UPDATED: Israeli soldiers kill 93 starving Palestinians near 'aid center' in Gaza - War on Gaza
Eighty were killed as truckloads of aid arrived in the north, while nine others were reported shot near an aid point close to Rafah in the south, where dozens of people lost their lives just 24 hours earlier.
Four were killed near another aid site in Khan Younis, also in the south, agency spokesman Mahmud Basal told AFP.
The UN World Food Programme said its 25-truck convoy carrying food aid "encountered massive crowds of hungry civilians which came under gunfire" near Gaza City, soon after it crossed from Israel and cleared checkpoints.
Civilian deaths have become routine as Israeli forces continue striking crowds gathered near aid centres, where people are facing extreme shortages of food and essential supplies because of the Israeli blockade on the strip.
The UN said earlier this month that nearly 800 aid-seekers had been killed since late May, including on the routes of aid convoys.
Like 'hunting animals'
In Gaza City, Qasem Abu Khater, 36, told AFP he had rushed to try to get a bag of flour but instead found a desperate crowd of thousands and "deadly overcrowding and pushing".
"The tanks were firing shells randomly at us and Israeli sniper soldiers were shooting as if they were hunting animals in a forest," he added.
"Dozens of people were martyred right before my eyes and no one could save anyone."
The WFP condemned violence against civilians seeking aid as "completely unacceptable".
Israel on Sunday withdrew the residency permit of head of the OCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) office in Israel, Jonathan Whittall, who has repeatedly condemned the humanitarian conditions in Gaza.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, in a post to X, accused him of spreading lies about the war in Gaza.
Israel's genocidal campaign has killed at least 58,895 Palestinians and wounded nearly 140,000 others, the majority of them women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry.
Independent investigations suggest the true death toll in Gaza could be far higher -- approaching 100,000 -- as thousands remain missing and are presumed buried beneath the rubble.
Most of Gaza's population of more than two million people have been displaced at least once during the war and there have been repeated evacuation calls across large parts of the coastal enclave.
On Sunday morning, the Israeli military told residents and displaced Palestinians sheltering in the Deir el-Balah area to move south immediately due to imminent operations in the area.
The bodies of Palestinians who were killed while attempting to access aid trucks entering northern Gaza through the Zikim crossing with Israel are brought to a clinic in Gaza City, Sunday, July 20, 2025. AP
Whole families were seen carrying what few belongings they have on packed donkey carts heading south.
"They threw leaflets at us and we don't know where we are going and we don't have shelter or anything," one man told AFP.
The displacement order was "another devastating blow to the already fragile lifelines keeping people alive across the Gaza Strip", the UN OCHA said on Sunday.
According to the aid agency, 87.8 percent of Gaza is now under displacement orders or within Israeli militarized zones, leaving "2.1 million civilians squeezed into a fragmented 12 per cent of the Strip, where essential services have collapsed."
Palestinians react after carrying the bodies of those killed while trying to reach aid trucks entering northern Gaza through the Zikim crossing with Israel, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Sunday, July 20, 2025. AP
Earlier, Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Health Ministry's records department, told The Associated Press At least 79 Palestinians were killed while trying to reach aid entering through the Zikim crossing with Israel.
More than 150 people were wounded, some in critical condition, hospitals said.
The UN World Food Program said 25 trucks with aid had entered for 'starving communities' when it encountered massive crowds.
A UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to comment on the incident to the media, said Israeli forces opened fire toward crowds who tried to take food from the convoy. Footage taken by the U.N. and shared with the AP showed Palestinian men running as automatic gunfire was heard.
'Suddenly, tanks surrounded us and trapped us as gunshots and strikes rained down. We were trapped for around two hours,' said Ehab Al-Zei, who had been waiting for flour and said he hadn't eaten bread in 15 days. He spoke over the din of people carrying the dead and wounded. 'I will never go back again. Let us die of hunger, it's better.'
Nafiz Al-Najjar, who was injured, said tanks and drones targeted people 'randomly' and he saw his cousin and others shot dead.
Al-Waheidi said Israeli gunfire killed another six Palestinians in the Shakoush area, hundreds of meters (yards) north of a hub of the recently created Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.- and Israel-backed group, in the southern city of Rafah. The GHF said it was not aware of any incident near its site. Witnesses and health workers say several hundred people have been killed by Israeli fire while trying to access the group's aid distribution sites.
Separately, seven Palestinians were killed while sheltering in tents in Khan Younis in the south, including a 5-year-old boy, according to the Kuwait Specialized Field Hospital, which received the casualties.
Women mourning the death of a relative at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis on 20 July. AFP
Ethnic cleansing
There was new alarm as Israel's military issued evacuation orders for parts of central Gaza, one of the few areas where it has rarely operated with ground troops and where many international organizations trying to distribute aid are located. One group said several offices were told to evacuate immediately. There was no immediate Israeli comment.
The new evacuation orders cut access between the central city of Deir al-Balah and Rafah and Khan Younis in the narrow territory. The military also reiterated evacuation orders for northern Gaza.
Palestinians were startled to see the orders for parts of Deir al-Balah, a relative haven. 'All of Rafah is under evacuation, and now you have decided that half of Deir al-Balah is under evacuation. Where will we move to?' asked resident Hassan Abu Azab, as others piled everything from bedding to live ducks onto carts and other vehicles. Smoke rose in the distance, with blasts and the sound of a siren.
The Medical Aid for Palestinians group said several humanitarian organizations' offices and guesthouses had been 'ordered to evacuate immediately' and nine clinics, including the MAP one, had been forced to shut down. It was not immediately clear what other groups were affected.
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