The Civil Defense in Gaza announced that 20 Palestinians were killed by Israeli army fire, including six who were waiting for aid in the center of the devastated Gaza Strip.
Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal told AFP that at least six people were killed and 30 wounded "when the Israeli occupation forces targeted thousands of citizens waiting for aid with live bullets and tank shells" who had gathered at dawn on Wednesday on Salah al-Din Road near the Wadi Gaza Bridge in the central Gaza Strip.
Al-Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp confirmed the arrival of the dead and wounded, and stated in a statement that among the wounded were "a number of serious and critical cases."
The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request from AFP.
Wednesday's incident is the latest in a series of daily deadly incidents around aid distribution centers in the Gaza Strip. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in recent days while waiting for aid as they gathered near these centers while trying to obtain food supplies.
The Gaza Strip, with a population of 2.4 million, is facing dire humanitarian conditions, amid widespread famine after Israel blocked all food and medicine supplies since last March. However, the Israeli army has allowed limited amounts of aid into the Strip for weeks.
Separately, Basal said that his crews and paramedics transported to a local hospital "six martyrs, including a child, and 20 wounded, some of them critically, as a result of an Israeli airstrike targeting a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp."
He explained that he also transported "three martyrs and several wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a house" in the Shuja'iyya neighborhood east of Gaza City.
Five people were also killed and several others wounded in an Israeli airstrike early Wednesday morning that "targeted a house... in Deir al-Balah," in the central Gaza Strip, according to Basal. He noted that the dead and wounded were transferred to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.
Israeli restrictions on media access and the dangers of movement in the Gaza Strip often prevent independent verification of the numbers and details provided by the Civil Defense.
According to the latest tally released Tuesday by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, at least 516 people have been killed and nearly 3,800 others wounded by Israeli fire while seeking food aid since late May.
The war erupted following an unprecedented Hamas attack against the Jewish state on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Since then, Israel has responded with a devastating war that has killed 56,077 people in the Gaza Strip, the majority of them civilians, according to the latest tally from the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
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