At least 35 killed, 150 injured when Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians seeking aid in southern Gaza
The Palestinian resistance group Hamas called on the UN on Sunday to form an independent international commission to investigate Israeli killings of civilians seeking humanitarian aid in the enclave.
At least 35 civilians were killed and over 150 others injured when Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians seeking aid in al-Mawasi, west of Rafah city in southern Gaza, early Sunday.
“This massacre confirms the fascist nature of the (Israeli) occupation and its criminal objectives behind this aid mechanism,” Hamas said in a statement.
Israel “is using aid centers under its control as traps to lure innocent starving people to practice the most heinous forms of killing, humiliation, and torture against them.”
Israel has crafted a plan to establish four aid distribution points in southern and central Gaza, which Israeli media say aim to evacuate Palestinians from northern Gaza into the south.
According to Israel's Army Radio, Israel's aid distribution plan aims to turn the territory's north into a “completely depopulated area.”
Hamas held Israel and the US responsible for the bloodshed of aid seekers in Gaza.
“We call on the UN to form an international independent committee of inquiry and to enter into Gaza to investigate these systematic crimes against civilians and hold those responsible accountable as war criminals,” it added.
It also called for “urgent” and “binding” UN decisions “to force the Israeli army to halt this bloody mechanism” and open Gaza's border crossings immediately “to ensure the flow of humanitarian aid via UN mechanisms.”
Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, Israel has pursued a devastating offensive in Gaza since October 2023, killing over 54,400 Palestinians, most of them women and children. Aid agencies have warned about the risk of famine among the enclave's more than 2 million population.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war crimes against civilians in the enclave.
