UN chief decries alleged Israeli killings of at least 51 Palestinians waiting for food aid

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres slammed as "unacceptable" the killings and injuries suffered by scores of Gazans who were seeking food aid, a spokesperson said on June 17, at what are supposed to be safe distribution sites.

"The secretary-general condemns the loss of lives and injuries of civilians in Gaza who are once again being shot at while seeking food," said Farhan Haq, Guterres' deputy spokesman, was quoted as saying by Wafa News Agency.

Early June 17, the Israeli army allegedly killed at least 51 Palestinians waiting for aid in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, health authorities there said. More than 200 others were also injured, including 20 critically, in the Israeli attack near the Al-Tahlia roundabout also in Khan Younis.

The authorities said that hospitals were overwhelmed with the large number of casualties, with emergency rooms operating beyond capacity.

The incident was the latest in a series of mass deaths of aid-seeking Palestinians in recent weeks, including near sites operated by the United States-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). On June 16, at least 23 people were killed by Israeli gunfire as they approached a GHF aid distribution site in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Israeli authorities denied several humanitarian movements. Seven out of 17 attempts to coordinate such movements were denied on June 16, including for trucking water and removing solid waste.

Haq emphasized the need to restore "immediate, widespread, and unhindered" humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip" and the "need to allow the UN and all humanitarian actors to operate safely and in full respect of humanitarian principles".

The Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network warned on June 17 that the GHF "posed a threat" to thousands of Gazans as it was "partnering with the (Israeli) occupation in targeting and killing civilians", Xinhua News Agency reported.

In an open letter to the European Union leaders on Gaza, Christos Christou, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) International president, and Christopher Lockyear, MSF secretary general, noted that for more than 20 months, Israeli authorities and forces "have inflicted a punishing campaign against Palestinians in Gaza".

"On a daily basis MSF teams witness patterns consistent with genocide through deliberate actions by Israeli forces – including mass killings, the destruction of vital civilian infrastructure, and blockades choking off access to food, water, medicines, and other essential humanitarian supplies. Israel is systematically destroying the conditions necessary for Palestinian life," said the letter.

The MSF officials noted that since October 2023, healthcare has been "consistently under attack" where MSF staff and patients have been "forced to leave at least 18 different health structures and have endured 50 violent incidents".

"Many European governments have spoken about the appalling atrocities we see Israel perpetuate in Gaza, yet they continue sending the weapons that kill our patients and colleagues. Governments must end their complicity in this campaign of ethnic cleansing," the letter said.

In another statement published on June 17 by the co-Chairs of the UN High-Level International Conference on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, France and Saudi Arabia — and the Co-Chairs of its Working Groups, they called for upholding international law.

The statement, which was published by the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs on X, was part of what was supposed to be a two-state conference that got postponed on June 17, following Israel's so-called "pre-emptive" strikes on Iran on June 13 which are believed to violate international law. The two nations have since been locked in days of military strikes.

The latest Iran-Israel conflict has overshadowed the ongoing humanitarian situation in Gaza where Israeli blockade has pushed Palestinians to famine and destitution.

In the statement, co-chairs Saudi Arabia and France, as well as the working groups, expressed their deep concern over the recent developments and continued escalation in the region, which has "regrettably necessitated the decision to suspend the UN High-Level International Conference on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution".

"These events are a stark reminder of the fragility of the current situation and the urgent need to restore calm, uphold international law and reinvigorate diplomacy," the statement read. It added that they remained resolute in their shared determination to "support all efforts to bring an end to the war in Gaza" and would announce the convening of the meeting "at the soonest possible opportunity".