Drought warning in Gaza amid reports of more Palestinians killed seeking aid

The collapse of water systems in Gaza is threatening the territory with devastating drought as well as hunger, Unicef has warned, as medics reported that Israel has killed more desperate Palestinians seeking aid.

- Jason Burke Malak A Tantesh Gaza

"We are way below emergency standards in terms of drinking water for people in Gaza. Children will begin to die of thirst... Just 40% of drinking water production facilities remain functional," a Unicef spokesperson said.

Yesterday at least 24 people awaiting aid were killed by Israeli fire in central Gaza, according to local health authorities, in addition to other deaths in airstrikes.

Marwan Abu Nasser, the director of al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat, said his staff had dealt with 21 wounded and 24 dead. "The injuries were extremely severe, most of them in the chest and head. There were women, children, and young people among the injured because the people who went to receive the aid... came from all walks of life," Abu Nasser said.

Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in recent weeks while trying either to reach aid distribution points managed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a secretive US- and Israel-backed organisation that recently started to hand out food in the territory, or, more recently, to offload the limited number of UN and commercial vehicles carrying flour and other basics.

Such reports are difficult to confirm independently but appear corroborated by interviews conducted with witnesses by the Guardian.

Khaled al-Ajouri, 33, who is unemployed and from the Jabaliya refugee camp, said he had travelled in the early morning hoping to get some supplies from aid trucks.