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ISRAELI FORCES HAVE killed 20 Palestinians who were waiting to collect food, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency.
It is the latest deadly incident to take place near a US-backed aid distribution centre in the south of the Palestinian territory.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP that “the (Israeli) occupation forces opened fire” near the Al-Alam roundabout in the southern city of Rafah, where many were waiting to reach an aid distribution site.
Bassal said that “20 martyrs and more than 200 wounded by occupation gunfire” were taken to nearby hospitals.
The Israeli military told AFP that it was looking into the report.
Israeli restrictions on media in the Gaza Strip and other difficulties in accessing some areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls provided by the civil defence agency.
According to the rescue agency, dozens of Palestinians have been killed while trying to reach distribution points operated by the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) since it began operating last month.
The first deadly incident happened on the morning of 25 May, when 31 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire, according to the Gaza Civil Defence agency.
The following morning, Israeli forces shot dead three people, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The civil defence agency said more than 20 Palestinians were killed on Saturday near another GHF site.
The introduction of this new US and Israeli-backed entity into the besieged Palestinian territory has been part of Israel’s plan to circumvent UN agencies and NGOs that already work in Gaza and have done so for decades.
Those UN agencies and officials repeatedly condemned the establishment of the organisation, warning that it would allow Israel to weaponise the provision of food.
NGOs said it would only serve to allow Israel to carry out a plan proposed by US President Donald Trump, and endorsed by Israeli government officials, which is to remove the Palestinian population from the area.
Israel has faced mounting international pressure over humanitarian conditions in Gaza, which the United Nations has described as “the hungriest place on Earth”.
The UN humanitarian agency OCHA has said that Gaza’s “entire population” of more than 2 million people was at risk of famine.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised in a telephone call on Sunday to do more to bring aid into Gaza.
The Palestinian health ministry said that 5,139 people have been killed since Israel broke a ceasefire and resumed strikes on the territory on 18 March.
Israel cut off supplies into Gaza on 2 March, sparking international condemnation.
The overall death toll in Gaza since Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack has reached 55,432 people, according to the health ministry.
The 7 October attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to official Israeli figures.
With reporting from © AFP 2025
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