According to local sources, thousands of citizens gathered on al-Rashid road in western Gaza at dawn waiting for trucks carrying food aid, but upon the arrival of the trucks, Israeli tanks showered them with projectiles and bullets, killing and injuring hundreds of them.

According to medical sources, the initial toll of the massacre was over 150 martyrs and 1000 wounded people, many seriously.

Eyewitnesses, who survived the horrific massacre, said that Israeli tanks directly targeted them with shells and bullets when they gathered around the trucks that brought aid and flour sacks.

They added that many others were shot at and bombed as they started carrying flour sacks.

Hundreds were evacuated to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, whose medical crew are facing difficulties in providing assistance for the large numbers of casualties.

In a related context, the Government Media Office (GMO) in Gaza called for intensifying airdrops of aid into the northern areas of Gaza.

GMO head Ismail al-Thawabta said that dozens of civilians were martyred when the Israeli army attacked them as they gathered to receive aid.

Thawabta affirmed that there are a lot of aid-laden trucks stranded on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border area.

He urged the Egyptian authorities to open the crossing in order to allow in those trucks and transfer 11,000 wounded civilians and 10,000 cancer patients to hospitals abroad, adding that those injured and sick citizens are in serious condition and need urgent medical treatment.

“Every day we lose a number of wounded and sick people due to the absence of medical services and fuel,” he pointed out. (ILKHA)