What to Know About the Deadly Shootings Near a Gaza Aid Site

Palestinians trying to secure food were shot and killed in the Gaza Strip in two separate episodes over the weekend when Israeli forces opened fire on crowds.

On Saturday, the soldiers shot Palestinians near a food distribution site in Rafah, in southern Gaza. A day later, they fired at crowds who had gathered near a border crossing used by aid trucks to enter the enclave.

Palestinian health officials said that more than 60 people were killed in the episode on Sunday. On Saturday, near an aid distribution site run by American contractors and backed by Israel and the United States, at least 32 people were killed, according to local health officials.

The violence added to the mounting death toll for hungry Palestinians killed while seeking food since late May, when Israel lifted a blockade, in place for roughly 80 days, on humanitarian assistance entering Gaza.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an group backed by Israel, began operations delivering aid to Gaza in May. Since then, thousands of desperate Palestinians have come to its four aid sites early each morning hoping to obtain food. About 700 people have been killed while trying to get aid from those sites, according to data provided last week by the United Nations. Eyewitnesses and Gaza health officials have repeatedly accused Israeli forces of shooting into crowds.

The shooting on Sunday took place near a border crossing, not outside one of the aid group’s new sites, but both episodes highlighted the extreme danger Gazans are facing as Israel tries to replace the system for distributing food in the war-torn enclave.