Twenty people have been killed and more than 30 injured in central Gaza after four trucks overturned on a crowd, the Hamas-run civil defence agency says.
Crowds rushed to the vehicles on a road south east of Deir al-Balah on Tuesday evening. They climbed on top of the trucks, causing the drivers to lose control, local journalists told the BBC.
The area was under Israeli military control and the roads were rugged and dangerous, civil defence agency spokesman Mahmoud Basal said.
The private transport association now operating in Gaza said that 26 commercial trucks entered the territory on Tuesday. Six were looted, and four of those overturned, resulting in deaths and injuries.
Israel announced that is would start to allow the gradual entry of goods into Gaza via the private sector to “increase the volume of aid” entering the enclave while reducing reliance on the UN.
The approved supplies include baby food, fruits, vegetables, hygiene products and basic staples.
The BBC has contacted the Israeli ministry of defence for comment.
Hamas said civilians had been waiting for basic supplies to be delivered via road for weeks. “This often results in desperate crowds swarming the trucks,” its media office said.
Aid trucks have been frequently rushed, leading to chaotic scenes.
In a separate incident on Wednesday, Jordan said Israeli settlers attacked a Gaza-bound aid convoy of 30 trucks and accused Israel of failing to prevent such attacks.
The convoy crossed the Jordanian border and was heading towards Gaza’s Zikim crossing. Settlers blocked the road and pelted the trucks with stones, smashing windscreens.
“This requires a serious Israeli intervention and no leniency in dealing with those who obstruct these convoys,” government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani said.
He added this was the second attack on a Jordanian aid convoy, following a similar incident on Sunday.
On Wednesday, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that its latest satellite survey showed the amount of accessible and undamaged farmland in Gaza has been reduced to less than a square mile.
That equates to just 1.5% of the total area available for cultivation, the organisation said, down from 4.6% in the previous survey published at the end of May.
“Gaza is now on the brink of a full-scale famine,” the FAO’s director-general, Qu Dongyu, said in a statement.
According to he Hamas-run health ministry, 193 people have now died of hunger and malnutrition since the start of the war, including 96 children.
More than 100 international aid organisations and human rights groups have warned of mass starvation in Gaza, and accuse Israel of impeding the distribution of crucial aid.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, denies there is starvation in the territory and insists his country is not blocking aid.
Last week, Israel’s military said it would open humanitarian corridors to allow aid convoys into Gaza following mounting international pressure.
It also announced what it called a “local tactical pause in military activity” for humanitarian purposes in three areas, and permitted foreign aid drops.
About 90% of Gaza’s 2.1 million people have been displaced, some repeatedly, and are living in overcrowded and dire conditions.
The UN has repeatedly called for the full and sustained entry of humanitarian supplies, but access remains sporadic and many aid trucks are looted.
Israel insists there are no restrictions on aid deliveries and has repeatedly rejected what it describes as “the false claim of deliberate starvation”.
Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza in response to Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken to Gaza as hostages.
At least 61,020 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since then, the Hamas-run health ministry says.
