At least 59 Palestinian civilians have been killed in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military fired on a crowd trying to receive aid from trucks in Gaza on Tuesday, medics said, in one of the bloodiest incidents so far in the escalating violence, as desperate residents struggle for food.
Video shared on social media showed about a dozen mutilated bodies lying on a street in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, A2 writes.
Witnesses interviewed by Reuters said Israeli tanks had fired at least two shells at a crowd of thousands of people who had gathered on the main eastern road through Khan Younis in the hope of receiving food from aid trucks using the road.
"Suddenly, they let us move forward and forced everyone to gather and then shells started falling, tank shells," said Alaa, an eyewitness interviewed by Reuters at Nasser Hospital, where wounded victims were lying on the floor and in the corridors due to lack of space, A2 reports.
Palestinian medics said at least 59 people were killed and 221 wounded in the incident, at least 20 of them in critical condition. The victims were being rushed to hospital in civilian cars, rickshaws and donkey carts. It was the worst single-day death toll since aid resumed in Gaza in May.
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said: "Earlier today, a gathering was identified near an aid distribution truck that got stuck in the Khan Younis area and close to IDF troops operating in the area.
Medics said at least 14 other people were also killed by Israeli airstrikes and airstrikes elsewhere in the densely populated enclave, bringing Tuesday's total death toll to at least 73. (A2 Televizion)
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