Israeli forces kill 4 aid seekers near Gaza City, hospital and witnesses say

Israeli forces killed four help seekers traveling on Sunday through a military area south of Gaza City – an area regularly used by Palestinians trying to reach a food distribution point, hospital and witnesses said.

Deaths add to The growing toll of the Palestinians killed While looking for food, while some parts of the Gaza strip plunge in famine and the soldiers of Israel increase the activity in the north of Gaza before an offensive planned to grasp its largest city.

A The initiative supported by no Friday A famine in Gaza City and warned that it is likely to propagate constantly propagating or fine to restrictions on humanitarian aid. Israel challenged the evaluation, affirming “there is no famine in Gaza”.

“We said:” Beware “, Executive Director of UNICEF Catherine Russell said on Sunday on “Face The Nation with Margaret Brennan. “” And it’s almost as if you are screaming in an abyss. “”

Russell added that famine is “shocking”, “but it’s not surprising”.

“There is no reason for this,” said Russell. “It did not happen because there were cyclones or, you know, droughts. It happened because we could not get enough help to these children.”

Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat in New Hampshire who also appeared on Sunday on “Face The Nation“Said the blockade of Israel in Gaza is” a shameful black brand on humanity that the world has allowed it to happen, and that Israel allows this to happen “.

Shaheen, speaking of Jordan, said that she had visited a humanitarian assistance program that was trying to get help from Gaza, describing that Israel prevented their trucks from getting to provide help.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu is the moment when the obstruction occurs,” said Shaheen. “He needs to look at what he does and change his position.”

The Al-Awda hospital and two eyewitnesses told the Associated Press that the four Palestinians had been killed when the troops opened fire on a crowd heading to a site managed by the American entrepreneur supported by Israel Gaza Humanitarian Foundationor GHF, in the Netzarim corridor area. It occurred hundreds of meters (yards) far from the site, the eyewitnesses said.

“The shots were blind,” said Mohamed Abed, father of two children from Bureij refugee, adding that, while many fled, people fell to the ground after being shot.

ABED and AIMED SAYYAD, another aid researcher among the crowd, said that the troops opened fire when a group near the front of the crowd advanced to a distribution site before its planned opening.

Sayyad said he and others helped two people injured by gunshots, one in the shoulder and the leg.

The Israeli army and the GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comments. Since the start of the GHF, almost three months ago, the UN has said that hundreds of Palestinians have been shot by the Israeli defense forces and foreign military entrepreneurs on or near its aid sites.

Deaths related to malnutrition

The four deaths are the last areas where UN convoys were overwhelmed by looters and desperate crowds, and where people were slaughtered by heading to sites managed by the GHF.

More than 2,000 Palestinians were killed and more than 13,500 injured while requesting aid at the distribution points or along the convoy channels used by the United Nations and other aid groups, according to the Ministry of Health managed by Hamas in Gaza.

The ministry said on Sunday that at least 62,686 Palestinians had been killed in the war, including the missing persons, now confirmed by a special judicial committee of the ministry.

He indicated that the number of deaths related to malnutrition increased from eight to 289 Sunday. Deaths include a child, bringing the number of deaths among children at 115 since the war between Israel and Hamas began in 2023.

The Ministry of Health does not say how many those who have been killed have been combatants or civilians, but says that around half were women and children. He is part of the government managed by Hamas and with health professionals. The UN and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on the victims of the war. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.

The integrated classification of the food security phase – the main global authority on food crises – said Friday that famine was performing in Gaza City, which houses hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, and could spread south to Deir al -Balah and Khan Younis by the end of next month.

Aid groups have long warned that the War and the Israeli restrictions on food and medical supplies entering Gaza cause famine. Israel has denied the existence of a widespread hunger in Gaza, calling “resides” famine relationships promoted by Hamas.

“Non-stop explosions”

In Jabaliya, the densely populated refugee camp just north of Gaza City, the residents said they had undergone heavy explosions overnight. A few days after the Israeli army announced that it intensified its operations in the region and mobilized tens of thousands of reservists to take the city, they said they lived a constant fear.

In the game of Gaza City where he and his family have been sheltered since their trip to a district at the southern border of the city, Ossama Matter said that he had seen houses reduced in rubble and shaved neighborhoods beyond recognition.

“They want it as Rafah,” he said, referring to a city in the south of Gaza destroyed earlier in the war. “There have been explosions and non -stop strikes in recent days.”

While fleeing west of Jabaliya, school teacher Salim Dhaher said he saw armed robots planting explosives while the troops were advancing from the opposite direction. While preparing the ground for the push of Israel to grasp the city, Dhaher said that he feared that this would be a larger effort to force North Palestinians forcibly.

The goal is clear, he said: “to destroy everything above the ground and force the transfer.”

There have been few signs of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians evacuating south before the invasion of Israel from the city of Gaza, which, according to Israel, is still a bastion of Hamas. Many are exhausted by repeated and unconvinced trips that any area – including so -called humanitarian areas – offers security.

The military operation could start in a region in a region that threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians, which refers above an area that Israel has invaded several times but still believes a network of militant underground tunnels.

Activists led by Hamas have removed 251 people and killed around 1,200 people, mainly civilians on October 7, 2023, who triggered the war. Most hostages have been released in ceasements or in other transactions, but 50 remain inside Gaza, of which around twenty of them believed by living Israel.