Gaza civil defence says Israeli fire kills 39 near two aid centres

Gaza’s civilian defence bureau said connected Saturday (July 19, 2025) that Israeli occurrence killed 39 radical and wounded much than 100 adjacent 2 assistance centres, successful the latest deaths of Palestinians seeking food.

Deaths of radical waiting for handouts successful immense crowds adjacent nutrient points successful Gaza person go a regular occurrence, with the territory’s authorities often blaming Israeli fire.

But the U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which has replaced UN agencies arsenic the main distributor of assistance successful the territory, has accused militant radical Hamas of fomenting unrest and shooting astatine civilians.

Civil defence bureau spokesperson Mahmud Bassal said the deaths happened adjacent a tract southwest of Khan Yunis and different centre northwest of Rafah, some successful confederate Gaza, attributing the fatalities to “Israeli gunfire”.

One witnesser said helium headed to the Al-Tina country of Khan Yunis earlier dawn with 5 of his relatives to effort to get nutrient erstwhile “Israeli soldiers” started shooting.

“My relatives and I were incapable to get anything,” Abdul Aziz Abed, 37, told AFP. “Every time I spell determination and each we get is bullets and exhaustion alternatively of food.”

Three different witnesses besides accused troops of opening fire.

‘Warning shots’

In response, the Israeli subject said it “identified suspects who approached them during operational enactment successful the Rafah area, posing a menace to the troops”.

Soldiers called for them to crook backmost and “after they did not comply, the troops fired informing shots”, it said, adding that it was alert of the reports astir casualties.

“The incidental is nether review. The shots were fired astir 1 kilometre (more than fractional a mile) distant from the assistance organisation tract astatine nighttime erstwhile it’s not active,” it said successful a statement.

GHF said reports of deaths adjacent its sites were “false”.

“We person repeatedly warned aid-seekers not to question to our sites overnight and aboriginal greeting hours,” it wrote connected X.

Elsewhere, the civilian defence bureau reported that an Israeli onslaught connected a location adjacent Nuseirat, successful cardinal Gaza, killed 12 people, the latest successful a bid of deadly bombardments.

Media restrictions successful Gaza and difficulties successful accessing galore areas mean AFP is incapable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the civilian defence bureau and different parties.

The warfare successful Gaza, sparked by militant radical Hamas’s deadly onslaught connected Israel connected October 7, 2023, has created dire humanitarian conditions for the much than 2 cardinal radical who unrecorded successful the coastal territory.

Most radical person been displaced astatine slightest erstwhile by the fighting, and doctors and assistance agencies accidental they were seeing the carnal and intelligence wellness effects of 21 months of war, including much acute malnutrition.

The World Food Programme said astir 1 successful 3 radical successful Gaza were not eating for days astatine a agelong and “thousands” were “on the verge of catastrophic hunger”.

The UN bureau for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, connected Saturday said it had capable nutrient for each of Gaza for much than 3 months but it was stockpiled successful warehouses and blocked from being delivered.

The escaped travel of assistance into Gaza is simply a cardinal request of Hamas successful indirect negotiations with Israel for a 60-day ceasefire successful the war, alongside a afloat Israeli subject withdrawal.

‘Agitators’

After a much than two-month Israeli assistance blockade, GHF took implicit the moving of assistance organisation successful precocious May, contempt disapproval from the United Nations which antecedently coordinated handouts, that it was designed to cater to Israeli subject objectives.

GHF acknowledged for the archetypal clip that 20 radical died astatine its Khan Yunis tract connected Wednesday but blamed “agitators successful the crowd... equipped and affiliated with Hamas” for creating “a chaotic and unsafe surge” and firing astatine aid-seekers.

The erstwhile day, the UN said it had recorded 875 radical killed successful Gaza portion trying to get food, including 674 “in the vicinity of GHF sites”, since it began operating.

Hamas’s 2023 onslaught connected Israel led to the deaths of 1,219 people, astir of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based connected authoritative figures.

Israel’s retaliatory subject enactment has killed 58,765 Palestinians, astir of them civilians, according to the wellness ministry successful Hamas-run Gaza.