Palestinian officials say Israeli air strikes kill 29 Gazans waiting for aid

Two Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip on Thursday killed at least 29 Palestinians as they waited for aid, the Gaza Health Ministry said.

In the first incident, Palestinian health officials in the Hamas-ruled zone said eight people were killed in an airstrike on an aid distribution center in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

The Gaza Health Ministry said that Israel then opened fire on a crowd of people waiting for aid trucks in the northern Gaza roundabout, killing at least 21 people and injuring more than 150 people.

In a statement, the Israeli military denied attacking the aid center, calling the reports “false.”

“The IDF conducted the thorough assessment of this incident that it deserved, and we urge the media to do the same and rely only on credible information,” the statement said.

The conflict in Gaza has displaced most of the enclave’s 2.3 million people. Chaos and deadly incidents occurred during the distribution of aid as desperately hungry people fought for food.

On February 29, the Palestinian health authorities said that Israeli troops shot and killed more than 100 Palestinians near Gaza City while they were waiting for the delivery of aid supplies. Israel blamed the deaths on crowds surrounding the aid truck, saying the victims were trampled or run over.

Palestinian medics said an Israeli missile hit a house in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza on Thursday, killing nine people. Residents said Israeli aerial and ground bombardment continued throughout the night, sweeping across the enclave, including Rafah in the south, where more than a million displaced people are seeking refuge.

The war was sparked by an Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on southern Israeli towns that killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostage, according to Israeli statistics.

Since then, Israeli air, sea and ground attacks on Gaza have killed more than 31,000 people and injured more than 71,500, according to Gaza’s health authorities.

Efforts to reach a ceasefire between Israel and the Islamist militant group Hamas have so far failed. While Israel says it seeks a deal to secure the release of Gaza hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinians held by Israel, Hamas insists a deal should end the war.

Late on Thursday, Hamas said it had presented to mediators a vision for a comprehensive truce agreement based on halting what it calls Israeli aggression against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, providing relief and aid to displaced Palestinians, and Gazans returned to their homes and withdrew Israeli forces. Israeli army.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Hamas’s new position was based on “unrealistic demands.”

The war is now in its sixth month, with the United Nations warning that at least 576,000 people in Gaza, a quarter of the population, are on the brink of famine and global pressure on Israel to allow more Enter.

Israel denies blocking aid deliveries to Gaza. It blames failures by aid agencies for delays and accuses Hamas of diverting aid. Hamas denies this and says Israel is using hunger as a weapon in military offensives.

A ship carrying aid is approaching Gaza, where the U.S. military plans to build a terminal to distribute up to 2 million meals a day.

Palestinian and U.N. officials, while welcoming the aid ships, said sea deliveries were not a substitute for moving aid through land crossings.

Hamas on Thursday called for an escalation of protests and attacks against Israel in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem on Friday, the first day of Friday prayers during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

A soldier was stabbed in a restaurant on the southern border with Israel on Thursday, Israeli police said. The suspect in the attack, a 22-year-old man from the nearby Bedouin city of Rahat, was said to have been shot and “hit”.