GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defence agency said that Israeli fire killed 10 aid seekers on Friday, as a hospital director in the south warned of an influx of patients with acute malnutrition.
The war, raging since October 2023, has created dire humanitarian conditions for Gaza’s population of more than two million, triggering severe shortages of food and other essentials.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that Israeli fire killed nine people “near the US aid centre in the Al-Shakoush area, northwest of Rafah city in southern Gaza” on Friday.
The US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began operations in late May as Israel eased a two-month total aid blockade that had sparked warnings of famine.
After weeks of chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Palestinians being killed nearby while waiting to collect rations, GHF acknowledged that 20 people died in a crush at one of its aid points in southern Gaza on Wednesday.
Gaza civil defence says Israeli forces kill 18
Bassal also reported “one martyr and eight injuries as a result of Israeli gunfire at civilians gathered near an aid distribution point close to the Netzarim corridor, south of Gaza City,” on Friday.
The Israeli military said it was “not aware” of the incident near Rafah when contacted by AFP.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the agency and other parties.
On Tuesday, the UN said it had recorded 875 people killed while trying to get food since late May, including 674 “in the vicinity of GHF sites”.
Sohaib Al-Hums, a medical doctor and director of the Kuwaiti Field Hospital in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Yunis in the south, on Friday warned the medical facility was “witnessing an unprecedented influx of displaced persons”.
“We are receiving cases suffering from extreme exhaustion and complete fatigue, in addition to severe emaciation and acute malnutrition due to prolonged lack of food,” he said in a statement.
“We warn that hundreds whose bodies have completely wasted away are now facing imminent death, as their physical endurance has been surpassed,” he added.
The medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned last week that its teams in Gaza were seeing surging levels of acute malnutrition and that levels had reached an “all-time high” at two of its facilities in the territory.
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