Gaza: Israeli Forces Open Fire on Starving Palestinians at US-Backed Aid Distribution Sites, Killing at Least 31

At least 31 starving Palestinian civilians were killed and dozens more injured after Israeli forces opened fire on them while seeking food at aid distribution points run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a controversial US-Israeli organization assigned to deliver aid following more than 80 days of total Israeli blockade.

The Government Media Office in Gaza has issued a statement confirming Israel’s killing of at least 30 people and wounding of 120 others at the US-backed aid site in Rafah, and said the toll is likely to rise.

At least one man has also been killed at another GHF site in central Gaza near the so-called Netzarim Corridor.

The Office said the latest killings have taken the toll at such sites to at least 39 in less than a week. More than 220 people have also been wounded.

It said the killings “reflect the nature of these areas as mass death traps, not humanitarian relief points”.

It added: “We confirm to the entire world that what is happening is a systematic and malicious use of aid as a tool of war, employed to blackmail starving civilians and forcibly gather them in exposed killing points, managed and monitored by the occupation army and funded and politically covered by the occupation and the US administration, which bears full moral and legal responsibility for these crimes.”