Mourners gather next to the bodies of Palestinian men who secured aid convoys in Gaza, after they were killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza City, 20 March 2024
Middle East Eye reports on 20 March 2024:
Israeli forces have stepped up targeted killings of Palestinian police officers and civilians coordinating food distribution in the Gaza Strip, where famine is looming.
An Israeli air strike on Tuesday killed 23 people at the Kuwait roundabout in Gaza City as they were preparing to receive an aid convoy. Those killed were members of people’s committees formed recently by tribal leaders to organise aid distribution, including the head of the “emergency committee” in west Gaza City, Amjad Abhat.
Israeli forces also killed two police officers on Tuesday. Raed al-Banna was killed in Jabalia and Mahmoud al-Bayoumi in the central Nuseirat refugee camp. The officers were in charge of securing aid centres and trucks. Bayoumi, head of the Nuseirat police department, was killed along with four other people when a car was bombed outside an UNRWA building.
Another police officer, Faiq Mabhouh, was killed by Israeli forces on Monday, during the raid on al-Shifa hospital. Mabhouh, the director-general of Gaza’s police operations, was credited for the recent coordination between local leaders and UNRWA to secure and distribute aid coming from the south.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces also increased the bombing of aid centres and warehouses in recent days. According to the Gaza-based government media office, at least 100 aid seekers and workers have been killed in such attacks over the past week. The media office accused Israel of attempting to “perpetuate the policy of starvation and deepen the famine” in Gaza.
Hamas condemned the targeting of local committees working on aid distribution, calling it an attempt to “spread chaos”.
Efforts to organise aid undermined
The latest killings come after tribal leaders worked with police to stop the unorganised entry of aid trucks into northern Gaza. In recent months, Israeli forces have killed over 400 Palestinians in northern Gaza as they gathered to collect aid from trucks arriving from the south.
To stop the killing of aid seekers, tribal leaders formed a “people’s protection committee” that ensured the safe delivery of aid into northern Gaza over the weekend. Over two dozen aid trucks entered Gaza City on Saturday and Sunday, reaching isolated areas in the north for the first time in months.