GAZA: Gaza’s civil defense agency said Zionist forces killed at least 72 people on Thursday, including 21 who had gathered near aid distribution sites as famine looms after more than 20 months of war. Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that six people were killed while waiting for aid in the southern Gaza Strip and 15 others in a central area known as the Netzarim corridor, where thousands of Palestinians have gathered daily in the hope of receiving food rations.

In northern Gaza, Bassal said that nine separate Zionist strikes killed another 51 people, updating earlier tolls provided by his agency. Bassam Abu Shaar, who witnessed the shooting incident in the Netzarim area, said thousands of people had gathered there overnight in the hope of receiving aid at the US- and Zionist-backed distribution site when it opened in the morning.

“Around 1:00 am (2200 GMT Wednesday), they started shooting at us,” he told AFP by phone, reporting gunfire, tank shelling and bombs dropped by drones. Abu Shaar said that the size of the crowd had made it impossible for people to escape, with casualties left lying on the ground within walking distance of the distribution point, which is run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. “We couldn’t help them or even escape ourselves,” he said.

At least 300 Palestinians have been killed in recent weeks while trying to reach aid distribution points in Gaza, which is suffering from famine-like conditions, the territory’s health ministry has said. 

In early March, the Zionist entity imposed an aid blockade on Gaza amid a deadlock in truce negotiations, only partially easing restrictions in late May.

After the Zionist entity loosened its blockade, the privately run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began distributing aid, but its operations have been marred by chaotic scenes. UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the foundation — which has the support of Israel and its ally the United States — over concerns it was designed to cater to Zionist military objectives. – AFP