At least 20 killed in crush at Gaza aid point – Middle East crisis live | World news

At least 20 people were killed in an incident in Gaza’s Khan Younis on Wednesday, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has claimed.

The Israeli-backed logistics group, which uses private US security and logistics companies to get aid supplies into Gaza, claimed that 19 victims were trampled and one was stabbed during what it described as a “chaotic and dangerous surge, driven by agitators in the crowd”.

Palestinian heath officials told Reuters at least 20 people had died of suffocation at the site. One medic said lots of people had been crammed into a small space and had been crushed.

This comes as Israeli strikes on Wednesday killed 22 others, including 11 children, according to hospital officials, the Associated Press (AP) reports.

The GHF, which began distributing food packages in late May after Israel lifted an 11-week blockade on humanitarian supplies, has previously rejected UN criticism, accusing it of spreading misinformation.

The UN has called the GHF’s model “inherently unsafe” and a breach of humanitarian impartiality standards.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has claimed at least 20 people were killed in an incident in Gaza’s Khan Younis on Wednesday.

The Israeli-backed logistics group, which uses private US security and logistics companies to get aid supplies into Gaza, claimed that 19 victims were trampled and one was stabbed during what it described as a “chaotic and dangerous surge, driven by agitators in the crowd”.

Palestinian heath officials told Reuters at least 20 people had died of suffocation at the site. One medic said lots of people had been crammed into a small space and had been crushed.

The UN rights office said on Tuesday it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza run by the GHF and convoys run by other relief groups, including the UN.

The majority of those killed were in the vicinity of GHF sites, while the remaining 201 were killed on the routes of other aid convoys.

Malnutrition rates among children in the Gaza Strip have doubled since Israel sharply restricted the entry of food in March, the UN said on Tuesday. New Israeli strikes killed more than 90 Palestinians, including dozens of women and children, according to health officials.

Hunger has been rising among Gaza’s more than 2 million Palestinians since Israel broke a ceasefire in March to resume the war and banned all food and other supplies from entering Gaza, saying it aimed to pressure Hamas to release hostages. It slightly eased the blockade in late May, allowing in a trickle of aid.

Unrwa, the main UN agency caring for Palestinians in Gaza, said it had screened nearly 16,000 children under age 5 at its clinics in June and found 10.2% of them were acutely malnourished. By comparison, in March, 5.5% of the nearly 15,000 children it screened were malnourished.

In other developments:

• US president Donald Trump will meet with Qatar’s prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Wednesday to discuss negotiations over a Gaza ceasefire deal. Israeli and Hamas negotiators have been taking part in the latest round of ceasefire talks in Doha since 6 July, discussing a US-backed proposal for a 60-day ceasefire that envisages a phased release of hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals from parts of Gaza and discussions on ending the conflict.

• Gaza’s Health Ministry said in a daily report Tuesday afternoon that the bodies of 93 people killed by Israeli strikes had been brought to hospitals in Gaza over the past 24 hours, along with 278 wounded. It did not specify the total number of women and children among the dead.

• Israel has launched bombing raids against two of its neighbours, hitting government forces in southern Syria and what it said were Hezbollah targets in eastern Lebanon. In Syria, the strikes hit forces loyal to the transitional government that had been sent south to the province of Sweida, which is near Israel. Syrian state media also reported Israeli strikes on Tuesday in the nearby province of Deraa.

• The EU will start the process of reinstating UN sanctions on Iran from 29 August if Tehran has made no progress by then on containing its nuclear programme, the bloc has announced. Speaking at a meeting of his EU counterparts, the French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said: “France and its partners are … justified in reapplying global embargos on arms, banks and nuclear equipment that were lifted 10 years ago. Without a firm, tangible and verifiable commitment from Iran, we will do so by the end of August at the latest.”

• Arms dealers affiliated with Houthi militants in Yemen are using X and Meta platforms to traffic weapons – some US-made – in apparent violation of the social media firms’ policies, a report has revealed. The report by the Washington DC-based Tech Transparency Project (TTP), which focuses on accountability for big tech, found Houthi-affiliated arms dealers have been openly operating commercial weapon stores for months, and in some cases years, on both platforms.

• US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said on Tuesday he had asked Israel to “aggressively investigate” the killing of US citizen Sayfollah Musallet who was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, describing it as a “criminal and terrorist act.” Relatives of Musallet are calling for the Trump administration to arrest and prosecute those responsible for his killing. The 20-year-old from Tampa was visiting his family in an area near Ramallah, and died last week trying to protect their farm from invaders, they said at an emotional press conference in Florida on Monday afternoon.

• Heavy Israeli airstrikes killed 12 people, including five Hezbollah fighters, in eastern Lebanon on Tuesday, a security source in Lebanon said, in what Israel said was a warning to the Iran-backed group against trying to re-establish itself. The Israeli military said the airstrikes targeted training camps used by elite Hezbollah fighters and warehouses it used to store weapons in the Bekaa valley region.

• Explosive-laden drones hit three oilfields in Iraq’s northern autonomous Kurdistan region early Wednesday, Kurdish forces said, a day after a similar attack shut operations at a US-run field. In the past few weeks, Iraq and particularly the Kurdistan region have seen a spate of unclaimed drone and rocket attacks. Wednesday’s attacks have raised the number of oilfield hit in Kurdistan to five within a week.