Israeli forces killed at least 67 people in Gaza on Monday, with airstrikes that left 30 dead at a seaside cafe and gunfire that left 22 others dead as Palestinians tried to get desperately needed food aid, witnesses, hospital and health officials said.
One airstrike hit the Al-Baqa Cafe in Gaza City when it was crowded with women and children, said Ali Abu Ateila, who was inside.
“Without a warning, all of a sudden, a warplane hit the place, shaking it like an earthquake,” he said.
At least 30 people were killed and dozens were wounded, said Fares Awad, head of the Health Ministry’s emergency and ambulance service in northern Gaza. Awad said many of the wounded were in critical condition.
Two other strikes on a Gaza City street killed 15 people, according to Shifa Hospital, which received the casualties.
The cafe, one of the few businesses to continue operating during the 20-month war, was a gathering spot for residents seeking internet access and a place to charge their phones.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces killed 11 people who had been seeking food in southern Gaza, according to witnesses, hospitals, and Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said on Monday it received 11 bodies of people who were shot while returning from an aid site associated with Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GFH), part of a pattern that has killed more than 500 Palestinians in the aid distribution program in the past month.
Ten others were also killed at a United Nations aid warehouse in northern Gaza, according to the health ministry.
The southern Gaza strike happened along the only accessible route leading from the aid centre, roughly three kilometres outside of the GHF.
In northern Gaza, at least 10 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on an aid warehouse in Gaza city, but it wasn’t immediately clear whether there was aid at the warehouse.
The military has intensified its bombardment campaign across the city and nearby the Jabaliya refugee camp. It comes as on Sunday and Monday, Israel issued widespread evacuation orders for large swaths of northern Gaza.
Palestinians reported massive bombing overnight into Monday morning, describing the fresh attacks as a “scorched earth” campaign that targeted mostly empty buildings and civilian infrastructure above the ground.
“They destroy whatever left standing … the sound of bombing hasn’t stopped,” said Mohamed Mahdy, a Gaza City resident who fled his damaged house Monday morning.
Fares Awad, head of the health ministry’s emergency and ambulance services in northern Gaza, said that most of Gaza City and Jabaliya have become inaccessible, and ambulances were unable to respond to distress calls from people trapped in the rubble.
The Israeli military said it had taken multiple steps to notify civilians of operations to target Hamas’ military command and control centers in northern Gaza.
Yousef Mahmoud Mokheimar was attempting to get food aid in southern Gaza with dozens of others when he saw troops in vehicles and tanks racing toward them. At the beginning, they fired warning shots into the air, before firing at the crowds, he said.
“They fired at us indiscriminately,” he said, adding that he was shot in his leg, and a man was also shot while attempting to rescue him.
He said he saw troops detaining six people, including three children, and it wasn’t clear what happened to them.
“We don’t know whether they are still alive,” he said.
Monzer Hisham Ismail, another witness, said troops attacked the crowds while returning from the GHF hub in eastern Khan Younis.
“We were returning from the American aid hub … we were targeted by (the Israeli) artillery,” he said.
Nasser Hospital said another person was killed near a GHF hub in the southern city of Rafah.
The Israeli military have said they’re reviewing information about the attacks. In the past, they’ve said it fires warning shots at people who move suspiciously or get too close to troops, including while collecting aid.
Follow STV News on WhatsApp
Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
