• 17 killed in fresh strikes; UN chief calls for probe into aid deaths
• UK PM says situation ‘getting worse by the day’
CAIRO: Israeli fire killed at least three Palestinians and wounded dozens of others near an aid distribution site operated by the US-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, local health authorities said on Monday.
Separately, Gaza’s civil defence agency said an Israeli strike on a home in the northern town of Jabalia killed 14 people on Monday. “The number of martyrs from the targeting of the Al-Bursh family home has risen to 14, including six children and three women, in addition to more than 20 missing individuals still under the rubble,” agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
The Israeli military said it was aware of reports of casualties near the aid distribution site and the incident was being thoroughly looked into.
The GHF, a private group sponsored by the United States and endorsed by Israel, said there had been no fatalities or injuries at its distribution site or the surrounding area. Reuters could not independently verify what took place.
The reported incident was the latest in a series underscoring the volatile security situation that has complicated aid delivery to Gaza, following the easing last month of an almost three-month Israeli blockade.
On Sunday, Palestinian and international officials said at least 31 people were killed and dozens wounded near the same site, one of four operated by the GHF in Rafah.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Monday he was appalled by reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid in Gaza on Sunday, and called for an independent investigation.
“It is unacceptable that Palestinians are risking their lives for food,” Guterres said in a statement, without assigning blame for the deaths. “I call for an immediate and independent investigation into these events and for perpetrators to be held accountable.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Monday that the situation in Gaza was getting “worse by the day” and that it was important to ensure the Palestinian enclave receives more humanitarian aid urgently.
“The situation is intolerable in Gaza, and getting worse by the day,” Starmer told reporters in Scotland, when asked whether the UK would take any action over the issue.
“Which is why we are working with allies — to be absolutely clear that humanitarian aid needs to get in at speed and at volumes that it is not getting in at the moment, causing absolute devastation,” he added.
The Gaza health ministry said Israeli strikes across the enclave had killed 51 people and wounded 500 others in the past 24 hours.
Risk of famine
The GHF said Monday’s deliveries raised the number of meals it has distributed since it began operations to nearly six million.
The United Nations has said most of Gaza’s 2m population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade on aid entering the strip.
The GHF launched its first distribution sites last week and said it would launch more.
Its aid plan, which bypasses traditional aid groups, has come under fierce criticism from the UN and humanitarian organisations, which say the GHF does not follow humanitarian principles.
The Palestinian NGOs Network urged a boycott of what it called the “US-Israeli aid mechanism” in protest over the killings on Sunday.
At Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, relatives of Hussam Wafi, a 37-year-old father-of-six, who was killed near the aid site on Sunday, arrived to pay their last respects before burial. Wafi’s brother Ali said the victims were driven by hunger.
“The US and Israel, what do they tell us? Go and get your food and water, and the aid. When the aid arrives, they hit us. Is this fair?” Wafi told Reuters.
“They were going peacefully, they were killed. They went to get food and water for their children, to get a can of hummus or fava beans, a box or whatever is available, and they get shot, they died, he added.
Israel and Hamas, meanwhile, traded blame for the faltering of a new Arab and US mediation bid to secure a temporary ceasefire and the release of Israeli prisoners held in Gaza by Hamas, in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli jails.
On Monday, a Palestinian official close to the mediation effort said Hamas leaders were in constant contact with Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo and Doha.
Israel says it accepts a temporary truce to release prisoners, but that war can only end once Hamas is driven out of Gaza.
