Gaza Health Ministry: 20 Palestinians Killed in Strike on Food Aid Queue
Editor
26 January 2024 08:22 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Gaza - An Israeli strike on Gaza City killed 20 Palestinians and wounded 150 who were queuing for food aid on Thursday, Jan. 25, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said, in what a Palestinian coalition called a "war crime."
The Israeli military said it was looking into the report. The National and Islamic Forces Follow-up Committee, a coalition of militant and political groups, said Israeli forces targeted the civilians waiting for relief aid. Dozens were killed and injured in a "war crime and genocide," the group said in a statement.
Also in central Gaza, Palestinian health officials said an Israeli air strike at nightfall on a house in Al-Nusseirat refugee camp killed six people.
In the south of the enclave, Israeli tanks battered areas around two hospitals in Gaza's main southern city Khan Younis, forcing displaced people into a new desperate scramble for safety, residents said.
Meanwhile, in the north, a World Health Organization official described the food situation as "absolutely horrific" and humanitarian workers said rare deliveries of aid were mobbed by desperate people who were visibly starving with sunken eyes.
Most of the Gaza Strip's 2.3 million population is now squeezed into Khan Younis and towns just north and south of it, after being driven out of Gaza's northern half earlier in Israel's military campaign, now in its fourth month.
Gaza health officials said at least 50 Palestinians had been killed in the past 24 hours in Khan Younis, where Israel has shifted full-blown military operations after starting to pull forces out of northern areas it says it now largely controls.
"There's no safe area, where shall we go? Stop the war, it is enough,' a Palestinian woman said in Rafah, on Gaza's southern edge.
In its latest update, the Israeli military said forces in Khan Younis were fighting militants at close quarters and were using precision air strikes and snipers to take out multiple Hamas targets.
Palestinian medics said Israeli tanks had cut off and were shelling targets around the city's two main still-functioning hospitals, Nasser and Al-Amal, trapping medical teams, patients, and displaced people huddled inside or nearby.
Israel says Hamas militants use hospital premises as cover for bases, something the Islamist group and medical staff deny.
Two U.S. officials told Reuters that the U.S. has created a channel with Israel to discuss concerns over civilian casualties of the Israeli military in Gaza.
Through the channel, which has been active for the last few weeks, Washington raises with the Israelis "every specific incident of concern", a U.S. official said. The Israelis investigate and provide feedback to the Americans.
