GAZA CITY — Humanitarian observers have condemned as a deliberate and systematic act of mass murder, Israeli forces killed at least 59 Palestinians on Saturday in a two-pronged attack that targeted both starving civilians at an aid distribution point and families taking refuge in residential homes. The killings unfolded under daylight in southern Gaza, where desperate families had gathered near a designated “safe zone” in Al-Mawasi to receive flour, baby formula, and basic food rations. Eyewitnesses reported that Israeli ground troops opened fire without warning, striking men, women, and children as they waited in tightly packed lines.

Within hours of the gunfire, Israeli warplanes conducted multiple airstrikes on residential buildings in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis, leveling structures that were housing dozens of internally displaced persons. According to hospital officials and field medics, civilians were buried beneath the rubble, with emergency workers recovering bodies of toddlers still clutched in the arms of their mothers. No evacuation warnings were reported prior to the strikes. No evacuations were ordered. No militants were reported in the vicinity.

The attacks were immediately labeled a war crime by international legal experts and humanitarian aid groups, who argued that the precision and timing of the operations indicate a coordinated strategy of extermination, not accident or error. As Gaza’s death toll continues to climb past 58,313, mostly civilians, the July 12 massacre is being viewed as a chilling indicator that Israel’s military attack, backed militarily, diplomatically, and financially by the United States, is spiraling into a genocide under the cover of Western indifference.

As verified by Associated Press, 59 civilians were gunned down at the aid point. Hours later, Israeli airstrikes obliterated residential buildings in Deir al-Balah, killing 28, including children. No military targets were present, no warnings issued, and no justification offered.

A ‘safe zone’ turned into a killing field

59 Palestinians were killed on Saturday in Gaza during two separate Israeli assaults that targeted both civilians queuing for food aid and residential homes. In Rafah, 31 people were gunned down near a humanitarian aid distribution center.

While Israeli officials claimed troops fired only “warning shots” at what they deemed a suspicious crowd, Politico reported that eyewitnesses described the attack as “unprovoked and sustained.” The article quoted a humanitarian aid worker saying, “This wasn’t a warning. This was execution. They knew exactly what they were doing.”

Doctors at a nearby Red Cross field hospital said the death toll from this single incident was the highest they had recorded in over a year.

Later that same day, Israeli airstrikes demolished residential buildings in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis, killing 28 more civilians, including four children, as confirmed by hospital. The report stressed that no warnings were issued before the strikes, and no credible evidence was offered by the Israeli military to justify the bombings.

Politico cited medical staff on the ground who described the aftermath as “apocalyptic,” with children and women pulled from rubble under conditions of extreme resource shortages. One doctor said bluntly, “We are pulling babies out from under concrete with bare hands. No one here has weapons, only wounds.”

US-backed butchery, masked as ‘self-defense’

As Sky News confirmed, the airstrikes later in the day struck three homes in central Gaza, killing 39 civilians. The houses were sheltering families who had already fled the north under Israeli orders. These civilians were killed not once, but twice, first by displacement, then by bombs.

Israeli government spokespersons offered the usual blanket claim of “precision strikes on Hamas infrastructure,” without providing a shred of evidence. No militant presence was reported in either attack zone. As usual, Israel provides no proof, just press releases, while corpses pile up in Gaza’s overflowing morgues.

Meanwhile, the United States, which funds and arms Israel with over $3.8 billion annually, issued not even a single condemnation.

As noted by ABC News, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby muttered that Washington was “looking into the reports” but reaffirmed Israel’s “right to defend itself.” From Afghanistan to Iraq to Gaza — that phrase has become Washington’s favorite excuse for mass killings.

Gaza starves as Israel weaponizes hunger

As international leaders rush to issue statements, Gaza is spiraling into a humanitarian catastrophe. The Israeli blockade and ongoing conflict have pushed over 2.1 million Palestinians into critical food insecurity, with the UN warning that famine is “imminent” and fuel shortages have crippled hospitals, water access, and food distribution systems. Since late May, nearly 800 Palestinians have been killed, many shot, while attempting to access aid at distribution points, according to the UN’s human rights office. This vacuum of essential services and escalating violence has turned aid lines into deadly flashpoints, underscoring the deliberate nature of the siege.

On Saturday, a rare distribution of food packages marked the first delivery in more than ten days, only to be immediately met by gunfire. The attack occurred just minutes after aid workers began handing out flour, lentils, and baby formula, vital in a territory nearing starvation. Gaza’s public infrastructure is collapsing: over 70 percent of civilians killed in the war have been women and children, and hospitals, water systems, and bakeries are nonfunctional under Israeli bombardment and blockade. Despite mounting civilian suffering, Israel’s Western allies, most notably the United States, UK, Germany, and France, continue to supply arms and diplomatic cover, even as the territory careens toward famine.

Global outrage grows, but nothing changes

with Amnesty International condemning the killings as a “textbook case of war crimes” and calling for an immediate International Criminal Court investigation. According to Associated Press Amnesty’s report accused Israeli forces of deliberately targeting civilians and using starvation as a weapon of war, with the aid framework itself described as a lethal trap for Palestinians forced to queue at heavily militarized aid distribution hubs. Despite this, the United States has not endorsed any such referral at the United Nations, effectively blocking international justice through its veto power.

Countries that were once vocally critical of Russian aggression, such as European nations, have remained largely silent on Gaza, even as the civilian toll skyrockets. Meanwhile, South Africa, Malaysia, and Iran have joined calls for economic and diplomatic sanctions on Israel and for the cessation of Western military aid. At the same time, Brazil has formally proposed a UN arms embargo targeting Israel—though analysts expect the United States and the United Kingdom to exercise their Security Council vetoes, effectively neutralizing any such resolution.

A region on the brink of irreversible collapse

What unfolded in Gaza on Saturday has intensified fears among international legal experts and humanitarian observers that the war has entered an unchecked phase where civilian life is no longer protected, even in designated aid zones. The killings of 59 Palestinians, many of them children, women, and displaced families, are being documented by multiple rights groups as potential violations of international humanitarian law.

Diplomatic pressure continues to falter. With no accountability mechanisms currently in motion at the UN Security Council due to geopolitical divisions, and Western arms shipments to Israel remaining uninterrupted, the conditions on the ground point toward a prolonged humanitarian catastrophe. In the absence of enforceable legal action, Gaza is increasingly becoming a symbol of global paralysis. where treaties are ignored, war crimes are alleged without consequence, and millions remain trapped in a conflict with no visible end.