Israeli attacks kill 44 Palestinians in Gaza as UN warns of water shortage

Cairo/Geneva: Israeli fire killed at least 44 Palestinians in Gaza on Friday, including many who were seeking food aid, local officials said, while the United Nations’ children’s agency said the scarcity of drinking water was at a crisis point.

At least 25 people awaiting aid trucks were killed by Israeli action south of Netzarim in central Gaza, the Hamas-run local health authority said.

Palestinians collect sacks of flour from an aid distribution point in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza.Credit: Bloomberg

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which runs a month-old US-backed food distribution system, operates an aid site there, and aid trucks from other organisations, including the United Nations, also move through the area.

The Israeli military said troops fired warning shots at suspected militants who advanced in a crowd towards them. Israeli aircraft then fired a missile and “eliminated the suspects”, the military said in a statement.

The military said it was aware that people other than the suspected militants were hurt and it was conducting a review. The GHF said the incident did not occur at or near its distribution location.

Separately, Gaza medics said at least 19 other people were killed in Israeli military strikes across the enclave on Friday, including 12 people killed in a house in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, the UN’s children’s agency, UNICEF, warned in Geneva that a shortage of fuel to operate wells and desalination plants in Gaza meant the enclave “is facing what would amount to a man-made drought”.

“Children will begin to die of thirst ... Just 40 per cent of drinking water production facilities remain functional,” UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told reporters. “We are way below emergency standards in terms of drinking water.”

UNICEF also reported a 50 per cent increase in children aged six months to five years admitted for treatment of malnutrition from April to May in Gaza, and half a million people going hungry.

Food aid

In a statement, Hamas, which says Israel uses hunger as a weapon against Gaza’s civilians, accused Israel of systematically targeting Palestinians seeking food. Israel denies this and contends Hamas steals aid, which the group denies.

In recent weeks, Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire on Palestinians gathered at aid distribution points, resulting in dozens of civilian deaths and injuries. Humanitarian groups
say the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation system forces people to risk their lives by entering combat zones to access food.

Israel has said its actions were necessary to control crowds that posed a threat to its troops or to prevent breaches of restricted zones. But witnesses and human rights groups say many
of the shootings appeared unprovoked and occurred without warning.

UNICEF said the GHF was “making a desperate situation worse”. The foundation said in a statement on Thursday it had so far distributed nearly 3 million meals across three of its aid sites without incident.

The Red Cross said the “vast majority” of patients that arrived at its Gaza field hospital during mass casualty incidents since the GHF aid system launched on May 27 had reported that they were wounded while trying to access aid at or around distribution points.

The Gaza war was triggered when Palestinian Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 55,700 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Reuters

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