At least 85 Palestinians were killed while trying to reach aid in the Gaza Strip on July 20, marking the deadliest day for aid seekers in the region as aid sites have faced a nearly daily toll of killings, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry and reported by JTA.
The incident comes amid a steady drumbeat of killings at aid sites in the enclave where Israel has been battling Hamas for more than 21 months. More than 1,000 Gazans have been killed while seeking aid since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S-Israeli mechanism to deliver aid in Gaza and bypass Hamas, began operating last month.
The foreign ministers of 25 countries cited the dangers of the aid distribution system in calling for an immediate end to the war in a statement released July 21.
“We, the signatories listed below, come together with a simple, urgent message: the war in Gaza must end now,” they said. “The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths. The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity.”
The statement was signed by the foreign ministers of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.K.
Israel has acknowledged firing “warning shots” during some of the incidents, saying that its soldiers perceived threats, but has disputed the death toll cited by the Gaza health ministry. It has not offered alternative tallies of casualties at the aid sites, which are among the only places where Gazans can obtain basic supplies.
First-person testimonies of people who have sought aid from the sites portray a harrowing experience undertaken by an increasingly desperate population.
“Suddenly, tanks surrounded us and trapped us as gunshots and strikes rained down. We were trapped for around two hours,” Ehab Al-Zei, who had been waiting for flour at the crossing, told the Times of Israel. “I will never go back again. Let us die of hunger, it’s better.”
