Gaza's Civil Defense agency reported that Israeli forces killed an additional 46 people on Tuesday who were waiting for aid in the Palestinian territory. Rights groups and UN agencies have condemned the US-backed food distribution system in the region.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that 21 people were killed and around 150 wounded by Israeli fire near an aid point in central Gaza early Tuesday, and that another 25 were killed in a separate incident in south Gaza, News.Az repports citing foreign media.
"Every day we face this scenario: martyrs, injuries, in unbearable numbers," paramedic Ziad Farhat told AFP at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza.
"Hospitals cannot accommodate the number of casualties arriving," he said.
The latest deaths came as Israel's opposition leader and the families of Israeli hostages being held in Gaza called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to widen a ceasefire with Iran to include the Palestinian territory.
Pressure also grew on the US- and Israeli-backed privately run aid group Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which was brought into the Palestinian territory at the end of May to replace United Nations agencies.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) called the system an "abomination" while a spokesman for the UN human rights office, Thameen Al-Kheetan, condemned the "weaponisation of food" in Gaza.
