At least 31 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip, medical sources told Tel Aviv Tribune, and 20 others were killed when a truck carrying humanitarian aid was overturned on a crowd of people.
On Wednesday, among those who died in Israeli attacks, there were 10 aid seekers killed in various regions of the territory, despite the announcement by the Israeli army of “tactical breaks” in the fighting to allow a distribution of aid.
Al -Awda Hospital reported that five people – including a woman and two children – were killed and others injured, during an Israeli raid in a house north of the Nuseirat refugee camp.
Four other people died during an Israeli raid on two houses in the Shujayea district of Gaza City.
Earlier Wednesday, at least 20 Palestinians were killed when a truck delivering aid supplies overturned, according to the government’s media office.
The incident occurred because a large number of Palestinians gathered in the center of Gaza in search of food and basic supplies in the midst of an increasingly disastrous humanitarian crisis.
Local officials cited by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA said that the vehicle had canceled after the Israeli forces ordered it what they described as a “dangerous road”.
Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal said dozens of people had been injured while hundreds of civilians expected aid, AFP news agency reported.
“Despite the recent limited allocation of a few aid trucks, the occupation deliberately obstructs the safe passage and distribution of this aid,” said the government’s media office in a statement.
“This forces drivers to navigate overcrowded routes of hungry civilians who have been waiting for weeks for the most fundamental necessities.
The incident comes as humanitarian organizations warn against famine and the distribution of diseases through the enclave, while deaths of famine and malnutrition continue to increase in the midst of serious Israeli restrictions to aid.
Hunger crisis
On Wednesday, at least five people died in malnutrition, medical sources said in Tel Aviv Tribune. A source from the Al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza confirmed that Hiba Yasser Abu Naji, a child, died of malnutrition. An infant also died of famine, according to the source, and an adult from Jabalia would also be deceased.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, at least 193 people – including 96 children – have died of famine and malnutrition since October 2023.
On Tuesday, the Israeli army has enabled 85 aid trucks to enter Gaza – well below the 600 trucks per day necessary to meet the basic requirements, according to the United Nations Agency for Reliefs and Works for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
Meanwhile, the Palestinians as a help distribution sites managed by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) have been frequently subject to Israeli fire since the launch of operations at the end of May, after Israel has slightly attenuated its total blockage. These shots have become almost daily events near GHF sites in the center and south of Gaza.
“Time is running out for the people of Gaza, and an agreement must be concluded between Hamas and the Israeli army which will allow humanitarian aid to be left into the enclave,” his Jazeera Hisham Mhanna, spokesperson for the International Cross-Red Cross (CICR) told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“Everyone has suffered enough. We have lost colleagues, we have lost friends, families-everyone in Gaza is affected,” he said.
“We have more than 350 staff members in Gaza who have difficulties daily to find enough food and drinking water, so you cannot imagine how civilians who are the most vulnerable, who have lived on the move for 22 months (survive).
“I see no way that they can continue to live like that and I do not see any justification for it to continue more, not from a legal or moral point of view,” he added. “The agreement must include and ensure that access is for each person who desperately needs food, medical treatment and (their) family to know that they are always alive.”
Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the United Nations Bureau for Humanitarian Affairs Coordination (OCHA), said that during aid in the enclave, “there should be hundreds and hundreds of trucks entering Gaza every day for months or years to come.”
“People die every day. It is a crisis on the brink of famine,” he said-adding that tons of vital aid remain stuck at the borders due to bureaucratic delays and a lack of safe access.
