News / Palestine

Israeli forces shell hundreds of Palestinians waiting for aid in Gaza City

Sunday, 18 February 2024 7:04 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 18 February 2024 7:04 PM ]

An UNRWA aid worker distributes flour bags to Palestinians during in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on November 29, 2023. (Photo by Reuters)

Several people are feared killed as Israeli forces have opened fire on hundreds of displaced Palestinians approaching and rushing toward aid trucks in Gaza City.

The incident happened on al-Rasheed Street where the displaced Palestinians gathered for desperately needed supplies of food.

Footage circulating on social media on Sunday shows hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza City rushing towards aid trucks before fleeing after Israeli forces open fire.

Ramy Abdu, the head of the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, commented on the incident in a post on X saying, “What our team documented on al-Rasheed Street, west of Gaza City, is terrifying, painful, and brutal”.

“Very small quantities of food arrived today, and it is impossible for them to reach the camps in northern Gaza”, he wrote.

Breaking: Dozens killed and injured in the Israeli occupation's shelling of civilians while waiting for aid at Rasheed Road t in western Gaza.

The @EuroMedHR warned in two previous statements of Israel's continued killing of citizens waiting for aid, yet no action is taken…
— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) February 18, 2024

Israeli forces have repeatedly targeted aid seekers in Gaza.

Last month, an Israeli attack on people lining up to receive humanitarian supplies in northern Gaza killed at least 20 people. The Israeli military shelled the crowd with tank fire and quadcopters.

In recent days, Israeli protesters have also stopped aid trucks from entering the Gaza Strip, as the besieged strip is under the regime's siege and heavy bombardments.

The Israeli protesters have set up tents at the Kerem Shalom crossing, blocking aid trucks bound for Gaza.

Israeli protesters block Gaza aid trucks amid looming famine

Protesters say aid should enter Gaza in exchange for the release of captives.

Since early October, the Tel Aviv regime has cut the free flow of water, food, fuel, and power to the Gaza Strip, placing restrictions on the international aid sent to the region.

Meanwhile, International charity group Oxfam has said that 1.5 million displaced people in Rafah face the looming threat of an Israeli ground invasion with nowhere safe to go.

In a post on X, it quoted a staff member as saying: “The faces of the people in Rafah are filled with despair. Their minds are consumed by the looming threat of a ground invasion … Everyone is afraid.”

A million and a half displaced in Rafah now face the looming threat of an Israeli ground invasion with nowhere safe to go. There must be an end to the war in #Gaza and a #CeasefireNOW pic.twitter.com/wkHasaElmd
— Oxfam in Jerusalem (@oxfamjerusalem) February 18, 2024