Israeli Tank Shot Kills 12 People In Gaza Refugee Tent

Families were evacuated from Deir Al-Balah in the Gaza Strip/UNRWA PHOTO

JAKARTA - Shots from Israeli tanks killed 12 Palestinians and injured dozens more in a tent camp in western Gaza City.

As reported by Reuters on Tuesday, July 22, medics said tanks stationed north of the Sahati camp fired two bullets into tents housing refugee families, killing 12 people.

It was previously reported that Israeli tanks entered the southern and eastern regions of the city of Deir Al-Balah in Gaza for the first time on Monday.

Deir Al-Balah became an area where Israeli sources said the military believed some of the remaining hostages might still be held.

Gaza medics said three Palestinians were killed and several others injured in a tank shooting that hit eight houses and three mosques in the region, a day after the military ordered residents to leave, citing planning to fight Hamas militants.

The attacks and bombings prompted dozens of remaining families to evacuate and head west to the coastal areas of Deir Al-Balah and nearby Khan Younis.

In Khan Younis, Israeli airstrikes killed five people, including a man, his wife, and their two children, in a tent, medics said.

International Criticism

Britain and more than 20 other countries on Monday called for an immediate end to the war in Gaza. The countries criticized the model of distributing aid to the Israeli government after hundreds of Palestinians died near the location of the distribution of aid.

France, Italy, Japan, Australia, Canada, Denmark, and other countries said more than 800 Palestinians had died while seeking help and condemned what they called the gradual aid and inhumane killing of civilians.

The majority of the dead were in the vicinity of the GazaHumanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is supported by the United States and Israel to take over aid distribution in Gaza from a network led by the United Nations (UN).

"The model of distributing aid to the Israeli government is dangerous, triggers instability, and robs the human dignity of Gazans," the foreign ministers of the two countries said in a joint statement reported by Reuters, Monday, July 21.

Calls to end the war and the way Israel channel aid comes from several countries allied with Israel and its most important supporter, the United States.

The GHF uses US private security and logistics companies to deliver supplies to Gaza, most of which go through a UN-led system accused by Israel has allowed Hamas-led militants to loot aid shipments aimed at civilians. Hamas denies the allegations.

The United Nations called the GHF model unsafe and violated humanitarian imparity standards, but GHF denied them.