GAZA: The Gaza health authority on Thursday said 103 Palestinians were killed by Zionist fire and 400 wounded in the past 24 hours across the battered enclave — including 21 people killed near the US- and Zionist-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites. The Zionist offensive has killed at least 55,207 people, the majority of them civilians. Separately, at least eight Palestinians who worked for the organization died in an ambush, the GHF said on Thursday, blaming Hamas for the killings that rocked the troubled food distribution operation.

A bus carrying about two dozen GHF workers was raked with gunfire on Wednesday night as it headed to an aid center in southern Gaza, the foundation said, adding that many of its staff were injured and some might have been kidnapped. Social media channels in Gaza said Hamas had targeted the bus because it was allegedly carrying GHF workers tied to Yasser Abu Shabab, the leader of a large clan that has challenged Hamas’ supremacy in the enclave and is being armed by the Zionist entity.

The Zionist foreign ministry alleged “Hamas is weaponizing suffering in Gaza – denying food, targeting lifesavers and forsaking its own people.” When contacted by AFP to respond to the GHF accusation, the Hamas government media office in Gaza told AFP that GHF was a “filthy tool” of Zionist forces and was being used to “lure civilians into death traps”.

Abu Shabab released a statement on his Facebook page denouncing images posted on social media showing Gazans allegedly killed by Hamas and as it seeks to maintain power. “Rumors of executions and killings are being spread by the corrupt, mercenaries and criminals of Hamas in an attempt to sow fear in the hearts of those who seek change and liberation from terrorism, oppression, and its unjust rule,” he said.

The Zionist military said it was continuing to target Hamas fighters in Gaza, killing three fighters who fired an anti-tank missile towards its soldiers, and hitting a building near a medical center that it said was being used to make weapons. It also said it had arrested several Hamas members in Syria overnight, accusing them of planning to attack Zionists.

Despite the bus attack, GHF said it handed out 2.6 million meals on Thursday — a daily record since it started operations in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of food distribution that the United Nations says is deeply flawed. “This model will not address the deepening hunger. The dystopian ‘Hunger Games’ cannot become the new reality,” Philippe Lazzarini, the chief of the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), wrote on X.

“The UN including @UNRWA has the knowledge, expertise & community trust to provide dignified & safe assistance. Just let the humanitarians do their jobs,” he added. The Zionist entity has repeatedly called for UNRWA to be disbanded, accusing it of having ties with Hamas. UNRWA has denied this. Gaza’s health ministry says more than 180 people have been killed by Zionist fire near the aid centers over the past three weeks, as the aid effort repeatedly degenerated into chaos and terror with locals scrabbling for limited supplies.

Gaza medics have said hospitals are being inundated with people wounded while trying to obtain food. At Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital on Wednesday, the emergency department said it had received dozens of people who had been killed or wounded while waiting for aid in recent days, including 200 in a single day. “Many Gazans went to the Nabulsi and Netzarim areas to receive aid and were shot at and shelled with tanks,” said Mutaz Harara, head of Al-Shifa’s emergency department. But with few medical supplies and no operating theatres, “many patients died while waiting for their turn”, he said.

The war has caused major damage to infrastructure across Gaza, including water mains, telecommunication cables, power lines and roads. The Palestinian Authority said Internet and fixed-line communication services were down in Gaza on Thursday following an attack on the territory’s last fiber optic cable, which it blamed on the Zionist entity. The Palestinian Red Crescent said the outage was affecting its emergency response by impeding communication with first responders.

Meanwhile, an NGO representing activists detained aboard a boat attempting to breach the Zionist blockade of Gaza said six were en route to the airport for deportation. Egyptian authorities meanwhile detained more than 200 pro-Palestinian activists in Cairo ahead of a planned march to the Gaza border, the organizers said. – Agencies