AT least 21 starving Palestinians were killed after Israeli tanks, helicopters and drones opened fire on thousands of people waiting for aid in Gaza City in the same area that was targeted hours earlier.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health described the overnight attack on Thursday as a ‘new, premeditated massacre’, and said more than 150 people were wounded.
It was the latest in a string of assaults on people desperately in need of food and other essential supplies, as Israel continues to obstruct and severely control the entry of aid into the enclave.
Earlier on Thursday, at the same food distribution point at the Kuwait Roundabout, Israeli forces had shot dead at least six Palestinians, as the death toll has risen to more than 400 people in such attacks.
Witnesses said that Israeli forces had used helicopters, tanks and drones to target thousands of people waiting on food trucks.
Israel denied that its forces had opened fire on the crowds and claimed instead that ‘armed Palestinians’ were responsible for the attack.
The Gaza Health Ministry said in its latest update on Thursday that at least 31,341 Palestinians have been killed and 73,134 wounded by Israeli attacks since October 7.
As the UK-US-backed Israeli genocidal war on Gaza reached day 161 on Friday, massive aerial and artillery strikes continued to pound neighbourhoods, homes, shelter centres and aid convoys, massacring over 150 more civilians, mostly children and women.
Yesterday, Australia said it would resume funding to UNRWA, with Australian foreign minister Penny Wong saying government lawyers had advised that UNRWA ‘was not a terrorist organisation’.
Canada, Sweden and the EU have already said they will resume funding to UNRWA, but the US and UK are maintaining a payment freeze.
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