Gaza civil defence says 12 killed by “Israeli” forces

Gaza's civil defence agency said “Israeli” forces killed at least 12 people on Monday, including six in a clinic housing Palestinians displaced after 21 months of war.

“Israel” has recently expanded its military operations in the Gaza Strip, where the war has created dire humanitarian conditions for the Palestinian territory's population of more than two million.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that six people were killed and 15 injured in an “Israeli” air strike that hit the Al-Rimal clinic, "which houses hundreds of displaced people, in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood west of Gaza City."

In the south of the territory, Bassal said two people were killed and 20 others injured by “Israeli” forces' gunfire while waiting for aid near a distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) northwest of Rafah.

A US- and “Israel”-backed group, the GHF took the lead in food distribution in the territory in late May, but its operations have had a chaotic rollout with repeated reports of aid seekers killed near its facilities.

The Red Cross has reported "a sharp surge in mass casualty incidents linked to aid distribution sites" over the past month, which has "overwhelmed Gaza's shattered healthcare system".

In a statement, the ICRC said its 60-bed field hospital in Rafah "has been running beyond maximum capacity almost daily."

"Its staff are racing to treat an unrelenting tide of injuries, the vast majority caused by gunfire," it said.

Hundreds reported killed

The UN human rights office said last week that more than 500 people have been killed waiting to access food from GHF distribution points.

In Khan Yunis in the south, Bassal reported two people killed in an air strike on a house and another killed by “Israeli” gunfire.

An air strike on a house in Gaza City killed one and injured several others, he added.