A fresh wave of devastation struck northern Gaza as at least 67 Palestinians were reportedly killed while waiting for food aid.
According to the health ministry managed by Hamas, the victims had gathered near a United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) convoy that had just entered the region with 25 trucks of essential supplies when gunfire erupted.
The WFP later confirmed that its convoy encountered massive crowds of hungry civilians and that the crowd came under fire shortly after crossing through Israeli checkpoints.
“Malnutrition is surging with 90,000 women and children in urgent need of treatment,” the agency stated, calling the violence “completely unacceptable.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had fired warning shots to deter what it called an immediate threat, while disputing the death toll shared by the ministry, the reports paint a dire picture growing numbers of Gazans are arriving at hospitals severely malnourished, dehydrated, and exhausted.
Dr. Hassan al-Shaer, medical director at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, told BBC Arabic that the facility had been overwhelmed by the influx of casualties.
The scale of hunger has been described as catastrophic, with the health ministry reporting 18 deaths due to starvation in just 24 hours. On Sunday, Gaza’s civil defence agency stated that a total of 93 people had died from Israeli fire across the region, with 80 of those fatalities occurring in the north.
Eyewitnesses shared harrowing accounts. “The tanks were firing shells randomly at us and Israeli sniper soldiers were shooting as if they were hunting animals,” said Qasem Abu Khater, who had gone in search of flour. “Dozens of people were martyred right before my eyes.”
Many of the fatal incidents occurred near aid distribution centres, some operated by the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which employs private contractors to manage supplies within Israeli military zones. Other deaths took place near UN-supported delivery points.
Meanwhile, Israel has ordered evacuations in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah, an area not yet entered by ground forces in the nearly two-year-long conflict. Leaflets dropped from the air instructed residents to move toward al-Mawasi along the Mediterranean, triggering panic among tens of thousands of displaced families.
The fear is particularly heightened for Israeli families of hostages believed to be held in the region. Israeli sources cited by Reuters suggest the military has avoided entering the area so far due to concerns over the presence of hostages.
The war which began after the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw 251 hostages taken, has now led to over 58,000 deaths in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. These figures, while contested by Israel, are widely cited by the United Nations and humanitarian agencies.
As the world watches, Gaza’s civilians continue to pay the heaviest price facing bullets, bombs, and famine all at once in what many are now calling a humanitarian collapse.