At least 23 Palestinians were killed early Tuesday when Israeli tank fire targeted a crowd gathered for humanitarian aid near the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza, medical sources and eyewitnesses told Al Manassa.
Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat received 19 bodies and treated more than 140 wounded, 62 of them in critical condition, according to a source in the hospital.
Most injuries were caused by shrapnel impacting various parts of the body. Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah also received three additional bodies from the same incident.
An eyewitness reported that the aid point was open for only about 15 minutes before declaring supplies exhausted, prompting desperate civilians to approach in hopes of receiving aid. As crowds amassed at the Gaza Valley bridge, Israeli occupation forces launched a heavy artillery bombardment.
“The shelling killed and wounded dozens,” the witness told Al Manassa. “Many bodies are still lying near the bridge, unreachable due to ongoing shelling and the area’s dangers.”
A journalist on the ground told Al Manassa that the field conditions made it nearly impossible to retrieve the dead and wounded. He confirmed that civilians attempting to help were severely limited by the ongoing gunfire and shelling from Israeli occupation forces.
“The occupation committed a massacre against people seeking aid,” he said. “Some tried to help, but the intensity of the shelling and gunfire made it impossible. Most of the victims are still lying where they fell.”
In a statement on Telegram, Hamas revealed that the death toll from incidents at US-run aid distribution points has risen to 454, with around 3,500 others injured since the new system was introduced less than a month ago.
“These horrifying figures expose the criminal nature of the mechanism,” the statement read. “What are being called ‘aid points’ are actually calculated death traps designed to manage hunger and humiliation as part of a systemic policy of genocide against Gaza residents.”
Hamas urged the international community and the UN to immediately intervene to stop the killings and establish a safe, UN-monitored mechanism for delivering aid “independent of the occupation's control.”
The group also called for urgent and effective action to impose an immediate and comprehensive halt to the genocidal war targeting over two million besieged people in the Gaza Strip. The statement stressed the need to activate international accountability mechanisms and prosecute the occupation's leaders for war crimes committed against unarmed civilians.
The US-funded Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which began distributing aid deliveries in late May following a three-month Israeli blockade, has set up four centralized aid centers. Entry is conditional, with families reportedly screened for links to Hamas—potentially using facial recognition technology.
In other incidents across Gaza, civilians were killed in multiple locations while attempting to access humanitarian assistance or shelter. Early Tuesday, Israeli strikes on a crowd near Zakim in the northwest left at least seven dead and 15 injured. The victims had gathered around aid trucks near a military checkpoint.
Late Monday, additional casualties were reported at distribution sites in Rafah and Zakim, with hospitals confirming the deaths of more than 20 people in those areas. Airstrikes also flattened a residential building in Gaza City's Sabra neighborhood, killing five members of the Qaza’at family.
Several individuals remain missing under the rubble.
Health officials said that over 85 bodies were received by hospitals in the past day, many of them aid-seekers or displaced residents. Dozens more were injured in attacks on makeshift shelters and residential areas across the strip.
Israel resumed its war on Gaza on March 18 after walking away from a ceasefire agreement that had taken effect on Jan. 19. That deal aimed to end hostilities, secure the release of all captives held by Hamas, and initiate a full Israeli withdrawal from the enclave—conditions that Israel failed to implement.
