The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), supported by Israel and the United States, announced this Wednesday, July 16, the deaths of 20 people who were waiting for aid, accusing armed individuals of causing "a stampede," a version disputed by Palestinian sources. "According to the information we have, nineteen of the victims were trampled and another was stabbed in a chaotic and dangerous stampede caused by agitators in the crowd," stated the GHF.
Gaza's Civil Defense also reported the deaths of 20 people this Wednesday, but it claimed they had succumbed to "Israeli occupation fire" following a crowd surge among people seeking food in the Al-Tina area, southwest of Khan Younis, near an aid distribution center.
A doctor from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, had earlier announced receiving the bodies of nine people, "including several children," killed in that sector after fire from the Israeli army and GHF security personnel. The latter began its operations in Gaza at the end of May and regularly reiterates that its distribution operations within its centers are proceeding without incident.
Given the restrictions imposed on media by Israel, which besieges the Gaza Strip, and the difficulties of access on the ground, AFP is unable to independently verify the reports and claims of the different parties. Asked by AFP, the Israeli army said it was looking into the matter.
On Tuesday, the United Nations had stated that 875 people had been killed in the Gaza Strip while trying to find food since the start of GHF operations. Israel had eased the hermetic blockade imposed for two months on the Gaza Strip at the end of May. The UN and major humanitarian organizations refuse to work with the GHF, accused of violating humanitarian principles.
"No progress" towards a truce
This Wednesday, a senior Hamas official and two Palestinian sources close to indirect negotiations with Israel also denied reports published by Israeli media that talks for a truce in Gaza were progressing. "No progress has been made so far in the indirect negotiations ongoing in Doha between the Hamas and Israeli delegations," one of the Palestinian sources told AFP.
Israel and Hamas began indirect discussions in Qatar on July 6 for a 60-day truce, linked to a release of hostages. But both sides accuse each other of stalling the talks.
Source: Libération, 16/06/25