A man reacts at the site of an Israeli strike targeting a house in Gaza City, on June 7, 2025. (Credit: Ebrahim Hajjaj / Reuters)
Gaza Civil Defense reported that at least 36 people were killed on Saturday by Israeli forces at various locations, six of them near a U.S.-supported aid center, with the army reporting warning shots fired at “suspects.”
Israeli forces also announced on Saturday that during a special operation in Gaza, they recovered the body of a Thai hostage who had been abducted during the bloody attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, in Israel, which triggered the war.
After 20 months of hostilities, Israel faces international pressure to end the war in Gaza, where the humanitarian situation is disastrous. The United Nations has warned of famine due to restrictions imposed by Israel on aid.
The Israeli army intensified its offensive in mid-May with the stated goal of freeing the last hostages from Oct. 7, taking full control of the territory, and annihilating Hamas, which has been in power in Gaza since 2007. Of the 251 people kidnapped, 55 are still held in the Gaza Strip, of whom at least 31 have died, according to Israeli authorities. Hamas also holds the body of an Israeli soldier killed during a previous war in Gaza in 2014.
‘Danger’
On Saturday around 7:00 a.m., “six people were killed and several others wounded by the Israeli occupation forces near the Alam roundabout,” where residents had gathered to seek humanitarian aid from the American center located about a kilometer away in the Rafah governorate, located in the south, said Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for the Civil Defense, to AFP. A Gaza witness to the scene, Samir Abou Hadid, told AFP that thousands had gathered near the roundabout, and “when some tried to move toward the aid center, the Israeli occupation forces opened fire from armored vehicles stationed near the center, firing in the air and then at civilians.”
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli army said soldiers in the Tel al-Sultan area at night had “called on suspects to move away, but as they continued advancing, putting the troops in danger, the soldiers responded with warning shots.” It added it was “aware of information about casualties.”
Given the restrictions imposed on the media in the Gaza Strip and the difficulties accessing the area as fighting spreads, it is extremely difficult to independently verify the death toll and circumstances of the deaths reported by Civil Defense.
Several tragedies have recently occurred near this aid center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an organization with opaque funding supported by the United States and Israel. The GHF began operations in Gaza at the end of May, after the partial lifting of a total blockade imposed by Israel for more than two months. The UN refuses to work with this organization due to concerns about its methods and neutrality.
‘Collapse of the health system’
Late in the afternoon, the Israeli army called for evacuations in two neighborhoods in the northern Gaza Strip before “attacking every area used to launch rockets” toward Israel. The Civil Defense spokesperson reported further bombings across the territory, with a total toll of at least 36 dead since dawn.
In a statement released Saturday, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of the “collapse of the Gaza Strip’s health system,” where “there are no longer any hospitals operating in the northern part” of the territory. The Israeli army also said it recovered in the Rafah region the body of the Thai hostage Nattapong Pinta, abducted during the Oct. 7 attack in the Nir Oz kibbutz, and “killed in captivity,” according to Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz.
Bangkok expressed being “deeply saddened” by the news. The Oct. 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data.
More than 54,772 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in the Israeli military retaliation campaign, according to data from the Hamas Ministry of Health, considered reliable by the UN.
Gaza Civil Defense reported that at least 36 people were killed on Saturday by Israeli forces at various locations, six of them near a U.S.-supported aid center, with the army reporting warning shots fired at “suspects.”Israeli forces also announced on Saturday that during a special operation in Gaza, they recovered the body of a Thai hostage who had been abducted during the bloody attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, in Israel, which triggered the war.After 20 months of hostilities, Israel faces international pressure to end the war in Gaza, where the humanitarian situation is disastrous. The United Nations has warned of famine due to restrictions imposed by Israel on aid.The Israeli army intensified its offensive in mid-May with the stated goal of freeing the last hostages from Oct. 7,...
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