The Ministry of Health initially spoke of eleven deaths and then increased the number to 14 and finally to 20. "There were direct shots from the occupation forces at people who were gathering at the Kuwait roundabout to wait for the arrival of trucks with food," Al-Shifa Hospital emergency room head Mohammed Ghurab told AFP.
An AFP employee saw bodies and injured people with gunshot wounds. The Israeli army did not initially comment on the incident when contacted by AFP.
At the end of February, according to Hamas, more than a hundred Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip when Israeli soldiers opened fire on the arrival of trucks carrying aid supplies. The Israeli army subsequently acknowledged a "limited" number of shots fired by Israeli soldiers who felt "threatened." According to this, thousands of residents crowded around the trucks, dozens of people were injured and killed in the crowd, and some were run over by trucks.
After more than five months of war between Israel and Hamas, the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is catastrophic. According to the UN World Food Program (WFP), the 2.4 million Palestinians living there are on the brink of famine.
Several countries are now dropping aid supplies from the air to help the people in the Gaza Strip. On Thursday, the first Bundeswehr aircraft landed in Jordan to take part in the operation, as the Air Force announced in the short message service X. “We are unloading the material we brought with us and preparing for the upcoming flights.” A second C130J aircraft also made its way to the region, the Air Force announced.
The Gaza War began with an unprecedented and brutal attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7th. According to Israeli sources, fighters from Hamas and other Islamist organizations killed around 1,160 people in the attack and kidnapped around 250 others as hostages in the Gaza Strip.
Since then, Israel has taken massive military action in the Gaza Strip. According to information from the Hamas Ministry of Health, which cannot be independently verified, more than 31,300 people have been killed so far.
Efforts to mediate a new ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have been underway for weeks in order to bring more aid to the Gaza Strip and to release hostages held by the Islamists. Hamas circles reported late on Thursday evening that the organization had submitted a new negotiating position to the states of Qatar and Egypt, which acted as mediators. They would inform the USA, which is also mediating, about this.
Hamas is demanding that the Israeli armed forces withdraw “from all populated areas and all cities” in the Gaza Strip. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office subsequently said Hamas was sticking to its "unrealistic demands."
Meanwhile, a soldier was killed in a knife attack in southern Israel. According to Israeli police, the attacker entered a restaurant near the community of Beit Kama and stabbed the soldier. The 51-year-old soldier was able to open fire and kill the attacker. The soldier later died from his serious injuries.
