At least 33 aid seekers are among 73 Palestinians killed in Gaza since dawn, medical sources have told Al Jazeera, with witnesses describing “horror scenes” after “unprovoked gunfire” at the controversial Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid sites.
More than 300 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the last 48 hours, according to the Gaza Government Media Office, which says Israel has “committed 26 bloody massacres” in that period.
At least 73 people have been killed by Israel since dawn on Thursday, including 33 desperate aid seekers at the controversial Israeli and United States-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid sites.
Thirteen people were killed when Israeli forces attacked a tent in al-Mawasi in the south, while 16 were killed and many wounded in an attack on Mustafa Hafez School, sheltering displaced people west of Gaza City, medical sources told Al Jazeera
The Government Media Office statement on Thursday said the attacks over the last 48 hours had targeted civilians in shelters and displacement centres overcrowded with tens of thousands of displaced people, public rest areas, Palestinian families inside their homes, popular markets and vital civilian facilities, and starving civilians searching for food.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah on the latest killings of Palestinians near GHF aid centres, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said, “People described scenes of horror as they wait for hours just hoping to get their hands on basic food supplies, only to be met with sudden and unprovoked gunfire … I’ve been speaking to a number of survivors this morning, and they told me such heartbreaking testimonies and they shared the horrific scenes that unfolded near the GHF-run aid centres.
“They told me that there was no prior warning, no prior indication – just gunfire ripping through the crowd, desperate Palestinians scattered for cover as bullets flew. They told me that emergency services and medical teams were not able to access the area due to the intensity of the gunfire … This absolutely reflects the collapse of the humanitarian landscape here in Gaza,” he added.
GFH’s US contractors reportedly using live fire
US contractors ostensibly guarding aid distribution sites in Gaza have been using live ammunition and stun grenades as hungry Palestinians scramble for food, according to accounts and videos obtained by The Associated Press news agency.
Two US contractors, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity, said they were speaking out because they were disturbed by what they considered dangerous practices. They said the security staff hired were often unqualified, unvetted, heavily armed and seemed to have an open licence to do whatever they wished.
Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Amman, said an Israeli statement on a recent Haaretz report that detailed Israeli troops shooting Palestinians at aid sites stated “that the Israeli army does not deliberately target civilians and that media reports are exaggerated about the number of casualties. Of course, this is a template, if you will, of Israeli reaction that we see every time something is uncovered about the conduct of the Israeli army. This particular report talks about the [US] contractors as well.”
GHF, she added, is “not just to replace the humanitarian mechanism run by international organisations for decades in Gaza, but it’s also to apply maximum pressure on the civilian population”. Odeh also noted that Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has said this week that too much aid is going to Gaza and that none should enter to ensure an Israeli victory.
Dr Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian emergency medicine doctor and professor who has provided healthcare in Gaza for more than 30 years, told Al Jazeera the GFH operation “is part of the Israeli occupation forces’ and the Israeli government plan to ethnically cleanse and to fulfil their goal of genocide in Gaza”.
ATTACKED BY ISRAEL, DIRECTOR OF INDONESIAN HOSPITAL IN GAZA KILLED WITH HIS WIFE AND CHILD
Marwan al-Sultan, a renowned cardiologist and director of the Indonesian hospital, is the 70th healthcare worker to be killed by Israeli attacks in the past 50 days, says Palestinian medical organisation
An Israeli airstrike has killed one of Gaza’s most senior doctors in a “catastrophic” loss to the already decimated healthcare system. A number of family members were reported to have been killed alongside him.
Dr Marwan al-Sultan, a renowned and highly experienced cardiologist and director of the Indonesian hospital in the Gaza Strip, is the 70th healthcare worker to be killed by Israeli attacks in the last 50 days, according to Healthcare Workers Watch (HWW), a Palestinian medical organisation.
“The killing of Dr Marwan al-Sultan by the Israeli military is a catastrophic loss to Gaza and the entire medical community, and will have a devastating impact on Gaza’s healthcare system,” said Muath Alser, director of HWW.
“This is part of a much longer and systematic atrocious targeting of healthcare workers sanctioned by impunity. This is a tragic loss of life, but also an obliteration of their decades of lifesaving medical expertise and care at a time when the situation facing Palestinian civilians is unfathomably catastrophic,” Alser added.
“We are in great shock and grief. He cannot be replaced,” said Dr Mohammed Abu Selmia, director of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza.
“He was a prominent scholar and one of the two remaining cardiologists left in Gaza. Thousands of heart patients will suffer as a result of his killing. His only fault was that he was a doctor. We have no option but to be steadfast, but the sense of loss is devastating.”
Earlier this month, al-Sultan spoke to the Guardian about the critical situation he and other staff at the Indonesian hospital were facing as they struggled to cope with the number of civilian casualties after the escalation of Israeli attacks in May.
Among the healthcare workers killed in the past 50 days were three other doctors, the chief nurses of the Indonesian hospital and al-Nasser children’s hospital, one of Gaza’s most senior midwives, a senior radiology technician and dozens of young medical graduates and trainee nurses.
On 6 June, the first day of Eid, nine healthcare workers were killed in one day in airstrikes in the north of Gaza, where they were sheltering with their families, according to HWW.
Fares Afana, who leads ambulance services in northern Gaza, lost his son in June. Bara’a, who was also working as a paramedic, was at an apartment block in Gaza City’s al-Tuffah neighbourhood on 9 June treating people injured in an Israeli airstrike when the building was hit for a second time by Israeli artillery, killing everyone inside.
“They were directly targeted,” said Afana, who says that Bara’a died alongside two other paramedics.
“When I went to the place, it was a horrible sight and cruel to see their bodies torn to pieces. If there had been some reaction from the world when healthcare workers were first targeted by the Israeli forces, they would have not dared to commit more of these attacks.”
He said his son had dedicated his life to the medical profession and had dreams of being a doctor. “He was kind and loved by everyone who knew him.”
The total number of healthcare workers who have lost their lives in military attacks since the war began in October 2023 now exceeds 1,400 according to UN figures.
Insecurity Insight, a conflict data NGO, says it has verified the deaths of hundreds of healthcare workers who have been killed inside health facilities, while attempting to reach wounded civilians, by Israeli sniper fire, when travelling in ambulances, while evacuating patients, at checkpoints and inside schools and refugee camps used as temporary shelters since October 2023.
It is believed that hundreds more healthcare workers from Gaza remain in Israeli detention, where they have reported being tortured, beaten and held without charge.
Medglobal, a medical NGO based in the US that provides medical services and care in Gaza, says it believes more than 300 medical staff are in Israeli prisons, among them senior physicians including Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan hospital who has been held in detention since December 2024.
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