Gaza civil defence says Israeli attacks kill 26

Gaza City: Gaza’s civil defence agency said 26 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and air strikes on Tuesday, including 14 who were waiting near an aid distribution site inside the Palestinian territory.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that eight people were killed by Israeli gunfire while waiting for aid near the south Gaza city of Khan Yunis.

Six more people were killed and 21 injured by Israeli fire in central Gaza while waiting for food near a distribution centre, according to Bassal.

The Israeli army told AFP it was looking into the incidents.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency and other parties.

Thousands of Gazans gather daily near food distribution points across Gaza, including four belonging to the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Its operations have been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on those waiting to collect rations.

Israeli restrictions on the entry of goods and aid into Gaza since the start of the war nearly 22 months ago have led to shortages of food and essential goods, including medicine, medical supplies and fuel, which hospitals rely on to power their generators.

Bassal said that five people were killed by a nightly air strike on a tent in Al-Mawasi in south Gaza, an area Israeli authorities designated as a safe zone early on in the war.

“It’s said to be a green zone and it’s safe, but it’s not. They also say that the aid (distribution) is safe, but people die while obtaining aid,” said Adham Younes, who lost a relative in the strike.

“There’s no safety within the Gaza Strip, everyone is exposed to death, everyone is subject to injury,” the 30-year-old told AFP.

Mahmud Younes, another Gazan who said he witnessed the strike, said: “”We found women screaming - they were covered in blood. The entire family has been injured.”

Bassal of the civil defence agency said that six more people were killed in a strike near Gaza City, and one in a strike near the southern city of Khan Yunis.

The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing and the largest armed force in Gaza, said in a statement Tuesday that they had bombarded an Israeli command-and-control centre in south Gaza’s Morag Axis, an Israeli-controlled corridor.