Gaza death toll rises
At least 51 Palestinians have been killed and 503 injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 24 hours, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry. The body of a person killed in a previous Israeli attack was also recovered from the rubble in the war-torn territory, the ministry said.
The total death toll from Israel’s war on Gaza has risen to 54,470 killed and 124,693 injured since October 7, 2023, it said. Israel has killed 4,201 Palestinians and injured 12,652 since breaking a ceasefire in March this year.
The number of aid seekers killed since May 27 has also risen to 75, following the killing of 35 people yesterday, the ministry said. The total number of aid seekers injured crossed 400, it said.
A mosque was hit in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah on June 2
Gaza reduced to ‘herded animals in pens’: UNRWA official
Speaking on the recent killings at GHF’s aid distribution points, the acting director of UNRWA in Gaza has described the situation in the coastal enclave as “horrific”.
“What’s happened over the last couple of days in a war … that we thought couldn’t plumb to new depths and things couldn’t get any worse, we’re seeing a new side of that,” Sam Rose told Al Jazeera from Oxford, UK.
“This is what people have been reduced to, literally to herded animals in pens,” he said. Rose warned that if “these scenes” did not prompt action from those “that have the influence to take action, then we’re lost”.
“We cannot comprehend any more what’s going on, what people are being put through in Gaza. It’s completely unimaginable and completely unacceptable,” he added.
Six children among 14 killed in attack on northern Gaza home: Civil Defence
Earlier, we reported citing Gaza’s Civil Defence that two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack on the al-Barash family home on Old Gaza Street in the northern area of Jabalia al-Balad.
Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for the rescue service, says the death toll has now reached 14, including six children and three women. More than 20 missing are still under the rubble, he added.
UN chief ‘appalled’ by deaths of Palestinians seeking aid
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says he is appalled by reports of Palestinian casualties while seeking aid in Gaza. He called for an independent investigation.
“It is unacceptable that Palestinians are risking their lives for food,” Guterres said in a statement.
Family mourns father of 6 killed near Rafah aid point in Gaza
At Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, the family of 37-year-old Hussam Wafi, a father of six who was killed near the Rafah aid distribution point on Sunday, gathered to bid him farewell before his burial.
“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’s brother Ali told Reuters.
Meanwhile, Wafi’s neighbour, Abu Youssef, told Reuters that the victims were “going peacefully” when 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 got shot, they died,” he said.
