52 Palestinians in Gaza killed by Israeli air strikes or shot while seeking aid – State

Palestinian hospital officials and witnesses said on Saturday that the Israeli air strikes killed at least 28 Palestinians, including four children in the Gaza Strip, while another 24 were shot dead at the aid allocation site.

Officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said at least 13 of the children and two women died in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza after an Israeli air strike caused the area to explode. According to Nasser Hospital, another 15 people died in an air strike by Khan Yunis in southern Gaza.

Israel’s military did not immediately respond to the Associated Press request for comment.

Hospital officials and witnesses said at least 24 people were killed on the way to a food distribution location near Rafah run by an Israel-backed U.S. organization. Israel’s army said it was suspicious to speak to people to prevent them from approaching. It said it did not know any casualties.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said there were no incidents near its ruins.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he is signing another ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, which will allow Gaza to release more hostages and potentially stop the war. But there is no sign of a breakthrough after two days of talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week. The militant group still holds about 50 hostages, and at least 20 are still alive.

The 21-month war has brought most of Gaza’s population to more than 2 million, relying on external aid, while food security experts warn of famine. Israel was blocked after ending its latest ceasefire in March, and then restricted access to aid.

The Israeli military said a fatal shooting of 24 people occurred in the Rafa district in southern Gaza, hundreds of meters away from the food distribution site.

Get national news

For news that affects Canada and around the world, please sign up for breaking news alerts that were sent directly to you at the time.

A GHF spokesman, who posted anonymously in line with the organization’s policies, said: “We checked with the expansion team and the incident did not happen near our website.”

Witnesses said they were shot dead on their way to the scene to seek food.

Abdullah al-Haddad said he was 200 metres from the aid distribution site operated by GHF in the Shakoush region of the west of Rafah, when Israeli tanks began firing at the Palestinian crowd.

“We were together and they shot us right away,” he said.

Another witness, Mohammed Jamal al-Sahloo, said Israeli troops ordered them to go to the scene at the beginning of the shooting.

Hospital officials said Sumaya al-Sha’er’s 17-year-old son Nasir was killed in the shooting.

“He said to me, ‘Mom, you don’t have flour, today I’ll go give you flour, even if I die, I’ll go get it.” “But he never came home.”

She said she stopped the teenager from going to the GHF website before that because she thought it was too dangerous. But the food supply was run out.

Witnesses, health officials and UN officials said hundreds of people were killed by Israeli fires while sailing towards independent media through military zones. The military admitted to warning shots to the Palestinians, who said they approached the troops in a suspicious manner.

GHF denies violence has occurred in or around its venues in the past. But two of its contractors told the Associated Press that their colleagues scrambled to fire on-site ammunition for the Palestinians and defeated the grenades, which the foundation refused.

The United Nations and aid groups said in another effort that they are working to distribute humanitarian aid due to Israeli military restrictions and a breakdown of law and order, which has led to widespread robbery.

The first fuel (150,000 liters) entered Gaza this week, calling it a small amount of “the backbone of Gaza’s survival”, a joint statement from the United Nations aid agency said. The statement said fuel operation hospitals, water systems, transportation, etc.

Israeli troops said that in the past 48 hours, the troops have been in Gaza’s approximately 250 targets, including militants, clumsy trap structures, weapons storage facilities, anti-tank missile launch posts, sniper posts, tunnels, tunnels and other Hamas sites.

Also on Saturday, the military announced strict restrictions on the Mediterranean coast of Gaza and called on fishermen, swimmers and divers to avoid Shanghai.

Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people in an October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, triggering war and kidnapped 251 people.

According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, Israel’s retaliatory offensive killed more than 57,800 Palestinians, more than half of which were women and children. The ministry is under the Hamas government in Gaza and does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its number. The United Nations and other international organizations regard their figures as the most reliable statistics on casualties in wars.

& Copy 2025 Canadian Press