At least 31 Palestinians were reported killed and more than 170 wounded as crowds travelled toward a food distribution point in southern Gaza, according to health officials and witnesses. The circumstances of the early-morning violence near Rafah remained disputed, with Israel’s military and the organisation operating the aid site rejecting claims that civilians were fired upon at or near the facility.
The International Committee of the Red Cross provided the clearest independently attributed account of the medical emergency. Its Rafah field hospital received 179 patients, including women and children, and declared 21 dead on arrival. Most of the patients had gunshot or shrapnel injuries, the ICRC said, and all told staff they had been trying to reach an aid distribution site. The influx was the largest single arrival of weapon-wounded patients at the field hospital since it opened more than a year earlier.
Gaza health officials reported a higher total of 31 dead and more than 200 casualties reaching hospitals. The supplied reporting did not establish whether the ICRC’s 21 deaths were entirely included in that count. Doctors at Nasser Hospital described treating large numbers of people with bullet or shrapnel wounds.
Several witnesses told reporters that Israeli forces opened fire before dawn when thousands of people approached the distribution area. The Associated Press placed the crowd about one kilometre from the site around 3 a.m. One Israeli military official said troops had instead fired warning shots at people described as suspects who were advancing toward them.
The Israel Defense Forces said an initial inquiry found that its troops had not fired at civilians while they were near or inside the aid centre. It also published drone footage that it said showed masked, armed people firing toward civilians in Khan Younis. Neither the AP nor the BBC could independently verify the footage, and the recording was associated with a different location from the reported Rafah incident.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the US- and Israeli-backed operator of the distribution system, said its deliveries proceeded without incident. It reported distributing 16 truckloads of aid early Sunday and said its private security contractors had not fired on crowds. Independent media access to the sites, which lie within Israeli military zones, was unavailable.
The competing statements left crucial questions unanswered: who fired, exactly where the casualties were struck and how the reported totals overlap. What was supported across the supplied accounts was a major medical emergency involving people seeking food, severe pressure on nearby hospitals and a death toll of at least 21 verified through the Red Cross field hospital’s intake. The broader figure of 31 remained attributed to Gaza health authorities rather than presented as independently confirmed.
