CAIRO, July 21 — At least 67 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire as they waited for UN aid trucks in northern Gaza yesterday, the Gaza health ministry said, as Israel issued new evacuation orders for areas packed with displaced people.
The ministry said dozens of people were also wounded in the incident in northern Gaza. It was one of the highest reported death tolls among repeated recent cases in which aid seekers have been killed, including 36 on Saturday. Another six people were killed near another aid site in the south, it said.
Israel's military said its troops had fired warning shots towards a crowd of thousands of people in northern Gaza yesterday to remove what it said was "an immediate threat".
It said initial findings suggested reported casualty figures were inflated, and it "certainly does not intentionally target humanitarian aid trucks".
It did not immediately comment on the incident in the south.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said that shortly after entering Gaza, a WFP convoy of 25 trucks carrying food aid encountered "massive crowds of hungry civilians" who then came under gunfire.
"WFP reiterates that any violence involving civilians seeking humanitarian aid is completely unacceptable," it said in a statement.
A Hamas official told Reuters that the militant group was angered over the mounting deaths and the hunger crisis in the enclave, and that this could badly affect ceasefire talks underway in Qatar.
In total, health authorities said 90 people had been killed by Israeli gunfire and airstrikes across the enclave yesterday.
After Israel's military dropped leaflets urging people to evacuate from neighbourhoods in central Gaza's Deir al-Balah, residents said Israeli planes struck three houses in the area.
Dozens of families began leaving their homes, carrying some of their belongings. Hundreds of thousands of displaced Gazans have been sheltering in the Deir al-Balah area.
[caption id="attachment_408471" align="alignnone" width="1200"]
Palestinians gather as they carry aid supplies that entered Gaza through Israel, amid a hunger crisis, in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on July 20, 2025. — Picture by REUTERS[/caption]
Israel's military said it had not entered the districts subject to the evacuation order during the current conflict and that it was continuing "to operate with great force to destroy the enemy's capabilities and terrorist infrastructure in the area".
Much of Gaza has been reduced to a wasteland during more than 21 months of war and there are fears of accelerating starvation.
Palestinian health officials said hundreds of people could soon die as hospitals were inundated with patients suffering from dizziness and exhaustion due to the scarcity of food and a collapse in aid deliveries.
"We warn that hundreds of people whose bodies have wasted away are at risk of imminent death due to hunger," said the health ministry, which is controlled by Hamas.
The United Nations also said yesterday that civilians were starving and needed an urgent influx of aid.
— Reuters
