Gaza [Gaza City], July 20: Israeli soldiers killed at least 37 people near a distribution centre for humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian medical sources on Saturday.
About 100 people were injured by Israeli army gunfire and shelling in the Khan Younis area in the south of the sealed-off coastal region, according to medical circles at the local Nasser Hospital.
They were transferred to the hospital from the al-Tina area in Khan Younis.
The medical source said that the death toll is expected to increase due to the seriousness of a large number of cases.
The Israeli army said it was investigating the incident, in response to a query.
The controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is currently responsible for the distribution of food in the Gaza Strip. Supported by Israel and the US, the foundation began its work at the end of May after a months-long Israeli blockade of aid deliveries.
But the UN has criticized the fact that the foundation operates too few distribution centres and that people there and on their way to them are exposed to extreme danger.
Hundreds of people have been killed near the distribution centres and around aid convoys since the end of May, according to the UN.
Mohammed Al-Khalidi, speaking to Reuters, pointed the finger at the Israeli army for the attack.
He said he was part of a group of Palestinians who had been told the GHF aid distribution centre was open, but when they arrived tanks began moving towards them and opened fire. "It wasn't shots that were to scare us or to organize us, it was shots that were targeted to kill us, if they wanted to organize us they would have, but they meant to kill us."
On 15 July, the UN human rights office said it had so far recorded 674 killings in the vicinity of the GHF's four sites in southern and central Gaza over the past six weeks. Another 201 killings had been recorded along routes of UN and other aid convoys, it added.
The UN also said this week that the number of acutely malnourished children has doubled since Israel began restricting food entering the territory in March. Despite the creation of the GHF significant amounts of aid, including baby formula, is still being blocked at the border.
On Friday, the director of one field hospital said in a statement that they had an unprecedented influx of patients suffering from severe exhaustion, emaciation and acute malnutrition. So far, 69 children have died from malnutrition during the increasing humanitarian crisis, according to the Hamas government media office.
On Friday, US President Donald Trump once again suggested a ceasefire deal was very near - but a Palestinian official told the BBC that talks remain blocked, with a latest troop withdrawal map proposed by Israel still unacceptable to Hamas.
Source: Qatar Tribune
