Scores Crushed To Death In Gaza After Israel Forces Aid Convoy Onto Unsafe Route.

20 Palestinians killed as food truck overturns amid hunger, chaos, and Israeli blockade; UN, local officials warn of deepening humanitarian collapse.

At least 20 Palestinians were killed and dozens more injured overnight in central Gaza when a truck carrying desperately needed food aid overturned onto a crowd of starving civilians. The incident occurred near the Nuseirat refugee camp, where hundreds had gathered to secure food in the midst of a man-made famine that has gripped the besieged enclave for months.

According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, the aid truck had been forced to travel along an unsafe, previously bombed route by the Israeli military, leading directly to the fatal accident. The office accused the Israeli occupation of deliberately endangering civilians by diverting convoys through high-risk areas, calling it part of Israel’s systematic policy of “engineering hunger and chaos.”

“Twenty people were killed and dozens injured around midnight last night when a truck carrying aid overturned while hundreds of civilians were waiting for food,” said Gaza Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal to AFP.

Eyewitness Accounts: “Most Were Shot Or Crushed.”

Eyewitnesses described chaos as the truck approached. Journalist Khader Al Za’anoun, reporting from the scene, said:

“Most of the people that were killed were rammed by the aid trucks during the chaos … once Israeli soldiers opened fire.”

Local resident Nema Abu Sultan told Al Jazeera: “Some were run over, others were shot. So they send us the aid so that the Israelis can keep shooting at our children.”

Kamel Abu Nahel, who was injured, said: “I was shot in the leg … then a truck ran over my leg as it sped off.”

According to other eyewitnesses speaking to AFP, Israeli forces opened fire on the crowd, prompting a deadly stampede. The truck, attempting to escape the crowd and gunfire, veered off the road and overturned.

Medical Testimony: Bullet Wounds And Crushed Bodies.

At al-Awda Hospital, interim manager Dr. Mohamed Salha confirmed the scale of casualties:

“We received around 176 injured people … 142 of these cases are bullet injuries, and the rest are from stampede and broken limbs.”

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) described the scenes as a “massacre.” Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan told The Guardian:

“Colleagues on the ground kept repeating one word over and over: ‘massacre.'”

Structural Breakdown: Unsafe Aid Routes And Looting.

The Government Media Office stated that Israel had intentionally diverted aid trucks through previously bombed, uncleared roads, despite prior warnings from UN agencies.

Humanitarian drivers, many of whom are Gaza locals, report that aid deliveries have become death traps. Crowds, driven by extreme hunger, routinely swarm trucks. Others are hijacked by criminal gangs who resell aid at exorbitant prices.

A senior aid worker told AP:

“We saw armed men looting trucks just meters away from Israeli tanks. The army did nothing.”

According to the New York Post, 90% of UN aid trucks entering Gaza in recent weeks were looted before reaching their destination.

Aid Shortages And Blockade Conditions:

Despite UN warnings, Israel continues to allow only a fraction of the required aid into Gaza. At least 500-600 trucks per day are needed. Recent figures fall far short:

• Sunday, July 27: 73 trucks
• Monday, July 28: 87 trucks
• Tuesday, July 29: 109 trucks
• Wednesday, July 30: 112 trucks
• Thursday, July 31: 104 trucks
• Friday, August 1: 73 trucks
• Saturday, August 2: 36 trucks
• Sunday, August 3: 80 trucks
• Monday, August 4: 95 trucks
• Tuesday, August 5: 84 trucks

Trucks that do enter often do so without proper protection or coordination. Desperate civilians, having not seen regular meals in weeks, surround the convoys.

Policy Of Starvation: Experts And Rights Groups Speak Out.

Alex de Waal, a leading famine expert, told The New Yorker: “The deliberate collapse of aid coordination and the shift to untrusted mechanisms has made starvation an intentional outcome.”

The Palestine Red Crescent Society condemned the use of uncoordinated aid as a tool of war. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have called for an independent international investigation into Israel’s handling of humanitarian aid in Gaza.

Oxfam, condemning the recent deaths, stated:

“The use of starvation as a method of warfare is a war crime. The deaths of these 20 Palestinians are unconscionable.”

A Man-Made Famine With No End In Sight:

Since October 2023, Israel has killed over 100,000 Palestinians, wounded 377,000, and displaced nearly the entire population of Gaza. Medical authorities report 189 confirmed deaths from malnutrition and dehydration, including 95 children.

Despite mounting evidence and condemnation, no independent inquiry has been launched into the Israeli military’s targeting of aid routes and convoys.

Former UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron called the incident a “disgrace to international norms”, stating:

“This must not be allowed to happen again.”

Conclusion: Hunger As A Weapon Of War.

What happened near Nuseirat was not simply a logistical failure; it was the culmination of a calculated policy to control, starve, and dehumanise an entire population. It was the direct result of deliberate policies: the restriction of aid, the unsafe routing of convoys, and the use of deadly force against starving civilians. Eyewitnesses, doctors, humanitarians, and journalists all converge on the same truth: Israel is weaponising hunger. This is not an isolated tragedy, but part of a pattern. The testimonies of survivors, the bullet wounds reported by doctors, and the repeated targeting of civilians near aid convoys point to an orchestrated system of repression. Israel’s diversion of aid routes onto previously bombed roads, despite repeated warnings, reveals a reckless disregard for Palestinian life, if not an intentional effort to manufacture chaos.

Rights groups such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Oxfam have been unequivocal: the weaponisation of hunger is a war crime. Yet, international institutions remain paralysed, complicit through inaction. Doctors Without Borders described it as a “massacre,” while top famine experts assert that starvation is being deployed deliberately as a weapon of war. The coordinated testimonies from truck drivers, local eyewitnesses, and medical workers leave no room for ambiguity.

Meanwhile, Israel is using every means available to evade accountability, from orchestrating theatrical aid drops for media optics to blaming looters and internal chaos for conditions it has systematically engineered. These tactics serve to mask a strategy of deliberate state violence behind a façade of humanitarian concern.

This is not a humanitarian crisis; it is a human-made atrocity. And until international bodies move from condemnation to prosecution, Gaza’s people will remain trapped not by natural disaster, but by engineered catastrophe. True justice will only begin when accountability replaces appeasement, and when the world treats these mass deaths not as collateral, but as crimes against humanity.

Not until the siege is lifted, aid is delivered safely and systematically, and perpetrators of these policies are held accountable, Gaza will remain a graveyard for the innocent.

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