Deadly crush at Gaza aid site after new system implemented

Published

1 day ago

July 16, 2025

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Twenty one people have been killed following a crush at an aid distribution site in Gaza, according to local health officials.

Footage shows young men being rushed to the nearby Nasser hospital in the immediate aftermath of the incident on Wednesday morning.

At least 17 of the victims died from suffocation, according to one of the hospital’s doctors, Dr Muhammad Saqr.

The crush is the latest in a string of incidents that have plagued the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an Israel- and US-backed organisation tasked with delivering aid in Gaza.

It comes one day after GHF implemented a new system at the site whereby red and green flags are used to tell Palestinians whether the aid centre is open, rather than posts on social media.

Analysis by Sky News shows that GHF stopped announcing the timings of aid site openings more than a week before the new system was put in place.

Of the 13 aid distributions since 6 July, only one was announced by GHF.

The flag system was implemented following widespread criticism of GHF’s protocols after numerous reports of fatal mass shootings near its aid sites.

The footage below was taken on Tuesday at the site where the crush occurred, known as Secure Distribution Site 3 (SDS3). It shows a red flag above the site following an aid distribution.

“The new system doesn’t tell you when to go,” says Ahmed Dhair, who was present at the crush this morning. “To see the flag, you have to go very, very close to the centre.”

Another person says that everyone goes early to the aid centre. “If they follow the flags, they will not have time to reach the centre.”

Sky News spoke to five Palestinians who were present at the stampede. Their accounts suggest that the crush was the result of systemic failures of communication and crowd control by GHF.

Decision to approach

Father-of-four Ahmed, 36, told Sky News that “thousands” of people had been waiting nearby for the site, SDS3, to open.

Three eyewitnesses, including Ahmed, said that the crowd began to approach the aid site at around 6am after seeing the withdrawal of IDF vehicles.

Ahmed says this has become standard practice since GHF stopped announcing opening times in advance.

“This is what usually happens: we head to the site, get shot at for a while, then sleep on the ground so we don’t get hit,” he says. “When the [military] vehicles withdraw, we run very quickly until we get aid.”

Alaa, aged 39, says that people ran towards the aid centre only to find that it was still closed. Outside the centre, he says, was a 10-metre wide passageway enclosed by barbed wire on either side.

Footage from the site, taken on Tuesday, shows this area and the barbed wire fencing around it.

“It was a small corridor for the number of people,” Alaa says.

All five eyewitnesses who spoke to Sky News said that GHF employees then attempted to disperse the crowd using gunfire and either gas or pepper spray – resulting in a stampede.

“People began to push until [the Americans] opened the gates,” says Alaa. “Children and some young people fell – and here was the disaster, as people trampled on them due to the pressure of the crowd.”

A GHF spokesperson denied that tear gas was deployed or that shots were fired into the crowd.

“Limited use of pepper spray was deployed, only to safeguard additional loss of life,” they said.

Why did people go to the aid centre?

GHF had not announced any site openings for Wednesday, raising questions over why so many people attempted to access SDS3 this morning.

GHF blamed false reports of site openings, which it said were “fuelling confusion, driving crowds to closed sites, and inciting disorder”.

But witnesses said they attended because GHF has repeatedly failed to announce site openings in advance.

All six openings at SDS3 since 6 July have had no prior announcement. In one case, the site opened after GHF had announced that it would remain closed.

“If the opening time of the aid point was posted on the official page, what happened today would not have happened,” said one person on the GHF’s official WhatsApp channel.

Ahmed says that the GHF’s social media announcements have “no credibility”.

“Most of the time they say it is closed and then it is opened,” he says. “They say they will open the centre at 10am, and then we are surprised that they opened it at 9am.”

Another person who was present at the crush said he had turned up because the site had opened the previous day without any prior announcement.

“Please can you contact any of the security personnel and inform me of the opening time of the aid site before it opens, so that I can bring flour to my family?” one Palestinian asked Sky News.

“We are going through famine and have been without food for three days now.”

Crush will add to criticism of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation

Lisa Holland, Sky Correspondent in Jerusalem

The United Nations has already condemned the aid centres run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as ‘death traps’ – and that was before the latest loss of life in which 21 people died seemingly mostly from suffocation.

It’s the first and only time we know of people dying in this way waiting to get food. Although the Gaza Health Ministry and the GHF dispute exactly what happened.

But how much longer can this Israeli and American backed way to supply aid continue when people are dying on a near daily basis?

However it happened Gaza’s over-crowded hospitals are once again overwhelmed.

And there are serious questions to answer about the organisation of a system which is supposed to be providing humanitarian aid to desperately hungry people – but instead is a place where there is so much loss of life.

It leaves people with an unbearable choice between risking their lives to get supplies or going hungry.

Chaos of the system

A Palestinian former employee of GHF told Sky News that he had quit the organisation last month because of its failure to improve its systems.

“The reason I left the organisation is because they did not take into account the suggestion of doing pre-registration like other organisations so that there is a fair and honest system for the crowds,” he says.

“It should be done by ID card,” says Ahmed. “It is not fair for a person to be coming every day, selling the food and keep stealing again. I went almost 20 times and not once did I get a box because I can’t run.”

A GHF spokesperson said: “Today’s incident is part of a larger pattern of Hamas trying to undermine and ultimately end GHF.”

In a written statement, the Hamas-run Government Media Office denied the allegations, saying that GHF “vainly seeks to evade responsibility for one of the most heinous organised massacres committed against the starving in Gaza since the start of the genocide”.

Rising number of GHF casualties

A total of 674 people have been killed while trying to collect food from GHF sites, according to the UN. These numbers do not include the latest casualties from Wednesday’s incident.

Sky News analysis has found that deaths across the Gaza Strip as a whole increase significantly on days when more GHF sites are open.

“We have no more beds to put patients on – we’re putting patients on the ground,” says Dr Muhammad Saqr at Nasser hospital.

“We can no longer deal with any more casualties coming from GHF or other centres.”

Additional reporting by Adam Parker, OSINT editor.

The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.

World

Pope ‘deeply saddened’ by deaths at sole Catholic church in Gaza after Israeli strike

Published

3 hours ago

July 17, 2025

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Pope 'deeply saddened' by deaths at sole Catholic church in Gaza after Israeli strike

The Pope has said he is “deeply saddened” by the deaths of three people in an Israeli strike on the only Catholic church in Gaza.

A further nine people were wounded when the Gaza’s Holy Family Church was hit, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said in a statement.

“On behalf of the entire Church of the Holy Land, we extend our deepest condolences to the bereaved families, and from here, we offer our prayers for the swift and full recovery of the wounded,” the statement reads.

“The Latin Patriarchate strongly condemns this tragedy and this targeting of innocent civilians and of a sacred place.

“However, this tragedy is not greater or more terrible than the many others that have befallen Gaza.”

Parish priest Father Gabriele Romanelli, an Argentinian who used to regularly update the late Pope Francis about the conflict in Gaza, was lightly injured in the attack.

In a telegram for the victims, Pope Leo said he was “deeply saddened” and called for “an immediate ceasefire”.

The Pope expressed his “profound hope for dialogue, reconciliation and enduring peace in the region,” according to the telegram, which was signed by the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, told the Vatican News website that the church was shelled by a tank.

“What we know for sure is that a tank, the IDF says by mistake, but we are not sure about this, they hit the Church directly, the Church of the Holy Family, the Latin Church”, he said

The church was sheltering both Christians and Muslims, including a number of children with disabilities, according to Fadel Naem, acting director of Al-Ahli Hospital, which received the wounded.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it was “aware of reports regarding damage caused to the Holy Family Church in Gaza City and casualties at the scene. The circumstances of the incident are under review”.

“The IDF makes every feasible effort to mitigate harm to civilians and civilian structures, including religious sites,
and regrets any damage caused to them,” the statement added.

Israel’s foreign ministry said in a statement on X that the results of the investigation would be published.

It also said the country did not target churches or religious sites and regretted harm to them or civilians.

The previous pope, Francis, spoke almost daily with Gaza church. In the last 18 months of his life, Francis would often call the church in the Gaza Strip to see how people huddled inside were coping with a devastating war.

At least 20 more people were killed on Thursday by Israeli attacks across the besieged enclave, medics said.

Throughout the 21-month war, more than 58,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s military campaign, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.

Israel launched a retaliatory campaign against Hamas following the militant group’s 7 October 2023 attacks, during which 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage.

World

Syria’s president vows to protect Druze population after Israel airstrikes – as new ceasefire begins

Published

3 hours ago

July 17, 2025

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Syria's president vows to protect Druze population after Israel airstrikes - as new ceasefire begins

Syria’s president has said protecting the rights of the Druze population is “our priority” after Israel warned it would destroy forces attacking the minority.

In a televised statement early today, Ahmed al Sharaa told the Druze “we reject any attempt to drag you into hands of an external party”.

Several hundred people have reportedly been killed this week in the south of Syria in violence involving local fighters, government authorities and Bedouin tribes.

Following the president’s announcement and a ceasefire agreement, Syrian government forces on Thursday largely withdrew from the volatile southern province of Sweida.

Under the terms of the agreement, Druze factions and clerics have been appointed to maintain internal security.

As the violence escalated in Sweida, Israel launched airstrikes, including attacks on Wednesday on the defence ministry in Damascus and a target near the presidential palace.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has pledged to “act resolutely against any terrorist threat on its borders”.

The Druze population follow an offshoot of Islam and are estimated to number about one million, spread between Syria, Lebanon and Israel.

Sharaa – Syria’s interim leader after President Assad fled last year – gave a televised statement on Wednesday telling the Druze “we reject any attempt to drag you into hands of an external party”.

“We are not among those who fear the war,” he added.

“We have spent our lives facing challenges and defending our people, but we have put the interests of the Syrians before chaos and destruction,” said the president.

He also claimed Israel has “consistently targeted our stability and created discord among us since the fall of the former regime”.

Israel has accused the Syrian regime of being barely disguised jihadists – despite warming ties with Western countries such as the UK and US.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, as of Wednesday morning, more than 300 people had been killed in the flare-up of violence.

Around 1,000 Druze people broke through a fence into southern Syria on Wednesday in a bid to help, according to The Times of Israel.

Prime Minister Netanyahu urged people not to cross into Syria and Israeli military chief of staff Eyal Zamir warned they would not “allow southern Syria to become a terror stronghold”.

The UN Security Council will discuss the situation today, despite the US secretary of state saying yesterday that America had brokered an end to the violence.

“We have engaged all the parties involved in the clashes in Syria,” Marco Rubio said on social media.

“We have agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end tonight.”

The intervention appeared to have an immediate effect.

The situation was calm on Thursday morning, according to Reuters sources in the area.

World

Buddhist monk sex scandal grips Thailand as woman arrested

Published

9 hours ago

July 17, 2025

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Buddhist monk sex scandal grips Thailand as woman arrested

A sex scandal has rocked Thailand’s Buddhist clergy after a woman allegedly enticed a string of monks into having sex with her and then blackmailed them.

At least nine abbots and senior monks have been disrobed and cast out of the monkhood, the Royal Thai Police Central Investigation Bureau said.

Wilawan Emsawat, in her mid-30s, is accused of enticing senior monks into having sex with her and then pressuring them into making large payments to cover it up.

Thai monks are largely members of the Theravada sect, which requires them to be celibate and refrain from even touching a woman.

Several monks transferred large amounts of money after Wilawan initiated romantic relationships with them, police said -her bank accounts received around 385 million baht (£8.8m) in the past three years, with most of that spent on gambling websites.

Wilawan was arrested at her home in Nonthaburi province, north of the capital Bangkok, on charges including extortion, money laundering and receiving stolen goods.

Thai media reported a search of her mobile phones revealed tens of thousands of photos and videos, as well as numerous chat logs indicating intimacy with several monks, many of which could be used for blackmail.

An investigation was launched last month after an abbot of a famous temple in Bangkok abruptly left the monkhood.

He had allegedly been blackmailed by Wilawan over their romantic relationship, investigators found.

She told the monk she was pregnant and asked him to pay her 7.2 million baht (£165,000), Jaroonkiat Pankaew, a Central Investigation Bureau deputy commissioner, said at a news conference in Bangkok on Tuesday.

Acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai ordered authorities to review and consider tightening existing laws related to monks and temples, especially the transparency of temple finances, to restore faith in Buddhism, government spokesperson Jirayu Houngsub said on Tuesday.

The Central Investigation Bureau has set up a Facebook page for people to report monks who misbehave, Mr Jaroonkiat said.

“We will investigate monks across the country,” he said. “I believe that the ripple effects of this investigation will lead to a lot of changes.”