Deadly Israeli attack targets people near truck carrying flour
At least five Palestinians have been killed and 50 wounded by an Israeli attack that targeted people gathering around a truck carrying flour in al-Mawasi, southern Gaza.
Al-Mawasi has previously been designated a “humanitarian zone” by Israel.
Number of people killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza rises to 53,901
The Health Ministry in Gaza has provided its latest daily update on the number of people killed and wounded by Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.
In a statement, it said the bodies of at least 79 people, including five recovered from earlier attacks, had arrived at hospitals across the territory in the past 24 hours, excluding the facilities based in northern Gaza due to the inability to access them.
Another 211 injuries were recorded over the same period, it added.
The figures bring the number of confirmed deaths since the start of the war to at least 53,901, with 122,593 also wounded.
What is going on in Gaza ‘unequivocally weaponisation of aid’
Martin Griffiths, the former head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, says Israel’s recent attacks on Gaza are “the worst” that have been experienced in the war so far.
“It is worse than ever,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that this is visible in the daily death toll in the enclave.
He said what is going on in Gaza is “unequivocally weaponisation of aid to create starvation and children are dying because of it”.
“There is no way you can look at it in any other way,” Griffiths, who is currently with private diplomacy firm Mediation Group International, stressed.
He said the amount of aid that recently went into the enclave is “tiny”, and it was kept in the south, adding that it is part of Israel and the US’s new plan for aid distribution. He stressed that the aid is kept in the south to draw people from the north to make a “dangerous journey”.
“Surely IDF [Israeli army] will check identities, and actually it is going to be a one-way trip,” Griffiths said. “It is aid with displacement, it is aid with victimisation, and not enough aid anyway.”
