At least 27 people were killed by Israeli forces while trying to get food and six others died from starvation or malnutrition in Gaza on Sunday, Palestinian officials said, amid a regional outcry over an Israeli minister’s visit to Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site.
Witnesses said Israeli forces fired on hungry crowds who were attempting to get food aid from a distribution site run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in the south of the territory, with some describing the fire as indiscriminate.
“I couldn’t stop and help because of the bullets,” Yousef Abed told the Associated Press after seeing at least three people bleeding on the ground as Israeli forces opened fire.
Sunday’s killings were the latest in a string of deadly shootings targeting hungry people. At least 1,400 people have been killed while seeking aid since 27 May, most of whom were killed near GHF sites, while others were killed along the routes of aid convoys, the UN said on Friday. The GHF says it only uses pepper spray or fires warning shots to control crowds.
In total, 119 people were killed in Gaza by Israeli shootings and strikes over the last 24 hours, including those seeking aid, the Gaza health ministry said.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said the Israeli military targeted its headquarters in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on Sunday, killing one staffer and wounding three more. Video taken by an employee showed the headquarters in flames after the strike, which had destroyed much of the building.
A separate Israeli strike hit a school in Khan Younis that displaced people had been using as shelter, killing at least two people.
Gaza’s population is growing increasingly desperate as the territory sinks further into famine, which experts say is a product of Israel’s continued blockade of aid. Israel has vehemently denied there is a starvation crisis in Gaza and announced expanded aid measures last week, but humanitarians say Israel is still severely restricting the entry of aid.
Six people have died of starvation or malnutrition in the past 24 hours, health officials said, bringing the total number who have died from hunger to 175, 93 of whom were children. The pace of starvation deaths surged in July with more people dying from hunger than in the previous 20 months combined.
Humanitarians say a far greater amount of aid needs to enter Gaza to help stabilise the starvation emergency.
“We need the sustainable entry of humanitarian aid to flood Gaza with aid for a relatively long period of time. Patients and hospitals need more food than usual to contribute to their recovery,” said Hisham Mhanna, a spokesperson for the ICRC in Gaza.
He said the emergency compounded Gaza’s existing crises, which include a devastated healthcare system and the spread of disease. Faced with starvation and lack of humanitarian supplies, aid groups are struggling to help the population of Gaza.
In total, at least 60,839 people have been killed in Gaza during Israel’s current military operations, launched after the Hamas-led attack in Israel on 7 October 2023 which killed about 1,200 people.
While Israeli strikes continued in Gaza, Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, led prayers at al-Aqsa mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, provoking outrage among regional powers. Ben-Gvir was among a group of about 1,250 people who prayed at the compound on Sunday under the protection of the Israeli military.
The compound, which Jews call the Temple Mount, is a highly revered site – the holiest in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam. The site is under Jordanian custodianship; under a decades-old agreement, Jews are allowed to visit but not pray there.
Jordan condemned the visit, which it described as “an unacceptable provocation”. Its foreign ministry said it “affirmed the kingdom’s absolute rejection and strong condemnation of the continued unacceptable incursions by the extremist minister Ben-Gvir”.
Ben-Gvir’s visit was in honour of Tisha B’Av, when Jews mourn the destruction of two Jewish temples, and was the first time that an Israeli minister had publicly prayed at the site.
The compound has been the scene of clashes in the past, with Israeli police raiding the mosque in 2023 after Palestinians occupied it in response to reports that Jews were planning a religious ceremony there.
Ben-Gvir called for the annexation of Gaza and for Palestinians to leave the territory while at al-Aqsa on Sunday. He said in a post on X: “A message must be sent: to ensure that we conquer all of the Gaza Strip, declare sovereignty …. This is the only way that we will return the hostages and win the war.”
Benjamin Netanyahu put out a statement after the visit saying the policy governing the compound “has not changed and will not change”.
The controversy came as the Israeli public was reeling from the release of two videos over the weekend showing emaciated hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, which triggered protests on Saturday.
The occupied West Bank was also gripped by demonstrations on Sunday, with thousands protesting against the war in Gaza and the detention of Palestinians in Israeli prisons. Protesters carried photos of Palestinians killed or detained by Israel, as well as photos of starving children in Gaza.
More than 10,800 Palestinians are held in Israeli prisoners. Rights groups have documented widespread torture of Palestinians by Israeli prison guards and soldiers, including sexual abuse, food deprivation and physical abuse.
