Israeli fire kills 140 in Gaza in 24 hours, medics say, as attention shifts to Iran

Israeli gunfire and strikes killed at least 140 people across Gaza in the past 24 hours, local health officials said, as some Palestinians in the strip said their plight was being forgotten while attention shifted to the air war between Israel and Iran.

At least 40 of the total number killed in the past day died as a result of Israeli gunfire and airstrikes on Wednesday (18 June), Gaza's health ministry said. The deaths included the latest in near daily killings of Palestinians seeking aid in the three weeks since Israel partially lifted a total blockade on the territory.

Medics said separate airstrikes on homes in the Maghazi refugee camp, the Zeitoun neighbourhood and Gaza City in central and northern Gaza killed at least 21 people, while five others were killed in an airstrike on an encampment in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Fourteen more people were killed in Israeli fire at crowds of displaced Palestinians awaiting aid trucks brought in by the United Nations along the Salahuddin road in central Gaza, medics said.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was looking into the reported deaths of people waiting for food. Regarding the other strikes, it said it was "operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities" and "feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm."

Yesterday, Gaza's health ministry said 397 Palestinians among those trying to get food aid had been killed and more than 3,000 wounded since aid deliveries restarted in late May.

Some in Gaza expressed concern that the latest escalations in the war between Israel and Hamas that began in October 2023 would be overlooked as the focus moved to Israel's five-day-old conflict with Iran.

"People are being slaughtered in Gaza, day and night, but attention has shifted to the Iran-Israel war. There is little news about Gaza these days," said Adel, a resident of Gaza City.

"Whoever doesn't die from Israeli bombs dies from hunger. People risk their lives every day to get food, and they also get killed and their blood smears the sacks of flour they thought they had won," he told Reuters via a chat app.

'Forgotten'

Israel is now channelling much of the aid into Gaza through a new US- and Israeli-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which uses private US security and logistics firms and operates a handful of distribution sites in areas guarded by Israeli forces.

Israel has said it will continue to allow aid into Gaza, home to more than 2 million people, while ensuring aid doesn't get into the hands of Hamas. Hamas denies seizing aid, saying Israel uses hunger as a weapon against the population in Gaza.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, called the current system for distributing aid "a disgrace & a stain on our collective consciousness", in a post on X on Wednesday.

The Gaza war was triggered when Hamas-led militants attacked Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli allies.

US ally Israel's subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 55,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, displaced almost all the territory's residents, and caused a severe hunger crisis.

The assault has led to accusations of genocide and war crimes, which Israel denies.

Palestinians in Gaza have been closely following Israel's air war with Iran, long a major supporter of Hamas.

"We are maybe happy to see Israel suffer from Iranian rockets, but at the end of the day, one more day in this war costs the lives of tens of innocent people," said 47-year-old Shaban Abed, a father of five from northern Gaza.

"We just hope that a comprehensive solution could be reached to end the war in Gaza, too. We are being forgotten," he said.