At least 325 people in Gaza were killed by Israeli forces while trying to reach food over the past week, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. That figure includes 24 people killed on Saturday in various parts of the territory, according to health officials and morgues reached by NPR.
The deadly search for food is happening despite Israeli assurances of a humanitarian pause in attacks to let more aid in as deaths from malnutrition soar in Gaza and starvation grips the territory.
Israel's military says its troops have only fired warning shots in some of these incidents when asked for comment, including on Wednesday when more than 90 people seeking aid were killed while trying to get sacks of flour off trucks as they rolled into Gaza near a border area where soldiers are.
Aid restrictions by Israel have drawn international condemnation. U.N.-backed experts on hunger say there's a famine unfolding now in Gaza.
Israel began allowing air drops of aid by countries and more trucks into Gaza last weekend, but aid agencies say it's still far from enough. Nearly all the food has been looted off trucks by armed gangs and hungry crowds before it can reach warehouses for distribution, according to the U.N. World Food Program.
The crisis prompted President Trump to dispatch two U.S. officials to visit Gaza on Friday with Israeli troops, where they saw a food distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which has millions in funds from the U.S. and is overseen by Israel.
During a ceasefire earlier this year, United Nations agencies had safely delivered aid and were largely able to do so even during the first six months of the war until Israel took full control of Gaza's border with Egypt, where much of the aid had come in from.
Israel says its restrictions on aid are to pressure Hamas and prevent its fighters from benefiting from it. International aid groups and U.N. agencies have called the restrictions collective punishment, and say their aid is being looted by armed gangs, some of whom Israel has openly backed to undermine Hamas.
Fallout from U.S. envoy's visit
After accompanying the president's senior envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, to that site, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee praised GHF's efforts as "an incredible feat."
But a U.N. report published Thursday recorded 859 deaths near GHF sites from May 27 to July 31, with hundreds more along food convoy routes.
In a statement, Hamas said Witkoff's brief visit to Gaza on Friday was a "pre-planned show designed to deceive public opinion."
Yahia Youssef, who was seeking aid, told the Associated Press he had helped three gunshot victims at one GHF location Saturday and had seen several other people bleeding from their wounds. "It's the same daily episode," he said.
The GHF's media office, in response to eyewitness accounts, told the AP that "nothing (happened) at or near our sites."
A famine is unfolding
Health officials in Gaza reported Saturday seven more deaths from malnutrition-related causes within the last 24 hours, including a child.
Aid airdrops have also continued in Gaza, with several European nations this week joining a Jordanian-led coalition that has coordinated these aerial deliveries.
In a post on X on Saturday, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, noted a single truck can bring in far more aid than an airdrop, many of which land in military zones or in the sea. He called them "highly costly, insufficient and inefficient," adding that if there is "political will to allow airdrops … there should be similar political will to open the road crossings."
Israeli domestic pressures
Israel's military did not immediately comment on Saturday's strikes or gunfire near aid locations in Gaza. But the Israeli Army's chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, had warned in a statement issued Friday that "combat will continue without rest" as will pressure on Hamas if hostages taken in the group's Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel are not released.
In Tel Aviv, the families of hostages still held inside Gaza protested, urging the Israeli government to instead intensify efforts for a ceasefire for their loved ones' release.
Some family members met with Witkoff, Trump's Mideast envoy, during a visit he made to Tel Aviv. They said he had told them that Trump intends to seek a comprehensive hostage deal that would see Hamas agree to disarm and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commit to ending the war in Gaza. Both Hamas and Netanyahu have publicly rejected these terms in previous rounds of negotiations.
A U.S. group will finance Gaza church's reconstruction
Meanwhile, a U.S. Jewish organization has begun providing financial assistance to Christians in Gaza. The American Jewish Committee is donating $25,000 for the restoration of Holy Family Catholic Church, one of two churches in the enclave, with funds to be managed by the Catholic Archdiocese of New York.
The building was recently seriously damaged from deadly Israeli strikes that hit the church, where Christian Palestinians have sought refuge in the war.
This donation comes as more Jewish leaders in the U.S. — as well as dozens of Democratic senators — call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Anas Baba in Gaza City and Jason DeRose in Washington contributed reporting.
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