Israeli forces shot dead three starving Palestinians at a US-Israeli relief distribution centre in southern Gaza on Monday, raising the number of those killed whilst trying to obtain food to more than 75 people in less than six days.
Gaza’s Health Ministry reported that three Palestinians were killed and at least 35 wounded when Israeli forces opened fire near an aid distribution site in Rafah operated by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
The ministry reported that according to its own tally, at least 75 Palestinians had been killed and more than 400 wounded whilst queuing for food since the GHF launched its operations in Gaza on 27 May.
Monday’s killings came hours after Israeli forces mowed down at least 35 Palestinians at two US-Israeli food distribution points in Rafah and central Gaza.
Eyewitnesses and local officials told Middle East Eye that Israeli troops opened fire directly on civilians, with many of the fatalities receiving gunshot wounds to their head or chest.
Since 2 March, Israel has barred all supplies from entering Gaza, including food, water and medicine, in a bid to force Hamas into renegotiating the ceasefire deal agreed in January.
Since reneging on the ceasefire deal, Israeli forces have killed at least 4,000 people in attacks targeting tents, hospitals and school-turned-shelters.
According to Palestinian health and government officials, at least 54,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since October 2023, including more than 28,000 women and girls.
The figure also includes at least 1,400 health sector professionals, 280 UN aid workers – the highest staff death toll in UN history – and at least 180 journalists, the highest number of media workers killed in conflict since the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) began recording data in 1992.
In January, the medical journal the Lancet reported that fatalities were probably underreported by 41 percent.
The study estimated that 59.1 percent of those killed were women, children and people over the age of 65. It did not provide an estimate of Palestinian fighters among the dead.
That toll represented 2.9 percent of Gaza’s pre-war population, “or approximately one in 35 inhabitants”, the study said.
