Weaponising Food in Gaza

While innocent, unarmed Palestinians are being killed in Gaza, the so-called Islamic countries remain silent. How long Israeli forces be allowed to keep killing such hungry Palestinians, asks Asad Mirza

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FOR the last 15 days, it seems the world has forgotten Gaza, yet again. During these 13 days several reports of unarmed Palestinians being gunned down by the Israel Defence Force (IDF) have appeared.

On June 17, as many as 70 Palestinians were killed in a single day during the distribution of US-Israeli aid in southern Gaza - specifically in Khan Younis and Rafah - under the same repeated justification, "protecting American aid workers."

Daily Times of Israelreported on June 25, that in Gaza, Israeli forces, the day before, killed 71 Palestinians, including at least 50 people who were waiting to receive aid. Among the dead are at least 27 people killed in an Israeli strike on civilians waiting for food in central Gaza, an attack that also wounded dozens and turned a relief site into what one Palestinian official called an “open field of death."

Responding to the reported deaths, the IDF later said that a gathering overnight had been identified in an area "adjacent" to its troops in the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza, where the USand Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid group is known to hand out food.

Earlier this month, the IDF had warned Palestinians not to approach routes leading to Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites between 6 pm and 6 am, local time, describing those roads as closed military zones. However, the GHF has contradictorily indicated it may be open during those hours.

In central Gaza, three witnesses told the Associated Press that the army opened fire as people advanced east toward aid trucks south of Wadi Gaza. "It was a massacre," said Ahmed Halawa. He said tanks and drones fired at people, "even as we were fleeing. Many people were either martyred or wounded.”