Israeli airstrikes kill journalists as Australia backs Palestinian statehood

Deir al-Balah: Israeli ground and air strikes hit northern and southern Gaza on Monday, killing aid-seekers as well as others sheltering in tents and homes as Israeli troops prepared for a broader campaign in the besieged territory.

Hospital officials reported that at least 34 people were killed on Monday, not including journalists who were slain in a tent shortly before midnight.

Among the dead were at least 12 aid seekers killed by Israeli gunfire while trying to reach distribution points, or awaiting aid convoys.

Relatives told The Associated Press that casualties included children and an infant. Witnesses to gunfire near the Morag corridor said they saw barrages of bullets and later dead bodies, describing the grim scene as a near-daily occurrence.

The military did not immediately respond to questions about the deaths. Earlier Monday, it said air and artillery units were operating in northern Gaza and in Khan Younis, where resident Noha Abu Shamala told AP that two drone strikes killed a family of seven in their apartment.

Aid seekers were killed from three kilometers (nearly two miles) to just hundreds of meters (yards) from sites operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, according to Nasser and Awda hospitals.

GHF is the private contractor backed by the United States and Israel that in May replaced the United Nations as the territory’s primary aid distributor. It said it was unaware of incidents in the Israeli-controlled security zones leading to its sites in central and southern Gaza.

The latest deaths raise the toll to more than 1,700 people killed while seeking food since the new aid distribution system began in May, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Most were shot along routes to distribution sites, but in recent weeks more have been killed near food convoys delivered by the United Nations.

UN agencies generally do not accept Israeli military escorts for their aid trucks, citing concerns over neutrality, and its convoys have come under fire amid severe food shortages in the blockaded territory.

On Monday, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese added his country to a list moving toward recognition, along with France, Britain and Canada.

Israel’s military targeted and killed an Al Jazeera correspondent and others with an airstrike late Sunday in Gaza, after press advocates said an Israeli “smear campaign” stepped up when Anas al-Sharif cried on air over starvation in the territory.

Both Israel and hospital officials in Gaza City confirmed the deaths of al-Sharif and colleagues, which the Committee to Protect Journalists and others described as retribution against those documenting the war in Gaza. Israel’s military asserted that al-Sharif had led a Hamas cell — an allegation that Al Jazeera and al-Sharif previously dismissed as baseless.

It was the first time during the 22-month war that Israel’s military swiftly claimed responsibility after a journalist was killed in a strike. Observers have called this the deadliest conflict for journalists in modern times.

Officials at Shifa Hospital said those killed while sheltering outside Gaza City’s largest hospital complex also included Al Jazeera correspondent Mohamed Qreiqeh. The strike also killed four other journalists and two other people, hospital administrative director Rami Mohanna told The Associated Press.

The strike damaged the entrance to the hospital complex’s emergency building.

The airstrike came less than a year after Israeli army officials first accused al-Sharif and other Al Jazeera journalists of being members of the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad. In a July 24 video, Israel’s army spokesperson Avichay Adraee attacked Al Jazeera and accused al-Sharif of being part of Hamas’ military wing.

Al Jazeera called the strike a “targeted assassination” and accused Israeli officials of incitement, connecting al-Sharif’s death to the allegations that both the network and correspondent had denied.

“Anas and his colleagues were among the last remaining voices from within Gaza, providing the world with unfiltered, on-the-ground coverage of the devastating realities endured by its people,” the Qatari network said in a statement.