At least 40 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire and air strikes on Gaza on Monday, including 10 seeking aid, health authorities said, adding another five had died of starvation in what humanitarian agencies warn may be an unfolding famine.
The 10 died in two separate incidents near aid sites belonging to the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in central and southern Gaza, local medics said. The UN says more than 1,000 people have been killed trying to receive aid in the enclave since the GHF began operating in May, most of them shot by Israeli forces operating near GHF sites.
Everyone who goes there, comes back either with a bag of flour or carried back on a wooden stretcher as a martyr, or injured. No one comes back safe, said 40-year-old Palestinian Bilal Thari.
He was among mourners at Gaza City's al-Shifa hospital on Monday who had gathered to collect the bodies of their loved ones killed a day earlier by Israeli fire as they sought aid, according to Gaza's health officials.
At least 13 Palestinians were killed on Sunday while waiting for the arrival of UN aid trucks at the Zikim crossing on the Israeli border with the northern Gaza Strip, the officials added.