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<\/a><\/p>\nPalestinians gather at a food distribution point in Gaza City, on July 20, 2025. The World Food Programme says nearly one in three people in Gaza do not eat for days at a stretch, and ”thousands” are ”on the verge of catastrophic hunger”. (Majdi Fathi\/NurPhoto)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The incident comes amid a steady drumbeat of killings at aid sites in the enclave where Israel has been battling Hamas for more than 21 months. More than 1,000 Gazans have been killed while seeking aid since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S-Israeli mechanism to deliver aid in Gaza and bypass Hamas, began operating last month.<\/p>\n
The foreign ministers of 25 countries cited the dangers of the aid distribution system in calling for an immediate end to the war in a statement released Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe, the signatories listed below, come together with a simple, urgent message: the war in Gaza must end now,\u201d they said. \u201cThe suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths. The Israeli government\u2019s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n
The statement was signed by the foreign ministers of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.K.<\/p>\n
Israel has acknowledged firing \u201cwarning shots\u201d during some of the incidents, saying that its soldiers perceived threats, but has disputed the death toll cited by the Gaza health ministry. It has not offered alternative tallies of casualties at the aid sites, which are among the only places where Gazans can obtain basic supplies.<\/p>\n
First-person testimonies of people who have sought aid from the sites portray a harrowing experience undertaken by an increasingly desperate population.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuddenly, tanks surrounded us and trapped us as gunshots and strikes rained down. We were trapped for around two hours,\u201d Ehab Al-Zei, who had been waiting for flour at the crossing, told the Times of Israel. \u201cI will never go back again. Let us die of hunger, it\u2019s better.\u201d<\/p>\n
In one first-hand account of the challenges faced by Palestinians seeking aid shared on Instagram, a user by the name of Moh Zraiy described sleeping under a bridge near an aid site in Netzarim as he and a group of aid-seekers waited for Israeli tanks to withdraw from the site, then being robbed of his first box.<\/p>\n
Later, after he walked nearly 10 miles home with flour, oil, chickpeas and pasta, he saw that some had been killed at the site. \u201cLeaving home with your family dreaming you\u2019d return with a bag of flour, but you return as a corpse,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
In a video shared on Instagram last week by Standing Together, the joint Jewish-Arab left-wing activist group, a large crowd of Palestinians allegedly near an aid distribution center can be seen cowering as ammunition is fired nearby.<\/p>\n
The mass killings Sunday come as aid distribution throughout Gaza have faced near-daily shootings and disruptions. Last month, some Israeli soldiers and officers told the newspaper Haaretz that they are ordered to indiscriminately shoot at people seeking aid as a method of dispersal.<\/p>\n
Many of the deaths near aid sites have taken place at sites operated by the GHF, which said it had no ties to the killings on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike most violent incidents, this incident is not linked to GHF, despite what was falsely implied by Al Jazeera,\u201d the foundation wrote in a post on X. \u201cThese tragedies deserve visibility. The entire aid system is under immense strain.\u201d<\/p>\n
The majority of the killings on Sunday took place in northern Gaza, where crowds of Palestinians had gathered to receive aid from a convoy of 25 United Nations aid trucks that had entered Gaza through the Zikim Crossing.<\/p>\n
After passing the final checkpoint, the trucks encountered \u201clarge crowds of civilians anxiously waiting to access desperately needed food supplies,\u201d according to the U.N.-operated World Food Programme, which then \u201ccame under fire from Israeli tanks, snipers and other gunfire.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement Sunday, the World Food Programme condemned the Israeli military\u2019s continued armed presence near aid distribution sites, writing that \u201cany violence involving civilians seeking humanitarian aid is completely unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over 150 people were also wounded Sunday, with some of them in critical condition, according to tolls cited by the Associated Press.<\/p>\n
Hours after the incidents, Avichay Adraee, the IDF\u2019s Arabic-language spokesperson, posted a video on X that he said depicted Israeli soldiers holding fire as hundreds of Palestinians approached a truck carrying aid.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot a single shot was fired. The order was clear: do not open fire. And the Palestinians\u2019 reaction? It wasn\u2019t fear\u2026 it was hope. Civilians began welcoming and cheering our soldiers,\u201d Adraee said.<\/p>\n
The mass killings Sunday also come as the IDF has issued an evacuation order for Palestinians in Deir al-Balah, a city in the center of the Gaza Strip, for the first time since the start of the war.<\/p>\n
The World Central Kitchen, another organization involved in aid distribution, also announced Sunday that it had depleted all of its supplies and that its aid trucks are currently stuck at the Gaza border. As a result, the organization was forced to halt its operations in kitchens in Gaza that were serving hot meals.<\/p>\n
The pause comes as Israel has been accused by aid groups of blocking deliveries. Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stopped aid from entering northern Gaza for two days due to video evidence that allegedly showed Hamas fighters stealing food from civilians.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur Field Kitchens are prepped and ready to resume cooking the moment new supplies arrive,\u201d the World Central Kitchen wrote in a statement. \u201cEvery second counts. Families in Gaza rely on these hot meals.\u201d<\/p>\n