Nearly 100 Palestinians were killed Sunday, July 20, while attempting to get food and other aid in northern Gaza, The Associated Press reports. Those deaths occurred against a backdrop of ever-shrinking habitable space in the enclave, as Israel issued new evacuation orders in areas of central Gaza it had historically avoided, believing hostages to be held there.
Overall, Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip have killed 58,895 people since the military entered the enclave, following the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. The militant group’s surprise incursion into Israel resulted in roughly 1,200 Israeli deaths and another 251 taken hostage.
Deadliest day for Palestinian aid-seekers
On Saturday, July 19, the Palestinian death toll at or near aid distribution sites operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation topped 700 in just six weeks, while the greater number of Palestinians who had been killed seeking aid sat at around 875. On Sunday, that number jumped to 960, after at least 85 more were killed near U.N. food distribution sites.
Sunday marked the deadliest day for Palestinians seeking aid.
According to Reuters, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said it fired warning shots after a crowd numbering in the thousands gathered in northern Gaza. The IDF, which described the crowd as “an immediate threat” without elaborating, has long maintained that it fires warning shots, but does not fire directly at civilians.
The IDF acknowledged some casualties Sunday, but said its preliminary reports suggest that the Gaza Health Ministry’s stated death toll was inflated, adding it “certainly does not intentionally target humanitarian aid trucks.”
Witnesses, video footage and local hospitals largely dispute that. Workers with the U.N. World Food Program, which was attempting to distribute aid Sunday in the north’s Zikim crossing, told the AP that the crowds gathered around its 25 trucks came under gunfire as they attempted to get food. At least 79 Palestinians were killed.
Meanwhile, al-Shifa hospital director Mohammed Abu Salmiya said Sunday that his hospital had received 48 bodies of those who were killed while attempting to get aid in the Zikim crossing.
The IDF, without providing evidence, routinely blames Hamas for the chaos during aid distribution. The Israeli government has also accused Hamas of siphoning off or looting aid meant for civilians, citing an official Hamas document the military allegedly “captured” and “other intelligence.”
Earlier this month, the European Commission found no evidence that Hamas is stealing aid. In early 2024, a U.S. envoy to the Middle East also said that Israel had not provided any specific evidence to support its claim.
The AP reported Sunday that it had reviewed footage of Palestinian men fleeing an aid distribution site as automatic gunfire rings out behind them. An anonymous U.N. official also told the news agency that Israeli forces opened fire on those seeking aid.
In the northwest area of Al-Sudaniya, another 30 aid-seekers were killed Sunday, according to the Qatar News Agency. Qatar is currently acting as a mediator for ongoing ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
‘Manmade, politically motivated starvation’
UNRWA, the U.N. arm that oversees its Palestinian operations, also accused Israel of intentionally starving Gazans on Sunday. In a series of posts on X, the agency wrote, “The Israeli Authorities are starving civilians in Gaza. Among them are 1 million children.”
Roughly six hours later, UNRWA wrote, “In Gaza, people are being starved. Families can’t find flour. People are going without meals for days. Prices have increased by over 4,000%,” adding, “This is a manmade and politically motivated starvation of a people.”
A day prior, the agency said it has enough food stored in an Egyptian warehouse to feed “the entire population of Gaza for over three months.” UNRWA facilitated aid distribution during a short-lived ceasefire between Israel and Hamas earlier this year, but has not been allowed back into the region for four months.
Malnutrition and starvation are becoming increasingly acute for the region’s more than 2 million inhabitants.
In a report published Saturday by the Yemeni news agency Saba, Dr. Munir al-Barsh, director-general of the Gaza Health Ministry, said that 70,000 children are suffering from severe malnutrition, and more than 250,000 are facing “advanced levels of food insecurity.”
It’s a fact echoed by UNRWA Chief Philippe Lazzarini, who wrote on X earlier this week that one in 10 children screened at the agency’s medical facilities is malnourished.
In a post on X Sunday, The State of Palestine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote, “The Ministry believes that the international community’s indifference to the starvation of our people in general, and in the Gaza Strip in particular, is unjustified, unacceptable and completely rejected, especially in light of the ongoing deaths caused by famine.”
Despite corroboration across various agencies and international observers, the IDF has said that it “views the transfer of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip as a matter of utmost importance, and works to enable and facilitate its entry in coordination with the international community,” according to Reuters.
Evacuation orders further reduce Gaza
Meanwhile, Israel further reduced the amount of land available for Gaza’s population. On Sunday, the IDF issued new evacuation orders for hundreds of thousands of people living in a stretch of land that bisects the central city of Deir al-Balah, down to Rafah and Khan Younis in the south. That community was largely made up of Palestinians who had already been displaced from other regions of Gaza.
The Israeli military had historically avoided taking over Deir al-Balah, believing it to be where many of the hostages held by Hamas are. As such, the area had served as a refugee settlement where international aid organizations could largely operate unimpeded.
An IDF spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, reportedly told people to resettle in Gaza’s southern coastal city of Muwasi. Despite designating the area as a “humanitarian zone,” at least 40 Palestinians were killed there in Israeli airstrikes over the July 4 to July 6 weekend.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that greater control of the Gaza Strip will eventually force Hamas to release the remaining hostages in its captivity. However, according to Israeli media, the families of those hostages are “terrified and shaken” by the IDF’s plan to take control of Deir al-Balah.
“Can anyone promise us that this decision will not come at the cost of the loss of our loved ones?” The Hostage and Missing Families Forum said in a statement Sunday, adding, “Unfortunately, despite all the spin and false promises, many families have already learned firsthand the meaning of expanding the fighting in the shadow of negotiations and the absence of a clear war plan.”
The forum concluded by saying, “Enough! The Israeli people overwhelmingly want an end to the fighting and a comprehensive agreement that will return all the hostages.”
For more than a week, delegations from Israel and Hamas have been working with mediators from Qatar and Egypt on a 60-day ceasefire proposal backed by the U.S., though there have been few signs of an imminent breakthrough.
Earlier this week, the IDF announced that it controls 75% of Gaza. At the same time, a top Israeli official was in Washington to discuss the relocation of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in Gaza, Axios reports.
The war began after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, which killed about 1,200 people. Israel’s military campaign has since killed nearly 59,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Israeli airstrikes and ground operations have displaced nearly 90% of Gaza’s population, while famine conditions persist across many areas.
