Twenty killed in Gaza after truck overturns amid 'Israeli-engineered' aid chaos
A truck carrying relief supplies overturned on Wednesday in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 20 Palestinians amid what has been described as 'Israeli-engineered' aid delivery chaos.
According to local media, the Israeli army forces the trucks to take unsafe and unsecured routes that were previously bombed and rendered unfit for passage.
The practice is part of what the Gaza-based Government Media Office called a policy of "engineering chaos" to maintain widespread starvation in the Gaza Strip.
"This reveals the occupation's deliberate attempts to force civilians into danger and death as part of its engineering of chaos and starvation," the office said.
Israel has been accused by leading human rights groups and experts of the crime of starving civilians since the beginning of its war on Gaza in October 2023.
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Last month, the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the world's leading hunger monitoring system, said that the "worst-case scenario of famine" is unfolding in Gaza due to the Israeli siege.
According to the media office, the blockade has worsened aid distribution conditions in Gaza, as drivers are forced to drive along paths where civilians are waiting on aid, leading to unorganised and chaotic scenes.
"This leads to attacks on these trucks and the confiscation of their contents, in a scene deliberately created by the Israeli occupation," the office said.
Under mounting global pressure, Israel has allowed dozens of trucks to enter the Gaza Strip in recent days. However, the average of 80 trucks entering daily falls well short of the minimum 600 needed each day.
Additionally, most trucks are looted by Israeli-backed gangs.
Meanwhile, five deaths from malnutrition were reported in the last 24 hours, the Palestinian health ministry said on Wednesday.
This raises the death toll from starvation to 193, including 96 children.
Expulsion and bombardment
Separately, the Israeli army issued new expulsion orders, telling civilians in al-Zeitoun, Gaza City to immediately head towards the so-called "safe zone" of al-Mawasi, south of the besieged enclave.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said late in July that "there is simply nowhere safe to go" in the Gaza Strip.
"About 88 percent of Gaza is either subject to displacement orders or located within Israeli-militarised zones. The 12 percent that remains is already overcrowded and underserved," its report read.
Israeli-designated "humanitarian zones" have also not been spared in the ongoing bombardment across the Gaza Strip.
Although al-Mawasi has been considered a "safe zone", the army has repeatedly bombed the area over the past year and a half. Palestinians in Gaza, along with the UN, have long stated there are no safe zones in the territory.
Overall, the Israeli army has killed more than 61,150 Palestinians since October 2023, including at least 18,000 children.
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