Israeli forces kill 60 Palestinians across Gaza

• UN agencies shun US-led aid agency over Israeli link
• 40pc of water production facilities remain functional in Gaza: UN
• Israel included in UN blacklist for violations against children

Gaza's civil defence agency said 31 Palestinian aid seekers were among at least 60 people killed yesterday by Israeli forces, the latest in a string of deadly incidents near aid distribution sites.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that five people were killed while waiting for aid in the southern Gaza Strip and 26 others near a central area known as the Netzarim corridor, an Israeli-controlled strip of land that bisects the Palestinian territory.

Thousands of Palestinians have gathered there daily in the hope of receiving food rations, as famine looms across Gaza after more than 20 months of war.

The Israeli army told AFP that its troops in the Netzarim area had first fired "warning shots" at "suspects" approaching them. When the individuals continued advancing, "an aircraft struck and eliminated the suspects in order to remove the threat," the army said.

Similar incidents have occurred in that area regularly since late May, when the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation opened its distribution centres, as Israel eased a two-month aid blocakde.

The privately run foundation's operations in Gaza have been marred by chaotic scenes. UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with it over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.

Meanwhile, the United Nations has kept Israel on its "blacklist" of countries committing abuses against children in armed conflict for a second straight year, as its war on Gaza continues for nearly 20 months.

The listing on Thursday came as the UN said in a new report that violence against children in conflict zones reached "unprecedented levels" in 2024, with the highest number of violations committed in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank by the Israeli army.

Elsewhere in the territory yesterday, Bassal said 14 people were killed in two separate strikes in and around the central city of Deir el-Balah, and 13 others in three Israeli air strikes in the Gaza City area.

One of those strikes, which killed three people, hit a phone charging station in the city, Bassal said. In southern Gaza, two people were killed "by Israeli gunfire" in two separate incidents, he added.

Gaza is facing a man-made drought as its water systems collapse, the United Nations' children agency warned yesterday.

"Children will begin to die of thirst ... Just 40% of drinking water production facilities remain functional," Unicef spokesperson James Elder told reporters in Geneva.

"We are way below emergency standards in terms of drinking water for people in Gaza," he added.

Unicef also reported a 50 percent increase in children aged six months to 5 years admitted for treatment of malnutrition from April to May in Gaza, and half a million people going hungry.