Israeli forces kill over 20 people seeking food in Gaza, witnesses and health officials say

DEIR AL-BALAH Gaza Strip AP Israeli forces killed at least Palestinians seeking food on Sunday in the Gaza Strip according to hospital administrators and onlookers who described facing gunfire as hungry crowds surged around aid sites as the malnutrition-related death toll surged Desperation has gripped the Palestinian territory of more than million which experts have warned is at danger of famine because of Israel s blockade and nearly two-year offensive Yousef Abed among the crowds en road to a distribution point described coming under what he called indiscriminate fire looking around and seeing at least three people bleeding on the ground I couldn t stop and help them because of the bullets he mentioned Southern Gaza s Nasser Hospital declared they had received bodies from near multiple distribution sites including eight from Teina about three kilometers miles away from a distribution site in Khan Younis which is operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation a private U S and Israeli-backed contractor that took over aid distribution more than two months ago The hospital also received one body from Shakoush an area hundreds of meters yards north of a different GHF site in Rafah Another nine were also killed by troops near the Morag corridor who were awaiting trucks entering Gaza through an Israeli territory line traveling it noted Three Palestinian eyewitnesses seeking food in Teina and Morag notified The Associated Press the shootings occurred on the trail to the distribution points which are in military zones secured by Israeli forces They declared they saw soldiers open fire on hungry crowds advancing toward the troops Further north in central Gaza hospital personnel described a similar episode with Israeli troops opening fire Sunday morning toward crowds of Palestinians trying to GHF s fourth and northernmost distribution point Troops were trying to prevent people from advancing They opened fire and we fled Selected people were shot stated Hamza Matter one of the aid seekers At least five people were killed and wounded at GHF s site near Netzarim corridor Awda Hospital explained Eyewitnesses seeking food in the strip have released similar gunfire attacks in latest days near aid distribution sites leaving dozens of Palestinians dead The United Nations revealed people have been killed near GHF sites from May to July and that hundreds more have been slain along the routes of U N -led food convoys The GHF launched in May as Israel sought an alternative to the U N -run system which had safely delivered aid for much of the war but was accused by Israel of allowing Hamas which guarded convoys early in the war to siphon supplies Israel has not offered evidence of widespread theft The U N has denied it GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray or fired warning shots to prevent deadly crowding Israel s military has noted it only fires warning shots as well Both claimed the death tolls have been exaggerated Neither Israel s military nor GHF instantly responded to questions about Sunday s released fatalities Meanwhile the Gaza medical ministry also announced six more Palestinian adults died of malnutrition-related causes in the Gaza Strip in the past hours This brings the death toll among Palestinian adults to in the past five weeks since the ministry started counting deaths among adults in late June it explained Ninety-three children have also died of causes related to malnutrition since the war in Gaza started in the ministry announced The war began when Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct killing about people and abducted another They are still holding captives around supposed to be alive after greater part of the rest were published in ceasefires or other deals Israel s retaliatory military offensive has killed more than Palestinians according to Gaza s Physical condition Ministry The ministry which doesn t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count is staffed by biological professionals The United Nations and other independent experts view its figures as the largest part reliable count of casualties Israel has disputed its figures but hasn t provided its own account of casualties Metz stated from Jerusalem and Magdy from Cairo Follow AP s war coverage at https apnews com hub israel-hamas-war Source