At least 93 reported killed queuing for food in Gaza as Israel issues fresh evacuation orders – Middle East crisis live
Date: 2025-07-21T06:50:15.000Z
Title: At 93 reported dead while seeking aid in Gaza
Content: Gaza's civil defence agency said at least 93 Palestinians had been killed queueing for food on Sunday, while Israel issued fresh evacuation orders for areas packed with displaced people.
The territory's health ministry said scores were killed by Israeli fire while waiting for UN aid trucks entering through the northern Zikim crossing with Israel. It was one of the highest reported death tolls among repeated recent cases in which aid seekers have been killed by Israeli fire.
Elsewhere nine others were reportedly shot dead near an aid point close to Rafah in the south, where dozens of people lost their lives just 24 hours earlier, while four were killed near another aid site in Khan Younis, spokesperson for the civil defence agency, Mahmud Basal, said.
Israel's military said soldiers had shot at a gathering of thousands of Palestinians in northern Gaza who it claimed posed a threat, and it was aware of some casualties. But it said the numbers reported by officials in Gaza were far higher than its initial investigation found. It did not immediately comment on the incidents in the south.
Before the reports of the latest Israeli shootings emerged, Pope Leo XIV called for 'an immediate end to the barbarity of the war and for a peaceful resolution to the conflict' at the end of the Angelus prayer at Castel Gandolfo, his summer residence near Rome.
Update:
Date: 2025-07-21T06:48:19.000Z
Title: Opening summary
Content: Hello and welcome back to the Guardian's coverage of the Middle East.
Gaza's civil defence agency said at least 93 Palestinians had been killed queueing for food on Sunday, while Israel issued fresh evacuation orders for areas packed with displaced people.
The territory's health ministry said scores were killed by Israeli fire while waiting for UN aid trucks entering through the northern Zikim crossing with Israel. It was one of the highest reported death tolls among repeated recent cases in which aid seekers have been killed by Israeli fire.
Elsewhere nine others were reportedly shot dead near an aid point close to Rafah in the south, where dozens of people lost their lives just 24 hours earlier, while four were killed near another aid site in Khan Younis, spokesperson for the civil defence agency, Mahmud Basal, said.
The UN World Food Programme said its 25-truck convoy carrying food aid 'encountered massive crowds of hungry civilians which came under gunfire' near Gaza City, soon after it crossed from Israel and cleared checkpoints.
Israel's military disputed the death toll and said soldiers had fired warning shots 'to remove an immediate threat posed to them' as thousands gathered near Gaza City.
On Sunday morning, the Israeli military issued evacuation orders for the city of Deir al-Balah – a crowded part of central Gaza full of displaced Palestinian people with nowhere safe to flee relentless bombardments. Whole families were reportedly seen lugging their few belongings and heading south.
The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement that the order had dealt 'yet another devastating blow to the already fragile lifelines keeping people alive across the Gaza Strip.'
In other developments:
Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar on Sunday said he had ordered the withdrawal of a senior UN humanitarian official's residency permit, accusing him of spreading lies about the war in Gaza. Whittall, a South African who lives in Jerusalem and frequently visits the Gaza Strip, has repeatedly condemned the humanitarian conditions for the more than 2 million people living in the Palestinian territory.
Gaza's civil defence agency told Agence France-Presse (AFP) it has noted a rising number of infant deaths caused by 'severe hunger and malnutrition', reporting at least three such deaths in the past week. 'These heartbreaking cases were not caused by direct bombing but by starvation, the lack of baby formula and the absence of basic healthcare,' civil defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
Tens of thousands of Moroccans demonstrated on Sunday in the capital Rabat against the dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, calling for the reversal of the kingdom's normalisation deal with Israel. Protesters gathered in the city centre, brandishing Palestinian flags and placards calling for the free flow of aid to the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
Residents reported calm in Syria's Sweida on Sunday after the Islamist-led government announced that Bedouin fighters had withdrawn from the predominantly Druze city and a US envoy signalled that a deal to end days of fighting was being implemented. The ceasefire announced on Saturday appeared to be holding after earlier agreements failed to end fighting between longtime rivals the Druze and the Bedouin that spiralled to draw in the Islamist-led government, the Israeli military and armed tribes from other parts of Syria.
The death toll from violence in Sweida province, the heartland of Syria's Druze minority, has risen to 1,120 since last weekend, a war monitor said on Sunday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the dead included 427 Druze fighters and 298 Druze civilians, 194 of whom were 'summarily executed by defence and interior ministry personnel'.
The first humanitarian aid convoy entered the southern Syrian city of Sweida on Sunday, a Red Crescent official said, a week after deadly sectarian violence erupted in the Druze heartland. The official said the convoy of 32 vehicles was carrying basics including food, medical and fuel supplies as well as body bags.
Iran confirmed on Monday fresh talks with European powers to be held on Friday in Istanbul, the country's state media reported, the first since the US attacked Iranian nuclear facilities a month ago. Iranian diplomats will meet counterparts from Britain, France and Germany, known as the E3, after the trio warned that sanctions could be reimposed on Tehran if it does return to the negotiating table over its nuclear programme.
Iranian authorities have urged residents to limit water consumption as the country grapples with severe shortages amid an ongoing heatwave, local media said on Sunday. Water scarcity is a major issue in Iran, particularly in arid provinces in the country's south, with shortages blamed on mismanagement and overexploitation of underground resources, as well as the growing impact of climate change.
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