At least 82 Palestinians were killed in a series of Israeli air and ground attacks across the Gaza Strip, including dozens who had gathered near aid distribution points in central and southern parts of the besieged enclave.
Health officials in Gaza confirmed that 34 of the dead were aid seekers, among them women and children, who were targeted near humanitarian aid sites operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a controversial group backed by Israel and the United States.
The deadliest incident occurred in central Gaza, where Israeli forces opened fire on civilians waiting for food assistance. Hospital sources told Al Jazeera that at least 23 people were killed in the attack. Eleven more were reported dead in similar strikes in southern Gaza.
Israeli warplanes also bombed a residential home west of Deir el-Balah, resulting in several casualties, while 23 people were killed in Gaza City as strikes intensified throughout the day.
The Gaza Government Media Office reported that the total number of Palestinians killed while seeking aid has now reached 409, with over 3,200 injured since the GHF began its operations on May 27.
The United Nations and humanitarian groups have expressed grave concern over the repeated targeting of civilians at food and water distribution points. UNICEF spokesperson James Elder described the conditions as “catastrophic,” warning that the Strip is facing a man-made drought amid a collapse of water infrastructure.
“Just 40 percent of Gaza’s drinking water facilities are still operational. Children will begin to die of thirst,” Elder told a press briefing in Geneva, citing multiple accounts of children and mothers injured while attempting to access food aid.
He also highlighted the chaos around aid distributions, stating that communication blackouts and unclear opening times at GHF sites — some located in or near combat zones — have contributed to mass casualty events.
“There have been instances where people rushed to a site thinking it was open, only to come under fire,” he said.
The GHF, which has been under mounting criticism from international organisations for failing to guarantee safe aid delivery, claimed earlier this week that it had distributed over three million meals across three sites “without an incident.”
However, the United Nations said on Friday that the group’s presence was “making a desperate situation worse,” particularly amid the ongoing Israeli blockade that choked Gaza’s access to essentials from March through late May.
Meanwhile, regional tensions continued to escalate as Israel and Iran exchanged fire over the past week. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned Israel’s military campaign, warning that the situation in Gaza and broader Middle East was “quickly reaching the point of no return.”
“This madness must end as soon as possible,” Erdogan said while addressing a youth forum of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul.
He accused Israel of hypocrisy over its complaints about damage to hospitals following Iranian strikes, noting that Tel Aviv had itself conducted “over 700 attacks on healthcare facilities in Gaza alone.”
With no ceasefire in sight and humanitarian conditions continuing to deteriorate, international pressure is mounting on Israel to allow unrestricted humanitarian access and to halt its military operations targeting civilians.
The war, now in its ninth month, has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and displaced over 1.9 million people, according to Gaza’s health authorities.
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