• Hamas accuses Tel Aviv of turning aid centres into traps of mass deaths
• Egypt blocks activists’ bid to march to Gaza border

CAIRO: Israeli firing and air strikes killed at least 45 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, many of them near an aid distribution site operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation on Saturday, local health authorities said.

Medics at Al-Awda and Al-Aqsa Hospitals in central Gaza areas, where most of the casualties were moved to, said at least 15 people were killed as they tried to approach the GHF aid distribution site near the Netzarim corridor.

The Israeli army said in a statement that an aircraft had opened fire on a person “to neutralise the threat” after he advanced towards troops and ignored warning shots fired near a group.

Last week, the army warned Palestinians not to approach routes leading to sites of the GHF between 6pm and 6am local time, describing these roads as closed military zones. The GHF said none of its distribution centres was opened on Saturday.

The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May after Israel partially lifted a near three-month total blockade. Scores of Palestinians have been killed in near daily mass shootings trying to reach the food.

The United Nations rejects the Israeli-backed new distribution system as inadequate, dangerous, and a violation of humanitarian impartiality principles.

“None of our distribution sites were open today, and there were no incidents at our sites because they were closed,” the GHF said in a written response to Reuters about Saturday’s incident.

The Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Saturday that at least 274 people have so far been killed, and more than 2,000 wounded, near aid distribution sites since the GHF began operations in Gaza.

Hamas, which denies Israeli charges that it steals aid, accused Israel of “employing hunger as a weapon of war and turning aid distribution sites into traps of mass deaths of innocent civilians.”

Health officials at Shifa Hospital in Gaza said Israeli fire killed at least 12 Palestinians, who gathered to wait for aid trucks along the coastal road north of the strip.

The Israeli military ordered residents of Khan Younis and the nearby towns of Abassan and Bani Suhaila in the southern Gaza Strip to leave their homes and head west towards a so-called humanitarian zone, saying it would forcefully work against “terror organisations” in the area.

March to Gaza border

Meanwhile, Egyptian authorities have blocked activists’ efforts to hold a march to the Gaza border to draw attention to Israel’s blockade of the war-torn Palestinian territory, organisers said Saturday.

Several dozen activists hoping to join the planned Global March to Gaza were stopped on the edge of Cairo as they attempted to reach the Suez Canal city of Ismailiya, the organisers said.

From there they had hoped to travel on by road to the North Sinai city of El-Arish, the starting point for their planned march to the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing on the Gaza border.

Most of the activists were ordered onto buses back to the capital after several hours of questioning, but some remained in custody on Saturday, the organisers said.

“We were blocked for six to seven hours before security forces violently dispersed our group,” one organiser said.

At least one activist was expelled from Egypt, several sources said, adding to dozens more denied entry or expelled in the run-up.

Egyptian authorities have not commented on the reported expulsions.

The foreign ministry had warned that while Egypt backs efforts to put “pressure on Israel” to lift its Gaza blockade, any foreign delegations intending to visit the border area must obtain prior permission.

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2025