Gaza City Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 30 People as Large Aid Flotilla Sets Sail

Israeli airstrikes and gunfire killed at least 30 people in and around Gaza City, local health authorities said, as a 20-boat humanitarian aid flotilla carrying activists including Greta Thunberg set sail from Barcelona for the stricken territory.

- Jon Henley

Authorities said the toll from Israeli tank and gunfire included 13 people who died trying to get food near a distribution site in the Gaza Strip, two in a house in Gaza City and 15, including five children, in a strike on a residential building on Saturday.

Residents of Sheikh Radwan, one of Gaza City's largest neighborhoods, told reporters the area had been under Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes throughout Saturday, overnight and yesterday morning, forcing many families to flee.

Witnesses said troops opened fire on crowds in the Netzarim Corridor, an Israeli military zone bisecting Gaza. "We were trying to get food but were met with the occupation's bullets," said Ragheb Abu Lebda, from Nuseirat. "It's a death trap."

Rezik Salah, a father of two from Sheikh Radwan, told Reuters that Israeli troops were now "crawling into the heart of the city... from the east, north and south, while bombing those areas from the air and ground to scare people to leave".