Dozens Killed and Wounded in Gaza as Israelis Open Fire: Live Updates - The New York Times

Middle East Crisis In Chaotic Gaza Scene, Many Are Killed and Wounded as Israelis Open Fire

Updated 

Feb. 29, 2024, 9:42 a.m. ET28 minutes ago

1. 

   At Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, after Israeli soldiers opened fire as a crowd of Gazans gathered near aid trucks.

   Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

2. A camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah.

   Mohammed Abed/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

3. Smoke rising from the site of an Israeli air strike on the outskirts of the Lebanese village of Ramia, near the border with Israel.

   Kawnat Haju/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

4. Palestinian children waiting for food in Rafah.

   Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

5. Families of hostages held in Gaza marching from the site of the Nova music festival in Re'im, Israel, to Jerusalem.

   Abir Sultan/EPA, via Shutterstock

6. Mourning next to a body at Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah in central Gaza.

   Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

7. Walking on a street between the seafront and a camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah.

   Mohammed Abed/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Here’s what we know:

The Palestinian news agency reported that Israeli tanks had fired at thousands waiting for aid. Israeli officials said Gazans were trampled and run over by aid trucks.

• Gazan health authorities say that more than 100 people were killed and more than 700 injured.
• The death toll in Gaza surpasses 30,000, the local health ministry says.
• The U.N.’s top rights official condemns the ‘brutality’ of Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
• A far-right Israeli minister will no longer oversee security at a major mosque, officials say.
• A U.N. aid official warns that Gaza is close to famine.

At Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, after Israeli soldiers opened fire as a crowd of Gazans gathered near aid trucks.Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Israeli forces opened fire on Thursday as a crowd gathered near aid trucks in Gaza City in a chaotic scene where dozens were killed and injured, according to the official Palestinian Authority news agency and an Israeli official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The circumstances of the deadly incident were unclear, with starkly different accounts from Palestinian and Israeli officials.

The death toll in Gaza passed a somber milestone on Thursday as the local health ministry reported that more than 30,000 people had been killed in the war since Oct. 7.

The number of deaths since Israel launched its military offensive against Hamas in Gaza had already surpassed the tolls of any previous Arab conflict with Israel when it rose above 20,000 in December. Many experts say the official toll is very likely an undercount, given the difficulty of accurately tallying deaths amid unrelenting fighting, communications disruptions, a collapsing medical system and people still believed to be under rubble.

Maps: Tracking the Attacks in Israel and Gaza

See where Israel has bulldozed vast areas of Gaza, as its invasion continues to advance south.

The top human rights official at the United Nations condemned Israel’s military offensive in Gaza in an especially forceful statement on Thursday and warned that an assault on Rafah would add a new level of horror to the war.

The terror attacks by Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups on Oct. 7 were “appalling and entirely wrong,” said Volker Türk, the U.N.’s high commissioner for human rights. But, he added, “so is the brutality of the Israeli response.”

The Israeli war cabinet has decided to relieve the far-right national security minister of responsibility for an important mosque in Jerusalem during the upcoming Muslim holy month of Ramadan, according to an Israeli official, in an apparent attempt to defuse tensions around the holy site.

The minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, promoted a plan last week to impose more restrictionson Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem during Ramadan, which begins in early March. The Aqsa compound is sacred both to Muslims and to Jews.

Little aid has been able to reach northern Gaza due to security risks and Israeli restrictions.Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

At least a quarter of Gaza’s population is “one step away from famine,” a U.N. humanitarian aid official has warned, as aid groups say that people are so hungry they are resorting to eating leaves, donkey feed and food scraps.

One in six children under 2 years old in northern Gaza, where the United Nations says it has not been able to deliver any aid since early this month because of security risks and Israeli restrictions, is suffering from acute malnutrition, the official, Ramesh Rajasingham, told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday."

Dozens Killed and Wounded in Gaza as Israelis Open Fire: Live Updates - The New York Times