Israeli fire kills 62 Palestinians since Saturday dawn, mostly aid seekers
Iran Press TV
Sunday, 03 August 2025 7:15 AM
The Israeli forces have killed 62 Palestinians since dawn on Saturday, including aid seekers targeted at distribution sites run by the US and the Israeli regime, reports say.
Media reports, citing hospital sources in the besieged territory, said on Sunday that the death toll included 38 Palestinians seeking aid at distribution sites operated by the controversial United States and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
According to Gaza first responders, despite Israel's announcement last week that it would implement "tactical pauses" in its military operations in certain areas to allow Palestinians greater access to humanitarian aid, its forces have continued to kill or wound Gaza aid seekers near or en route to GHF distribution centers.
The Israeli forces killed 105 Palestinians while seeking food on Wednesday and Thursday alone, the United Nations Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OHCHR in the State of Palestine) said on Friday.
As of Friday, the Israeli forces have killed 1,373 Palestinian aid seekers, according to the human rights office.
Palestinians in the besieged territory have reported numerous cases of Israeli forces and GHF contractors deliberately firing on aid seekers in the vicinity of the aid distribution centers.
In one case, on July 16, GHF security contractors fired tear gas and pepper spray on crowds as they were trapped between the fences and the gates of the GHF aid distribution center in Khan Younis, south of Gaza, which resulted in a stampede and the suffocation of 20 Palestinian aid seekers.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on June 27 that Israeli forces had been ordered to fire at unarmed Palestinians near aid distribution centers, even when no threat was present.
Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said on Saturday that Gaza was experiencing a famine that had been "largely shaped" by the attempts to replace the UN-led aid system with the "politically motivated" GHF.
"Sidelining and weakening UNRWA has nothing to do with claims of aid diversion to armed groups. It is a deliberate measure to collectively pressure & punish Palestinians for living in Gaza," Lazzarini said in a post on X.
Facing growing international condemnation over the conditions in Gaza, the Israeli regime has in recent days allowed airdrops of aid into the narrow strip by countries including Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates.
But humanitarian organizations, including UNRWA, have warned that the airdrops are extremely insufficient and called on Israel to facilitate the free flow of humanitarian aid via land.
The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has warned that malnutrition in Gaza has exceeded the threshold for famine, and 320,000 young children are at risk of acute malnutrition.
After a visit to Gaza and the Occupied West Bank, Edward Chaiban, the Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF, said in a statement on Friday that "we are at a crossroads, and the choices made now will determine whether tens of thousands of children live or die."
Gaza Ministry of Health reports that since the Israeli regime began its genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, 169 Palestinians, including 93 children, have died of starvation or malnutrition.
The overall death toll since the start of the war exceeds 60,400, with 148,722 others wounded, most of them children and women.
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