Cairo/Geneva: Israeli fire killed at least 44 Palestinians in Gaza on Friday, including many who were seeking food aid, local officials said, while the United Nations’ children’s agency said the scarcity of drinking water was at a crisis point.
At least 25 people awaiting aid trucks were killed by Israeli action south of Netzarim in central Gaza, the Hamas-run local health authority said.
Palestinians collect sacks of flour from an aid distribution point in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza.Credit: Bloomberg
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which runs a month-old US-backed food distribution system, operates an aid site there, and aid trucks from other organisations, including the United Nations, also move through the area.
The Israeli military said troops fired warning shots at suspected militants who advanced in a crowd towards them. Israeli aircraft then fired a missile and “eliminated the suspects”, the military said in a statement.
The military said it was aware that people other than the suspected militants were hurt and it was conducting a review. The GHF said the incident did not occur at or near its distribution location.
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Separately, Gaza medics said at least 19 other people were killed in Israeli military strikes across the enclave on Friday, including 12 people killed in a house in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, the UN’s children’s agency, UNICEF, warned in Geneva that a shortage of fuel to operate wells and desalination plants in Gaza meant the enclave “is facing what would amount to a man-made drought”.
“Children will begin to die of thirst … Just 40 per cent of drinking water production facilities remain functional,” UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told reporters. “We are way below emergency standards in terms of drinking water.”
