Israel rains fire on Gazan crowds at food aid sites, kills 80!

Cairo: Israeli forces killed at least 22 people and wounded 20 others, many while attempting to get desperately needed food aid in southern Gaza on Monday, according to witnesses, hospitals, and Gaza's Health Ministry, the Associated Press reported.

Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said it received the bodies of 11 people who were shot while returning from an aid site associated with Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund in southern Gaza, part of a deadly pattern that has killed more than 500 Palestinians in the chaotic and controversial aid distribution program over the past month.

Ten others were killed at a United Nations aid warehouse in northern Gaza, according to the Health Ministry.

The southern Gaza strike happened around 3 kilometres (1.8 miles) from the GHF site in the city of Khan Younis, as Palestinians returned from the site along one of the only accessible routes. Palestinians are often forced to travel long distances to access the GHF hubs in hopes of obtaining aid.

Witnesses recounted firings by troops.

Yousef Mahmoud Mokheimar was walking along with dozens of others when he saw troops in vehicles and tanks racing toward them. At the beginning, they fired warning shots in the air before firing at the crowds, he said.

“They fired at us indiscriminately,” he said, adding that he was shot in his leg, and a man was also shot while attempting to rescue him.

He said he saw troops detaining six people, including three children, and it wasn't clear what happened to them. “We don't know whether they are still alive,” he said.

Monzer Hisham Ismail, another witness, said troops attacked the crowds while returning from the GHF hub in eastern Khan Younis.

“We were returning from the American aid hub … we were targeted by (the Israeli) artillery,” he said.

Nasser Hospital said another person was killed near a GHF hub in the southern city of Rafah.