Israeli Strikes in Gaza Kill at Least 18, Including Civilians Waiting for Aid

TDT | Manama

Email : editor@newsofbahrain.com

Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 18 Palestinians on Sunday. Seven of the victims were shot while waiting to collect food aid.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that seven people were killed in a drone strike on a hospital courtyard in northern Gaza City. Witnesses said the victims were members of a Hamas unit responsible for distributing aid.

Israel has not commented on the incident. Its military is preparing a broader offensive in Gaza City and has recently sent ground forces to the Zeitun neighbourhood.

After nearly two years of war, UN-backed experts warn that widespread famine is developing in Gaza. Israel has significantly limited humanitarian aid, and aid convoys have often been looted.

Overnight Sunday, witnesses reported Israeli air strikes across the Gaza Strip. Bassal said four people were killed in a strike on a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza. He added that casualties are high in Zeitun, where ground operations have been ongoing, but civil defence teams are struggling to reach those trapped under rubble due to intense bombardment and lack of equipment.

Access restrictions and media limitations in Gaza make independent verification of these reports difficult.

On Saturday, Israel signaled it might urge civilians to leave Gaza City ahead of a new offensive. The defence ministry said supplies of tents and shelter equipment would resume for civilians moving to southern Gaza. Hamas condemned the announcement as part of a "brutal assault to occupy Gaza City."

Bassal reported six people killed by Israeli gunfire near an aid distribution point in southern Gaza, and another killed near an aid site in central Gaza.

The current conflict began with Hamas’s attack on Israel in October 2023, which killed 1,219 people, mostly civilians. Since then, Israel’s offensive has killed more than 61,897 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, figures considered reliable by the United Nations.