Death toll from Israeli army's ‘flour massacre’ in Gaza rises to 116, as another Palestinian dies

By Anadolu staff

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – One more Palestinian man died from his wounds on Saturday, bringing the total number of deaths from the Israeli army's "flour massacre" against a group of Palestinians in Gaza who were waiting for humanitarian aid to 116, the Health Ministry in the besieged enclave said.

“A citizen died at Kamal Adwan Hospital as a result of injuries sustained in the Rasheed Street massacre on Thursday morning,” the ministry said in a statement.

It added that “The death toll from the massacre rises to 116 so far, fearing that the number is likely to increase due to dozens of serious injuries and the lack of medical resources.”

On Friday, the ministry announced that “the number of fatalities in the flour massacre had risen to 115 after retrieving 3 bodies from the area of al-Nabulsi junction on the Rasheed Street in Gaza.”

On Thursday morning, Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd of Palestinians waiting for trucks carrying aid at the al-Nabulsi junction area south of Gaza City, killing 112 Palestinians, the media office in Gaza said.

As a result of the war and Israeli restrictions, Gazans, particularly in Gaza City and the northern governorates, are on the verge of famine, with severe shortages of food, water, medicine, and fuel, and nearly 2 million Palestinians displaced in a territory besieged by Israel for 17 years.

Israel ignored the International Court of Justice's provisional ruling and continued its attack on the Gaza Strip, killing at least 30,320 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 71,533 since Oct. 7, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.

The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

Hostilities have continued unabated, however, and aid deliveries remain woefully insufficient to address the humanitarian catastrophe.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala