'Body parts flying everywhere': Israeli forces killed at least 67 people across Gaza today

ISRAELI FORCES KILLED at least 45 people in airstrikes in Gaza today, and shot dead another 22 people as they waited to get desperately needed food at aid distribution sites, according to witnesses and health officials.  

One strike on a café in Gaza City, which was crowded with women and children, killed at least 30 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. 

“Without a warning, all of a sudden, a warplane hit the place, shaking it like an earthquake,” said Ali Abu Ateila, who was inside at the time.

Dozens were wounded and many were left in critical condition, said Fares Awad, head of the Health Ministry’s emergency and ambulance service in northern Gaza.

The café, one of the few businesses to continue operating during Israel’s 20-month war on the territory, was a gathering spot for residents seeking internet access and a place to charge their phones.

Videos on social media showed bloodied and disfigured bodies on the ground and the wounded being carried away in blankets.

“The place is always crowded with people because the rest area offers drinks, family seating and internet access,” eyewitness Ahmed Al-Nayrab, 26, told AFP, recalling a “huge explosion that shook the area”.

“I saw body parts flying everywhere, and bodies cut and burned… It was a scene that made your skin crawl.”

Another eyewitness, Bilal Awkal, 35, said “blood covered the ground and screams filled the air”.

“Women and children were everywhere, like a scene from a movie about the end of the world.”

Two other strikes on a Gaza City street killed 15 people, according to Shifa Hospital, which received the casualties.

‘The targeting was deliberate’ 

Meanwhile, Israeli forces have killed 11 people who were seeking food in southern Gaza, according to witnesses, hospitals, and Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis said it received the bodies of people shot while returning from an aid site associated with the Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund.

It was the latest in a deadly pattern of Israeli attacks that has killed more than 500 Palestinians in the chaotic and controversial aid distribution programme over the past month.

Today, the medical NGO MSF described the GHF programme as “slaughter masquerading as aid”. UN agencies and NGOs have repeatedly condemned the Israeli-US-backed organisation and refused to cooperate with it. 

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Last week, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Israeli soldiers have been repeatedly ordered to open fire on unarmed civilians trying to access food distribution sites. 

One of today’s shootings happened around three kilometres from the GHF site in Khan Younis, as Palestinians returned from the site along the only accessible route.

“The targeting was deliberate, aimed at people as they were leaving,” eyewitness Aboud al-Adwi told AFP.

“There was no one among us who was wanted or posed any threat. We were all civilians, simply trying to get food for our children,” he added.

Palestinians are often forced to travel long distances to access the GHF hubs in hopes of obtaining aid.

Nasser Hospital said another person was killed near a GHF hub in the southern city of Rafah.

Ten others were killed at a United Nations aid warehouse in northern Gaza, according to the Health Ministry’s ambulance and emergency service.

Samir Abu Jarbou, 28, told AFP by phone that he had gone with relatives to pick up food in an area around midnight.

“Suddenly the (Israeli) army opened fire, and drones started shooting. We ran away and got nothing,” he said.

North Gaza City bombardment 

The strikes in Gaza City came as the military intensified its bombardment campaign across the city and the nearby Jabaliya refugee camp.

Yesterday and today, Israel issued widespread evacuation orders for large swathes of northern Gaza.

Palestinians reported massive bombing overnight into this morning, describing the fresh attacks as a “scorched earth” campaign that targeted mostly empty buildings and civilian infrastructure above the ground.

“They destroy whatever left standing… the sound of bombing hasn’t stopped,” said Mohamed Mahdy, a Gaza City resident who fled his damaged house on Monday morning.

Awad with the emergency and ambulance services said that most of Gaza City and Jabaliya have become inaccessible and ambulances were unable to respond to distress calls from people trapped in the rubble.

The Israeli military said it had taken multiple steps to notify civilians of operations to target Hamas in northern Gaza.

With reporting from AFP and Press Association 

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