Deir al-Balah, July 5: Israeli airstrikes killed 24 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including 10 as they sought food in the embattled enclave, hospital officials told the Associated Press on Saturday.
Two American aid workers with the Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation were also injured in southern Gaza after unknown assailants threw grenades at them at a food distribution site, the organisation said.
The bloodshed comes as US-led ceasefire efforts aimed at halting a nearly 21-month war appear to be gaining momentum. Hamas gave a “positive” response late Friday to the latest US proposal for a 60-day truce but said further talks were needed on implementation.
Hamas has been seeking guarantees that the initial truce would lead to a total end to the war and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. President Donald Trump has been pushing for an agreement and is set to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House next week to discuss a deal.
Israeli strikes kill Palestinians in southern Gaza
The Israeli airstrikes struck tents in the Muwasi area on the southern end of Gaza’s Mediterranean coast, killing seven people, including a Palestinian doctor and his three children, according to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
Four others were killed in the town of Bani Suheila in southern Gaza, and three people were killed in three different strikes in Khan Younis. The Israeli army did not provide immediate comment on the strikes.
Meanwhile, eight Palestinians were killed near a GHF aid distribution site in the southern city of Rafah, the hospital said. One Palestinian was also killed near another GHF point in Rafah. It was not clear how far away the Palestinians were from the sites.
GHF denied the killings happened near their sites. Previously the organization has said no one has been shot at its sites, which are guarded by private contractors but can only be accessed by passing Israeli military positions hundreds of meters away.
The army had no immediate comment, but has said it fires warning shots as a crowd-control measure and it only aims at people when its troops are threatened.
One Palestinian was also killed waiting in crowds for aid trucks in eastern Khan Younis, officials at Nasser Hospital said. The United Nations and other international organizations bring in their own supplies of aid. It was unclear to which organization the aid trucks the Palestinians were waiting for belonged to, but the incident did not appear to be connected to GHF operations.
Crowds of Palestinians often wait for trucks and unload or loot their contents before they reach their destinations. These trucks must pass through areas under Israeli military control. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the incident.
American aid workers wounded in Gaza
The GHF said the two American aid workers were injured Saturday morning at a distribution site in Khan Younis. The assailants threw grenades at the aid workers, the statement said.
GHF later posted a photo of the fragments of the explosive device and claimed, without providing evidence, that it was detonated by Hamas militants. It said the injuries were not life-threatening, and the two men received medical attention.
The GHF distributes aid from four sites that are surrounded by Israeli troops, three of which are in the far south of Gaza.
GHF is a US- and Israeli-backed initiative meant to bypass the UN Israel says Hamas has been siphoning off aid delivered by the UN — a claim the UN denies. Hamas has urged Palestinians not to cooperate with the GHF.
GHF is an American organization, registered in Delaware, that began distributing food to Palestinians in late May. Palestinians say Israeli troops open fire almost every day toward crowds on roads heading to the distribution points, through Israeli military zones. Several hundred people have been killed and hundreds more wounded, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry and witnesses.
The war in Gaza was set off after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage. Israel responded with an offensive that has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, displaced nearly all of Gaza’s 2 million people and left many on the edge of famine.
The ministry is led by medical professionals employed by Gaza’s Hamas government. It does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but its figures are seen by the UN and other international organizations as the most reliable statistics on war casualties. (AP)
