At least 30 people were killed across the Gaza Strip by Israeli gunfire and airstrikes Wednesday, according to local health officials, as some Palestinians voiced fears that their suffering is being overshadowed by the escalating Israel-Iran conflict.
The deaths included the latest in near-daily killings of Palestinians seeking aid in the three weeks since Israel partially lifted a total blockade on Gaza that it had imposed for almost three months.
Medics said separate airstrikes on homes in the Maghazi refugee camp and Zeitoun neighbourhood in central and northern Gaza killed at least 14 people, while five others were killed in an airstrike on a tent encampment in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Eleven others were killed in Israeli fire at crowds of displaced Palestinians awaiting aid trucks brought in by the United Nations along the Salahuddin road in central Gaza, medics said.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was looking into the reported deaths of people waiting for food. Regarding the other strikes, it claimed it was “operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities” and “feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm.”
On Tuesday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said 397 Palestinians among those trying to get food aid had been killed and more than 3,000 wounded since aid deliveries restarted in late May.
Some in Gaza expressed concern that the latest escalations in Israel’s genocidal war since October 2023 would be overlooked as the focus moved to Israel’s five-day-old conflict with Iran.
“People are being slaughtered in Gaza, day and night, but attention has shifted to the Iran-Israel war. There is little news about Gaza these days,” said Adel, a resident of Gaza City.
“Whoever doesn’t die from Israeli bombs dies from hunger. People risk their lives every day to get food, and they also get killed and their blood smears the sacks of flour they thought they had won,” he told Reuters via a chat app.
‘Forgotten’
Israel has been channelling much of the aid it is now allowing into Gaza through a new U.S.- and Israeli-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which operates a handful of distribution sites in areas guarded by Israeli forces.
It has said it will continue to allow aid into Gaza, home to more than 2 million people, while ensuring aid doesn’t get into the hands of Hamas. Hamas denies seizing aid, saying Israel uses hunger as a weapon against the population in Gaza.
The war was triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led incursion that caused around 1,200 deaths and captured 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s genocidal war, in comparison, has devastated Gaza, displacing nearly all its residents and killing more than 55,300 people, mostly women and children, according to Gaza health authorities.
The war has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population. The territory’s roughly 2 million Palestinians are almost completely reliant on international aid because nearly all of Gaza’s food production capabilities have been destroyed.
The assault has led to accusations of genocide and war crimes, which Israel denies.
Palestinians in Gaza have been closely following Israel’s air war with Iran, long a major supporter of Hamas.
“We are maybe happy to see Israel suffer from Iranian rockets, but at the end of the day, one more day in this war costs the lives of tens of innocent people,” said 47-year-old Shaban Abed, a father of five from northern Gaza.
“We just hope that a comprehensive solution could be reached to end the war in Gaza, too. We are being forgotten,” he said.
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