WORLD NEWS FOR MONTENEGRO DIASPORA
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AUTHOR:M.J. GDNUS
At least 27 people were killed in the Gaza Strip today when Israeli forces opened fire on people as they headed to a distribution point for humanitarian aid, Palestinian health officials and witnesses said.
It was the third such incident in three days since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which is backed by Israel and the US, set up aid distribution points inside Israeli military zones.
The foundation said it designed the system to bypass the Palestinian Hamas movement, which rules the Gaza Strip. The United Nations has criticized the new system, saying it does not solve the hunger problem in the Gaza Strip but allows Israel to use the aid as a weapon.
The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 27 people were killed this morning. The Red Cross said its field hospital in Rafah received 184 wounded, 19 of whom were pronounced dead on arrival and eight who later succumbed to their injuries.
Hospital officials said three children and two women were among the dead, and that most of those admitted had gunshot wounds.
The Israeli army said on Monday it had fired "near several suspects" who had left a marked route, approached its forces and ignored warning shots. The army said it was investigating reports of casualties today.
The Israeli army had previously said it had fired warning shots at suspects who had approached its forces on Sunday and Monday, when 34 people were killed, according to medical officials and witnesses. The army denies opening fire on civilians or preventing them from reaching aid points.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which runs the points, says there has been no violence at or around them. However, the foundation acknowledged today that the Israeli military is investigating whether civilians were injured "after they crossed from a designated safe corridor into a closed military zone, in an area far outside the safe location for the distribution" of aid.
All of the gunfire attacks on civilians in the past three days have occurred within about a kilometer of one of the aid distribution points, in the southern town of Rafah, now largely uninhabited. The entire area is an Israeli military zone, which journalists can only access with special permission from the army.
The Israeli military also said today that three of its soldiers were killed yesterday during fighting in the northern Gaza Strip, in what is likely the deadliest attack on Israeli forces since they ended a ceasefire with Hamas in March. Israeli media reported that they were killed in an explosion in the area of the town of Jabalia.
Israel ended the ceasefire in March after Hamas refused to change the deal to allow for the faster release of more hostages. Since then, thousands of Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Israel launched its military operation in the Gaza Strip after Palestinian extremists led by Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023. The extremists killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 251 people that day. Most of the hostages were released under ceasefire agreements or other agreements, some were killed, and 58 others were detained.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, 54,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, were killed during the Israeli offensive. United Nations agencies and independent experts consider these figures reliable, while Israel claims to have killed around 20,000 Hamas fighters. Since October 2023, 860 Israeli soldiers have been killed, more than 400 of them during fighting inside the Gaza Strip.
