properly because of inadequate equipment.

The hospital is one of the last functioning in southern Gaza and is stretched daily. Fuel shortages and the collapse of the health system have left doctors unable to perform life-saving surgery or provide basic care.

“If help doesn’t arrive immediately, more will die, not from wounds, but from the neglect forced upon us,” Dr Saqr said. “We are not asking for much. Just the chance to save lives.”

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  A Palestinian man injured in an Israeli strike while waiting for aid is carried into Nasser hospital, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. Reuters

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  A Gazan injured in Israeli fire near a food aid centre is treated at Nasser Hospital. AFP

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  Nasser Hospital has been overwhelmed by the number of people injured in the violence. AFP

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  More than 50 Palestinians were killed in the incident in Khan Younis. Reuters

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  More than 200 are in critical condition after the attack at Al Tahliya roundabout, Gaza's Health Ministry has said. Reuters

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  Israeli forces opened fire as people waited for aid lorries to enter the enclave. Reuters

Yahya Barbakh, a former schoolteacher and father of six who has been sheltering in a tent in Gaza's Al Mawasi displacement zone, said his cousin and four neighbours were killed.

“I went to get food for my children. That’s all. I had no weapon. None of us did,” he told The National, his wounded leg bandaged. “The occupation starves us, sends us to these aid points, and then kills us in cold blood, while the whole world watches.”

Before the war broke out in October 2023, Mr Barbakh was a teacher in Khan Younis, a job that enabled him to provide for his family. “We lived with dignity once. Now, we die for aid,” he said.

Tuesday's crowd, he said, had been large but peaceful, waiting hours before the aid point opened. “They (Israeli troops) didn’t care. They just opened fire. It was slaughter.”

Gaza authorities and witnesses say Israeli troops have repeatedly opened fire in recent weeks on crowds trying to reach food distribution points run by a US and Israel-backed aid group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, since its aid centres opened last month.

Local health officials say hundreds have been killed and thousands wounded over the past weeks. The Israeli army has said it fired warning shots at people approaching its troops in a “suspicious manner” during incidents.

On Monday, the Gaza Health Ministry said another 38 people were killed by Israeli fire while they were trying to collect food from GHF centres.

Israel allowed the GHF to start operations in late May after imposing a nearly three-month blockade on all aid into Gaza. It claims the new system, which has been condemned by the UN and international aid groups, is designed to stop supplies falling into the hands of Hamas.

UN agencies and major aid groups deny that there is widespread theft of aid by Hamas and have rejected the new system. They say supply cannot meet the population's demands and turns food into a weapon for Israel to carry out its military goals, including by moving Gaza's more than two million Palestinians into a “sterile” area in the south of the territory.

The limited amounts of aid being distributed at GHF's four sites have done little to alleviate hunger. More than 2,700 children under five face acute malnutrition, the UN's Palestinian relief agency UNRWA said on Monday. People have been fainting on the streets from hunger.

“The whole world knows this system is humiliating,” Mr Wadi told The National. “And every day, people die because of it. Yet it continues.”