GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defense agency said 31 Palestinian aid seekers were among at least 60 people killed Friday by Israeli forces, the latest in a string of deadly incidents near aid distribution sites.
Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that five people were killed while waiting for aid in the southern Gaza Strip and 26 others near a central area known as the Netzarim corridor, an Israeli-controlled strip of land that bisects the Palestinian territory.
Thousands of Palestinians have gathered there daily in the hope of receiving food rations, as famine looms across Gaza after more than 20 months of war.
The Israeli army told AFP that its troops in the Netzarim area had first fired “warning shots” at “suspects” approaching them.
When the individuals continued advancing, “an aircraft struck and eliminated the suspects in order to remove the threat,” the army said.
