Israeli forces kill 92 aid seekers in Gaza as 19 people starve to death

Israeli forces have killed at least 115 Palestinians across Gaza, including 92 people who were shot dead while trying to get food at the Zikim crossing in the north and aid points in Rafah and Khan Younis in the south.

The killings on Sunday came as Israel’s continued siege of Gaza worsened a hunger crisis, with health authorities there announcing at least 19 deaths from starvation over the past day.

In Zikim, Israeli forces shot at least 79 Palestinians, according to medical sources, as large crowds gathered there in the hopes of getting flour from a United Nations aid convoy.

Nine more were killed near an aid point in Rafah, where 36 others had lost their lives just 24 hours earlier. Four more were killed near a second aid site in Khan Younis, according to the Palestinian Civil Defence.

Rizeq Betaar, a Palestinian man who survived the attack at Zikim, helped carry one young victim to the hospital.

“We saw this young man lying on the ground, and we were the ones who carried him on the bicycle. We’re trying to get him to help. But there is nothing,” Betaar said. “There are no ambulances, no food, no life, no way to live any more. We’re barely hanging on.”

Another survivor, Osama Marouf, also helped to transport an old man who was shot and wounded.

“We brought this old man from Zikim. He went just to get some flour,” Marouf said. “I tried to save him on the bicycle – I don’t even want the flour any more, he’s like my father, this old man. May God give me the strength to do good. And may this hardship not last much longer.”