At least 19 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli attack targeting civilians who were waiting for aid southeast of Gaza City, Gaza’s Ministry of Health and its Media Office said, reports Al Jazeera.
“The Israeli occupation commits a massacre, killing 19 and injuring 23 civilians while thousands of citizens were waiting for flour and aid near Al-Kuwait roundabout,” Gaza’s media office said in a statement on Saturday.
It said that the Israeli army and tanks opened fire with machine guns “towards the hungry people who were waiting for bags of flour and aid in a place far from posing any danger to the occupation”.
Mahmud Basal, the spokesman for the Civil Defence Department in Gaza, said there had been “heavy shooting at civilians” and victims had been transported to a nearby Ahli Arab Hospital.
But with Gaza’s healthcare system at near collapse, many were treated outside in the open air.
“There were very serious injuries, some of whom were injured by shrapnel. The reality is tragic, difficult and challenging,” he said.
Alaa al-Khudary, a witness at the scene, told Al Jazeera that the Israeli forces shot at the crowd, leaving “many dead” and leaving others injured while they tried to get “a bite to eat” for their children.
Bd-pratidin English/Tanvir Raihan
