At least 67 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire as they waited for U.N. aid trucks in northern Gaza on Sunday, according to the Gaza health ministry. The incident was one of the highest reported death tolls among repeated recent cases in which aid seekers have been killed, including 36 on Saturday. Another six people were killed near another aid site in the south. Israel’s military said its troops had fired warning shots towards a crowd of thousands of people in northern Gaza on Sunday to remove what it said was “an immediate threat”.
The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) said that shortly after entering Gaza, a WFP convoy of 25 trucks carrying food aid encountered “massive crowds of hungry civilians” who then came under gunfire. Health authorities said 90 people had been killed by Israeli gunfire and airstrikes across the enclave on Sunday.
After Israel’s military dropped leaflets urging people to evacuate from neighbourhoods in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah, residents said Israeli planes struck three houses in the area. Dozens of families began leaving their homes, carrying some of their belongings. Hundreds of thousands of displaced Gazans have been sheltering in the Deir al-Balah area.
Israel’s military said it had not entered the districts subject to the evacuation order during the current conflict and that it was continuing “to operate with great force to destroy the enemy’s capabilities and terrorist infrastructure in the area”. At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages in captivity in Gaza are believed to still be alive. Hostage families demanded an explanation from the army.
Palestinian health officials warned that hundreds of people could soon die as hospitals were inundated with patients suffering from dizziness and exhaustion due to the scarcity of food and a collapse in aid deliveries. The United Nations also called for an end to the “barbarity of war” as he spoke of his profound pain over an Israeli strike on the sole Catholic church in Gaza that killed three people on Thursday.
