Israeli Forces Shoot Dead 19 in Gaza Aid Line: Witnesses
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Israeli forces shot and killed at least 19 Palestinians, injuring 23 others, as they queued for humanitarian aid in Gaza City, according to officials.
Witnesses in Gaza City have told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces again opened fire on Palestinians waiting for aid. The Government Media Office in Gaza said the incident occurred on Saturday near the al-Kuwait roundabout, southeast of Gaza City.
"The occupation army and tanks opened fire with machine guns at the hungry people who were waiting for bags of flour and aid in a remote place that did not pose a threat to the occupation," the statement said.
Mahmud Basal, spokesman for the Civil Defense Department in Gaza, said there had been "heavy shooting at civilians" looking for food to help their families and children.
"There were very serious injuries, some of whom were injured by shrapnel. The reality is tragic, difficult, and challenging," he added, saying the victims were taken to the nearby al-Ahli Arab hospital.
Speaking to Qatar-based Al Jazeera TV network, Alaa al-Khudary, a witness at the scene, said that Israeli forces shot at the crowd, leaving "many dead" and injuring others while they tried to get "a bite to eat" for their children.
However, the Israeli army claimed that the reports of its troops firing on a Gaza aid queue are "incorrect."
In recent weeks, Israeli soldiers have conducted several deadly attacks on crowds of aid seekers in the besieged Gaza.
In mid-March the Israeli military opened fire on Palestinian civilians who had gathered in Gaza to obtain humanitarian aid, targeting them with gunfire from helicopters, tanks, and drones near the Kuwait roundabout on the outskirts of Gaza City, killing over 60 people and injuring 160 others.
In what is known as the "flour massacre," the occupation forces killed 118 people and wounded 760 others as they opened fire on hundreds of Palestinians waiting for aid trucks in Gaza City's al-Rashid Street on February 29.
Earlier this month, the Government Media Office in Gaza said that a total of 400 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on aid seekers since the beginning of Israel's genocidal aggression against the Palestinian territory.
Israel waged its US-backed war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance groups carried out a historic operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for the regime's intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
So far, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 32,142 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 74,412 others.
Israel is intentionally starving the people in Gaza by blocking their access to food, a war crime under the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute.
