DaysofPal—Twenty Palestinians were killed and dozens injured early Wednesday when a truck carrying humanitarian aid overturned on top of them in central Gaza, according to the Government Media Office.
In a statement, the office said the tragedy occurred on Salah al-Din Street as crowds of desperate residents attempted to reach food aid amid catastrophic conditions and what it described as “deliberately engineered chaos” by Israeli forces.
The statement accused Israel of forcing the aid truck to enter through unsafe routes that had previously been targeted by airstrikes and were never repaired, causing the vehicle to topple onto people waiting for food.
“What happened shows the occupation’s deliberate effort to push civilians into paths of danger and death, part of its strategy of ‘engineered starvation and chaos,’” the media office said.
Despite limited entry of aid trucks in recent days, authorities in Gaza said Israel refuses to secure the deliveries or facilitate their arrival to those in need.
Instead, truck drivers are forced to travel through areas packed with starving civilians who have been waiting for weeks for basic food supplies.
“This leads to attacks on the trucks and people stripping their contents, in scenes that Israel creates deliberately and with full intent,” the statement added, referring to the policy as “engineered hunger and chaos.”
The disaster comes a day after Israeli forces opened fire on large gatherings of Palestinians waiting for food aid across the Strip, killing dozens.
Medical sources in Gaza said 57 bodies and dozens of wounded aid-seekers were brought to hospitals in northern and southern Gaza on Tuesday.
The media office strongly condemned what it called Israel’s “deliberate and criminal policy,” saying it constitutes “a full act of genocide under international humanitarian law.”
It held Israel and its international backers—chiefly the United States—fully responsible for the deepening humanitarian catastrophe and the daily deaths caused by hunger and what it described as “systematic mismanagement imposed by the occupation.”
It urged the international community, the United Nations, and humanitarian and human rights organizations to intervene immediately to end the crisis, enforce the opening of all crossings safely and sustainably, and ensure the unhindered flow of food, medical supplies, and fuel.
“The situation in Gaza has crossed every red line,” the statement concluded. “What is happening is a deliberate, systematic crime, worsened by silence, complicity, or deliberate neglect.”
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, 1,568 Palestinians have been killed and over 11,230 injured at or near aid distribution sites in Gaza since the start of the crisis.
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