At least 51 Palestinians killed while waiting for aid trucks in Gaza,
health officials say
[June 17, 2025]
By MOHAMMAD JAHJOUH, SAMY MAGDY and JOSEPH KRAUSS
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — At least 51 Palestinians were killed and
more than 200 wounded in the Gaza Strip while waiting for U.N. and
commercial trucks to enter the territory with desperately needed food,
according to Gaza’s Health Ministry and a local hospital.
Palestinian witnesses told The Associated Press that Israeli forces
carried out an airstrike on a nearby home before opening fire toward the
crowd in the southern city of Khan Younis. The military did not
immediately respond to a request for comment.
It did not appear to be related to a new Israeli- and U.S.-supported aid
delivery network that rolled out last month and has been marred by
controversy and violence.
‘Aren’t we human beings?'
Yousef Nofal, an eyewitness, said he saw many people motionless and
bleeding on the ground after Israeli forces opened fire. "It was a
massacre,” he said, adding that the soldiers continued firing on people
as they fled from the area.
Mohammed Abu Qeshfa said he heard a loud explosion followed by heavy
gunfire and tank shelling. “I survived by a miracle,” he said.
The dead and wounded were taken to the city's Nasser Hospital, which
confirmed the toll.
Samaher Meqdad was at the hospital looking for her two brothers and a
nephew who had been in the crowd.
“We don’t want flour. We don’t want food. We don’t want anything,” she
said. “Why did they fire at the young people? Why? Aren’t we human
beings?”
Palestinians say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire on crowds
trying to reach food distribution points run by a separate U.S. and
Israeli-backed aid group since the centers opened last month. Local
health officials say scores have been killed and hundreds wounded.
In those instances, the Israeli military has acknowledged firing warning
shots at people it said had approached its forces in a suspicious
manner.
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Desperation grows as rival aid systems can't meet needs
Israel says the new system operated by a private contractor, the
Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, is designed to prevent Hamas from
siphoning off aid to fund its militant activities.
U.N. agencies and major aid groups deny there is any major diversion
of aid and have rejected the new system, saying it can't meet the
mounting needs in Gaza and that it violates humanitarian principles
by allowing Israel to control who has access to aid.
Experts have warned of famine in the territory that is home to some
2 million Palestinians.
The U.N.-run network has delivered aid across Gaza throughout the
20-month Israel-Hamas war, but has faced major obstacles since
Israel loosened a total blockade it had imposed from early March
until mid-May. U.N. officials say Israeli military restrictions, a
breakdown of law and order, and widespread looting make it difficult
to deliver the aid that Israel has allowed in.
Israel’s military campaign since October 2023 has killed over 55,300
Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according
to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Its count doesn’t distinguish between
civilians and combatants.
Israel launched its campaign aiming to destroy Hamas after the
group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, in which militants
killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking another 251
hostage. The militants still hold 53 hostages, fewer than half of
them alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire
agreements or other deals.
___
Magdy reported from Cairo and Krauss from Dubai, United Arab
Emirates.
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