Airstrikes and shootings killed 94 Palestinians in Gaza overnight, including 45 who were attempting to get much-needed humanitarian aid, hospitals and the Health Ministry said Thursday.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports and that its forces were taking precautions to mitigate harm to civilians as it battled Palestinian militants throughout Gaza.
Five people were killed while outside sites associated with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the newly created, secretive American organization backed by Israel to feed the Gaza Strip’s population, while 40 others were killed waiting for aid trucks in other locations across the Gaza Strip.
Dozens of people were killed in airstrikes that pounded the strip Wednesday night and Thursday morning, including 15 people killed in strikes that hit tents in the sprawling Mawasi zone, where many displaced Palestinians are sheltering, and a strike on a school in Gaza City sheltering displaced people.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza has passed 57,000, including 223 missing people who have been declared dead.
Since late May, when GHF launched operations, at least 640 Palestinians have been killed in shootings and over 4,400 have been injured near GHF aid sites or on routes to the sites guarded by Israeli forces, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The deaths come as Israel and Hamas inch closer to a possible ceasefire that would end the 21-month war. U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Israel had agreed on the terms for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza and urged Hamas to accept the deal before conditions worsen. But Hamas’s response, which emphasized its demand that the war end, raised questions about whether the latest offer could materialize into an actual pause in fighting.
The Israeli military blames Hamas for the civilian casualties because it operates from populated areas. The military said it targeted Hamas militants and rocket launchers in northern Gaza that launched rockets toward Israel on Wednesday.
The status of the latest ceasefire between Israel and Hamas remains uncertain despite pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump. The Israeli government insists it wants to reach a ceasefire and hostage agreement, while Hamas said it is studying the proposal.
The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking roughly 250 hostages.
The war has left the coastal Palestinian territory in ruins, with much of the urban landscape flattened in the fighting. More than 90 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million population has been displaced, often multiple times. And the war has sparked a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, leaving hundreds of thousands of people hungry.
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