Palestinians killed while awaiting aid in Gaza, Health Ministry says

 

Displaced Palestinians walk amid the rubble of houses destroyed by Israeli bombardment in Hamad area, west of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, March 14, 2024. [AFP]

As Palestinians lined up for aid in Gaza early Friday, Palestinian officials said two Israeli attacks — one in central Gaza, the second in the north — killed dozens of civilians.

In the two separate incidents, a total of at least 29 people were killed and 150 more were injured as they waited to receive aid, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

In the first incident, Palestinian health officials said eight people were killed in an airstrike on an aid distribution center in al-Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza.

In the second incident, at least 21 people were killed and more than 150 were injured by Israeli fire on a crowd awaiting aid trucks in northern Gaza, the health ministry said.

Israel’s military said it was looking into the two incidents.

The incidents come two days after U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that Israel must make the welfare of Palestinian civilians “job No. 1” in its conduct of the war against Hamas in Gaza.

On Thursday, the militant group Hamas said it presented to mediators a vision of a truce deal that would be based on halting Israeli military operation in Gaza, among other measures.

That same day, Israel’s military reported conducting ground operations and airstrikes in the central and southern parts of the Gaza Strip.

The Israel Defense Forces said the operations included carrying out raids in Khan Younis that destroyed rocket launchers.

Israel began its military campaign to wipe out Hamas after Hamas fighters crossed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 people hostage.

On Wednesday, Blinken reaffirmed that Israel must prioritize the safety of civilians in Gaza. He also met via video conference with ministers from Cyprus, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, the European Union and the United Nations to discuss a new maritime corridor for aid into Gaza.

The U.S. military has dispatched a ship to the Mediterranean to build a temporary pier on the Gaza shoreline to provide passage for more aid but says the dock may take two months to be completed.

On Thursday, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said Washington should put more pressure on the Israeli government to facilitate aid into Gaza.

"We certainly expect the U.S. government to continue putting pressure, putting more pressure on Israel to open the border and not to [impede] humanitarian access," Borrell told reporters during his visit to Washington.

“And a fact everybody recognizes is that there is a clear impeding [of] humanitarian access by the one who controls the border [of Gaza], who is the Israeli government,” he added.