Gazans make life-risking journeys to seek food aid

Like thousands of other Palestinians in Gaza, Hind Al Nawajha takes a dangerous, miles-long journey every day to try to get some food for her family, hoping she makes it back alive.

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Accompanied by her sister, Mazouza, the mother-of-four had to duck down and hide behind a pile of rubble on the side of the road as gunshots echoed nearby.

"You either come back carrying (food) for your children and they will be happy, or you come back in a shroud, or you go back upset (without food) and your children will cry," said Nawajha, 38, a resident of Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza.

"This is life, we are being slaughtered, we can't do it anymore."

In the past two days, dozens of Palestinians have also been killed by Israeli fire as they tried to get food from aid trucks brought into the enclave by the United Nations and international relief agencies, Gaza medics said.

On Thursday, medics said at least 72 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes, including 21 people who tried to approach a site operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in the central Gaza Strip, the latest in near-daily reports of killings of people seeking food.