The Israeli military killed at least 67 people waiting for UN aid lorries in northern Gaza, the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry says.
Six more people were killed waiting for aid elsewhere in Gaza and more than 150 people were injured, some seriously, the ministry said.
On Saturday, the health ministry warned that extreme hunger was increasing in Gaza and growing numbers of people were arriving at its facilities ‘in a state of extreme exhaustion and fatigue’.
‘We warn that hundreds of people whose bodies have wasted away are at risk of imminent death due to hunger,’ it said.
The UN has also said civilians in Gaza are starving and called for an urgent influx of essential goods.
Many of the casualties from northern Gaza were taken to Shifa hospital in Gaza City.
The medical director there, Dr Hassan al-Shaer, told BBC Arabic on Sunday the facility had been ‘overwhelmed’ and was directing the wounded to other field hospitals.
Outside the hospital one woman told BBC Arabic that ‘the whole population is dying’.
‘Children are dying of hunger because they have nothing to eat. People are surviving on water and salt … just water and salt,’ she said.
There have been almost daily reports of Palestinians being killed while seeking food since late May.
On Saturday, at least 32 people were killed by Israeli gunfire near two aid distribution points in southern Gaza, according to the ministry.
Many of the incidents have taken place near sites run by the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which uses private security contractors to distribute aid from sites in Israeli military zones, but some have taken place near aid brought in by the UN.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military has issued evacuation orders for a crowded part of central Gaza where it has not launched a ground offensive during its 21 months of war against Hamas.
The Israel Occupation Forces (IOF) said on Sunday that residents and displaced Palestinians sheltering in the city of Deir al-Balah should evacuate immediately and move towards al-Mawasi on the Mediterranean coast.
The evacuation demand, which could signal an imminent attack, has caused widespread panic among tens of thousands of Palestinians, as well as the families of Israeli hostages who fear their relatives are being held in the city.
The IOF has conducted air strikes in the area, but it has not yet deployed ground troops.
On Sunday, the Israeli military dropped leaflets from the sky ordering people in several districts in southwest Deir al-Balah to leave their homes and head further south.
Munir al-Bursh, director general of Gaza’s Health Ministry, said Palestinians in Gaza are facing ‘compounded massacres caused by starvation and ongoing bombardment’.
The Israeli army is ‘taking advantage of people’s hunger and need for food, luring them towards the (GHF) death traps, only to kill them’, al-Bursh said, commenting on the rising number of aid seekers killed.
- The Israeli army says another soldier has died by suicide, the fourth to do so in the past two weeks.
An army statement said Dan Phillipson, a soldier in training originally from Norway, shot himself on Tuesday at a training base in southern Israel.
He died of his injuries in hospital.
According to Israeli media, 19 soldiers have died by suicide since the start of the year and 42 since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza.