20 Palestinians said killed, dozens wounded as Gaza aid truck overturns

Hamas accuses Israel of forcing deliveries to take dangerous routes; Jordan complains Israeli activists blocked another of its convoys; IDF orders evacuations in Gaza City, Khan Younis

Twenty people were killed and dozens were injured overnight when a truck carrying goods and aid into the Gaza Strip overturned in Deir al-Balah, in the central part of the enclave, according to media and Hamas authorities.

It was not initially clear whether the truck was delivering supplies to merchants or a humanitarian organization.

The deaths would be the latest surrounding aid deliveries to embattled Gaza, which have become a central concern amid the war there that was triggered by the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Humanitarian groups continue to sound the alarm over widespread starvation in Gaza and increasing reports of deaths due to malnutrition.

According to reports by the Qatari outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, the aid truck overturned after a crowd gathered around the vehicle, prompting it to divert onto an unsafe route, resulting in the accident.

Gaza’s Hamas-controlled civil defense agency also reported on the incident.

“Twenty people were killed and dozens injured around midnight last night in a truck carrying aid overturned… while hundreds of civilians were waiting for aid,” the agency’s spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal, told AFP.

The incident took place near the Nuseirat refugee camp, as the truck was driving on an unsafe road that Israel had previously bombed, added Bassal, who Israel accuses of being a Hamas terrorist.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.

Hamas accused Israel of forcing truck drivers to take dangerous routes to reach aid distribution centers, and to “intentionally engineer… starvation and chaos.”

Israel “forces drivers to navigate routes overcrowded with starving civilians who have been waiting for weeks for the most basic necessities,” Hamas’s media office said in a statement.

“This often results in desperate crowds swarming the trucks,” it added.

Jordan aid blocked

Meanwhile, Jordan said Israelis attacked a Gaza-bound aid convoy in the second such incident in days, and accused Israel of failing to act firmly to prevent assaults.

The convoy, 30 trucks of humanitarian aid, was delayed in its arrival in a violation of signed agreements, government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani told Reuters.

“This requires a serious Israeli intervention and no leniency in dealing with those who obstruct these convoys,” Momani said.

A video posted to social media purportedly of the action showed dozens of protesters sitting in the road to prevent the trucks from passing.

Earlier this week, Momani had said that several aid trucks were forced to turn back to Jordan after being accosted by activists in Israel.

Right-wing activists advocate for no aid to be permitted into Gaza until terror groups there release all the hostages that were abducted during the Hamas-led October 7 attack. The assault, in which some 5,600 terrorists invaded the country, also killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

Reports of the truck overturning came the day after Israel said it would, for the first time in nearly a year, allow the entry of goods into the Gaza Strip through the private sector, an effort aimed at increasing the flow of essential food and hygiene items that were previously only delivered by aid organizations.

Images of starving Palestinians, including children, have alarmed the world in recent weeks, ramping up international pressure on Israel to enable more aid into the coastal enclave where war has been raging since the devastating Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Israel says that Hamas steals supplies from deliveries by the UN and international aid groups. The US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), established to provide aid via an alternative that would keep goods out of Hamas’s hands, has been plagued by near-daily shooting incidents that have seen hundreds killed as they try to reach the GHF distribution centers.

The United Nations says more than 1,300 people have been killed trying to obtain aid supplies in the enclave since the GHF began operating in May, most of them shot by Israeli forces operating near GHF sites.

The IDF has acknowledged firing warning shots at crowds that get too close to its soldiers, but called the UN tallies exaggerated, though it hasn’t provided alternate numbers.

IDF orders evacuation in Gaza City, Khan Younis

The IDF on Wednesday morning issued an evacuation warning for Palestinians residing in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City.

“As you have been warned, the IDF continues to deepen its operations westward,” said the military’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Col. Avichay Adraee in a post on X, attaching a map of the area that is to be evacuated.

The area from which people are instructed to evacuate is already under prior evacuation orders. Palestinians in Zeitoun were instructed to head for the Mawasi area on the coast of the south of Gaza, where Israel has established a “safer” zone.

A second evacuation warning was issued for Palestinians residing in a small zone in western Khan Younis in the Strip’s south.

“The IDF is continuing its ground maneuver and is using heavy force in your area to expand the scope of the fighting,” says Adraee, adding that the evacuated zone will not be included in the areas that see a daily “humanitarian pause” for the delivery of aid.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 60,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.

Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.