Ten Palestinian civilians were killed on Monday in an Israeli airstrike targeting an aid distribution warehouse in the al-Zaytoun neighbourhood, south of Gaza City. This brings the death toll since dawn to 27, in what marks another escalation of attacks on humanitarian aid points, which have increasingly become military targets in recent weeks.
Medical sources report that direct strikes on aid depots and distribution centres have become a repeated pattern, with hundreds killed in recent days while attempting to access food or water.
This strike is part of a wider, systematic targeting of civilians at a time when famine is spreading and both healthcare infrastructure and basic services in Gaza are collapsing under siege.
Since late May, aid distribution zones—monitored directly by Israeli forces—have become scenes of mass casualties. Reports accuse Israel of weaponising access to aid as a means of controlling and restricting civilian movement, rather than providing humanitarian relief. Over 550 Palestinians have reportedly been killed near such sites, either by airstrikes or live fire as they gathered to seek food.
This form of targeting—killing unarmed civilians waiting for aid—constitutes a grave violation of international humanitarian law, which prohibits the use of starvation as a method of warfare and protects humanitarian facilities from attack.
Furthermore, the deliberate imposition of conditions calculated to bring about physical or mental destruction may amount to genocide, according to the 1948 Genocide Convention—particularly when accompanied by systematic targeting of a civilian population.
Since the beginning of the war in September 2023, at least 189,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured, the majority women and children. Over 11,000 are missing, their fates unknown beneath the rubble or in untraceable circumstances. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced across Gaza, a territory of just 360 square kilometres, now experiencing near-total devastation.
The basic requirements for life have collapsed. Over 95% of Gaza’s water is undrinkable, electricity and fuel supplies have been cut off for months, and hospitals lack both equipment and medication, with the emergency health system in complete failure.
This is no longer a conventional conflict—it has become a campaign of systematic destruction aimed at depopulating Gaza and dismantling its social, psychological, and economic foundations. The bombings make no distinction between homes, schools, hospitals, or aid centres. Gaza is being rendered uninhabitable, in blatant violation of every international convention designed to protect civilian life.
The attack on the al-Zaytoun warehouse is yet another episode in an ongoing series of war crimes. These acts demand international accountability. The continued inaction of the global community only enables further atrocities—no longer merely against land, but against life itself in all its forms.
