The Israeli attacks focused on residential apartments, homes, tents for displaced persons, and civilian gatherings, as part of the genocide the Israeli occupation army continues to perpetrate against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip for the 22nd month.
In the latest raid, five Palestinians were killed in a shelling that targeted the Shuja'iyya neighborhood east of Gaza City. Their bodies were transferred to the Baptist Hospital. Prior to that, separate raids had killed 12 Palestinians in various parts of the Gaza Strip.
In Khan Yunis, south of Gaza, four Palestinians were killed and four others injured in a drone strike targeting a tent housing displaced persons in the Mawasi area. A woman was killed and others injured in another strike targeting a tent near the Tiberias station.
Three Palestinians were killed and 73 aid recipients were injured by Israeli army fire south of Khan Yunis, while four others were killed in a bombing that targeted a civilian vehicle in the center of Deir al-Balah.
Commenting on these massacres, Human Rights Watch said that killing Palestinian civilians while searching for food in Gaza constitutes a "war crime," asserting that Israel is using "starvation as a weapon of war," in what it described as a "crime against humanity and genocide."
The organization noted that the military regime imposed by Israel for distributing aid has turned into a "bloodbath," calling on the international community to pressure Israel to halt the use of lethal force against civilians at aid distribution points and lift restrictions on aid access.
It also called for the United Nations and humanitarian organizations to be allowed to resume the widespread and unhindered distribution of aid throughout the Gaza Strip, noting that these organizations have demonstrated their ability to meet humanitarian needs in accordance with the standards of the International Court of Justice.
For its part, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights announced that 1,373 Palestinians have been killed since May 27 while trying to obtain food, most of them by Israeli occupation forces.
The office explained that 859 of them were killed in the vicinity of aid distribution sites, and another 514 were killed along the routes used by relief convoys, stressing that "most of these killings were committed by the Israeli army."
Gaza's residents are suffering from severe food and medicine shortages, amid an ongoing blockade and severe restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid, despite binding orders from the International Court of Justice requiring aid to be allowed to reach the country without delay.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel, with American support, has been committing genocide in Gaza, including killing, starvation, destruction, and displacement, ignoring international calls and orders from the International Court of Justice to halt it.
The US-backed genocide left more than 207,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 9,000 missing, in addition to hundreds of thousands of displaced persons and a famine that claimed the lives of many.
