In a massacre committed by the Israeli occupation forces, at least 104 civilians were killed and dozens were injured today, Thursday, February 29, while waiting for food aid in Al-Rashid Street southwest of Gaza City.
Palestinians queue for a meal that has been prepared by volunteers in Rafah, South Gaza, February 27, 2024 (Photo: WAFA)
Medical sources said that occupation forces opened heavy machine-gun fire towards thousands of citizens from the northern Gaza Strip, specifically from Gaza City, Jabalia and Beit Hanoun, who were waiting for the arrival of trucks loaded with humanitarian aid. The dead and wounded had been taken to four medical centers: al-Shifa, Kamal Adwan, Ahli and the Jordanian hospitals. Ambulances could not reach the area as the roads had been “totally destroyed.” According WAFA news agency “these numbers exceed the capacity of the medical staff in the hospitals.”
Yusri al-Ghoul, a displaced Palestinian novelist, lecturer and doctor, was in the area during the attack by Israeli forces on Palestinians trying to get aid in Gaza. “Every day we go to that place which is close to the Israeli tanks because we are starving; we don’t find food, even the food of animals for about two months, and our children are starving,” he told Al Jazeera. “What happened today in the morning … I went to that area like thousands of Palestinians to get the aid, but unfortunately, we come back with martyrs, with innocents who were killed by the Israeli tanks and snipers,” al-Ghoul said.
In the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City, Israeli aircrafts bombed entire residential squares above the heads of their residents, resulting in in the killing of several civilians and causing multiple causalities.
According to the World Food Programme, its teams reported that citizens were suffering from “unprecedented levels of despair,” while the United Nations warned that 2.2 million people were on the brink of famine.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said that the citizens of Gaza are suffering from unprecedented levels of acute food insecurity and hunger, and that conditions in Gaza resemble famine. It explained that all of Gaza’s approximately 2.2 million citizens belong to one of three levels of hunger, which range from emergency to crisis to disaster. These are conditions that FAO has not witnessed before in any country around the world, FAO added that what raises concern is that more of people in Gaza are moving into famine, and at least 25% of the Strip’s population has reached the highest levels of hunger classification.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned that alarming food shortages and increasing malnutrition and diseases could lead to an “explosion” in the number of children deaths in Gaza. One in six children under the age of two in Gaza suffers from acute malnutrition, according to UNICEF estimates published on February 19.
The occupation authorities continue to obstruct the entry of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, especially to the northern regions, while the aid that reaches the south of the Strip is not sufficient for the needs of citizens, especially in Rafah, which is considered the last refuge for the displaced persons.
Hadash MK Ofer Cassif strongly condemned the heinous massacre. He said “this massacre against civilians who risked their lives to get only a little amount of food, is an integral part of the far-right government war against the Palestinian people,” and called to stop bloodshed and war. Israel launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip following a Hamas-led attack on October 7. More than 30,000 people are reported to have been killed to date, mostly women and children.
