Headlines in recent days have been dominated by Israel’s unprecedented attack on Iran, which has killed hundreds of people – including high-ranking commanders, prominent scientists and civilians – since last Friday.
However, even as the bombs rain down across Iran, Israel has continued its attacks on the Gaza Strip.
After 20 months, Gaza has been reduced to rubble, more than 55,700 Palestinians have been killed and the entire population displaced.
Some have raised concerns that the world’s attention has been pulled away from the mounting destruction in Gaza by Israel’s attack on Iran and the geopolitical fallout.
Middle East Eye takes a look at a week of war in the Gaza Strip:
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Monday – death toll: 20
Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli troops killed 20 people waiting to collect food on 16 June.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that “the (Israeli) occupation forces opened fire” near the al-Alam roundabout in the southern city of Rafah, where many were waiting to reach an aid distribution site.
Bassal said that “twenty martyrs and more than 200 wounded by occupation gunfire” were taken to nearby hospitals.
Ahmed al-Farra, head of the paediatric department at Nasser Hospital in the nearby city of Khan Younis, told AFP that people “are hungry, they didn’t get any food since nearly four months ago”.
Tuesday – death toll: 80
Israeli forces killed at least 80 Palestinians and wounded hundreds in two attacks at US-run aid distribution centres in the southern Gaza Strip, eyewitnesses told Middle East Eye.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, approximately 30 people were killed in the al-Alam area of Rafah, while the death toll rose to nearly 50 in the al-Tahlia area of Khan Younis.
The attacks occurred as residents gathered at aid distribution points, where they came under artillery shelling from Israeli forces.
Wednesday – death toll: 33
At least 33 people were killed in Israeli fire across the Gaza Strip, including aid seekers.
Bassal, the civil defence spokesman, told AFP that 11 people were killed and more than 100 wounded “after the occupation forces opened fire and launched several shells… at thousands of citizens” who had gathered to queue for food in central Gaza.
Thursday – death toll: 72
Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 72 people, including 21 who had gathered near aid distribution sites.
Bassal said that six people were killed while waiting for aid in the southern Gaza Strip and 15 others in a central area known as the Netzarim corridor, an Israeli-controlled strip of land that bisects the Palestinian territory.
Friday – death toll: 60
Gaza’s civil defence agency said 31 Palestinian aid seekers were among at least 60 people killed by Israeli forces.
The civil defence said five people were killed while waiting for aid in the southern Gaza Strip and 26 others near the Netzarim corridor, where thousands of Palestinians have gathered daily in the hope of receiving food rations.
