Aid lorry overturns and kills 20 in Gaza as UN blames Israel for starving Palestinians
Footage posted by the Palestinian Wafa news agency showed dead and injured bodies after the lorry overturned near the Nuseirat refugee camp on Wednesday. It is the latest in a string of tragedies to affect aid seekers.
Gaza's civil defence agency spokesperson, Mahmoud Bassal, told AFP that the lorry was driving on an unsafe road that Israel had previously bombed. Hamas has accused Israel of forcing lorry drivers to take dangerous routes to reach aid distribution centres and says it is aimed at 'engineering' starvation and chaos.
Israel 'forces drivers to navigate routes overcrowded with starving civilians who have been waiting for weeks for the most basic necessities,' Hamas's media office said in a statement.
Israel's government maintains it is not to blame for harrowing images of emaciated children in Gaza begging for food, or crying at some of the last remaining charity kitchens for a spoonful of beans. It says there are unused aid supplies in Gaza and accuses Hamas and the UN of preventing their delivery. But an Israeli blockade on the enclave has made the delivery of supplies almost impossible.
The UAE and Jordan are among several countries carrying out airdrops of aid in an attempt to provide some humanitarian relief in the Gaza Strip, where warnings of a famine are on the rise.
The Gaza Health Ministry said five more Palestinians have died of malnutrition and starvation in the past 24 hours. This brings the number of those who have died from hunger during the conflict to 193, including 96 children, the ministry added.
Members of the UN Security Council have blamed Israel for starving Palestinians in Gaza after imposing a two-month blockade on all food and medical assistance and condemned reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to reoccupy Gaza, calling them 'deeply alarming' if true.
The UN comments were made at an emergency meeting called for by Israel, after seeing footage of their hostages emaciated.
At the meeting, Algeria's Ambassador to the UN, Amar Bendjama, held a picture of a malnourished child towards Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar.
UN assistant secretary general Miroslav Jenca told the Security Council that reoccupying the whole of Gaza 'would risk catastrophic consequences … and could further endanger the lives of the remaining hostages'. The comments came after Israeli media reported that Mr Netanyahu is now pushing for a complete takeover of the enclave.
Before the UN Security Council met on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said the US was focused on bringing food into the enclave. He was responding to a question about whether he would support Israel reoccupying all of Gaza.
'As far as the rest of it, I really can't say. That's going to be pretty much up to Israel,' he said, in comments that distance the US from Israel's military plans for Gaza.
At the UN meeting, Mr Saar accused Russia and other council members, as well as the international media, of perpetuating 'so many lies' regarding the situation in Gaza – particularly on starvation.
British Ambassador to the UN Barbara Woodward said the UK supported the release of hostages but said that their suffering and that of Palestinian civilians in Gaza had sunk to new depths. She blamed Israel for the situation, saying that it is Israel's aid restrictions that have led to a famine – as declared by the IPC hunger monitor last week.
Ms Woodward said she spoke to doctors last week who had served in Gaza and had seen children so malnourished that 'their wounds festered for months without healing'. The doctors also saw baby formula confiscated by the Israeli military, she said.
Acting US Ambassador Dorothy Shea reiterated Mr Trump's recognition of the 'real starvation' in Gaza.
On the same day, Mr Trump said: 'Israel is going to help us with that in terms of distribution and also money.
'Arab states are also going to help us with that in terms of money and possibly distribution.'
He stated his primary focus was feeding people in Gaza 'who are obviously not doing too well with the food.' When asked by reporters about Israeli plans to take over the entire enclave, he said it was 'pretty much going to be up to Israel'.
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