Egypt Daily News – Israel targeted an aid distribution point operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, killing at least 26 people in Rafah, southern Gaza, according to medics in the Palestinian enclave on Sunday.
Hundreds of Palestinians had gathered at dawn in the Al-Mawasi area to receive food aid when gunfire was heard, causing the crowd to flee in panic, eyewitnesses reported. Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal stated that “at least 10 Palestinians were killed, and more than 100 others were injured as a result of gunfire from Israeli vehicles directed at thousands of civilians” approaching the U.S. aid site west of Rafah. He added that the dead and wounded were taken to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
“Starving civilians”
The Gaza Government Media Office condemned the attack, describing it as a “recurring massacre” targeting “starving civilians,” and accused the Israeli army of turning aid distribution points into “mass killing traps.” In a statement, the office claimed these points run under the supervision of an American-Israeli company and guarded by the Israeli army, were being used as a tool of war to pressure Palestinians and gather them in exposed areas to target them.
Jabalia Camp
At the same time, Israeli artillery intensified its shelling across wide areas of Gaza, focusing on the towns of Khuza’a and Al-Qarara east of Khan Younis in the southern part of the enclave, as ground operations expanded in northern Gaza.
Israeli tanks reached the outskirts of Jabalia Camp, where forces began demolishing residential buildings near the Indonesian Hospital and the Sheikh Zayed Towers area. Medical sources in Gaza reported that 42 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes since dawn.
Earlier, the Israeli army issued evacuation orders to residents of Al-Qarara, Khuza’a, and Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis, following rocket fire from the southern part of the Strip.
In northern Gaza, medics said on Saturday that an Israeli strike hit a residential home in Jabalia, causing casualties and injuries among civilians, with several people reportedly trapped under the rubble. These developments came after the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation announced plans to open two more aid distribution centers in Gaza City and the north, following a three-month siege imposed by Israel on the enclave.
They also followed a chaotic scene last Tuesday when hundreds of Palestinians crowded aid distribution points in Rafah set up by the American organization and supervised by the Israeli army, resulting in a stampede and disarray.
