By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
GAZA CITY/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Israel’s military pledged to investigate claims by Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Health Ministry that at least 85 Palestinians were killed Sunday while trying to get food, but the army expressed doubts about the reported death toll.
After officials in Gaza spoke about the deadliest day for aid-seekers in the 21-month war, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released video footage of IDF soldiers watching Gazan residents receiving humanitarian aid from a distance on Sunday.
In the video, obtained by Worthy News, the soldiers were ordered “not to shoot” while the crowd could be seen cheering at the soldiers as they received food packages.
“Not a single bullet was fired,” IDF Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a statement on social media platform X. “The civilians began welcoming and cheering for our soldiers, as if they saw in them life after darkness,” Adraee wrote.
However in a separate incident IDF soldiers fired warning shots “to remove an immediate threat to thousands of Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip,” International IDF Spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said on Sunday.
Shoshani said that the military is “aware” of the claim regarding casualties in the area, adding that the tincident is being investigated. However, “Many media outlets failed to mention this is information coming from a U.S. designated terror organization—Hamas,” he wrote on X.
INITIAL REVIEW
“An initial review suggests that the number of casualties reported does not align with the information held by the IDF. The IDF urges caution regarding information published by unreliable sources,” he stressed.
“The IDF views the transfer of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip as a matter of utmost importance, and works to enable and facilitate its entry in coordination with the international community. The IDF certainly does not intentionally target humanitarian aid trucks.”
However the United Nations World Food Program said 25 trucks with aid had entered for “starving communities” when it encountered massive crowds.
A U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, claimed Israeli forces “opened fire”toward crowds who tried to take food from the convoy.
At least 79 Palestinians were killed while trying to reach aid entering through the Zikim crossing with Israel, added Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Hamas-run Health Ministry’s records department. Other aid seekers reportedly died in separate incidents, officials suggested.
In total, Hamas-run-health authorities said 90 people had been killed by Israeli gunfire and airstrikes across the enclave on Sunday.
It added to anxiety among hungry people, commented Hamas-linked officials, with fathers leaving refugee tents, afraid to tell their children they won’t have food.
COMPLEX ENVIRONMENT
However, “The IDF is operating in a complex environment against the Hamas terrorist organization, which seeks to create friction, endangering…both the civilians of Gaza and IDF troops, and disrupts the delivery of humanitarian aid,” countered the IDF’s Shoshani.
Israel’s military dropped leaflets urging people to evacuate from neighbourhoods in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah, residents said as Israeli planes struck three houses in the area.
Dozens of families began leaving their homes, carrying some of their belongings, witnesses said. Hundreds of thousands of displaced Gazans had been sheltering in the Deir al-Balah area.
Israeli sources said the army so far stayed out the area because they suspected Hamas might be holding hostages there.
At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages in captivity in Gaza are believed to still be alive and families have pressured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to strike a deal with Hamas.
It was not immediately clear what impact the latest tensions could have on ongoing truce negotiations.
Some Palestinians saw the Israeli move on Deir al-Balah as a possible attempt to put pressure on Hamas to make more concessions in long-running ceasefire negotiations.
HAMAS ATTACK
Israel and Hamas are engaged in indirect talks in Doha, Qatar, to reach a 60-day truce and hostage deal.
There was no sign of a breakthrough on Sunday.
The war began when Hamas-led fighters stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza.
The Israeli military retaliatory campaign against Hamas in Gaza has since killed more than 58,000 Palestinians, according to Hamas-linked health officials, who do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Additionally they say that almost the entire population has been displaced, adding that the the enclave faces a humanitarian crisis with thousands at risk of starvation including children.
Israel has denied deliberately halting aid to Gaza’s more than 2.1 million people, but says Hamas is stealing aid packages causing high food prices.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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