GAZA/UNITED NATIONS/RAMALLAH - At least 44 Palestinians were killed on Thursday in Israeli airstrikes and gunfire across the Gaza Strip, including 22 people who had gathered to receive aid outside two US-backed distribution centers, Palestinian officials and medical sources said.
Eyewitnesses said Israeli forces opened heavy fire on crowds waiting for food near a distribution site at the Netzarim junction in central Gaza. Al-Awda Hospital, located in the Nuseirat refugee camp nearby, reported receiving the bodies of 16 people killed at the site, along with more than 100 wounded.
In a separate incident, at least six people were killed and dozens injured in an Israeli strike targeting people gathered near another US-supported aid distribution point west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, according to Palestinian medical officials.
Elsewhere in Gaza City, 22 people, including women and children, were killed in a series of Israeli strikes that hit a tent sheltering displaced families in the al-Shati refugee camp, a residential home in the Zeitoun neighborhood, and a Palestinian gathering in the Jalaa district, said Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for Gaza's Civil Defense Authority.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the reports.
Israel resumed large-scale military operations in Gaza on March 18. Since then, at least 5,401 Palestinians have been killed and 18,060 wounded, according to Gaza's health authorities. The latest figures bring the total death toll in the enclave to 55,706, with 130,101 injured since hostilities erupted in October 2023.
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Fuel transfer
Amid daily, deadly widespread bombardment and shootings, UN humanitarians said on Thursday that about 280,000 liters of precious fuel were finally transferred to a more accessible location within Gaza.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the United Nations was able to retrieve the highly-sought fuel from the Al Tahreer station in Rafah and transferred it to Deir al Balah. No fuel has been allowed into Gaza for 110 days.
"While this buys a bit of time, it is far from enough," the office said. "To keep life-saving operations going, fuel purchased outside must be allowed to enter Gaza. Unless this happens very soon, hospitals, ambulances, water desalination, phone networks and other services critical to survival will grind to a halt."
OCHA said violence resulted yet again in reports of scores of fatalities and even more injuries, including among those seeking aid.
Palestinian killed by Israeli settlers
A Palestinian man was killed and eight others injured on Thursday by Israeli settlers in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, Palestinian sources said.
Mohammed Ahmed Mahmoud al-Hur, 48, was killed and another seriously injured in the town of Surif, northwest of Hebron, the Palestinian Health Ministry said in a press statement.
Hazem Ghunaimat, mayor of Surif, said that a group of settlers, protected by Israeli army forces, fired live ammunition at a number of Palestinians in the al-Qurainat area while they were trying to extinguish a fire set by settlers on Palestinian land there.
