Israeli fire and air strikes killed at least 79 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on June 14, according to local health authorities, with 15 of the dead reported near an aid distribution site operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in central Gaza.
Medics at al-Awda and Al-Aqsa hospitals in central Gaza said the 15 were killed as they tried to reach the aid site near the Netzarim Corridor. The rest of the casualties were reported in separate attacks across the enclave, including areas already under displacement pressure and severe food shortages.
The Gaza Ministry of Health said more than 274 people had been killed and more than 2,000 wounded near aid distribution sites since the GHF began operating the previous month. Palestinian officials said the repeated casualties showed that people searching for food had become exposed to deadly fire while trying to reach assistance.
The GHF said its sites were closed on June 14, but witnesses told reporters that thousands of people had gathered around them anyway because families were desperate for food after months of restrictions and shortages. The aid system, backed by the United States and Israel, has been criticised by the United Nations, which says it is not impartial or neutral.
Israel and the United States say the arrangement is meant to replace the UN-run aid network. They have accused Hamas of diverting assistance, while UN officials say there is no evidence of significant diversion and that the new model cannot meet the scale of need. Palestinian officials and aid groups argue that the system has militarised food distribution by forcing people to travel long distances and concentrate around guarded sites.
The violence came as Israel also ordered residents of several communities in southern Gaza to move west towards what it described as a humanitarian zone, saying it would act against militant groups in the area. The United Nations says most of Gaza is now under military zone declarations, displacement orders, or overlapping restrictions.
The broader war has left Gaza’s population of more than two million people facing mass displacement and widespread malnutrition. By the date in the row, Gaza health authorities said more than 55,290 Palestinians had been killed since the war began, most of them civilians.
The June 14 deaths highlight how tightly the war, hunger and aid access have become linked. The evidence in this packet supports the casualty figures reported by Gaza health officials and medics, and the descriptions of the aid system and displacement conditions that framed the day’s attacks.
