1 of 2 | A U.S. Air Force C-130 drops humanitarian aid by parachute over the northern Gaza Strip as seen from inside southern Israel on March 10, 2024. An attack on a food distribution point in Gaza City Thursday killed 21 and wounded at least 150 others. Photo by Jim Hollander/UPI | License Photo
21 people are dead and at least 150 wounded by an attack on people waiting for food aid in the battle-weary Gaza strip, according to the health ministry.
The death toll is expected to grow as the situation unfolds and casualties are taken to the hospital, according to Mohammad Ghrab, a doctor at the emergency unit at Al Shifa Hospital. Advertisement
Witnesses reported the shelling attack by Israeli forces happened at the Kuwaiti roundabout, where trucks distribute food, attracting crowds of people in need of food and medical aid.
The incident was “a result of the Israeli occupation forces targeting a gathering of citizens waiting for humanitarian aid to satisfy their thirst at the Kuwaiti roundabout in Gaza,” the Gaza Health Ministry said.
“Medical teams are unable to deal with the volume and type of injuries reaching hospitals in northern Gaza due to weak medical and human capabilities.”
Eyewitnesses told Al Jazeera reporters that the area was struck by what they said sounded like tank or artillery fire.
Gaza Civil Defense Spokesman Mahmoud Basal doubled down on the health ministry’s charges that Israel is behind the attack. Advertisement
“The Israeli occupation forces are still practicing the policy of killing innocent citizens waiting for relief aid as a result of the famine occurring in the northern Gaza Strip,” Basal said in a statement late Thursday.
Israel’s military has said it plans to relocate 1.4 million displaced Palestinians from the southern city of Rafah to “humanitarian enclaves” before launching an offensive there.
This is a developing story.
