Israeli strikes kill 69 more Palestinians

FE Team | Published: March 14, 2024 23:27:10

GAZA, Mar 14 (Reuters/AFP): Israeli fire killed six Palestinians and wounded dozens of others as crowds of residents awaited aid trucks in Gaza City, Gaza health ministry officials said on Thursday.
Palestinians were rushing to get aid supplies at the Kuwait roundabout in northern Gaza City late on Wednesday evening when Israeli forces opened fire, residents and health officials said. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident.
The conflict in Gaza has displaced most of the enclave's 2.3 million population and there have been chaotic scenes and deadly incidents at aid distributions as desperately hungry people scramble for food.
On Feb 29, Palestinian health authorities said Israeli forces shot dead more than 100 Palestinians as they waited for an aid delivery near Gaza City. Israel blamed the deaths on crowds that surrounded aid trucks, saying victims had been trampled or run over.
In Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, an Israeli missile hit a house, killing nine people on Thursday, Palestinian medics said. Residents said Israeli aerial and ground bombardments continued overnight on areas across the enclave including in Rafah in the south, where over a million displaced people are sheltering.
The war began when Hamas fighters attacked Israel on Oct 7, killing 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel then launched an air, sea, and ground assault that has killed more than 31,000 Palestinians, health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza say.
The Gaza health ministry said on Thursday Israeli military strikes across Gaza Strip had killed 69 Palestinians and wounded 110 others in the past 24 hours.
Aid ship slowly heads
for besieged Gaza
A first boat loaded with 200 tonnes of food aid was making slow progress towards the Gaza Strip on Thursday as efforts grew to bring more humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian territory besieged by Israel.
The main UN aid agency in Gaza said an Israeli strike a day earlier hit one of its warehouses in the southern city of Rafah, killing an employee, although Israel later said a Hamas militant was killed in the rocket strike.
Donor nations, aid agencies and charities pushed on with efforts to rush food to the territory of 2.4 million people, where famine looms after more than five months of war.
Mediation efforts have so far failed to secure a new truce in the war triggered by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant vowed again that Israeli forces "will reach every location" in their mission to destroy the Islamist group.