The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said Wednesday that 20 Palestinians were killed in a crush at an aid distribution site in Gaza’s Khan Younis, and accused armed agitators linked to Hamas of fomenting the unrest.
The Israeli- and US-backed group said 19 people were trampled to death and one person was stabbed “amid a chaotic and dangerous surge, driven by agitators in the crowd” at the aid site in the southern Gaza Strip.
“We have credible reason to believe that elements within the crowd – armed and affiliated with Hamas – deliberately fomented the unrest,” the GHF said, adding that for the first time since operations began, multiple firearms had been identified in the crowd.
“This horrific event follows a deeply troubling pattern in recent days. False messages about aid site openings, including at SDS4 (Wadi Gaza) and the long-closed SDS1 (Tal Sultan), have circulated widely on Telegram and other platforms, fueling confusion, driving crowds to closed sites, and inciting disorder,” the GFH said.
The incident came as the IDF continued to maneuver in southern Gaza, bolstering its presence in the area with a new strategic route and overnight airstrikes that hit over 120 targets in the enclave.
Hamas-controlled health officials told Reuters that at least 20 people died of suffocation at the aid site. One medic said lots of people had been crammed into a small space and were crushed.
Arab Israeli Knesset member Ahmad Tibi said in a post to X that the people died in a “death trap set up by Israel using American mercenaries.” He included an undated video of a mass of people pressed together in an enclosed area, apparently at an aid site, and claimed that “hundreds of starving people have been shot dead in this area while waiting in line for minimal food distribution. An ongoing moral crime.”
The GHF operates outside the UN-coordinated aid system and uses private US security and logistics contractors to deliver aid — an approach Israel says reduces the risk of Hamas looting deliveries.
It commenced operations in May as Israel lifted a nearly three-month aid blockade on Gaza, amid a renewed offensive there that seeks to take over 75 percent of the Strip with the aim of defeating Hamas and securing the release of the hostages seized by the terror group during its October 7, 2023, attack that started the ongoing war.
The GHF has faced harsh criticism from the UN and other aid organizations, which called the aid group’s model “inherently unsafe” and charge that it fails to meet the needs of Gaza’s population. Gazans have reported near-daily incidents in which groups trying to reach GHF facilities are shot at by Israeli forces, leading to mass casualties.
Israel, which accuses Hamas of hoarding aid, has also accused the terror group of attacking Gazan aid seekers near GHF sites and falsifying death tolls. However, Israel has also acknowledged that “several” Palestinian civilians have been killed near GHF aid distribution sites.
The IDF said Wednesday it had opened a new strategic corridor in southern Gaza that would assist in defeating Hamas in the Khan Younis area.
The route, dubbed Magen Oz, was established in recent weeks by the 36th Division amid efforts to clear Khan Younis of terror infrastructure and operatives. It bisects Khan Younis from east to west, the military announced
The IDF said the division’s 188th Armored Brigade and Golani Infantry Brigade met up recently, after completing the new corridor.
An illustration published by the IDF showed that the route connects to the Morag corridor, which separates Khan Younis from Rafah.
The IDF said the Magen Oz corridor is 15 kilometers long, and plays “a major part in exerting pressure on Hamas and defeating the Khan Younis Brigade.”
During the division’s operations in Khan Younis, the IDF said troops killed dozens of operatives and destroyed Hamas infrastructure, including tunnels and caches of weapons.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Air Force struck over 120 targets in Gaza over the past day, the military said, as five divisions continue ground operations across the Strip.
The IDF said the targets included cells of operatives, buildings used by terror groups, caches of weapons, tunnels, and other infrastructure.
Dozens of casualties were reported by media outlets in Gaza in the past day, but there were no immediate tolls from the Hamas-run health ministry or other health officials.
In northern Gaza’s Jabalia, the military said troops of the 401st Armored Brigade came under RPG fire, and within minutes, directed a drone strike on the cell that fired on the tank. No soldiers were injured, according to the IDF.
In the Beit Hanoun area, reservists of the 646th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade destroyed a rocket-launching site used to fire projectiles on southern Israel earlier this week, and killed operatives who were planting bombs in the area, the IDF said.
The London-based daily Asharq Al-Awsat reported Wednesday that Israel has “accelerated” assassinations in Gaza, targeting Hamas officials as well as members of other terror groups, such as the allied Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
A Hamas source told the Arabic-language newspaper that four leaders of Hamas’s military wing had been killed, as well as others involved with the key intelligence and manufacturing divisions. Among the slain was reportedly Mohammed Faraj al-Ghoul, a former minister in the Hamas government who was still active in the organization. He was killed on Tuesday, the report said.