CAIRO — Israeli forces killed at least 67 people in Gaza on Monday with airstrikes that left 30 dead at a seaside cafe and gunfire that left 22 others dead as Palestinians tried to get desperately needed food aid, witnesses, hospital and health officials said.
One airstrike hit the Al-Baqa Cafe in Gaza City when it was crowded with women and children, said Ali Abu Ateila, who was inside.
“Without a warning, all of a sudden, a warplane hit the place, shaking it like an earthquake,” he said.
At least 30 people were killed and dozens were wounded, said Fares Awad, head of the Health Ministry’s emergency and ambulance service in northern Gaza. Mr. Awad said many of the wounded were in critical condition. Two other strikes on a Gaza City street killed 15 people, according to Shifa Hospital, which received the casualties.
The cafe, one of the few businesses to continue operating during the 20-month war, was a gathering spot for residents seeking internet access and a place to charge their phones. Videos circulating on social media showed bloodied and disfigured bodies on the ground and the wounded being carried away in blankets.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces killed 11 people who had been seeking food in southern Gaza, according to witnesses, hospitals, and Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis said it received the bodies of people shot while returning from an aid site associated with the Israeli and U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund. It was part of a deadly pattern that has killed more than 500 Palestinians in the chaotic and controversial aid distribution program over the past month.
Nasser Hospital said another person was killed near a GHF hub in the southern city of Rafah.
Ten others were killed at a United Nations aid warehouse in northern Gaza, according to the Health Ministry’s ambulance and emergency service.
One witness, Monzer Hisham Ismail said troops attacked the crowds while returning from the GHF hub in Khan Younis.
“We were returning from the American aid hub … we were targeted by (the Israeli) artillery,” he said.
The Israeli military said it was reviewing information about the attacks. In the past, the military has said it fires warning shots at people who move suspiciously or get too close to troops, including while collecting aid.
Israel wants the GHF to replace a system coordinated by the United Nations and international aid groups. Along with the United States, Israel has accused the militant Hamas group of stealing aid and using it to prop up its rule in the enclave. The U.N. denies there is systematic diversion of aid.
The Israeli military said it had recently taken steps to improve organization in the area, including the installation of new fencing, signage and the opening of additional routes to access aid.
Israel says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, accusing the militants of hiding among civilians because they operate in populated areas.
The strikes in Gaza City came as the military intensified its bombardment campaign across the city and the nearby Jabaliya refugee camp. On Sunday and Monday, Israel issued widespread evacuation orders for large swaths of northern Gaza.
Israel is also dealing with a spike in domestic unrest, Dozens of Israeli settlers rampaged Sunday around a military base in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, setting fires, vandalizing military vehicles, spraying graffiti and attacking soldiers, the military said.
Sunday night’s unrest came after several attacks in the West Bank carried out by Jewish settlers and anger at their arrests by security forces attempting to contain the violence over the past few days.
More than 100 settlers on Wednesday evening entered the West Bank town of Kfar Malik, setting property ablaze and opening fire on Palestinians who tried to stop them, Najeb Rostom, head of the local council, said. Three Palestinians were killed after the military intervened. Israeli security forces arrested five settlers.
