UPDATE - 19 Palestinians killed as Israeli forces shell Palestinians waiting for aid in Gaza

UPDATES WITH HEADLINE, DECK, LEDE CHANGED

By Mohamad Majed and Mustafa Haboush

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – At least 19 Palestinians were killed and 23 others injured in an Israeli attack targeting civilians who were waiting for aid southeast of Gaza City, the Gaza Media Office stated on Saturday.

“The Israeli occupation commits a massacre, killing 19 and injuring 23 civilians while thousands of citizens were waiting for flour and aid near Al-Kuwait roundabout,” the media office said in a statement.

It added: “The occupation army and tanks opened fire with machine guns towards the hungry people who were waiting for bags of flour and aid in a place far from posing any danger to the occupation.”

The office held the US administration, the international community, and Israel fully responsible for the genocide, starvation, and deepening famine in the Gaza Strip.

It called on the world to “pressure the occupation to stop the genocide and ethnic cleansing against Palestinians and to stop the famine immediately before it's too late.”

The office also called for opening the land crossings to bring hundreds of thousands of tons of piled-up aid to starving Palestinian people.

This is not the first time that Israel has targeted aid convoys in Gaza. Last Tuesday, 23 Palestinians were killed and several others were injured in an Israeli bombing that targeted Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid in the northern Gaza Strip.

On Feb. 29, Israeli forces opened fire on hundreds of Palestinians as they gathered south of Gaza City waiting to receive humanitarian aid in what is known as the “flour massacre,” leaving 118 dead and 760 wounded, according to the Health Ministry in the enclave.

Israel has launched a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack, which Tel Aviv said killed less than 1,200 people.

More than 32,100 Palestinians have since been killed and over 72,400 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’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 stands 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.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi and Rania Abu Shamala​​​​​​​