AT least 43 people have been killed in various Israeli attacks since dawn as the military relentlessly pounds the besieged enclave, medical sources say, with the overall Palestinian death toll in the war surpassing a staggering 56,000.
Those killed on Monday include at least 20 aid seekers who lost their lives while desperately trying to access food for their families at distribution centres run by the controversial United States- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which the United Nations has condemned for its “weaponisation” of aid.
The killings are the latest in a wave of daily carnage, targeting hungry Palestinians who continue to make the perilous journey to the food distribution points. Critics have slammed the sites as “human slaughterhouses” amid a worsening hunger and looming famine crisis.
Israeli attacks on Palestinians near aid centres have killed more than 400 people and wounded about 1,000 since the GHF began distributions on May 27.
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City, said Israel is engaged in its conflict with Iran while it also continues “the killing of Palestinians across the Gaza Strip with deadly air strikes on tents or residential homes”.
“Hungry crowds gather at food distribution centres in Rafah or the Netzarim Corridor. So far, 13 aid seekers have been shot dead today. They are among 30 people killed by Israel’s military since the early hours,” Mahmoud said.
Meanwhile, the Wafa news agency reported that at least four people were killed and several others wounded by an Israeli air attack on a residential building in northern Gaza’s Jabalia.
Three others, all brothers, were killed by Israeli forces while they were inspecting their damaged home in the al-Salateen area of Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza.
In central Gaza, al-Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp announced it had received the bodies of two Palestinians and treated 35 others injured in Israeli strikes on crowds gathered along Salah al-Din Street.
Sixteen of the wounded were in critical condition and transferred to other hospitals in the central governorate, Wafa said.
Israeli artillery also shelled the Shujayea neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City.
The latest casualty figures bring the number of people killed in the territory since the start of Israel’s 20-month war more than 56,000, with at least 131,559 wounded.
The attacks come as the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) warned that the lack of reliable energy sources is a key threat to survival in Gaza.
The “deliberate denial of energy access”, like electricity and fuel, “undermines fundamental human needs” in the enclave, the NRC said in a new report.