Israeli forces have killed over 120 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip within the past 24 hours, according to medical sources cited by Al Jazeera.
Among the victims are many desperate civilians seeking aid, as Israel continues to relentlessly bombard the besieged territory.
The total death toll from the ongoing war has now exceeded a staggering 55,000.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, 57 people trying to access aid were killed and more than 363 injured by Israel since Wednesday morning.
The distribution points are operated by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US- and Israeli-backed drive in tightly Israeli-controlled zones.
Gaza’s Government Media Office said the Israeli military “is deliberately creating chaos in the Gaza Strip by perpetuating a policy of starvation and deliberately targeting and killing starving people seeking food”.
The United Nations also condemned the killings and has refused to supply aid via the foundation, which uses private contractors with Israeli military backup in what the UN says is a breach of humanitarian standards.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) called the aid distribution model “a distraction from the ongoing atrocities and a waste of resources”.
It reiterated that the humanitarian community in Gaza, including UNRWA, is “ready and has the experience and expertise to reach people in need”.
Israel has banned UNRWA and other legacy aid agencies with decades of experience from operating in Gaza, where a famine looms, while it maintains a punishing aid blockade.
Chris Newton, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, said Israel’s chaotic and violence-plagued aid system is deliberately structured to keep Palestinians desperate and hungry while pushing them southward.
Newton told Al Jazeera that GHF’s stated aim of providing 1,750 calories worth of food per person per day is well short of the minimum standard for crisis situations.
That amount of food is “closer to the ration given in a starvation experiment run in the 1940s in the US than it is to Israel’s own previous 2008 red line for the minimum calories needed to avoid malnutrition in Gaza,” said Newton.
Source: Al Jazeera
Bd-pratidin English/ ANI
