ISRAELI FORCES HAVE killed at least 51 people and wounded more than 200 in the latest massacre of Palestinians waiting for desperately needed humanitarian aid in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. 

This time the Israeli military attacked people waiting to receive flour from the United Nations near a distribution site in Khan Younis.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told the AFP news agency that Israeli drones had fired on civilians.

“Some minutes later, Israeli tanks fired several shells at the citizens, which led to a large number of martyrs and wounded,” he said.

The Israeli army told AFP it was “looking into” the incident.

Bassal put the death toll at 50 but Gaza’s health ministry later reported that “51 martyrs and more than 200 injuries have arrived at Nasser Medical Complex, including 20 in critical condition”.

Yousef Nofal, an eyewitness, said he saw many people motionless and bleeding on the ground after the Israeli forces opened fire.

“It was a massacre,” he said, adding that the soldiers continued firing on people as they ran away.

Mohammed Abu Qeshfa said he heard a loud explosion followed by heavy gunfire and tank shelling. “I survived by a miracle,” he said.

Samaher Meqdad was at Nasser Hospital looking for her two brothers and a nephew who had been in the crowd.

“Why did they fire at the young people? Why? Aren’t we human beings?”

Unlike similar incidents that have occurred since Israel broke a ceasefire with Hamas in March, this attack did not occur near a centre run by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), whose distribution centres have been the sites of regular attacks on civilians.

Hundreds of people have been killed in such attacks.

Yesterday, Israeli forces opened fire and killed 34 people waiting at a number of different aid sites in Gaza, according to witnesses and local health officials. 

The Gaza Strip has been ravaged by more than 20 months of Israeli siege, bombardment and widespread destruction caused by fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups. 

The health ministry said yesterday that 5,139 people have been killed since Israel violated the ceasefire on 18 March.

The overall death toll in Gaza since the war broke out in October 2023 has reached 55,432 people, according to the health ministry.

With reporting from AFP and Press Association