Over 750 Palestinians were injured in the attack which took place when thousands of internally displaced people were waiting for trucks carrying food and other aid to arrive on the coastal al-Rashid street, southwest of Gaza city

By Peoples Dispatch

Israeli forces killed at least 104 Palestinians and injured over 750 who were waiting for food aid in Gaza on Thursday, February 29. The attack took place while thousands of internally displaced Palestinians were waiting for trucks carrying food and other aid to arrive on the coastal al-Rashid street, southwest of Gaza city. Reports said that Israeli tanks and aircraft also fired at people and many of the injured were left on the spot for hours before anyone could come to their rescue.

Gaza
Photo credit: WAFA News

Media reports said that ambulances could not reach the spot due to intense Israeli shelling.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas have both strongly condemned the killings, with the former saying that the attack was part of Israel’s ongoing “genocidal war,” besides calling on the international community to “urgently intervene” for a ceasefire to be implemented which it said is the “only way to protect civilians.”

Hamas termed the massacre “hideous” and “unprecedented in the history of war crimes,” and part of Israel’s efforts to displace and ethnically cleanse Palestinians from their land to ultimately “obliterate” the Palestinian cause. It also urged action on the part of the international community, specifically calling on the the League of Arab States and the UN Security Council to urgently convene and act to stop Israel’s “mass killing and ethnic cleansing in Gaza.”

Elsewhere in Gaza, the continuing and uninterrupted Israeli aerial and ground bombardment also killed more than 30 Palestinians in and around Khan Younis, Deir al-Balah, the Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps, among other areas. Additionally, reports on Thursday noted that at least six children died at the Kamal Adwan hospital and the al-Shifa hospital from dehydration and malnutrition due to an acute shortage of aid, fuel, and other medical and essential supplies, with at least seven others reportedly in critical condition. The overall death toll in Gaza since the Israeli war began on October 7 last year has risen to at least 30,035 Palestinians killed, along with at least 70,457 Palestinians injured.