Israeli strikes kill journalists, aid-seekers as Australia backs Palestinian statehood

Israeli forces killed at least 55 people across the Gaza Strip overnight and into Monday, 11 August, including a well-known journalist Israel said was a militant as well as people seeking humanitarian aid, according to local health officials.

Hospital officials reported at least 34 people were killed on Monday, not including journalists who were slain in a tent shortly before midnight.

More than 15 people were killed while waiting for aid at the Zikim crossing in northern Gaza, said Fares Awad, head of the ambulance services in northern Gaza.

Israel's military did not immediately respond to questions about the deaths. Earlier on Monday, it said air and artillery units were operating in northern Gaza and in Khan Younis, where resident Noha Abu Shamala told The Associated Press that two drone strikes killed a family of seven in their apartment.

A dozen more people killed seeking aid

Among the dead were at least 12 aid seekers killed by Israeli gunfire while trying to reach distribution points, or awaiting aid convoys, according to officials at two hospitals and witnesses.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said its Saraya Field Hospital received about 30 injured from the Zikim area, and that more casualties continue to arrive.

Al-Shifa hospital received five bodies and over 70 wounded, said Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya, the hospital's director.

Relatives told the AP that casualties included children and an infant. Witnesses to gunfire near the Morag corridor said they saw barrages of bullets and later dead bodies, describing the grim scene as a near-daily occurrence.

The AP spoke to five witnesses who were among the crowds in central Gaza, the Teina area and the Morag corridor. All said that Israeli forces had fired toward the crowds.

“The occupation (forces) targeted us, as they do every day,” said Hussain Matter, a displaced father of two who was in the Morag corridor. “Out of nowhere, you find bullets from everywhere.”

Ahmed Atta said he helped carry a wounded man from the Teina area who had been shot in his shoulder and was bleeding. “It's a pattern,” Atta said of the Israeli gunfire toward aid seekers.

Aid seekers were killed from 3 km to just hundreds of metres from sites operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, according to Nasser and Awda hospitals.

The United States and Israel support the American contractor as an alternative to the United Nations, which they say allows Hamas to siphon off aid. The UN, which has delivered aid throughout Gaza for decades when conditions allow, denies the allegations.

The latest deaths raise the toll to more than 1,700 people killed while seeking food since the new aid distribution system began in May, according to Gaza's health ministry.

UN agencies generally do not accept Israeli military escorts for aid trucks, citing concerns over neutrality, and its convoys have come under fire amid severe food shortages.

The deaths came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called reports about conditions in Gaza a “global campaign of lies," and announced plans to move deeper into the territory and push to dismantle Hamas.

Five more Palestinians, including a child, died of malnutrition-related causes in Gaza in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said.

Israeli strike targets and kills Al Jazeera journalists

Israel's military targeted an Al Jazeera correspondent with an airstrike Sunday, killing him. Four other network journalists were also killed, according to Al Jazeera in what press advocates described as a brazen assault on those documenting the war. A sixth journalist was also killed in the strike, the network said.

The Israeli military claimed responsibility for the strike. It came less than a year after Israeli army officials first accused correspondent Anas al-Sharif and other Al Jazeera journalists of being members of the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, an allegation that Al Jazeera and al-Sharif have previously dismissed as baseless.

Al Jazeera called the strike a “targeted assassination” while press freedom groups denounced the rising death toll among Palestinian journalists working in Gaza. Mourners laid the journalists to rest in Gaza City.

Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the 7 October 2023, attack that triggered the war. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals but 50 remain inside Gaza, around 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive.

Israel's air and ground offensive has since displaced most of the population, destroyed vast areas and pushed the territory toward famine. It has killed more than 61,400 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children.

Besides those killed, 121 adults and 101 children have died of malnutrition-related causes, including five in the past 24 hours, the ministry said. One was a child.

International reaction

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday added his country to a list moving toward recognition of a state of Palestine, along with France, Britain and Canada. He said his government's decision aimed to build momentum toward a two-state solution, which he called the best path to ending violence and bringing leadership other than Hamas to Gaza.

Also on Monday Italy's Premier Giorgia Meloni announced new aid to Gaza in a phone conversation with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.