The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said today, Thursday, that Israeli occupation forces targeted thousands of Palestinian civilians who were waiting for aid in the Gaza Governorate, killing at least 70 of them and injuring about 600 others, after targeting them with artillery shells and direct gunfire.

The Euro-Mediterranean added in a press statement that its field team documented the occupation committing a bloody massacre when Israeli tanks fired shells and direct fire this morning towards thousands of hungry civilians who had been waiting for hours for aid trucks near the Nabulsi roundabout on Al-Rashid Street southwest of Gaza.

It confirmed that the shelling and gunfire operation targeted Palestinian civilians as soon as the trucks carrying the aid arrived, and dozens were martyred after climbing onto the trucks in an attempt to take a bag of flour, and dozens were targeted while carrying a bag of flour or a carton containing canned food to feed their family members exhausted by hunger.

The Euro-Mediterranean monitor's researcher at Al-Shifa Hospital said that hundreds of the injured and martyrs arrived at the hospital, which is operating at partial capacity, confirming that there are not enough medical staff and there is a large crowding; citizens had to deal with the wounded and try to provide first aid amid a catastrophic and painful situation, affirming that hundreds of martyrs and injured are on "karats" and some of them have a bag of flour that was mixed with blood.

The monitor quoted Saeed Thabet Salem Al-Rifi as saying: We went to get aid to receive flour at the sea, they fired at us at 4:30 am today. As soon as the trucks arrived and people advanced towards them, firing started from all directions; it became a massacre. If they were going to shoot at us, why do they fire at us from several directions? The injustice that is happening, I got a bag of flour to feed my family of 11 members, and my companion was killed. I waited from 2 pm yesterday until 6 am today.

The Euro-Mediterranean confirmed that the mass killing operations of hungry civilians come at a time when Israeli forces continue attempts to empty Gaza and its northern part of residents who remain there, by sending them messages that aid is only in the Muwassi area, and by continuing starvation and using it as a weapon in the bloody war.

It warned that Israel deliberately deepens the catastrophic starvation crisis for all residents of the Gaza Strip by depriving them of indispensable materials necessary for their survival in a severe and continuous manner, and by preventing and obstructing the entry and distribution of humanitarian supplies, especially in Gaza City and northern Gaza, aiming to push residents to forced displacement from their areas as part of the ongoing genocide in the Strip since October 7.

The Euro-Mediterranean monitor documented testimonials from residents in Gaza City and its northern areas about receiving phone calls from the Israeli army during the past days, explicitly and clearly asking them to move to central and southern Gaza Strip to obtain food and water and avoid dying of hunger.

According to the testimonials, the recorded messages the residents received included the Israeli army saying it is still active strongly in their areas while allowing the entry of humanitarian aid in the Muwassi area in the southern sector, demanding that they move to that area to get the aid.

According to the Euro-Mediterranean follow-up, humanitarian supplies entering the Gaza Strip in this February decreased by 50% compared to January despite the huge increasing needs of more than 2.3 million people living in miserable living conditions.

The Euro-Mediterranean highlighted the continued decline in the pace of entering humanitarian aid trucks, and undermining mechanisms of their protection and ways of distribution, as a main tool through which Israel carries out its endeavor to deliberately subject the Palestinians of the Strip to living conditions intended to physically eliminate them, as well as to complete its plans to empty Gaza City and northern areas of the Gaza Strip of residents, and to forcibly displace them southward under the pressure of military attacks, threats and intimidation, starvation policy, and maintaining aid levels disproportionate to the huge needs.

The monitor held the United Nations and the international community responsible for their failure so far to ensure appropriate mechanisms for delivering humanitarian aid to relieve the hungry, stressing that they bear responsibility for complicity in the killings and starvation targeting hundreds of thousands of civilians.

The monitor called on all countries to open a direct air bridge to the Gaza Strip, carry out intensive and daily air drops covering all areas of the Strip, especially Gaza City and northern Gaza, and participate in confronting and protecting against Israeli plans aimed at forcibly displacing Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, a matter repeatedly warned about by countries, especially neighboring Arab countries, since the beginning of the recent Israeli military aggression on the Strip.