Gaza rescuers say Israeli firing near aid center kills 31

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AFP) — The Gaza civil defense agency said Israeli forces opened fire on people waiting to enter a U.S.-backed food distribution center on Wednesday, killing 31 and wounding “about 200.”

“We transported at least 31 martyrs and about 200 wounded as a result of Israeli tank and drone fire on thousands of citizens … on their way to receive food from the American aid center,” civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

The Israeli army did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.

Restrictions imposed on media in the Gaza Strip and the difficulties of access on the ground mean AFP is not able to independently verify the death tolls announced by the civil defense agency.

Bassal said thousands of Palestinians had been gathering since 2 a.m. in the hope of reaching the U.S. and Israeli-backed food distribution center.

“Israeli tanks fired several times, then at around 5:30 a.m. intensified their fire, coinciding with heavy fire from drones targeting civilians,” he said.

Mohammad Abu Salima, head of Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital, told AFP it had received the bodies of 24 people killed while waiting to enter the aid center and was treating 96 who had been wounded.

Al-Awda hospital, in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, said in a statement that it had received seven bodies and was treating 112 people who had been wounded in the same incident.

There have been a series of deadly shootings since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation first opened aid distribution points in the Palestinian territory on May 27, as Israel faced mounting international condemnation over the humanitarian conditions.

Israel recently allowed some deliveries to resume after barring them for more than two months and began working with the newly formed, U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

But U.N. agencies and other aid organizations have criticized the foundations and the United Nations refuses to work with it, citing concerns over its practices and neutrality.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Tuesday that “Israeli military operations have intensified in recent days, with mass casualties reported.”

The Hamas attack that triggered the war in October 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 54,981 people, the majority of them civilians, have been killed in the territory since the start of the war. The United Nations considers the figures reliable.

Out of 251 people taken hostage during the Hamas attack, 54 are still held in Gaza including 32 the Israeli military says are dead.

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By Agence France-Presse