March 14 (UPI) — At least 20 people were killed and another 155 were wounded Thursday in an attack on a crowd waiting for food aid in the battle-weary Gaza Strip, according to health officials.
The death toll, announced by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in a statement, is expected to rise as the situation unfolds and casualties are taken to the Shifa Medical Complex.
The ministry said dozens came under Israeli shelling while waiting for humanitarian aid close to the Kuwaiti roundabout in northern Gaza City. The WAFA Palestinian news agency reported that the roundabout has been designated for the delivery of U.N. aid, and was subject to Israeli approval.
The ministry accused the Israeli forces of “targeting” the civilians.
“What happened at the Kuwaiti roundabout points to hidden intentions of the occupation to commit a new, horrible, massacre,” the ministry said in a statement.
“The process of picking up the martyrs and removing the wounded is still ongoing despite the difficult situation on the field at the Kuwaiti roundabout.”
Gaza Civil Defense Spokesman Mahmoud Basal doubled down on the health ministry’s charges that Israel is behind the attack.
“The Israeli occupation forces are still practicing the policy of killing innocent citizens waiting for relief aid as a result of the famine occurring in the northern Gaza Strip,” Basal said in a statement late Thursday.
The attack is the latest reported targeting of people waiting for humanitarian aid in the Palestinian enclave.
A U.N. food distribution center in the southern Gaza border city of Rafah was shelled by Israel on Wednesday, killing at least five people, according to health officials.
UNRWA, the U.N.’s relief mission for Palestinian refugees, said one of its workers was killed and 22 others were injured in the strike.
The distribution center is one of the few that remain in Gaza amid tapped supplies, widespread hunger and the spread of famine in some areas, it said.
“Every day, we share the coordinates of all our facilities across the Gaza Strip with parties to the conflict,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarin said in a statement.
“The Israeli Army received the coordinates including of this facility yesterday.”
Late last month, more than 100 people were killed and another 760 injured as they were waiting aid near the Al-Nabulsi roundabout in what has since become known as the Flour Massacre.
On Feb. 19, five Palestinians were killed in several others were injured while awaiting the delivery of humanitarian aid at the Kuwaiti roundabout when they can under attack by reportedly Israeli Defense Forces quadcopters, according to the U.N. human rights agency.
Israel’s military has said it plans to relocate 1.4 million displaced Palestinians from the Rafah to “humanitarian enclaves” before launching an offensive there.
