Israeli tanks and drones opened fire early Wednesday on thousands of Palestinians gathered near a U.S.-backed aid distribution center in Gaza City, killing 31 and injuring about 200, according to local officials – the latest in a deadly string of assaults on starving civilians amid deepening humanitarian collapse.
The Gaza Civil Defense said crowds had begun forming as early as 2 a.m., hoping to receive food at the newly opened American aid center. By sunrise, the line had become a massacre zone.
“Israeli tanks fired several times, then intensified their shelling around 5:30 a.m. as drones targeted civilians,” civil defense spokesperson Mahmud Bassal said. “We transported at least 31 martyrs and about 200 wounded.”
At Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, medical staff received 24 bodies and 96 wounded.
Central Gaza’s Al-Awda hospital said seven people arrived dead, with 112 others injured.
This is the latest in a series of fatal incidents tied to aid centers since the U.S.- and Israeli-supported Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began limited food distributions on May 27, after Israel reopened some crossings that had been closed for over two months.
Despite the GHF’s role in easing the blockade, the United Nations refuses to work with it, citing questions over neutrality and transparency.
U.N. agencies and humanitarian groups have voiced alarm over the worsening conditions, even as limited supplies trickle in.
“The crisis has reached unprecedented levels of despair as people continue to go hungry,” the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said Wednesday.
It reported over 2,700 children under five were diagnosed with acute malnutrition in late May, mostly in northern Gaza, where only one medical center remains partially operational due to fuel shortages.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Tuesday that Israeli military operations had “intensified in recent days,” with “mass casualties reported.”
Israel has continued its offensive across Gaza since October 2023, following Hamas’ incursion that killed 1,219 people in southern Israel.
In response, Israel launched a military campaign that has killed at least 54,981 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry – most of them women and children.
The United Nations deems the figures reliable.
International pressure continues to mount. Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice and war crimes indictments from the International Criminal Court targeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Of the 251 hostages taken by Hamas last October, 54 remain in Gaza.
As humanitarian access remains sealed and famine looms over Gaza’s 2.4 million residents, aid agencies warn that every hour without food, fuel, or medicine draws the territory deeper into irreversible tragedy.
“You can’t distribute food under fire,” a humanitarian official said. “This is no longer just a war – it’s the collapse of humanity.”
