Tel Aviv [Israel], December 12 : Israel attacked Palestinian security guards escorting a humanitarian aid shipment in the Gaza Strip where at least 12 people died and several more were injured, Al Jazeera reported.
A video clip shared by local Palestinian media in Gaza showed bodies stacked in a morgue that were reported to be the aid convoy's security personnel who were targeted west of Khan Younis on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Israel Defence Forces claimed that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid for Gazans entered Gaza on Tuesday.
https://x.com/IDF/status/1866886980010672617
Israeli agency COGAT (Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories: Judea and Samaria and towards the Gaza Strip) said, "Over 350 humanitarian aid trucks entered Gaza yesterday from Israel, with 269 additional trucks distributed within the Strip to Warehouses and Shelters yesterday, Dec. 10. We will continue working to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip in collaboration with international organizations."
https://x.com/cogatonline/status/1866868616165199931
The attack is latest in line by Israeli forces on humanitarian aid workers, convoys and those trying to assist the safe entry of food and other supplies into war-torn Gaza. Gaza is reeling under food shortages and fears of famine in the north of the territory, where an Israeli military ground operation and siege have been ongoing for several weeks, as per Al Jazeera.
Al Jazeera also reported that six people, including children, were killed in an Israeli attack on a residential building in western Gaza City in the north of the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Thursday morning, while the death toll rose to 13 following Israel's bombing of a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza.
Gaza's Ministry of Health said in a statement on Wednesday that at least 44,805 Palestinians have now been killed and 106,257 wounded in Israel's unrelenting war on the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, as quoted by Al Jazeera.
The latest attack on security trying to protect aid shipments entering the Gaza Strip comes after UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said that it had taken the "difficult decision" to pause aid deliveries through the main crossing into the Gaza Strip at the beginning of December.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said at the time that humanitarian operations had become "unnecessarily impossible" due to "the ongoing siege, hurdles from Israeli authorities, political decisions to restrict the amounts of aid, lack of safety on aid routes and targeting of local police" who secure aid convoys. He called on Israel to ensure aid flowed to Gaza and said the country "must refrain from attacks on humanitarian workers", Al Jazeera quoted him as saying.