Israeli forces have once again denied UN-backed requests to allow Palestinian rescue teams into northern Gaza to retrieve the decomposing bodies of civilians killed while awaiting humanitarian aid. The Palestinian Civil Defense reported on Monday that, despite a second formal appeal submitted via the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), access to the Sudaniya area remains blocked.

The area near the "Golden Hall" has become the site of mass death following a massacre last week in which dozens of Palestinians were killed while queuing for food. Civil defense crews were permitted only one entry, five days after the attack, during which they recovered 15 bodies, many in advanced stages of decomposition. Attempts to retrieve the remaining victims have since been obstructed by Israeli forces, who are also denying access to search for two missing women in nearby Beit Lahia.

“This refusal is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law,” the Civil Defense stated, urging international bodies to intervene and pressure Israel to allow proper burial for the dead.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Whittall, head of OCHA’s office in the occupied Palestinian territories, described the situation as a “slow massacre,” where hunger and violence intersect with deliberate policy. “People here are being killed simply for trying to survive,” he said during a press conference in Gaza. “Access to food has become a death sentence.”

Whittall noted that over 400 Palestinians have been killed in aid-related incidents since the blockade was partially eased, with Israeli forces repeatedly opening fire on civilians near so-called aid points. Many of these sites, coordinated through US and Israeli efforts, are located in militarised zones, where aid seekers risk not only starvation but execution.

Reports also confirm that an Israeli tank fired directly into a crowd waiting for food last week, killing around 60 people. Others were shot, some allegedly by armed groups operating under Israeli cover, in what appears to be a systematic effort to turn humanitarian aid into a tool of terror.

The Gaza Government Media Office reported that, as of June 21, 450 people have been killed and over 3,466 injured while trying to access aid in the northern Strip. Thirty-nine remain missing. For Palestinians in Gaza, even the basic act of queuing for bread has become a fatal risk.