Israel kills at least 70 Palestinians in Gaza’s deadliest day at aid sites
Israeli troops have killed at least 70 Palestinians and wounded hundreds as they sought aid in Gaza on Tuesday, firing at them with tank shells, machine guns and drones. Those casualties are among the 89 Palestinians killed in attacks across the besieged enclave since dawn.
Israeli soldiers fired at the desperate crowds of aid seekers on Tuesday morning as they gathered along the main eastern road in the southern city of Khan Younis. It was the latest in a sustained wave of carnage since the Israel- and United States-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) launched operations to distribute food in the territory three weeks ago.
The death toll is expected to rise as many of the injured are in a critical condition, according to medics at Nasser Hospital, where the casualties are being treated.
Gaza Civil Defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal added that more than 200 people were injured, although reports concerning the number of casualties varied.
“Israeli drones fired at the citizens. Some minutes later, Israeli tanks fired several shells at the citizens, which led to a large number of martyrs and wounded,” the spokesman said, noting that the crowd had assembled in the hope of receiving flour.
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City, said Israeli tanks, heavy machine guns, and drone strikes were “raining down” on crowds, according to eyewitnesses.
The death toll of more than 70 people made Tuesday the deadliest day around the GHF sites so far. Previously, that grim record was set on Monday, when 38 people were killed, mostly in the Rafah area south of Khan Younis.
Reports indicated more than 300 people have been killed and more than 2,000 wounded while trying to collect aid from the GHF since it launched operations in Gaza on May 26.
The United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has called for accountability after the latest GHF site killings.
His deputy spokesman, in comments made at the UN headquarters in New York, said: “The Secretary-General condemns the loss of lives and injuries of civilians in Gaza, where once again being shot at while seeking food.
“It is unacceptable,” added Farhan Haq. “As of yesterday, 338 people have been killed and more than 2,800 injured while trying to access food, food near distribution sites.”
The Guardian view on Gaza’s engineered famine: stop arming the slaughter – or lose the rule of law
As Palestinians starve amid the rubble, western governments defend Israel, fund armed aid and dismantle the very rules they claim to uphold
Gaza’s cries have been drowned out by Israel’s strikes on Iran, and the diplomatic pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu over the suffering has ebbed. Yet as the industrialised world urges de-escalation in the Middle East, the devastation continues. On Tuesday morning, witnesses described Israeli forces firing towards a crowd waiting for trucks loaded with flour, leaving more than 50 dead. These are not stray bullets in wartime chaos, they are the outcome of a system that makes relief deadly.
As Médecins Sans Frontières declared this week, what is unfolding in Gaza is “the calculated evisceration of the very systems that sustain life”. That includes homes, markets, water networks and hospitals – with healthcare continually under attack. Last week, a UN commission found that more than 90% of the Gaza Strip’s schools and universities have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli forces using airstrikes, burning, shelling and controlled demolitions. What’s happening is not the collateral damage of military necessity, it is a programme of civic annihilation.
In such circumstances, words without action are worse than meaningless. Western powers cannot decry war crimes and genocide while supplying the arms that cause them elsewhere. If they believe in international law, countries such as the UK should act to uphold it. The law is not law if no one enforces it. Israel is the occupying power in Gaza and has a clear duty under the fourth Geneva convention to ensure the population’s access to food, water and medical care.
... https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/17/the-guardian-view-on-gazas-engineered-famine-stop-arming-the-slaughter-or-lose-the-rule-of-law
