Israeli fire kills 48 waiting for food

FE Team | Published: July 31, 2025 21:51:34

GAZA, July 31 (AFP/Reuters): Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 30 people when they opened fire Wednesday on a crowd waiting for humanitarian aid in the north of the Palestinian territory.
The Israeli military said it had no knowledge of casualties in the incident north of Gaza City, as the United Nations said that pauses in Israel's offensive against Hamas were not enough to help the population through a deepening hunger crisis.
The UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, said that four days into Israel's "tactical pauses", people were still dying from hunger and malnutrition, alongside casualties among those seeking aid.
Gaza civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that "at least 30 martyrs were killed" and 300 wounded when Israeli forces opened fire on people waiting for aid north of Gaza City.
Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, said his facility had received 35 bodies from the shooting, which reportedly struck about three kilometres (two miles) southwest of the Zikim crossing point for aid trucks entering Gaza.
The Israeli army said that dozens of Gazans were seen "gathering around aid trucks in northern Gaza, and in close proximity to IDF (army) troops operating in the area.
"The troops fired warning shots in the area, not directed at the gathering, in response to the threat posed to them. According to an initial inquiry, the IDF is not aware of any casualties as a result of IDF fire. The details of the incident are still being examined."
Hours earlier, 14 Palestinians were killed in four other incidents, three near aid distribution sites, the civil defence agency said.
In two of the incidents, the Israeli army said it had fired warning shots.
Canada plans to recognize
Palestinian state
Canada plans to recognize the State of Palestine at a meeting of the United Nations in September, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced on Wednesday, ratcheting up pressure on Israel as starvation spreads in Gaza.
The announcement came after France said last week it would recognize a Palestinian state and a day after Britain said it would recognise the state at September's UN General Assembly meeting if the fighting in Gaza, part of the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel, had not stopped by then.
Carney told reporters that the reality on the ground, including starvation of people in Gaza, meant "the prospect of a Palestinian state is literally receding before our eyes."
"Canada condemns the fact that the Israeli government has allowed a catastrophe to unfold in Gaza," he said.
Carney said the planned recognition was based in part on repeated assurances from the Palestinian Authority, which represents the State of Palestine at the UN, that it was reforming its governance and is willing to hold general elections in 2026 in which Hamas "can play no part."