Stampede, strikes and siege: Gaza reels as Israeli assault kills 94 in 24 hours
Over 21 aid seekers crushed in stampede amid food distribution; UN raises alarm over rising deaths at relief sites
GAZA, Palestine (MNTV) — At least 94 Palestinians were killed and 252 others injured in the past 24 hours as Israeli bombardment intensified across the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian health ministry said Wednesday.
The new deaths include 21 people who perished in a tragic stampede and suffocation incident outside a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) food distribution center in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, where desperate aid seekers were reportedly trapped and tear-gassed.
Witnesses described horrifying scenes.
“People were locked between the gate and an outer fence,” one survivor told media outlets.
“Then gas was sprayed. We couldn’t breathe. People fell over one another.” A medic on the scene confirmed many victims had been “crushed into a tight space.”
The GHF initially blamed the chaos on “armed elements within the crowd, affiliated with Hamas,” but the group vehemently denied any responsibility, calling the accusation “false and misleading.”
The UN Human Rights Office in Geneva, in a statement Tuesday, said it had verified at least 875 deaths near aid distribution sites and food convoys over the past six weeks alone—most of them in proximity to GHF centers.
In another deadly episode Wednesday, an Israeli airstrike on a tent camp housing displaced civilians in the al-Mawasi area of southern Gaza killed at least nine people.
These latest casualties push the death toll of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza to 58,573, with an additional 139,607 injured, according to Gaza’s health authorities.
The war, now in its 10th month, has devastated the territory and triggered what aid agencies call an “unfolding humanitarian collapse.”
Adding to the desperation, the Israeli military announced it has opened a new corridor dubbed “Magen Oz,” slicing through Khan Younis and separating its eastern and western sectors.
Stretching 15 kilometers, the army said the corridor is designed to “intensify pressure on Hamas” and secure what it calls a “decisive defeat” of the group’s brigade in the area.
This new corridor follows a pattern: the Netzarim axis splits northern Gaza from the south, while the Philadelphi Corridor reinforces Israeli control along the Egypt-Gaza border.
Another corridor, the Morag axis, now divides Rafah and Khan Younis.
Meanwhile, the war’s toll on Gaza’s children continues to rise at an alarming rate.
A report published Tuesday by the Global Protection Cluster, a UN-led coalition of humanitarian actors, said that on average, ten children lose one or both limbs each day due to Israeli strikes.
Over 40,500 children have sustained war-related injuries since October 2023, the report said, calling Gaza’s protection environment for disabled individuals “non-existent.”
International legal pressure on Israel continues to mount. In November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Separately, Israel is being tried at the International Court of Justice in The Hague on charges of genocide.
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