Israel kills 72 in latest Gaza strikes as 549 aid seekers killed in a month

The death toll from the latest Israeli attacks across the besieged territory has now risen to 72, ARY News reported quoting Al Jazeera sources .

The number of deaths in the last 24 hours includes Palestinians who were reportedly killed while waiting for food aid.

Gaza’s Government Media Office says at least 549 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces while trying to access humanitarian supplies in the past four weeks, and a further 4,066 were injured at or near US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid distribution sites.

On the other hand, Israel has stopped aid from entering northern Gaza but is still allowing it to enter from the south, two officials said on Thursday after images circulated of masked men on aid trucks who clan leaders said were protecting aid, not Hamas stealing it.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a joint statement with Defense Minister Israel Katz, said late on Wednesday that he had ordered the military to present a plan within two days to prevent Hamas from taking control of aid.

They cited new unspecified information indicating that Hamas was seizing aid intended for civilians in northern Gaza. A video circulating on Wednesday showed dozens of masked men, some armed with rifles but most carrying sticks, riding on aid trucks.

Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer told reporters that aid was continuing to enter from the south but did not specify whether any supplies were entering in the north.

The U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which operates aid distribution sites in southern and central Gaza, said on X that it was the only humanitarian organization permitted on Thursday to distribute food in Gaza.

A spokesperson said the foundation was exempt from a two-day suspension of humanitarian aid deliveries into the territory.

The Israeli prime minister’s office and the defense ministry did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

The Higher Commission for Tribal Affairs, which represents influential clans in Gaza, said that trucks had been protected as part of an aid security process managed “solely through tribal efforts”. The commission said that no Palestinian faction, a reference to Hamas, had taken part in the process.

Hamas, the fighting group that has ruled Gaza for more than two decades but now controls only parts of the territory after nearly two years of war with Israel, denied any involvement.

Throughout the war, numerous clans, civil society groups and factions – including Hamas’ secular political rival Fatah – have stepped in to help provide security for the aid convoys.

Clans made up of extended families connected through blood and marriage have long been a fundamental part of Gazan society.