Israeli fire kills 20 Palestinians seeking aid

Palestinian Territories – AFP

Gaza’s health ministry said on Friday that Israeli fire killed 20 people and wounded 155 waiting to receive desperately needed aid in the besieged territory, but Israel claimed the reports were “erroneous”.

The health ministry in Gaza accused Israeli troops of opening fire from “tanks and helicopters” as Palestinians gathered at a roundabout in Gaza City in the north, revising upward an initial toll of 11 killed and 100 wounded.

Mohammed Ghurab, director of emergency services at a hospital in northern Gaza, told AFP there were “direct shots by the occupation forces” on people waiting for a food truck.

An AFP journalist on the scene saw several bodies and people who had been shot.

The Israeli military denied it had opened fire on the crowd.

“Press reports that Israeli forces attacked dozens of Gazans at an aid distribution point are erroneous,” it said in a brief statement, adding that it was “analyzing the incident seriously”.

– Netanyahu doubles down –

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected international pressure and doubled down on his pledge to launch a ground assault on Rafah in the south, where most of Gaza’s population of 2.4 million has sought refuge.

“I will continue to repel the pressures and we will enter Rafah… and bring complete victory to the people of Israel,” Netanyahu said during a visit to a field intelligence base.

Around 1.5 million Palestinians have sought refuge along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt in and around Rafah.

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said this week a “significant” number of them would need to be moved “to a humanitarian island that we will create with the international community”.