Israeli forces have killed at least 549 Palestinians attempting to access humanitarian aid in Gaza over the past month, according to the Gaza Government Media Office. The escalating death toll comes as Israel has shut down the most direct aid routes into northern Gaza, a move that officials warn will severely impact distribution to hundreds of thousands facing a critical risk of famine.
The closure of the Zikim crossing on Thursday cuts off a vital channel for wheat and other basic necessities to reach the northern part of the territory, where the need is most acute. This decision followed the circulation of images showing armed men guarding a shipment.
The Israeli military claimed its soldiers had “fired warning shots” near the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza to prevent “suspects from approaching them.” However, witnesses and medical records from field hospitals detail hundreds of injuries from bullets among civilians seeking assistance in recent weeks.
Mahmud Bassal, the spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defence agency, reported that Israeli forces killed 56 people on Thursday alone, including six who were waiting for food. The situation has led to international condemnation, with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez describing the conditions in Gaza as a “genocide.”
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Aid Attacks
The obstruction of aid delivery is intensifying an already catastrophic situation. Food has become exceptionally scarce following a tight blockade imposed by Israel, placing Gaza’s 2.3 million residents at risk. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Thursday that it had managed its first medical shipment into Gaza since 2 March, but described the nine truckloads as “a drop in the ocean.” According to the WHO, only 17 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain minimally to partly functional.
The closure of northern crossings means that new distribution points established by a US- and Israel-backed organisation are inaccessible to the estimated one million people in the north. This forces desperate Palestinians to undertake dangerous journeys in the hope of intercepting aid trucks.
The violence is not confined to Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces killed three Palestinian men on Wednesday during a violent assault by Israeli settlers on the town of Kafr Malik, near Ramallah. Residents reported that soldiers intervened to protect the settlers, opening fire with live ammunition on Palestinians who had gathered to defend their homes.
A resident, Jihad al-Qaq, told Middle East Eye that “all injuries were to the upper body, showing that soldiers intended to kill or seriously injure.” This incident highlights a pattern of escalating violence, with the Palestinian Authority’s Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission reporting over 5,000 settler attacks across the West Bank since October 2023, resulting in the deaths of 26 Palestinians by settler gunfire. The consistent targeting of civilians underscores the severity of the ongoing genocide and its devastating human cost.
